Here is the link to Sudhir's blog - where he has posted that letter with GW Nostalgics!

1st Day in US
I still remember clearly that evening when I landed at the Dulles Airport, 5th of Aug, not knowing anyone nor having any one to come pick me up! For some stupid reason, my bag was the lastttt one to come on the convertable that day! Finally once I got them all, I walked out the customs and into the terminal. First thing I did was to get to a pay phone to call Jagan - his was the only phone number I had - only to realise that I had no idea how to use a pay phone!!! Eventually after seeing ppl around use it, I realised that I would need change. All I had with me were dollar bills in 100 denominations! First I got that changed to 20s and then went over to the coffee shop to get it changed. The guy - who happened to be desi declined to give me any unless I bought something from him! Looking at the menu I found that the cheapest thing I can get is Coke for a dollar 89. '90Rs for a glass of coke!!!' - is what I wondered to myself that time. Well got that and finally got to a payphone again. Called that bum Jagan only to come across another new thing - voice mail!!! I wasnt sure what to say so I simply hung up :)). I reached for my bag and got the GW prospectus out - it had listed guest houses for students "around" the campus (which later I found out was 22 blocks away). I found one that said Graduate Student guest house. Called them and made reservation for the night. The guy at the guest house told me one good thing - not to take cab, but a Super Shuttle as they are cheaper. With my big load of bags I finally walked out of the terminal and first thing I did on stepping out into the open was to drop my coke that had costed me Rs90!!! Everyone was looking at me and they all knew that a new bakra has arrived Fresh Off the Boat!! ;).
Well, I managed to find myself a Super Shuttle. Though the guest house guy had told me that it will cost me $22, I wasnt sure, so I went ahead and inquired with the driver as to the fare. He looked at me and with the kalla accent that we in DC are so used to, said - "A million dollars man"!To this day I dunno y I replied to him with a innocent face - "I dont have so much"!!! He and his frnd both burst out laughing. Probably if I was in a better frame of mind, I would have laughed with them too, but that was not to be.
Anyway, I was the last person to be dropped off and after almost an hour or so of DC darshan, I eventually got to my guest house. It was actually a bread and breakfast kind of place and in a very good locale in NW DC; I am forgetting the address now. He showed me to my room and apologised coz he hadnt turned on the ac before I arrived and that it will take sometime for the room to get cooler. I was like - cooler ??!! I was already feeling cold in that august weather, having come from the hot and humid Chennai! Once he got out of the room I turned off the ac unit:). I was hungry and tired, but having just spent Rs 90 on a coke (which I have to admit was double my daily expense on food in Chennai), I decided to call it a day. No more wasting money on costly food! I changed and hit the bed. Before sleeping I wanted to write my diary and record my wonderful journey to the land of oppurtunity, but coz I was so tired, all I could manage was "I am in USSSS..."! I fell asleep with my diary open and pen in my hand...getting very much needed rest before the rough days of school life started...

Elf

Sudhir mailed in GWReloaded yesterday - taking a walk down the memory lane...talking about all the things we used to do in GW. Most of them seem funny now, but at one point that was reality...living in a 1 bedroom house with 4 other roomies, being scared all the time that the landlord would find out; doing all night UPD shifts in the worst of the weather conditions possible and with one small heater to keep self warm...doing all nighters in Tomp/Acad esp in the 1st semester for the Digital Design project...and the amazing happiness and satisfaction once it was done; how can I forget that day, or rather that night. It was around 3.30 when I finally got it all working and cried out in excitement...:). Its funny that I am so scared of number 7 and it was in the 7th floor lab that I finally completed the design!
I am going to try and recount more events from the past in the next few posts... there is no way I want to forget about them; ofcourse lot of it is in my diary but the things that are not there, I better jot them down lest my already failing memory fails me! The song I am listening to right now - 'Do You Remember' by Phil Collins... how can I forget... :)

Elf

Google Desktop - its probably a prolugue to what is to come with Windows Vista. Vista is the new Windows - news version to XP. I am not sure when they changed the code name - last I had heard was that it was called Longhorn. Dont know when they changed that name...
There was a book my dad had - Your Life and How to Use It. I wish I could get my hands on that now...there is so much to learn and so much to understand. One can either choose to disregard that and live life as it comes, or one can decide to do something about their life...cant they :).
Its been 3 days since I have installed Google desktop and its still indexing my GMail. It did say it would take hours...but looks to me like it takes days!

Elf.

I formatted my laptop a couple of days back. Like it has happened almost all of my previous times, I forgot to copy something to my partion drive before formatting - my saved games from Medal of Honor! :( Also, I forgot to copy my Itunes library file - that stores info about the songs that I have in Itunes. Not that it matters so much, but now that I have installed Itunes again, I had to add all the songs again...
Anyways...am too tired now - hectic day at work and have to get to work by 7 tom! And oh, btw, I booked my tkt to DC for 7th :) Another trip to DC, and this time half paid by my company ;).
Everyone in DC, me is comingggggg !!!

Elf.

Ahaa...now here is proof that I used to hate the winter of DC also at one point! And now that I am here in a hot place, I hate the summer here :@! Like they say na - Grass is always greener on the other side!
STOP COMPLAINING!

Elf.

Ok, this blog needed some refreshing to do! That green template had kinda become boring ;). New start so new look :) And I just figured out how to send fotos to my blog using Hello program. Though I dont understand y would someone want to do that when blogspot allows one to add images to post anyway. So all in all, I wasted the last 1 hour of my valuable sleeptime!
Anyway, its 2.30 am now and I gotta sleep - gotta go play cricket tomorrow morning :)

Goodnite!
Elf.

September 18, 2005
Lord of Wars
I had been to the movies yesterday. And when I say movies, I do mean the plural - 2 movies :). Now comon, when one pays 6.50/tkt, one ought to make the best of it, if you know what I mean ;). I saw 40 Year Old Virgin 1st and then Lord of Wars. 40 yr old is a nice comedy - did honestly make me laugh more than once - something that hasnt been happening with the movies that I had been watching of late...! I wonder whats up with Hollywood, they have simply stopped making good movies! Anyway, next we sat in for Lord of Wars. Its good masala movie with action romance and all; but it also has some serious message...that would make one think...and then feel frustrated coz there is nothing much that one can do about it. Last 5 minutes literally summed up the movie. Both me and Nomi were like we should have watched the movies in the opposite order! Its about a man who starts off by selling munition and moves on to bigger thing - about his life and how it treats him. Nicholas Cage did a good job there. Better than most of the movies that have been coming out lately. I din like Transporter 2 also that much. Only a couple of weeks back they were showing Transporter 1 on FX - 2 doesnt seem to be much different from 1.

Anyway, another important thing - I am going to stop posting here. I am moving back to my old blog at www.blogger.com . Its at www.vineetn.blogspot.com. Compelling reason being - this blog doesnt have an archive - for free. Its a paid service. Only the last 10 posts can be seen on the page. Ofcourse there were other reasons as well that I had mentioned earlier. But like we say in Software testing terms - the above reason is a 'show stopper' ! I will be exporting all my posts from here to blogger too, ofcourse.

Adios then!

Ef.



September 16, 2005
Midnight Musings
Its 12:30 in the night and I am not able to sleepppppp! :( Of late this has become some kind of a habit with me - being awake till late and then scramble out and rush through the morning chores before getting to work. I have to be at work by 8 everyday and I it takes me 20 min. to get to my work. So to be on time, I ought to start by 7:40. Meeting that threshold becomes a challenge esp when I get up as late as 7:10 on some of the days.

Once out of bed, I gotta run to the bathroom - get fresh, get out, iron my shirt, find a good pair of socks(thats the biggest challenge!), get some "fresh air" ;), and run down where my roomate is already waiting in the car with engine running! Considering the fact that my license is expired, I cant even tell him to go ahead and myself get to work at my own pace later :(. Hopefully that will change by the end of this month.

Its kinda weird that even after 5 months, I have not been able to get over the old habit of being late to bed... In school it was never an issue; even when I was working at CTS, there were nights when I used to go to sleep as late as 2; infact there were couple of times when I hadnt slept at all! But ofcourse they were overkills! Sandeep knows better than anyone else how I managed to get through those days - esp with Camelia right behind us :)) There was one afternoon when I actually fell asleep in my chair with a coke can in my hand - and woke up with a start when I managed to drop it all on my pant! Those were fun days! At my current job I just cant imagine doing anything like that - my boss sits right next to me! And only a month back a guy was fired coz he was caught sleeping.

Ok, this is not helping; even after ranting pointlessly for the past 15 minutes, I am stilllllllllll not feeling sleepy :(. I wanted to write about my trip to Utah, but am not in the mood for that right now, maybe later.

And oh, I am thinking of moving my blog to www.blogger.com. I have had an older blog there and though I had stopped writing there much earlier, I never closed it...that account was the reason I had got my GMail account - much much before anyone else in my frnd circle did ;). Besides, on friendster, no one can post a comment unless they are member - thats not nice of them!

Its 12:45555555555555555555555 :((((((((((((((.

I have started playing racquetball again. Had joined a club a month back and now found a partner also - a collegue from work. But that guy is new to the game; I missed Esmail and Kartik soooooooo much when I was playing that day:(.

Weather here has started improving...ofcourse thats a relative term; coz if you look up Phoenix at www.weather.com, it would still show you a high of 95, but that itself is blessing when compared to more than 2 months of 100+ temperatures!

People say that when a conversation gets to the point where one starts discussing weather, its time to hang up! Ofcourse this is a conversation that I am having with myself, but I guess it still applies. I gotta say goodbye to myself and get some sleep - though none seem to be in sight. Its 1 nowwwwwwww :(. And that idiot Sumit is also not online :@.

Anyway, I think I will hit the sack now. And when I say sack, I mean it literally! My bed is such a mess, a sack will laugh at it with its mouth wide open! Ok, I am talking nonsense now. I better stop!

Sweet dreams everybody.

Thank you for wishing me the same ;).

Ef.


August 10, 2005
Missing the Missed...contd.
Last weekend I was with a frnd of mine (Tarun) going to the baseball ground for night cricket. I hadnt had my lunch (well, nothing new!) and neither had he. So we decided that lets stop at a McDonalds and have a quick bit before going to play. We got there and I got into the parking lot (I was driving, ofcourse). Tarun stopped me and came with the idea that lets drive thru..., I looked at him a moment and I was like - Ok.....! And the honest fool that I am, I told him that I have never done it before. He laughed out loud and said ki Chalo aaj mere saath tune pahli baar drive thru kar liya :). And the way he said it, I got sooo much reminded of Esmail! There have been so many places that I have been to with him 1st time and everyyyyy time he will remind me ki Dekh aaj tune mere saath ye kaam bhi pahli baar kar liya ! :))) I called Esmail later and told him about this and we both laughed so much remembering the old days... :). Ok, I am making it sound very weird rite! Just to clarify, every of those 1st times - its not just the two of us, there were always other ppl too! :P

Well, I will be meeting him soon - am going to Utah for the Labor Day weekend. Am sure we will have gr8 fun!










MSN Chat!
DATE: 08/05/2005 12:19:58 AM

I remember, when I had 1st come to US I had such bad typing speed, infact the 1st time I logged on to a lab m/c in Acad I was so conscious that everyone around me was going on 'khat khat kht kht..'! I logged off and came back!!! And that was the time when I was learning to type without looking at the keyboard, so that used to make it worse... Then I came upon an idea - best way to improve typing speed is to chat! Well...so it was. I used to go to Acad in the afternoon just to chat will all my frnds in India. I would catch up on the latest going on with all of them and in the process learn typing too! And truly it did help! I dont mean to boast but yes my typing did improve a lot! And it has been that way since then.

But lately its started to deteriorate...I make so many mistakes while typing; the key that I use most on the board is backspace! And its mainly coz last few months I have literally given up on chatting! I just dont feel like doing it... but then I think I should start it again...as it is so many of my frnds keep complaining that I dont keep in touch. It will be a good thing in both ways :). I just chatted with Sajjad (a frnd from college) with whom I hadnt been in touch with for almost a year and it felt good :). He showed me his foto taken at his workplace and Goddd, he has only grown fatter! Najeeb was right :))). Another strange thing I found out - this website is blocked in the Gulf!!! I guess they found that 'ass grabbing' post/foto obscene! Weird ppl man...

Strangers!
DATE: 08/01/2005 11:53:15 PM

I was in my office restroom today - doing what most ppl do there - peeing! And someone else entered just then. I heard a 'Hi Praveen' 1st...I thought maybe he was on the phone or maybe well...talking to himself! But then he called out again. I couldnt see him coz he was on the otherside of the partition. I still didnt want to answer, not wanting to embarrass myself in case he wasnt talking to me - which I am very capable of, ofcourse! :) (reminds me of an incident I had at the school gym once, but thats only between me and Kurtik!:) ). After a pause the guy was like...'Oh, I am sorry, I thought your name was Praveen. You are Vineet rite'. I had no clue who he was but since he was adressing me now, I gave a reluctant 'Ahaa...'. But the guy wouldn't stop - 'I thought ur name was Praveen; both names are very similar; both have 'ee' in them; Ha Ha Ha'!!!! The only response that was coming to my mind was - For God sake, lemme dooo what I came here to do!!!! But then, knowing me, all I could manage was - 'Yaa...its pretty confusing'!

Anyway, eventually I did find out who he was - one desi developer in my office whom I have never talked to in normal surrounding! I have heard of ppl starting up conversations when going on smoking brks, but pee brks - this is outright funny!!! :))

Btw, ppl who have time should check this link out - http://worldschoolphotographs.com/ . It has listing of lots of school - surprisingly from India as well. I wasnt able to find mine, but I am sure most of you will be able to find yours :).

You Have Got Mail
DATE: 07/29/2005 12:33:50 AM

One of the most common subject line of emails start with a "Fwd:". I dont have any survey results to back me on this, but I bet thats the case! Agreed sometimes they are really good and make you smile...but in my personal experience 90% of the time, they are total crap! And the worst part of it all is that you cant block the sender as well, coz its a frnd of yours' who actually sent it in the 1st place! Usually their reasoning is that 'they were thinking about me' and so thought of sending this forward - dont some forwards have that as their last line. Now thats outright emotional blackmail!!! I would rather that they send me a single line 'Hey watsup!' - that will make me more happy than any story or image or link.

Most email service providers now have filters that one can define to move mails to certain folders as and when they arrive and satisfy certain criteria. I have one too - for "Fwds"! :). Any mail that has 'Fwd' in subject line is directly marked Read and archived!

I am going on ranting on a pointless subject knowing fully well that nothing is going to change either way! I think the heat here is making me go crazy!

Oh, btw, I got my H1 done. Exciting news na...but doesnt seem to me that way...dunno y...

DATE: 07/28/2005 01:30:24 AM

Ahh!! Finally some rain! Phewww. It was so nice yesterday evening, I was suddenly wondering if I wasnt in Phoenix or wat!! But strangely, temp. was not all that cool, it was only 89F and still I was feeling good. I guess after experiencing 100+ temp everyday for the last 2 months, it was a welcome relief. I was telling Nomi - my roomate - that I was actually enjoying the temp. that I used to soo hate when I was in DC! I guess things are changing...hopefully for good...

Everyone's Single
DATE: 07/25/2005 11:06:11 PM

Everytime I login to Friendster, this is the image that comes up on the rightside bar as an advertisement for some website. 1st couple of times, I tried to ignore it, but damn the more I ignore it, more I get pulled towards that image and the message that it has on it - "...take our proven 'compatibility test' endorsed by Psychology Today..." Now to find some gal whose ass u can grab, I dont think u need to take a "compatibility test" do you!!! :))
"...screen for felons and married people..." - if this is to say that both the category of ppl have something in common, I would really like to know - will give me another point to argue with my Mom when next she brings up the topic of my marriage! :)
While on marraige, I forgot, I have to write on an interesting note or rather an interesting link I came across - about a frnd of ours' - and ofcourse I have to write about the source of that link as well - that might be of more interest to ppl ;). Am too tired rite now to delve into it, but maybe tomorrow!
And oh! I got a new TV today - again :). Returned the old one - before the 90 day no_question_asked return policy of Walmart expired :). And I am gonna start nottt liking this new one too in about 90 days time!! Too bad Walmart doesnt have many choice of TVs...else I could have done this for the rest of my life only :))

What you love...
DATE: 07/21/2005 12:44:17 AM

I cant believe my writing could have an effect on someone! Well...it apparently did...my blog post in Friendster reminded Fatema of her good ol' days...I guess she still misses it.
But thats understandable now. If you live in a place where you have made good frnds and a place you start thinking of as your home...leaving that place is a hard thing to do...even if it means going to be with the person you love.
Aah, this smoke alarm is irritating me now! I dont know y it went off in the 1st place!!!
If given a choice of living in the place you love and living with the one you love...what would you choose??
Doesnt seem an easy question to answer...agreed if you love someone, they mean the world to you and it doesnt matter where ever you go with them, as long as you are with them, its all good. But reality - you cant be with the person you love 24 hrs of the day can you! U have to go to work, meet ppl not all of whom are really 'friend' material!; go do shopping where you might come across very rude attendants; survive in a place even if the temperature is 115 on an average...so what do u choose??
Think!
And I will go to sleep now, not knowing the answer myself...

Ef

Missing the missed...
DATE: 07/19/2005 09:57:54 PM

I was at Starbucks last nite - not coz I wanted to have coffee, but coz I suddenly realised that its been more than 3 months since I had been to one! I went in and I didnt even remember what I used to have at Starbucks...and when I eventually remembered I was like - how can I have that in this hot place. So I asked the sweet girl at the counter to make a cold drink for me. And she did make a real good one. Too bad I din get the name; thats ok, gives me an oppurtunity to go there again ;). But just being there felt so weird...I have always done movies alone; gone out and eaten alone, once I even went for a Metro ride alone, all the way from Foggy Bottom to the last stop on Blue line - it was after it had snowed in Jan and I wanted to see the snow covered city. It was beautiful, trust me! :) Anyway, back to Starbucks, this was the 1st time I was in a Starbucks alone! I have spent so many wonderful evenings sitting in Starbucks in Marvin Center and ofcourse ABP and it was all coming back to me...
I am watching Friends rite now - The one where Phoebe gets married - out on the street in the snow...and I am watching it and missing the snowwwwwwwwww !!!
I know someday I am going to forget DC and plaster those memories with newer feelings; I dont have a very big heart u know, cant keep too many things in there :)). Hoping that day comes fast...
But no matter what, there is no way I am going to forget the frnds I made there! This time when I was sitting on my flight back from DC, I was having the same exact feeling that I used to have when I used to take the train back to Chennai from my native place. I was glad that I was having that feeling and as the plane soared into the sky, I watched the July 4th fireworks of DC from a distance and said Good Bye... :).

Start Off
DATE: 07/18/2005 11:17:58 PM

I was chatting with Sangeeta over the weekend and cribbing (as usual) about my boring existance in this boring place, about my boring job, about my boring weekend life and about this HOT HOTTTTT!!! summer and she was like - Y dont u join Friendster??!!
Well...initially I was a little skeptical coz this site is not offering anything new or anything interesting. I already have enough frnds on my messenger, I already have a blog elsewhere (which I update lets seeee...once a year maybe!!) and most of all, I dont make frnds with strangers so easily! I was going to move her invite to 'Archive' folder without even opening it - like another 1100 or so mails that are already there unopened! (sorry Sangeeta :$), but then I was like...aaahh, lets just see what its all about. And when I logged in and saw the number of ppl in her network and in network's network, I was like wow, there are quite a few of them I know. And there are so many of them there, whom I havent been in touch with for quite sometime; maybe this way I can reach out to them. How much this idea materializes is to be seen!! But here is a start. Its been quite sometime since I have been writing anything...I stopped writing Diary a few months back and my blog is also in total state of derelict...
I am going to post on this blog more frequently (Big promise Mr. Elf ;) ) :))). And hoping to elicit some comments good and gaalis watever you guys feel like - everything is welcome!:).
SO! Hoping against hope - here is my Hi to everyone! Come join, visit say Hello and have a good time.

Vineet.

Google spun a new googlee - www.blogsearch.google.com! It was only when I was reading about it in the news that I realised how vast the blogging world has become lately...
I started blogging in late 2003 when a frnd of mine recommended www.blogger.com to me. I never was a big enthusiast of this phenomena until I got my GMail invite in the early days of its launch coz of my having been a member of the community!
And even today, I try my best to be as regular as I can be...its just that my lethargic nature simply keeps me from being an active blogger. My brother is my best motivation - that bum writes so often and writes good :). I hope to be able to match his enthu...
Way to go buddy! :)

Ef.