The 2010 post :-)

So What's happening guys ?

I'm still staying alive in the world of blogging with this post(My only post of 2010!!)

2010 was rough( Earthquakes, floods, violence,Economy) - Still waiting for some things to happen fast for me( or rather have to make it happen!)

Almost dying to go to India to visit Family and friends. It's been a while and I almost have been dreaming about Hyderabad for the last 6 months.

So here are some good things and some not so good things of 2010.

Its been an amazing year for me as a Photographer.

Learnt a lot of things by experimenting and travelling to many places.

Thanks to the wonderful friends( whose phone calls I don't pick up, but give them the best profile pictures :] ) and good health ( :P )

I had this wonderful opportunity of shooting a wedding at Boston and New Hampshire(Yes I was the trusted Photographer for a whole wedding ) - A wedding gift from my side to a close friend.

Have inspired more than dozen ASU(Arizona State University) peeps ( (A little bragging is allowed, since its my blog :D ) to get into serious Photography and have taken many people on Photography 101 walks. ( Canon and Nikon you should be paying me for the sales! )

Been the year where we successfully passed on the baton of ISA @ASU( Indian Students Association ) to new folks. After all managing over 800 people needs some organizational skills.

Turned a year older(inevitably) and wiser(not so inevitably?) - and have been unraveling the mysteries of life through personal experiences or by reading and have learnt to respect a lot of things and beliefs.

Still maintaining my status as a teetotaler and a Vegetarian successfully - ( 4+ years in US )

This is the year I've watched maximum English movies( Sum of all previous years would be lesser) and have developed a deep appreciation and respect for movie making and direction.

Have been watching a lot of documentaries oflate ( No I'm not getting boring as a person:D)

- "The Story of India" by Michael Wood( which is now my all time favorite in documentaries about Indian History, so many discoveries made),

- Enron( A story about one of the biggest Corporate frauds in the World),

- Conspiracy theories( 9/11 attacks, Moon Landings etc - some of them make a lot of sense and helped me gain different perspectives)

and one of my other favorites

- "An inconvenient truth" ( A great and detailed documentary on Global Warming - Enlightening )

Apart from this - This is the first year where I finished reading 2 Novels successfully each over 300 pages( considering my attention span for things which does not involve jumping and rolling on the ground). Both of them were Dan Brown novels( Digital Fortress and Deception Point - Both the books were average, Enjoyed Chetan Bhagat's 2 states and 5 Point someone more).

With that I'm part of a family which has voracious readers( Yes, I was the lone black sheep who used to ask my dad to narrate the story during dinners)

My best hike till date (in terms of difficulty) also happened this year. It was at Superstition Mountains and was called The Siphon draw trail( till the Flat iron - Google "Flat iron Arizona" ).

Bad things were short( and significant ) - Like drastic reduction in the amount of cooking( Compared to 2009), reduced consistency in playing beach volleyball ( Although won a Silver Medal in the ASU Olympics :D ), racquetball or any sport for a significantly long time. Laziness levels ( other than for Non Profits and Photography )

Ran Arbor Day 5K run [ my first long run after 2 Hyderabad 10K runs] and was within Tempe's fastest 100 men :D

But overall, Laziness and Passions ruled 2010 - Maybe thats the fact of life.

Passions rule you inevitably, make sure it compensates for laziness.

2011, will be a *very* significant year in my life where major things will happen. Hopeful that it brings a lot of HEALTH,happiness, peace and open mindedness to this world. [ This is the first year I'm wishing all these :D ]

Lastly, not to forget more than a dozen(infact an truckload) of my friends got married or engaged this year ( marital bliss before 2012? ) - so wishing them a very special year ahead.

As they say for good things to happen it has to start first...

So Dear 2011 - Bring it ON! This is the year I'm going to be more courageous and hardworking than ever before. Not to forget, this is the year I'll have my Family first over my friends.

Cheers and Best..

Your's truly.

Pssssh..If you are interested in looking at the pictures :

My Flickr Photo collection

Photo Slideshow - for lazy people :)

Fall Colors at Arizona State University - Observed it for the first time :)

Campus Tour of ASU

Just to prove I'm still there ! ;-)

Dear all, (sounds like a E-mail ?? )

This is a reminder that Arvind still blogs and is wide awake in the blogging world ;-)

Apart from writing articles, clicking Million Photographs I was leading a group of very motivated individuals in organizing a wonderful event for the Indian Student's Association at ASU which happened this Sep 19th '2009 .
It was called Jhankaar - A welcoming party to the new Students who had arrived here @ASU that year.

There were lot of thoughts, creative ideas thrown in the air and it needed some meticulous planning, infinitely long email threads and innumerable number of phone calls to make up for a wonderful time 3+ hours and a lifetime of memories.

Its attracted over 500 people for the past 3 year and in short says what College Entertainment is all about !!

Its been the 2nd time I've danced (yes yes..in one of the most popular dances of the evening where I am the lone guy and surrounded by 6-8 girls ranging from Radha kaise na jale to Kajra re to Ramta Jogi ).

But the most satisfying thing was writing short skits again and making new people act in them..Its been a wonderful learning experience for me ! :)

I liked the way we worked as a group and pulled this off successfully !

Here is the link to the wonderful video which in short depicts the Making of Jhankaar :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJrONE3mh-o

Will be there with a post something interesting soon!

Cheers and best!
Arvind

Tagged !!

1. Last movie you saw in a theater?
Read as l(o)st movie - The Bank Job :-|

2. What book are you reading?
Am I exposed..reading Algorithms by Cormen

3. Favorite board game?
Scrabble on weekdays chess on weekends ;)

4. Favorite magazine?
Sportstar - I love the posters of the week in it !

5. Favorite smells?
Nothing to beat adulterated Indian petrol smell ;)

6. Favorite thing to do in weekend?
Racquetball + Volleyball + Talk with parents back home :)

7. Worst feeling in the world?
Make that falling short of people's expectations

8. What is the first thing you think of when you wakeup?
Simple - Sleep again :D

9. Favorite fast food place?
You said fast its Extreme Pita - if fastest My kitchen ;)

10. Future child’s name?
I need to take my wife's advice on it ;)

11. Complete this statement --- 'If I had a lot of money'
Spend it on my dear ones,travel,invest and ofcourse donate.

12. Do you drive fast?
If its online racing, definitely yes :D
If its my bicycle - comparatively yes ;)
If its a car - I need to get my license and I am a law abiding citizen ;)

13. Do you sleep with a stuffed animal?
If you consider pillow as a animal yes ;)

14. Storms -- Cool or Scary?
Cool for the photographer in me
Scary for the human in me.
But photographer beats the human in me :)

15. What was your first car?
It it is Ferrari Enzo in Ghost Racer ;)

16. Favorite drink?
Water - no 2nd thoughts !

17. Complete this statement --- If i had the time i would...
Do the same things I do
Learn new things I need to improve on.

18. Do you eat the stems on broccoli?
Yes if cooked well

19. If you could dye your hair any other color, what would be your choice?
Indian Colors ;)

20. Name all the different cities/towns you have lived in?
Hyderabad / Chennai / Tempe / New Jersey

21. Favorite sports to watch?
Cricket > Soccer > Basketball

22. One information about the person who sent this to you?
Ms. Godbole who has helped me in winning a bet which was worth 1 week's lunch ;)

23. What’s under your bed?
Carpet and the roof of the house below us :D

24. Would you like to be born as yourself again?
If same parents - Heck YES !:)

25. Morning person or night owl?
Morning what ?? :D

26. Over easy or sunny side up?
Sunny side up :)

27. Favorite place to relax?
Racquetball Court :)

28. Favorite pie?
Colorful Pie Chart :P

29. Favorite ice cream flavor?
Anything with Chocolate is digestible :)

30. Of all the people you have tagged, who is the most likely to respond first?
Munmun - Don't let me down ;) else Deepa surely will not :))

Randomness ' 08 !

At last I decided to break the jinx and thanks to some randomness and some useful late night conversations that I decided to post this work. This is also a special occasion as it’s a start of a New Year which is always filled with dreams and hopes for making things better. I would like to say a special thanks to Munmun for the needed motivation :-)

So here is the idea, someone gives you 5 random words and you make a story out of it.
It can be in any order and verb forms can also be considered in place of the word itself.

My 5 words were: Admire, Loathe, Road, Search, Girlfriend

The writing: ( You can post your compliments in the comments and e-mail your critiques :D )

As children we always admire the stars who win public’s heart with display of their special skills. Every child dreams to be a star one day by doing something fantastic. But later in life there is a realization that they have lost their way by taking the road which was taken by most and end up as commoners and cannot do the Fantastic things they dreamt of. This popularly is called Mock Psychology.
But there is also a realization among these set of people that things they do are of importance in the bigger jigsaw which make them stars as well in their own perspective.

This realization is very important and helps in making sure the wheels of development moves smoothly on the road of development. Imagine everyone wants to do the same job which earns them rewards, acclaims and titles? Also imagine there is no one to implement it after the idea has been proposed!
A real life example would be considering there is just one girl in an island and everyone wants her to be his girlfriend. Then things would not move smoothly and pretty soon it would turn chaotic. This is where work division comes into picture where the best guy gets the best job similar to the best guy in the island gets the girl.

But again people might loathe the idea of bias playing a part in this decision making process just like reservations/priveleges for less deserving candidates but this is what harshness of life is but still everyone searches for an opportunity among this chaos to do the fantastic thing, that is what is the true sweetness of life is.

These were my random thoughts which were put up. You should give it a try once too. Its fun or should say its healthy fun !

Happy New Year to everyone ! Wishing everyone peace, love and happiness all throughout this New Year :)

Cheers,
Arvind

Up Up and Away....In the land of dreams

Hey people,
So time has come again for a Arvind special :D so here I start again in my patented style...Its been a long time since I posted blah..blah..and YES !!It again took a special day for this post !!The day is Vinayaka Chaturthi this time.
Looks like my blog has become a bi-monthly event !

So some updates from my side..a lot in fact,can publish a book(which will be the last one for the publisher though :D) on the days I had from the airport send offs till the time I arrived here )
I am not in India now and I am in the place of dreams(not Mumbai..for the people who thought I was going to be the next big thing in Bollywood :-)..United States of America it is)..for pursuing my Masters in at a reputed Institution called Arizona State University.

Its been some 10 days here and I get to learn many things like cooking(in "bold"),managing my resources and all importantly trying to get accustomed to the new environment.Its been a nice 10 days so far with lots of welcoming parties for fresh graduates(where our taste buds gets back to life :D),and lots of freebies provided(which gets us back to life :D )

Some things I love about this place
People slog hard on weekdays and they are very dedicated,committed to their work and are super duper courteous which are somethings which is really appreciable.

One thing which is a little bad is the food(espl with me being a veggie) (Burritos in Taco Bell !!yuck!! ..I call it Taco Hell :) ),but we manage to make some good food and I have really encouraging roomies (people with a big appetite but still fall under HUMAN category :D) who will not disappoint in sweeping away the food when someone is away!!

The pace of education is a fast(thats one of the reasons why they are pioneers in technology).For some people it is like an avalanche when they open their closet door,because it goes at tremendous pace and we always need to be on our toes to stay in par with the crowd.(No wonder people love weekends here ! )What we used to do in a semester is done in an assignment(no wonder people who complete MS are valued :D..*embedded prayer here* )

So from personal point of view I love the place for the people (don't get any ideas here and don't correlate it with the place being HOT and the university being ranked in top 10 Party Universities in the US )

But yes it is a little tough being away from parents,friends and your loved ones who you were with for nearly 21 years and with whom you spent some of the most precious/special/wonderful/unforgettable moments of your life.
But what is life if its going on smooth there is one stage in life where we got to prove ourselves(I am shifting to philosophy mode now :D) and try to show what we are capable of and would like to contribute productively to the soceity.

One good thing is there are lots of people who I know(my roomies,apartment mates who like nullify the chance of me being homesick..vice versa may not be true ). talks till 1-2 in the night are always fun:-)
I have some neighbours as Chinese..who are sweet to say the least ..calm ,organised(and there houses are super clean) and also give wonderful gifts too :D
So in 10 days I have met some very nice people and I guess this is what is International exposure is all about and you get to learn a lot so there are dreams and there are hopes..so hope that they meet !

I am having fun and the photo here is where we were taken to 3 American homes for getting to know American culture and trying to tell them something about our culture as well .So that day was quite special !

So lots of thoughts and feelings which I cant pen down like the mails my mom writes to me and the telephonic conversations..singing of national anthem at the Independence day....man..all very emotional and special !

Have fun while I have fun slogging!
Its show time here!!

Adios and Cheers !

Sun Sand and Chennai…

Hey people !

Not going off track in my very classic characteristic istyle I start off ...
”It’s been a while since I posted …and this post is no exception.”
But these days have been thoroughly eventful for me “…hehehe..
Its been infact !!

This is about a week long vacation I had in Chennai, to spend time with my cousin who is now amidst some of the great minds of India…the place IIM-A !!(The place millions dream to be and thousands work for and some 100’s make it to be precise 250)

He is one hell of a character, can term him a separate breed of human (yes humans I said: No doubts will be encouraged here :D) who can speak anything at face let it be his mom or Sonia Gandhi but adorable though :P!(for further details read his testimonials in Orkut)

So a week with him and I learn something’s new in LIFE :

1 .THE REAL MEANING OF VETTI (Idle, jobless and everything related. :D)
2 .SAVE WATER USE DEO PRINCIPLE.
(Was practicing that before landing at IIM-A ;-))
3 .HOW TO MAINTAIN PRIVACY. (that too with a door and a mouth :D)
4 .HOW TO MANAGE SO MANY GIRLS AND THAT TOO WITH A CELL PHONE
AND A MESSENGER.. :O :O !!
5 .HOW TO SIP COFFEE FOR MORE THAN 5 HOURS AT COFFEE DAY.
( cold coffee is expensive alrite :D)
6 .AND GET DIZZY AT MGM AFTER 5 RIDES :P (No Comments :D )

**So all aspiring IIM students try to associate your self to these symptoms or at least try to develop them!!!

So Chennai it was where I landed and I was all scared as the train arrives at 5:30 in the morning and the guy who was to pick me up stays up all night and gets up at 11 (and that too only if forced, beaten and tortured!!).
But I came to know from that day that he is a pretty dependable guy..:D and was more relieved tan happy to see him hehe..

The purpose of the visit was like a farewell sort of thing for him as we would not meet each other for some years.
So a cousin from Coimbatore also joined us! So 3 people in all now called 3 A’s (All our names begin with A ).
So this was a special trip for me as this banda was leaving and also because this was a trip where I intended to see Chennai :-) as most of the times would I end up visiting the temples and the hazaar relatives I have there.

So the very first day I saw SAND, the beach at Besant Nagar was a superb place to just walk around we were there at some 10 in the night and were back nearly at midnight. Very Breezy , great place to walk after a dinner and sighhhhh and I was walking along with this guy :( :( :( !!!

Next day I Saw the SVCE college of Engineering which is suppose to be one of the best in Chennai!(all because my cousin studied there and also will read this :D :D)

Visited the Vandalur Zoo supposedly the largest zoo in South India! Where we saw Chennai SUN and it was a hot and sultry day our T-shits just needed a soap to get that lather!

It was fun real fun being to the zoo. Never felt so excited being at a zoo! saw snakes, reptiles, monkeys and birds of many varieties (and all the animals mentioned in your KG textbooks ) !
One incident here was a monkey running from the inside, stretching its hands and asking for something to eat was really a touching was feeling really bad for it and also felt how lucky I was to be on the other side of the cage (yes yes I know what u people are thinking of that I am even more dangerous than that poor monkey and I deserved to be IN!!).All in all was a great place and never thought ZOO would be so exciting!

We went to many places where would eat and spend time one of them would be Ascendas-International Tech Park a 650 seater restaurant where we had some great Parathas ! (Next time someone goes there try that ;) )
We tried to synchronize our time with the American School and NIFT –Chennai which finishes by 3:00-3:30 but we missed it all the 3 days!! :( :( :(

For the first time I understood the Chennai routes as we traveled to many places and went to some pretty long drives and above all was with a pretty eligible guide :D who showed us everything from Jayalalitha's place to a kutti dhaba !

I had one more special day at Chennai where I met a girl(Super yapper,terror,last bencher..and who watches just 2 channels :P) whom I met after some 10 years and was a awesome meeting and guess where she was heading too ..the best B-school in India (All my friends are highly qualified and are super studs. but claim to be vetti)!!So indeed made it even more special !

Not often you have 2 IIM-A students amidst you sipping coffee and you end up paying the bill and also giving a TIP :D :D .All in hope they would treat me heavily after 2 years. :D:D

So what would I do when left alone at home and not facing the heat?!? watch F.R.I.E.N.D.S ,watch movies on the PC inside a cozy room for the whole day and you would not feel bored a bit! and this is what someone terms as THIS A LIFE! and I had the spice of it too!

I watched FANAA(a new technology that can be tried out on hardcore terrorists to get all their secrets out :D)which was my first Hindi film at Chennai !and found the arguement between my cousin and a lady more interesting who was hit by something somewhere and wanted a SORRY from my cousin who was sitting exactly behind her (and ofcourse he didnt !)

Our last outing was to a place called MGM DIZEE WORLD- A Theme park at Chennai, DIZEE it was for the other 2 A’s 5-10 rides and some water games is what it all took for them to make them go Oo la la ..so I was alone on most of the rides :-( !

But surely the whole day went off in a flash and fun was at its peak when we were trying in on some Golti(as I knew Telugu) girls at the pool..hehe.
There were some pretty cool rides one amazing ride I still remember was a machine which would go totally upside down and stay there for some 4 seconds , I was shouting words like my 1 rupee is off my pocket ,heard someone saying that he was the only son to his parents so please stop this thing ! (and the fun part was we had this after just after our LUNCH crazy isn’t it??)
So it was a crazy adrenaline rush on that day.

So the day was nearing for my cousin to leave so had to to do things like shopping getting some medical checkups done and all that related stuff and meanwhile I understood whats Procrastination !!!!

Met some relatives who would kill me if I do not visit their place when I was in their territory! So at the end of the day(or rather week here) everyone was happy :) :)

All in all can say was one of the most enjoyable trips I had in Chennai for a long long time and thanks to my cousin(proud to call him so :P) who shared his secrets, gave good information which would help me in the future :P :P(of course you are guessing in the right direction keep trying and no questions will be answered here too :P :P)and also showed me in and out of Chennai !
P.s but could not show me the Guardian Angel and the angel(I have a .25mm desi made pistol on my forehead while writing this):D :D (missed them !)

But got to say this it was one of the most refreshing weeks I had and was back home in Hyderabad where I could justify people about my VACATION at Chennai !
Where people would say Chennai for vacation???

Have fun will try to post some interesting things which are around the corner !

Cheers!!

P.s :If you have read this post all the way down here at one go you are directly qualified for the Indian Olympics team as part of the Marathon squad :D

** WISHING ALL THE IIM studs a very HAPPY SLOGGING and MAKE INDIA PROUD**

A journey of 4 years..was special and has ended special :)

Hey people!

It’s been a while since I wrote (and habits don’t change that easily!) .And as in my last post it was about “My attempt of getting into me getting into READ MODE” for my final Engineering exams, it’s all done now. Hurray! I am a 99 % Engineer now (hoping that results forms just the 1%)!
So this post is going to be a long one and hope you have your nourishment beside you.

The exams were decent and we immediately shifted to our PARTY MODE which was on our mind for long. After all it’s been a 4 years journey which gives us a very special GRADUATE degree associated to your name.

The scene when I submitted my last Engineering paper :(hopefully my last), Decision Support Systems the EEE HoD who is one of the well respected and (feared) sirs was invigilating, I submitted my paper and almost simultaneously yelled and yahooed inside the class itself (What a moment that was)...all pre-planned of course ;).The Sir in whose class we would not dare to even whisper too enjoyed that moment!! Maybe he was reminded of his early days, But surely good fun is accepted everywhere ;).

The scene outside the exam hall: My classmates eagerly waiting for the hugs (no kisses of course :D) of being called ‘Engineers’ ready to save the world now through their technical finesse(big words ehh ..).

We had these long never-ending gossips and were like even happy to see our faces. Crazy photo-sessions followed and for the first time we had of class chic’s..Ohh I mean the girls being shot (with a camera of course).
Every corner of the college was shot, with every imaginable pose what we could give. I can say everyone was at their creative best.
Then we had made the plans of an outing which could well be our last with our friends as people start to work, get into interns and stuff related.

We chose a place where we could really spend some quality time together rather than just a place where everyone is having fun individually.

Group means varied ideas and there was again this split can say the Conservatives and the Party people. (The I’ll ask mama kind and the who cares for mama kind)
But we finally managed to make it to a place which could suffice everyone.
And all agreed! Was a little surprising though (but wait till I complete).

We zeroed in on a Rajasthani Ethnic village called ‘Dhola-ri-Dhani’ not a village exactly but made according to a village theme. I never imagined this place could be so interesting for a get together but the only thing that was in my mind was 20 very capable people who can create chaos anywhere (that’s us I am talking about) can make any place interesting and I and for that matter none of us were disappointed, in fact I can call it by far THE BEST ENGINEERING OUTING I had in these 4 years with my friends.

It was planned to be a junta of some 35+ people but turned out to be a 18 people affair.(thanks to some really special girls) But all for the good can say the people who really wanted to cherish the occasion came and the people who missed out can say missed something really precious. The significance of the occasion made it real special for us.

We played, we danced, we ate one of the best served and traditional Rajasthani food in a village like atmosphere (could u have this fun in at a Discotheque?), we swam, We listened to our hearts it was like a small world I found in that place, and for the first time we never bothered about the other crowd at that place as we were busy in our own special world.

Not going into the details of what we did that day as I know that is simple inexpressible in words.

Boy! This is the day I can never forget and at the end of the day, I could really understand some people what they thought what they thought about me their infinite crushes on me..Hehe (joking of course).But this is the time I spend some real time with my classmates.
We parted with the regular hugs (special than the rest though) and can say we are more emotionally bonded now than before.

THEN WHAT??
So this was my trip from the college, and my holidays were still in the inchoate stages and what would I do if found free go out with my class 12 friends and this time to a place where BOYZ love Go-karting at a place called RUNWAY 9.
The mean machines touching 300kmph (joking of course never crossed 65 kmph) the hair racing experiencing, the sounds of the engines, the acceleration, soon saw the emotional Arvind go crazy!
5 people in all went in their 3 bikes on a long drive and then again drive cars there were surely ‘driving’ to the limits of fun.

So lots of fun and action was going around in this first week of my holidays and still there I am not done. My closest pals whose exams are just over are going to start a new episode of fun.


So it’s going to be fun, chatting and Orkutting for this month and then back to some serious work on Visa and further education.

Hey and almost forgot I started to learn cooking, and as of now there are no casualties.

Hoping that you people are also in love with your lives.

I am celebrating it.

It was quite a long mail ,eventhough I cut short on many points but hope it was enjoyable.

Best!