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“The master in the art of living makes little distinction between his work and his play, his labor and his leisure, his mind and his body, his information and his recreation, his love and his religion. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence at whatever he does, leaving others to decide whether he is working or playing. To him he's always doing both.”

-James A. Michener

Using Google For Ranking Colleges

Here is an interesting way to rank colleges, based on Google's Page Rank system :
College Rankings

Lick. Yumm. Slurp. Burp!

Ive just got around twenty days left in India. So following every one's advice, I'm doing a lot of desi food eating. Every day I'm in a good restaurant or a mausi or kaka's house stuffing myself.

After a month I'll have to eat my own cooking. I don't know anything sadder than that. Maybe eating my roomie's cooking might be sadder..who knows. But then that would mean I cook for room mates and myself which would be the saddest case. Or maybe evennnn sadder would be being such a bad cook that I have to wash the dishes instead. Hmmm. Think I'll abandon this depressing para and move on.

So I'm enjoying myself now. Ive seen more restaurants last few months than ever before. Ive also seen many many relatives in the last few months. And relatives especially the old granny variety (oh no no! I meant elder aunty) mean only one thing.. getting your stomach, small and large intestines, and food pipe all stuffed with sweet and spicy goo that was awesomely mouth watering food just half an hour ago. Delicious!!! And just a tad disgusting.

People with Passion

There are a few people in my life Im very grateful to. They are people with passion in whatever they do. Talking to them for a good twenty minutes is a big shot in the arm. Their passion rubs off on me.


Just recently Ive had a few such conversations and it feels really good! Man needs roti kapda aur makaan to exist, but passion and vision to really live life. In fact as I write this I realise how most of the times most of us are lacking in this respect. Any other time I wouldnt have given myself the permission to write this. Thinking how silly it might sound to someone reading this. But not now. There are times man needs to exchange ideas with like minded people. Talking with other big dreamers allows you to remove the mental blocks and fears, and sort of fly through the castles in the air that the mind conjures. Castles are first built in the air, then they are resurrected on the ground. The castle on the ground is just symbolic of a much much bigger thing - an idea - maybe with only a hint of possibility. It serves the purpose of reminding us of the wonders our brain can conjure. The real world is within the mind!!

Visa Power! Went and got it.

I got my visa today from the Chennai consulate.

Luckily for me my cousin lives in Chennai, so accommodation,food and entertainment was well taken care of. Yesterday was spent mostly in the last minute arrangement of documents, ironing of shirts, ignoring of comments from well wishers on how people in general(and I in particular) should keep everything ready a few (read many) days before an important event.

Next day morning I was all set for my interview. Adrenalin was oozing in my veins. I found an auto and the infamous haggling over fares began. The entire journey was spent having alternating animated discussions on how tough life is for auto-karas in Chennai, and how often passengers are taken for a BIG ride (in more ways than one ) by the aforementioned autokaras. I didn't have much time at all to ponder over the questions that could be fired at me. I left the auto decidedly refreshed and invigorated by all the verbal jostling.


The VISA consulate at Anna Salai is quite a fortress. In a not so auspicious move I got down and tried to enter the building from the exit. And I was kicked out before I could get in. Anyway I walked all the way around to the entry point and stood in the looong queue. Nervous candidates and more nervous parents were standing there. I met so many people from Bangalore, from my college , from my school.. the world is really a small place.

One thing I probably realised - how I was lacking in good organization and filing of documents. Most of the people had come with such neat plastic "document suitcases" which contained flaps for all papers and even little coloured labels - ready made with text like Marks Card , TOEFL , I20 etc. And there I was carrying ALL my important original documents in a simple plastic cover.

As usual I had come around one hour early for my interview at 8:30 am. I had to wait till around 10.00 am till I got my chance. And five minutes later, a plump jolly American woman told me my Visa was approved. I did a wild tribal celebratory dance after hearing this. In my mind of course. And then had a coffee and walked out of there.

About the interview and the two plus hour wait .. I'll probably try to write in another post..suffice it to say that its not an easy wait and you get a zillion thoughts and emotions running through your head. So now its time to look forward and hope for the best...

Men ...cry??

Only few men cry. Like Roger Federer for example.
The others all hold it back.

No perfect time

Philosophical musings :
For most of the important things we do, there is no perfect time. Some of us spend eons planning, forecasting and trying to make things go exactly the way we want them to. This is where we forget the doing things right is nowhere as important as doing the right things. At the right time. We often post-pone the most important tasks waiting till we get enough time or the quintessential mood and environment that the important task deserves. And guess what, the perfect time more often than not never comes. The task then remains a nagging shadow following you all around all the time. Finally things come to such a boil that you just want to get get over with the damm task at hand. At some point you become convinced that things cannot possibly go any worse(which is wrong in the first place.Things can always get worser). And proceed with the task painfully. Once this is over its such a big relief! And then a few days later you look back and discover that your life didnt depend on the single task.And wonder why the hell you made such a fuss about it in the first place.

Skin

Few days back I went to the dermatologist. A skin doctor if you please. Now what’s so special about going to the skin doctor… you might have wondered in your head. Hello... wait till I tell you the full story, I might have retorted had you expressed your thoughts aloud. And now having achieved the double objectives (objective?) of creating an artificial impression of suspense and managing to conjure up a opening paragraph with zero useful information when nothing writable was flashing in my head (third objective being writing a ridiculously long sentence that the reader wishes will get over, only to confront an another equally long ridiculous line at the end - within parenthesis) …gasp… I shall continue with the actual story.

So there I was in Jayanagar 4th Block walking around. A little aimlessly. That’s when I got this sudden urge to finish some pending stuff on my to do list. And there was point no 6 in black ink - ripe and fuzzy with age: Do something about rash.

It’s a silly little rash really. Not so silly that it can be ignored for long. Something that lies around until the day I’ve just forgotten about it. And then decides to erupt in indignation a little later. Not something contagious though. So if we've been in touch don’t worry! ( but again, you have only my word for this. And I’m not a Doctor. Yet.)

I took a little detour and sauntered into the dermatologists' clinic, pleased with myself. Just the day before I'd read some fundae by J Krishnamurti about how the "the first step is the last step". I’m taking the first step, I’m taking the first step I thought as I nearly tripped on the last few steps leading to the clinic. I entered the clinic and saw people packed into seats like French fries in a fat boys’ mouth. I decided to forget about J Krishnamurti's fundae for the time being. I entered gingerly, tried to fit in between two French fries but lost courage and ran back to the receptionist.

“Eh huh.. I don’t have an appointment. How long will it take to meet the doctor? “

“There are seven people before you. And its already 12.30 now. You will most probably not get an appointment by 1.45. Better you come after lunch around three.”

So I went back home. I knew the right thing to do would be to go back to the clinic at three. But I could make up some excuse and avoid doing this. So much work to do on the computer (I made myself think, handing myself a guilt free pass in the process).I headed blissfully back home knowing fully well I'd end up reading random stuff on the net instead of going to the Doctors’. But guess what. No current at home! And no marks for the second guess. No UPS at home!!

Once in every million years, when a first step is taken in the right direction, many other things conspire to make the right thing happen.
Sounds quite corny but you can quote me on this ... as "Nikhil Balaji's counter corollary to Murphy's law circa 2009”. So come 2.45 pm I headed back to resignedly to the dermatologists'. And finished my business with him.

One more thing which struck me was how far ahead the dermatologist was booked for appointments. When I asked for an appointment, the only slot I could get was for 3 weeks later! And appointment on Saturdays and Sundays... Forget it. Why what’s with the skin? Is it more susceptible to diseases and problems than other parts of the body? Or aren’t there enough dermatologists in India? Haven’t the medical fraternity figured the simple logic of supply and demand…why don’t more of them take up (for lack of a suitable word in my dictionary and a lethargy on my part to look up the internet) dermatology studies?? What the hell!!
Note to self: Meditation is apparently not working for you right now.

Lying on the lawn

Not many things give me more pleasure than lying down on the ITPL lawn nowadays. After a hard days work (hard days work....I can hear the cynics!) a good lie down on a bed of lush green grass does wonders to the body. And more so to the mind. The process is a natural tension remover, the moment you lie down all mundane worries vanish with the wind!

I’ve been doing this regularly for quite some time now. An ideal time to do this would be in the evening around 6.30 to 7.30. A sunset can’t be seen from ITPL, but at least the changing light can be appreciated. You should take a stroll at this time, go down to the ITPL lawn and look for a decent spot. There used to be a lot of open space in ITPL sometime back. A big chunk of the grounds are now closed with construction work going on there. Presently there’s only a small rectangular patch of grass right opposite the Inventor building I work at. While the grass cover over here is not lush all around there are quite a few good spots you can find.

Picture this:
You are lying down on the lawn. As you look up you see towering steel and glass structures on three sides which seem to be welded at the edges. The U shaped monolithic block frames the deep blue open sky. There are a few Gulmohur trees on the lawn. Green leaves and few bright red bursts of flowers present an almost stark contrast with the unforgiving gray and glass all around.

Roll your eyes around and you can see chauffeur driven cars circling past you and your patch of green grass. A few irate cab drivers circle around the lawn waiting for passengers while other sleepy passengers yawn at passing cars hoping it is for them.

The lawn is riddled with muddy brown patches and there are places that are water logged. But all these just add to a sense of natural beauty that tries to thrive in the midst of computer filled concrete behemoths. As you continue gazing up, you see birds (and bats?) flying around at various levels in the sky. Some go in neat circular arcs, others make zig zag arbit flights. Many seem to be chasing what look like smaller birds or insects. As time passes a few mosquitoes appear from nowhere. Some get too close for comfort. They mosquitoes have a sense of taste (pun intended) too.. a selective few on the lawn walk around with black fuzzy clouds over their heads.

The light all around is diffused and golden - partly due to fading sunlight and partly due to the glow from the lamps encircling the park. Sometimes when there is a cloud or two, the lighting and scenery looks like its taken right out of an illustrated children’s book. As time passes the lamps grow brighter and white lights spill out on to the lawn from the concrete monsters. The sky meanwhile turns blue green orange copper purple. Somewhere in a corner a minuscule white dot becomes visible in the sky. With time more such scattered dots come into view and begin to sparkle. Things in the mind seem to become clearer as dots become stars become constellations on the sky above.

Some random building begins to emit a low pitched vibrating buzz. A wailing siren brings relief to factory workers somewhere close by and momentary irritation to others next to me. A steady white noise flows from the river of traffic just outside. In the background of such noises from man made jungles, happy voices float all around punctuated intermittently by raucous peals of laughter. People walk around on the lawn with cell phones - talking earnestly, arguing, cajoling, negotiating, flirting. The waterfall of voices around you is predominantly bubbly and soothing, quite unlike the crisp and somewhat harsh sounds within the buildings. Steady streams of people leave the buildings and pour on to the sidewalk. They look carefree and visibly happy.

A tiny wriggling sensation creeps up the ankle and moves on to the shins, cleaving a path towards the knee. Soon many such tiny tickles begin to be felt over various parts of the body. But you are comfortably lazy and decide to ignore them, taking in all the sensations. Time seems to stall and you are almost half asleep. In fact its almost time for the bus already! You stagger on to your feet and leave the lawn, whistling with the wind, kicking pebbles on the sidewalk……

Happiness?

What does it really mean to be happy?

Is being happy a journey or a destination?

What is the connection between happiness and excellence?

Does long term happiness imply sacrifice of momentary happiness?

Are happiness and sadness two sides of the same coin?