Only in India?

To all those people who crib about cattle on the Indian streets, here's proof that this happens in the US too...

A couple of years ago, I was in New Mexico on a research project. On 11th Jan, 2005, having pretty much nothing else to do, I thought I'd check out the Very Large Array antennae. On the way, on this very straight NM-52 highway, there was this herd of cattle peacefully crossing the road. I had to stop and let them cross before going ahead.

So all those who say no such things happen in the US of A, better quit now.

"Ideas worth spreading"

Technology, Entertainment, Design.That's what TED stands for. Started in 1984 as a conference of people from these three fields, TED is now something much much bigger. I got attracted to the TEDTalks some time ago and have been a regular at the site. Just felt it would be a nice thing to put some talks that I like up on my blog and invite some discussions...

Here's one by Juan Enriquez where he talks about growing energy much the same as growing grains.

What will they think of next?

Well... after cotton, silk, nylon, rayon, polyester, and what not, we now have some new and interesting cloth materials. Bamboo and hemp!! These guys have hit on an idea to make t-shirts out of bamboo and hemp fibers. I think this is a cool idea, given that most of what they say about being environment-friendly is true. We definitely need more such "alternative" forms of everything we use.

But the one thing that really puts me off is the price. Why? If the cost of growing these plants is lesser than cotton, AND they provide more fiber per acre, AND they provide more harvests than cotton, AND you want to make them popular, why are the prices a wee bit in the higher segment? If you are really honest about popularizing these materials, wouldn't it make more sense to price them lower and make buying the shirts more attractive?

Am I back??

Whoooooo...!!! Been a long long time since I had the inclination to blog. I see my last blog was on St. Valentine's Day this year. Seems an eon ago, what with so many events happening in between. A quick recap of what I had happen in my life since February 14th, 2006:

Found a girl (or rather, my elders did), talked with her & her family, chatted with her, liked her, loved her, got engaged to her, spoke & chatted with her even more, fixed a date for the wedding.... all this without ever setting eyes on her once. For those of you for whom arranged marriages are nothing new, you know the fun in this process. For those of you in the dark about this system of marriage, eat your hearts out!!! A week before the wedding was when I finally met my sweetheart. And then, BOY!!, was it tough to get that 1 week of separation out of the way.

That was the life-changing event in the past 9 months. Apart from that, things have been pretty normal... classes, semesters coming and going, meeting project deadlines, writing research papers, winning a NASA Fellowship (no joke, I did!!). But somehow, I just couldn't find the inspiration to write, my inspiration running in other directions, as it were. But now, like a few other things, I think I'll make it a point to be regular here too. So, as the song goes - "Hasta Manana until then"

Book Review

Finished a book by Wilbur Smith yesterday. Have rarely had any time to read novels lately and this was a welcome break. The book was titled “The Leopard Hunts in Darkness”. It was a book with the racial and inter-tribal rivalries of Rhodesia/Zimbabwe as the backdrop. A synopsis can be found on Wilbur smith’s website (http://www.wilbursmithbooks.com/books/leopard.html).  Although the website has this book listed under his “Ballantynes” series, the only link to a Ballantyne is the central character, Craig Mellow, being a descendent of theirs on his mother’s side.

It was a book in Smith’s general style of writing. I am a big fan of his and just absolutely love his Egyptian novels – River God, The Seventh Scroll and Warlock. Almost all his books are Africa-centric, and this one is no different. However, what put me off was that towards the end, Smith seems to have heavily borrowed from “King Solomon’s Mines”. A search for diamonds, said diamonds being buried with an ancient king’s body, only a witch doctor knowing the location, good guys getting trapped in the cave where the body is, king’s body placed in seated position,  -  and this was just a tad too much to be a coincidence for me – king’s body placed directly under a water drip and being slowly encased in the calcium deposit!! What was Smith thinking?? Was he so sure that nobody reads the classics these days and so he could get away with it?


Overall, I felt a bit cheated as I was expecting something better… a lot better, in fact. I was thankful that I decided to borrow the book from our university library instead of buying it. This is one Wilbur Smith creation that I will not miss in my collection. But that does not take away from my love of his books. I still like his style and look forward to reading the ones I have missed so far.

The sun sets on the old year

The old year is no more. Here are a few images of one of the last sunsets of 2005. They were shot at a place called Lake Somerville in Texas on the 28th of December, 2005. Lake Somerville is a 45 minute drive from College Station.

A frozen Bryan

Updating fotografs of the freeze in Bryan-College Station.

My car... couldn't get in bcause the door handles were frozen over.




My bike... whooooooo!!



A tree in front... superbly frozen over.. looked like it was glass-encased.



Our balcony roof.. dripping icicles.




The railing outside the front door.




Frozen water from leaves of the bush out front.

The years I spent with you

The years I spent with you
 Went past like moments few
 In a flash the time flew
 Vanishing as does the morning dew.
 
 But now that you are with me no longer
 And the same time seems to stretch longer
 For the glimpse of your face I hunger
 Wishing on your beauty my eyes may linger.
 
 Things everywhere remind my heart of you
 And make my days so gloomy and blue
 To see, to touch, to hold you
 Other than these, my wishes are few.
 
 In the arms of your betrothed happy you are
 In a place from me away and far
 In me living only memories are
 Tears in the eyes my vision mar.
 
 I wish you everlasting happiness my love
 As I sail away from this protected cove
 To be a nomad and this earth rove
 In search of another to call my love.

The vagaries of weather

This year has been a strange one… weather-wise. We had a torrid summer which just refused to let go. Just a few days ago, during the first week of December, temperatures here were as high as 86 F (30 C). I had never experienced such a long summer in my four years at Bryan-College Station. We had even taken to joking that Texas has officially been handed over to the Australians.

And then, this week, winter kicked in with a bang! Last night, College Station froze over. The thermometer crashed to 25 F (~ -4 C) and to add to the fun, it was raining. The result?? Sheets of ice – on the roads, on the stairs… everywhere. When I got up this morning and looked out the window, I see that my car is covered with a layer of ice… with icicles hanging down the bottom. I come out of my room and look towards the balcony. More icicles!! This was again a new experience for me in B-CS. Talk about extremes!

People were slipping on the roads and stairs … falling… hurting. All because they were unaccustomed to this. The trees and plants had a coating of ice on them that crinkled whenever they swayed in the wind.

And then, when the sun started to peek out a bit, the ice began to melt and slide off the roofs and plants. The sound that made was something else again. “A continuous sliding, tinkling sound” doesn’t do it justice but those are the only words I can think of that even come close.

While I did take some pictures of a frozen B-CS, it’ll be a while before I can put them up here. I am yet to transition from a film SLR camera to a digital one. As of now, I have to get the film processed and the photos printed. I promise that I’ll put them up ASAP.



Hasta mañana.

The end is near...

The end is near… very near!!! Before you cast me as another one of those semi-crazed dorks forewarning you about how the “End Times” are upon us, let me clarify… I mean the end of the Fall semester. It is just 2 weeks away. But with the end in sight, things are threatening to get out of control. Too many deadlines to meet and too little time in a day to do it all. Just thinking of the things due makes me want to cry…

• a proposal evaluation/review due tomorrow for the Theory of Research course


• a term paper for the Statistics in Hydrology class (yet to finish the experimental work.. let alone the writing part)


• an assignment for the same class due this coming Monday


• 7 assignments (mostly all back-log) from the GIS programming course due in 2 weeks (how in hell did I fall so far behind?!?!)


• a journal paper on the application of Neural Networks to develop Pedo-Transfer Functions for soil hydraulic properties

Add to these the general house-keeping tasks, talking to friends, chatting, watching movies, blogging, (MS Word just told me that “blogging” is not a word… how typical!!) … and looks like I’ll hardly have time for oo ma hey (that’s code for eating, sleeping, and er… washing).

     Mixed feelings on missing out on a trip to San Francisco to attend the AGU Conference. Was almost sure of going but prof says no funds right now… so no go. Sad. But that means I have that whole week not going away from the 2 weeks left to finish all my academic dues in. Happy. With almost the entire last week going away without any meaningful work done (thanks to my jaunt to Phoenix, helping DB move… maybe I’ll write about that trip someday), this next week also not slipping away means a lot.

     So, after spending the last whatever minutes gainfully employed in writing this blog (another non-word according to MS), let me sign off for the duration… NO MORE!!! Until the end has come and gone. Wish me luck.

oorina maatu

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Just looking in

Long time no see... I meant that to the blogspot... hadn't run my eyes over a blog for a long long while... but then, I read 1 which made me chuckle...manadalada mathu....: RAM BaTra magaLu......

On the email side of things, Hari sent a link to the TAMU Kannadigaru group... a site dedicated to, of all things in this God's creation, the umpteen potholes on the roads(?) of Bangalore!! For all u curious cats out there, here's the url: www.bangalorepothole.com

My first impressions:

Adopt a pothole??? are they afraid that potholes may become extinct in the near future?? i had no idea that potholes have been added to the list of endangered species... i mean.. aren't they a-thriving in the land of maNNina maga Devve Gowda??

also, the "adoption" raises some bureaucracy-like querries... what would you do if (God forbid!!) the BMP takes it upon itself to wipe the pothole u just adopted off the face of the earth?? would that be tantamount to infanticide? can u get compensated for the loss of a beloved adopted one?? how about if a mechanic or a doctor adopted one and it was flattened?? would they be compensated for loss of income from the family's main bread earner??

and what are u expected to do once u adopt a pothole?? ensure its healthy growth?? feed it with motorists??

and what about those fotos they have up there??? what if some1 has adopted one of those potholes already?? does he/she get a compensation for the use of their loved one's likeness?? & if the age of the pothole is less than 18 yrs, did they take the permission of the legal guardians to put up these fotos on the net???

Thought of winding up there, but......couldn't resist 1 more....

Is BMP planning to do a "virtual"cover up of these potholes?? Might be easier doing it on photoshop than actually filling it up!!

Moments of Joblessness

In a few moments of joblessness, this blogspot came into existence. It is now up to the Gods that watch over the internet to take it someplace. So, as they say, "Watch this spot".