R-Rated

Taxi fare from Fridley to Megabus station in Downtown Minneapolis - Distance: approx. 5.5 miles, Fare: $25 (incl. tip) Bus fare from Minneapolis to Chicago (2 tickets for 2 big suit cases) - Distance: approx. 400 miles, Fare: $110 (2 tickets) Taxi fare from Union Station in Downtown Chicago to Buffalo Grove - Distance: approx. 40 miles, Fare: $68 (incl. tip) Fare Total: $203 Coming home in absolutely "blizzard"ly conditions and negative temperatures in one piece with all luggages intact and 12 hours later - Priceless India trip in 3 days' time. It is already beginning to feel like the trip time (25 days) is way less. Specially in comparison with other colleagues who have taken "extensive" holiday times. Add to that 2 visa interviews crunched in and a big family event planned, there is no downtime.... or is it? Talk about "this-does-not-make-much-sense-at-all". The time it has taken for me to get ready for the visa stamping (incl. checking the VFS sit

Last December I re-started blogging and I am glad I continued writing through the year. 50th post of the year. Lot of things (good and horrible) have happened. Kirti started working (and will continue to work in 2009), bomb blasts all around India (Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Mumbai, Malegaon and many more..), given the pink slip and then Wipro puts that on hold, going to India first time after marriage (almost 3.5 years later) and lots of other highs and lows. Got a Canon Vixia HG20 High Definition Camcorder. Pretty neat gadget and a light weighter too. Manual is 10,000 pages long but it makes interesting reading since I am a first time owner. At work, since I am the last person to leave for India, there is tremendous pressure on me to deliver before I leave. Most things are ontrack for completion, but it is/was a nightmare dealing with the situation. No back-ups this time around unlike last year when everyone who went to India almost had 2 backups. 7 working days to go for the shut

Since the last post, a lot of good things have happened (temporarily..). We have been un-laidoff at least till March 2009 as the BSC project got extended till the first quarter of 2009. This means the India trip is going to happen. Thankfully this news came just before Thanksgiving and hence those 4 days were spent happily and a sigh of relief could be heard from my parents in India. Ya, it was that big a burden off the chest. I don't want to write anything about the terrorist attacks in Mumbai. A big salute to those who fought valiantly against all odds (including the 24x7 media coverage, shameful politicos making an unwanted trip and the hordes of mumbaikars who wanted a piece of the action...and yes, the terrorists as well). God bless the souls of the departed. Coming back to the project extension, December seems to be gearing upto an extremely busy month with the new work starting in full swing and since I am the last to go to India, the responsibility falls on my shoulders. No

....and so does the hope for the 'bunny-out-of-the-hat' from Wipro....

The dreadful news about "Layoffs" has finally hit Wipro...rather I should say Wipro hit us with the news of "Layoffs". Yup, it is here and 4 of my colleagues (incl. me) have been given the ultimatum that Jan 15th, 2009 will be our last working day with Wipro unless....we agree to move back to Bangalore only to be placed (mostly) on bench awaiting the axe there, which some of the India employees argue that one will never be laid off in India (wishful thinking!!!). This news (almost) cancels the long awaited and already paid for India trip. Yup, 3 and a half years and still counting..... I am angry about the fact that Wipro management saw this coming that there is no visibility in the BSC account past December and still there was practically no initiative from Wipro's team to be more aggressive in pursuing other accounts...Although, a team did come in October to "talk" to companies in the Twin Cities and other places in the US. And yes, annual appraisals

Barack Obama is elected the president of the USA by a huge margin and he is probably the best orator I have ever heard talk. An extremely inspiring and a commanding figure. I have a feeling he will do fine as the president for the next 4 years and depending on his work, for the second term as well. Although he won yesterday, it would not have surprised me if John McCain had won the election primarily because of the "white rules" mentality that many have here. But not to be.... Hard times for the economy has got me worried about my job here with Wipro. Boston Scientific has (almost) pulled the plug on us and our services group doesn't have much to offer in terms of upcoming projects. Going to India is one option that none of the US hires even want to consider. Me neither... Looking for a job in the 4th quarter of an abysmal economy during the holiday season with an upcoming India trip is the possibly one of the worst things that could be happening. Although losing a job in

Happy Diwali to all those who drop by my site and wish you the very best for a bright and prosperous new year. Moving this week to a new place.

India vs. Australia (again) in India. One major announcement and one fantabulous achievement. The first being Sourav "Maharaj" Ganguly announcing that he is going to retire from international cricket after this test series. One of my favorite players of all time and one of the awesomest captains India has ever produced. A fighter to the core and an 'arrogant' one for the opposition. All those in India (and some around the cricketing world) who were against Dada all these years showed some respect when he announced his retirement. India probably relished his captaincy than Saurav did it himself. That was evident in the way the country responded to his leadership and his ability to get the players motivated.  July 2002, at Lord's he showed why to "Never Give Up". India chasing 300+ in the final against England. He set the tone with a blazing 60+ score and then left the responsibilities to Yuvraj and Mohd. Kaif to nail the English in their own backyard. Stu

India and United States signed a historic Nuclear deal this week that allows American companies to supply fuel and other necessities to India to build civilian nuclear plants to create nuclear energy. India promises not to test nuclear weapons under this treaty and allows for inspection of its civilian plants to international agencies. This should make me proud, shouldn't it. Is this the rise of India in the global map in terms of Nuclear Superpowers? Or.. When this deal was done, I was afraid a little bit because it reminded me of the naive India almost 250 years when it allowed a certain "East India Company" to trade with itself. We all know what followed for the next 175 years. I and most certainly the massive population of India does not want history to repeat itself. I trust Manmohan Singh to do the right thing for the country. I just hope India doesn't present itself as the guinea pig for the U.S. to have a strong base (militarily) in the Indian Subcontinent. Th

Watched the first presidential debate on friday night between John McCain and Barack Obama. Good timepass on a friday night, if you are into these things. I have been taking a keen interest in politics lately and it keeps the clock ticking for me after I reach home from work.  I am particularly annoyed and irritated at both these candidates on the Iraq war for always ignoring the fact that over 100,000 Iraqis have lost their lives. What wrong did they do? And there aren't too many news outlets that are willing to show the plight of (Iraqi) families who lost near and dear ones. That's obvious, isn't it? Barack Obama looks confident and ready moreso that John McCain to lead the United States for the next 4 years. Looking forward to the Joe Biden - Sarah Palin debate this coming thursday. Should be interesting to see Palin talk extempore without a teleprompter.  Back to some sunday night news here. For the first time in few years since I started following football, I felt bore

Hate to be this person. Think twice about being the CEO of a company. At the same time, got to make sure never to get in this embarassing situation in the first place. The embarassing situation of the (dismissed) employees, that is.

Kirti and I completed 3 years of our marriage on August 28th. Feels like yesterday when we got hitched. This year was different as we celebrated our anniversary   (if you want to call it that) in Minneapolis and Chicago with respective roommates and friends. Hardly a consolation. Like last year we had Ganpati celebrations at my place. But a lot of things had changed from 2007. Most importantly, for obvious reasons, Kirti wasn't here although she did help a lot in the preparations.All the furniture was gone for reasons less said the better. The idol itself was "Made in China" (not kidding). The events were low-key this year compared to last as lot of people from Wipro and HCL moved on with their careers to different parts of the U.S. There were some new faces this year. It started getting colder much earlier as compared to any of the previous 6 years since I have been here. Looks like the making of a long and cold winter is ahead of us. In the office, it feels terribly sim

It is the first week of September. Then why the hell does it feel like November!!!! God surely has a cruel way to show us the middle finger. Could be a lot worse though. Keep praying.

The Olympics are officially over. The games and China will be forever remembered for largely being exciting and thoroughly spectacular. The closing ceremony was as grand and un believable as the opening ceremony. I just felt that it got over too quickly. Olympic games from past years have tend to last forever. This one ended with lot of stars born and 2 huge superstars to remember for a lifetime. Michael Phelps (Swimming - 8 Golds, 7 WRs) and Usain Bolt (Track & Field - 3 Golds, 3 WRs) are going to be super-star attractions in 2012 when the London games start. Over to the U.S. Open Tennis tournament which starts in New York (for once the pressure is on Rafa Nadal as compared to Roger Federer) and the upcoming NFL season. You can't get bored in America once you start following sports here. But the biggest game of all is just getting started. It is presidential election year and the 2 sides are all but ready for "war" to get to the White House. John McCain vs. Barack Ob

Sixty years ago on August 20th, in Tamil Nadu, India, a baby boy was born. The second-to-last of many children. He grew up in south India and moved with his family to Bombay to complete his schooling and college. He completed his Bachelor of Science degree and got a job in a bank. By 1976 he was married and well settled into his career and in 1977 his first baby was born. A nasty little rascal at that. Few years later, he welcomed his second gem, a silent but "strong" type. Correction, a silent but "heavy" type. Life moved on and his work was steady in Canara Bank, having risen up within the ranks and transfers to multiple branches including one to a remote village in Tamil Nadu. I haven't seen anyone do more for his family and siblings than this man. He has been the cornerstone of the family he grew up in and a rock-solid support that everyone was looking for. He supported his sons in whatever they wanted to do and become in life leaving nothing to chance and

China is the host of the 29th Olympiad and they have welcomed the world with open arms leaving politics to the politicians and lawmakers and the games to the athletes. The opening ceremony on 08/08/08 at the Bird's Nest stadium was simply the grandest spectacle I have ever seen for any event. One World One Dream is this olympics' motto and by the looks of it, China is doing all it can to bring the world together. China finished second to the USA in 2004 in Greece and they have revenge on their minds as they want to win the overall medal tally and desperately the gold medal tally, at all costs. Estimated amount spent by China to get Olympic-ready, $43 billion. Boy-o-boy, they are proving to the world what they are made up of. Just as The Rock from WWE would say, "Just bring it". India's Abhinav Bindra made a billion of us beam with pride and happiness by winning the gold in the 10m rifle event. India's first gold medal since the 1980 Moscow olympics when the H

"Why so serious?" asks the knife wielding Joker in The Dark Knight. If you seriously haven't watched the movie yet, I strongly recommend you do that. No, don't wait for the DVD or an online print, go watch the spectacle on the big screen. You will not be disappointed. It is not the same comic Batman that we have seen with George Clooney and Val Kilmer in leading roles. This is Christopher Nolan's Batman who also directed Batman Begins. This is Christian Bale's Batman who played the lead in Batman Begins and reprises his role as The Dark Knight/Bruce Wayne. And finally, this is Heath Ledger's Batman who is undoubtedly the bestest fit for this role. I can't imagine anyone playing the character of the Joker so viciously and making a comic book fantasy absolutely believable and astonishingly spine-chilling. The Joker exploits Gotham City 's resources to get to Batman. Not only to get to Batman, but to actually see who is the man behind the mask. Ev

I am playing cricket and the body is aching. Real bad. It feels good though. Feel sorry for the families that lost loved ones in the bomb blasts in Bangalore and Ahmedabad this past week. Terrorism really has no face and it has proven that it can strike without warning. In the Ahmedabad blasts, the terrorists (Indian Mujahideen) did send an email to the Gujarat police at 6:41 pm. The time of the blasts: 6:45 pm. How do you find and diffuse 17 bombs that went off in a crowded city. Whom do you question and how do you prevent creating a chaos. Tough. And India has got to get tougher against faceless atrocities. 53 people dead in Ahmedabad and close to 200 wounded. 18 bombs were diffused in Surat the next day and 3 in Rajasthan. Can't even imagine the panic among the Gujarathi community had the 18 bombs detonated. Good intelligence and thoughtful work by the calm bomb squads. India has got to pull up its socks. The people are willing but the ruling government and opposition have sta

Watched the Formula 1 German Grand Prix today. A complete race from start to finish. The last time I did that was in 2002. Final year engineering. The races used to be on sunday evenings and the qualifiers on saturday evenings every 2 weeks. I first got hooked onto F1 sometime around 2000-01 much to the agony of my father. I have been a couch potato all my life and F1 just added to my father's misery. I can still imagine him wanting to tell me, "get out of the house and play". I used to play as well. A lot. Just that my body does not reflect that. Years and years of eating rice can attest to that. Once a rice eater, always a rice eater. No wonder you don't see too many tamilians with six-pack abs. The trend is surely changing though. Couple of my cousins (the younger lot) can easily "walk" into a body-building show and a soccer team respectively. I would like to identify myself as Gen-X but these guys are Gen-Y, as in my age-group is "Xpired". You

Saw Will Smith's The Pursuit of Happyness tonight. One word only to describe the movie: "Masterpiece". If Taare Zameen Par brought tears to your eyes, this one will flat out make you cry. I cannot believe how Will Smith did not get a Best Actor Oscar for this one. He has acted brilliantly in a very very tough role. An immensely talented actor with fantastic attention to detail. He is right up there with George Clooney as my favorite actors. The movie is based in San Francisco in the year 1981 and it portrays the shit that Chris Gardner (Smith's character) has to go through before finally making it big. This movie shows how you've got to grab opportunities when they don't even knock on your door and make full use of it when they actually do. The whole movie it about how good luck always evades you but still you fight through it just to make it to an unpaid internship the next morning. The scene where Chris lies to his son (played by Will's own son Jaden) a

Got back from an awesome July 4th weekend in California. Fantastic place and a great time. Nothing can beat that. Silicon Valley is a beauty with almost all big names in technology within a 20-30 mile radius. Google, Oracle, Yahoo, Microsoft, eBay, McAfee, Apple, Stanford University, Abbott, Sun Microsystems, Intel etc and a whole lot more. That place is a haven for technology freaks. No wonder SV is as expensive and in demand as seen on the television. Gas prices are at approximately $4.55 a gallon. Ouch!! Visited San Jose, Palo Alto, Monterey, Sausolito, Mystery Spot and of course, San Francisco. Couldn't help but enjoy the amazing creation that is the Golden Gate Bridge with the notorious Alcatraz prison and the jaw dropping San Francisco downtown in the backdrop. Lombard Street with its almost 90 degree uphill drive and the crooked downhill crawl is a sight to watch and a thing to believe that such wonders do exist. Driving in SFO is not for the weak hearted. Glad to be on the

I remember the time in 2004 when I had started my search to land the perfect job in America. I was already working as an intern at Theken, hoping this would be it. 9 long months and 3 departments later, I had that H1B visa with me. A full time employee. Great!!! Not so much. The job scene at that time was crappy at the least with many of my friends and colleagues unlucky enough not to secure even an internship. One unwillingly pursued a PhD, one jumped the boat and turned to software and IT and one just left the US and went back to India. I guess the stars were shining on me that day in May when I got a call from a friend at Theken asking me if I was open to getting an internship. Yes please!! 4 plus years later, I am kind of settled in my role. The ride though has been bumpy. 2008 has not been kind to the job hopefuls. Economy has been in a slump since March and prices (of virtually everything) have sky-rocketed. An uncertain time looms even for those with permanent jobs making it t

This song gives me the goosebumps and makes me feel proud and patriotic. http://youtube.com/watch?v=BJ399KOoNRA You should feel the same!!

This past weekend there was a major scuffle between 2 Sikh factions in Mulund. One group was allegedly and deservedly pissed off at Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh's bodyguard for killing one of the protesters. The protesters were protesting for the arrest of the sect's chief for dressing up like Guru Gobind Singh at an earlier event. The killing of the protester spilled on to the streets and violence broke out. Once again stuck in the middle was the common man. Shops were vandalized, railway tracks blocked, trains affected and innocent men and women were threatened by sword-brandishing rioters. To add to this mayhem, a Shiv Sena leader has warned that there will be more violence if the Sikh group does not stop this violence. What!!!!!!!! Instead of lessening the pain, Shiv Sena is trying to inflict more. They are angry that innocent Maharashtrian men and women are being targeted and threatened. Shiv Sena is worried about the closure of shops and rail-roko stuff.

Sometimes I just want to pack up my stuff here and go back to India. Sooner or later I will be making my transition to India for good. I just don't know when thats going to happen. Life here has been great, but still yeh dil maange more. India is shining (in some parts) and I feel the need to be part of that gold rush. I know it is not going to be easy combining my years of experience and lifestyle in America to blend with India's non-stop work-o-holic attitudes. I am one step closer to the dream because of my job with Wipro. I have enjoyed my stay here more than any other jobs that I have had before because of the friends that I have made here and they help in making the day go by faster. One of my closest friends back home has been urging me to move back to India for quite a few years now. I have been constantly telling him I am waiting for my H1B tenure to get over in 2011. But the reality is, I am always in 2 minds, with the question being should I get my Green Card and wai

When you surf the various television channels, when you look up thousands of advertisements, when you see any of the American sports championships - what is the one thing that has stood out from the rest of the glitz and glamor? The fact that anything "American" is the "World's Best". The 2 words that I am trying to equate here are America = World. Simple, when a San Antonio Spurs or a Los Angeles Lakers basketball team wins the NATIONAL basketball association's championship trophy, analysts and the media are pouring out their affection calling them World Champions. America did not even win the basketball gold medal at the 2004 Athens Olympics. Argentina did. Or for that matter, when a New England Patriots or an Indianapolis Colts football team wins the NATIONAL football league's Superbowl, analysts and the media are praising these teams calling them what else....World Champions. No one plays American football outside the US and hence "arguably"

Last week saw the end of the long battle of the Democratic primaries. Barack Obama vs. Hillary Clinton finally came to an end. History was made as Senator Obama became the first African-American candidate for the US Presidency. I followed the race closely and at times during the debates and speeches, the candidates had utter disregard for the opponent. I guess thats what you call politics. By May, Obama was targetting Republican candidate John McCain for his policies and ties to George W. Bush. Last tuesday, when the decision was made about Obama winning, McCain gave a speech in Louisiana where there were 600 (disinterested) people inside the auditorium and about 600 outside. McCain's speech was outright boring. He looked at the teleprompter for almost every line that he spoke and once he finished his "punch-sentences", the audience were forced to applaud and laugh at his sarcasm pointed towards Obama. On the other hand, Obama energized 17,000 people inside and 15,000 out

Damn, its getting increasingly frustrating at work. May 8th was the last day I did anything significant to talk about. My current project is extremely slow and I am dreading the day when we all get the boot from here with no new projects in sight. It was all quite hunky dory last April when I had joined Wipro for this project. Hectic training schedules, new and exciting challenges at work, more people interaction, non-stop action in terms of protocols, component testing and reports. April to October was the golden period in terms of real and satisfying work experience gained. November 2007 was the start of Leads work for me and it has been slow ever since. Very recently have I started thinking about looking for another job, which if I get one, would be my fifth in four years. A dubious distinction to have in a short career span. Stability is one thing that I haven't had in any of my previous jobs. Complaints about pay, increasingly boring work combined with a weak growth outlook w

Kirti was here for the long weekend on friday and went back on tuesday. On saturday about 11 of us went to Taylors Falls for an outing. Went go-karting, alpine sliding and canoeing. Yours truly took a big tumble on the alpine slide resulting in a lot of scratches and scrapes and a trip to the clinic on tuesday for a tetanus injection. It was a while since I got hurt like that and consequently, I was the butt of Mithil and Mukesh's jokes all through the day and that is continuing at work with others pitching in to rub more salt in the wounds. After the adventurous fall , we went canoeing. Finding the place itself was a big deal as Google maps failed us with wrong directions. One hour of canoeing with Kirti and Harsha/Mukesh almost led to multiple swear words directed at Kirti who was "driving" the canoe and that too, at her leisurely best. She was the one, finally, who steered us back to the starting point with great deal of difficulty and maneuvering. While only me and M

Thousands dead, missing and unaccounted for from the 7.9 magnitude earthquake that rocked China this past week. Thousands still without any kind of aid from Cyclone Nargis that hit Burma couple of weeks ago. Military government does not make it any easier for international help to enter the country. Close to 100 dead from a series of bombs that hit one of India's prettiest cities - Jaipur. Indian Mujahideen , a relatively new terrorist outfit proudly claims that they are the ones responsible for the bombs. Bomb squads were quick to diffuse one of the bombs that could have killed a few more. My heart goes out to the people killed and the near and dear ones lost in the mindless attacks. Terrorism targets religion and the innocent. The brainless and heartless leaders of these outfits must be taught a lesson. Unfortunately, it is not an easy task as the terrorists look just like you and me and the government can't question all of us alike. This is where informants and the police (

A boring week comes to a close with a question mark over the next project (in Dallas-Fort Worth, TX) and the continuation of the current one in St. Paul. The coming week is going to be eeriely uncomfortable for some in the group and for others, it might just bring a refreshing change from the slow pace of the work here at Boston Scientific. We await the final verdict. Good Luck Samrat Jajoo. It was nice knowing you.

Highs for the week gone by: Kirti (finally) came on friday after lot of plane cancellations and delays. Had a great time at Mukesh's place on a rainy friday night. Had a superb time at Mithil and Pallavi's new house on a clear saturday night. Had a fun time with the potluck food and the games. Had a fun time playing volleyball on a bright and sunny sunday afternoon. Lows for the week gone by: Kirti left for Chicago on monday morning. Work not getting completed because of factors not under my control. Not much work to look forward to in the coming months. Boss is trying to get more work our way but if the nature of the "new" work is the same as this, then it is not worth the time and does not add to the knowledge gained. In other news, Samrat completes his work at BSC this week and moves on to Peoria, IL to work for heavy industries giant Caterpillar starting his work there on the 19th. Good luck to him. Harsha celebrated her birthday on the 5th. May 5th is one date

Just today I read a piece of news where a New Delhi traffic constable raped a minor girl in a moving car. And in other news, couple of 18 year old boys sodomized a 13 year old boy in New Delhi . Couple of weeks ago a middle-aged woman was raped by few men known to her in a moving car on the pretext of dropping her home from the market, this again in New Delhi . Few more weeks ago mentally disabled minor was raped by someone she knew, in New Delhi . A few days before this incident another minor girl was raped by someone she knew, in New Delhi . Last month a woman was molested by security guards of a minister. No brownie points for guessing where this happened. New Delhi . To make matters worse, these are just the reported stories. There might be thousands of such other cases which are unreported. The sad part about most of these brutalities is that the accused is someone whom the victim knew or a government servant. How can you trust anyone in this world nowadays? Unfortunately, websi

Last week saw the opening of the inaugural IPL tournament in Bangalore in a match featuring Shahrukh Khan's Kolkata Knight Riders and Vijay Mallya's Bangalore Royal Challengers. Needless to say the multi-million dollar tournament lived up to its hype with the Kolkata team led by Sourav Ganguly thumping Rahul Dravid's Bangalore by a huge margin. Thanks to Brendon McCullum's (NZ) 14-sixes "powered" 158 that set up the victory. Other teams in the mix include Mumbai Indians, Hyderabad Deccan Chargers, Rajasthan Royals, Delhi Daredevils, Chennai SuperKings and Kings XI Punjab. The franchises should have put some thought into getting a proper and state representative team name for their clubs. Rajasthan Royals is by far the best name. Mumbai Indians is the worst ever. BCCI is going to get more richer and more powerful in ICC circles. On a personal note, last week I dropped my car off to Kirti's place in Chicago for her to learn and get her DL. She drives quite n

So I log in to Timesofindia.com one weekday morning and find what, MNS demands that 80% of jobs in Maharashtra be allotted to Maharashtrians . This or something very similar to what you just read. Is MNS just crossing all the lines of sensibility and moving rapidly towards jingoism? Think about it. After repeatedly targetting Amitabh Bachchan (again) and offending all the Non-Maharashtrians (and majority of Maharashtrians), Raj Thackarey has the guts to demand 80% of jobs to Maharashtrians. This came at a time when there was a report floating that a majority of new households and building properties in Mumbai be given to Maharashtrians. Shiv Sena demanded this I guess (unconfirmed). So what will be their next demand. All schools should have 80% Maharashtrian children and all classes should be in marathi. Only marathi movies should be screened in Maharashtra theaters. All non-marathi actors should have a last name with either Joshi or Kulkarni attached to them. Shahrukh Kulkarni, Aamir

Kirti was here for the weekend and we had a great time. She came in on friday and stayed till monday morning and flew directly to work from here at 6:00 am. After having sandwiches along with Yogesh and Samrat and watching mindless music videos on Youtube , we ended up in bed at close to midnight. Saturday morning Kirti drove us quite confidently to Rosedale mall for her shopping trip. Even though she doesn't empty my wallet much, I still crib about her staying late in the shops without buying anything significant and she always gets irritated at me for trying to get us out of there. She did purchase something to wear in office and we went to Mukesh's house from the mall to meet Ranka and family. Deev was enjoying (as usual) and we enjoyed with him. In the evening we had a nice get-together at Sameer's place with some delicious and spicy Pav-Bhaji for dinner. I was suffering from a bad cold (which was just the beginning) and was quite the opposite of my normal self. Deev a

Done with chores for the week. Much earlier than past weekends. Kirti comes home next week and stays till monday morning. Thats a small bonus from the last time she was here. Weekdays at work were uneventful to say the least. Tanaya came to town and had dinner with her at Loring's (Italian place) at U of M. U of M is huge, similar to the other big names in the education business . Strangely enough, met her for the first time since 26th Aug, 2001. 6 and a half years later she hasn't changed much from how she was back then. Same cannot be said about me though. Sprained my back real bad last wednesday and had help from Mukesh and Sameer. The back pain is gone for now and I feel good. Went to Mithil's place on saturday and had stomach full of dosas, sambhar and chutney. Saw Deev go through a whole range of emotions that a child could possess. In no particular order he was cranky, sleepy, crying, yelling, laughing, playing, talking to himself, feeding grapes to us and favoring

Nothing much happened this weekend (or the weekday). -- Cleaned the house on saturday morning and in the process, tweaked my lower back. Its been hurting since. -- Watched "Apocalypto" and "Ratatouille" back-to-back on saturday night. -- Went to the temple on sunday morning and cooked in the evening. What a bore!!

Mithil and Pallavi had their shaadi ka party at their house on saturday. The guest list included the "usual suspects". Pallavi made some tasty food (assisted by Mithil, of course) that included Tandoori Chicken, Bihari Chicken, Malai Kofta, Fried Shrimp, Basundi, Samosas, Pakoras etc. I did eat the chicken dishes and they were deeelliiiccciiioouuss. After 10 million photographs, lots of food, cake cutting, a series of dumbcharades and antakshari, and one-fourth of a movie (Mukesh picked up a black comedy, Why did I get married? ), it was time to go home at 1 AM. Samrat had planned for this Auto Show since the past week and we decided to check it out. $9 entry fee (ouch!!) for this show was not worth it. It was a disappointment in the fact that we were expecting to see concept cars from the biggies and it turned out to be regular showroom models. Some of the showroom models were sweet, nevertheless. Wanted to check out the Hyundai Santa Fe. The SUV has good features and com

Got back yesterday from a fantastic Seattle trip. Kirti and I were there to celebrate Sidhya's 2nd birthday with Manni and Ganesh. The "Little Princess" has come a long way since we first saw her when she was 10 days old. We last saw her when she was 4 months old and it was at Newark Airport. This time around, all of 2 years, in the Pacific Northwest, we saw her again at Seattle-Tacoma Airport. She is the prettiest baby I have seen and one of the naughtiest too!!! She got the scare of her life when she saw me for the first time and to make matters worse I jumped onto the backseat of the car to sit near her. All along the way from the airport to home (30 minutes), she did not leave Manni's hand clutching it as tightly as possible with her tiny little hands so that " the stranger " doesn't take her away from her " Amma and Dada ". It was painful to hear her scream. Once we were home, it took her a good hour to come to me and start getting familia

I got done with my exam yesterday and it was good. I hope the person checking the papers thinks the same way too. My preparation on friday got "bugged" because of a nasty issue. Apparently, there are Bed Bugs in my house and I will have to "fumigate" my belongings at my own cost, which would be about $1500-$2000. Need help on that and lets see how the Minnesota State Helpline bails me out on this one. Allstate, my renter's insurance carrier could not do anything as bed bugs are considered "Animals" and damage to property by Animals is not covered by the policy. Only damages due to fire, theft, lightning, wind, flood etc. are included. My landlord is a nasty old prick who doesn't know how to talk to tenants and handle their issues on a case-by-case basis. He surely has lost a customer. The worst thing about this is, I just extended my lease till the end of October. That hurts. P Chidambaram announced the budget for the current year and made almost e

My CBA exam is nearing. Its due coming Saturday, March 1st. Hope to clear that one (in the first attempt). Preparation has been going on good (atleast I hope it is). Do you see a pattern here? I am using the word "HOPE" too much. I should not rely on hope so much. The exam is going to be what I have been studying for close to 4 months now. Anyone reading this post, say a silent prayer for me.

This past week was quite interesting in many ways. Our boss from Wipro showed up and left disappointing many and angered quite a few with the way some of our questions were answered or quite frankly, unanswered . Openly advertising and proclaiming that job prospects for our group are more in India and few in the US has left many of us pondering what's next after this project. I am sure that there are more resumes in the market now on Monster and Careerbuilder than before Dr. Nabi's visit. Rest assured, Wipro will not dump any of us after this BSC project. The only thing on people's minds here is "We came here by choice and we want to go back by choice ." Interesting and uneasy times lay ahead in the coming months. Ma..Na..Se.. or Maharashtra Navnirman Sena's antics and propaganda war in the last two weeks has been very troubling. Raj Thackeray sure looks in line to be assassinated by one of the many pissed off Indians (not necessarily North Indians). Th

The weekend came and went and so did Kirti. She was in Minneapolis for the first time since October when she left for Atlanta for her placement. She was gone for 4 long months. We had a great time and she was pretty happy meeting all our friends and me, of course. Few of our friends were already planning for us making sure we had a baby by the time 2008 was over. Those guys need to wait as we are in no rush. Wifey wanted to eat all the chicken she could eat in the 2+ days she was going to be here. So all arrangements were made to satisfy the Great One. Chicken with Dosa (Friday), Thai Chicken (Saturday) and Chicken Biryani (Sunday) made sure she left happy from here. Snow tubing was the plan on saturday. But the weather Gods made sure we didn't go near Wild Mountains . It was snowing badly and freezing conditions made it near impossible to get out of the house. But still, we ended up at Flaherty's for some bowling, pool and air hockey. Had a great time there with Mithil,

Superbowl mania is over and it was an exciting game. Low scoring but excellent. Patriots lost but I thought the Underdog Giants were better in every aspect of Offense, Defense and sometimes Special Teams. Eli Manning was good, completely overshadowing Tom Brady in the definition of Cool. Who would have thought that a year after Peyton Manning takes his team, the Colts, to the Superbowl and wins the game and gets the MVP trophy, li'l brother is going to do the same thing, that too against a team knocking on the doors of history with an 18-0 season and post-season record. Olivia and Archie Manning must be darn proud of the achievements of their "Quarterback" sons. Yogesh and I were wondering why on earth will Bill Belichick go for 4th and 13 when there was enough time on the clock and Stephen Gostkowski was a proven Field-Goal Kicker. Those 3 points could have been the crucial difference between the 17-14 final score and an overtime period. People say, Offense wins games

There are about 90 odd blogs of mine written since 2003. If you wish to read those, they are at http://www.njusstu.blogspot.com

So, I was at the Metrodome today volunteering for Asha expecting Monster Jam. But it was not to be, rather it was Twins fest. What is Twins fest? 10,000 fans lining up from early morning outside the stadium in cold conditions to purchase Minnesota Twins merchandise and memorabilia from current and past Twins players. And worst of it all, none of the merchandise that were being sold could be personalized. WTF. Twins fest happens every year and almost the same players who were part of the team in 2007 participated in the event the previous year (2006) as well. Someone please explain the point in getting the same merchandise from the same players year after year. It just shows the greediness of the team owners who possibly want to suck out as much money from the fans before the season even starts and the (dumb) fans who willingly oblige. Twins season does not even start until March 31st. In a fast fading economy, Americans need to be told how to save some money rather than spend boatload

Well, the short stay at Puerto Rico was damn sweet to say the least. Dorado, San Juan (capital), Fajardo, Luquillo and El Yunque - Mucho Gracias for a good vacation. 80 degree weather and beautiful ladies made it worthwhile. The assembly line tours (on thursday and friday) were a good learning experience. The manufacturing floor tour for Leads assembly for Pacemakers and Defibrillators were made very educational and easy by the floor supervisors. Going back to the Embassy Suites hotel after work, changing into swimwear & off to the beach for some fresh air and spending some quiet time in the jacuzzi were some good memories I got from there. On saturday, in old San Juan, we saw the San Cristobal and El Morro forts. These 2 forts were once the stronghold of the military guarding the capital city from intruders, watching over the vast Atlantic Ocean. Had a late lunch at Tantra , an Indo-Latino restaurant. There was nothing latino about the chana-masala though. Sunday was probably

Back from Puerto Rico yesterday. Great place, awesome weather, fantastic experience. Check back for more later.

Team India will not leave Australia midway through their test tour. Virender Sehwag and Dinesh Karthik make a strong case for their inclusion for the Perth test. Ishant Sharma is among the wickets and should be a real threat. Steve Bucknor is "out" and billions of Indians heaved a sigh of relief!! The "monkey-business" is finally getting buried in people's minds and printed more in the form of T-shirts . This week, Tata Sons Chairman Mr. Ratan Tata unveiled the Nano. Proud moment for India and the Tata group, coming up with the cheapest car in the world. The car is going to be a sure fire hit among middle-class India. The dream of Ratan Tata to "give" more to the common man is going to help the TATA brand even further. Agreed that the car does not boast of lot of features that standard cars have but then again, standard cars do not come with a price tag of Rs 1,00,000/-. The thing State Governments will have to think about now is, how on earth are we

Here we go again, a much anticipated and high octane Test Series between India and Australia (in Australia). One team is full of superstars at the fag end of brilliant individual careers pitted against a team built one-by-one solely based on their cricketing ability and undying commitment to the team. The series score as I write this blog is India - 0, Australia - 2. Two to go. Hoping the series will go atleast 1-2 or more optimistically 2-2 in India's favour. There are enough reports on rediff, cricinfo and timesofindia criticizing India's batting blunders during the Melbourne test. India was unable to score less than 200 in each innings, which is pretty dissappointing considering each of India's top 5 batsmen, Jaffer, Dravid, Laxman, Tendulkar and Ganguly each have posted atleast one double-hundred in Test Cricket. Cricketing ability was not in doubt in that test, more so commitment to the team-cause. India's bowlers were pretty impressive in holding Australia for les