Radical Impulsions..!!!

Daddy's Back...!!!

2011-11-24T10:20:00.001+01:00

Alright, I get it, looks like the jinx is working. The day I started this, I was jinxed with the ability to keep it regular. Lesson learnt, never over-think to think over something, just go ahead and do it, ofcourse the rule has its exceptions. So on yet another stint to keep my blog alive, I try a return with a typical 'Barney Stinsonesque' stylish-but-desperatesque quote, 'Daddy's Back', which has got nothing to do with getting hooked up for a happy ending (I know it sounds so lame!). Nevertheless, its gonna be legend--- wait for it ---

Just before we get on, a few updates from my last post. I finally managed to graduate in Masters, after a struggle (physical - don't be surprised and mental) of around 3 years, for a course which was supposed to be finished in 2 years - ideal case scenario are always so hypothetical. Nevertheless it feels good to put a title like M.Sc./MS/Masters after my name. (yet again, lame!) I managed to find a job too and shifted to Austria, and hence the start of the Austrian Chronicles, (I'll try to make this exciting!) so yet another country on my list checked. Wait, it was never on my list, hmmm, oh well, yet another country checked.

A bigger outlook, India managed to win the cricket world cup 2011, for which I celebrated by getting my face painted. (Ok I agree its not as big as Poonam Pandey or Laura Riquelmy declaring to strip for World Cup win, but common its a celebration and not a punishment, nevertheless a bit of self -glorification!)

So that was a small brief on the updates so far. Here's hoping a new beginning, a new place and a new life turns out to be exciting enough to complete the first paragraph as --- dary, Legendary...!!!

Desire vs Acceptance...!!!

2010-10-13T01:37:00.003+02:00

Wow, I almost forgot about my blog! Well, its not like I have people waiting eagerly to read my next post, ofcourse with the release of 'Enthiran/Robot', my followers are bound to put my blog aside, else my blog's a bizmo (Someone really needs to cut off my wings, else there's no number on the cloud that I am!).

The past few months of anxiety, eagerness, disappointments, acceptance, etc, has resulted in this blog post, probably a bit on the serious side. I had to get serious at some point of time!

So Desire vs Acceptance:

I have heard this like innumerable times, "if you don't get what you want, accept what you get and probably its for the best!" and this has worked for me with an efficiency of cent percent, when I am a part of the latter.

However, I wonder what would have prompted, the one, to put down this profound statement. Is it a way to soothe oneself when one doesn't get the 'desire', or is it a search of happiness in what one has got. Well if its the first option, the person just sits with dejection, making a sorry state for oneself and everyone around, so that makes me believe, it has to be the second option (I know its not EUREKA!). But everytime, I think of that, it makes me wonder, what would it have been like to have everything one desired.

Actually the answer came to me as if I 'had' to read it. Desire has a synchronization with infatuation, ambition, lust, thirst, etc. In other words, non-physical entities, but entities of utter importance. Its them, which makes one move forward, creates goals and their path, urges one to work towards it and then probably achieve it.
On the other hand, Accept has a sync with acquire, gain, secure, etc, physical ones, which makes one believe that the effort put in has been acknowledged.

However, the harsh reality still retains the emptiness left by the unachievable, which might never get encased by what we have with us, but we can make sure, that we don't create another empty space.

Football Stories..!!!

2010-07-09T00:13:00.001+02:00

The World Cup for any sport, does create a buzz and sparks the interest, even if you know very little about the game. At times, even the ignorant, gets all worked up just because they are surrounded by the company, but what puts them into foray are, the moments and their enigmatic (am being very polite..!!! :D) expressions, and what follows is roars of laughter, completely indifferent to the match situation, and eureka, ofcourse.

Scene 1: Ghana vs Germany

Few of us decide to go for public viewing, x,y... (aah what the hell!!!), Eby, Ganesh, Arif, Krutarth and me. We enjoy the match, and the post-match celebration especially. Throughout the match Arif had an expressionless face while the rest of us kept jumping around the exciting moments. We didn't notice this.

Scene 2: Argentina vs Germany

I was supporting for Argentina, so from the 3rd minute of the match I was like totally down. GB, also vouched for Argentina and Eby for Germany and again Arif, we didn't know. And thats when suddenly Argentina gets a chance for a goal and the referee calls it an offside. I was banging my head on the wall and Eby was shouting all along and just going to drink water. The next moment, there was a projectile water ejection from his mouth, thanks to Arif, who came up with one of the most innocent questions, "What is an offside?" The other 3 of us were speechless, as we were screaming on the floor, Arif didn't have clue as to what happened. The only part of the match I enjoyed.

"Miss" - understand!!!

2010-05-07T00:34:00.000+02:00

So the other day was catching up with an old friend of mine. It is then that one gets to realize, how even a smallest quantity of time could bring about so many changes. I guess a moment's time is enough for a person to change completely and then you feel it serves good to accept the change, as 'change' is inevitable. It also helps one to notice the change in oneself.

Getting to the other side of philosophy (I know it doesnt go with my blog or tone :P ),I was probably talking to her after like 3-4 months and its like am talking to a new person. Ok, not literally, but with regards to happenings around her. We were on the general, quarter-life crisis topic of relationships.

She: Right, havnt you realized I have stopped blogging?
Me: Geez, whats with you people, stopping the blog after getting into relationship.
She: When you get in a relationship, you would get to do more useful stuffs than blogging!

Me: Yeah Right!

Ok, I decipher this as:

She: I have a dedicated personnel to hear my rampant blabbering, so I have decided to spare the world off my blog!

P.S. : 'She' dont kill me now! :D

Spur-of-the-moment..!!??

2010-04-03T00:30:00.004+02:00

"I hate them!"

Its a very contradictory notion, considering the name of my blog and what it stands for, but if anything my dislike for the this phrase has only increased. The reason is very logical, as it lasts only for a moment, which has a range of a few seconds to a maximum of an hour or two personally, and I seem to get most of my fruitful work done only within that time, with a few exceptions. Mathematically the ratio gets worse, as this accounts for less than 1% of my entire life time so far and nothing much can be done about it, as it is named so, to give the "moment", its importance.Apparently I seem to have found others who share the same notion. :D

A recent conversation, within a small group of friends (the content is cleansed for the benefit of the readers! ;) :P)

A: Machan, only after coming out, I have realized that we have done very less work. People here have done more.
Me: Well they could have got better guidance.
B: Yeah right! Nice way to put it out like that. We rather start getting serious.
A: Yep, I better stop watching "movies" and start doing work.
Me: Sure man, nice dialog in the 'spur-of-the-moment'. Let me call you tomorrow to check what the hell are you sowing where.
B: Yeah the lethargy does set in quite soon.

And so in the spur-of-the-moment I switch the play button on an IIT video lecture, which has been on buffering since yesterday, as I was supposed to hear it yesterday. Just when I think I have done the right moves, within next 5 minutes I get a video call from a relative and the rest is history! (Ofcourse the call lasted only for 5 minutes, but the moment's gone and lethargy creeps in.)

Reality or is it?

2010-03-27T15:10:00.000+01:00

Yet another striker from an one of the usual time-pass items of mine, anime, Naruto Shippuden, in this case. Explaining the scenario of this phrase could be a complication, so I will just put the phrase down, as the relevance with the scene is not required to understand the same.

"In-order to survive, we cling to all we know and understand, labeling them as reality. But knowledge and understanding are ambiguous. That reality could be an illusion. And we end up living in assumptions."

At the Airport..!!!

2010-03-11T23:24:00.001+01:00

Airport, always a fascination for the first-timers, but a state-of-art galaxy of boredom for the others, especially when you are out of books. You curse the place for the void of having any book stores and then you curse yourself for being too lazy to buy one (or cocky for postponing the same). After bidding adieus, getting past the nervy immigration checks, a place where the smallest stare(glare/confused look) from the person across the table could leave you sweating even in the Himalayan temperatures, and a case of clarification in your passport could make each and every pulse beat the loudest noise around (a personal experience and hence the description also an exaggeration to certain extent, ahem..!!! :D), and the security checks, the Herculean task of waiting for the flight begins. You start to have second thoughts on the saying "Its better to wait than to be sorry", coz at some point you feel sorry for waiting, especially when you have to travel with Air India as they have a history of being late. Its just gets worse when its well past your dinner time and the fact that you eat less during your travel days, is just uncalled for. Just a scenario for inspiration, and that came from a small infant, or should I say an army of 5 infants.

As the seconds got slower than a snail, I did nothing more than turn my head in a 210 degree rotation for the last 20 mins. It did get on my muscles, in the form of a sprain. I had to stop. It was then that it started, from the infant sitting very close to my chair, a small-shrieking cry. The mom tried picking it up, but it only got louder and louder, and then it never stopped. Laughter is contagious, but with infants, "crying is contagious". I realized the number of babies around, only after those cries. It was as if an small number, sitting geometrically, at specified positions, so that every person in the section could hear them, resonating together. At first which sounded like a cry of despair from the kids, started to seem a thoroughly planned attack to create anxiety and to annoy each and everyone. And then we saw people gathering around the infants, ladies ofcourse, imparting their wisdom at putting them down, only in vain (At some point there was a teenage girl too, felt like she was taking notes, preparing herself..!!! :D :D). Somehow time started flying by, as this turned out to be a spectacle of curiosity for many and an entertainment piece for me, although the sound was driving me crazy. It then occurred to me their true motive was, to annoy, to suffice their boredom. Taking a piece out of that, I tried a hand at that and the result was quite satisfactory and thoroughly helped me pass 10-15 mins of my useless time.

So there was this female at a cafeteria inside, giving out real rude responses to people at her place buying out stuff. So she became an obvious target, coz annoying a person who is already annoyed is easy, else you need to think of a new plan to annoy a fresh piece. Anyways, a shop inside the airport, called for turning you solid cash to liquid. I was prepared a bit, but when she said the rate, I backed-off.

Me: Excuse me, can I have a snicker?
Shoplady: That would be Rs.80.
Me (thoughts): (Are you kidding me, Rs.80, for Rs.22 chocolate bar. No ways am buying that. So I just stood there without telling anything)
Shoplady: Here you go.
Me: Now staring from the chocolate bar to the lady.
Shoplady: Yes!
Me: Oh sorry, I meant I wanted tea! (Laughter in my mind...!!!)
Shoplady (with a look of eating me alive and sounding thoroughly rude): That would be Rs.30 and why dont you hand me the cash first this time. (To her helper) Make a tea for him.
Me (Fishing in my purse for the money and waiting till the guy had started preparing tea): On second thought, its already pretty hot out here, please cancel my tea. Thanks. Bye!

Su(a)ch is the man..!!!

2010-02-26T19:32:00.001+01:00

All right, am not going to write another big viewpoint on the person right now, coz that would throw other professional writers out of business and their articles will be labeled crap. Just a small discussion between me and my dad.

Scene on TV : Special award of 10 Lakh and a Micromax Q5 mobile to Sachin Tendulkar.

Me: Wow, we have a winner among the prizes. He's out there getting lakhs and among them, a 'chillar' mobile is given and thats also being asked for a pose!

Dad: See, at this moment, its not the man receiving a particular prize, but its price which gets the name.

Su(a)ch is the man.

At some point of time, one runs out of adjectives and hence, like I said: " 'Sachin' adj. - a new adjective added in the dictionary in relation to cricket, that describes batting at its best...!!!"

India Calling..!!!

2010-01-29T00:49:00.008+01:00

Days of anxiety have finally passed,

Happiness of familiarity has at last amassed.

The days are 33 from Feb 1st,

The spirits are high, quenching my thirst.

The reality is yet to commence,

But the illusion of bliss is pretty dense.

I only hope they reach their crescendo,

For it is to India, where I go..!!! :)

A Cat-Mouse story..!!!

2010-01-04T14:31:00.000+01:00

Doors banging, glasses breaking, things going "clank-boom-baam-bash-...", literally making any peaceful environment, a center stage of chaos, all the doing of two insignificant characters, with a rivalry equaling the US and the early USSR, and yet bringing a smile to everyone's face. Rings a bell! Yes the very old Tom and Jerry cartoon, one which breaks the wall for ages.

"It's a cat and a mouse story! What could be so funny about it?" was my first comment when a friend of mine, first told me about this cartoon years ago. Ofcourse, the explanation from his side wasn't too artistic enough to even relate to the original.

The morning of the 2010, greeted me with this pack on a German channel. Now thats whats wonderful about Tom and Jerry, you don't need a language to understand it. Just a kind of dose, I required for the new years day. Thanks to this the day turned out to be less dreadful than I had imagined. It did get me a bit nostalgic, on the days, where my Dad and I would fight for the remote to just get the TV on, to watch the same channel and same cartoon (Never wondered, why there'd be struggle for watching the same cartoon!!!). Nothing would prevent the sunday morning 7am show of T&J on cartoon network, until the stupid CAS (Pay Channel) system arrived. But then some other alternate channels would always air the show. I don't even remember how many times I 'd have watched the same thing, everytime it succeeds to burst my stomach open. I guess I even had a CD collection of the same. It worked all the time when we had relatives and their KIDS over. Everytime you feel like loosing control, just play it on, and there is silence in the room. Almost works with the adults too. One of the few things which makes you tickle, and instills the lost innocence in your laughter.

I know Deutsch or do I ..!!!

2009-12-30T10:44:00.000+01:00

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.

The Rebel..!!! :D

2009-11-18T21:44:00.001+01:00

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

Be a Roman in Rome..!!!

2009-11-10T11:12:00.001+01:00

"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.

Hit/Miss - No wait Spams..!!

2009-09-29T22:42:00.001+02:00

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..!!!

Whispers..!!

2009-09-26T00:11:00.003+02:00

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..!!!

Almost Conspired...!!!

2009-09-19T23:37:00.002+02:00

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.

There's always another door..!!!

2009-08-20T12:55:00.004+02:00

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.

Cards not in game..!!!

2009-07-23T22:34:00.004+02:00

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..!!!:).

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

2009-07-22T09:14:00.008+02:00

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..!!

Somethings are never right..!!!

2009-07-17T21:23:00.011+02:00

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..!!!

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

2009-06-29T20:44:00.011+02:00

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..!!!

Food for 'Thought'..!!!

2009-06-04T22:58:00.006+02:00

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..!!!

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

2009-05-05T20:22:00.008+02:00

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.

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

2009-05-02T00:29:00.004+02:00

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.

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

2009-04-21T12:08:00.008+02:00

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..!!!

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

2009-03-19T22:44:00.007+01:00

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..!!!

A year after..!!!

2009-03-12T17:31:00.007+01:00

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.

The Study Holiday 'vows'..!!!

2009-02-22T23:10:00.007+01:00

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.

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

2009-02-11T23:54:00.008+01:00

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.

'Dementor-ed'..!!!

2009-02-06T20:28:00.010+01:00

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..!!

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

2009-02-05T00:38:00.007+01:00

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..!!!

"I Hate Computers" ..!!!

2009-01-29T22:55:00.008+01:00

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.

Final Destination..!!??

2009-01-15T19:55:00.006+01:00

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.

Halaal (Bhai) for an hour..!!

2009-01-10T14:46:00.006+01:00

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..!!

Donau..!!!

2009-01-07T00:01:00.005+01:00

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..!!!

Ice Skating - The fun fiasco..!!!

2009-01-05T23:26:00.007+01:00

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.

December Greetings..!!

2008-12-25T14:42:00.009+01:00

Ok, its almost the end of December and I finally decide to put my laziness to rest and get back to posting after almost a month's hiatus. This post is a poem (well, thats what I call it! :D), which has been in my mind for sometime, but as this is my first one, I needed sometime to collate them into what we call the 'poem-like' structure. Its about the month December, which is quite evident, and my first winter here.

the Dawn seemed to take its time
the Sound of Wind devouring clear
the Snowy Mantle lay serene
on the color of Spring, which is green.
the Sprouting charm demeanor ornamental
to the damsel Landscape,
whose delicacy cannot suffice in narration,
embeds one's misery to oblivion.
the conspicuous grace of the Nature
drew me to an entangled delusion
and now I knew, how to say,
the December here, Greets its way!

Another change in Blog name..!!

2008-12-07T11:36:00.002+01:00

Greetings to December, and with it a new name for my blog again, and this time I hope its the ultimatum for the name changing spree. I know this could be irritating and my apologies for that. Nevertheless, the gut-feel says, this is here to stay longer. Just a brief explanation on what it means, radical has the meaning of revolutionary, unorthodox, resurgent, etc and I seriously dont know which of them suits this blog, the closest could be unorthodox and impulsion refers to those miniscule impulses that are mentioned in the description.

The Terrace - A Trip down the memory lane..!!!

2008-11-21T14:20:00.006+01:00

Right then, now that I have renamed my blog, although, not necessarily I will be writing in relation to the caption everytime, but it sounds savvy, :D. This post will ring a bell to a few of my blog's followers, and guys just correct me if am wrong anywhere. This also is a description of a few of my most enjoyable days in Chennai. The characters here, Ma, Mu, Ab, Ant and ofcourse myself (cant hide me, since its a personal story!). The moment, ok I dont remember the exact date (like hell I would!), +2 graduated and preparation for entry into Professional Entrance Exam (TNPCEE). I guess these people, if they are reading this post, already know what I am going to talk about.

Scene 1 (Ma and Harish, during the +2 -Board exam preparation)

A very typical day for a student going to give the board exams for the last grade in school, revising the books, looking through question papers, just to get one more mark in the practice tests, except that this misses some reality in it, keeping me on bed with the door of my room closed and fantasies just within my reach. Just then annoying ring of phone wakes me up and mom yells out "Harishaa" (Mom seemed to be comfortable adding a few a's always to my name, making it sound to eternity!!). "§$&%%§$&$%&, nice timing, just a few minutes more and I would have been a state topper". Anyways Ma and I almost had talks everyday, atleast twice, discussing 'also' about studies and just to know how much time the other has wasted, without studying. A mutually extended knowledge about the amount of time spent not studying, always helps in pacifying for the time I used to end up sleeping. However, on that Ma had a few things more in his mind to analyze. Being in +2 grade, options get streamlined and yes it was about a girl in his neighborhood.

Ma - "Machan (machan is a synonym to the common hindi word between two buddies like yaar and synonymous to dude of english!) saw this female from my balcony da, I think she studies in the school nearby, +2 grade, drives to school in cycle daily! looks like we 've quite a 'look' at each other. Her name's, Ry".
Quite evidently, my response, "I am coming over in the evening, at what time she returns? ". Ma- "I think 4pm, but then what will you tell at home?".
Me- "The usual, group studies! :D :D"

Scene 2 (At Ma's place, evening 4 15 pm, being on time atleast for some reasons!)

Me- "So where is she? did I miss her?"
Ma- "I dont think so, she must be coming this way in another 10 mins, atleast if she hasnt taken any half day!"
After an eternal 30 mins, the street continues to remain full of kids playing cricket, which was also good, as we can have a better look at Ry. But the Man above, had other plans, for no female driving the cycle went and we ended up sitting with books atleast for sometime.

The next few days, breezed past as the exams began, nevertheless, our gang Mu, Ab and Ant also came to know about this female, Ma had been 'looking' at, but we hardly got time to stalk-out again. Nevertheless, Ma enjoyed those instances of divine coincidence, and he also had a talk, or did he. I guess he will reply to this post, when he reads.

Scene 3

Mu's place, terrace, along with Ma, Ab, Ant and myself, pretty worked up times, for the entrance exam for Professional studies lay ahead.

Mu and Ma stayed nearby, separated by a street and the houses along the street were quite visible. For a change, the 5 of us were far from distraction, the seriousness of getting into the lines we wanted and in good colleges elevated and at times we realized that a break was badly required. The time 5pm, still very evident in my mind, coz that was when it started. I had just got up to give a stretch to a rather stout me, then, and turned around in the direction of Ma's house, when a sudden movement on the terrace near Ma's place caught my sight. Quite obviously, it had to be a female, so I asked the other guys, to check it out. And boy, did we have interesting scenes there, only for me to realize, that the other guys were already seeing in the direction. The girl, with open hair giving quite casual and suave walk on the terrace, with a good mix of some sleazy moves, intentionally or unintentionally, kept us glued to her for quite sometime, giving us the much required break (am not in for detailed description here..!!). It was a few moments until Ma realized who she was and he ended up screaming, thats Ry and thats her house's terrace. We only wished that the terrace would start moving, so that we could have glimpse of her face, only in vain, which Ma had already had a premier of. The next half an hour, flew past like it was just minutes, giving us the indication that break time's over, and time to get back to work.

That was the last time we saw Ry, Ma although had a few more glimpses, before she shifted her place. This post came forth, after I went through another blog of a friend of mine, retrospecting a few of my +2 grade experiences, as they were one of the best days of my life, bringing a smile whenever they creep in.

Blog name changed..!!

2008-11-19T00:41:00.003+01:00

Its been more than a year, since I started my blog, which got active only in the past few months and the previous blog name sounded a bit lethargic. So after spending an hour before my lappy, the current name comes forth, which also happens to be a synonym for "observation". I hope this one should stay a longer than the previous one, ofcourse under the condition, that I keep hanging on this blog...!!!

Rendezvous with Kitchen..!!

2008-11-12T20:56:00.006+01:00

My Mom's word's still echo in my ear, " Dei Harishaaa, come here, and atleast see how to make this Sambhar, I don't know what the hell are you going to do there(in Ulm)?" and as usual I'll go, "Mom! chillax, I will manage". I used to feel silly sometimes at those continuous recursion of words from Mom, and they always used to end with a warning, "No one will be there to cook something for you when you return from University, so better listen to me!" and evidently, I have never regretted those words more than now (Well, Mom also used to tell that, you will regret it there!). You are in a country, where there is only one Indian shop for selling Indian food and only one Indian restaurant, which sucks big time and the worst, you are not earning, so money management needs to be absolutely precise than those of the Chartered Accountants. Damn, these stats should have hit my head in India. Nevertheless the rendezvous had to be done someday.

The first day I arrive here and check out my room, the Kitchen appears as some alien land, with some hot plates. Oh boy, here we go. However, the first month somehow I managed, as mentioned before, with Bhuvan the saviour, who's an amazing cook. Nevertheless, the guilt finally took the better of me and I told Bhuvan, I can take from here mate. Hell I was ready. only if I could have foreseen, that huge disasters awaited me. I can't even think of those days of experimentation, which my stomach was put under, it would not surprise to see the stone get dissolved as some edible stuff making me burp! Everytime I would be talking to my stomach, consoling it, making it ready for the food. Suddenly for a brief moment the lunch at the Uni, who provided only-salt-spiced-German-'special' lunch tasted like elixir. The fact that I had no job till the first 4 months made it even difficult, as my brusque brain would calculate faster than a Casio 991MS for the spendings and we would provide the Indian shop with all the profits, who still enjoys his monopoly here.

Finally, in the month of June, the job came calling, for once something went right, and the first thing I do, get some great spices, though cooking lay in genesis. Incourse of time, I was getting better at combining the spices and my first decent-tasting-dish turned out to be noodles (not maggi!). For the next 2 weeks, noodles would be the main part of my menu with all sorts of combinations, with vegetables, egg, tuna (another disaster!), etc. However, there was a new problem now, with the exams creeping upon, the cooking would squander 2 hours atleast, if the work load at the Uni was not enough. Everytime I would enter the kitchen, Mom's words would automatically playback, as if someone forgot to change the record (I almost ended up playing music the next time!). Towards the end of July, finally I make something good to taste (ok, this is relative to me!), Pulao, what was even better that it would take a maximum of an hour and a half to finish it, and this time decreased subsequently. Now I can't say that I am good at it, but I can make something edible (very positive from my perspective!). Mom's words still echo, but feels good, makes me feel at home.

Diwali Dhamaka..!!!

2008-11-10T10:59:00.010+01:00

The previous 7 days were the most happening days, so far, for me in Ulm. Saturday, November 8, 2008 was a celebration of the most awaited festival back home, Diwali, in Ulm, the delay of 2 weeks could be accounted for the preparation time. It all started with gathering of few families and few students, in the early weeks of September, to organize the events, which had been going on for the past 5 years. Frankly speaking, thanks to Vamsi, I got myself involved in this, which otherwise wouldn't have brought in the feel of student (talking from the extra-curricular point of view), which was the only missing point. The first gathering, we end up meeting a few families, discussing the over-all layout right from the welcoming to the end. It looked quite simple then, with the layout looking just like, Welcome-Cultural Event-Dinner-End. However, I was quick enough to realize that this was not as simple as it looked and thoughts of giving my own performance also crept up my mind.

The following weeks breezed past as I had to finish another exam of my first sem, which turned out to be a bit disappointing, despite a better preparation. Nevertheless, I was happy that I sailed across. In the meantime, I start to plan on my performance, which would mean it was the 2nd time I was going to be on stage, the thought would just give a wobble to my vulnerable stomach. The best response for the event was the number of events we had in our hands, going upto 17, right from the families to the students and even the kids. Boy! those kids steal the thunder, just displaying their innocence (a prized possession!) on the stage, makes me go back to good old days. As the day neared, the excitement just increased. Just to know that you have an Indian festival being celebrated here, makes you feel at home and want to get back soon. Whats even better, the number of Indians one gets to meet here and one never gets surprised at the Germans' curiosity to check us out. So when the day came, we were not ready for only one surprise, the time. We were supposed to start at 5 30pm, and what do we see, the Germans storming in from 4 45pm. Being on time is something which is Germans' specialty, but hello, being ahead of time, was a bit too much to handle. Nevertheless, the welcoming team was already there.

Once the event started, I didnt even have the time to watch the time :). One moment it was 5 30pm, and next it was 11 30 and the best part was the end, where the stage was open and everyone including the Germans and others, grooved to fast-paced Indian music. I remember teaching some moves to William, his sister, Daniel and Diana (Colombians), who for change, tried on some Daban-kuthu (tamil folk) and a bit Bhangra (Punjabi folk). Not only they, but many other nationalities tried on some Indian moves. This had to be most eye-catching one. The clock hands had just struck together, when a friend of mine and me decided to call it a day and take leave. So after dropping her half way to her house, I took the usual path from my bus stop to my dorm. There was mixed emotion there, one where I was happy that the event was over, so that I could get back to what I came for, Studying and one where I was surrounded by emptiness, thinking about all those excitement which I will be missing for quite sometime. It did take me sometime to get back to books on sunday, and I ended up making a report with some music and doing a bit of dance while sitting on the table (I hope my report is not messed up :D!). I believe its a usual cycle, that one has a day of excitement, followed by an emptiness around oneself.

Entry into Swiss - A yearned dream earned..!!

2008-10-31T11:03:00.012+01:00

Switzerland, the name throws flashes of those snow-clapped mountains, where the hero and the heroine would be celebrating their mutually expressed feelings, the scene then changing to the beautiful landscapes and gardens, where one would wonder if such flowers ever grew on this planet, the wooden cottages that match so well with scenery, that one would feel if this is a natural phenomenon or did someone create this country. Evidently, it is one of the best places one would ever expect to be at and right from my childhood, after being exposed to our 'bollywood-style' movies, Swiss has been a yearning place, and for anyone I have come across, even for a visit. One tends to think the unfair scenario in films, where the actors are present in the hot-humid climate for once and the next scene, they are in this beautiful landscape which is a perfect compensation for time spent amidst the humidity. I remember the countless number of times I have closed my eyes and wished only in vain, opening then only to face the harsh reality, as if being there was not sufficient. Well for once, I had the last laugh, with the success of my plan to come to Ulm, which is a great place to study (the reality, not form the previous line!) and which is 2 hours from the Swiss border.

So on a particular weekend, which was just 2 days before an exam, Vamsi happens to ask me about a plan to visit Rhinefalls (Rheinfalls), one of the largest waterfalls in Europe, and I was like, what a timing, 2 days before my exam! I was thinking about that, when it struck me that, I was going to Swiss, whats wrong with me, what was there to think about! Immediately, with a conscious effort not to think about the exam, I make a call back to Vamsi asking him the itenary. Luckily, the trip turned out just as a perfect plan, with one day trip, giving me enough time for my exam preparation in the later part of the day.

We were a group of 8 people, 3 Indians, 4 Pakistanis and an African (talking about being multi-cutural!). One of the advantages in our State (Baden-Wuttemberg), is for the weekends, we have something called BW-ticket which is generally bought for a group of 5 people for 27 euros. That made our expense lesser. So we started our journey towards Rhinefalls and one I reached there, with all the thoughts of exam and the bits and pieces which I had prepared, creeping in my mind, I realized it was worth to give it a break. The beauty of the river flowing all-along the road, that we took to reach the falls was simply amazing and Vamsi and I stopped at almost every opportunity to sneak a snap. I was not surprised to see the count of pics on my mobile to 200, from 8 in the morning. I would love to give an entire description of the journey, but then it would take an eternity for the post to get over and the words never bring out the true picture.

On the way back to Ulm, we had a beautiful view of a lake, that we crossed, and decided to give it a shot. The Lake Konstanz, as if giving a perfect finale to our trip, turned out to be a stunner. It was unusually hot then and just sitting beside the lake was so soothing, that one would wish for the time to stop. The lake does attract attention during the summers and being a weekend, it was pretty crowded and just before leaving we thought of a small trip on the paddle boat. The water with the greenish tinge and the beautiful birds (damn, I dont know the breed!) just ascended its beauty. Only if I knew swimming, wouldn't have hesitated to jump in the water. When I returned home, I was thoroughly satisfied that day couldn't have gone better. Thinking so and smiling, I light up my table lamp and open the book to start my preparation. The album on the right pane shows all the pics.

The Warrior's Scar..!!

2008-10-27T11:48:00.008+01:00

Taking a piece from Biology, of what I know, skin is a layer who's basic function is to protect the internal organs (ahem! bioligists need to stop laughing at the naive description of skin). Its not like I don't know the other functions, but its not related. So when there are damages, the skin has a change of colour, from its normal colour, due to dead cells on them. Ok this post is not a scientific one. Just to make it sound fancy and not painful, right from my childhood, whenever I got hurt, my dad used to call them 'veera thalumbu' (Warrior's Scar), in telugu. Now one of the most common 'battlefields' (wanting to sound fancy!) to get them has to be the kitchen. I remember seeing numerous of those brown marks, on my mom's arms. Everyday, I would witness atleast one new scar on her hand, boy, never realized how painful would that be, until I started cooking. Right from the smallest, it would go upto around 6 cm in length, atleast the longest I have seen. Every time I used to tell her, just be careful, which she always is, but somehow they sneak upon you. My battle started with small cuts with the knives, again its not that am careless, but again they somehow sneak upon you, and yesterday had the fierce battle with a hot pan of oil, spilling over my hand, and thanks to my roomie who was quick to get a cloth and wipe it off and I spend the next 15 minutes keeping my hand in a pot of cold water. Something really funny happened then, the water was cold, but I felt it hot for sometime on the place where oil spilled. I tried switching hands, wondering if I had turned the tap in the wrong direction, it was correct. However, it was good to see that my senses didnt go crazy, as I started feeling the cold water in a few minutes. Those brown marks did appear by evening. I didnt know if I was happy or sad with the scar on my hand, eventhough it kept on burning for sometime, nevertheless, I have another of those 'Warrior's Scar' on my hand. Returning to the battlefield (kitchen) I did have the last laugh, as I always will, because the food was as delicious as it could be.

Play time's over, nevertheless, Seinfeld continues..!!

2008-10-20T13:37:00.006+02:00

I had never realized when I stopped keeping a count on the number of days in Germany. It turned out that the day denomination was small and I had to get on to the next one, Months. Yeah, that seemed easier, so as I write this post, its 8 month running. The going, so far, has been pretty good, with lots of surprises, quite expected, and a bit of studies ('lot of studies' wouldn't be doing justice on the amount of time I spend!! :D), which made me realize that this journey is not only about studies, but an over-all improvement. Well now what are we looking here, overall-improvement, lets see, I can cook, plan my day (execution of the same still remains a question!!), or rather "have to" plan my day, go out for a stroll at midnight - wait, thats not improvement- yes "have to" manage my expenses, separate wastes or again "have to" separate wastes, arrange and clean my room (though it does not need special mention, as I have kept my room clean, not sounding very over-whelming! :D), well the list does look pretty good.

So coming back to the point, amidst the schedule and Naruto spree, we received the announcements for our exams, and instantaneously there's a wobble in my stomach, as if my stomach had taken a roller-coaster ride. It did strike me, that I had given my previous exam almost 2 years back, but didn't think it would be difficult to accept the fact the I was heading for another one. Somehow, when one plans higher studies, I guess they miss the fact that exams do exist, or rather they have an overwhelming expression that it can be done (with the consideration that it would be a piece of cake!). Well, it was the latter in my case. Nevertheless, I had to get ready for it, the sooner I realize, the better for me, I figured. In between, I would think sometimes, boy am I really in Germany! This thought is like an alarm, I have been getting them atleast once in a month. Well in one sense its better, keeps a check on me :D. I thought, I better start burning the lamp for books. Well, the start was pretty good, you know those first day hysterics, or rather hype, where you plan to finish almost the entire 1st lesson, which is a third of the syllabus and you think that, that was not difficult, and still have a lot of time for exams, except you forget that its hypothetical. However, the good thing for me was, it did not take me long to figure out that it was hypothetical.

Amidst these, the 220 online-stored episodes were just getting over, and I was thinking what would be the next one (Ok, perhaps I shouldn't sound very enthusiastic here, I do study also!). While I thought this, I was on the usual practice of browsing though my laptop, as if to find some hidden folder, which would have been provided, mentioned as 'time-pass'. As expected, I was disappointed, I think I should suggest this to Microsoft, might just increase the sales, due to suspense factor. Sometimes, I find it difficult to figure out, if I am bugged off my laptop, or am addicted. So as I was browsing, I happen to see a folder called Seinfeld which my friend had given me, when he got the laptop. Suddenly there was an answer, as to why I was browsing through the laptop, there was a folder, which I hadnt been to for long :D. So I start searching for this sitcom and fail to find any episode online and I had no access to Torrentz, making it even difficult to get the episodes. In the meantime, one of my friend had just arrived to UK and he was talking about movies which he downloaded from Torrentz, and then, eureka! You guessed it right, we made a deal that he would download all the episodes of Seinfeld from Torrentz and transfer them to me. Although it takes around 3-4 days to get all downloaded, as long as I dont extend the limit, it was a good plan. Just for your curiosity, Seinfeld is a sitcom on the daily lives of 4 friends, something similar to F.R.I.E.N.D.S, but it came before and it does not involve any emotions, just laughter. This series was the best stress-buster for me, and I believe it will be for anyone. You feel depressed, then you have to see this to get light and feel yourself again. This turned out to be a way for me to take breaks while studying, where I would study for an hour or 2, with a break of a half an hour episode, especially, when you find yourself completely inside your dorm, for more than 15 days, on any context. Eventually that turned out to be the most difficult part of preparing for the exam. Nevertheless, the first one did help me figure out on how to prepare for the next ones.

Annoyment at its best..!!

2008-10-07T22:55:00.006+02:00

Its just that there are few moments, when you reach a point, where you would crack your brains out in deep frustration, trying to understand why some events happen just to test your limit of patience, or more easily put, if you think you are good, handle this brother! I come to my home, on cold evening, with a certain urgency for which I had to rush to washroom, suddenly the phone starts ringing, I come out, water dripping from my hands, reach for the headset, to attach it phone, only to find that its entangled in the worst possible way. Well there is nothing to wonder about it, unless I would have just removed from the same entangled position, a few hours back and kept it "loosely" on the table (I'l remember that now!), so that I could put it back easily on the phone. The result, nothing worse (something positive!), I couldn't attend the call, and I spent the next 5 mins unwinding the same wire, which I had unwound in the morning. I just cracked my mind, like what makes them to entangle, is it male-female bonding between the wires (Oh, dear, long time no see) or the positive-negative attraction of physics. I mean common, a person just unwinds it to find it entangled again. I remember the same situation, sometime back home, I was asked to remove those boxes of wires from the top (yes, being tall has some price to pay!), and those words were enough to raise my emotions to epitome of irritation. My father asks me to unwind a wire, and what could be worse, slowly and carefully so that it doesnt brake, and predictably the opposite happens and I end up tearing it. However, it doesnt change the fact, the minutes after this incident, I would give up thinking, as to why I would to reach to such an extent and end up laughing about it (thats the best solution to overcome such situation!). As I type this post, I have an eye on my headset, for each move it makes, to get entangled again, the worst part is I cant keep it separated for long, as it would occupy enough place on the already overflowing table of mine, so I have to keep it loose again. Well, I dont understand the ulimate motivation behind these moments, but I guess its just another emotion, but this has to be one of the worst, because you dont know the exact reason as what drives this irritation to such peaks. I wonder if this post, makes you ponder about such instances.

The Schedule and The Naruto Spree..!!!

2008-10-06T12:18:00.008+02:00

Coming back to my experiences with lectures and lifestyle change in Germany, oh yes it did change a lot, for once I started bunking the lectures. Ok, bunking doesn't really count here, as the attendance is not compulsory, but for a person, who's got a good record for attendance in schools and college (except for last 2 yrs of my college!), this was a "big step" :D. The schedule for a subject is divided into two, as lectures and exercises, and I used to make sure to attend all the exercises atleast, as that was more important from the exam point of view. The only lecture that had 100% attendance here was German, as I was desperate to learn it at the earliest. To make it more effective, William and I came out with a pact, that we would speak only in German, which didn't seem to work most of the time, and the only German words we used to exchange, were Guten Apetit (Have a nice meal!) and Gleichfalls (Wish you the same!), as we shared the same kitchen. The other reason for the plan failing would be our complicated conversation whereby we would end up talking in English. In the mean time, I had just completed with the entire 10 seasons of friends, comprising of 220 episodes, which seemed to be an achievement for me, but after talking to others I discovered that I was one in a crowd. One day, William came to my room and told me to watch an anime called Naruto. I told him, dude don't kid me, this is a cartoon (its not like I don't watch cartoons, as Tom & Jerry is always my favourite and ofcourse I like watching animated movies! but still animated cartoons as to running 250 episodes was something I couldn't accept to be associated with!)and am not gonna watch it, however he insisted to watch just the first episode and decide, which turned out to be quite boring. It had been a week after that, since he insisted to watch the episode and gave me link for further episodes. On a particular day, I happened to hear some voices of laughter from his room and came to know that he was watching Naruto, I thought what the hell!, lets watch it and it was episode 8, and thats when I saw why William wanted me to watch it. The imdb ratings prompted me even more to watch the anime.

Naruto is an anime about a normal boy, who aims to be the leader of his village and vows to protect them. The boy is not a born superhero, or one with special abilities, but its just the opposite, he is stupid, funny, annoying, neglected, one with big-mouth, etc. But the best thing about his character, is his will power, which has a never-say-die approach and he never gives up trying, and this is the reason for his success. The anime itself has the bottom line "Believe it". Well thats the catch that I had from this anime and its history from then onwards. This spree of mine was even bigger than F.R.I.E.N.D.S and it became one of my favourite cartoons. It still continues to be, I found it very distracting from my studies and that was one of the reasons why I had to finish it soon, so that I can have more time for preparation later for the exams. However, the anime still continues, even after 250 episodes, waiting for each episode, now, is pretty painful but the struggles of Naruto always keep you on the edge of the seat. The best thing about the anime is, some of the moments are displayed so well, that one would find it difficult to give up on it. It has everything required for a cartoon, to be a hit, which it is. The free internet and the google search made the job easier for me to locate all the episodes and stream them online. The next 2 months until july, my days would jam-packed with lectures, cooking, work (which I had started from second week of June!) and Naruto, quite obvious why I didnt realize when and how May and June got over.

The so called PUNKS..!!

2008-09-25T16:16:00.007+02:00

I still remember, seeing Amitabh Bachchan / Rajnikanth in movies earlier, fighting these huge- sized, weirdos, with almost shaved head except the center part, where they have quite long hairs and with colours like red, blue, green,etc. all over them, calling themselves as villains. The image got embedded in my brain, that this is how villains looked. I used to wonder, are these people crazy to have a style like these, even though they were called villains. Well, one does do crazy stuffs for movies. I happen to see these styles more, when I started watching star movies, the mid-80s rock star, with complete weird styles, like shaving just half of their head, tattoos, small are fine, but having tattoos covering almost the entire body looks pathetic! I thought such practices of shaving just half of the head were done here, to humiliate a person (chehre pe kaala rang and gadhe ki sawari!).

Anyways, I hope one would have understood, my personal reaction towards such styles, I dont mean to offend them, after all they are also called ' "styles" ' (its not gramatical error, but just extra quotes, for extra effect!). Well I never thought, that I would be a spectator to such styles in reality (again, not sounding very offensive!), but common, imagine I walk out of the Hauptbahnhof (Central station) here, I see a person, with half shaved hair, with magenta colour on the remaining hair, the ear on the shaved side of head with rings (4 or 5), black jeans and black leather jacket, and the best part was when I realized it was a woman. And what was even astonishing, she was only one of the many such stylists (I wanna sound optimistic!) I saw. My face was, woah! am I in TV, any shooting going on here? Nope she was a reality, I knew I should have taken a pic. Anyways, the tough part was to differentiate between a guy and a girl, black being their dress code, only the tops they wore helped in distinguishing, as their styles were so similar, a casual glance wouldn't be sufficient. What amazes me everytime I look at them, is their creativity on experimenting on their body (tattoos, piercings!), with the worst combinations of colours (blue, lavender!), thats the reason I have separate kind of respect for someone like Lasith Malinga (lighter note!). Some observation helped in distinguishing between the male and female a bit easily, the guys wore jeans so low, that at some point you would wonder, how is that jeans still on him. Apparently the women, wear tight jeans. Well, even if you are comfortable with these tattoos and stylish hair colours, and just when you start thinking that there not much abnormal about that, the piercings will freak you out. I still remember, when I got on the bus, I saw this female right before me, with almost 5 rings around her mouth, I mean who pierces in mouth, and 5 rings, 1 or even 2 rings are quite common and how does she even eat! Gimme a break! Well I had to turn my face immediately, or I would have ended up either shouting or laughing. Well, on one side, I cant stop being amazed at them for experimenting with themselves at these extreme ways, in which one would imagine and thats a pretty difficult thing to do. I mean even if I would want to do such stuff (which will never be in this lifetime!), just for say, I dont think I will do it, just thinking of others reaction, but for them to reach to such an extent, they have my appreciation.

The Real Game Begins..!!

2008-09-22T11:09:00.004+02:00

After the fun-filled snow war trip to certain place in Alps, the name of which I have finally discovered as to be Oberjoch (pronounced as Oberyokh!), we had a small session of music exchange with our German class batch. As I had told earlier, our German teacher became quite a good friend of ours and we had decided on a small musical exchange session of each country, 2 Australian (Peter and Matt), a Costa Rican, a Columbian and an India, ofcourse me, in our dorm. This was good time, listening to some famous typical Australian music, there's difference in the type of music, even though they have the same language of English, Pablo (Costa Rican) playing some of his Reggae tunes, William (Columbian) playing some of his Spanish songs (which I have found a certain liking to!), our German teacher, Ivana, playing to some of her favourite German songs. From my side, they danced to the tunes of Delar Mehendi's 'Rang De Basanti' and the melody of 'Malargale Malargale' from Love Birds. This was happening on April 13, 2008 Sunday evening. The next day was the big day, April 14th, when we started some serious studies.

So the day begins, with me getting up on time, for a change, 8 am and starting for my class, which was to begin at 10 am. I didnt want to be late here also, and hence reached the place 10 mins before time. The lecture was Communication Engg., which as per the seniors, is the second most difficult paper in Uni Ulm. There I sit in the lecture, with a hope to make sure that I understand each and every word uttered by the professor. Taking about whom, this was the first time I was sitting in a lecture, where I can really say its a Professor, coz he was a Doctorate, and he had published some innumerable papers and he was having the latest laptop for lecture (its the fancier part!) and he was the head of 2-3 research groups. Back in India, we get to see such professors only in IITs. And I realized something else, when the number of degrees for a Prof. increases, the extent of one's comprehension of his words decreases proportionally, atleast thats what I experienced. Nevertheless, being the first class, introductory and history of communication, there was nothing much to understand, it was not the same in the subsequent lectures. The lecture lasted for around 2 and half hours, which made me feel worse, coz my limitation for any lecture back in India, never lasted more than 30 mins, with my ultimate concentration levels, and here all the lectures lasted atleast an hour (Oh brother!). Well I figured out, at some point, the early, the better, I have to get used to this, if I have to reduce my stress during the exam days. My schedule was not very grueling, it was comfortable, with 1 Technical Lecture on Mondays and German class in the evening, another Tech and Cultural Crossroad on Tuesday, 2 Tech and German on Weds, free Thurs and one 4 hours Tech on Fris. In between we can have an appointment for lab, whenever the supervisor and we were free, which was generally on Fris after the lecture. Finally I was relieved, that the technical course had started, however, relief is just related to my feeling that the course had started, the part which came next was not so relieving.

Gender Variations..!!

2008-09-16T12:46:00.006+02:00

Yesterday, I was helping out one of my seniors move out, and we were having a normal conversation. In between conversations, she would stop and think and then again start talking, quite evident that something was bothering her, which she revealed that she was thinking if she had taken everything or missed out anything. This reminded me of the situation when we used to travel out of station, my mom would always start freaking out just an hour before we start for the station, thinking if she had switched off the gas, is the house locked properly, are the windows closed, the balcony door locked, etc. and by the time the train starts, both me and my father would make big attempts to tell her that everything is in place at house, but still those small doubts keep bothering her. So when I told her this scenario, she told me that this was because women are responsible people, i.e, they take responsibility easily. So we had quite a calm argument on who takes the responsibility better, the conclusion for which was brought about by she telling me to watch after my marriage. Nevertheless this scenario only makes me wonder, when does a woman have the ultimate sureness that the job is done and perfect. I feel this is the precise reason why they take such a long time shopping also. Men know what they want, and goto the place where they know they would get what they want, however, when it comes to woman, the moment they enter the shop, they start getting unsure, if they have reached the right place for the stuff and even if they have or have not, they would not leave the place until they have a look around for stuff which is present there, whether they want it or not. Without doubt, this is the only reason, which would drive any man crazy while shopping with a woman, who knows what she wants but is unsure whether to buy the stuff she doesn't need now (there is difference between what you want and what you need!), just because she is not in the right place. Whats even worse, men are posed with the question, do you think I should buy this. Consider the situation, that a woman wants to buy a saree, but the same shop, knowingly or unknowingly, has a jewelery section, now anyone would be attracted to have look, which is quite understandable, but the thing that really puts one off, is trying out on almost all the pieces, and finally deciding on the buying a particular piece of jewelery, which has to be one of the costliest (ok, money does not count in every time, but still!), and which is not the need of the hour, and by the time you reach the saree section (which is why you came for shopping!), it would have been two hours since you started. Well if thats not enough, consider this, reaching home and saving up the bill, just incase if they wanted to exchange, I mean common gimme a break. Exchanges are acceptable if the thing gets damaged, but exchanging almost every time you shop, what was the necessity to buy it on the first place. No wonder the word shopping lights up any girl's face, but its opposite incase of a guy, when he has to take her (well not incase of all, but most atleast!). However, all this doesn't change the fact, that they help the men choose, one of the best, though that takes some eternal time, but ultimately its a better one than what the man would have selected. The only conclusion I can make, is for any woman the thing called 100% surety on anything is out of question.

Trip to Alps: Episode 2: The Snow War..!!

2008-09-15T11:51:00.016+02:00

The evening on the first day, gave us a small idea on what have Hillary and Norgay
would have gone through, while climbing the Everest, though this cannot be compared to even 1% of that, but atleast we knew what they had achieved, was not a piece of cake. The storm was so enormous, that our visibility levels were zero, we couldn't see the our neighbours, when we were outdoors, and neighbours here I mean who are standing like next to you. I cant even imagine going out in that storm. Just to give you an idea, this was just the start of the storm. But in a way it was good, as none of the students ventured out and everyone was forced to stay together and we ended up having a great time.

So the next morning was pretty good, except for the breakfast. The worst part of this trip has to be the food. Not sounding very negative, it was pathetic, especially, after going on a spree of cornflakes, milk and honey, imagine on the trip you eat bread, cheese, salami, etc, I don't even want to think about it! But still had to suffice my hunger. Fruits were a good substitute, but again not as good as it sounds. So we start our hiking trip now, but even before the trip we started the 'The Snow War!'. Its sounds something very childish, but a person of any age, cannot stop the temptation of making rolls of that snow and throwing at others. Bhuvan, tried to act brave by wearing just the kurta and no overcoat, and was submerged in a pile of snow as soon as he came out. It was a lesson, that dont take such chances when you are in a place surrounded by snow, you make enemies within seconds :D! Vamsi and myself were already involved in war, but the heaviest contribution and fierce rivalry came from the Egyptians, as they were making rolls of the size of bowling balls and throwing almost at everyone. Finally not withstanding it, a group was formed between the students from India and Pakistan (wow, now you didnt expect that, did you!) against the Egyptians. Here started the real fun, during the trip, around every corners, the Egyptians would gather themselves, and start rolling up snow, and we would send a bait, which had to be Bhuvan most of the time, and start throwing of snows. Bhuvan would always find himself submerged in the snow. During all these, the students from China, acting very diplomatic, would be the spectators.

I suppose, this was the best part of the trip, it was great fun, especially coz our team would huddle up like those american rugby teams, forming strategies to bring them down. Finally the war ended, with both the sides doing equal damage to the players ;) and by the time we reached the our dorm, we were tired enough, that only beds miraged before our eyes. Again in the evening, the weather got worse and we regrouped together to have some good time in the common room. Winding up, here's a pic of the people who fought the snow war.

Trip to Alps: Episode 1 - The Start...!!!

2008-09-11T11:17:00.012+02:00

So finally, after a month of knowing about Ulm, getting my German fiasco corrected (sigh! I actually dont have a count of them!), the cooking experiments (in this case I was the test piece! not a big surprise, no one would have given an attempt even if I agreed to pay them!) and lots and lots of F.R.I.E.N.D.S, we finally had the technical group gathering, where we were told the schedule for the next 3 months and though it didnt sound hectic, it was. However, the best part about the beginning was, we were to goto a place in Alps (its some complicated name, I cant recollect now!) and we had this induction program there, on the top. Now thats what I call an induction program! So we were supposed to gather at the Ulm Hauptbahnhof (Ulm main station), a train journey of 2 hours and then a hiking trip of half an hour. So the preparation for that, ahem, was quite overwhelming. I ended up wearing 4 layers of clothes and then a jerkin, just to be cautious, as it was the month of april and still snowing.
So the assembling time was morning 8am, which meant that I had to wake up early (damn!), which I managed to. Just had the usual amazingly healthy and boring breakfast of cornflakes and juice (man, am becoming a foreigner!) and started off the Bahnhoff (station). By the way, if I am using more German words in the subsequent posts, it must be considered the extent of my knowledge in German and not that am blowing my own trumpet :D! Talking about breakfast, sometimes, I wonder if I am really eating anything in the mornings. There was a time when I used to have chapathis, dosas, upmas, etc and never ate rice, nor drank milk and its just the opposite now, eating cornflakes in the mornings with milk, the afternoon food includes rice. Makes me wonder am I really in dreamland and is this reality. Anyways, but cornflakes does give lot of energy, even though its thoroughly boring. So I pack up some fruits and take water, and leave the dorm with Bhuvan. Surprisingly, we were well ahead of time, a change from being the usual late person, which made me really uncomfortable. Guess being on time never suits for a person of my caliber :D. And so we started our 2 hour journey in the train, which was not so entertaining, as it was crowded and I ended up sitting in corner listening to music on my ipod, which most of the others followed.

As we came near to the station, the beautiful scenery reflected on everyone's retinas, and people were swaying between the two sides of the train, wondering which side to look. The amazingly beautiful snow, covering the tip of the mountain, with greenish tinge of trees appearing in some places, is simply unexplainable. The digicams kept on clicking, even though the clicking speed was slow, making the pictures the worst representation of those scenes. And I was still trying to use my 2.0 Megapixel mobile cam in Sony Ericsson K750i, to bring out the best images possible, only in vain. The person beside me, William, using his 10 MP digicam, would just look at me, and I could comprehend each and every word:

William: "Dude, I am using a 10 MP camera and am not getting a descent pic with the train moving so fast, and you expect to catch a pic with that 2MP mobile cam of yours. Gimme a break!"

I was obviously intimidated by his digicam, nevertheless my pride didnt give up and returned a look telling, "Duh! you dont know unless you try!" Anyways, I was on the loosing side, for obvious reasons, else the Cannon company would have shut down. So we finally reached the station, and then we were able to take some good snaps, ofcourse in William's cam, I had to give up.

We took a bus from there and moved on further, and again those snow covered mountains, with traces of greenery in between, just got framed in my mind. Even though I repeat it a million times, the words dont express the real beauty. We reached to a certain part of the hill, and the path ahead was a small hiking trip of 10 mins. Well it was not really a hiking, just walking on the road, but the it was such a slant, that once if you would start rolling, you could easily return

all the way back to the station from where you took the bus. It had to be atleast a 60 degree slant on which the road was laid and walking up the

slant makes you feel even bad. To make it worse, I happened to realise my 4 layers of clothing, due to which I had started to sweat, and the baggage that I had packed. Well, I am sure, that i would have reduced most of my excess fat in that

particular strip of road. When we finally reached the top, which seemed to take an eternity, it was like heaven and it was just for a moment, as we had a storm approaching and had to get into our rooms immediately.

The evening was really good, except for the dinner, which I dont even remember what I ate, which explains how worse it would have been. But after the dinner, the real fun started, we had one of classmates playing some amazing tunes on the guitar and a few of them indulging in an entertaining game of cards, which included us. Perhaps the only moment so far, where the entire batch was together. We had to hit the bed by midnight, as on the next day, 2 long hiking trips, amidst the mountains, awaited us.

On a F.R.I.E.N.D.S spree..!!

2008-09-04T12:11:00.008+02:00

One very common tradition for people, during their studies is, getting used to sitcoms, atleast from my perspective, and having a whole database of links, where you can watch DVD Rip of movies, sometimes even for those that have not been released, etc. I will be concentrating more on sitcoms in this post, especially only one, which is quite obvious from the title. Among the German classes and fluctuations in my emotions, they kept me occupied. A year back, or never would be precise, I knew that I will get hooked up with sitcoms to such an extent. It like a permanent closed gate, once opened, never closes (Ok! Its metaphor! :D).

So there was this sitcom called Friends, started in 1994, I guess thats just a few years after we got cable in India, when The Bold and The Beautiful, used to be the words in everyone's mouth, for quite obvious reasons. However, in the next few years I saw a major transition, and Friends was the buzz word everywhere. I did want to start watching it, but I couldn't bring myself to sit before the tv, exactly at 7:30pm or 8pm, waiting for the show, or whatever. The internet came and it was quite sometime until a few years back, where one could easily download any episode, anytime and watch it anywhere(Sounds great, perfect for me, but who will give such a large amount of free download capacity on net!). Well things happened, a few years later, when I was in Ulm, for my Masters and free 24 hrs, high speed internet, awaited on me. A thought came, that this was my best chance, not that I had only this in mind, but I realized I had to use this opportunity efficiently.

When I was among these thoughts, something even better happened. I went to William's room, and happened to see this pack, called Friends, 40 DVDs, 10 seasons, and I was like, Oh My God! (you can say its equivalent to Jannes in Friends! :D). And thats when it started. I started completing 2 DVDs a day and each DVD had 6 episodes. It was as if I was getting tired of borrowing DVDs from William or frustrated waiting for him to get a new DVD, when he wasnt there in his room, that another classmate of mine, provided all the 10 seasons on the hard drive. And I was like, what more could I ask for. I still remember, every episode, was just tears of laughter, great timing dialogs, and I just couldn't get over it. I was able to complete this sitcom in less than 2 months and some of them told, you took so long to complete it. I mean, what the hell, I have to go for lectures and they were like, yeah right! No wonder, it did the buzz word for so long. A brief intro on the characters for those who have not watched it yet:

Monica: The super competitive, organized-freak Friend, always looks to be best in whatever she participates.
Phoebe: The sweetest and sexiest of all the Friends, always in her own world.
Rachel: The spoiled beautiful girl of a rich doctor, who runs away on her wedding day, when she realises that someone else turns her on, than her fiance.
Chandler: The sarcastic Friend, uses humor as defense, thats what he says, and works as Process blah blah, even I dont know that.
Ross: The geek Doctor who is fanatic about his Paleontology profession, and gets divorced thrice before the age of 30 :D. Also Monica's brother.
Joey: The stupid Friend, who cant use his head for anything but is a master is wooing the women.

Some of my favourite dialogs from Friends:

Joey to Monica: Common Monica, you are going out with a guy, there must something wrong with him.
Chandler: I wish I were a lesbian, Oh did I say that loud!
Ross to Chandler: Whatever dude, you kissed a guy!
Rachel to her dad on phone: May be I dont need you money (the phone goes dead), oh wait, I said may be!
Phoebe to Ross: Oh oh, you aura is so dirty!
Monica on her prom video, where she is fat and weighs around 150 pounds: Camera adds 10 pounds on your image. Chandler: So how many cameras were on you?
Ross: I did give up a career in Basketball, to Paleontology!
Joey: You are hurting my Joey's Apple! (relating to Adam's apple)
Chandler: I can't remember, which of Joey's 7 sisters, I slept with!

I guess, everyone should watch this atleast once, not necessarily at the same pace as mine, but yeah its fun and best way to beat stress. Also tells us, that nothing remains unsolved, if we start talking.

Pearls from the Sky..!!

2008-09-04T00:47:00.003+02:00

I was going through my posts, just for review, actually feels great to know that people do find the blog good, just builds up more confidence, not sounding very overwhelming though (:D), I came across a comment. Well, it was not a bad one, my friend had just posted that, this was more like a personal diary (Thanks Aparna!). Now, I dont know if I am stupid or what, I actually never realized that. Its not bad that this is like my personal diary, but its just that I never realized that, and thats not the only reason I had my blog for. Actually, I shouldn't be talking about that, as when I started the blog, it was like I would be reviewing everyday activity, back in September 2007. Thinking of which, I restarted my blog around the sametime, I hope this again doesn't meet the same fate, as earlier. Ok now this post is not all about this blog being a personal diary and me going crazy over, why I never realised it, but just posting a different topic. I will continue with my experiences in Germany, in the subsequent posts.

Anyways, when I was in Kindergarden, I remember looking up towards the sky and wondering if there was a big shower somewhere above, for the rain. I am sure everyone would have had their own theories. The cartoons would display the cloud to be a packet holding water and the lightening acting as scissors and cutting through it to drop rain. Kindergarden, is supposed to be the days when the brain is most active, as we develop our own theories, within our limits, and with pretty satisfactory results too, until they are proved wrong by those printed pages of bound organizatons called Books (I hate when they are right!). So coming back, but apart from those theories development, the one thing I never forget is the smile it brings on my face. I would just want to go, run, roll, sleep, play, whenever those pearly, white drops come down from the sky, but in vain, as when you are that small, you are supposed to be heavily watched over, even one step out in rain, and Harish you are grounded for the week(Crap!). Well they had their reasons, who would want to keep going to Doctor with illness, for playing in rain, almost everyday. Especially, after a sunny day, however, being sunny or rainy harldy brought a big difference, but there always used to be some connection between those rainy days, when I was more happy.

As I grew, I came to know the real reason behind rain, those evaporation and condensation, blah-blah, however, this hardly changed any effect of those rainy days. It was just that during these rainy days, most eventful things happened for me. Ok, remembering, I had my first serious accident also during a rainy day, not sounding very pesssimistic, blinded by rain and going at a speed of 60kmph, on a scooty and trying one of those movie stunts, where people drive with their eyes closed in rain, what do you expect? Well I learnt something, movies and real lives are different. I would simply find some reason, just to go out get wet in rain, even if it meant pushing my scooty pretending to be punctured, or reaching half-an hour late for my computer classes.

Now, am in a different country and I see that my inclination towards the rainy days hasnt changed a bit. Just one shower, and everything seems so fresh and so green. Even the smell of rain, the smell of sand or earth during rains, just brings on the goosebumps. Well looks like I ended up making this post also personal.

The Following Month..!!!

2008-09-02T15:21:00.007+02:00

Over the next few hours, after our German exam, and my short-lived happiness (higher German level, with no chics..!!! hmph!! cant get a better sad-happy condition), we were alloted the classes according to our level. The classes start everyday at 8 30am in the morning ('Darn, so early, I haven't managed to get up before 9am!') till 12 noon. So the next day keeping that in mind, I try waking up early, but only in vain. I found this amazing ability, where I could switch off the alarm subconsciously. When I woke up it was already 8am ('Class in half an hour, forget it Harish! But yeah first classes always have albeit, searching for the class and stuff'). So somehow, I get superfast and manage to have my breakfast and dress up within half an hour ('Man, am I a super human!'). I have always wondered, should there always be a critical situation for me to act super efficient. Anyways, so I end up going half an hour on the first day of the class as usual('I could see the reactions of the others, what a guy to come late on the first day!'). However, I was surprised by my German teachers reaction. She was pretty cool, ('Thank God!'), actually she looked pretty good too, and was quite young compared to other German teachers, for Vamsi and Bhuvan (ha ha..!!).

The next four hours were tough and superb. Tough, because we were allowed to speak only in German in the class and good coz I learned a lot in the first class. The other good thing about my class, was the huge cultural diversity, 2 Australian, 3 Egyptians, 1 Finnian, 1Thai, 2 Chinese, 1 Costa Rican, 1 Columbian and 1 Indian. Wow, I really didnt think it was this big, until I mentioned it here. There was one thing about this class that I could never forget, again something to do with my name, thankfully not a great deal. While passing the name list, I mentioned my name as Harish N and German teacher, started calling me as Harishn (just for pronunciation it sounded- Harishen). ('What the hell, thats my Last name.') I didnt have the energy to correct it again, only to see hear everyone calling me Harishen, and William continuously asking me, that isnt supposed to be your real name right?, suspiciously. Everytime I bump into the Egyptians, they ask, what is your name, Harish or Harishen?, which I do clarify to them, but everytime, common that was not funny. So finally, after one month, when my introductory German class was finally over, I told Ivana(German Teacher):

Me: Mein Name is Harish und nicht Harishen. N ist mein Nachtname. (politely, my name is Harish and not Harishen. N is supposed to be my Last name).
Ivana: Achso, tut mir leid, du muss früher zu mir erzählte. (You should have told me earlier).
Me: Ja, aber mach nichts, das ist ok. (No problem, its ok)

So finally I correct my name. Talking about Ivana, she became quite a good friend of ours. Before finishing our classes with her, we also happened to go out for a get together. It is always good to have someone younger, as a teacher, compared to the oldies (:D). Not to forget the fact, that I ended up going late on all days. My earliest to class was a day, when I was late by 5 minutes ('It has to do something with my Bus driver, I reached the bus stop at 8:15 that day!').

There was quite a lot of mixed emotions in this month, for me, like the first thing was the course had not started yet, so there was no pressure. In weekends I would spend sleeping, till late in the afternoon and once I wake up, lunch would ready for me, courtesy, Bhuvan. Before going ahead, I have to mention here that for the entire first month, my eating urges were taken care by Bhuvan. Everyday, it would be like an order, the dinner would be either salami sandwich, or if am bugged with that, I would call up Bhuvan (I try hard not to bother him, but in vain! :D):

Me: Dude, whats for dinner?
Bhuvan: I havn't made anything yet.
Me: Ummm, how about besibela?
Bhuvan: Yeah I make real good Besibela.
Me: You expect that I was gonna say, that am making Besibela bhaath, ofcourse you are only making it.
Bhuvan:$&%&$%&, atleast for a change, make something dude.
Me: Machan I have no probs, but I dunno anything in cooking, so eat at your own risk.
Bhuvan: &§$%§$%, alright, come up in an hour.
Me: You are the best, buddy.

So this is how I end up, giving no other choice, for Bhuvan to cook. He does cook well though. But yeah, now I have started making my own food, dont wanna be bad mouthed by him always (lighter note), but seriously dont want to be dependent on him, though cant say much about the food I make. On the other side, Vamsi had already started his tests and his experiments were turning out to be more than successful( once when I had a chance to taste, his food, it was pretty good). ('Boy, could have I asked for anything more, if Bhuvan doesnt cook, Vamsi dude, am coming over for lunch/dinner'). A normal weekend routine would be, wake up at 11 or 12, log on to orkut, call Bhuvan at 1pm for lunch, watch some movie, again call Bhuvan at 9pm for dinner, goto sleep at 2am. However, among these were moments, where I would feel pathetic, as I had no part time job, and I was learning German, even though I knew that Technical course would start in a month, having the thought that around 325 euros were going just was learning German in the first month would drive me crazy, I would end thinking if this was a good decision. But somehow, I would gain courage to calm myself. These things made me realize, the different reasons, why studying abroad has never been a piece of cake and I guess it never will be.

The German Exam

2008-08-26T14:12:00.003+02:00

I return home, thinking about the German exam, not worrying a lot, but the thought of 14000 bucks almost being wasted was disturbing me. My dorm, named Frauensteige 2, is a doublet, with 2 individual rooms sharing, a kitchen and a bath. So I happened to meet my room mate, William Enrique Fonseca Barbosa (and I thought only we had long names) from Columbia (South America), when I returned, who seemed to have arrived in the morning on that particular day. Later we ended up talking about the cleaning and the purchase routines. In the evening, we got our internet connections, and boy what a relief from some heavy boredom! I started to think, that walls were to be my companions for the next 2 years. One would have easily guessed my next step, yep logged onto gmail and importantly orkut, " now everything felt right!" Thats it, I began wondering how the entire evening had passed and suddenly it was 10pm. No wonder, there was a certain amount of pain in my stomach, indicating my hunger. Having worked in a software industry, I should have known that computers are addictive. "So what do I make for dinner", was the thought that came up, not that I had an entire list of options to select from, but I didn't have anything. "Sigh! Ok, lets have some cornflakes" , it was a pretty enthusiastic decision, considering the fact that I had apples, milk, cornflakes and honey. That pretty much shows that, that was the best option. So for the first 2 days, this was my breakfast and dinner, thanks to Mensa, that I got to eat something different at the university.

So the next day, on the day of German exam, I wake up at 9 am (Test was at 10am). "Damn! what the hell?" , it seems that I had kept the alarm, but somehow I managed to turn it off, when it rang, one can understand these oblivion sleeps, due to the change of timezone. "Hurry, hurry! I dont want to be late as usual, and that to for this exam!" , was my only thought, but in vain. Luckily, I had an accomplice "ha ha, much better",William too was late. So we goto the particular room, "damn those two, Vamsi and Bhuvan, how come they are on time? traitors, grrrr!" I went to the last row, as it was the only empty place we had. "Why is Vamsi not writing anything? Not a good sign!", I thought to myself, then I realized that he didnt learn German in India. "Anyways, lets do it!" We were given the question paper, and the instructor told that the exam was for 45 mins. "Wait, wait, we arrived 15 mins late, so we have only 30 mins then?" , I had just finished thinking that, and then, "No grace time!" , I heard. "Are the Germans Telepathic." "Ah! well, cant do much about that now."

But when I went through the question paper, I was full of smiles, as I was able to do most of the questions, and only if I had come earlier, I could have completed the question paper, well before time. In between, I saw Vamsi giving me a smile and leaving the room, within 10 mins, and even Bhuvan was not to be seen. William did tell me that he had learned a bit of German. So, we were the last to leave the room. I had to leave last 15 questions, allowing me to attempt only 45 out of 60. We were told to wait for the results and in the mean time, the instructor would help us to know the Erasmus team. There were around 80 students taking the exam, I suppose. We were given an invitation for the Erasmus party in the evening. And then came the results. They said that they would be calling up names classified by the course level as 1a, 1b, 2 and 3, in the ascending order. However, after giving the exam, I was sure that this performance would not put me in basic course again. As they had started calling the names, Bhuvan and Vamsi were put in leavel 1a. And I was surprised to see, that my name was not called in the course level 1b too. All the 14000 bucks utility came to my mind and was such a relief. And then I heard my name, again sounding really bad, "Neanndaaa.....gopaall Harish, did I say it correctly ?". I was already embarassed, nevertheless "Never mind, it was fine!", (Whats with this Germans, why do they stress on 'a' so much!) in course level 2. William was also out in course level 2. I was happy, but only for a moment, something caught my attention, there were no chics in Course level 2. When I had entered the examination room, I saw some great beauties in the 2nd row. "Wow, after all Germany was never a bad idea!", all the hopes in vain. It was as if my fate came with me from India all along. Even worse followed, all those beauties in course level 3, "damn, damn! if only I was earlier. Why didnt I wake up early?". I even had the temptation to ask for a re-test (lighter note), but whats gone was gone. Summarizing, course level 3 had around 70% girls and 30% boys. Anyways, I was happy that attempting fewer questions I was able to get that level. 14000 bucks, very very useful. I came to realize, that I was lacking in communication but written and reading skills in German were pretty good. But yeah communication still had a long way to go, nevertheless, it was good to see that this development will be in a country where German, oops Deutsch is the mother tongue (Deutsch ist die HauptSprache :D).

The Next Day...!!

2008-08-25T15:00:00.004+02:00

After a wobbling start to the next stage, the next morning greeted me with some beautiful snow around my dorm. However, this took sometime to sink in, as I got up with the usual gloomy, swollen eyes, asking for some tea, except that I didnt hear any response. It struck me immediately, that am in a different country, and what was worse, I didn't have TEA (damn, this was a bad idea..!!). This was something, I was really addicted to, back in India. Whether I eat or not, tea is a must for me, and now as I write this blog, I am surprised, that I have lived for 4 months, without having a taste of Tea. Not that am very happy about it, but still its good to know, that I was not actually addicted to Tea. Ok, if am mentioning Tea in caps, it has a certain amount of importance in my life, guess my close buddies will be knowing it.

So I wake up, to find no Tea, no newspaper, no TV (didn't get my internet connection yet), no music (both mobile and ipod were dead), hmph..!!!, one cannot ask for a more boring morning. However, I forgot all these, when I saw the snow outside my window, and thought of taking sometime off and viewing its beauty. It was amazing. I had seen snow earlier, in Kullu-Manali, but this was different. There were people rushing to cover their cars, some of them trying to start them, and this particular scene got embedded so deep, that I still remember every detail of that day. But I had to move on, I had to goto the university, to meet our coordinator, for doing all formalities.

So Bhuvan and myself, start off to the uni, thanks to the detailed map, it was pretty easy to spot the bus, except that we had to argue about the direction of the bus to be taken. The best thing about the uni was, for starters, the engineering department was located separately and easy to find. On our way, we happen to meet our first batch-mate, a girl from China. Even though we are the closest among all the neighboring countries, and we compete in all the fields, the biggest competition between both the countries, will be "Who memorizes whose names first?". I guess it took us 10 mins, to explain her our names and get her name, and still I dont remember her name. However, she had a pet name, which was rather simple, Jojo. There is no link between her pet name and her original name. So this is how the conversation went:

Me/Bhuvan: Hello, so are you looking for the Commn Dept?
Jojo: !?!?!?!?
Me/Bhuvan: Are, you looking for the Commn Dept? (extremely slowly)
Jojo: Ya, ya (shaking her head up and down..!!! I feel this is very common in China..!!)
Me/Bhuvan: Hi , I am Harish (Me)and I am Bhuvan (Bhuvan)
Jojo: Haaiisssh??? Poooovan???
Me/Bhuvan: (Great never knew my name could sound so bad..!! Bhuvan please take the honours of explaining) I guess I can write the name (Bhuvan) (Brilliant - Me)
Jojo: Ya, ya (Again shaking her head). Oh oh Haariisshh (r extremely silent)(Chalo, a bit better than the last time..!!) and Boovan (ha ha..!! mine was better - Me)
Me/Bhuvan: Whats your name?(Bhuvan) (I am not going through that again..!! - Me)
Jojo: §$%§$"$%..!! (believe me, i still don't know..!!)
Bhuvan: May be you can write it..!!
Jojo: Ya ya

And so somehow Bhuvan got her name. And then, the impossible happened, 5 more Chinese appeared, and we ended up explaining our names for the next half an hour, and thanks to our coordinator, we had to stop. Then came the usual, formality section, filling up of n-number of forms, (isn't there an easy method to do this..!!), but I had to appreciate our coordinator's patience to put up with us for almost 2 hours. Vamsi, arrived late, as usual, and then we set out to have a tour of the uni. Our bank accounts were opened and then we went to mensa, (Lunch canteen in the uni), there again I gave a failed attempt to reclaim my lost heroics, in German. So this is how it was:

Me: Entschuldigung (Man this is the only word in German that I have mastered..!!) Was haben Sie .... für Mittagessen ?(Tanslation - What do you have for lunch?) (Ok, that was better than before)
German Guy: %§$%"§%&$%&$"$" in German
Me: (damn, I havn't learned food names in German..!! fine, lets go step-by-step) Sigh, Können Sie Englisch sprechen?
German Guy: Ja, so we have .....!!!
Me: (Someone, grab and pull me inside the earth..!! I can see Bhuvan and Vamsi, with all giggles behind me..!! Guess they could have done this better..!! well it can't be helped)

What came next was going to be really interesting, we were supposed to have a German classification test the next, to put us in different levels, based on our German knowledge. (Man with this kinda remembrance, I spent 14,ooo Rs. on German course in India, and I will be back where I started..!!), and to make it worse, I didnt bring any German course books with me (damn the baggage limits). Ok Harish, get ready for going back to Basic Course Level in German, not that anything is bad with that, but I spent 14000 bucks learning German. And so, I go back to my dorm, waiting for my German exam the next day.

The First Few Minutes after we reach Ulm...!!!

2008-08-25T00:24:00.003+02:00

So, thats what it was to begin our journey. Sigh!!!. We just hoped, we did not have to go through the same coldness for the next two years, if you know what I mean. And I must say, we were in a place, where this has to be far from reference. Ofcourse, I did not mean that all the rooms here have heaters (uh..!! ok bad one..!!). There we were in the station waiting for the person, to accompany us. We met the station master, and here, I thought of bringing out my heroics, as the other two friends of mine, didn't goto any German class. So this is how I went about:

Me: Entschuldigung...!! (Whats next..!! what next..!!) Kannst du, nein, konnen sie... (uh..!!! sigh..!!) Englisch sprechen?
Station Master: @#%@##@$ (in German)
Me: bitte..!! (so it was true, not many of them know english)
Station Master: directs his hand, and shows us the direction...
Me: Danke... (darn..!! any tom, dick and harry, without finishing a single level of German would have done that..!! and I am supposed to have finished 2 levels..!!screw me..!!!)

Well, I finally ended up making a big fiasco, as I had realized that it was more than a month since my German classes were over and I had forgotten whatever I had learnt as I had lost touch, not that I would done any better if I had, just a mere satisfaction that those classes were useful, however, which was not to happen (not sounding pessimistic, as later those classes came in more than handy). So after this fiasco, I ended up talking with him in half english and half german. And then we were able to see the person waiting for us, relief crossed our face.We were given a file for each of us, and the first thing I noticed, that the address was just 2 lines (saves me energy, to write those big addresses, as back in India!!!). It was decided that among the three, Vamsi, Bhuvan and me, Vamsi would be going in a different dorm, and Bhuvan and myself to the same dorm.

As we started our way outside the station, we had to buy the bus tickets, and thats where I spent my first exchanged euros, and believe, it aches a lot to spend some money when you know that its actually being converted some 60 times of the money at your country. Well I realized, that I had to get used to it. The best thing about that evening was, I saw the first snowfall ever. It was not heavy, but drizzles in the form of snow. Summarizing, cold wave entry, german fiasco, euro expense within minutes of getting to Ulm and then snow. Not a bad start at all, Harish.

We get to our respective rooms, and believe me people, tracing where you are in Ulm, is never going to be difficult, which anyone coming from a crowded country, would easily realize. I figured out that it must be the same through out Germany. To make it even simpler, we were provided maps by the university and so well detailed, that no one can ever get lost. The person, who brought us, also invited us for the dinner and the returning part was a challenge, as we were on our own. We still had some arguments, and luckily we got on the right bus back home. Special note, our dorm was near Ulm's biggest brewery (not sounding very appealing, but just as a landmark). And so we move on...

First Step outa Country..!!!

2008-08-21T17:17:00.002+02:00

A normal software professionals' day, it sucks, was coming to an end, just when I happened to open my mailbox and the usual filled up inbox, but my eyes kept searching it, as it did for the last 2 months, the news that would lift me off this boring, monotonous, software job (am not against software, but it was the kinda job I did). Well those drained twins, keep searching, even after viewing the high radiation monitor for around 10 hours, they kept searching for the news, until their persistence paid off. The mail had come, from the University of Ulm, for a 2-year Masters course in Communication Technology. The day of excitement and enthusiasm, started, as for the first time, I was going to step outa country.

Well the preparations had started much before the mail came, not sounding over-confident, but still the German class, learning a new language is always fun. The next 3 months were full of discussions, with seniors, friends, batch-mates (luckily found two of them) and was good to know, that someone will be there to accompany throughout the the next 2 years. So some spice was added to my software life, every evening would be full of excitement, with all the preparations for visa, traveling, studies ofcourse, etc. I still remember, this friend of mine, who conducted a 100% fool proof visa interview, from Germany, before my original interview, giving me different tips to answer. The biggest challenge was laid forth by the airlines, giving a baggage limit of only 30Kgs. But then, thanks to a comprehensive check list of items, I was able to save some expenditures, except for the unavoidable ones and luckily my baggage was just enough.

And then the D-day had come. It was good and I was really overwhelmed, to see most of my friends turning up to see me off (thanks guys..!!!). So it was first trip to the airport, the inside precisely, and I still reckon my walk being dead slow, and my head turning almost 360°, hope my eyes could go back too, not amazed at airport, but just to be careful checking if anyone is calling me. The baggage check was done, after a last wave of bye to my parents, there I was with flight ticket, moving towards the plane. The only traveling mean, I hadn't used yet (well Helicopter and Rocket do not count, i hope). It was the Qatar Airlines, and was ahem, a bit crampy till Qatar. But then from Qatar to Germany, it was quite comfortable, nevertheless, I spent most of my traveling time sleeping.

And then we landed at Frankfurt, I was still trying to believe that I was 100s of miles away from my country infact in a different continent. Well realization soaked in once I was in one of world's busiest airports, the design, the complexity, just eluded any other airport I have been to (ok I have been to Mumbai airport). The first step in Frankfurt was not that bad, as we did feel a bit cold, but what awaited us later was a complete shock, as we were struck by the cold wave, which is supposed to be usual, when we stopped at Ulm. None among the 3 of us were ready for that, we were just with our jerkins, and we were literally frozen, when we got down at the Ulm station. Probably that symbolized the way the next 2 years was going to be. Instinctively we reached for our Big baggage, only to find it sealed, luckily I had my winter clothing in hand luggage and put it on (thanks to my friend's advice). So there we were in the Ulm station, still recovering from what struck us, and waiting for the person to receive us. The three of us realized that the journey had just begun!

A wasted Post or Rapid Propagation of Thoughts..!!!

2008-01-16T11:50:00.001+01:00

After nearly a month, realization struck that I had a blog to update. So there I sit back and start to think hard, on the topic, and this process takes another week, not helping though, with me just going to my blog and clicking on the new post link and then signing out and again I start to think of a topic but in vain. So here I sit just to fill this page up with a random lines, just to see on how many different topics can I think at the same time. After all blogs are meant to drop in your thoughts, irrespective of meaning, until it serves a purpose.

Time to reverse and I go back 4 months somewhere in September, where I decided to put up a blog and taking a resolution to update it everyday, atleast once in a week, with all sorts of infos, in all fields, right from politics to fashion, giving my views and thats I named the blog. But time plays a cruel role of stealing those moments from me, where I read the newspaper or watch news or read something useful on the internet. Internet, the mere word reminds me only of computers, which I relate to irritation and I come to realize of the proverb, too much of anything is always harmful. But we have gone to an extent, where we cannot eradicate comps from our life. A thought immediately comes to my mind, that have gone that bizarre that the moments not spent before the comps comes as a surprise. Guess only the people under the age of 10 (exceptions) and the CEOs of various concerns can do without one. Coming back to the issue of my blogging, I failed to keep my resolution of giving a daily update on events, weekly update for that matter, but I pity myself when I consider that I have to sit and type out such a blog on a comp, why couldn't be there a better option. But what could be a better option, another comp with an added feature of voice recognition or a notebook which can take in hand written scripts. The very thought makes me nostalgic and I revive all those times, when I used to long for a comp and internet, I do not and cannot remove its positives though. Else, I wouldn't be writing up this blog or sitting before one for that matter.

So having said this, I feel like a hypocrite who wants to make a journey towards technology which demands more of intelligent machines, in other words making more comps and serving a purpose of making life easier, but I think now, is it easier? Guess I could never give a satisfactory answer for this question, as I myself propagate the need for people to buy comps, so I finally come to a debatable question, why did I ever write this post?

The Wrath of the Darkness...!!!

2007-10-24T13:52:00.001+02:00

He parks his vehicle.. gets down.. looks around for a moment.. the few bright glimpses of the flash lights.. amidst the darkness.. the darkness.. the very word brings him crashing down to realization that he has to walk.. and keep walking.. and so he does.. until..

And so he walks until he reaches an entrance.. very bright.. or atleast appearing bright.. trying to enlighten the darkness.. but in vain.. and all the others smiling at him.. expecting him to reciprocate.. but he couldn't nevertheless.. he does succeed in showing something artificial.. but how long..

And so his artificial smile shows up.. and he could see the others recognising that.. but he keeps his head high.. and moves ahead.. the entrance brings the chills.. the cold vibes going deep till his spines.. and he realizes inspite of his numerous appearances.. this is so new to him.. the person at the entrance seems to speak to him.. but he doesnt hear.. however out of practise he moves his hand and the man does a nod and he moves ahead.. takes the lift and stops at the floor where he goes always..

Out of the misty windows he views the darkness.. with a bit of drizzle and the others enjoying them.. feeling its freshness on their face.. all except him.. he moves on.. envying them.. moves and this time he feels even cooler.. all his warmth overcome by the rough chill.. but he has to move on.. until..

The chill seems to get in his every part of the body.. taking over warmth from inside.. but still he drags himself.. moving ahead and finds the usual.. the blue color chair where he always sits.. only to face the wrath of the darkness.. but still he moves on..

He goes and touches the blue chair.. twisting it.. and then sitting on it.. and closes his eyes.. not wanting to open it.. but has to open them.. but before that he does something different this time.. he moves his hand and touhces the flat small pedestal before him.. full of ridges and furrows.. his eyes shrink with pain.. as if not wanting them there.. he moves his hand further.. feels another pedestal, a bigger one this time.. with flat front.. a cube to be precise.. and his eyes shrink with even bigger pain.. and so with utmost unwilling desire.. he opens his eyes and comes to realize there is no escape.. no relief but the only truth which he has to face and he faces it.. and so he goes on.. with the truth revolving in his mind.. that there is no other go but to work for the next 8 hours in the night shift.

A Controvery or A Comedy...!!!

2007-09-30T15:51:00.002+02:00

Ok guys here goes my third blog...!!! And this is has been hitting ma mind for long now.. so I thought of dropping it down over here, so that hits your mind also.

It was started sometime back in December 2006, now thats a month which no one will forget easily, thanks to Tsunami. However there are other events too which make this month unforgettable like Christmas, New Year Eve, etc, and something else, yep there you hit a string now, "THE SETHUSAMUDRAM PROJECT". Its almost going to be a year since the start of this multi-crore investment project, which involves the dredging of the sea sand from the base to create a canal for the ships to travel, and yet I have been pondering over the real initiative for this project. Just got to know some great infos, striking me like a bolt.

Now this is a 2427.40 crore, wow..!!! now thats a whopping investment. And if you think that the project is really worth the money, well we need to think twice after the following facts. Now the main motive behind this project, as I understand, was to prevent the burden for the ships coming to Chennai port from the West, to travel around the Sri Lankan border, and come through the narrow channel which is being dug up and is named as the Sethusamudram Canal. Now thats a very effective strategy, or is it? When the ships are travelling from West from a long distance, say countries like Africa or America, for example, it gives a bit of saving in money, only, how? Well, now that the channel is being made the country needs to pay for using the channel which compensates almost for the expenditure for a ship going around the Sri Lanka. Neither is there saving in time as the ship needs to go only at speeds of 8 to 10 knots per hour in the channel when it can travel at speeds of 30 to 35 knots per hour. More than this everyone does know about the environmental impact, the negation of which still surprises everyone. This channel opens up the place for easy smuggling, making work difficult for the coast guard. And last and the most important, this channel breaks the Palk Strait, which is said to be the bridge built by the VANARASENA of Lord Ram in the Ramayana. So the big question here is, is this project worth the investment, after all it is our money which is being invested, just on "societical" note.

Now that the Palk Strait is gonna be blasted, the sleeping politicians have got a reason to start a fight over this, going for state visits, taking the oppositions to challenge, telling everyone that they are the true disciples of Ram, oh common!!! give me break. We have the other side of the debate where the other one does even bigger comedy by asking the proof of Lord Rama's presence. Wow..!!! now thats what we call the need of the hour, what a reason they found to blame each other, cant get better than this. And whats spicy even the gurus take part in this debate, making the fight even more interesting, the usually calm and poised gurus getting violent, thats scary. I aint saying that I dont believe in Ramayana or Mahabharata but is this a reason to gain publicity?

Anyways the main point, however, lies here is, even after a year of commencement of the Sathusamudram project, I still ponder over the worth of the project. Is it really bringing in the savings that we are expecting, or yet another black cloth is being tied around our eyes? Guess I'l have to wait and see.

Hockey - A Forgiven Glorifying Sport

2007-09-28T13:17:00.001+02:00

Hockey - A sport which put India on this world map. Sometime back, the sportstars and sporting authority in India only dreamt of sending teams for Olympics, a time when the Indian Hockey team used to bring the only Olympic Gold Medal. Yes, a period when Indian sportstars weren't even ready to goto Olympics, the Indian Hockey (courtesy Dhyan Chand and team) team used to win the gold in the Hockey sport, bringing glory to the nation, putting forth country's name in the world map. Hockey's best player so far Dhyan Chand, even was conspired to have a magnet in his bat, that was the extent of his talent. It was the consecutive record of winning 8 Olympic gold that made Hockey the National Game. A game which is considered to have its talent root in India.

All this is history now, does it mean that it should be forgotten. Certain events against Hockey have been disturbing. It started from the Railways team not getting good accommodation facility, it was pathetic to see them living in the old compartments of the trains, the funding for the Hockey team is far less and the most serious the sport being removed from priority list last year. All these have been a consequence of the poor show of the Indian team in the past few years, but that shouldn't encourage disrespect to our National Game. Sahara has been the only sponsor to support the sport else Hockey's name would have been removed from the sporting list also. And now when the team has struck with vengeance and outperformed beating all the teams winning the Asia cup, which is not less than the World Cup as they have got some real good teams from Asia, all they get is Rs.1000 per goal? So with 65 goals scored they get a meager Rs.65000? All this for the great spirit they displayed in each match?

This is not only the state of Hockey but also other sports. In Football we won the Nehru Cup, which itself is an achievement for the Indian Team, and the sad part is most of us donot even know hat Nehru Cup is. I admit it myself. We all love Cricket but Nation does come first and they are also our heroes. Though they haven't played with the best teams in the world, but still they have outperformed to get the title and bring the country glory in their own perspective. All these news made the center page in the news papers but still no recognition. And seeing the importance and credibility given to Cricket, the other sportstars are bound to get demotivated. And it was only after the hunger strike, we see the individual companies recognizing their players. I mean is this required, such provocation to go on hunger strike? It is all upto the us and media to recognize our heroes as it is they who represent us in the world arena, bringing glory to our Nation, to the Indians, to us.

Cricket - A Uniting Force

2007-09-28T11:42:00.001+02:00

April 2007 - A first round exit from the World Cup 2007 for India and Pakistan, a further step of humiliation for Pakistan for their loss at the hands of the minnows of their group, Ireland.

September 24th, 2007 - A day when the world stopped and only thing running everywhere was the Twenty20 World Cup final between the two most talented, spirited, underdogs and arch-rival teams, India and Pakistan. The en-route to this stage for both the teams has been very difficult, with the major changes affecting the teams and player as an individual. Right from tearing apart the teams, the coaches resignation and death in the other case, captain's stepping down, angered fans, put forth some big challenges for the BCCI and PCB. But on 24th all of this was forgotten and the crowd all over the world were engrossed with the perfect final for any tournament, probably an expected one when both the teams were qualified for the semi-final berth.

India with a huge set-back at the start of the tournament with the 3 major's pulling out and an entire new team, with the least of the exprience in this format, under a new captain, displayed nothing more than spirited and fearless play of cricket, which put them in the final. Every step conquered was a major leap for the team as there were very less expectations, which was also another reason for joy among the fans. They were the underdogs right from the start of tournament, but were a bunch of talented and fighting youngsters, which also took the world champions by surprise. And this was proved when India grabbed the World Cup right out of the Pakistan's reach. An entertaining final won by India, the consequence of better handling of pressure, which was a habit of this team throughout the tournament. And why not, the world cup grab right out of the arch-rival's reach saw the entire country unite under the once force - CRICKET. Everyone right from kid to age old women, under the midnight showers, right from Srinagar to Rameswaram, from Gujarat to West Bengal, everyone was dancing, shouting slogans in praise of their new idols, the new world Twenty20 champions, the young India XI, the future India XI, sans the big names, the big 3s.This was a team which fulfilled its dreams, showing immense belief in their play and writing a new script in the way cricket will be played, henceforth. However, all this should be done keeping in mind that these players need the same support when they fall short of expectations.

Guys this is my first blog, please drop in your comments. I wanted to start with something easy and nothing came to my mind other than this major event in India's Calendar. This blog henceforth is going to be my personal view on all the events right from political to sport to entertainment and it will be helpful to hear the comments.