tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-167981302024-09-12T23:48:35.614-06:00Some random thoughts that come to my mind...Kamana Sharmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15131208147662698449noreply@blogger.comBlogger73125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16798130.post-82882306308809789782011-12-05T02:49:00.001-07:002011-12-05T02:50:26.956-07:00

There has to be something about the bus no# 42 that runs crosstown on 42nd street. I've had so many opportunities to take that bus but I always walked. I took the train cross from Lexington to 7th Ave and then I would walk across to 12th Ave. I thought about it a couple times when it was cold, when it was raining or when I was getting late. However, taking the bus never happened... either I

Kamana Sharmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15131208147662698449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16798130.post-44557770324392704622010-11-17T06:56:00.000-07:002010-11-17T06:56:13.855-07:00

Frankly, I am happy with Mozilla! But when Chrome started its Beta version I took it up with interest. An interest that's generated by Google products, and interest to see how things could be different. Unfortunately, I was not much impressed by it and its constant crashing made it the least used browser where it definitely had a very stiff competition from the good old Internet Explorer! The

Kamana Sharmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15131208147662698449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16798130.post-73733960059019020092010-11-02T09:12:00.000-06:002010-11-02T09:12:15.791-06:00

As I was turning off the lights yesterday I made sure the blinds were up by the last couple inches. This ensures the morning sunlight to give me darshan when I'm snoozing my alarm for just 5 more minutes. As I lay down I could see him. He was across my building in an apartment at least a floor above me i.e. around 32nd floor and he was standing at the window. All I could see was a dark frame

Kamana Sharmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15131208147662698449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16798130.post-88369639460407365642010-09-29T21:46:00.000-06:002010-09-29T21:46:26.285-06:00

I had heard about this book a lot of times from a lot of people but I never read it. I got this book in my hand once and just could not get the time to read it. Thinking about socialism and all the politics I thought it will be not be a fun read. Proved wrong from page 1. The book is about a farm called Manor Farm where the animals were fed up of having a 'human' control them. The human, Mr

Kamana Sharmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15131208147662698449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16798130.post-32729772562044637422010-09-26T17:34:00.000-06:002010-09-26T17:34:36.127-06:00

Did anyone know that the first Asian Games were held in India in March 1951?  India was a 3.5 year old democracy trying to forget the partition, build a nation, fight for Kashmir, prepare for the first democratic election to be held in 1952, establish the first IIT in Kharagpur and yet able to host the very first ASIAD. The games, though small,  had 11 nations, 489 athletes and 57

Kamana Sharmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15131208147662698449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16798130.post-82141037444389314462010-09-25T13:34:00.001-06:002010-09-26T17:32:45.344-06:00

This book was recommended by my roommate. She said it’s about a guy who is walking in Afghanistan. My first thought  was that the book is just some white guy moving in Asia to see poor hungry people reluctantly, I still put it on my list from NYPL.I got the book a couple weeks later and when I started reading I realized that the book is about a historian Rory Stewart who waked from Iran to

Kamana Sharmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15131208147662698449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16798130.post-49047414005599816142010-09-24T10:24:00.000-06:002010-09-24T10:24:00.695-06:00

When I read Malgudi days it took me to a whole new world in the town of Malgudi. The people, their simple needs, their issues, their gossips etc. The book was not only a reading experience but a very rich visual one. The author R.K. Narayan is known for painting a very clean picture of the places, people and the whole story. The most striking thing about the stories is the how real the whole

Kamana Sharmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15131208147662698449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16798130.post-74667771975382289562010-09-18T12:28:00.000-06:002010-09-18T12:28:01.939-06:00

I rarely read motivational books but this one was recommended by a friend a long long time ago. I just never got the book in hand so when it came I left everything aside for this book. The book is about a successful (of course cause he had a Ferrari) lawyer Julian who sold his Ferrari to find higher purpose of his life. He went east to India and in the high mountain ranges of Himalayas he found

Kamana Sharmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15131208147662698449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16798130.post-78746091850951537432010-08-29T17:03:00.000-06:002010-08-29T17:03:18.555-06:00

Every year I think next Onam will be different and I will have a big big sadya. [Some how i guess i became food centric!]. I have very unsuccessfully been trying to cook (here) or make it special  (here) in the past 4 years in US. This year too Onam came and went as just another day at work for me but there is something special that I like about this onam. This year 2 of my friends are going

Kamana Sharmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15131208147662698449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16798130.post-17734346633220513812010-08-08T11:30:00.000-06:002010-08-08T11:30:53.813-06:00

The location of my cubicle at work is like the center/hub of the market place. My cube is right opposite to the printer, diagonally opposite to the candy jar, and on the way to the pantry (located behind the printer). Finally its also right beside the CEO's place so it's a location where upper management have their chit-chat before they enter the CEO's office. I get to hear jokes, dum remarks and

Kamana Sharmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15131208147662698449noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16798130.post-51341664440152634232010-07-21T22:29:00.001-06:002010-07-21T22:29:50.343-06:00

Chengiz Khan (Gengiz Khan) as I remember from my history book was a very cruel and horrendous plunderer. The very name of the Mongol King would send shudders down the spine of the inhabitants of the area he was moving closer to. Though my history book only had a light mention and I am sure less than a page worth of material about Chengiz Khan it still left a mark in my mind. The mark was that of

Kamana Sharmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15131208147662698449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16798130.post-8035329982504361212010-07-20T22:07:00.000-06:002010-07-20T22:07:45.636-06:00

After reading the Man Booker Prize Winning book 'The White Tiger' I was intrigued by Aravind Adiga and  was interested in reading his next book Between The Assassinations. I must say it was well worth the wait from the library. The book is a collection of short stories based in the fictional town of Kittur located in Karnataka. Kittur in some sense reminds one of Malgudi the fictional town

Kamana Sharmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15131208147662698449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16798130.post-70932290116829182412010-06-21T18:15:00.000-06:002010-06-21T18:15:57.177-06:00

This book was a picked up purely based on curiosity. It is written by John Allen Paulos the same guy who wrote A Mathematician plays the stock market. The book was intriguing because of its catchy statement :- A Mathematician Explains Why the Arguments for God Just Don't Add Up. Well again it was pure and pure curiosity to read how someone could prove it. I was proved right as soon as I started

Kamana Sharmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15131208147662698449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16798130.post-18494300937098455492010-06-19T17:00:00.000-06:002010-06-19T17:00:58.794-06:00

So it is that time of the year when all desi people in the NY/NJ area come together to celebrate music and culture. Yes, spring/summer is full of concerts and visiting singers both classical and Bollywood (and all other woods.. tollywood, kollywood etc etc...).  The year began with Ustad Amjad Ali Khan's concert at Columbia University early spring. It was a wonderful performance and I must

Kamana Sharmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15131208147662698449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16798130.post-5606456745468299222010-06-19T15:43:00.000-06:002010-06-19T15:43:28.499-06:00

The catcher in the rye is about a young kid Holden Caulfield. The whole book is the view of the world from the eyes of Holden. The book shows the adolescent age confusion about love, alienation, sex etc. It shows the relation Holden shares with his friends, his brother Allen who passed away due to Blood cancer and his sister Phoebe whom he loves very dearly. The kid is a straggler in school and

Kamana Sharmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15131208147662698449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16798130.post-91940622516378062010-06-12T17:49:00.000-06:002010-06-12T17:49:00.710-06:00

During my visit to India in December 2009 I was looking forward to the wedding of my cousin and get the latest Chetan Bhagat Book. A much talked about book and yet again a best seller. Like all his previous books Chetan picks up a very socially relevant topic this time regarding inter-state marriages. The books title states "The story of my marriage" and Chetan Bhagat dedicates this book to his

Kamana Sharmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15131208147662698449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16798130.post-69091849109274868882010-06-05T19:44:00.003-06:002010-06-05T19:45:17.699-06:00

I went to see Rajneeti expecting to see Sonia Gandhi.. but what I saw was a brilliantly made Hindi film. Prakash Jha has done a fantastic job when he shows the cut throat politics in India. This film has all the drama, the masala, the twists and the keeps you thinking what can come next. The plot can be compared to the Mahabharata where both Prithviraj (Arjun Rampal ) and Veerandra Prathap (

Kamana Sharmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15131208147662698449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16798130.post-66321869983593132592010-06-03T20:04:00.000-06:002010-06-19T18:48:45.453-06:00

I am not a stock market expert nor am I into stock market that much. I have just been an outsider watching at the numbers and thinking about many people who made it big. Yes, I am a little scared about the various numbers and figures and also confused/curious about it at the same time. Mainly because I do not understand them that well. The book  by John Allen Paulos is not the key to

Kamana Sharmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15131208147662698449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16798130.post-25187255640646618102010-05-31T19:00:00.000-06:002010-05-31T19:01:15.576-06:00

For all the people making noise over Facebook well how many of them read the Terms and Conditions when they clicked I Agree? For all the people worried about privacy where did the worry go when they were uploading loads of pictures? For all the people worried about visible information did they ever Google up their name to see what all information is available via the numerous websites they have

Kamana Sharmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15131208147662698449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16798130.post-13437377270697297302010-05-21T11:36:00.007-06:002010-05-21T15:35:42.965-06:00

Yes, there is a book for that! and pretty soon there might be an app for that ! ;) There are some books you read out of interest either for the topic or the author, then there are some super-hyped books you read because of the media, then there are some books you read on recommendation of others. Finally there are some which are read because you are curious. This was one such curious book for me

Kamana Sharmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15131208147662698449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16798130.post-61269280485879830632010-05-17T14:56:00.000-06:002010-05-17T14:56:46.058-06:00

Ta na na ta na na na naaaaa.... Ta na na ta na na na naaaaa.... The starting tune of Malgudi Days still rings in my ears as though it was yesterday. The few shows on Doordarshan which were better than any today. Though the stories are now a  little blurry but recently, the enthusiasm to relish the stories re-kindled. I decided to pick up the book from the library and my journey to Malgudi

Kamana Sharmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15131208147662698449noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16798130.post-44784115964930261552010-05-11T08:27:00.001-06:002010-05-11T12:18:31.742-06:00

For most of us history begins and ends in school as one of the  most hated subject and often one of the thickest book that is dumped into the already heavy backpack. Starting with the Indus Valley Civilization to the Golden ages of Gupta empire, the Maurya's, Ashoka, the Mughals and finally the  grand finale with the British and August 15th 1947. That's where history books end

Kamana Sharmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15131208147662698449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16798130.post-70470786122305460242010-04-28T08:40:00.000-06:002010-04-28T16:36:43.510-06:00

Every time this cruise ship passes my apartment, and believe me it does pass every couple weeks, I wonder where it came from. From this side of the ship there is no name written for me to google! Over the last 1 year i've seen it cross many times and finally I used my 12x zoom camera to see if the cruise ship was empty of full. To my surprise there were people all over awed by NY skyline. Funny!

Kamana Sharmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15131208147662698449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16798130.post-19057786447382241772010-04-25T17:25:00.002-06:002010-04-25T17:35:10.482-06:00

David Pogue from New York Times reviewed this great, awesome, wonderful tool called Readability available here. It just cleans up all the clutter that these days are over done on a web page . In short, it takes away the color and the distractions and just displays plain text creating a very readable version of the web site. It is specially useful for printing text only and getting rid of all the

Kamana Sharmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15131208147662698449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16798130.post-59959110217227117442010-04-02T16:25:00.011-06:002010-05-21T15:36:38.364-06:00

Day 1: Lucknow: The colossal currency garland gifted to Mayawati reported missing!!!!!!! At a different location: ZJP spokesperson presents currency garland to Indian Tennis Women's Champion Sania Mirza [The women's champion who won a couple medals some years ago (last single's medal in 2006) but is still in limelight because of her skirt, nose ring, religion, sex and above all engagements and

Kamana Sharmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15131208147662698449noreply@blogger.com0