How to make "I missed my bus to work " interesting

For that you need to start with waking up late. Of course, you have to understand that this has been preceded by staying up late the earlier night and calmly switching off the alarm when it tries to wake you up at the (in)appropriate time.

Then you have to feel lazy and actively block the thoughts of work.

The next step is the most important: You have to understand that since you have a party at work later in the day nobody will mind a little tardiness. A fortunate circumstance in your favour is that the party is in the garage of your office building. This will leave you with no option but to take the bus to work.

Now this is where things start getting really interesting. It's chilly and raining outside and you have 3 minutes to reach the bus stop. You don't have time to ponder why suddenly your waterproof shoes have started allowing water in through the sole as you run through a puddle.

You need to make it in time for the bus, only to voluntarily not get on the bus because you are confident that the bus you want is Number 232 and not the Number 230 that is standing in front of you.

And as the Number 230 turns a corner your confidence should falter and you should take a look at bus schedule at the bus stop to realize that the Number 232 only runs early in the morning and it doesn't even go near where you want to go.

The icing on the cake is that you misread the time when the next bus is to come and find that 11.30 and 11.36 look pretty similar when covered by a water droplet.

Hindi Movies

I am a big fan of Hindi movies and I was going through a discussion on a message board where people were discussing their favourite Hindi movies.

I just collected a few of the movies that people had put down. They are in no particular order but I would like to see them again. I am sure I have missed many that I like. I am also sure that some of the movies in the list will leave you scratching your head.

Here goes.

Sholay
Lagaan
Dil Chahta Hai
Munnabhai MBBS
Dilwale Dulhania Le Jaayenge
Andaaz Apna Apna
Anand
Swades
Kal Ho Na Ho
Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikander
Kareeb
Hum Aapke Hain Kaun
Vaastav
Hera Pheri
Rang De Basanti
Yuva
Lakshya
Golmaal
Hum
Chupke Chupke
Taxi No 9-2-11
Saathiya
Satya
Chandani Bar
Phir Milenge
Company
Parineeta
Asoka
Sarfarosh
Ghulam
Hum Tum
Jaane Bhi do Yaaron
Amar Akbar Anthony
Bombay to Goa
Dhoom
Rangeela
Mr. India
Mr. & Mrs. Iyer
Monsoon Wedding
Baazigar
Do Aankhe Baarah Haath
Gangajal
Lage Raho Munnabhai

Come to think of it, most of the movies are from the last 10 years. I should think about older movies too :). Aah ... maybe next time.

Lots of things (Part II)

Aha .. probably the first time in my blogging history that I have kept a promise of writing a blog entry soon.

So this time my friends we will be talking about the time I went to the William B. Umstead State Park. It was about a 30 mile round trip to the park including the trails inside the park.

We started at 9 am and got back just in time for the final of the football World Cup final.

Edit:
I had planned on writing a lot of things but now, nearly two down the line, I found this early draft languishing in the drafts folder and decided to post it anyway since I don't think that I will ever get around to completing it.

Lots of things (Part I)

Time for the much needed update.

The past two months of my life have been just amazing. I have done so much that I am going to spread the experiences over several entries.

Let's start off with the trip to the Indianapolis F1 Grand Prix. It was a long cherished dream come true for me. First off I got to witness a Ferrari 1-2 in qualifying and on Race day with Michael Schumacher winning. For a fan of Ferrari and Schumi there couldn't possibly have been a better outcome.



I desperately wanted to get to the pits but was thwarted in my attempts by many a security guards. Oh, the sight of all those cars zooming in and out of the pit lanes was something to behold.

One interesting thing was that our seats were right in front of the place where the major pile-up occurred. Kimi Raikkonen's wrecked car was parked for the whole race about 50 metres away from where we sat.

Furthermore, when we got out of the Indianapolis speedway we saw that there were nearly 10-15 Ferraris parked in a special parking lot. We helped ourselves to a lot of photographs, most of them with us standing next to them.

Indianapolis downtown, where we went to next was alive with the festive atmosphere and it was a treat to be there on Race Day evening with so many Formula 1 fans. In keeping with the car racing theme of the weekend I saw the movie 'Cars' after a sumptuous meal. The animation was top notch but the story wasn't all that great.

There is one more thing that deserves a special mention. Bathing in a mobile shower unit, where the water is cut off as soon as the alloted five minutes are up, is a singular experience.

And there were no more ...

excuses.

I have put off writing a blog entry for quite a while and there were excellent reasons (excuses) each of the time that I felt like writing one and didn't.

Most of the reasons come from the fact that I was insanely busy over the last couple of months. I had my final exams for the courses that I had taken last semester and then I had to finish the work on my thesis.

Finishing my thesis entailed not only finishing the programming that was required but also the monumental task of writing the whole thesis. I have never had such a hard time writing 65 pages in my whole life.

All's well that ends well, as they say. I defended my thesis on the 29^th of June and passed.

The remaining minority of reasons stem from the guilt that eats at you when a deadline looms and you squander your time watching a movie and/or reading a book. You justify it to yourself by saying that you deserve this R & R, but then spending time on writing a blog becomes that much harder to justify.

I guess I have acquainted my readers with this roller coaster ride that was the last two months. I beg to be let off the hook for not delving into the details for they might not be as exciting to others as they were to me.

Forward !!!

Serve Chilled

Aah... What is this, you wonder. A can of Coke framed against the colours of Pepsi. Are the two rivals merging? Are they coming out with Cokesi or Peca-Cola. (Perfectly horrible names if you ask me.)

I am glad to say that nothing so disastrous is in the works. Do I hear sighs of relief from all interested parties?

What did happen was that, a desire to follow the instructions on the can turned a simple routine exercise into a frustrating experience. The instructions were really simple: Serve Chilled.

Patience is not really a virtue you can afford when you have come out of the sun and need a cold drink. Hence, there went the can in the freezer, not the refrigerator mind you. It should suffice to say that I returned to find it frozen solid.

Then came the stroke of brilliance, I filled up the wash basin with hot water and left the can in it to thaw.

No points for guessing that I was sipping hot Coke half an hour later.

Is this news?

You just know that the newspaper is having a slow day when the print something like this.

From The Times of India, April 21 2006.

Aishwarya falls from cycle, suffers 'minor abrasions'
BANGALORE: Bollywood actress and former Miss World Aishwarya Rai fell from a bicycle while shooting at Badami in Karnataka's Bagalkote district on Thursday and suffered "minor abrasions", police sources said.

"She suffered minor abrasions in the leg. She was given treatment and there is nothing to worry", a police official said from Bagalkote.

A police official !!! How ridiculous can things get :)



Agreed she is very beautiful, but still ...

I Remain

Earth, wind, fire and water,
A maelstrom rages around me,
In the eye of the vortex,
I remain.

War, savagery, blood and death,
A wildfire consumes the world,
In these desolate grasslands,
I remain.

Love, betrayal, kindness and cruelty,
An unending turmoil in our hearts,
In the deafening silence,
I remain.

Overfull

An interesting account of a unpleasant gastrointestinal experience is a contradiction in terms.

However, by keeping it brief and conveying the amount of food consumed over a period of 2 hours (better believe that !!!) for a breakfast, I plan to entertain.

Course 1:
Scrambled Eggs
Bacon
Hash Browns
Banana
Strawberries
Glass of Chocolate milk
Chocolate chip bagel with cream cheese
Boiled Egg

Course 2:
Hash Browns
Grits
Chocolate chip bagel
Waffles with syrup
Apple
Glass of Chocolate Milk

Another half a glass of water almost pushed me over the edge. My stomach literally started hurting and every step I took I was controlling my regurgitation reflexes.

Eating the food was an amazing experience, the 15 minute walk to the class... not so much.

What the hole ???

Here I am sauntering down The Brickyard in front of the libraray in my university. It's a pleasant day and I happen to notice that there is an Agriculture Awareness Week going on.

Some farm animals, a few tractors and such. Out of curiousity I go near and I see one of the freakiest things in my life. Suffice to say that I was shocked.



For those interested, it's called a Fistulated Cow. Look it up.

Cherry Blossoms

When I was in Washington D.C. last weekend, lots of people recommended that I visit the Cherry Blossom Festival held in downtown Washington D.C. every year.

It is held to celeberate the coming of Spring, signified by the blossoming of the Japanese cherry trees gifted to the US by the Mayor of Tokyo in 1912.

The cherry blossoms were nowhere to be seen. The celeberations, of which a kite festival was a part, were a tad early.


A kite festival seems right to welcome the new phase of the year. People can move around outdoors after a cold winter and actually have a wonderful day, the kites symbolising the freedom they have.

Oh, to soar like a kite in the wind, the brilliant blue beckoning it to
have a dance with the pure white.

Rarely do we feel such freedom in our hearts and those moments are something to cherish for a long long time.

I feel it today. The trip to Washington D.C. gave me reason to feel so.

Do I want to be a kite? Kites have a string attached after all and me, I have a past. Kites can't fly without that string and neither can I without my past.

A gesture of appreciation to all those who are that string.

Bhaji

You have to read the title carefully. Neither does it refer to a cricketer nor does it refer to something eaten with Pav.

It represents in itself culinary perfection, a tradition to be proud of and passed on for generations to come.


That's right fellas, its the perfect snack for a rainy day. Kanda and Batata Bhaji.

All made by my roommate and me on a glorious Saturday evening. I must say I am quite proud of the Chinch-Gul (Tamarind - Jaggery) chutney too.

On a side note, the plural of 'bhaji' is also 'bhaji', not 'bhajya'. A distinction fine enough to be lost on me till very recently.

Fantastic effort and kudos to whomever they are due from the two people who had their stomachs and hearts filled with joy.

Spring Break

With those who have heard of Spring Break, it conjures up images of beaches in Florida and cruises on the Carribean, late night parties and having unimaginable amount of fun.

However, with those "familiar" with Spring Break especially as applied to the graduate students, it conjures up images of finally being able to sleep for 8 hours every day, single minded dedication to a project or just relaxing and watching movies.

Am I exaggerating? I think not.

The better part of my spring break this year was spend in doing exactly the things I said above. I know I shouldn't be generalizing but I consider myself a representative of the graduate student population.

Movies watched included but are not limited to:

Chicken Little - Nice one
Crimson Tide - Perennial favourite
Van Helsing - Load of c*** couldn't finish it
Few Good Men - You wan't the truth? You can't handle the truth. Jack Nicholson, Tom Cruise rule. Demi Moore looks hot. Another favourite
Jerry McGuire - Tom Cruise and Cuba Gooding Jr. play off each other very well.
Remember the Titans - Decent movie
The World is Not Enough - Watched it again just for Sophie Marceau and Denise Richards

Oh, well. It had to end some time. Back to the grind from tomorrow.

Samir Govilkar

Ok, first off this is a blatantly obvious attempt at self promotion.

There is a term called "ego surfing" and I have indulged in it many times. What it basically means is that you search for your own name on the internet and see how many places it shows up.

I have the dubious fortune of being listed as the webmaster of a now defunct website (Sanskrit Mandiram), the "current" treasurer of the IEEE student branch of my undergraduate college and a heavy contributor to the SETI@home project which I no longer am.

You can verify this yourself, just search for my name.

So, I plan to rectify this situation. If you now go to Google Blog Search and then search for "Samir Govilkar" this post and hopefully all the other posts in this blog will show up.

The second course of action is making my own website (http://www4.ncsu.edu/~srgovilk). But that website has been in the making since August 2004 as testified to by the Last Updated field.

Hence, coming soon is all I can say and you being the wise people that you are, know better :)

Cheers.

Early Mornings

I love mornings.

Everything is so fresh and the pale sunlight streaming through the window blinds assures me that it's going to be a wonderful day once again.

The air is crisp and I just can't wait to get started with the day. Oh the joys of eating breakfast.

However ...

Early mornings are a totally different creature. It's dark and cold and the breeze that a little later in the day would freshen you, makes you wish that you had stayed indoors.

Compound that with waking up when you are dreaming about something wonderful, is not the best way to start a day, especially to the harsh ring of the stupid alarm !!!

Yeah, yeah I know, I am personifying an alarm. It gives you a perspective about how much I hate early mornings, doesn't it? :)

Love the sunrise though.

The Parting of Friends

People of the world.

I have had the fortune of having been friends with some fantastic people. Not only have they made good friends, some of them have become close enough to be a part of my identity.

Till now, I have always been able to associate parts of my life with some dear friends and their companionship. Through school, junior college, undergraduate college and graduate school I have always had one friend of mine from the years past to accompany me on my new adventure.

Sure, I made new friends as I went along. However, there was always at least this one person, who was my link to the past, preserving a sense of continuity. A friend, whom I could turn to when things were not quite all rosy.

Today, one of these special friends moved out and on with his own new life.

A loss of continuity. Some people experience this early in life, some later and some never.

Is it good or is it bad? I don't know. It's a change and therefore has all the pluses and minuses that go along with changes.

I know one thing for sure though. If there is one thing that makes me truly sad then, it is the parting of friends, especially friends like these.

Good Bye Manan. I will miss you.

I am back !!!

If anyone has visited this blog, I would be seriously surprised.

I really, really want to be back and I plan to spend some time writing stuff soon.

One of the reasons I am back is I wanted to put something on my Orkut profile as my homepage.

Let's start off with my visit to the Luray Caverns in Virginia. These caverns are located underground in the Shananodoah River valley. Fans of the song "Country Roads" by John Denver will know about this river.

Well, it is an unbelievably beuatiful place, and I could really understand why he yearns to go back home.

Then we went to the caverns and that was a surreal experience. I had heard about stalactites and stalagmites, those wonderful rock formations formed over millions of years by water dripping from the ceilings of these caverns.

I never imagined that they would look so nice. The lighting of the caverns accented their natural colours and they looked wonderful.



These particular caverns are so big that the lowest point in the caverns in well over 100 feet underground (Think of it as 10 floors below the ground and you will get the picture) and the whole tour through the caverns covered a path of over a mile.

At one point there was a small lake, but the water was so still that the ceiling was reflected perfectly and it was difficult to make out that there was really no rock formation on and below the ground.

One of the things that was probably unique to these caverns is that there is a musical instrument that they have constructed using the rock formations. Some of these rock formations are hollow and when struck with a small hammer oscillate at a particular frequency generating a musical note.

They have everything automated and they even played a small piece of music for us.

Fantastic trip.