Three categories of people

Category 1:

They stand their ground. Follow convictions. Never budge. Hold on to their beliefs firmly. They know what they want and wait till they get it. Even if lucrative offers come their way in the meantime, they are not tempted to accept them because that's not what they wanted. They thoroughly enjoy what they are doing. They are the happy, satisfied yet ambitious souls. 

Category 2:

They go in the direction of the wind; do not complain about anything. They do not want to think. Basically, they do not know what they want. They are also happy.

Category 3:

They love doing something but are stuck somewhere else; caught-in-the-wrong-job kind. These are the poor souls. They go through great agony every moment. They can either escape to category 1 or rot in this category.

***

"Just don't give up trying to do what you really want to do. Where there is love and inspiration, I don't think you can go wrong"

- Ella Fitzgerald

*****

Current Song:

Living on a Prayer by Bon Jovi

Where do you find such a person?

Where do you find the person

whose voice commands authority and yet, can be gentle and soft spoken;

who has a clear idea about what he is doing;

who can have a calm visage in spite of a million turbulences in his mind;

who stands by himself when he knows he is right;

who has loads of self esteem;

who can smile at a problem of mountain-magnitude;

who is broad minded and has a high level of thinking;

who is independent in thought;

who is passionate about his work;

whose eyes reflect his vision;

whose smile conveys confidence;

whose every word carries weight;

who has a suave demeanour;

whose humour is graceful;

who speaks no nonsense;

who has the attitude and a beautiful smile.

*****

Current Song :

Ye jo des hain tera - from the movie Swades

...tujhe hain pukaaraan...

...tu kaise bhulaayega..

That’s my name

“What’s your name?", people here in Boston ask me. I answer. I can make out from their face that my answer did not register in their mind at all. Americans find it very difficult to pronounce my name. Chinese think it’s impossible! North Indians think the name is way too long. But some nice people (very very few) simply called me ‘Sri’ without any effort from my side to let them know that they can call me so.

I had always complained to my parents that I did not like my name. I thought, and still do, that my little brother has a very beautiful name – Rohith Raghuram D J. People appended various prefixes and post-fixes to ‘Lakshmi’ to address me, which I hated totally. Some people used to call me ‘Lakshmana’, ‘Lakshman Rao’ while I was in school owing to my boy-hair-cut then.

My relatives and people who do not like me called me (and still do) ‘Lakshmi’. My closest friends call me ‘Sri’. My college friends call me DJ (my initials), which I think is a super cool nick name. My friends in Boston call me ‘Ubuntu’! Hi-Bye acquaintances call me by first name.

Now, I do not really complain about my name. In fact, I’m proud of it. If someone wants to remember my full name he/she will. My non-Indian friends are happy to call me “Sri”, which I appreciate since they made an effort to pronounce it right!

***
A bit of trivia

The very first message transmitted on the ARPANET, on October 29, 1969, was from UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles) to SRI (Stanford Research Institute). The Internet had its beginnings in the late 1960s as the "ARPANET". Google for it, if you are interested in Computer Networks. It has a very nice history.

*****

Current Song
Ab Na Jaa by Euphoria
...kehne de taaro ko kahani ankahi...
... pal mein beete kitne saal...

My Current Status

while(1)
{
Studying for 12 credits/semester;
/* Studying Applied Probability and Stochastic Processes in time "3T/5"
and doing everything else in time "2T/5" */
Working on a research project;
Solving homework problems;
Finishing weekly assignments;
// this means library is my home

}


Current Song
21 Guns by Green Day
"Do you know what's worth fighting for?...."

Where have the PCOs gone?

As a kid I used to regularly accompany my father to the nearest PCO (Public Call Office) that was a kilometre away from our home. Through our walk to and from the phone booth, I would endlessly chatter about everything - from how salty the breakfast in the morning was, to becoming a space scientist when I grew up. What days those were!

A few years later, we got a landline phone connection. But it enabled only local calls. So we still walked up to the phone booth for STD calls, infrequently though.

Subsequently, it was time for the advent of cellular phones through which you could anytime call anyone living anywhere on earth (well almost). Thanks to the ever decreasing prices of feature-loaded (overloaded?) mobile phones, we find almost everyone hooked onto to his precious ‘companion’ these days. Moreover, it is so easy to get a SIM card (not so easy in the US). Cellular phones have sure revolutionized the way we communicate. But are the fixed phones dispensable?

Sometime ago, we had gone to Chennai for my visa interview. Since I did not know how much time I would take to be done with the interview, I told my dad "Why don't you show around the place to Mom. I'll call you once the interview is over". What I had not realized was – since mobile phones were prohibited inside the consulate building, I had left my phone with my brother.

My interview got over way faster than I thought. Once I was out of the consulate office, I started to look for a PCO. To my astonishment I could not find any in the vicinity of the Anna Salai street! I walked all over the place for about an hour, asking people if there was a PCO around somewhere. A passerby guided me to a landline phone owned by some restaurant. I eagerly grabbed the handset to dial dad's number. Sadly, it could not call a mobile phone that was on roaming.

My hunt for a PCO continued. I had almost lost my way back when I spotted an Idea mobile phone outlet. The sales person there was kind enough to let me use his mobile phone to make a call. I could not have been more relieved. I dialed the number. All I could hear was "the number you are trying to call is out of coverage area".

I had no other option but wait at the hotel lobby for my parents to return.

***
The hotel there had a strange system for using their phones. You couldn’t call a cell phone on roaming from the hotel landline!

*****

Current Song:
Dhoom Pichak Dhoom by Euphoria
....mera dushman saara zamaana... :D