A Namesake's Name..

What's in a name?

A whole lot, me thinks. If you have lived all the years of your existence with a long name (13 letters for a first name and 10 letters for a last name, a total of 23 letters (English has a total of 26 letters, if not for a few repetitive alphabets, my name would be a running in close for having all the alphabets of this language) and to top it all, I have to answer questions like why do you have two first names and no middle names. Wonder what my parents were thinking when they decided to call me "Lakshmi Prabha", that nobody ever calls me by whole name and that people find convenient ways of calling me, the easiest being LP, officially Prabha and a few friends Lakshmi and Vinu at home and it’s a great feeling when you know of your ability to respond to all of these names under different circumstances. Well to go back to how I got my name in the first place, Lakshmi is from my grandmother and Prabha is kind of a family name for all cousins (girls) (thankfully better sense prevailed and my sister was spared of this torture which my cousins and me were subjected to). That's the origin of my name and that I still cannot understand why would anybody want to give their daughter my name, maybe my Parent's should know, I sure have brought it up on many occasions just in a lighter vein and well sometimes seriously too, well then again, I have to live with it now :). Just when you think all is cool and you have forgotten about it, there are certain things which will have to keep reminding you of what you want to forget...

* You read a forward which says you are from South India if your name will be that of a Goddess (Sure my name is of the Goddess of Wealth and well I am her namesake but I don't see how that has helped me until now, If the access to riches was as easy as naming your daughter after the goddess of wealth, won't everybody be naming their daughter Lakshmi.. well maybe they were being optimistic)

* A friend of mine says that before she met me, she had just heard of my name thru some common friends and she had painted a mental picture of what kind of person I would be like - a very quiet, traditional, well oiled hair (not that I have anything against these kind of girls) and we shared some laughs over it and after that I just asked her if she hasn't heard of a certain someone who goes by the name "Padma Parvathy Lakshmi" (she was Lady Rushdie until a while ago)

* It takes me a whole 5 minutes to get my name across spelling it out the American way.. A for apple.. yada yada to even get a haircut appointment and at the end of it, the lady at the salon can't find my name on the database.. sigh..

Well our life is what we make it out to be and that we are what we are because the things we do and the person that you grow up to be and what you want to really be and all that will be remembered by that one name that you were baptized with. Whatever is your name, try to live it up and just as long as it brings a smile on someone's face, you are OK :), the things I have to keep reminding myself to feel good about my name, I really try hard don’t I..

(On the contrary, in the corporate world, the name of your company, the name of your product speaks volumes for itself, we are talking about brand names here. I was reading about this company called Lexicon Branding which comes up with names for Product's for Companies, they are the people who coined Pentium for Intel and Blackberry. Quite interesting to know that so much of thought process goes into naming a product. That We now use the word 'Google' instead of 'search' and 'Xerox' instead of 'making copies' is evident enough)

Working your way...

As misleading as the subject line could get, I am not going to delve into matters that are best left for a "typical software engineer" after work discussion and that I don't really fancy such a get together is a different thing altogether, I'd rather prefer to hang out with people who do see work and after-work as two independent entities at least for most part of it. I would agree that its hard sometimes to get your mind off "that un-crackable bug that is creating havoc" or "the manager who thinks you are doing a great job (what a cliché) but still rate you lower than everybody else" Well the fact is most of your time that you are awake is spent at work and its hard not to talk about it, but well then there is more to life than that. I digressed there a bit. Ok I got started on something that I originally did not intend to.

Two statements:

Over a dinner conversation, a colleague of mine : " Things are really cool these days, my manager listens to everything I say because he needs my help in getting everything done. But the sad part is that, you don't get to learn anything from him"

Over a phone conversation, a friend from college : " My brain cells are really dead, I think I need to be amongst people who are good at what they do, I don't seem to be learning anything at work, people around me don't challenge me enough, there is no drive to perform "

On a very retrospective note, how important is it for everybody to be surrounded by people who are better or at least as good as you on some occasions, to get your feet back on the ground, to learn something, to get the drive to perform better, so set higher levels of aspiration, to be inspired. You may have been a topper in school/college, best performer at work, but you are the best amongst the people you have been compared with, but only when you are pitched against people who are leagues ahead of you, you realize that there is nobody who can "best" at what they do, there is always someone out there somewhere who can do things "better" than you, if that’s enough reason for an inspiration to look for things to always improve on..

How Can I leave Garfield out of this "This is it. I've reached the pinnacle of laziness... How depressing. There's no place to go after you've reached the top"..

For now am working my way trying to get over my laziness , working quite well so far, I should say..

Talk about Performance Pressure..

:)

Over the years..

The kind of people who influence you the most, are the friends that you grow up with, you end up influencing each other. Those school and college friendships are special. These are the friends who have grown with you, thru all your insecurities, sharing most of them. The friends that you make as you grow old, as nice as they can get, just aren't the same, you just don't take the same kind of liberties. It’s more of a mature friendship and not the kind of friendship that matures over a period of time.

You have seen each other thru the best and the worst, thru winning over their first crush to many heartbreaks
You scramble thru those examinations exchanging notes and giving few tips,
You see each other thru times of seeking jobs thru to their first jobs
You talk absolute nonsense thru 3 hours yet end up having a great time
You can say anything on your mind and still get away with it
You sure would have had your share of misunderstanding but then you learn to grow over it
You can be mad, insane and weird and they are still your friends

You don't have to be nice to them always, to be their friend
You did not have the money to throw around, yes shakes and creams was your favorite hang out
You fight over food, chocolates especially (me)
You are so different from each other
You get irritated and offended with them over small things, but
You end up understanding each other better and like the person for what they are
You share so many nostalgic memories with them..

Time goes by,
You may not stay in the same city and most often end up in different time zones
You may not be able to call each other as often as you would have liked to, but they will still be your 3 A.M friends, that they don't answer your call at 9 P.M itself, is a different thing :)
You may not get to meet for a long time, but when you do
You pick up the thread from where you left and end up having a crazy time :)

To all the amazing people I know,
I really do feel blessed!

Once in a while I suffer from this case of an emotional flu, mostly when am pondering over, what I can do next and when my options are to sleep(trying desperately not to fall for it) or to finish off the book that I am reading(when the book you are reading is Life of PI, I would rather read it when am not that tired, this book has already got me thinking and wonder how I did not get to read this before) and of course I ended up writing this.

The genuis that Calvin is..

Calvin : Some people are pragmatists, taking things as they come and making the best of the choices available. Some people are idealists, standing for principle and refusing to compromise. And some people just act on any whim that enters their heads.

Hobbes: then what are you?

Calvin: I pragmatically turn my whims into principles.

LOL :)

The man, the magic, the game called Tennis - Go Federer!

This man seems to be breaking records of all sorts, if not creating some. As a commentator pointed out that we are going to sound like a broken record if we talk about the records this man is going to break or create. That's Roger Federer for you, the man, many say is the greatest player this game has ever seen and he proved that yet again in the US open -It's four in a row for him, the first man to achieve this feat in the open era.

But Djokovic is the man to watch out for, all of 20 years, it wasn't easy for Federer, Five times close to winning the first two sets, he was out classed by Federer, clearly the results do not reflect what this man deserved. I am sure everybody's heart went out to him. Well he is just one of the very few who have the history of defeating Federer in the recent past, if this match and the past is anything to go by, this man is someone to watch out for, for he has great fitness levels and is playing amazing tennis too.. :) ( Don’t miss out on the imitation of Sherapova and Nadal by Djokovic, this man has a great sense of humour too.. Be sure to check this out on you tube )

Federer definitely was not at this best in the US open final, and this match was no way close to the edge-of-the-seat 5-setter marathon thriller in the Wimbledon final between Federer and Nadal earlier this year, yet Djokovic was the one who dominated the first two sets, being a shot away from winning a set 5 times, the final result was a lot different, it was Federer, who was not at his classy best but yet managing to emerge a winner. It is for this reason, that he is touted as the best. A 25,000 odd crowd, a legacy to live up to, a few records at stake, and being down but yet he does it yet again, not once but twice in the first two sets and there he is the undisputed king of modern day Tennis. ** Greatness ** Can anybody be better than the best, the answer is NO, but as everybody agrees that the gaps are closing in, Nadal and Djokovic are people to watch out for. We got to wait and watch.. but for now it's still Federer's ERA.. Rafa and Djokovic your time will come.. 2008 already promises to be exciting :)

Randomly Random..

Why do people always think a "fun" weekend is only when you have some plans for an outing or a party or something of sorts, why can't a weekend where you are just home tucked under the comfort of your comforter, watching movies, sitcoms, reading books and you have absolutely no plans be fun.. I exactly "plan" to do that this weekend, and am more than sure its going to be a rocking weekend.. Ah there just got an invite for a get together on Saturday :)

Why can't I have a phone conversation that lasts more than 10 minutes these days?? Ponder Ponder..
(Rewind: I used to be a total phone person back in college and a little after that, to get with the same people all thru the day and you are back home and you still find something to talk about over the phone and yet again meet the next day and still you have something to talk about.. )

Why do people who have gone back to Chennai after a long time of staying outside of it, find that there is something amiss , that the charm of the city that they left behind is not there anymore. Has something changed about my most favorite city, (I hope not) am waiting to find out, 60 days to go..

Edit: I just heard from the friend who is on a vacation in Chennai, that they have implemented gps in the city buses and the digital board in the bus stands which says ' 21H arrives in 4 mins', its still in the pilot stage but will be implemented thro the city, now ain't that kewl :)

Did you know that the movie Exorcist was inspired by the St.Louis Exorcism. Yes I live in one of the most haunted cities in the US of A

India pulled off a remarkable victory against England, chasing a target - once impossible over 300 runs. will another thriller unfold at the Lord's.. can't wait to find out..

What's at stake for Federer in the US open- A fourth consecutive US open title (will he be the first to achieve it?) , a 12th grand slam title (only Pete Sampras is ahead of him) and some great tennis matches for his fans world over to cheer about, we have already witnessed two of them :), the higher the stakes, the better he plays. I think if you are even remotely interested in watching tennis or in the game, you should watch this man play, after all, he isn't dubbed as one of the greatest players this game has ever seen for no reason.. I missed out on watching him play at the US open this time around but if am lucky, I will get to watch him next year :)

The LP (Linkin Park) concert totally rocked (literally), a crowd of over 25000, electrifying music - it was my first hard core rock concert experience (if I don't count the Aerosmith concert in St.Louis which I think sucked, they absolutely had no stage presence), I thoroughly enjoyed myself and will definitely go down as an experience of a lifetime :)

If I have to talk about live performances and experiences, memorable ones at that,this one would certainly top the list and something I that would recommend to everyone, the cirque du soleil shows, I happened to watch one of their shows called 'KA' in Vegas (tickets are priced a little on the higher side but hell who cares, the experience is priceless), the acrobatics, the stage set up -everything extravagant and mind boggling to say the least, I have never seen anything more magnificient on a stage.I always happen to have so much fun in Vegas, there is something for everyone there, the grandeur, the magnificent buildings, it sure is an architectural delight and of course the fun gambling as long as you know the limits, I have only lost money but I stopped when I did reach the limits I had set. Let me correct myself, I was told that in Vegas, you don't say you lost the money, you say you spent the money :)

I want to see a Broadway show, I still haven't been to New York :(

That was as random as I could get.. Yippee it's a Friday!