Its been a month or more that I wrote a post here.. Well, nothing much transpired.. I'm just getting done with my coursework and Masters thesis work. And this week I'd be done with my Finals and all free. Oh wait, NOT exactly 'free'.. I'd still need to go the medical center, AGMC, to do my research work.. BUT, won't be that loaded. So, that boils down to - More time and less stuffs at hand.Thats where YOU come in. All I could think of writing is about my NITT days (there's so much of it - that I could make it a book 9.some1) ;P I'm not gonna bore you with academia, but some stuffs not everyone knows.. And so, starting next week - expect some regular updates here.. So all I need of you, is your comment to this post below that you'd be watching this space. I know not everyone comments for the posts, but this would help me know the audience and refine myself as a better writer from your reviews. You can also 'Follow' my blog by clicking the follow button on the sidebar. And can read the posts from Google reader rather than visiting this page everytime. That's all folks..

One of the bestest (I know its the wrong superlative) teachers I've known in my life, Mr.Lloyd Gonzalvez would give tongue vent voice to us - 'when you assume things, you are going to make an ASS of U and ME'. True, ain't it? But seldom do we realize that. Got to do with the belief that you know a person inside out, that we go about making postulations, left and right. When these flip out, people tend to get thwarted in anticipation and even feel betrayed. And failing to realize this mistake of theirs, they take their hatred to the next level. Most often, we do this too. What could have been solved amicably, goes on to become excruciatingly painstaking.
All it takes is a little introspection. You just need to walk in their shoes and see what has actually happened. People don't want to take the extra step to understand their dear ones. Coz they are comfortable laying back and considering themselves back-stabbed. Less work and more attention, I'd say. More often than not, they don't even wish to talk about their issues with the concerned person - they just stop talking. Well, maybe that's their point. "When I'm out of your loop, I don't have anything to talk to you" - many think. Well, that's the first mistake. Alienating is no solution for any problem. Talk it out.. Cuff it up.. Yell the hell out. It might lead you to understand that it was just a simple misunderstanding on your part, where such drastic measures aren't at all necessary. As a first step, understand everyone around you or atleast those who you care about. Secondly, make an informed decision, rather than gluttoning on assumptions.
Life has its share of ups and downs for everyone. It isn't rocky for you and rosy for others. You know it or not, people have their own problems to take care of. Doesn't mean you are left out/no-more needed. The gravity of their other issues might have been overwhelming for them. All you need to do is be an adult and talk it out! Hope this makes some sense! This post goes out to all who are fighting over silly issues with any of your dear ones.. Go now, talk it out and be at peace.. :)

Well it all started with the Summer Internship at the Akron General Medical Center, OH. Its located around 2 miles from my house and the transit facilities at my disposal includes bus,walk,car. Well walk would be a good enough suggestion, but not in a place like Akron, where the summer soars at 90F and winters go below 0F on an average. I was more inclined to taking the bus and yeah I wanted to give it a go before taking the monthly pass. Guess what? The total transit time from my point of boarding, changing the bus at Transit Center and landing at AGMC was a whopping 35 mins. All this for a 2 mile distance.. Definitely not worth it. Hard it might be, we took the walk option for the Summer. Its not as easy as it sounds - Running/Walking 5-15 miles on a treadmill is not the same thing.. the scorching heat, dusty traffic, pouring rain, sweaty formals - I've seen it all. Imagine wearing tucked-in formal wear and setting out for a walk every morning at 730AM and back at 5PM.. The return journey is always the toughest. Well, I made through the Summer. But Fall means classes at the University, research at AGMC and the pendulum motion between the two places. There began the need/essentiality for a more convenient mode of transport - CAR.

I started off searching for good deals on the internet - Craigslist, autotrader and a few dealer websites. I should thank Narayanan, Sunil, my sister and her hubby for their guidance and support during my rigorous search process. On the whole, I looked at around 33 cars to be precise and test drove around 14 before finalizing on the Nissan Sentra. I can tell you with certainty, 'All that glitters is definitely not even bronze'. There were many instances when I was filled with confidence that one particular deal would work out.. But when i test drive the car, it would have a pathetic transmission which would be evident in the first few seconds itself - yet the Ad would say - 'Excellent condition. Clean Inside and out'. (Axelrod Pontiac, Cleveland) I'd curse myself for setting off on a 38 mile drive to just see that car alone. If not for the patience of Narayanan and Rajesh who came with me to each of these dealers, I'm not sure how I would have made it.

I bought a Carfax account, even though Ashish had shared his Autocheck account with me, just to be double sure of the vehicle's history. The problem with good vehicles is that the dealer knows its worth too.. Infact, he knows its too good that he wants to make a profit twice the actual worth (Millenia Autos, Akron). A 1998 Camry that has run for 138k is worth just $3.5k according to KBB (a high priced market value index). And most dealers charge atleast 1k below the KBB value. But this guy wanted $5k. Except for the miles, the vehicle was perfect. No rust. No problems with the transmission either. But no one is going to fall for such a huge price. Neither did I.

In some cases, the Ad would be perfect, the pics great, the prices fair enough. And when we go to the dealer to do a test drive, the car's windshield would be broken, the bonnet wouldn't close properly. When asked about it - 'Oh my gosh. I never knew this had happened. Must be those little miscreants who throw stones at the cars in our lot. May be I can reduce 100-200$ off the bill' (Budget Car Mart). Well, if we were to believe his stories, he would have made millions by now. Everyday was a lesson. Every dealer was a legion.

After visiting a lot other dealers, disagreements and diappointments, I found this car with one of the dealers. Test drove it, it was good. We negotiated a bit on the price and we settled down on a price that was fair enough for both the parties involved. After all it is good enough for my shuttling between the University and AGMC during the Fall and the winter semesters. Now I can sit back and save the walk during the snowy times.

Well ‘t was the July 4^th , the Independence Day here at United States and I had a Big Weekend ahead of me.. With my internship ending the next week, I considered having my BIGG plans after that. That being said, it would be very gloomy to stay confined within the four walls, I thought.

So we met up at my friends place and defined on how this 3 days are gonna pass by. Friday, July 3^rd, we planned on hanging out at Regal Cinemas for a movie – The taking of Pelham 123. Thanks to Nancy’s outstanding driving skills and Narayanan’s guidance, we reached the theatre at around 2225 hrs, just five mins ahead of the show time. Even though I loved the pragmatic portrayal of Mr Garber by Denzel Washington, the movie didn’t end the way I’d have loved it.. Even then, ‘t was a nice watch. Being a late night show, we didn’t even think of stealthily hitting another screen with the same ticket.

Saturday, July 4^th, we started early at around 0900 hrs and were on a road trip to Arora Mall which was quite far from our place. Thankfully Sunil had the directions written out and that really helped us find our way there quite successfully. I should say, this place was really awesome. It shattered our expectations of a Mall. It more looked like a series of houses that have been converted to individual shop outlets. We began our venture with Ralph Lauren & Polo and went through a series of shops like Tommy Hilfiger, Bose, Fossil and the likes. It was a great shopping for all of us. Everyone bought their hearts out. Sadly I couldn’t find the tees that would fit me.. Even the smallest size seemed to be too broad for me.. But then, I shd be pragmatic – When there are increasing number of shops that sell exclusively XXL clothes to cater to the needs/wants of an obese population, thinner people can’t finds goodies everywhere. We started back from there at around 1600 hrs – yes, that’s around 7 hours of shopping.

Being the day of Independence, there were Fireworks scheduled at the downtown. Since citizens here are denied the handling of fireworks by themselves, events like these are a rarity. Tired from the 7 hours of shopping, I dozed for a couple of hours before we started to the fireworks. We heard from our friends that the downtown is already crowded to the max. and hence we couldn’t make it to the downtown.. Plan B came into effect.. Watching it from the EJ Thomas Hall of our University. And yes, it didn’t disappoint. It was really awesome. It was spectacular to say the least.. We were a bit voracious in expecting to see the crackers burst to show the American Flag just like in Tom & Jerry cartoons.. :P Yeah !! That didn’t happen. But then, it was really good to see so many people out on the streets, on an otherwise stranded streets and enjoy the Independence day.

Sunday, July 5^th, had plans on going to the Gurudwara, a Sikh temple near Richfield, OH. But, the road trip the previous day left us tired and we gave that plan a pass. As usual Plan B was much more hardheaded. Visiting a Mall nearby and shop for the tees I couldn’t get the previous day. I thought of visiting the Summit Mall and get my watch repaired as well. But getting up late screwed up a lot of things including me forgetting to take my watch - the sole reason for me going there.. But then, the tees came to my mind. Alright, it’s the weekend for Plan Bs I thought. As soon as we reached the Mall, we hit the food court and had our favorite dish at Sbarro – the Spinach Stromboli and the fried Zitis.. and then we set out for shopping again. I usually never enter the Abercrombie & Fitch shop for their huge tag prices.. But then, today I wanted to go see what they have. I loved their rugged sentinel outerwear. It looked and felt great. But then they didn’t have the size that fits me. Asked about it, they said they are out of stock for that particular size. I was terribly disappointed. But then, my brain emailed me – the tees. I looked at their tees – they had a very good collection. I took a couple of tees to the fitting room, tried it on and guess what – it fit me perfect. Absolutely perfect. My eyes lit up and I loved the tees. I didn’t mind the price, after-all its just a swipe of the card and a signature. And then we went around the mall and shopped stuffs from Hollister, Aeropostale and the likes. Before we went home, we had our lunch at the Chipotle Mexican Restaurant and raced home.

Back at home, I had some cleaning to do – my desk was a mess. Sorted those things out, cleaned my room, refreshed myself and sat down composing on what was an eventful 3 days in the recent days.

Initial hassles, email communications and after a lot chit chats over Orkut communities, it was decided that the July '08 batch of New Hires will be staying in the Hummingbird Suites for the first 15 days. Though the address was given clearly, had a little problem locating it at 6 AM. None on the streets nor any landmarks. Finally located the building, only to find it didn't even have the name embossed on it. New erection i believe. Bangalore - not the same, two years back.. Concrete structures have sprouted like a paddy field. Globalization - they say.
Vijay was at the Hotel a couple of days earlier. Plan was to meet him, get together and find an apartment nearer to the Campus. Well, the first part worked as planned. Met him over breakfast there, talked the talk - the usual one, on his well being and the comfortness of my journey. And when the topic of housing started, Marathahalli came the answer. His Father's friend had located the house for us. 'Great' I said. A 2BHK he said for around 9000 bucks. That put a fullstop to all the search results, house hunts, saved email conversation with house/flat owners in bangalore, that I had done in the last couple of weeks. I didn't mind though, coz his deal was better.
We went to the house the following weekend. It was E12 - Rekha Park Apartment.. There was Raghu, his bro and Karthi already living there. They joined their respective companies a month earlier than us. Basically they call us the Software Engineers. It was a very small house, not that big and I was wondering if that would fit the 5 of us. But the house had all the basic facilities. So I thought, I ll stay there for maybe a couple of weeks and see if it works out.
Little did I know, I'm in for something that would change my perspective on life. Vijay, who is mostly the person who is made fun at, ridiculed at, is a little more than that. Actually a lot more than that. For a person who has always believed that there is none who works more harder, he shattered all my beliefs.. He is a smart, hard-working, tech-savy guy. He had this quest for knowledge and believe me, he works 20 hours on weekends as well. Even in those rare ocassions of him not having any work, he would try to play around with VI editor, find new commands and do what not. "Needless" - his manager would say. But to him, goals are to be met a week in advance. He completely flipped me over. I felt miniscule in his presence. This was the first time I came across a guy with such a quest for knowledge.
Then came Raghu - I had known him since college. We did an internship/training together in Bangalore earlier. He is someone with such wit and humor. His timing is impeccable. I knew he was a brilliant chap since college. So there were little surprises there. I knew he is one person who would go places and aptly he did. He filed a patent (in process..) within the first year of his working at IBM-ISL. He rightly deserves it. It's always fun when he is around with us. When both Vijay and Raghu are there, its party time for us. None can compete with Raghu. You poke him, u get ridiculed at. He has a side to himself which he hasn't divulged enough to the outside world. He is a wonderful artist. Once he roamed around the streets of bangalore to buy charcoal sticks. Little did I know, his talent. A few months before I left, he showed me a pic he drew. It was Shah Rukh Khan and Manisha Koirala. A still from the movie 'Dil Se'. Impeccable. Astoundingly professional. He drew all that staying up late nights after we all dozed off. I was really surprised at this marvellous talent that he had garnered without much attention. His brother was a Big brother to all of us. He is a soft-spoken, caring guy who didn't interfere with our independence, but at the same time had always mentioned about we coping with the software world. True, should i say, his words got me through, in my intricate times. He was a really good person.
Karthi - Always late to the classes, never serious in anything, not at all responsible.. well yeah, these would fit Karthi in college days. But he was my close friend in College. I'd think - "Where's this fellow gonna go ? In the world filled with such fierce competition, where is he gonna place himself ? and How is he gonna survive?". But he cared little about all these. He was enjoying his college life. And when placements came, he got placed in Airvana Networks - where only 2 managed to get thru and he was one among that. I was a little pleased. That he cared atleast to sit in placements. I never thought he'd do any justice to that job. But again, I was wrong. He proved that I judged him too quickly. He wasn't the average guy i thought him to be. He knew computers. Inside out. RAM upgrade, partitioning Harddisk and other virus issues, he knew the answers. He was a genius - hidden behind his humbleness. I was grossly wrong in his case. He knew what he was doing. He knew where he wanted to go. He almost carried on an entire project in his company all by himself. He worked hard nevertheless. And eventually was sent to Boston, US to finish up his project work there. I was dumbstruck. So were a few others. But his talents were a surprise only to me. I was an idiot.
As days passed by, Raghu's brother had to change companies and he moved to Chennai. Then came Sami and Vasanth. Sami - my classmate all throughout college. He is a friend to everyone. Not just a friend, but a great confidant to almost everyone in his hostel. He is someone that everyone trusts and he does a lot of justice to that. He helps all the people he knows. Doesn't matter if there is something very important coming up for him, he'll speak to u if that'll help u alleviate ur pain. Quite a character. He had this insatiable quest for New Jobs, tat he changed 4 jobs in 1 year. Would you believe that ? Yes, he did. The fields weren't the same either. Software engineer -> research engineer -> embedded systems -> control engineering. Versatality! - I should say.
Vasanth - the one who joined us last. This was the first time I was in close proximity with him. To him - life is to enjoy. No commitments, no trouble. He wouldn't even care to comb his hair before he leaves to the company. He'd say - I'm working for a software industry. Not a fashion magazine. Arrongant - you'd think. No.. He's very childish, humane and a damn simple guy. He is more human than the rest of us. He wouldn't even allow us watching horror movies. He tagged us 'merciless' people for even watching horror movies. We didn't mind. But when it comes to 'being there'-he would always be. Though he appears to be a lazy fellow in weekdays, when weekend comes, he would not mind the tiresome trip to Trichy, but he'd make it every week possible. Just to meet his good old buddies there / take a ride in his bike. Two days enjoyment is worth the pain - he'd say. He would never care 'what's next..' but appreciates what he is doing right now and would try to do that better. He is the personification of the statement "Life is to Live"
The one year at Bangalore, taught me a lot of things.. Everyone has their own perspective of life. Many see it as an opportunity to do worthy things, rise up in stature and plan on the life that's ahead of them. But to many others, life is precious, they wanna live every moment of it, do only things they like to do and so on.. The goals in life aren't the same for everyone. And you gotta respect each one for their goal in life, even if it means to enjoy it to the maximum. Who knows - you'll envy them in the future. Like i do, now ! I'd definitely say, the period of my stay at E12, was infact the one where I learnt life, realized my mistakes, began understanding of people and more importantly something that I'd cherish the rest of my life.

With the grueling spring semester behind, it meant a life less projects, less assignments and less exams. Should have been relaxing, pleasurable and a time to lay back in the couch and read a couple of novels, browse internet and other recreational stuffs. But all it took was just 2 days to reach boredom. And these 2 days didn't even go eventless - visited the mall, did a little bit of grocery shopping, played cricket, started watching House M.D and yeah tried to hit the REC twice (sadly, it was closed due to maintanence).. With pretty much nothing to do, I couldn't wile away the time in hand.. And just when I started browsing random stuffs in the internet - Mausam & Escape soundtrack , new tips and tricks in Mac, iWeb and it led to the templates for blogs..
'It's been a really long time that I changed my template'- I felt. If you'd remember, my blog had a 3 column maxima dark template (something that Blogger doesn't have) which i had downloaded from some other site and varied some parameters here and there.. Even then it gave a congested feeling to the blog page.. It looked good initially to me as I was just playing around with stuffs..But then I wonder how Abhi and N were able to modify the 3 column template beautifully to fit the screen perfect.. Must be a lot of tweaking to do I guessed and didn't go with that idea..
I thought I'd better go with a 2 column template which looks a little different.. And there began the hunt for the different template.. And I passed from one site to the other, each one stating it as the best template ever.. And finally I landed on this particular site. I particularly liked this one because of the way they had described each and every step.. There's just little that you need to do by yourself.. And it gives a website like feel rather than a blog feel.. Moreover, if you notice, there's a menu in the top that can give links to different other pages.. And the search box in the header that allows you to search within the blog.. Awesome I felt.. Scanning down the page, it gives you a link to the recent posts/comments.. This is all what a blog needs.. If not more.. I definitely like the new layout.. But would highly value your comments/suggestions.. If you think there's something that I'm missing.. plz let me know here..