Happy Birthday Sudha

Many happy returns on the day.

p.s. Calendar admin - please add to calendar

25 Facts You Should Know About Oracle - Spotlight news from Channel Insider

25 Facts You Should Know About Oracle - Spotlight news from Channel Insider
With @ guys in the family in Oracle (Madhava thru Peolesoft), I thought it might be interesting.
MBAs please note--Be aggressive, Devour and Engulf, Cheat where you can and get away with it, and come up on top.

Happy moment

Recently I went to tpt for Brahmotsavamulu. On Garuda seva that is on the 5th day, horticulture department arranged a flower show.In that they displayed some old photos .suddenly i saw one photo NTR (CM) pakkana subbarao bavagaru .Really i felt very happy and i told everyone that he is my bavagaru who worked there on Tirumala hills. I asked them for that snap .They told me to wait for a month becos next month brahmotsavams are there again.

Walmart Employee Starting today

Adi was quite excited that I was joining Walmart. He asked me which store I will be working in and whether I can checkout items he buys. When I told him I am not actually working at the checkout counter, but from an office, his disappointed comment: "What fun is that? Checkout job is way cooler!!!!"

Recent comments widget

Looks like it is broken and it is hard to see the latest comments, especially on posts from a while back. How about the programmers in the family take a hack at the Java Script code and fix it?

Calling IS, SSV, Sudha, Vidya, Srikanth, Mrudula and Madhav. Managers exempted :-)

My visit to Orlando ( narrated by Adi, typed by Amma)

I went to DisneyWorld Orlando for my birthday. I turned 6 on my birthday.

The first place I went to was Hollywood studios. There we were going to go to Toy Story Mania but we didn't go because they didn't have fast passes and the line was one hour wait. I went to a cars stunt show but I wanted to go back to the apartment after the first stunt because I wasn't feeling well. I had fever.

More later.....

ప్రశ్న

గోపాల్ కామెంట్ నా గురించి నేను ఇంటర్నెట్ లో మాట్లాడుతున్నాను కదా" మన ఫ్యామిలీ అందరు నెట్ లోకి రావటం మానేఅస్తారట " ఇది ఎంతవరకు నిజం మీరు చెప్పండి

new flat at hyderabad

We purchased a flat for Srikanth at Gayathrinagar,BoraBanda,Hyd.Its 5km from gachibowli,2km from cybertowers,3kms from father in laws house and 1street away from rameshs plots.formal joining was on 27-8-10.Here are some photos.Some photos with Santhi and Pavan are also added

http://picasaweb.google.com/ranganadhams/NewFlatAtHyederabad#

HBD ADITHYA

Many many happy returns of the day.Happy birthday Adithtya.

THE CASE OF THE HINDU

THE CASE OF THE HINDU

SRM was a great fan of The Hindu. (As are the other members of singampalli clan. refer Krups “peen of a news paper”).He reads from the banner "THE HINDU" to "printed and published by” at the end. (We used to think!!!).He reads it early in the morning, at break fast, at lunch, in the evening, at dinner and late in the night. . Coverage of sports was very good in it, we were eager to read and get no chance at any time. In the later stages, he became a little considerate and used to give sports page. (Here I am reminded of a scene from Missamma ,NTR is an unemployed person living in a park. He tries to peep into paper read by a tiptop person and the fellow contemptuously gives him some pages remarking" wanted columns ega ".NTR remarks” chadive rojullo, nenu guda sports column matharme choose vadini le brother” I have seen the picture many times. It evokes same kind of laughter every time)
Old town being a place where not many people read Hindu, there was some difficulty with regard to paper boys, who work part time. If the paper comes late, they deliver it in shops and some streets where circulation is more and go away .Invariably, Hindu is not delivered to us and difficulty starts. We are forced to go to 5 lanterns place at the north end of kavali and get the news paper from news agent’s house. If trekking the distance is one difficulty, going to some body’s house and ask paper is another. We were shy and diffident but have to do it. This was one of the several tasks we were forced to do. If you are asked to go to some body’s house, it’s not enough to come back saying, he is not available. We have to ask where he has gone when will he come back etc (Looking back may be it helped us to have right attitude in the later stages of life.).If the incidence of late or non delivery is repeated a postcard is dispatched promptly to Editor, The Hindu, Madras. The paper was very prompt and next day the agent comes to our home in a miserable state and apologies. This was repeated so many times that I lost count.
This fight with news boys and agents did not end with SRM. I too wrote many letters to Hindu starting with the sentence" we are subscribers for the last 50 years”___ But it was a losing battle. Recently when I was in kavali and sent for Hindu to Viswams home Padma said “I have stopped bavagaru.He is not delivering it regularly.”This is not first time for Viswam .
Here in Gachi Bowli we are delivered Deccan Chronicle one day, Hindustan times another day in place of HINDU .Durga fights bitterly, and phones immediately, the agent apologies, promises that it won’t happen (no going to agents place, new technologies)
But the story goes on

WWoHP

I am on vacation for a week and everyone suddenly decides to get active on the blog.

Visited the Wizarding World of Harry Potter yesterday. Toured Hogwarts and Hogsmeade, embarked on a forbidden journey, escaped dragons, played quidditch, drank butter beer and bought a wand from Ollivander's. Detailed report to follow.

HAIKUS

Mother's Nature

Baby kicks the womb
God knocks heart door
Expectant Mother.

FONDLING

Golden silence mine tiny totter
Silvery speech heard by world
my grown up daughter.

ఆశ

వటువుకు శిశువుకు మూడడుగులు
కల్యాణానికి నిర్వాణానికి ఏడడుగులు
కనరాని దూరం ధనాగారం .

అడవి కాచిన వెన్నెల

మెరుస్తున్న పచ్చిక బయలు సెలయేరు హొయలు
అడివంతా పచ్చగా విచ్చిన వెండి వెన్నెల
చూస్తున్న ఆహ్లాదిస్తున్న మనోనేత్రాలేన్ని ?

Freshers party

Seniors here at tlh gave us a freshers party...it was amazing! had a great time!! Will upload the pics real soon.......
Tlh is a happening place... i was the one who took time in figuring the right places and the right people...
"MS is SERIOUS FUN" :-)

SAGES FOR AGES

Gales storms thunder above
Silver surf waves spray and splash
Rocks fearless stand alone

New Age Mantra

Some new age Kavee has said:

आज करे सो काल कर

काल करे सो परसोॱ (day-after-tomorrow)

जल्दी क्य। है यारोॱ

जब जीना है बरसौ (years)

(this one is from my all time favorite movie Golmaal :) )

Kabir Said

काल करोउ सो आज करोउ
आज करोउ सो अब्ब
पल में परिलय हो यी गया
बहुरि करौगे कब्ब
what you are(have to) to do tomorrow, do it today
what you are (have to) to do today, do it now
there will be Pralay (Tsunami, Great flood, Earthquake, Hurricane?) in a moment(second, jiffy)
when will you do it then (again)?

So. no postponements please! of anything!
Follow Pedananna's  motto  (incidentally I reserve the right "not to follow" my advice)
DO IT YESTERDAY.

OMG ITS FRIDAY!!

i hate weekends!! i hate sundays the most....
u can postpone stuff over the weekdays... but if its the weekend u got to finish them no matter what happens!
no excuses whatsoever!!
am i the only one suffering with this "weekend phobia"? or does anyone else share this view?
god..thou spare thee (i think i used thou,thee the right way!)

S--C--R--E--A--------M

MISSING ranganadham and sarada soooo much.Where are the promised cases?

Answers to G Babai's questions

My response was a little too large for a comment space, so posting here. Pardon my hogging the blog space on a single topic- but I think some of you are interested enough.

Good questions babai, and as you said, we had asked it too.

Longevity and strength: The architect says the mud blocks are stronger than normal red brick. They randomly test the bricks that are made at site to ensure consistency. They have built about 800 houses in Bangalore over the last 16 years, including the architect's own house and their office. We have been to both and they seem to have weathered well enough. In fact, on their roof they grow plants, rice and ragi, and have suffered no water seepage etc.

I think the curing process  (sun drying+ water absorption) gives the brick the required strength. The bricks tend to get a bit mossy with rain over time, but that is an easy fix if one wants to fix it.

Load bearing: Regarding load, they normally dont even do RCC frame structures like in the house we are building- the walls are usually load bearing, requiring no RCC columns. So yes, they can carry load of even reasonably large buildings.

Please see the link below- it is one of the largest buildings they have built- an eco resort.

http://www.ournativevillage.com/picture_gallery.htm

You can see it is pretty big, built using these mud blocks.

Panels: The panels also have been used in several of their houses, including the architect's- seem to be working well. We are not going with panels in all the rooms though. You can see the panels in the architect's house here (and the rest of the house as well):

http://www.flickr.com/photos/biome/sets/72157611551319532/


Space: The house is larger than the current apartment- should be good enough for the library :-)

The Hindu quoted me today!

There was a birding article in the Metro Plus section of the Hindu today. Unexpectedly I was quoted in the article- I had provided some data to the journalist earlier. Although a small bit, it was still a pleasant surprise to see my name in print :-)

http://www.thehindu.com/life-and-style/metroplus/article642909.ece

Also posting a snapshot of the article below.

1st part of article (click to enlarge) 

2nd part, where my quote figures! (click to enlarge)

Eco-friendly housing - II

Roof:

Normal roofs are made of concrete, reinforced with steel/iron rods. The steel rods are about 9 mm thick. Steel also is made by the use of high temperatures, as cement. So both have a high carbon footprint.

Besides that, steel+cement conducts heat into the house. In summers, this means use of fans, coolers and air conditioners, increasing the energy consumption of the house.

Paints are used to coat the roof- again, higher footprint.

Arch panel roofs: This is a colonial invention, apparently. Instead of one great big slab, the roof is composed of   rectangular sections of about 3 ft by 5ft. Each section is gently arched along the length, hence called arch panel. Once the panels are made, they are simply glued on to a row of horizontal beams to complete the roof. See below:

Panels resting on beams (diagram made by Poonam)

This means the roof is primarily clay rather than cement and steel. This has a lower footprint, and also keeps the room cool. Since the walls are also similarly made of mud, there will be practically no need for fans, AC etc. And it certainly looks cooler too :-). As a result, no painting required!

Panels in progress- the panel casting area on the RHS, gentle bulge can be seen

Each arch panel is a set of clay tiles glued together by a thin layer of cement. You can see the loose tiles on the ground behind the man (pic above). Thus, an arch panel is primarily clay. Each panel also has 2 thin (3mm dia) iron rods embedded in the cement, along the length.

Beams on which arch panels rest

The arch panel roof in amma's room

Eco-friendly housing - I

Walls:

Red brick is the typical material used for walls. Cement is used to bind the bricks. Both of these have a high carbon footprint. Red bricks are fire burnt, requiring either firewood or coal. Cement preparation also requires high temperatures.

Besides that, good quality red bricks are made near Mysore, implying an additional footprint for transportation to Bangalore. Cement factories pollute their surroundings significantly.

Chemical paints are used to coat the walls- also carry a high footprint.

Compressed Mud Blocks are made at site. They are composed of  around 50% quarry dust, 40% red soil, 10% cement (approx numbers). A wetted mixture of these materials is compressed in a hand operated machine to make a compressed mud block. After 3 weeks of curing, the mud blocks are ready for use. The cement acts as the stabiliser. No heat treatment required.

Quarry dust and red soil are usually considered waste materials. Red soil is recovered from the earth scooped out of the basement and foundation. These are local materials, requiring minimal transportation carbon footprint.

Since the process of block making is manual, the footprint of the blocks is restricted to the cement portion of it (10%).

Mortar: The mortar used to bind the bricks is also of the same material, restricting the cement content of the walls to under 10%

Paint:  The red soil gives a nice color to the bricks, requiring no plastering or painting of the walls. Again, that saves on the carbon footprint of the house.

The technique is being used by Biome Environmental Solutions, who are the architects for the Bangalore house-in-progress.

Snaps:

Quarry dust+Red soil+Cement

Maanav machine!

The mechanical hen lays a nice little mud block

Lots of blocks, and the house behind is also made of them

Red soil gives a nice tinge

 Short video of the process:

One month in Tallahassee

It’s been one month since I came to Tallahassee. During these 30 days I did a lot of things here, much much more than I ever imagined I could do! Here is a brief account of what, when and how I accomplished them!

Everyone knows about the fateful flight missing incident(not an accident by any means) because of which I reached Tallahassee a week later than I intended to! I arraived in tlh on 12^th - a day before my graduate orientation. Raviteja picked me up at the airport and dropped me at kavya’s place (temp accommodation). Later other new students and I were accompanied by a bunch of very very helpful seniors who helped me check-in and get my fsu card.

Orientations: I had to attend 5 orientations in total. Internationl students’ orientation, graduate students’ orientation, department orientation, TA orientations(2 sessions, 2 whole days!!) During these sessions they dump a lot of information at you. The problem lies in the fact that every bit of it is important. I had to come back home and read the books they gave to get a clearer comprehensive picture of what I had to do and what I shouldn’t. So practically the whole week starting 13^th to 21^st I spent reading and learning US and university practices.

TASKS!: Apart from these there was another big thing I had to do…open a bank account!! Thanks to nanna I have never been to a bank before! Now that I was on my own I had to go through the bank’s policies, its modes of operations and everything else before opening an account…if it wasn’t for sudha vadina… I would have been a dead duck!

As if this wasn’t enough I was faced with a very serious problem of looking for and finding a roommate. I am the “only” Indian girl who came over to FSU this fall. Those who were already here were pretty much settled and I didn’t know what to do..then somebody called ashavaree das contacted me through INSAT(Indian student association at tlh). She was phd student in the field of psychology and mass media communications who went to India to get married and was coming back to finish her phd.. She asked me if she could be my roommate and I said “YESS!!” Asha said she couldn’t come to tlh before 27^th so that left everything – leasing a house, subscribing for utilities (water, gas and electricity), getting the house cleaned etc., - entirely to me! By God…. Doing all that drove me crazy! Leasing and getting the house cleaned was the easier part, for the utilities I had to get to some “utility office” off campus and I didn’t have the slightest idea where that was! Meanwhile I came to know that if I had to get paid I have to have a SSN. Applying for one is such a big process. It starts with the department office – dept of graduate studies - university center – and ends at the Tallahassee social security department office, a days work. Luckily for me, I met a boy called Nikhil Gupta during the orientation sessions who took me to these two places (utility, ssn) and helped me get them done.

Just when I thought I did everything I have to, there came the issue of registering for classes – what I am actually here for. The classes I wanted to take didn’t have openings and the ones I was being forced to take were all highly time consuming according to my seniors. I talked a lot to seenanna, sudha vadina and my seniors…finally ended up taking the mix seenanna suggested!

FOI: In FSU, there is an organization called “Friends Of Internationals” who basically keep track of the needs of new students. People who graduate and leave tlh donate furniture to this society. Every year FOI conducts a “furniture giveaway” where new students can take home 6 furniture/other things home for free. This drive was conducted on 27^th, though it started at 8 am, I stood in the line from 5! I was one the 3^rd in line and so I got a mattress, a couch, a microwave, an electric cooker, a laundry basket and carpets!! :-) :-)

Kavya took me to walmart, Indian store and the shopping mall!

So finally I settled down!!

PUJA: Last Sunday ISCON, Tallahassee arranged a get together. We were invited to those Krishnashtami celebrations. There were bhajans and abhishekam of the idols followed by a talk about the “apprearance ok Krishna” on the earth by a guru and dances. I helped serve the prasadam later (and ofcourse helped myself to it too!!)

Today at home I did the vinayaka chaviti puja.. nanna downloaded the vrata kalpam and sent it to me… I collected leaves and flowers from trees in and around alumni village. I made payasam and panchamrutam and offered it to god.

Alumni Village: The place is so cool! There is no concept of "day and night" here. You can find people up and about at any time. 1'oclock , 3'0clock at night too! The people are very heplful and amiable... The weather is the only problem.. it's so unpredictable and highly humid. The sun is burning your neck one minute and you are drenched from head to toe the very next minute. We have a lot of sudden downpours...

Friends:
1. Abhishek Mukherjee, Aneesh Sharma, Abhiram Chintangal (A3) – these 3 arraived along with me this fall to fsu. Aneesh and abhiram are in the cs department and abhishek is in the eee dept. We did a lot of things together (attending orientations, fsu card, bank account, leasing a house etc.,) and became good friends. They live diagonally across my place.

2. Raviteja, chakradhar, rohit, anil – seniors who live in the flat just opposite mine and next to A3. Helped me in loads of things. Raviteja picked me up from the airport and arranged temp accommodation, chakradhar(chintu) and rohit – cs seniors – helped me with course registration. Chintu actually let go of his cryptography seat so that I could get into that class!! Anil – he is from vizag – helped me move the furniture, suitcases and other stuff and arranged it at my place.

3. Kavya – She is great! She made me feel so comfortable during my stay with her.. guided me on a lot of things like health insurance, India calling, shopping etc., A good cook! Introduced me to madhu and malathi, the other Indian girls in AV.We became very good friends in a very short time.. we went out shopping and to a movie together. She lives next door now. If she cooks anything special I always get my due!!! :-)

4. Asha – my roommate… she is amazing! We have a lot of things in common. She is a great great cook! Makes delicious curries and snacks! She has been living in the US for the past 10 years(did her undergrad and masters here) and knows great deal about what/where/when to shop! Extremely caring… from the time she has come, she has been cooking. Loves to read novels – her favourite pastime..delightfully! She brought along 50 novels with her(what more can I ask for) A fitness freak and makes it a point to take me on a 15 min walk after an early dinner everyday.. *(thank god she doesn’t have time for the gym!!)*

5.Frank Sposaro - My lab partner...one hell of a guy! A programming wizard! he recently developed android applications that got him and his professor 1.2M$ grant.. apart from this he is the ACM Predident for FSU. He also participates in social services... Jogs and swims daily and is extremely fit... i have a LOT to learn from him!

Apart from these people i have a few chinese-next door neighbours - friends. Few russian, jamaican and british friends.

Current Status: Now I have a 10hr TA(I have to grade Microsoft word, excel, spreadsheet assignments of about 100 undergrads and clear their highly confused brains) and a 10hr RA(under Sudhir Agarwal, he is working on email phishing and the project is funded by the National Institute of Justice NIJ). I have a bunch of homework assignments, journals and projects on hand too.

PS: *this is the format we use here to submit assignments* :P

WHEW! That was a long post :-)

hello

thanks to sln bavagaru who invited me to this blog

hai

andariki vinayaka chaviti subhakankshalu

"Mrudula in Hindu advertisement on main page 08-09-10"

Ekavimsati Patra Puja

"Respectfully requesting the learned contributors of the

blog to complete the list."---Haasyama?? I hope not. Show

me the location of your tongue.

Now to the matter in hand---


21 Leaves (Patri)

Machi -------- Machapatri. NOT Davanam-both are different.

Brihati -------- Vaka or vakudu--A sprig is put over the doorway in a house in which a delivery has taken  
                        place--to ward of evil obviously.

Bilva --------- Bilva or Maredu. ---   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bael

Durva Grass ------ Garika or grass

Dattura --------- Ummetta

Badari ------------ Regu---- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ziziphus_mauritiana

Apa Marga --------Uttareni

Tulsi -------------- Tulasi. Yes, obvious.---http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocimum_tenuiflorum

Choota ------------ Mango or Mamidi.--- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mango

Karaveera --------- Ganneru.------  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nerium_oleander

Vishnu Kranta -----  The small plants with little blue flowers that you see on the ground.

Daadimi ----------- Pomegranate or Daanimma ----http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomegranate

Devadaru ---------- Devadaru ( any other common name???) --http://en.wikipedia.org
                                /wiki/Cedrus_deodara. It may not be available readily.

???Jambeera Patram--Gajanimma.

Maruvaka ---------- Maruvam or Marjoram --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marjoram

Sindhuvara ---------- Vavili

Jaaji ---------------- Jaaji ----http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Jasminum_species

???Gandaki---Balu Rakkasi---The plant with large leaves. see pic

Shami -------------- Jammi --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acacia_arabica

Aswatham ---------- Raagi or Peepul -----http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacred_fig

Arjuna -------------- maddi

Arka ---------------- Jilledu --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calotropis_gigantea.







 ???Some people have mentioned Gandaki-  Balu Rakkasi instead of Jambeera.


see pic

 Gandaki (Balurakkasi or Balurakkisa)

I suggest you see this
site Patris etc.
Excellent one.

Ekavimshati Patra Pooja (21 leaf pooja)

With Ganesh Chaturdhi nearing, I wanted to gather information about the 21 types of leaves so I can gather the leaves ( ahem!!!) . Unforutunately, I cannot readily obtain Nimba or Bilva leaves and will have to make do with Oak Patram or Maple Patram.
But I made an attempt to translate the 21 types of leaves, so I could obtain what is avilable in US, but there are some gaps in my knowledge. Respectfully requesting the learned contributors of the blog to complete the list.

Machi -------- Machapatri or Davanam
Brihati -------- ????
Bilva --------- Bilva or Maredu?? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bael
Durva Grass ------ Garika or grass

Dattura --------- Ummetta















Badari ------------ Regu http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ziziphus_mauritiana
Apa Marga --------
Tulsi -------------- Obvious http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocimum_tenuiflorum
Choota ------------ Mango or Mamidi http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mango
Karaveera --------- Ganneru???? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nerium_oleander
Vishnu Kranta ----- ????
Daadimi ----------- Pomegranate or Daanimma http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomegranate
Devadaru ---------- Devadaru ( any other common name???) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cedrus_deodara
Maruvaka ---------- Maruvam or Marjoram http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marjoram
Sidhuvara ---------- ?????
Jaaji ---------------- Jaaji http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Jasminum_species
Shami -------------- Jammi http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acacia_arabica
Aswatham ---------- Raagi or Peepul ?? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacred_fig
Arjuna -------------- ????
Arka ---------------- Jilledu http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calotropis_gigantea
Nimba --------------- Vepa or Neem??? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azadirachta_indica

caught in the act!!!

as soon as he wakes up the first thing he does is - "get a book".... brushing comes next!!

Haiku- what is it exactly?

When I wrote the birthday Haiku, I had to look up the structure of the ideal haiku.

What is a Haiku? A short poem (3 lines) that paints a mental picture so well that the reader can see it in their mind's eye. It is usually about nature and treats all things with reverence. It is probably like the feeling one would get when one sees a nice painting about nature.

 An ideal Haiku in English:

1. Has a structure of 17 syllables and 3 lines. But the 17 syllables is flexible. At least it should be like

****

****** (the middle line is longer than the other 2)

****
2. The haiku is always about the present, and doesn't narrate a story or present abstract ideas

3. The haiku has at least one word that represents the season in some way (rain, frogs, butterflies, mangoes etc)
4. It has one break point in the poem, which usually serves as a place from which the poem leads the reader to a very different path than the lines before it. The 3 lines cannot be a continuous narrative
5. They are usually positive- no space for negative thoughts in the haiku
6. And finally, the ideal haiku always leaves something unsaid, a sort of a evocative thought puzzle for the reader.

Some good samples:

from time to time 
the clouds give rest 
to the moon beholders..


faint thumbprint
mellows page
favorite passage


moonlight slants through 
the vast bamboo grove: 
a cuckoo cries


trailing tears
along a winding road
growing flowers.



butterflies emerge
from the wonder of creation
grandmother's needle
the butterflies are made of cloth, in case someone didnt get it


come over with me
and together let's play
oh, motherless sparrow
Context: Written by a Haiku master, Issa, when he was a very young man. He had lost his mother when he was 2 years old and lived with his relatives.

Happy Teacher's Day

To all the teachers (current and retired) in the family. And to all the students too, since this is the best kind of teacher's day possible- a holiday!

Dreams in Prussian Blue

This is a recently published short novel by an Indian author named Paritosh Uttham. The interesting thing about it is that this chap was a junior and hostel mate of mine in IIT Madras! Obviously I was curious about the novel and managed to read it sitting in a bookshop here (Incidentally, Poonam is trying to invent a term for a person who sneakily finishes off an entire book while pretending to browse a bookshop). 

I was quite impressed by it! For one, it stays away completely from that awfully hackneyed IIT-IIM agony stories that have flooded the bookshops the last few years, thanks to Chetan Bhagat. 

Secondly, It is a story about the dark but deep relationship between a young lady and a young man. It is very absorbing and I am amazed that such deep emotions are being portrayed so well by an engineering college graduate!

It is a short and nice read, worth a look. It should inspire all the bathroom haiku writers of the family to step out of the shower and attempt being published to a broader audience, hopefully.

Together yet separate

This Sunday, all of a sudden, I noticed something surprising ( not really!!). There were 5 people in the house watching something:
1) Aditya -- watching a cartoon DVD on his personal DVD player
2) Srinivas -- watching Fox news in the upstairs TV
3) Mamiah -- watching old hindi songs on youtube on the desktop computer
4) Athiah -- watching telugu serials on downstairs TV
5) Krupa -- watching satte pe satta from rajshri.com on laptop

I still remeber going to next door neighbor's house to watch the movie, broadcast only once a week, sitting together with 15 other kids from the neighborhood.
The same technology that brought us closer is now driving up apart, how ironic!!!!

I have decided on a family TV night, when we all watch the same program , irrespective of interests, just to be together.

Birthday Haiku

35th Birthday


All books exhausted-
Older, heavier
At sunrise, none the wiser


How is that, eh? 


Looking forward to some good ones from G babai.