Potpourri

As the year 2011 is already knocking on our doors, I thought it will be good to do a "the year that was" kind of post. Owing to my poor memory I am sure I am going to forget all the important events but let me try anyway. This year, unlike the year 2009 which was marked with losses of all kinds at all levels (yes, I know everybody remembers my lost laptop and plans to tell the story of a girl who lost her laptop to their grandchildren. Worry not. Thanks to my well wishes I am sure you will drop dead well before that!!), has been a year in which I haven't lost much. On the contrary, in fact. Chikku came to Bombay in February. Max gain as the generation next calls it. That clearly was the major highlight of the year. But there is more. I became a doctor on the first of this year. Technically on the last day of 2009. But that evening is more like a haze for me. So the day I realised that I can call myself a doctor, it was already 2010! The discovery of Mrs Grace Rao , the ...

It took a complete stranger to tell me that I really don't know how to put my foot down. And he meant it literally. I have been trying to run and increase my running capacity for more than a year now. But all in vain. In IIT ground, I was running in my own funny way when a complete stranger stopped me and told me that the way I was running was totally wrong. I being a flat footed person had a habit of first resting my heel and then the toe on the ground. He told me this is not normal. Not normal? NOT NORMAL!!!! I was taken aback! How could it not be normal? I have been running like this since I remember. I somehow tried to keep a bold front in spite of having been rudely corrected. I asked him to show me what he thought was correct, if this was wrong. And he asked me to look at any other random person. He said your toe must touch the ground and then the rest of foot. I thought, "my foot"! I decided to try it anyway. I tried to run that way in the house and then the next t...

For the past two months or so I have been staying in IIT Bombay campus which is situated in Powai . But what's really worth mentioning is that I am not staying in Colaba any more. Alas!!! Ah how I miss Colaba now. Is this a normal human nature of is it just me? I miss the place I leave!! I remember writing a long post about Chennai. And here I am just about managing to stop myself from writing a long article about Colaba . Let me just say that I miss it enormously and spare you the trouble of listening to how I miss some very specific things such as walks on the TIFR beach, the view from the West canteen, the rising moon just behind a huge tree near the entrance of the TIFR office building, the Colaba Causeway window shopping, the most amazing pastry shop called Theobrama , Beri Pulow in Brittania , coffee in Cafe Royal, evenings well spent in Coffee Bean and Tea Leaves, beer giraffe in Cafe Universal.... my office mates ( Gugan , Rakesh , Saswata , Smarajit )...., my fr...

I really liked this tune and the lyrics are wonderful. Song title: Mr. President (Have pity on the working man) We've taken all you've given But it's gettin' hard to make a livin' Mr. President have pity on the working man We're not asking you to love us You may place yourself high above us Mr. President have pity on the working man I know it may sound funny But people ev'ry where are runnin' out of money We just can't make it by ourself It is cold and the wind is blowing We need something to keep us gong Mr. President have pity on the working man Maybe you've cheated Maybe you've lied Maybe you have lost your mind Maybe you're only thinking 'bout yourself Too late to run. Too late to cry now The time has come for us to say good-bye now Mr. President have pity on the working man Mr. President have pity on the working man Find the song here before it is out. http://coverlaydown....

your taxi driver spitting out of the front window a car splashing water on you while you are walking on a foot path water running out of the cooler every time you try to fill a bottle someone playing music on a loud speaker of his/her mobile phone in the train compartment... also carrying an expression which conveys "you are welcome!" the washing machine restarting its cycle after having washed the clothes once.... being greeted with wet toilet seats. watching a movie called Housefull.... also paying 300 rs for it.... people speaking on the phone in the movie hall. people talking in lifts while Vodafone displaying "no ntwork coverage" on my handset. terrible Vodafone connection dying on me every time I am in the middle of an interesting conversation.... But the most painful pain in the neck of them all is indeed a pain in the neck! Damn, when will you leave me? Go away!

This isn't something that happens once in the blue moon. This is the story of India's cracked head, Kashmir. http://blogs.reuters.com/india/2010/06/02/of-kashmirs-staged-killings-and-south-asian-peace-process/

Its been so so long since I have seen a good horror/thriller movie. There are so few good horror movies being made these days. There are some thrillers once in a while which are worth watching. Of course The silence of the lamb, The sixth sense etc are classics. If you haven't seen Johny gaddar, I highly recommend it. The plot is really cool and the narration will surely keep you at the egde of the seat from the beginning till the end. After Johny Gaddar, I really haven't seen a good thriller. I plan to watch this movie called The thing soon. I read the reviews on IMDb and lots of reviews seem to suggest that the movie is really good. But does anyone have a recommendation for a good horror movie? Something really scary! Like The ring, or even scarier. What do you think about The paranormal activity. I heard some people saying that it was scary. Any other suggestions??

Did you know that if you call Vodafone customer care 5-6 times in a day, they block your number temporarily from reaching their "customer care executives"? Well, I learnt it the hard way. My number is apparently temporarily blocked. A service provider blocking its user!! Can you believe that??!! Any way, I will wait for them to unblock me and try the stunt again to see whether they block me again. Probably they also have an upper limit on the number of temporary blocks after which they block you for good and even after that if you dial the magic 3 letter number 111, they come home and kill you. If I am found dead in a road accident please make sure it is me before you start celebrating, because I have lost my license and it may be someone else using my license illegally. But if you are sure its me, treat or blame Vodafone depending on how you feel about the whole thing.

Movie review time, dearers, oops readers! 3-Idiots: The famous Aamir Khan movie which has made Aamir very amir . (Forgive me for the poor humour. But it is best to start with the worst possible joke. One doesn't build hopes.) A movie with a message, like the past many movies of Aamir have been. Only I am not sure what the message was! Yes, our education system needs to be changed. True! But after seeing the education system in the movie, one wonders -- why again? The system shown in the movie is such that: if one is deeply interested in science and engineering that person scores the highest! (In some sense exams make sure this happens.) And those who are not interested or are there just to mug up stuff don't come even close to getting good marks. A system as flawless as this needs to be changed, really? I am amazed! The system shown in the movie is far from reality. In fact, for that matter, anything else shown in the movie is far from reality! Yes yes, that is not the point...

Who loves to go see a dentist? Here are some excuses that can come handy to avoid a dentist's appointment. The source is a comic strip created by certain Stephan Pastis can be found here . Enjoy!!

I have been following some Pakistani blogs and some American blogs that talk about the current situation in Pakistan and Afganistan. Abu Muqawama is one such blog started out as a forum dedicated to issues related counterinsurgency. However, it is more diverse. The move to diversify and focus on the current Pakistan situation was conscious. The two people who maintain the blog, Abu Muqawama and Londonstani, are both great bloggers. However, Londonstani is my personal favorite. Today's post (s)he wrote is absolutely amazing. Today this sort of journalism is hard to find. In the crowd of terrible media reporters and "yes, minister"s this kind of clarity and honesty in reporting stands out. Take a look at some her/his gems. I am sure you will love them and at the same time they will shake you. It is our nearest neighbor who is equipped with extremely powerful nuclear weapons and is about to get taken over by terrorists. It isn't a theoretical problem anymore. It is at o...

My coffee drinking habit continues. I have started liking this one cafe near Nariman point. It is inside a mall, like all good cafes in Bombay. It's called Coffee bean and Tea leaf. I went there thrice. The coffee there is very expensive, Rs 110/- for one solo cup of Cappucino. But its definitely worth it. They have got nice comfy sofas, fast service. I haven't really tried any tea here. But I cannot get myself to pay hundred bucks for a tea. For coffee, it seems alright. :) Mufins are a huge disappointment. Probably they keep health concious customers in mind when they add taste and gluttons in mind when they give them shape. As a result, those huge mufins taste really weird. So, this cafe is really all about coffee. I won't recommend anything else, but a nice hot cup of coffee. Do try it out when you come here.

Amit Trivedi! Yes, "one hell of a" music director that he is. A friend of mine once told me that when he reads a book he maintains a song or a bunch of songs on his play list as he reads that. Which then becomes a sound track for that book in his head. Amazing! Amit Trivedi's music has been a sound track for my last month at TIFR. Iktara, from Wake up Sid is a must listen. And of course, Dil Mein Jaagi from Dev D is mindblowing too. Keep listening....

My social life is coming to a standstill. I hardly ever hang out, spend time, chit-chat, go to social networks. I cannot believe I did all this through the days of my PhD. Being a post-doc is definitely very different, I am only now finding out. I seem to get hardly any time any more. The week goes past me. In spite of being in the most amazing locality on the face of this earth, I hardly go out. There is always more to do than what I have done. Partly this can be ascribed to my inefficiency. But that cannot be all. It must be that there is just too much to do. And at the end of the day I get so darn tired! On the up side, the TIFR campus is indeed worth staying in for long stretches of time. Yes, there is colaba out there just in the backyard, which I am not managing to visit as often as I would have liked. But who cares? I can always look at this sea and the landscape. Also, I am getting pleasures of figuring out small little new things everyday. This is exceptional and I am loving i...

It is really unfortunate that Lonely planet, which is suppose to be a travel guide to the people all over the world, describes Chennai as a hot place with nothing to do. I condemn such an article. This is not to say that I absolutely love Chennai and that the article has hurt my feelings or any crap like that. But simply that this is an instance of irresponsible reporting. And I condemn it for this reason. I remember my first few months in Chennai. They were really not that great. Not the kind of days to which I would like to go back. The article from Lonely Planet describes Chennai in a way I would have, had I left Chennai after first 6 months. But I stayed there for six years! I got a chance to know the city better and I, a girl from Bombay, started liking the place. The following post is divided into three sections: 1. Specific criticisms about the Lonely Planet article. 2. Why is Chennai a good place to stay in? 3. What are the things about Chennai which could be changed for bett...

Finally Bombay gets to see some lovely rain. This isn't a good news for most, as the rain is causing floods all over the place. But one cannot stop feeling awesome (with a feeling of guilt) looking at the sea while it rains so heavily here. Marine drive looks just perfect when it rains and the skies are grey and the leaves lush green. For people who love Bombay here is a simple quiz question: If you were to take a friend of yours to the best place in Bombay, which would it be? My answer is the most typical one, Marine drive. (Also watch Wake up Sid to know why I use the word "typical" to describe my choice. More about Wake up Sid later.) Also here is a simple and cute problem I came across. Let s be a sequence of numbers from {1,2,...,n}. Let the Longest Increasing Subsequence (LIS) be a set of numbers from the given sequence s, such that when its elements are arranged in the order in which they appear in s, they are increasing and there is no other subset of numbers (st...

If a person lies to you, it is not the person's fault. It is your fault that you made the person lie to you. What funda, no? I read this (or some such) on some random 'help yourself' book cover in the train today when a lady in front of me was reading it! The other day a *blind* vendor came in the train compartment to sell some bangles or some such. He kept telling people " Dekho na madam, dekhne ka paisa nahi lagta"(!!!) Train journeys are sure surreal!

First trek after coming back to Bombay (August 15, 2009) Place: Naneghat (western ghat near Kalyan) Difficulty level: Easy Time required to climb: Two and a half hours. How to reach: Reach Kalyan station and then take any state transport bus that goes via Malshes ghat. The bus driver or the conductor should know about the spot from where the Naneghat trek begins. The bus ticket is 47 rs as of today. The bus takes about an hour and a half to reach the base. Description: In the current season the mountains are really green and stones are slippery in some parts. The climbs are easy due to the step-like structure of the route. You might get to see some big yellow crabs, natural turmeric. The petals of the turmeric flower look like lotus petals and just below these pink petals there are yellow buds. The root is the part we use. Apparently, this turmeric has many good medicinal properties. It is also a bird watcher's paradise, or so we found out. (We had a company of two avid bird watc...

Today finally the stars and the planets (and the satellites if you wish) have aligned themselves strategically to orchestrate this grand event. The new laptop, the Internet connection, and yours truly are all in the same place at the same time! It has been one week at TIF R for me. The accommodation is nice and the office too. And that is a white board in my office. (Did I hear someone ask the relevance? Well, if you want to ask such questions you better not be here!) This evening I am going back home for the weekend. Tomorrow there is a big party. This is a party my parents have arranged because I have come back from Chennai and also because they are happy that I submitted the thesis. I feel strange, embarrassed, but in a good way. Here is a 'fool'- ish joke I tell at the risk of losing all my friends (would you want to be friends with someone who cracks such jokes? Not unless you are crazy!): I was taking a walk near the sea in TIFR . I just uttered "sea rocks!" a...

I wrote the following post before the previous post. But I wrote this offline. Hence posting it only now. As you can see, it is all about coming to Bombay and starting a new life etc. (This is more about missing Chennai, though.) The change has happened. I wake up in a totally different place now. Yes, In Bombay. My parents live here and I grew up here. But damn, Chennai is where I actually discovered my freedom. I miss Chennai. I hate to say this, because when I was there I only cribbed about being in Chennai. I have to admit it. I miss the stupid, idiotic little town (yes town) that Chennai is. I wake up here to the realisation that I cannot go to Cee Dee Yes ( CDS ) for shopping anymore? I wonder, what am I going to do when I feel like eating at Murugan Idly Shop? What about fruits from Palamudir Cholai ? What should I do when I feel like telling the auto driver "Left- aa " and "Right- aa " or "Bridge Pukkatal Nirutaranga " (I know someone is going t...