Garbage truck knocks down highway sign

In a bizzare accident, a garbage truck knocked down an 18 ton traffic sign on Interstate 805N today morning in San Diego. Traffic was backed up for more than 5 miles as emergency workers and crews tried to get it off the freeway. [ photo ]. You can see the garbage container lying on the road at the right of the picture.

Apparently, a malfunction set off the hydraulic jack of the garbage truck which raised the container it was carrying to a height of 29 feet. The sign was approximately 20 feet off the ground. The sign fell on a car and the driver escaped with a broken wrist.

Coincidentally, if I remember right, this week - an year back I and a few friends were returning into Chicago around midnight from Michigan. A huge semi trailer had toppled on I-80, blocking all 4 lanes heading west. But we were friends heading out back home .. barely noticed the hours go by. It would suck to be trapped like this alone for hours .. waiting for the mess to get cleared up.

Nuked Kaaju Katli

So, as I was saying. I set fire to my microwave the other day. My roommate, having received a fresh box of kaaju katli from somewhere, promptly dispatched it to the refrigerator. If there is one thing I don't like - thats eating mithai from the refrigerator. It becomes all hard and .. well .. just loses a large chunk of its value to me. So when I was in a KaajuKatli eating mood, I took out 2 pieces and wrapped them in a paper towel and kept them in the microwave for 5 seconds. Just 5 seconds mind you.
Little did my brain contend that the thin wafer of silver thats on this kind of mithai is actually metal .. that shouldnt be put into the microwave. It sparked. The sparks set the paper tissue on fire. I was blissfully unaware of anything. I opened the microwave after the beep and put my hand inside to retrieve the rejuvenated pieces of delicious mithai. Instead I ended up yelling 'my microwave is on fire!!!!' (I was on the phone at that time). The other person was like 'Whattt???' I blew on the stupid thing to try and blow it out. Nope .. nothing doing. I thought about taking pictures while the stuff was on fire .. but wisely decided against it. The fire was limited to on the top of the rotating glass thingy inside the microwave, but it could spread and who knows what burning microwaves can do. A few careful splashes of h2o did the trick.
So anyways .. here are the results. If I were a disshevelled artist I am sure any Museum of Art would gladly accept my entry.

This week..

You know you need a break when..

You say "Yes, thats a common user name in Marathi too".

Freer Martha and 3 links for the afternoon

Free Martha. The awake will understand that the 'free' in 'Free Martha' is not a verb (transitive) but an adjective (just like 'awake').

Heres 3 windows to escape from the dreary work afternoon -

A supari for Azar?
Spanish Organic Holi?
Prehistoric Stowaway.

Meri photography nahi doonga!

I had a blast last weekend. Had gone to Chicago. Met a lot of friends. Some of my friends were participating in a dance fusion sort of thing. The show was an amalgamation of mainly Bharatnatyam and Katthak with some Ballet, folk dancing and Lezim thrown in for good measure. The theme was the depiction of the life of Rani Lakshmibai of Zanshi through dance. The whole show was well practised and coreographed and the audience loved it. Concise narration helped understand the story better.

Anyways, the narrator told everyone at the start that flash-photography was prohibited. Fair enough. I whipped out my newly acquired digital camera, turned off the flash and began capturing splendid images like this one. The organisers had hired a professional photographer who .. zounders .. was using a flash gun!! He was using a flash mind you. Not a teeny in-built flash, but a flash gun which kinda leaves your vision all white for a second. On top of it, he was standing right at the base of the stage, thus requiring me to summon up all my deftness to get a picture of my friends but leave him out. I grumbled to myself and kept my own flash off.
Then about 10 mins into the show, someone taps me on my shoulder and says 'photography is prohibited'. Me says 'I thought just flash-photography was prohibited .. I am not using a flash' and (in my mind) 'your official dude is flashing away to glory'. Upon asking why exactly can't I capture my friends dancing on stage and making fools of themselves, I get 'Because, there are issues of copyrights of the performances'!!! Double zounders!! So I started snapping pics discreetly which produced very interesting results. Also, I kinda liked the 'Bole chudiyan, bole kangana' [this had nothing to do with the Zaasi ki Raani theme, in case some of you smart alecs wonder] song-dance sequence. Quite the original work which requires copyright protection, I must say.

Now what do I do with all the tartar sauce?

Australian custom officials caught a woman trying to smuggle live fish into the country. Apparently, she had strapped on an apron with lots of pockets underneath her skirt. The apron had 51 live tropical fish.
What is even more perplexing, is that the way I understand it, she could have just declared the fish at customs and gotten through without much trouble. The things people do ..

I'm not working!

Listen to this!! I got to know of this second hand. But its true nevertheless. I have this friend. Now this friend has another friend who works in a nice software company back in India. So let this guy be Guy Working in Nice Software Company [GWiNSC]. So GWiNSC has been a software professional for a number of years, ultimately doing the same kind os stuff for a major part. He was not really satisfied with what he was doing and wanted to shift to some new stuff. So, GWiNSC did what any GWiNSC would do and told his boss that he wanted a to change tracks somewhat. Nothing doing. Boss said you stick to this line .. you do it well. This went on for some time but no progress. GWiNSC got really frustrated. He was sick and tired of doing that work for x number of years and wanted to do anything but that. What do you think he did?
GWiNSC stopped working.
Yes, thats right .. he just stopped working. So one day his boss comes to him and this is the gist of their convo -
Boss: Hey GWiNSC, we need that module pronto I hope you have completed the final part
GWiNSC: No, I am not working. [by now he was feeling mighty cool and was ready to stick it out .. you know how it is right .. you go to do something stupid/bold/exciting and you are nervous, but once you start doing it you get the guts]
Boss: What do you mean you are not working?
GWiNSC: I am just not working. I am tired of doing this. I dont want to do it.
Boss: But this has to go today!!!
GWiNSC: Nope, I told you lots of times I dont want to continue in this, you guys didnt listen. Now, I am not working.

He got his transfer after a while.

Asian-Indian-Puneri

I registered as a bone marrow donor yesterday. There was a drive by the Indians residing here to register desis as we are hardly in the national database and when it comes to search for donor/matches its a huge disadvantage. The guy said all I have to do is fill a few forms and give some samples of blood. Fair enough.
Now two things notable in the entire process ..
1. We are now 'Asian Indians' [to distinguish from American Indians / Native Americans]. One would have thought just Indian would suffice .. but no, Asian-Indian it is.
2. Under 'Have you ever been refused as a blood donor before, and if so, why' I put 'Yes, Not a US Resident / Travelled outside the US'. Which is quite true .. they have a policy here which says they cant accept your blood, if you have visited some countries in the past 3/5 (I forget which) years. [For fear of you having borne some disease there]. So now..
Desi Lady Incharge of Form-filling Process [DLIFP]: you are planning to stay in the US now arent you?
Me: What? How can I say that, and why does it matter?
DLIFP: You are not a resident? See, the national database guys spend $75 on each application, testing the blood, adding it to the database, it is all subsidised here (sic).. you are not paying for it. So, if you are leaving the country then your sample would be of no use.
Me: [thinking: Damn right it is subsidied .. cos if it were not .. noone would be ready to register as a donor while paying 75 bucks!] See, I have not decided to stay in the US permanently, and I cannot vouch for that.
DLIFP: But we need to be sure you will be staying here.
Me: Look, if my not being a resident is a problem; and if you want me to guarantee my stay .. then I would just like to withdraw my voluntary donation. I wont give my blood sample, please return my filled forms.
DLIFP: No no, what I mean is you will be hear for a short time atleast na?
..and that is how it went. Could have sliced the thick cold frost now developed betn us. Fortunately there was a different dude to take your blood sample. As I was leaving later, DLIFPs about to say something. I stop.
DLIFP: Thank you. Where are you from by the way .. in India. I'm from Bombay.
Me: [knowing what was coming]. I'm from Pune.
DLIFP: (to lady beside her) I knew he was from Pune. One can tell Pune people almost immediately (from their behaviour).
Me: I knew you'd say that. Thank you.

The downside of sunny calif

I called up my auto-insurance company and asked for a re-quote as I have shifted. This is how the conversation went:
she: Sir, your premium will change as a result of your change of address. It will go up.
me: Okay shoot .. just give me the quote.
she: Sir your current premium is $x for six months. Considering the change in your address, your new premium would be $3x for six months.
me: WTF????????? You have just told me a figure 3 TIMES the amount I was paying earlier
she: Sir, thats what the system gives me. You were in the Midwest earlier where premiums are low. The zip code you have given has a high rate of accidents and vandalism.
me: Well, this is totally unexpected. There must be something we can do to reduce it.
she: Sir, are you still single?
me: very much so.
she: no girlfriend or anyone like that? because if we put you as married, we can easily cut 15% off your premium.

Now, I pondered over this. This was a totally unseen of advantage of having a girlfriend / marriage. I would have to mull over this when that smashing hottie asks me out next time.
Also, considering the rude shock I had just received over the whole premium thingy; I also almost asked the girl over the phone to marry me. There and then. I am serious about this. Well, not marry me .. but also almost asked her if she was single and available at that time. Why almost? Because I, dear reader am shrewd. Very shrewd. I realized their game. I saw through their plan which [very like Hari Seldon, I must say] leaves me with only this path .. of asking this particular girl .. with the very sexy voice .. out. I do that .. and wham!!! They triple my premium once more. Something along these lines probably:

she: Sir, I cant believe you just asked me out over the phone. The system tells me your premium is now $9x for six months.
me: whaaaaaaa?? What'd I do?
she: Sir, you demonstrated that you are a not only the typical single male, but you are also a very prolific risk taker. The system takes that into account as well.

It pays to keep your mouth shut. It does. Also, needless to say, I changed my insurance company.

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.

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.

A few points to note

I was in Boston this week, and here are some notes..

eye to eye

Eyes are things of wonder. The eye is an amazingly complex and delicate organ. Beautiful, clear, sparkling eyes make anyone stand out. Any girl with said eyes (especially black eyes) immediately gets additional points in my book. Anyways .. how do you find these? -- eye, eye1, eye2, eye3, eye4. Lets see if you can identify all of them.

Job Interviews

Job Interview. Broke out in a sweat already? Some do; some turn the tables and bring out the best in them. Here are some gems - following are actual answers I have known people to give at job interviews. I know 2 of these geniuses personally.

My fav hotels

The brain is a strange piece of fat. It can think up the most unexpected of things. My brain took me along a long ride of the past a few days back. A pleasant journey too. I recalled all the hotels that I have stayed in, all over the world, and have liked. Of course, the 'enjoyment' of a stay depends on a lot of things .. the place itself, the company you have, the weather etc. So without further digress, here they are-

3 + 3 = ?

I think the Europeans have always been ahead of everybody in designing cars. Be it the Germans or Italians, European cars have class. For the past few years the european junta has generated a need for more practical cars. Cars designed such that their appeal is not just visual. They were the first to latch on the compact cars. I always thought that the 'fiat' (Premier Padmini) we had in India in the old days.. rocked in one aspect ... namely that it did'nt discriminate betn the front and back seats. Both held 3 people easily. More practical ... no? None of the newer cars had this facility. The advent of bucket seats reduced the car capacity to just 5 .. 2 in front, 3 in the back. Why restrict seat space to just 5? Some said its because of the floor gear-shift. Rubbish. As if that can't be worked around.

Now, Fiat .. the Italian car lord, has come out with the new Multipla - a car with 2 rows of seating with 3 seats each. Finally .. people will be happier.

Slimes

For long have I put off writing this. It pains me a lot to write it, for, once, I regarded The Times of India as an excellent newspaper. I used to read the Economic Times every day, browse through Indiatimes if I had time to spare and in general marvel at the widespread Times Group. As years passed, however, the quality of reporting within these publications has drastically decreased. I know I am not the first one to lament about it, many others, notably Jivha used to crusade against the Times regularly. Now I hardly even go to the Economic Times page. Why so?

Hot Dell Deal

I apologize for the delay .. should have put it up yesterday itself. For those of you looking to buy a laptop Deals2Buy has a totally rocking deal on Dell Inspiron Systems. The coupon is for $750 off on all Inspiron systems above $1500 .. yes you read it right [Seven hundred and fifty dollars off]. The deal is on for today only. So if you want a good system cheap and can't wait till thanksgiving you can get it now. [No .. I am not getting paid for this].

The Nobel, Ignoble and the corrupt

A few miscellaneous entries in this post..

grr

Grrr. My car's central-locking system is down. So is the cigarette-lighter adapter thingy which I use to charge miscellaneous stuff. Its going to cost me big bucks if I am not able to fix it myself. Double grrr.
[EDIT]: replaced fuse. central locking now works.

WTF

Today must be the worst. I come into the office and realize .. that I am really hungry. Chipotle beckons me.

Ajit has shifted. His current post talks about god and such. While I do not have the enthusiasm to provide my 2 bits on this much-harped-upon subject, heres something to chew on ;-) [Courtsey: Parag].

At last ..

Many have tried before, and failed .. now at last .. a German dictionary publisher is planning to publish a "German-Woman/Woman-German" dictionary for those of you who would like to understand women better [if you hesitated in thinking, you have already failed ..]. It will help men translate what women say into what they mean. That; will be the day.

Siesta time

As I write this, my head is getting heavy, my limbs are refusing to move as swiftly (yea .. i'm swift), and my eyes refuse to stay open. I had a heavy lunch and these are the sweet aftereffects. The temptation to rest your head somewhere is just too much. Me thinks in any company the work efficiency sharply declines about half an hour after lunch. People start thinking about something else, wishing they were home and could rest a while .. peacefully, without pesky bosses and supervisors lurking around. Thats what I'd wish.

The afternoon nap is a sacred thing that I always wish for, but so rarely get. Like 2 days back .. I wrapped up all my work and after a nice Vietnamese lunch, went home .. blissfully thinking I'll nap for an hour. But stupidly, I sat in front of the great altar of passive entertainment [Calvin's words .. not mine] and succumbed to it's sitcom brigade. Now I've begun to think that a part of the temptaion to sneak a nice lil siesta, lies in the fact that you so rarely get it. Maybe I'll go home right now and steal a few winks .. wot say?

Flying feline

A Belgian airliner was forced to return and make an emergency landing as a cat was found in the cockpit.
A few glimpses ..

...with the animal running wild in the cockpit and attacking the co-pilot.

The scared animal was "very aggressive and scratched the co-pilot", forcing the crew to return to the airport.

The pet's owner had some questions to answer back on the ground as the other 57 passengers were put on another flight but no action was taken against the cat itself. [Ha]

Baygon Ad..

Baygon advertisement. Its been a while since a print ad made me smile. Smart people these. Starting my own ad agency was one of the tens (or maybe hundreds) of things I dreamt of doing. *sigh*

One of my favs

To see a world in a grain of sand,
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour.

- William Blake

Heads Up!

A grapefruit-sized meteorite smashed through the roof of a New Zealand house, hitting a couch and bouncing off the ceiling before coming to rest under a computer.. says a Reuters newspiece.

Cool huh? Sweet actually, since nobody was hurt. Also it seems the houseowners can keep the meteorite. (They are planning to sell it or give it to a museum). Again - "Experts believe the meteorite, a chunk of an asteroid, could be worth more than $6,300". That seemed somewhat on the lesser side to me actually .. but I'm in no way an exert on anything.

I wonder whether their insurance will pay for repairing the house though, (I bet the insurance company will classify this as 'An act of God') and the repairing cost may be more than the "value" of the meteorite (~ $6300).

While we are on the topic .. this 'act of God' clause seems pretty dicey .. I hope acts of God are clearly defined somewhere. (Getting hit by lightning, meteorite, and what else?) .. any kind of freak accident I suppose .. but then that is exactly why we need insurance!!

Fill 'er up!

I knew that rickshaw-wallahs in Pune mixed kerosene with petrol, about Mumbai taxi drivers switching to LPG, about Delhi transport using CNG, but never knew this! As gas prices rise in the US, people are turning to recycled vegetable oil as an alternative to diesel. Vegetable oil, in itself costs more than diesel, but the recycled variety is dirt cheap (sometimes, even free). Restaurants, it seems pay to have their used oil disposed, so they would happily give it to you for free. After some googling, I found a fair amount of webpages talking about the same. Also found out that this guy has been at it for a couple of years, and also makes a case for it, environment-wise.
Heres more. Whaddya think .. neat? or weird?

Porsche in India

Porsche has finally arrived in India. This year many luxury car manufacturers have discovered India and are foraying the metros in search of buyers. There should be no dearth of people who want to (and are able to) own one of these, though I doubt how many actually will. do number ka paise aise kharch nahi kiya ja sakta. On the other hand a certain breed of Indians .. the politicians .. can definitely afford to and will flaunt the same with impunity.
Back to what I originally started .. Porsche is offering it's SUV: the Cayenne and 2 of its sports cars .. the Boxter and the 911. The Cayenne; it is learnt, is leading Porsche sales in India.

If it were up to me buying such SUVs .. give me the Touareg any day. *sigh*

Way to Go!

Congratulations to PR and PJ for landing up jobs right before graduation. Both in the same company. Things are still not too concrete so lets keep it to ourselvs - ok? They will be leaving soon - (sob) (the bastards). Now, I suppose is a good time to tell that my roommates (A, PR, PJ) are the best ever, and that we had a lot of fun together. You rock guys!! Life is gonna be so different from now on.

The other LOC

For most of us LOC means Line of Control, and for me it conjures up a vision of the India-Pakistan border, with trenches and barbed wire and soldiers manning their posts. And rightly so .. because thats probably the only LOC any of us have heard about.
There is however another LOC .. which does not conjure up images of strife. The US Library of Congress is among the largest libraries in the world, was established over 200 years ago and contains more than a 100 million items, 19 million of which are books..

19 million books!! Thats an eyepopping figure. It has items in more than 450 languages. Many articles on the Library boast that it's acquisition office obtains items from all over the world. More browsing tells us that the library maintains offices overseas to acquire, catalog, preserve, and distribute library and research materials from countries where such materials are essentially unavailable through conventional acquisitions methods. Looking it up .. really surprised me. I came across this page. If I recall correctly Mandar had emailed the link around an year back. The South Asian Literary Recordings Project has captured the readings of prominent South Asian novelists, poets and playwrights in over 20 languages. (Sanskrit, Urdu, Hindi, Gujrathi, Marathi, Kashmiri.. and many more).

The marathi section is decent .. but essentially dissapointed me with total absence of any readings from notable novelist, poet and playwright P L Deshpande. Particularly because he had the knack of narration, and his works spanned such a wide range. I immediately made a request for the same.

Anyways .. if I do visit DC this summer.. will surely try to go and have a look at the LOC.

Mooning the world

Yesterday night, as we sat having dinner .. we were spellbound by the moon .. hovering just over Lake Superior .. with a brilliant reflection. You can catch a view here, captured through PR's new Minolta Z1. Though I don't have a pic with the reflection right now .. maybe next time.

Looks like Pooja, half a world away .. also saw it the way it should be seen.

Chicken out, rats in

Chicken out, rats in. Go read it. Did u guess what the article will be about? I did, and strangely enough I also guessed the country.

A Prayer

This was my email signature about an year back, so some of you might have read it before. Still its just as lovely reading it again ..
Make the most of the snow .. its gonna be here for just a month and half more. Duluth rulez!

Oh Lovely snowball packed with care,
Smack a head thats unaware!
Then with freezing ice to spare,
Melt and soak through underwear!
Fly straight and true! Hit hard and sqaure!
This, oh snowball, Is my prayer.

- Calvin.

I wish I was like Calvin when I was 6. Don't you?

B-E-A-utiful

I'm in school, came early today. Theres a raging 'snowstorm' going on outside, it's tapering off even as I write .. and has mostly calmed down. For a few moments I could just see the wind blow awesome quantities of snow around .. much like you would imagine, trees resisting, rolling with the punches, and the sun trying to shine through it all. You can all but feel the force of the whole thing. If only I had a nice sofa here, a comforter and a cup of hot coffee, (and nothing to do) I could watch it for hours. I cant hear it (as the windows are closed) though I bet its making quite a racket. That makes it even better, as I can imagine the rest. Purrfect.

Tintin turns 75!!

I grew up on a lot of stuff, mainly books. Tintin and The Hardy Boys and Archie constituted a major chunk. Tintin turned 75 last week. Heres to you my friend ...

When I get a job or start my own business and start settling down in life - I'm gonna buy all Tintin, Asterix and Calvin & Hobbes issues. Really.