“Evolution is an imperfect and often violent process, a battle between what exists and what is yet to be born. In the midst of these birth pains, morality looses its meaning. The question of good and evil reduced to one simple choice, Survive or Perish”

- Mohinder Suresh from Heroes

“How would one find a flower? A ray of hope, a light that will illuminate nature’s undisturbed process for looming survival.

Mankind has a choice. A pathway, a destiny. Care to remind me of those simple times. Kids could be kids. Adults live caring for the world. Harmony lies in equality. I, an outcast, never belonged, longed to bleach a dark world. Demons that live within the monolithic souls of cruelty. Yet, the hunter turns to the hunted. We hide in the shadows of factual inaccuracies. The light not to be seen. Branded with blindness. A matter of perception, such visions speak greater than words. Pleasantly resolved, convenient for humanity.

When will I be free? When will we be free?

Fates timed to precision. We follow a path. It crosses with each other.

Realize the moment. Awaken. Unite. Ambivalence is not a solution.

Blackness is resolved with truth. Love. Beyond walls of hatred, lies purity. Prisoners of silence. Lacking a leader, we have common goals at the core. Trust no one. Fight to avenge and open the eyes of the beast. Prejudice spawns like spores.

Find me. Reach me.

My search continues for petals. The flower that drops no trace. A flower. Open your eyes so we can talk.

Communication is conductor of truth. At the end there are ultimately many futures. At the beginning primarily, there is only one departure. History is delicate, it begins with one. Many butterflies cause too much chaos. One flap, precise catalyst. To see light again, a rift will be chanced. I grow weary of hiding on the 15. In simple times, we used a courier to tell truth. Analogous to death, invisibility to many familiar people. The irony. Once drowned within homogeneity, yearned to be special. Found air to drown myself bearing a mark. To a flower I speak. May I reach you to end this insanity.

Preach the truth. Open the minds. There are no monsters. Only visions that are placed within minds”

- collected from random blogs of “Heroes” fans ..

I’ve almost stopped watching TV not because I don’t like it anymore but because I don’t find myself sticking to a routine of watching a predefined telecast. I barely know any shows, TV series here and back in India. Rarely, I find myself surfing the channels while I’m digging at my self-cooked dal at the kitchen just to kill some time while I eat. A friend recently thanked me for taking some of his portrait shots and put it up on his website, where I found the above quote. He recommended me to watch “Heroes”, a popular TV series on NBC suggesting that it is ‘different’, addictive, intelligent, fun, besides the central character is Indian. Well not that it caught my attention but when he said the entire episodes are available online in full screen, it was tempting.

Quite surprisingly, Heroes is the No#1 show in the US for 2006. Over the last 7 days, I watched all the 18 episodes online, burning my midnight hours in spite of a hectic week at work! The next show airs on April 23rd after a short hiatus. I’m impressed, very much. The characterization, the plot, the ethnic fusion background score, the all-international star-cast, great acting, the production values nothing short of hollywood movie and some of the dialogues (watch out for Mohinder’s summary narration with a philosophical touch at the end of every episode). It’s hard to believe that sometimes a TV series could be much better than a movie. The last time I was hooked on was in mid 90s, probably in high school or college with the shows like “Doogie Howser MD”, “X Files”. Btw, I’m not much of a “Friends” fanatic, I think its cute but thats about it.

The central theme of “Heroes” is larger than life, a classic comic book fantasy, a want2believeIt2BeTrueFiction, a quest for evolution. Although much of it doesn’t make much logical sense, you have to watch it from a comic book point of view and you will see that the director pulls it off just brilliantly. There are so many real life like characters in this, so many emotions, some heartrending scenes of sadness, love and melancholy.

Watch it if you want something different even though its cliche, it works. Super Hero characters still work, watch “Heroes”, if you don’t agree!

Been to LA last weekend on a 3 day escapade to meet some good ol friends and for skiing, realized I did less skiing and more talking in the trip! Met an ex colleague, Gorkey, couple of friends from PESIT, the ‘WalkYourOwnPath’ Naveen Mandava and Sanjeev. Its always good to see ol friends, you forget thay you’re a 27 yr old grown up (jeez., am I 27 yrs old?).

The first couple of days went by driving around the posh Orange County, Irvine … straight to Beverly Hills. When you start realizing that you have indeed walked some the lanes of big wonders of the world, every new ‘finding’ pales into yet another “Oh is that all?” sigh. Really, we humans have more power in the imagination and mind than the physical projection. The same happened to me when I was walking on the Hollywood walk of fame.. It was just another road. Happened to see the Kodak Theatre getting ready for it’s 79th Annual Academy Awards, it all happens in here, right here!

Life, I tell you … is just so Deja Vu!

Checked out the famous Rodeo Drive@Hollywood, must have seen some really good looking women (read outrageously rich), Reminds of my days in engineering where I used to think twice before buying a 300 rupees shirt and today it doesn’t necessarily make me conscious before buying a 250$ jacket. I guess, its too hypothetical to say what we think we are, unless we go through it. But I still don’t think I will ever feel like buying a 500$ designer shirt. It’s not about money I think its where you want to draw a thin line (which each one of us will realize…)

Coming back to Naveen’s place on Friday night, it was the most typical bachelors day with a full serving of Bacardi 75% alchohol (I swear, I’m not gonna touch it again, I lost it) and there were talks about …. well, no guesses – what do 5 guys talk when they get drunk??

Cmon, even a 4th grader would tell you, it would suspiciously be tales of Love, Hatred (read women), Breakups (Wonder why we guys have sad stories full of ‘bad girls’ back in college and now), who got married, who is getting married, the price of virginity … not necessarily in that order. Well don’t get me wrong, I’m just being honest., we do have topics of Politics, technology, passions, Ideas, Life (& Women again), so there you go. It is a well established fact that alcohol and women go together (its not our fault)

Sanjeev is always a good host and a man with ideas, I’m sure we two would do something together one day, even if its a backpacking trip to Iceland. We must have driven a 100 miles that day all over LA .

I wanted to go for skiing for a couple of days but only managed to goto Bear Lakes Skii Resort near LA on Sunday. I think, I like skiing, mabye I’m bad at sports but this is something that fascinates me, lets me overcome my fears. It’s really good. We had to walk 2 miles in the woods back to the parking lot as the last shuttle was already out and it was one helluva walk, I was already dead tired and managed to breeze 40 mins before my departure time to the airport and when I suck back to my seats I wonder how time could be so relative, its amazing everytime you realize this while you travel ….

LA is fun but its big, I mean real BIG, I don’t know if I would ever think of settling here but its got a lot of variety, lucky for the people who like it.

I wouldn’t want to write all the features this phone offers as you must be knowing already – few things I feel this phone is unparalleled to anyother phone in the market is it’s multitouch screen and ‘finger slider’! The most intuitive UI design I’ve ever seen is the ‘zoom’ feature. No Buttons. No icons, nothing. Just point your two fingers and pinch on the screen! It just expands with the distance between your fingers, now thats cool! You have to watch the Video in full to appreciate the simplicity in it’s design. Not to mention this tiny little piece ships with Mac OS X and a full feature Safari Browser, wifi, bluetooth, 2 MP camera, integratated 8GB IPod …. hmmm ….

Cant wait to get my hands on it this June. Rt now, I’m busy planning my first macbook purchase next month (yeah, finally thinking of saying good bye to my Sony Vaio Series since last 3 years) ….

There’s something about Apple …

Here’s what one review site says about this song …

The soft and subtle waterfalls noises melting out with soulfully romantic vocals come as another musical delight by Mithoon in “Javeda Zindagi (Tose Naina Lagey)”. The romantic idealism rendered through Hasan Kamaal lyrics are visited through the sounds of natural delights and classically enriched vocal impact by new singing talents Kshitij and Shipa Rao. Kshitij rising and echoing classical vocals (“ragas” and “alaaps”) comes flying with fine rhythmic balancing of guitar strumming, violin notes and tabla loops. Shilpa Rao breathy vocals strike enchanting feminine equilibrium to Kshitij’s emotionally quivering vocals. Hear it for soulfully delightful romanticism as it makes two in succession after “Maula Mere Maula” by Mithoon.

You can download the songs from here. Chk out the first song – Maula mera Maula as well.

some of my abstract thoughts in a fictional rendering in an attempt to translate this in human emotions ...

in my memories to stay … in those beautiful thoughts that we shared
in a cauldron of joy & pain, happiness & hope, confusion immersed…
if only I could trespass my conscience and wait all my life living in a beautiful rendering
i only wish that my instincts take me down one more time, not because I want to
but because it will never be the same again without you
not in this lifetime not till i stop thinking of you and
… not till I know there is hope in this beautiful world!

A friend is hopping in from Boston and we shall have some real good partying this time around …..

Cant wait (to lose money again?)

Somethings you would want to know about ice hockey and NHL: -

-> two teams of just 6 (inc the goaltender) but a total of 14 (each team, on the bench) keep rotating for the 3 ‘periods’ of 20 min plays

-> more than 50% of NHL players are Canadians (yeah you guessed it, why)

-> Its considered the “Man to Man” Game in mainstream sports. If you ever watched an ice hockey match on TV you would have seen fights, rather unusual fights with kicking and throwing each other on the floor; Surprisingly hockey is the only sport which “allows” such acts compared to a touchMeNot NBA basketball matches. Heck what yesterday’s match there was a fight and even the referee let the players go at it for about 20 seconds (there was special music being played) and then the referee gets em off. The only reason why they do it is, they say – “It’s man’s game, deal with it” plus the fans enjoy the fights

Of course the rules have changed over the last 2 years and fights are now reduced with heavy penalties (yeah, just 2 mins off the court is a penalty for kicking someone on the court)

You may have heard the old joke: “I was at a fight, and a hockey game broke out.”

-> The players smash a puck across the ice at 90 miles per hour.

-> More Eastern Europeans are joining now in NHL as they have more skill than Americans

-> Some of the best players are in the age range of 17-22.

->Professional hockey players with the NHL earn average salaries of $1.8 million a year. The NHL’s highest paid player, Jaromir Jagr earns $11 million a year. Of course some local players on low-level leagues earn as little as $500 a week

Here are the two pics that were included … I’m delighted to see that these pics were actually taken from a very poor camera (my first digital camera in fact Kodal Easyshare CX6230 2 MP)

I’ve moved to Reston, VA (close to Washington DC) on 28th this month (oh yeah.. good bye Boston, havent had a chance to blog about it .. but I miss Boston … had some crazy times in the 4 weeks I lived there on the ‘transition’) as my new project begins on Nov 1st and was on a hunt for roommates and a ‘decent’ car. After understanding how the Credit check works in the US and being taken for a ride (and rejected) by a few Auto dealers I was almost down after 2 days … thinking that I might have to settle for a sub 4000$ japanese high mileage car … but then sometimes you feel that your impulse is so strong and instincts are so very good (knock wood) that you know it, you JUST WANT IT. PERIOD.

I was dreaming my first car in the US to be a black Acura RSX type S, 201 bhp, Vtech engine coupe almost closed the deal but the finance part didnt work out .I was not good enuff, moved onto Accord Coupe 3L V6., once again same story, these american car dealers just think of ripping you off every dollar. I almost lost a super good deal on a 99 Ford Mustang (yellow sports spoiler) from a good friend last week in Boston. So that makes 3 good deals dropped in less than a week. Now thats discouraging!

Finally I stepped out of the house today with an urge to pacify my ego of going for what I wanted (actually begging my destiny pretty badly) and landed up with a surpisingly good., a very good deal, walked out in the evening with a 2003 Mitsubishi Eclipse RS Coupe 2D in sport spolier Red. There’s a review here … I love it! I now feel what a handicap (did I say a loser?) I was in the US for the last 14 months living without a car. A Car is pretty much a basic necessity in the US and I now understand why …

The Road is mine, never mind the destination but I know its somewhere …

Meeting good ol pal, Ramesh from my college; a friend who I admire but havent seen her so far! – rgolla2 and finaly I’m meeting a friend who I met in my backpacking trip to Scotland back in 2004 – Lisette! It’s interesting to know that some meets turn out to be memorable and its good be in touch and know that people do remember you and are nice to you eventhough you met them for a couple of days …

This jobless break has been an amazing experience so far .. I hope this arizona holiday is just the right finish for the extended season

I feel bad that all my travel plans in India have to be put to a halt, now that I may not be coming to India any soon, don’t know if its a sacrifice or sheer destiny …

Farewell Minnesota!

Been here for 13 months … although my first entry into the US has given me different perspectives to view the way of life … the biggest of which I want to carry with myself is to do things I like. Did not get an oppurtunity to socialize a lot but made a friend or two, had a good time knowing altamaiz , got a chance to travel a lot inspite of me being based out of Midwest… overall I dont think I liked this place very much, guess I like places where I can see more people! Been in alternating choices for quite sometime in my life as to where Im heading in my career and Im beginning to realise what I really want.. Its an interesting feeling. Everytime you feel you think its deja-vu but every new time it comes with a force unparalleled. I’ve chosen to go into full time consulting in my field of interests – java/j2ee/the enterprise web and opensource.

Where do I begin? I guess this is it, you dont need to begin it BIG as long as you know how not to end it,

I’ve moved to Boston now and will be based outta here for sometime in figuring out what the next steps are, Im jobless and available,

The ride in 4 years has been interesting, depressing, exciting, boring, encouraging, thoughtprovoking, challenging at times. At the end of the day., you always learn that clearing 54 subjects in your computer science undergraduate studies is not what is important but how do you solve problems at hand, how do you begin to learn new things unfolded on the fly, how do adapt to a change and do you communicate your ideas effectively… Sticking to the same company for 4 yrs is going to need a lot of patience for sure …

Fortunately I still keep in touch with 2 other colleagues who joined with me, and ., incidentally both in the US for higher studies…

Nostalgic moments … seated at my first cubicle for the first project …

My rough itinerary

Day 1 – SFO day tour, meet inthing
Day 2 – goto San Jose, spend time with relatives … Bay Area Road Trip
Day 3 – Bay Area + SFO Day tour
Day 4 – Muir Woods and Napa Valley Wine tasting tour
Day 5- Full day Yosemite trip

Thats it for now., I cant wait …

We all live in a world with some amount of self denial and hypocricy that sometimes a mirror is needed to watch ourselves what lies beneath. I’ve savoured many kinds of meat in this world – Chicken, Fish, Lobster, Shrimp, Crabs, Turkey, Goat, Sheep, Pork, Ham, Beef, Crocodile, Veal, Whale, Shark, Wild Cat … (to name a few) and to renounce everything one fine day is not going to be easy. Even tougher when you can cook good chicken. The thought has been there for quite sometime but I’ve been on and off in a never ending self-denial; never too serious about theOneFineDay. Well., It’s been 4 weeks now on a no-meat diet and I have taken a different conscious route this time to stick to it.

had taken this snap in Nov, 2004 on a hilltop near ooty. the sheer joy of children expecting nothing and radiating pure innocence is a beauty in its own way.

freedom sometimes comes in rarity that you beg to chance upon.

Did I hear it right?

I cant believe it, what a fortune it is making already!

I wish I was in blore atleast for a couple of weeks, to settle the scores and put more …

Sometimes its so unfair that you work so hard for 4 years and you dont even make enough money to make a decent living and on the other hand you do get an opportunity which turns out to change your life!

Life’s equation aint right … Strange

You have no idea about what im talking bout im sure. but dont worry.You will someday”

I rem seeing American Beauty back in 3rd semester, didnt make sense to me and thought it was the most overrated movies of all time. And I see now again, what a difference! The artistic poetry of this movie is absolutely brilliant that you beg to feel shredded down for more. Brilliant movie.

will have to see how much Im gonna blow out on the Casinos!

More updates tomorrow, got a huge list to update – how i spoke to kareena kapoor in mumbai airport, made my first american desi pal Ms Patel, how i sat in the same potty (i sat on 2 yrs back!) in amsterdam airport …