ThousandThoughts

Stuck in a car on a highway.. that too on a winter night!!!

2011-08-06T23:02:00.000-07:00

It was on a cold night in march that we decided to go bowling in brunswick. Now why would we drive all the way to brunswick for that... I am not sure.
Having lived in US northeast for about 2.5 years, I know how bad winters can be. But it's that "I am getting into a car right in my apartment parking.. getting out right at the entrance of the bowling alley and getting back in" confidence that led me to wear a regular leather jacket and rush out.
We were happily driving down the highway next to newark airport watching an airplane land (an awesome sight). All of the sudden, our car started slowing down and my friend drove it to the shoulder and right after we sneaked into the shoulder, the car just STOPPED! I mean just STOPPED!

Even after multiple attempts the car did not start. We were not sure what to do. We thought of getting down and pushing the car thinking battery is out of charge and that might help. But wait a minute.. if that is indeed the case, a running car would not have stopped (I mean the battery keeps getting charged when a car is in motion). But when the other alternative is suffering longer in the chilly winter, we let our knowledge of basic physics/cars sit aside and got down and started pushing it... no luck.
Then one of my friend's wife called her dad expecting some suggestion.
she on the phone : "papa, Baddha saru che" (daddy, everything is fine)
Are you kidding me everything is fine? We are stuck on a highway on a cold winter night, without enough winter gear, next to an airport runway by the bushes and not sure if we should call 911 because the guy who was driving does not have insurance... Are you kidding me everything is fine?
then after some che che and che (folks who don't understand Gujarati can only understand that word), she came up with an idea. Too bad that did not work either. Finally we decided to get out and wave hands so that someone would stop and help. That is where the fun starts.
Ohh yeah, in the midst of all these another friend needed to use the toilet... now I can understand her instructor told her drinking lots of water is good for health and weight reduction, but drinking too much water when its cold and when you are driving far in a 10 yr old car is not exactly the best thing to do... this is something I learnt after this incident though. Now she did ask her husband to go into the bushes to find if its safe.... but the husband decided not to act too brave...
Now her look said "Before getting married, when you were my boyfriend, you would have definitely done it to score a point" and the evil look in his eyes said "Mwhahahahahah, we are married now " .. anyways this prompted her to come up with the idea of waving hands so that someone would help.

But NO ONE STOPPED!
Wait this is USA.. we heard many stories of how helpful people are..... Finally a BIG shady looking van stopped... Does the van actually look shady... or just because a large van stopped when no one else did, we just assumed it was shady? anyways... me and my friend walked towards it. I asked her to walk slightly behind me just in case.
The guy who was driving looked shady.. to add to the problem, he kept looking to the back of the van as though he was hiding something..
"Brother, what is the problem with the car, it needs a jump-start?"
"Yes bbbbb brother, can you back up lil more so that you can help us"
"No problem brother, but wait wait wait a minute, why did you call the cops, if cops here brother, I gotta go.. I cant help you if cops here"
I was wondering what he was talking about. I turn around and see some red and blue lights flashing right behind our car ... me and my friend said in tandem "WTF"

"No brother, hang on. we did not call em. if the cops cant help us.. we would need your help"
the van moves into driving gear
"No brother, let me go. If the cops here, I have to go. sorry brother" .. and he leaves
All this wile my friend cant stop laughing...SO we turn around and go to our car. the cop flashes his torch right into our eyes... On a dark highway if you do that, how do I walk? Anyways we walk up there and he says
"Guys this is dangerous. you cant hang out in the shoulder like this for long and you cannot keep walking outside. Get into the car. i will call AAA and they would come by". He says that and he started lighting up flares to put behind our car. That reminded me of Diwali.
I wanted to say "Uncle Uncle, can I please hold one in my hand".. But damn, given I am a grown up, I could not do that and had to get into the car and wait.
After sometime the AAA vehicle came. The guy walked up to our car in a hoodie. Me and my friend got out of the car and said in an accent "Whazzup".. He says in a indian accent.." I am the AAA guy. Can you please sign here and tell me the problem." What? why is this guy speaking in indian accent. Might be he learnt Indian accent. After all he works in new jersey. That can help him talk to his clients. Then I saw him sign.. it said
"lakwinder singh".. Immediately my friend says "lucky paaji (lucky brother).. problem yeh hai.." and narrated the story in hindi with a punjabi accent. A Gujarati guy talking in Hindi with a Punjabi accent and a Telugu guy chipping in with Hyderabadi Hindi making an attempt to put a Punjabi accent. This is what I call "unity in diversity" rather "Unity in diversity during a calmity". He told us the alternator was screwed up and he jump-started the car and guided us to the nearest gas station.
Meanwhile all of us brainstormed on how one could construct toilets on highways, or if we could go into the bushes to see if it was safe.. But finally thanked who so ever constructed the rest area and once we reached it we rushed into .. you know where..
We finally gave up the bowling idea and first thought of unfreezing our own frozen balls :P
Moral of the story "Always carry heavy winter gear.. Sh*t happens. The amount of water drunk before getting into a car should be directly proportional to the condition of the car and inversely proportional to the distance to be traveled"

New York

2010-09-19T17:29:00.000-07:00

I feel guilty of not being able to blog in the past 2 years... :(.. but here I am trying to be a regular blogger.

And when I thought of blogging, I got reminded of the blog I wanted to post 2 years back after my first week in new york and it is about new york and my experiences in NY.

"Rang birangi duniya saari..
Bhaant bhaant ke log..
Milke bichhadna, bichhadke milna
Saara hai sanjog"

A colorful world with different kinds of people. Meeting and going apart is all a matter of coincidence; goes a Hindi song.
This was the first thing that came to my mind when I came out of the train at the World Trade Center station during rush hour. People of different nations/colors/races/religions going together in a mad rush towards their offices in Manhattan. I could not find such a mix even in Frankfurt airport which is one of the largest hubs for international air transport.

Step out and you see these fine huge tall buildings all around and hordes of people getting into them through small doors at the bottom. In a way it looks like a bunch a black holes(those buildings) sucking all the little asteroids(people getting into those buildings) walking around those buildings.

I am not sure if paradox is the word, but close to all these is a church. Same is the case with Wall St. We have all these financial institutions in these huge buildings and at the start of the street is Trinity Church.

The reason why people know NY or want to visit NY is to see the skyline, but the place where many new yorkers want to hang out is actually called the Village where in most of the houses/structures are not more than 3 to 4 floors tall.

The most often heard business phrase in NY is "conflict of interest". whether it be buy side/sell side. some bank selling mortgages which they themselves know are worth crap. Whether it be employees of financial firms who want to make some money for themselves or whether it be some restaurant selling food which the owner itself would find tasteless and the list goes on :P.

How do you distinguish a tourist from a new yorker going to office in the train? of course new yorkers going to office are dressed up in formals. Exception are those few programmers working for companies like mine who can dress at freedom in casuals :). Tourists have maps in hand, new yorkers have books.. ohh these days kindles/ipads. And not to miss those, who manage to wrap their hand around the pole in a busy train to hold themselves and the mirror tight, to take care of the mascara and the gloss :P

It's in NY that i see so many people in bars/pubs on Thursday/Friday evenings again dressed up in formals. I guess this is because people want to rush directly from office to pubs to gulp down those drinks to kick start the end of the week... hmm whose paying for those drinks?
Late into the night.. starts the colorful new york nightlife.

Food Food and Food... I told you earlier that new york has a huge diverse mix of people. New york also has a huge number of restaurants serving various cuisines... I am not sure if there is a cuisine in the world which a restaurant in NY is not serving. And not to forget all those fusion restaurants.

Everyone here wants to reach office early. Many reach by 8 AM. Now here is the problem. I am not a morning guy, but my office wants me to be in by 9 AM. Every morning I wake up late and feel like the Running-back with the ball in a football game, trying to touchdown in the last seconds of the game and the entire universe acting in defense, trying to stop me. If I manage to badge in by 9, my feeling is no lesser than that of the running-back who wins the game for his team.

Thank you NY for all these experiences and thanks for getting me back to blogging :)

No Refund

2008-06-29T19:45:00.000-07:00

It has been long since I originally thought of this and thought of a blog.

The idea of this blog came up when the movie Om Shanti Om released and I read about its huge revenue even before it released.

But the first time I heard about refunds in movies was when the movie "hello brother" released. One angry guy outside the theatre said "salman khan ko hamare paise waapas dena chahiye; ghatiya movie..moti heroine". I was in school then and dismissed it as a joke.

After coming to US and seeing returns/refunds accepted for everything including underwears (yeah ..my roomie returned them :D..... hopefully it is not the case with condoms :) ), I thought why is it not the case with movies.

I started thinking of some reasons.

1. I believe returns are encouraged for many goods because, even though one item is returned, something else would be purchased which would replace this item. So in a way the store is still making profits. Also since a store would have many items in slight variations, they can easily stay with this belief and even the customer can choose another one in the same store.

2. Sometimes one or two goods are damaged in a manufacturing line. So if a customer is unlucky to get that one, he can happily replace it with other. This does not cause a great loss to the manufacturer.

Now coming to movies.

As in case 1, I am not sure if some theatre gives you money back, then you would go and see some other movie in the same theatre within few days. Also there would be no om shanti om-2 which probably has slightly different story from the original for people who watched the original and did not like it.

It is possible that if many people did not like the movie say coz it was slow, then the movie could be changed and released with a better screenplay. But then how many of us would go back and buy the ticket to watch that movie again given the torture we would have endured watching version 1.

Though he does not discuss this issue directly, Ram gopal verma in his blog on hit/flop goes a bit around this issue. He suggests that a movie is a individual's way of telling a story. If you do not agree its up to you. Also he talks about the way film industry works. In the sense that director doesnot directly release the movie but the movie is sold to a distributor, then to the theater, so on and so forth. This makes the return policy more complicated :)

Now coming to case 2, one production house can think of doing this is ........ no surprises RGV's factory. They release lotsa movies.. not so high production costs...and i feel some of them suck big time. So if he thinks of refunding customers .... well not a bad idea. :). The only thing is people might buy tickets and just sleep in the movie. Except fro the part when his hot heroines look really hot :) (wazz harm neway money is refunded). This might lead to his refund cost getting higher than production cost.

Standard business principle : If something is selling successfully, keep it going. Don't change it too much as long as people are buying it. This could be seen with some classic designs in clothing. Raulph Lauren stripes, Crocodile Polos etc.

In Films the dude who follows this is............. Shahrukh khan. Doesnot change his same set of constant expressions... ehhhhhhehehehhhhhhhai.. No Doubt people buy it. NO doubt Om Shanti Om's international rights sold for 75 Cr approx (as per reports). No trouble of refunds.

The gentleman who did refund the distributors... RajniKanth. I think he did it for the movie BABA which did not end up making expected collections. Did the distributors refund the movie goers .. hard core fans ? I dont think so.

One not so bad business idea. " The theatre funds the production. Of course the production costs are modest. Anounces a refund policy. Push up the rates of pop corn and soft drinks. People might watch the movie since anyway the tickets can be returned. Mean while the theater could make some profits selling pop corn and soft drinks to those dudes. :)

The Shorter Line

2008-06-10T20:52:00.001-07:00

(Year - 1993)

Mom is walking fast to head to my under construction home from the current home.

Me : Mom, walk slow, how come you walk so much faster than me. I am unable to catch up.
Mom: You need to walk fast. I have got no time to walk slow. Run.

(Year - 1995)

Me : The argument you wrote worked out. I won the debate competition.
Mom: Ya, next time you will write it totally on your own.

so on and on and on...

(Year - 2004)
By this time, I was 19, finished GRE, almost finished Bachelors.

Me and my mom walking.

Me : Mom, you gotta walk faster or else we will be late. How come you are walking so slow?
Mom: (A look which says 'Oh yeah.. look who is talking').

Me : (Using lotsa jargon.. wierd words! .. just finished GRE right :) )
Mom : What does that word mean?
Me : What happened to your english these days. You were good some years back.

Now she is reached peaks of being pissed off and then asked the QUESTION
How do you make a line shorter without using an eraser?
Me: Tear half the page off
Mom: Bachelors made you more stupid. Did it not?
Me: Cover half the line with hand ... hahahah
Mom: Ohhh.. my..God..............
Me: hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm....

I was kind of thinking when she called a time up and said
"Draw a longer line next to it. It will make the original line shorter" she said and she had a laugh.

Not going into the technical and grammatical details of it, the point she was trying to make was that she is as good today as she was some years earlier, except for the fact that I have become a longer line compared to her.

I hate writing gyaan points but I realized that parents are always smarter in some way than us kids :) ..why not they would see us grow and learn all this in addition to what they learnt. And of course a teacher's/ parent's pride always lies in watching kids grow smarter and better than them.

Its not about writing senti stuff, but wanted to write a blog to thank my mom for coming to my graduation. It was a great vacation trying to make fun of each other using silly riddles like the aforementioned one.

THE MS POEM

2008-05-05T21:54:00.001-07:00

The following is just an attempt to put some funny or worth remembering experiences of mine in Masters and to include names of some good friends and class mates. I hope you have fun.

Packed was my luggage
I was Ready to check in my baggage
In the airport no melodrama
Said before leaving home my sister rama (read it ramaa)
We will chat daily don't worry
Said waving a good bye my mom sundari (read it sundary)
You are going to pursue masters dont look sad
Trying to cheer me up this was my dad
After landing to buy something if u need money
Dont hesitate, call me said my other sister srimani (read it srimanee)

(Now the plane left india and reaching US)
After landing who is going to pick me at the other shore
I will arrange it said India club's Kishore
My flight is reaching late would anyone show up,
Don't worry, there is ever helpful Somu to pick you up.
Need to hunt an apartment have to run door to door
I found one just move in, said Sumedha Uppnor
Tired teaching roomies how to cook was the Biryani Savanth
Ravi Sheshu is learning quick though commented Ananth

In UA projects are long and tuff, the hell ya
Firing the first words of caution this is Sahitya
I was one of the first ones to get an assistantship
With courses and RA then started the hardship
Looking at him work so much, I thought only coding was his karma
Yes I am talking about the ever working Ravi Sharma
we will finish the project don't worry ravi
6 Hours away from deadline this is supercool Pallavi

Not even a month into it and his patience did vanish
Stuck in a business school RA, this is the systems guy Manish
Be careful in US never drive rash
A lesson learnt after the accident of Avinash
Got a license and drove to the temple in Maricopa
Accompanying me were Nikesh, Tarun, swapna and Lopa
With Deloitte Offer we got a Bag, Candies and a Starbucks Card,
Natashaz and my efforts finally bore reward.

To find a Job in NY, a little tuff time I was havin
You will make it to bloomberg, don't worry said bhavin
Last sem also 3 courses, there goes relentless Anurag,
Got Stuck unwantedly in SIE course, poor guy Parag
During Interview prep struggled with Parallel Programming techneek
finally got it, thanks to karthik the geek.
First discussed interviews, now about our jobs we brag
Having coffee after sleeping in PPL class, myself and Pa'rag
Worked in Microsoft, wanted to be a part of Mr.Gates' entourage
Made other choices , Now it is upto Poorna, Natasha and Woj
Anurag filled his transcript with infinte courses,
VMware said enough, now come fill your bourses

Dude Its a bit long and exciting run just be ready,
Now that I am almost done, giving gyaan to Sushanth Reddy

Thank God I have a job and in future would also have a wife
But one thing I would definetly miss is the most exciting student life :)

If your name does not rhyme well
Pardon me, do not curse me to hell
In the given frame of time
I could not find a word which does rime (another spelling for rhyme)

Finally a nice poem in hindi by sumitranad pant about meeting and leaving.

Yeh Saanj usha ka aangan
aalingan virah milan ka
chir haas asrmay aanan
rey is manav jeevan ka

Have fun.

Please feel free to suggest me better rhyming words/phrases. I would be more than happy to include them. Parag, the other day you had a interesting shayari. Please Leave it as a comment.

Tagged!

2008-04-23T21:36:00.000-07:00

1. Last movie you saw in a theater?
The Great Debaters. Its a good movie with some great action and direction added with perfection
(dialogue courtesy : http://youtube.com/watch?v=ssjRGx4W5XI ). Its one of those movies where a main point is made in a subtle manner.

2. What book are you reading
Trying to read some but not reading any.

3. Favorite board game?
Business, some ppl call it monopoly. Used to play it like mad. Finally when I go the board myself lost interest to play.

4. Favorite magazine?
Had one called Indian Management. Had not been reading that off late.

5. Favorite smells?
Slightly pungent perfumes and the smell of my mom cooking spicy andhra (my state in India) dishes.

6. Favorite sounds?
That of a train's Horn.

7. Worst feeling in the world?
Feeling like peeing urgently but unable to find a toilet in reach or the flight on the runway and not taking off and air hostess not letting me use the toilet.

8. What is the first thing you think of when you wake up?
About what replies or emails I would have got :).

9. Favorite fast food place?
Gokul Chat in hyderabad. It has awesome chat, pani puri, and all the chatpata stuff one can imagine.

10. Future child’s name?
If its a guy would name him "Ravi Sheshu Jackie Chan Arnold Richie Rich Jet Li Sachin Razor
centurion Johhny Quest" all that is one name a bit long like my name.

If its a girl I would spare her with Mrinalini.

11. Finish this statement. “If I had lot of money I’d….?”
Travel around Africa and Afghanistan with a army of secruity guards around me.

12. Do you sleep with a stuffed animal?
NO

13. Storms - cool or scary?
Cool.

14. Favorite drink?
Coke

15. Finish this statement, “If I had the time I would….”?
Read all the news in the world.

16. Do you eat the stems on broccoli?
Yes, I feel the stem of broccoli is the better part of it.

17. If you could dye your hair any color, what would be your choice?
Mwhahahhahahahah....... BLACK BLACK the could can be pulled out.

18. Name all the different cities/towns you’ve lived in?
T.. A... N... U.. K... U.. TANUKU, Jamshedpur, Vijayawada, Hyderabad, Tucson, Kansas City

19. Favorite sports to watch?
If it includes games Cricket, Tennis, Football , WWE in sports Pole jump.

20. One nice thing about the person who sent this to you?
Natahsa is a good friend and has amazing friends like Ravi Sheshu who is cool ...... (all adjectives as appropriate good ones).

21. What’s under your bed?
I pulled out the stand under my bed so therz nuthin but carpet.

22. Would you like to be born as yourself again?
Of course ...... would recommend same parents as now to GOD but with a request for a shorter name so that it eases my pain in filling forms.

23. Morning person, or night owl?
NIGHT OWL

24. Over easy, or sunny side up?
What does this mean.

25. Favorite place to relax?
Now dont laugh at this ....thought would be candid. Its the LOO (not the ones which stink.. the loo in my home). It DOES NOT mean I go there whenever I am tired.

26. Favorite pie?
choclate chip caramel pie.

27. Favorite ice cream flavor?
Butter Scotch, Cassata and anything other than choclate and mint in Gelato

28. Of all the people you tagged this to, who’s most likely to respond first?
Almost everyone i know who blogs already got tagged so might be dots connect and dreamy eyed.

Reverse Gear (Banter)

2008-03-26T23:46:00.000-07:00

Well the title says it to some extent..... Not serious stuff in this

The idea came when I was sitting in one of the flights in Tucson Airport leaving for an onsite interview.

The announcement : "AAhhhh...we are waiting for the TUG to push us back ..once that happens we are clear for departure ..."

For the impatient guy I was I could not wait and I thought why does not a plane have a reverse gear?
(My friend who was overlooking my shoulder said "coz the pilot does not have a rear view mirror :D")
Now I told you I am going to an interview and the book in my hand was Programming interviews exposed which means I would attack this problem "STEP BY STEP " mwhahahahhah

First when I mean reverse gear do i mean the reverse gear while taxiing on the land or while flying?

On Land :Well the only reverse we see in a plane is when it is on land. So to understand why there is no reverse gear we first need to know how it goes forward.
After some discussions with my mechie roommates and reading, I figured out that an aeroplane's tires are not rotated by an axel(or drive shaft to be terminologically correct) powered by an engine(like in a car). Instead the wheels are just like hotwheels :D and the plane moves forward coz of the thrust generated by the jet engines(even on the ground yes). So to go back the plane would need a mechanism to turn the engines in the reverse or to generate thrust in the reverse direction. This would cost (probably) much more than the purpose it serves. So instead the job is done by a TUG.

While Flying: Now to do a reverse the vehicle needs to come to a complete stop and then take a reverse. If a plane is stopped in flight i dunno about reverse but it is going to fall for sure. And instead of investing in a mechanism to keep it from falling when it stops mid-air and then a mechanism for reverse, it is cheaper to take a U-turn which areoplanes do.

Now all these might be worth the investment if we were in JETSONS age wherein there are traffic signals and lots of congestion even in air/space. Till then impatient people like me have no option but to wait for the TUG to push back. :)

More about Life than Computer Science (CS)

2007-12-24T03:09:00.000-08:00

I dont know how much of CS you are going to learn ..but am pretty sure u'll learn life in a sense how to live independently.......(trraaaao..this is the sound you hear when a dialog is said and a story to follow).

This is what my family said when I was 2 days away from leaving for US last year.

True I feel today........ (not giving a lecture dont worry)..so was jus looking back at wat hppnd in the last 18 months.

FOOD: I am one of those typical indian students who leave for US without any experience of cooking at home/hostel before. Started learning one week before I left...MOM taught 101 recipes ....dint remember any...no patience to read over internet....then wazz solution ......
my roommate ananth(aka chief cook 215) taught a generic recipe..(ppl not interested in generic recipes..skip the next 2 lines).. cut onions ...fry them in ginger paste..put in vegetables...fry them ..put water boil them....its done. oops salt and curry masala... :D ...congrats u completed the entry level course of cooking indian food.

Maintaing a house: Well I am the same old clumsy guy... with my room looking half clean(the half which i do not use is clean) .. but in US no tension of hunting a plumber/ electrician or such guys...thnx to apt management.complain to them ....they take the pain.

Moving Around: In US this pretty much boils down to driving a car..... The biggest pain is not learning how to drive the car... pain is to follow the rules
(Newtons law of Inertia: To move from a state of not folowing rules to following them strictly takes extreme self force and is painful)..

Ya I gotta license..... Thought the driving test would be good/ tuff and heard lot about it..and at the end of the day it turned out to be trash.... trust me probably driving test in Hyderabad would be tougher (exaggerating).

The most important thing

LOVE: Yes.... I found my love ther........
her golden hair....
blue eyes....
looks fair..
sweet voice (read voyes for rythm)... u got it right..one thing hasn't changed.... I have not stopped dreaming about a Girl friend even after going ther :D

Well... so guys who recieve a lecture fro their parents on how to be clean ..independent.... blah blah..tell them u'll get right once u go to US. :D

Prejudiced Eye

2007-10-16T01:07:00.000-07:00

"if you are not ready to come out of your pre-formed impressions and prejudice and if you are not ready to accept the truth.... then do whatever you want and write whatever you want ..the people of gujarat know the truth and would vote me back" ...Modi to english Media

"Before we start working with someone we should not be prejudiced"... a friend of mine

I don't want to make this a gyan spot.... but the fact that I watch a lotta news sometimes makes this so(noooo...nooo.. this is not gyannnnn :) ).

A word present both in the title and the first two sentences -- no prizes for guessing the answer --'prejudice'

Each and everyone of us a victim of this.. sometims coz of what we hear about some one or the previous actions of some one. The best example of how this shadows reason and logic...... the Gujarat election of 2007.

After 2002 immaterial to the number of developmental activities carried out by MODI, Media was busy talking only about 2002. The so called educated media and so called intelligentia could not push themselves beyond the impression/ prejudice they harbour about Modi. This was blatantly clear at the "Hindustan Times summit ". The topic of the day was realtion b/w center and states which Modi stuck to and spoke about development. Instead of being inquistive about how he could drive such large scale dev initiatives media was busy moving around 2002.

Even the psephologists who are another form of mathematicians tried to incorporate prejudice into mathematics and the result is obvious..they sucked and could not come close to the final numbers.....their explanation a headline "MODI beats expectations"...nope this is wrong .. it should have been "Prejudiced opnioins/brians lead to wrong expectations"

One thing unable to figure out............ where is the boundary between using history of a person to predict future action and calling it prejudice :D

One thing i am sure many ppl dont understand.. the movie "Bride and Prejudice" ..why the hell on the surface of earth was it made and what is the point being made thru it.

City Of Merchants

2007-09-27T23:13:00.000-07:00

me: hey dude

how r u

Phanindra: Hey man

I'm good, how are you?

2:36 AM me: doing gud

Phanindra: Great... where are you?

me: Tucson arizona

2:37 AM Phanindra: Oh, nice...

me: u?

Phanindra: Good old Hyderabad!

me: ha ha

Phanindra: Full of bomb blasts, falling flyovers and the whole zing bang!

No Prices for guessing the above..a gtalk chat with my friend in hyderabad.

When I was a kid, I asked my mom...why is some place a city and some place a village(and not a city).
Simple Answer : A lot of trade happens there. Lots of MERCHANTS from lots of places come there(city) to sell things. That is why it is big and called a city.

True, I feel today looking at cities around the world...tatz how they have become cities.

Dont want to bore u guyz with history of Persian Merchants in Hyderabad selling IRANI chai, Pearls , etc.... u can google for it....Now a days we have newer merchants coming up.

When I started follwoing news seriously frm arnd 2000, read about one MERCHANT ....ex indian captian (AZZU) ..great batsman....great captian..but turned merchant by selling the game ....... then by putting up a gym/spa (dont ask me the funding source).....(these are allegations I read in news papers..am not sure if correct)

Then we had another merchant who sold the city but in the right sense (like you sell urself to getta job)...ex CM. NCB NAIDU....Sold the city..got investments...got IT...got MICROSOFT ..ORACLE....brought hyderabad onto the world map. OF course allegations say he also bought HITEC CITY from builders at almost 10 times the worth..poor taxpayers money..no complaints..hez been a great Merchant.

B.Ramalinga Raju of Satyam.... a great IT merchant ...again a pride....and The list can go on....

Today we have new merchants ... the ruling govt....same as the one in center....left loose bangladesh borders for infiltrators....allegations say...these are for vote bank politics to win elections in North East with the help of them....laws considered to legalize them...no steps to push them out.... some of them believed to be masterminds behind the blasts...

Local people turned MERCHANTS by harboring them for money. No, not the merchants I want to talk about.

Construction companies.... not very new merchants ...have been buliding infrastructure in hyderabad...turning it into CYBERabad since 1999.

Today these merchants have sold people's safety...results ..falling flyovers....

Right from Nizams , Salarjungs..... to todayz Naiduz...Harsha Bhoglez(call him a merchant coz he sells cricket yaar...ya hez frm hyd) ..Dr.Reddy of Reddy labs, we had great merchants in Hyderabad...but now I am scared to know these merchants who bring down flyovrs and hurt people at gokul chatz....
Yes, Cities are built by Merchants ...my mom was right....but looks like they are also destroyed by merchants.....

I want the ones who build them back into lime light....dont want my city to be "happening" for the reasons mentioned in the chat

The Title

2007-04-11T01:08:00.000-07:00

Well the title.....people regular on Hindi movies can quickly relate the title of the blog to the movie hazaron khwaishen Aisi (Not the mallika sherawat movie ..its name is ....Khwaish)

But the title is not just a english translation of it........ this is a place where i want to put all my thoughts (aiming 1000 is too opmtimistic aahhhhhhhhh)......but lemme atleast aim at it.

But it cant be denied that the movie had an influence on me deciding on this title...... the movie in the starting says it represents INDIA at a time when people had many desires adn the country was going in thousand directions ... Today again I feel India is very ambitious and going in many directions and doing great in all of them.....and me being a part of the current young generation also am ambitious and have many dreams and THOUSAND THOUGHTS