To bagel or not to bagel

A bagel is not a bagel unless its garlic.
A garlic bagel is not a garlic bagel unless its has jalepeno spread.

To cut to the crap , a bagel is not a bagel unless its a garlic bagel with jalepeno spread.

Romantic scenes from some movies

Some romantic movies from recent movies I watched.

1. The notebook - Why didn't you write to me ?

2. Before Sunrise: "tring tring"

3. Before Sunset- :"I was fine Until.."

4.Casablanca- "we'll always have Paris"


5.Pride and Prejudice- "I am so thankful"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Sc2uZUcr7k

6.Love Actually - Wedding scene"

7. Love actually - Wedding proposal

8. 8. Gone with the wind: "I feel faint"

Cafe's and Observations

I was looking up videos on long distance running on youtube and remembered an incident at the cafe this past weekend.Both me and A were sitting in this cafe, A made sure I had the chair facing the huge window and the counter-knowing that I love watching people.

In walked a lean guy, maybe in his early 40's- very animated and excited in shots and a T. One look at him and I turned towards A and said "See one of your kind, I am sure he is runner". Well for one he was wearing those tiny weeny running shorts. But anyways A said - "Hmm maybe not, anyone can wear shorts -plus maybe he went for a jog this morning". Then he did something that made me burst out in my typical "guy"ish laughter . This guy started twisting himself in all those stretches I see A stretching in. Its got to such a point that its become more like the pavlov's reaction-he is ready to stretch at the drop of the word "run"!! :D be it at a party, a restaurant, at the library- just does not matter he brings his left arm stretched out and rotates it clockwise in front of this body holding the wrist with his right hand.

Oh well, you know one when you see one when you live with one.

Ishq Mujhko Nahin- Mirza Ghalib

Ishq Mujhko Nahin - Chitra Singh
Artist : Jagjit Singh
Album : Mirza Ghalib

Listen here

All references here

ishq mujhako nahiin vahashat hii sahii
merii vahashat terii shoharat hii sahii

[If you say its not passion/love but my madness, so be it-call it madness.
My madness (won't do you any harm; rather, your beauty will be spoken of in every house which) will give you fame]

ham bhii dushman to nahiin hain apane
Gair ko tujh se mohabbat hii sahii

[I am not my own enemy, if others love you so be it]
[Realising that you have accepted the rival's (others) love, I am not my own enemy that I would continue my madness for you]

ham koii tarkevafaa karate hain
na sahii ishq musiibat hii sahii

Two readings:

1) We're always faithful-- if not indeed to passion, then to difficulty (Whether or not we can count on passion, we can always count on difficulty to be our constant companion-- and one whose company we never seek to escape.)

2) We're always faithful-- if indeed we didn't have passion, then that would be difficulty indeed! (The suffering caused by passion is nothing compared to the real suffering that would be caused by the lack of passion.)

Blog writing style and blogs

My favorite style of blog writing. in other words blogs I kinda go back to -have these

1. Style of Humour: Cynical.
2. Heaviness rating: very light/light.
3. About the author: Author reveals a lot about her/his life: but does so with gay abandon of not taking it seriously by the readers.
4. Fun factor: 10
5. Pics in blogs : Pletty useless stuff- does not have to be a photography master piece.
6. Creativity: 10
7. Writes about dogs: 10
8. Realizes human errors- but looks at them in a rather humorous way.

With all this in mind where do I head to: www.dooce.com

I worked from home today

me: Hi
Co-worker: Hi there como estas?
me: bein, gracias
me: :P
me: que taal?
me: ok thats where I stop..
me: what did I miss for lunch today
me: ?
Co-worker: No se. I'm home
me: Oh , ok.
Co-worker: Remionds me.. I shoudl go have soem lunch!!
me: :)
Co-worker: You're not in teh office?
Co-worker: Playing hooky?
me: nope, I am sipping my masala chai
me: which taste very diffrent in reality from what you find at Starbucks.- FYI
me: tastes
Co-worker: Were I you, I'd be sitting under a tree on the beach somewhere
me: thats the plan for the eve...
Co-worker: haven;t had one there. Startbucks is where i go for coffe, and teh ocasional hot chocolate
me: I spent a fortune at Starbucks last month :(
Co-worker: Yeah, I don;t use cash there.,
Co-worker: Only gift cards, that others give me.
me: good for you :)
Co-worker: Too easy to spend a fortune
Co-worker: serioulsy, 3-4 bucks for a drink?!
me: yeah..I know those $3 do pile up!
Co-worker: I'd better off buying a beer.
me: hehe- but I have a weakness for coffee
Co-worker: But then... I can;t take a beer to teh office.
me: :(
me: beer is not my weakness coffee is
me: you know they should let us take beer to office
me: we'll all be happy at work right?
Co-worker: For centuries beer has been a staple food.
Co-worker: yeah!
me: I'd be even ok if they let me have a tequila shot after or before lunch. thats all I ask
me: thats all I ask to be happy- is that all that bad?. or too much to ask for?
Co-worker: What about teh lightwaight mean drunks?
me: well noone would be in a state to recognise one would they?
Co-worker: I worked with alady once that didn;t mid the occasioanl shot before getting to the office..
me: ;)
me: why did you quit?
me: is the question
Co-worker: ..before starting to work.. after starting to work.. during break.. before lunch.. at lunch.. after lunch..
Co-worker: mid afternoon snack-shot
Co-worker: it was interesting.
me: ok, whats the company I need to look it up
Co-worker:
me: and its urgent
me: yeah rrright- good one.
Co-worker: : )
me: did make me laugh
Co-worker: She got 'laid-off'
me: hehe
me: wonder why...
Co-worker: H didn;t like her
me: wonder why -AGAIN
Co-worker: Have you seen the Black eye'd peas video that Alanis Morrisette did?
me: why are JP's (the daily trivia guy) questions so tough, they make me sweat... I have sweaty palsm opening his emails.
me: palms
me: every day the same terror- every morning..
me: I feel like cheating sometimes.. ask google or something - then decide it would go against the team philosphy of being a team.
me: so quitly wait for the answers feeling miserable abt it.
me: quietly
Co-worker: I didn;t answer this AM, since C tainted it...(he hit reply all and tried to guess the answer)
me: I dont care for tainted questions
Co-worker: The 9 banded armadillo was pretty easy
me: yeah but thats a good excuse from my end
me: you know what.. I dont even know what a armadilo is
Co-worker: so was the zonkey
me: so tell me how can I find it easy
Co-worker: WHAT?
me: ok zonkey would be the best guess
me: dont WHAT me.
me: I am from asia... remember? :D
me: I have never met a armadilo i my life
Co-worker: There are armadillos there!
me: well not in india
me: and I didnt grow up reading abt armadilo's
me: and when I came here I didnt read abt one eiether- no one told me about an armadilo *sob*
me: I was told to pass my VLSI tests and networking exams not read abt armadilo's *sob again*
Co-worker: Isn't there an armadillo in a disney cartoon?
me: as I said... I dont get to watch them as often as you do - but I promise you I will ge tthere some day
Co-worker: Yeah! Pluto was in a cartoon with one.
Co-worker: I dont; watch tehm too often either.
Co-worker: My mind is just full of semi-useless knowledge.
me: and armadilo and 9 branded at that?!!
me: whoa.. thats like too much for me
me: to handle in the morning
Co-worker: I read about teh 9-banded armadillo somewhere and how it was related to teh cure for leprosy
Co-worker: this was after that question..
Co-worker: one of the first things to popup on google.
me: ok, now it makes sense..leprosy is something I have heard of - thanks for helping me relate to someting
Co-worker: I saw teh zonkny in Tijuana
Co-worker: or zorse..
me: see there you go...
Co-worker: whatever.
me: hehe you are confused
Co-worker: it was a donkey - painted like a zebra.
me: zonkey is a zebra and a monkey?!!!
me: LOL
Co-worker: and american and japanese tourists were paying to take a picture with it.
me: oh no.
me: now with a zonkey I would want a pic of mine not a zprse
me: zorse
Co-worker: zebra and a monkey... good one

Vedanta center at Santa Barbara

Today I took some time off and visited the Vedanta Center at Santa Barbara, my colleague has been talking about it since a while now, so we drove up Sheffield drive, a right on east Valley road and a left on Ladera lane, and up the hill. And on your left you come across this quite unassuming place nestled in the greenery.

We paused to take in the quietness, there was a stillness in the air with the mountains looming behind and beautiful yellow, red purple flowers in full bloom and somewhere far away you could hear the birds sing. It was a well maintained path way. She showed me the monastery where the nuns who come from LA stay during the weekend.

We drove down a little hill by means of a gravel maintained path way. You see the Buddhist bell and the little book store, surprisingly she led me to the book store instead of the temple.

The book store was a charming little place. There I met Al, who has a Ph.d in religion and mentioned some specialization I could not grasp. He is the student of Joseph Campbell- and mentioned that he had traveled to India for 6 months visiting temples to research ancient India.

Then met another Nun , ph.d in yet another field who knew much more about India than me, fascinating people. I walked around the store to discover fascinating books on Vedanta, Hinduism, Christianity, Buddism and Islam. A book called "Am I a hindu" caught my eye, mentioned it to A, since he was looking out for a book along those lines. Spent quite a while chatting with her and she told me that there is a Vedanta center and a retreat back in San Francisco that I promise to follow up sometime.

We walked down to the temple, it is is not magnificent - far from it, but its calming and soothing, from the steps you can see the glistening pacific ocean and hear the stillness, walking into the temple you see benches as you see in churches, found a few people meditating. A picture of Rama krishna and Jesus set side by side, thats about it. But the calmness touched me, I tried thinking of a 100 things but there was a certain stillness about it that forced me to be in the moment.

After spending some time meditating ( I just sat in the stillness - is that meditating?), we walked down a little further to the nuns quarters, where they cook for the devotees during the weekend, it was so pretty, with well maintained lengthy table placed in a room which had huge glass windows through which you could see the entire pacific and the little Santa Barbara downtown- stern's wharf.

I know nothing about Vedanta, but I do have a compulsion to discover more about it. I am not a very religious person, but seek the calmness I experienced, is this my first step to discover my religion?. or will this feeling be lost in time?

A little history about it before you go,

In 1944, Spencer Kellogg donated his beautiful country estate in the hills of Santa Barbara to the Vedanta Society of Southern California. At the time, the 30-acre property, as well as the rolling hills surrounding it, was largely undeveloped and thick with chaparral. The estate included a house, a small shrine building and an art room.

In 1946, a group of monks and a retired contractor came to Santa Barbara to build four bedrooms around the existing art room. When the renovation was completed in 1947, the estate was designated a convent and a group of nuns from the Hollywood center took up full-time residence. At this time, the first monastic vows for women were given to three members of the convent.

Lutah Maria Riggs, a well-known local architect, was hired and she designed a beautiful building inspired by early South Indian wood temples.

The temple was dedicated in 1956, and three years later it was the location for the vows of sannyas (final monastic vows) given to women in America for the first time by the Ramakrishna Order of India. The convent since that time has steadily developed and matured. As it moves into the 21st century, the convent, now firmly established, regards the future of women's Western monasticism with optimism.

You can visit the website here. And see the beautify of it all here

An Apple keeps Microsoft away.

Nah, never been a fan of Microsoft though I have almost forever been using windows as my daily bread OS.

I am no geek to talk about .dll's and system set-up and performance, as a lame user I know windows is not reliable, its performance is terrible, crashes without warning and to top it all when I close my excel document it closes up without confirmation or warning.

And of course I hate imitators and thieves- "you take Mona Lisa and make it cheap,worthy to be hung on every hall and almost every home doesn't really match up to the original Mona Lisa"- hah- that's my original quote about windows

But one very interesting docudrama that I came very recently on youtube was 'pirates of silicon valley'- very fascinating, it talks of two people of our times who changed the entire IT world as we know it today.Mr Steve Jobs from Apple and Mr Bill Gates from Microsoft.

Did you know.

1. Microsoft own part of Apple, in that it own millions worth of Apple shares.

2. That Apple stole the graphic interface technology from Xerox, xerox practically gave it away.

3. That Steve Jobs initially considered IBM to be the competitor and did not notice Mr Bill Gates steal from him.

4. That Steve Jobs has travelled to places like India looking for spirituality.

5. That Steve Jobs has tried weed?

6. That Steve Jobs refused to accept his baby from his girlfriend?. I read somewhere Lisa, is finally now part of the family.

7. That Microsoft and Apple almost became collaborators?. If they had what would I have around my arms -err not my ipod but a cross between the zune and ipod?.

8. That Steve Jobs is a very difficult man to work with, he emotionally (used to ?) abuse his workers.

Ok, now that you have those titbits off you go to youtube, just type in pirates of silicon valley - you can even watch them in bits and pieces of about 8 sections of about 9 minutes each.But I was truly fascinated and awed by these guys- its because of them I have a (windows XP) run laptop that I am typing this post on.

BTW some of my co-workers have vistas loaded laptops, they say its reaallly cool- with the looks and usability etc- then they sigh and say "but in the end its windows" it crashes!.

for some mud slinging on Microsoft go here (everyone loves mud slinging ;) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsrKDBIs6hY