Wednesday, March 17, 2004

Airport Wait....

9.15am
Wednesday morning....waiting at the lounge to board my flight back to Austin. It snowed here in Detroit all yesterday and most of the night. My flight which was to leave at 10.30am is now delayed by 30 minutes due to bad weather. Probably because its a weekday, I see that there are only 15-17 people in my lounge and more are just trickling in. My stomach starts growling and I plan to have a beagle at one of the coffee shops. This place has a vareity of beagles and I choose something called the 'Tomatoe Spice Beagle'. As Im about to place the order, a huge fly comes in from no where and sits on the beagle! I guess she placed the order before I could! I change my mind and go to another cafe, and get something called a Cinnabun(cinnamon flavored bun) with X-Tra Frosting! Yummy... that really looks good. My stomach is happy just looking at it. Reminds me of my neice Ashwini and I say "NANOOOM.... NANOOOM" in my mind! The Cinnabun is really nice as Im inclined towards eating a lot of sweets. Usually I like to go around airports and check them out thoroughly in every nook and corner. When I used to go to NJ i used to love doing that as the airports there were much bigger and better. This could also be a bigger airport but security reasons have confined me just to my terminal gate B11 and a couple of others. So not much to look around here today. Then in such cases i switch on to my other option, observing people. There isn't much to do that too as there aren't many of them today. Maybe I will change my terminal gate and sit at another one where a flight is to leave shortly. The track by Pink Floyd..."What Do You Want From Me" plays in my head...especially the first line "As I look around the room tonite"
By the way this old terminal really really sucks....and I proudly say that it is at par with one of the busy railway stations in Bombay with less people or for those who know what ST buses are and how do ST stands look like, its nothing more than that.
Another passenger comes into the lounge with another Cinnabun with extra Frosting!
I guess today is bathing day for most of the airplanes at the airport :) Each of the aircrafts are bieng sprayed with what I most probably think is high pressure steam. There are these guys on cranes with hoses and as a plane get unloaded from its passengers they spray it with some high pressure white foam.
They announce (10.43am) that my flight has just landed and will be cleaned to be reboarded. I move to my own terminal gate B11 and right in front of me is a man who seems to be a gadget freak. he is talking on his cell all loud and then starts playing with its alarm and other tunes. he seems to be well in his forties or higher and dressed in a business suit. After talking loud and leaving a couple of voicemails, playing with all the tunes and ringers at a high volume, keeps it aside and comes out with something like a pocket tv or a planner or probably a hand-held. Passengers from the flight that just landed start coming out. Mu favorite passtime......observing them!! Dunno where that flight has come from, but the passsengers do not look that tired, must be a short flight. Ohhh no, I hear one of them saying, it was a 6 hour delay! Ohhh gosh!! Hope I reach on time. There comes one passenger......comes out and starts picking his nose....EEEEE!! No Deepali, he is just passing by, nowhere in front of me! :)
A total of 25 passengers at my terminal gate so far!
Well boarding now! The flight is light, and the the passenger next to me is the gadget freak I saw at the airport! So far travel is coool. Next stop at Chicago...

12.00 noon
Saw a bunch of kids at the Chicago airport, most of them were in the age of 12-16 months, and Boy Ohhh Boy! I say our Ashwini is much much smarter and joyous and active and what not than kids bigger than her in age! The kind of stamina and activity that Ashwini shows is I guess equivalent to someone who is double her age. Though I guess in all other ways kids or should I say babies, are all alike, like Ashwini one of these kids loved to play with the given piece of paper and also made similar sounds like Ashwini! Well none of them said NANOOM NANOOOM nor could anyone clap and point to themselves like our Ashwini does!! Heh Heh !! Three cheers to Ashwini!! Yeyyyyyyyyyeeeee!!!


Ashwini.....Ashwini

It is really amazing when you see time do its wonderful wonders! The last four days have been sooo coool and climatically cold (from Austin to Michigan at my sister's place) I saw my neice Ashwini(now a year old) after almost a year or to be precise 9 months! And what should I say other than that she is just a bundle of joy. Ever since she has learned to crawl and now stand (with some support) her stamina to perfect these movements is inexhaustible. All she wants to do is stand, stand and stand!! Then she gets tired pulling herself up with her hands and then the accessories go into action....the mouth. So now its the left hand, right hand and the mouth to latch on to the support against which she is trying to pull herself up and stand. Its a joy to watch her trying to reason out things and communicate with us in a language of her own which goes..."Chuckle Chuckle...Klak Kluk Klak Kluk" and then a deep roar from the throat which is a mixture of Grrrrrr & Hrrrrrrr together. NaaaNooom NaaaNooom means i am hungry and please give me food! Its just absolute joy and total entertainment to be with her all the time. I left today and she was down with fever, but now when I spoke to my sister, she told me she was fine. You can see Ashwini by clicking here.

   [ posted by PseudoFreud @ 9:52 PM ] [ | ]

   Tuesday, March 16, 2004  

Benny Hinn in Mumbai

A followup to the Feb 14th post on BlogofParag regarding the visit of Benny Hinn, the so called self proclaimed messenger of Christ! I was leisurely flipping through the some of the odd 300 channels to find something interesting to watch and of all channels I came across TBN which stands for Trinity Broadcasting Network. This channel has programs and events propogating Christianity and I coincidently came across the coverage of Benny Hinn's recent visit to Bombay. He had called an old lady and her daughter on the stage and the lady was not able to walk for the last 14 years. Also the lady turned out to be a maharashtrian koli lady(fisherman's wife) and there was a Pastor translating stuff for Benny Hinn to the old lady and vice-versa! As I started watching the conversation went somewhat like this:
Benny Hinn(BH) : This lady has not been able to walk for the last 14 years and now Christ has seen her plight and given her the power to walk! (The pastor translates everything in Marathi to the lady and then in hindi to everybody else.

BH: to the old lady: Thank the Lord for giving the power to walk and cure you of your ailments. Then turns to her daughter and aska: Have you seen your mother walking like this in the last 14 years?
Daughter: NO
BH(ecstatic): See here all...Its not my power, Christ has seen her suffering and granted her the power to walk. Everybody stand up and praise the Lord by saying Hallellujah.....Hallellujah!!

At this moment I could hardly hear anybody saying this, but surely did hear a lot of whistles and laughter! :) Mumbai crowd does live upto it whether its a cricket match or Benny Hinn....they are there to enjoy I guess!
A woman starts walking after 14 years, man....I surely would like to bust this racket..if they put up some prize money for it ;)

   [ posted by PseudoFreud @ 11:23 PM ] [ | ]

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Graphics or Graphic??

Now I can upload pictures onto my blog! Also gave a new look by taking out the sunflowers and adding more graphics to make the title 'Graphic'...This is just the start, will try to improve on the quality and choice of pictures as I try to find some good ones.

   [ posted by PseudoFreud @ 1:28 AM ] [ | ]

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   Sunday, March 14, 2004  

Andaman A Paradise still exists!!!

   [ posted by PseudoFreud @ 6:17 PM ] [ | ]

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   Sunday, March 07, 2004  

HOW MANY F's????
Quickly read through the following text and count the number of F's in it.

FINISHED FILES ARE THE RESULT OF YEARS OF SCIENTIFIC STUDY COMBINED WITH THE EXPERIENCE OF YEARS

Managed it?

Scroll down only after you have counted them!







How many?

Three or Four??

Well there are six ! Read again!

FINISHED FILES ARE THE RESULT OF YEARS OF SCIENTIFIC STUDY COMBINED WITH THE EXPERIENCE OF YEARS

The reason is that the brain cannot process the word "OF" as easily as other words.....Is it true??
Hmmm, should confirm this!!

   [ posted by PseudoFreud @ 2:12 PM ] [ | ]

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Weekend Movie Update...

Saw the movie Pinjar on Friday. I knew that Urmila Matondkar turned 30 sometime back.....but now she proves her age with Pinjar! I couldn't understand or missed some part, to know why the movie was named so! or is it only because she never applies Pinjar(its Kum-Kum for those who don't know) throughout the entire movie. The movie is really made well with Manoj Vajpayee giving an excellent performance and Urmila supporting him in itUrmila giving an excellent performance and Manoj supporting her in it. :) The movie is free flowing with no real emotional outbursts and the main cast not shouting to prove their talent. The dialogue delivery is suttle yet powerful..the movie sometimes gets mushy only 2-3 times but thats OK..
Also saw Once Upon a Time in Mexico and the only thing I have to say about this movie is Antonio Banderas out does Rajnikant 5 times.......No 10 times or just plainly n-times in his tricks with guns and bazookas! Except for the wonderful 5.1 surround effect, we just couldn't help ourselves laughing!......hysterically!!!!!

   [ posted by PseudoFreud @ 11:00 AM ] [ | ]

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Cultural Unity in Political Diversity!

Couldn't resist mentioning picture #4 in the following array of Holi pics....the PM's sincere bodygaurds especially the one with the moustache, has been around for several years and PMs and haven't seen him smile to date! Even while participating in the Holi celebrations with the elite of the country he maintains his strict vigil and sincere duties...
As for the other pictures, I don't know whether it is just the spirit of Holi or is it the various constituencies bringing out the color!
Correct me if Im wrong, but I think these are the first elections when politicians are being endorsed by beautiful film celebreties & colorful festivals! Or is it just my Pseudo-thoughts that make me think the other way???
Anyways, whatever..... it is really good to see the ever thoughtful ABP, hardliner LKA, the *Alien* Sonia and the *Half-Alien kids* celebrating sports and festivals in their individual spirits!!

Pics1-10

   [ posted by PseudoFreud @ 10:32 AM ] [ | ]

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BELIEVE IT OR NOT!!

Yes, Its true, every word of it...and I still can't believe it! I was going to a nearby mall on Saturday by the city bus. The route to the mall has its major portion running through US 183, one of the busy freeways running through the city. The bus would probably be at a speed of 50-60mph. Suddenly what I see is the bus driver took off its seat belt and got out from his seat, stood beside his seat and was driving the bus on a freeway standing!(Probably cruise control) As if this was not enough, he then leaves the steering and goes near the exit door on his far right...bends down to pick up something and then rushes back to the seat. In the mean time I see a Ford taurus joining the freeway from the right and the bugger(Taurus guy) gets something into him and changes his lanes suddenly to get into the left most lane anticipating that our bus would slow down seeing him changing lanes!! Little does he know that the bus is on some sort of coool cruise control with the driver out from his seat doing a circus and picking up something that he dropped! The Taurus crosses into our lane in front of us, guess it slowed down due to changing lanes or the bus speeded up a bit... I don't know but just missed the Taurus from hitting its rear. By the time the Taurus was just exiting our lane and crossing to our left, our bus driver rises up to look into the windscreen and seeing the Taurus does something(probably take it out of cruise control or something!) and the bus suddenly decellerates with a jerk and misses the Taurus. Phew!! that was really really close, and everybody in the bus was just dumb struck....as to what the driver was upto.
Each bus has a survellience camera and inspite of knowing that, the driver did such a thing...guess he knows capmetro very well or least cares for his job as he did for his fellow passengers! The whole incident took place in about 30-35 seconds probably...
I think Im definitely meant to live on this earth!! :)))

   [ posted by PseudoFreud @ 9:53 AM ] [ | ]

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   Friday, March 05, 2004  

Celina Jaitly campaigning for Indian politics!!

Check this pictutre on www.timesofindia.com
Does she have hair on her chest????? :))) OOOOOOOOOHHHHHHH.....BWAAAHHHHHAAHAHAHA
Some might think this to be crude humor, but thats how the picture has come out to be! The threads of the dress material spring out like masculine chest hair!! Just couldn't resist pointing that out ;)
Check out the Times Of India link below!

   [ posted by PseudoFreud @ 3:23 PM ] [ | ]

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Late Night Talk Shows!

I think the more late it gets the more worse shows you get to see! Carson Deli is just zero in terms of hosting a talk show!

   [ posted by PseudoFreud @ 12:32 AM ] [ | ]

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Late Night Talk Shows!

I see Jay Leno and Dave Letterman quite often and I guess both have still lived upto their jokes and have always had a class in their talk. Conan O'Brien and Craig Kilborn are just unbearable. It feels like Conan is just desperately trying to keep his show going with his sick jokes. And the same with Craig...I don't understand why can't NBC just stop him.
Its surprising and wonderful to see some kids on TV when they are so free, natural and their ownself in front of the camera. JayLeno had these kid inventors presenting their inventions and the first one had a cereal mixer which was ofcourse for fun sake, but the kid himself was so free and camera-unconscious that he was really having the time of his life.

   [ posted by PseudoFreud @ 12:26 AM ] [ | ]

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   Wednesday, March 03, 2004  

St. Teresa's High School, Girgaum, Bombay 400 004....My school!
Talking about students on my previous blog, made me remember what kind of a student was in high school. My elder sister(3 years) and myself are from the same school...St. Teresa's High School. Like most girls my sister was always a sincere hardworker and ofcourse me the mischevious non hardworker. Consequently we both were well known in our school, my sister due to her intelligence and me cos I was her brother (shameless...Ain't I :) There is this incident that my Aai always mentions about...I was being taken to school(i must have been in the 1st grade I guess) by my uncle one morning and on the way I suddenly started groaning complaining that I had a severe stomach ache. My uncle did think twice for a moment but then picked me up on his shoulders and we started back home. I was groaning all the way back. Once we reached home, I lay there asleep for sometime and then suddenly I was up and running all around the house! I know I was mischevious and sometimes still am, but so much... I myself don't believe it. Wonder why I didn't try my hand at acting!! :)
Our school had a reunion party last Saturday. The pictures are on their way, being uploaded. Once they are up, we might get to see who has changed by how much. It will be almost 16 years now after we all left school. And as for me I haven't met anybody after that. How I really wish i was there for such reunions. Following the descriptions of the reunions on our school group mail made me nostalgic, and this was my contribution to our group:

Hi all,
First and foremost.....Bernice...thanks a lot for the colorful explaination....no puns!! im serioous! It was very well written, and we had the real picture of the reunion in a short description. Why feel that we would be bored reading it????? Anything written by taking efforts is always welcome rather than just copy-pasting or FWDing useless emails and PJ's or discussing sensex figures on a school groupmail ;). So please take that out of your mind.. What ramona said does have a lot of meaning especially now when you look back! Its nice of you to take note of such things. Thinking about loitering around...i remember getting Sis. Cynthia's cane beatings on our legs for roaming around the chowpatty part next to our school during a rainy season and coming in late after the lunch break was over. I even remember she always mistook my name for dharmendra instead of of my real name, and I always used to correct her and then she used to smile...Kind of a soother for her probably rising temper. Dunno whether she just pretended about the temper...cos when look back now I feel had she not been strict and had i not had that cane on my legs, I surely would have been something else,obviously not better thsn what Im now! The disclipine of Sister Cynthia, Eugene, Helen, Jesse and .... ohh yes remember Florine??? Yeah and the ever kind and calm Evette. The punch of a flat hand(we call it 'dhapata' in marathi...cant get the right translation...or am I *Lost in Translation*)on our back by Mishra and the red remarks for not doing the hw's by Bagan(I still hate maths :( Ofcouse Simon, sincerety shone on his face while teaching, even after travelling all the way from Vasai to Charni Road in a jam packed train. Hats off and salutes to all of them.....I always believe that when you wake up every morning the first thing you read or the first song that you hear makes an imprint on your brain. you will probably remember that for a longer period of your life as compared to other things that you encounter in your daily life. Our school teachers were also similar, laying an imprint on our minds in the *mornings* of our life and the values that they taught us regarding disclipine, strictness, liniency and care of others will always stay. The most important thing about our teachers was they knew what they had to do for us and gave their 100% in doing so...

Where's my School???

Did a search on Google for St. Teresa's High School and did not get any hits!!! There are two St. Teresa's High Schools in Bombay, the other one located in Bandra which is a girl's school.
Feels kind of sorry that your school did not get caught in Google's webcrawler .....Hmmm Think I got to do something about it...Hopefully this post should appear sometime on Google!!

   [ posted by PseudoFreud @ 5:48 PM ] [ | ]

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Students Students Students!!!

I teach General Chemistry as a TA(Teaching Assistant) for my professor at school. The students had their midterm last week and I gave them their papers today after grading them. I was pretty linient about the grading this time defying the strictness of the answer key. But students are students! There was this one student who who got a 81 out of 100 and wanted an explaination to all the points cut on her test. I was glad to give her an explaination but then she started demanding points for work done wrong, asking for partial credit. I kept on listening to her and when she was done with her *demands* I pulled out the answer key and showed her the actual grading system. Then I xplained to her that where all I was supposed to give her a zero and still had given her credit for atleast trying out the equation. I started cutting those extra points that I had given her and she was shocked to seee her grades drop drastically. So in the end I told her she would not get any extra points and her reason for all this persuasion was that she was trying to be a student hell bent on getting more points!!!! Goodness what persuasion.....wish I was so persuasive in my school days....I was least worried of the score I got, leave aside going and talking to the professor about any justification for points cut!

   [ posted by PseudoFreud @ 5:12 PM ] [ | ]

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   Monday, March 01, 2004  

The Oscars just got over and Lord of the Rings: The return of the King swept thro all its 11 nominations tying up the records with BenHur and Titanic. The movie really deserves the Oscars. Charlize Theron won the best actress for Monster and Sean Penn the Best actor for Mystic River. Sadly Clint Eastwood did not win for Mystic River. Rene won the best supporting actress for Cold Mountain(a UT alumni) and Tim Robbins for Mystic River. Among my other favorites Clint Eastwood lost, Naomi Watts lost too and so did Johnny Depp for Pirated of the Carribean. Master and Commander got one for Best Cinematography.

   [ posted by PseudoFreud @ 12:33 AM ] [ | ]

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