2008, thinking back a decade

Usually at the turn of a year, I think about the past year, how it has been. Its ups and downs, good or bad. Thankfully, the last three years have been some fun ride, whatever the years before those might have wreaked:)

But this year, 2008, I cannot help thinking back a decade. Not just retrospecting on 2007 but on that whole time that was 97-07. A major milestone this year is that Subhash and I will have known each other for 10 years. And we talk about it often enough :) How we were and where we are, how much has changed yet how much remains the same...

We began engineering (B.Tech) in 1997. (Subhash was was in his last year when I was in my first) It was supposed to be a normal year, except for that it was everything but. We were completely jinxed and doomed, started college only on December 29, 1997;) Just 2 days between us and ignominy! We used to joke about it saying that we started on 29 December just so we could have 97 in our records and not be mixed up with our next batch!

Back then engineering was just becoming a "routine" thing. With our batch we had an explosive growth of private colleges, which, now, has gone so far that it has completely diluted the profession. Disastrous, how much changes in 10 years!

I made some very good friends, thanks to being in JNTU. And in general, the engineering stream itself. I cannot help but notice that when you are in Engineering you just about know anyone and everyone in your city who happens to fall in that four-year overlap. Both ahead and behind you. I know a lot of people who are friends, friends of friends, friends of friends of friends, and you know how it goes. Three years before me and three years after. I am sometimes amazed how well networked we are and how little we realize it. I, myself, was ignorant of this till I joined Orkut;)

Needless to say, I am proud of my profession and what I do. And 1997 is when it all began. I have journeyed a decade of life in this profession and I cannot believe that it has been 10 years! I still remember when I was in engineering, I used to think that I would work right out of college for a couple years then do an MBA and then get out of this whole technical end. And that a techie job was not exactly my cup of tea, I just couldn't endure Electronics (when you consider the fact that my major was Electronics and Communications, that was pretty pathetic;) ) but little did I know, that I would find solace in the Communications part and be happy! Maybe, for ever after..

What's a little rain..

Its a storm out there. Its been raining incessantly for the last 24 hours at least. And proper rain, not some of your everyday showers. This morning was it. Huge storm and fierce winds. I almost walked getting knocked off ;) I drove @ 60mph on 237, which is probably the lowest I clocked in my stint on that freeway;) Any more than that and there would be so much water swooshing around the car that it became impossible to manoeuvre it as well as see anything!! But heck, I am not complaining. For more reasons than one;)

1) It is not snow !
2) Reminds me of those "rain-holidays" we used to get in school. Also endears me because it reminds me always of school re-opening, new uniforms, new books etc etc etc.
3) I can listen to this song.
4) The hills behind Cisco are all green at the end of this ordeal!

Well, I love rain in general. I simply love it:)

I am to go to lunch now in a little bit with my team, and someone proposed maybe we should go another day, because its a storm outside and like Rob said..

What's a little rain..

;)

A movie and a couple of books..

We caught up with some friends on Saturday, had lunch at Salaang Pass Restaurant on Fremont Blvd. and watched "Taare Zameen Par" later. I don't know which to write about first so will go with it chronologically. Salaang Pass turned out to be a gem of a restaurant, thanks to Prashee for introducing it to us. We used to watch movies regularly at the Park Theater right across the restaurant but never paid attention to it. The food turned out to be amazing and Subhash and I are sure to go there again. And again;)

Now to the movie. I was a little curious about what the movie would be like, being Aamir Khan's first directorial venture and went with no expectations or information about the movie whatsoever. And it turned out to be a real gem, I believe almost everyone in the hall cried at the climactic scenes, which I will not reveal here. Hats off to Aamir. I was never a great fan of his when he was the "chocolate-faced hero" type but now with every movie he seems to experiment more and improve with every one of them:) I am happy Bollywood is finally daring to experiment.

We spent the evening at Borders. For at least this past half year, we have found this a very nice thing to do on weekend evenings. Whenever we have the time and leisure for it, we visit the local Borders store and spend some 2-3 hours there browsing through books. I simply love going there with Subhash. We each pick out books, according to our own taste and browse through them, each at our own speed. Thanks to these Borders outings I have had glimpses of the JFK family portraits, spent a "Year with the Queen", admired the World Map countless times (;) ) read through the very many Jane Austenish books, caught a couple first chapters of very many Agatha Christies and so on and so forth. This weekend was a double bonus, we spent Saturday afternoon @ the Varsity Borders on Stanford's Campus in Palo Alto and Sunday evening at the one closer home. It was splendid!

Well, that was one weekend well spent :)