Moments

A delayed flight meant that I was welcomed by a calm and quiet San Fransisco airport an hour past midnight. I collected my baggage and came out following the sign boards to the bus stop where I would catch my shuttle. No need to ask anybody in US for directions!! Neither are anybody available! In India, we have so many people around to help you out that sign boards are not necessary. The deserted look of the place was certainly not appeasing. I waited for few minutes expecting my super shuttle. There were few other shuttles (some other names) that were coming and going and slowly even the few who were there at the bus stop disappeared. To add to my woes, there was a chilly wind blowing (and I had no jackets with me, "summer hai kyon le jaana"). Fortunately, there was another guy who was also waiting for super shuttle to some place in between San Fransisco and San Jose. He called up the Super Shuttle number from his mobile and after some 20 min the shuttle came up. On enqu...

An hr long queue at the emigration check, 16hrs non-stop flight, early morning view of the atlantic and a walk through the immigration counter, of course a small stop over at the counter for stamping :) Entry into United States cant be easier and less eventful than that. The climate was fantastic with little moring mist. My cousin was there at the exit gate to pick me up. Out of the parking lot and through the little traffic onto the highway, it felt like I was travelling in Delhi on a November morning. As we drove further away from the city, the landscape changed from flyovers and sky scrapers to smaller buildings to greenery. The road network is something that you feel first in US. Freeways, parkways, exits to the towns, the street roads and above all the obeyance of traffic rules. You feel amazed how people could stop at an intersection just because someone has put up a STOP sign. The road infrastructure is so massive that you never feel the traffic. Well that was the first impressi...

Back to blogging after a long gap... Are my readers still here? If so then, here is a post for you all. "My First ..." had been a regular on my blog, so I thought of naming this as My First Foreign Trip. A trip about which I knew from the day I decided to join Magma. Well thats again something to write about "My First Job" :-) The rest of my team is in San Jose and a training programme was being planned there. I applied for the visa interview and readied the papers. That is another big story of how we all feared a visa rejection as one of my colleagues was rejected visa to US a week earlier. Fortunately, I was not asked anything other than my salary and invite letter from my company. The Madamme at the counter was glad to accept my passport after that. ;-) In the meantime, my manager here returned from US and suggested that I should go and present our product in a conference (DAC - Design Automation Conference, a renowned one in EDA). With the product still in...

I got tagged by Rat . This is the first time, so why not... let me respond. 1.LAST MOVIE YOU SAW IN A THEATER: RACE - Adlabs, Great India Place, Noida.. Office outing... phir kaun nahi jayega.. apne paise se to yeh nahi dekhta. 2. WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING? Not reading anything now.. Last read "Second Foundation" - Issac Asimov 3. FAVORITE BOARD GAME? Carroms... When did I play that last???? 4. FAVORITE MAGAZINE? Jab padta tha tab India Today 5. FAVORITE SMELLS? Hot Onion Sambhar.... 6. FAVORITE SOUND? Anything instrumental.... 7. WORST FEELING IN THE WORLD? Being alone.. without internet and phone.. 8. WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU THINK OF WHEN YOU WAKE? Can I sleep for 10 more minutes 9. FAVORITE FAST FOOD PLACE? Not much of a foodie 10. FUTURE CHILD'S NAME? Lakshmi 11. FINISH THIS STATEMENT. "IF I HAD A LOT OF MONEY I'D...? Roam around the world 12. DO YOU DRIVE FAST? No 13. DO YOU SLEEP WITH A STUFFED ANIMAL? No.... Am I MAD (to sleep with an animal)? 14. STOR...

Incredible India (or Atulya Bharat) is a slogan of Indian Tourism Department. Well the thought of a blog about it occurred because of this blog . "The government is promoting this campaign of Incredible India or 'Atulya Bharat'. But, what is incredible about this country. When my friends from Europe or US come to India for a visit, all they find is dusty roads, animals on the streets, poor facilities etc. etc." This was the point of discussion and I was also one of the listeners of this comment. Some people argue that this is a bull shit statement and India is really incredible because of the diverse cultural heritage and the quality of Indians to keep up with our traditions even though we were subjected to so many foreign invasions. Others may say that boasting of traditions is a farce. Metros of our country is under a huge influence of western culture and even small towns are jumping on the bandwagon. And their justification is that it is personal freedom. Fine. I ...

Yesterday I finished three years in the blogger's space, each year ending in a distinct anniversary. On my last anniversary post , I had promised to give my readers more poems and better travelogues. But the year seemed to give a new turn to my blog. I ventured into short stories and wrote two of them. I had started another one based on my college life which I left in between. The number two seems to have some strong connection with me. I wrote 2 poems on the blog before the last anniversary and this time the number of stories again comes to TWO.. Numerologists may say it is becoz I am born under the number 2 (My birth date is 20). Last year, the number of trips were plenty but just one of them was a sight seeing tour. Hence just one travelogue. There were a couple of posts on cricket along with the usual reporting from IIT Delhi. In December, I decided to start documenting some of the ideas regarding my research topic and that led to the tech blog . Though the response to that it ...

Creating abstract art with mathematics. Here are some of the images from the Benoit Mandelbrot Fractal Art Contest 2007. Star Dust (Manu Martin) Immortelles (Sylvie Gallet) Air (Ewa Stryza) La Sylphide ( Anna de Vries-Eickhoff) Edenesque (Helen Grainge) Rose (Keith Mackay) Matsuoka (Daniel Kuzmenka) For more images from the contest visit this link . All images are Copyright © 2007 Damien M. Jones.

When I had written a post on how Sachin missed all his centuries in the last year, how can I refrain from writing something today. A day that will be remembered by all the fans all over the world who consider "Cricket is RELIGION, Sachin Tendulkar is GOD. It was a day when Sachin started off very carefully with Ganguly blasting at the other end (Something has seriously happened to our Dada. He is in such a terrific form), and then allowing all the tail-enders an extended session of batting practice, in the meantime getting that ever elusive golden figures of 100. As Cricinfo editor Siddharth Vaidyanathan (he shares his last name with me) describes, I would also put it as one of the greatest knocks of the little Master. An innings of such precision and measure and such flawless execution that even the aussies had left hope of finishing the Indian innings at his end. A banner at the ground summed up everything. "Commit all your crimes when Sachin is batting," it read. ...

As per the tradition of updating the blog once in a year, here I present to you my blog with a new look. A look with a complete rework on the template and the colours. Here is a snapshot of the new template Isn't that colourful! Well the description says so. A few more experimentation with words all around the template. The headings are translated into Spanish (thanks to google translate) and a few keywords to make it more informal. Hey, did anybody say my blog is too serious???? May be. But isn't it true that humour lies in the minds of the reader (That sounds familiar to some other proverb). So with the new look on the blog and lots of colours all around (Does colour mean something else?) the blog from here on changes to a different genre. No more serious babble. I should probably start a new blog for that and not publicise it. No more of fundas. I have started a tech blog for that. Welcome to the world of VIBGYOR Tail: When I started the blogging, my blog title was "A ...

After a wonderful year 2007, here we are into yet another year of fun and frolic. The year that went by was a little different from the ones earlier. I had the maximum number of trips, almost one in every month, starting with a trip to Kolkata for the marriage of two of my best friends. One trip to Renukoot during Holi. Three trips to Kerala - one for cousin's marriage, one for teaching in a college in Cochin and one just for a holiday to home. One to Mumbai for a cousin's engagement. A vacation to Jodhpur, Udaipur and Mount Abu in June. Unfortunately, there were no trips to the Himalayas. There were two of them planned but got postponed to 2008. One was a trek in Manali under YHAI and another was Manali-Leh-Ladakh. Hope that it materialises this year. The new year is also full of trips. The first 3 are for marriages. Aur ek bhi mera nahi.. Last January, I wrote my comprehensive exams which meant that I am officially registered for my PhD and my research proposal was accepted. ...