Dec 30, 2009

I know Deutsch or do I ..!!!

There I was sitting before the laptop, staring at its screen, which had nothing but a page of google news (trust me on this..!!!) on it, and just moving up and down in response to the scroll on the mouse. Pretty sure the scene from the other end would make it seem as if I was staring into something obscene, which I wasn't. Its just that after sitting at the peak of boredom, I happen to get the internet connection, but after a day or two of checking and re-checking the mail, one just doesn't know what else to do. My internet activities over here, with this ultra-slow connection are limited to reading news of almost everything, getting some old cricket statistics upto domestic levels (I could tell you the number of 100s made by Cheteshwar Pujara, Raman Lamba, W.G.Grace, Peter Pullock, etc and also the upcoming ranji trophy players who should have got into the Indian team, etc, etc..!!). Talking to a friend yesterday, I told him that I was running out of options for doing something, for which he said that this leads to innovation. The only innovation I do is how to position my ass, so as to prevent from getting an ache.

The one thing good about staying at a place, with a different local language is, at some point of time you start understanding the language, well the context atleast, and you have the privilege of putting it in your resume, ofcourse you need to be careful. The problem starts when you try speaking it. The first few words always come out with confidence, but as you end, the expression on the other side, which is made very evident, is like a small child with a bruise but is not allowed to cry. The cry of a person to shut up, and I have been receiving this almost daily, due to the illiteracy of english here.

So yesterday I decided to do something about it (Eureka..!!!) and the results were quite astonishing and thoroughly disturbing. I went to this website, http://www.deutsch-lernen.com/, where one can do some brushing up of the deutsch learnt so far. I decided to start with a small test to see where I stood (Big mistake..!!!). The first one, a short test, which had 30 questions full of vocabs and grammar. The result comes out as 14 correct out of 30. So far for learning 2 levels in India, learning another 2 levels here and staying here for 2 years. But since it had combo of everything, I thought of going for the long test, which had the difficulty split into levels. Each level had 10 questions and you have to score 80% to goto next level. I thought I could easily go past atleast 3 levels, only the computer had other plans to keep me at level 2. There were 4 levels totally. Anyways I figured, now that I have the innumerable seconds at my disposal, why not put them to some use. However, this could work only with an internet, so that means the other days I still get to sit with boredom, so it wouldn't miss me much.

Nov 18, 2009

The Rebel..!!! :D

I learnt quite a few virtues of living, after coming to Germany, but ironically, staying in a hospital has taught me one of the most important one - "To ask..!!!" A reason why I add this to virtues, as generally bearing it "patiently" (also in my case..!! :P) is considered to be of higher morality, but after a certain threshold, keeping shut gives the others a chance for immorality. Ofcourse again just going through with that makes one a higher person, but at the expense of one's own deficit.

A recent conversation between a friend, who had just returned from a trip to India, and me:

Friend: Dude, wassup man, looks like you are having a 2 month paid vacation.
Me: Abe, I have been literally doing a Mahatma Gandhi here on a daily basis.
Friend: What you staged a Satyagraha or what?
Me: Somewhat related..!! (Salt--->Food..!! See the relation..!! :D)

Probably the only hospital where I have to ask for food and somehow make them realize that I am a patient and I need nutrition (read ---> Be a Roman in Rome..!!!). The first 3 weeks, almost no fruits and then I guess they realized it, after seeing my friends get them for me, that they started to give them.

But this beats it on a higher note. Probably the only hospital to ask the patient to change his own bedsheets. Even better,when I asked about this, the hospital correspondent said that, because you are young and that your sheets are infectious, the nurses must have ignored it. I was like, dude do you hear what you are saying, the gloves and the masks are not a fashion statement. I mean, is that even a reason. Although, its not a big deal, coz changing the sheets hardly takes 15 minutes and 50 calories(;)) of my energy. Well something notable, the others in my floors were not subjected to this, but with his reason it was implicit as the others were old. It was easy to figure out. Oh and did I mention that they were germans!

Another interesting conversation between a friend and mine:

Me: Dude, I think it might take another 3-4 weeks for me to get discharged.
Friend: Why are they taking so long to release you?
Me: RELEASE..!!! dude its discharge, don't make it sound as if I am in a jail.
Friend: How big is the difference?

And then it struck me, the only difference was, I don't have a charge-sheet (touch wood..!!) but a medical-sheet,  I have a cellphone and a laptop and no uniform.

P.S. : I know talking ill of the hospital where am getting treated is not really virtuous of me, but then, I aint got anything interesting other than this for my blog. ;) :P :D

Nov 10, 2009

Be a Roman in Rome..!!!

"Be a German in Germany, or watch out for your health and don't get admitted in a hospital..!!!" Although the fact of staying in a hospital is thoroughly depressing, other than the fact of helping yourself to recover,an experience which I didn't want to mention here, but certain scenarios just help you to bring out humour amidst desolation.

Well, yeah getting admitted in a hospital 3 days before the trip back home could be devastating, but cutting the emotional attyachar here, the hospital is desperately trying to bring out the German Harish within me. Prior to this, my usual schedule was to have the breakfast at 10-11am, lunch at 2-3pm and dinner at 9-10pm and I also had lot of spices in my food. And now with the so called german military standards, I get my breakfast at 7 30am, lunch at 11 30 am and dinner at 5pm and, I dunno if its the cooking standard, but food which has only salt in it and absolutely nothing else. The first day was the best, I will never forget the nurse's and my reactions at the evening's dinner/snack or whatever.

So on the first day the dinner comes at 5pm, which I considered as snack. I mean seriously, you have some liquid called as tea and TWO bread slices and cheese. What else do you think of it as..!? I waited till around 8-9pm and then called up the nurse asking for dinner. She only replied that it was already served at 5pm. The only reaction I had was "are you freaking kidding me..!?", just didnt have enough energy to get them out. Nevertheless, I asked her, how were 2 slices of bread and cheese supposed to be dinner till the next day morning 7 30pm. The reply was the best, saying that its the standard (Man, and I was under the impression that the patient's comfort took a priority, what a dunce...!?). I was able to hold back for a few days, but then I started telling that I get hungry at 9pm  and thankfully they did get me something to eat. And now, its 11 am here and am already hungry, waiting for my lunch. I guess I just need to furnish my german, and use salt as the only spice, and start pronouncing "thinking" as "sinking" for my complete transformation.

Sep 29, 2009

Hit/Miss - No wait Spams..!!

Looks like my blog hasnt been receiving much hits of-late (in a way its good to see my friends still having the patience to read this crap..!!), nevertheless, to entice the others, I have come up with an initiative to churn out my fortune with all those who read my blog. Rings a bell, ofcourse, its the same program, on the paths of the computer genius, Mr.Gates, who had first launched this program by sending out mails to all the folks around the world. And I am still wondering that even after 8 years of this program, he still has all the fortune intact, and infact increasing. Alright the argument in my case is the word 'fortune', but I can start up with small values, say 0.005 cent for every hit. :P

Anyways coming back to the topic, I cant believe that people still fall for this and keep forwarding those craps. I remember the first time when I got the mail, I was in 11th. It was quite unbelievable, but the true testimonies or the so-called true testimonies where people specifically mentioned cash to the precise value of 2 place after decimals, was not easy to ignore. Naivety took over me and I forwarded the mail to all of my friends, strangers, random email ids, however, it did strike me that I did not have a bank account then, so where will the cash go, if it ever comes. But then another friend of mine, amazing encourager, clarified me on Mr.Gates' repute ,of the ability to find anyone's personal identity and details, and yep, I walked out of the internet center gleefully, expecting to hear some kind of cash arrival announcement from my father, only in vain. Nowadays, we have similar mails in quite a lot of categories, involving Canada Lottery Organizations, Lucky email ids, etc along with people's names and digital signatures (gimme a break..!!). In a way one can take some kinda humor from these ones. The worst ones are some of these religious oriented mails, where you are bound to send them to your friends, else you'll undergo a year of bad luck. Anyways, I just got this out today, after receiving yet another mail of Microsoft, sharing its fortune, just had a few moments' laugh and SPAM..!!!

Sep 26, 2009

Whispers..!!

These days I end up spending major part of the day in the library. Now this post is not to brag about this, coz I know its tough for people to comprehend me spending the time in there. Its just that, the library has so much to offer in terms of silence, focus (you got that right..!!!), surrounding, getting out of the dormitory, beautiful eye-candies, ahem, I meant eye-refreshments and ofcourse, my part of studying :). Needless to say, its a library,so your voice cannot raise above a certain db level. So whenever we feel a requirement for a discussion, we do it in whispers. At a certain point, we end up discussing so many stuffs, that we get habituated to these whispers. So on a certain day, the same happened, and I decided to take break. After a moments time, I see Bhuvan walking towards me, and whispering something, there was still some distance to cover, so I couldnt understand anything. Here is the conversation. Bhuvan had received some stuffs of mine from India and :

ALL IN WHISPERS

Bhuvan: Machan, am unable to open the box which has the stuffs.
Me: WTH, you dunno the number or what?
Bhuvan: Ayyo, no machan, its just not opening and I dont want to damage the box.
Me: So I cannot get the stuff today right, damn..!!

TTTTTTTTTTTAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNNNN - Eureka - BULB GLOWS..!!!


In a quite loud voice now,

Me: Machan, why did we whisper, just now..!!!

And what followed was 5 minutes of uncontrollable laughter,  yep we were outside the library premises.

I guess we just gave a topic, for research, for the neuro-informatic guys..!!
P.S.

This is way unrelated to this post, but I cant miss out on this. While writing this post, I happen to notice a mosquito here (in one and half years), yep thats right a mosquito and looks like am still pretty good at killing them. THWWWWWAACCCCCKKKKKKKK and it was on the carpet..!!!

Sep 19, 2009

Almost Conspired...!!!

Quite a lackluster month of September, marking the end of the summers and start of the winters, set the mood of depression quite soon, making me wonder how am I going to stand the next 7 months. The initial few weeks of snow and an India trip seem to be the only prescription for me. Oh, did I mention India trip, yyyyyyyyyyyeeeeeeeeeehooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo..!! Ok, thats enough for the initial excitation, hasn't been helping me much for studies. Yeah I know, my examinations are quite redundant now, with most of my posts talking only about them. Actually one cant blame me, as the exam times are definitely interesting ones, with all the emotions doing a disco within.

Talking about exams, with 2 more to go before making the India trip, I took almost the entire first half of September to relax, not for a specific reason,as the same old enemy/friend Mr.Procrastination made his appearance, filling me up with guilt, on these days. And it always so happens that the first day after this so called hiatus, I find it highly conspired to keep me from studying, else how would one describe this.

So yesterday, I finally wake up, with quite a euphoria to start solving the problems, early in the morning. However, I whiled away my time till the afternoon, and I don't want to think about the details now. Nevertheless, as goes the saying "its never too late..!!" (I'd kill the person now, who laid this down..!!), I took a stance at 3pm to get started to the Library and so I did. The entire enthu was crushed like a candy stolen from a kid, when I found that I had left the solutions at my dorm. But the decision was made and I came back to collect my solutions and by the time I reached the Library it was already 5pm. However, the universe still wanted to play with me. How does one solve without having the questionnaire, I asked to myself. So I took another trip to a friend's place, to collect the same. At that time, I don't exactly know what struck me but I started watching 'Mahabharat' at his place (Possibly trying to find the early traces of science and solutions in our age old history. The only related solution which I could think of and is quite close is, "is prashna ka uttar to mein bhi nahin de saktha". The history or rather wikipedia says, the first instance of time travel has happened in Mahabharat..!!!). So after squandering another 2 hours, I was still determined to make the day constructive and so I did. I went back to the library, by then it was 7 30pm, but thankfully all the ammunition was available this time. Hence I made the day constructive by solving two full problems, which didnt even fill up half of the workout sheet. But still at the end of the day, I was happy enough that I did a start.

Aug 20, 2009

There's always another door..!!!

One of the few things I have picked up after coming to Germany is to watch sitcoms. The best thing about them are, the humour and those silent verses in between, which strike you hard, and which end up being the string within your reach, just when you feel like falling off the cliff.
The latest among these sitcoms has been "Two and a Half Men" about two brothers, one of them single and the other a divorcee, with a son (hence the title).

One of the most common thoughts which hits me is "what am I doing? is this really what I wanted to do?" In most cases there's just a compromise and I end up finding a reason to satisfy myself as to what I am doing is what I actually wanted, by some relevance miles apart.

One of the characters in the sitcom goes this way:

Allen: "Neither of us are doing what we wanted to do, but you know what, we could have been doing much worse..!!!"

And here I get my answer.

Jul 23, 2009

Cards not in game..!!!


With an eventfully low and a negative week, so far, it seems that things just wont get any better. Right from waking up to baffling dreams (read---> A Dreary Dream..!!!) and pissed off moods for no reason, to things working up in a weird way, "my cards, certainly, are not in the game". And if there is way where all this could have got better, food, seems to have got even worse.

Right from the day I landed here, there has been a special list of the worst dinners of mine (in my cooking..!!). Why the worst, keep a count, you ask? Well the good ones mesmerize you so much, that you would just forget the count (Alright, exaggeration? accepted..!! but for me yes it does act that way..!!). I am happy to see that the list of worst dinners is not long, however, the x-factor here is its got only worse, the scale's got lower every time I have one. And yep, as guessed, this post is just one of those.

So of-late, as I have been returning quite late from the university (yep, I do work at times.!! :P), there has been a drastic fall in the cooking, as I guess, one could imagine the cheers of coming back at 9pm after slacking my ass at the lab and entering into kitchen and starting to chop onions. Well, as there were no critical moments, I was able to manage with bread (Bread zindabad..!! vaazhga..!!). Most of my friends would call me a hypocrite for cajoling about bread, as I usually consider it to be a "patients' food", but again critical scenarios here. So bread and a certain side-dish (thanks to a friend's dinner party, lest which my condition would ve been miserable..!! :)) would be my usual dinner. But everything doesnt last long, and as always it always strikes when its late. So after finishing off the work today, shopping was there on the list and I have no idea what struck me (it was rainy day with thundershowers, probably a minuscule thunderbolt..!! ), probably the idea of saving time for cooking, I got the 3-minutes thai noodle, similar to our maggi 2-minutes one, as I never liked them, and still dont. And whats more, I got 3 packets, not one (I know, I should ve been their brand ambassadors..!!). With all eagerness, I started making it and the moment spices fell, the aroma, ahem, or rather stench, difficult to decide, gave me an indication of a disastrous venture. It was only minutes after which I confirmed the inevitable, for the noodles or whatever, had a lot of similarities to the worst of rice porridges which would look and smell good and taste even better. However, I was pretty hungry enough to gulp it and tired to think about cooking something else. With one packet over and two more to go, I can only count the days for my next worst dinner, hope for the converse never ends though..!!!:).

Jul 22, 2009

A Dreary Dream..!! sigh..!!!


If one asks me, I'd say dreams are always in some relevance to the current situation of person's mind and so I searched for some kind of relevance in mine, today morning, only pissing me off more, when I already woke up to such a bamboozled dream. However, the dream has got every inch of bollywood in it, action, comedy, romance, etc, in all a thoroughly entertaining one.

The situation is, in Germany, with an Indian kinda location, (Ok, you need to realise that its a dream, so it spans beyond the boundaries of the countries...!!), is a small house, which has a big haunted house in its backdrop. In way its connected to the small house. The movie is a horror movie.

The actors, some 12 people, including me (its hard to accept it, but still its a dream..!! :D), everyone pretty novice and quite unknown. And so the movie begins, where I act as one of the strangers who comes and stays with a family of 11 people, who ve recently moved into this new house connected with the old haunted house. Apparently, it was some kinda ancestral property for the family. The rest is quite predictable, as the night falls, we start hearing strange noise across the house and one by one the 11 people keep walking towards the noise and half of them disappear and the other half manage to escape. So far am still stuck inside the house, when, a twist appears.

Amongst the "so-called" appearing ghost, I manage to figure a few normal humans, and get a bit baffled at the situation. So I try eaves dropping and come to realise the fact that the entire movie shoot was a big conspiracy and it was just means to kidnap people for the creation of a Utopia, by some military organization and somehow I become witness to the scene where the other half who had disappeared were killed by them as they refused to join the organization. However, I manage to escape the scene.

Now, I dont remember what happens, I guess I opened my eyes and slept off again, coz when the dream restarted, I was in front of the same house, walking towards it.

Continuing, so as I walk towards the same house, I see that it is protected by a dog and as I am about step on the stairs, a man appears out of the wind, asking me to move sideways, where I can find someone for help. However, since I knew the haunted house so well now and also knowing fact that it is not haunted anymore, I take a detour and go inside the house, to find that one of the 11 people was still stuck inside and so we group together and moved into the small house, which was protected by the dog (the ancestral house and the small house were connected internally). There the one person left out, fills me up with the big conspiracy which involved a lot of "big" people. We only begin to realise that we were safe when the dog and the man start running towards the door of the house. They still did not know that we were inside, however, the dog's smelling ability would reveal that soon and since the man could teleport, he could easily get in the house, so we had to run and somehow we managed to do that. At moment we were joined by a third person, who I have no idea about, but its a dream again.

So we manage to come out of the zone and reach a place from where we could catch any train. So as I had mentioned earlier that the dream spans boundaries, we successfully catch a train on the run, in India (dont ask how I got there..!!!), where we are captured by a group making adult films with underage people (yes, I am underage in this dream..!!). However, one of us somehow manages to get down from the train at Jaipur, while the other two (me and the other one) reach the destination, called sugarbowl (Not Cuba..!! ). When I reach the place, I recognize the place as being close to Jamshedpur, so the other guy and I make a run for it and before any more adventure could unfold, I thought that I'd had enough for a night's dream, and opened my eyes, getting up to the most baffled reaction ever in my life, so far. phew..!!

Jul 17, 2009

Somethings are never right..!!!

Friday, July 17 2009, 13 30 hrs(Present day):

Harish: Machan, something is not right..!!
Bhuvan : ??
Harish : Its quite unusual for us to sit so cool, before the final test of anything and the fact that our simulation results were good, almost a week back, does not comply with our usual race against time and ass on fire theory.
Bhuvan : Thats true alright. Lets see, who knows times might actually change.
Harish : I just hope the world doesn't come to a halt.

Back in time:

Well just a quick recap, for easy understanding, there was this project lab called VHDL, a Hardware Descriptive Language, also deciphered as Very Hard Descriptive Language, which we decided to take, just to appease ourselves on pursuing another challenge through Masters. Some might call it ass-cholesterol, like taking an easier option out when available might have been safer, however, we do get these aberrant impulse to learn at times and so we registered. VHDL, a fairly new subject to me, meant most of the work load fell on the scapegoat, Bhuvan's shoulders', due to his early experience :D. Nevertheless, we managed to pull it off well ahead of time, or atleast thats what we thought. The project, to design a bicycle computer, well actually speedometer, I still wonder the motive behind the name computer, sounded quite easy and quite apparently was otherwise.

Thanks to a combined-group-effort of 5 teams (total people in the lab 11, split into 5 teams), the deadline got extended by 2 weeks. However, the notable point here was, a week before the deadline, today, our team's (Bhuvan-me) results were quite good. Everything was perfect, or atleast we thought so and half an hour before the final test, this eery feeling resulted in the above mentioned conversation. The fact still remains that our simulation results are still good, however, the hardware test uses a different simulator (#%$%^#$@#$%$^..!!!).

Friday, July 17 2009 17 45 hrs (For the final seasoning of Red chilli powder on the wounds..!!!):

I get a call at 11 30 today morning from the lab. Another team, comprising of two more people, needed my help in sorting out one of their modules for the output, which I gleefully accept to and reach the lab by noon and somehow we manage to get the required output. At that point a thought goes through my mind, that it is usually us in this position, nevertheless brushing it off, we continue being confident with our design. Now I donot need to mention the next few scenes, nevertheless, just for legibility, yes their hardware test was successful, which we were happy about, as the seasoning hasn't started yet. However, those guys were really good, as they stayed back after their test to help us sort out our problems. Now, the seasoning started like this:

X: Ok dude, guess we'l take off.
Harish: Sure man, thanks for whatever you suggested so far.
X: No problem. However, you could use our module, incase your output doesnt work out..!!
Harish (Bhuvan would have noticed the hot air blowing from my ears..!!): Suuuurrreee man, thanks..!!

I donot blame the guy, coz his gesture was too good, but one just cannot compromise with the human's ego (mine in this case..!!). The rest is history.

Friday, July 17 2009 18 45 hrs (Back to present..!!):

Bhuvan: Hey machan, chuck the face..!! we are out of the lab..!!
Harish: yep, we still got a week. Good, chalo, the world is functioning normally.
Bhuvan: he he, yeah..!!
Harish: Most people fail to realize that we saved the world from doom..!!

Moral : Murphys theory :
If you perceive that there are four possible ways in which something can go wrong, and circumvent these, then a fifth way, unprepared for, will promptly develop ---> HENCE PROVED..!!!

Jun 29, 2009

Just another day or was it..!!? ;)

I have been cursing myself for not updating the blog for long, even though had a few things in mind, guess my ultimate weakness comes forth - procrastination, sigh..!! Aah well, this has nothing to do with my current post, or in a well mimicked dialog of Vikram in Anniyan, by GB, "This is an unwanted statement completely irrelevant to the current situation!" Right, I need to know where to stop and hence I stop. Coming to current post, lets say its a short story, with good morals. :D ;)

Scene 1:

Somewhere in the world and sometime of the year - apparently in northern hemisphere and the first half of the year (some relevance, just for fun..!! :D), a person X (male) facing challenges ahead, tries to put his mind in work in a library, reading through the lines in the bunch of scripts lying on the table. After around half a days' of hard work (2 hrs precisely, but since its between 10am and 12 noon, half a day makes sense..!! :)), he takes his eyes off the scripts for a breather, and refreshment appears in the form of chemically and biologically most viable component, a girl, sitting nearby. Not that she was the only one, but there are only few with whom the glances meet at the same time. The day just ends with a few more of coincidental glances and small smile.

Scene 2,3,4,5....:

Many more days pass with the usual coincidental glances, meet-ups and bigger smiles.

This is a strange scenario, coz you dunno whether you are supposed to smile the next time you see a person as the ice has grown to such an extent, that you become indifferent towards it.

Scene- uh.. I lost track, lets take a variable n :

On a particular morning, X gets off the bus, and yet again coincidentally, the same girl, also in the same bus, gets off and both start walking towards their work, again same place. So far, its been only exchange of smiles, but today the girl had the shades on, so X thought, well lets give her a pass. So they start crossing the road. Both of them had some loud music running in their ears, obviously the surrounding sound turns to oblivion. And X gets a brilliant idea to change the song in his ipod while crossing the road and takes his ipod from his pocket, concentrating on the song he wants to listen. The girl not far, is also crossing the road, when a screeching sound distracts her. She turns back to notice that X had just stopped in front of the van. The scene henceforth:

Van Driver: %@#$^&%^&#$@$$@%$$%^&
X(Cant hear coz of the music in his ears..!! :)) just sees the disturbed driver: Entschuldigung..!!

And he walks past the van onto the other side, without even the slightest tremors of the incident. Well for once he notices the girl in front of him turn back and smile and say:

The girl: These mp3 players, could be threatening at times.
X: Well, who says technology always make life easier?
The girl: true..!!
X: BTW, am Harish.
The girl: Hi, am Lina.

And the rest is history. Some relief that the ice was finally broken.

Moral 1: There is always some positive in everything that happens.

Moral 2: Embarrassment is deep inward feeling which is very short-lived, concealing one deep within an impression of ridicule, but its upto an individual to carry the moment in an appropriate manner, which negates the same.

Moral 3: NEVER CHANGE MUSIC WHILE CROSSING THE ROAD..!!!

Jun 4, 2009

Food for 'Thought'..!!!

One of the biggest experiences of living an independent life, on the negative side, other than returning to an empty house (home is too good a word for this dorm..!!), with no one to talk, etc, is the fact the one has to enter the kitchen asap, to prepare the ingredients, for the 'thought' process to work on. Ironically, sometimes the neurons give out the impulses so late, that you enter into an empty kitchen at 9pm (the stores generally close by that time..!!!) after a tiry day giving you no other option than to go to bed with as much water, to dilute the HCl in the stomach, as food. And then you also have these days.

So the other day, after returning from work, I decided for some royal hogging night. Since my room mate, Ganesh (GB), had been taking care of quite a lot of cooking during my exams, I thought of giving him a break and doing everything by myself. One of the easiest of the side dishes, which goes with any vegetable, any number of vegetables and rice and chapathi, and even bread, is Rajma and I have been making quite a lot of them. So yet again I chose to make Rajma, with a mix of all the vegetables that I had, carrots, potatoes, peas, capsicum, etc (cant remember if I'd put anything else..!!). The aroma was quite good and the taste was even mesmerizing, I know this is quite a lot of yapping, but the words carry their weightage here. So with the side dish ready, we just made some rice, as the idea of chapathi meant we would have had dinner at midnight. After a royal dinner with 2 servings of royal hogging, and quite a full stomach, after a long time for me, these were the words from GB, which just furiated the HCl in my stomach to digest the food within a second and the taste of the Rajma turned into oblivion.

GB: Machan, 'Sambhar' super da..!!!
Me: @#$%^%^&$#@#@@#%%$^%^&, and the curses never ended till I went to bed..!!!

Striking irony, there was not even an atom of Sambhar powder in it..!! hmph..!!!

May 5, 2009

"Nice cut" - say what..!! @#@$%@#..!!!

4 months, 23 days - the time span, after which I finally gave in to the luring of the automatic-razor, to mow my hair, and provide a neat cut. A very straight-forward difference between developed and developing country, the Barbers here use more of automatic-razor than a scissor, pretty concerned sight for any person sitting for a hair-CUT and not a shave. The history of hair cutting for me has always been, ahem, shoddy, and so I had very little hopes and considering the high expenses for hair-styling saloons (yes, I did consider them..!!), I thought, lets give it another chance, naturally my mistake.

After around half an hour's wait, I heard the person calling me to take a seat. I dont know if it always happens with me, whenever, I consider that this barber is cutting well and I should stick with this guy, the next time, somehow, that doesnt work out. Probably, a conspiracy, for all the first-timers, of letting loose their 'handicraft' on me. sigh..!! Nevertheless, expecting the worst I sat on the chair (a reverse psychology theory, which failed miserably..!!). As I started speaking in german, the owner, directed the barber to speak in english, I think. "Finally, some luck going my way", were the first words, and also the only instance where things seemed to go in the right direction.

"Please cut in half the length, evenly in all sides". The guy had a confused look and then wobbled his head sideways, reminding our peculiar way of nodding. One thing about the european people, when I say they know english, it means a literal translation of the sentence in their language, and so the verbs could go haywire. A reason why, I have a new respect for Wren-&-Martin for authoring the wonderful book. Alright, the biggest fiasco of the day is yet to happen, and its not the cutting part. I dont know what prompted me, probably the confused look on his face, but I asked him to give a suggestion, and the guy suggested for a mushroom cut. Nevertheless, I asked him not to make too short, and the rest is history, as my worst nightmare had already begun the moment I asked him for his suggestion. Ironically, after the cut, the guy shows an extra mirror asking if the cut was aligned properly at the back, I only took time to think which would be the apt curse for him, which almost came out of my mouth when he let out the words "Nice cut..!!". Fighting hard to keep my mouth shut, I paid the 10 euros (Oh yes, thats the cheapest..!!), and left the place. After coming out and looking at a glass window, I could only laugh it out, as nothing else could be done and realised that I wouldnt need a cut for the next 6 months.

May 2, 2009

4 movies and yet a long day..!!!

Right then, after continuous, non-stop bragging over my pathetically long exam schedule, lasting for ages (actually 3 months), I finally get a breather to spend some time home. Thanks to weather Gods that nature ranked next. Actually got one more exam to go, but I can afford a week's relaxation. The few days after the exam were pretty tedious, as I had to compensate for the loss of working hours, for studying (I wish..!!:P), and I was waiting for Friday, May 1, thinking about getting up at 10am or 11am and just lazing around the entire day, which eventually turned out to be one of the longest days ever. These are just the aftermath of a totally screwed up schedule, suddenly you dont have anything to do, but I am happy that its only one day, although breaks like these are welcome but not frequently.

Got an initial hiccup right in the morning, when I wanted to get up at 10 or 11am but ended up waking up at 7 30am, and just rolling over for the next one hour, trying to force myself to sleep, only in vain. After a long time, I had to do 'nothing', so time given the least priority. So started the day with a movie, one of the anime series' movie, which I watch. One of the best breaks for me during the exams was the IPL and it was almost time for the same. Well during exams I used to watch the match, but after the exams, somehow the inertia to watch the match dies out, unless you have a big gang. So I decided to go for another movie during the lunch. Once done with that, I just had a glimpse of the time, and to say that it moved at a snail's pace would be an underestimation. With eyes almost popping out, as what I thought to be 6 hours turned out to only 3 hours, since lunch, I decided to go for another movie, which turned to be a wrong selection, as now the race was between the movie, time and snail as to who would top the podium. I couldnt stop the movie, as I have a bad/good habit of finishing with what I start, unless its utterly trash, here it was acceptable. The movie, Pan's Labrynth, which has got a good rating at imdb, and listed in the top-250 movies to be watched, intrigued me over its hype and, to such an extent, that I ended up searching for the reason, for the next half an hour. Somehow, I couldnt accept that the movie with the usual message of bravery, sacrifice,etc, could have such high ratings. Worse part, I even dragged Ganesh (my roommate), into watching the movie, who only had sweet curses for the director. It was almost 10pm now and I knew I wouldnt be crashing before 12 or 1am, so I hit the link again for another movie, this time a better one, Fast and Furious 4, just the kind of movie for the night, so that you dont end up sleeping on the table. And after what looked like eternity, it was 00 hrs and May 2 was here. I was so busy doing 'nothing', that I decided to give my newly-borrowed fan a wash. For once its good that I dont have a vacation, as attending classes and working would atleast add some spice. I remember one of my friends, asking me what would you do when you have 'nothing' to do? I would say her, today, by the time I went to bed, I did 'nothing', but its certainly not what I want to do, when I have 'nothing' to do. Still figuring that out.

Apr 21, 2009

Bhuvan's postulate humbled by my dose of optimism..!!!


Right then, a long hiatus is finally broken, and I finally do justice to the unending anticipation of my loyal followers with this post (ok, please dont remove yourself..!!). The almost unending row of examination and my grit of handling them for this long, and for a few days more, has brought out a new perspective of life. The good thing here is that its almost on the verge of getting done with and I can finally get back at enjoying the sunny, not-so-hot-not-so-cold, spring outside, in about 15 days. Although may not sound convincing, but a break of 2-3 months is really overwhelming and the desparation for the 15 days to get over is unimaginable. Getting to the subject of the post, its just another one of my doses of optimism completely bolstering down on the Bhuvan's usual perspectual postulates during examinations. What can I say, optimism just beats everything and I dont seem to get over them :D (I know I need to get back on earth..!!!).

Now, we had just got done with one of the major hurdles, the second most feared paper of our course, RF and Microwave Engineering. Although, in technical terms, RF refers to Radio Frequency, in 'our' terms, RF's got a glamrous definition of getting 'Royal F*cked' and it turned out to be well for most of us atleast, although it was pretty disastrous for me, but all's well that ends well, we got a bit overwhelmed and kinda underestimated the next exam which is on 24th for Bhuvan and 27th for me. Eventhough I enjoy the privilege of having 3 more days, the term slogging seems to be a necessity. So with nerves all over him, Bhuvan gets cracked-up and is in a striking dilema whether to give up the exam or take it. The thought of waiting for one year for retaking the exam,once given up, is a pretty strong reason to take all chances, nevertheless 3 days for the exam, do get on the nerves sometimes. And it is during these moments that Bhuvan's ultra-thinking brain brings out these postulates, and ofcourse there needs to be a person like me around, the main root behind those innumerable postulates of his, coz I supported the thought of giving a chance rather than wait for a year.

So here goes Bhuvan's postulate, in reference to getting prepared thoroughly and going for the exam, or preparing what is 'sufficient' and taking a chance.

Bhuvan: aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh, machan, I am not taking this now.

Me: Stop acting like one....

Bhuvan: Crazy bugger..!! I know.

Me: See go through the paper, prepare the presentation and just go through the related topics. You should do fine.

Bhuvan (with a philosophical thought): Machan, u know something, there are two scenarios here. See you should have a rubber protection when you are hooking up on a girl, and you should have full gear iron-metal protection when you are going for war on the battlefield. These two things cannot get interchanged. You cant approach a hooked up girl with full gear iron-metal protection and you cant go to a battlefield with a rubber protection.

Drum-rolls please, coz here comes the dose of optimism, that completely bowled Bhuvan's theory.

Me: Machan, tell you what, consider your statements, I would say your reverse statement would work, coz you never know, the full-gear iron-metal protection might save you from a possible ambush, if there was, when you are gettin hooked up and you might as well go to a battlefield with a rubber protection, who knows the enemy might have a fleet of naked desparate ladies.

Bhuvan: Faints..!!! Nandagopal ki jai ho..!!!

Mar 19, 2009

I Hate Computers - Part 2...!!!

Machine - Bhuvan's Laptop (An absolute piece of shit..!!!)

This could only be described as destiny thats chiseling me up for handling more and more comps ahead in my life. Rings a bell, about a philosophical conversation between Bhuvan and me (yeah we do talk philosophy, at times..!!!) and timing couldn't have been perfect with just two days before the exam. Well, people do get a different perspective of life always during the exam time.

Bhuvan: Machan, what the hell are we doing? (in a thoroughly low noise, in library..!!)
Me: What does it look like, tyring to set up a crowd in library!!! ofcourse, preparing for exams, I guess..!!
Bhuvan: No actually, the basic funda is (Me: here we go again..!!), for the first half of our life, we are trying to study, how we fucked up our lives..!! (Ok, the thing one needs to know is, when we say "fucked up" means "complicated"..!!! ).
Me: yeah, and the next half, we implement them to get fucked..!!

With this small enlightenment, Bhuvan continued pondering over his philosophical axioms, and I had to get back to study with my usual race with time.

Coming to the point, of getting things complicated, computers and so far only computers have made me wonder, as to what was one thinking when laying their foundation. Working with computers, ofcourse is an epitome of convenience, but its an ultimate test of patience, with screwed up ones. And especially, comps around me seem to have an affinity towards the same.

Here Bhuvan actually tries to install another OS, ubuntu, on his laptop, with Vista on it, a bad idea, addressed to him already. However, the OS fails to mount properly due to an error in file mounting system and as a solution I ask him to use a virtual machine for the same. Looks like bhuvan had had plans of reformatting his laptop and so before installing the software, we start reformatting it. Little did I know about the approaching restraint assessment waiting for me. His hard disk was not partitioned properly and I got the brilliant idea to make things fine, only in vain to completely corrupt the file system in the hard disk. The subsequent ideologies would take us two full days to work on his laptop without results, but it couldn't have got worse, as this was already worse. Apparently, the warranty period of his laptop had recently expired, but the pains of sitting with the machine for the past 2 days has inspired him to renew the warranty. However, similar to Thomas Alva Edison's discovery of Electricity from lightening (I know the comparison is exaggeration at its extremes..!! but thats the size of the consequence of the event here..!!), bhuvan accidently happen to find the right CD for our questions, thereby reinstalling the NTFS for Windows installation and then its history.

So thats the 3-day non-stop, mind-cracking and frustrating times with Bhuvan's laptop, where after each failed installation, he would go, what the hell human's have done to themselves and after the successful installation he comments, I know my laptop personally, we have got closer to each other!

N.B.

Me to my laptop: Dude, you are the best, am not at all talking about you, you are an exception, definitely out of their league..!!! :D

Heavenly God, please protect my laptop from all sorts of corruptions, malwares, viruses, anything that might damage it internally or externally.
Thank You.
Amen..!!!

Mar 12, 2009

A year after..!!!

Time does fly, and though I have experienced it innumerably, mostly in good ways, the realization of completing a year here in Ulm, Germany, was quite exciting. The sheer thought that I have been, and I could be independent, in almost an alien environment, makes it even special. Time and again I have mentioned in my previous posts about my span here, but this has its own specialty. To make it more ironical, I am receiving a friend, who has taken the same flight on the same day and hopefully will reach here also at the same time. It'l feel good to say "welcome to Ulm!" for a change. So off I go to receive my friend, as I prepare myself for the year to be.

Feb 22, 2009

The Study Holiday 'vows'..!!!

The Educational system works and expects us to work meticulously, right from the start, ordered something like - attend classes, learn, study and prove(exams..!!!) on a 'daily' basis, except for me, this is more of a hypothesis. So I generally work like attend classes (possibly), learn (if its not a boring lecture..!!), study (not daily..!!) and ofcourse there's no escape from the exams. Exams are kinda fun, makes me realize that I have learnt something. However, the en route to them is kinda testing, the fact that keeping a month's time to learn the 4-month course work, obviously does put up quite a challenge. One of the few things, which seems to be always by my side, preventing the nostalgia from springing up (lame excuse..!!).

Right then, as always I start the course work with a month's time before the exams in the so called 'study hols', and as it always happens, the plan would easily envy the best strategists, except that the best plans would never get laid [:P]. Right from the school onwards, the special affinity to 'utilising' the study hols would always sprout new interests other than studying, unfolding a wide activity range from decorating the room to helping folks with home-work. On a normal day dismantling my computer would be quite frustrating, but during study hols it would be like an eight year old opening his b'day present , the fact that I had an old computer made the job even easier. The most curious incident would be finding the most interesting novels during these times, making me wonder - how in world I didnt get my hands on it a month ago or rather - time for some literature! The syndrome seems to have come with me here too, with a small modification, of finding amazingly addictive sitcoms, just a month before the exams. If it was naruto (I'l always blame this on William-my roommate) in the first sem, its How I Met Your Mother (totally Madhan's fault..!!!)this sem. It also happens that I find the best songs and new artists, making me ponder more on their songs. In the end, the day just ends with me actually taking a break to study in between, rather than sitting before the laptop and watching it continuously, where the actual scene should have been the reverse. A reason why I dont stay at my dorm during the evenings on the weekdays and the weekends peak with efficient time waste. Anyways, as I am about to finish this post, as I listen to 'Beautiful beats by Nada Surf' (One of the recent discoveries, today to be precise -an amazing song..!!) my next step would be to watch one more episode of HIMYM, and hopefully complete the topic that I had started today morning.

Feb 11, 2009

Meet your dream partner..!! er..!! say wht..!?

First of all, the fact that am posting this topic in this week, has got nothing to do with v-day or the v-week, except for the coincidental burst of prolonged frustration over the non-stop pop-ups and ads in the internet. The foundation note - over a period time, as the source of entertainment has improved, the advertisement sector has only augmented its annoyance.

I am not completely against the ads, as I have a few of them in my blog itself (doesn't seem useful, thinking of removing them..!!), but how silly an ad could get. The one topping the charts are the cosmetic creams ones (Fair and Lovely to quote one of them..!! :P), where the person would grow fair in 6 weeks (yeah right..!!), and giving them a tough competition has to be the underwear ads, where the person hooks up with the opposite sex coz of a better brand (in the name of God, please..!!). Like people go around wondering what brand the other person wears! Not much needs to be said about their timing and the models, especially the brand Poomer, Poombukar (people from South India would know this..!! I wouldnt be doing justice to them, the brands, by explaining..!!!), T.T, etc.

My personal favourite has to be the ones with the phrase 'Meet the singles in your neighbourhood', 'get laid tonight', 'meet your dream partner', blah blah..!! The basic conclusion one can reach from these ads, is the ignorance of a country's local ads towards the movie stars of other countries. I have seen Nayanthara's pic like a million times in those ads (for people who dont know Nayanthara, she is the latest Tamil Film industry sensation, 'Kollywood' really doesnt sound good..!!). Need I say about the comments put underneath them in the ads. The intriguing part is that these are gaining momentum in social websites, like orkut and facebook. Even if you consider them to be in the same domain, seeing them in news websites just puts you to the epitome of frustration, atleast me. Picture this, a news of bomb blast somewhere, and when you click the link, the first thing that pops-up 'Here are the females in your neighbourhood', and your mind takes the form of Dr.Hannibal Lecter, probably one of the few reasons why I get bugged of internet.

Feb 6, 2009

'Dementor-ed'..!!!


A hectic day, with Murphy doing a Disco on you with all his laws, the last thing you would want to see is a pathetically foggy evening, completely sucking out all the glimpse of cheer from you (Dementor-ed - to talk in J.K.Rowling's language). I almost experienced a Harry Potter, except for the Dementors. Right then, after glorifying winter, the snow, the ice, etc, in my previous posts, I cant help but only lament, not coz of the winter but its duration, lasting for a bloody 7 months. Too much of anything always gets on the nerves, and this is a perfect illustration (as if I asked for one...!!). The sun, with its celebrity status in this part of the world, makes sure that its importance is acknowledged (wouldnt mind spending some time for suryo-tsavam, if available..!!). The last summer, having experienced just a month of frost, I wondered about people going crazy during the summers. The sounds like, "Hey its summer..!!", "we are going for a hike..!!" , "lets go cycling..!!", "BARBEQUE..!!!", "woah..!! swimming", "fishing..!!" (in God's name please..!!!) and lastly "what are you planning for summer?" would reiterate. The only thought that would come across, quite obviously, "so its summer, big deal..!!", after coming from a place where summer lasts for major part of the year. Less did I know that realization would blow such a jackhammer. At lunch, with my colleagues, the only discussion I get with me, "so, how are you handling the winter?" and each time my answer has only got bitter and bitter. The seniors had also warned that winters are depressing and I got my answer to the question, which had prompted then, "Winter..depressing..!!??" Its not like I havent experienced winter, but only for 3 months. What could get even worse, or in a way is also a positive part, is lurking behaviour of the sun. If it appears for 2 days, making it a pleasant day, it disappears for the next 5 days. The positive here is, atleast it appears for those 2 days. "Who's complaining of the sun or the heat now?" Time does reverse..!!! I surely need some tea (substitute for chocolate) and a patronus charm..!!

Feb 5, 2009

A small step or a giant leap..!!!


Quoting Neil Armstrong, the landing of Apollo 11 on moon, is a giant leap, inspired from a small step. The intriguing part here, which struck me is, the event does not have to be as big as Apollo 11 landing on moon, each and every step is giant leap, except that one realizes it at a later stage.

Talking about the subject, I was just having a chat with a friend of mine, and as its been raining relationships (engagement, marriages, babies, etc) in the past year, I wasn't surprised to get the news of the engagement of quite a close friend. However, what did strike me is the closer are the people related to the event, the greater is the impact one takes on self. It took me sometime to dissolve the news. It is good and sometimes unbelievable(talking in time sense..!!) to get the fact that people who have been around us and spent time laughing all the way, are in those small transits, which eventually are the giant leaps for them, and in-turn for everyone around them (One needs to get serious at some stage..!!!).

Personally, a year and a half ago, I remember sitting before a consultant, who said I could go abroad in a month for studying and I was like, are you crazy..!! So,when I landed here, the fact that I was going to another country, was itself a big achievement, but as I turn around, it is a small initiative, as the survival so long, has over-whelmed it. What lay forth is a series of Hurdles, every leap on a hurdle, requires a short run, made of small steps..!!!

Jan 29, 2009

"I Hate Computers" ..!!!



This is the line that has kept richocheting my mind for the past one and half week, which has almost been a testament to my tolerance. Computers could be the most frustrating element on earth. Personally, computers and I have never gone well with each other. My first comp (back in 2001), broke down within 6 months and somehow it survived on its deathbed for the next 4 years, or rather I tortured it towards it slow death. Ofcourse I tried to take care, by frequent servicing, but all in vain.

The next one, a laptop provided in my company, started to freeze itself within 2 months I start to use it. The worst part, laptops older than mine, functioned with a million applications on, without even a blink (some deep conspiracy! only if I could get my hands on Mr.Babbage!! ). Well, what makes it really frustrating is, one doesnt bloody understand why in the world its not functioning the way it should, or rather, one does not have the access to the information and when you think you have got clue, you are not authorized to know the information (what the hell!?). And finally, when you feel, that the jinx is over, realisation of a hallucination strikes venomously.

The past 2 weeks, I have been trying to install an application in a few computers, again a few computers (not one..!!), which installed perfectly in the previous ones, would just not go here, giving the worst possible errors, which would drive not only me but every around me crazy. Ironically, the funny part here is, everytime I ask someone about the error, I would get an immediate expression, "Holy Cow, thats the first time am seeing this..!!". Well, one cant blame someone for not seeing the error earlier, but there is certain humour there (dont judge me as a sadist..!! its Mr.Babbage..!!). Yet another irony, I write this post on my laptop, which has so far proved to be a harry potter's wand. I hope it waves its magic to its fellowmates too.

Jan 15, 2009

Final Destination..!!??


The lecture was at 10 am, and surprisingly I was ready by 9 30 am, to catch the bus. Obviously something was not correct, considering my previous history of being just in time when the Prof starts to close the door or eventually even later. Nevertheless, I just thought that it was one of those nothing-goes-wrong day. So as I was about to leave my dorm, I pinged Bhuvan, to check if he was ready, and we set out to catch the bus at 9 32am, precisely. The bus stop is around 5-8 mins from the dorm. When we reach the bus stop, a rather, ahem, interesting conversation commences between Bhuvan and me and when we say interesting, we generally narrow down on very few predictable topics of sports, the recent diplomatic stories (or rather our own international diplomacy..!! :P) and ofcourse the main, 'Women'.

Bhuvan: Dude, am so much reminded of Bangalore, when I see this place. Anyways when I was in Accenture, Mumbai, there was this hot chic called Richa Sharma, whom we used to call rank 1 and there was a friend of mine, whenever we went for lunch, he just used to say here she comes, without even looking at the entrance.

Me: Bhuvan (in an irritated tone), for once stop comparing everything to your so-called-Bangalore. So talking about Richa, looks like all the Richas are the hot ones. I knew someone named Richa and she was phew! Going by statistics, the same applies to few more, like all the Aditis'.

Bhuvan: Thats so true man..!! Yeah and there used to be another chic, we used to call her rank 2.

Me: You should have had a better numbering order, well looks like bus no.5 's here, its a round trip in this, and is followed by bus number 14, which is crowded, lets wait for 3.

Now Bus No :5 takes a longer route to the uni while bus no: 3 is the direct one.

Finally the bus (which we thought to be bus no: 3) comes.

Now the scene in the bus.

Bhuvan: Yeah statistics says, the sowmya's can be approximated around 50-50.

If you are wondering what 50-50 is, it means 50% of the girls are good looking.

Me: yeah and generally they are more of book worms. But yeah the Shruthis', they goto around 80-20

Bhuvan: Noways, 60-40 will be better. But there's only one Aishwarya machan.

Me: Thats so true. But now even thats gone. The last movie where she looked amazing was, Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam and a bit in Devdas. Going by this rate, Minissha Lamba will lose her charm soon. But the one still in the race is Preity Zinta

Bhuvan: Yeah Minissha, she's 26 right. But Preity, I dunno machan.

The discussion and research, pretty constructive, completely took over us and we hardly realised where the bus was headed to.

In the meantime the bus stop here was Botanischer Garten. Our stop was 3rd stop from here on the left. On any other day, generally the bus takes a left after stopping at botanischer garten, however, we were a bit surprised to see the bus taking the right and going on the outer ring road and the time was already 9:50am. What made it even worse, the bus just didnt stop anywhere near and when we reached the stop, it had already traveled for 15 mins (which is a long distance in this small town of Ulm..!!). When we got down, both of us uttered in a typical Sachin's ad campaign, "Main kahan hun? (where am I?)". Luckily help came to us immediately, as a girl who had noticed Bhuvan's panic, when the bus took the other direction, directed us back to uni. The bad part was, we had to walk all the way back to uni, as the next bus, was only in the evening 4pm. Now the big question, was, what was the bus we took. As I got down, I made sure to take note of this which was bus no: 45, evidently quite a late information. So with temperatures of -2, we started our way back to uni. It was a long journey of 20 mins, eventhough we found a short-cut among the lost paradise :). Now Murphy couldn't have been more wrong. As we reach the bus stop close to the uni, Bhuvan, the genius, decides to draw some cash from the bank (just adjacent to the bus stop) and it so happens, we miss yet another direct bus. It was definitely written somewhere that it should be a long-walk-day for us, with another 10 mins walk to uni. So we land up in class, missing the first hour. However, the one good thing here was, the walk greeted us with some amazing landscape beauty . When I sat for the lecture, I thought that it was almost nothing-go-wrong day, except that, the thought went wrong.

Jan 10, 2009

Halaal (Bhai) for an hour..!!

Now, its the 10th month of independent life stage going on for me (with respect to living alone..!!) and the journey so far has been nothing less than exciting. Not that I don't miss my folks back home, which forms the only part of misery I have to go overcome, but the thought of a new tomorrow suppresses them. So I carried out one of the explorations today of cooking non-vegetarian dish and thought of trying out a complete chicken. Earlier I had a bad experience with Tuna but a good one with Prawns. It was chicken's turn now. So got a full chicken, not cut, just with the proper dressings. The first look at it, was pretty satisfying, which was short-lived, when Vamsi and Eb (both good at non-veg cooking!) chuckled saying that this was the most difficult as it would take hours to cut it into pieces. How did they know, they fell for it too :D.




Not the kinda feedback I would ve liked to listen, nevertheless, I couldnt return it now, so had to do something about it. An easier option would have been to soak it in spices for sometime and shove it in an oven, but our dorm doesn't have one. So had to go the tougher option. As I started, with every cut, my respect for the halaals (bhais in tamil) only kept increasing. I had to take be extra careful not to cut myself (already there isn't much part of my hand left without a bruise!) and the fact that the chicken was slippery, didnt make it much easier. It took not less than hour to finally cut them and start cooking and finally after 2 hours, I was able to hog on to some chicken delicacy. Oh yes! they were delicious :)..!!

A pic of the same..!!

Jan 7, 2009

Donau..!!!

So as my experimentation with the poems continue, I lay down a few thoughts on the river Donau (Danube in English, its a french word though..!! :P). An amazingly beautiful one and one would never want to leave its banks in summers.


the slow rumbling sound as it moves
the sight is precious, you feel its grooves
the silent wind that hits your face
blows along the river, flowing with grace

the green meadow along its banks
traps one's eyes with its beauty enchants
you sit and you stand and you walk with it
you wish the time stays still, as you cover every bit

it was long, since I'd been to a river
Kharkhai was its name, as I now remember
it had its water coming from the ridges
there were no banks only the bridges

"sie freut mich!!" as I say in german
"it makes me happy" is its translation
Oh Donau, as goes your name
your beauty radiates beyond your fame..!!!

Jan 5, 2009

Ice Skating - The fun fiasco..!!!



Looks like the saga of fiascoes, has its eternity for me in Germany. The only good I see is to stop underestimating my challenges ahead, atleast the ones I am new to. So the previous month, being quite eventful with the temperatures refusing stay positive, thoughts of experiencing the maiden Ice Skating chance spurred in my mind, as the time was right. For a person who hasnt tried a rollers or an inline skates, I was pretty confident, after watching a few of the youtube videos and thinking all the physics and aerodynamics related to the same. Little should I have remembered the fact that the difference between a hypothesis and reality is unanimous everywhere. As I reached the place, the scene couldnt have gone worse, than seeing kids hardly reaching my knees, skating with an ease of eating Pommes (french fries in German! easily available food here!!). Surprisingly, I wasn't shaken up, as I had the physics all worked out, and I had not yet put on the skating boots. While renting the skates, it struck me for the first time that this might not be as easy as I had imagined, as I saw the boots with the skate of the thickness of 1mm approx. I just thought to myself that if I could balance and stand with those on, I could skate and I was happy to see that it was quite easy. I was able to balance myself infact walk with them, on the floor outside the skating ground. I knew I should have listened to the voice inside my head, not to get too overwhelmed! Vamsi and Andrew were already waiting for me near the gate to the skating-ground. The scene what followed will be with me forever, as I crossed them saying, guys this is easier than I thought, the first step on the skating ground, followed by the summersault stunt (accident actually!) of mine would have envied any acrobat, I bet and all the physics and youtube videos just went into extinction. The good part, I got on to hold something to prevent my head from getting banged on the ground and passing out, though sprained my hand and a few hits here and there. For the first time I realised, how slippery ice could be. Something consolidating, I was not the only one to experience this, Vamsi and Andrew followed it too :D. We spent the next 15 mins holding onto the railings and moving ahead, when a few people offered to help us. The next 2 hours, would see us on a cycle of novice-skating, falling, holding the railing, laughing, more falling, etc. a thorough entertainment for us, as well as for the on-lookers. We did decide to venture it again, as we had learnt quite a good deal on day 1, but other appointments kept us busy. In the end, I was happy that my list of unfulfilled things was getting shorter as the days progressed.