A Bitter Cold Vacation at Storrs

A look back at my 3 day Ruined vacation at Storrs. It happened to be the first time I went back since I moved out to Chicago before 5 months.

I have listed it from worst to the best.

Things that went wrong

1. Chicago to Boston flight: the weekend started off with a 3 hr delay of the Flight to Boston, which was re-routed to providence for 2 hours because of some landing difficulties in Logan airport. It resulted in a 3 hr delay, so Reached Logan at 8 pm instead of 5 pm and in turn reached Storrs at 10 pm. Entire Thursday was over.

2. Work from home: I planned to work half day from Storrs on Friday (7 am to 1 pm CST). This did not go well because of 2 reasons: I forgot my VPN connecting hardware and laptop charger in office. Both were essential for my laptop to work. I figured out a solution for VPN but couldn’t find a charger in time. L

3. Busy schedules on Friday: in my entire 3 year stay in CT, this was the first time; I saw that people were busy on a Friday afternoon. Things had changed drastically. Whoever, I called didn’t pick up the phone or were busy doing something.

4. Unexpected Heavy SNOW: the super villain of my ruined weekend. It freakin’ snowed the entire Saturday, making life difficult for everyone and delay/ruin all my plans of meeting people.

5. Power Outage: the Super Villain’s Super weapon. Power went off at 2 am on Sunday morning and did not come back until I left Storrs at 2 am Monday morning. Still not sure if they got power back.

6. People: I planned this trip basically to meet everyone I knew at UCONN and Storrs. Unfortunately, once I went there and only realized I hardly knew anyone there now. So many new faces. The old ones were probably tired of seeing my face over and over again, that some of them didn’t even meet me in these 3 days.

Things that could have been worse

1. Transportation: Luckily, I decided to get a rental car this time to go around to places. It proved worthy (even though I ended up spending a bit more than I expected) else, I would have been stranded in one place depending on others to take me to places.

2. Diwali Function: as I mentioned before, I thought I knew a lot of people, going to Diwali function made me realize one thing... I was an Outsider now. It was proved as soon as I entered the hall, with a $20 price for ticket (first time in 4 yrs, I paid for a Diwali ticket). It continued for next 1 hr where I scarcely found anyone I knew among the crowd that came in.

Things had changed everyone I knew had a different group now. I was not in anyone’s circles anymore, but fortunately, everyone whom I knew talked to me for at least a chit-chat enquiring about things, which is way better than being the loner in a crowd.

3. Power Outage: even though the apartments had lost power, the University campus had power. So it became a savior for my phone as a charging point and a place for meeting some friends. I can’t imagine that Sunday without the Campus. Yes, things would have been much worse without it.

Things that went right

1. I have finally learnt that even I can “Let go”. J

2. I had my first experience driving in rain and snow conditions in the USA. Esp. at high speeds in a highway and it went all fine without any trouble.

3. I drove at graveyard time amidst big scary trucks to reach airport on time for return, another new experience.

4. I made 8 new Friends, some I already knew on Face book but met them for first time.

5. A realization that “No matter what changes, there are still some people with whom you can re-live past experiences”.

6. A reason to smile that I am remembered even now by many, for a lot of simple things/help I had done in the past.

Some one tell me a solution..!!

It’s been 3 months since I relocated to Chicago, with my job.

And I am have been to a lot of places, seen what needs to be seen here and explored the entire North Chicago suburbs. But am still New here... you might ask why?

There’s only one reason. Friends…

Not just any Friend, but Friends who you can go out... spend time... basically hang out. I haven’t even made one friend like that here. Everyone I know here, I knew them pretty much before I came here.

So why have I not made friends? I don’t know the answer. Here’s a list of things anyone would normally do in a new place to get friends and their results with my experience.

1. Friends from past or mutual friends (thro another friend): This is the best source for getting new friends, in a way, cos you already know someone or a friend through another friend.

2 of the 3 people I knew here moved out to elsewhere, when I came here. I did meet the third one but he’s busy with his own life. The Mutual friends I got through my past friends, well they have their own group of friends and social life etc... I see that on FB all the time. . It’s very hard to break into a new group, also I guess it would be little uncomfortable for them with a new person around, hence do not consider me I guess… (Depends on their flexibility and timings too). – TIMING FAIL

2. Work Place Friends: all of the people I work with are family types. Married with 2-3 kids. If hanging out with a pair is called third wheel, what’s it called for hanging out with a Family? Spare wheel? - MAJOR FAIL

3. Meeting new friends at Bars/public events: I have to admit, I still haven’t figured out how they do it in movies, where you find people who are alone in bars and public places. Because, I do not seem to find anyone like that. I tried going out to a bar/public event in OKTOBERFEST, alcohol plus public, seemed like a really good place to make new friends. Well I was partially wrong. I did make 3 new friends; unfortunately, they were college students from Michigan on visit here. So no scope on hang out again..! – PARTIAL FAIL

4. Dating Sites: The modern way of making friends, dating sites. This should work out rite. Its simple Fill out the damn questionnaire for almost 2 hours, upload pics, write about you, be cheesy and manly at same time. Then message girls, even if not for dating, you’d get friends. Simple rite?

No. not at all… I did join a dating site; I literally messaged every single girl around a 10 mile radius. (Why NO guys, u might ask... Men seeking Men is Gay!) . They could reply, not interested in your friendship or such... or they could at least REPLY. – Medium FAIL

(Note: I did make a slight progress, 2 girls became FB friends with me.)

5. Malls and Theaters: If you cannot get a friend in a bar… what are the chances in a Movie theater, esp. in USA… I went to about 1 movie almost every weekend. So far, I have hardly seen 4-5 people in theaters and they are couples, who have come to theater, just to keep snogging. Those things not only disgust you, but also increase your Irritation about being single.

And, when you come to a point, when you think Screw new friends, I’ll stick to my old buddies, people whom I’ve known before from my previous location, they know me, they will be there for me.. Become all senti and all with it... it turns out, half the people don’t even care, even to call once in awhile, or at least Pick up the call once in a life time. The other half, get reminded of me and Call me only when there’s something required of me. They call me multiple times in a day, talk for hours, until I am needed, and forget me once it’s done.

I realized that of all the friends, I have made in the past 4 years here in USA, there’s no one, who has at least visited me once, called me often without asking any questions or help or considered me as a part of their life and said, ‘Am their best friend’.

So tell me. How the F do you make new friends? I honestly don’t know, I have never come across such a problem. A relationship is difficult I agree... even a friendship is so tough?? What has the world come to? Or am I doing something wrong? Is there something I am missing here? I don’t get it. Simply don’t get it.

(This is a Just a Simple rant, any resemblance to many or some of my friends may or may not be co-incidental sometimes true, but it is not intended to hurt anyone. If Hurt, I apologize)

Love, Relationships and Mathematics.

It's a very complicated title, ain't it? Love and Mathematics? Seems like they both are extremes rite? But I think I have found a bit of similarity between them... a bit of similarity in predicting a wee bit of relationships and possibly LOVE...

Follow the article for more details.

Have you ever come across widgets and websites, such as Love calculator, love test etc. there are plenty available in the web and mobile apps. They are basically a mathematical algorithm that matches you and your partner's name, date of birth information and gives you a calculated output. These apps are only for fun purposes, nothing serious about it, but these Love widgets are the main aspect of my article here.

When, I was bored with nothing to do last weekend, while browsing online, I hit upon one such app called the 'Love guru'. This app like any other gets you and your partner's NAMES and gives out a little bit detailed percentage output in 4 categories - Love, work, sex and interests along with a overall score and a Letter grade.

As I said before, I was bored and for passing time, I played with it, using names of my friends and family, whom I know are in relationships or married... For my amusement and surprise, it turned out that people who are in relationship for at least 3 years or more had an overall score of minimum 75% with a grade of B+ and above.

The most surprising fact was that there were no exceptions. I would have tried a sample set of 25 plus couples I know of, and everyone scored high. In fact, some of them scored even higher like 90% and A+.

I even tried a sample of couples, who were in relationship and failed. Their score as expected fell below an average of 65% with a grade of C and below.

I was so intrigued with the results, that I started entering names of famous celebrities and fictional couples like Romeo & Juliet, Laila & Majnu, Brad & Angelina etc... I used a sample set of 25 couples here too. Many of them, including some animal characters and an Inter-galatical couple in Jake & Neytiri from Avatar, Scored the same level as the real ones, but this category had some exceptions. For example, Ron & Hermione from harry potter, Failed miserably.

So mathematically speaking... Does this imply that there is a connection between the name and relationships of people? Meaning, certain names go along better than others or is it just a well designed application/algorithm?

There's a bit of science behind this name connection. In Indian Arranged marriages, when horoscopes are matched, one of the Parameters is the Name; they look for matching names too. Astrology is accepted as a science. So if scientifically accepted; could this name compatibility calculating algorithm be used as a potential date matching tool?

But after all, that’s said and done, when it comes to the conclusion...

LOVE, it's really complicated... if Love and Relationships were as simple as calculating it mathematically, No one would be Single… who knows, maybe no one would be in relationships either.

Try it yourself; Even if it isn't science, it’s definitely fun. Who knows... You could be one of those 25 plus couples.

P.S. I am sure; you have a Question, if I tried this app for personal use. In fact YES, I did try matching my name with some potential girls, whom I would like to date. But unfortunately, my name being the different, unique and badass name of all... the matches barely crossed 60% with maximum being 68% and a grade of C.

25 Random thoughts from a 25 year old Left Hander With a Right Brain.

1. Never get too curious with anything, it will hurt you.

2. Nobody forgets anything unless they get amnesia.

3. If you have an Idea and get it past your friends, you'll succeed.

4. You can never escape dogs; one misses you, the other bites.

5. Beginners luck is very important, without it, you quit.

6. No matter how rich you are, you can’t buy trust.

7. Long distance always works with Friendship.

8. When you don’t know something, it’s always better to Google it.

9. When you lose something, first look right beside you or below you, before turning the entire house upside down.

10. Please mess your room as much as possible, because you get the greatest sense of achievement when you have cleaned it.

11. Chocolate is a very good first aid for broken hearts.

12. Friends can be missed, not misplaced.

13. Choosing a field of study in college is useless; you are going to work in a different field only.

14. Sports are never for fun, when you consider it fun, you don’t get to play.

15. Awesome is much overrated.

16. A flip of a coin can decide almost any complicated issue.

17. Only a Mom’s world revolves around her kids, others have their own world.

18. Never have role models or idols, you will lose your originality.

19. If you find anything more interesting than Girls, you are Gay.

20. Killing time is would be a suicide.

21. If you know someone’s password, use it for a good cause.

22. Talking half hour occasionally to someone you hate, can improve your empathy.

23. Time doesn’t heal, people do.

24. When you are LEFT handed, you are always against the world.

25. If you can let go of someone, you have conquered LOVE.

Can't Wait Anymore !

“Oh wait”,
“Hold on”,
“Please wait in the line”,
“Sorry for the delay”,
“Your call is very important to us, please wait"

Ever heard of these lines anywhere. These are everyday language, used for only one purpose “the wait”

Every other day or night, you either wait for someone or make others wait for you. It happens all the time, waiting for someone definitely irritates anyone, well it’s not much of a disturbance when you make others wait (few exceptions here n there) but ultimately, waiting is a damn boring thing to do, its kills a lot of things, like patience, sanity and mood, but time always survives the kill and in turn taunts at us by moving at a very slow pace. The slowest of sloths will appear to be fast during the period of wait.

There are various degrees and situations of the wait. I have tried to categorize it into 6 types. There may be more to add to the taxonomy but am sure these are major cases.

I’ve also given them a degree of wait on a score of 5. This tells you the level of wait, a human soul can bear on a regular basis.

Without further adieu,

Here are real life situations of 'the wait'

1. The call



You would have definitely been in this situation at least a dozen times or more in your life. You might have experienced in a job interview, hospitals, banks, or even in an airport, where a system is followed. Here there’s no simply waiting, You give your most attention to the person on the radio or intercom; spend a little to a lot of minutes focused with sharp hearing sense that could beat a dog at that point of time. You wait and wait with sweat and tears not to miss the call of your name, number or a flight. Then your adrenaline kicks in, like it’s the end of the world and you run for it. Most times, it’s very clumsy and you tend to irritate fellow waiters who didn't get the call.

The time of wait in this situation is undefined, since it depends on your luck and sometimes logic. Like in job interviews, suppose your name starts with A, then its damn sweet and short wait, but then... if its somewhere in V, W.. Then it’s going to be a long day..! Luck favors when your flight or train arrives on time, you get a free teller at the bank etc...!

It’s definitely worth waiting on this one.

Degree of wait: 3/5


2. The girl



This is a lifetime full of experience for boys and men, the wait for women to get ready and during shopping. Each and every man would have experienced this wait many times (unless, you were an orphan and gay at same time). This type of wait is the most boring and quite painful wait, a man could experience in his lifetime. It’s a wait that you can never avoid or get out. Women, they take forever to get ready to go out and then if its shopping, it’s a whole days work to get one apparel. They make you wait, ask for your comments now and then, but never agree to what you say, even when it’s complimentary. Then choose something, which another person likes and demands for it.

This wait situation is unavoidable and undeniably the torturous wait for a man. But men can survive this by doing a bit of bird watching or little bit of shopping for them.

No luck or logic can change this, you got to be there for the lady, if you want her to be with you. It sometimes helps, if you are a free will who donates credit cards and is unlimitedly rich.

Not really the worth the wait.

Degree of wait: 2.5/5.


3. The help

This situation is likely to be the most dangerous one. It’s basically the wait for an emergency help. When you have met with an accident, held at gun point during a theft, or if your house is on fire etc... All these situations are a matter of life and death and every second is precious. this wait is definitely nerve wrecking and occasionally there's a loss, but definitely no gain, cos you are already in buried in shit before this wait situation occurs.

This wait situation is definitely not a frequent one and the experiences are a lifetime story moment. It’s a very anxious and exciting wait you have before emergency arrives.

There’s no way that you can escape this wait.

Degree of wait: 5/5




4. The digital

Have you ever waited on the phone call trying to call a customer care help line? Then you know what am talking about. The most modern of waits are of the digital world and it’s quite similar to 'the call' situation. A lot of technology was developed in communication for making it faster, easier and to provide minimal wait, but still this wait time can lead to a lot of anger management therapy. Emails, sms, IM, chats... all these digital/online forms of communication are causes for the digital wait.

Of course, all Internet users have experienced this... especially in good old days of dial up connection. you wait for 8 minutes for a web page to open up then sending an email would take another 15 minutes but even in this modern era of super fast speeds, things could get little complicated.. for example: when you are in chat with someone, you ask a question and they take forever to reply or they type n type but never send the msg ( happens a lot and chat bar shows " x is typing" ) and later send something irrelevant to the conversation, it’s definitely a reason to get pissed off for the unnecessary wait. Same goes with emails, sms.

It’s not worth the wait, unless it’s urgent.

Degree of wait: 1/5


5. The leak

I am not quite sure how this wait situation affects women, but men surely know what am talking about. Have you ever wanted to go urgent to take a nature's call, leak or plain ol' piss, and had to wait in line since someone else was in the restroom before you. That wait is almost equal to water boarding... cos when the going gets tough, the tough has to get going... else there can be a lot of physical pain and public embarrassment.

Definitely a situation where waiting is bad.

Degree of wait: 4.5/5



6. The Love


The topic about waiting is never complete without the wait for love. Since ancient times till near future times, the wait for love has been in the hearts for ages. It has been described in every form of media possible and still to date haunts the minds of millions. This wait is deadly, you express your love for someone or propose for a marriage, and then the time they take to decide, even if it’s seconds, that wait would kill you. Worst, when they take a whole truckload of time. The wait for love situation would be experienced by everyone in need of love. It’s the only wait which can go for an eternal time, without having to know the consequence and the deadliest of all waits, even though it actually kills you in only a few cases.

Hey its love, how can I ever say it’s not worth it, it’s totally, completely and 100% worth the wait.

Degree of wait: 5/5




I am sure everyone would have experienced at least one or all of these excruciating times of wait in your life. There’s always some kinda wait for every one of us.

Remember that ‘Time’ isn't punctual every time and there's no gain without a little pain. So the wait is definitely worth, to know the consequence.

LIFE, It’s like a murder mystery, you need to wait till the end to know the killer else it becomes boring.

If you have any funny, crazy or awkward wait moments in your life, please feel free to express it in the comments section below.

ENDHIRAN - ROBOT - ROBO

I probably might be the millionth person on Internet to write something about the hottest, most talked about movie at present... yes. Its Sun pictures kalanidhi maran presents Endhiran starring Superstar Rajnikanth, Aishwarya rai bachan and danny denzongpa, Music by A.R.Rahman and Directed by Shankar.

the movie is basically one of the few sci-fi movies in tamil or indian cinema industry as a whole. Its about a scientist who builds a robot to serve humanity, then improves the robot to feel emotions,which turns out to be bad, rest of the movie is usual hollywood type good vs evil fights in mega budget spectacularity shankar's movies usually have.

So we have all seen many Hollywood movies that showcase the entire world of robots, their goodness and evil malfunctions. what's special about this Endhiran. well, Romance of a robot with human. thats what Indian movies can do differently.. have a duet song for the robot and make it run around trees and fight for the heroine, Indian Masala as you may call it. Not only that, Its the superstar who's done the lead role, A actor of 60 yrs age, still he's got it in him to perform a younger role that too of a robot and scientist, double action if you call it. I guess no one of his age, performs such roles now. (maybe except for stallone and willis in expendables )

The Movie has created a lot of hype in India, mainly due to the marketing strategies of Sun Pictures, who happen to sell even worst movies like Sura to be a big hit. so if endhiran manages to be a decent entertainer, its good enough for it to make Hell lot of money. Imagine, what could happen if the movie was really good. they have already started making money buy selling tickets even for the screening of the movie's theatrical trailer. Rajni's last movie with shankar, Sivaji grossed about Rs.600 crores worldwide, this could very well get them twice or thrice the amount of money than the previous outing.

This week, the Movie has seemed to be creating a lot of hype here in USA too. HBO films have distributed the movie in USA and tickets in all major cities have sold out for the first day inspite of a ticket being priced at $30. which is something really big. I guess Rajni films are meant to be seen everywhere on first day first show, no matter how much the tickets cost.

Even I plan to watch the movie by first day if possible, if not at least by first weekend, Can't Miss a Rajni movie. I've been a big fan of the superstar, since the time in my mom's womb.

Waiting for Endhiran.. Lets see..! definitely will write a review about it soon.

Being Left Handed !

“Wow, are you a left hander..?" It was an Unique attention, I received from my classmates and fellow students in school, not only there but also at marriages, social gatherings, and any place I used my hand, I got this attention of being unique and popular, I liked it a lot because in India, being a left handed person is very rare. It’s not very often that you see someone using the other hand.

I have enjoyed the attention for the sake of being left hander, even though it was genetics which decided this thing and it’s not even a kind of talent that you could be proud about, but in India, being left handed is a cool thing, since people hardly see anyone in day to day life, most people get to see left handed people only on TV esp. only in cricket and other sports. In fact, in my 21 years of my life in Chennai, I came across just 5 left handed people other than me, 3 guys and 2 girls. I noticed that left handed girls are a rare species.

The attention is sometimes not so good; many used to feel my use of the hand to be awkward, because they couldn't understand the concept of being left handed. many of my friends had lot of questions and doubts regarding use of the left hand, some were logical, many were stupid... some of the usual questions were " if you use this left hand for eating, which hand do you use for toilet purpose?" (Because in India, left hand is used by right hander’s to wash after toilet), it was a very awkward question to answer, but my answer to all the questions was the same “your right hand is my left and vice versa”.

when it comes to elders, esp. the old ones, whenever they see me eating using my left hand, they give me a nasty expression as if I was eating shit and advised me to use my right hand, after hearing a lot of comments like this, I literally avoided going to marriages till I was 15, if it was an important function and I had to go, my mom used to carry a spoon for me, so that I can eat with a spoon, and south Indian marriages had to have banana leaf instead of plates and eating with a spoon on a banana leaf, imagine it.

My kindergarten teachers took the left handedness to the next step and like it was an evil thing, they tried to do a kind of exorcism by trying to make me change my writing hand to right hand and as a result of forced training, my brain got little jammed in the neurons and I couldn't talk for a few weeks, then my parents took me to the doctors, did some speech therapy and made me alright back again, but I had a little bit of a stuttering problem for quite some time as a aftermath.

It’s also a hard thing with day to day life, because it’s a right handed world out there. My Teachers at school used to assign a desk especially for me, as I could only sit on the extreme left corner, so that I wouldn’t bump into right handers while writing. I had to eat with spoon, because people thought it was gross to eat with left hand. It was an easy task for people to copy from my exam paper as I used to write in an odd position which is easily visible. The use of basic everyday stuffs like scissors, ruler and computer mouse was a tough task and now in USA, driving a car seems to be a little rough task for me since I have to change gears with my right hand.

Sometimes I have found it difficult and thought left handedness was a curse, since my right brain is pretty dominant because of left handedness, I am not pretty good at logical or rational subjects, so my math was very bad. History, geography, chemistry and biology were my best subjects in high school, since they are the ones you can actually think and understand in pictures, which the right brain does best. I did top my classes in those subjects but interestingly, I got fond of physics too during my 12th board and managed to top it, physics was the only rational exception, I’ve had but it was All in vain as Math got me down every time. Somehow me n math don’t get along very well... Neither is it good with its teachers.

Intuition is a very important function of the right brain, and I am strong in it. My intuitions are 99% correct and I believe in them completely, although occasionally I do get let down by my intuitions, also It is easy to say that I am also a big risk taker because of my dominant right brain.

In recent years, I noticed that the dominance of my right brain has increased too much and it’s getting to a stage where it’s more like a master-slave situation. My left side of the body is much more strong and dominant and my right side is totally uncoordinated. I realized that my right side is unbalanced and does not cooperate with the body. My right hand’s reflexes are slower than the left and right leg doesn’t coordinate well. For example, when catching a cricket ball, my right hand delays in reflex, hence I miss the catch and while playing badminton, my right leg doesn’t move as fast as my left leg, so I trip over sometimes while moving sideways. It is a simple defect I noticed, later I found more instances where my right hand wasn’t in my total control.

Now, I am trying to see if I can balance out my two sides of the body. It’s a small experiment I am trying to see, if I can possibly make myself get full control of my right side of the body, which in turn might help tune my left brain to make me more rational and intelligent. I’d give details about the progress of my experiment in coming posts. Let’s see if it works..!



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