The other day I had a brief discussion with a friend who seemed to under-mine the importance of lyrics in a song. I agree the melody is what catches your ear first up but then the lyrics add a whole new dimension to the song. Not to say, I don't like music without lyrics, I could as easily be tripping over Astral Projection;) I'm not such the senti mushy types but this song gets me almost every time. Aww yeah, Oasis rocks! Now if only they had a video that did justice to the song, this could've turned out into a sobfest like Maps. But I guess that would be expecting too much from the Brits :P
Click here for the lyrics. My favorite lines?
.. Damn my education I cant find the words to say,
With all the things caught in my mind ..
Post Title: Simon & Garfunkel - Sounds of Silence
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
The Asian connection
When I was living in Pune, sighting Asians on the streets wasnt such a rare occurence. Clearly, when I say Asians, I mean all the -ese : Chin-ese, Japan-ese, Vietnam-ese etc. Pune had a lot of international students all across its various colleges, and was also a pretty laidback city to hang out in, for tourists looking to get away from the madness of the bigger cities. Granted, those times I was so ignorant I couldnt tell a Nepali sweater-walla from a Japanese (well, almost :D) and they were all pretty much the same flat-nosed, noodle devouring, funny looking people to me.
Interaction with these guys was pretty limited, only if someone asked you for directions (and you could figure out what they were talking) This changed drastically when I came to the US. It was going on in much the older vein, until I registered for a class under a Chinese professor at school in Ohio. Now this guy's English was part of desi grad student folklore and we were advised by some old-timers to take a crash course in Ce-101, Ch-english 101, before classes began. Sure enough, the real fun started right in the 1st class. The professor went on talking about an-gay, o-gay, shesho votay with sho-rans and so many other things and half the class was clueless as to what was going on in a hardware design class. Our Ce-101 experts helped us figure that he was talking about AND gates, OR gates and threshold voltages with tolerance :)) We were more comfortable thereon in class and became experts in this brand of English quite soon. Thus began my first brush with the Chinese. I knew little then, that, hindi chini bhai bhai would become very pertinent for me in the years to follow.
Carrying on through school, I used to play bball with a lot of Chinese guys who crowded the courts in the evenings. I could never remember any of their names despite playing with them regularly, funny enough they managed to call my name correctly. The worst part of playing with these guys was they would never ever speak a word of English, and whenever they were calling teams I used to stand by the side, watching in all amusement until ball was in play and I was told which way I had to shoot :D Moving on from school, I thought I wouldnt be around Asians any longer and I could not have been more wrong.
When I moved to Chicago I was staying with 2 roomies, one a Vietnamese grad student and the other an oddball reticent desi who preferred to answer all questions in mono-syllables than go through the effort of speaking in complete sentences. When I first moved in, the guy who was moving out of that apartment told me that the Vietnamese fellow kept to himself and very rarely talked with the roomies. As the days went on I found that the Vietnamese guy was more communicative and the desi, uhh, he was not much of a people person. It was an odd little apartment with queer roomies around and the only saving grace was that I had a few friends around town. Needless to say, I was barely home on weekends.
Luckily, I was out of Chicago and away from those weird roomies in a little bit and I moved to Michi(n)gan for my next assignment. This time around I made sure I would not end up staying with stitched-mouth roomies. Although I was not living or working with an asian guy/girl, the asian connection was still present. I had a friend living at about half an hours drive away from where I was staying and I used to visit him once in a while. I wasnt surprised to find out that his landlord was Chinese, 3rd gen American nonetheless, of Chinese descent yet. The story was that they were classmates in grad school and he had been put up in her house since a long time. My friend also regaled me with stories of his alleged 'involuntary personal alliances' with her and being upto his game for all these years it was clear he was shooting blanks :P
Done with Michigan, I moved to Milwaukee for the next project. Yes, I spent a good part of the last 5 years in the Midwest. With my past experiences with asians, it looked like I could certainly step it up a notch. This time around, my landlord was Chinese and we had another Chinese guy living in the house. My landlord was a pretty cool guy, except in the evenings all he would do was sit on his ass and watch some Mandarin television programs on his big screen TV set. I had nothing to do when I got home after work and it was getting pretty frustrating to stare at the TV screen when I was not understanding a word of what was going on. Their informercials were not funny and I was not interested in finding a Chinese Lois either. Visuals, regardless of audio, can only be satisfying at such times. Thanks to him, I decided to join a local fitness centre to get busy in the evenings. The other Chinese roomie had his own share of issues. He usually went late to work and apparently his sleep would be cut short in the mornings when I took a shower. Not because I did a Himesh in the shower, he was a light sleeper. Somehow we worked things out, earplugs saving the act. I made a lot of Chinese friends in Milwaukee, courtesy my roomies, and it was fun while it lasted.
Early this year, I moved to California and I wasnt sure what to expect from this chinki konexion. I've now come to terms that this is a 'you can run but you cant hide' scenario for me, no matter where I am. No asian roomies anymore but my next door cubicle dweller teammate here is Vietnamese and another Chinese guy joined our team recently. The asian connection just doesn't seem to let go, we'll see how far it goes. Until then, I'll keep enjoying my Kung-Pao Chicken ;)
Interaction with these guys was pretty limited, only if someone asked you for directions (and you could figure out what they were talking) This changed drastically when I came to the US. It was going on in much the older vein, until I registered for a class under a Chinese professor at school in Ohio. Now this guy's English was part of desi grad student folklore and we were advised by some old-timers to take a crash course in Ce-101, Ch-english 101, before classes began. Sure enough, the real fun started right in the 1st class. The professor went on talking about an-gay, o-gay, shesho votay with sho-rans and so many other things and half the class was clueless as to what was going on in a hardware design class. Our Ce-101 experts helped us figure that he was talking about AND gates, OR gates and threshold voltages with tolerance :)) We were more comfortable thereon in class and became experts in this brand of English quite soon. Thus began my first brush with the Chinese. I knew little then, that, hindi chini bhai bhai would become very pertinent for me in the years to follow.
Carrying on through school, I used to play bball with a lot of Chinese guys who crowded the courts in the evenings. I could never remember any of their names despite playing with them regularly, funny enough they managed to call my name correctly. The worst part of playing with these guys was they would never ever speak a word of English, and whenever they were calling teams I used to stand by the side, watching in all amusement until ball was in play and I was told which way I had to shoot :D Moving on from school, I thought I wouldnt be around Asians any longer and I could not have been more wrong.
When I moved to Chicago I was staying with 2 roomies, one a Vietnamese grad student and the other an oddball reticent desi who preferred to answer all questions in mono-syllables than go through the effort of speaking in complete sentences. When I first moved in, the guy who was moving out of that apartment told me that the Vietnamese fellow kept to himself and very rarely talked with the roomies. As the days went on I found that the Vietnamese guy was more communicative and the desi, uhh, he was not much of a people person. It was an odd little apartment with queer roomies around and the only saving grace was that I had a few friends around town. Needless to say, I was barely home on weekends.
Luckily, I was out of Chicago and away from those weird roomies in a little bit and I moved to Michi(n)gan for my next assignment. This time around I made sure I would not end up staying with stitched-mouth roomies. Although I was not living or working with an asian guy/girl, the asian connection was still present. I had a friend living at about half an hours drive away from where I was staying and I used to visit him once in a while. I wasnt surprised to find out that his landlord was Chinese, 3rd gen American nonetheless, of Chinese descent yet. The story was that they were classmates in grad school and he had been put up in her house since a long time. My friend also regaled me with stories of his alleged 'involuntary personal alliances' with her and being upto his game for all these years it was clear he was shooting blanks :P
Done with Michigan, I moved to Milwaukee for the next project. Yes, I spent a good part of the last 5 years in the Midwest. With my past experiences with asians, it looked like I could certainly step it up a notch. This time around, my landlord was Chinese and we had another Chinese guy living in the house. My landlord was a pretty cool guy, except in the evenings all he would do was sit on his ass and watch some Mandarin television programs on his big screen TV set. I had nothing to do when I got home after work and it was getting pretty frustrating to stare at the TV screen when I was not understanding a word of what was going on. Their informercials were not funny and I was not interested in finding a Chinese Lois either. Visuals, regardless of audio, can only be satisfying at such times. Thanks to him, I decided to join a local fitness centre to get busy in the evenings. The other Chinese roomie had his own share of issues. He usually went late to work and apparently his sleep would be cut short in the mornings when I took a shower. Not because I did a Himesh in the shower, he was a light sleeper. Somehow we worked things out, earplugs saving the act. I made a lot of Chinese friends in Milwaukee, courtesy my roomies, and it was fun while it lasted.
Early this year, I moved to California and I wasnt sure what to expect from this chinki konexion. I've now come to terms that this is a 'you can run but you cant hide' scenario for me, no matter where I am. No asian roomies anymore but my next door cubicle dweller teammate here is Vietnamese and another Chinese guy joined our team recently. The asian connection just doesn't seem to let go, we'll see how far it goes. Until then, I'll keep enjoying my Kung-Pao Chicken ;)
Sunday, August 19, 2007
5 years and counting
5 years back I stepped foot on American soil tarmac on this very day. Its been one hell of a joyride ever since. I faced my fears, lived my dreams, made some good friends, lost touch with some, lived through unrequited love, learnt to fight my battles on my own, survived, struggled, survived and struggled some more, lost count of how many times I moved base, surprised myself on occassions, smiled when my persistence paid off, cried when I ... well I never really cried ... but you get the drift.
I was going to write a long winding melodramatic post about life as it happened over these years .. but who am I kidding. Writing on such topics is not my cup o' tea, so I'd rather leave it at this. Here's to the years that come. Cheers!
Wednesday, August 1, 2007
Two guys, a girl and a Thai lunch
One of the advantages of working in a young company is that even the seniors are not really 'senior'. The average age of our team of 6 could probably be 30. The vibe is really swell, everyone can laugh at the same jokes and its a great bunch of guys to hang out with. Typically all of us head out for lunch together and we're doing team lunches almost all through the week (except that we foot the bill and we do NOT talk about work). Today was one of the rare days when none of the senior guys from our team could head out for lunch as usual, since they were caught up in a meeting.
We'd been planning to go to Spices since last week and everytime something or the other was foiling plans. Today since the 3 of us had enough time on our hands we decided to head for the Thai place. Spices is notorious for its lunchtime rush and S had warned us well in advance that whenever we were doing lunch there it'd be best if we made reservations or went in late. We were already late heading out, so this was our best bet.
I was the designated driver for today since S had already driven yesterday. Not surprisingly, 4 out of us 6 drive coupes. The 2 who drive sedans reluctantly, are married. The place was a short drive off the highway but the hardest part, like always in SD, was finding a parking spot. Now this place has a huge parking lot with lots of shops in and around, but to our luck we were left driving around, debating whether we should switch plans and head to some other place nearby. After completing 2 rounds of the lot we found a spot, ironically, right in front of the restaurant.
A 10 minute wait and we were comfortably seated with lunch on it's way. I was feeling really adventurous so I ordered the Spicy Noodles. S stuck with her staple Pad Thai and L ordered Broccoli (!). My roomie had been here a couple of times earlier and had recommended the Thai iced tea. Usually, I'm not big on the whole iced tea thing, but since my roomie had (almost) sung paeans about it, I decided to give it a shot. I was glad I did. This was probably the 1st time that I enjoyed an iced tea, Thai or otherwise.
L has joined us about a month back so he started talking about how he was finding a lot of things unusual at work, stuff he'd never seen in other places he'd worked so far. S is the senior-most of us juniors, working for close to a year here now. She told us that when she started here she used to be at work promptly before 8 am. Soon enough it was 8:15, then 8:30 and now she comes in anytime between 9 and 9:30. She told us how she was getting late to bed (10pm!) almost every night and was snoozing the alarm for close to an hour everyday before finally waking up. I too am going through a similar phase right now (8:30) and I was glad to know that I wasn't the only one (slacking :P). All of us unanimously agreed that waking up early morning was a hard thing :) One thing led to another and our talk veered towards names.
L & S have closely similar last names. Oddly enough, L is of Chinese descent and S of Vietnamese. I had assumed that L is Vietnamese too, making this association with S's last name and I was surprised to find he's Chinese. He said he got that a lot because of his unusual last name and told that sometimes people even went so far as to ask him if he was sure he was Chinese and not Vietnamese =)) While we were on that, L got another of his name pronunciations right. We have a colleague at work and almost everyone comes up with his own way of pronouncing his name. S was happy to fill in with the right way to say his name. She said she hated it, growing up, when everyone butchered her last name and so she now has a thing for pronouncing names correctly.
The food arrived quickly after and it was delicious, totally worth persisting to find that parking space. Running through all the food quickly (it was past usual lunch time!) we trudged back to my car. On the way back I realised an interesting thing. A chinese, a vietnamese and a desi just had a hearty Thai meal :)
We'd been planning to go to Spices since last week and everytime something or the other was foiling plans. Today since the 3 of us had enough time on our hands we decided to head for the Thai place. Spices is notorious for its lunchtime rush and S had warned us well in advance that whenever we were doing lunch there it'd be best if we made reservations or went in late. We were already late heading out, so this was our best bet.
I was the designated driver for today since S had already driven yesterday. Not surprisingly, 4 out of us 6 drive coupes. The 2 who drive sedans reluctantly, are married. The place was a short drive off the highway but the hardest part, like always in SD, was finding a parking spot. Now this place has a huge parking lot with lots of shops in and around, but to our luck we were left driving around, debating whether we should switch plans and head to some other place nearby. After completing 2 rounds of the lot we found a spot, ironically, right in front of the restaurant.
A 10 minute wait and we were comfortably seated with lunch on it's way. I was feeling really adventurous so I ordered the Spicy Noodles. S stuck with her staple Pad Thai and L ordered Broccoli (!). My roomie had been here a couple of times earlier and had recommended the Thai iced tea. Usually, I'm not big on the whole iced tea thing, but since my roomie had (almost) sung paeans about it, I decided to give it a shot. I was glad I did. This was probably the 1st time that I enjoyed an iced tea, Thai or otherwise.
L has joined us about a month back so he started talking about how he was finding a lot of things unusual at work, stuff he'd never seen in other places he'd worked so far. S is the senior-most of us juniors, working for close to a year here now. She told us that when she started here she used to be at work promptly before 8 am. Soon enough it was 8:15, then 8:30 and now she comes in anytime between 9 and 9:30. She told us how she was getting late to bed (10pm!) almost every night and was snoozing the alarm for close to an hour everyday before finally waking up. I too am going through a similar phase right now (8:30) and I was glad to know that I wasn't the only one (slacking :P). All of us unanimously agreed that waking up early morning was a hard thing :) One thing led to another and our talk veered towards names.
L & S have closely similar last names. Oddly enough, L is of Chinese descent and S of Vietnamese. I had assumed that L is Vietnamese too, making this association with S's last name and I was surprised to find he's Chinese. He said he got that a lot because of his unusual last name and told that sometimes people even went so far as to ask him if he was sure he was Chinese and not Vietnamese =)) While we were on that, L got another of his name pronunciations right. We have a colleague at work and almost everyone comes up with his own way of pronouncing his name. S was happy to fill in with the right way to say his name. She said she hated it, growing up, when everyone butchered her last name and so she now has a thing for pronouncing names correctly.
The food arrived quickly after and it was delicious, totally worth persisting to find that parking space. Running through all the food quickly (it was past usual lunch time!) we trudged back to my car. On the way back I realised an interesting thing. A chinese, a vietnamese and a desi just had a hearty Thai meal :)
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