Everyday is a Déjà vu

Everyday is a new day in terms of date, time, year and what not. But, what if the activities during the day remained the same as yesterday or if tomorrow repeats as today!! This is precisely what I am confused over or concerned about.

As a background; during school times, classes, assignments, projects, exams and papers took away most of the day and there was no strict manner in which things happened. It was all asynchronous. Take it with cooking food or chit-chat with roomies late in the night or watch movies at random too; there was no significane to being streamlined in what we were up to. 

This unruly behavior changed with settling in a job (and this is just the beginning :)). A big picture can be explained as below.

For each Monday through Friday - 

     wake-up, brush, shower, cereals for breakfast, 

     drive 5 mins to work, 

     work 8+ hrs for the day with lunch, 

     drive back home in 5 mins, 

     cook, dinner, clean, floss, brush, browse, sleep,

Repeat for the next day. 

Work seem to be the only variable part in the above loop which gets challenging or interesting or fascinating depending on what's going on; the rest being pretty monotonous. There are obviously a couple additions to the loop here & there during the week - phone calls back home or to friends or as today, by writing a blogpost. But, typically the above loop holds good almost always. 

Wonder how our parents and other people we have known been in the same jobs for eons, doing the same task day to day, following a similar typical routine in life, are coping up!!? It seems like a Déjà vu to me. The reason I say it as Déjà vu is that, going with the above flow, I know what I am up to the following morning at 8:30 - either in the shower or having cereals and the very next thing is to drive to work, there can be no other possibility. 

Solution: Looks like this is the reason we have weekends and a few holidays thrown into the equation to make use of them for some quality activities. It sometimes feels, making things a little complicated is worth; will probably get there. :D

Would like to add - there are many solutions here and I decoded a few only while I am writing these lines. So, the whole Déjà vu might not really be a problem, just that it needs to be overcome. :)

Facebook addiction!

These days with such a great network among friends and relatives be it through Facebook or twitter or blogs or YouTube channels, everyone tends to learn of everything another person is up to although security and privacy settings can be used to control the amount of information shared.

Twitter is something people have enjoyed and accepted. I once remember a friend getting Caltrain delay information due to an accident via twitter. Of all, I personally feel Facebook has been predominant in enticing crowd. It has attracted so much that it's hard to get off it. While responding to a survey, I stated time spent on Facebook per week to be 18 hours, which I am sure is quite less than I do. I woud like to share two instances of such Facebook addiction.

A sad case: This less known Facebook friend is back home in India who I had an acquaintance with. He once posted "Woke up to find my father no more!!!" or something which sounded similar. I was extremely shocked to see such an update and kept on wondered - How could anyone post that!! Well, just to make sure I read things right, I revisited his profile to only see the post deleted. It was only after one other friend confirmed of seeing the post that I was sure of what my eyes witnessed.

A supremely happy case: The Facebook status update said "Oh God, thank you God. Made my day. Thank you God." This gave away no information about the happiness. A few minutes later, comments started to flow and only then I understood that the person had got his Green Card (Permanent Residency) approved to carry forward his life in the US. A big deal, yes some what! Still such an open outburst of thanking God several times was not something I expected. And in this case too, the post got deleted in some time. It felt like God granted the person permission to live his life as if the person had never lived before. I would like to say, thank God; he got a life outside his motherland.

Confusion and frustration are the two things one could possibly see in me from the above two cases respectively. Best wishes to the two characters in my play. :)

Disneyland

Disneyland and me go back 20+ years!! :)

July 2nd 2011

It was when I was around 6 or 7 years of age that my neighbor gifted me with a coloring book. It was special then because of the Disney characters that were presented to sketch and paint; so many of them. I was a little into drawing at that time and a big fan of Mickey Mouse. Would make greeting cards with Disney characters and present to my cousins on their birthdays. I still remember the submarine, castle, fireworks, carnival parade... from the drawing book which used to be brought to life upon coloring them.

2 to 3 years down, there was this one regional movie which I still watch and cherish called "America America" (a Kannada movie). This movie is about how 3 friends get into their ways of life and portraying the American dream of a young adult from a village in India. It's an awesome watch and I personally relate so many aspects from the movie to my current US stay!! Indian movies being song and dance oriented, had a couple songs showing around places in the US and also included Disneyland. The picturing of the carnival and characters was so lively as if we made a US visit by watching the movie.

Now, i.e., 16 to 17 years from the movie release time, I have lived in the US for 4+ years, had my family visit me, took them around various places in the US including Anaheim in CA and you know what's in Anaheim, CA. Yes, you guessed it right. It's Disneyland... Not until my mom reminded me of the coloring book, I was able to retrospect how the Disney imagination was lived for real.

The idea behind this blog going back in time is that, we would never have imagined how life would take turns and give an opportunity of something one dreamt in the childhood days. Luckily for me, Disneyland stands right there!

Jamun and the frustration involved.

The characters in this story are fictitious and resemblance to anyone alive or dead is not at my obligation. :D

Scene1: Story begins with A making Jamun one evening. Distributes it among a few of many friends - B, C, D and E. B, C, D and E were chosen such that the commute distance, quantity/quality and late night home visit being okay. Though, A missed out on a few close F, G and H, that was not the intention.
Distribution and visits went fine. Jamun and the effort appreciated by them all. A thanked them and end of story (wish).
Had it been end of story, probably would not have made it into a blog. 

Scene2: The following day, E has a few good words about Jamun at lunch and the lunch group were kind enough, but no further discussion. Good to be a low profile.

Scene3: B and C meet A at coffee. F being present, A would have not expected a Jamun discussion. Suddenly, there is all appreciation of Jamun and the bad part of it going into the ears of F. Though F looked to have taken the whole Jamun incidence at ease, B and C (in all "fun") hinted and pointed and poked of it to F. There was nothing stopping A to disagree and F looked a little triggered and infuriated.
Later, D walks by and no discussion. A at this point doesn't know if Jamun has been "tasted" by G and H already. 

Scene4 (in A's mind): D was best; Scene1 was truly end of it. E was good; nothing to bother. B and C though had no bad motive probably missed something very basic! A feels sorry for F, G and H. A definitely owes them. 


So, the Jamun happiness turned to a frustration at A's end and hopefully F would have forgiven and forgotten. 
Moral of the story: To please everyone, learn to give caveats or do not miss anyone. ;)

Traffic rules in the office corridor

The campus I work at is huge and fortunately for me, the lab is at the south most corner and my cubes about 10 mins walking distance towards the other end. Fortunately because, these days with the sedentary job types I hear, I at least get to move around.

I am aware of the traffic rules on the roads & highways, on the walkways or even on the bikeways! It was very interesting to see how people had a tacit agreement within a closed building to follow the same traffic rules while walking along the office corridors.

A few instances or observations I would like to point out -
1) People always walk on the same side/direction as the vehicles travel on the streets. In this case, walk with wall closer to your right.
2) Slow moving traffic - There are instances when I  foresee people walking very slow. Same as vehicles does with an indicator to change lanes, I would say an excuse me (aka indicator) and jump to the opposite lane and quickly switch back to my lane; of course after looking for the opposite side traffic. ;)
3) STOP signal at crossroads - There comes innumerous doors, stairs, rest-rooms along the way. People on the corridor would get preference and the cross road commuter after looking right and then left can then merge to the main street (corridor).
4) Something similar to emergency vehicles - At some times, there would be people carrying wafer boats or a trolley of wafer boats or one who is in a hurry to attend a meeting across the campus. These are priority vehicles/people. Everyone would space out and move towards the pavement (in this case, wall) and let them step over. This works synonymous to the rule when a cop car or ambulance or fire engine is seen along the streets.
5) One other, though minor - I have observed to maintain a certain distance between two people walking one behind another. Too close doesn't seem appropriate. If one from behind is speeding and doing a tailgate, by frustration, people would allow you to pass over similar to what happens on the streets. :)

As can be noticed in the image, I am oriented on the right side of the corridor strictly following the traffic model. On a funny note, with several routes possible, I have found 2 such routes from my cube to the lab. A scenic route (I term it the CA-1) and the other not so scenic route (I term it US-101). :D

I was never told about all these 'traffic rules'. I have no qualms on this protocol either. It has worked out just fine and people have followed. It is amazing how things fall in place by merely following and co-operating with fellow beings.
Follow the good and discard the bad would not be a bad statement to reiterate at the end of this post! 

CBGIF

Just for Laughs

CB - Cold Bodied: Often times seen in not so heavy winter clothing. Looked simple and less warm, hence CB.

G - Geeky: Sometimes with the spectacles on, looks similar to Preity Zinta of Kal Ho Na Ho fame as in the neighboring pic.

I - Irish: Resembles Andrea Corr, lead singer of the famous inactive band Corrs. Specially in this video. 

F - Female: The female I am talking about. 

I hope to learn her name someday and stop calling Cold Bodied Geeky Irish Female alias CBGIF! ;)

A quick post, just rolling over my thought.

Why would anyone have tens of windows open at work (may be at home too) and for say, months together?
Even a software update restart prompt would not enlighten them to shutdown all the open applications and do a restart.
The later comment is, the machine is unbeatably slow. Never ever saw such a system. Why cannot the company offer better work stations.

Come on! They are not eternal and perish if not taken care; be it you, me, or any man made thing.

An idea changes the world

Who on earth doesn't get an IDEA? Even the smallest creature has the ability to utilize its brain to some extent. And we being humans have higher brain power to come up with several thoughts and ideas. Hence, the world is challenging and progressing at such a fast rate; be it in a good way towards 'innovention' or on the harmful aspects too.

As a child, I had this one thought. If I remember correctly, it was during my 7th standard/grade or so. The traffic those days in Bangalore weren't that huge as compared to now. My father used to ride me to school but used to get late for the assembly mostly due to traffic. I had this idea of literally fly and skip the traffic. My idea was to have a small flying vehicle which would be in such a construction that it would work both on land for a ride and fly in the air based on the circumstance. I would ride the vehicle until I reach a traffic choc-a-block and take off to the point where there is no traffic and ride again. As and when I started learning of the outside world, with the aid of internet or interactions or a little more research, I learned about such a thing which exists now. Not very sure if that existed at the time when I had the idea, but it surely does now. Here is a sample link. One can google "flying car"or something that sounds similar to find the latest available ones for purchase if interested. ;) 

Fast forward to the Spring of 2009. I was doing my Masters here in the US of A, stayed with roomies and was fun. There is a general tendency to forget the location of say, a domestic item or get it lost with in the house. I started terming this as "Why is there no Control+F in life?" This got hyper when a 3 of us sat down one evening and started working out the needs and bring the concept to reality. To be frank, that was the first and last day we ever discussed, later to find this which got materialized in Fall 2010. I was happy to have even coined such a thing among my friends but sad to have not really challenged ourselves to make it happen. The concept utilized in the link above is of bluetooth technology but ours was through RFID tagging system. Not very sure which is cumbersome, but realized that we missed in making it to an article. Later, there was no single response when I shared the above link with my 2 other friends saying - "What we discussed came true!"; and that's when it struck me, who cares. I din't myself. :(

Later that very same year, another concept hit my other friend's mind. A Vehicular Networks related, making use of RF technology again. Took it from concept to some brainstorming among groups, read a few papers, discuss often about the updates we all have - were the things we did. And alas, all go in drain with everyone getting busy with their own jobs and job hunts and the likes. 

To summarize, it can be noted that, as a kid we had ideas but nothing happened. Later, at the times when we had constructive ideas, we weren't determined to do it. Once we did decide to do something, other priorities change the lanes. 

Good thing I take off from the above 3 examples is that - 

Kid: left it as an idea

Spring'09: left it at discussion

Fall'09: took a step further

NOW is the time to make any idea happen. I hope to do something useful in life.

PS: Publish an idea. You might as well make a patent. You never know!! :D

Here and There..

I was on a customer service call once to have my address changed when I happen to move places. I spoke to a girl named Tiffany. She was very polite and did her job well. That is not of primary importance.

I happen to ask her how things were at her end and that's when I learned she was a student and working late night hours at this call center to earn her living and/or her college fee of sort. This is one such story.

I personally have worked at couple stores and an on-campus part-time job too while earning my graduate degree. That is no big fuss in the US and abroad with people working hard and equally struggling to score and achieve success in their career. Essentially, all international and local students do it.

My question is, why not the same scheme of work and study not make a positive impact in India too?

Positives -

* Earn while they learn helps in the financial bring up of a candidate.

* Utilizes time to a better purpose rather than wasting time in an unplanned manner.

* Relieves parents of financial stress (though there are Educational loans available these days, this can add to supporting it).

Negatives -

* Students concentrate more on money and less towards attaining knowledge.

* Not in a position to invest more time towards studies because of strain caused by jobs and extra work.

It is a topic to debate. But, my opinion being Work and Study with a Balance. Study is more important, meanwhile instead of wasting time for something unnecessary, they could work a little and get financial benefits. This is prevalent in most rural parts of India where youth work hard and study at evening college's and the likes.

This was just one thought which I wanted to have written from a long time, specifically 159 days. ;)

There is nothing wrong in following the good things from anywhere and anyone as long as it can be applicable.

Chi-Craze, an adventure game!

Its the Chi-Craze time at IIT, Chicago. A friend called up and reminded of it this morning. She said, our last years win was the inspiring factor for her to take part this time round. Its been an year almost already that we, a group of 4 won the event cashing $500. I would rate it as the most wonderful part of my IIT Life apart from all the Academics and Part-times. So, I thought why not come up with a post and here it is.

Date: April 25th 2009.
Group: Me, Rakesh Attaluri, Karthik Karur, Mohan Garadi.
Fee: $10 with free T-Shirt and water bottles/snacks.
About the game: Its a scavenger-hunt adventure full of games that will take all over Chicago downtown.
Rules of the game: 4 member team with 10 teams going round Chicago downtown accomplishing tasks at 8 different locations using Public transport only (CTA - Busses and Trains) without using any kind of GPS or Phone assistance. For that reason, we were also allowed to bring a team to foul if we got proof of them speaking over phone or so. All set we were with these initial guidelines.

Before we set out off the campus, the prerequisite task was to get written 'April of Chicago is awesome' in any three of French, Japanese, Korean and Mandarin. We could go no where apart from the campus comprising of Mc. Cormik Tribune Campus Center (MTCC) and the Mc. Cormik Student Village (MSV). Luckily we found a Korean who got it written instantly. Finding the other two were quite a tough task. Then we entered the MSV knocking the doors of all the dorms and asking for assistance. Went through the corridors and the cellar to luckily find a sole soul studying and he knew Mandarin. 2 down. Then we walked across the corridor to find Mr. Fabio Buffa, a co-ordinator at ISO-IIT who got it written in French. Unfortunately, we did not take a picture of the manuscript. Time was a crucial factor in getting all these done and we were already feeling the nerve required in completing the event. Once this was done, we reported to the front desk and were given the actual list of 7 tasks. At this point, we stood at team 4.

Now, the major issue was planning. We had our Home Work done knowing the major places where the tasks could be held. Now that we had the list with us, we roughly made a guess of what the spots would be and decided on the direction we would be traveling encompassing various spots so as to complete all in one loop without re-entering them. Luckily that day, we started off right. We took the Green Line train at Bronzeville-IIT and a bus 12 from State/Roosevelt to Museum Campus. People cheered us on the way over the bus and trains wishing us luck. They were actually shocked by the prize amount and one of them did help us in guiding a Clue.

The first Clue was "non-land creatures on the verge of extinction." My guess was Shedd Aquarium and it was right too. Soon after arrival, we checked all possible locations around the Museum, around the Aquarium, etc. We knew they definitely would be hiding somewhere barring direct view. Luckily for us, Rakesh and Mohan found them sitting down in a corner. The task here was Pictionary. Excluding me, the rest three took part and we guessed the words. The words were - Twins, University and Complete. Complete was a little difficult to comprehend and we finally made it. We were the first team at this station.

Caught a bus at the right time from Roosevelt/Michigan to Madison/Michigan. Then, the Clue was "been there." It was easily decode-able as Big Bean but the issue was to locate the volunteers in the huge area. After searching for a while, Mohan was the one who found them hiding right in front of the Bean. The task here was to request any unknown person to capture a picture of all four of us jump and while in air with holding hands. A couple of attempts, we made it too. Again, we were first at this station.

A Blonde over bus 12 had helped us in figuring out the clue "720kHz Ted Turner's Channel" to be the WGN 720kHz radio channel across the Chicago river. This was an open space and was easy to locate the volunteers. There was already a team performing the tasks. There were two tasks to do. An oral drawing which Karthik and Rakesh took care of. Karthik was to dictate and Rakesh was supposed to draw with his back turned over Karthik. In the meanwhile, Mohan made a face paining over me, post which we were supposed to offer 10 Free Hugs each to the public. Finding obliging people was a little hard. We finally managed and it was one of its kind! ;)

Walked a good distance instead of wasting time for the bus and finally managed to catch bus 29 to Navy Pier. The next Clue in OUR route map was "eye of Chicago" which Rakesh easily figured out to be Navy Pier with the Giant Wheel, on the lines of London Eye. The task here was dumb-charades but the twist was to bring an unknown person from the mass and request them to perform for us. A couple helped us out in this. We were supposed to guess the movie. Mohan took charge and the person had no way to express that movie except to show numeral 6. Sixth Sense came the answer instantaneously and there we go to the next station. We were the first at this location too.

Back to transport and luckily, the Free Trolley that runs from Navy Pier to many other attractions across Chicago was waiting for us. Got down at Water Tower Place since our next Clue was "Water Tower Place: 4th Floor Nigerian Girl." This was straight forward but the task was a little funny. We were supposed to visit each participating store on the 4th floor excluding a few and learn whether the designer was a male or a female or consisted of both. We split into a group of two and completed the task well within prescribed time and set off from there. Station 5 done and conquered.

The rest two Clues were "Picasso sculpture" and "Chinese Zodiacs." Chinese Zodiacs were definitely at Chinatown close to the university. Hence, we were to complete Picasso sculpture. Mohan had a brief idea about the location. The previous week to this, we had visited the Magnificent Mile on Michigan Ave and knew the closest station to go for the train. It was the Chicago/State for the Red Line train. Got down at Jackson and walked all the way in look for Picasso sculpture. Had we got down at Monroe, the previous station or State/Lake the previous to Monroe, that would have helped us. We wasted time walking all the way back for four huge downtown blocks and asked people finally locating the Picasso sculpture on Dearborn/Washington. The task here was a little tough. With our Chess champ Karthik accompanying, we had hopes of clearing it. The task was Chinese Draft Board Game. The volunteer did give us an introduction to the game and Karthik had a good grasp of it to play and win for us. We made it at station 6.

The only station pending was Chinese Zodiacs and we knew it to be somewhere in Chinatown. On the way to catch Red Line, we remembered of the bonus tasks. Two tasks would earn us 15 minutes each. The first one was "a single picture having Black, White, Brown, Blue, Red, Green, Orange, Purple, Yellow colors in it." This was easy, it was the Train Map of the CTA and we had a picture taken on the Green Line train at the start of our Adventure itself. The second task was to get "Dunkin Doughnuts and Garrett's Popcorn." Mohan knew the location of Garrett's popcorn store. We walked back to Jackson. Two of us took to Dunkin and other two to Garrett's. Then we took the Red Line train from Jackson to Chinatown.

Entering Chinatown, we were totally dumbstruck to find no single clue as we had not explored the area in particular. Then, the other concept in the game "witty" came to help. Karthik found a guy from a different team running across the street. Guessing that they would know, we followed to get to the right place. Huh! Kind of relief that we managed to figure out all the stations. The task here was a little tricky. We were to solve Puzzles. 5 in 7 minutes. Here again, we split it in groups of two. Rakesh and Mohan solved two. Karthik and me solved three. The volunteer also gave us a second attempt to figure out the correct answer to a wrong one as we were well within 7 minutes. It was our day, since the team we followed were struggling to solve and we completed the task to get back to Red Line train at Chinatown to Sox-35th. There was no satisfaction unless we presented the sample dollar notes given at each station upon completion of the task to the volunteer at the final destination.

We ran from the station to Perlstein Hall but to see a team already present. We lost all hopes of winning this competition but to our surprise, the team had missed out on a clue "Big Bean," and we were the first team to have returned with completing all clues/tasks successfully. The result was not out as they had to wait for all the teams to get back. We were asked to report back later in the day for the presentation.

At the presentation, it was announced as our team being the first, accomplishing the task in 3 hrs 55 mins with adding the bonus 30 minutes beating the rest from a huge margin (more than an hour). Visa Gift Cards for $500 was gifted by the ISO Student President.

I must say, this was the most relishing moment I got. We had put in hard work and done our HW in achieving this feat. It also shows, hard work always pays off and in this case paid off in a very h/wealthy way. :P

I should thank all my team and especially Mohan who managed to literally run along with us anywhere and everywhere with such a body mass. This came as a very good example for team effort which stays in memory for long.

The pics at various locations of Chi-Craze can be found in my Picasa Album.

At the TIME of Death

Some people might think, what's wrong with me writing about death! I came up with this topic after having heard a couple of demise news from various sources and by witnessing a few pics which struck me with this thought - At the TIME of Death!!

Death can occur to anyone anytime anywhere & what not irrespective of age and other factors. What's on their mind? I mean, what's on the dying person's mind!

Case 1: A far relative of mine passed away with a lung problem which though operated made no signs of recovery. He was survived by his wife, child and mom. They come from a poor background and spending a handsome amount towards the operation, the expectation was of a speedy recovery or at the least survival chances. Neither was the case. What would have been going on in his mind? What if he cannot make it, how about the family, the kids future, many in fact. The answer to which is unknown.

Case 2: Mumbai Attack: I was watching a video (@6:30) of Sachin Tendulkar & Harbhajan Singh interacting with the NSG troop. The NSG were the ones who terminated the haunting terrorist proceedings at all the active locations in Mumbai city. They are so much involved and proud to be Soldiers saving the nation. But they too have life, have feelings, have futuristic thoughts, etc. It was Harbhajan Singh who provoked a question to one of the guards - What's on your mind at the time of the incident? Does the family or your Life come to your thinking capacity? And the answer was nope. No such thoughts came his way while fighting, is all he had to answer. This is a case of entering the mouth of Death and might stand a chance of coming back live.

Case 3: Everyone around the globe know of the terrible Tsunami which killed hundreds of thousands of people. A picture was found of the huge Tsunami wave, the capturer of which would definitely not be alive. You can find it attached beside. Its a time when he knows that he would be dying and there is no chance or very less likely to survive the mammoth wave. What's on his mind? What can he think of while nearing his death? All unanswered.

Case 4: The Air France Atlantic Ocean mishap that had close to 230 people killed. People might have witnessed the images beside which then made rounds in the internet. There has been a conspiracy that the image was from a different accident altogether and that does not bother us here. As can be seen, the person on the 2nd row from the right in the first image is the one who was pulled away in the second image. Its all in a fraction of seconds that turns come up. No one knows. It was not just him, everyone aboard the flight had to end up. Just imagine, he is unknowingly falling off to death from a very high altitude and that's the only precious moment he can ever think and unfortunately make no possible survival actions.
There have been innumerous cases as been depicted above. What I'm trying to say is or rather question is, who knows what's on the mind of a person who is nearing death? What can s/he possibly think at that particular instant of time. Its very unclear and I'm in search of such an answer from quite a long time just out of curiosity. I don't know if someone can catch the feeling I interpret here which might sound crazy too. But, this issue had my thoughts blocked.

A possible way out: There used to be (guess its still on) a cartoon corner in the Daily Newspaper where in a character would just witness all the happenings which can be anywhere from war to quarrel to love to politics to anything & everything with being behind safe walls or by healthy voyeurism. I sometimes feel of taking that Avatar and witness such incidents on the likes of WTC 9/11 or Mumbai Attack 26/11 or IISc attack or similar to get the actual feel of what the newspapers showcase.