Still Hunting

Hunting for my flight tickets to India.

Getting Tough

Life is getting busy these days that I am hardly focusing on any of my pleasurable things.

Feeling Little

Missing home today for some reason. Everything seems very boring and monotonous to me. My energy and enthusiasm is at zero level. Feeling bit homesick and strongly need a long break.

Cushy Work

There was a time when I used to panic for every stressful scenario at work. I am bit experienced now to handle any pressurizing situations with ease. I keep my head cool even though tension reflects in my face. These days I think there is always a way out to get things done and there is never a dead end for any issues in life. My day started with highly intensified critical issue which made me feel numb for 15-20 minutes. I later found a solution unlike my past days in this industry were I would quite often go back saying there is no way out in this world to fix this defect.

Screwing Up

At the last minute I screwed up my friends plan, thinking that she too thought the same way as I did. I had to console her and later beg her to forgive me for such a big mess up. Sometimes it becomes essential to think in others angle and shouldn't always take matters for granted was my learning today.

Walk Around

I had a pleasurable evening by paying a visit to Minnehaha falls(http://www.minneapolisparks.org/default.asp?PageID=4&parkid=252) with my group. We walked along the flow of falls water. We crossed many danger sign posts and kept walking till we saw a bridge and some people. We crunched some snacks and cracked some jokes during our walk. As we stopped a lot in between to take many scenic snaps during our forward journey, it appeared as if we spent more time to reach our destination. While returning back it was bit dark and everyone sped up a bit, thereby reaching our parking area pretty soon. This break definitely made me feel very relaxed today.

Flash

In the morning it appeared someone flashed a strong beam of light on my face. Though my head was covered with the blanket, I could still sense the effect of light in my eyes. I only thought for a second how dare this person was to flash light on me to wake me up in the morning. I quickly pulled my blanket off my face to get hold of the flash light and I figured that it was the lightening that dashed me through the window. When I peeped out of my window I saw rain accompanied with thunderstorms and lightening. I slowly turned my head towards my room. My room was dark and I said to myself what a perfect weather to catch a wink and later pulled back my blanket for another dose of sleep.

Respect

Appearance is deceptive is what I concluded after meeting this lady. When I met her for the first time a month back I thought she was rude, stern and unkind. Today when she discussed about respecting elders and how disgusting it was to see people disrespect Barack Obama and presidency post in the media. I understood how diplomatic she was. She continued saying that her generation knew to respect people irrespective of anyone's age. She talked like a sweet mom who wants to raise her kid with all good habits. No matter whether you are in U.S or in India it is important to respect people and their positions. It is always better to give and take respect when it comes to people.

Vivid Reading

I have noticed Americans read books while having lunch, while travelling and while waiting. It is very interesting to see people buried in what they read. I always adored this habit in Americans and appreciated someone in my group for her multitasking talent to read her new book during her break times in spite of tough work routine.

Net Test

Slow internet connection is testing my patience today.

Change

Even small changes in life can open new ventures. Someone asked me to gear up for relocation soon. I am bit excited to see the new environment and people starting from May. I am pretty sure things are happening for my good and hope this change would make me a better personality.

Usual Comedy

I have myopia (short sightedness which means far off objects appear blurred). To me anyone standing at a distance of 50 meters appear completely unknown to me. I can only see the body, head appears pretty much obscure to me. I quiet often have the habit of waving or giving a broad smile to people as an acknowledgement of saying "hi" to them. I have got many nose cuts due to my poor vision. Quiet often people would have waved hand to someone coming behind me and I would have waved them back, only when I get closer I would have realized that the person whom I wished was a complete stranger to me. So these days I smile only when I know for sure of the person who is crossing me. Today late afternoon I was exiting from north wing and saw few people exiting from the south wing. One among them waved his hand as I was not sure whom it was, I didn’t react much and immediately took a turn. Later when I met him closer at the turn I realized it was one of my friends. I had to say sorry many times for my ill-manner though done unknowingly.

Interesting

It is very interesting to know that there is no accommodation for English to Sanskrit translation in Google Translate. Sanskrit is one of historical languages in India which forms the base for many other common languages. I was searching a bit to find few Sanskrit translations today. Anyway adding Sanskrit to Google translate is not worthy too as this language is no longer used in written and oral communication these days.

Perky

Following two songs are lingering a lot in my mind and making me feel cheerful:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8sKjhXldcE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pb2si7fClqA&feature=related

Smiley

Sometimes I wonder how people can keep smiling even if their job sucks, pressure mounts and emotion pours. On seeing such people I feel little jealous for the fact that I am unable to keep up constant happiness and optimism level even if my mood changes drastically. I have recorded two people in mind who have taught me to keep twinkly no matter what happens as smile is a sign of spreading joy to others.

3 GEM

Quiet often we three hardly get time to chit-chat, as either of us would be completely drained out. Today all three were bit excited and brisk to discuss few fishy topics. We had so much of fun that I can't express how much we are enjoying our bachelor life. We are those three monkey models set by Mahatma Gandhi, hear no evil, speak no evil and see no evil. We three were only discussing, seeing and listening to all mirthful incidences this evening. This comic reminded me of my sister who calls me “GEM” when she wants something done from me and after the work is completed she would expand GEM for "Ginger eating monkey". All three of my mates behaved like a GEM but not sure in which angle.

GEB

My client asked me if I was aware of Gödel, Escher and Bach. I passively nodded my head conveying "no". He posed me couple of questions such as do natural numbers and even numbers have the same or different infinite values, how about real numbers and natural number etc. By fluke I gave the right answer. This topic came in today's meeting as he wanted to share few thoughts on his current reading of "I am a strange loop" book. My client loves to read technical books that associates mind with mathematical theories. I can not ever reckon reading one in my lifetime as I always considered such books to be very vague and boring. Such books would for sure make me sleepy. Following tidbit from Wikipedia would give some idea about GEB to those like me who do not have any knowledge about GEB.

Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid (commonly GEB) is a Pulitzer Prize-winning book by Douglas Hofstadter,[1] described by the author as "a metaphorical fugue on minds and machines in the spirit of Lewis Carroll".[2]

On its surface, GEB examines logician Kurt Gödel, artist M. C. Escher and composer Johann Sebastian Bach, discussing common themes in their work and lives. At a deeper level, the book is a detailed and subtle exposition of concepts fundamental to mathematics, symmetry, and intelligence.

Through illustration and analysis, the book discusses how self-reference and formal rules allow systems to acquire meaning despite being made of "meaningless" elements. It also discusses what it means to communicate, how knowledge can be represented and stored, the methods and limitations of symbolic representation, and even the fundamental notion of "meaning" itself.

Another Family

We all belong to different culture, country and custom but still we behave as we if we all belong to one community when it comes to speaking. The count for today’s meeting was less than the usual number. And this small crowd was the one which made the whole meeting more attached and friendly. Today's theme was "career change", there wasn't any in the group who really loved what they were currently doing. Due to economical circumstances and family status many had forced themselves to work in the sectors that fetched them more money. It was very interesting to hear people’s true ambitions in life. I heard one say he wanted to study Geo-physics, one preferred being an ice cream seller from childhood just because she loves ice cream and other friend mentioned about switching job as he finds his current one to be monotonous.

Great stories were shared by everyone today and our mind was only floating in the dream world for that one hour between 11.30 A.M to 12.30 P.M. People were surprised when I mentioned that I would have preferred to rope myself in drawing and painting profession. My members know that I am passionate about tennis but none knew that my childhood strength lies in arts and crafts. I thoroughly enjoyed sharing my opinions with my members open heartedly. I always get a feeling that I am with my own family members when it comes to expressing my feelings frankly.

Registration

It all started this afternoon when one of my friends mentioned about registering my new bike. I did not believe him at first but later I had to trust him for the fact he too has a bike for quiet some time. In the evening at the tennis court when one of my friends inquired about my cycle, I again touched upon bike registration concept to him. He started to laugh and kept saying that I was fooled and there is no such thing for bikes.

I am still not sure how far things are true with regard to bike registration. But for sure there is a concept of bike registration in U.S is what I understand from the following sites:

http://www.dot.state.mn.us/bike/
http://www.nationalbikeregistry.com/register.html

Anyway this bike registration topic has made me, my roomies and couple other friends giggle a lot the whole afternoon, evening and night.

Small World

Living a delightful life in my small world filled with adventures, thrills and frivolousness. Doing things which do not take me anywhere in life but things which makes my heart feel light, peaceful and happy. Took a ride in my new cycle (referred as bike in U.S) this evening. I am no longer thinking big, competing with others and chasing my dreams. I am not worried about where I would stand in life. I am not concerned about what would happen to me even for the next second. I am only trapped in this tiny world of mine filled with small small wishes in my life.

Lucky Lindsay

I was the last one to reach the hall to have my breakfast with my favorite women tennis player. I got seated and immediately someone called my name I wasn't even sure why they called me, without bothering much I quickly ran towards them. For a second I didn't even realize what was happening, they asked me to pronounce my name in the mike I just mentioned by first name and came back to my table.

After couple of minutes someone approached me and handed me a bag and mentioned that I won one of the lucky draw prizes. I can't express how happy I was for that second. I gave a broad smile and quickly grabbed my prize. As I was very eager to know what was inside, I opened the bag the very next minute. I found two wine bottles handed over to me in a black bag. I was not sure whether I should still consider myself lucky for having wine bottles which I thought was absolutely of no use to me. Just after this incident my star Lindsay Davenport arrived. Everyone commented on her height (6.2 inch), as she was the tallest among us.

Some big wig introduced Lindsay to us and then she talked few words about herself. Later the hall was open for questions from the audience. Lindsay answered all the questions energetically and jovially. Sports personalities in general are known to be very active, confident, alert and outgoing; Lindsay undoubtedly was not an exception to those characteristics. After the Q&A session we took a group photo with Lindsay Davenport. I met few known faces in today's event and I was in a very excited state for the remaining part of the day.

Dates

My teammate thanked me for placing the dates box at my desk. Looks like those dates helped people to regain some energy in the evening when they were completely enfeebled. I was very glad to hear that. Under normal circumstances none of my teammates would ever prefer to take pitted dates. People have stamped me as a person who is too health conscious, as quiet often I stock only salubrious goodies at my desk. Now I feel very happy to see my teammates adhere to healthy diet at least when they feel hungry.

Backup

When I was in college I had no plans in life so there was never a possibility to think about backup plans. But after stepping into software industry I have learnt the importance of making main/alternative/backup/contingency plans in project. I have even observed people follow similar strategies in every single task they do in their daily life. But I can't imagine having backup for backup for backup for backup plan. Someone today mentioned backing up codes in four different locations, it sounded as if he was extra cautious but on the other hand I also felt, there was nothing wrong in having multiple backups for something very precious.

Fire Day

I woke up this morning on the buzz of a phone call from some unknown caller. "Ashwini" someone freaked out over phone, you haven't logged in for the session at 8 A.M, I could not react anything immediately as my ear and nose was partially blocked. I pulled myself hard and logged in my inbox to trace out the bridge number details. By the time I logged in, people had already winded up the conference call. I only saw chain of escalation mails flowing in my inbox. On seeing the mails I only said to myself "Wow what a day". My mood became still worse on reaching office as I had to work on some compounded critical issues in my project. I was feeling very miserable today. I tried recalling all "great quotes" which people once taught me to use when I get pressurized at work.

Dosing Off

Somehow I was unable to open my eyes and see the monitor. I felt warm and sick to do anything today. I was only in search of Kleenex tissues during my meetings in the conference rooms. Few suggested me to pack home on seeing the number of tissues I used. Feeling sleepy and drained.

Bless you

My elder sister taught me to say "Excuse me" whenever I sneezed but today my client taught me to say "Bless you" for every single sneeze. I sneezed 4-5 times in the meeting and my client gave a smile and kept saying "Bless you". If I was in his position I would not have blessed the person more than once. Through my client I got many blessings from God today.

Gift Used

At last I got a chance to use the gift given by my Grandma two years back. Had several shots taken after wrapping the gift around me. Everyone in today's Easter dinner liked its color including me. Had a buzzing dinner with new set of extremely tall people.

Kani Lingam

Angadi Theru Tamil movie might not be entertaining to many but it is definitely worth watching to understand how grateful each one of us should be, for having a good life when compared to others living under the poverty line. The movie makes one to know the other side of the real world. The movie completely states the list of problems faced by any youngster when he/she takes the family burden due to misfortune.

I could not catch up with many dialogues, as the Tamil slang used in this movie is completely different from what I am generally used to. The feeling of job insecurity, family love and finance pressure is neatly portrayed through two main characters Kani (Heroine) and Lingam (Hero) in the movie. Both these characters have created a very strong impression in my heart to treat “people as people” irrespective of their positions in life.

Characters

Few characters just walk in and walk out in our life. I met a new strange, unexpected character this afternoon. This character actually made me feel better. Though I know for sure this character would walk out of my life very soon but still enjoyed its stay even for a short duration.

Moving Motorcycle

I and my friend saw a gal drive the motorcycle few feet ahead of us. We kept watching how she rode the motorbike on our way to office. Her turns were sharp and she drove the motorbike with a moderate speed. At last we all reached the same parking lot; we saw her move around the parking lot to find a suitable spot for her super cool motorcycle. The parking lot was congested with cars and one could hardly find two wheelers in the parking area. As motorbikes are expensive than cars and due to climatic conditions people here prefer to have cars than two wheelers which is just opposite to what exists in my country.