Sun Diego SNAFUs

The past week I was in beautifully sunny San Diego, CA for the SPIE conference. (SPIE - international society of optical engineering.. I know the acronym doesn't match up.. but the original name in french or italian or something supposedly matches up.. I have been told.. don't think i didn't think of that!).

As luck would have it, I left for SD with my buddy Mattie the day after St. Patty's day.. On St. Patty's day, India lost to Bangladesh and Pakistan lost to Ireland (who didn't see that coming!?!) to virtually put these teams out of the cricket world cup tournament. Depressed from the game, I went out that night and got pretty "irish-ed" at the local pub, got home late, finished packing for the 6 A.M flight out to SD. Luckily, i woke up in time and made the flight, still very hungover. Matt wasn't doing any better. At least, i got 3 hours of sleep!

As some of you might know, the Pakistani coach Bob Woolmer was found murdered in his hotel room after their loss to Ireland that put 'em out of the world cup. It was horrible! I have had more than a dozen people that know nothing about cricket ask me about this.. very intrigued, I am. Talking about death-threats, shouldn't they actually be "life threats"? After all, its a threat to someone's life?

We got to SD to the good news that our luggage didn't arrive. Finally, after doing paper work to have our luggage delivered, we got to the hotel to this beautiful sight from our balcony.

The disappointment at not having the luggage wore off, thanks to the beach and few beers at Pacific Beach Bar & Grill. Wouldn't you know it, I very promptly lost my debit card (my only form of money), and had to call up my bank and cancel the card and do all that shizzle. SO, here I am in SD, with no money and no clothes, nothing. Fun times. My buddy in SD helped me out with the money and my luggage got the hotel, next day afternoon. Wearing the same clothes for the flight, partying, sleep in, and going to the hotel restaurant for breakfast next morning, I was looking like such a hobo!

The conference went off pretty well; we visited a local brewery, golf course (the rental clubs were titleist (yes, they are awesome. just like the TV ads)), pacific beach area bars, downtown and all that craze. The only trouble other than missing baggage, lost card etc., was a short shower. No seriously! It only came up to my buddy Mike's armpit, notwithstanding the fact that he is 6'6". Watch his head grazing the ceiling!

On the way back, our flight from SD was delayed and we were bumming in the airport. I had a celebrity sighting. Former Purdue QB current New Orleans QB Drew Brees. I noticed him walking towards us, with this super hot blonde next to him. He was on the phone (or at least pretended to be). I told my buddy that its Brees and he didn't believe it. As Brees was walking away, I yelled across the corridor.. The blonde turned around first and then Brees too, gave us the nod and the wave, "hey!".

Apparently, there is this weird ordinance in SD that flights cannot take off after 11 PM. Noise violation crap! Stupid Californians! Who the hell do they think they are! Our flight just made that deadline and we got back to Philly just in time to catch our connecting flight to State College.

Things didn't get any better for me as India lost to Sri Lanka that day and got kicked out of the World cup. However, Liz came to town and it was good times afterwards as we partied our brains out!! Anyway, I am leaving for Antigua to watch the India-less world cup with a few of my friends. We have decided to go the games wearing the India jersey anyway and carry a sign, "we never got the memo". I informed my advisor that I'd be gone for 6 days, he said, "rough life, huh? too many parties, sandy beaches, sunny weather!!", love him!

Another pic from the SD trip while I bid adieu for a while! Hate me.

BFFs

Last weekend, my former colleague/labmate/partier and future eastern hemisphere wife (I'll give you 50 bucks and a Ravi Shankar CD, Benjamin Ross!) came down to State College for a weekend visit. It was a really good time all around, with us going to a Penn state baseball game, dinner at the local indian restaurant, iranian new year's function and full-blown drinkies at Zenos. Some more of my labmates joined in the fun. The above picture was taken towards the end of the night. Clockwise from top-left: Ryan Pfaff, Matt Kropf, Liz Blickley and Yours truly.

It got me thinking: Way back in my final year of undergrad, I had a job with a software firm in India and also had got admission to a few colleges in U.S. with assistantship for graduate studies and I was leaning more towards the job. As I stand here now, I look at the past 8+ years I have spent at Penn State and the amazing set of people I have come in contact with and the relationships and friendships forged with a diverse group of people and I feel so lucky to have taken the grad school route than the professional career right after undergrad. I'm sure I'd have met a whole bunch of people there too, but the dynamic of a group of college students where some life-long friendships are made based on mutual trust and admiration and personal beliefs can just not be substituted. Can't you just tell it from all the love in that picture above??

Sooner than later, almost all the people that I know will be focused on their own professional and personal lives and we'll be far removed from each other; some of 'em already are. It brings a lump to my throat and tears to my eyes that there is a chance that I might see some of 'em never again in my life! But, as long as I shall live, I'll cherish the memories and look at back at that night in January 1998, standing in a phone booth talking with my brother and making the decision to go to graduate school!

Here is a list of some awesome human beings I have had the privilege of knowing through these years that I'd like to call my BFFs. I'm sure I'm gonna be missing a few names.. if you and I are BFFs and I had forgotten to list you, refresh my memory with a $20 bill!! Cheers!!

Deepak, Gautam, Ram, Amy, Rob, Viren, Mike, Anup, Matt, George, Nishant, Liz, Pfaff, Karthik, Mark, Ramesh, Siddharth, Cliff, Raasa and of course, Dr. T.

TIA

Transient Ischemic (i-skee-mik) Attack - also known as a mini-stroke, is an event where a person suffers paralytic stroke-like symptoms for durations less than 24 hours,before recovering to normalcy. Although, it does not cause any permanent brain damage to the person, it is a foreboding of a more serious attack in the near future. Based on the statistics on the National Stroke Association website, more than a third of people that experienced TIA, will go on to have an actual paralytic stroke.

A week ago, I was informed by my brother-in-law in Chennai, India that my mom (she turns 70 this year) had stroke like symptoms for a few hours where her speech was slurred and lost feelings in her right arm. She has been going through acupuncture therapy of late, so that guy came over and did whatever he does, and my mom regained her speaking abilities and also her right arm was completely functional - I was told that, and was comforted that there is nothing to worry. As soon as I came to know of this, I called up my mom and I did not notice any slurring in her speech and I suggested that she get checked out by a doctor and confirm whatever her therapist hypothesized using CAT scan etc.

I checked in with my brother in Chicago and we updated each other and discussed on how this should be pursued further. There was one piece of information that was not told to me (but everybody else knew - they didn't wanna "burden" me apparently. One of the two drawbacks of being the youngest of the sons, the other being, growing up, you are fair game to all your brothers as they could beat you up if they want to. No questions asked :) Apparently, my mom hit her head against something in our kitchen back home by accident couple of weeks ago. I do not know how bad the bruise was. However, it seems to have caused a blood clot which in the course of time, partially blocked the carotid artery - they deliver blood to the brain, you see, so they are kind of important. This lack of blood (and so oxygen) causes speech slurring, blurred vision etc., often.

Anyway, eventually, my mother consulted with a neurologist who explained them the above rationale and suggested that a surgical procedure needs to be done to clear up the artery. This was decided over the weekend and the surgery was scheduled for yesterday 2.00 PM (IST). I checked in with my sister around that time and she kept me posted. The surgery seemingly lasted for 2 hours and involved drilling 2 teeny holes in my mom's head to bleed the clot out. 60 ml of that was drained out. She is still in ICU and will be so for another couple of days for observation- I was told. I was also told that, once she came around after the surgery, she recognized everybody, and answered questions testing memory and also did not slur. So, that's good news. The surgery seems to be a success. I haven't been able to talk to her since I heard about the surgery. I guess I'll have to hold on for couple more days. I need to get hold of the low-down on the whole situation once mom gets home and want to take a look at the medical reports. I read up a bit based on some of the information I had from my sis and bro, and have summarized the medical conditions here. (Internet - its a beautiful thing, Ain't it?)

As they say, All's well that ends well.

Beauty at its very best

A friend of mine sent me this photograph.

Sleepless in State College

Its the eve of the opening match of the Ninth Cricket World cup. Actually, its pretty early in the day but its still dark out, so I guess the term "eve" still holds good. The opening game is only few hours away and I can't go to sleep. I think there is something definitely wrong with me. In fact, I had fallen asleep earlier in the night watching The Daily Show but kept having cricket dreams and I woke up around 2 A.M. I have been trying to go back to sleep since, but to no avail.

For the Third World cup tournament in a row, I'll be watching it in State College. Man, time sure does fly. It feels only not too long ago when I was at Batman's place watching the 1999 World cup. God! With some help from friends and a magnetic compass [If you wanted an instance to prove how hopeless Batman and I are: We went to the local Wal-Mart to get the magnetic compass to align the satellite dish. As luck would have it, it was right next to the sports goods section. Yep! We bought a pair of baseball gloves and a baseball!! I have already cut the inside of my lip open too while trying to catch a flier! I need more practice :)] , we set up the satellite dish outside our apartment and the world cup watching is well and truly on its way. Batman and I cleaned up the apartment a little bit so that people coming to watch the game don't feel like they are walking in to a pig sty. (Actually, our apartment is probably one of the clean-er apartment you'd find, of two single guys in a college town).

Good news. Its good news to me and not so much to any of you out there. I got my Visa from the Jamaican Consulate. Its funny how I'd check th FEDEX website everyday to see whether it has been shipped out of NYC every day and I'd be disappointed to see it not happen. Over the weekend, I did not check it once for one reason or the other and, Voila! Wouldn't you know, when I stepped out of my apartment Monday morning to go to work, it was right there on the doorstep. Moral of the story: If you want things to happen, they just don't. Let it go so it comes back to you!! OR, Don't read so much in to something that involved the efficiency of people at the Jamaican consulate and a courier service, stupid. Whatever.

One new development. I received an email from my advisor that he is interested in sending me to Lawrence Livermore labs out in Northern CA for a couple months of internship over summer to complete the project that I have been working on in the past couple of years. They got some powerful magnets and stuff that we need. The person in charge there is also interested in hosting me. Hmmm. You know what that means? It seriously cuts in to my original summer plan of playing cricket in Washington, D.C. I am kinda bummed about it but, I think this would actually help in graduating some time very soon. So, Its good, I guess!!

As I laid awake in my bed, I was organizing my thoughts to write this blog post as a song to be called, "The cricket song". But, as I started putting the thoughts down on notepad, I realized, I couldn't make it into anything decent. The last lines of it were going to be,

"So, I wrote thing song, - to tell y'all
Bitches, the games are ONNN!"

Yep. The World Cup -- ITS ONNN!!!!!!

Random notes

1. I was in Wal-Mart couple of days ago and When I got to the check-out line and was ready to pay for me stuff, the card-swipe thingy had a questionnaire in it. "Was the Cashier Courteous to you?" and the possible answer options were, "Yes, No, Ignore and Espanol". So I was kidding with the cashier when I asked her, what happens to her when I choose espanol. With all the seriousness in the world, she responded, "There should be Yes and No options on the screen". I was flabbergasted and I had to explain to her I was kidding. My other question is this - If you have Espanol as an option, if the reader doesn't know to read English, How is he/she gonna know what the question was? Does selecting Espanol provide the customer the same question and the choices, "Si, No and whatever it is for "ignore" in Espanol in the next screen? I need to figure this out next time I go to Wal-Mart.

2. There is this one fella that works two doors down the corridor from me in my department. I do not know him all the well, you know, at best, he is an acquaintance. I see him at the least 5-6 times in the course of a day. I run out of ways to say "Hi!" to him every time I see him. I don't wanna start a conversation with him as I found out the other day, It gets BORING real quick. I give him the "hey! How is it going?", "what's up?" and the "nod".. then I run out of ways to acknowledge his existence. Hmmm!

3. In Microsoft Word, there is this align left and align right. I know what the "justified" option does. But, why is it called "Justified"?

4. The killing of the Persian soldiers in the movie "300" by the SPARTAAANS was awesome. Excellent stunt direction.

5. My next post would be my hundredth. party anyone?

6. I just lost an hour. If you find it, bring it back to me. You'll be aptly rewarded.

7. Two more days to WORLD CUP.

8. Get well Mom.

Race War -- Its ONNN!!

This is going to be a very feeble attempt at commenting on the first episode of the new season of South Park.

#1. It was - as usual and expectedly - SUPER HILARIOUS!
#2. There was so much irony masked with sarcasm that was delivered as a commentary on current affairs of racial climate in the U.S.
#3. They made fun of midgets, er.. little people. Little people with their little suits, and trying to "rise" above things when people mock 'em.

For those that didn't catch it, such as Nishant, who did not have a cable connection because he is moving out of his current apartment.. (Dude! You could easily have gone to Golu's place and watched it. You could have streamed it on sopcast, TVU player or any other p2p player.. What is more important than a new season of South Park? Seriously, I mean, COME ON! and you call yourself a SP fan. Its WRROONGG!).

Randy Marsh gets in to trouble for saying the N-Word on the game show Wheel of Fortune and he is getting to live with the stigma of being the "niggerguy". He is trying all kinds of stuff to rid himself of it, such as literally kissing Reverend Jesse Jackson's ass, free-styling, going to watch black performers etc. Token Black is pissed off at Stan Marsh in school and Cartman is hoping for a race war between them that never materializes! However, a midget (Nelson - what a choice for a name! Awesome!) guy comes to their school to let the kids know about sensitivity and Cartman can't stop laughing. Eventually, he fights the midget in hand-to-hand combat style.. Randy Marsh gets saved by Michael "Kramer" Richards et al from a group of people that do not want "niggerguys" around and they help in passing a bill - by mostly white congressmen, mind you - to ban the word, "niggerguy" from the American Vocabulary, since, that word brings memories of bad times and all the shame etc. (The word Niggerguy cannot be used, and the words nigger and guy should at least be 7 words apart, if used in the same sentence!) Matt Stone and Trey Parker, you are geniuses! Stan finally comes to the realization that he could never understand the way token would have felt when he heard Randy Marsh on TV, and admits that, "he doesn't get it". Token forgives Stan, saying, "now, you get it Stan". CLASSIC!!

Obviously, the episode is loaded. Where to begin? Its a commentary on the Michael Richards episode at the Laugh Factory, The attempts at banning the word Nigger, Political Correctness, and possibly, hyper-sensitivity! One thing I never understood is, if there is so much stigma attached to the word "Nigger" and causes so much pain and trauma to the blacks, why do they keep perpetuating it themselves? By calling each other "niggers", and everyone else from a different race "prohibited" from using it, what are they trying to prove? Obviously, it is easy for me - someone that did not grow up in this culture, where apparently the mistrust between the Whites and Blacks run deep, and the society carries the burden of slavery - to make that observation and obviously, I'll never be able to understand the pain that one word might cause to the blacks. Would it be okay if I greet someone a-la Jackie Chan in Rush Hour, "What's up my nigger?". Something tells me it won't fly well, or maybe, I have been in the U.S. too long to even try it! If a Black comedian during his routine, makes fun of white folks by using the word "Cracker", why aren't there people (Black and/or White) up in arms about it? Isn't this the true definition of racism?

Be honest with me on this -- How many of you have made jokes about people of races, religion, backgrounds different than ours? I know I have. Is that racist? Or, does one have to discriminate somebody else based on their race etc., to be called a racist?? If former were the case, I am definitely racist. And everyone I know, Indians, Americans (black, White, brown, yellow, whatever), Africans, Australians, British, Latinos are all racist. I guess by making jokes, I am acknowledging the fact that we are all different in a variety of ways, but I'll never hold it against you!

On that note, There is a racial slur database online that I came to know of. Phenomenally funny. Out of all the "nicknames" for Indians, I loved "Target". Pretty much, the database covers every race and all prominent countries and regions of the world. Its an equal opportunity database!! The best ones are those for the mixed races..

So Anyway, here is my message to you all: Lighten up! Settle down!

I'll shoot the Sheriff

Jamaica -- You owe me $133.34 (US) and also a five day all expenses paid vacation to Phoenix, AX and Las Vegas, NV. If I have to, I'll shoot the Sheriff's Deputy, too. Believe you me, it won't be in self-defense either!

Everybody, get your laughs out that the only form of ID I have is my passport. Done? Okay then, let's move on to the real story people! I sent my passport to the Jamaican Consulate in New York about 10 days ago. It is advertised on their website that it takes about 3-4 days to get the visa for the world cup in the Carribeans, excluding the time spent in a Fedex or a DHL truck. I had planned on leaving State College for the spring break vacation and the conference in San Diego, on 12th and spend a few days in Phoenix with my buddy and pay a visit to THE sin city of the world, Las Vegas.

I had been trying to track the Fedex package online and I was getting mildly worried that it has not been dispatched out from the Jamaican consulate even 8 days after they got my passport and the $100 fee (daylight robbery, if you ask me). I tried for 2 straight days before I got to talk to a real person. Oh by the way, when you get put on hold by the "operator" in their embassy, they play this godawful song, "Sleepy island sunshine, Jah..maiii..caa, Jamaaaai..ca!" over and over. The first time I got somebody on the phone, "Graham" said my visa has not been processed and in fact, he can't even locate my passport. Splendid!!

After making some contingency plans such as looking up the options of going to their consulate in NYC, if need be, and letting the travel agent know that rescheduling of the trip out west might happen, I got back on the phone for another couple of hours before I got the answer that, my passport is indeed on their system and my visa has been approved. However, it still has to go through some "final processing" (whatever that means) and needs to be dispatched out to me. The kind lady helping me on the phone said she can't guarantee exactly when I'd get it. It could be this friday, It could be sometime next week. God, help me! I know I took your name in vain in my last post, but let bygones be bygones, alright? For old times sake?

So anyway, I went ahead and rescheduled my trip out west. Now, I just fly out straight to San Diego and fly back in 4 days. No Vegas. No gambling. No golfing in Phoenix. No sky-diving in Tempe. Goddamn it. Oops! Just kidding, God!