Creaking of Gates

Following is an excrept from a Speech by Bill Gates at Harvard. The speech is quite a long one, but I love the opening Part.

(Text as prepared for delivery)

"President Bok, former President Rudenstine, incoming President Faust, members of the Harvard Corporation and the Board of Overseers, members of the faculty, parents, and especially, the graduates:

I've been waiting more than 30 years to say this: "Dad, I always told you I'd come back and get my degree."

I want to thank Harvard for this timely honor. I'll be changing my job next year … and it will be nice to finally have a college degree on my resume.

I applaud the graduates today for taking a much more direct route to your degrees. For my part, I'm just happy that the Crimson has called me "Harvard's most successful dropout." I guess that makes me valedictorian of my own special class … I did the best of everyone who failed.

But I also want to be recognized as the guy who got Steve Ballmer to drop out of business school. I'm a bad influence. That's why I was invited to speak at your graduation. If I had spoken at your orientation, fewer of you might be here today. "

Weekend in Chennai

If any of my friends are thinking that this is one of those blogs where I do brag about the dates I had with my girl friends, Please do not read further. This is going to disappoint you hugely.

I had the chance to be in Chennai this weekend, not that I was going there for the first time. I have been to Chennai twice before, but the trips were very short one and were goal oriented. Hence this was, in a way my first Pleasure trip to Chennai.
Well, this time the city stuck a chord in my heart. It's really beautiful. Wide roads, managed traffic, the beach near by. And, moreover it is developing in quite a planned way. The residential and commercial areas are quite separated and have been planned accordingly.

The new bus stand is huge. A auto driver was telling me that it is the biggest bus terminal in India. I am not sure whether this is correct or not, but yeah it is huge. They could do better with the railway station though. It hasn't got the attention it deserves. It is too congested and it looked to be in poor shape. Can't comment on the Airport, didn't get to see it.

One of the sights that amazed me was the 'General Hospital'. I didn't get the chance to see it from inside, but from outside it's quite a feast to the eyes. On the first sight, it looks more of a 3 star Hotel, rather than a Hospital.

Food is quite cheap. Transport is almost equivalent to that of Bangalore, though if you don't know Tamil, the auto-wallahs are surely going to take you for a ride. The bus service is also quite organized, though a little bit too congested.
Another incident which I really loved, happened at Marina beach. I reached the beach as early as 9:30. It was almost deserted, except for the local shopkeepers. And behold, there was a scene which I couldn't believe. All the people present were cleaning the beach. Picking up spent up mineral water bottles, empty cigarette packs, poly bags....and what's more is, people who started coming in, also helped in this chore for 10-15 mins each.

Well, in a nut shell I fell in love with the city. The only problem I faced there was that I couldn't speak Tamil. But Luckily, I always found somebody who could speak English or understand Hindi.
I asked a Guard for the directions of a Theater, and the conversation was quite interesting:-

Me:     Excuse me, Shanti Theatre Ka rasta kahan se hai?
Guard: Huh!!!
Me:    (getting the point that he doesn't know Hindi)
         The Way to Shanti Theater...
Guard: Only English or Tamil....
Me:    (Dazed a little bit now...) Shanti Cinema Hall?
Guard: Don't know Hindi...
Me:    (Trying desperately Last time)
          Shanti multiplex..??
Guard: (With his toothless Grin) Go straight...

I know Chennai's weather is too hot and humid, but yesterday it was too good. Drizzle falling by, negligible humidity and very less of the Apollo. It was a fantastic trip. BTW I watched 'Fantastic 4' in chennai for a cool 50 bucks.

"Some can give you laughter & smiles, Many others can give you cries& tears, Only few can give you laughing tears & crying smiles,
Treasure them more than anything!"

P.S - Even though this isn't mine, I do take the risk of dedicating this entry of my Blog to a person who really means all this and the world to me.

The Journey of Beer

"Beer is living proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.- Benjamin Franklin"

I hope the old man was not drunk when he said this; I am what I am today because I believe in Benjamin Franklin.
Beer is the world's oldest and most popular alcoholic beverage.

Beer is produced by the fermentation of sugars derived from starch-based material. The most common being malted barley. However wheat, corn and rice are also widely used, usually in conjunction with the barley. Less widely used starch sources include cassava root in Africa, potato in Brazil, and agave in Mexico.

Water is the most prominent constituent of Beer. Water used to make beer nearly always comes from a local source. The mineral components of water are important to beer because minerals in the water influence the character of beer made from it. Different regions have water with different mineral components. As a result, different regions are better suited to making certain types of beer. For example, Dublin has hard water well-suited to making stout, such as Guinness. As a result, it is argued that the mineral components of water have an influence on the character of regional beers. So arguably, if you are drinking an Indian Brand of beer, you may be purifying yourself by the holy Ganges water. I just hope though, that you don't use the above argument to get a upper hand on your Mom or Wife.

Most of us, Beer Fanatics would have no idea of the long journey, the beer has made before flowing into your Mug. Producing beer is a tedious process and generally constitutes the following steps:-

Mashing manipulates the temperature of a mixture of water and a starch source (known as mash) in order to convert starches to fermentable sugars

Sparging (a.k.a. lautering) extracts the fermentable liquid, known as wort, from the mash. During sparging the mash is in a vessel known as a lauter-tun, which has a porous barrier through which wort can pass, but not grain. Wort flows past the porous barrier and is collected. Water is also passed to the lauter-tun to rinse fermentable liquid from the grain in the mash and also extracts the maximum fermentable liquid from the mash as possible. The leftover grain is not further used in making the beer.

Boiling sterilizes the wort and increases the concentration of sugar in the wort. The wort collected from sparging is put in a kettle and boiled, usually for about one hour. During boiling, water in the wort evaporates, but the sugars and other components of the wort remain; this allows more efficient use of the starch sources in the beer. Hops are added during boiling in order to extract bitterness, flavor and aroma from them.

Fermentation uses yeast to turn the sugars in wort to alcohol and carbon dioxide. During fermentation, the wort becomes beer. Once the boiled wort is cooled and in a fermenter, yeast is propagated in the wort and it is left to ferment, which requires, week to months, depending on the type of yeast and strength of the beer. In addition to producing alcohol, fine particulate matter suspended in the wort settles during fermentation. Once fermentation is complete, the yeast also settles, leaving the beer clear.

After fermentation the beer is transferred to a new vessel and allowed a period of secondary fermentation. Secondary fermentation is used when the beer requires long storage before packaging or greater clarity.

I hope this post helps you know your Beer in a better way, and realize the fact that it has covered a long way before settling in your mug. Next time, when you raise your mug to your lips, dont forget to give the long "Journey of the Beer", a thought. But, most of all, I hope you enjoy your Beer!!!

The World from the eyes of Forrest Gump...

Hi All,

My name is Gump, Forrest Gump. No, I am not trying to imitate the famous British agent “James bond, 007”. It's just that I feel proud of my name, because my Mama gave it to me, and I like the sound of it.

People say that I am mentally Weaker compared to them. They tell me that I am different from them. I really don't know whether there is any truth in the former part, but yeah, the latter part is true.

I am different from the rest of people. I hardly understand what drives people around me. I know its wrong to think like this, but I really hate, the way I have seen people being happy about other's miseries, the way people step back on their own words, the way people tell lies, in order to evade helping the needful ones is something which I couldn't understand. I don't understand my fellow beings articulately. No matter, how much I try to put myself in their shoes. I fail to think like them, after a certain point. I don't know whether I was born with an extra sense, or I do lack a particular one, which makes me like the way I am. May be it's because I was born with weak legs.

I really hate myself sometimes, thinking wrong about my fellow beings. I mean, all of them can't be so bad, as they seem. There is something which I just can't grasp. May be it's because of my Weak IQ, as my Principal used to tell my Mama.

Take the case of Mr. Brown and Mr. Spencer. They were childhood buddies. And when his friend was dying, Mr. Brown promised that he will look after Mrs. Spencer and his 10 year old daughter. But somehow, Mrs. Spencer looks like she still needs more help, and the 10 year old Rosy looks like she isn't getting enough to eat. May be, she is missing Mr. Spencer too much. Mr. Brown is doing good though. God must be paying him back for keeping his promise to his childhood buddy. But people speak so many bad things about him, I really can't understand why.

There are some things, which confuse me more than the rest of them. Like why was I was given a medal to save my buddies in Vietnam? I didn't save them, God saved them. I only carried them, ran a little and put them in shade, away from the flames of napalm bombs. Like why did Lieutenant Dan, feel bad when he didn't die? I know he lost his Legs, and I know he must be feeling pretty sad for loosing them, but at least he still has got the head and 2 arms properly in their place. Poor Bubba, lost his life, and I didn't get the bitterness in his voice, which I used to feel in Lt. Dan's voice.

But one thing, I must give credit to my fellow beings, they are very smart. The reason I say so...is because I believe in "Life is a box of Chocolates, and you never know what you are going to get". But this must be too simple for them. They talk about such important and abstract concepts like Honor, Goals, and self satisfaction.

I could never even grasp the meanings of all these terms. All my Mama taught me is to live honestly, never to break a Promise, and always to help my friends and fellow brothers. May be she forgot these terms, or may be she thought, I wasn't intelligent to understand these. But what confuses me all the more is Mama, never thought that I couldn't understand something.

The only person who could understand me was Jenny. And I miss her. I told Jenny once, "I may not be a Smart Man, but I know what Love is". I know it's silly to say so, But I still love her, I love her all the more, and I miss her. I don't know if we each have a destiny, or if we're all just floating around accidental-like on a breeze, but I, I think maybe it's both. Maybe both is happening at the same time. I miss you, Jenny. If there's anything you need, I won't be far away.

I hope, I will be born smart next time, so that I can understand my friends better. I am not greedy, I just want to know my friends better.

P.S - I have taken the liberty to copy some Dialogues from the Movie and have used them without changing. I hereby Declare that they are from the movie "Forrest Gump", Screen play by "Eric Roth", and Based on a novel by "Winston Groom".