Homecoming

It took me more than 2.5 years, but come home I did. Finally! And it feels awesome! :)

I have been in California’s bay area for a while now, have a lot of friends there, and that feels almost like home too- the almost here, is important. Pune stirs in me something very raw, familiar and comfortable- feels like home. US has been great so far and I have had great experiences, but at the end of the day, with the visa and all, you are Uncle Sam’s guests, and every once in a while, you are reminded of it.

So what have I been upto?

After my masters, I landed a job in San Jose at a startup. Having interned there before, everything seemed familiar, and I pounced on the opportunity. By the time I was back in early 2012 though, things had begun to change. For one, the startup had been around for roughly 4 years already, and had had a couple of rounds of funding. Buoyed by their initial success, the company ramped up the number of employees- mainly sales and marketing people, since engineering was deemed to have sufficient folks. After the first couple of quarters of the product release though, sales were scarce, and the company did not get any market traction. The product itself wasn’t bad at all- it was just ahead of its time, and the market had not been correctly sized up by the powers that be. Things unraveled fast. VC (venture capitalist) culture is a bitch, and there are no second chances. By the end of the year, 1/3rd people were fired- mostly sales and marketing. The company tried a last ditch attempt at selling itself and having a respectful exit. The founders nearly pleaded with the employees to stay put for the acquisition to happen. And stay put I did. Yada yada yada.. acquisition didn’t go through- and I found myself a sitting duck, with all offers I had before declined optimistically by yours truly. :)

Thankfully one of the companies remade their offer- and my visa status was maintained. The new employer is a multinational Asian behemoth, selling some of the hottest consumer products in market today. Its top level management is completely Asian- and as such the work culture is- ahem, rigorous. My only hope is- I joined in at the wrong time, just when there was a impending product release, and the recent work hours were an exception rather than a rule. I don’t mean to complain, but my new boss is inexperienced, neurotic, forgetful and cracks his shit under pressure. As one team mate put it when we were bitching about work during lunch- he is like a 16 year old insecure girl (no offense to all the 16 year old girls :)). I really hope things change for the better.

On a personal front, things are going well. My family is in good health. The grandparents have become quite old now- and they were one of the reasons I was desperate to come home for a visit. Staying away from home makes you realize how important your family is. I am single, so.. Hello ladies- and how are you doing today? ;)

This trip is quite short, and I have done my best to meet all friends and family. Hopefully I will get to come home for a longer time within the next year. Till then, adios amigos. I leave Friday. Meanwhile I will try and write here more often from US. Promise! :)

This site is under construction

Hola.

I have decided to revamp the blog, try changing the CSS, move things here and there. I hope that that will rekindle my interest in blogging. Please bear with me while this goes on. One fine day if you land here, the blog might have a pink background with purple font color. There is nothing wrong. It’s just bad code. (:
Just saying.

Rohan

Colors of Raleigh

View from my window

NCSU Bell tower on 9/11 Anniversary

Grandfather Mountain

Life life, you surprise…

Mineta San Jose International airport- 100 meters beyond the glass wall in front of me, planes are taking off every two minutes.

Its the end of my internship, and I am headed back to school for the last semester of my grad studies. The best thing about the internship? The people. In my opinion, people around you directly affect your growth, be it career or otherwise. I got to work with some really good people, and thankfully, as it turns out, will continue working with them once my masters is done.

Well, graduating in 15 months was never on the cards, but that’s how its going be. Seems increasingly likely that I am going to settle in California’s bay area come this January. Well, frankly I admit I didn’t see myself in California after my masters- but man, I like how this is panning out. I wasn’t quite sure what was in store some months back, but now that its becoming slightly clear, I like it.

All right- Got to catch the flight. More later- maybe after I reach Vegas (my first stopover). Leaving you with a pic of my ride.

McCarran International Airport, Las Vegas- Rows and rows of slot machines at the airport, and shoe-shine booths with hot females, where else but Vegas?

The interesting thing is, there are very few seats at the aircraft gates, compared to the number of people here- and there are a lot of empty seats right in front, at the slot machines. Clever scheme for inviting people over to the slots? I wonder who owns them. Do ones at terminal A belong to Caesars Palace and terminal B to The Venetian? Interesting. I see all these people mindlessly plonking themselves in front of the slots while waiting for their next planes.

That’s what I like about humans- we never give up, do we? But Vegas looks very inviting. Luxor, the black pyramid shaped casino looked fantastic from up there. Definitely a must visit in the next year.

Slot machines at the airport

Anyway so now I am looking forward to being back in Raleigh and enjoying my last semester. This masters is probably going to be my terminal degree. PhD is a no no- its all about money honey. And I am not quite sure if I will go for a degree in something else. So well after 23 years of trying to educate myself, I think I am done. Twenty three years? Man that’s gone on too long, as it is. :P

Raleigh- Ah, I am back. My apartment in Raleigh is still being refurbished, so I am going to stay over at some friends for a couple of days. A dozen huge ass bags in the living room, a massive couch- and innumerable plastic bags lying around- get the picture of the living room? Now that I have stayed in California for three months, I think I have come to appreciate the old world, slightly idyllic, hi-fi research charm of Raleigh much better. This place is like the perfect setting for owning a house, having a family, maybe a dog or two. And yes, a 9-5 job, a pick up truck and a sedan. Very nice.

But who wants that right? :D

Now is the time for sixty+ hour weeks, clubs, some hot blood- you get the drift. But for now, I am content. Surprisingly, I think I have somehow learnt how to be satisfied. In the past, I always was in a hurry of- getting somewhere. You know, that whole anticipation of whats to come, which kind of makes you NOT enjoy where you are RIGHT NOW. But I think I have finally managed to get that under reign. Its just making me enjoy this whole ‘journey’, if I may call it that, completely.

Life is a surprise. But it is good.

So save me San Fransisco!

Oh man! Haven’t posted for a while. This is more like a ‘whats been happening with me’ kind of post.

So, I have now moved temporarily(interning) from east coast to the west coast of US. And I love California! Not only is it freaking beautiful, but it also appeals to my other senses- PEOPLE!! Its got lots of them. More than I have seen anywhere in US. So right now this summer intern seems like the best time I have had in my life. For once, I have some money to spend. (As a student, you feel like a cheap ass most of the time.) And if there is any place on earth you want to be single, its California! You will have a whole new life experience, believe me :D. Forbidden fruits.

Met my parents in San Fransisco yesterday. Felt amazing. Its been almost 11 months since I last saw them. Spent the whole day in the city with them. It was fun!
Leaving you guys with the shot of the day. Hope you all doing well, be steadfast.

South Main, San Fransisco

Yesterday’s history

Yesterday,
All my troubles seemed so far away,
Now it looks as though they’re here to stay,
Oh, I believe in yesterday.

Suddenly,
I’m not half the man I used to be,
There’s a shadow hanging over me,
Oh, yesterday came suddenly.

Why she
Had to go I don’t know, she wouldn’t say.
I said,
Something wrong, now I long for yesterday.

Yesterday,
Love was such an easy game to play,
Now I need a place to hide away,
Oh, I believe in yesterday.

Why she
Had to go I don’t know, she wouldn’t say.
I said,
Something wrong, now I long for yesterday.

Yesterday,
Love was such an easy game to play,
Now I need a place to hide away,
Oh, I believe in yesterday.

Mm-mm-mm-mm-mm-mm-mm.

“What kind of music do you listen to?” is a very strange question for a person like me. It is also a pretty common conversation starter, and I suppose people think its quite weird that I do not have defined musical tastes (or they probably think I am not interested in the conversation-to-be). I listen to Coldplay, the normal techno songs that play on the radio- Usher, Pitbull, Black Eyed Peas, Far East Movement etc.

A month back, I stumbled across this huge treasure trove of the Beatles, Eagles, Bobby McFerrin, Don McLean, the Rolling Stones- and man! This is really my kind of music! A couple of days back, I was watching “Once upon a time in America”, and this tune of the Beatles’ song- ‘Yesterday’, started playing in the movie. I was like- wait a minute, isn’t that the same song I have played a hundred times past few days? Talk about co-incidences.

By now, I was curious and began to dig out the history of this ballad. My search lasted three days.

Yesterday is the most recorded song ever, according to Guinness Book of Records. Yesterday has been rendered via jazz, reggae, brass, salsa, synthesizer, soul, funk, folk, the Boston Pops and the harmonica. It hasn’t been so much covered as smothered. There are thousands of Beatles tribute bands.

Paul McCartney composed the entire melody in a dream one night. When he woke up, he played the tune on a piano next to his bedside, so that he wouldn’t forget it. Paul was concerned that he had subconsciously copied someone else’s melody. “It was just all there, a complete thing. I couldn’t believe it. It came too easy,” said he. So for a month, he went to people in the music business and played the tune to them. “Eventually it became like handing something in to the police. I thought if no-one claimed it after a few weeks then I could have it,” said he, in one of his memoirs.

Once Paul was sure that it really was his tune, he began to compose lyrics for it. The words did not come as easily as the tune though, and the Beatles called it ‘Scrambled Egg’ for some months. “Scrambled eggs, oh my baby, how I love your legs,” went the dummy lyrics. The breakthrough came when Paul was on a holiday in Portugal. “I remember mulling over the tune ‘Yesterday’, and suddenly getting these little one-word openings to the verse. I started to develop the idea … da-da da, yes-ter-day, sud-den-ly, fun-il-ly, mer-il-ly and Yes-ter-day, that’s good,” said he.

The song was recorded by McCartney on 14th June, 1965. Solo. In only two takes. The band tried to play it together, but no combination seemed to work. Till Paul sang it on its own. Although he had already fallen in love with the song, Paul had a hard time convincing the other members of the band that the song was worthy of an album place. The main objection was that it did not fit in with their image, especially considering that Yesterday was extremely unlike other Beatles’ songs at the time. This feeling was so strong, that the song was not released as a single in United Kingdom at first. It was however released in United States, and topped the charts for a whole month. The rest is history.

There is really nothing exceptionally different about this song- it talks about a breakup, like so many others do. As John Lennon said later of this song,”They’re good– but if you read the whole song, it doesn’t say anything; you don’t know what happened. She left and he wishes it were yesterday– that much you get– but it doesn’t really resolve.” Paul McCartney, only 22 at that time, was far too young to be looking backwards at life, and what’s more, to be so good at it. McCartney doesn’t sneak up on the song; he is already in the midst of it emotionally and vocally, and the artlessness of his approach is part of what creates the effect of fingernails scraping on the heartstrings. There is nothing sugar coated about the lyrics. They are adjective-free. They are direct. They hurt.

As for the ex-lover that McCartney is singing about – the one who “had to go” but why, “she wouldn’t say” – the lyrics are a classic piece of evasion. “You know perfectly well why I had to go,” millions of women are responding. “You hit me/flirted with the waitress/didn’t pick up after yourself/got fat/watched football during/fell asleep right after/had a sliver of glass in your cold, cold heart” Love works, or doesn’t work, both ways.

Everyone goes through this wretchedness. The genius of the song lies in its universality. Everyone, male or female, straight or gay, young or old, can identify with its theme of lost love.

“I remember thinking that people liked sad tunes; they like to wallow a bit when they’re alone, to put a record on and go, ‘Ahhhh.’ “ - Paul McCartney

P.S: Used Wikipedia and references there as my references. Some of the quotes are directly taken off Wikipedia.
P.P.S: No hidden messages intended.

Not feeling lucky??

Don’t let that bog you down. You never know, it might just be your luckiest day.

I was reading random news today, and I came across this piece- Apparently, a group of seven workers in the state information technology department at Albany, playing regularly through their office jackpot pool, hit the $319 million Mega Millions jackpot. There was however, an eighth guy who used to pool money with them regularly, but had opted out that particular week because “He wasn’t feeling lucky”. :D Ouch!!

$$$$$

Imagine that huh. After cutting out federal and state taxes, apparently its $19 million per head. Haha. If I would have been the guy who dropped out, I think I might have kissed ass and asked for a million or half!! I mean, cummon! :D That guy probably must have needed therapy after that.

What would you have done? I think we can have an interesting discussion here!

Lives of others

For 8 year old Jessie, it was a ray of hope. Born with a congenital heart defect, the heart transplant was a new chance for her- a chance to have a normal life, to play with friends in the park after school. Little did she know that the heart transplant would change her life in more ways than one.

Shortly after the operation, Jessie began to have nightmares- nightmares of an attacker and a girl being murdered. The nightmare used to plague her so often, that she was brought to a psychiatrist. The description Jessie gave was so vivid, that the psychiatrist was convinced that it was real. It turned out that the ten year old whose heart she had just received was murdered. Due to the violent recurring dreams, Jessie was able to describe the events of that horrible encounter and the murderer so well, that the police soon apprehended, arrested, and convicted the killer.

Science fiction? Not really.
This incident really happened in the early 90′s. I came across this fascinating phenomenon called as ‘cellular memory’ some time back. The theory states that the brain is not the only organ that stores memories or personality traits, and that memory as a process can form in other systems in the body like the heart.

Muscle memory, is of course a well known fact. Consider this- if you have played an instrument before, you would have realized that at first it is difficult to get used to the movements- for example, pressing the right piano keys. But as you practice more, you no longer have to think about the right keys. The hand just knows them. It is the same about any sport, or any kind of repetitive movement. The brain no longer comes into picture. You just know what to do.

Since most hospitals’ organ transplant programs do not allow the recipient to know the identity of the donor, most cases of cellular memory have been documented by scientists studying the phenomenon. The identity of the patients is normally not know, leaving the stories at large but in obscurity.

One of the few cases we know the patient’s name was a woman called Claire Sylvia who received a heart and lung transplant in the 1970′s from an eighteen year old male donor who had been in a motorcycle accident. None of this information was known to Sylvia, who upon waking up claimed she had a new and intense craving for beer, chicken nuggets, and green peppers, all food she didn’t enjoy prior to the surgery. Sylvia wrote a book about her experiences after learning the identity of her donor, called A Change of Heart.

Other documented cases have been perplexing and sometimes extreme. A 47 year old man receiving a heart from a 17 year old African American boy suddenly picked up an intense fondness for classical music. The boy whose heart had been donated was killed in a drive-by shooting, still clutching his violin case in his hands.

Fascinating stuff! Imagine waking up one day with someone else’s thoughts and feelings!

Happy Republic Day

A nice video to convey the sentiments

Memories

A man was visiting a city which was once his home after a long time. He was going to be in town for only a few hours, so he decided to go for a walk to his favorite places.

Some time later he found himself sitting on a bench in a park, smoking a pipe.

“You look miles away”, said an old man, joining him.
“No, I am here”, he said, “But I am sitting on the same bench with my painter friend, 20 years back. We are watching my wife, who has had a bit too much to drink, trying to dance a flamenco.”

“Enjoy your memories”, says the old man.
“But remember, the memory is like salt. The right amount brings out the flavor in food, too much ruins it. If you live in the past all the time, you won’t have any present to remember.”

Adapted from a story I read on Paulo Coelho’s blog some time back.