Tuesday, June 29, 2010

New Picasa Web Albums Activity

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Prasanna added 5 photos to America Trip Leg 1
Jun 27, 2010 10:00:32 PM

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Wednesday, June 09, 2010

Roaming the U.S. of A.

Hello !

Im planning a slightly random trip round the US on a shoestring budget (translation - Ill be sleeping on people's couches) and a greyhound pass. In many of the cities I'm visiting, I have people to stay with, but in many I dont. Im including my itinerary below and the cities in which I have no company are in bold.

If you are in any of these cities do please let me know ! If nothing else, we could meet up for a coffee.
if you know interesting people in any of the cities, Id love to meet them too, since basically Im just roaming about !
Please feel free to forward this email to people who may be in these or other interesting places who might not mind me bunking on their couch for a night :-)

My itinerary is fluid and open to fairly broad changes. I'd appreciate suggestions as to what places I could visit !

I look forward to hearing from you :-)

Sincerely,
Prasanna

map - http://goo.gl/htgJ

Tentative Itenerary -

21st-29th June - Road trip Waterloo to Minneapolis through Great Lake area
29th June - fly to SF area.
29th June to 5th July - Various people and Places in California and surrounding areas
5th July - Bus to Las Vegas (san diego to las vegas ~ 6 hrs)
7th July - Bus to somewhere in the grand canyon national park (~ 5 hrs)
10th July - Bus to Phoenix/Tuscon (Las Vegas - Tuscon ~ 9hrs) (need to find someone in one of these cities)
OR I could go to Somewhere in New Mexico which is a nicer place apparently (Las Vegas to Santa Fe ~ 12 hrs, Santa Fe to Austin ~ 12 hrs) would love to visit the Santa Fe Institute

14th July - Bus to Austin (Tuscon to Austin ~ 16 hrs)
14th July to 18th July - hang about in texas (Austin, Houston, Dallas)
18th July - Bus to New Orleans (Houston to New Orleans ~5 hrs)
20th July - Bus to Orlando, Florida (New Orleans to Orlando ~ 11 hrs)
22nd July - Bus to Atlanta, Georgia (Orlando to Atlanta ~ 8 hrs)
23rd July - Bus to Nashville Tennessee (Atlanta to Nashville ~ 5hrs)
25th July - Bus to Washington DC or Chicago or somewhere
26th July - Bus to Boston
26th July to 29th July - Hang out in Boston
29th July - Bus to Waterloo
30th July / 1st August Toronto - Fly to India :P

Monday, September 14, 2009

Update : My Year Off with Theoretical Physics in Canada :)

Hello Folks !

Its been ages since I last sent out an update mail, but that does not mean things have not been happening ! There have been many many months of desperate - and sometimes dangerous - hard work, much agonizing thought about the future, a satisfying amount of cricket, some heart burn some success and a few twists in the tale. Not to mention some inspirational teachers - maybe thats a tautology, anyone who's inspirational is automatically a teacher - and so many delightful friends it was an absolute privilege and pleasure to spend time with.

The upshot of it all is that after spending one year in Belgium sweating out some of the toughest coursework in Photonics along with the Belgians (even Caesar appreciated them - "Of all the Gauls, The Belgians are the bravest !") and one year in Scotland fretting about a singularly intractable and tedious masters thesis while chilling at the whey pat tavern with cheesy nachos after village cricket games, I have ended up in Canada at the Perimeter Institute of Theoretical Physics doing (yet another) masters degree (in Theoretical Physics, obly).

Before you ask "Why ??"  and "What ????", This is my year off. Other people travel and take it easy, I got a chance to fulfill a childhood dream. I am studying general relativity at the moment and before Im done at the end of 10 months, Ill have gone through cosmology, string theory, quantum gravity and most of the rest of physics - all at someone else's expense. Its a brilliantly conceived and intense course and if you're interested, take a look at it here

Im enjoying myself and learning a lot. What I will do after this ? Who knows. But I want to travel a lot, and I intend to settle down back in Aurangabad pretty soon. How Im goign to do that without simply abandoning all my random and fairly esoteric pursuits, I do not know, but Ill figure something out :)

Sincerely,
Prasanna

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

New Blog

This is where I blog now

see you there !

Friday, April 25, 2008

CLOSED DOWN

I will no longer post anything here.
This blog has served me for a long time, and I'm rather fond of it, but the past suffocates it now, I want to start afresh and write something different.

I'll put the new URL here as soon as there is one.

Thank you for coming !

Saturday, April 05, 2008

Questions for a PGDM

why are food prices rising all over the world ? how is the price of oil determined ? what justification is given for the assertion that wealth trickles down ? what do consultants do after 5 years of consultancy ? what are they good at ? why do derivatives and other financial "products" exist ? what purpose to they serve ? why are the richest and most cash rich sectors (investment banks, consultants etc etc) the ones that create no wealth ? why do people with bad credit histories provide the major portion of bank profits ? why is fractional lending allowed at all ? what controls the amount of money in the economy ? what relation does amount of money in the economy have to real income ? what is real income ? why cant we have a fixed amount of money circulating ? does that even mean anything ? what percentage of consulting income is result dependent ? what percentage of consulting income in india is from family owned businesses and what percentage from government ? why do pgdm related jobs like investment banking and consulting tend to be so elitist and opulent ? why is the guy who makes a better chulha not rewarded more than a man who talks nebulous bullshit in the current economic system ? the pharma business is the most profitable in the world, followed by food, why are these not govt controlled to ensure food, medicine pricing and availability ? who controls commodity prices and availability and how ? who regulates them (both prices and people) ? what justification is given for the assertion that there will be less corruption if the private sector controls sectors that are currently govt controlled ? in a free market, what represents a person with no money ? where did the money lent out in the sub prime crisis go ? if it is circulating in the economy, some one must have it, so why is there economic slowdown in the US because of that ? what punishment has been meted out to the rating agencies who messed up on such a large scale ? why do IIMs need to have such ridiculous fees when they require no expensive labs, no special equipment apart from good class rooms ? do corporations HAVE to increase profits for shareholders ? cant the charter mandate instead a maximization salaries of employees or minimizing acres of rainforest cut ? why should corporations have the same rights as citizens ? why is no human liable for the misdeeds of a corporation ? how foolish is that ?

as more questions occur to me I'll put them in another post. Please feel free to comment and clarify, correct, explain any of the above, or connected things.

Monday, March 31, 2008

Chitrangada is Coming Back !

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I put the same photo again, because I find it stunning. Take a look at this article from Tehelka which gives a good account of her history and the effect she had on people, including me. The article also talks about her upcoming movies and her own reasons for leaving when she did.

Finally, something positive happens to Bollywood !

Thursday, March 13, 2008

The Greatest Ever

An article by Rohit Brijnath, this is a moving tribute to Dhyan Chand. It was part of India Today's 100 People who shaped India series of articles. This is the link to the whole article on the India Today website. Notice how shoddily we have always treated our heroes. We are a hugely callous country. We dont deserve our heroes. We certainly deserve our politicians. If you know what this article talks about, and if it does not move or sadden you in any way, chances are, you're Indian.

They say you can judge a man's legend by the quality of myths that surround him. By that measure itself Dhyan Chand was an extraordinary man. To hear tales of his craftsmanship was to wonder whether his stick was designed by Merlin himself. They broke his stick in Holland to check if there was a magnet inside; in Japan they decided it was glue; in Germany, Adolf Hitler even wanted to buy it................

..................................................................................................................................................

........When he fell ill, liver cancer it turned out, and came to Delhi's All India Institute of Medical Sciences, they dumped him in the general ward. A journalist's article eventually got him moved to a special room, but that public memory had to be jogged tells its own story.

In Jhansi they had a funeral, not in the ghat, but on the ground he played on. Players came, but it seemed a little too late. It made it hard to forget the first few words of his autobiography Goal: "You are doubtless aware that I am a common man." He wasn't but he died like one


Monday, March 10, 2008

But we did not

India lost 2-0 and will not be playing at the Olympics in Beijing.

Pale Blue Dot

Pale Blue Dot
This is the famous Voyager photo of the earth. The small dot in streams of scattered starlight, artificially highlited so that it can be seen. Our insignificance is beyond our comprehension.