deviationz .LOG

Not only am I the most famous Anantha Narayan on the internet, I am also a snooze addict. I just got a comment on that post from a lady from Calif. and further googling led me Gauri Nanda’s workpages where she has come up with a cool alarm clock.

Lara Croft had this comment:

Just tripped across this page searching for info on the subject of snooze button addiction LOL. The best I’ve heard so far was a guy that started duct taping his alarm clock to the ceiling, and placing a chair on the other side of the room. The act of having to get out of bed, drag the chair over, climb up and hit the button makes it harder to go back to bed. I think my addiction has to do with dreams, I feel like I’m in the middle of something, or am about to find out the meaning of life…and the snooze button keeps me just awake enough to go back and remember where I left off..sounds weird I know. I end up forgetting the entire thing anyway by the time I get up!
Lara

I am sure there is going to be great hue and cry in the coming months about who should captain India (Code name : MIB). I think Ganguly has had his share of time at the helm, and it’s time to find a new leader. I got an interesting forward on Ganguly and his “purple patch”.

India is playing a keenly fought series against Pakistan, and there is a phone call for Ganguly in the dressing room.
Person on the phone: I would like to talk to Saurav.
Team Manager: I am sorry, he just went out to bat.
Person on the phone: That’s ok, I will wait.

And for those who did not follow Ganguly’s career over the last 2 years, it simply means that he has hardly spent any time in the crease, and his last hundred came way back in 2003. And the team selection sucks so much that I don’t even have words for it. Kumble dropped from the team !! Excuse me, he scored more runs than the skipper and taught a lesson or two about batting to his much senior famed batsmen at Bangalore. I could go on and on about this, but I need to write my thesis too …….

And I turned 23 today. And noticed two strands of white hair. I am not getting any younger

First the Babri Masjid incident and now this ??. You have got to be kidding me. Can’t the BJP ever try anything else, something that has nothing to do with Hindu. I am a Hindu too, but this is the limit. We need a pro-hindu party to even out things, not to create turmoils and unrest. I don’t want a Babri Masjid repeat ever again or for that matter a Godhra.

This is the American way of looking at things.
American : I am going to see my girlfriend this weekend. I am all excited. How about you?
Desi : I don’t have a girlfriend.
American : What ???? !!!! Are you gay?

And so it seems that there are no single (without a girlfriend), straight (non-gay) guys in America. Very strange indeed.

I was having this conversation with Anand ( we shared the same apartment till he moved to Seattle ) yesterday. It was about how his parents were looking for an alliance for him, and how he did not want to get married so soon. His exact words were, “Dude, I like my life this way, I can do what I want, and I have the freedom.” He then went on to mention how lucky I was since I knew the person I would eventually marry. But the discussion then meandered to the pluses and minuses of a love marriage and an arranged marriage. Any non-Indian reading this can keep that priceess surprised look to themselves. Love marriages are still taboo in India (though not in the same magnitude as it was in the preceding generation).

Love marriages are great since you know the person you are going to marry. There are no surprises waiting around the corner. You almost certainly would know the person in and out. And most importantly, that person is not a stranger. So where are the minuses, you may wonder. Well, the first being that since the person you have married knows you so very well, there is a slight chance that he/she may take you for granted. He/she might know you so well that you could easily be manipulated. The other is rather interesting. During your courtship, you would have done so many things to please him/her which kind of sets a *level of expectation*. What many people don’t realize is that moving on from a boyfriend-girlfriend to a husband-wife can be a very big step forward which always brings about a multitude of changes. Gone are the days of living a carefree life on your dad’s money, where you could do what you wanted to without questions being raised. It is the real deal, and one of the big reasons for problems in a love marriage. I think I should stop now, or I might scare my girlfriend

Arranged marriages, on the other hand, are full of surprises and that can be fun and a bit scary. Real scary, atleast for the first few months. You are living with a total stranger who has suddenly become a part of your life. But the good thing is that you can create whatever impression you wish to create. You can be anything from a bossy and domineering husband to a calm and authoritative one or any of the *avatars* you may choose. And the best thing is that you almost certainly would not have to help your wife in cleaning the house, cutting vegetables, watering the plants or any other mundane household chore. Anand, are you listening??

Arranged marriages somehow scared the *shit* out of me. I could never imagine leading a life with someone who I barely knew and had to start liking and learn to live with, just because I did not have a choice. I am not against arranged marriages. It has worked over the years and I know so many people who are still happily married, and that includes my parents. I know love marriages that have not worked, but I am not scared. I know *her* for so long now that I am sure come what may, we will work around it. Keep a look on my pages ten years down the line, to see what has changed in my life.

Note: This was something that was put together real quick and it might get updated quite soon with more things as and when they come up. And I am looking for views from you guys too.

Wikipedia rocks. Apart from a whole bunch of other things, they have madras bashai too. It sure does bring back a few memories from my college days.

No prizes for guessing that I am referring to the Indian cricket team. Time and again, we have squandered chances of wrapping a test match. And here we do it again in Mohali. Pakistan were 6 wickets down with a lead of only 50 odd runs, and no great batsmen to come at the end of the fourth day’s play. The tail mostly wags, but to let the tail score as many as 200 odd runs was no way acceptable. Result : Inzy rubs salt in the wounds setting India a target of 250 odd runs in 25 overs.

And “dada” has this to say when asked how hard it would be for the Indians to reconcile to the draw.

“I don’t think it will be tough. We must give credit to Razzaq and Akmal. They batted brilliantly under pressure. We dominated this Test for four days; it’s just that we could not finish the Test today.”

I can’t help but laugh at this excuse that has been doing rounds ever since he took over as captain. It is like a long distance runner saying, ” I was in the lead till the last 2 meters, and then I lost the drive and the enthusiasm to win, and decided to stop running and bask in the glory of leading till the last 2 meters.”

This team has loads of talent, but no will to succeed. And that sucks !!

A long time has passed since I posted something here. I have been keeping very busy, and this post is just a way to show I do care about trying to put something up here. And this is a picture of shattered glass pane at the entrance of our apartment. And they have not fixed it yet, since they are yet to find out who did it

clickey for a bigger image

“Structural engineering is the art and science of molding materials we do not fully understand; into shapes we cannot precisely analyze; to resist forces we cannot accurately predict; all in such a way that the society at large is given no reason to suspect the extent of our ignorance.” - James Anaheim (1996).

It is a complete paradox to the definition I posted sometime back.