Spring springs upon us

Spring is here and the days are full of a spectacular riot of colors, of pretty flowers, of trees turning green again, of birds chirping and nature in its magnificence showing off why it thinks God chose southern California as its most adored home.

This is a shot of flowers in my front yard. Do tell me what you think about the amateur photographic effort.

Indrayani comes of age

This is a very interesting picture I saw in the Times of India today.
So for those not in the know Mumbai is the financial capital of India and Pune is another biggish, growing town nearly 160 km (100 miles) from mumbai.
Now many people live in Pune either because the real estate is cheaper or simply because the entire family loves Pune and hates Mumbai...and yet some of these guys work in south Bombay.
This entails a DAILY commute in excess of 200 miles. These aint the kind of people who have cars so they have a monthly pass for the passenger trains from Mumbai to Pune.
The routine usually begins when they leave home at 4:30 or 5 am to go to Pune station, catch a train to go to Bombay, which takes between 3.5-4 hrs. Then they catch a commuter bus outside the main station (CST/VT) in Mumbai and get to their office. Now this is only the beginning of the work day.
Later, they leave office at 4:30-5, catch the same bus back to the station, a 3.5-4 hr train journey back to Pune and then a rickshaw ride back home.
Life is one long travel and they meet people in the train more than the people either at home or in the office. Strong friendships are forged and the journeymen learn to treat the train as a home away from home. People would usually sit in grps either playing cards, singing songs, reading or even having alcohol together. There is a very strong insider sentiment and they wont usually allow a non member to sit with them in the passholders compartment.

So recently, when one of the trains celebrated its 18th anniversary, its daily travellers ordered this huge cake to celebrate the 18th birthday of this train.

Vacuous thoughts-I

Music: Dola re dola
Probably one of the best of the Indian dance n song routines...goose bumps are a certainty when you see Ash and Madhuri dance to this number.

Today has been busy...though not as crazy.
The wine club was fun yesterday. The Egg and the Freund got some good wines which hit me pretty hard considering I didnt have a bite to eat all day. The movie was...ummm...different. "Dogville" is quite unlike any movie you'd see.
I'm not sure I'm ready for that kind of offbeat movie yet. I'm your regular desi dude...give me a B'n'B with its Kajra re over a Dogville any day.

This evening is going to be bhajiya and cutting. Figures my friends and my roomie are a happy lot. Little wonder that people who can cook are generally a well loved grp...the demand supply equation kinda guarantees that.

I'm totally psyched about the novel idea and have decided to write a few pages everyday.

Of senioritis

Havent we all experienced that phase in our life when we are about to graduate from a program, finished most of the tests and quizzes...some stuff remains to be done but it is exceptionally hard to drive oneself to get it done.
I'm at that juncture, especially with a job offer and some off-time in sight...kinda finding it pretty tough to get the final edits on some papers done. The motivation has taken a dip.
I'm kinda a Type-A, Type-B personality hybrid...usually very driven and ambitious but give me some time to chill out and I readily become a nice laidback Type-B. I'm just afraid of the Type-A side not kicking in. So I try not to relax too much.

Let's see...this too shall pass.

Got this huge interest of writing a novel. Social commentary garbed in a humor narrative is my favorite genre. Let's see if I can make this work. Buy a copy when it gets published ;)

"The world has no right to change so fast"

(13:56:56) yatingadgil: i heard three buddhes within a narrow space getting &^%$in hitched(13:57:18) yatingadgil: chaila..i realize that my "single friends" grp is going to take a SIGNIFICANT hit
(13:58:28) sameerds: heheheheehehehehehe
(13:58:35) sameerds: that is true, my friend
(13:59:21) yatingadgil: im getting old and tired of making new friends:(
(13:59:39) yatingadgil: and those that are married...you cant become"new friends" with if ur single
(14:00:08) yatingadgil: it just doesnt work...its like TWO people haveto think ur not completely crazy for it to go from stage "acquaintance"to "friends"
(14:00:17) sameerds: get married, then!
(14:00:41) yatingadgil: dude im like luke...i wont let the dark side overpower me
(14:00:49) yatingadgil: to hell with han!
(14:01:30) sameerds: aah ... so whatever you are too afraid to get involved in, that is defined as the dark side, is it?
(14:02:04) yatingadgil: well that is generally true...but not relevant for this situation
(14:02:43) yatingadgil: i need to find a dedicated "going to remain single" grp to make friends(14:03:00) sameerds: hehee .... this should be of interest to you, then
(14:03:08) yatingadgil: what
(14:03:15) sameerds: hold on
(14:03:40) sameerds: (friend's blog addy revealing news of his upcoming engagement)
(14:06:10) yatingadgil: i am shocked!
(14:06:15) yatingadgil: $%^$ *^*% &#^ &*%&* &^%$
(14:06:47) yatingadgil: the world has no right to change so fast:((
(14:06:58) sameerds: hehehehehehehehe
(14:07:25) yatingadgil: him too?
(14:07:38) yatingadgil: abh usko ladki kaha mil gayi?

Long time no blog

Last few days have been crazy with a mix of lot of work and some relaxed moments. The consulting offer has been pretty attractive with the one lil sorrow bout geography. But overall I'm enthusiastic bout the offer.
Also, I'm seeing some greenbacks come to me...via my work with a few folks.
Today has been a weird day. but aint it always.
Maybe later tonight I should spend some time and write something nice on this blog...just needed to update it some.