I am really impressed!!! And FYI these pics were taken off of time magazine... they can sue me ... not you. The Grand Ayotolla finally agrees that he needs women to guard him. But does try to make their life harder by making them wear those overbearing costumes. 

One more pic. Well this is encouraging!!! 

Iran's Police woman!!! I don't know if the best trained special forces could do that with what they are wearing!! 

Missing Mail ...

The past couple of weeks have been pretty eventful. I know every day is "eventful" in one way or the other. But the last was especially different for me as I got to move into my own apartment finally after living for 24 years on this earth. Some think I am crazy while others envy me!! The only thing missing now is someone to cook and clean my place! In the great Indian (possibly world) tradition, I mentioned it to my mom that I should get a wife to do it. Which was turned down with the answer that I needed a maid and not a wife, I still have my doubts(jk). Joking aside, its a different experience living alone. I have been alone for the last three years but with roommates, hence this is the first time that I am literally alone. Its lonely as well as expensive but at the same time it gives you more freedom ... to be alone ... go figure.

To top it all Yahoo has lost most of my emails, this after I paid for the service. Almost all my emails over the past 7 years have been lost and that has really got me down. I figure that its God's (funny) way of telling me not to get too attached to temporal things. Maybe if I still had my emails I would have gone over to the dark side and become Dark Lord "Darth Shaddai"*.

I had been planning to write on a few of topics but can't seem to find time to sit down at a stretch to do it. Also I am slowly gathering stuff to create a new website. Any input to the same is very much appreciated. I seem to have lost touch with the programming side of computers and need to get back to that at the earliest.

Till Laters ...

* - Non geeks please refer to the Star Wars story.

"Of all the liars in the world, sometimes the worst are your own fears."

Moving ... Shifting ...

I just moved to a new apartment last weekend. From a two bedroom to a one bedroom and it was one of the easiest moves I have ever had. I know its taken for granted that a bachelor doesn't have too much to move but, my move was made simpler by the fact that there were eight more pairs of hands to help. Half the church youth turned up in the church van to help me move. I didn't even have to pack up stuff, they just carried the books and dress in their hand ;). Thanks a bunch guys .. and gals !!!

Now that I have saluted the ones that helped me, I don't know if any of you noticed but the post header contains two words. They are both used to define the process of going from one home/apartment to the next, but in different countries. It intrigues me how a the meaning of a word changes with the geographical location. If you get down to the nitty gritty of it, English is almost a different language in each country.

The number of words are innumberable, biscuit or cookie? Flat or apartment? Trunk or dikie? (that's one of my favorite) honor or honour? O or zero? ...

The pronunciation is all the more confusing. The funny part is that contrary to popular belief nobody is wrong. English said some one is a descriptive language, and to be the lingua franca of the world it must not be restrictive.

What do u use viagra for?

Hard to believe but true

PDA anybody?

Want to talk about the neighbor think again

Is this democracy?

Hacking ...

I love hacking but the truth be told almost always it is cracking. Hey if you break a friend's password it doesn't mean that you are an accomplished hacker now, more often than not it means that your friend is just a numskul. Ok so what brought this on ? I just helped a friend login into his brother's computer without really hacking it. Courtesy of Mr. Ravi chandra Alluri, I found out today that the password setting in Win XP has no meaning. All you have to start it in the SAFE mode and you have administrator rights. This is certainly a scary 'Microsoft' World.

From my understanding of it there are White hats, Black hats and Gray Hats. As much as I love security, I am not really one of these hats. I wish I was ... I am really tired right now so I am cutting it short here ...

"If you broke the law and the court proved your fault, be so kind to pay according to the law, in spite of your name"

12000 Miles ...

Thats the amount of miles I have pu on my car in 5 months at 2400 miles / month. Hyundai even sent me a service reminder expecting me to have driven 15000 miles in the same period. To put this is prespective, consider that the average car drives the same 15000 miles in a year. And for the rest of the world I have put 19312 Kilometers (kms) on my car.

Continuing on my previous posts about driving, I have noticed that each country and state has some peculiarity of its own.

Did you know ...


• Its illegal to take a 'U' turn in Ohio? I didn't and almost gave a shock to a Chevoret car salesman during on of my test drives


• There are no stop lines at intersections in Minneapolis


• Its the law in India to honk when you pass somebody


• Its the law in India to honk when you are taking a blind turn


• Its the law in India to honk ...


• There are no speed limits in the highways of India. But you travel faster in the US

I can think of lots more but thats for another time.

It's been a long day and I had something else to post too, but I guess that can wait till tomorrow ;)

"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference"

Odyssey - Book 1 - Chapter i

Odyssey the Greek epic by homer about the travels of Ulysses/Odysseus more than 2700 years ago. So here is my contemporary story of my travels.

I have always enjoyed traveling, so far I have only been in India and USA. Since I don't have a record of my travels in India and my travels so far in the US. After last weekends drive to Minneapolis in Minnesota I have officially been to more states in the US than in India.

The ride there was eight hours through the countryside of Missouri, Iowa and Minnesota. It was good to meet some friends after a gap of three years. Also I got to eat some good Indian cooking courtesy of Jeba's mom. This trip was about meeting old friends but I did also see the Mall of America and Duluth on Lake Superior.

The drive back was an eventful though. I got lost in the farmlands of Iowa. It was truly in the middle of nowhere. I felt I was going through so back country in India. To take a leak I had to go to McDonald's 3 miles from the Highway. It was one of those places where they probably never had seen an Indian before. It was also the kind of place where Mcdees was the cool hang out place for the young and the restaurant of choice for the old. Due to confusing road signs and small highways my trip back was extended by two hours and a 150 miles. But I did get home by 1 after driving for 730 miles straight with more rest stops than I usually take. Inspite of all this I still like driving in Uncle Sam's roads, with just me and my baby*!!!

"When you travel, remember that a foreign country is not designed to make you comfortable. It is designed to make its own people comfortable."
Clifton Fadiman (1904 - )

* - 2004 Hyundai Tiburon