Shyam's Blog

Now-a-days, Indian cricket team doesn't play a cricket match, they are really a mismatch to any team. Less said, the better. The way they are batting is like pack of cards just falling one by one. I have no words to explain how they played today's game against South Africa. My dad might have more words; I will steal them and come back to add more ;).

Am back with a 1000-mile tour of Thanksgiving to Washington DC and Princeton. It was a good tour to see a new place, meet friends and relatives, and have some great fun. Drive from Boston to DC was filled with rain and drizzle for most parts of the drive. Back home, I started from DC at 5AM and did my pitstop at Princeton to visit my cousins. It was timed nicely to arrive at their place for breakfast and coffee. After completing a wonderful breakfast, it was time to rest and spend some time with them. Soon, it was lunch time. A good lunch and saying bye, I started my second leg of my drive from Princeton to Boston. Knowing the traffic on I95 near New York, I did a mistake again. I took a chance and that turned out a 2-hour delay. When I was stuck in the downtown, the 'tank' got filled. Finding an exit was like a miracle for me. Once I found it, I was hunting for a gas station for that 'tank' thing. What to do??? Downtown mein gas station kahaan??? I found some Subway, ...

It was a day full of "Smithsonian". Washington DC = Smithsonian, is my equation. Taking the Orange Metro from Fairfax/Vienna Station to Smithsonian Station, I started exploration of the museum by noon. Smithsonian is an institution of museums right at the heart of Washington DC. It is THE world's largest museum complex. I could do a fast trip of half of it today, the rest is reserved for tomorrow. Map of Smithsonian Trains system everywhere in the US (and Europe) are almost the same. Today being a holiday, I could see lots of people with kids in the train. One family of 4 with two kids barged in at the last minute. With a couple of seats remaining, I thought they will be taken by the two kids, but turned out different. The couple settled in those seats with kids standing, holding the bar. One of the boys was very sharp and used to ask a lot of questions - "where is this train going?" , "which is our stop?", "how fast is the train going?", ...

After a 8-hour drive last night, I reached Fairfax at 3 AM. It was a good drive with not much of traffic jam. Near Baltimore, the otherside of the traffic was standstill for nearly 10 miles! I think all were heading to NJ from Washington DC area. With 2 pit stops and I coffee mug, I completed 475 miles in 9 hours. Plans for this tour - roam around DC and then drive back to Boston via Princeton on Sunday.

I got up late and was obviously late to office on the first day of my new project. But, commute was very very fast - infact super fast. Once I was on my seat, I saw if anyone has arrived. No one was around. Not even my boss. My dress was casual with a T shirt and shorts. Kewl naa??? Slowly I got to talk to people in my team. First thing that happened in the morning was joining a bridge for daily 'ticket issues'. It was a 15-minute meeting with people talking in Greek and Latin as far as I was concerned. Once I was out of meeting, I got to know more about the terms used in there. Went to the kitchen and prepared my lunch :). Back to work after lunch. After some email checking and talking to friends online, I was back to setting up things. This company has a help desk of its own - a toll free number which I used to dial to set up my email and other softwares. On the other side, was a person with familiar accent, "Hello Shyam, my name is Mahesh. How may I help you today?...

www.rajshri.com is the buzzing website of the day. Go to movies section and watch Hindi movies for free! (online streaming) It was good to watch "Chitchor". Though I had listened to the music for decades now, I had no idea about the picturization of the movie.

How will it be to say, "Everyone born in this country will stay and serve/work in this country. No crossing borders for work in the next 20 years." That will be the day which will have two visa interviews if at all they want to "visit" US. ha ha ha. One will be strict (hopefully) Indian interview which should prove that the candidate MUST return to India on a required date, else, his passport will be made invalid. Second interview will be the usual US consulate interview. Are you laughing? Did the people of US laugh when US said, "restrict outsourcing"? The US did this to save its economy. Their statement is same as the one I stated above, only difference is, US targeted Companies and I am targeting individuals. When the economy looked dismal in the US, it was essential for them to save from going below a threshold. People here who had no jobs were given first opportunity/preference. What does all these indicate? They want to save themselves. If the people...

Think of India sixty years ago. It was a nation under the hands of someone who ruled the colony for centuries. Being ruled by others, the people of India had become mere slaves in the hands of the rulers. Poverty everywhere, there was famine at one place or the other killing millions. Plague and Malaria also was rampant. If we go 2-3 generations above us, it is usual to see a family with more than 5-6 kids. Many times, we hear that the family lost someone because of some unknown disease. That was the state of this present country which is now considered as a prospective super power of the world. How was it possible to grow to this level in the past 60 years? Is there scope for more growth to achieve the status of 'developed country'? Time only will answer the question of future. All these make India a role model nation to other countries in the third world to stand up to the growing competition in this fast paced world. It is also an example to the people of India to check out ...

Does anyone have ideas to bypass the Ad in rediff.com? When I click on any news, I always see some gift Ad above which says, "Click here to skip Ad". This has become a big menace to read news in rediff in recent times. Another nuisance is people inviting me to join Gazzag website. Has anyone faced this menace of getting tonnes of invites from all corners to join Gazzag?

With a routine call to my dad to start the day made my breakfast a superb one. I called my dad as usual. He asked, "What's for breakfast?", for which, my answer was, "Idli and I am planning to make chutney." Dad: Do you know how to make good chutney? me: hmmmm , I know my regular way. I have coconut, coriander, and pudhina. Dad: No, no... Do this way and tell me what you feel. First, warm two spoons of oil in a pan. Add couple of spoons of 'urad daal' and make it golden color. Add 2 green chilies and put pudhina. Also, add coriander and coconut. Pint of 'ingh' is also good. Once this mixture is warm, grind it. Add bit of salt and small piece of tamarind. Chutney is ready! Put 'vaggar' (tadka) as usual. me: OK, will try for sure :). After trying the combination mentioned above with idli, it was a dream idli-chutney breakfast. Thank you dad :). Now, how to make idli batter??? :) This is simple, but requires patience. Here is my combination...

This is the most sung song by me. Listen here . Nothing special about this recording. Just that I experimented with my keyboard for the first time :).

Yesterday, after visiting a program in which 60 odd kids sang one after another on stage, I felt that there is a need for one good Indian barber. Not even a single boy had a good hair style. This was my first observation in a program where kids who are students of classical music were each given a chance to sing a song. In India, haircuts are so neat! There is some form of style on their head. Here, every head of a boy looks like an egg :(. No style..., hair not combed. When such a boy comes on stage and sings a song, the whole image of the song goes waste. I could not imagine a kid in a gathering 'un-combed' in India. Forget about hair. On the contrary, it was not the case with girls. They were neatly dressed in traditional attire and few of them did sing really well. I went to the organizers and asked, "they are singing so well, is there anything like a prize for appreciating their talent?" They said, "No, nothing like that." If I were to organize anything...

One knows about himself if he lives all by himself. This is what I learnt after living away from home for nearly five years now. I talk to people who have the luxury of staying at home and getting things done for them by someone other than themselves. They are so dependent on others - right from, washing clothes, arranging food to shopping gifts for their friends. Is it not essential for one to experience life all alone? This implies, just make everything for yourself - right from finding a house for rent, managing finance, setting up a home, arranging food (cook or eat out), getting accustomed with people around to get things done, handling bills, etc. All these small things are not found essential till a person leaves his home sweet home. Once he is out, there comes the jhatka, dheere se. Tiny issues like these have to be solved in between hectic work schedule or graduate school. Here comes the big advantage of having a quick learning ability and adaptability. For me, it was a real g...

Listen to a lullaby Here

I get up late at 8:30am like a lazy cat. My roomie is already gone to office. I see a face in the mirror which is my virtual image - this is the only other face I get to see apart from my real face. Then, it is time to go online and check for my dad to see if he is online. Surely he will be around by the time I prepare my morning tea. After talking for a while about everything around the globe with my parents, it is already 11am! Almost time for brunch. I just notice that last night, I had ground the dosa batter. After checking the condition of the batter, I am satisfied to run to the grocery store and get some butter to make some wonderful dosas with butter. :). Dosa eaten - wow what a treat for myself. No one around to share it :(. chalta hai. It is already past noon. Time to check blogs of friends and also check news online. Also time to watch some news channels - Zee news, NDTV India, etc. Again try to catch up with parents to discuss on the news I just saw. Dad always not happy w...