Furnicovering

Don't we all wish that our homes are inviting enough when people walk in to it for the first time? In all my (vain?) attempts to accomplish this feat, one big hurdle has been this big hole in my living room wall which has a pipe sticking out of it! And it gets better. It has been covered in Newspaper since the day I step foot into this house a year and a half ago. I have been meaning to unwrap that newspaper around the pipe and see what it looks like. But I'm terrified that these dead flies are going to jump out of it and invade my property! (I would have said rats for more dramatic effect. But if there were dead rats in my living room for a year and a half, one would think I would have noticed by now right?)

Unfortunately, the pipe is not the only thing sticking out of my living room. There is ANOTHER, slightly smaller, hole right below that pipe which has a newspaper stuffed into it. Now I COULD try taking that out. But then those rats, that I refused to acknowledge previously, could make their way into my house through that hole!

All idiosyncrasies apart, there is no getting around the fact that this pipe/hole in my living room wall looked very ugly! So I had two options. I could either deal with this pipe/hole problem by trying to get it fixed. Or do what any other reasonable guy would do! Hide it!

Was it too obvious that I decided to pick option 2?

So after procrastinating for a year and a half, I realized that the parents showing up in a couple of weeks is a good enough reason to get my act together. So I started looking for solutions! I needed something that would a) have room to store some of my worldly possessions accumulated over a period of 6 years, b) work out in such a way that I can finally use the 5.1 subwoofer system that I have and finally be able to wire it to have decent surround sound in my living room, c) be able to seat people who rarely come to my house, and, most importantly, d) hide that hole in the wall. It was hard. All pieces of furniture were either too big, too small or too expensive. Also, it involved me spending a lot of time doing research online or in stores.

So I went to Home depot to try my luck with a self build. I went with this part incomplete design for this shelf/bench thing. I designed a 2 row/3 column design with cell 1,1 and 1,3 empty and the other cells covered on all four sides. Being an amateur furniture builder, I had to spend 3 hours in home depot to figure out what all the things were that I needed for my project. After some deliberation and talking to a couple of people in the store, I bought about 4 ft X 4 ft of wood. Got it cut into dimensions which would allow me to build what I needed to build without needing ME to make any cuts. (I do not own a power saw. It is now on my shopping list. I also don't own a garage.) Either way, my wood was cut into 9 appropriately sized pieces. Apart from this, I bought wood screws and brackets. I also bought this liquid nails thing (which, I realized later, was not quite useful)

The power saw in home depot is pretty good. The cuts are pretty straight. The edges are mostly squared. The saw is also not super thick (so the loss of material during cuts is pretty small). But, all said and done, the original wood was off from its advertised 4 ft X 4ft by as much as an inch. Moreover, the dimensions of the cuts on the wood was eyeballed. This left me with these wood pieces which were a bit too short or a bit too long! I made do. After some time figuring out the brackets and eyeballing the joining positions, and taking corrective actions to account for the dimension errors, I put together my first subassembly. It took a couple of hours to get here. But I was fairly proud of this accomplishment. But by now, it was also past 11 pm. I could not continue working lest the cops showed up for all the noise. And all that adrenaline rush had killed my sleep. So I decided to get MORE sugar in the form of icecream from J.P. Licks.

The rest of the furniture putting together didn't take too long. I was done in about three more hours! The shelves and brackets were not as well aligned as I would have liked them to be. It was not as pretty as I originally imagined it would be. But all in all, it was still something that was half decent. It covered the hole. It could seat people (How comfortably is arguable). It also had a place for my subwoofer system. Now all I need to do is put some doors and hinges on some of the shelves. That requires another trip to home depot to get more wood and brackets and screws. I now also have ideas on how to make my own entertainment center unit for the living room!

All in all, building your own furniture is time well spent :)

Tango for Taj

The title of the post is inspired by one of A. R. Rahman's latest instrumental compositions for his most recent album Rockstar. Some people have asserted that the maestro has lost his touch in the past few years. Some accusations have been floating around that excessive involvement of his younger subordinates has diluted some of the quality. And also that his music has become repetitive.

I believe that his compositions still consistently leave you wanting more of the same. How he pulls it off is a big mystery. While I personally still believe Thiruda Thiruda was one of his best compositions, my Rahman loyalty leaves me no doubt that whatever he touches turns to gold. But that is not saying much is it?

In the past, I have always found myself waiting with bated breath for Rahman's latest album. Personally though, his songs have always taken some time to grow. The key is that you have to keep listening to them till you fall completely in love with them. And you HAVE to believe it will happen. I did that with Boys. I did that with Blue. I did that with Yuvvraaj, Vinnaithaandi Varuvaaya, Raavan..... The list is endless.

In the past year or so however, I'll have to admit, my Rahman loyalty had faded. I had been distracted with some other music. (What with the likes of Amit Trivedi hitting the music scene, it was hard not to be. Please to forgive) So when a friend told me about Rockstar, while I spent no time deciding to download the music, the first hear left me with the "it's just aight" feeling. Maybe along with my loyalty, my memory of the approach towards his music had also faded. After about 2 weeks of Rockstar's dormant presence in my itunes library, I decided to adopt my publicized approach of playing the songs in repeat mode. It totally worked!!

I found myself deeply analyzing the excessive involvement of Mohit Chauhan in Rahman's troop. (He's a good singer and his nasal style probably adds value to some songs. But I find the excessive use of the nose a little annoying. Fine I'll take off 2 points out of 100 for Mohit Chauhan. The album still scores in Upper 80s, lower 90s.)

The most striking observation to me was Rahman's approach towards instrumental themes. Take Dichotomy of fame for instance, which has a very interesting Shehnai/Guitar fusion. The shehnai makes you think about a wedding and then the guitar which follows suddenly transports your imagination to a patio restaurant in Delhi with someone playing the guitar live! I don't know what to think anymore.

My most favorite piece in the entire album is the title of this post. I find Tango for Taj intoxicatingly brilliant! The generous use of the piano and the bandoneon puts you in a state of trance. It is a perfect example of a song where I wish he played that piece with the clapping sounds in the middle of the song a couple of times more. The song ended a little prematurely for me. The last time I felt so about an instrumental piece was the Duet theme. (Kadri Gopalnath is brilliant in that. But unfortunately none of Kadri's other songs seem to be even half as brilliant) I don't know how Rahman pulls off the instrumental so well. I guess since he knows all the right chords to strike, it can't be that hard......

A.R. Rahman! You'll always be my rockstar. And you used to be an iyer veetu pillai right? ;)

Life in a metro!

- So where do you live?

I live near Davis Square. Its about 3 miles away from work!

- Oh that's great. Sounds like a short commute!

Yeah! It takes about 40 minutes!

- !!!!

My average day in the new city starts exactly like it used to in the past 5 years. However about an hour later, I do something new! I WALK!!!! I walk a little less than 10 minutes to get to the public transportation! And then I take the metro for 10 minutes (in which I READ the metro). Then after a stop at Starbucks for my daily dose of Tall Americano, I WALK another 10-12 minutes to work! The silver lining you ask? I can eat/drink anything and however much I want!! ;)

All said and done, inspite of my incessant whining about having to walk and take the public transportation, I would have to admit that Cambridge is probably the next best thing to DC. My Nostal(DC)ia is here to stay! But I have certainly discovered some interesting places around here!

Punjabi Dhaba (Inman Square): Tons of people have already raved enough about how awesome this place is! I strongly resist going here! Because I have a strong feeling that I am going to get sick of it very soon. And yet, I find myself here atleast twice a week!

Miracle of Science (Central Square/MIT): Good bar. Great food! You have to stare at a periodic table to find the menu!

Zuzu bar (Central Square): Great middleastern food! Their veggie platters are amazing!

Chutney's (Harvard Square): Indian food's answer to Chipotle! They roll some curry into a roti and actually ask you if you want rice rolled into it as well!

Kinsale (Boston): One fine Tuesday, when I was missing the Roustabouts, I looked around to see if anyone would play the fiddle around here! Lo and behold, I found the Celtic Clan playing at the Kinsale. I went there and befriended Frank. He was so pleasantly surprised to see me again the following Saturday that he bought me a drink just for coming back! They were pretty good!

Commons (Boston): My replacement for the DC National mall. A good people watching place!

Tealuxe (Harvard Square): It was raining heavily in Harvard square and I did not have an umbrella! I don't think I would have gone in otherwise! I loved it. Very interesting people watching place! And if you are the exotic tea kind of person, this place is a must have on your list of places to go!

Sam's Cafe (Boston): Good patio bar in the Faneuil hall marketplace. I am so not looking forward to the winter!!

Harvard Radcliffe theater (Harvard Square): I saw The Real Thing here! I want to say the performers were probably students at Harvard. But I can not be too sure about that! They were certainly a talented bunch. Great play. I am going back to this theater for the next play!

The New Hampshire liquor store: Did I mention that I miss driving? I found a solution to that problem! I found an AWESOME liquor store just after a $1 toll on the highway north of Boston. About 45 minutes away! Yeah yeah you can drive back home and THEN drink! :D

Some remaining things on my list: MIT museum, Fully Committed, Sam Adams Brewery, Black Rose, Central Square theater ..... Who wants to go with me?? Can someone find me a good idli place and freshly squeezed orange juice??

Phone Woes!

Most people who know me are quite familiar with my rant about how I detest voicemail. We can get into a tedious discussion about the advantages and disadvantages of using voicemail but this post is not at all about that. Its about the idea of intentionally not picking up the phone when you clearly see someone calling. I find this idea very disrespectful to the caller. It goes against the basic theory of courtesy or, for the need of a better word, consistency! If you're checking the caller id and not picking up the phone, the obvious implication is, had it been someone else calling, you would have picked up. As an analogy, if someone rang the doorbell to your house, would you just look through that viewhole thing and not open the door?

The analogy opens up a can of worms. It points toward the evolution of the mediums of communication and how humanity has developed innovative strategies of ignoring messages. The basic idea is that you can ignore any message as long as YOU think that it is not obvious to the other person that you are ignoring them.

Letters (Snail mail): They are hand written! They are personal! They have plenty of room to say everything you want to say! The lead time is HUGE! So what was relevant 3 days ago (when you wrote the letter) is not relevant anymore! AND, they got lost quite often. So we needed a more reliable instant medium!

Telephones: The accepted etiquette was to pick up a phone whenever it was ringing. Moreover in most phones those days, it was easier to answer the phone than to find the switch underneath to turn off the ringer. What if you are not at home when the phone rings. And you obviously can't return the call if you don't know who called!

Answering machines: Now people could leave "voicemails" in home phones. AND it went directly to speaker! Well maybe you were not at home and when the guy who set up your answering machine was explaining how to use it, you were thinking about what you were going to have for dessert! And of course there is limited memory in the answering machine. So the voicemail box was full!

Pagers: You have them with you all the time. You can beep someone and they have to call you back at the earliest convenience. But you can always be far away from a phone and it may be absolutely impossible for you to get to a phone!

Cell phones: They are also with you all the time and you can speak into it as soon as you answer the ringing. But incoming is not free. So it is strictly for emergency use only!

Free/Dirt cheap incoming: And the excuses continue! "I had no reception! My phone battery died! My phone was in the other room and the ringer is so feeble that I couldn't hear it!"

Because of the presence of multiple modes of communication in today's world (Instant messengers, Emails, Fixed line phones, Cell phones, Facebook, Twitter.......), there is an unwritten hierarchy of the mode of communication based on the urgency of the message that needs to be delivered. My boss once told me if I really wanted to get something done, emails don't work. I had to call and yell at them! There is also some kind of acceptable norm associated with instant messengers! Apparently it is OK to not respond to instant messages (I obviously disagree) even when it is obvious to the sender that the computer on which you are logged in is in active use! So you obviously saw the message because most messengers flash on your desktop. In my opinion it is very hard to miss it (we can reserve a discussion on whether that's true or not for later)

DISCLAIMER: This post is NOT about communication mediums! I may not be too consistent with the chronology of means of communication and I may miss several of them here.

DISCLAIMER #2: The original intent of this post was to inform everyone that I have no cell phone reception in my lab. So I won't be ABLE TO answer phone calls during the daytime on weekdays. Please leave voicemails :D

nostal(DC)ia

I move to Boston next week. After spending just about 3 months shy of 5 years in the suburban Washington DC, the capital of United States. Well alright, I never really lived in Washington DC and I probably visited the city only once in a month or two on an average. But needless to say, I have created some very long lasting memories in the last 5 years. A lot of friends have been asking me to name a few places that I would particularly miss in DC. I try to name a few and then the list grows so long that I have had to give up on every occasion.

I moved to this area in August 2005. For the first year or so, I hated this place (aptly represented by the first post on my blog). Eventually I made my friends and started enjoying myself to some extent. But my love for the city didn't quite develop until I had spent about 2 years here. Since then, every new place I visit has been a discovery. Today, while returning from my most favorite drive (to and from the Chesapeake bay bridge near Annapolis), I realized how much I am going to miss it once I move. I then decided to get over my restraining order and list my top 10 things to do in DC. So here goes:

10. Cornerstone: Our most favorite friendly neighborhood bar in College Park! Most waitresses here remember me and my colleague Wojciech so well that on more than one occasion, we have gotten our drinks even before we placed the order. Its hard to point to the reason. I don't know if it is our regularity or out tipping style that got us there. Either way, cornerstone is one of those places that will be sorely missed...

9. The National Mall: Yes! It is the indeed the most touristy place in the entire city. But it is also one of the best people watching places during the summers. I have spent numerous days during the spring just hanging out all by myself with a book in my hand and lying on the grass. (The book was obviously hardly being read). Cherry blossom is a wonderful time to be here too. It is one of those rare occasions when you can actually walk a part of the mall with a beer in your hand. Two words! Positive energy!

8. Hot Breads: I know three outlets for this popular chain in the DC area. But my favorite is in Herndon, Va. One of those rare indian "fast food" outlets. It is an excellent place to get idlis on a Saturday/Sunday morning. It will fill you up just about right so that you are satisfied while not feeling too stuffed. AND, it has one of the best mango lassis in town!

7. Zoo Bar: One of my most favorite live music places in town. Wojciech introduced me to this bar about a year ago when one of his friend's band, The Roustabouts, were playing here. Since then, I have gone there on quite a few Saturdays. Finding parking nearby has been one of my pet peeves. But in the past few months, I have overcome my fear and have been religiously going every third Saturday when The Roustabouts are playing. I go there again tomorrow evening!

6. Bethesda downtown: One of my most favorite places to hang out on a regular weekday or on a lazy weekend! There is loads to do here. You could watch a movie in Betheda row, hang out at Barnes and Noble, have coffee at Le Pain, have a drink and listen to some live music at RiRa-The Irish Pub, have dinner at the Thai corner or just simply walk around! There is always something going on to keep you entertained. The most favorite part of my visit here used to be finding quarters for parking in my most favorite parking spot (just opposite BNB).

5. Eggspectations: Eggs are obviously the most preferred breakfast item that can ever be invented! I can not recount the number of consecutive weekend mornings we have shown up at my most favorite Brunch place! The freshly squeezed orange juice that is served here could very well be the best thing that has ever happened to mankind on a hungover weekend morning!

4. Georgetown: Brunch at eggspectations has been followed up by beer in Georgetown water front almost every single time. This place is super lively during the regular spring/summer months and has been extremely inviting during every single trip my friend Vivek has made to this area. My cousin Aiswarya has been pestering me to take her to the Bubble tea place in Georgetown ever since she once accidentally heard about its existence from me! Unfortunately that opportunity has not presented itself yet! I am not too hopeful about that happening anytime soon! Apart from that, there are some very amusing "corona" stories that we have immensely enjoyed on warm sunny weekend days!

3. Beltway: Nights, after 11 pm! Between exits 34 and 30! The best possible drive in the city! I have spent numerous evenings driving back home from my friends' place in Rockville. The overall drive (total 10 miles) takes about 20 minutes. Out of which 6 miles are on the Beltway. Those 6 miles have almost always taken not more than 5 minutes! Loved every minute of it!!!

2. Chesapeake Bay Bridge near Annapolis: No explanations required! I have already dedicated an entire blog post to this topic!

1. The lab: During the last year of my undergrad, I spent countless nights in the CAM lab. I still cherish those nights. I remember when I used to show up at 9 pm, make a few local phone calls to my cousin Aiswarya who was then in Bombay and then start working and continue till 5/6 am! I used to think that it would be impossible to up that! Along came the erstwhile Manufacturing Automation Lab, now called Advanced Manufacturing Lab. This place has been my most reliable companion on so many long nights for the past 5 years of my life. The restless marches up and down the lab aisles at 2 am while writing some paper, the sound of the compressor turning itself on to replenish the air supply for the pneumatic tool changer on the CNC machine, the continuous humming sound of the vacuum pump which when turned off makes the place eerily silent, the plastic bottle which was used to keep the building door open when I stepped out of the building for a stroll late into the night.....

The one thing that strikes me the most is that apart from my love for my work/lab, most things worth remembering about the city I have lived in for 5 formative years of my life revolve around either drinking or driving. I guess I should be fine as long as they don't both happen together...... ;)

The Heart and Soul of Indian Ocean!

Indian Ocean's music has some very good memories associated with it for me. The first time I got introduced to their music was in my first year at IIT Bombay. I don't recollect whether it was because of the repeated, torturous reference to the Rewa river or the awesomeness of the song itself! But during the 2001 Hostel 3 PAF, Nimaad, I fell in love with Maa Rewa. Subsequently, I got my hands on a cassette of their popular album, Kandisa. I went to Delhi later that summer to visit my parents and my grandparents. I must mention here that when I go to Delhi, I am welcomed by a home filled with the smell of incense sticks, continuous playback of M.S Subbalakshmi reciting the Vishnu Sahasranaman or Swami Sukhabodhananda making a living for himself on Aastha Channel. Every now and then, some songs of Maharajapuram Santhanam would be played to cleanse the house of all the spirits. Needless to say, I was quite nervous about playing my Indian Ocean album in this atmosphere. After some deliberation, I convinced myself. I played Kandisa. Noone objected. Afterall I was on a vacation. The consensus was that I could have my way for the few days I was going to be there. After the cassette had been played a few times, my grandmother asked me, "Hey Arvind. What is this song you keep playing". I thought to myself, she's probably had just about enough of my stupid nonsensical music and she has finally decided to put her foot down. But much to my surprise she actually really liked it. And so did my grandfather and my mom. Kandisa was played a lot for the rest of the summer of 2001.

After that summer, I moved on to some other music because I had had a little too much of Indian Ocean by then. But later in December 2003, at Mood Indigo, I got to see them perform live for the first time in my life. All the love for Indian Ocean got rekindled. I went on to download their previous albums, the likes of Desert Rain and Indian Ocean and got into the world of their music all over again. Needless to say Kandisa still remained my most favorite album even then.

In September 2008, Indian Ocean came to DC. I roped in a few people and went to see them perform live once again. I LOVED this concert. This was the first time I noticed Asheem Chakravarty, their lead percussionist and tabla player. I realized that he was the magical voice behind many of their songs. Especially the vocals in one of my most favorite songs, Khajuraho. I was fascinated at how he could sing while also playing the tabla. A rare feat among musicians, I learned later. The thing that was most jaw dropping was how he got some very interesting sounds out of the guitar. Asheem knew exactly the right chords to strike. Well that doesn't seem to be a very unique feat for a musician, does it? Well the difference was that he was not using his fingers to play the guitar the traditional way. Rahul Ram, their Bass guitarist, held out his guitar and Asheem played it as if it were a tabla. I wish I had a recording of that performance. Words can not describe it.

I clicked on a link today. A video news clip on Indian Ocean. This was about their latest movie: Leaving Home - The Life & Music of Indian Ocean. Three of the band members were on the interview doing a "live jam session" much to the amusement of the host. Asheem was conspicuously absent. I wondered what happened. I later learned that Asheem Chakravarty passed away on 26th December 2009. I felt some very weird emotions. I was filled with sadness, hurt but most of all guilt! This happened over four months ago and I found out now. How could I not care enough? My brain came up with million excuses for why I may not have gone through the news on 26th December 2009. But none of them seemed to matter! I still feel miserable. I feel ashamed of calling myself a fan. I don't know what I could have done by knowing about this four months ago. Obviously nothing! But, I might just have been spared of the guilt!

Some voids can obviously never be filled. Rest in peace, Asheem Chakravarty!

Very "Enterprise"ing

A lazy Monday evening at 8 p.m!

Sally: Hi. Is this Arvind A...n.....a....n...tha.....nayaranaranraananann?

Arvind: Yeah that's me!

Sally: Sorry for mispronouncing your name. This is Sally from Enterprise.

Arvind: Hi Sally! That's fine. Don't worry about it.

Sally: I am calling to ask you a few questions about the recent rental experience you had.

Arvind: Can you please remind me of the period of this rental?

Sally: This was on March 12th in San Fransisco

Arvind: Well! I was nowhere near San Fransisco on March 12th. There seems to be a mistake.

Sally: I apologize then. Thanks for your patience. Byebye

Arvind: WAIT!!!! I just want to make sure what this is about. I want to make sure there is no credit card fraud here.

Sally: I understand sir!

Arvind: Can you give me the confirmation number on this rental?

Sally: Certainly. The number is #$%#@. And the telephone number of the rental location is ##$-T%$#-%#@#.

Arvind: Thank you sally.

Sally: Byebye

A few minutes later.......

Jamie: Thank you for calling enterprise san fransisco. How may i help you?

Arvind: Hi Jamie. My name is Arvind Ananthanarayanan and I wanted to get a confirmation about a recent rental activity. I got a call from one of your employees about a rental i seem to have completed in san fransisco on 12th march.

Jamie: That is weird. What did you say your name was?

Arvind: Don't worry about that. I have a confirmation number. That would probably be more helpful. Here it is ..........

Jamie: Yes. You seem to have rented a PT Cruiser on 12th March.

Arvind: You see, I live on the east coast and I have not been outside a 200 mile radius in the past 3 months. So this doesn't seem right.

Jamie: Can you confirm your driver's license number?

Arvind: Sure. It is .......

Jamie: And the last four digits of your Amex card?

Arvind: Are you kidding me here???

Jamie: Oh. there seems to be a mistake. The person whose credit card was charged doesn't have your name. So you should be fine. We probably got the drivers license number off by a couple of digits and the person who entered it did not bother to verify the name on the rental!

Arvind: Wow! Can you give me your name again so I can reference you if and when I find my credit card charged.

Jamie: Sure. My name is Jamie and don't worry your credit card won't be charged.

Arvind: Thanks Jamie. I would love to take your word for it. Byebye.

So am I just going to get some random speeding tickets here or am I missing the big picture here? That's it. I had my Tyler Durden moment!