Working from Home

I am working from home. You all know what it means, right? Whoever came with this wonderful idea about telecommuting, work-from-home, home-office must be a genious! What else could be better than earning your bread without having to pass on the dessert?

Well, it all started in morning when I went out to pick up NYTimes, you know the first shiver that you get when you just step one foot outside, you then even contemplate the decision of picking up newspaper...is it worth the trouble? But I can't live without first dose of wars, killings, genocides and racial profiling in morning...that along with coffee gives me a kick in morning. (Oh by the way, I changed my coffee,....ok ok don't get too excited, I did not order special coffee from Colombia or so....remember I am a grad student, just changed from Folger's Regular to Folger's Custom Blend, which is great!)

Ok...so while having coffee and news, I started getting all these thoughts...how much more productive I can be, if I don't have to get ready for school, showered, all dressed up , finding parking space, getting to office and then leave for a lunch in a while...obviously, working from cozy bed than crowded school won the battle....(oh gosh, I feel sheepish, there wasn't even a battle).

Well, then opened computer all fired up to work, logged on to MSN, just to see that buddies from India are online after a while...that's where I saw my dreams of working from home started going downhill and unseen pleasant break on my way!

Well, not to embarrass myself, I am alt-tabbing to work window for past 1-1/2 hour between paying bills and checking news.

Ultimately, now it's almost lunch time, after all errands and nice cup of tea with Mahesh, I had to write here....yea I am working from home!

Cruisin'

Baby let's cruise, away from here
Don't be confused, the way is clear
And if you want it you got it forever
This is not a one night stand, baby, yeah so

Let the music take your mind, ooh
Just release And you will find
You're gonna fly away
Glad you're goin' my way
I love it when we're cruisin' together
The music is played for love,
Cruisin' is made for love
I love it when we're cruisin' together

Baby tonight belongs to us
Everything's right, do what you must
And inch by inch we get closer And closer
To every little part of each other ooh baby, yeah So

Let the music take your mind
Just release And you will find
You're gonna fly away
Glad you're going my way

I love it when we're cruisin' together
The music is played for love,
Cruisin' is made for love
I love it when we're cruisin' together

Cruise with me baby
Cruise

Baby let's cruise
Let's flow, let's glide
Ooooh let's open up, And go inside
And if you want it you got it forever
I can just stay there inside you
And love you baby,

Let the music, take your mind
Just release and you will find
You're gonna fly (away)
Yeah, I'm glad you're going my way
I love it, when we're cruisin together
The music is played for love,
Cruisin' is made for (love)
I love it, I love it, I love it
You're gonna fly away
Yeah, glad you're going my way
I love it when we're cruisin' together
(The music is played for love)
It's love music
(Cruisin' is made for love)
......

Sung By Gwyneth Paltrow and Huey Lewis

Thanksgiving Dinner

Just a tidbit about what I have been doing whole day, I had our thanksgiving dinner today. Quite a few people showed up despite bad weather (well, in Houston terms, bad weather strictly refers to drizzle with temperatures in low 70's!). We had an interesting ensemble of around 17 people with 7 heads from India while others from Iran (2), Igypt (4), Indonesia (old gf) and Korea (4). It was in fact a pot-luck dinner and instead of turkey, we had fantastic chicken barbeque with paav-bhaji, chhole (I made it, and one iranian lady almost stopped short of asking for its receipe), tofu-vegetables curry, korean rice preparation, and bakhlawa/cakes/ice cream/cookies for dessert! 'H' then served everyone with warm apple-cider which I avoided since I am not too fond of cinnamon except in curries plus the cinnamon that added to chhole was still haunting me from afternoon, ;-). My old gf brought dumb-charades type game called 'gestures'...and she made me explain that game to everyone, playing game was fun, despite our differences we make a good team. I am looking forward to more get-togethers like this one!

Have you given in to a pleasure?

Have you ever given in to a pleasure just for the sake of it? I am talking here about a pleasure as in from purely hedonistic perspective! Well, hedonism can mean different things to different people. For some, playing a musical instrument all night long, for others it could be spending the whole night just talking with special someone, yet for others it may mean cheering themselves up drinking liqueur and being merry, yet for others it may mean indulging in a chocolate cake, while for others it may as well giving in to sexual pleasures.

Have you done it?

Have you ever done something just for yourself without actually thinking about the outcome, as any rational individual would do? Have you been spontaneous on the spur of the moment, did something really silly, without actually restraining yourself, not contemplating about the denouement?

Should you really do it?

I think main stream hindu mythology and holy scriptures teaches to practice of self-restrain as way to attain one-ness with The God. All practices and services that we offer concentrate on this central theme of self-control. In my opinion, this teaches you very many characteristics of a noble man. It teaches you how to keep your senses and desires in control. Afterall, someone has rightly said, "Self restrain is a virtue attained by practice and not a quality possessed by birth." The society that we live in defines moral grounds in addition to that of your own. I think these practices help you to become a balanced man (woman, if you are of other gender).

But afterall, you get only one life to live.

Ummar Khayyam, a famous Iranian poet says (I plagiarized from his fan website):

Whether at Naishapur or Babylon,

Whether the Cup with sweet or bitter run,

The Wine of Life keeps oozing drop by drop,

The Leaves of Life keep falling one by one.

What a nice observation, afterall (if you believe in evloution-one life theory), whatever you have right now is the best chance you've got. Be it for achieving something or enjoying life in many ways as it comes! Enjoying yourself with small pleasures of life, is I think, a healthy outlet for your emotions, if executed in control. Afterall, we all are human beings, we have emotions and needs. And, being a materialistic person does not mean you are walking on the wrong path, if you know where to draw the line between right and wrong!

So indulge yourself something that you really enjoy, be it reading a good book or cooking something that you like or may be treating your friends for brunch! Enjoy, life is too short to pass by!

Risk Averse or Risk Seeker?

(Not my work, I am indebted to Bill Watterson for this cartoon)

Do we see ourselves clearly?

Not while ago, I was talking to one of my acquaintances about set of paradigms that we carry and how we perceive other individuals. I suggested that what we see depends on the framework that is built by previous experiences which aids in processing the information as it appears in front of our sensory organs.

Obviously, it works in a closed loop fashion in step-by-step manner. We hear something, ears must be creating a raw sound file of the noise, it is then sent to higher brain function where that sound file is converted into more crisper format, finally that sound file is compared with a noise that we heard before or a noise that we have correlated to certain object by experience, for example, a ship horn that we see in a movie is correlated to a ship, although we have never seen a ship, or for example, a sound file created by heresay, somebody immitated how dog barks to us and then we correlate barking with dog.

Obviously, all this processing is based on external input received to our sensory organs to create a set of experiences, outstandingly clear in our brain.

Now, my question is 'how do we see ourselves?'

Do we even see ourselves? Do we have a mental image of our own in our brain? If yes, then how that mental image is created? Is it based on what we hear from other people about their experience with us? Or , is it based on our perception of their experience with us? How can we rely on such information, since this information can very well be flawed.

For example, I find my voice normal but people say it is gruff and dry. I am tall but when I look at myself even in mirror, I can not see any difference (of course forgetting measurements in feet etc.). My perception about myself in absolute sense is quite difficult to explain.

I am trying to understand how do we ourselves?

You and Me

Let's face it, you and me have only two things in common.

We live and we die.

Rest is just a series of coincidences.

Comments to My Blog

I did not realize someone is actually reading my logs, and with all due sincerity leaving genuine comments. I have tried to answer two comments and decided that I'll be more responsive henceforth. ~ sns

Television Defines My Life

Yesterday, while I was watching tele (it feels cool to say tele like those europeans do!), I realized that thanksgiving and x'mas are just around the corner. Suddenly I felt happy and gay (in strictly heterosexual sense), my moods were uplifted with all charms, colors, and celebrations which were going on inside the tube. I started feeling spirit of holidays and suddenly felt like going to shopping (which I ultimately resisted being a graduate student). X'mas carrols on my FM Sunny 99.1 were also all set "to get me" into "just right" holiday frame of mind.

Well, then I reminisced over past few months...I got my winter clothing out of closet when people in tele started wearing long coats and plush sweaters rather than summer shorts; when commercials were shot in fall colors rather than at sunny beaches; when I could see commercials for warm chocolate fudge brownie than carribean tropical coolers; and oh yes, of course I became extra cautious about "my health" when I started noticing warnings-ads for flu medicines rather than sun-screens.

Same thing happened only other way round, back in April when I noticed that I have not been to swimming for months when people in tube started going to beach more often and they were actually happy being at the beach. I thought swimming makes you happy, so I tried that as well.

I don't feel bad about it nowadays. I think my relationship with TV is going strong. I feel that we communicate well. I listened to what TV says and in return he/she (I don't know TV's gender) does not necessarily have to take my rambling (or as layman would put it, my crap). If TV says something I either laugh, smile, smirk, roar when touchdown in scored, cheer up for a team or just give confused expression -- to which TV responds with incessant blabbering. I think it is working out well. We in fact have matched our schedules so well, that I don't eat my dinner at 10:00 pm but when Friends starts and if I don't have dessert (mostly yogurt) by Sex and the City then I am eating slow. Well, if I am watching Seinfeld (which comes pretty late these days at 11:30 pm), then I am late for bed, but not because it is 11:30. Well, I have few complaints about TV but hey, they say you have to make adjustments in any relationship....TV does not speak my language (who else does?). That's ok, I suppose, I am getting used to it. To end of the sweeter tone, I get to see unlimited sports on Saturday/Sunday on multiple channels! Where else would you get a partner who can communicate so well on several different levels as my TV does on different channels.

Well, TV is defining my life and I have no complaints! I don't feel bad about it nowadays.

Carpe Diem - Make it Happen

Do you ever feel that something that you should have done and did not do? Something is left unfulfilled? You wanted to meet someone before you left your hometown, but could not gather courage? You wanted to meet someone, but circumstances prevented you? You wanted to call someone, but did not feel that inner burn to go ahead and show that you need someone more than they need you?

Well, now it's the time do it!

I am an Engineer by profession, we are given a problem, data, constraints and are asked to solve it, and by golly after being in this field for over 10 years, it is ingrained in my brain. Science teaches you rationality, to distinguish facts from fiction, to derive conclusions based on given data. There is this famous saying: "Pessimist see a half empty glass, an optimist will say that the glass is half filled," I can add an engineer will say "I just see a half filled glass of water." But sometime I feel that life is not so rational, me and my friend who was political science major always would have big agruements on this. She'd say "you see only black and white, but in our field, we have all shades of grey!" What a nice to put it, to describe the life! Yes, indeed life is not always binary...rather it should not be binary.

Coming back to my original arguement...

Back in 1999, when I was fresh grad from engineering college, I was in Pune for private tuitions. Back then, when you're young, you have all the energy and passion to do everything under the sun and nothing seems impossible! We did lot of things, especially something that I could not do when I was doing my engineering! That included climbing up Sinhgad in 45 minutes, staying up all night and roam in Pune, eating very hot stuff, mostly something that would seem inane in today's context.
One thing that I always wished was to meet my icon, larger than life figure "Pu La Deshpande," incidently his residence was just in same apartment complex where I was going for private tuitions. One fine dewy morning, peculiar to Pune, I arrived at his residence. His door was wide open, his magnanimous portrait was hanging on the front door, likely to be given my another fan like me, just to remind everyone that he is living there! Place was quite, I could feel the faint whiff of morning incence. As I was about to hit the door bell, something struck me and I decided to come back later. After that I got busy in studies and US admissions and suddenly on July 12, 2000 I read in Pune Sakal, that he passed away in Mehendale Hospital. I had motive, opportunity but could not make gold out of it. Neither could I see him on July 12 because of impending travel preps!

I decided "if you want to do it, now is the time."

I was in India during winter vacations of 2001. There was a girl in my junior college in 1993 with whom I shared a special bond. But somehow I lost touch over the course of time. My friends knew about her and her whereabouts and were insisting that I see her. I could not gather courage to do it. I probably left that strain unstrewn forever.

Often times, opportunity walk your way only once, you meet someone who create enormous impact in your life, somebody wishes you well, somebody compliments you on your looks, somebody frowns upon what you did. Now it is the time to communicate to say thank you, to return appreciation, to say sorry to heal. You have the moment, make best out of it! Thoreau said, "Most men lead lives of quiet desperation." Don't be resigned to that.

Carpe Diem

Everyone that I know (well sort of) went to watch "the young kid with the hat and the stick." I am talking about Harry Potter's new movie, I even don't know the name of this new flick, but apparantly it's already a big hit.

Everyone had different reasons, my group went because everyone is die hard HP fan, few even purchased books. Another group of friends went together because they thought it would be nice to see it with everyone else. My professor was going because his wife wanted to watch it. I am sure there are trillion more reasons why people watched the movie.

My point here is why do we do things, the way we do it? Can we put a singular reason behind our actions? Can there be such thing as objectivity of thought? Can we love ourselves above everything else? Can we like something/somebody else because reasons of our own?

Can we do something (even for someone else) because it is not our duty but for reasons, principles and standards of our own? Human being are societal/social animal. I have no study of psychology but I think few things are important for a human being to survive in healthy (physically and mentally) manner.

As I said humans like to live in herds, sense of belonging is important. It is achieved through various ways: religion is one the most common one; clubs, clothing, language (dialects) are few others.

Second motivation that I can think of is validation. We feel the need to be validated from time to time for our actions.

(damn it friend called, lost train of thought)

We Engineers Know Some Humor

Caveat Lector: You need some background in operations research/optimization to understand this nerdy humor!

-----------------------------
Earlier my friend "A" (Master in Industrial Engineering), my friend wrote about party at one of the professor's house:

And I'm also looking forward to have some optimally roasted Chicken barbeque from Professor!!!

For those of you, who don't know concept of optimality, optimal solution means the best solution that can exist for any given problem under certain condition. None other solution can be better than this, although other alternative optimal solutions may exist. In chicken Bar-b-q, terms, it means that this individual is expecting very best of the chicken bar-b-q.

-----------------------------
To which "R" (PhD student in Operations Research/Optimization) replied:

Since I am part of the roasting process,I can only guarantee sub-optimal chicken bbq as my patience while roasting it will disappear in about 30 minutes.
Note: Chicken can be slow cooked to infinity if the increase in temperature in unit time is infintesimal.

-----------------------------
Then I could not stop from disproving "R" theory about not doing bar-b-q work and not providing us great bar-b-q, here is my response:

Have you thought about any greedy hueristics, at times they provide optimal solution for chicken roasting process.

I am not sure about your note (Chicken can be slow cooked to infinity if the increase in temperature in unit time is infintesimal.), because as time t tends to infinity, you should have no chicken left on the barbeque. I can provide a counter example for your note: as time t tends to infinity, each human is reduced to zero, without loss of generality, we can apply same to chicken, chicken being living creature.
-----------------------------

Some background for those of you who are challenged on sense of humor, greedy hueristics are try-and-hit methods with which do not guarantee optimality. Greedy hueristics in this sentence also means eating greedly whatever chicken has been cooked. Proof in second para about how chicken can not be cooked for infinite amount of time without getting vanished (because of heat/elements) is evident.

One of my fav songs, I posted earlier, pulled it, I got email asking necessity to do so, I just wanted to be sure about singer of the version that I listened to.

When a man loves a woman (Percy Sledge)

When a man loves a woman
Can't keep his mind on nothin' else
He'd trade the world
For a good thing he's found
If she is bad, he can't see it
She can do no wrong
Turn his back on his best friend
If he puts her down

When a man loves a woman
Spend his very last dime
Trying to hold on to what he needs
He'd give up all his comforts
And sleep out in the rain
If she said that's the way
It ought to be

When a man loves a woman
I give you everything I've got (yeah)
Trying to hold on
To your precious love
Baby please don't treat me bad

When a man loves a woman
Deep down in his soul
She can bring him such misery
If she is playing him for a fool
He's the last one to know
Loving eyes can never see

Yes when a man loves a woman
I now exactly how he feels
'Cause baby, baby, baby
I am a man

When a man loves a woman

I feel bad about it

Sometimes you have to make hard choices and it means that everyone is not going to be happy about it. Sometimes it is important to get the message across in professional world without having your inner emotions let you veer from the goal. I did it today.

My undergraduate project-mates, who are slacking on the project needed a wake-up call so that they get a better grade on the final project (I hope they understand this purpose behind today's lecture). So two students came to my office asking about something else. I broached topic of project progress and asked them about the progress. Obviously, they had nothing to prove that they worked in past two weeks. So I ultimately I warned them about final outcome if they don't work. One girl had tear in her eyes but she must understand it is for her own good. Sometimes, final outcome is not so evident! Of course, I felt bad about the whole situation but it is for their own good. I think I am not in a very good mood today.

Good intentions are not enough

At times just good intentions are not enough. Otherwise wars could have been avoided, millions lives could have been saved, thousands of families could have been reunited. Many friendships could have been saved. There would be no animosity in world.

Coulda Shoulda Woulda

Actions speak louder than words.

The art of traveling

With over nine trips during last 11 months, I can safely say that I have almost mastered art of traveling, traveling well. I now exactly know how much time it will take to pack the bag, what all things do I need to pick (of course, depending on the duration of the stay and purpose of the visit). I know what kinds of chargers I need to take, for example, mobile phone – PDA – batteries – laptop. I know how soon should I leave from place just to get in time for the flight, how much time does it take to check for the flight and where to get the best coffee and free biscoti on the airport. I can also judge pairs of different clothes needed depending on the weather including but not limited personal clothes.

Well, story does not end over here.

It takes two to tango.

Trip is not successfully complete without unpacking and cleaning. Well, it would be safe to assume that I have streamlined that process as well.

My personal record for packing for domestic flight is 30 minutes before the flight. Fortunately that trip was only for a night and within 36 hours, I was back in Houston.

I remember, taking a flight back in June 2003 to Salt Lake City. I must have had over 4-5 different colors of stickies all over my bedroom about things that I need to do before departing Houston. It must have included packing chargers, checking mail, turning off gas cooking range to locking door before I leave. I think I was just being over conscious then and may be a bit accustomed now.

Fortunately, only thing that has not changed is me! I still get excited about leaving town, same as I did when I used to spend my summer vacations with my grand-ma in Aurangabad or with my cousins in Pune. I still look forward to getting down the bus/car, land from airplane to feel the new city. After all, I feel person should not transform, but how she/he reacts to situation should change.

Still, you will find me talking excitedly next day about things that I saw at the new place with same unworn face and renewed passion.

Breakfast-Nazi

To disprove my friends who say I like to write on serious stuff, here is an anecdote:
Me, Jaewon and Sylvana were having breakfast at very ecelectic place in San Francisco downtown....the reason I am saying ecelectic because place looked like American diner, chef was hispanic and my waitress was asian. So to start with we had this huge discussion on whether she is Malay, Korean, Chinese or Thai without any conclusion.

Following is a brief excerpt of conversation that ensued between story's hero (me, of course) and this angry-asian-waitress...

Me: I'd like to have 2 chicken strips, 2 scrembled eggs and 2 danish pastries.

Her: We don't have danish pastries.

Me: Ok, what other pastries do you have?

Her: I told you we don't have any danish pastries.

Me: Ok, but what OTHER (me stressing on word other) pastries do you have today.

Her (now exploding and giving me very condescending look): (You minion) I TOLD YOU WE DON'T HAVE ANY PASTRIES.

Me (at this point me getting offensive and trying to tease her): Ok, ok, not a problem, give me one minute to decide.

Her: Ok....

After a minute, she asks me again but to no avail as I was very much in mood of pulling her leg, said I was not ready. :-))

She comes back and all the while looking at me angrily from kitchen, asks for my order...
Me (worrying for breakfast, me backs down, getting defensive): I'll have 2 french toasts and 2 scrambled eggs and you can substitute another two eggs for chicken strips that I am not ordering.

Her: WE DON'T DO NO SUBSTITUITION HERE, that's your order.
----
That reminded us of Seinfeld episode of "Soup Nazi." I am not sure why I always end up meeting such control freaks all over the place! Plus People need to calm down here in California. These bus drivers in SFO are like angry monkeys driving 3 ton bullet through the road. No wonder they elected Arnold Schwarzenegger as their Governer!

San Francisco on Hind Legs

Today, after spending two complete days in conference (that I am attending in San Francisco), I decided to set out on site seeing tour on my hind legs. It always turns out that people have busier schedules when it comes to doing city tours or is it because I am more affined to explore world. Well, that means that I was on my own.

So after Sumeet cancelled (because he wanted to visit his cousin brother), I contemplated on getting my CD player, with my Digital Camera and bluetooth-enabled mobile phone, basically in pursuit of "trying to feel at home when I was not at home." Then, I said "Wait a second, I think it would be more enjoyable to hear city sounds than to all albums of Green Day or Dire Straits. Afterall, its people that make a city special and here I was on the verge of loosing a great opportunity to listening probably greatest live concert for some vinyl! Fortunately, that did not happen, and I left CD player at home (Yes, I use a CD player and have not/not keen on/will not bought/buying/buy an iPod).

The minute I left my hotel, the circus began. First it was an English immigrant who was probably as new as I was to SFO and failed to give proper direction. Then it was a black lady with 10 month old child, trying to make some room on the bus. her outcry about "This is a public bus" reminded me about Rosa Parks and how she must have dealt violent opposition from racist whites in civil rights movement of America! Then it was a white man trying to coerce the driver to open the door for a black man who was on the road and running for the bus. This just makes you wonder what a nice potpourri US has grown into!

On my way from Market Street to Golden Gate Bridge, I happen to meet an old couple, somehow as usual, I struck cords with the old lady, who with authorative voice reminding me off my grandma, gave me directions to Golden Gate Bridge. After watching the chemistry between, I could not help asking them "How long have you been married?" To my surprise, she said, "oh, just over six years, it is the second marriage for both of us, I knew him and his wife for a long time." Somehow, the way Grandpa-Grandma had things going on between them made me wonder, are you sure your six years means six years or 6 X 365 days? Grandma at the age of 90 years had not lost her sense of humor, after telling me that she is 3 years older than Grandpa, said, "I rocked his baby's cradle" I saw little bit blushing on Grandpa's aged-wrinkled-withered face.

So wasn't I right about not taking the CD player!

My photoshoot at Golden Gate Bridge was fulfilling, I enjoyed my time there. More than anything else today (for example, breakfast-nazi that I met in morning), that was the best time spent and almost instant rewards. Somehow things started clicking nicely, as follows:







I recently watched movie Adaptation, in which the lead character John Laroche is passionate about collecting exotic fish with intent of saving them from extinction. He's been doing that for over 8 years. Suddenly one day he decides he does not like them anymore. Over which, his biographer/storywriter, Susan Orlean contemplates "How can somebody be so passionate about something that they can leave it/hate it and still live without it?" My point in summary is it is great to have unbridled passion about something in your life (ok, I had to use that word!), be it traveling, photography or simply writing about things in your life!

So be passionate, do good work and enjoy life, afterall
"what goes around, comes around"

'T Was Time To Be Merry

Last night me, Ojas, Sagar and Gautam (or as we fondly call him by his last name, Pasari) had great time together at Thimmy's sister's birthday party.

It started out kind of sluggish (until all our all group members showed up), you know people talking about weather, their jobs, schools and new movies they have seen...all those politically correct topics (avoiding sex, religion and politics). And I thought oh man, would I better off at some other place, especially when me, Ojas, Mahesh, Asim had sort of, kind of made up plans to go to the village.

Then suddenly when the forth guy came, chorus was formed and nobody realized that we have been standing continuously for 4 hours....that was hell of time. You know when you have good company, it does not matter where you are, what you are doing, time just passes quickly (and sometimes too quickly).

There were atleast 20-25 people around us, but we could care less about it, we were joking, pulling leg between four of us. Had a great laugh last night. Sagar got loosened up after a while and started cracking jokes (oh man, I will remember "zebra" joke forever).

Thimmy made sure that everyone's well fed and had enough of everything. As usual, everyone agreed on having more of such get-to-gethers more often. That's so true, evenings like these provide a brief respite from busy work schedules.

People ar thinking of going for new Harry Potter movie...for one damnedest reason, I don't understand while people like watching that crap over and again. Hahahaha...usually it is american story, world faces imminent threat from devil, hero-heroine find some magic formula and save the world! Come on give me a break! It's been time-tested and now quite boring formula...so I am still making up my mind on movie plans.

Well, this afternoon leaving for San Francisco...so I am excited about that!

A Street Car Name Desire

Remember that feeling of independence? First time you had your own bicycle, bike or a car? I was thinking about time when I got my car two years ago, I thought that I was unstoppable, now I could do all things that I would only imagine of, I thought only dead ends on the road could stop me, I was king of my wishes and whims (which are more frequent that wishes).

Having a car, not only provided me with an object which can move me around (as some utilittarians would think), but also expanded horizons of my thinking.

• If I want to do groceries at 3am in morning in Wal*Mart, I could very well do that.
• If I want to eat ice cream just when "sex and the city" is ending at 10.59pm, I could do that.
• If I want to visit temple, early Sunday morning, just as you would do back in India, I could do that.
• If I want to go shopping till I don't have money in my pocket and energy in my legs, I could do that.
• If I want to go golfing on fine, dewy Saturday morning, I could do that.

You name it and I could think of it! Thus a vehicle actually became a vehicle for my desires. Convenience and parity with friends would follow later, but I really did not think of it much. Helping a fellow student, especially if he/she is new to US, gave me sense of da big brother.

Thinking of old times makes me nostalgic....Cheers to Good times!

Do you ever stop thinking your life is a roller coaster?

Let Go. If you want to talk, call me. I want peace.