May 4 - May 18 , 2008

Life couldnt have been better for me now. Out of school, into my internship and things are looking pretty good.
Its too bad that its been 2 weeks out of school and i haven't written a blog post. When you have time you squander it.

Anyways, i have done some interesting things over the last week:

Movies:
1. Scaphandre et le papillon, Le (The diving bell and the butterfly).
There will be a review soon. I have written it but then its on my laptop and i am now on my office comp on a sunday after noon. But don't worry, i am not working!!
2. Sweeny todd - A Tim Burton - Johnny Depp venture (again). And it does not disappoint either (atleast to me). Though the ending is a little weak and gross but the start is awesome. I didnt knew that it was a musical but the first 3 minutes made it clear. Johnny Depp is stunning again and sets are awesome. My best is the dreamy sequence - By the sea.

Books:
1.The Count of Monte Cristo. First V for vendetta had a reference to this one and then the diving bell and the butterfly also said something about it. Those two were more than enough to convince for me to read that book. And what a book it was. Revenge has a new style. This revenge is completely different from Cook thief or even Baazigar (if we are talking revenge) or Ocean's 13 for that matter. It has more style, more substance, more meaning making it a cult novel. My only regret is that i read a not-so-good translation and it was abridged (still 450 pages of small font). Originally, it is a 2 volume epic in french. But sure i will read it again in future.

Food:
My office is on Castro street. It is filled with restaurants on left and right.
So far i have tried indian(first day, first meal (dinner)), thai (thrice), italian(not pizza), chinese, mexican, french in atleast 12 different restaurants.

Music:
Attended one day of Wasiffudin Dagar sahab's workshop at Stanford. Organized by Venkat, i had a great time attending it. In this workshop, dagar sahab taught everyone to sing the basics of dhrupad or sa, re ga notes. In my case it was mostly limited to sa note. But it was the first time someone had asked to sing something and that too in fron of everyone. I must admire his patience that he gave 15 minutes of that workshop to me and bore my voice. It was an amazing experience.

Travel:
1. Golden gate: I was 100 metres away from the 1 mile (if not more) golden gate and yet i couldnt see it because of the foggy clouds. What a day it was yday! It had been hot here since the past 3 days but yesterday weather bestowed its best. Near the Golden gate, it was a hill station like environment. We saw clouds touching ground, clouds falling over water, the SF bay, wind blowing, fresh air. We went to the Rhodeo beach where the sand is black, water is icy but the feeling is lovely.
2. Crooked street: or the lombard street - Classic street, brilliant architecture and the best of all people live around the street. I wonder how, particularly how they park. But its a must see.
3. Larkspur: A small town near SF, yesterday it was its 100th anniversary. Visited their downtown and had classic italian food. Our company was very good - Deepti didi, jijai and his friend - Maneesh and his family. Good food and people - who can ask better!!


Misc:
Freecycle: I have joined moutain view's freecycle group. Do check out their generic website - www.freecycle.org. Their idea is that instead of throwing useful things to trash, someone might use it. So they have a mailing list (yahoo group) for each city(some even in India, not sure how active). I got a hand soap and a rug for free.

Biking:
Kosmix has taken a step ahead from Google. They have given me a bike (and a very good one indeed!) to keep for summer while i am here. I have travelled many places through it. Moutain view has got an excellent road network for biking and i have taken good advantage of it yet more will come!