life in san diego

Sandheeprakashat

2011-01-30T23:22:00.000-08:00

Namdevanchi kavita mhanavi ka abhanga. sakhila uddeshlay la paramatmyala? Kiti vela jari aaikale gane tari shevati poorna na umajalyachi hurhur rahatech.

Salil kulkarni sangitmay keleli kavita, tichya dar parayanala mala vegalyach vishwat gheun jate.

Mount Whitney

2010-09-23T23:51:00.000-07:00

Finally it happened, it took me about 5 years since I first thought of climbing mount Whitney, here I was on top of the highest peak of the 48 continental united states.
I passed this exam without much of the hard work or preparation, since my friend had made permit reservations in February. I ran about 3 miles every other day over the weekday. Whenever my laziness kicked in I had skipped the weeks and fortnights. We did a couple of practice hikes around San Diego. and the day came when we drove up the Northern California to Lone Pine.
We reached the ranger station at lone pine at about 4:00pm after 5 and half hours of journey. We were all wondering about the tall mountain range in the distance and guessing which one of those peaks was Mt. Whitney, the ranger the station pointed at the right one. We picked up our permits at the station and went in the town. We had very little choice for food so got a couple of sandwiches at the Subway. Later we drove to HourseShoe Meadow which is at 10K feet for camping overnight. the campground was fairly empty as it was the Sunday night. It was a little windy and we're somewhat nervous about if the tent will hold up for the whole night. We set up the tent anyways and put some rocks around it. After that we decided to do an hour long practice hike, which was fun overall considering, it was my first hike in the dark and the moon was almost full. But once we came back to our campsite I started getting pretty bad headache, and my friends talking about ghosts, spirits and horror movies didn't help all that much either. Soon I decided to call the end of the day as it was getting little chilly. I think I got a very good deal on the sleeping back, as it in 5 mins I was very cozy and comfortable in my sleeping bag.
The next morning we drove back to Lone Pine, took a really heavy breakfast and drove to Whitney Portal. The distance between Lone Pine and Whitney Portal was surprisingly very short. After 20 minutes of drive we're already at the Whitney Portal's parking lot. We walked around a little bit at the portal, saw a nice lake. We went on another short practice hike so that we get a feel of hiking in the area.

Ba nij gade (Baa neej gade)

2010-05-15T00:21:00.000-07:00

Lahan pani aaichya tondi aaikalele agadi tya vayat pan manala bhidalele ani dolya pani ananare mazya ayushyatale pahile vahile athavanitale aangaigeet. Temva suddha kharatar zop udawanare... maze swatahache lekaroo zale tyasathi konte geet gayale asel tar hech.. pan kahi kele tari modakya don kadavya shivay kahi athavena.. kahi kele tari kuthe te ganech milena.. aaila watat hote ba.bha borkaranche te gane...babanna baal kavi, bayakola bhara tambe tar ani konala kay... saha mahine ulatun gele tari kahi gane sapadena...amachya nagarachi library palathi ghatali pan milena.. pahilya pasoon je watale tech khare zale.. dr.kakunnach te aangaiget sapadale.. far sundar gane.....lihun kadhalay.. path kartoy mhanje parat kadhi visaranar nahi..
itaki sundar rachana ahe ki pratyakshat tya avasthet gheun jate.. daridryache itake sundar varnan kashatach nasel kele... aai lekaratala itaka sundar sanwad dusara sapadnarach nahi.

कवी : दत्तात्रय धोंडो घाटे

बां नीज गडे नीज गडे लडिवाळा, नीज नीज माझ्या बाळा
रवी गेला रे सोडूनी आकाशाला, धन जसे दुर्भाग्याला
अंधार वसे चोही कडे गगनात, गरिबांच्या जेवी मनात
बघा थकुनी कसा निजला हा इहलोक, मम आशा जेवी अनेक
खडबड हे उंदीर करती काना शोधायते फिरती, परी अंती निराश होती
लवकरी हे जातील सोडून सदनाला, गणगोत जसे आपणाला
नीज नीज माझ्या बाळा
बहु दिवसांच्या जुन्या कुडाच्या भिंती,कुजुनी त्या भोके पडती
त्या मधुनी त्या दाखविती जगातला,दारिद्र्य अपुले बाळा
हे कळकीचे जीर्ण मोडके दार, कर कर कर वाजे फार
हे दुख्काने कढून कथी लोकाला, दारिद्र्य अपुले बाळा
वाहतो फटीतुनी वारा सुकावितो अश्रुधारा, तुज नीज म्हणे सुकुमारा
हा सूर धरी माझ्या या गीताला,नीज नीज माझ्या बाळा

जो वरी हे जीर्ण झोपडे अपुले, दैवाने नाही पडले
तोवरी तू झोप घेत जा बाळा,काळजी पुढे दैवाला
जोवरती ह्या कुडीत राहील प्राण, तो वारी तुज संगोपीन
तद नंतरची करू नको तू चिंता, नारायण तुजला त्राता
दारिद्या चोरीला कोण, आकाशा पाडील कोण
दिग्वासना फाडील कोण, त्रिलोक्य पती आता त्राता तुजला
नीज
तुज जन्म दिला सार्थक नाही केले,तुज काही न मी ठेवियले
तुज कोणी नसे छाया तुज आकाश,धन दारिद्र्य ची रास
ह्या दही दिशा वस्त्र तुला सुकुमारा, गृह निर्जन राहिला थारा
तुज ज्ञान नसे अज्ञानावीण काही, भिक्षेवीण धंदा नाही
तरी सोडू नको सत्याला, धन अक्षय तेच जीवाला
भावे भज दिनदयाळा, मग रक्षील तो करूणासागर तुजला

Concave mirror

2010-01-06T21:55:00.000-08:00

Today we made a concave mirror out of a satellite dish. It does not give a true focal point but hopefully it will be ok to cook food tomorrow. It's ready and can't wait to go under the Sun.
I saw myself inverted when taking a picture from far, reminded me of my school. We used to do all this experiments in the Physics lab. Also if I stad near it, I won't see myself in it.

Concave untensil cover burns a piece of paper

2010-01-02T13:19:00.000-08:00

I wanted to make a paraboloid mirror to make a solar cooker but I had to make one. I realized the Pot cover that I have is kind of concave and made of steel. Its kind of crooked, its surface is not smooth also the reflection may not be 100%. Still I got a pretty good focal point and in the morning at 11:00am it burns a hole in a piece of paper. It gives me a little hope that I can one day make a portable or foldable solar cooker dish. Lets hope it happens soon.

Different kind of solar energy

2009-12-31T14:24:00.000-08:00

This is time it is the heat energy that I am trying to capture. I had a spare car screen and wanted to use to it to something instead of throwing it away. I curled it into a solar cooker, it heated up the water and also cooked a tomato and some rice.

More solar energy

2009-08-01T19:13:00.000-07:00

I bought some more solar cells a few days back and was excited to build a bigger panel. The one we built before didn't have enough wattage output so I couldn't really use it for anything. So the plan was to make a 18Vx3.5A panel so that we can charge a 12V deep cycle battery and then use inverter to power a fan or laptop or such.
We bought a 2'x4' plywood from scrap for 50c, equal sized pegged board for 4$, 10$ bordering for the fram, 23$ plexiglass and some other minor things.
The excitement woke me up before the alarm did. As my wife and already painted the plywood, pegboard and the frame border, we started with drilling the holes for the frame which our neighbors were not really happy about. So we postponed that and moved to tabbing the solar cells. That took us about an hour for that, it was time to put the frame together. After about an hour or so and after drilling numerous amount of holes in the frame and as a result in the patio floor (hmm would that cost us when we will leave this apartment, I wonder) the frame was ready and it was time to put the cells in series.
It was breeze in the beginning but as my hands started getting tired and my enthusiasm started diminishing, it became a real gruellingtask to put all those 36 cells in serias. By the time it was d0ne the clock showed 1pm. After about 6 hours of hard work, We had our 54 watt solar panel ready. It feel good right now but all that scoutching for 6 hours, my body is not really happy.
I can't wait to buy the deep cycle battery, and start cranking out that solar wattage and make use of it.

Solar Energy

2009-06-27T17:55:00.000-07:00

Today we completed our first serious Solar panel project. It took me and my wife about 1 and half hours to complete the soldering and gluing the Solar cells together. I used a picture frame for now so I could fit only 21 cells, so getting only 12 v and 3 A out of the panel.
I feels really great to have this working gives me more courage to build the next one. I hope I will soon buy a bunch of more solar cells, charge control and a deep cycle battery.
First goal will be to run a couple of appliances and build from there.

Partly Cloudy

2009-06-07T09:57:00.001-07:00

May be very few people actually notice all that much but there was short movie called "Partly Cloudy" just before the movie up. I fell in love of that movie so much, I was so satisfied in terms of getting what I paid for, that if they had asked me to leave the movie theater, I would have gladly done so. I could always come back to watch the movie Up for which I went there in the first place.
I am amazed to see such a great talent crammed in such a short story. such creativity! Hats of to those who made it. I was stunned at the end of that movie, how can someone be so creative, so funny and have a message for everyone in such a short story. Wow! Wow! Wow!!!

Nihon

2009-06-07T09:44:00.001-07:00

Me and my wife both are learning Japanese these days. We just completed our second level of the language. The other day we decided to try out our conversational skills in Nijiya market. So we thought we can ask questions to the clerk at the checkout in Japanese. We were not sure about the rice we bought for Sushi. So before we went to the clerk, dhanu made a question and said to me "Sushi no rice wa doko desu ka?" So when we actually started talking to the Clerk, no Japanese came out of my mouth, all I could say was, "Oh, she (pointing towrds Dhanu) has a question for you!"
My wife glanced at me angrily and then ask the lady "Sushi no Rice wa doko desu ka" Expecting an answer in Japanese, I was very attentive, but then the reply came back, "Let me show you, follow me" and next 5 mins of conversation was in 100% english. I was so disappointed, I had hoped to have some conversation practice.
Now I have my wife angry at me for cowering at the last moment, and we both are sad because in Japanese store, people refused to fathom that we could speak Japanse.

My existance

2007-08-22T17:21:00.000-07:00

I will always exist no matter what! Nothing can destroy me. I will just change the form, the matter remains the same. I think in that sense everyone is the bird, Phoenix. Sometimes it takes longer but each one of us must rise from the ashes. Currently my form is a human body, in the trail of time, that will go away, it will be something else.
Few days back, we had a chance to take the journey of Grand Canyon. This time it was really a different one. The same path which I trotted on my foot four years back, I rode a mule on the same hiking trail. We people change so much, but in last four years , nothing has changed in grand canyon. Of course, it's such a small about of time for a huge thing like grand canyon. I was surprised at the end of the day, I was as tired as I was when I actually walked down and then up the grand canyon. Even though, all the hard work was done by the mule, I was tired so much that I had no energy to even eat dinner that night.

2007-05-08T16:43:00.001-07:00

Kiti tari goshti ahet karayachya ahet akkhya chovis tasat. Eakanantar eak goshta karat jatoy. sakalachi jag, kam, khel, mel, maja zop, jag, kam khel, mel.
kasa chakra firaratey. Ani eak ratra achanak zop udate, kanashi kasale tari
gane gungunate. devachi prarthana aaiku yete. Maza shevat sukhakar hou de re. it
ana to karna swami kalajach kahi thoke chukawat, doke sunna karat, dolyat pani
anata ani trikalabadhit satyachi janeev deta. ayushyatalya sarva prawasanpramane ya pravasacha anta hi aant ahech, kahi karanane madhyala kahi sukhad kshanat visar padalela tyachi punha eakda janeev zali.
khoop ichha ahe manat shevat god vhava. dolyat pani nasawe pan othat gane matra asawe. maanat khoop ahe pan akhir ghadawanara tuch sare tuzyach hatat mazi nusatich ichha. pariksha pahanar ki nahi shevati tuch tharawanar

Good to be a human!

2006-11-12T22:44:00.000-08:00

I was sick last weekend ,so sick that I slept for 36 of 48 hours. But that helped me in recovering. When I came out of the slumber on monday morning, I was hungry like a wild hog. I was happy, I didn't have to run around in the jungle and hunt for my food. I was happy, I didn't have to chase down my food. I could just buy if from the market. I am sure if I was a wild animal, I would have starved to death, due to the fact that I was too weak to even walk.

Kon kuthe kadhi

2006-05-01T16:04:00.000-07:00

parawa mazya bhachi barobar San Diego chya pranisangrahalayat gelelo. Kontya hi prakarachya bhavananni n gadgadanara me, tithalya eaka show madhalya sadhya saral vakyane hadaralo. Lokanna Manasabarobar itar praynyachi mahati patawun detanna ani tyanna jungle shikari pasoon parawrutta karanyasathi ti bai mhante "Take only photographs and leave only footprints". Mi te vakya aaikale ani vegalyach vishwat gelo, mazya dolyat pani taralale, karan kalena pan to kshan mala aantar-bahya halawun gela. Kon kothun alela eak prani ashyach eaka kontya dusarya jeevacha kiti sahaj ritya jeev gheu shakato ya vicharanech mi gahiwaralo bahuda. Kadachit itar pranyan madhye manasa itaki nash karanyachi kuwat nahi ani itaka vichar karoo shakanyachi pragalbhatahi nahi. Devane manasas buddhiroopi amaryad shakti diliy, pan manus kayamach sayyam sodat alay. apalya anandasathi baryach nishpaap jeevancha shevat karat aalay. Manus kashyachya ammala khali asato mhanun kiti tari sundar goshti paydali tudawalyachi janeev manasas rahat nahi?
Mala eakda asach prashna padalela..ki prithvicha nash kon kareel. Mala khatrine watalele ki manus prithivivar parat kadhi jeev jagu shakanar nahit itakya stara paryant pruthvi nashta karoo shakato. Pan ti shakti ajun tari manasat nahi, kadachit bhasmasura pramane swatahach nash ghadaweel pan prithvi nashta karane tyas jamanar nahi.

Bha.Ra. Tambe

2006-03-16T00:44:00.000-08:00

mitra maza, marathi gani kadhi chukun pan na aaikanara.. chakka deshatun marathi ganyanchi potadi gheun aala. Mi gele paach te saha varsha shodhatoy te gane mala tyat sapadale.. alabhya laab zala.. Khara tar ti Bha.Ra Tambyanchi kavita ahe, vansanta prabhunni "sangeet"leli ani Lata Mangeshkaranni gayaleli, "Te doodh tuzya tya ghatatale". Kay eakeak Ol ahe mhanun sangoo. Gadimanchya ganyache madhurya jyala kalate tyala hya kavitetali godi samajel. Itake aweet gane ahe ki mi darroj sudhha he gane mi aaiku shakato. Hya prakarachya kavitanna kahi tari mhantat khara tar mala ata shabda athavat nahi pan shalet marathi cha vargat aamhala shikawalyache smaratey. Chitramya kavita ka kahi tari.
Aaj kojagiri zaliye. zopayacha vicharahi dokawalela nahi ajun tasach udyachya office cha hi.
nanaveedh vichar ahet pan shabdat kahich nahiye nusatich dasanchi bhunbhun. Ti tras detey pan arthahin wataweet ashi vakya umatatil lihayala gele tar.

And the Euphoria still lingers

2006-01-15T14:56:00.000-08:00

My cell phone normally chargers it's battery when put on a charger. But off late, it didn't. I didn't even show the "charging in progress" status. I had to power it off and then connect the charger to see that. But even so, that will be intermittent. I got really frustated and went to my good friend google for answer. And Indeed, lots of people had similar problem with my kind of phone. I tried everything suggested to salvage my phone and finally decided to give up. But then after going through a few more searches, I thought I will open and disassemble the phone. Of course, there is web site which walks your through, step by step with photographs, the process of opening it.
Eversince, first time in my life, I have opened broken eletronic or electrical gadget out of curiosity to repair it, I have completely broken so many things. In some cases, especially when they were not mine, I have somehow assembled them back and made it's owner believe that it's the manufacturer's fault and I have had nothing to do with it. In some cases, I have just accepted my defeat.
No matter, my decision of operating on my phone was final. It just needed a torque screw driver and my first finger and the thumb to open it fully.
My phone, with it's guts out, looked so cool. I thought of not putting it together even if it gets repaired. I even thought of connected a speaker phone to it. But I remembered that I had open it to make it chargeable again. I got some alchohol and cleaned all the electrical contacts I could find.
I put it back together and Wohoooooo it started working like a new phone.
I was so happy, I ran around in my office like a little kid, boasting about my accomplishment and why not, this was one of the very few bright spots of my career as a repair man.

A few bits on religion

2006-01-15T13:57:00.000-08:00

I have never been very religious in my life as an adult, never been god fearing, for that matter that big of a god believer. But I have still attended different religious activity just because my friends invited me over for such occasions. A few months back, my boss from my earlier job invited me over for a thanks giving dinner in his christian group. I patiantly listened to chinese/taiwanese prayers. I heard/read the chinese scripted 10 commandments or some of the verses from the bible. I found it strange then that people translated those things in chinese. It was understandable but I always wondered how would it sound in other language(s). I thought, how would sanskrit shloka's I read/versed right from my childhood would sound in say English or chinese.
Actually such occassion came by when I visited my friend for Satyanarayana Pooja (one of the hindu rituals to please the god almighty) where I read some of the sanskrit stories in English. It all sounded so strange to me and a bit funny for a while.
So I have attended Christian church where everything was in chinese, I attended Hindu Pooja which was part Sanskrit part english. I have attended a christian wedding which was in Korean. I have not taken too much of part in any of other religions, mostly may be because of lack of friends in other religions.
It has always amazed me to find people who have to much of faith. I feel faith brings uncertainty of mind. it makes your rely more on "ifs, what ifs". It's good in a way that it might take you a yard longer. It might let you be more positive than a pessimist.

Matakichi Usal

2005-09-18T22:03:00.000-07:00

Kal ratri mataki bhijawatanna manat bhiti hoti.. jar hya goshtis mod nahi ale tar ugach waya janar... ani ratri maze tharale ki me hiking la janar ravivari.. mhantala zale kalyan ata sagali mataki waya janar.
Pan sakali ushira uthalo ani gharat thambalo.. velevar mataki kadhun kapadat bandhayache laskhat ale ani sadhyakali chakka tyala chhan mod ale.. sagale kase vyavasthit zale.. tapman farach barobar asale pahije..
Ratri nehami praname aalas dokawala mhantale jau dya ata nusatich kacchi mataki khawi.. tyat masta tikhat, limbu, mith ani sakhar ghalun khalli. lai bharri.
Chakka alas osarala ani mi mod aleli mataki shijawali ani masta paiki banawali usal.
Arthat hi Shrikrishna, shree, aai kimva konti pan bai banawel itaki bhari zali nahi pan matakichi usal zali tyachach anand sarvat motha hota... tari 1 te did varsha zale asel mi usal banwwun. diwas zopet gela tari sandhyakal mazi chhan geli aaj :)

Yosemite, Half Dome, San Diego, US Open et al.

2005-09-06T23:08:00.000-07:00

Since I have known about Yosemite, I am going there at least once to twice a year and out of that, I climb Half Dome at least once. This time round only me and my friend, Amit, were there. And this time round, i felt, it was easier than my last 2 attempts. I don't feel any tiredness or fatigue which I get after returning from the Half Dome. I may not go to Half Dome again mainly because of boredome. It's been far too many times now. I need to go some new place. When I told my friends the number of times I have been to Yosemite, they suggested me to apply for a job there and get H1b sponsership from Yosemite National Park.
It was a nice weekend in all. I met my old buddies from PICT. We had a nice drive, everything went well except the attempt in the the LA Beverly Hills to scour for hollywood star's houses.
I took some efforts to put the pictures, we took at Yosemite, on my web site.
anandgore.dyndns.org/~pamu/Yosemite_Sept2005
anandgore.dyndns.org/~pamu/SanDiego_2005

I love Maria Sharapova. she is beautiful, a great tennis player, a good athelete, a very intelligent and an extremely funny person. I think she is the best in business right now. Though I feel that Clijsters should win the tournament. Federer is THE best in mens, the undisputed king of tennis.

hmm Singer, Director and a cricketer

2005-08-31T00:32:00.000-07:00

I was listening to some song and the voice reminded me of Suresh Wadkar. Very talented artist. He has stopped singing in movies now a days, it seems. A tought came to my mind Suresh Wadkar, Ashutosh Gowarikar and Sanjay Manjarekar, are these guys related to each other somehow? They all are soft spoken, down to earth and always shying away from lime-light. Very talented personalities in their own ways but I always feel these guys didn't or don't get enough attention of people. A.G got some from Lagaan but any other director in his place would have stolen many pages from many news papers. These guys never made a jolt, never made a flash but they are as hardworking and as talented as any one else.

aaj baryachdiwasanni

2005-08-10T00:09:00.000-07:00

far diwas zale kahich lihile navhate.. baryachda aangatala alas kimva shabdanni mendushi ghetalele shatrutwa aad yete. khara tar pahilech karan jasta ahe.. vicharanti kahi na kahi shabda suchtatach khara tar.
aso... punha suru hoil asa watatey lihine...tehi kahi thode nahi. tyalahi karanibhoot maza mitrach.. arthat to chhan lihito.. tyache wachun jar utsah ala tar to mazya pahilya 2 vakyan paryantach rahato.. kahi na suchun tithech thambate sagale.

Parawa swades pahila. halakya bhawannni bharalela.. nahi tar hindi cinema asala ki ashru, deergha swashoswas ani anakalaniya bhawanni otaprat bharalela asato.
kathanak wagaire cha vichar bajula thevun ha cinema mi pahila.. awadala. Gayatri Joshiche kam eakdam bhari watale.. tine eaka saral sadhya muliche kam eakdam apratim watawaley. tichi kamal ka ashutosh gowarikar chi kamal dev jane.. kalel tichya pudhachya cinemaat. khara taar Tichya Geeta ya vyaktirekhe baddal pan akshep ghenyasarakhya anek goshti hotya pan.. pahatanna sarva visarayala zale. :)
G.J. ne marathi cinemat kam kele tar kay bahar yeil. (arthat marathi cinema nighala tar)
Swades chi sarvach gaani chhan ahe. Kahi lokanna, changalya arthani alela, midas sparsha asato.. tyatalach A.R.Rehman, sagalyach geetanche sone karato to manus....

Aaj Rutu Hirwa cha diwas hota.. diwas bhar "Ghana Rani" aaikalay ani "Maziya mana". Ata Asha Bhosalech ganar mhantalyawar ti gani changalich asnar .. ya pudhe me kay lihinaar..

kadhi watate pratyek manasache kumpan kay janmahtach tharalele asatey kay? kahi lokannchi kumpane itaki mothi ki eaktar dhoosar disatat kimva disatach nahit...kahi lok swatabhowati gol firu shaktil itakich tyanchi koompana.. asa pratyekach ayushya kasa ghadata kumbhrachya chakrawarachya madakyasarakhe..fakta ayushyache chakra dhrushtis ani manas na umaganara.. kay ya mage vidhilikhit?

2005-02-21T13:20:00.000-08:00

My friend is a funny guy. He just came to US a few days back and doesn't drive yet for the obvious reasons. One evening, he was really craving for a cigarette. No cigarette in the packet, rainy evening and no car to drive, everyone of his co-workers declined to go along with him to the gas station, nearest.
He thought a bit. He was hungry, he called a restaurant. "Hello, how can I help you?" question came from the other end of the line. "I want to order some food from your restaurant but I have one condition"
"huh? what is it?, sir"
"I will order the food for you but I want you to get me me a pack of cigarette"
"No sir, we don't sell cigarette, you would have to go to a grocery shop or a gas station to get it"
"No, no, I want you to go to the grocery store or gas station and buy me a pack of cigerrate"
"Ohh.." after a pause the line said "Sorry sir, I am busy serving food right now"
"Ok then, I don't want any food from you!"
click..
My friend makes another call, similar conversation but with better results.
Thats was a great evening for my friend, he got food and the cigarette he was craving for the whole evening.

what's so hard?

2004-10-28T18:01:00.000-07:00

Since I have to come to this country my name has been mauled by people like cat mauls a mouse, plays with it, before eating it.
So I always get tense when the lady at the counter asks for my name. It's sure is a disaster. She will ask me, " what's your name sir?", I will say never tell me name, I just spell it, "Anand", after first "An" she will stop writing, I will say "an" and she still waiting for me to tell rest of the spelling. She is on first "An" and I am on "an". I will say "an", she still waits. I give up, and say "d" she writes down the "d", So my name becomes "And". There is no factor of surprise here. She will never feel that there is some mistake, how can someones name be "And". what will she call for, when my order is ready?
"And, your order is ready!!" WHAT???
So it happens, some times my name is written down as Anna, sometimes Annad, Aannd or annad. all permutations and combinations.
Once my friend, whoes afraid of those woes, told the girl at startbucks his name was paul. She wrote it down, she asked him for his credit card. She looked at the card and her suspicion grew. Even after checking his Id, she was not sure, whome she was selling the coffee Paul or .......
My poor friend stood red faced there.

Are you interested in earning extra money?

2004-10-19T22:02:00.000-07:00

Everytime I go to any grocery store or any any mall, If I see some unknown indian or an indian looking or a sub-continent looking person and he smiles at me, I see the trouble coming.
It has happened almost unexpectedly and now a days pretty expectedly. Yes, you guessed it right, these guys are none other than the Netowork Marketing soldiers (I avoid finger pointing here to a specific company).
These people will linger nearby you wherever you are shopping, it doesn't matter to them who you are with. It doesn't matter to them whether you are in hurry or busy. I have never seen more utter disrespect for other's privacy. In the first mulakat, they will not really reveal any of their identity but they will surely exchange the contact information. During this entire conversation, you will keep wondering, why so much of affection, why so much of brotherhood.
Round about 3-4 days after this "talk", you will get a call from you friend. Formalities will be over and you will get a question "Hey listen, are you interested in earning some extra money?"
naive me might answer this as yes and thats the trap. you will be invited to some conference where you will be alured to a free lunch or dinner and will be hammered with some network marketing crap for next 3-4 hours. Fortunately, I was warned by some of my friends, who were their earlier victims, even before I came to US(Really, I haven't been trapped to that torture, I swear). In fact, One of my friends had played a trick on me. He had told me that one of his friend wanted someone to work on some software project and I could work with him. I did really beleived this friend(who btw has nothing to do with NetMarketing). I talked to his friend, I kept asking him about the software assignment and he kept evading the question. That went on for a while and then I realized the game.
PuLa used quote P.G. woodhouse about what he thought about Germans. If he was in our generation, he would have said "I can't hate in plurals, except ....."

Free Wireless internet!!

2004-10-13T22:24:00.000-07:00

I just moved to a new apartment. Before I moved, I didn't know that there is no cable internet. Only SBC-Yahoo DSL internet available. I don't have any problems but they need me to sign up a contract for a year. So we use someone else's wireless internet. I just pile on one of the freely available wireless internet. So my web-browsing it at his mercy. I was not getting any internet since early morning today and it wasn't avaiable even when I came back from home.
After around 2-3 hours spending at home in the evening, it really built up a lot of frustration. We roommates started talking about signing up the DSL account.
We started talking about contract, what if we break it, is it transferable etc etc etc. Everyone was talking about it in frustration, and we were inclining towards getting on account.
So my last statement to my friend was "Its' morally wrong to use...." and before I could finish my statement, my friend said "Arre Anand, your wireless card is catching the internet man..."
And the next moment I was on the internet browsing, chatting and surfing.
Thats funny, at this moment, no one is speaking a single word. Everyone is using their laptops surfing the internet.