Intelligent People and Daunting Experiences

Due to the lukewarm respone to my previous post decided to write a new one sooner than planned..
Watched Iron Man. A cool movie. Full of cool dude gadgets and gizmos and a man who flies to Afghanistan from US by himself in air. He also flies to the moon and back.. Or actually somewhere near the moon..As in, in the general vincinity of the moon.. Gweneth Paltrow was wasted though..
Turned a year older.. Its started getting scary.. I realized that one day before my birthday I still wasn't excited about it. Then the warning bells went off in my head.. I am not even near the quarter century mark as yet..But anxiety started.. Most of my childhood was spent thinking about when I would reach college and then for some reason my memory froze.. I never thought about what happens after college..So now at the ripe age of under quarter century and above a few years below that panic is setting in..

Folks visiting from India.. New experience when it turns out that your parents arent invincible. Spooked my mom totally about the smoke alarm to such an extent that she refuses to make dosas now.. Was exhilarating to see my parents at the airport but daunting to see them shiver in the New England cold.. Remembering all the Jhumpa Lahiri immigrant experience.. To be honest it wasnt such a culture shock for me when I arrived in the States as it is for my parents.. Why because I watched Friends when I was in India.. he he he... (Private joke for my husband who thinks most of my types learnt about America from FRIENDS.. maybe true to an extent)

Inspired by N I am planning to try to turn Vegan for a week.. Researching it a bit I realized South Indian Hindu Vegetarians are a weird brand of herbivores. We arent vegan and we arent what most other people consider vegetarian.. We dont eat fish.. We dont eat meat and we dont eat chicken.. And we think chicken is meat and fish is meat as well.. So its difficult to explain our brand of vegetarianism to folks here..Let me see if I can stick out vegan.. Coz I dont mind soy milk or tofu and found an ice cream that serves Tofutti Ice Cream at Harvard Square..

Talking about Harvard Square.. Most people know my love for Cambridge and the Harvard Square area.. And also my dislike for Dunkin Donuts.. I like the bagels. Not a big fan of Donuts in general and hence not sure but absolutely abhor their coffee.. And I think Starbucks rocks.. After extensive research( read walking around Harvard Square everyday last semester) I can aver (albeit hesitantly) that there isnt a Dunkin Donuts around Harvard Square except for in the station. There are 2 Starbucks.. 2 Au Bon Pains and even a Finagle Bagel.. Therefore I conclude that intelligent people drink at StarBucks!!!

Doing some interesting classes this semester one of which is called Negotiation.. Will update more on that later..
For now as its time to head to class Au Revior.. Have a Nice Memorial Day if you live in the States and a nice weekend if you live elsewhere

Of balance sheets and mega serials

There were tons of things I wanted to write about. However, I was caught up with some educational endeavors!!
Love it or hate it.. Most people use it.. I am talking about Microsoft Corp..Most people I know and you know as well would have started with some of Windows. Depending on their age it would be either 3.0,95,98,NT,2000,XP and Vista.. But the point is this is where it started. Not IBM 360! Not Apple ! Not Open Source.. Microsoft is sitting with large amounts of cash!! It hasn't head debt in a while and is worth about 240B dollars.. People talk about how Vista sucks.. Firefox is better than IE.. I am a lil sick of hearing this.. I can confidently state that most of these innovations happened while working on a PC..I can right a whole dissertation on the topic( and I did in 400 words) but I will spare u..Love them or hate them MSFT isnt going anywhere and if it does all those who are bitching about it are gonna be in deep deep shit!!!!!

I know folks, I know... Give me some time.. I will un learn wat I did..

Anyways talking about MSFT.. Wat is this talk about elitist?? Mass and Class (In my country we call it that way).. I am not endorsing any candidate for presidency. I dont support any candidate in an election I cant vote.. But this is not just true here.. Back home in India as well.. Hide ur wealth, dont tell people how much u make, live frugally!!! For crying out loud.. In India, several and I mean several opportunities were and are being given for young children to be educated. In my home state for instance, mid - day meals were offered as an initiative to come to school. the government hoping that atleast the ruse of food will attract children to school. Most middle class households will give up on luxuries to allow their children to go to a better school.. Why cant those who are being offered free education and a warm meal willing to give up a few hours of their time in order to secure a better life than the ones they currently exist in??
Reading The Name is Rajnikanth.. Sad excuse of a book.. Written badly, with no sense of grammar reads like a home blog of a person with poor writing skills(Note to self.. Look who is talking!!!!) Bad editing and proof reading. Costs 495 bucks a piece.. Read Palace of Illusions by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni.. Amazing piece of work.. Tells the story of Mahabaratha from the perspective of Draupadi.. Reading it I thought(Oh no.. this is dangerous) this is the biggest mega serial ever created by an Indian.. D and I were once discussing the realness of the mega serials.. It struck me.. The plots and the sub-plots, the jealousies and the clandestine love affairs, the women pregnant before marriage and abandoning their bastard children, while secretly pining for them.. Brothers turning on brothers.. Name it and the Mahabaratha has it.. The ultimate mega serial of the good old times.. Also read Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri.. Interesting albeit a slightly depressing read. What is with the obsession with Indian authors???? I read others too.. Trust me

Apologies for the confusion of a post.. Several random thots and it took 2 days to pen(type).. U know when that happens u need to beware.. Trains of thought that dont reach a station..any station..