R-Rated

Finally completed a superb 3-day Memorial Day weekend in downtown Chicago, arguably the most beautiful downtown that there is. Thanks to CityPass, saw 5 attractions with little to no wait times at the long ticket lines. Visited the Museum of Science and Industry, Navy Pier and Sears Tower on Day 1. Day 2 started early with Shedd Aquarium and Oceanarium, Adler Planetarium and ended with Millennium Park. Day 3, also early, started and finished with the Field Museum. Sears Tower (soon to be Willis Tower), Shedd Aquarium and the Field Museum were my personal favorites. Adler was boring. Missed out on the architectural tour of the city. Chicago may be called the Windy City for its see-sawing political climate, but the weather was chilly and windy on the second day. Made grand and to the minute plans prior to the trip, but all that was washed out as soon as the plane landed in Chicago on friday evening. Decided to take Day 1 on the go and underestimated the time that would take to complete e...

The people of India have spoken and its the UPA (again) who will form the next government. And what a victory it has been. Indian National Congress gains 205 seats by itself and the UPA has close to 260. The UPA can literally pick and choose from the whole gamut to reach 272. It is a slap on the face of the BJP led NDA coalition which had dreams of forming a (radical) hindu government. L.K. Advani, Narendra Modi and co. have to rethink their strategy of forming a stable party before they can think of leading India again. Dr. Manmohan Singh is the right man for the top post. As various media outlets have shown and his own profile matches that of a non-corrupt, thinker, non-judgemental person who is silent but strong enough to lead India out of this economic recession. Weak PM.... that's all shredded to pieces by the Indian voter. Advani is called the Iron Man, but that title should go to MMS and righfully so. MMS has a lot to look forward to and his guarantee that India will be back...

And so after several unsuccessful attempts, I have decided to make this Memorial Day weekend an outing that I have tried to take for a long time. Its time that I visited and struck-out downtown Chicago from my list of want-to-visit-so-badly places. All the people that I know are seriously stumped as to why in the 9 months that we lived there, we couldn't see the place. Well, the situation then (2006) was different as we thought that Chicago was going to be our home for the next few years and that there would be ample time to visit. Ya right. Kirti eventually wound up moving back to Chicago and I remained in the wonderfully frozen tundra known as Minneapolis. Just the other day I was thinking, it has been 2 years in Minnesota, a place I did not think I was going to live for 1 year, let alone 2 years and counting. Having great friends made it possible. So the graph goes like this; Akron, Ohio (2002-2006), Chicago, Illinois (2006-2007), Minneapolis, Minnesota (2007-2009). The weird fa...

So the second edition of the IPL kick started on April 18 and now in the middle stages of the tournament, it feels as to when the games are going to end. Can't help but notice that 4 out of the 8 teams in the tournament have various shades of blue for their jersey color (Rajasthan, Mumbai, Delhi and the newest entrant Deccan). Whatever happened to the other colors, God only knows. Guess every one is turning a blind eye to the rest of the spectrum. Kolkata is nicely sweeping the bottom of the table while Deccan are a surprising choice for the top. This is only the middle stages of the tournament so who knows how the points table might look towards the end. The Chicago Bulls and the Boston Celtics played out a fantastic and memorable 7-game series of the Eastern Conference first round. Boston prevailed but not before some butt-kicking by the under-rated Bulls team. Less than 2 months to go for the project to come to a close...unless...Wipro pulls out a bunny from the hat (once again....

Some of the funniest jokes I have ever heard. Laughed my ass off. Actually, started reading this at work (after 5PM) and couldn't control my laughter. Hence read the rest at home. Courtesy: Elsmar.com/forums These are from a book called Disorder in the American Courts, and are things people actually said in court, word for word, taken down and now published by court reporters that had the torment of staying calm while these exchanges were actually taking place. ____________ _________ _________ _________ _____ ATTORNEY: Are you sexually active? WITNESS: No, I just lie there. ____________ _________ _________ _________ _____ ATTORNEY: This myasthenia gravis, does it affect your memory at all? WITNESS: Yes. ATTORNEY: And in what ways does it affect your memory? WITNESS: I forget. ATTORNEY: You forget? Can you give us an example of something you forgot? ____________ _________ _________ _________ ____ ATTORNEY: Do you know if your daughter has ever been involved in voodoo? WITNESS: We bo...

This sure enough felt like a middle finger to the rest of the world when North Korea launched a 'satellite' in space on a (missile ) rocket launcher. It definitely looked like one from all the Google images that were shown on CNN and other american news stations. Kim Jong Il doesn't care and imposing sanctions on these destructive minds only makes their resolve stronger. But there aren't many options for the UN Security Council regarding this. The G20 summit happened in London last week and the Europe went ga-ga over Barack and Michelle Obama. Too much importance was given to Michelle Obama than the summit itself. Over a trillion $$ pledged to the IMF et. al by the developed nations. Good for them. Where is the money going to come from? Election campaigns in India are taking steam and the public is noticing every move made by the biggies (UPA and NDA). I strongly believe, UPA will form the next government and Dr. Singh will continue to be the PM. Unless, NDA has someth...

Its been rather slow all through the winter with no new developments happening on the personal and professional fronts. Sure, Kirti made a trip here and we stayed at home for the best part of 2.5 days. Except for gaining weight steadily, I have not made any progress in gaining any additional knowledge about anything else. The keyword here being 'gaining'. The IPL has moved its base to South Africa for this year and God only knows how successful this time around the event's going to be. Knowing BCCI and all the money that's on the line, this year is going to be bigger and better. It probably would not have mattered to the BCCI if the IPL were to have happened in the Arctic Circle. BCCI will get richer by a few thousand crores and all franchise owners will recover their initial investments. Such a sorry state for the ICL which was a big flop this year. I did not hear any buzz from them (don't even know if it happened this season). I think its the economy that hit Subh...