Life at ~27.75

  Bazinga!!I don't use Bazinga, only when I crack a joke, I also use it in some of my exotic blog posts, like this one!It may or may not include a joke though. This is Kartik Vyas, writing post number 97.00, and today is star date 67383, yes if you don't believe me, check this link out.  Also one thing worthy of noticing is that star date is not only determined by the date, but it also takes into account the current hour and minute...fascinating isn't it!

  Speaking of the word fascinating, fascinating implies something that is of great interest, or attraction, enchanting, charming or captivating, well in this case it would imply captivating. 

  Let's get back to the subject, it says Life at ~ 27.75. Well here 'at' does not mean, the usual I am 'at' a restaurant kind of 'at', it implies, I am 'at' a certain stage of life, which in this context defines the 4th dimension of the time-space continuum, confused? I mean TIME!

 Then you might wonder, what is the '~' sign? Well for any person who is a mathematician, which I would like to add, is more inclined towards using it, it means many things. Well to start with, it means, probability distribution, or  row equivalence or asymptotically equivalent, or a simple equivalence relation. How do I know? I know everything, because I am a genius and I have an eidetic memory. Well I would also like to add, I have an IQ of 187!

 Also, I would like to record in my blog, today is 10th August on Earth, and right now session 3 of day 2 of the fourth ashes test series is going on. To be more precise, currently the 71st over is about to start, where Australia are trailing by 31 runs, with 5 wickets in hand. England have already retained the Ashes, a good thing to know in case, I succeed in time travelling, and I come back in time to the start of the series, I could win a lot of money. But again, if I were to do so, the proposition that I would have written this blog seems unbecoming. Well, I may have already traveled to the future and written a blog which would be independent of the fourth dimension of the continuum, which again is TIME!

 I would also like to add, that in my current human form, on the current planet earth, on the current date, I played ping pong! Actually called as Table Tennis, it  is governed by the worldwide organization International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF), founded in 1926. ITTF currently includes 218 member associations. The table tennis official rules are specified in the ITTF handbook.Since 1988, table tennis has been an Olympic sport with several event categories. In particular, from 1988 until 2004, these were: men's singles, women's singles, men's doubles and women's doubles. Since 2008 a team event has been played instead of the doubles. Well getting back to the topics of today, I did win 87.50 of all the games I played today.

 I would also like to say that I have found a spot in my room, a spot where my seat is directly facing the opposite wardrobe mirror, so I can see who is coming and going inside the house, and it is also perfectly aligned with the fan inside the room, with respect to all three dimensions. 

 Today is Saturday, today was the Aloo Pulav day, usually I had Aloo Pulav day on Fridays , but after my change in shift roaster, where I have days off on Sunday and Monday, as compared to Fridays and Saturday, I had to make a change in my routine. Tomorrow, is Sunday, tomorrow is go to Amanora mall day, which I am planning to change to go to Seasons mall day. The mall is just opened, and is nearby my apartment. Also, after my new roaster changes, Monday's have become watch a movie in mall day, its very convenient to get a ticket, as other homo sapiens, go to office and I can easily get a ticket. I am planning to watch the movie Wolverine this Monday, and then I would also go the the Crossword book store, which is a must whenever I go to the Amanora mall.

 I would like to conclude this blog number 97.00, by saying........err BAZINGA!!!

Bhaag Milkha Bhaag: The Legend of the Flying Sikh!

 Well it's Monday evening, and I have a day off. Monday's are off now, as I work on Saturday. It feels really good, Saturday is not that hectic, so it's like 3 days of off every week. Life is going good.

 Yes, so back to the subject. I saw this much awaited movie today. The movie is really good. Nice music, wonderful acting by Farhan Akhtar. Also, the way, the story was told, is a bit similar to it was in Rang De Basanti, it's wonderful direction, by the same director: Rakeysh Mehra. Also Farhan Akhtar, has really worked hard to get the fadu body, which he shows off, ever so often in the film.

 The best part of the movie was, Milkha Singh, beating the Pakistan competitor in Pakistan by a big margin in the end of movie. We always love to beat Pakistan in sports, don't we?

 I just went through the wiki page of Milkha Singh, and everything in the movie is written there, in the same sequence. I was looking for some extra information. I din't get much, apart from the fact that, he was 1 of 15 siblings.

 Achievements of Milkha Singh include, winning the gold medal in the Common Wealth Games and the Asian Games. That is really a moment of proud for us. He was a top contender in the Olympics of 1960 as well, he did a mistake and came fourth. He slowed down in the final parts of the race. He was in fact leading the race at one point. Ne ways, he had went through a lot in life, and he has done us proud. He is still, the only Indian athlete, to have won and individual gold medal in the Common Wealth Games, and yes...wonderful movie, must watch!

MS Dhoni: Champion of Champions!!

 What a day it was yesterday! Final between India and England for the Champions Trophy. India the favorites, showing tremendous form and remaining unbeaten in the tournament. England having the home advantage, with familiar home conditions and quality bowling attack. India's batting on the other hand was clicking superbly, however the middle order was not tested yet.

 To make things more interesting, the rain God's decided to make their presence felt. It rained frequently and there was no reserve day to make things worst. Finally in the evening, the umpires decided to have a 20 over match. England had already won the toss, and decided to field, sighting the wet conditions, an early advantage for the Poms.

 India went into bat, but had 3 breaks due to rain. Well, it does affect the concentration of the batsmen, who has to come on and off the field and start all over again. To make it more challenging, it was a shortened game and there was no time to settle in again and again. Due to all this, some batsmen perished in the cause of making quick runs, before getting settled.Finally, India managed 129, thanks to good knocks by Virat Kohli and Sir Ravindra Jadeja.

 England play a very different side in T20, then what they play in a 50 over game. Without their specialists players, they were found wanting at 46 for 4. A big and potentially match winning partnership between Morgan and Bopara, saw them in good position to make it home. Then , Ishant Sharma bowled an over where he gave away a six and 2 wides, well he did get both the settled batsmen out too, in the same over.

 Finally, England tumbled after those 2. Last 2 overs were bowled by spinners. A master move from Dhoni, which payed off. 15 required off the last over, 6 off the last ball. It could have gone either way with Tredwell on strike, he went for the big six, missed it and Dhoni, Team India and more than a billion people were ecstatic, Dhoni had delivered once again for India!

 MS Dhoni, he has one each and every trophy. T20 world cup, ODI World Cup, Test Championship, One Day Championship, IPL, Champions League and now the Champions Trophy. Dhoni, is a wonderful guy with great temperament. Always lets his team celebrate and goes away from limelight, and always takes the blame if the team is not doing well...what a wonderful captain indeed.

 Comparisons with Ganguly will always be there, is he better than Ganguly, well I would say,better by leaps and bounds. I am a fan of Ganguly too, but Dhoni has got all the results and trophies for India. One might say, Ganguly had laid the foundation for the 2011 World cup, but Dhoni has done a lot more after that!

Superman is back!

 It's been a while. Last post had come on January 26th, and a lot has happened, some things good, some things bad, well gladly most of them are good. For starters, I got converted to Amdocs pay roll from Magna Infotech, so that's like a personal milestone. Another good thing happened is more settled at work with no night shifts since quite a while. Also another good thing is I joined the gym finally! Went to my first ever aerobics class and also learnt a few Bollywood dance steps.

 Cricket, well yes that's what I blog about most of the time. Mumbai Indians won the IPL this year, 2013 defeating CSK in finals. Sadly it was Sachin's last IPL, but well...all good things come to an end. Before IPL, India spanked the Aussies, 4-nil in the test series at home, it was a series where Shikhar Dhawan came good and the emergence of Sir Ravindra Jadeja. Currently champions trophy is going on in England. India beat Sri Lanka in the semis today, to meet England in the final, it has been a boring and dominating performance from India throughout. Somehow, I feel, this India team is equal to the team Australia was in Steve Waugh era, and it will dominate the cricketing world for a while.

 What else do I blog about, well Samsung launched Galaxy S4, it's pretty pricey, but I gotta say it's quite worth it. I did get a chance to play with it and it's amazing. Apple came out with it's iphone 5, but it still has the boring UI it had all these years. iOS 7 seems fresh, but speculations are it has been inspired from various places. Well those things are gonna be there forever in the tech world.

  Well talking of technology. Courseera.org is a fabulous site I have been using to take courses. It led me to learn Python and it's fun. Always dreamt of being a programmer, surely learning some programming these days.

 Well, finally coming back to the subject. Today I saw Superman- Man of Steel. And yes...at the end of the movie I did feel like flying back home with my fist in the air. On a serious note, it's a good movie, has a story, well logical story to give some credit. Good action ....and most importantly, Superman learnt how to wear the underwear ;) . It's definitely worth a watch. Well speaking of worth a watch, I also saw, Now You See Me,  last Sunday, that's pretty good too, only the ending is a but dull, but good fun. One movie to watch in my list is, The Dark Knight, many say it is the best super hero movie ever, well I din't like it the bit of which I say the first time, because everything is in dark environment, which I don't like, will see it again though..

 Global Warming...hmmm summer was too hot in India, it's raining like hell now. Cloud bursts in Uttarakhand, lots of lives lost. Too much damage, well it's easy to say things, everyone should try to give their bit and help the ones affected, after all they are also Indians and more importantly humans like us.

  Manchester United. I enjoy having debates about it with my colleagues in office. Well they did win the EPL this year, but the legendary Sir Alex Ferguson retired and how good the new guy is...lets keep fingers crossed. Jose Marinho  ....hope I spelled right is back to Chelsea to add some spice to EPL. Bayern Munich is currently the best team in the world....gosh too bad I have never seen a single match of theirs :(

 Finally, the funny thing about the new Superman movie is Superman and bad guy hit each other through buildings and iron rods, but nothing happens to them. And...how does Superman kills the bad guy...by simply  twisting his neck....that even we can do :P :P

The day I met Anna Hazare

 Today is 26th January 2013, the 64th Republic Day of India. A day which the whole of nation celebrates proudly, and also a day when I met Anna Hazare.

 I have been fortunate enough to have worked at Infosys and seen Narayan Murthy in life and speaking, his speech is very mind blowing and keeps you involved. Today I met another such person,  Kisan Baburao Hazare, popularly known as Anna Hazare.

 We had gone on our office trip to several places nearby Pune and happened to visit Anna's village, and fortunately he was in the village. We had to wait for about an hour, but the wait was worth it. I actually was a bit nervous to met such a great and influential person and was lost and blank when I actually saw him and heard him.

 Many of us including me touched his feet. He is a very very simple person. He met us openly and very humbly. There was also not much security around him, personifies his simplicity. We asked him to share a few words with us and he readily obliged. He said he always wondered what is the purpose of life. Everyone comes to the world empty handed and leaves also empty handed. What is the reason to carry all the luggage, he did not want to carry the luggage of a small family and today he has the whole nation as family and he is very happy.

 He said he also tried to commit suicide once, and this is also written in his wiki page, but then he read a few books of Swami Vivekananda and he realized the meaning and purpose of life. He then devoted his whole life for the good of the country and helping poor and needy people.

 He said he lives in a temple in the village and owns a plate for food and nothing else. Yet he had the power to take the wickets of 6 cabinet ministers and expose their corruption. Also he forced the resignation of 400 corrupt government officials. He asked us the youth of the country to be ready for the fight against corruption.

 We took some pictures with him and he humbly obliged, he is very down to earth and very simple person. There is a museum in his village dedicated to all his achievements and boy there are so many trophies and certificates given to him. It took us around an hour just inside the museum. Also there is a trophy from World Bank given to him and they also offered him a blank cheque, which he did not accept!

 Anna has fought corruption in India using non violence and principles of Gandhiji. I was not fortunate enough to meet Gandhiji, but I believe I have definitely come close today...

The Pursuit of Happiness

 Happiness is a state of mind. What is the aim of life? To be happy or to be rich? Does happiness comes with wealth or it is independent of the amount of wealth a person has. How important are friends and relatives in being happy?

  So many questions! Being happy depends on having satisfaction in what you have and where you are. One must not have craving for something which one does not have. Aiming for high goals and working hard to achieve them is one thing, constantly complaning and crying for something you do not have is another. Be satisfied in what you have and you would be happy.

 These are some simple lessons, but it may be difficult for over ambitious or over confident people to unnderstand in one go. They just want everything in life. Are you of that type? Constantly asking for more than what you have? It is a bad thing to be and may not lead to happiness all the time.

 This post is coming after quiet a while. I have got settled in my job at Amdocs now and back to working in shifts. This is the first week of working in shifts and hopefully I will get time to work on my Untitled Series sci-fi novel. Also I am approaching 100 posts in my blog, this is number 98. The 100th one I am planning to cover all the previous posts.

 What else is happening in life? IPL 5 has started. MAncheter United are 8 points clear at the top of EPL and looking to win the title easily. Facebook is doing good, not much bugs and new full screen image viewer looks slick. Also good decision on buying Instagram, payed them more than required though I guess.

 Saw the movie Kahani last weekend. Very nice movie, the plot is good and the climax is very nice, good suspense movie and excellent work done by Vidya Balan.

 As I mentioned IPL5 has started, it is not that exciting as it used to be. There is gonna be the T20 world cup too, clearly there is an overdose of cricket and people are getting bored of it. Speaking of getting bored, its surprising, facebook is still able to entice its users and going strong with all the tweeks and modifications. They added Angry birds game and that is fun to play. However, I still believe facebook won't be there forever, 5 years tops I say!

Facebook lives on...

 There is something about life, it lives on. There is something about time, it goes on, and now one might very well add, there is something about facebook, it lives on. Facebook now has 800 million strong users and is looking to come out with an IPO to generate $100 billion, which is truly an estimate of the popularity of this website.

 There was time, when I was making claims that Google plus would beat facebook before the beginning of new year 2012. Well my claims have been proven wrong. Millions of people did register for Google plus, however it is not being used that much compared to facebook.

 Another big point in the above assertions is the fact that, facebook is making constant efforts to improve itself and bring out new features. Facebook now has the facebook timeline,facebook cover photo and the subscription features to name a few. Also the new image viewer does appear descent compared to the old one.

 Today's generation is very busy and online all the time. These two factors have resulted in flourishing of social networking domains like facebook and twitter. People find friends online and stay in touch online, however for me a simple call to a friend from the humble cell phone still means more than online conversation.

 Enough about facebook and Google, India is suffering from a miserable tour down under. Had to endure a 4-0 white wash in the test series. The new Oz skipper Micheal Clarke aka Puppy, surely is enjoying captaincy. He scored a double and a triple century and was in remarkable form. India lost the first T20 game yesterday, however it was a completely new young side and they were showing notable seriousness and commitment. The reason for the loss, was that Australia was just the better of the two side on the day and hopefully India will give some descent performances now.

 There were many attacks on the star studded Indian batting line up and rumors about Dhoni been asked to give up captaincy. However, Dhoni has done a lot of good for Indian cricket, he has won every single possible tournament for the team. There are times, when team may get out of form, one must still have faith in the team and the captain. Don't forget, this is the same team which finished 2010 as number one test team, won the 2011 ODI World Cup and also has won the 2007 inagural T20 world cup, all under the leadership of Dhoni!

25th November 2011, Black Friday

 Thanksgiving is a very important part of American culture. Black Friday is considered as the day after Thanksgiving day. For what reasons, it is considered as Black Friday, I did not find out yet, but for me, it was a day to never forget.

 Have come to Florida for Thanksgiving weekend. Spent most part of Thanksgiving day on beach, playing american football and making sandy mountains with tunnels in them. It was a wonderful day yest. Today, we decided to do all the Black Friday shopping, we have come to Panama City, Florida and the malls here are pretty good. Bought something from almost every store here, good deals for Thanksgiving! No! did not buy any electronics, mainly some clothes.

 Then we decided to go jet skiing. Last time had done that in Patayya, Thailand, its pretty simple, until we realized the might of the water, especially when it is the ocean. We had rented 2 jetskies , 90bucks for 2 hours of jet skiing seems lot of fun and yes it was lotta fun indeed, I even touched 35mps on my jet ske. After around one hour, tragedy struck. I was driving mine with my sister sitting behind and my brother-in-law was riding with my mom behind him.

 They somehow lost the balance and the jet ske toppled in the water, sounds non-threatening, untill you add three factors, first no lifeguards, second they dint know swimming, and finally it was the ocean. I was in my jet-ske and felt like jumping and trying to help my brother-in-law, my mom was saved by other jet skiers. I felt like jumping in the ocean to save my brother-in-law, but my sister said no to me as that would result in imbalance of our jet ske and was very risky.

 Finally a  bunch of folks with a motor boat saved my brother-in-law. It was an experience to remember. I did topple around three times in canoeing a couple of months back, but that was in a stream of river, this was the ocean and today we experienced its might!

From FloRIDA!

Having a mixture of feelings now. Yes I am in Panama Beach City, Florida with family and having a ball of a time. The sad part is I withdrew from my Masters study and will be heading back home soon to start from  scratch. I hope my previous experience would help me, but I want to enter the field of development for a while, from a support and administrative domain.

Leaving for India in December 1^st week, as I reflect this year 2011 of my life, it had a mixture of everything. I quit Infosys job for Masters studies, came to US and enjoyed a lot with family, visiting lots of places and the goal was to stay and study, complete Masters program.

They say there two ways to live life. One is to let it happen and other is make it happen. I tried to follow the latter and did not work out so well for me. The let it happen schema was what I was living at Infosys, it was not bad, just not good enough. I realized that may be, I am not good enough, Masters program from Purdue School of Science proved too demanding and strenuous for me and I had stop it as my health was getting affected.

Right now as I am sitting in DaysInn, beach facing hotel in Florida, I have realized, choosing your destiny is a tough task and should be done carefully.It requires a lot of hardwork and persistent patience. For now I am going back to let it happen. Have No clue, what job I will get, how long will it take to get one either? I am not depressed, may be a bit sad,however, astonishingly I am a bit excited too, what’s next!!!

Diwali 2011,OURS!

Jindagi jine ke do tarike hote hai, aur Duniya mein 3 tarah ke log hote hai. It’s because of dialogues and movies which have such dialogues in them, Aamir Khan is aaMIR kHAN, and that is the reason why one whole country can proudly say…oy teri…every time they burp, rather than saying I am sorry, or peeing in their pants and not burping at all.

Diwali 2010, My to Diwali 2011 OURS, I have come a long way indeed. Long way in my life, long way in character, long way in attribute and long way in mY continuum called time!

I had a dream to come to US, I had a dream to pursue Masters, I have lot more dreams. I quit my wonderful job at Infy to pursue further studies, I wanted to control my life, choose my destination and choose my path, and this far ir ir going pretty well.

What next? People asked me many times? You want to settle here? What will you od after mASters? Well to begin with Masters is not as easy as I thought and I have just started putting on my strides, so the future is declarative and not imperative, it’s all about learning, implying the learning and doing the do!

Also today was a wonderful memorable day. Every weekend in US is and always will be memorable for me. I found family like friends in my sisters friend circle, you find a connection and a sense of relvaration with the. Relvaration is a new word I coined today, one after a long time!