Last through one winter!

The main attraction of agreeing to relocate to the east coast was the thrill of being in New England. The romance of the local history, the mountains and the magical spell of seasons changing scored higher than the obvious lack of career opportunities in the north east.

When my friends heard the last reason why I left a perfectly good job and a great career in India to come here they were aghast and very skeptical. "Last through one winter!" they dared.

In June the weather was perfect; sunshine, warmth, outdoors and crowds, just like in India, maybe tad better. Tennis, football games, roadside cafes and freeways with the windows rolled down were everyday activities. In the glorious sunny weather we hiked up Mt.Monadnock, Mt.Lincoln and Mt.Lafayett. When fall arrived we drove into the magical land of New Hampshire fall colors. We went up Mt.Washington and bravely stood in the place with the most severe weather in the world.

As the temperatures started to drop my excitement rose, friends and family started getting emails with daily updates of the weather. Finally one day the water puddle beside the road turned solid and I announced the official arrival of winter.

So also did CNN with the news that ski areas in north New Hampshire were open. Memories of my winter in Zugspitz, Germany brought images of me tumbling in deep snow on a mountain peak with surroundings blanketed in white snow. However when we visited Nashoba valley ski area I was shocked to see only the hill had a light snow sheath, and that too only some parts. It is a common practice to artificially blow snow to make ski tracks. I had presumed there would already be a deep snow cover. Pooh...!

Then one day WBZ's weather bulletin forecast 2-4 inches snow in Billerica; finally it was coming! But the day set and roads were still dry. One last peek outside before bed showed not a white speck anywhere.

As always, next morning when hubby left for work I opened the blinds...

...and it was like opening a door to a vast white magic world! The trees, the cars, the roads, the lawns, bushes, even my balcony and the thin iron railing had a thick layer of snow! For a moment the apartment filled with my squeals. I rushed excitedly onto the balcony and promptly went sliding away on the icy surface :-) While hubby groaned and swept the snow off the car I busily took as many photographs as possible before my fingers and feet froze.

No way I was going to stay indoors. Later in the afternoon swathed in 3 layers of woolens, a scarf, gloves, balaclava and snow jacket I stepped out. Remembering my experience walking the roads of Munich in winter I was careful stepping on the ice coated roads and after some wobbling managed to walk gingerly without sliding. The snow on the sidewalk was a dirty brown with imprints of all feet that had trodden upon it. But everywhere else it was a pristine white like a layer of shiny icing on a chocolate cake, tempting, very tempting. A young boy was clomping his way through the snow and I could feel a stupid grin creep up my face. All this was exactly what I had come here for!

Reaching the Billerica commons was like coming upon the perfect winter postcard; tall trees covered with snow, a little bandstand with icicles lining the roof and the entire ground one unbroken spread of white. Here no one had walked all day. Gaping at the beauty I missed the pedestrian signal turn green and back red.

I dropped in at the library and returned O! Jerusalem. After two hours when I prepared to leave the company of books it was dark outside and I knew exactly what to expect.

If in the daylight the commons had the picture perfect look, in the dark the colored twinkling Christmas lights on all trees turned it into a fairyland. The snow and the wet road reflected all light colors and the entire area had the look of zillions of shimmering balls floating about. My grin returned :)

When the sky smiled :-)

I got this in yet another of those forwards sitting in my Inbox. My sister had sent it wanting to cheer me up :)


It seemed coincidental that just few days ago my hubby had talked of another "smiley" picture made up of the moon.

After some digging around to bypass all the redirect URLs and reach the source of these pictures I found this post on a website called "Mighty Optical Illusions", an apt name for the content :-)

I also tried google-ing for the sky smiley with moon and stars and stumbled across quite a collection on Flickr.

Here is one of "When the sky smiled" :-)

Don't let problems paralyze you

----------------------------------------------------------------

A professor began his class by holding up a glass with some water in it.

He held it up for all to see & asked the students "How much do you think this glass weighs?"

'50gms!' .... '100gms!' .....'125gms' the students answered.

"I really don't know unless I weigh it," said the professor, "but, my question is What would happen if I held it up like this for a few minutes?"

'Nothing' the students said.

'Ok what would happen if I held it up like this for an hour?' the professor asked.

'Your arm would begin to ache' said one of the student

"You're right, now what would happen if I held it for a day?"

"Your arm could go numb, you might have severe muscle stress & paralysis & have to go to hospital for sure!" ventured another student & all the students laughed

"Very good. But during all this, did the weight of the glass change?" asked the professor.

'No' was the answer.

"Then what caused the arm ache & the muscle stress?"

The students were puzzled.

"What should I do now to come out of pain?" asked professor again.

"Put the glass down!" said one of the students

"Exactly!" said the professor.

Life's problems are something like this. Hold them for a few minutes in your head & they seem OK.

Think of them for a long time & they begin to ache. Hold it even longer & they begin to paralyze you.

It's important to think of the challenges or problems in your life. But even more important is to 'PUT THEM DOWN' at the end of every day. That way you wake up every day fresh & strong ready to handle any issue, any challenge that comes your way!

----------------------------------------------------------------

Part-3: The road test

On the day of the test we took the car out for one last quick spin .. and I goofed up the parallel parking. Was I a complete imbecile?

Nonetheless we went to the Massachusetts RMV and after all the formalities waited in the car for the officer. To ease my tension I tried imagining him as he would be with his family :) I was easing up when he slid into the seat next to mine with a comforting smile. We exchanged hellos and the conversation was:

"So, are you ready to go?", he asked.
"Yes, I am", I replied meekly with a tinge of confidence.
"Today we will test you for 2 things", the officer said, "your ability to control the car and your ability to drive safely within the rules of the road. Is that OK?", he added.
"Yes, that's fine", was my meek reply.
"Have you been driving before", the officer asked looking at some papers in his hand.
"Yes, I have", I answered with a shade more confidence.
"Hmmm, then you should not have problem with the car", he said with a tiny sigh. "But I see a problem here", he continued, "If you have been driving you have also picked up some bad driving habits", he explained. He then proceeded to cite me an example of how a young man lost his license due to speeding.
"So, when you are ready..." ... and the rest is too cumbersome to write as a conversation.

He pointed to 2 signs on the other side of the parking lot and asked me exit the parking lot through an alley between the signs. How I navigated through the parking lot was up to me. I waited awhile to let an approaching car pass before pulling out. He didn't mind it; I was driving and the car would move under my decision. As soon as I started entering the parking lot three more cars emerged; a car started pulling out, a car that had pulled out came rather wide in the opposite direction, and a small truck sped into the parking lot from the other end of the aisle! It seemed like I was stranded amid this chaos. I let them settle before I moved and we emerged from the huddle without any obvious errors on my side.

In a way I thank my luck for that situation; it allowed me to demonstrate my cool to the officer. Maybe that's the reason he shortly commented that not me, but the others should be tested :-)

I realized soon enough that his remarks were intentionally made to lull me into a sense of complacence to see if I erred when caught unawares. More than once he asked me to go straight through, or take a turn just as we were approaching an intersection. I don't know if any one has fallen into the trap, but I can imagine it could be easy to blindly follow the officer's instruction and not halt on a STOP sign.

After we had correctly passed through our 1st intersection with a 2-way STOP sign he remarked I obviously knew what I was doing; it was a waste of time taking me on a road test and he would rather end it right away. While I visibly relaxed at this comment he continued navigating me back towards the RMV. After some lefts and rights we were approaching a junction and the officer told me to keep going straight ahead. Once again presence of mind prevailed and I was quick to notice the 4-way STOP sign, which I flawlessly passed through.

I think that pleased the officer even more and without trying to drag me through any further traps he navigated me back to the RMV where he asked me to demonstrate hand signals.

His parting words to me were "You can obviously control the car well and know what to do on the road. Drive safe and always follow the rules. All the best". He scrawled a large PASS on my learner's permit, stamped it and stepped out.

Boy, was I delirious!!

I was also thankful for the way circumstances turned out. I'm sure my control of the confusion in the parking lot at the start impressed him. Luck was in my favor when she created that huddle. And oh yes, there were 36 drivers waiting to be tested, so obviously he did not want to waste more time then necessary with a driver who "obviously knew what she was doing" ;-)

Moral of the story : During the road test even when the officer calls the shots, you are the one driving; keep your cool, stay alert and drive well.


___end

Part-2: Driving school; to be or not to be

Now it was time to try handling the monster car Honda Accord. At one point I got so fed up of the sheer mass that I almost test drove a relatively petite Honda Fit SX. Sigh...

To be fair handling the Accord wasn't so terrible once I got used to feeling the size. I could soon easily negotiate round curbs, slide between parked cars and estimate distances from my limited view at bottom of the windshield (rising 5 feet nothing I can only see the base of the wipers :-) One cold wintry day I convinced hubby to pretend being the left bumper of a car so I could attempt parallel parking around him!

All I needed was some road experience at 65 mph on R-495 and I would be well equipped for my road test... or so my naive brain once again presumed.

Few days later with my confidence soaring supreme after the great parallel parking exercise I was watching Mr. Monk and The Three Julies. As I watched Julie attempt her road test I got a nasty shock; she was driving in a parking lot scattered with orange cones to mark routes! This was crazy!

Wanting to find how road tests were conducted by the Mass RMV I googled but in vain. No one had bothered to share their experiences. Over the past 6 month I had already suffered through one unexpected shock of false bravado (no job still!) But now I did not want to face the fate with my road test. So I finally gave in to hubby's advice and agreed to enroll at a driving school.

Billerica has a Tri Town but their prices made me look for alternatives. When I called the Chelmsford Auto School I had an inordinately long hold time so I hung up. Next was Sim's Driving School; conversation flowed smoothly and it was agreed they would pick me up the very next day.

Meeting Mr. Sim was like meeting Santa; smiling always he puts you totally at ease. He sat patiently while I strapped on my seat belt and went through numerous iterations of adjusting my seat and all mirrors (it's compulsive; I do it at least three times) I started to back out of the parking slot.. and then began the fun !

"Is that the best you can do", Mr. Sim asked.
"Maybe better", I replied defensively and stopped backing to try once more.
"OK", said Mr. Sim, "show me again what you can do".

My second attempt was as good as the first, and Mr. Sim sighed. Obviously I had a lot to learn. After my first drive in the car with "Student Driver" splashed all over Mr. Sim decided it would be OK for me to have 2 more sessions. We'd practice parking in the 2nd session.

Without going through the details of everything that he and his younger and sterner assistant, Mr. Pishit taught me, suffice to say I changed my driving style considerably. IMO looking over the shoulder during backup and lane-changes was for sissies; now of course I realize the significance. Speed limits were never a problem; when I cruise I'm in fact showing off my total control over the car ;-) The mystery behind STOP signs was easily unraveled; 3-point turns were a piece of cake for I can confidently U-turn between any set of curbs.

Parallel parking was the only seemingly insurmountable peak, more so for the algorithm it involved. All my previous experiences with parallel parking had been ad-hoc attempts. Now I learned how it was a rather precise science with 5 exact maneuvers, each achieving the next position until the car slid smoothly into position.

At the end of my 3rd class I wanted to have 3 more. Now my confidence was not falsely based on naive bravado, but on the secure knowledge that I had learned the correct way.

So we scheduled the road test.

Moral of the story : the best way to do anything is always only the right way; study local requirements before jumping headlong


___cont part-3

Part-1: Getting the learner's permit

I had promised myself I would write about my driving experience after I got my Massachusetts Driver's license.

Admittedly very different from my experience in India where I've held a license for more than 7 years. I rode a Yamaha RX-100 motorcycle for first 3 years and then bought a Santro Xing XG.

My best friend taught me to ride the motorcycle and I enrolled at a driving school to get my hands on a steering wheel. I did not face any written test; my road test for the motorcycle had me driving down the road next to the RTO office (Indian DMV) demonstrating hand signals and basic maneuvering control. No figure-8, nor 360 circles.

When I bought my car 3 years later driving the motorcycle had become second nature and I could sense the machine like a second skin. Controlling the steering wheel was absolutely no effort. After 3 sessions with the driving school car my instructor pronounced me ready to handle my brand new untouched Santro. I still remember the first ride on a 6-lane road with scant traffic; the Santro still had it's showroom silver ribbon tied in a cute bow over the hood :-)

Friends who lived in America say I am an "adventurous" driver! Even the best driver who I know had become defensive after driving in USA for 2 years. So when it was time for me to hit the roads of Massachusetts apprehension wasn't too away.

Did I mention that the Santro Xing is 3.5 x 1.5 meters while the Accord is 7.2 x 1.9 meters!

Part-1: Getting the learner's permit

You need to answer a Computer based test. The Massachusetts Driver's Manual gives details of the process, study material and requirements for the test. It took me 3 readings to familiarize myself with the contents. I studied safe driving, parking, signals, laws, speed limits, DUI conditions, medication restrictions; I pretty much studied the entire manual, except the part on junior drivers.

Junior drivers are under 16 years, and a different, more stringent set of rules are applicable. I rather naively assumed it was sufficient for me to merely know that breaking rules had repercussions; the cops would know what fines to apply. I also took some free online practice tests to prepare myself on the kind of questions to expect.

To my utter shock and dismay almost 75% questions were about regulations for junior drivers. 15 were junior driver, 2 were DUI, 3 were drugs related! Nothing on speed limits or safe driving or technicalities. It was a thoroughly theory question set and caught me totally off guard.

Mercifully I scrapped through scoring 15/20; the passing is 14/20.

In retrospect it however made sense. Only kids would be applying for a learner's permit; the grown ups already held driver's licenses.

Moral of the story : don't presume; learn everything; pay special attention to junior driver regulations


___cont part-2

Not my usual stuff :-)

My gmail popped up an email with the subject "The case for network traffic filtering". It was from SearchSecurity.com enclosing an article titled "Writing Wireshark network traffic filters".

I had just then been looking at a tcpdump for some arp traffic. Naturally I clicked on the heading. The first paragraph made a reference to an earlier introductory post so like any good engineer I decided to go systematically (sic! ;-) and read that one first.

The introduction is nicely written and very easy to follow. It has several images for illustration but at the same time does not go even near looking like any of the D-rated instruction manuals with screen snapshots :-)

It has the feel of having been written by someone who knows what he's (Mike Chapple) talking about; quoting from the introduction "The best way to become an expert quickly is to get your hands dirty and start capturing network traffic" :-)

I not only emailed the 2 URLs to friends at my former office in Bangalore, I also wrote up this quick post and put it up on my blog... for posterity :-)

The introduction: Wireshark tutorial: How to sniff network traffic

What got me writing this post: Writing Wireshark network traffic filters

And finally here is the Wireshark Manual from the wireshark homepage.

Happy sniffing ;-)

Oh, I loved this website !!

Religiously heeding the advise that each job requires it's own customized resume I was working on tweaking mine to suit an opening for a highly regarded communication infrastructure vendor. Wanting to give it a personalized touch I decided to include some high profile customers of the particular vendor.

Obviously I turned to google and tried the search string " ?vendor name? GSM customers". After wading through some initial results I saw this obvious title "Wireless infrastructure customers of ?vendor name?" on page 2. Any self respecting google-ist knows that such pretty looking results are usually grossly low yield! Well, I was on a search mission and one of course cannot presume in such situations. So I clicked...

http://www.mobileisgood.com/

...and hit a veritable treasure trove of everything mobile!

The wise say a picture is worth a thousand words, and who was I to disprove it? The home page had a picture, no less a pie chart showing the Handset market share for 3rd quarter, 2008! A stickler for statistics and data I could hardly believe my eyes at stumbling upon this information available for free!

The left side provided links to "Infrastructure Vendors", "Service Providers", "Phones" and much more. 11 vendors, 1149 service providers and 104 phone manufacturers; they are all there from over the world.

Each vendor has a list of service providers using it's equipment. Each phone manufacturer has an alphabetic listing of all it's phones. The phones are also differentiated based on access technologies like GSM or CDMA or VoIP. Motorola and Nokia of course have the longest pull-down menus :) However one bit that I missed was the information to relate a service provider back to it's vendors.

I am always a fan of the mobile telephony industry. With mobileisgood.com mobile does indeed feel good :-)

Happy surfing!

Chandrayaan-1 : what happened on 14-Nov-2008?

So, the Chandrayaan-1 achieved it's lunar orbit on 12-Nov, the Moon Impact Probe (crash) landed on 14-Nov and during it's short lifespan of 25 minutes beamed back valuable information to the mother ship! (Trust Pallava Bagla to use the word mothership!! :-) But now, what next?

When I turned to my trusted RSS feeds there were several reports from all over the world about India's great success.

BBC's article reporting the landing of the MIP made it to the most popular stories from South Asia. The news included one of the early pictures of the lunar surface that the MIP during it's descent; in fact one of the two pictures that ISRO had published a day earlier. The New York Times covered it as major news under it's World briefing about Asia section.
Pakistan too was watching the progress of Chandrayaan-1, as is apparent from this artice in The News, a daily to which I have subscribed.

Doing a back search on google.com for 14-Nov-2008 to today, I noticed 2350 hits by google news for the MIP. America launched Endeavour on the same day; it received 4273 hits. These may seem just bits of statistics but when appended with the information that several results for the MIP were in languages other than English, it shows how widespread the interest in the Chandrayaan-1 is.

This blog on Discover Magazine caught my eye with it's post about the two spacecrafts that were in the news that day Chandrayaan-1 and the Shuttle. As did this article in The Telegraph with it's quaint headline Breakneck suicide dive gifts India a ‘beautiful’ moon :-)

The next exciting event to look forward to will be the first 3-D picture of the Moon’s terrain, taken by the TMC on board Chandrayaan. They are expected to be processed on 17-Nov-2008. Happy viewing!

Chndrayaan-1 .. 14-Nov-2008 - MIP lands!!

10:35 AM EST: There it is !! The news I was anxiously waiting to read is finally out.

IBN live has reported that the 35-kilo MIP crash-landed on the lunar surface at around 8:30pm IST and has already started sending signals to the satellite.
India Today too has posted a quick update mentioning India's first unmanned lunar spacecraft Chandrayaan-1 on Friday successfully landed its Moon Impact Probe (MIP) on the moon's surface.

Nothing else yet. ISRO hasn't yet updated it's PR website.

Here is something to read about the MIP

11:50 AM EST - More news pouring out now; all of them announcing India's touchdown on the moon. Still no ISRO press release on the WWW! PTI news has a succinct piece, no fanfare only the neat precise news. Times of India has reported the event here. Of course, both have snatched the fact that today, 14-Nov, is also the birthday of India's first Prime Minister.

I'd rather say this is a wonderful gift to all Indian kids on Children's Day !! :-)

Chandrayaan-1 ...after the inital success

After the past few days filled with tensed expectations and crossed fingers when Chandrayaan-1 reached it's final orbit yesterday it left a sudden void in me on the earth. The practice of looking into my RSS feeds every morning before getting out of bed had started to become a pleasant habit. Today not expecting any deadline being met made the morning a tad dull.

Of course as the day is drawing to an end here on the eastern coast of USA the anticipation starts to build once again. Tomorrow is 14-Nov, possibly the day when the MIP could be launched.

The early editions are already abuzz with how the Tricolor has a date with the moon tonight. The pulse quickens at the mere thought! A wave of envy sweeps through me at the thought of all the engineers who worked this project relentlessly over the past several years. It's fitting that they all be recognized for this unreproducible feat.

The WWW has already started chattering about would-be Chandrayaan-II in 2012. Will it have the same coverage and bated breath as the first attempt did. Or will the natural human instinct bear contempt for the then more familiar phenomenon. As always, only time will tell.

Going back over the past few days there were quite some discussions about whether the costs incurred for Chandrayaan-1 are justified for India; a country where the obvious poverty is horrifying, the illiteracy is appalling and terrorism and corruption have crippled most of the remaining social fiber. What justifies that such glorified attempts be made to reach the moon?

This can easily be countered by asking what justifies that the present condition of the country be used an excuse to curb the quest for progress and knowledge? Shouldn't the very conditions that seem to appear as hurdles in fact be the catalysts for development? How otherwise shall India get the self-confidence to be sure of what she does. Not doing anything is the worst thing India can do. Taking care of its populace does not mean not attempting progress. I find it difficult to accept that there could be anyone among the poor of India who would deride this achievement as a wasteful attempt. As Indians, be what may, we do have that sense of patriotism to uphold the greatness of our motherland's achievements. While we all want and need the basic necessities of life we are not ones to cry foul when told that our country has attempted something that we couldn’t have imagined few generations ago.

This spirit of progress is what keeps up our hope and faith.

Here let me mention an article I found on IBN live few days ago. It discussed the apparent wastefulness of the Chandrayaan-1 mission.

In reading it though a new picture emerged of the entire idea of "wastefulness" :-) If we pause to consider that the entire mission cost only a mere fraction of what a single plane costs, can we dare imagine the implications it will have on the total economics of space study! I read here Chandrayaan-1 cost just a third of the Chinese Chang'e-1 and around a sixth of the Japanese Selene last year. Only three per cent of total budget of ISRO for three years has been used for this first successful attempt!

If ISRO can leverage on it's reduced cost methods even the sky would not hold any imit : -) ISRO (and India) has made a mark for itself in the commercial arena of space exploration. Antrix Corporation, the commercial arm of Department of Space already has several commercial space services. As per this article ISRO earned more than $3 million last year selling its commercial services. If they play the turf well there is a market of almost $200 million waiting to be captured.
Of course, this also means the undivided support from the average Indian. After all the Rs.900 crore revenue Antrix earned is no mean feat!

To end, here is an editorial from The Hindu that makes for some fine introspective reading.

Job hunt blackholes

As part of my continuing job search several questions have haunted me. Uppermost being of resumes going down the black hole called careers@compay.com or hr@company.com or jobs@company.com. There is no guarantee that my toiled after resume will ever be seen by a human eye.

While I pondered the effect of this sci-fi phenomenon on my career well being I realized I wasn't the only one to be affected by it. At a career related Q&A series run by NYT I came across this question of black holes. Some also raised the relevance of MBAs.

Here are some questions I felt relevant to my present condition:

Q: It seems that when I send out résumés, I’m sending them into a black hole. Especially, since these days, there isn’t a human resources person to speak to. It’s all done over the Internet. My feeling is that one’s résumé doesn’t get out of the slush pile unless someone calls on your behalf. Am I wasting my time sending out résumés if I don’t know anyone to call for me at a particular company?


Q: I am in my late 20s and was just laid off from my job. I have a pretty solid résumé with Big Four management consulting experience that usually lands me a “first” interview. I would like to think I’m a good interviewer, but I’ve found that over the past few months I am not getting any offers. I tend to get interviews that require more experience than I actually have and also require an M.B.A., even though I don’t have one. Then, once I get into the interview, I think people see me as young and inexperienced and from a state school in Ohio. How can I differentiate to land a second interview? Also, is an M.B.A. absolutely necessary in today’s marketplace? It seems to be trending this way.


Q: I worked for 15 years in the IT industry, being the last 8 of those mostly in project management and presales. I was laid off, went back to school to get my M.B.A., and now nobody seems to be interested in my resume. I thought my M.B.A. would give me a broader view and would be able to switch careers or at least focus on those fields I am more attracted to. However, the more time I spend on the bench the harder it seems to be to get an interview.


These and many other questions have been answered by Bettina Seidman, an experienced career management coach and outplacement consultant. NY Times has run the Q&S as a 3-part series.

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/05/answers-about-changing-careers-in-new-york/

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/06/answers-about-changing-careers-in-new-york-part-2/

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/07/answers-about-changing-careers-in-new-york-part-3/

Chandrayaan-1 : 12-Nov-2008, it's home!

ISRO finally beat everyone to the finish line! The final and most important news was out there on the ISRO press release before any news papers could claim it as _breaking news_.

Quoting from the ISRO PR note:

Today, Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft has successfully reached its intended operational orbit at a height of about 100 km from the lunar surface.

With this, the carefully planned complex sequence of operations to carry Chandrayaan-1 from its initial Earth orbit to its intended operational lunar orbit with the use of its liquid engine has been successfully completed.

It is intended to conduct chemical, mineralogical and photo geological mapping of the moon with Chandrayaan-1’s 11 scientific instruments (payloads). Two of those 11 payloads – Terrain Mapping Camera (TMC) and Radiation Dose Monitor (RADOM) – have already been successfully switched ON. TMC has successfully taken the pictures of Earth and moon.

Now we await the launching of the MIP, sometime between 14 & 15 Nov.

Times of India mentioned this rather sordidly as "the final resting orbit", which ominously makes it sound like the end rather than the start to new adventures!

It's too surreal to believe; but better get used to this feeling quickly :-)


PS: The entire chronology is here at http://chandan.name/Chandrayaan-1.htm

Chandrayaan-1 : 11-Nov-2008

Now that the orbits have reduced drastically, so also has the revolution time. I presume this allows quicker changes to reduce the orbit further.

10:43 am EST 11-Nov-2008: Just now my RSS feeds threw up an update fromPTI news mentioning yet another orbit reduction manoeuvre at 18:30 IST for 31 seconds. Quoting from the article :

"The current orbit of Chandrayaan-1 is 255.3 km (the farthest distance from the moon) X 101.3 km (nearest distance to the moon). The orbital period is 2.09 hours", ISRO spokesperson S Satish told PTI.

This makes it the 3rd delta since 8-Nov when Chandrayaan-1 entered the Lunar Orbit. Quick traceback:

08-Nov: Orbital insertion - @ 16:51 - 504 x 7502 km - 11 hours to go round the moon once
09-Nov: 1st orbit reduction - @8:03pm - 200 x 7502 km - 10.30 hours to circle the moon once
10-Nov: 2nd orbit reduction - @9.58pm - 187 x 255 km - 2.16 to go round the Moon once
11-Nov: 3rd orbit reduction - @6:30pm - 101.3 x 255.3 km - orbital period is 2.09 hours

Will I have any finger nails remaining!

Chandrayaan-1 .. getting there inch by inch

There is a saying in Marathi that roughly translates to "drop by drop does the ocean grow". The Chandrayaan-1 it seems has started doing just that :-)

Today The Hindu reported that Chandrayaan-1 had been lowered yet more with the aposelene dropping from 7502 km to 255 km and periselene from 200 km to 187 km. This means the spacecraft has now closed in towards to moon from an orbit of 200 x 7502 km to 187 x 255 km!!

Will this be the last step to reaching the targetted 00 x 100 km? Lets wait and watch. Try as much I have not been able to get a schedule for all the maneuvers of Chandrayaan-1.

This article dated 11-Nov-2008 on The Hindu did mention two remaining stages until the desired lunar orbit is achieved. According to it today's move was supposed to attain a 200 x 200 km orbit. The third would have been the final orbit of 100 x 100 km. That does not seem the case now. However there is also mention of possible additional steps if/as needed. I'd guess the main idea being to perform the lowering in small steady precise steps.

Oh, ISRO has also released Chandrayaan-1's first picture of the moon!! Didn't I say the excitement was just beginning?!

And on a flip side trust the chaps at slashdot to always chip in with something hilarious :-)

Chandrayaan-1 : Getting nearer now

Lunar Orbit2 - 100 x 5000 km - Lunar Capture - Initial Orbit – 9-Nov-2008

- The first lunar orbit reduction was performed on 09-Nov-2008 at 8:03pm IST to lower Chandrayaan-1 closer to the surface of the moon. Now the orbit is an elliptical 200 x 7502 km around the moon.

- It seemed after the lunar orbit was achieved yesterday interest waned or the ISRO PR chaps were too busy. Only a few articles appeared on the WWW about the lowering; Sify had a detailed report (which was updated after ISRO send out its press release :-)

- The Hindu reported a day later on 10-Nov, the same day that ISRO had it's news out.

- Now I expect only one last step remains to put Chandrayaan-1 into the required orbit of 100 x 100 km. I look forward to further photos and operational data and ISRO analysis. Then begins some real excitement!

Chandrayaan-1 - 8-Nov-2008 5:15pm

At 6:45am EST my cell phone rang shrilly; it was my brother-in-law. By the time I rubbed the sleep from my eyes the phone ran once again; persistence meant this was something really important... I answered... and got he wonderful news!!

"Congratulations sweetheart!! The Chandrayaan-1 has entered the lunar orbit !! Now it's going round and round the moon!! Wake up !!"... it's very rare that he's been this excited :-)

I was jolted awake. Quickly the laptop was switched on to look for details. But none of the usual website had anything to report. My RSS feed for Chandrayaan was relatively historic news; from earlier in the day :) ISRO, PTI, TOI, Hindu, Khabrein.info.. none have anything to report.

7:14am EST : The WWW spews out the first piece of information on domain-b "Tense 30 minutes for Chandrayaan as it settles into lunar orbit" !! Times of India too has this "Chandrayaan enters tricky lunar orbit". (sic; they don't give new info; simple rehashes of older news)

7:25am EST: Finally NDTV has reported the lunar entry !! "Chandrayaan-1 successfully enters Moon orbit" - It's terse, nothing much, except the internet confirmation of the great event!

Saturday, November 08, 2008 5:25 PM (New Delhi)

India's first unmanned lunar spacecraft Chandrayaan-1 successfully entered moon orbit on Saturday.
With this development, India's moon mission has been declared successful.

Chandrayaan-1 successfully entered the lunar space on Tuesday after a fifth and final orbit raising manoeuvre.

It is now expected to orbit 7,500 km X 500 km elliptical around the moon.

Chandrayaan-1 was launched from the spaceport of Sriharikota on October 22.

7:32 am EST: ========== Finally the ISRO press release is out "Chandrayaan-1 Successfully Enters Lunar Orbit"

• This historic event occurred following the firing of Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft’s liquid engine at 16:51 IST for a duration of 817 seconds. The highly complex ‘lunar orbit insertion manoeuvre’ was performed from Chandrayaan-1 Spacecraft Control Centre of ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network at Bangalore.

• The spacecraft is now orbiting the moon in an elliptical orbit that passes over the polar regions of the moon. The nearest point of this orbit (periselene) lies at a distance of about 504 km from the moon’s surface while the farthest point (aposelene) lies at about 7502 km. Chandrayaan-1 takes about 11 hours to go round the moon once in this orbit.

• With today’s successful manoeuvre, India becomes the fifth country to send a spacecraft to Moon. The other countries, which have sent spacecraft to Moon, are the United States, former Soviet Union, Japan and China. Besides, the European Space Agency (ESA), a consortium of 17 countries, has also sent a spacecraft to moon.

Yipppeee !!! Or like bro-in-law said "Hip Hip Hurray !!" India, I salute you !!

Chandrayaan-1 : Lunar Orbit

Quoting from the ISRO press release "The fifth and final orbit raising manoeuvre of Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft was successfully carried out today (November 4, 2008) morning at 04:56 am IST".

Earlier articles had mentioned 03-Nov as an important date, however no reason was given for why the date was changed by a day.

As per the article on ExpressIndia, Chandrayaan is expected to reach an apogee of 380,000 km on 08-Nov-2008 evening, when the lunar orbit insertion manoeuvres are also planned.

Chandrayaan-1 - A new milestone

Ø 31-Oct-2008: A major milestone was reached today when the Terrain Mapping Camera (TMC) onboard Chandrayaan-1 became operational.

Ø ISRO’s press release specified two photos were beamed to the IDSN. The first imagery taken at 8am IST from a height of 9,000 km shows the northern coast of Australia while the other taken at 12.30 pm IST from a height of 70,000 km shows Australia's southern coast. Maybe a romantic side of me had wistfully expected ISRO mavericks too have designed such that first images were of India :-) Of course it's a relief to reaccept the idea that this is not only about national pride, but also about international collaboration.

Ø PTI news gave the event a bit of national political twist by saying that the Indian PM was shown the first photos :-)

Ø The Hindu and Economic Times also reported this milestone of the Chandrayaan-1.

Resumes from theLadders

I don't say leaders because as yet both the US presidential candidates have tons to do before claiming the title of a leader. However that's beside the point.

In my quest for a job in the USA I have registered at umpteen "career sites", the Ladders being one of them. It hosts only jobs that pay 100K +; hence is an elite membership with the option of paid or free. Of course as a free member there is not much of an edge. When I signed up as a paid member I got a free resume review (which I admit was very helpful, though not productive). I also got an offer for them to redo my resume and also give a cover letter at a discounted rate. When I didn't take it within the offer expiry timeline they also offered to keep it open till I decide later.

However all that never helped me get a job and I am still looking.. but again, that s beside the point. The reason I describe my experience with them is to give some sort of positive background.

Today in their daily newsletter I got this article that talked about how a great resume should look. They have put up resumes for Sen. McCain and Sen. Obama. It is worth a look.


PS: In a separate post they've also mentioned some quick-fix Q&A kind of strategy to prepare your personal brand. Here is a quick look:

Develop Your Brand
Begin to develop your personal brand by probing your stand-out experiences, skills, and talents, with the following statements:

• My background is unique because _____.
• My _____ makes me different from others who do the same job.
• As a [insert career title here], I've developed a reputation for _____.
• At the heart of my experience are these three strengths: _____, _____, ______.
• My former managers/peers would agree that the reason I am so good at what I do is _____.
• I have a natural talent for ______, which makes me better than most at what I do

Chandrayaan-1 - 4th raise

- PTI news reported the 4th orbit raising exercise was conducted per schedule on 29-Oct-2008 at 7:38am.

- The target elevation of 267,000 km was achieved by firing the engines for 3.12 minutes, i.e.192 seconds. The new orbit will need 6 days and 15 minutes to complete one revolution around the Earth. The perigee now is 465 km.

- The next shift is scheduled for 03-Nov when the spacecraft will be inserted into the elliptical lunar orbit at a height of 386,000 km from Earth

Pokeromania .. and 1907

As I was advised, the thumb rule for poker is "hand with least probability of occurring has highest score".
We were watching a game that was laid out as :
- A had a pair of Js
- B had an A and a 10
- Open cards were : ?, K, ?, Q, J
I expcted A to win with 3 Js; but B had the upper hand with a straight.

Then began the discussion with hubby; how come three-of-a-kind is lower than strights. We discussed for a while, but hubby was obviously not too interested (blame it on the heavy lunch!).
So I went back to trusted dependable google and here is what Wikipedia threw up!

1st - Royal Flush ------ 4
2nd - Straight Flush --- 40
3rd - Four of a Kind --- 624
4th - Full House ------- 3744
5th - Flush ------------ 5148
6th - Straights -------- 10240
7th - Three of a Kind -- 54912
8th - wo Pair ---------- 123552
9th - One Pair --------- 1098240

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_poker_hands. It also includes the necessary explanations.

I however found this 1907 NY Times article even more intriguing :-) http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=9506E3DE1738E033A25757C2A9659C946697D6CF&oref=slogin

Enjoi!!

Chandrayaan-1 : 3rd raise

Ø Earth Orbit4 - 300 x 387000 km - Lunar Transfer Trajectory - Trans Lunar Injection – 26-Oct-2008

- The 3rd orbit raising happened on 26-Oct-2008. Chandrayaan has now entered deep space and is 164,600-km from earth at its furthest point (apogee). Chandrayaan will now take 73 hours to go around the earth once.

- Sify.com was the first to report the exercise involved firing its 440 Newton liquid engine, lasting 9.5 minutes

- The next orbit raising activity is scheduled for October 29 when Chandrayaan will be raised to a distance of 265,000 km from the earth

Chandrayaan-1 - Tracking the journey

I've been trying to find details of the orbital changes that are expected to occur leading towards the final lunar orbit. However it appears no strict timeline is available. It looks like the changes in
orbits will happen within safe time periods after appropriate preconditions are met. Of course I can be totally wrong and there could be a precise schedule of actions/events.

I did get this brochure on the ISRO website that gives some information of the timeline http://www.isro.org/pslv-c11/brochure/contents.htm. This is another ISRO website that discusses the Chandrayaan http://www.isro.org/Chandrayaan/htmls/home.htm.

Under the section "The Journey" the article speaks about the different orbits and the rough estimate of when the spacecraft will finally be into the steady lunar orbit. The Yaan is expected to pass through 7 orbital speeds before finally settling into the desired Lunar orbit of 100km height from surface of the moon.

Here I am going to attempt to track the stages that will finally make the Yaan go ga-ga 'round the moon :-), starting with *Time-T, the launch on 22-Oct-2008 at 6:22am* local time.**

Ø Earth Orbit1 - 255 x 22860 km - GTO - 22-Oct-2008
- The Yaan attained Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit soon after being launched on 22-Oct-2008. The precise times vary with various news articles giving the timings as 18.2, 18.9 and 19 minutes after lift-off.
- I would like to quote the following from an article on Sify.com dated 23-Oct-2008: “The health of the spacecraft is normal and (it is) doing fine. Spinning in elliptical orbit once in every six hours and 30 minutes, it has completed four orbits and is in the fifth orbit,” the official told IANS.

Ø Earth Orbit2 - 300 x 37000 km - 1st raise - 23-Oct-2008
- As per this Sify.com report the move into Earth orbit2 occurred on 23-Oct-2008 around 0900 hours by firing the satellite's Newton Liquid Engine was fired for about 18 minutes.
- The India Express too reported the 1^st increase in orbital height in this news report. In the new orbit the spacecraft will take about 11 hours to complete one revolution around the earth, as against six and a half hours when it was in the GTO.

Ø Earth Orbit3 - 300 x 73000 km – ETO - 2nd raise – 25-Oct-2008
- The 2^nd orbit-raising maneuver was reported by PTI news on 25-Oct-2008;once aging the 440 Newton Liquid engine was fired at 5:48 am for about 16 minutes.
- The Economic Times also reported the rise. In this orbit Chandrayaan-1 takes about 25 and a half hours to go round the earth once
- Worthwhile to mention this statement by ISRO chairman G Madhavan Nair; "So far, Indian-made satellites have reached to a height of only 36,000 km. Today's firing has taken Chandrayaan-1 to something like 75,000 km. That's well beyond what we have reached so far. It was a good event, and done precisely".

Ø Earth Orbit4 - 300 x 387000 km - Lunar Transfer Trajectory - Trans Lunar Injection

Ø Earth Orbit5 - 2000 x 384000 km - Lunar Transfer Trajectory - Mid-Course Correction

Ø Lunar Orbit1 - 500 x 5000 km - Lunar Transfer Trajectory - Lunar Insertion Maneuver

Ø Lunar Orbit2 - 100 x 5000 km - Lunar Capture - Initial Orbit

Ø Lunar Orbit3 - 100 x 100 km - Final Orbit



PS: I also have a consolidated picture @ http://chandan.name/Chandrayaan-1.htm

An article from The Hindu 21-Oct-2008

Finally, 'Kyunkii... comes to an end

New Delhi (IANS): Television serial production company Balaji Telefilms has accused the STAR group of breach of contract after being told to end the long-running serial 'Kyunkii Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi' on the STAR Plus channel.

The company is of the view that the termination is in breach of contractual obligations owed by the STAR Group to the company and is pursuing all legal remedies available to it in relation to the same, Balaji said in a regulatory statement on Monday.

It said that SGL Entertainment Ltd, part of the STAR group that operates the Hindi general entertainment channel STAR Plus, had issued a notice terminating 'Kyunkii Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi' from November 10.

Balaji has been producing the serial since 2000. It has reigned for a long time on the top of television rating lists. Kyunkii...is one of six programmes it produces for the STAR Group. Balaji also has three other programmes running on 9X and Zee TV, while two more will be launched on NDTV Imagine this quarter.

Olympics in China - 11-Aug-2008 - Abhinav Bindra

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1AOrvWAJ5o


Yes, I did watch the opening ceremony. Yes, I did hear the wonderful comments on the awesome show. Yes, I did write an email congratulating my Chinese friends about the superb performance.

But deep down was a feeling of envy, worst still a feeling of being ousted by the only other competitor has (had!) in this part of Asia. As a software engineer exposed to global chatter about outsourcing and more so being a moneyed consumer with purchasing power China has never been out of the radar; neither personally nor professionally. Still, there was a feeling somewhere that India does mean something.
Everybody pursues progress. Everybody follows achievement. So what bound me to my country. Conversations with friends at home inevitably end with "Nothing can change in India". Of course this is very arguable but lets leave it at that.

The main point being the reason I am proud to be an India is not necessarily related to her achievements. Other than the natural inbred pride and respect a countryman has for his own country I cannot find much explanation for my feeling. Of course I cannot take it that somebody criticize my nation. Maybe that is the reason why envy crept in at the enormous success China displayed that night of 08-08-2008!

Then came 11-Aug-2008 and India won her gold. The Indian flag right there in the winners' list at # 21.

Whatever the situation comparisons will always be made; someone will always be better. What makes the win special is when you know you've never given up, you've never let anything beat you.

Jackpot !!

Or should I say I unearthed a treasure trove ... of Marathi online songs! Half the day was spent chatting with Di and the other half was spent listening to songs online.

Let me keep them here.. for posterity sake! hopefully more will follow.

http://www.ideasnext.com/marathimusic/

http://www.mazafm.com/marathimusic/

Though they look similar there is a subset of disjoint songs between the two. And I found one two of my favorite songs :

Chapha bolena by Lata Mangeshkar - one of the most soulfully rendered song

Dhunda madhumati raat rey - rightfully placed under "Lokpriya Bhavgeete"

Everyday is a Sunday :-)

After 5+ years of being on call each weekend, either as an engineer or as the escalation point of contact, its like each day is a lazy Sunday nowadays.

At work even weekends are not spared. If you are not on call, you are on your toes wondering if some customer has faced any event and your engineer is right now on an outage call and then checking your email to ensure no voice mail notification email has been sent out.
While it gets to be a matter of habit and after more than 7 years of being in support your learn to make the requirement of being available 24x7 a part of your life, it is a relief to be able to kick off your shoes, unplug your phone and settle down with a book for some uninterrupted time

After coming to USA, the tension of having to find a new job was overwhelming. Notwithstanding all the horrors written above workaholics like me need that rush of adrenalin to keep going. With lesser work I either drain out quicker or have to work out harder at the gym.

However lately I've realized that if I sweep the tension aside then each day is almost like a Sunday with absolutely nothing to do other than what I want to do to relax. I can leave my cell phone on silent in the gym locker and not have to keep it in my pocket while playing tennis. I can now afford the luxury of watching a movie without the constant thought of cell phone interruption. And so many more things.

And I guess I'm starting to appreciate the lighter life and ironically while I would like it to last longer I don't want it to.

Between the rush of the work desk and the calm of a quite workout I'm sure work burns more calories ;-)

Preparations begin for Kili

http://www.adventuresingoodcompany.com/trip_descriptions/KiliStories.html

http://www.kilimanjaro2006.com/

http://www.traveling-stories-magazine.com/chilly-up-kili-climbing-mount-kilimanjaro/

http://www.ultimatekilimanjaro.com/index.htm

http://www.kilimanjaro.com/books.htm

Have you seen this ?

http://www.43things.com/person/charags

What's happening at home ?!

That is a despicable thing to do; on a weekend when families get going, at crowded places and worst of all.. hospitals ! It's disbelieving and utterly incomprehensible.

What logic explains such acts? Expert analysts says BJP states are being targeted. But what religious or moral zeal explains blowing up families and hospitals? The injured for God's sake!!

X-Files .. I DON'T want to believe

..that any X-Files sequel could get this .. this... mushy and sentimental! Aaarg.. Scull the Mold. It's infecting the primary X-files.

No aliens in the plot this time. Something to do with psychic, but it seemed more to do with Mulder and Scully raking up each others' sentiments from the past. Try this; take the plot, remove the two agents (and their boss) and all traces of FBI and include Detective Goren and Eames and you get an unbeatable Law & Order - CI episode.

Yeah, it's that bad.. as an X-files, but good enough for an hour long action episode, of course after slashing all the mush.

Quoting an -Files-ite "too much normal movie stuff, and not enough X-Files; let down. The writers seem to have given in to movie execs and lost the very essence of what X-files is supposed to be"....

The Dark Knight

What do I say; I'm not a Batman fan, not in the least bit. So this movie was never on my cine-dar. I skipped it for two weeks and then gave in to a close friend's enthusiastic suggestion of a "Must watch". In retrospect I conveniently forgot that "close friend" is a most avid Batman fan!! Moronic of me!

Joker! Joker! Joker! That's all that matters. Christian Bale makes me go "Mmmmm" (remember 3:10 to Yuma?). but not even his ultra husky voice made me long for Batman to reappear on the screen. To be fair the action is good, the underlying psychology is powerfully potent and that's where the goodness stops.
I just can't imagine the superhero getting into a sentimental scene with his EX-girlfriend, who is incidentally dating the Greek-God-Good-Boy-Harvey-Dent, when the city is on the brink of anarchy. That's a Joke!

An obvious must-watch for Batman fans; more so for Heath Ledger fans and non-fans... but otherwise ... wait for Mandrake in 2009.

Something about Somavanshi Kshatriyas

- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somvanshi_Kshatriya

- http://www.indopedia.org/Somvanshi_Kshatriya

Weather challange

The rains have been coming down right since early morning. Today's weather has been so much against what I've seen past 2 weeks. Rain all day, almost no sun rays. It's quite dark inside the house too. I've been planning to walk to the gym but the rain just doesn't allow me to step out.
Add to that the news channel has started sending out weather alarms. I hear thundering nearby. That means lightening! The alarms mention cloud-to-ground lightening, so the thundering does sound ominous.
Few minutes back a bolt of lightening was so close and near that the room lit up!
I'm a bit apprehensive about flash floods and lightening.
I've been hearing car security alarms going off in the vicinity; effect of the lightening. Reminds me of similar events in SunCity :-)

But still, can't deny that I'm worried... and apprehensive.

Indian Premier League - what nonsense !?

Yesterday, players were auctioned at the high profile

Hindu Muslim conflicts in India

To be researched:

- http://www.durdesh.net/news/Article378.html
- http://www.hyperhistory.net/apwh/bios/biolist.htm
- http://www.questia.com/library/religion/hindu-muslim-relations.jsp

Tracing back origin of India

A) Civilization:

- Homo-Saps as we know today existed 2.4 million years ago mainly in Africa
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_evolution

- They lived here for 2 million years after which the migrations began
- A group as small as 150 chaps moved from Africa towards Asia; some movied inland towards Eruope, and some down on to Australia
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_human_migrations

- Migration of the Aryans:
http://books.google.com/books?id=fHYnGde4BS4C&pg=PA502&source=gbs_selected_pages&cad=0_1&sig=GS4c7cWLgrm4RHL0F3-YDZhKEVY#PPA2,M1

- Civilization in India began around 3,000 BC, ie: 5000 years back
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_history

- How did the Homo-saps who migrated from Africa start the Indus civilization in India?
to be researched :)

B) Geographic formation:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gondwana
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continental_drift
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Pangaea_continents.png
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pangaea

1408 - Movie Review

I spotted the name Stephen King on the screen and knew it was going to be difficult to stay calm during the viewing. But no amount of foolhardy bravado is enough preparation for this incredulity!
Supernatural suspense and horror are inherently difficult to depict. The simplicity of the plot requires major part of the movie executed within a single hotel room. The interpretation has been done with complexity but is fluid. Even when at times I did loose track of the events, they all fell into place with the next sequence.
John Cusack has carried it off extremely well. I never had an avid interest in him as an actor, but this movie has changed my mind. IMO, the ending was a bit cliched and left a stale taste in the aftermath.

The negatives : post interval the pace suddenly slows down, turns redundant and at a point becomes almost boring.

I'd say watch it for the unexpected twists and a very good representation of the supernatural without using typical ghosts, blood and screeches.

Super Trouper Beams are gonna Blind me..

..but I won't be blue, like I always do...

This is so true!

A V P 2 - Movie Review

It did read a bit hilarious! Especially as I knew it meant "Aliens v/s Predator - 2".
As a rule sequels are not as great as the original; and if the original was not worthy, nothing need be said about the sequel.

I had deliberately forgone watching A V P - 1 ; what was the movie maker thinking?! Taking 2 most remade alien characters (Alien 1/2/3 and Predator 1/2) and putting them together. Definitely not my type. But I did manage to land a VCD of the movie and well, it was definitely much better than I was prepared to admit.
So when I saw the promos for A V P 2 some days back it went on my "must watch" list.

While it's not a must-do for everyone, it is a definite must for those crazy enough to have enjoyed the first one. The creatures are thankfully the same familiar alien and predator and have not modernized with technology. It doesn't seem like a sequel; just a deja vu and a continuation of the earlier fights.
Talking of fights, they are a bit unaffecting; frequent, gruesome and heavy, but too short and too swift. By the time you start to relish the fantastical creatures the fight's over. But I did find myself catching my breath more than once.

If you can ignore the feeble attempt to give this sci-fi fight movie a tender human touch, I'd say ... all fans of the aliens, predators and Terminators... rush to the box office now.

goDaddy

This is where I started my first attempt to put my writings on the WWW. I brought it up to a point where it was creditable, but gave up when it didn't show up on google search for "chandan".

http://chandan.name

Happy reading! :)