My 2008 aka My Year of Faith's Perfection

So here i am, after a long time.

Its been a very very good year. One of the best ones ever.

Well...it started off with me getting a job at iFlex...which, believe it or not, changed my life. Rachna Patil, wherever your are, Thank You :)

6th February 2008 : Beautiful day for a mandatory medical test ;)

Admits from some good schools and rejects from some better ones followed. 

April, May, June and July went by...too quickly if you ask me. Some of the most memorable days of my life. 

13th April 2008 : Good things happened.

Then in August, it was time to go, to leave the life i just had started to enjoy, and start another which i had been waiting for quite a while.

In September I moved into my new home (atleast till September 2009) in a new city in a new country. The semester started, and so did my on-campus job hunt, but in vain. I tried not to get disheartened, but some days were more difficult than others. 

Program Design Paradigms a course that i'll never forget. It totally changed my outlook towards programming and I started to enjoy it for the first time since high-school. To tell you the truth, i was sad when the course ended.

October, November and most of December. Had to act all grown up...study, cook, do the dishes. But then again -- "All work and no play makes Jack."

19th December 2008 : Enjoyed my first snow fall...

Boston gets more beautiful and more unforgiving in the winter...some very cold days followed.

22nd December, and technically 23rd in India : Got a Job!

Was happy for one reason and sad for another.

And that brings us to today...3 more days to go in this favorite year of mine. I don't expect anything more to happen, mostly because i haven't left the house for the better part of last week and same is the plan till the new year :P

So, Happy New Year! to the two people or maybe three who read this :D

Hope to see all of you in the next year..YES..i'm talking about you, you and especially you.

Updates on My List..which. by the way, i had posted this BEFORE 'The Bucket List' and 'Dasvidanya' came out..

1. Go to the Sundance Film Festival.
   
2. Watch the Godfather movies They were OK.
   
3. Bungee Jump.
   
4. Watch the original Star Wars films...episode 4,5,6 ie.
   
5. Get in Shape...round is excluded as a shape to be in.
   
6. Drive and possibly own a '67 Ford Mustang.
   
7. Have the Best Time of My Life..ever! Done that, 3rd and 4th year of college Feb to Aug 2008 :P
   
8. Grow my hair to shoulder length. (In progress)
   

My Coast to Coast

First and foremost i'd like to answer some questions...

Its different out here....completely different.

Its "going great" out here...also i'm "finding it great" and this place is "treating me well" and i DO no matter you tell me to or not...i do "take care"...always and without fail :D

..Random Observation..

You can judge or rather guess arbitrarily, the patriotism of a country's citizen by how he/she pronounces or rather enunciates his/her motherland's name or the adjective form of that country's name.

"Its Ammerican man..." or "This is how we do it in Ammerica..." sounds so filled with arrogance and pride as opposed to "India mein na...tcch...kya bolu yaar ..."

Watch 'A Wednesday' people...pretty damn good.

Instead of the usual Roti, Kapda and Makaan that an individual needs to survive...i've aquired the following

1. Whole Wheat Bread (because rotis are a pain to make and even bigger pain to buy at a reasonable price)

2. No kapda...i'm wearing all the stuff from mera Bharat mahaan

3. Makaan ke Neeche ka makaan...i live in a basement flat

4. A sleeping bag..to well..sleep

5. A laptop to...i haven't figured out why i got it yet...and finally

6. A cell phone which doesn't have enough range because of reason no. 3

People DO miss me back in India...thats good to know :)

Boston, is where i am... a very beautiful city...the most most beautiful one i've seen so far in my life (out of the four cities i've been in). Its got a splendid fall...and a bitchin' winter... Stuff is fucking costly, i mean fucking costly!

The one thing i like about the US is its addresses...you name the street, the number of your building and the apartment in that building and the proper zip of the place and you're there. This long sentence doesn't suffice to get my point across..well take, for example where i live..

65, Hemenway Street, Apt 2, Boston, MA - 02115

This one line address is ALL anybody needs to come to my house...you dont need to say opposite what or east or west or nothing.

So far i haven't explored this beautiful city as much as i'd have liked to...but theres time for that...loads and loads of time. 

You know what...i've lost my "flair" so to speak, for writing...it was when i was most miserable or most sleep deprived that i used to type some non-sensical paragraphs and post them. But other stuff is happening these days. Between grocery shopping, dishwashing and watching videos on youtube without waiting for them to buffer(10 Mbps babay!) i dont think i'll be able to fit in the ol' one post every six months...but i'll do what i can...

So that was my big come-back post...dont hold your breath for the next one (Stop with the delusions Charu..no ones reads this)

R.I.P Jayant Goswami

Over and Out

p.s. Mumbai is on the West Coast of India and Boston is on the East Coast of the US, hence the title

My Innocuous Betrayal, et cetera et cetera...

A wise and learned man said to me recently "Copy this folder structure onto your system, this is what you'll be working on from now on..."

Barclays
-->PK
--->Commercial
---->Dev
----->Source

Ctrl+C - Alt+Tab - Ctrl+V later, I asked that man "Sir what does PK stand for?"
and with the slightest of smirks on his countenance he answered "Pakistan...PK is for Pakistan".

Nothing drastic happened actually, my mind just went "WoW!" for like ten seconds and that was that...I got on with my work.

On talking to my friends later that evening, allegations of treachery and deceit arose. Intelligence gathering, reconnaissance and project sabotage were some topics that attracted serious discussion.
A cult dialog from one of my favorite films, Sarfarosh, was mailed to me the following day. The mail, which i happened to open just as that learned man glanced at my screen, said in size 42 comic sans font "RUPAIYE KE LAALACH MEIN DESH KO BECHNE CHALA THA HARAAMZADA!" I'd like to thank PS for that grave embarrassment...just remember that payback is a b!tch :D

Now for the et cetera...

Say what you want...theme parks ROCK!...they freaking DO! I conquered Thunder, but fell prey to the Monster, Rainbow was dullish...and Enterprise...err never mind :P
All in all...a jolly good time..yeah yeaaaa yeaaa ;)

If you ever feel too damn good about your self, and think that the "World is your Oyster" or any such ludicrous notion...start reading(or listening to in my case) 'A Short History of Nearly Everything' by Bill Bryson. I'm lucky enough to have happened upon the audio book for this literary masterpiece(non-fiction)..its simply AWESOME. It covers everything from the birth of the Universe to how we found out the age of our earth...i'm just in the 10th chapter of the book and i've been completely over-whelmed by the sheer genius of humanity. READ IT or at least take the audio book from me...

Glad to have met some of the people I've met...without them I'd be throughly confused and lost perhaps. Thanks for being my support system. The "Associate" is forever indebted...
Faced some harsh realities and the learn't a few things about the nature of people, how they surprise you, sometimes twice over!

Peace! for now...

My Opposite of...

So FINALLY I've stopped being Eternally Online with an Empty Mind and joined the ranks of the Employed.
iFlex Solutions in their INFINITE WISDOM decided to take a chance on me. Poor Bastards :D

The first few days we had "INDUCTION" in which they induced nothing but boredom and mind-numbing monotony.
But what could we do?? Complain?? 'The Great Indian Rejects' as i like to think of the 26 of us...DOJ 11/02/2008 GA. Thats Goregaon Annexure for you non-iFlexians.
This place Goregaon....no place like it. SERIOUSLY they have made it so, that its FAR from ANYWHERE in Mumbai. THAT, people is a great achievement you have to agree.
Training started on 15th Feb at another WONDERFUL place they call Andheri(E). The traffic out there is LEGENDARY! Governments could fall, you could grow a bushy beard and a few Aamir Khan movies would be released by the time you reach from Andheri(E) to Kurla Station in rush hour.
And this brings us to Kurla Station...
The Opposite of Heaven is NOT Hell. Its KURLA STATION at ANY time of the day...Weekdays/Weekends/Summer/Winter anytime. Actually Hell may just have been a prototype for this place. A scale model so to speak. The Devil himself must have looked over the completion of this place which reeks of EVIL at every corner, untold and unheard horrors lie within. I shudder to think of it even now...hughghghghhhhhh.

I've gotten up at 6 AM almost every day in the past 2 weeks. Six friggin AM!!! There have been days when i've gone to bed at that time, if at all. FUCK the pansies who take sleeping pills and see a shrink to solve their sleep issues. Make them travel to Andheri(E) and back from Nerul every day and they'll sleep like babies when they finally get home.

I've become the opposite of Lazy.
I feel Efficient, Responsible and for some reason pretty grown-up. In addition to the solution to major sleep issues, this job has given me respite from answering the million-dollar question.
'What are you doing these days?' may sound like an innocuos question to the un-initiated but for me, it was worse than being in a blind dentist's chair.
I went for a movie today, and bumped into an old basketball buddy from school. He, like many others before him, wanted to know....what 'I' was 'DOING' these days, and then the words
just flew out of my mouth...'I work at iFlex Solutions, Goregaon'(Even though technically i don't, not yet atleast)
It felt like nothing i've felt before...'AWESOME' may be a cliched cliche but it was just how i felt...on the inside that is(of course). I was acting like the 'dogs bollocks' on the outside....sub-zero cool i must have sounded saying that line =D

I was already the opposite of unambitious, so now i'm working on being the opposite of broke. Trying to be the opposite of un-healthy and ultimately the opposite of un-happy...

My Monkey Business

Allegedly Bhajji called Symonds a 'Monkey'. WTF!!! Even if the former was/is a blatant/closet racist...thats the lamest thing you could call Andrew Symonds. I mean there are so many other things you could call that guy...like...oh no..erm never mind.
Seriously though Racism is bad. It used to be bad for the minorities/ethnic groups who were discriminated against...but now all the tight ass politically correct morons have taken the 'fun' so to speak out of racism...just kidding :D
Oh my GOD!...how poor Symonds must have cried himself to sleep after the horrific events that transpired out on the field that day.
"Mom, that 20-odd kg over-enthu and highly over-rated bowler called me a *sniff* a Monkey...baaahahhahaha mommyyyy"
Personally i too believe in a Zero Tolerance policy against Racism or any kinda discrimination, that being said...we should be able to judge and detect true malice and hatred instead of random witch hunting.
I also believe that the Australians have every right to celebrate their victory. However hollow it may have been and however disgraceful and pathetic their conduct might have been...they still won didnt they?
The whole umpiring debacle has to be looked into by the ICC. There are like 200 cameras in the goddamn stadium, so evidence of stupidity by Messrs Benson and Bucknor is not hard to find.
Playing in the spirit of the game gets us drawn series and the rare home win...going all out to get what you want will get you 16 or is it 17 straight test wins. Oh that is NO way to Win you'll say...SO? Go burn effigies wont you? that'll help...

What i'm pissed off about the whole issue is that Australia played the Race card...thats hitting below the belt mayte....Sore Winners if there was ever such a thing!

"No Retreat, No Surrender...well, because theres loads of MONEY involved in this series. Prepare for GLORY...and the massive amounts of MONEY"
HA-OOH! HA-OOH! HA-OOH!

My first day of the rest of the year...

Happy New Year to the two one people who read this...
It hasn't been a very eventful first of January per say....but it was "different" in a different way.

This day had something about it, i'm not yet sure what...

#Once smitten, twice smitten...strange and perplexing.
Was watching the telly in the afternoon...just surfing randomly and suddenly i was smitten. Just like that...without any warning. A deluge of beauty and grace...
Then late at night...about 2 hours ago browsing the blogosphere, it happened again...strange and intriguing...

#Extreme Ways are back again.
3 pm. Tonight Show with Jay Leno, yet another rerun...damn you Writer's Guild of America. Matt Damon was the guest, promoting The Bourne Ultimatum. Aaah the clip Jay set up...Bourne drives off a multi storey car park. Gotta watch that film again man!!! but do i have it?? As fate had ordained, i did...the complete Bourne Trilogy....Excellent( as Mr. Burns says it). Just finished watching it...Julia Stiles smiles and then 'Extreme Ways by Moby' starts...LEGENDARY!

#No Smoking...why but?
Had to get out on the first day of 2008....was idling around the house all day long...now or never i thought at 9.30 pm...actually managed to get my lazy ass out of the door an hour later. Wallet: check, Keys: Check, Cellphone: Check, Headphones : double check...ohk lets roll!
So there I was....roaming the streets at 10.35 pm. Then my cellphone delighted me with one of my favorite songs off late....Kashh Laga from No Smoking ( which, i have to mention, i liked). I'd liked this song for its tune and setting in the film itself, but today for some reason i noticed the first verse which goes...
"Zindagi ke kashh laga,
hasrato ki raakh uda...
Yeh jaha paani hai, bul-bula hai paani hai...
bul-bulo pey rukna kya?
paaniyo pey behta ja behta ja...kashh laga..."
This goes right up there with "How happy is the blameless vessel's lot.." and "What does the Scanner see.."

#Tid-bits...
_Don't insomniacs day-dream at night?
_Can mathematicians drink and derive?
_Whats a "tid" in a tid-bit?
_Why so much fuss over four freakin' words?!!?
_When will This Love take its toll on me?
_Is there any lower form of communication than multi-scrapping Happy New Year on Orkut?? I guess its better not to wish at all rather than get generic multi-scraps from random "friends"

>Dum Spiro Spero<

My Growing Pains

Ahh i miss Blogging...
There used to be a time when i couldn't go a week without posting some garbage on this thing....but these days i can't seem to write anything...donno why...

Things have changed in the past few months, for the better or worse i'm not yet sure. Theres this speech by Steve Jobs i keep going back to...something about connecting the dots..wait i'll get the excerpt: "...you can't connect the dots looking forward, you can only connect them looking backward..." So i'll get back to you in about 10 years or so and let you know :D

All of my friends are employed now...trainees at major software firms. For them, free time has become a luxury...as for me, time is all i have. I'm in this state of eternal "whateverness". Its pretty daunting to hear them talk about their work and lifestyles...projects, requirement gathering, client meetings, code review, time sheets and of course pay-days...
They've all "grown up". They contribute to society, pay taxes and talk about stocks and mutual funds. All i know about Mutual Funds is that "they are subject to market risk, we have to read the offer document carefully before investing". I'm happy for my friends and i want them to know it that i am.

I'm a kind of person who stands by his convictions...i never regret my actions or decisions. That being said...I wish i was better at planning things better...and have a bit of that thing they call "foresight". My situation right now, if viewed from a strictly objective point of view, is not that bad. I've gotten decent scores in my proficiency exams and applied to universities of my choice. I'm almost certain to get into a good university and pursue my Master's. But emotionally i'm just a train wreck! I'm not sure of anything and everything...a decision between tea and coffee perturbs me. I've been reading 4 books simultaneously because i can't seem to read 3 pages of one of them and not get utterly bored. My sleep patterns are ghastly and i oscillate between chronic insomnia and binge sleeping. Worst part is that i know all this has no external cause...i'm doing it all to myself.

Time to grow up. Start worrying about the future....acting blase' and nonchalant is over. Grow Up Idiot! Accept certain inalienable truths. Learn to Live, Live to Learn.

Pe@ce!

Barney once said..."When I get sad, i stop being sad and be AWESOME instead..True Story"
Amen