Visa and its stages man !!!

Thought of writing this post just as an update to the previous one .. My finace's H1B made it through the lottery process !! Whoosh !! Thanks to all of your best wishes and prayers ... However, job is just half done yet !

why you ask ? well the application is stuck in whats called the 'RFE' (Request for Evidence) stage.. To sum up, this is the step where in the USCIS requests additional information from either you or the company you have applied H1 from. Its a long process and still ongoing ... The company we have applied through, is still working on it and hopefully we should know something within a couple of weeks !!

Hopefully will get to post the 'H1B mission impossible - successful !!" soon !!! :)

Play to win an H1B Visa !

Yes ! Starting this year every April 1st, you can play the all new USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immegration Services) Lottery ! And yes, its totally different from the normal lotteries ... If you are the chosen one, you get an H1B visa but even if you lose, you get all your money back !! Do you have it in you ? Do you have what it takes ?

Seriously, this could very well be a new ad for USCIS H1B visa process !! Ok, enough of fun ! But, seriously, isnt this the state of the current H1B application process ? Ok, let me start from the beginning... H1B is the work visa USCIS offers to a US non-resident which allows one to work in US for a period of 3 years at a time. However, you can only apply for a new H1B visa during the period of April 1st - October 1st. Not only that, the total H1B visas given every year is also fixed and called as the 'H1B cap'. This cap is currently set to 65K (This was initially 195K and was changed to 65K in 2004) This appplies for ANY international student and NOT just for Indians.

Well, as most of you might be aware of (if not, read this), this year USCIS received 150K applications on April 2nd itself for the H1B visa. This quota of 65K, the cap was reached on day 1 of the allotted 6 months period !!! And USCIS was expecting another 150K applications to be made on April 3rd. Thats 300K applications, 5 times the quota !! So, USCIS announced that it will reject (!!) all applications made after April 3rd onwards. But that does NOT solve the real problem, does it ?

The real problem is choosing those lucky (!!) 65K candidates out of the 300K !! So, USCIS has decided on a 'random' selection process. All those chosen will get H1B this year and those who are not so lucky (at least) get their money back ...

So what went wrong ? Suddenly how come there are so many applicants ? Well, the market is much better right now ! All the companies are hiring big time !! So, all the Masters students are graduating as early and as fast as they can ... The offshoring is going on but I think its close to its saturation level and hence, the hiring here has accelerated ... Also, already working people are getting married and trying to get their spouses to US on H1 (including me :) ) ... All those who missed out on the opportunity last year are trying it now ... also there are the visa conversions ... H4 to H1, F1 to H1, L1 to H1 and so on ...

You will ask so what ? well, a hard limit of 65k was never gonna be enough .. As more and more people come to US (and there is no limit on the number of F1(student), L1 (exchange work) visas issued), one day 65K was gonna seem like just a small drop of water in front of ocean of thursty people ... Its just that that day is here already !! Sooner that expected ... So, all of the applicants have to play this lottery ... Appplying for premium processing helps in a way as the processing is done faster and you get to know the result faster ! At least, you are informed earlier - accepted or not ! So at least you can act accordingly on your backup plans !

So, hang in there in guys and gals ! My full sympathy is with you ... Will you make it in the 20% ? Unless, USCIS decides to change it back to 195K or more, its gonna be the story every year ... This is funny ... On a normal day, I would never think like this but now I just hope this 'random' selection is as 'random' as the selection for 'bag security check' at the airports !! I am almost confident of getting selected every year - let them make the chances down to 5% :) !!

Well, jokes apart, I myself am trying for my fiance' ! so wish us luck :) ...

Where are we headed ?

It is a world of quickness & swiftness ... 'slow and steady wins the race' just doesnt cut it anymore ... its more like 'fast and accelerating has a chance to win the race ' ... everything around you is about being ahead of time, ahead of everyone around you and if thats not enough, its about being ahead of yourself ! And as they say, this is just the beginning ... Though all this sounds very energizing and very happening, you really need to take a break and ask yourself, where is this going ? Where am I going with this ? Am I making the right decisions or just making quick decisions .. worse enough hasty decisions ?

They tell you, this current world is about you and you only ... whole world centered around you .. its the so-called 'individualism' that matters and nothing else ... while following and creating an identity for yourself, dont you think we are losing our identities altogether ? Identity is merely how many pages of results does google return when your name is typed ... right ? Tell me, how difficult is it for someone to steal your identity these days ? Take any way of communication, emails, phones, letters, online services like orkut ... anything and everything is full with scams and people hacking profiles and stealing identities ... So its NOT about individualism then ... right ? Its more like saving your identity than to make a new one ... thats why you shouldnt put your snaps on orkut .. thats why you shouldnt chat with a stranger ... and the list of dont's just goes on ... If this is just the beginning, then where are we headed ?

They tell you, its about advancement ... Its about moving ahead ... is it really ? Finding new weapons to threaten each other, kill each other and better (rather worse) ways of mass destruction ... is that what the development is all about ? Is it about providing a safe world to everyone or is it about a world filled with fear ? Are we entering the new era of development or destruction ? Why do we still have the hanging sword of global warming then ? I have touched this topic in one of my recent posts as well ! again, where are we headed ?

They tell you, its about being a winner ... and how does one define the term 'winner' ? is it someone who just goes ahead in his life at the cost of his/ her loved ones or by pressing everyone else down ? Or is winner a person, whos good at everything and not just one thing ? Gone are the days of 'jack of all and master of none ' ... you need to be a 'master of all' or if not, 'jack of all' at least to get some kind of recognition ! 'Master of one' is a complete loser ... A winner is someone who has achieved all the wealth at a young age or is it someone who faces life happily and is satisfied ? Do you know what you are ? which category you are in ? again, where are we headed ?

Who cares if you are a good friend, a good person, a good son, a good father, a good mother, a good person overall ? No one has time for that ! Relationships is whats better known as 'networking' these days ! Its about your network and who you know these days than who you care for and who care for you in return ... 'uski pahuch bahut lambi hai bhai, usse bach ke rehna' tells us something .. doesnt it ?

Dont get me wrong... Its not like I am against this whole advancement and this happening age.. I like it too but then I would like to pause for a bit ... think it over .. take some baby steps for a while, give it a rest and then get back in the game with a definite plan ... based on the previous experiences ... I do understand, when there is something positive figured out by 10 ppl after years and years of research, a thousand minds think about how to use it negatively ... there are always dangers while crossing road but we dont stop walking on roads... I am aware of that .. but then if we all become good drivers and pedestrians, we can walk safely ... without fear .. isnt it ? It has to start from one person .. power of one is beyond imagination ...

Life is funny and it gets at you fast .. Its better to be prepared for the rainy day !! You need to be fast for the world and steady for yourself to not outrun yourself .. your thoughts ... your goals .. your life ! As far as I think, thats when you will be a winner !

and yes, I never said its easy ! :)

Trigger: Orkut - Storm Warning by Selma

To Fix or Not to Fix ?

Well, as I said in my previous post, I just love playing Badminton .. If I am not playing Cricket, then I must be on the badminton court ... 3 times a week is pretty good an exercise and its a lot of fun !

But this post is NOT about my love for this game .. rather its about my knack of breaking the racquets every couple of weeks in special situations ... i know, u must be like, what special situations ? right ? Well, when initially I started playing it, I just had one racquet ... and I was really totally fine with it ... then one day, my opponent (who also had just a single racquet with him) broke his racquet during the game and so we had to leave the game halfway ... That was the time when it dawn on me that its not a such a bad idea to have a spare racquet with me ... so the next day I bought one spare racquet and took with me the next time onwards ...

The very next time, I broke my first racquet and got a chance to use the spare one and continue the game without any interruption ... I was sooo very happy that I thought ahead of time !! I got my first racquet restringed within a week and now that became a spare racquet ... within another couple of weeks, I broke the second racquet ... I dont know how it happened. I was really surprised ! but then again I had one more racquet ... so I was happy ...

This time, I wanted to get the broken racquet fixed soon but due to some reasons/busy schedule, I didnt get a chance to do so. Everytime I went to Badminton courts with just one racquet fearing that this only-racquet can break anytime and I will be handicapped ! But thankfully that never happened ... Soon after a couple of months, I got the broken racquet fixed and within the next 2 weeks the first racquet broke !! Again, I didnt get a chance for some time ... Just before leaving for India, I got it restringed ... Now, after coming back, I resumed Badminton and the first day I broke the racquet ...

This time, I was psyched !! I have never broken my 'only' playable racquet so far ... never .. Its only when I had 2 racquets ... only when I had a backup, I 'had to' make use of it ... Whenever I didnt have a backup, It was never needed ! So, I have decided, I am not going to have a backup at all ... I am not going to fix that broken racquet ... let me see if I 'manage-to' break this only good racquet ... I dont know if my decision is right or wrong but I am all ready to find out ...

what do you think ? Should I base my decision based on the experience or common-sense ?

Update 03/06/07: btw, that racquet has not yet broken even after more than 6 weeks of continuous play !! see, thats what I am talking about !!

India and ....

Its been quite sometime since I blogged anything ... the excuse on my end ? 'I am in India' and I am trying to be away from my US-robot-friend 'computer' (hum use pyaar se 'comp' kehete hai :) ) as much as possible ... also the blogspot is more than just 'slow' from my place here in Dombivli ! so anyway, all in all, I havent blogged for more than a month now ... so what was I doing ?

I am in India since Jan 3rd .. and apart from enjoying the 'king-like' stay here, I am watching / following the life here in India ... trying to see whats changed since august 2002 (thats when I left India for US) and no matter how many times I have visited India in last 4+ years, the image thats recorded in my mind is still that of the year 2002... so everytime I visit India, I find it different .. to say the least :) !

The post title 'India and ...' does not mean to add to my excuse list of not being able to blog ... instead I was planning on reviewing a few major things I have seen in the last 20 odd (btw, why do they call 'xx odd' always 'even' if the figure xx is 'even' ? ) days ..there is more to it than whats mentioned below ... before I start, a disclaimer : The following observations are based on parts of India I have visited this time in the timeframe of 25 days ...

1. India and 'FM' : I remember the only thing you could listen to in a car, bus etc in 2002, was songs using personal cd / casette players ... In 2002, 'radio mirchi' was an experiement in its 'infant' stages ... in fact many youngsters (including me) had considered 'radio' as the old-man's only entertainment device .. my parents used to tell me stories of 'binaca geet mala' and all ... but I never came close to listening to radio when I was in India ... but these days, 'radio' is everywhere ... radio mirchi, radio city, red fm etc etc and the list is unending .. and the whole of the young generation listens to it with complete concentration ... girls do 'aaye haye' along with 'anirudh' on radio city or sometimes boys have a 'muskaan' to make them smile ...

2. India and Mobiles : I never had a mobile in India .. it was only after a year's stay in US, I was introduced to the world of mobiles. However, nowadays starting from a high class businessman to a roadside bhajiwali - everyone (and I mean EVERYONE) carries a mobile phone and not just any mobile phone- one with a camera, mms, radio, mp3 player, bluetooth / IR and what not ...

3. India and Traffic : The world-infamous indian driving and indian traffic has been getting worse and worse day by day ... More and more imported cars are getting introduced here with honda, toyora, ford, chevrolet already in Indian markets and as of today, 'nissan' also making its way in ... the traffic is not only because of the cars, but also due to the increasing two-wheelers. Have you been to 'Pune' recently ? just try driving around 10 - 10.30 am there ... its a hell .. as my 'mama' says, 'if you take your hand out to indicate a turn signal, there is every possibility that someone will take that hand along' ! jokes apart but the traffic is just horrible these days ! The traffic was bad then but current state is becoming worse with the increasing vehicles and absence of rules/regulations ...

4. India and Internet : The Internet always meant 'dial-up' and most people didnt even know of any other method of going online. Things have improved drastically. Dial up has been pretty much wiped out and 'broadband' or at least 'high speed' such as cable internet has taken its place. Many things such as bank accounts, reservations, shares etc are available online these days (though with a extra nominal fee). Things are improving and India is getting connected to the whole world in a whole new way.

5. India and Lifestyle : The Indian lifestyle overall has changed quite a bit with the offshoring of US based industries .. also the youth these days does not believe in 'savings' .. its becoming more of a 'spending' economy like the US... youngsters earn enough money these days to live a luxury life including the daily travel via AC buses, spending 1000s rupees on lunch and dinner and discos ... its changing and changing very very fast ... More and more people are interested in show-off work than the actual earnings .. All have mobiles and ipods and what not ... The phrase 'can I afford this ' meant could you buy that thing and have some money left as savings ? and now all it means is whether you can buy it ... and moreover, can you take some money from somewhere (loan etc) and buy it ? feel the change ?

I am sure there are more things to add here and the list is just unending ... I am stopping here for now ... if you feel anything else needs to come in these first five things that changed, do let me know !

To Be or Not To Be !

It was a two lane road and I was in the car waiting in the left lane at this red signal - The road was gonna become a one-way road in the opposite direction after this signal and so left turn was only for turning left and right lane for turning right ... In fact the light in front of me clearly said 'Left Only' for my left lane ...

The problem was that I wanted to take a 'U turn ... I mean there was enough space for me to take a 'U' turn ! and especially my small & cute 350z didnt need much space, it could fit anywhere very easily ... so my point was that I would quickly take a 'U' turna and no one would notice ... plus normally in US, if the 'U' turn at some point is NOT allowed, they put a board right there saying 'NO U TURN' ... there was no such board ! so according to that logic, 'U-turn' was plausible ...

Right when the signal was about to turn green, I noticed a 'cop' car standing right in front of me in the opposite direction facing me for their signal to turn green - and I was like, well in general circumstances, I would not even think twice before taking a U turn here but now, why invite trouble right ? I mean, its just plain stupid to take a U turn in front of the cop !! Who knows, may be it is legal, maybe its not !! why find it out the hard way right ? Also, its the end of thr year time ... I have heard, cops also have certain money-quotas to fill up per year and if they are far from that quota, they are on high-alert around the year-end time ! With a sportscar, I am anyway their favourite target !

so I took a left turn instead, went into a shopping complex and took one more left turn then right turn and I accomplished exactly the same thing ... of course wasted(?) a few extra minutes in doing that but definitely saved some bucks ... then I started thinking, just a mere presence of a cop made all that difference in my thinking ... I mean, I should be responsible driver enough to do the right thing irrespective of whether there is a cop or not ! right ? why was cop's presence, just a mere thought that I am being watched changed my thinking ? I was with a friend that time and discussed with him and he also accepted that he'z done similar things many times ... and I am pretty sure we bend the laws or should I say we interprete them the way we like them ... its like we see/hear what we want to see/hear ... but its not the right approach ... definitely not .. we may get away with it a few times but not always ... and its not just for the cop - its about for being a better driver & a better person ...

I think I am a better driver now - not only in terms of driving abilities (I think I always did well on that front ;) ) but in terms of being a law abiding driver ... are you ?

p.s. But believe me it is a kind of a shame to abide by every law (especially the speed limits) with a sports car with 300 hp !! Its tough but I am trying hard :) lets see how far I go !

What would you do ?

So I got these new maida roti pack from Costco .. supposedly these rotis foolofy (and i mean they really completely expand to the max - just like mom's rotis :) ) ... so I tried the first roti and it lived upto its expectations ... It came out sooo well .. nice & soft ... so with full enthusiasm, I started with the next roti .. but as always :( ... something went wrong somewhere and this one did not foolofy at all ... in fact it came out to be pretty hard ..

So the question in front of me was, which roti do I eat first ? Do I have the soft one first and enjoy it fully and then end the dinner with the other harder one ... or do I eat the hard one first and then end the dinner with the soft roti (there is a chance that by the time I finish the hard roti, this other soft roti also becomes cold and hard ) ... So would you choose to start the dinner well or end it well (hopefully) ?

What would you do ?

Too much Gravity !

[ I understand the problems of not having enough gravity - but this is just a frustrated cell-phone-dropper speaking .. Try to feel his emotions ;)]

I sometimes think, earth has too much gravity .. especially when I drop a glass or a bottle or my cell phone (this happens at lease once everyday) ... probably 10 - 20 % of the times I catch it back before it hits the ground but almost every time Earth wins ! :( ..

I think earth would have been fine with just a little bit less of gravity ... I mean, who doesnt mind lesser weight right ? We would have gotten rid of so much of tension and had so much time to catch those things we drop ... imagine you are carrying a panful of subji and you drop it (I know thats not hard to imagine, I am sure you have done this in the past at least once) and now imagine having enough time to catch the pan and hold it under the falling sabji to put it back inside the pan again ! Doesnt that feel good ? :)

I think its time for earth to learn to let go of things ... if not at least not to hold on to everything soo tightly ...

Change your future ?

Today I was watching Krishh ... (The Indian SuperHero :) ) for the second time in the afternoon just for fun and some laugh (again) with a friend of mine ... The movie is partially copied from the Hollywood movie 'Paycheck' where Ben Affleck is the scientist who works hard and creates a machine to view / change future. During the testing phase (I guess ;) ), Ben Affleck finds out that he is going to be killed in the future and leaves a few clues for himself so that he can cheat his death and change future....

Ok. That said, my friend and I debated over this a lot ... How can one change his future ? The trick here is that if you change your future then it was not your future in the first place !! right ? If you predict that you are gonna be dead & that thats your future and you somehow cheat your death & are still alive, then death wasnt your future at all !! And well, if you die then, that was your future and you didnt change it ? It makes sense, isnt it ?

The machine if one is built ever, will show you your future ... If that did not happen, then all it means is that machine is faulty and it was a false positive ! thats all ... A true machine should show you all revisions of your future that you make ... what I mean is, it should show you the predicted future and then the one you changed it to and then you saw that one too and then the next attempt of changing it and so on ... First of all, this depends on person to person & secondly this could become uncontrollable as there could be 'n' number of revisions - n depends upon each person's IQ, his luck in changing the future successfully and his foolproofness of the plan each time ... The factor that needs to be considered here is that, we live in a society and hence, changing one's future is going to affect thousand other futures !! Who is taking that into account ?

So, if you ask me, you can NEVER change your future ! If you do, then there can not be a machine which can show you the future !! What do y'all think ?

p.s. Also given a choice, would you change your future ?

Silent letters ??

Can someone explain why is 'Psychopath' spelled with a 'p' and 'Silent' is not ? I mean, whats the whole purpose of having a letter which is supposedly 'silent' ? According to me, these words are spelled that way just so that there could be 'spelling bee' contests and people could have some fun (or not :( )!

Language / script is to make life easy for people and not tough !! See, the spelling of tough could have easily been 'tuff' (like bluff ..) but NO !! They had to make that word really tough !! Jokes apart but why is a word spelled the way it is ? And more over if the spelling is assumed to be correct, then why is it pronunced the way it is ? Who decided all these rules ? Why could it not be simpler ?

Do you know any language (other than english) which does this ? Write something and say something else ? As far as I know, Marathi and Hindi dont ! Neither does Sanskrit ... in fact, with these languages its exactly opposite ! You make an effort to say the word the way its written and to write the way its said !! Then why is it like this in english ? How is it in Gujarati, french, German, Malyalam, Tamil ??? ... if yes, then why ? Any input is greatly appreciated !

American english helps out a bit by tweaking British english - removing a few 'u's & 'o's .. like color instead of colour ... and pronunce in stead of pronounce , etc ... But still the question remains ! Why does English - 'world's common language' have these 'silent' letters ? What good are 'letters' if they dont speak ???

Quote of the day !

'The best way to keep your word is to never give it'

I liked this quote .. for its play with words .. 'keep' and 'give' your word .. thought I will just post it and see what all you people think about it ..

But hey, dont get me wrong, this does not mean that I agree with the quote ... according to me, that would just be an escape ... its like saying if you dont want to run down by a car, dont walk on road ... In fact, I am not even sure if its technically sound .. 'Not giving' can not be the best way of 'keeping' ... I mean come on.. that is so gay ..

anyway .. so NO, I dont agree with it .. but I liked the way its designed !

Name is more than just words ...

What do you picturize when you hear/read someone's name ? Especially if the person is not in front of you ... what I mean is when you hear a name, does that name create an image of the person in your mind ? Knowingly or unknowingly, it happens and you create that layout for yourself .. something you can associate that name with ... You know that it could be totally wrong but still you do it ... say you are reading a book and you read the name of the character, you ought to picturize him/her before reading further ... Everytime you read that name again, you can pretty much see that unknown figure you have imagined, doing all those things mentioned in the book ! thats why when a movie is made based on a book u've already read, sometimes you like it coz its exactly like you imagined but sometimes you are the standing first in the queue to criticise it !

e.g. Whenever I hear the name 'Neha', a very beautiful, cute, young, slim, delicate, ever-smiling, naive (running out of adjectives ? ;) ) girl appears in front of me (where are you Neha ? ;) ) ... Suprisingly, I have never had a friend or for that matter even an acquaintance named Neha but its just something that my mind pictures ... a face that I associate with the name Neha' ... I dont know why ! It just happens .. Remember that joke about 'Mahalakshmi' and 'Sapna' in 'Khakee' ? I think everyone does it .. 'Mahalakshmi' somehow reminds me of an angry 50 year lady .. (no offense meant to anyone pls)...

Sometimes, what you've picturized turns out to be correct & sometimes you can not stop your chuckle meeting that person in person .. laughing to yourself how different had you imagined this guy/ gal ! I am sure this must have happened to everyone out there ! right ? I think its to do with our brain .. our brain has better photographic memory and its been designed to store data in terms of images, clips, videos rather than text based description ... so whenever you try to store names in there, it attaches a 'void' image to it with an 'unconfirmed' status ! Anytime you hear more about that thing, the image is updated ... This goes one until once you meet the person, when the real face takes its place and you tend to compare the previous void image with this actual image for similarities / differences ... Now the status changes to confirmed and this new image is pulled out everytime you hear the name ! pretty neat huh !!

I always ask people I meet the first time, how had they imagined me to be when they first heard my name. The answers I get are so funny sometimes ! Once a guy had told me that he had imagined a fat guy with a big belly and spectacles with a couple of books in hand when he heard 'Aniruddha' the first time ! He was so shocked to see me !! ;) ... but girls normally imagine me as hot, handsome, cool, matured guy and they are never shocked ;) ... lol

Light a Candle !

http://clients.ibnlive.com/features/mumatt/index.php

The site mentions:

"Mumbai came to a shocking standstill on July 11 when serial blasts ripped through its local trains, killing and wounding hundreds. But the city of dreams stood fearless and fighting fit. Salute Mumbai's never-say-die spirit and Light a Candle for those who succumbed to the blasts or got injured. For every candle you light, CNN-IBN and Channel 7 will donate Re 1 for the relief of the victims."

I hope this is true and works.

C (See) for Color ...

A question for all you guys & gals ... How would you describe different colors to a blind man ? big deal ??? Its not something that you can smell, not something you can hear or touch or feel ... Its just something you can see ... only with your eyes ... I mean .. whats red, whats blue ? ... all you ppl (including me), who can see - heres the question - define : any color ! choose red as a representative .. define : red ... or just imagine a kid asking you this question .. what would you say to him ?

Remember :

1. Dont use any other color to define a color (e.g. You cant say green is something you get when you mix blue with yellow (I hope the combi is right) - thats deadlock)

2. Dont use any object to describe a color (e.g. You cant say red is the color of blood .. come on)

3. Dont use any color palette / rgb mechanism (e.g. red = (255,0,0) is not allowed .. This one is esp for my fellow software engineers ...)

Yeah .. try googling that !! 'define : red' ( oops .. please read that as msn searching ... I keep forgetting I am in MS now ;) ..)

I know some of you might say this is ridiculous ... its like asking define "1" or define "2" without using any number/ object ... but then thats what came to my mind and ultimately found its way to this page ...

Anyway, there are so many shades, feelings associated with color ! I mean red is associated with blood,violence,tomatoes,loss, blush, passion and many more ... Makes me think what all is a blind man missing ? Its not only vision - its something much much more grave than that ! Its the identity of everything that he is missing ! What comes to your mind when we say "blood" .. its red ! .. what comes to a blind man's mind when he hears "blood" ? I wonder !!

Why is Apple making each and everything in White ? B'coz they want to be known by that color !! There are so many more examples like that ... Colors play such a big role in our life ... imagine a life without any colors .. and by that I mean NO colors ..( not black and white - thats 2 colors right there !) ... Just one color .. pick one .. say everything would be black around you !! How depressing would that life be !! Can you imagine that ? And we have millions and millions of colors all around us ... each separating itself uniquely from others ... I wonder ...

-----------------------------------

Broadly thinking and taking the liberty to divert from the topic ... well .. colors is not the only thing that a blind person misses ... besides not able to see his loved ones, him/herself, not knowing what beauty is ! ... not even a hint of it ... whats light and whats darkness ? whats a tree and whats a sea .... It all feels so meaningless without seeing it ...

We all saw the movie 'Black' ... It touched me ... especially to see that little girl fight ... how not having the ability to see takes her into a cave of her own ... in a shell ... We all have heard stories of Helen Keller ... Donating eyes is no lesser than giving someone a whole new life, a new identity, a new purpose for life, a new direction, a new beginning ... Eye donation is one of the greatest achievements of modern science ! I have decided that I will donate my eyes on my death ... I encourage you to make that decision as well ..

A few useful links :

Eye Bank Association of America
Eye Bank
Shankara Nethralaya


"The eye is the window to the world, at the same time, it is the window of the soul." - Shakespeare.

Aamachi Mumbai !

Question- paper leaks are very common phenomena in India and especially in Mumbai (Maharashtra) ... Almost every year, you hear a case where either 10th, 12th or other exam's paper leaked and so they conduct a retest or re-entrance exam (ask anyone from my batch - what a pain giving that re-entrance exam was !!) and what not ! Mumbai University had maintained its clean image for quite some time now ... ( it used to repeat the questions from the previous years so there was no need to leak the paper :D lol ... ) but now no more ... this one is a brand new one !! It goes beyond you have heard in the past ... curious ? Read :

http://ww1.mid-day.com/news/city/2006/may/137968.htm

OK. Let me save you one mouse click :) -

<mid-day-article>

Answer paper!
By: Kiran Tare
May 25, 2006

The 100 students who appeared for their Microwave II paper yesterday are repeaters. However, the university will not hold re-exams. This picture is for representational purposes only

Final year engineering students who sat down to write their Microwave II paper could not believe their eyes.

The answers to two questions (22 marks) were printed in the paper itself, just below the questions! The 100 overjoyed students, who appeared for the paper, naturally helped themselves to the answers.

This meant they had to score just 18 marks to pass the 100-mark paper. The minimum marks required to pass is 40.

Will get marks

Microwave II is a semester VIII subject of Electronics and Telecommunications and had seven questions.

“I was surprised to find the answers in the question paper. We exchanged glances in the exam centre, but kept our mouths shut,” said a student who did not wish to be named.

A D Sawant, Pro Vice-Chancellor of Mumbai University, admitted that answers were printed in the question paper.

“The question paper was printed just the way the paper setter wrote it, with the answers printed in it. Only the paper setter was privy to the question paper, so no one knew of the mistake. In any case, if students have attempted the question, they will definitely get the marks.” He added the oversight was a first in the university’s 150-year history.

Question three in the paper, with the answers circled

No re-exam

Students of Jondhale Engineering College, Dombivli, one of the four examination centres, were the first to notice the mistake. The college administration then contacted the university and notified them of the error.

“We had to score only 18 more marks as the passing marks are 40. So it was a blessing in disguise for us. But I guess the university will hold a re-exam, which I dread,” said another student.

Most of the students who appeared for the paper are repeaters; the regular students have the revised course.

Yashwant Bhonsale, a paper setter in Veermata Jeejabai Institute of Technology (VJTI), said, "Usually paper setters provide solutions with the question paper in a different envelope, which is sealed. In this case, the solution is given on the question paper itself."

Added Sawant, "This is a major mistake and the university will decide what action would be taken on the paper setter."

</mid-day-article>

How is that ? 22 marks !! That is much much better than any Thanksgiving deal anytime !!! and plus no re-exam ! I can literally hear them saying whooshhh ...yeppeee... thank god ! no re-exams !!

The report above says: 'If the student has attempted the question ...' - I say, Who would be the one who didnt opt for this question ? I really really feel sad for him/her who didnt see this question (I mean answer :) ) !! Just imagine his/her face when he/she came out of the exam and heard it from someone else !! Just too sad ...

On moral grounds, this may not be the best thing to do (thats a separate area for discussion) .. It might be best to get your 40 marks using other questions and at the end just attempt this question so that you dont miss 22 marks !! But then jaise ghar aaye lakshmi ko thukarate nahi hai vaise hi haath aaye marks ko bhi thukarate nahi hai .. :)

Anyway, what amazes me is this sentence : 'Only the paper setter was privy to the question paper, so no one knew of the mistake.' .. How is that possible ? I mean, come on .. Its a final year engineering paper .. Dont you think there should be a pool of paper setters and someone doing the proof reading and so on ? How can a mistake this big go unnoticed ? thats just sheer negligence and is not tolerable under any circumstances ... Those students will probably disagree with me but you will realize that these things are not helpful ... its better to earn those 22 marks on your own than earn them this way ! But guess what, you just got lucky !!

Considering that this was the exam for repeaters - how many of you think that this was very well-decided and paid for ? Or the paper setter felt sympathetic towards the students once in a while ? Well, time will tell ... (yes .. not Mumbai police .. dont think anyone would believe anything thats going to come out of the investigation !)

So, thats aamachi mumbai for you ! It will keep surprising you in a number of ways ... sometimes good - sometimes bad ...!

Wearing shoes - random action ?

When you wear shoes, do you wear both shoes first or wear one shoe, tie the laces and then do the same for the second shoe ? Does it matter ? I mean, does this behavior say anything about you ? I might wear both shoes together at one time & some other time, I might wear one, tie laces and then wear the second one ... Going further, do you wear left shoe first or the right one ? what about socks ? Is it just random ?

How does our brain process this information ? Its definitely not a set of instructions thats given to our brain even in such a small thing as wearing shoes ... there is this randomness factor in there which makes it totally unpredictable ! Its amazing .. in fact, that leads to the next logical question, why is this randomness factor in there ? Why couldn't it be a simple wear btoh shoes(in a predefined order) & then tie laces for each (again in the same order)...

Dont you find this very interesting ? How do we define our actions ? just random ? Is it a satisfying answer ? I am no expert on human psychology/ neural networks ... please feel free to comment if you think you can put more focus on this ...

Just a random thought ... :)

The day after tomorrow !

I was chatting with a good friend of mine today and he casually asked me " So whats the plan for tomorrow evening ?" and I was like "dude ! its Monday tomorrow, what special plan can I have on a monday evening ?" ... and then after a second I realized, well, he was talking more in reference to Tuesday ! still dont get it, do you ? Its my 25th birthday on tuesday (March 28) !!! Well, if you had forgotten that (that is only if you knew) or if you didnt know that, dont feel bad .. firstly coz I am reminding you 2 days in advance ! :) and secondly coz even I had forgotten about it myself ...

My friend's question got me thinking. Wow .. 25th birthday ! thats awesome !! I am gonna be 25 in a couple of days !! I am so happy !!! hmm.. wait .. thats no big deal .. to be 25 ? You dont have to do anything to grow up and be 25 ! It just happens !! So what am I so happy about ? about a day which comes every year (& not like once in a lifetime) ? I mean its not like the day when all nine planets are aligned in one line which happens after like once in 1000s of years ... you should be happy if you see that day ! But why am I so happy about this day ?

Dont get me wrong .. I am not sad or depressed in life and I sure do know how to enjoy life.. But I like to be serious/introvert sometimes ... I like, in fact love, all the cake, party, fun stuff (and yes :) the b'day bumps too) but then thats just what we do on a b'day ! Those are the procedures that are attached to this day ... Just for a second, try separating your birthday from all these emotions .. what do you get ? Just another day ? Just another day when a count somewhere is incremented by one (you have to excuse me for being a typical software engineer :) lol ) ! but seriously- what makes you happy on this day apart from the parties that you throw and treats you give & movies you watch ... why celebrate this day ? why not any other day ? I can totally understand when the whole nation celebrates Martin Luther King's b'day or Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru's b'day ! They deserve it ... their work speaks for them .. what have I done to deserve a celebration on my b'day ? To all of you reading this blog, I sincerely urge you to think of an answer to this before going ahead and reading what I wrote ... or even if you think that there is no point of thinking all this .. just comment whatever you feel ..

I asked the same question to myself .. First of all, I was wondering, why did I not ask that question to myself on any of the previous birthdays ? I mean I did have 24 of them already right ? ... I guess I have become more matured now ;) .. whatever you may think, I am gonna take that as an answer to that question and move on ... or I will be just surrounded by questions and no answers whatsoever ... Moving on ...

So is it b'coz of where I am ? U know in United States but so are million others .. Is it my education ? I have done Masters but so have thousand others .. Is it my work ? I am working for Microsoft .. big deal ! so are thousands of others ... I kept on thinking and then it struck me .. It is your day but its not exactly your day ! Its not you who celebrates this day ... I mean you are involved, but mostly its others - people around you - people to whom you matter, your presence matters - They wanna tell you that "Hey thanks for sticking around & being there for me " .. so why should you be happy ? You should be happy coz this day will tell you, 'to how many people you really matter !' I am not talking about how many phone calls you get at midnight or during the day ... I am talking about those genuine voices which make your day ! Thats what makes me happy when I think about my b'day ! I like that explanation that I gave to myself ... I think thats what I feel when I call someone up on their b'days !

You agree / disagree / feel this is bullshit or why are we even having this conversation ? Let me know ...

What is your biggest weakness ?

This is probably the most difficult non-technical question you will face in an interview ... "What is your biggest weakness" ... The answer has to sound like a weakness but at the same time should not prove to be a big weakness for the job .. You can not be too honest and start listing your weaknesses but at the same time you can not take this questions lightly and just shrug it off saying I dont have any weakness (remember Aamir Khan in DCH, 'buraiyaan aur mujhme ? kya baat kar rahi ho ?' ) ...

I have seen quite a few monotonous and always used answers like "I work too hard or I am a perfectionist " .. these answers are so not proper these days as interviewers already know them & they have heard them so many times that they just dont want to hear it again .. so its quite a trick .. many sites I found say that you have to state a weakness but then put it positively and it should ultimately come out as your strength ... If you ask me, I dont buy that .. at least not when I am an interviewer and I am asking this question to someone ... You know what I would look for is an honest answer within limits !

Whats the right answer ? I dont know !! I guess it also depends on your own personality, the work environment and the situation and many other things .. When I was preparing for my interviews, I was once asked these couple of questions :

"Whats your biggest strength ? " and then "Whats your biggest weakness ? " .., I swear to god I once even felt answering them like this :

"Whats your biggest strength ?"
"My biggest strength is that I know my weaknesses"

"Whats your biggest weakness ?"
"My biggest weakness is that I dont know my strengths"

what say ? Good enough answer for an advertizing job where they r looking for your creativity :))

Change of accent ?

I have been in US for more than 3 years now and I can assure you that my accent has not changed even a single bit especially when talking to a desi (desi is a term for a fellow Indian) ...whatever language it may be .. Hindi / English / Marathi ... I am not surprised at all with that! I dont think its possible to change your accent without you knowing it .. what they call - phasing your accent ! I dont think that can happen ..

I was at WSU, pullman which had very few desi janata so all the time I would communicate with Americans and chinese students / teachers ... I changed my accent a bit (mind you this was on purpose) when talking to Americans as that made the communication a little easier for both of us .. but I dont understand those desis who talk to you in the fake-american (or so they think) made up accent ... they know you can understand Indian accent - you know it as well ! then why the farce ? and these guys insist that their accent has changed over the years staying in US ... whatever ! I meet such guys every now and then & they have hardly spent 2 /3 years in US ..

I was taught English since when I was a kid .. so the accent that I have, has been there with me for last 22 years or so .. how can it change in a mere span of 2 years ?

Your comments are welcome people .. whether you agree with me or not !

Teleportation

Does "The Fly" ring a bell ? I remember watching that movie when I was in India like 6-8 years back ... I completely freaked out by the end of the movie ... the movie gets very gruesome at the end ... I had almost forgotten about it till today when I read a little bit about "teleportation" ...

Whats teleportation ? ... its basically a (future) technology wherein an object can be transported from one place to another ... nothing great ? well, how about this ? moving it instantly without using any conventional techniques ... in an instant ...

There are a number of proposed ways to achieve this. e.g. e-teleportaqtion, q-teleportation, vm-teleportation, sf-teleportation etc ... e.g. q-teleportation in simple words is to fax the 3D object ... completely scan the original object and obtain its structure information ... then pass this information to the new location. At this new location, reconstruct the whole object again using the information to create replica of the original. Then the original copy is destroyed once this process ends. Much more complications arise when the original copy is not deleted ... but for now ignoring that ... so teleportation is like fax in 3D... Scientists have successfully teleported small particles such as photons so there is a ray of hope there in q-teleporting . The other techniques such as vm-teleportation is basically using wormholes & there is more that goes on ...

But the ultimate question is, is it possible to teleport human beings ? there are trillions & trillions of atoms in human body ... more than that, let the technique be anything, what will happen if teleportation of human beings comes true ? Wil it be good or bad ? Lets see ... hmm ... I guess, when the technology will arrive, it will be pretty expensive ... but consider it is affordable to general public then there will be no gas price increase tension (a big one especially now !), no time spent on travel ... no travel accidents (or is it ? different type of accidents ? ... some information is lost while travel & now reconstructed human is missing a hand ???? )

Anyone can go anywhere ... basically, its like apparate and disapparate as you Harry Potter fans would say ... is that good ? well, what it means is no privacy to anyone .. moreover, any thief can get inside any bank vault anytime .. well so can police .. but how will you secure your money / belongings ?

What about the ethical issues ? What if something goes wrong ? Will the new replica have the same emotions / soul as the original one ? will he / she be different in behaviour ? Most of the questions are solved / answered if the q-teleportation is not the one that is used ... instead if vm-teleportation is used, at least the original object is untouched ... but few big problems remain ...

I found this topic pretty interesting and a very nice one to discuss ... there is so much to talk & write here ... I will just wait for your comments ...

Further reads :

http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/050708_teleportation.html

http://www.crystalinks.com/teleportation.html