Mensa!

Today, I had major fun doing what I love to do best. Took lots of quizes and test.
The one I took today is from Mensa, the society for High-IQ people. The name comes from mensa, the Latin word for "table," and indicates that it is a round-table society of equals (although the logo can be seen as depicting a square table).
The test they administer is something like what I used do to prepare for National Science Competition when I was in 7th or 8th. Jodie Foster is a mensan and thats how I came about this. Guess most of the educated Indians can easily be mensans. I should thank my mom and grandfather for all the practices I got in my early life I guess. Early hours in the morning, being the only kid who doesnt talk back amongst my cousins, spending most of my annual vacation with my grandfather, finishing one year advance math and science and thoroughly enjoying my regular year at school and terrorizing school teachers with questions becuase I already know the subject in and out, ooo! sometimes I think my childhood was something I totally like when I know better and all grown up :-)I used to think I was having the most restircted childhood and became a complete rebel in college, not studying and governing the TV room and giving a damm abt project work or anything :-)But I love these memories, usually I feel a little grudge when I see Banu and hear Kapil. Banu cared a squat abt anything like homework while I used to have additional mom-homework and recorrection of answer paper done by my mom which usually ends up me scoring atleast 10 marks less than what my teacher awarded me and my answer paper looking like a morbid scene from jallianwalla bagh :-). And Kapil hardly ever studied on school nights and always spending time in the club playing and going around his colony in cycle. Yet these guys have academically acheived more than me, in terms of percentage(Banu) and college(Kapil).I am awed by Kapil and Banu for where there are with minimal parental intervention and their intellect.
Hmm! That begs me to think that if I had been left like that would I have reached where I am or would I have become a export company tailor or my dad's favorite alternate plan if we dont study well, herding buffaloes or working at a white pig pen?

Anyway the glory of those days are long gone and now even though I dont remember what the heck is a partial differential equation, I scored a pretty 28/30 in the sample test . Thats enough for me now to be happy and continue my brain-dead journey as a software engineer. It doesnt stimulate, but it pays well. It gives my enough time to explore and enjoy life and the world. So no complaints.

More info on Mensa can be found here. Its cool. check it out.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mensa_International
http://http://www.mensa.org/index0.php
http://www.mensa.org/index0.php?page=12

iLive, iLove, iLearn, iPod, and now iFood

I came upon something today which made my light bulb above my head turn on.
Its about food. And before you start yapping ;-), it is not about hogging it down, but rather trying to learn new receipes and remain motivated at it. I get a little bored after trying to cook from passed down receipes or from cook books. Either I get depressed when the taste is not authenthic enough as defined by me (not by my husband :-) or I get distracted by drooling at the pictures in those books and end up ordering from hotel. Bangalore is notorious for good cheap food delivered right at your door step. As usual I eat and forget about it all together. My husband might want to add I missed a major step, its that I keep the remaining food in the fridge even though its just a morsel and throw them out the next week when it starts to stink the whole fridge :-)

Well the point is, I never really learn to cook and its not going to help me alleiviate my fear that my kids(in future when I have them) will say one day that
"Ma, dad cooks much better than you!" or "Ma!, its the same thing again!" because thats what I think of my dear cook Ratik is making me think after 2 months of aloo paratha, dal, cauliflower sabzi, rajma and extremely Indianized Chinese foods.


There's this new site just to upload videos of receipes. Its cute and adorable to watch real people giving complex classy tough-pronouncing receipes a try :-). Really watch one, you'll know. Its been around for a while, was featured in the Times person of the year 2006 edition too. There are a lot of cookign videos in youtube too. But Indian videos are pretty less and so I think moi-même can contribute a little. And I think I'll upload in iFood, I guess google will acquire this too shortly?. But ooo! well, I dont have my handycam in bangalore yet!, so it might take a while, (there goes that!) but I have something to research on, setup my kitchen for etc etc, get the flow. Yup!, its official, I am exteremly bored. Guys give me a damm project !.

Here the site if you would like to give it a shot.
http://www.ifood.tv

BLUB OFF!

Tall Poppy Syndrome !

Today has the making of one of those days, the kind of day when you learn, experience, marvel and ponder at so many new things that at the end you think to yourself "Huh! its 5 hrs since it all started? hmmm!".

Too tired/unfocussed to read about distributed database design, I decided to take a course in TAL( Technology Assisted Learning ). It has always been such fun whether its techincal or non-technical courses I take. The whole fun for me is in taking the Pre-test and the Post-Test( as you know my addiction to marks and grades ). Today I wanted to keep it light and chose courses on cross-cultural sensitivisim: UK and then went on to Australia. Boy, for UK, I scored Pre(75%) and Post(100%), for Australia, I scored an embarassing Pre(35%) and Post(100%). There was this one question to pick which is an australian characteristics, and one of the options, tall poppy syndrome, was the correct answer and I started to find out more about it and boy, I got to experience the Australia. Strange, I never cared much for Australia before today.

When my hot favorite, wikipedia had a very complex explanation, I went to my old faithful, google :-) and got to visit some interesting sites.

Over all, this is what the Tall Poppy Syndrome is all about

Tall poppies : successful people
Tall poppy syndrome : the tendency to criticize successful people

Australians often say that their society suffers from 'tall poppy syndrome'; in other words, success is treated as something that should be cut down to size rather than admired or emulated.

Following is from tallpoppysyndrome.blogspot.com
In Australia, a tall poppy is a successful person or achiever who, as a result, is the target of jealousy and grudging remarks. The goal is to make everyone the same, but the result is no one strives to be great or believes that change is possible. This contains my thoughts on being a foreigner in Australia.( The blogger is a Canadian)
The tall poppy syndrome refers to the behavioural trait of Australians to cut down those who are 'superior' to them. It is used to explain why most politicians, some academics, and the occasional millionaire, command a level of community admiration inferior to that of a toilet cleaner.

From, Nicole Beatty, Dailey Telegraph Friday September 29 , 2000
"Australians love an underdog. We love people who are humble, down to earth, almost embarrassed by their own successes. We love Ian Thorpe, who is not only a decent young man, but who can just get on with the job without all the pomp and ceremony that Americans love to employ. We love Susie O'Neil, sweet, quiet, hard-working. Michael Diamond - could you possibly see a more humble person than this?
We don't boo Yanks because we think they are better than us. We boo yanks because they think they are better than us."

Interesting websites:
http://www.convictcreations.com/culture/poppy.htm
http://www.koalanet.com.au/australian-slang.html
http://www.anecdotage.com

Anyway, my reason for exhilaration was that I got to explore the "Down Under" which apparently I had not before and which is full of interesting history.

For the matter I have not even read a book written by an Australian.
Should amend that situation soon :-)

BTW, I dont know why Australians need to think its their society which has this syndrome, each and every society has this. I think I have exhibted this too in some instances. Not proud of it, but the truth is I have. When a classmate got 1st reank I said is becuase she goes to 9 tutions over all :-). Taht aside, isnt it human nature to find fault in a person who is a celebrity whatever the field may be? Well ofcourse there are some who command our highest respects by virtue of their actions, but some dont again by virtue of their pwn actions. We praise Bill Gates when he donates billions to charity and we critize him when he makes billions by crushing competition. Well I dont yet understand how much the australian had grudge and does not emulate the tall poppies, but I will find it hard that one, let alone a society does not desire to be better, being from a culture where we are thought to emulate success, right from our childhood.

Anyway, will understand eventually..cant learn about a civilization in a day can I...so thats it for now...so long mate!

Heroes - Extremely interesting TV show

Me and Kapil are currently addicted to this new NBC show Heroes. I am additional happy becuase my guy Milo Ventimiglia(Peter Petrelli) got a solid role finally.I have always liked him in Gilmore Girls and after seeing him in a series of boring shows felt sad that his career is going nowhere. But now he has a great chance to show his calibre.
Our favourite character is Hiro Nakamura(Masi Oka). We cant stop smiling when I think of him. Other noticeble great actor to my disbelief is Ali Larter as Niki Sanders. Boy does she know how to exude power and vulnerability. Love Mohinder Suresh(Sendhil Ramamurthy), he is the sexy one of the lot :-). Scared of Sylar completely. This guy has a menancing eyes. The cheerleader Claire Bennett(Hayden) is really pretty and can act too. I can go on and on....becuase all the actors are well cast and look and act the part. Amazing cast.

For more information, you can visit Wiki, its pretty elaborate.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heroes_%28TV_series%29

We are looking forward to watching the 15th episode tonight :-) How ? Its not a secret but you figure :-)

Discovering P.G Wodehouse !

Well, he was long discovered, this is about me discovering him. I have no idea why I didnt want to read his book when I got introduced to it about 7 years back in TCS Trivandrum training period. Suchismita loved to read his books and she insisted I should read him too. But I tried to read a few pages and I decided that I dont find him funny at all!.

But now I read him and I cannot control myself, the joy the derive out of it !. I guess I didnt have enough western exposure or understood their culture and habits and behavior and didnt know what to find as amusing. But now, I know a little bit about the world and lo behold and I totally "GET IT" :-)

On valentines day I wanted to gift myself something and (what better gift than books :-) was going up and down "The Strand" at Infosys and came across the Jeeves series. I thought to myself, "Hey Aruna, it must be fate that you came upon him today, and took notice and feel like buying it..go ahead pick a book and I assure you, you cant go wrong, nothing can go wrong on a valentines day", Yup, I felt cheesy too :-) of my own thoughts :-).But then the next day I came upon the act that he died on valentines day 1975 ..I, all superstitious and cute ;-) beleive that it was Mr.Wodehouses spirit himself beckoning me to read him :-)

Well its such a pleasure to read him. I mean, the language, the situations, the cute wooster, the adorable Jeeves( I imagine them as thin and chubby baby faces young adults respectively :-) )After first few lines I figured that its more fun to read this book slowly and with english accent ( how much ever litte I know )and imagine their expressions. It was a little difficult in the beginning, being a super fast reader (I completed da vinci code in one 18 hr sitting (10 am to 2am)), but it helped to know that Hugh Laurie played Mr.Wooster and I LOVE HIM... Now I read with his comical face I saw in Stuart Little and I am having major fun thinking what Dr. House will think of him ( Hugh Laurie plays the seriously cynical genius doctor, completely opposite to Mr.Wooster(I am not calling him Bertie yet!) in one of my best TV series, "House").

All in all, I want to read more and I want to know the person who could imagine and write like this. So you can expect more of PGW and his books from me.

Its like I have a yummmy Fish Fry/Chicken Biryani in front of me and my mouth is watering and nothing is between me and the dishes :-) DIVINE !.

My current favorite picture, no hidden message dears ! ;-)

Two is getting boring ! Three looks like a real family !

The Inheritance of Loss

I just finished reading this book and I am speechless.
I am confused. I am speechless, and that confuses me becuase I do not know why I am speechless.

I cannot figure out yet my true feelings for this book.
It sparkled with a a lot of gems here and there and I really enjoyed it, all heart out, the line might have been nothing, but it opened something in me and I smiled, irrespective of where I was.

Then why is so hard for me to say now ( 2 minutes after reading the last page ) that I like this book. Is it becuase the ending was little too abrupt for me, do I need a good glorious, happy ending or do I need a bad sad gruesome ending and cant absorb the neither this or that ending presented ?

One thing is for sure, I am angry at the guy Biju, ( I know its fictional people, still! ) and I am so sad for him...He goes away leaving his father carrying all his hopes and comes back to him wearing a old ladies nighty. HOW CAN ONE DO THIS TO A PARENT? HOW CAN ONE DO THIS TO THEMSELF?

Am I doing this to myself in a way, even if no as severe as Biju? Is that why I am moe angry at him than at any other character in the book?

The Judge - While I want to pull up that guy with his collar and smack him black and blue, I DO UNDERSTAND what he is going/went through, Thanks to Ms.Kiran Desai I WILL now watch out for instances I behave like him. I want to be a global citizen, know eveyrthing, pick the best of what the civilization has to offer, but NOT loose my head and not know what and who are important.

The Cook - Reminds me of my parents more my mother in a way and god!, I love him,
I think I will and never ever and have always made decisions in life to keep this cook happy and not shamed. I am proud of myself for that.

The Bong Ladies - Truly insignificant ladies to what is happening in Kalimpong and a good reinforcing example for me in that insisting on american moisturizer and american underwear and enjoying western goodies(chocolates, books, news, tv shows) and thinking very high of themselves only on these merits is not a great way to live..Its comfortable life , can live and die without making a ripple, but of zero use to others.

Gyan - I think I now understand to an extent a particular guy I have met and the decisions he made. Born in lower caste, loved by a so called upper caste girl and screwing up every chance for a better life becuase he TRULY believed he was born in lower caste and for multitude of reason related to this lcaste crap chose to drown himself in self-pity instead of raising above it all and leading a happy and fulfilled life. What a waste of life and love !.
Its a cliche I have observed in many relationships that educated, normal, well mannered people, once they are onto something good, ALWAYS think bad about themselves and behave like an abnormal, demented, animal and make the unsuspecting partner has always thought great about them start thinkining otherwise and finally to their convinience end up beleiving that the partner had thought abt them bad RIGHT from the BEGINNING and end up truly believing the same of themselves, even though their mis actions were never really "them" in the first place.!

Sai - The poor thing got in middle of all these cliche's. My heart goes for her.

Saeed Saeed - I truly love this guy, his attitude...

Well, I think I now understand why this book got the booker prize.

The style is kind of like Arundhathi Roy's God of small things, but hey give me moew of this kind, the kind which makes one do soul search and have potentially life altering impacts on the reader.

This was more relevant to my life and the world than God of small things.

Oh!, I think I know now why I was speechless. I was becuase it was so relevant to my world that I was absorbing what I had just concluded reading.

MUST READ book!

Okay, I am done, I need my momo!.. NOW!

I know I cannot get my momo to ready anything but java books, but wish he would read this one...[ He might complain that this is what i say after I finish reading 95% of the books :-), but I really mean for this one, its so freaking relevant! ]

Amitabh Bachchan, the next Indian President ! YUCK !

I felt so frustrated when I heard that AB might be in the list for next Indian Presdient.

God!.. Why! Why! Why! ? are you doing this.

Being from chennai, I know all about the actors a.k.a wannabe politicians

Look at the illustrative list of people who has been Indian Presidents.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/President_of_India

Even though few have been lame ducks, they had pretty good reason to be lame ducks.

I think, the most respected, accomplished and accepted by all current presdient, Mr.ABJ, should continue, if thats allowed ( shame on me, I do not know indian governance enough to know for sure..! I know Mr.Bush ran for the second and EVEN won, I know all about the red and the blue and their spread in America, but I dont even know this! )

God its true isnt it.Plato was right when he said "The penalty that good men pay for not being interested in politics is to be governed by men worse than themselves.".

I am going to postpone reading the book by Bob Woodward and I am going to read about Indian governance.

Meanwhile, "you anonymous blog readers!" visit this "http://www.petitiononline.com/apj/" and sign the petition.

Seriously, I would like to leave Mr. Bachchan and his family alone, but this, I got to say something abt this!.