Really Sweet 16

(Pic adopted from intmstat)
While looking at this year's weekly calendar, I realized that April 16 falls on the 16th week. Interesting ! Got a little more curious to see if it would be an exception or a rule. Before getting into that, had a cursory look at the days in which Jan 1 and Apr 16 fall. Turned out that, both fall on the same day. That's cool, I thought. It also implies  that Apr 16 has to be on Week 16 of every year, but wait.. leap day comes in between. What it would mean is, if Jan 1 on a leap year falls on a Saturday, Apr 16 would fall on a Sunday. Using simple probability, it is going to happen once every seven leap years, i.e., 28 years. The only instance it has happened so far was in 2000, which was one of the most productive years of my life. The next time it will happen on 2028. What would be in store then?

Also, only those who were born on Jan 1 (Week 1, Sonali Bendre for example) and May 21 (Week 21, Mohanlal for example) can enjoy the similar privilege. And, back to the earlier question, yes, it is a rule that Apr 16 would be on 16th week of the year because it happens 27/28 = over 96% of the time. 

A New Avatar

I have been pretty busy in the past 2 weeks bcos of a new role. Suddenly I was offered a chance to teach in a college for a month; in the US, the summer has two sessions, each about a month long. My chance was to teach my fav subject -Organic Chemistry to UG students in a college at Queens. The morning had a 2 1/2 class and immediately afterwards, the lab session for over 3 hours. Though I was never seriously interested in taking up teaching, I was interested in this new avatar since it would tell me how good I am at it.

It turned out to be OK.. A few of my students were kind enough to come and tell me that I am teaching well, but that was during the first week when I was teaching quite slowly, without realizing that, in this crumbled semester, I need to teach pretty fast. I am doing that now, and the students are complaining that there are two many reactions already. The course is somehow setup that way; hundreds of reactions to understand and memorize. But, that is what organic chemistry is (in)famous for.

The worst part about the whole thing is the long drive to the college. Though it is only about 30 miles away, the drive involves some of the busiest highways around Manhattan. With me having been blessed with ~ 1 mile commute to work in Florida and here until now, this long drive is quite frustrating. At times, it takes even 2 hours to commute. Worse was yesterday, when the sudden storm/tornado made me get stuck on the road for 4 hours and I had to leave home very early today to avoid any delay due to a predicted storm. Just today, one student recommended me an alternate route, which sounds promising, and looking to keep my travel time to about 80-90 minutes.

Optimism

I lost my 'poonool' recently while I was trying out some dresses in a mall. When I was thinking about it, my mind wandered into what could be its potential advantages. Suppose during my forthcoming India trip I get caught in the middle of an unexpected carnage against Hindus, or, specifically, Brahmins, me not wearing a poonool might save my life!! :)

It reminded me of a scene in 'Hey, Ram!' in which Atul Kulkarni, when confronted by Kamal, cites some mantras to save his life. I was wondering what if he was mute, and he had no other proof to show that he is a Hindu. Similarly was the scene in 'Mr. and Mrs. Iyer' when the Hindu mob attacks the bus. That these things still happen in some parts of the country is a disturbing thought. Anyway, back to the discussion.. I was thinking, 'what if, on the contrary, I am caught by a Hindu gang, when I am without my poonool?'. The mantras that I learnt long ago would probably come to rescue me aka Atul's case.. hmmm.. mind is truly a monkey..

From Madurai to Manhattan

Yesterday I had a chance to see the first snow fall of my life. So, this long overdue wish was over atlast.. :) Night temperatures hover sub-zero, so atlast, this is like "Welcome to Northeast!!". I was just remembering the evolution of my adaptability over the past decade or so. Having lived all my young life in South Tamilnadu, where the climate anytime of the year can only be defined as 'Hot, hotter or hottest', my parents hesitated a lot to send me to Bangalore. And, my first couple of winters in Bangalore were terrible. Imagine a guy who would shiver at the approx. 20 C evening temperature of Madurai being brought to approx. 10 C of Bangalore.

Those of you who used to visit my blog in my early days can recall the name 'Sinusitist' that I used to call myself. My sinus in the final year in Bangalore was real bad, so I was worried about the cold West. Luckily I came to Florida. Another 10 degrees change.. During the first winter, without the car, it was lil difficult but it wasnt bad. The next move was to New York. Add another 10 degrees in the wrong direction but surprisingly the body has shown good signs of adoptability. Now, I can walk freely without any jacket, at temperatures of > 7 or 8 degrees. So, the moral of the story is, always try to make a graded change.. I wonder what would have happened if I had made a direct transition as in the title of this post..

The advantage(s) of watching movies

Aruna had commented in my last post that, nowadays, I am writing too many posts on movies.. mm.. true.. what to do.. that is one subject which is seldom a dull one to discuss.. And at times, there are some practical applications too.. One incident that happened a few weeks ago immediately comes to my mind..

I was leaving to gym from home and had changed to gym suit. I was carrying the gym bag and it was pretty cold outside.. Only after coming out did I realize that my key bunch didnt have the house key, since I had removed it sometime ago for making a duplicate. I was too lazy to get in, remove my shoes, search for the key and wear the shoe back.. Since it was already dark and my neighborhood is reputed to be gud, I thought I dont have to lock the house for an hour and half, and I left.

After I returned, I turned the knob to try to open the door, and, the door was locked!! I was shocked at first but then got myself composed and thought of the various possibilities.. 1) A thief is inside; he has locked the door from inside and would barge out anytime after collecting his loot.. 2) My home-owner might have come to talk to me for something, and while pushing the knob, the door could have opened; and since he is 'THE OWNER', he might have locked it using his copy of the key; 3) It somehow got locked by itself, may be due to the force with which I slam the door.

Now, the first possibility is deadly.. the easiest way to get a ticket 'upstairs' is to stand in front of the possibly-armed thief rushing out with his collection. So, I went around the house searching for any tiny light which the thief might be using to see inside.. there wasnt anything.. and after listening for sometime, I didnt hear any sound either. So, I jumped to the second possibility.. but, my house-owner wasnt there in the house and God knows when he would return, and it was getting pretty late at night. I was thinking of reasons to tell him why I left the house unlocked and sometime passed.

what if it is #3? How to open the door? To call 911 and let the cops do it.. why to unnecessarily create a commotion with NYPD? That s'd be my last option.. Then, I remembered a scene from one of the recently watched Hollywood movie in which the hero enters into someone else's house using, simply, a plastic card such as a credit card. I thought of applying the same trick with my doorlock, took out the Gym membership card and started swiping it along the edge.. Voila, it worked!! The door opened and luckily there was no one inside. I thanked the movie for infusing me with such an idea, but alongwith that, struck the thought about how vulnerable such locks are.. Our own 'Dindugul poottu' grew up so high in esteem in my mind...

I am back, back, back !!!

Back to frequent blogging (hopefully), back to US and back to work. Now u know why 3 backs..

Few travel musings on this India trip..

Most asked question: Ennada Raju, ippadi ilaichu poyitte?? (What Raju, u have become soooo thin!) Well, parents ask so even if I put on weight and visit them, so one would assume this qn. to be a routine one. Not for me, not this time. I had indeed lost, in a happy and planned fashion, over 17 pounds (~ 8 kg) in the 3 months prior to the trip. So, u know, I had a chance to do some own-trumpet-blowing about my gym workout, diet, etc.. That was fun except when my anni's came to fight with me about my preference on a certain kind of diet.. mm.. kaicha marathukkudhaney kalladi vizhum.. ;)

Second most asked qn.: Eppo thirumba varre? (When r u returning?) Answer varied from 'soon' to 'after a few months' to 'around summer' to 'by april'. Reminded me of the qn. during my Ph.D. days -"Eppo mudikka pore?" (When r u gonna complete?). From the way my answers were 'consistent' (2-3 months) for a long period of time, they should know what to make of my answers to this kinda qns.

NRI Syndrome: Tried my best to consciously avoid the 'by-now-infamous' comparisons, showing-off's and complaints but the evil part of me would raise its ugly head at times.. Somehow escaped without much damage, both to my ego and to the body.. ;)

Greener grass: Good to see all the cousins, relatives, nephews and nieces. And, yeah, great to visit IISc and spend those 'Gnabagam varudhey' moments.. Bar the heightened security, not much change there.. Watching 'KANK' and 'VV' in Sathyam was an overwhelming experience.. Cinema-nna adhu..

Nervous moments: First, at the US embassy when I was told that my passport and details have to be sent to D.C. for clarification, and on the week prior to my flight when there was no info from them yet. I laid my hands on the passport just a few hours before the flight.. whew.. Next were those minutes in the auto/taxis on the roads of Delhi, Calcutta, Chennai and Bangalore. Worst on the Delhi street when, the car driver was casually crossing red lights and giving 'gaali' to the honking vehicles coming in the perpendicular direction, saying "No need to follow these lights before sunrise, saab.." ?!?!?

MPS:

1) Vettaiyadu vilayadu: Good to see Kamal after long time. If the first romance was cute (the proposal scene at the wedding was cooool), the second one was mature and lovely (the dialogues b/w Jo and Kamal at the airport and on the road were too good, aka Kaakha...style). It was interesting to see several 'Kaakha kaakha' characters in different roles/personalities. One ex. is the guy playing Jo's NRI hubby. Songs were top-notch, typical Gautham stamped.. I think it was a neatly executed movie.

2) KANK: Kabhie Alvidaa Naa Kehna, that is.. Saw it twice within a week. Despite VV and KANK had the NewYork link in common, there was a big difference in the 'colors' in KANK.. talk of production values.. And, on moral values, KANK might leave a lot to debate, but I felt that Karan had handled the subject quite maturely. I had misty eyes and lumped throat for much of the second half.. Songs are unforgettable, my favorites now. One of the best Hindi movies I saw in the recent years.

3) Sillendru oru kaadhal: I enjoyed all but the last 10-15 mins of the movie with a smile on the face and occasional bursts of laughter. Looks like the director, Krishna, had thought a lot on how our now-real-pair Jo-Surya would have and would be romancing and brought up with those cute moments.. The saturday night party, dialog on the width of the bed, and, the candid minutes in the train and on the station were sooooo refreshing.. Since I hadnt heard the songs b4, 'New York nagaram' was an 'Inba adhirchi'.. :) And, not to forget the cellfone conversations b/w Surya and Bhumika.. Oh Boy.. too good to watch just once.. ;)

More movies later.. already this post is too long.

Laugh or cry?

Recently, our group's graduate student from Pakistan asked me a qn...

He: So, which part of India are you from?
Me: I am from South India...
He: Really? but u dont look like a South Indian...
Me: Bcos I dont have a mush?
He: No... bcos u dont have a tummy.. I have seen all south indian heroes with big tummies...
Me: ?!?!??!

Birthday blues

My previous two birthdays were rather forgettable. In 2004, it was on my first week in the US. I had gone to the social security office in the morning. In the afternoon (it was a Friday), I kept my backpack (with my passport and other important documents in it) in my allotted office space and went to my lab. I came back after ~20 minutes and found the bag missing. It was in a locked room but it had an inlet from another room besides it, which was unlocked. I couldnt believe that such things could happen in a University in the US. Then I was told that things do get stolen once a while.

It was a horrendous afternoon, with police entering the picture. I gave up my hope of getting it back and when I was trying to see how to get a duplicate passport, it was a long and expensive procedure, involving the Indian embassy here. It was the worst way of beginning in a new place. I spent the next two days with nightmares day and night.. On the sunday, I got a call from the police that they have found my backpack with everything in it!! The person who stole it obviously thought I had my laptop in it but having found nothing useful, was kind enough to leave it on a bench in a corner of the campus. Thanks to him a million!! Had he, in anger, dumped it in a junkyard....

Next year, in 2005, I decided to make up for the previous year's mishap and so advance-booked for a dinner in an Indian restaurant. In the evening, I decided to go to gym... I had got my driver's license just a week ago, and I was all geared up.. only that, when I returned to my car, I realized that my car key was missing.. Hurried back to gym searching for it, but couldnt find it. Luckily, I had made a duplicate but it was kept at home. So, I went home by bus, took the key and returned to school to pick up the car.. during this, more than an hour was lost.

Very little time for the restaurant to close, so noted down the map route.. it was my first drive in the freeway as well.. then I realized that I took right at the exit instead of left.. In a hurry to get back on the right track, I took such a wild U-turn that the car went to the other side, then crossed the median, came back to the same lane, crossed the side-walk and went into the curb.. All because I was pressing the accelerator like mad while making the turn.. the result? One of the tires was punctured. Fortunately, there was no other vehicle passingby so no other damage.

Then, I took a deep breath, parked it near a gas station and decided to walk to the restaurant. After 1/2 mile of walking outside the city, I just managed to reach the restaurant before the closing time. In the meanwhile, talked to my friend and arranged for the towing of the vehicle to nearest service station. Somehow things went alright that day after the minor accident.

This year, I decided to go to Jersey city for good Indian snacks, movie and nice dinner. Since it was the first visit to the area, some 20 mins went off when I took one wrong turn.. Entry into 'Newark Avenue' (which would look just like any small, busy road in Chennai or Bangalore - only desis) was just around the corner, but thanks to the one-way roads, some time was lost. Had real good snacks, and left for the movie.. only I didnt realize that the multiplex has changed its place.

There were lots of Indians walking around that area but except 1 or 2, nobody knew about the movie hall, which shows 3-4 Indian movies each time. So, I ended up again in a wrong place.. and the 6 PM show was only 2 mins away. There was another show at 7:30 PM but that would mean the dinner plan is gone for a six. Notwithstanding the jinx, I pulled up near a gas station and hurried in to get some help on directions. The owner seemed to be an Indian but his accent suggested otherwise.. The conversation I had with him was interesting..

Since he was explaining me slowly, I, in a frenzy, was intercepting him with the directions. Then he said "Man, you are from India.. but you are behaving like an American.. Listen.. Take a deep breath and think calmly.. Only Americans are always fast fast.. (he enacted panting and heavy-breathing). You Indians are known to be calm and think clearly.. Be an Indian.. Don't be an American..!!".

So, the jinx continues but is surely getting better..

Good Bye, Florida..

Left Florida yesterday; I have heard from myfriends who moved out that they missed
a) the vast beaches
b) the fine weather
c) the beautiful fauna and flora
d) the calm, cool and slow life
e) Orlando & Miami - two of the best tourist spots and
f) the unique (!) good-looking girls... :-)

Let me see how I feel...
a - probably not much of a problem, since the new place is NYC, that too an island with a couple of beaches.
b - cold here.. Sniff..

c - Have to wait for the Fall
d - I am looking forward to the fast life
e - I will surely miss them.. esp. Orlando
f- May be!! :-)

Anyway, it is hi hi to New York !!

Entrance Exam Confusion

So, this year again, there is a cloud of uncertainty looming large over the careers of many aspiring students facing the class 12 exams over the admission to engineering colleges. No lessons learnt from last year. The Government should have been prepared well in advance, rather than put more pressure on the students during the arguably most important weeks of their life.

In this context, let me tell you the story of a totally naive guy. From his early school days, he had the dream of becoming an engineer. He did very well in the class 10 and got 14th rank in the state. The problem started in his class 11 and 12, when he changed to English medium from Tamil. Though he had a good knowledge in English as the subject, his vocabulary was not poor, so he struggled a lot. He continued to get 98+ % in Maths, which required least knowledge of English; chemistry was poorer and physics was the worst.

Being a very shy and less-talkative person from the childhood, he had abysmally poor knowledege on the know-how's of getting into professional courses. He knew that there is the 'big entrance test' which is very important; he assumed that the admission to B.E. would depend only on the performance in the entrance test. So, he was concentrating mostly on that. He paid equal attention to all his subjects - for him, the languages were as important as the science subjects. Whereas most of his class were focussing only on phys, chem, maths and/or bio, he spent equal time on languages as well.

One of his close friends from class 10, Subbu, who got 7% less marks in class 10 than him was doing very well. He thought Subbu's success lies in his tuition classes for physics and maths. Came the final exams, and, after writing the chemistry exam, he was chatting with one of his friends, JP, and telling him how his dream of becoming an engineer lies in the next few months, the time preceding the entrance exam. It was then that JP asked him how he thinks it is possible, with insufficient marks expected in the final exams.

Can you imagine how he would have felt.. Had he been told atleast a month earlier, he would have slogged and tried his all best in the exams.. Why should he be told it right after the last significant exam? He was terribly broken; he had given up.. he didnt even apply for the entrance test. Somehow, he recovered and his uncle from Coimbatore told him that he can join some special courses offered in the engg. colleges over there, like, B.Sc. Appl. Sci. and B.Sc. Comp. Tech., which are far better than the average B.Sc.

Bad luck was about to strike him again; for some inexplicable reason, he stayed back at his hometown for a week after the results were announced and went to collect his +2 mark sheets. Then, he made his visits to the desired colleges to file an application, at a time when admission was going on. After a week of hectic trying in Coimbatore and failing to get the top colleges without a donation, he decided to return to Madurai, where he had done the last 5 years of schooling. There again, it was too late. All the top colleges had filled up the seats, and he could get admission in one of the not-so-famous colleges..

To top it all, there was terrible confusion over the entrance exam in that year. In the end, for the first time in several years, the government had decided that the admission to engg. colleges would be made based solely on entrance tests!! Had he not talked to JP after the chem exam, he would have atleast given his best in the entrance exam, for which he was preparing for months.. Those were some of the worst months of his life.. He was terribly depressed.. somehow he recovered and managed to do well in his BSc and join a reputed institution for higher studies.

Recently, he was talking to Subbu and for the first time, opened his heart out on this story, which he had not revealed to any of his +2 classmates thus far.. Subbu said 'Hey, if you had discussed with me about it, I would have told you everything about the procedure.. Thats why we were wondering why you got more marks in the languages than physics'.. It was the case of a big 'IF'. A bit of inferiority complex, that he carried on due to his language-shift had caused him dear.

You all know who the 'he' is.. Though he loves his choosen subject, he cant stop thinking why things turned so wrong in the most crucial phase of his life.. and imagine what would have happened otherwise.. It is like a love-failure nevertheless.. even if one marries somebody else, the mind would tend to think what if the first love was not a failure.. It is not adultery, is it?

Got it ?

I am waiting for some fast bowler who can take the New ball, moving it both ways to the batsmen, and York them off, helping us win the one-day series in April.

Visa Fiasco

Many of you might have heard the news on the problems with issue of U.S. Visa to Prof. Goverdhan Mehta, former Director of IISc. He was asked to attend the interview at the Chennai embassy and then told that his answers were not satisfying to warrant issue of Visa. The staff at the embassy had no clue about him obviously. Though it came as a shocking news, it was not all that 'totally-unexpected'. After the nuclear tests in 1998, some prominent Indian scientists such as Dr. Chidambaram were denied U.S. visa. Post 9/11, the situation has arguably worsened, as some of you might have experienced.

Yesterday, one of the senior faculty members, Prof. Ken Wagener, talked to me about it and sincerely apologized, as an American, for the injustice caused to an Indian scientist. He need not have done that, and it showed how hurt he was at the proceedings. Prof. Mehta was slated to visit our University (as an invited and distinguished Professor) and then attend a major Chemistry meeting at the end of March. Now, even though his visa has been granted, thanks to some high-profile involvement, he has cancelled his visit.

IMHO, it is high time that scientists beyond a certain level have to be treated differently when the Visa norms are considered. The people at the embassy are not experts in all the areas of science and technology to judge and analyze upon the quality and value of a scientist. A little homework from their part can surely prevent this kind of mishap.

I was one of those affected by such Visa problems. I was initially supposed to join Tech. Univ. of Eindhoven in the Netherlands, in a group which is arguably the best on this planet to work on polymers. Dutch visa, as far as I know, is the most difficult Visa to get. Too many procedures and norms for comfort. For those from developing countries, it requires a original birth certificate, duly attested at the highest possible place. I paid several visits to Madurai and Chennai (the secretariate) to get my birth certificate verified and stamped.

The visa form is 18 pages long, with info (D.O.B. and place of birth) required on my parents, kins, uncles, aunts, grandfathers, grandmothers, our school education history from class 1, etc. It required calling everyone of them (over 25, scattered all over India) and getting the info. At last, I went to attend the interview in Mumbai. Then came the shock of my life. They had introduced a new rule just a few days before, which required that the certificates with 'initials' will not be accepted. As a South Indian with no family name or surname and only the first letter of father's name as the initial, I had all my certificates with initials on it. The new rule meant that I would have to run pillar-to-post in the slow-working government offices of City corporation, collector's office, secretariate and even High court, to get my name changed.

I realized that it would take atleast 6-7 months to get the visa, so I, in a moment of rage, applied to my supervisor here, who was my Ph.D. supervisor's friend and our collaborator, and I was lucky enough to get a position. Within 6 weeks from then, my visa was ready. That experience with Dutch visa left a sore note, and I decided to never apply for it again. The government's policies are taken without considering the scientific community, and thus a scientist is treated the same way as an illiterate. High time it changes.

Me and Movies

I was an average movie watcher in my childhood. That changed a bit in late 80's, when we bought a VCP. I became an avid movie-watcher.. and, added to that, the video parlour near our home had a scheme that, for Rs. 100 per month, we can rent one movie per day.. Plus, since we were the only ones having a VCP, two of our neighbours made a deal of bringing a video cassette of their own choice and allowing them to watch at our home. Thus, my summer vacations in late 80s and early 90's were largely spent on movies and movies.. Once I watched close to 100 movies in 2 months..!! (old, new, repetitive, Tamil, Hindi, English all put together).

When I was in class 10, on one crazy evening, I decided to write down all the movies that I had watched till then.. I took a chalk piece and started to write it down in a room.. Then I got the idea of writing them in a document, so I picked up a new diary and began entering all the movies I had seen, from my reasonably good memory. To seggregate, I divided them based on the actors (MGR, Sivaji, Kamal, Rajini, Vijayakanth, Satyaraj, Prabhu, Karthik and Others), English, Hindi and other languages.

Within a week, the project was complete and when I added them up, I realized that, in less than 15 years of my life (or, to be precise, 10 years of movie watching), I had watched over 1000 movies. Impressive, huh? I decided to continue that practice (not the frenetic movie-watching, but the writing down part). Then, I added all the movie halls I had visited. After my school, I started collecting my movie tickets and stored them in the same diary, on the appropriate date.

It was too good to last. I kept up with the documentation for over 8 years.. and then it stopped, along with my diary-writing habit of 13 years. Now, some of you know how and why I have become the TMDB.. When I counted it last time (late 90's), my movie-count had reached about 1500. With the flurry of movies that I have watched since then (esp. in the past year-and-half,) I am sure it would be touching 2K now.. :-)

Numbing numbers

This is a totally personal post (TPP, as I would call during future references).

Ever since I was a child, I had more than enough share of 'vendaikkai' (bindi or Okra) by my mom, saying it is good for my brain, esp. 'Kanakku nallaa varum'. I dont know due to which effect, I started loving maths from childhood.. Soon, numbers started occupying certain 'fixed places' in my memory and I could memorize upto 16x16 tables before my class 5. The numbers from 1 to 1K (upto 1024) are, to me, not just numbers but the members of a well-defined matrix. That helped me a lot whenever quick maths was required.. no need for calculators..

Some are my favorite, and to top all, 6. So many numbers that I got would invariably add up to give 6. Like Tendulkar, 'ten' became another favorite of mine, thanks to my nick name 'Padhu' or 'Pathu'. 10+6=16, which is my D.O.B. A few years ago, when I used to travel by auto in Bangalore, I would keep manipulating the passing-by vehicle numbers to try to get 6 out of them. Just to break the monotonous travel through familiar roads, u see..

Recently, whenever I do any 'routine' stuff, I parallel-process to get some arithmatic going. My favorite (memorable) numbers of late are 6,10,16,23,36, 43, 53,54, etc. each of them has a sweet memory associated with it (e.g., my hostel room numbers, '43'=Love you', etc.). When I wash the dishes, I would look at the quantity of the dishes and the watch and decide that 'OK.. I am going to wash them till this much minutes'. When I wash rice for cooking, I would start counting my 'squeezing rice' the sum of the hour and minutes.

In gym, I would burn 'one of my favorite numbers' of calories before switching to another machine.. While small-distance driving, I would look at the clock and decide, before this minute, I would be at this intersection/road.. During long-distane driving, it is reaching certain miles within certain minutes..

I never overly put any pressure on myself doing such things.. these all are done to convert the boring things into something new each time.. It has found to help me do such things more easily than before.. If any of you have any such 'time-pass' techniques, plz shoot..

A freaky accident

While taking off to Orlando for the Seaworld visit part-2, it happened.. On the I-75 in the afternoon, I was going on the left lane (as usual.. and at max. speed of 80+) when Isaw a piece of tyre rolling away from the highway into the curb on the left.. it was not the usual small piece but of an entire circumferance.. It was amusing, and I was looking ahead for the vehicle which lost it and gauge the situation..

The tyre seemed to merrily go into the grass but then it saw our vehicle, changed its course, came into the highway for a fraction of a second and BANG... there was a huge thud on the front left side and the tyre was tossed into the middle of the highway.. The car started making some little minor weird noises so I pulled over to the curb and checked the damage.. Oh bboy... it had smashed the left indicator lamps and heavily dented the banette. The impact was so forceful that I couldnt open the door fully comfortably.

I called the cops, reported it, but since no vehicle was seen around waiting to be towed, the cop said it was an accident for which he cant claim anybody to be at fault... Fine... still went to Sea World, enjoyed there and came back. The car is running fine.. no problem.. I drove over 1000 miles after that incident in less than a month. A few lessons learnt, thanks to those few seconds...:

*Even a relatively crowdless freeway always requires utmost attention; always look out for the rolling tyres or flying tyres. The tyres are damn heavy and at the high speeds, they are deadly.

*Those in US would have seen a lot of torn tyres on the sides of the highways and each of them must have got their own story to tell. The tyre that ricocheted from our car went to the middle lane.. it could have potentially created a major havoc akin to a chain reaction..

*Maximum alertness required at nights.. a thrown-away tyre even at one of the right lanes on a seemingly bare highways is highly probable.

* One gets only a handful of seconds to react for such 'weird' happenings.. pressing the break after sighting such a rolling tyre, without being aware of the vehicle behind is a sure disaster. Always an eye on the rear-view mirror..

Introspection

Hi guys.. I took an unexpected break from blogging due to the following reasons: a) Tight work; b) Wanted to finish reading Ponniyin Selvan; c) To see whether or not I am addicted enough to not take a week off from blogging; and d) Why blogging?

Dont we Indians like chutter-puttering a little too much? Ram mentioned that his official and personal life took a little suffering due to blogging so he too took a week's break.. If the software professionals like most of you, who sit in front of pc almost the entire day, feel your work affected, then a synthetic chemist like me got more than affected.. so, my blogging would be during the weekend... may be 3 per week, I will try to stretch it to 4.. around the weekend.. but, do visit mid-week too.. if I could sneak out some time and if some interesting stuff is there to write about, I surely will..

Coming back to the topic, I have seen in the campus, most Indian guys always on fone, especially after 9 PM and during weekends.. Another similar class who roam talking on cell fone is that of American girls.. Not many American guys.... and relatively less for desi girls.. What is there so much to talk about, yaar?

My best period of academic success was during 1998-1999 during which period I worked like mad.. I hardly watched movies, hardly sat in front of pc and TV for pastime, hardly chatted for long.. I was near workalholic.. Didnt miss all the things really.. The satisfaction of work and the pouring resuls was there.. The reason for where I am now is mostly due to my hard work during those two years... The past few years havent been so good.. esp. the last year and half.. Gotta shrug off the cobwebs and back to full time work and work-outs..

If you do a google search for Padmanaban or G Padmanaban, "I am feeling lucky" would take you directly to the link in my PhD lab.. there is one more veteran G Padmanaban, who was the director of IISc and one of the most famous biochemists of our country. It is high time I pull my sox up and restart my journey towards greater heights..

Mega Merger

My first blogging experience was when I created the cricket blogs to write about my own tiny views on cricket.. Then I realized that I had many things to say on many subjects and also the Indian cricket season was off.. so, that site was literally dozing off..

Some interesting cricket is going on in England right now.. the world champs are biting dust more often than they would have liked and what the world has seen.. Also, the Indian cricket season is about a month to begin.. So, I decided to merge my cricketblogs with my webdiary to enable me to write on cricket too on this site.. My cricket blogs site would vanish into thin air soon.. (Mega merger atleast in terms of the bytes.. :-))

Great to be here

I have created this blog as my WebDiary... to go along with my other passion, cricket.. http://cricketblogs.blogspot.com
Here I am planning to post my own music and movie (Tamil and Hindi) reviews, some fundas out of deep thoughts on some other subjects (like Chemistry, life, Politics and stuff). Since I am quite a surfer, I myself read reviews a lot from other websites.. but hopefully the ones I post would be unique and straight out of what I feel. I am not a great reader (yet).. I dont read novels and stuff.. I would rather spend my spare time on the net to catch up with the latest news on Cricket, Movies and Politics. Hope there are people to read it.. (I have to spread the word)..