An Omen

Atop a high hill, among the canyons
stood he wondering, what a life has it been
the wind with its chill, came his life in a flash
clouds resting at his feet, proved his actions right

with some unknown reason, felt he an everlasting peace
the silence was at its best, made him realise that now it is
head and hands high up in the sky, with closed eyes and an open mind, he spoke
"O God !!! what is life, what are my actions, and did I do alright?

anxiously waited he for an answer, expected not was it though
prayed he for some omens to show, a path, away from his mistakes, to go
sad was he when opened his eyes,but found a flock of birds in the premise
realised he something that never thought before,every bird led the other bird in its row

wrong felt about the path they fly, any can change the route, no late
worry not about the dangers ahead that lie, all follow a new leader they made
satisfied was a smile on his face, answer he got for his mind
flight of birds on a new trend, new leader with a new vision, his life

- VPD

Rules of a game

In this big world to which we belong, there is a different sport played in every corner of it. The rules are different for every sport but the test for a champion remains the same. Every sport needs its winner to be determined, skilled, hard worker and above all be a sportsman i.e. believe that its the just a game and all his day-night efforts were to win just a game and not a war i.e. the current game is important and your previous accomplishments would not help you and i.e. ANYBODY CAN WIN TODAY.....

Every now and then you will see the same pattern in every sport that you follow. There is a championship final game and there are two contestants for it. Yeah, this seems trivial, I know !!!! But one contestant has a record of winning such huge games and other contestant is a zero as far as record goes. The poor team do not have any medals to show and have even lost to the other team few times before. But who knows EVERYTHING MIGHT CHANGE TODAY !!! And this is the way new histories are made.

I feel the main reason for people to follow any sport is the factor of "unexpected things happen in sport". They chose one of the contestants as their favourite and want it to win because they believe that they can predict the future. It is just a different way of gambling. People want to escape from their daily routine where they know what they would be doing for next week weeks and even months. They believe in a hope that some unexpected event would happen that would blow out their minds and would be larger than their expectations. And if you follow any sport religiously you would find that most of the people favour for the weaker team i.e. an underdog.

I guess I made my point clear: Don't miss to watch Super Bowl XXXIX on coming sunday. Its being played between NewEngland Patriots (Defending champions) and Philadelpia Eagles (won last in 1981). And I vote for a new history - Eagles !!!!

The Alchemist

what? = Read this book today
whose? = Paulo Coelho
about? = A fable dealing with philosophy of life and determination to achieve dreams
any good things? = good climax, shorter in size with better content as compared to "5 people.." (read previous blog)
recommended? = yes as it wud take just 3 hrs of your time and wud add a new perspective to your life
ratings? = an international bestseller

5 people ....

Read "5 people you meet in heaven" yesterday. The book being declared as a bestseller, I was curious to get hold of it. But to be frank, the book did not live upto my expectations. I think there was a lot of scope to make the book more interesting. Actually the theme is what made people go and buy it. Everybody is excited to know what heaven looks like. Everynow and then people get philosophical and want to read something that is beyond life and spiritual in nature. Comparatively, the book is smaller in size and cheaper at price.

Having said all the above stuff abt the book, I would still recommend my readers to read the book. Because it would not take more than 3 hrs of your time and would give you a new perspective towards life. The climax is quite good. I guess the key to success for any book is a better biuld-up and a good clean climax exciting the readers' creative minds.

Psilent !!!! (P is silent)

So what the hell do silent letters mean in english literature? I mean I know there would be a better explanatory science behind using these letters but I don't understand why we need them in 21st century. I am pretty sure that abt 90% of the people don't know the use of using silent letters in words. It doesn't matter to much ppl though unless for those ppl like me who live in San Diego. Here most of the words are originated from the spanish (a non-english lang). And I feel that is the reason why english scholars introduced these silents words so that foreign languages can be translated to english: to prove the world that other langs are useless and see how difficult it is to translate and pronounce such words in english.

To end with:
Pronounce "La Jolla". I can bet u r wrong. The exact pronounciation is "La Hoya". 'J' becomes silent and 'LL' becomes 'y'.

Now say whatttt !!!!

Kramer, Sir

As for now, I am busy searching for a full time employment and my pleasure time is watching Seinfeld. I wonder how guys like Kramer live their lives. I know few guys back in India who live their lives in the same fashion. But their count is by fingers. If u have a lot of free time like me then you will surely think of that envious carefree lifestyle. Kramer does whatever he feels like doing at that moment of time. He has no significant past , present and even future. But who the hell needs all those. He comes up with some new ideas and try to cash in for those ideas. I would not go far apart from using the term "new idea".

His small time businesses:
1) helping a company CEO write a autobiagraphy, by selling his events of his own life.
2) pizza business where customers will add their own toppings and bake their own pizzas.
3) selling Bro for men as what is Bra for women.

and the list goes on. But he helps all the needy ppl by any means and that means mostly leads to Seinfeld's help. He also gives a different opinion to each situation which a common working guy would never come up with.

Just think about it....

King, Stephen

I would like to recommend every story-lover about the king's books. He has covered almost all the horror topics one can think of: car driven by a dead person, autopsy of a living person, extraterrestial animal, weird painting, a hotel room and the list goes on. Stephen king is one of the writers who can play with his characters very well.

Many of his novels are being taken to the silver screen as well. Even "The Green Mile", "The Shawshank Redemption" are his contributions to this world. One cannot keep his book down. The magic of suspense is maintained till the last page.

The best thing I like about his work is that he creates a story out of anything and everything. He is "must-read" author.
Just finished his "Everything eventual" and now took up his "From a Buick 8".

Best break-up line

George Costanza's (In Seinfeld) girlfriend is fed up with him and try to breakup with him.

GF: Seriously, george, its not u, its me.

George: you are giving me "its not u, its me" routine.
I invented "its not u, its me" routine.
Nobody gives me "its not u, its me" routine.
If there is somebody its not them, its me.

GF: OK george, its you.

George: You are damn right, its me.....

Tsunami !!!

I guess this is how worse things can get when two natural elements (earth and water) declare war against mankind. Especially when it is unexpected. Now the question arises what action should be taken to minimize the effect of such calamities in the future. There are many active online discussions and it seems so that concerned countries hesitate to join 'tsunami club' (name changed for my convenience) because its a costly affair. They say they can afford such calamity once in 40-50 yrs rather than joining the club.

Its easy to scrap the idea but i feel its a very sensitive issue. Keeping mind over matter: what if this tsunami never strikes india again for near 300 yrs.I guess govt might be knowing abt this in detail. It all depends on the cost involved in loss and the cost to rebuild the destroyed world. And don't forget the personal loss involved.

But one thing is for sure: ppl will avoid going to coastal areas, for recreation, for a long time now...

Been there, Done that

Masters in computer science, well, I could now officially say: been there and done that. Well I must admit MS changed me in lot of ways. I would recommend all the ppl to go for post graduation if time,money and family permits.

Experience of a foreign land is a big plus for international students. Cooking, laundry, cleaning the apt and of course course work makes the person instant mature. And when this process goes for two years, u realise u have come a long way and all was worth it.

Graduation commencement was held on 18th dec in my university USU. Will post the photos on my website at the earliest. Follow the link (link) mentioned below. Graduate walk was a grt feeling especially when this feeling was not provided by our dear mumbai university. 10 secs of fame is worthy...

Some things that I learnt in MS:

1) Education is fun
2) World is much bigger than our busy Mumbai
3) Leaving alone away from the family and friends makes u stronger to face the world
4) Planning in life helps

yahooooo!!!!

Well there are some things which you think will never happen to you. One such thing is your email password being hacked. It happened to me about a month ago. I am not sure whether a culprit is known or a unknown person. But that stupid guy changed my password as well. So I could not access my account right till now. I wrote some 10 emails to yahoo security grp to finally get my password reset.

Well I would not blame yahoo for that. Yahoo being the provider of one of the largest free services might find it difficult to attend the numerous complaints they might be receiving from all over the world. But I would defintely like to suggest yahoo guys to come up with some technique which might help a user in detecting that something might be going wrong. For e.g. if there is drastic change in location of two consecutive access to the same email id then a warning email should be sent to the alternate email id provided.I guess there might be more solutions to the problem.

I guess I can be a better example for ppl to learn from: make your password a tricky one, never disclose it to anybody and never use the same password at many places.

Namesake !!!

Well, all NRIs would agree that foreigners find it difficult to say our indian names. My name is usually called as vykas. Nowadays I have stopped to correct them. Because I think 'What the hell, as long as i know they are referring me'. And it makes them happy as well as they don't have to think much about how to spell my name.

I personally feel we should follow china's steps in this case. Their names are so awful that they have an equivalent american names for the 'other-than-china' countries. I would like to have a new name, I mean who wouldn't !!! So my american name would be 'Victor'. I like thatttt !!! So currently I am looking for new americans to make friends with so that I can introduce myself as Victor.

And now about indians. You would hardly see friends calling each other by their first names. Each guy would be associated with a nickname. Sometimes even surname would do but never by first name. It is kinda insult to the friend. I have some nicknames too: vpd (my initials), stud, vykas and currenly new coined name (of MBMBBS fame) 'mamu'.

So the rule is to introduce yourself with your first name. Then it is upto the listener what he plans to call you. IF he is foreigner he will call u by american name and your natives would not miss to coin a funny nickname for you. I guess thats how world works !!! Everbody wants to run from their first names and knowingly- unknowingly ( I invented this word) they love their other coined names. Its a well accepted fact and nobody can deny it. Everybody wants to escape from the routine. Think abt it !!!

Shwaas

Finally got the opportunity to watch shwaas. The film, in literal sense, touches hearts of the audience. The most striking feature of the film is that it proves the good old truth of films : film should have a message and a film should be simple.

One do not need many characters or songs or any fiction plot to prove a thing. Shwaas followers would agree that a film is much more bigger than costume, characters, film sets and ofcourse the current trend of 'sex'. The climax of the film is very touching and simply beautiful.

Hope it gets entry into oscar final set of nominations.

My bit of Philosophy towards life

I am a human being. And I tend to believe it is the most advanced species. I have a single life and I tend to make the most out of it.

The question one must ask is how to make the best of one's life? What is that one must achieve and what is that one must call the cup of life? I think about it a lot and I guess there is no definite answer. Lets say the ans differs from person to person. The least one can do is keep learning, who knows one fine day one might find something "worth living for".

So next question that arises is what to learn? I guess one must have an open mind that can learn whatever it feels interesting. For e.g. reading a poem, writing one, playing a musical instrument, sports, drawing something etc. Each day should take you nearer to the perfection stage. Each day should be better that the last day. One must always find ways to improve oneself. Learning a new thing a day will leave you with 365 new tricks at the end of the year. Mind you it is not easy. There might be some events in life which can take back to you where you have started. So application of learnt lessons in real life is equally important.

Wait what if I don't find anything that is "worth living for" till the end.But didn't you spend your whole life without it and that too with a strong learning curve. I guess this is what we call GOD or HOPE. We never give up our God (Hope).And that makes all the difference.

As L.Richards truly says: "In the end the pesimist may be right, but the optimist will have enjoyed the journey more."

Veer - Zaara

THe most anticipated film of this year has finally been released. And how is it ? Well lets say it is not one of the best creations from chopra productions. Main idea of the film of creating an another timeless classic lovestory weaved into india-pak arch rivalry seems to be genuine. But script once again follows the famous "DDLJ" tradition : protagonsits meeting by a chance, hero following heroine to her home and creating havoc, songs on fields etc.

In fact King Khan is a big flop in first half. You can literally point that this is the same stuff he is been repeating from Deewana. And that sucks big time. However his expressions in court scenes in second half is a novelty for his fans. Preity is there just for songs. I personaly feel about 75% of her screen presence is during song sequences. And one might guess why rani cries like she will never stop.

The good part of the film is the fresh tunes of Late Madan Mohan, ofcourse Lata and variety of male voices. Climax would make you feel the sacrifice made by khan as a total waste. Amitabh looks effective after much of his flop films. The best part for me was the last poem that khan recites in last court scene. It is kinda summary of what yash chopra wanted to say through his whole film but was kinda unsuccessful.

Phheeewwwww Finallyyyyyyy !!!!

I successfully defended my Master's Report (kindof thesis) on 15th Nov and was passed with no corrections in my report. For all those who don't know, defense is kind of seminar where you would be presenting your work to committe and students. They might ask questions and you would be defending your work. It marks the completion of my Master's education with some paperwork to be finished. Man, its a grt experience for I am a masters graduate now and I would be walking in dec graduate commencement.

One of committee members (professors) made a memorable stmt at the end of my defense while passing me off. He said "IN last one min you just raised your salary by millions of dollars". He meant being a masters graduate now, I can demand a higher salary and better std of living.

One thing that struck me was that this might be an end to my education life. Well I don't want to think abt that as I might start with some new degree in the future. Who KNows !!!

I would be keeping my report online on my website within few days.

Sports and Statistics

Lets start with the beginning. Why sports are played? Reasons : sportmanship, competetion, strength, show of skillset and above all to have fun. Then to make the sports more interesting and a profitable business tournaments were arranged where people liked watching two countries fight for excellence. But insatiable media did not stop here. They gave rise to statistics.

Let me give an example, fiction though. Suppose sehwag hits a century in, say, wankede stadium against south africa. They (One who shall not be mentioned by name) would say its his career 10th test century. Then they would say its his 3rd test century against south africa. Then they would say its his 2nd test century in wankede. Then they would say its his first in wankede against south africa. Then they would end the article stating that sehwag is a first indian (or any cricket for the purpose) to score a test century against south africa in wankede in first innings in after-tea session under 200 balls finishing a century with a six and completing 50th run by a four.

Thus, every century made by every crickter will go down in the history with some unique set of statistics. I know few people who don't play cricket at all but know the statistics made by every cricketer in every era. So to make it short, sport is reduced to mere material mean game where all that matters is statistics.....

The Apprentice

The current new season of Apprentice has been a big showdown as compared to its previous season (thats what I have heard). I guess I know one of the reasons. If you follow the episodes seriously you will observe that Donald Trump mostly fires the project manager(PM) of the losing team.

We all know PM is a vital candidate of any team. But it doesn't mean he/she should take the responsibility of anything and everything. I totally understand that in corporate world PM would be accountable for all the happenings. But at the same time he may not be the weakest person of a team.

I don't think I am a right guy to argue with Business mogul Donald Trump on this issue. However it seems insane to fire a PM when he is of the same calibre as everybody else unlike in real world where PM is much more really experienced than his team members.

Here is a list of what I think abt PM.
Must-have qualities for a Project Manager (My list):

1) Maturity (he should not take any in-promt decision)
2) Experienced (its better if he knows the things waiting ahead)
3) Vision (how to make a current proj better than the last one)
4) Respect (good relationships with colleagues)
5) Competent (hard working, good skillset etc)

funnyyyyy stufffffffffff

One of the things that separates US from India is the element of comedy. US People hate to be in distress. Once people return home from work they find the sitcoms (situation comedy) all over the television. Standup comedians are the real celebreties in this part of the world. And Indians find desparate fighting housewives waiting for them on the television!!!

Let me give you a simple example. When asked about why did she marry xyz guy then about 50-60% of the US girls would reply: "because he is funny" and not "because he is from good family and somewhat good-natured". Typical Indian reply to that comment would be "if he is funny then laugh, don't marrrrryyyyy himmmmm". I don't want to cross any line over here but would like to stress the importance of 'being funny' in the lives of americans.

'Enjoy', 'chill', 'peace' are some of the words amrus use frequently in their conversations. It indicates their approach towards life. They never land in any uncomfortable situation i.e. they never sacrifice anything in their lives. They never save money. LIfe is a big party for people over here. Individual happiness is the foremost thing and I wonder is this the ultimate truth?

Third attempt of sketch from my side !!!