Tag: 20 random things about me

Nupur's Tag got me thinking and here are 20 random things about me

1. I am not Maharashtrian, contrary to the popular belief (because I speak marathi at home)
2. I love reading books
3. I hate heavy metal or anything to do with similar kind of music
4. I sometimes keep thinking what am I? why am I here? what is my role in this matrix of life
5. I dont get dreams. Even if I do, I dont remember any.
6. I hate karela (bitter gourd)
7. I am a diehard gadget freak
8. I love driving cars.
9. I write a blog. Incidentally it happens to be this very blog.
10. I love tandoori chicken
11. I am a grad student pursuing PhD
12. I am 23 soon to be 24.
13. I hate hypocrisy.
14. I love tea.
15. I want to learn to speak fluently in kannada.Why? Read point #1
16. I am vetti enough to write twenty random things about me
17. I love sitting at the window and staring into vast open spaces.
18. I love photography.
19. I have never been to my native place, 'Kalghatgi'
20. I took 2 days to write 20 random things about me.

I tag

Arun (probably the only one who would take time out to write 20 random things about himself)

My new iPod

In September 2005, when Steve Jobs unveiled the new iPod video, along with millions of other iPod enthusiasts I vowed to lay my hands on one as soon as possible. Now I am admiring the sleek black model in my hand, yes my new iPod. Its awesome. Its even smaller than the palm of my hand, but can hold much more than my closed fist. I am now one of millions of music freaks enjoying listening to music on an iPod. How did this all happen. Read on
A complete gadget freak, I couldn't imagine myself without the new iPod. After debating in my mind the feasibility of going in for the new iPod vis-a-vis my meager PhD stipend, finally I decided to order the new iPod with a custom engraving and Apple informed me that my iPod would be shipped within two weeks. In a few days I got an email telling me my iPod has been shipped and I could track its status via FedEx. What a wonderful world it is. I click a mouse somewhere,bits fly through fiber optics, go to some unknown destination, money electronically changes hands and then atoms in useful arrangements are flown in airplanes and hand carried to my doorstep. This is sort of miraculous.
Then I wonder where my new iPod is. Can I expect it tomorrow, or will I have to wait for the next week? I am surprised to discover from FedEx that my new iPod is in a pick up station in Shanghai, China and just missed the pick up deadline. Well seems like I am going to have to wait for a while.
Two days later there is new tracking information from FedEx. My iPod is on the move, but now it is in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. I have to look this up to find where it is, and I discover it is marginally closer to Philadlephia than it was in Shanghai. I am resentful. What is my iPod doing in Uzbekistan?
A few days later my iPod reaches London. I know where this is, and I am encouraged. Still later I get good tidings that my iPod has reached Memphis,Tenn.-the center of FedEx's universe. In my mind I see the plane landing and unloading its contents and one of them being my iPod. It is practically home.

After two days of limbo, I am delighted to find that my iPod is in a truck 8 miles away. Within an hour my iPod is on my doorstep.

Now I am admiring my new iPod and realizing that in the new world economy the earth is truly flat. In Philadelphia I order an iPod from a California based company, but it is assembled in China. Some of the integrated circuits are probably fabricated there, too,while other chips might have come form Japan, Korea or Taiwan. A lot of design must have been done in California by brilliant American, European and South Asian engineers.

But where did the ideas come from which made this machine possible? Just consider some of the brilliant and complex concepts that are embedded in this little box. It can play music, screen videos, display pictures, organize contacts and calendars and store tons of gigabytes of data. It must have been made possible by the millions of lines of code, computer-aided design tools for the integrated circuits, and by sheer brilliance of some technically advanced minds from all over the world.

This iPod epitomizes the world of technology today-designed by brilliant minds, ordered electronically, assembled with worldwide parts, delivered via a sophisticated logistics system and replete with ingenious ideas. Yet in a world of commodity products, this brilliance is largely unappreciated. And if this iPod dies on me one day, I'll stop appreciating it too.

Masala Dosa

Living in Mumbai for my entire life, I knew my decision to study in USA would involve many sacrifices. First and most important, no mummy's food, no family to support and care for you, no close friends to share your joys and sorrow. But the sacrifice which I unknowingly made surfaced one year later when I had a frozen masala dosa(thin pancake stuffed with potatoes). That was I first time I had a masala dosa since coming to USA. I suddenly realized how I missed the dosas served with steaming sambar(curry) and chutney(spicy sauce) back home in Mumbai udipi restaurants. The frozen dosas are nothing as compared to dosas prepared in some parts of India, but something is better than nothing. Ever since I haven't missed any oppurtinity to hog on dosas. There are so many other things which I miss. Do you have such things which you miss?

What feelings come to your mind looking at this snap. Calm, peaceful, lonely, blissful. Aint it beautiful? 

55 word story

Tagged by nupur

I attempt to write a 55 words story. Read on

"On a dark freezing night, tethered on the brink of losing his sanity a lone heartbroken soldier staggered in a drunken stupor. The cold wind revived his senses stirring painful memories for which he had long suffered. A lost war, a doomed nation and a forgotten love, he only had the open skies for solace."

I tag

Sriraj,

Arun,

Sushanth,

Manish.

Stuck in my mouth

Do you sometimes feel that you utter some word or sentence unconciously even when the occasion doesnt call for the use. "Kya baat hain!" I dont know how and when I picked up this phrase. I just cant stop myself from using this phrase million times a day. Its become so common for me to use this phrase that I am surely gonna get killed one day. The other day my roommate was describing his day's schedule, he was like "I had a class at 8:00am, followed by another class at 10:00am, and a lab at 12:00pm, I didnt get time to have my lunch and then I had another class at 2:00pm. My day totally sucked" and instead of saying anything comforting, I go ahead and uttered the three words stuck in my mouth "kya baat hain!". The look on my roommate's face was enough for me to run from there and save myself from getting punched in my face. Do you have such phrases stuck in your mouth?

Family Tree

Sometimes Cyber space can throw up surprises as hitchhiking through the galaxy would. On a boring Sunday afternoon I lazily typed Kalghatgi in Google just to see how many people in this world share the same difficult to pronounce surname. I was pleasantly surprised to see that Kalghatgi's have made a lot of progress with many of them actually having their own webpages. This spurred me on to track my Family tree. I tried hundreds and thousands of sites, searched on google, asked my mom and dad, but I could only track as far back as my grandfather, dad's dad. Finally I gave up, given the time and motivation I would build my family tree on my own. One fine day somebody sent me an orkut invitation and I created my own profile and added all known people to the list of my friends. Out of curiosity I searched for people having surnames Kalghatgi. The search came up with 6 people. One of them being me, the second being my cousin Nikhil Kalghati here in USA. Items # 2 and #4 were interesting, Suparna Kalghatgi and Pallavi Kalghatgi. I thought they would be some light years far off cousins or something. I added suparna to my friends list and there began the saga of two kalghatgi's each of us as surprised as a monkey in front of a mirror. One coincidence after came to light. Her granpa stayed with my granpa when he first came to mumbai. Her father graduated from VJTI in 1970 and my father graduated in 1972. Finally the most important question, were we related, turns out we arent and there I was back to square one and I have start to start rebuilding the family tree. Well I think Kalghatgi's are a minuscule part of the gargantuan Indian population. Any kalghatgi's reading this post?

Ganapati Pujan

Far away from home, four roommates, one amatuer priest with lots of devotion, on the eve of Ganesh Chaturthi decided to conduct aarti at home to invoke lord Ganesha's blessings. What follows is a narration of the sequence of events. Read it just for fun and it is not meant to hurt anybody's sensibilities.

Two of us, me and sriraj got busy in making prasad. Saurabh, the priest was busy learning the shlokas and the fourth guy, Shubham, started downloading Anuradha Paudwal's ganapati aarti. Just then we realised we did not have semolina to make the prasad, after frantically rummaging in a never opened cabinet, we found some idli making semolina, big difference and so we decided to test our skills at making prasad. Sometimes you just go by instincts. After struggling with the semolina and adding sugar countless times the prasad finally was made and looked yummy. It was time for the aarti and all of us were really hungry.

We lighted camphor and asked shubham to wrap it up fast. Anuradha Paudwal's melodious aarti soothed our senses and we were lost in the aarti until a loud alarm shrieked and made us jump out of our skins. We suddenly realized the holy smoke from the burning camphor was too much for the fire alarm to handle. All of us attacked one fire alarm each and managed to stop it from screaming. Whew! guess lord ganesh saved us and we did not have to evacuate the entire building.

Before we could partake the painstakingly prepared prasad, Saurabh stopped us and asked us to chant Lord Ganesha's names after him. He ttok out a tattered piece of paper with all the names scribbled on it in a hardly legible writing. Here he goes "om ganpatay namah", "om gauriputraya namah", "om vinayakaya namah", "om gajananaaya namah", till this point our amatuer priest managed to pronounce all names and we obediently chanted after him,"om skanda...om skaandaraj....yeh kya likha hain?"...om skandaraajay namaha,"om sarva...om sarvasidhh....yeh kya likha hain? "om sarvasiddhantaya namah"....after stuttering through another 5 names we all burst out laughing...we just couldnt take it anymore....Saurabh's stuttering recitation of Lord Ganesha's names was drowned in our laughter. Finally good sense prevailed and we asked him to recite the names in his mind and we would wait till he finished. Within five minutes he was done. I am sure he was stuttering even when he was saying the names silently and I bet he did not go through the entire list. Till today we tease him for his miserable take at reciting Lord Ganesha's names. He is never gonna ever ask anybody to chant after him.

The day ended on a sweet note with all them simply loving the prasad and then we enjoyed shudh shakahari bhojan prepared by shubham to the strains of Lata Mangeshkars' melodious aarti. I am sure Lord Ganesha's would never forget such a memorable aarti. I believe the Lord Ganesha just loved the aarti and helped me in clearing my qualifiers. Ganapati Bappa Morya!

Y2k5, one year down

Philadelphia International Airport, Sunday, September 5th, 2004, 2:30 PM EST, the moment I landed in Philadelphia. What a moment it was. I would never forget this day, most definitely a red letter day in the calender of my life. Sometimes I wonder time flies away so fast, It almost seems like yesterday, but to think of it, today, its exacly one year since I came here. What a year it has been with many memorable moments and equally disheartening events.' The travails of FOB indian student', would make a nice book, probably land me a Booker. To share the events of the past one year, would take me another year. With me taking my PhD candidacy exam within one year has left me very little time to pen down all my experiences. But immediately after my exams, I vow to write down all the bitter sweet events. Till then keep a lookout. Will be back soon

National Anthem

Jana-gana-mana-adhinayaka, jaya he,

Bharata-bhagya-vidhata.

Punjab-Sindh-Gujarat-Maratha,

Dravida-Utkala-Banga,

Vindhya-Himachala-Yamuna-Ganga Uchchala-Jaladhi-taranga.

Tava shubha name jage, Tava shubha asisa mage,

Gahe tava jaya gatha,

Jana-gana-mangala-dayaka jaya he Bharata-bhagya-vidhata.

Jaya he, jaya he, jaya he, Jaya jaya jaya, jaya he!

click here to listen

The song, Jana-gana-mana, composed originally in Bengali by Rabindranath Tagore, was adopted in its Hindi version by the Constituent Assembly as the National Anthem of India on January 24, 1950. It was first sung on December 27, 1911 at the Calcutta session of the Indian National Congress

The following is Tagore's English rendering of the anthem:

Thou art the ruler of the minds of all people, dispenser of India's destiny. Thy name rouses the hearts of Punjab, Sind, Gujarat and Maratha, of the Dravida and Orissa and Bengal; It echoes in the hills of the Vindyas and Himalayas, mingles in the music of Jamuna and Ganges and is chanted by the waves of the Indian Sea. They pray for thy blessings and sing thy praise. The saving of all people waits in thy hand, thou dispenser of India's destiny. Victory, victory, victory to thee.

Jai Hind!