Meeting Classmates-think twice when ur better half is with you !!!

NJ's home to a classmate of mine -TJ. I met TJ on Orkut and thought of visiting her family. To top it off, her mom-my Tenth class teacher was also there. So it was a triple treat- meeting teacher, classmate and yes TJ's daughter. I thought that this would be a better way to normalize/familiarize my Missus with my classmates and my high school life. But that was not to be !!!

TJ mentions that I was unbearable when I was in high school, very naughty. and irritating. ..puhleeze!!! She also mentions that at that time I used to stand in the front of the assembly line as I was the shortest in the class. Thanks to TJ, now Missus knows about that and cribs me. I keep telling Missus, that I only have/had face value, as I was podgy in school. Anyways, the best part of the conversation was when TJ remarked that I poked her with my compass when she strayed into the imaginary boundary set up on our bench. BOOM !!! Out goes all the credit saved up for my gentlemanly behavior !!! I was embarrassed and my face turned into a deep shade of red and purple. Missus was obviously ROTFL.
One of my classmates PM helped me with a favor and I thanked her and myself that I did not end up poking her with a compass or irritate her. So PM mails me and my wife that I was a very pleasant classmate with weird bouts of craziness. PM- you have redeemed me and I owe you !!!

Moral of the story: Think twice before you meet your classmates with your better half in tow. If possible avoid embarrassments and ostrich-hole scenarios (when you feel like putting your head in a hole and hide yourself) by going ALONE !!!

Multi-protocol IM on iphone

So the iphone was lacking a Jabber client, through which one can login to all the different IM services such as AIM, Yahoo, MSN, Gtalk, (Office IM server). Finally I found about Palringo for the iphone. Palringo is available from the App Store and is a swell application. I think that this app should show up on the Top 50 list soon !! Have fun chatting using Palringo !!!

July 25th

Happy Birthday MG !!!! So it's Missus B'day and I am here celebrating it. I have done a good job today, took the CRV for an oil change, fixed the wireless router. I am done with all the chores at this place. Two things sadden me: 1. Bangalore was witness to terror attacks and 2. CMU prof Randy Pausch passed away, who was very famous for his 'Last Lecture' video seen by millions on YouTube. Dr. Pausch's speech is very influential and has been a source of inspiration for lot of people. Watch it if you haven't seen it yet.

Pappu Pass Ho gaya

I know that it's a weird title but then this is inspired from one of the most popular soundtracks from Jaane Tu. So yeah, I kinda know When it's Love, that's the tagline of Jaane Tu. And I don't want to talk about the movie, because that's another blog topic in itself. So on today July 24th, I successfully defended my Research Proposal to my committee, in short they approve of me putting my valuable 4 years for this research. Inspite of all this, I had hiccups when my Prelim card did not arrive at my advisor's mailbox. Thanks to the fumble by Grad school. After my defense, I got my Prelim card which had appeared in my advisor's mailbox and I ran everywhere to get signatures. I was getting late for my scheduled NJ trip and delegated some work to my roomie MT. Thanks to Manas for submitting all the paperwork to Grad School. And yeah I am traveling empty-handed to Nj for Missus's birthday. I hope the Missus forgives me for that cos girls are known to forgiving. And I have prepared myself for the situation that I am going to hear that I came empty-handed all my life cos Missus has an elephantine memory and will keep reminding me/use it as EBM. Ahh the ways of life...5 more hours to reach destination !!!!

Nuclear Deal implications

The Government won the trust vote regarding the Nuclear Deal. Before leaving for a dress rehearsal of my PhD Proposal defense, I was following the trust vote like a mad man. Finally I managed to see some encouraging scenes on Star News (thanks to idesitv.com) and finally the news flashed: UPA 275, Against 256 plus a count for the abstainees. In this mood, I left for my Prelims defense, which was a washout cos my committee member decided to attend my scheduled defense tomorrow and then bigger the firing squad, the better.
I called up my sis, who stays in Kuwait and wished her a very Happy Birthday. We talk abt everything and I mentioned about the Nuclear deal finally going through the motions in the Parliament. I was surprised when she said that she did not like that the deal got passed because it was tabled by the Congress. I proceeded to explain the intricacies of the nuclear deal, etc. to her and then I started thinking about it and here's my take. One glance on today's newspapers had all the NRIs applauding the deal. the surprising part is no one in India is bothered about the deal, the youth is not bothered about it and that's where the government has failed. Instead of projecting the Nuclear Deal as an acheivement of the Congress party, theis could have been projected as an achievement for India. Congress could have run ads on DD, other satellite channels exhorting the virtues of the ND simply put more civilian reactors to take care of basic electricity requirements in the country. But then I am not a politician. I am just another guy who can only express his two words of wisdom on this inconsequential blog!! Cheers to the Nuclear Deal !!!

Are you ideal or practical?

Yesterday, I was involved in a very interesting discussion about "how one can stick to their ideals and principles and not scrifice it". My roomie BR sticks to his conviction that though society asks you to do lot of things, it's you who finally should draw the line. I beg to differ from this point of view. As a very normal human being, I have made some choices in Life that dictate my future course. I have stuck to some ideals and have also made some practical decisions. Moreover, Life can never be a straight path, it's all about adjustments. I am surprised that BR's biggest support is his mom-I am in awe of her. I wish my parents were more understanding like Aunty !!! I have promised to meet Aunty whenever I go to India next. Having a discussion based on the simple aspects of life is very eye-opening. You get to know a different perspective to the whole situation. Thanks to BR and MT and also PKG, who was my sounding board during some very difficult phases.

July 4th weekend@Detroit..Woohooo

This year me and missus travelled to Detroit to meet my in-laws and our cute 6 month-old niece. In addition to my eight languages, I have learnt baby language. I say "gjjugilluggguuuggggujugee" and Meher smiles at me. That itself is a treat to watch. She's started to crawl, it's similar to a car revving up and then she accelerates from 0 to 100 mph and crawls all the way from the living room to the kitchen. Give her anything and she tastes it. [:D] She is such a cutey pie and I am now back in Blacksburg already missing her. It's so nice to be a baby-- eat and sleep at the right time. Ahh..the wonders of childhood !!!

Are you leading a Planned Life?

I had a longish chat with my buddy VS, who's in US for a short visit. We caught up with lot of things and discussed everything under the sun (college life, professional life and family life, etc). The finale touching point to this conversation was his revelation about his elevation as a soon-to-be parent. Though we discussed about other things, some sentences lingered in my mind and I could not help but post all those thoughts on this blog. The common thread to my conversation with VS was all about "planning".

Planning is a commonly used term, an intention or decision to do something/achieve something in the future. Everyone leads a planned life. Why? You are planned (pun intended) by your parents. Your nursery/school/college/tuition classes--all these things are planned to last minute. Well, nowadays with the tacky admission process, some plans of getting admitted to the planned institution (nursery, school, college) may go haywire. But then your parents have a second choice plan as well. I personally think that I have gone to some second choice/ tenth choice places due to my lack of achieving the standard my parents had planned for me. Luckily you plan to go to xyz country to do your higher studies, you plan to work with so and so advisor, and then again you always have a "Plan of Study" (something required in Universities). You plan to graduate soon and have a job asap. The girl you marry is selected by your parents (in most cases), because that's what they have planned for you depending on caste/religion, etc. Once you get married, you become the "man with the plan". I listen to online radio at City1016 and liked RJ Abhijeet's tagline: "Listen to spindoctor RJ Abhijeet, the man with the plan". The tag has been used by yours truly in this blog.

After marriage, you have a co-planner (might be your advantage or your disadvantage, depends on how you look at it). You plan to buy a new car, new house, new furniture,etc. You plan to give x% of your salary to your wife for blowing on unwanted purchases (read shopping). Eventually you end up with family planning (pun intended). The planning cycle goes on and on. What I realized from this is: "don't get upset when some plans don't work out". Your life should be like that presentation, where you always have backup slides. Having backup slides creates a good impression: 1. You have anticipated what questions the audience is likely to ask, 2. You impress everyone because you have "outplanned" them. I correlate the presentation with my Life, where you have life events going on as slides and then when something unexpected happens (read fate), you have your backup slides/options to fall back on. This post may also be because I am planning to work efficiently on my PhD proposal presentation with the same style. In any case, if you read this post and like it, I am planning to read your comments. Enough of planning, have to go meet Wifey/in-laws for long weekend, then again that was planned months ago.. LOL

PS: By my standards, the best planners I have met are my relations on the wife's side. That's another post LOL