SublimePattern

This

2010-01-20T10:12:00.002-05:00

Chalakudi is the new Trivandrum

2008-08-14T16:56:00.006-04:00

Russia is at war with Georgia and whenever I hear about some border skirmish or unrest , I open up a map of some sort to figure out the geo-political situation and the resultant socio-economic impact :)

So I opened google maps and while studying the Georgian boundary line, my eyes wandered to India. I was pleased to notice that Google has correctly marked all the important Indian cities with their poiltically correct names like Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru and CHALAKUDI!!!

To me, Chalakudi is a small railway station to get down at if the ticket collector did not wake you up at Trichur and the irate passenger whose berth you are sleeping in nudges you out of your slumber. But apparently, to Google, it is the most important city in Kerala.

Another idiot guy attempting the same!

2008-06-05T18:04:00.001-04:00

Same day , second guy.

Human fly Spiderman strikes nyt

2008-06-05T12:07:00.001-04:00

Electronic munimeter at Pasadena ca

2008-03-29T10:31:00.000-04:00

Public Image

2008-01-07T15:12:00.000-05:00

What do you when you are in a public restroom, aiming to pee and you see somebody's pubic hair on the seat? (I am not going to get into the lifting the seat before peeing argument now)
Here are the options:

a.Blow it away
b.Use some tissue and slide it into the pot
c.Ignore it
d.Pee on it so that it goes away

Usually I go for option c. This one time I chose option b. and when I walked out I saw that my friend's wife was next in line. I missed a Larry David moment by letting go of a chance of having to explain that the pubic hair on the seat was not mine.

I am glad I missed it.

You Pod

2008-01-07T14:59:00.000-05:00

*Both iPhone and iPod touch are wi-fi enabled.
*YouTube allows you to create playlists.
*iPod and iPhone interfaces with YouTube very well.
*YouTube has a version(sometimes several) of almost all the songs that I like.

Get it?

Here is a playlist I Like.

This blogpost strictly conforms to U.S Television news reporting standards. :)

Brooklyn Bridge

2007-09-25T11:42:00.000-04:00

Last weekend, we spent some time in the city. The highlight was the walk on Brooklyn bridge towards Manhattan. I have this love for bridges that I inherited from my dad. The Manhattan skyline, statue of liberty, Queens and Verrazano bridges on either side does take away an average tourist's attention from the bridge they are on but that does not make the Brooklyn Bridge any less of an architectural wonder.

The foundation of Brooklyn bridge was built using a dangerous and interesting engineering technique called open caisson. An open caisson is a pressurized bottomless chamber that is sunk into the water until it hits the river bed. There are people inside this pressurized chamber digging out clay and debris until the chamber settles on a solid surface like rock. Once that is done, the workers get out of the caisson and concrete is poured into it thus forming a solid concrete foundation for the bridge.Read more about the bridge here.

D's glee says she wasn't bored at all.

Btw Clinton Eastwood and Murugan lives in Youtube. Watch this one.

This blogpost strictly conforms to U.S Television news reporting standards. :)

Thats is a very good question!

2007-06-13T14:36:00.000-04:00

How often have you heard a person commenting 'that is a very good question' only to find out that he/she considers it a good question because: 1. its a good excuse to change the subject 2. can show off knowledge while answering that one.

Now, seriously, What does a 'good question' mean? Doesn't it indirectly imply that the other questions were bad or were just ok. Do the questioner then have to fight an inner battle to decide if the question is good before burping it out. We all have been told that there are no stupid questions but isnt the 'good question' comment another way of saying that your previous questions were not stupid but can be classified , at the very best, as mediocre.

Is this an American thing or cross-cultural? Is it done in Asia? Europe? If it is, I must've been a master at asking mediocre questions and surrounded by mediocre people since I never heard it while in India.

To me its as annoying as the quote unquote thing done by people using their fingers while speaking since I now have to figure out where the quotes start and end.

On a different note:

This blogpost strictly conforms to U.S Television news reporting standards. :)

The deficit game

2007-05-25T09:53:00.000-04:00

Most of us are aware of the ever-growing gigantic trade deficit that U.S has with China. NYTimes offers an interesting persepective on it:

China imports components, does the low-wage assembly, and then exports the finished products to the U.S. — so the whole value appears in the Chinese trade surplus with the U.S., even though on average 65 percent of the value was imported into China. When a Chinese-made Barbie doll sells in the U.S. for $9.99, only 35 cents goes to China

You can read the full article here.

On a tangential arc , here is a Bruce Lee snippet I like:

If you were in Calicut today and took a walk on S.M.Street, you'd see street hawkers selling Bruce Lee posters along with Rajnikant's and Mammooty's! Such is his popularity

My blogpost strictly conforms to U.S Television news reporting style. :)

Why I like subtitled movies

2007-03-26T11:23:00.000-04:00

I like watching foriegn films. According to my friend Nick, every Hollywood movie is technically a foreign film for me. Technicality aside, I mean non-english movies with english sub-titles. According to me and several others, the big difference between books and movies is the how books allow our imagination to run wild while movies limit it by providing us with visual stimuli. Both has its pros and cons. But movies with sub-titles to an extent has a bit of both worlds. As I dont understand the language, I am free to interpret how the dialogue was delivered and what the character really meant.

Here is a movie reccommendation to feel what I am talking about: Pan's labyrinth

Brother ! Odd marketing

2007-03-26T11:07:00.000-04:00

While walking through the aisles of the local super market I came across a book that had a catchy name. 'Brother Odd' by Dean Koontz. I flipped the book to find out what its about but instead of what critics say or a short description of the plot, I found the photo of Mr.Koontz and his dog glaring at me. Is he that big a name? I dont know, but I am too lazy to open the book and find out.

Wishing Wanderstruck and VikramVasu a happy married life.

2007-01-29T20:10:00.000-05:00

In Kahlil Gibran's Prophet there is a chapter on marriage that I love to point to newly weds. I unashamedly do so again and may life bless you bo-th with a long joyous prosperous life and many kids. :)

Then Almitra spoke again and said, "And what of Marriage, master?"
And he answered saying:

You were born together, and together you shall be forevermore.
You shall be together when white wings of death scatter your days.
Aye, you shall be together even in the silent memory of God.
But let there be spaces in your togetherness,
And let the winds of the heavens dance between you.
Love one another but make not a bond of love:
Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.
Fill each other's cup but drink not from one cup.
Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf.
Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone,
Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music.
Give your hearts, but not into each other's keeping.
For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts.
And stand together, yet not too near together:
For the pillars of the temple stand apart,
And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other's shadow

Hitched to Bob Dylan again.

2006-12-08T07:38:00.000-05:00

Been listening to Bob Dylan, lately.

Listen to what 'The Poet' had to say years ago and the wonder at how slowly we have evolved.Or, wonder if we as a race have stagnated!!

from 'Masters of War':
Come you masters of war
You that build all the guns
You that build the death planes
You that build the big bombs
You that hide behind walls
You that hide behind desks
I just want you to know
I can see through your masks

You that never done nothin'
But build to destroy
You play with my world
Like it's your little toy
You put a gun in my hand
And you hide from my eyes
And you turn and run farther
When the fast bullets fly

.
.
.
You've thrown the worst fear
That can ever be hurled
Fear to bring children
Into the world
For threatening my baby
Unborn and unnamed
You ain't worth the blood
That runs in your veins

You can see and Pearl Jam's rendering here and read the lyrics here.

from 'A hard rain's a-gonna fall':

Oh, who did you meet, my blue-eyed son?
Who did you meet, my darling young one?
I met a young child beside a dead pony,
I met a white man who walked a black dog,
I met a young woman whose body was burning,
I met a young girl, she gave me a rainbow,
I met one man who was wounded in love,
I met another man who was wounded with hatred,
And it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard,
It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall.

Snitch!

2006-11-30T16:20:00.000-05:00

'A' was blogging wrapped in a shroud of anonymity. I was one of the few who knew A's identity. I betrayed A's trust by blurting out to S that A blogs. S is so impressed by A's blog and tells X that A writes very well. When X met A, out slips the fact that S loves A's blog. 'A' plays Sherlock and follows the trail to me. I confess.

I need S to make amends to me and I need to make it up to A. I know that they both read my blog so here is my solution to clear up my conscience.S should start blogging anonymously and candidly for a few weeks and share the blog address with me. I get to pass it on to A without S's knowledge.

What say?

Married now.

2006-11-29T11:17:00.000-05:00

And that is my excuse for not blogging. The wedding was a great experience. I have realized that getting married in India is a stress free affair. At least, in my family. I had a whole bunch of cousins,uncles,aunts,parents,brother and a friend to help me out.The involvement of the family is so much and so welcome that it made me wish that I they would all re-locate to US. :)

I think the weddings in India,to people who conform to tradition, are a less bothersome affair than the ones in the U.S. Mostly because its very ritualistic in ~~India~~ Kerala and even the lunch menu(usually its the lunch) is 'culturally' fixed. This has an added benefit that at all weddings, irrespective of whether the bride and groom are rich or poor, you get the same food. Also, parents/uncles(in the almost extinct matriarchal system) play such a big role because it is actually the bride's dad/uncle who is sending her away with the groom. Now the flip side of this is that unlike in U.S the bride and groom dont really get to plan and 'customize' their marriage, neither do they get to decide on who and how many to invite to their wedding.

Now I look forward to a life with my D in US with the hope that we can build a network of family and friends here.

marriage

free wifi at Dubai International Airport!!

2006-10-12T14:36:00.000-04:00

Thats the good news but my skype doesn't go through their firewall :( , which means I am incommunicado till I reach India.

free wifi at JFK

2006-10-11T20:48:00.000-04:00

Yaay! After trying to connect to a couple of non-security enabled wireless connections, I stumbled upon nwaworldclubs. Open and free. Nice.

"The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed."

2006-09-25T11:00:00.001-04:00

I am a sucker for fantasy fiction. I love the Dune series by Frank Herbert, The Foundation series by Asimov, The Lord of the Rings by Tolkein, The Don Jaun series by Carlos Castenada and the Dark Tower series by Stephen King. Stephen King books are usually depressing but Gunslinger ones are not. It appeals to the romantic/adventurer in you. I finished reading the series last month and I am still hung over from it. Here are some quotes from the the Gun Slinger books of Stephen King:

Blaine the Mono (a supercomputer train): "YOU MIGHT WANT TO REMEMBER THAT NOBODY LOVES A SMARTASS!"

Jake Chambers: "I don't like people. They fuck me up."

Roland Deschain : "If we were going to rape you, you would be one well-raped woman by now"

"First smiles, then lies. Last comes gunfire."

"Kill if you will, but command me nothing"

Walter aka The Man in Black : "Shall there be truth between us, as two men? Not as friends, but as equals? There is an offer you will get rarely, Roland. Only equals speak the truth, that's my thought on't. Friends and lovers lie endlessly, caught in the web of regard. How tiresome!"

What the gunslingers believe:
"I do not aim with my hand; he who aims with his hand has forgotten the face of his father.
I aim with my eye.
I do not shoot with my hand; he who shoots with his hand has forgotten the face of his father.
I shoot with my mind.
I do not kill with my gun; he who kills with his gun has forgotten the face of his father.
I kill with my heart."

If I was in a video game...

2006-08-11T10:53:00.000-04:00

Time to time,every (Wo)Man gets this strange urge to find out more about oneself. Having palaver with one's kin and the elders, tracing family trees or tracing DNA are all part of this. My friend Bipin has traced his ancestry with the help of National Geographic here.For those who want to do the same they can do it here. I, on the other hand, have chosen an alternate reality to do so.

I am Kong.

Strong and passionate, I tend to be misunderstood, sometimes even feared. I don't want to fight, I don't want to cause trouble, all I ask is a little love, and a little peace. If I don't get what I want, I get angry, and throw barrels and flaming oil at whatever's stopping me. What Video Game Character Are You?

Is reservation the actual issue?

2006-07-21T11:41:00.000-04:00

Not too long ago, the students in India protested against the goverment's decision to increase quota for students belonging to OBCs(Other Backward Castes). To people who do not know anything about the caste heirarchy, these are people who do not fall in the top band. Read more here.

There was an active debate in the country. Both sides presented their case pretty well. It is hard to not see the good and bad in reservation. But in the end It is just another way to seggregate.
I come from a state in India where caste was a curse to its people. But now, years after Independence, caste has more or less become a non-issue. Caste, now, is a thing that politicians try to use it to their advantage but fail mostly because the literate people of Kerala see clearly through it. Some organisations like NSS and SNDP try to rally people around caste, but the common man doesn't care. I grew up listening to my parents and school tell me 'Trying to find out the caste of a person is rude', 'What matters is the character of a person and not his/her religion' et cetera(poor translation of the Malayalam version). Kerala, is slightly better than most other states in India in terms of 'caste-ism' or caste based crimes. Keralites achieved a level of social maturity/ conditioning because of the visionaries like Ayyankali, Sree Narayana Guru, and K Kelappan who identified the cause and reformed. They denounced the caste system. This is what we need to revive and not reservation.

Unfortunately, we do not see politicians talk against caste as that would erode their vote base. The state seems to endorse it by asking you to fill up your caste and its variations in application forms of any sort. But what is more unfortunate is that those learned young men and women who were against reservation did not speak out against the caste system!! Their protest was against reservation based on the caste system and its fallacy.

Until we realize the true evil nature of caste on present day society and abolish caste based seggregation I dont see the problem going away. And for that, we need to uproot the concept of caste from our minds. Only such a change in our thought process will bring India out of this madness. And that is when we can call ourself a developed nation.

This highway may have a toll booth ahead...

2006-07-06T15:00:00.000-04:00

There is a lot of noise about net neutrality in the air. Your Internet Service Providers(ISPs) want to charge the biggies on the internet for hogging bandwidth. The fight is on between Comcast, AT&T ... Vs. Microsoft,Yahoo,Google ... and the arena is the US Congress. Senators and congressmen will decide who gets the bigger slice of the pie. No matter what, the lobbyists will get their share.

If we breakdown the case for net neutrality, the ISPs demand can be compared to the government charging Walmart, Target and Macys because their customers use public roads to drive up to their shops. If Walmart pays the additional fee, their customers can drive at say 10mph faster than others. These customers are charged seperately in taxes and toll booths that pepper the freeways just like we the monthly charges that we pay for our dial-up/DSL/cable internet connection. The ISPs will decide which website/page will download faster based on how much the website's owner is willing to pay.

Some may argue that the TV channels operate this way. You have to pay for premium channels and try to apply this logic to internet. I say that it is not a fair comparison because internet is not just an information dissemination medium. Its much more that that.Its interactive. Its an extension of our society. Its a place where we share values and beliefs,buy and sell services, gain and share knowledge, a place for philanthropy and misanthropy.

It maybe a little late for the ISPs to demand this. But they definitely will because the ISP oligopoly sees green. They definitely will try hard for they have the muscle to do so. The ISPs know that the Net companies are dependent on them to deliver content to the end user. But they also see what most of us do not see. To treat each information packet as a product that can be 'taxed'. For example, information flowing from Europe or Asia can be charged an access fee to enter the US market.

In the end, if they succeed its us(internet users,entrepreneurs,innovators ) who lose. An innovative network of home wireless networks maybe the alternative if ISPs succeed.

But the pie actually belongs to us. Not Microsoft, not Google, not Comcast, not AT&T and I have been paying for the pie every month(not counting the first few where I used my neighbour's network :)).

Some articles on net neutrality:
Lawrence Lessig : Founder of Creative Commons
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/07/AR2006060702108.html

Tim Berners Lee: Inventor of Internet/ chairman of WorldWideWeb consortium
http://dig.csail.mit.edu/breadcrumbs/node/144

and the mighty source of info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Net_neutrality

mmmm..mmust..bllllllogg

2006-06-14T17:09:00.000-04:00

Damn you Gods of Bloggers Block.......
Help me get rid of this block and I will light a candle at your shrine.
My friend Bipin is trying to trace his ancestry. Why go through all this trouble when he can find it here.

If not for this what are friends for?

Photos: Cap Gris nez

2006-04-16T12:13:00.000-04:00

Its a 10km hike to Cap Gris Nez from Wissant,France city center. The sea that you see is the English Channel.

WW Memorials in Belgium

2006-04-16T12:07:00.000-04:00

Some interesting facts that I learnt:
Chemical weapons were used for the first time by Germans against allied forces in Belgium. I was shocked to see the number of indian soldiers who fought and died for the british army! You can see their names on many of the WW monuments in and around Ieper,Belgium.

Beer!

2006-04-06T01:12:00.000-04:00

The vending machine at the railway station in Ieper,Belgium sells beer for 1.3 Euros!
No ID required!! We should have more of these in the U.S

En route to Lille Europe from Paris CDG

2006-04-06T01:00:00.000-04:00

French countryside really is something. No billboards in France!! photos taken from TGV.

Glory to the proletarians

2006-04-04T05:01:00.000-04:00

In India, when you visit monuments or ruins of an empire, you hardly ever get to know who the architect of the building was or the name of the artist who sculpted out beautiful statues. They are usually not allowed to because the monument is the legacy of a king or queen and they dont want to share it with a low level nobody artist. But historians and archeologists have discovered time after time that artists often leave hidden signatures that are not visible to the ordinary observer. So is the case in the west too. The artists who worked on parliment hill building in the canadian capital Ottawa were told that they couldn't sign their names on any of their works. So they snuck in their signature by sculpting their faces on top of the pillars of a room.When the government found out , they couldn't do anything about it bcause Canada had a law that once the office/building has been opened to the public, they can't alter or demolish any of the art-work. :)

With the spider in front of the National Art Gallery,Ottawa

2006-04-04T04:54:00.000-04:00

The spider is actually giving birth and you can see it when you look from underneath. Creepy and morbidly fascinating!

In Ottawa

2006-04-03T08:53:00.000-04:00

I was in Ottawa, Canada recently for a few days. I stayed at hotel Quality in downtown Ottawa. A nice hotel with free internet. Byward market is only a few minutes away and so is the U.S consulate. Ottawa has enough attractions to keep you entertained for a few days. Byward market has numerous pubs, eateries and a vibrant night life.

I had my best ~~vietnamese~~ meal at a vietnamese restaurant called Indo-Chine on York street. Museum of civilization is a must see for they have the bigest collection of totem poles.

Cartman's English

2006-02-16T11:15:00.000-05:00

Cartman and Stan on phone, not knowing who is on the other end, talking with adult voices. These are two small kids who are friends but holding opposing views after watching 'Passion of the Christ'.

Cartman: Now stop wasting Mel Gibson's time, you little pussy prick.
Stan: Don't take that tone with me, kid. I'll kick your ass.
Cartman: Yah. Well, I'd like to see you try. I'm, like, 6 feet tall.
Stan: Yah. Well, you sound like a little bitch to me.
Cartman: Bitch! Don't call me bitch, bitch!
Stan: Bring it on then, bitch!
Cartman: I already brung it, bitch. I brung it, opened it, and set it on the table, bitch.

I like brung more than brought, thunk better than thought and truthiness better than hmm, its a new word . This is one reason why I love America.

For those of you who dont know anything about Cartman, Stan and SouthPark, click here once.

For those who have no time/patience:
South Park is an animated TV series that has a satirical take on all issues(well mostly american).
Btw, americans don't get offended by god/religious jokes as long as they know its good old fashioned american humor, which pretty much encompasses all. They also don't get why some other cultures are intolerant about such issues. At least the media says so!

Shallower than thou...

2006-02-14T16:45:00.000-05:00

Me and my friend Bipin have frequent chat sessions that are a mix of cheap gossip, friendly debates, metaphysical discussions and all of that with a lining of intellectual arrogance. I can't fit the word intelligence in there because we both know what we lack.

While chatting with him today about neo-colonialism and oil wars, we digressed into another important topic of how and what we men think of how women look. For most guys, even though many wouldn't admit it, looks matter. So to one of my statements, his retort was quite impressive:
Bipin says:
hmm...if girls were as shallow as us.....we will be single our whole lives...

Ok maybe not a well formed sentence but definitely has content. :)

We can always look at it from another perspective and be happy about it.

She is weaving a tangled web!

2006-02-03T16:32:00.000-05:00

Here!

State of the Union

2006-02-01T13:34:00.000-05:00

President Bush spoke about technology+economy, math, science and against isolationism!!!
After that I fell asleep. He put me to sleep rather.

Attitude

2006-01-27T11:42:00.000-05:00

I can be bitter or sweet. I choose to be sweet. Life is bittersweet mostly.

Order of things

2006-01-11T15:05:00.000-05:00

My colleague tells me that your life's priorities should be in this order:

-God
-Family
|_Wife
|_Kids
|_Parents
|_Siblings

-Country
-Work
I dont agree.
I wonder what others think.
I also think that the most abstract but first on the list,God, will be pushed to the bottom of the list by most without any qualms when its comes to a crunch situation.

And the obligatory new year greetings to all. In the new year, my new mantra :'If I pay any tax happily it will be value added tax'
Plan A:
Learn diving, a new language, a new comp.language,get married, improve income level
Plan B:
Achieve all of the above + a new career.

A potential aunt in US for my children when I have some....

2005-12-19T15:53:00.000-05:00

This person is in denial. She loves the states and its only a matter of time. I pray to the god of all things petty that she realizes it soon.

:D

When is a Starbucks coffee worth its price?

2005-11-17T11:38:00.000-05:00

Only when you get something extra.

And the something extra for me is:
* Getting to read atleast 10 pages from a book you like at Starbucks in a Barnes & Nobles.
* Having a good conversation with somebody. From WanderStruck's post, those people at Coffee Day do not know what they are selling.

Starbucks/Baristas/Any other coffee shop dont just sell coffee. We dont go to those shops to just drink good quality expensive coffee. People go there for a little something extra. The appeal and ambience. Some of us go there to make a lifestyle statement. Starbucks knows this well and they endorse it. The smart people at Coffee Day knows this as well but have failed to pass it on to their staff! ??

Those who do not know this should get their staff trained at Indian Coffee House who had/have a reputation for letting the Indian Intelligentsia stay and discuss for hours over a few cups of coffee shared among them. People went there to hang out so that they could fit the intellectual chappal.

Spicy Ground Buffalo Masala

2005-11-15T12:31:00.000-05:00

I like cooking but not so much to spend hours in the kitchen. I love what my fellow Indians refer to as 'bland' american food, so food was always a non issue. But once in a while I cook food that tastes Indian, especially when you need to feel the spice in your tongue to shake off that alcohol induced numbness. Thats when I make the stuff.
The recipe follows:

I highly reccommend a shot of Tequila or Vodka when you start with the process.I also endorse organic produce if you can get/afford it(I am talking about the ingredients mentioned below).

Get 1 big ass white onion or 2 small ones and chop/mince/grind or whatever you wanna do to increase the oil to onion contact ratio.

Get a tomato.Make sure that its smaller than the onion, thats the key. If you dont like tomatos you can use a small spoonful of ketchup. Dice it.

Green Chillies, the more the better.

Green Peas. A small can.

Garam Masala or Meat Masala or Chicken Masala or any of those packets with the word 'Masala' in it.

A buffalo. Not the Indian one that spends its life frolicking in mud,water and sun but the great almost extinct and back American bison , commonly referred in the US as buffalo. Kill it, skin it and grind the meat. In case you cant find one you can use a cow or a turkey. No, you can not use goats as they are sacred. Also remember the popular urban saying 'Go fuck a goat..' from the movie 40 year old virgin . Its immoral to kill something that you fuck. Use a pound or two for this recipe.

Now below are the four optional ingredients that add to the flavor but if you dont have them, just increase the chilly content to compensate.

Ginger and garlic.(I count them as one)

Curry leaves.

Mustard/fenugreek/cumin seeds. (This one too)

fresh cilantro.

Ok. I use the pressure cooker but if you dont have one, use a deep pan with a lid. Pour some oil into the skillet/cooker/pan. Use the indian heat measuring technique to find out if the oil is hot. No seriously, put some mustard/fenugreek seeds/cumin seeds in the oil. When you hear a few bursts, put a spoonful of whatever masala powder you have.I like to burn the masala to compensate for something, I dont quite remember what. slide the onion in. Saute.

You should pour another shot for you and your friend at this crucial juncture. Something that will clear up your nose. Its very important for you to get the flavor right. Now, slide in the chillies and curry leaves, after a few minutes, some ginger and garllic in what ever form you have it followed by the the tomato.

saute.Add some more masala powder.

Add some water/beer to loosen the mix. and when its hot and ready to accept the buffalo add the buffalo.

Close the cooker for 8 mins. If you are using the pan, you are old school.

Open the cooker and add peas. Cook for another few minutes.

Alright, when you know its done (buffalo meat cooks fast), garnish with cilantro and eat. A beer would be nice with some bread /rice.

Do not forget to add salt. I have made this mistake many times.

If you spend more than 15-20 mins making this, you are doing it wrong.

If any buffalos find the recipe offensive I'll consider removing it.

Quaked

2005-10-10T22:47:00.000-04:00

I have started believing that we use too much concrete in our buildings after seeing the earthquake related devastation in Pakistan and India. We need to use more wood and other light weight environment friendly material.
I wonder if the ice melting away at the poles and the earthquake and the hurricance is spun off the same thread!? No, i dont believe the world is coming to an end but I am disturbed by the lack of a unified thought process and follow through. I am also surprised that all this does not jolt me into a proactive state. I dont think figuring out that most of our 'problems' are petty is enough.

I am listening to the 'Skating on thin ice' by pink floyd..

If you should go skating
On the thin ice of modern life
Dragging behind you the silent reproach
Of a million tear-stained eyes
Don't be surprised when a crack in the ice
Appears under your feet.
You slip out of your depth and out of your mind
With your fear flowing out behind you
As you claw the thin ice

Who and what are these guys singing about?

Kerala:Elephant

2005-09-15T14:30:00.000-04:00

Elephant
Originally uploaded by harisankar.

Flickr again

Kerala: Parboiled Rice

2005-09-15T12:42:00.000-04:00

Rice Bowl
Originally uploaded by shivan.

Paddy fields ,flicked from flickr

Kerala : Chai

2005-09-15T12:38:00.000-04:00

country side
Originally uploaded by reluktantwarrior.

Tea estate, lifted off flickr.

Uniqueness of Kerala

2005-09-15T08:00:00.000-04:00

Malayalees celebrate Onam today. Onam is described as a harvest festival and people of all faith partake in it. Onam is actually much more than a harvest festival, it is a festival to reminisce the good times under a just ruler(MahaBali) and an utopia that was ours, it is a celebration of 'the return of the king' and is probably the only festival in India that glorifies a 'demon' king. That is the kind of stuff that sets malayaless apart from the rest of India. Every other Indian festival known to me is a celebration of a God's birthday or of a demon being slain by one of our god(esse)s!

This folk song says it all:

When Maveli ruled the land
Everyone was equal
Happily they lived
Danger befell none
There was no falsehood, or fraud
And no untruth

Riding the White Horse

2005-09-04T09:40:00.000-04:00

I went WhiteWaterRafting yesterday! White Horse is a class III rapid at the end of my river trail where Shenandoah and Potomac meet. Anybody who seeks fun and adventure should definitely try white water rafting and if possible class III and above(with an experienced guide). Our 'trip' down the river was organized by the RiverAndTrailOutfitters and I should say that it was extremely well organized. Our guide was a guy named Gabrielle who sells surfboards on e-bay and aspires to join the marines even though he doesn't really believe in war! I have noticed that most of the good guides are good story-tellers and this guy was excellent at it. He'd unravel the american history on the river and occasionally feed us with bits of local rumors.To top that, he was good at handling the raft too!

My next destination for white water rafting is the Gauley river in West Virginia where I can do a class V rapid ;)

The New York Times Reader V.1

2005-09-02T11:04:00.000-04:00

They posted the widget. 700+ downloads! That shows how strong The New York Times Brand is and how valuable their news is. You can see it here

http://www.widgetgallery.com/view.php?widget=37126

Penguins and Parenthood

2005-08-29T16:34:00.000-04:00

I watched the movie:March of the Penguins recently. A well made documentary that I highly recommend. At the end of the movie, you have a new respect for the emperor penguin species and the national geographic team. The movie also makes you think and ask questions like why we (all the living beings in this planet) go to any extreme extent to ensure survival of our species. My friend Bipin also ponders over such existential /philosophical questions here!

Bipin is a recent dad and I believe that watching this particular movie may stop him from asking those questions. :)
As for me, I can only say that penguin sex must be quite awesome to go over all that trouble and sacrifice.
:D
viva la penguins and whatever that means.

An august month

2005-08-25T22:21:00.000-04:00

The month of August in 2005 has been very eventful.

1. I aquired a new toy called Inspiron 6000d, a dell laptop with a wide ultrasharp screen, 1.86Ghz Centrino M, 512MB DDR, 12bMB dedicated graphics card,wireless b/g, bluetooth, a 60 GB 7200RPM hard disk and a 8X DVD +-RW. Now all I need to do is to decide which OS (s) to run on it.

2. I met with a few of my engineering school friends (Lt.AmrithRaj ,great grand son of Chathu kutty memon who killed tigers in Wynad by hurling stones at them and Raj Telukuntla who was the captain of MIT,Manipal swimming team(I didnt know that we had a team until he told me)) and went on a 3 day canoeing/kayaking trip on the Delavare river. We rented our boats from here and started on a saturday morning. The 34 mile river trail starts from Milford beach access and ends at the Delaware Water Gap(Kittatiny visitor center).The plan was to cover the distance in 2.5 days and then if we have some steam left in us at the end of the trip, cross the road from the Kittatiny visitor center to the Dunfield Creek Parking lot and follow the the Appalachian Trail up the mountain to Sunfish pond! We had 2 glorious days of sun and shade (and of course the nights were cool too except for the bear that circled our campsite) and on the third day, 20 minutes before reaching our destination, it started raining heavily. We were drenched,hungry and tired by the time we loaded all our stuff into the car and so decided to skip the hike. The people we met on the river were quite friendly and on Monday we literally had the whole river to ourselves.The water was so clear that we could see the fish, river bed and occassionally a beer can resting down there. There were a few rapids (all level 1) that provided some thrill, especially when we'd lose control of the canoe while blaming each other for not paddling right. By the end of the first day we got the hang of it.

I have wondered why but being closer to nature always makes me feel good. And after these kind of trips, I feel alive and rejuvenated. You end up having a better appreciation for life, yours and of other living beings. When you eat a burger, you realize that the piece of meat ,when alive in a primitive setting, could have made you break a sweat hunting it down. The fast food restaurants of our age do a good job of desensitizing us!

3. I have been playing with Konfabulator and created a New York Times news reader. I will post the link to it as soon as its uploaded.

4. On the marriage front, I decided that the girl I was talking to was not the right person or vice-versa and the girl I was interested in decided that I was not the right person. Sweet irony of life :)

Note: I made up the bear circling the camp story for the effect.But, we indeed were in bear country and we had to haul up the food on a tree every night. I am sure there was a bear near our camp but it most probably was in my mind.

SublimePattern welcomes Skepsi

2005-07-15T17:20:00.000-04:00

My dear friend BipinNambiar (there is no other Bipin Nambiar topping google's search as of now)has started blogging. He has quite an interesting and whacky take on everything under and above the sun. You can read his posts here.

Capitalist's dilemma!

2005-07-15T17:19:00.000-04:00

I have 100 dollars to spend. I can spend it buying stuff that fancies me and thus contribute to the American and in turn the world economy OR I can donate that money to an organization that channel it to the poor. Which is better? Which is noble-r? Which is more beneficial to the society?

Premise:
I do not know if the company that I buy the product passes on a fair share to its employees and is socially conscientious. I also do not know if the organization, that I contribute to, makes use of its funds in a way that benefits the society in the long run!
Or, looking from the other side, let us assume that they both do a good job with the money they get.

Now, Imagine that you have a million dollars at your disposal! What will you choose to do?

Smartness?

2005-07-15T17:18:00.000-04:00

While chatting with a friend today, this thought crossed my mind:
Given that this world that we live in is so ephemeral, isnt a happy mediocre guy smarter than an intelligent person leading a tortured life?

Live Richly! (spend the money on me)

2005-05-08T19:52:00.000-04:00

Scenes of two kids playing super-heroes. Text on screen : "Nobody grew up wanting to be a money man .. There is more to life than money. Live Richly!".

This is what the Citi Bank/Group's new TV commercial says. How much more ironic can life get? Whoever came up with that advertisement must think that consumers are idiots. At least the guy at Citi who approved the ad is one.

Dave Winer

2005-05-02T10:51:00.001-04:00

Happy Birthday Dave , The father of RSS and thanks for RSS,OPML,XML-RPC,.....

Busted!

2005-04-12T13:35:00.000-04:00

When I recently got arrested in Florida for speeding in my Porsche!!

Courtesy: NickD of Florida State Police Dept. :))

Bottle & Goat Skull by Picasso

2005-04-11T14:23:00.000-04:00

Saturday, me and Abe(visiting from D.C) decided to spent the day in Manhattan.We had lunch at Minado.They serve the best japanese sea food buffet in Manhattan. Never ending supply of fresh sushi and udon!

Rest of the afternoon, we spent looking at some awesome art and design work at MoMA, The Museum of Modern Art and saw Picasso's work for the first time among other great artists'.

I also realized that any thing looks good on a huge white wall. For the record,
that is not an attempt to disrespect anybody.

Then we walked to the Times Square and had coffee and cheescake at Roxy's delicattessen.The service was lousy.

Later in the evening we went to a club called GLO in New Brunswick with

a few of our friends. Abe and I are the last of the remaining
bachelors from our batch in college and we
discussed about the urgency in finding the right girl. I
can't rule out the possibility of finding a girl first and making her
right :)

Why does death attract a crowd?

2005-04-08T15:56:00.000-04:00

Pope is dead. Every TV channel is broadcasting his funeral. I have no interest in seeing his funeral whatsoever and I runaway when I bump into one while channel surfing.
What does fascinate me is the crowd in Vatican for his funeral trying to pay last respects.What does it mean 'pay last respects'? The man is dead, he doesn't care and there are no relatives around to console! So then why do these people go? My only guess is that people like to huddle. They like to gather and lose their individuality and in turn unwind and then go home physically tired with a sense of accomplishment. Death is an excuse, so are festivals /carnivals/fairs. Any comments?

Return of PB, PB.NET

2005-03-25T18:51:00.000-05:00

Today, I went for the PowerBuilder user group meeting in Rockaway,NJ.
John's presentation about their DataWindow control for the .Net
platform was beautiful. Also, their plans to 'invade' the .Net
platform with their version was outlined. DataWindow.Net with all its
feature richness impressed me for one who doesn't use PB for anything
but accessing the Oracle Database at work.I use infragistics at work
and hate it.If there is one 'third party control' that is the nemesis
of Infragistics, it is DataWindow.Net. The question I had but did not
ask was how long before Borg like Microsoft assimilates it. The
evangelist's enthusiasm and fierceness for his technology reaffirmed
my belief in religion of simplicity and user friendliness. I dont know
the industry well enough to predict if PB will live,die or
re-incarnate but today I have become a little wiser and know that
Microsoft has competition in many of the technologies its working on.

Trivia:
1. I was the youngest in the crowd and I am 31 and not a PB developer.
2. Pizza was not so good.
3. If PB wants to survive they need to attract younger crowd, guys who
think anything other than hacking is a distraction.
4. I won the DataWindow.Net 1.0 (Windows) giveaway!! Thank You PowerSoft/Sybase

Visted states

2005-03-18T09:48:00.000-05:00

On a dull friday morning, inspired by one of the blogs I read , Here
is a list of states that I've visited in the U.S (Courtesy:
www.world66.com ):

Buying a portable MP3/WMA Player

2005-02-25T15:53:00.000-05:00

I bought a flash memory - mp3/wma/ogg - music player few weeks ago. I looked at different models and finally decided on Yepp by Samsung. I am quite happy with the product. In the process of making the purchase, I also considered iPod Shuffle. iPod shuffle stands for everything not Apple. Its old wine in an old bottle with a new shiny label trying to sell itself on the brand image of its predecessor. There is no display, no radio,and the other cool features that Samsung's Yepp or iRiver or Creative or SanDisk Has. Shuffle qualifies only as a fool's ostentatious aquisition or a ad gullible person's trap!

6 shades of brown and what about corporate ethics?

2005-01-31T21:05:00.000-05:00

Today, I went to the premier Indian matrimonial site shaadi.com to create a profile as I have decided to enter the 'market'. In the process of filling up the form, I see a very interesting required field* - choose your complexion ! The choices follow : very fair, fair, wheatish, wheatish medium, wheatish brown, dark. 6 variations of the brown band. How much more differentiating and segragating can we get? I have heard my friends in the U.S talk about racism. What exactly is that shaadi.com is trying to get out of us? I am sure that they claim that they are only the means to promote a social evil prevalent in India and hence not responsible. We have heard similar arguments from cigarrette companies but they dont take away our will to buy or not to smoke. Shaadi.com does so by not providing us an option to say - I dont want to disclose my color, neither do I care about my mate's color. What more am I trying to say? I am trying to reflect on our race's inability to break away from a pattern even after we know how we think and that we think wrong.

'' unit tests

2005-01-09T13:56:00.000-05:00

How long will it take for all the unit tests to be part of the framework? Why not introduce a standard set of tests as a part of the development environment!

dynamic getters and setters?

2005-01-06T22:40:00.000-05:00

I wonder if it is possible to expose properties of a class written in any .net compliant language based on certain conditions. For example, expose the count property of a class only if an instance exists or expose the getter only if the value has been set. I have to research.

Hiking on trail 2005

2005-01-03T09:04:00.000-05:00

I feel that year 2005 will be eventful from how it kicked off. I did not get drunk. I met with 2 of my best friends and spent a couple of days with them hiking through the Conashaugh loop near Milford,PA and a part of the Appalachian trail (The Sunfish pond Trail) at the Delaware Water Gap. Of course, we discussed world politics, business, software,French foreign policy, useless people who waste time discussing French/US foreign policy. We also cracked old jokes from movies/stand up comedies we'd watched while growing up and laughed. Best of all, this trip taught me the value of being focused and the importance of excelling in my chosen field. I will log more about my trip in a few days and also put up some fotos and maybe even a video! I am back!

A spot on the map!

2004-11-17T16:31:00.000-05:00

At the NY Times office in Edison, on one of the walls in the room where my boss sits, is a world map with marker stickers showing the motherland of each consultant. The consultants are given a spot on the map only after the team is sure that they'll be around for a while( my guess). And today, I have been asked to spot my city on the map. :)

I have invented another way to reassure myself .. :))

The cost of bread

2004-10-14T16:02:00.000-04:00

I now work for The New York Times at their Edison Plant. I started there on the 4th of October and am happily doing an ASP.NET project. The only pain is that I have to code in VB.NET which means I have to ulearn my C# habits like ending each line with a ;

Believe it or not, NY Times is an awesome place to work at! And I am lucky to have an excellent team and a very smart team lead - Nick Downing aka THE FIRE MARSHALL.

Chris Sells and my personality

2004-09-24T10:33:00.000-04:00

I read the blog of Chris Sells , the man who wrote the most beautiful book on Windows Forms programming using c#. So while reading his blog, I found a link to a personality test that he'd taken. Me, being a sucker for those assesments, took the test and this is what they have to say about my character :

Your distinct personality, The Discoverer, might be found in most of the thriving kingdoms of the time. Your overriding goal is to go where no one else has ever gone before. Regardless of the number of available natural problems to be solved, it is not unusual for you to continually challenge yourself with new situations or obstacles that you have created. You are an insatiable explorer of people, places, things and ideas. You thrive on constant change and anything new or different. On the positive side, you can be creatively rational as well as open minded and just. On the negative side, you might be an impractical and indecisive procrastinator. Interestingly, your preference is just as applicable in today's corporate kingdoms.

Is "creatively rational as well as open minded and just" another way of saying that you are "impractical and indecisive procrastinator"?

Laziness

2004-09-24T10:28:00.000-04:00

Well, I did implement it during that weekend but have been too lazy to post. Also, there are so many solutions on the web that there is a risk that mine might appear to be a copy! So I guess I'll let this one go.

ASP.NET Role Based Security Using SQL Server 2000

2004-08-07T13:54:00.000-04:00

I've been doing some research on finding the best method to implement role based security in the .Net web app that I am currently developing. I hope to implement it over the weekend. Will post the details if the results are satisfactory.

Beamed in!!

2004-08-05T09:22:00.000-04:00

I have just been teleported to the universe of blogs! This will be the place where I express my ignorance and intellect.