'Cars' : WOW !!!

Ahhh... it's got that new movie smell
!!!

Friday night is always movie time.. and that's been the only constant thing in our schedule thus far, this summer. 'Cars' was by far the best movie I have seen this summer (in fact, for quite sometime). Considering that list contains movies of the likes of Da Vinci Code, MI:III, X-Men III, The Break-Up & Just My Luck, that's quite an achievement for Lightning McQueen (makes up for his Piston Cup loss, I hope).

And behind all the precise and fantastic animation, the take-home really was the message the movie carried and the beautiful, innocent way in which it was presented. It was a genuine portrayal of the concern amongst more and more Americans about increasing urbanisation, about moving too fast, about forgetting to enjoy the sweet simple things life has to offer.

One major thing that I have observed in the people in Redmond (and I would generously generalize it to all Americans) is their attitude towards life. They always have a smile on their face. They are always ready to help. And of course, with all the money they have, they can afford to be pretty helpful. They greet you at every possible opportunity, and apologize for the slightest inconvenience caused (even if they son't have much to do with it).

Back in India, people are just as nice. But bare survival is so very demanding, that most people don't really have the energy or the time to be nice to everyone around them. Of course, we Indians are nice to a fixed set of people (more specifically, the people we know). But when was the last time you went out of your way to help a stranger? When was the last time I went out of my way to help a stranger? Maybe even before I turned 21 !!!

Slow down .. take a breath, look around .. see if anyone needs you .. find out if you can actually help someone today .. live for someone else and it will be a day well-lived. Appreciate the nice people around you .. if you can't do anything more, you can still smile when you meet someone .. these simple things make such a difference!!

So, I was just thinking what my life would be like, in ten-fifteen years .. what I would want to become? Yeah, I'd surely like to be a billionaire, win a couple of Nobel Prizes and a bunch of Turing Awards, be wooed by supermodels, acknowledged by the whole CS community and blah-de-blah-de-blah ... But what I want more than anything else, is simple happiness .. to be loved and appreciated by the people who matter the most to me, and to give back something to my country (seeing the US, I realize just how much work remains to be done in India).

And all this thought evoked by one simple movie, that too an animation movie. That's why 'Cars' is such a special movie. It makes you want to be a better man. I just hope that the little goodness in me (which just loved this cute movie) never dies out. I just wish to be a better man :)

A heart to give this summer

Dpc just walked in like a penguin, and walked out like ... like .. (hmm.. I can't think of the exact thing that he represented) only dpc can :) ..

Quite contrary to my expectations, this internship has been (thus far) very predictable ..
And though I have fancied trying out a lot of things .. I haven't exactly found someone to accompany me on these adventures .. so I guess the ballroom dancing, the poker games and the road trip will have to wait for sometime longer.

Now, summers happen to be the time when my eyes widen a little more, my perspective extends beyond a few hours and a few days and a few movies and a few pages and a few grades ..
Summer is the time when I can and do look around a little more ... somehow, let my heart melt in the summer heat and fall for any sweet girl around, who sweeps the 70 odd kilograms of my fatty body off its 'chicken feet' ;) ...
Last summer, the story unfolded perfectly ... that is the melting part .. the rest (well .. I am sure you can guess how that went :( ).

This summer has been a little different. The heat here (probably hasn't reached 30 C yet, and it just keeps raining and getting chilly) is just not enough for a heart meltdown. So, despite the abundance of sweet girls around, no heart meltdown yet. Though other than the temperature, the major factor for the former is that most of these sweet females happen to be PhD candidates. So, even though they are prefectly nice and sweet, just no tweaking of the heart here.

And here I was, all prepared to give my heart to the one lady who enchanted me this summer. Seems like I might have to finally sell my heart on ebay (alongwith the bicycle I bought here). So, I am in the middle of deciding which one is a better deal (buy the bike, get the heart free .. or buy the heart, and get the bike free).
That smells like trouble...
I am sure the smart people have figured out why such a deal will only attract fishing buddies straight from the woods of Brokeback Mountain .. so that's no good. I am only selling my bicycle.

Of course, this is too early to get desperate. Its only the start of June, and all that happened (not much really, but quite a lot form my perspective) last summer did happen in June. And I do believe that the phenomenon of heart meltdown happens when you least expect it to ...

I still have almost 7 weeks to survive here .. and I am already missing home :(( .. missing my friends .. missing kgp .. missing those nice, lazy, long lab sessions from last summer and somthing more ..

And already thinking of what all I am going to miss next summer .. going to miss the cool weather here, the scenic beauty of Redmond, the money, the tons of ice-cream, Microsoft's pampering, the luxurious apartment and kitchen. But something tells me that I am not going to miss all these as much as I miss the things that happened last summer.

And all this reminds me that this is probably not the best time to miss the world. This is the time to enjoy it. And what better way to do it than wearing your heart on your sleeve!!!
There are places to go, things to do ... after all, I must have some nice stories to tell my kids of my first trip to the US :).

And after all that, let's forget there is code to be written and heuristics to be thought of ...
It's going to be a good summer .. but I somehow expect a little more from June .. because I really want a wonderful summer .. and who knows from where the surprise will pop up!!

Waiting in anticipation :)
Oh, by the way, I meant "let's not forget" in the code-writing reminder ;)