Hiking near Alton

8 of us; 2 Indians, 2 Bulgarians, 1 Canadian, 1 American , 1 Polish, 1 Kazhak (truly cosmo ?) were hiking somewhere Near Alton in New Hampshire. Uphill was daunting and I almost gave up several times. But after that view from the summit, I felt it was worth it. Stayed up for 15 minutes on top and returned. Downhill is so fun. You lose control, skid, getup and fall down again and then get up and then fall again.... hahha..

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Good Luck Tania

Tania Biswas, is a best friend, than just a colleague of mine. Her last day at office today. We worked together for 2.5 years. My best mentee so far :)

Ever smiling, enthusiastic, full of energy and jumping to learn ...and yes argumentative ( Bengali ?, yes ). Very quick witted and easily outpaced my thinking speeds.
I still remember the way she got into our company. It was a walk-in interview and I was there that saturday for co-ordinating. Out of 100 odd people who appeared for the tests that day, she topped others by great margin. We knew that it was that lefty, tom boy cut girl who is going to join us.



Tania, remember we all started with Minc confign automation...shell scripting...etc. She survived the hard time to go through those amazingly complex 4.0 software upgrades. And more recently DPR test plan. We finished the plan in great style..amdist tricky confusion :). But sad you wont be around for execution.

Well..that snap is from our Annual day in Dec 2006. She was playing Mandira ? and me Greg Chappel, the Coach. It would be hard when I come back and not to see you at your desk.
We miss you Tania. Good luck.

Other Links : Dipu, Revathi

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Packed Sunday

Visited these historically important places in the history of American Independence. Lexington and Concord.

I still havent learnt reading parking signals in US. After failing to find the parking on the roadside, I got inside the parking space of a church on a Sunday morning. Looking at all those who were flocking inside the church at 11 am I was also drawn inside. They were offering Easter prayers. My first experience inside a church, as an adult, to witness catholics offering prayers.
I took this pic hesitatingly. I was the only 'Black' in Lexington's catholics church. It was odd, but I managed.


Next to church in walking distance is Lexington memorial, in the middle of Lexingto Green ?
Visitor center nearby, helped me understand the importance of the place. Took some pics around the place.


Next destiny was American heritage museum. An old gentleman I met called this museum "a little secret". A nice museum exhibiting on three themes – Freemason, Industrial Design by Raymond and American History. I read about a bit to find out about this secretive society Freemasonry. Am not sure I understood.



Great Meadows national refuge. It has a big lake and I guess birds fly in from far off places. I met this nice chinese family on top of the viewing place.




They directed to me North bridge , World war II memorial.



When I had just come home, my colleague asked me If I can join to attend this Bulgarian meet at spring step in Boston. Was exhausted already, but I did not want to miss out. Highlight of the evening was that post party dance, where every one dances hand-in-hand in circles...

Click Click

I forgot the data cable of the camera when I was coming to US. I clicked the snaps, but they remained in the camera for this long. Found an alternative way, to finally upload them.
Few of them are here. Complete album is available here.

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One weekend has just two days

Probably it is the first weekend am staying home. Past few weekends were all care of office.
It happens you run of out ideas when the weekend is there with you.
- Some Yoga in the morning
- Listening to the Top Ten Songs on Kannada Audio
- Did some exploring on the Sirius Satelite radio in the car.
- Stretching my legs on the sofa..and blogging..

Let's see what else will I add by evening...

- A Boring walk in the mall..

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Four Time Zones For One Nation

Geography of US is spread out so horizontally.... that it needs four different time zones within the nation. Am I right... there's a time difference of 5 hours between the coasts ?



15 deg of latitude difference corresponds to 1 hour. But it's bit political, technically India could have had two time zones but Govt chose to remain with just one.

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Art and Visual Perception by Rudolf Arnheim

I was browsing the art section at Borders bookstore in Nashua. I picked this green paperback and browsed through few pages. I had an instant liking. It's expensive at 24$, but could not lay it back.

To rationalise my purchase, I searched this book on the web. It turns out to be a pioneering work of Rudolf. It's a nice feeling when you have made a purchase without any recommendation behind and to discover that it's one of the best.

The original edition written in a matter of 15 months is a crisp read. Contains topics on Balance, shape, Form, Growth, space, light among others. This has been my effort to understand the art of appreciating visual arts.

Related Links : What is art ?, Understanding Comics

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Perfection has its price

I saw this train commercial of Stella Artois on TV.



When I was looking for the youtube video, I saw few of them.

Stella Artois, the Belgium beer offering is known for its distinctive advertising campaign.The thematic music, the visual, the mystery, the comical sequence, the slogan, all reiterating the brand value. Great ads. Perfection has its price.



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