This is winter baby!!!!!

Snow, snow and more snow. That's all you can see these days in Amherst, MA. Hell I was wrong when I thought it was winter already in November. Right now, all you can see is 4-5 feet piles of snow where it's not been cleared (basically everywhere apart from roads and sidewalks. And where there are no heaps, there lies a steady sea of shin to knee deep snow. And to top it all, it has to rain in the midst of a major snow session to give ice frosting on the trees. The silver lining is that the days are getting longer (from 4 pm darkness to 5 pm darkness :P).

From the sweltering sun in India to the oceans of snow in Amherst, it's all been happening for me over the last week.

It's all been happening!!!!!

Writing, taking a layoff, writing more, another layoff...........such is life!
But to say the least, it's all been happening over the last couple of months. I got through very nicely with my courses.....no mishaps there. I visited India over the winter break, where it was very very weird in the beginning.......can't imagine why it can be so awkward to go back home, well you just have to be there to know how it feels. I took to a headshave from my shoulder length hair, and stupefied a few people!!!!!! As part of the India trip, visited heaven on earth-GOA. That I have to say, was the high point of the trip. I finally saw a totally obedient dog-they really irritate me when they call the shots!!!!!
All said and done, I am really glad to be back here in Amherst, the vacation had gone to boring proportions; guess I'm tuned to keeping myself occupied with something or the other. Since I could barely sleep 20 mins. on the 15 hour flight to India, I would say that the 5 hours of sleep i got on the way back was a blessing. Then the busride from New York to Amherst......I'd rather stay out of the travel details!
One thing I noticed in India was the lack of tuning to the current hits on the Hindi music scene. And that was really weird not only for me, but for a lot of people around me- Guru not able to identify songs, I mean people went to such lengths as tell me that I'd lost the one talent I had-(:p I showed them in time of course, that it's not only hard but impossible to match my range of talents--------you know I'm talking about you!!!!!!!!!)
I got hold of some songs that had happened over the last 6 months and for sure, some really good music had happened over this period!!!!!! Kept some people happy, and now I'm, back to my classicrock and oldies!!!!!!!! And always will be!!!!!!!!!!
Anyways, i think I'll crash now. The entire travel thing has left me feeling like trampled grass!!!!!! God bless people.

Maharashtra V Bihar

This entire Maharashtra-Bihar thing is now really going out of hand. On one hand you have the leaders from Bihar making stupid statements, on the other we have Uddav, who is now talking stuff, as if one Raj was not enough for the entire issue. And what happened on route 332 was a totally weird issue in itself. The kid said stuff like "I'll show you what Bihar is". Well damn well he has. But it's time to remind both the parties involved here that it is not yet the law of the jungle.

The Man Asian Literary Prize

This is for the wishful writers of today, there is an award out there that goes to unpublished work.
I am sorry to say though, that Amit Varma's book could make it to the 20 list but not to the top 5 shortlisted. Amit Varma writes the popular blog Indiauncut. I am a very big fan. The guy manages to get a fantastic perspective about things that come up in the news, and other general topics. Weird sometimes, but fantastic all the same.
To check out the 2008 Man Asian Literary Prize, go to http://www.manasianliteraryprize.org/2008/index.php

Please save me......this is really such a mess!!!

Weird things have happened to this world and at the present moment I can find none more weird than the "Blogging Plant".
Check it out at http://uk.news.yahoo.com/4/20081021/twl-blogging-plant-grows-big-in-japan-41f21e0.html

The Google G1 Android

After a long wait, the google phone is finally here. It's called the Google Android G1, in collaboration with T-Mobile. It's gonna land in the market on the 27th of October. To check it out, go to
www.google-phone.com/google-phone-gphone-features-and-specifications
I would certainly recommend watching the YouTube videos embedded in the above site to everyone, especially to gizmo freaks and cellphone crazy people.
As far as I am concerned, this is the thing for tomorrow, technology is surpassing levels at a maddening pace for sure!

Cooking again....

Today we decided to waddle into unknown territory.....we tried making shrimp, and believe it or not, the attempt was more than decent. in fact i would say that that curry was awesome with rice. so much so for the stress with cooking when i came here. its now more fun to get into it with the roomies and try out new stuff.
A famous quote from one of my favorite novels....Forrest Gump....yes it was originally a novel, and trust me much better than the movie.

Bubba Blue (Mykelti Williamson) Shrimp is the fruit of the sea. You can barbecue it, boil it, broil it, bake it, sautee it. There's, um, shrimp kebabs, shrimp creole, shrimp gumbo, pan fried, deep fried, stir fried. There's pineapple shrimp and lemon shrimp, coconut shrimp, pepper shrimp, shrimp soup, shrimp stew, shrimp salad, shrimp and potatoes, shrimp burger, shrimp sandwich... That's, that's about it.