2005 musings...

Taking a leaf out of Moody’s page, here are my 2005 musings, and since I have time to blow, let me do it as the A to Z of 2005.
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A is for anonymous and anonymous stands for my company name and I am not going to mention it because that way somebody could come across it, my boss could find out and fire me for typing this during office hours. But A is for company’s name although my company’s name doesn’t begin with A. Elementary Watson, It’s the same difference…

B is for Beer. Not just 2005, B is reserved for Beer for all years now on.

C is for Car. My first car, a second hand 1998 Mazda Protégé, on which I spent 300 bucks today for Oil, Transmission, Coolant and Air-filter changes.

D is for Dan Brown and his classic book Angels and Demons, the best book I read in all of 2005. Especially, the ambigraphic representations of the elements were unbelievable creativity. Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code also merits a mention. The facts, like those of Greek number phi, The Knights Kemplar and The Priory of Sion were stunning, brilliant and made super reading.

E is for England. They have been super in 2005. They won the ashes, secured the Olympic bid, showed great courage in the face of terrorist attacks and even got their Prince remarried.
E is also for Eclipse, Shankaran’s brand new Mitsubishi Eclipse, driving which gives me a bigger bang than driving my own Mazda.

F is for Federer, the genius Swiss tennis champ who lost a mere 4 matches all of '05.

G can only be for Ganguly. The greatest Indian cricket skipper ever had his worst year to date courtesy one extremely stupid comment in front of the media already intent on sending him home.

H is for Hot Dosa, the mobile restaurant on wheels. I ate their Gobi Manchurian and Dosa every single day I was in Chennai.

I is for Irvine, the SoCal city which welcomed me and gave me a job.

J is for Jason. Ever since I came to US, I have had 2 friends by name Jason at the same time, stored as Jason1 and Jason2 on my mobile. I could never say who when one of them calls. When I pick up the phone and the caller says ”This is Jason”, I always ask “Which one?”

K is for Kytai, my professor. If it had been anybody else, my Masters would have been out the door. She took tolerance to a different limit and stuck up with all my nonsense and made me graduate. Big thanks to her.

L is for Library. Actually, L is for Libraries. The Merill Library at USU with my part time job and such sweet colleagues as Nickee, Carol, Sharolyn, Anita and Jennifer at the ILL department definitely made the summer of 2005 fly past in a jiffy. Also Irvine’s Heritage Park Library, my second home from the time I relocated in Sep till the time I made this job in Nov. Long times spent at the library made me seriously consider a librarian position as a career and though that wish may have faded, it has not died out.

M is for Madras, May and moron. You have to be a moron to visit Madras in May and that’s exactly what I did. My hometown. Even though I made the mistake of visiting in May, Madras is the best. Not a day has passed without me reminiscing about my school/ college days and the floodlit cricket matches and beer with local friends in Besant Nagar beach. Alright, not everyday, but enough times to take up M.

N is for November. November was awesome. First, I took part in the Nanowrimo, the novel writing thing where you write a 50K word novel in a month. This time, I made it upto 20K words, but an obvious and ominous lack of idea and perseverance meant I could never complete it, but it was fun while I was at it. Also, November the month I turned 24, the day after which I landed my job. So, it was a fun and fruitful November. It would have been full circle if there had been rains.

O is for Ommaleys, my buddyroo group from college, who remain unchanged to this day and without whose perseverant ways, the alcohol industry in both India and America would take a step backwards. Our motto “If its there, it will be drunk”.

P is for Places I have been to last year. I went to Phoenix, Las Vegas, Atlanta, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Yellowstone, Yosemite and Zions National Parks last year. Other places I went to also include Chennai, Ooty, Kodai, Bangalore, Bombay and Thirupathi in India and Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia. Each was different and special in its own way, especially because I always went to each of these places with good friends which makes them worth remembering. Here's hoping that will continue in 2006 and beyond.

Q is for Quad Side Café of Merill Library at USU. With girls like Vanessa and Natalie serving there, you really don’t have to be a big coffee drinker to be there. There were times when I, PD, Bhavik, Harshil, Shounak, Anoop et all would sit out at the patio all day watching the girls pass by, asking “ Why not me?”, for a change.

R is for resume. It took me the better part of 2 months to create one and an easy 3 months before i could polish it and send it out and another 4 months before i received a call from an employer. 'The Complete Idiots guide to the Perfect resume' helped me, else it would have taken years. R is also for Raja, my other uncle. We have had our difference of opinions about who is a better cricketer, but there is no point in taking away he is the Master of all card games, especially Literature and also a wizard at chess and crossword.

S is for Sudoku, the number game. I give up. I’m addicted to this game. These days, the first thing I do in the mornings is solve a game in the restroom. Mornings have become more meaningful. For some people, it is crossword. For some, it’s world news. For me, it’s sudoku. It makes my brain sharper in the morning. Okay, that’s a bloody lie, but I’m hooked.

T is for Tennis and my successful attempt at last years Intramurals held at Utah State. The winner’s prize, a T-shirt claiming “Property of USU Intramural Champion” was worn more by Prithvi, my ex-roomie than me, but that was the first tennis tournament I had won and that makes me feel very good whenever I think of it.

U is for Utah State University. It gave me a Masters degree. Should I say more? That was an impossible event.

V is for vetty, the original, my uncle, the same guy who walked the 32 kms from Colaba to Borivali during Mumbai rains. He’s been my guru, and it’s his style/outlook/attitude that I pretend to pass off as my own.

W is for Wyoming’s Yellowstone National Park, the best road trip of 2005, when we camped out and had Tamarind rice with Michelob’s Ultra Lager after which me, Sai, Vignesh and Prithvi indulged in insane conversations till the wee hours about Cholas, Pandiyas, Gandhi and Ganguly. That night of no good!!!

X is for anything. In Mathematics, a variable/ unknown factor is often represented by X. As in math, so in life, X is for everything I had wanted to mention but failed/ forgot to do so in this post.

Y is for Yahoo. I checked my Yahoo mail pretty much each and every single day last year. Y is also for Yossarian, hero of Catch 22.

Z is for Zions National Park. The Angels Landing trail at Zions is the toughest and most picturesque trail I have ever done.

I know you dint make it till here, but still, manners are manners. Good bye and Good luck.

Same Differences

Romit has requested that i post more and his wish is my command. Here's one for starters. And a happy 2006 to y'all i haven't forgot to wish through this post.
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Like Joseph Heller says in the Catch 22‘s introduction, “There is only one catch, and that is catch -22”. Likewise, the intro to this post is “There is only one difference and that is the same difference”.

This is inspired by the Catch -22. I have decided to write a book on something along the same/ different lines. It’s called the ‘Same Difference’. The following explains how I came up with it and how I explained it to JS’ cousin RD, who has since refused to converse with me.

RD: Have you heard of Norwich University?
Me: Yes.
RD: Yes what?
Me: What?
RD: Norwich University!!! Have you heard of it?
Me: Yes.
RD: Where?
Me: Right here. You just mentioned it.

RD: Ooh, Smart Alec, huh. Is that a wise answer?
Me: Not really. It was just funny.

RD: Seriously, Have you heard of Norwich University prior to my mentioning it?
Me: I guess I have.
RD: What do you mean ‘guess’?
Me: The name is not new. So, I might have. Also, I might not have.
RD: Okay, what might you have heard about it?
Me: I might also have not heard about it.
RD: Ok, what might you not have heard about it?
Me: Everything.

RD: Please tell me. What do you know about Norwich University? Have you heard about it or not? Seriously, Please.
Me: I have a feeling I have heard about it. I do not know too much about it, but I have a feeling it is in England. What do you want to know about it?
RD: Well, I actually know about it. I was just finding out if you knew. Its not in England, it’s in Vermont, US.

Me: Oh, okay, Thanks for the information. But where is Vermont?
RD: Don’t you know Vermont?
Me: I do.
RD: How come?
Me: You just mentioned it.
RD: C’mon, admit it. You didn’t know it, didn’t you?
Me: I know Vermont. All I asked was where it is.
RD: Ok, It’s in Northeast USA.
Me: Alright, what is the region called?
RD: It’s the New England region.
Me: So, is Vermont in New England?
RD: Yes, it is.
Me: And this Norwich University is in Vermont, is it?
RD: Yes. It is.
Me: So, This Norwich University is in New England, right?
RD: Yeah. Totally
Me: That’s what I said. I was right.

RD: No. You are not. You said England. It’s in New England.
Me: Alright, tell me what the capital of India is.
RD: Delhi.
Me: Wrong. It’s New Delhi.
RD: They are both the same place.
Me: What? Are Delhi and New Delhi the same place?
RD: Yes!
Me: Then, by same logic, how come England and New England are not same places?

RD: Chokes……….. It’s different.
Me: It is the same difference.
RD: What do you mean ‘Same difference?’
Me: Haven’t you heard of ‘Same Difference?’
RD: I haven’t and that because its just rubbish and you are making it up. There is no such thing, and there can be no such thing. Can you explain it?
Me: Of course I can. Same difference is a term you apply to describe a certain feature which are same and different at the same time.
RD: How can anything be same and different at the same time?
Me: What about the New Delhi/ New England case?
RD: They are not the same.
Me: They are not the same but they are not different either. That’s called same difference.

RD: You are insane. I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about. Give me another example.
Me: Alright. Take the case of an apple and an orange. What is the difference between an apple and an orange?
RD: Color, Taste…
Me: That’s all fine. But isn’t the difference between an apple and an orange the same as the difference between an orange and an apple?
RD: My god, there is a difference between the 2, but they are the same.
Me: There you go. Same difference, my friend, same difference
RD: This is absurd.
Me: It’s a way of life.

RD: Okay, what are you trying to say by all this?
Me: Nothing. But essentially i just wanted to say i was right when i mentioned Norwich was in England.
RD: No, You are not! Its New England.

Me: Okay, tell me what is the difference between the differences of 4 and 2 aand 9 and 7?
RD: You are insane..


And a few more instances of such insanities which i do not want to expose you to.

Please don’t steal my idea while im trying to come up with more ‘same differences’ which can then be made to settle into a plot I have yet to start thinking of to write a book that i never may in 30 years.

Actually, how does it matter, whether you do it or I do it? It’s the same silly difference.

And like the HitchHiker's guide says " From here on, anything, just anything, is suddenly possible."