The Southern Girl

The fairest thing on land or sea

Is the Southern girl, to me.

You should see her when the stars

Come studding all the sky;

And feel her beaming eye

On you when the moon is full –

Fairest of all that’s fair is she,

The Southern girl, to me.

....it happens only in Amsterdam !

Pedophiles to launch political party

Dionne Warwick rephrased !

A friend of mine rephrased the old song by Dionne Warwick

What do you get when you fall in love?
A gurl with a pin to burst your bubble
That's what you get for all your trouble.
I'll never fall in love again.
I'll never fall in love again.

What do you get when you kiss a gurl?
You get enough germs to catch pneumonia.
After you do, she'll never phone you.
I'll never fall in love again.
I'll never fall in love again.

Don't tell me what is all about,
'Cause I've been there and I'm glad I'm out,
Out of those chains, those chains that bind you
That is why I'm here to remind you

What do you get when you fall in love?
You get enough tears to fill an ocean
That's what you get for your devotion.
I'll never fall in love again.
I'll never fall in love again.

What do you get when you fall in love?
You only get lies and pain and sorrow.
So, for at least until tomorrow,
I'll never fall in love again!
I'll never fall in love again!

Don't tell me what it's all about
`Cause I've been there and I'm glad I'm out
Out of those chains, those chains that bind you
That is why I'm here to remind you. (here to mind you) 3x
What do you get when you fall in love?
You only get lies and pain and sorrow
So, for at least, until tomorrow
I'll never fall in love again
Oh, I'll never fall in love again

Hinglish...in Oxford !

Check out the latest additions to Oxford.

http://www.askoxford.com/pressroom/archive/ode2newwords

India is certainly taking over the globe !
Mehndi, offshoring, etc are the new words added in it.

How Credit score works ?

Check this link out.

Marriage on the rocks in the western world !

Check these articles out... as the society is advancing more and more.... such issues are taking over precedence.
Link


Males in western society

Detterent to marriage

btw, this is crazy....what kind of society is this ?
Marriages are off.....one of the genders is overpowering others.

well, in such a scenario the emotional health of ppl is in question.

Murphy's law in action

Every thing that can go wrong...will go wrong !
Well, I experienced this first hand.

I made a sudden decision to hit Cincin on Friday/Sat night after 400 miles towards Pitts and my bumper got hit.

I made a decision to keep my car parked outside....street cleaning guys put a 15$ ticket for me. Have to check out the date to pay it. Also, shall have to figure out how to pay it.

If that was less, the realtor slapped us with a notice ...a legal one stating that our entry into the townhouse was illegal !
Well, shall have to negotiate with him .

So, in between
parking tickets, notices and a broken bumper, I could get some time to blog this.

Some happening phase of life... !

Russell Peters

New link:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6802438413010363103

This dude is hilarious !

my new place,...

Drove down to Pittsburgh and after a long harrowing journey...reached on Saturday morning at 4:30 am. Chatted with mom on the phone for a while and then gave a call to Arun on the cell...He woke up and Anirban and himself helped me unload my stuff from the car.


Here's Arun and Sri in the picture I took near CMU...while we were going towards a photocopy shop!




This was taken on a side-walk of the Forbes Ave....opposite to Hamburg Hall (Heinz School's bldg).

First few days have been fun and wavelength matching is happening well.

Townhouse is cool and land lady has agreed to clean it up for us !
Hence, I am pretty much sticking out here itself .

I shall post picture of our house and neighbourhood shortly.

I am officially now a resident of Squirrel Hill...........finally !

..Madonna...losing it...

Some ppl lose it ...when they get old...
Check out the latest act of Maddonna...to get back into the spotlight !

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/5006008.stm


Is she suffering from some sort of mid-life crisis or late menopausal symptoms ?

Strange is the path of love...

Do not mention the name of love,
O my simple-minded companion.
Strange is the path
When you offer your love.
Your body is crushed at the first step.

If you want to offer love
Be prepared to cut off your head
And sit on it.
Be like the moth,
Which circles the lamp and offers its body.
Be like the deer, which, on hearing the horn,
Offers its head to the hunter.
Be like the partridge,
Which swallows burning coals
In love of the moon.
Be like the fish
Which yields up its life
When separated from the sea.
Be like the bee,
Entrapped in the closing petals of the lotus.

Mira's lord is the courtly Giridhara.
She says: Offer your mind
To those lotus feet.  

The value of failure

Failure is a normal and natural part of achievement. When the failures come, learn from them and then move quickly along.

Failure is not the worst thing that can happen. The worst thing that can happen is to let the fear of failure prevent you from ever doing anything.

If your top priority is to avoid all failure, then you will surely fail. For only by accepting and living with the possibility of failure can you succeed and achieve.

Failure is not the end of the world. It is merely another step on the pathway to fulfillment, wisdom and achievement.

Though you would never intentionally set out to fail, when failure does come the best thing to do is to gracefully accept what has happened. That will enable you to gain the most positive value from it.

Then you can move right along to the next step, and soon you'll be a long way past the failure, filled with more wisdom and experience. Let failure be, and achievement will surely come.

India will need 250,000 leaders in next 3 years

http://ia.rediff.com/money/2006/may/13inter.htm

Curses

http://www.tintinologist.org/guides/lists/curses.html

US spy agency 'monitoring calls'

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4762623.stm

...random thoughts - truth

All truth passes through three stages:

First, it is ridiculed.
Second, it is violently opposed.
Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.

Someone told me... a parallel to be drawn in Infy system is :
1. Appraisal Initiation
2. Appraisal Discussion
3. Appraisal Closure
(Now, that person is a classical Infoscion !)

btw, I saw the above stmt getting implemented in "O Brother, Where art thou".
When Ulysses reveals his actual intentions to the boys...they first ridicule it saying that they would have to spend rest of their lives in prison due to the jail-break. Then they start hitting him. Finally, they accept it as being self-evident !

Well, Ullyses is a smart man.

btw, the movie was fan_damn_tastic !

Southern, hick....all the accents.....well, George Clooney has done a good job in it.
Some of characters have been shown to be the ones who existed in reality. For e.g., Babyface Nelson a.k.a. George Nelson. There were a couple of others too.

The trio sets out their journey by running out from a farm. On their journey, they perform in a studio as the Soggy Bottom Boys ! They steal a car and get involved in a bank robbery. They do a lot of crazy stuff which eventually lands them up into a adventure-seeking journey !

Good direction - I particularly liked the music and the recreation of the era.

Overall, I shall give it a 8.5 out of 10.

Nostalgia - Hyd tour of 2004

Man, Hyd was rocking…atleast when I visited it.

Ask, Sanjay , Moiz, Aniruddha Date( all my roommates)….we were hedonists there… with the sole aim of pleasure and pursuit of the same.

Places we visited:
1. Birla Mandir…ek baar jaao..baar baar jaane ki iccha hogi.

2. Golconda Fort….2 times..once for the Lights and Sounds show(in the evening)…and secondly for the complete fort on the immediately next day.It gives the complete history of how the twin cities(Hyd and Sec’bad) were formed…and how ppl lived in harmony.

3. Nizam’s Museum. Now, this dude was gr8, man…. ! He used a Rs.400 cr worth diamond paper-weight. The last Nizam bloke neva wore his clothes more than once and therefore, had world’s longest wardrobe of 240 feet in length. And, so mnay other relics…

4. Salarjung Museum. A must see. We couldn’t cover it fully. The main attraction was Rebecca’s statue. In this statue, there is this lady sculpted from marble. This babe’s statue has a cloth(veil) covering her. At the first sight anyone and everyone would feel that it is actually a veil. Later on, on going a bit closer one comes to know that it is indeed the virtuoso of the sculptor that the appearance like that is made. Many other parts of the museum…whewwwwwwwwwwww.!French part , German part..and I dunno which all part. Ivory was toooo good.

5. Zoological Park : This park is of almost one day visit(though we covered in few hours). Now, this has some of the finest species(especially birds in monsoon) all in natural habitat and about max 10-15ft. away from u. Best part is some lions and tigers and non-high jumpers kept without cages.There was a Safari too which we missed by 5-10 mins.

6. Lumbini Park.

7. ……….and so many other places… I dun recollect right now..Moiz , Sanjay, Anirudha cud add to this.
The best part of my hyd part was…Right since I went on 2nd oct…when Dusshera was there, the roads and places were lit and every thing looked so damn cool. Some of the places are usually lit like this in Diwali…whereas others were lit for Afro Asian games. The whole Hyd experience was damn cool.
Another dhinchak part was food in Hyd was cool. No complaints from anyone like about apna Bindra’s canteen in Pune.
As of now, I am on bench in Pune-CAPS for SBC (B2-1st flr near Reshma’s place).
Another part was that during Diwali, I and Sanjay did some shopping. Blazer for Sanjay(cos we were told that there is this rule in Hyd DC that on last Monday of every month, employees have to wear it…and rumours were there that some fine is ther.e. But, we barely saw anyone wearing it) , some pearls, some gold (of someone else,,as a part of diwali ritual) , Lifestyle was a crowded shopping mall. Something similar to Phoenix Mills’ Compound in Mumbai.
Arre haan, batane ka hi rah gaya …diwali mein thoda bahut trading (stocks) bhi kar liya….in hyd… since a friend is Asst.Vice President in Kotak securities in Sec’bad…In fact, he was instrumental in most of our shopping since we traveled using his car and he was a good guide indeed.
Well, all in all , we had a ball of a time.
I miss my roommates quite much. For 2 days when I woke up here in Pune, pehele wo log ka yaad aaata cos….missin them. Everything was quite perfect.
Moiz ka versatile,all-ecompassing kit ho…ya Aniruddha and Sanjay ka cool companionship . Everything fell in correct place. Accomodation was cool. Neighbours…(if they existed) never caused prbs. ;)

Jaane do, quite retro ho gaya mein.

Riding St Louis metro

These days...riding the Metro is so much fun !

http://www.metrostlouis.org/GettingStarted/TryTransit/reasonsforriding.asp

I found the above link on the St Louis Metro website.

Colbert report...

Stephen Colbert report which everybody is talking about !

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-49736174487705139255
Washington... !

The Significance of "Cinco de Mayo"

The Mexican holiday known as Cinco de Mayo is widely misconstrued in this country, even by people of Mexican descent. Other people do not seem to care about the origin and cultural significance of Cinco de Mayo, they simply see it as an opportunity to go out and get drunk on Mexican beer at reduced prices. Despite its commercialization, this holiday is of importance to many people. This writing will attempt to clarify the meaning of this holiday and return some significance to a day that has lost most of it to the advertisement industry of this country.

The biggest misconception about Cinco de Mayo is that it commemorates of México's Independence Day. That holiday is, in fact, celebrated on September 16. On that date back in 1810, Father Miguel Hidalgo issued a proclamation known as El Grito de Dolores that united the many different rebellions going on against Spain into one cohesive struggle. México achieved its independence from Spanish rule in 1821.

Cinco de Mayo is actually a commemoration of a victory by Mexican troops in La Batalla de Puebla more that fifty years later, on May 5, 1862. President Benito Juárez inherited México's troubled political and financial situation, which included a bankrupt Mexican treasury. As a result of these problems, President Juárez issued a moratorium in 1861 halting payments on Mexican foreign debt. Much of this debt was owed to France. Shortly thereafter, France sent troops to México to secure payment of its debt. At the time, the French Army of Napoleon III was considered the premier army in the world. It had enjoyed recent victories throughout Europe and Asia. The French expected to march form the port city of Veracruz to Mexico City without encountering much resistance. President Juárez sent troops, under the command of General Ignacio Zaragosa, to Puebla to confront the French. The Mexican troops consisted almost entirely of indigenous soldiers, much like today. General Zaragosa's troops, outnumbered 4,700 to 5,200, were severely under-equipped. La Batalla de Puebla raged on for two hours, after which time the French were forced to retreat to Orizaba. Despite tremendous odds, the humble Mexican Army defeated the most powerful fighting unit in the world!

One year after La Batalla de Puebla, the French brought in more troops and re-attacked. This time they were able to make their way to Mexico City, take the capital, and install Emperor Maximilian of Hapsburg as the reigning monarch of México. Maximilian ruled México for about four years, until his execution in 1867 by troops loyal to President Juárez, who regained power.

Although La Batalla de Puebla on Cinco de Mayo was rendered militarily insignificant by the French's subsequent victory, it did inject the Mexican people with pride and patriotism it had never before enjoyed. Since its independence from Spain in 1821, México had suffered one tragedy after another. La Batalla de Puebla was the first time that the Mexican pueblo could rally around a common cause and proudly proclaim,

«¡Yo soy Mexicano!»