Nostalgia Time

The work week that ended today has been a real tedious one. More than the work, the reason is the last weekend when I was on vacation with my College buddies (from Chicago) in Miami,FL. It was a wonderful trip - the snorkeling in the ocean, eating break-fast in the middle of the day with cock-tails made in Paradise, the Beach, And how can I not mention the second most beautiful thing about that beach. Those tanned "beauties" with only one piece of clothing on, is second only to the Beach as Beach itself was so beautiful. Add to that the feeling among us that probably this was last such get-together as bachelors.

Its no wonder that after a vacation like that I was sitting in my cube and thinking "what is the meaning of life?", "Where do we all come from?", "What is the use of life with out vacations like that?". Gradually, that feeling gave way to a feeling of nostalgia about days in Graduate school in Chicago and Engineering college back in India before that. Few key-strokes and right-clicks later, I was transported back in time to my beloved home town thanks to two posts in blogs from people went to same college as I did.

Having grown up in Hostels from a very early age, I have a load of my own Nostalgia about times and places other than my hometown and family. I came back to my hometown Hassan only for college. Its a strange and delightful feeling that I got from reading those two well written posts as their college town is my hometown and look at my hometown as I would look at the places I went to study. I haven't probably met these people and I think they are roughly talking about same time frame as my college days. But, I understand and remember what exactly they are talking about.

Those two posts put together, they get more fascinating for more reasons than I mentioned above. In Lakshmi's post she fondly remembers her days in Ladies hostel and her friends and all the girly (I don't mean to sound sexist which I am not) things. I also got the feeling that she is looking at those times through the present and how she endured it all.

Where as, Manoj's post is more about re-living the past and definitely on this side of the Ladies hostel compound. (he says..."oops !!! we dint have time to visit the LH … which was Mother of all temples of Worship…"...Good one!). He is very brief and remembers all the places (outdoors) that were his haunts and how little Hassan has changed since his time.

Isn't it amazing how we all look at past and think fondly of them even though at the time we thought of them as life's travails?

Big Bang and Expanding Universe!

Couple of months back I was watching a 70's romantic comedy by Woody Allen called "Annie Hall". The movie is really good and stands up to his reputation. It is also full of hilarious dialogues between various characters. One that stood out for me is

Doctor in Brooklyn: Why are you depressed, Alvy?
Alvy's Mom: Tell Dr. Flicker.
[Young Alvy sits, his head down - his mother answers for him]
Alvy's Mom: It's something he read.
Doctor in Brooklyn: Something he read, huh?
Alvy at 9: [his head still down] The universe is expanding.
Doctor in Brooklyn: The universe is expanding?
Alvy at 9: Well, the universe is everything, and if it's expanding, someday it will break apart and that would be the end of everything!
Alvy's Mom: What is that your business?
[she turns back to the doctor]
Alvy's Mom: He stopped doing his homework!
Alvy at 9: What's the point?
Alvy's Mom: What has the universe got to do with it? You're here in Brooklyn! Brooklyn is not expanding!
Doctor in Brooklyn: It won't be expanding for billions of years yet, Alvy. And we've gotta try to enjoy ourselves while we're here!

(Alvy at 9 means, when Alvy (the main character) was 9 years old)

Google Sky

We all had so much fun when Google Earth came out. Now its gotten even better with Google Sky. There are so many Layers and as many things as you can do. There are real cool things to do like making the sky rotate around any given point, tracking the motion of the planet through out the year which is like fast forwarding the sky for the span of the whole year. There are amazing pictures from Hubble and other telescopes.

At the same time it is a very helpful and informative tool too. Over the weekend I was going for the monthly sky watching session organized by the local astronomy group and I wanted to brush up on positions of planets and stars. Instead of good old planisphere I used earlier I gave Google Sky a try. Oh it helps and its super cool.

This past spring I took lessons on sky watching in a planetarium here. To sit in the Sky theater in complete darkness, to fast forward or rewind the Sky from any year to any year and any month to any month and to see how the Skies would look from the poles, equator and different parts of the world was an awesome experience. Although there is nothing like the Shy Theater in a Planetarium to learn about stars and constellations Google Sky is a good tool once you are able to recognize some well known constellations.

Well done Google! Just don't put any Ad's in there.

Sunday Evening Blues

For more than one and half years now there is one thing I am almost certain to do any given week. Play a game of pick-up soccer at 4:30 p.m. on Sunday. This is as if no matter what-else is happening rest of the week I will be there in the park waiting for all other people to turn-up. It is wonderful group of people I play with. As it is a pick-up game and nothing close to being competitive, people are laid-back and sometimes just 4-5 people show up. We end up kicking around for sometime and very rarely the worst comes true - only couple of people showing up! Playing soccer on Sunday evenings sets me up perfectly for the work week starting Monday morning.

Its kind of deja vu for me. When I was in college back in Hassan, India, we played Cricket with tennis-ball at 4:00 p.m. every Sunday. I have wonderful memories those times. It was really fun to play with my buddies some of whom I had known since kindergarten. I did this for almost 5 years. No matter what else I did rest of the week, I was there on the Cricket grounds at 4:00 p.m. Sunday. Even then sometimes it so happened that very few people showed up. It forced us to just knock around for sometime. Although I didn't have to worry about a work week starting Monday, Sunday Cricket was still one of the things I enjoyed most.

There is one more similarity and Irony to those times. Back then, we played in a ground which was common for Cricket and Soccer. On most Sundays there was no one playing soccer And we could play without being bothered. But now and then people showed up for soccer practice. We hated those guys as we had to move from the big ground to a smaller ground next to it. Now, here in Durham, North Carolina, we play soccer in a public park where there are separate fields for Soccer and Baseball and Softball. Soccer field has been closed for renovation for some time now and we end up playing Soccer on baseball field. Now and then people show up for baseball practice and we have to move to a field which is vacant.

I was playing Cricket then and wished no would show up for Soccer practice and Now, I am playing Soccer and wish no would show up for Baseball practice (Base ball being relatively similar to Cricket). As they say, What goes around, comes around!