listen to the weatherman

Scene 1: Yours truly feels I felt very Indian today, so wore a nice Indian top, footwear that goes well with it( people call that beauty flipflops here :( ). Stepped out, things are fine. class went on ok.

Scene 2: raining hard, cutting chill winds, poor me struggling with my bike, bag and COLD FEET! No wonder the expression came about..COLD FEET! I think I can take any part of me cold..cold eyes, ears, nose, mouth, hands, but not FEET.
There is this feeling of a million knives slowly cutting through your skin. I could feel my blood freezing slowly in my legs. Each drop of rain slices through my skin and burns it! After sometime, I had to consciously make an effort to walk. I couldn't feel my legs anymore. Wiping off the piercing rain, gathering all my courage and strength, I tried to keep moving on. My work place seemed so far away. I thought I was going to die at one point. And strangely, the only sorrow in my head was..what a strange way to die!I was thinking about how the headlines would have been in The Battalion: Graduate Student dies due to Flipflops. followed by a drop in the sales of flip flops..next month first tue, there would be Silver Taps. I sincerely prayed to God not to let me die such a poor death. Goodness!I do have a huge ego..:)

By far, this was the most painful journey to my office. I am definitely not a person to live in the north. The only thought(s) that was warming me was the condition of the poor souls living in Alaska and of course someone ;) .

Moral of the story:
- Listen to your weatherman.
- South Indian wear(for women) does not suit US of A
- Not matter what you cover or not, cover your feet!

this thing called

orkut- Networking power unleashed.
Ever since I was introduced to orkut, been wondering how much of benefit is reaped from the site. The idea is fantastic, proves six degrees of separation, but need to know how much of professional benefits are achieved. As a user, it is frustrating with the slow servers, the bad Doughnut comment, server errors and given such conditions, it is difficult to imagine business networking over such a community.
In a real world(read Graduate Business Career Center), networking is a more formal event. Personal interaction, gestures, etiquette, language are some key components. It is not half as romantic as chatting with stranger and realizing that we have common likes and interests. There is no room for fumbling, errors, guesses, cheesy tacky comments. Be it small, medium or large business ventures, I think personal interaction is a key component. Thankfully, I look at this as one spot that cannot be 'virtualized'.
Couple of suggestions may be: - to keep the latest comments on the first page in a discussion.
- show lesser number of friends and communities in the home page
- limit the number of photos that can be uploaded

I have forgotten

I have forgotten your voice
the words that you speak,
the silence when u stop
and laughters that follow.

I have forgotten your smile
your face that brightens up
the eyes that sparkle too
and the glow from inside you

I cannot remember your hugs
I've forgotten how strong you are
I can't remember your songs
ones that I still smile about

Don't remember our lazy days
the silent readings under the sun
Can't hear the birds talk now
or no, I wish I couldn't do.

Don't remember the tranquil evenings
Your surprise dinners, the cuisine
your hand that gently brushes my hair
letting me sleep thru' your movie.

I am fine, I have moved on
A lie that I tell, I am fine
Like I said, I can't tell why
how I remember to forget you dear

ps: cannot remember where I picked up inspiration for this one :) . Guess it was a conversation that I heard this morning while riding the bus to school. I wish that girl peace.

corrective action

en reason de difficle avec la langue francais, je vais prendre le cours advanced oral expression.
:) Got permission to audit this course! excellent! now , I have to face the bureaucracy at work. Class falls during work hours and I am not very sure if I wud be allowed to take it.

so whatz the big deal?

It dawned on me that I can no longer speak french..I was struggling to leave a scrap. So, here we go..all I wanted to do was wish this person for her new job and tell her that my french sucks..After half an hour of racking my brains, thinking word by word in english and in french, I still cudn't muster up those words, the sentence..simply Zilch! grr..and what is that word for obvious? c'est claire, no..c'est parail, or something like that. I have to audit a course in french now. so whatz the big deal?well knowing french, I have 'framed' a lot of my own words in english..gives me a lot more words to think in, to talk in..not that without that I am less talkative..well, there we go, jabbering again

which way?

So, this is a person I met while flying. Full of energy and enthusiasm, driven, always working on something or the other, even while talking, he is thinking of something which becomes apparent to me as I sense his 75% concentration in the conversation. I was completely zapped when I heard that he plans his weekends too!!! goodness, I visualize these kind of people as photons at the meta stable state. They seem to have a really long half life though :). Result: great job and a nice resume
And there is this other person I know, extremly relaxed, stops to smell flowers(literally), never plans much, no tension calm and composed. Weekends totally planless and clueless. Only on getting into a discussion with him did I realize his vaast knowledge. but guess what? He too has a great job and a nice resume.
Now, one may accuse me of being myopic and judging a person's life based on just his resume. But I am a capitalist. And if the resume brings money, with it comes purchasing power which satisfies the needs(and more importantly wants),thereby, leading atleast theortically to happiness. Anyway, I am now pondering about which is the right way to live? brings me to think about the latest book I am reading: Angels and Demons by Dan Brown. He talks about the world being made up of contradicting elements: matter and antimatter. So, is right right, just in our world?

check this baby out

Built me a double decker aircraft..THE Airbus A380..for the kid in me that gets excited about a double decker bus, this is sure a huge Wizard of Oz treat. The pictures pose amazing amount of room in the economy class itself, which I am greatly thrilled about. The relaxing lounge reminds me of the cafeteria area in the TGV Srinath, Krishna and myself took to belgium. Plush, luxurious and oppulent, I am just worried about one thing: can this thing really fly? I get queasy with take offs and landing in a single tier(if I can call so) airplanes, imagine sitting in the second floor of an aircraft!Angels and Demons, Dan Brown's book, talks about a X-33. Takes Robert Langdon an hour to fly to Geneva from Boston! Wonder if Airbus can come out with something like that..