The local maestro

Went for lunch to a nice indian place here. Didnt stuff myself crazy as usual, as I had gone with my boss. Anyways, thats not the point. Quite a big restaurant .. nice buffet. There was Indian classical/instrumental music playing in the background. Sitar. We were chatting, eating but somehow I kept listening to the sitar. I do like classical instrumental music a lot. Thats when I realized it was live music .. and not some CD. The guy was playing it so well .. throughout the meal I caught myself nodding and humming to the music. Just as I went to tip him, he took a break .. giving me a chance to chat. His name was Kevin. I asked him where he learnt to play the sitar, as its quite hard and expensive to get someone to teach you such stuff in America. "I learnt it myself. I taught myself how to play it" ... I was like .. whaaat??? He said ya .. "I just looked it up, learnt a few raagas. The last one was Yemen. (Yaman) and the one before was Kalyaan". Amazing, some people are.

US playing India, Pak

The US has finally cleared the sale of [around 2 dozen] F-16s to Pakistan. The sale has been pending more more than a decade now, and was approved by the Bush administration as a 'reward for being an ally in the war against terror'. India has expressed utter disappointment in the decision. Both neighbours were in a kind of stalemate regarding acquisition of new arms for a long time.
The US seems to be taking the stance of .. we are supplying arms to Pakistan. If you feel insecure as a result of it, we are ready to supply arms to you too.

Dip dip dip .. ?

Indian scientists are supposed to have developed a 'tea pill'. The pill, which is made from natural tea ingredients can be chewed or dissolved in hot or cold water .. to prepare instant tea!
Amazing. I, for one will definitely give it a try when it comes out (sometime this year). After coming to the US, I tried to keep my tea drinking habits alive, but it would just take too long. So I switched to coffee. However, Prashant and Ajit with their zeal for daily tea kept the habit alive and kicking. [They were my roommates and coerced me to make tea every morning].
Anyhoo .. tea from tea bags is okay .. but cant really make up for the real thing. So I am hoping this new pill thing would do the trick. Bring it on!

All for one and one for all

My friends make my life. Seriously. I am such a lucky bastard to have the friends I have. I have been lucky to meet really good people .. on the same wavelength as mine everywhere. Be it in school, college, US .. whatever. Friends who were recent entries are now categorised as old friends. Friends who were already old friends now are older friends :-P
Some friends .. you just know are going to be there for life.
This is to all of those. You know who you are. You better be there.

Early lunches and workplace temperatures

For past 2 days I've had an early lunch .. around 11:30 and now I am suffering the consequenses. I get hungry at 11 now. Well .. let me rephrase. I am always hungry. I get really hungry at 11. I want to bring it back to 12:30. So here I am stretching myself out. Agonizingly.

The temperature in my office is ridiculously low. I am shivering in my boots right now. Its bad .. sitting all hunched up .. trying to avoid the touch of the cold garment you are wearing. I have this thing with cold office temperatures. I remember waay back .. in school, a friend an I used to go to IUCAA for some project or something. Their library was the goddamn coldest place. If I remember correctly [and I do], my fingernails used to turn blue due to the cold. So both of us used to go out and sit in the warm summer sun periodically .. like we are bloody lizards who need to warm up before starting the day or something. Anyhoo .. so this cold workplace thing really gets me worked up. I am beginning to suspect that these people do it on purpose .. to keep employees 'sharp' and attentive. Can be. Who knows.
[I'm going to start a small fire here near my desk now to warm my cold hands on]

Why you go?

Lotsa things happening these days, hardly get time to take a crap .. leave reading news and peoples blogs and writing your own blog. Talking about taking a crap .. I had my hair cut today. Its a nice informal place run by a Vietnamese lady. There are some unwritten rules though. No chit chat. Read the old magzines and wait your turn. No chatting with her while shes cutting your hair too. It feels like we are in school waiting to get punished or something. Now that I think of it, its not that informal after all. I went and waited my turn. Finally, when she was cutting my hair this guy who was also waiting for a long time just got up and started to leave. She suddenly shouted "Why you go? You take a shit [seat]. Shit. Yo tun come shoon." I couldnt help it. I tried to control, but burst out lauging. I think thats why she pulled on my hair so hard after that.

ha ha ... virtual bubblewrap

Check this out ... Virtual Bubblewrap!! I spent a lot of time popping it. People come up with what all things .. and idiots like me spend time on them. Pretty cool though. I will visit again ;-)

Flash based email?

Earthlink is coming out with a Flash based email service for its members. Knowing earthlink, expect to see a few ads regarding the same soon. Flash based email will definitely be something new and different. Gmail already has a very intuitive interface thanks to some cool javascript, but even that can be slow at times. This new thing is surely worth trying .. but a) its going to be just for earthlink subscribers intially; and b) how many times do they expect people to change thei email addresses?

Sir Gates

Bill Gates is now a knight of the most excellent order of the British Empire. And good too. His business practices aside, I personally admire the man a lot. He is forging ahead in personal and public life with the same astute planning and eagerness that he has in business. His charity is doing excellent work and he backs it actively and dedicates a significant amount of effort and time to the same. What I really like is he knows what he wants to do and persues it fully.