So you thought only boards that read " Indians and Dogs are not allowed" was Racism??...Or was it that you are called a black, kicked and hounded by dogs Racism....There is now another variety- that I call Subtle Racism.

Look at the two pictures....These are pictures after Katrina- I mean the Hurricane that struck the American coast yesterday. The two are in Yahoo! Photos- Here and Here. The First photo is accompanied with a write up that says- well, you read it for yourselves.

Wow!!!..It had been an year since, I started using- rather migrating all my mails to GMail!!...I dont remember the exact date, when I got the Gmail Invite from Hemanth...but the last mail that I have (still undeleted!!) bears the date as August 29th. So, that becomes the official birthday of my Gmail Id...Here I go, wishing my Gmail a very happy B'day!!...It holds 1110 mails at the last count and had occupied just 168MB(7%) of my 2540 MB storage space!!!..

Without any pomp n fervour, Google had been adding features to it's Gmail Service...Had you checked your Settings of late?

Now, you can select the Email Id you want the mail to be sent from...I mean, if you want your from address to appear as your Yahoo! Id, you can do that...The receiver will receive it from your Yahoo! Id, while you had actually, sent it from your Gmail Id...You can even receive your mails in your Gmail, while the receipient would have replied to your Yahoo! Id...Isn't this great...but then, the other Id should be yours!!....Try looking at your setting tab of the Gmail!! and Happy Gmailing!..This information was not out in anything than some obscure message boards!!(not Slashdot- surprisingly!).

p.s: Thanks Hemanth for the invite! He was then "Nice Guy Hemanth"...True to his name, he had been nice enough to offer me a Gmail Invite...Now, he had morphed into Instant Coffee, but still a Nice Guy only! ;-)

This being the Annus Mirabilis("Miracle Year" in Latin) of Albert Einstein, I thought of a post to commemorate that, to mention him- and what best way, than to put up his own work- in his own words(in German), in his own handwriting? So here I go with the scanned pictures of his work("Quantum theory of the monatomic ideal gas"), in his own hand writing...If you can read German and understand it too, do that...For one, I did it!
(Via Boing Boing)

More of his work, can be found here.

On a tangential note, had things had worked out as I wished, my Engineering Project would have been something on this lines. I prepared for the project from the starting of the third year, had some clear ideas on sleeve and my HOD was very helpful. Then suddenly, by the last semester of the third year, he resigned from the Job and went to Nigeria. That was the end to the project too...The same year, students from Ramaiah College, Bangalore, made the same stuff work. My project didn't involve Lasers(as the vehicle in the Link) and all..It was a simple Digital Image Processing stuff, with a camera and a Processor for Vehicle Guidance..The vehicle would go only in a straight line and would just stop on facing an obstacle(atleast on theory and on Computer Programmes). I didn't go further than that..Even for this, I had to slog out hard. But, all gone down the drain. Priorities Change...so does Life!

Yesterday being my parents 25th wedding anniversary, hoards of relatives had descended upon our house (that's, what I heard!). There was also a relative whom I had last seen when my Grandpa expired some 9 years ago..after that I hadn’t seen her in any of the functions that I attented..that doesn’t mean that I attended so many functions…it is just that I hadn’t met her for so long. Now, when I called home, my father was kind enough to put me through that person.

From now on, let me revert to the conversational mode, coz, then I can do justice to her. Let she be H and me be M

M: Hello Maami!. Namaskaaram! Eppadi Irrukkael?..Paarthu rombha naal aachu!!..aathulla ellarum sowkiyamaa?

H: Hello! Aaaseervaadham!!, Eppadi irrukae!! Naanga ellam edo irrukkom!

M: Ooo! Nanna Irrukaen!

H: Apparam sollu!!...Eppadi poiyindurukku??

M: Ennadu?

H: Unnoda vaela-ppa!

M: Oh!!..Adukkenna! Naanaavae poagarathu!

H: Ennoda thangai pillaiyum unna maathiri thaan!

M: Oh-oh!...Pant Shirt pottundurupaana?

H: Dai!...athilla da!-Nee innum appadiyae thaan irrukae!!..eppo paaar kurumbhu pannindu!!(this is getting so sweet!!!).... avanum unna maathiri nanna padipaan…(there she goes…a pachai poi….naan- nalla padichaen!...okay!..vara vaaztha, edukku vaendaanganum??).. avanum unna maathiri thaan periya IT companila work panraan!

M: Oh! Ok!

H: TXS’la (I have changed the name)

M: Ummmm…

H: Indiavillaeyae, aduthaan no:1 theriyummo?

M: Ummm…

H: Adu thaan first…Infx’ellam(ie –my company) apparam dhan!

M: Ummm…(there was a muffled smile this side)

H: Baba (Name changed) company-na summavaa???...Madrasla thaan irrukkan!!..Unga companyla ippo edo prichanaiaamae!!...yaaroo paal poitaanaam!

M:Maami!!...ennadu?

H: Adampa!..Yaro Sugesh paal(name changed) poitaanamae?..enna panna poraa?

M:Maami!..Adu enga company illa....adu Xipro!

H: Unnavopa!...ennakku enna theriyum?..Seri!...nee enda platformla work panrae?

M: Platform no:1

H: Oh!.(she doesn’t seem to have understood –rather even listened, whatever I had told)….Avan, edo Jaavaavaamae- adula irrukkan!..Ippo ennanamo sollra..nammakku enga puriyardhu?

M:Ummm...

H:Ennanae Language unnakku theriyum?

M:English, Tamil, German, Hindi, Malayalam!

H:Dai!..adu illa da!...Computerla- ennanae language theriyum?

M: Maami!..Naan Languagela work panna maataen!

H: Appo nee enna thaan panrae?...IT companyna computerla work panna maataalo?

M:Maami!...Naan functional consultant!...Ennakum Languagekkum sambhandham illa!

H: Oh..ok!!..seri...apadinna?

M: Enterprise Solutions!...Companykku ellam software implement pannanum!

H: Oh!!...Software Serviceaa?(Now, I clearly see what she is thinking of my job...I only pray, she hadn't yet got my face with a service kit in hand and standing at the gates of the companies!)

M:Illa maami!!...Ennakku Solla theriyalla!...

H:Ennovo, naan-na irrundha seri!...ennakku enna theriyum!

M:Uffffff........

H: Seri...enna sambhalam tharaa?

M:Maami!!..Pommanaati kitta vayasaiyum, aambhalai kitta sambhalathaiyum kaetka koodaathunnu ungallukku naan sola vaendiyadhu illa!

H: Dai!..ellam ennakku theriyum da!...Naan paarthu valarndha paiyan nee!..en kitta enna vaetkam?

M:Vaetkathukku illa maami!..Chumma soli paarthaen!..Unga kittae enna vaektkam ennakku...vaetkka padarathukku idulla enna irrukku!...(With a tinge of pride, I tell her my salary)

H: Nee MBA padichuttu vandadhukku apparammum ivlo dhaan tharaala??...en thangae pulla verum B.E.kku, Rs.XXXXX vaangaraan.....

M:(Stumped here!!...What am I to say....How can I ever make her understand??)..Oh!!..appadiyaa??..Baba companyo illayo!!....adhaan!..(Never mind that the salary quoted is almost 2.5 times less than mine...who cares....)

H: Adu seri!...Baba company illaya!!...Correct!...matha company ellam summa dhaan!.... Seri...eppo America poga poarae?

M: Poga vaendiyathu dhaan!...Eppo koopadraaloo appo!

H: Hmmm...en thangai paiyan, innum 1 varshathulla america poiduvaan!!..avan companyla sollitaalaam!!

M: Very good!..Very Good!

H: Eppo Kalyaanam?

M: Yaarukku?

H: Unnakku thaan da!

M: Maami!...Adukellam innum naal irrukku!..(I sense, this is getting too much now....and realise that I had made the call...so..)..Maami...Appa kitae koncham phonea kudungo!...oru vishayam solla maranthutaen!!

H: Envo da!...en thangai paiyannukku innum 2 varshathulla kalyaanam pannidanummnu sollindurukaen!..paarkalaam!

M: Oh!...naladu maami....very good!...koncham appa kittae phonea kodungo! Please!

H: Seri..seri...ido tharaen!

With this, she hands over the phone to my dad...It feels as if, I had been through some torture session!!...God save her "Thangai Pullai"....

With a laugh that was bordering sarcasm and gaity, my father picked up the phone and said, "enna da....maami kitae paesiniyaa?"...

M: "Aachu...aachu"

F: Enna sonna?

M: Rombha mukiyam!

F: Seri.........and the conversation continued!!

There has been so much happening in the Googlosphere of late, that it wouldn't suffice, even if I were to open a completely new blog to just make Googlist posts, to capture all the information..So, will just KISS...

1. Google Desktop Search 2
2. Google Talk- Yes!...Google's answer to MSN and YM!...Man I am just loving it...but alas, I can't install that and use it..I am in a secured zone and so, I can't install Messenger clients in my machine.

An interesting tit bit about the Google Desktop. There is right now soooooooo much about Google that I am going crazy of not being able to use any of them. How I wish I had my own computer and a broadband net access!!! argggggg!!

As I lay stretched on my tummy, in the lower berth of the train, with my head propped up and my eyes starring at the distant, invious hillocks, I see the mist and fog that has shrouded the peaks. They remind me of the words that had shrouded your emotions, as you spoke them, a seemingly endless diatribe of words, hitting me from all possible directions. The words had put up a translucent blanket over the emotions, blocking almost everything, but a bare necessary, leaving my mind free to search for meanings- hidden or scattered, like pepper over bread crumb, letting my brain run amuck.

As I had grappled to comprehend the meaning of the word, there was another paragraph in the queue to be taken in. The mist that covers the beauty, the dangers, the serenity and the purpose….so were your words, hiding everything from my view. Words, that are like mist- suspended in thin air, without an attributable source or a destiny – words, whose source one would never know, whose purpose one never can comprehend, but can only feel the impact.

As I see the pair of railway tracks that run along parallel to our track, I am yet again reminded of your words- words that would run parallel throughout, without converging, never meeting anywhere, taking others for a ride. Words, that were once spoken, that got etched in the memory, like a railway track across the landscape- words that are so aloof from the reality, just like the raised platform of the track.

I lift my eyes, smiling at myself, for untangling the intricate mystery of the relation between so many things and words, for discovering the meaning in inanimate, inconsequential stuff, I see the electric poles and I immediately search for reasons to connect them to words. I force myself to see them as words, that stand tall, like the skeletons of long forgotten Ravanas and Ramas of the last Dusshera- separate, alone, abandoned....The cables that run through the poles, seem to be like the thread that runs through all your words, connecting seemingly isolated thoughts into a web, piecing together a collage.

The train speeds past name boards, passengers waiting for some passenger, railway stations that cater only to the station master and the guard, bridges, mountaines, plains, sunflower fields, coconut groves...every thing I see, I relate them to your words...I exhaust my imagination to relate...The flow dries up...I feel tired of thinking....I look at the book in front...The page begins as," With the words still ringing in her ears,..........."

Anna University in Tamilnadu has started behaving true to its name- as a big brother...Yesterday, as I sat half-watching the news(unfortunately Sun News..that's the news that would be available when I reach home from office- if I need some TN News), there was a news item that attracted my attention so much that I dropped the book I was reading and started listening to that.

It went on like this: "Anna university had banned students from dancing for film songs in the cultural programs conducted by the colleges"....while the reasonableness of the ban is in itself a matter of ridicule, the reasons given for the ban was outright illogical.

Picture this: The VC of a renowned university telling the press crew that, after enforcing restrictions on the use of cell-phones[this- after the DPS saga, where the 11^th standard girl n a guy were caught in the act, (rather the act was caught by the guy and sold over the net)]....there are now restrictions on wearing Jeans/sleeveless shirts, cinemas, bunking(ofcourse there was always this stuff of "attendance"...I hate it to the core) and to top it all for students dancing for cinema songs....

The reasons he gives:(not in the order of priority!)

1. The film songs require practice, which distracts students from studying.
2. To dance would make students bunk the class.
3. To see the performance too would lead to students bunking classes.

Now, if the students decide to dance for "Maha-Ghanapathim- Manasaasmaraami", then I think VC would have no objection in letting students practice, bunk classes and ruin studies....I agree there are quite few songs that would require dance sequence bordering deceny..but to blanket ban all dances for film songs, escapes my gathered intellect of all these years...this sort of moral policing is worse, if that is done in an institute of higher education..that too a renowned one like Anna University...I had heard this being done in a couple of Engg institutes in Chennai- But to hear it being done in Anna University...this is b(s)ad!!

Dont a guy/gal in his/her 19 years of life learned enough to know which is decent and which one not, to do in public and even if they dont see it as indecent, then I think that shows that the society is changing....to have your view enforced upon students like this, would only lead to the dark ages again...

To ban Jeans and Tee's- this is absurd!...If institutes like these fail to teach tolerance and Liberalism, then who will?...If these guys go out to any of the western countries, can they come out of their shell?..leave the western countries, if these guys go out to Mumbai even, they would be overwhelmed by the environment....We had already been betrayed in the politics of language, now, this is betrayal in life-style too!!..

If I like to wear, Jeans, let me wear it...If you fear that would lead to problems, then you need to gaurd against the criminals, not ask me not to wear...it's like asking me to commit suicide, because, you fear someone will kill me...

Soon, Chennai colleges will be another Taliban ruled ground!

Are you one of those,who use MS word for making the posts...I mean do you type your entire posts in Microsoft Word and then cut and paste it in the blogger window?...I had been one a long time ago and also do that now-a-days, when the net connection slows down, coz then I cannot spell check my posts..but then, I hardly do spell-check too...I just keep typing...there might be grammatical errors too in my post..To say the truth, I hate the green/red lines that sneek through the typed stuff in MSWord.

But that apart, for the real purpose of this post....If you are the one to use that, then you would have found that it is a pain to cut it, paste it and then format it...if you had already formatted that (ie, if you ever bother to format to your posts) in MS, you would see that, in Blogger, it would change to ridiculous forms(blogger adds auto HTML codes for MSword material- so the ordianry line break there, is replaced with a paragraph break here in Blogger)...this would again be a pain to reformat...

But, as it is, Googleans know better...they had simply put up a toolbar for MSword...just as they had included a toolbar option for IE, where you can directly blog a webpage. Similar to that, you can directly post your stuff from the MSWord to the Blogger.....Have a look at here.

I wouldn't be using that...for quite sometime, till I get my own computer with me and start posting from that!!

This is what I would probably call tough business...What Google had been doing lately is amazing...The latest buzz in the slashdot circles is that, Google might be offering Wi-Fi access to entire America for free- or is it just the tip of the Ice-berg....When everyone, including me, were very much thinking of the Google's rise as the death bell for Microshit, Google seems to have very different plans...But the decision, if it is true, would have it's own business sense...

The move(if at all, to provide web access), is really nice. This would free Google from the clutches of the middle men between Google and the ISPs. The transit fees that Google pays the middlemen in the traffic routing services, to connect the user to it's servers, is high and services like GMail(which in itself is a bandwidth guzzler), Google Earth(this just sucks the bandwidth..try that with a dial-up and I am sure you would hate Google for whatever it is!!!!) take up so much of bandwidth, that the transit fees that Google pays to the third party is not un-considerable.

Also of interest is Yahoo! announcing that it has the largest index in the world..

"for those who are curious this update includes just over 19.2 billion web documents, 1.6 billion images, and over 50 million audio and video files."

- Source: The Official Yahoo! Blog

That was in their own words, and the index is more than twice that Google had managed till now!
In the Internet search space, though anyone can claim to give accurate results, their ability to scan through numerous documents is a factor that is considered critical..it is akin to the hide and seek that children play...the more vast and wide spread your search is, higher is your probability in finding the person you are seeking...it is same here...the more number of pages you index, it is assumed that your search result would be more accurate.

Though nothing can be more far from truth. It is undeniable that the number of indexed pages affect the search results, but indexing alone is not any measure of the search efficiency. The ultimate efficiency of a search engine is giving the exact answer to the query. But this is easier said than done. For example, the search string "Rose" can mean two(or even three or more!!) completely different things to different people. For instance:

1. A guy searching for the most exquisite rose to gift his Girl.
2. A botany student searching for the botanical names of the plant and the flower.
3. A movie buff, searching for Kate Winslet with the name of the Titanic heroine.

A search engine, to be most accurate, should be able to identify what the user has in mind and throw results that match his search criterion. This can be called Intelligent search. Yahoo! is already in it with Y!Q, and there are multiple smaller players in the field. But what Google did with the Adwords is to completely overhaul this space and provide revenue generating model. There is still a long way to go...

But returning to the main point of this post, an independent inquiry and analysis of the claim of Yahoo! to have indexed more pages than anyone else and thus imply a more accurate search result(atleast to the unsuspecting users of the net, for whom, size always matters), had revealed that it is not to be so. Though Yahoo! never claimed that the more number of pages it indexs, the better is the search result, that exactly is the view they wanted to spread. But that had been contested in this report. (Via Slashdot)

The report is open for everyone(ofcourse, who know the stuff) to interpret and verify the methodology.

As I sit with just loneliness as company, feeling the numbness, tasting nothing, smelling the air, hearing the sudden silence of the power cut, and starring at the darkness that came along free with the package, I think of the words that deserted me to find solace in the distant croaking of a frog and the chirping of the bird.

The world seems to be full of noise, though I hear only the silence. The moment of inactivity amidst the crashing speed of words spewed onto the monitor from the key board, when the pointer blinking on the screen, seem to have been etched in white marble to serve as the remainder of this moment for generations to come, seems alien!

I feel a void spreading its tentacles inside me choking every blood vessel and letting me hear my heart beat. I sit there in the cubicle, fully aware of the moment, when every cell in my brain would just shut down, yet unaware, for how long I was aware of that awareness.Nature, seems to be cruel. It gives the pain, the mind to deny it and the heart to deny the denial.

The next moment, when the cursor blinks back to life, a sudden wave of activity springs up from nowhere. It pervades all other thoughts, like salt dissolved in water and pushes out the inactivity as water pushes out oil, as a gushing rivulet would force the dead leaves aside. I savour the moment of activity.

I shut down the system and swipe out of office.

It had been my long time wish to learn a musical instrument....I am fascinated by two instruments..Jaladharangam and Flute... It had been my apparent desire to learn Jaladharangam for so long…but, I couldn’t find any one to learn it from….I am sure there is yet to be a combo to beat them performing at harmony. When I was in my engg, there used to be a music school near our house (I mean the room)...I would always be there at nights after dinner, to listen to pleasant Violin and other Carnatic (particularly Veena) instruments. It was a temple with a music school in it…. then I developed a taste for Guitar…but I never made any attempt to probe further or try learning it…But the desire to learn was there…latent…To be honest, I forced myself to like Guitar, after I came to know someone else too liked it ;)..Oh!!..that old story!!..

When I came to Mangalore, the first thing that I enquired was for a Guitar class [I knew where a book store is :-)]…Almost immediately I went and enquired with the music school….The guy there told that it would be Rs.200/- per month and Rs.50/- for registration (as if that mattered). I enrolled immediately. Last Saturday was the first class and I went there with the long felt dream of becoming George Harrison of "The Beatles" or the Slash of Guns n Roses. With dreamy eyes and even dreamier hopes, I went to the class..It had been agreed that I would have classes only on Saturdays (Read I am too busy on weekdays and I can’t spend 1 hour for learning to pluck cords).

This Saturday, when I went to the class, I was wondering who would be my classmates…The entier room was filled with all sorts of instruments, from Guitars, Violins, Key-boards, flutes, Harmoniums etc....The pleasant aroma of music(and the instruments too) filling the air waves, with more than occassional amatuerish growl of the same instruments. I was like “How about a clone or even a distant relative of Aishwarya Rai, coming down for a guitar class…that too the for the same Saturday class, with me??”….

With such thoughts to accompany me to the class, I had dressed up in a clean white Tee(With “Bold” written in “bold”) and Jeans- hoping to meet some fairy eyed Ash-clone- just in case…

Thaddd!...that was the sound my heart made when it fell down from the honeymoon it was having in Darjeeling heights with the distant relative of Aishwarya Rai, when I saw my "would- be" class mates….Though none of them can be said as distant relative of Ash, they can definitely be said the next street neighbor of Aish, for sure….thanking heavens for the grace they had on me, and also cursing them for not having enough, I slowly asked one of them what she was doing!.....7th standard- pat came the reply….and how long had they been coming to the class….the reply was even faster- 4 classes.....but I had finished the exercise books....So..you are less knowledgable than me...I know to pluck strings.......

I don’t know whether it was my imagination or the reality, that I sensed a tone of “Iam the boss here” in the voice…Senior- U see…by 4 classes…Would there be ragging here too??...Will these “Seniors” rag me for coming to the class in Jeans (Just as my Seniors in Engg. College used to do and just as we did to our juniors)...By God's Grace nothing untoward happened and the master came in...

From now on, I would retort to dialogue mode, for ease...Master would be "He" and your's truly would be "Me"...
He: Do you have a note-book?
Me: I have come for the Guitar class.
He: I know. Do you have a note-book.
Me: Nope.
He: Do you have a pencil/pen?
Me: I have come for the Guitar class.
He: I know...I know...So, you neither have a note-book nor a pencil.
Me: Yes!
He: Okay...go..get yourselves a pencil from that shelf and from next class onwards, come with a notebook.
Me: But, Sir, I come here for a Guitar class...Is it necessary to bring note-book and pencil?
He: Yes!..Its mandatory that you bring them, else I wont let you sit for the class!!
Me:( to myself)...What the Fuck!...Why in the hell should I bring a note book and pencil to the Guitar class?

Now, all my classmates(!!) were giggling....everyone seem to have come from a tuition, with a notebook and a pencil in hand, giving that solemn look. There was none to give company for me...Che!!

Then, came the ultimate thriller. Master took out a note book and said, "Your first class would be a theory class"....That was the killer....Theory Class??..What am I gonna do now??....Then he hands over a note book to me and says "Do that exercises"...

I open the note book to find some lines(infact a bunch of 5 lines) with small circles all over...I read the instructions and it says, "Mark "L" if the circle is drwan on the line and mark "S" if the circle is drawn inbetween two lines....The circles are called notes and if the circles are drawn on the line, they are called "Line notes" and if they are drawn inbetween the lines, they are called "Space notes"....This is repeated for three pages and then the next level of difficulty.

Now, the notes are named as per a convention..."Every Bird Gets Food Daily" and "Face"...are two of the acronyms that are used...I need to name the dots with the alphabets "A to G"....this continues for another 3 pages....

Utterly encouraged by the simplicity of learning Guitar, my happiness found no bounds and it was brimming, when the next bomb came my way...Master called up and said,"Now that you have successfully known to name the dots and number them too, its time that you learn the keys in the Key-board.."....

Me: "But, I had come here for learning Guitar"...

He:"Yeah...I know...but you ought to know this..the keys of a keyboard"...then I got a faint doubt on whether he had misunderstood me..I again stressed that I dont want to play Guitar in a key-board, I wanted to play the real Guitar....Now, it was his turn to hijack the puzzled, bewildered and astonished look that I always have up my sleeves....He looks at me as though looking at a cat run over by a lorry and says one final time..."I know"...well...that sealed the class for me...

At the end of the day, my Tee would have better read "Bowled" rather than "Bold"...

What would you think of yourself, when you keep scrolling the mouse's wheel and wonder why the pages of the book in your hand hadn't changed, even after so many rolls and look at the mouse's wheel in some bewildered astonishment and think of raising a complaint to the maintenance department, that the mouse is not working?

Well, I am still thinking of what to think of myself. This happened yesterday night!

What a wonderful week-end it turned out to be....When DD first supposed that I come to Banglaore for this weekend, I thought she was just making fun...then when I thought over it again, it occured to me as a great idea...I immediately agreed and I booked my tickets too immediately...Ofcourse, I had to miss my driving classes on those two days, but who cares.....meeting up with long last friends is much more worthier than sitting next to a guy who kills both Malayalam and Hindi to the worst possible nightmare for me, early in the morning, trying to teach me how to steer a car. Well, I would dedicate an entire post to him once I get my Licence in hand...Iam sure he doesn't know this blog, but just to be on the safer side :)

So, there I go, to Bangalore, on Saturday morning....I had already called up Venky and told him that I would be coming to Bangalore on Saturday...So, he came to pick me up...drove to his home..had an amazing breakfast...I still don't know how many dosas we both gullped down..neither of us cared....We spoke..spoke...spoke...Infact, we keep speaking in the phone every day.....but still, a face-face beats them all by miles.

Then we went over to Sridhar's room...poor chap..he had lost his mobile and had been incommunicado for the past three days or so...but he had got a duplicate SIM and had somehow managed to scrap through a cell-phone too...called up Boopathi, Prabhu etal...started with the bhakkar session again...skipped Lunch...too lazy to even venture out in search of food....and too uninterested to break the flow of bhakkar....went on and on...till around 5:00, when I remembered that I need to buy something for my parents(their 25^th wedding anniversary is nearing...)..Went to Forum..had also asked some of my friends to come up there...bought some shirts-trousers, books....The memoirs of a Geisha(Arthur Golden), Siddartha(Herman Hesse), The Hungry Tide, (Amita Ghosh)...I had already read some nice reviews of the books...the only book that I was a bit circumspect was Siddhartha...but then the price(Rs.150/-) made me swallow my apprehensions and go for it. Let me see how these books turn out. I am in the final few pages of The Fountainhead..would finish it this week..

Sunday was even more fun....went to DD's house....one of our other school mate too had come there...started with the bhakkar session yet again....But this time, it was more to do with our school mates and what they were doing now...though we had no idea on most of them, the few of them on whom we did have an idea, were the only topic of discussion....inbetween all these, we cooked our lunch too...[the "WE" there is my consolation for the two poor souls that were eagerly looking at all the vessels that I used while cooking...they actually did help me...by doing nothing...else it would have been even more difficult :(]...

I felt so happy and excited after so many days....a real booster...to meet up with almost the entire College gang and the schoolmates...ofcourse the one gang that I missed there was the TAPMI gang...ofcourse those guys are coming down to bangalore today....How Sad!!