Rings, Fingers and Alter Egos...!

Ever wondered why you should wear your wedding ring on only the fourth finger of your hand? This is a beautiful and convincing explanation. Some say its a Chinese Legend. I don't know for sure.
OK. First, know what your fingers represent...

• Thumb represents your Parents

• Second (Index) finger represents your Siblings

• Middle finger represents yourself

• Fourth (Ring) finger represents your Life Partner

• Last (Little) finger represents your children

OK. Now lets get on with the small test. First, open your palms (face to face), bend the middle fingers and hold them together - back to back(You can never ever separate yourself from yourself :-)...). Then open and hold the remaining three fingers and the thumb - tip to tip, as shown below.

Now, try to separate your thumbs (representing the parents)…, and you can, because your parents are not destined to live with you lifelong, and have to leave you sooner or later.
Now please join your thumbs as before and separate your Index fingers (representing siblings)…., and again you can open them, because your brothers and sisters will have their own families and will have to lead their own separate lives.
Now join the Index fingers and separate your Little fingers (representing your children)…., they will open too, because the children also will get married and settle down on their own some day.
Finally, join your Little fingers, and try to separate your Ring fingers (representing your Alter Ego...). You will be surprised to see that, try however hard you may, you just can't do it, because Husband & Wife have to remain together all their lives - through thick and thin. Thats your Alter Ego, A part of yourself...
You may try for yourself if you don't believe...Isn't this a lovely theory...!

People and Places...!

Sorry for the long silence guys but have been a little busy lately with work and yeah, what I've been fearing for a long time happened a few days ago, my faithful old laptop died. I hope I'll be able to revive it back. Anyways, enough of my disquiets. What I wanted to write today is about "People and Places". How certain People and certain Places can change your life, change the way you think, the way you look at others, the way you live, the way you talk and hear things and the way you feel. Yeah, how they can change your life altogether.
I've been fortunate enough to have traveled a lot (well atleast more than an average person in India), and live in almost drastically different social and economic environments so far in my life. I am happy for how my life has molded me so far regarding most aspects of my character, but the others, I don't know if I'll ever be able to change them. I was born and bought up in a small village in India, but not long after I moved out of it an landed in a small township, and then later in one of the largest cities in India followed by a small city later, where I spent the last year of my life before flying away from my beloved home country.
It was in that small city, that I learnt life's most important lessons and met some of the most beautiful people in my life so far. When I say beautiful, I don't (only) mean physical beauty, which is but skin deep. It was in that city that I lived away from my family, alone, for the first time ever. I used to look forward for a call from mom/dad and also to meet my sweet and beautiful sis on weekends who was staying in a hostel then (I stayed as a paying guest for a year). I made some good and ever lasting friends during those last 3 years of schooling (high school). I never had developed close friendship with people before, 'coz by the time I was close to them and was at the point of trusting them, we used to move to a different place. But this place was different, it didn't take long for me to trust people here. My best year in the place was the academic year of 98-99 when I was in hostel.
I learned and experienced the term sacrifice and felt the joy that comes from helping your friends. The loyalty and trust we had developed was absolute. That was the year when I had some crushes for the first time and realised it. Had some daring adventures, challenging some unlikely people (our warden :-)) and taking care of friends when they were low. That place taught me what it was to love and be loved. It showed me the pain of loss.
When I moved out of the city to go to the neighboring place for the next two years, I saw how difficult it was to find faithful friends like I had back at school. I had not been so close to my parents, as I've been with my friends during those years. Those were the years when I developed an "Independent Lifestyle" kind of attitude. I no longer depended on other people to make my decisions, in some cases not even my parents. That has taken me a long way in my mostly successful life so far. I've never forgotten those friends and never will.
Fast-forward 4 years down my memory lane and I was in the land of opportunities. My independent lifestyle helped me a lot to get settled into the new place and make some nice new friends here too. Los Angeles was kind of a dream come true for me. I have always wanted to be able to go to the beach often. The university and the social life were so different here yet so much more fun. The competition here was fierce, yet I fared well and was happy for it until I lost something which I had been yearning for years. It was then that I saw how much of an introvert and reserved person I am, and how much I hesitate when it comes to some decisions, and how less about my life, I discuss with my faithful friends. But what is lost is lost forever and I cannot get it back, and I think since then I've been living life the way I should have been for a long time.

Thanks a lot friends for being there for me and giving me hope whenever I was in need of it. Thank you all very much for all your support and encouragements. And thanks a lot for for being my friend...

Oxymoronic Proverbs :-) ...!

Came across these while browsing and thought its worth sharing with everyone...Which do you think holds true ...

1. Look before you leap
   He who hesitates is lost
2. If at first you don't succeed, try, try again
   Don't beat your head against a brick wall
3. Absence makes the heart grow fonder
   Out of sight, out of mind
4. Never put off until tomorrow what you can do today
   Don't cross the bridge until you come to it
5. Two heads are better than one
   Paddle your own canoe
6. More haste less speed
   Time waits for no man
7. You're never too old to learn
   You can't teach an old dog new tricks
8. It's better to be safe than sorry
   Nothing ventured, nothing gained
9. Don't look a gift horse in the mouth
   Beware of Greeks bearing gifts
10. Do unto others as you would have others do unto you
    Nice guys finish last
11. Hitch your wagon to a star
    Don't bite off more than you can chew
12. Many hands make light work
    Too many cooks spoil the broth
13. Don't judge a book by its cover
    Clothes make the man
14. The squeaking wheel gets the grease
    Silence is golden
15. Birds of a feather flock together
    Opposites attract
16. The pen is mightier than the sword
    Actions speak louder than words
17. Laziness is our biggest enemy.
    Learn to love your enemy.

The US of A experience ...!

I have been thinking of jotting this down for quiet a long time now, but this post took simply too long. Mainly because it has been two years since I set foot in this "land of opportunity" and have never recorded any of my thoughts ever since. It took me quiet a while to recollect and sort them out. Sorry for hurrying in the end but I have only one excuse for it, I was too lazy and wanted to be done with it. So here it goes...
Long long ago on a beautiful morning (actually only a little over two years ago), I woke up to find my first acceptance letter for MS on the bedside desk. I was enthralled with joy. Little did I know of the the roller coaster ride that was awaiting me. Within a couple of weeks, I got accepted into all the colleges I had applied for, except one. Thanks to my friends and family who helped me choose the school where I was to slog for the next two years, away from all joy and enjoyment. Naah...I will take that back, I did enjoy and lot at USC, LA's been the best place I have been to in US so far. Anyways, the day of my departure came close and I started spending my time giving treats to my friends who had stuck by me all my life. I was lucky to have boarded the flight and escape the floods that broke in Mumbai the next day, delaying the departure of a lot of my soon to be new friends.
So I finally landed in LA and got out of the customs with almost no trouble (I had a hard time convincing the guy that the Mango pickle didn't contain any meat). So there I was out of the airport with no idea where to go (I had not received any reply from the Indian association about my temporary accommodation yet). After thinking deeply for a long time I decided that it was the school's responsibility to accommodate me, as they were the one who accepted me in the first place. yeah I know that's bullshit but I had no where else to go. So they put me in the undergrad dorms (it was still summer and students had not yet arrived) for 25 bucks a night. In the next couple of weeks I got settled into a nice cozy apt with three other guys one of whom has stuck by me ever since.
The school commenced soon after and my life after that was hell. So many homework and so much work (Labs, part times, study and partying was simply too much when everything was put together). I studied more and in that one semester than all four years of my undergrad put together. The following semesters were equally bad (better when it came to partying) if not worse, except for the last one when I had landed myself with an internship. I made a lot of good friends on the way who I know would stick to me forever. I thank you guys for being there for me always. I wish you all good luck with all your endeavors if you have not yet achieved them. I dedicate this song to you all

It's been a wonderful experience knowing you all and having you as a part of my life. Thanks a ton ...

10 New things I did in August ...

The month of August went by like a storm. Was mostly uneventful but here are a few things I did and achieved for the first time ever...

1. Won a beer in Foosball at work.
2. Worked till 10pm at work. It was fun as we had lunches and dinners together.
3. Tasted Whisky and had vodka with cranberry juice.
4. Read The Alchemist for the first time and have been thinking a lot about my past and present (and to a certain extend, my future) ever since.
5. Regained contact with a very old friend after almost a decade. I learned never to make conclusions by knowing only one side of a conversation (and that too not entirely).
6. Crashed my external hard drive and lost all of my precious data. Hope I will be able to recover at least some of it.
7. Traveled by Amtrak for the first time. The journey was slow, uneventful, colorless and boring although a lot more comfortable and cheaper than a flight.
8. Decided never would work for a big corporation where employees (even the CEO) are treated like cars in a parking lot, after seeing one.
9. Blew a hundred dollars on something which I had thought I would never experience. (Guys who know what I am talking of, shut the fuck up).
10. Went on a 3 mile trek with friends in Yosemite. The views were breathtaking and the water falls were amazing.

(Click pictures for high resolution.)