Be different!

For some reason all of us feel a need to be different from others. No one likes to be compared to others. And yet we look for people with similar ideas to hang out with, cant make friends with someone who has totally different views than ours. With multi-billion people in the world, whats the probability that you are different than everyone? Almost zero.
Nothing wrong in being different from others. In fact, I encourage us to be different from others. Otherwise, the world would be very boring. I was in Toronto for work. As soon as I landed in the airport, I saw these amazing ad boards. Each board has a picture, for example, a man wearing a tie/suit etc and the board says "dashing" on one side, "playing safe" on the other. below, it says, world is would be a boring place without our disagreements. And I couldnt agree more. There were these boards all around the airport. The city was no different. It is a true cosmopolitan. The city is interesting because the people are different and each succeeded in making their impression on the city. Truly marvelous!
Being different is necessary for development of human kind too. If everyone was happy hanging from trees, then we wouldnt have had any civilization. Someone thought different and settled down to civilize and thats how civilization started. Someone thought different from using animals for transportation and hence we have automobiles. Someone thought to leave the land and fly, to give us airplanes. Someone thought why the heck should I be with opposite sex and hence we have gays and lesbians.
Being different is not just dressing up differently. People dress up differently, color their hair and make a statement that they are different, while at the heart they are no different. Well, one can argue that this thinking is different from others. may be so. I don't argue with that.
To me being different is to think differently from others. Faced with a challenge, there are folks who shut down and run away from it, some who ignore and try to find ways to circumvent it, some who march forward to capture it. Some think quite different from others. That's how innovation come into existence.
Let's take an example. There was a problem in a company on its assembly line. This company packages the soaps into their boxes. Once a while due to misalignment, or other issues, boxes are shipped without soaps in it. Management wanted to ensure that this wont happen and so it presented this problem to its engineers. A team of engineers came up with an elaborate solution which involved passing the soaps over a weight scale, a robot arm which would pick up the empty boxes, and this robot requires maintenance and is expensive. And then there was this team, which came up with a brilliant solution which was installed eventually on the assembly line. They put a fan on the side of assembly line, that would blow away the empty boxes into a collector. Thats it; no robot arms, no complicated weighing machine, nothing. Simplicity and ingenuity at its maximum. Now thats thinking differently.
I have interacted with so many of my colleagues, who still have H1-B visas in US. Most of them want to start up their own businesses someday. You ask them what they want to do, they have some idea, but not a complete picture. You ask them, why they are not finding out more about if their business idea works or not, most people respond with this excuse: "I am still on H1-B, I cannot do anything. I will start figuring out when I get Green Card." Well I disagree with that point. Its true you cannot work for another company on H1-B, but no one said you cannot figure out all the details of your business. You dont have to wait till you get your Green Card. Figure out everything now so that once you get your Green Card, you would be ready to start running your business. A few people are different to have already done so. I admire them. They deserve recognition.
Encourage people to be different, let them be different. Lets have a colorful world, filled with people of different thoughts!

Simple phrases with amazing powers!

If you have to learn only few phrases, learn these. They have unbelievable effect on people.
"I love you!"
"Thank you!"
"I am sorry"
"You look great!"
"I hear you"
"I care about you"
"You can do it"
"Great job!"
and even though it is not a phrase literally, learn to smile. smile can be a lot of phrases :)

Complete Systems Analysis: The Workbook, the Textbook, the Answers

Anyone looking for "Complete Systems Analysis: The Workbook, the Textbook, the Answers" book? I have one that I am willing to sell. I have posted in on Amazon.

vedana

naa anna jeevitam bratakaleni, naa anukunna vallu kavalisinattu jeevanchaleni madana pade hryudayam baada kanneetito kadukkapoyena?

Death - Invincible.

Kareem just returned from his work, feeling great about the way the day went by, and still feeling great about his first date with the gril he always wanted to be. His performance at work has been great, the girl he wanted is impressed by him, man, he is feeling great. Looking forward, he is filled with the great days that lay ahead of him, where he could see his aspirations of leading a great life coming to reality. He was so engrossed in these thoughts that he could not help smiling. He was so eleated that he could feel the ground shaking, literally. He smiled, thinking how kiddish of him to actually feel it. He was enthralled to literally feel the ground shake. He felt it again, he could not believe it. It was incredible. Before he could see what was happening, his building came tumbling up on him. It was not his elation that made the ground shake, it was an earthquake. His life rolled in front of him, his childhood, his parents, his great job, his first date, his future. He tried to escape from the debris, he found a small crevice in which he could sneak through. He moved a bit, not noticing his movement will cause the debris to move. He struggled to fit through the opening, he could not. He tried harder only to realise that he shook the stability of the fallen debris. He could feel some heavy thing on his head. His head was spinning. He could hardly breath. His eyes were rolling. He is getting suffocated. He thought the is not going to make it. He fell down and he was dead. Death is invincible.
Frank is on his way to office, thinking about the day ahead where he needs to take care of his customer from Japan, his subordinate's problem, and oh yeah that design problem what was it? He cant remember it now. Anyway he can look it up on his computer. He is on ramp to US101 freeway in San Jose. Actually stuck at the ramp and waiting to get to office as soon as possible. Unfortunately the morning traffic doesnt give him a chance. He lookded himself in the rearview mirror. He has been working hard to balance his work and his personal life. He hates to be waya from his wife, but some time he has to. He thought, did I put on weight? Oh yes, of course, his wife has been complaining about for a while. Between his busy schedules and balancing acts he couldnt find any time for physical activities ( except for the acts of love). He smiles. He sighs, looking at the traffic. His heart speaks, is this it? Is this why I am here? Getting stuck in traffic, getting tougher to be with his beloved wife? He feels weight in his heart. Did his cholestrol increase? May be he should consult a doctor. Boy! Another item on the schedule. He hears some frustrated person honking from behind. He turns back and loks at them. He could feel his heart growing heavier. And then he falls on his steering wheel honking. The guy in the front got frustrated with this honking. He gets off his car to blast Frank. He finds Frank dead on his steering wheel. His cholestrol took its blow on him. Cardiac arrest. Death is shattering and unforgiving.
Kamesh finished his graduate studies in electrical engineering an year ago. He has been frantically looking for jobs since then. Due to the inflation, the unemployment is high. He stays in Chennai. After an year of struggle, pulling contacts, at last he got an interview with a great company in Bangalore. He is very excited and apprehensive about he is going to perform in his interview. He has prepared well for it going over the material again and again, wondering if he had missed something. He is pretty confident he can do it well, but somewhere there is this little nagging doubt that keeps popping every now and then. He is in auto now trying to get to Chennai Central to catch a train to Bangalore. Actually he is running late. There had been a small accident on the way and the people gathered around it. It just took a while to pass that. Anyway he should be able to make it. After all, the train might be delayed. He reaches Chennai Central just five minutes before departure time. He pays the auto and sprints towards the platform. Unfortunately he has to take stairs to go the next platform which would delay him. He climbs them, two at a time. Runs over the bridge. The train is about to leave. The green signal has come on. He just dashed descending two stairs at a time. He is almost there, just six more steps to go. He looks at the train starting, looses his concentration on the steps, misses the step, tumbles over and falls down. People hurry to help him. But he doesnt move. They turn him over, he took a blow on his head. He is dead. Just a split of a second ago he was alive. Now he is dead. Death is momentary.
Death - funny thing. Its timing unpredictable, it is inevitable, it is momentary. Is it painful? May be, no one could answer that. Sure, it is painful for others.
I sometimes wonder, is death our destination in the journey of life? Is that where I am headed to? Sure, we all know death is just waiting for us. It is our universal lover. It just cant help loving everyone.
You can run away from life, but you cannot run aways from death.
You can complain about life, you can only ponder about death.
You can break up with your life, you just cant live without death.
Life is journey, death its destination.
Life is enjoyable, death inevitable,
Life is definitely gonna betray us, Death definitely gonna hold us in her arms.

If we realize that death is inevitible, why not live the life to have no regrets. Why not live the current moment to its fulles extent, so as not to regret loosing it, even if it is momentarily. Who knows, may the coming moment could be your last??
Death - inevitable, invincible.

Use libraries more often!

I just picked up "The Complete Photo Guide to homeowner basics" from a county library close to my home. I also picked up "Appointment with Death" and was searching for more interesting books. Got a plenty of great reads that I am going to queue up. They also have reading desks, computers for public usage, printers almost everything anyone wants. The lady next to me is applying for jobs; poor lady probably lost her job in recession and trying to get back on. This library even has a community room where you can have a round table discussion or some sort of practice if you like.
I am amazed by the library system in US. I have never been to a public library in India. I am not sure how they compare, but I remember a friend of mine who used to visit this library in Chikkadapalli and he mentioned that library is full of books. I wish I had started using the library more often.
Well anyway, here I am pledging to use this library more often to pick up good reads. If anyone of you have suggestions on the must read books, do let me know and I will try to pick them from here and read them.

Have you seen Bigdeal.com?

I was stumbling today and I found this website called bigdeal.com. not sure if you ever looked at it. it claims to be a bidding game and claims to sell products at obscenely cheap prices, about 95% less than retail price. I was totally surprised on how that can be. So I started following. Here is my analysis.
As it happens I thought I will give it a try to see what it is about and to see if it is really true. So I loaded $20 into the account and started bidding on an ipad. No more than 5 bids later I realized how their business works. First the bid amount starts with 1 cent and goes up by 1 cent everytime someone places a bid. The bid itself costs 75 cents. Even though the price shows as 2 cents the true price is 75 cents. Typically the auctions have a limited time by which the auction closes. In here there is no deadline for the auction. As long as there are bidders the auction goes on. Everytime someone places a bid, the auction time goes up by 30 sec. In essence, there is no guarantee when the auction would end. Moreover, if you run out of your bids (the ones you purchased initially), you are doomed, since loading them will take more than 30sec and you would loose on the item you were bidding on.
Lets see how the company makes money now:
1. You pay the company to buy bids; first source of income
2. On the item itself:
    - to give an example, there was kindle-3 wi-fi graphite for sale. the so called sale price is around $13.90 in an 1 cent auction (meaning, the price goes up by 1 centeach time someone bids on it). So, there were already 1390 bids on it. Each bid costs 75 cents, which means company already got $1042 on someothing that costs aroud $140 on Amazon. phew.. if I had thought of it, it would have been great
3. How does the guy who bids win?
  Now lets say I bid on the auction, and I only placed 50 bids to win the above item. I paid about $38 for it, plus the final $13.9 which totals to about $52. So, thats almost 50% less than the retail price. yay! great! i got a great deal. but wait there is more ....
4. What if I didnt win the bid?
 I lost $38 on the item which I didnt get. but if the item happens to be retailable, then i can use $38 towards buying it. hmm.. the company makes either way :)
so, pay careful attention to these kind of websites. in fact, i feel that these companies should be shut down. very few people would understand what is going on and by the time you realize this, it would all be over. This is no different from gambling. I dont know which govt agency, but someone should pay attention to these kinda of websites and shut them down.
If you know who I can speak to on such things, let me know and I would love to follow it up.
Please pass this on to others ; make sure your friends are aware of this. If they want to go ahead and bid on it, please make sure they understand pros and cons.

P.S: I found some interesting books on Amazon; here are the links to them:
Corporate Fraud Handbook: Prevention and Detection
Fraud Casebook: Lessons from the Bad Side of Business
How to Smell a Rat: The Five Signs of Financial Fraud
Expert Fraud Investigation: A Step-by-Step Guide

Excellent drawing tool

I havent heard a single person not complain about visio not being easy to use. yes indeed it is cumbersome at times and takes way more time to draw something simple. for a while i lived with it until i saw one of my colleague use a tool and his speed of drawing is about 10x faster than mine. at times it is a beauty to just watch him draw diagrams. so i thought,man, i should learn that too. it will help me in long run.
the tool is XCircuit. I downloaded it and am playing with it. it does seem very fast. it is easy to draw what you want. it is more or less how you draw something on a sheet of paper. i strongly recommend people who dont have visio or are fed up with it to try to use xcircuit. it is easy to learn.
 It is not very intuitive at first, but I am sure with a bit of experience it would be a great tool.

New arrangements at home

Its been about a month since we got our home. My mom has been after me to get a webcam to show the home. So here I am ; bought this camera:



And then realized we have an old HP printer , but dont have a USB cable to connect to the PC. So I had to buy it:
Cables To Go - 13401 - 5M (16.4ft) USB 2.0 A/B Cable (White)

Might have to buy more electronics as and when needed. Want to make the home the way I want it, yay!

Indian beliefs and their roots - Belief 1

Indians have weird beliefs. Sort of superstitions. Here I intend to come up with the true reason (or similar one) that probably gave rise to such beliefs. Here we go...
Belief: Dont clean your ears at night

Someday I was feeling so itchy in my ears that got a earbud and started cleaning it. My mom was for a minute frozen to death. She said "dont clean your ears at night". Promptly I asked her why? She said thats the rule, dont ask why. I argued with her for a while not to believe in all these things, but in vain. Then I started thinking, there must be a reason for introducing such a rule. Indian civilization has been around for a long time and were far more advanced than other parts of the world. There must be a reason to have such a saying. So I thought for a while. Here is what I came up with.

• The time when these rules were written, they didnt have electricity or light bulbs; they had lamps at the most
• they didnt have ear buds from Johnson & Johnson. they prepared their own from a stick and cotton hopefully, but mostly primitive.
• groping in dark is never good, especially if the path is so constricted as your ear canal
• if anything goes wrong, you would directly puncture your ear

and hence dont do anything that can harm yourself in dark. This must be the reason (or in similar lines) for them to have introduced such a rule.
I got back with my mom to discuss this. Thankfully she was open to discussion on such a topic and agreed that something like that must be the true reason. But most moms in India would just brand you as a spoiled child if you argue with them about the blind beliefs.
I intend to write more about such superstitious beliefs. If you have a question, write it in the comments and we can try to come up with the reasoning.

HTML editing for emails.

I was disappointed with all the free email clients when it comes to adding html code in between the email. Yes, they have the simple ways to add bold, italics etc but what I want is to have html code added in the middle of email and the result should be just what it would be if I had inserted that html on my website. For example, here I am inserting html code to point to an add banner. And you could see the image, and if you click it will take you to the destination.

But if I want to do the same through an email, it doesnt seem like a possibility. First, most of the email clients dont allow inserting html (google doesnt). I found thunderbird does that. So I inserted html and from Thunderbird it shows the image etc as long as you are in the composer. Once the code is sent out to google mail, the image is gone when you receive the mail. I guess this was expected, but I am disappointed. How do we compose emails and make them behave just like a website? Is it a possibility?

New car accessory idea

First, there are about 14000 deaths a year in U.S.A because of drunken driving.[ref: link].It is a staggering number that demands immediate attention. Second, the above number is only the number of fatalities, not people who drove under influence of alcohol. The actual number of people who drove under influence would be astonishing.Third, cars are going hi-tech. we have cars with GPS, Bluetooth, hard disk drives, voice technology. We have cars with advanced safety features like alerting driver when car senses the driver is sleeping. Given all these it is high time that cars have "breathe analyzer" to gauge higher alcohol level and alert or stop driver from starting the car.This way each time driver gets into the car he/ she is forced to breathe into the machine and only if it figures driver is under legal limits it will let the driver engage the starter for engine. This way if the driver is drunk, he/she can't even start the car.
 I'm waiting for the day when car companies will take this idea and make it a reality.

meaningless life - meaningful life

I've been reading takepart.com and I'm amazed and touched by so many people involved in making this world truly a better place to live. Take a look of these five women impaling the communities around the world. The stories shared on that website are truly amazing and proof that every individual , no matter how small or big one is, can make a lot of difference in this world.On one hand it moves me but on the other hand makes me feel idiotic that I'm not contributing anything.
on one hand the stories are so inspiring that motivates one to go beyond your comfort zone to help others , touch their lives I make a difference. the people on that site are taking an unconventional stance at solving problems. They are not waiting for every star to align. they are taking charge and making the difference. They are not sitting back and cribbing how things are falling apart. They are nothing up their sleeves and building communities, giving them hope and a life to live. These are type of people we need more in the world. These are the people we med in India. Indians are great at sitting back and pointing fingers and crib. what we need is not whiners. we need leaders who can got their hands dirty and mobilize the community to act as a single entity and make it work for its own good.


I would like to see move people got involved in their community. I for one am ready to contribute in every small way possible to help this noble cause.

Patent holder - yay!

The long wait has at last come to an end. Almost 3 years after I filed my patent application, I got three of them approved and issued on February 16th. It feels so great to get a patent issued. Have been in elated moods the entire day. I couldn't wait to share the news with my friends.
Patent application process is very interesting. You first submit a provisional application, then a file the patent in a year and wait for patent examiner to go over it. Once examiner examines the application, there would be multiple rounds of to and fro questions and answers. In this stage, you are defending your patent. Once this is done, you are done. If examiner feels it deems a patent, it is approved, otherwise declined.
Well 3 down and 13 more to go. Lets see how much success rate I will have.

Random Act of Kindness

 I was browsing live journal website when I came across the question: " when was the last time you did any random act of kindness?" The question caught my attention. I kept thinking about it. If was with great difficulty I could figure out what, of all the acts of kindness (if I did any), will be considered random?
 First I thought donating to Haiti relief fund would qualify for random act of kindness. It in act of kindness, yes; but in it random? I knew about Haiti, I read about it, I heard about it on radio, I saw the disaster on TU. I knew about it and hence helped it. It wasn't random after all.
Then I thought of the concert I attended which was part of fund raising campaign for Association forIndia's Development. A friend of mine was organizing it. Again I couldn't convince myself that this was random. If it wasn't for the friend I wouldn't have attended the concert nor would I have caned about that organization.
 Still thinking about random act of kindness landed me with two acts which can be random. First , a couple of months ago I wrote a biog on helping people with managing and lowering taxes by suggesting things they can do at the end of year.Read about it here.I had no obligation to waste it nor any advantage of doing so. But I sure hope it helped the people who read it. I guess this act can be considered random act of kindness.
 Second, a year ago when I was moving my apartment I had loads of clothes , some books and ass that I no longer use, but are in great condition. I was about to throw away since I no longer needed them. Instead I donated the clothes to Goodwill, books to a library and CDs to friends. I figured out that there are people for whom books and clothes were luxury. I truly wish they get what they want. And I sure hope this can be called random act of kindness.
What was your last random act of kindness?

Investment game update

A week ago I started an investment game to get my friends and I to think more on investments and to discuss the strategies. Got five of my friends sign up and a week later just two to actually invest in something. The other three didnt start investing and hence they are still at $10K. Nishant invested in MOT which tanked on Friday taking him to -1.14%. I invested in NRG which I thought is undervalued now. unfortunately it went down taking me to -1.19%. So currently I am in 5th place while Nishanth is in 4th place. The others, still yet to make a trade and hence in 1st position :) Come on you people, start trading!

Italy tour - Naples

The first impression I had when I walked out of the Naples railway station was "Wow! This looks just like Secunderabad railway station." It is pretty dirty especially with the rain that poured the previous night. There are so many people just standing at the exits from railway station with a weird look that I was thinking about Rick Steve's suggestion "Keep your bags close to you." The hotel we chose was very close to railway station, just 200m that we just walked.
The hotel was good for most part. The city itself was interesting. Narrow lanes, loud crowd, thin walls, lot of immigrants. Interestingly we found so many Bangladeshis there. Almost every phone booth, internet center was run by Bangladeshis.

Naples is the birthplace of pizza. You would be surprised that the pizza over here is a totally different concept that what you get from Pizza Hut or Papa Johns. The crust is so thin that it reminds you of Indian Chapati. Tomato sauce is spread over it, with some vegetables and there it goes into the oven. Before they serve you, olive oil (plenty of it) is spilled on the top of the pizza. Good food was a bit difficult to get in Naples.All the recommended ones were below the expectations.

Naples city is probably in one of the best locations I have seen. It has mountains on one side and ocean on the other. Due to its location, the city is sandwiched and hence crowded. City attractions include bunch of museums, couple of churches and archeological sites. The best museum of Naples is the National Museum of Archeology which contains the artifacts found while excavating Pompeii (about which you would read in a while). Another good museum to visit is National Museum of Capodimonte. This museum contains the collection of the Capodimonte family and is a worth a visit. I liked the garden around the museum and the great views up from there. You can see the port, the beautiful coast line, and ever busy city sounds fade away. We had great time visiting these. The toughest part was to get there. You have to take bus transportation and it is erratic. Make sure you check out the schedule before you leave.

Apart from those two museums we didnt do much in Naples. We used it as a base to visit Pompeii which is about 20 mins in train ride from Naples. Make sure you get the museum pass if you plan to visit either of the museums and Pompeii. It would more than pay for itself. We took a train back from Naples to Florence. It took about 5 hours in an intercity train. If we had taken a fast train it would have taken just 3:10hrs, but cost us 3 times :)

Welcome to my new investment game!

Folks, I invite you all to join me in having a fun-learning experience, a new investment game to test your strategies in stock market. The rules are simple:

• you get $10K virtual money to start with
• you have 6 months to invest
• you have all the options as you would get on the real stock market
• $9.95 commission for the trades

Thats it.
Why should you join?
For one, it is going to be fun to play a game with others. The other reasons include:

• See how others are investing
• Learn from them or teach them how to invest
• Discuss the strategies involved in investing
• Understand the market and why the market is reacting/behaving like it does
• Understand how your friends think about money :)

Come join me in this game!
Use the information and directions below to join the game.
Game ID: sureshd1
Game Password: sureshd1

1. Open this link and read the competition summary:
   http://vse.marketwatch.com/Game/StartViewGame.aspx?id=sureshd1
2. Click on the 'Join Game' link.
3. If you are an existing Virtual Stock Exchange member, enter your Email address and Password in the login panel and get set to trade. If you are a new user, follow the link to register - it's easy!
4. Follow the instructions and start trading!

Join now, and see if you can win my Suresh and His friends game 1 competition! The more participants the higher the level of competition. Can you master the market

I am humbled!

Dont know if you folks follow TED, but if you haven't already checked out, check out this link you would be amazed.


India needs more of such practical people than bookish knowledge.And it definitely needs people who dream big and go after it. Its a pity that Indian community somehow becomes complacent quickly and is very risk averse. You go and tell someone you wanna try something new and 90% of people would say why do you want to take risk when you are properly settled, blah blah blah.. But what is life without taking risks for what you believe in? As a community we need to encourage people to take risks, better themselves and reward even those who failed while taking risks. We need to change our mindset and help, encourage the people who want to make a difference in the world.
I've become immune to the feeling that I should continue to work in the same field as what I spent my schooling in. More and more I realize that given a chance and if I were properly exposed earlier in life, I would've not chose engineering :) (dont get me wrong, i love engineering, it equipped me with lovely skills that i can use in daily life and i see most people struggling with them). i seem to miss the social aspect completely. i dont feel i am being useful to society directly. compare me to a doctor or a dentist or a nurse (who needs much less education than we do) and getting that constant feedback from the people you directly serve. i think thats lovely. what i think i am trying to say is that personal satisfaction of feeling that what you are working towards matters to some one is truly amazing.

Italy tour - Vatican

Vatican is the smallest country in the world and probably the place every Christian wants to visit at least once in his/her life time. It is also very rich, population growth of almost zero % (it is +ve due to swiss guards who can have kids). They have their own currency, their own shopping malls (with no taxes), their own army, and almost everything you would like to have in any affluent country. By the way Vatican is the smallest country in the world.
Allocating a day should be more than sufficient in Vatican, unless you want to waste time in the lines and / or want to explore the city in full details. It is a great city, take time to absorb the beauty and grandeur. Don't haste here. If you can afford, take a guide with you and get every thing explained. It has very interesting history.
Here are the places we visited and my opinions on those places.

Vatican Museum

 Probably the largest museum in the world (so they claim), it has more than 1500 rooms. These are private collections of popes (about 200 of them ).  I wonder how rich the Popes must have to even get such a large private collection. It is full of frescos, wall hangings, paintings, sculptures, beautiful corridors. It would take almost 11 days to go through the museum even if you spend only 10 mins per room :). You have guides who walk you though the highlights of the museum. We just took one of those tours. They are expensive but save you loads of time since you can get to skip the usually very long line in front of museum. The guide was very engaging and explained various paintings, sculptures, their history and some not so great things that you would like to share with kids :). Overall it was damn impressive.

One of the ceilings had a great painting which I thought was an etched sculpture on the top. here is the picture of the same.  Apparently this a common technique in painting (called French style or something)

St. Peter's Basilica
No doubt the grandest of all the churches you would ever see, this is the largest church in the world. It is so damn huge that it takes a while to walk from one side to another. It has the famous Dove window by Bernini, the works of Michelangelo (piata and some paintings) and beautiful St. Peter's Center altar. If you look down you can see underground rooms (think Angels and Demons). Oh yeah you can also see where the Camerlengo sets himself on fire in Angels and Demons :) It is beautiful to the extent you would loose interest in all other chapels and churches :) 
Sistine Chapel
Home of the famous Michelangelo's fresco, it is considered, probably, the most sacred chapel in the world. It is pretty small when compared to other churches and chapels you would find around, but the fresco and the meaning that he wanted to convey is awesome. It conveys genesis, 9 part fresco and some other total christianity related stuff that I didnt understand much. This is where the cardinals select next Pope. By the way, you cannot take any pictures since Kodak owns the copyrights to the fresco :)
St. Peter's square
Its so huge that you can accommodate about 200,000 people at once. Its probably one of the best sights you can ever get. It is in almost a circle, with an opening at one end to let people come in and at the other end is the entrance to St. Peter's Basilica. All around you would see tall cylindrical pillars and a beautiful corridor. In the middle is where you find another fountain, beautiful as everything around it. (this is where a dead guy is found in Angels and Demons).

Italy tour - Rome

 Landed as Rome Fiomucino airport. Immigration check was a breeze. Went to tour information, bought Roma pan and took a train to Rome termini. From there took a local subway to Cavour station to check in to Hotel. We were so tired that we just crashed until evening. In the evening, we went out to a walk starting from Piazza del Popolo down to Spanish steps, Trevi fountain, and then to the subway metro station to take it back to Cavour station.

Piazza del Popolo is a very beautiful plaza for people to meet, socialize, flirt and generally relax. As any place in Rome, it is full of scultptures, a beautiful fountain, and a great views around.
We went down walking in the streets and entered a good looking restaurant, and we had one of the best pizzas ever. Even though the food was a bit expensive, it was very delicious. After the dinner we went walking in the streets of Rome until we reached Spanish steps. As usual it was great with sculpture, another fountain and plenty of people just sitting around sharing a great time. Plenty of love birds and roadside romeos having fun and generally in a great moods. From there we just walked down to Trevi fountain.
Getting to Trevi fountain is damn interesting. You would go through small gullies, narrow pathways, and some dark ones too. You keep wondering if you are on correct path and voila there it is, buzzing with people, unbelievably crowded and just plain engrossing that you would forget the crowd around you. Absolutely stunning. Designed by Lorenzo Bernini (who is also responsible for bunch of fountains around), it is a must see if you are visiting Rome. Spend a bunch of time there, relaxing, just admiring the beautiful scenery.
Next day we started on our day long walking tour of Rome starting at Colosseum. There is no doubt about Colosseum being one of the seven wonders of world. Built around 70-80AD, it is by far the best historical monument I've ever seen. I was jaw dropped marveling its architecture. Imagining it filled with 50000 spectators hooting for the gladiators fight truly amazes you. I was totally baffled by their ingenuity in designing the colosseum, with almost every detail worked out. They even had lifts to get the animals up when gladiator is not watching. They had aquaducts coming in to fill the arena with water to make it entertaining for folks. Romans were bloodthirsty folks. Even though I am amazed by the architecture, I was kind of taken aback by what it is used for :)
From Colosseum we strolled into Roman Forum. This is where the action during Roman civilization used to happen. This place is full of arches. If a king wins a war, they build an arch for him. I have no idea why they build an arch instead of something else like a building :), but thats what Roman's did. It has Basilica, a market, the senate, a court, a church and best of all it is in a valley so that the people in palaces on Palentine Hill can just look down their balcony and see what all is going on. Oh yeah! it also has the place where Julius Caeser got stabbed to death :) (Et tu Brutus...). We strolled through the arches, the building and finally reached Palentine Hills. By the way if you were wondering how they built it, they got slaves from Africa to "help" them build it ;)
By the time we reached Palentine Hills we were a bit tired and hungry too. So, we just roamed around to see how big their palaces were. Interesting on the other side of the Hill is where circus maximus is. This is where they used to have charriot races. I think Romans used Hills for their homes and the valleys for socializing. Great concept. Circus Maximus is not really worth all the walk to it.
After seeing all these great monuments, we set forth to see Pantheon, the building that inspired hell lot of others including Jefferson's memorial in Washington DC. It is well hidden from the main roads. But the magnitude of the building is just awe inspiring. Its so hard to imagine that they could build such beautiful and strong buildings centuries ago (while the new ones that we construct now will probably not withstand a strong wind,lol). Pantheon is amazing, the art inside is beautiful and of course as with any other monument in Rome, it has a beautiful fountain in front of it. Dont forget to have a gelato near Pantheon, it is amaaziiinnnggg.

New Year Resolutions

I dont remember the last time I had New Year Resolutions, but I did a list for this year. May be this means I was not satisfied with my performance last year. Anyway, here they are:

• Get in touch with my old friends and keep in touch
• Start a blog and pose questions soliciting ideas from others on how to solve them
• Try to set up a competition in SCH schools that promote entrepreneurship amongst school children
• Keep in touch with Trichy folks and keep abreast of NITT-USA group
• Go to gym at least 3 times a week
• Write blogs regularly
• Buy a home
• Read a book a month
• Get to know more about photography
• Become a small business owner and get it successful
• Read news at least twice a week
• Help at least couple of friends/family members achieve their goals

Need to check this and see how I am doing in a quarter ;)

Italy tour summary

This post has been long overdue. Not sure why I had it in the drafts until today...

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 Recently I've been on a tour to Italy and it was awesome. Just a few days in another country can teach you so much more than what you can read in books for a month. I intend to write all about what I learnt, what I observed and what I felt. To start off I will summarize my trip in this blog.
We have been to Rome, Naples, Pompeii, Florence and Venice. Let's start with Rome.
Rome
Of all the cities in Italy I visited Rome was the best. Just walking down the street and you would find a fine blend of history, modern life style and beauty. We visited colosseums Circus maximus, Roman Forum, Palestine Hills, Trevi fountain, Piazza del Popolo , Pantheon etc.
 Colosseum is truly amazing. walking down there you can literally feel gladiators fighting, The Roman crowd cheering and admire the engineering that went into it. Imagining this 2000 years ago would just blow you off No wonder it made into Seven wonders of the world.I was so engrossed in its architecture and marvel.
 Roman forum and Palatine Hills are close by and this is where most of the action during Roman times happened. They had markets, courts, churches, public stages which can be used to further ones cause it was indeed truly democratic. You literally walk the same place Julius Caesar walked. Just on the top of the hill are the palaces of the kings. From their balconies they can see almost everything going on in the city.
 Rome is full of Pianos, Roman version of plazas when people can meet, talk, have fun. Almost all or them have beautiful sculpture around. pantheon's architecture inspired numerous buildings across the world including Jefferson's memorial and Lincoln memorial.
 Vatican
 The smallest country in the world but undoubtedly one of the richest per capita. It's museums and churches are testimony of the riches the country enjoys. St. Peters square is so huge that it can accommodate about 200,000 people at a time. and it is surrounded by amazing architecture.St. Peters Basilica, Sistine chapelare just so gorgeous that theydeserve all the credit they receive.Vatican museum is full of sculptures,paintings and frescos, very gorgeous.

Naples
Probably the worst city we visited. The only season to visit Naples is to go to Pompeii and see the Natural museum where they have the display of things excavated from Pompeii. The location in which Naples is amazing. Mountains on one side and ocean on the other. It does provide some beautiful views.
 Pompeii
A city that was destroyed in 76 AD , it was frozen in time by the lava from Mt. Vesuvius that engulfed it. Pompeii in its peak time must have been way ahead of other cities. they had markets, churches, amphitheatre that can host 50000 people and from anywhere you get awesome views to Ocean. The most interesting part is their street cleaning system. They drain water down the streets.
 Florence
 Home of Uffizi, Academia etc but we truly felt Florence is hyped. Except for David and couple of other paintings in academia they can close it. Uffizi gallery was good but it doesn't deserve so long lines. City of Florence is very small and there is hardly a time you would need to take a bus. Duomo was very interesting and there are some good Piazzas around.
 Venice
 Truly a marvelous story and city, built an a lagoon that is sinking, it offers a great experience that is unique to this place. Cruise down the Grand Canal, walk in the streets of Venice , visit Murano glass factory and have fun at San Marcos. These are the things to doin Venice.transportation is damn slow on water buses called Vaperetti. Just sit back, relax and enjoy the slow life style.