Tonight was great. Some family friends came over and they have a little 5 year old daughter. I've only met this girl a few times but each time I meet her, we play and play and play and I love being around her. She is so cute and really smart. Tonight while we were playing with legos, she said to me "I'm really glad i came to meeted you today" and then she said "I really really missed you so much". When she said that, it made me feel so good cause I was thinking the same thing about her. Playing with a little kid is a lot of fun. They like to hear "funny stories", they like to see magic and they love using their imaginations. It was so great seeing her and playing with her. My fish even has a name now. After feeding her, she named the fish Goldie. That girl is awesome and I can't wait to see her again. She gave me a big hug when her and her parents left and invited me over to her house to play soon.

A lot has happened since I last updated ya'll on my life. The big thing was that I decided to backup everything, format my entire computer and then start again with a new O/S. So - onn Wednesday afternoon, I went to Ashvin's house to get started. After backing up what I thought would be important, we typed that fun phrase "format c:" and then watched the magic. Next was installing Win2K and once that was good to go, it was on to software like Office XP, Photoshop, Flash, etc. Then - I took my machine upstairs to his room and connected to the Net through his cable connection to download and install the Windows Service Packs and get other software from the Web (coming home and using my dial up connection would have been silly). The next morning, I turned on my machine only to discover that the DVD player wasn't working, CD's weren't playing, I had no sound and I couldn't get my modem to work to get me online. I called a few souls and eventually found Tai who told me to bring my CPU over to his house for some much needed assistance. After downloading the proper drivers from HP (Thanks a huge bunch Kevin), I was good to go again and then it was just getting random software off of Tai and making sure sound was working. All good right? Wrong. I got home and yesterday evening, I went to get online and again it wasn't working and then, my sounds weren't working either. I could play DVD's and MP3's but couldn't listen to them. Frustrated, I went to bed. This morning, Ashvin came over and I don't know what he did - but all was working fine when he left. There was a crazy storm so I turned off my machine. And when I returned after the movies, I turned it back on only to find out that sound isn't working again (but at least the modem is)

HELP!!!!!!!!!! is all I can scream. This is getting frustrating.

Earlier, in the week - I played a nice round of golf. I hit three 250+ yard drives so that was sweet. But alas...can't put the complete game together. I had the long game going but the short game was hurting.

On Monday night, I went to play pool with Ketan and Candance. It was an absolute debacle. I can't believe how bad i sucked. I LOST 7 STRAIGHT GAMES!!! man, that was really really really horrible. i scratched on the 8-ball 5 times. the funniest thing happened afterwards though. we were driving home (going eastbound on Finch towards Midland). we were stopped at the red light and this tonka truck yellow jeep beside us starting reving his engine cause he wanted to race. we just looked at him. but then, his car stalled just as the light turned green. that was some funny ish! we just took off without a problem.

On Tuesday, it was tough to see Keon go. The Raptors were in a very tough situation with this new salary cap. I saw Road to PErdition on Tuesday night.

It is raining like a mofo out there right now. I was at the Scarborough Bluffs with Winnie tonight for a bit of rollarblading. Afterwards, we went to the bar by the water and were sitting enjoying some drinks when it slowly started to rain. Actually, for about 20 minutes before the rain came, there was just a beautiful lightning storm. Then, it started to rain a little. Then, the power everywhere south of St. Clair went out and it got really cool cause it was so dark and all you could hear was the tremendous rain and all you could see was the periodic flashes of lightning. During the drive home it was raining even harder and I got pretty drenched on the run from my car to the front door (and of course, I had to fumble with my key as I was trying to open the door).

This weekend was great. I went with Ketan to Ottawa to visit Tanuja. The weather was great and Ottawa was totally chilled out so that was great. We got to Ottawa on Friday night pretty late and chilled out for a bit before going to play pool. Upon return, we partook in some extracurricular activities and ate a lot of Deep and Delicious Chocolate Cake - IT WAS SOOOO GGGOOOOOODDD!!! Saturday - woke up pretty late and had the WORST lunch at Meditheo in the Market. DO NOT EAT THERE!!! I REPEAT, DO NOT EAT THERE. The service was absolutely horrible and it took over two hours for the entire ordeal. Alls I's gots to say is "Lunch should not take over two hours!" After that debacle, we walked around the market, went to the Parliament buildings, Sat by the Ottawa river throwing all kinds of rocks into the water for all kinds of games. Played MASH (remember that game???) on a patio afterwards with some really spicy Caesars. In the evening, we chilled at Tanuja's and had cornbread, pate, some wicked cheeses and grapes - a very grown up meal! Chilled for a bit longer with a lot of wine and more party treats. Teja and Geeta joined us and then we all went out for a pub for some drinks before calling it an evening. Came back to the Tdot with Kdot today.

Last Thursday (the 18th), I met my mentor, Larry. He seems like a fantastic guy and I am really looking forward to working with him. It is going to be a very demanding job - especially technically, but I am up for the challenge for sure. After that, I went to my old place of employment, Bell ExpressVu and met with most of the Marketing team at their new location. It was great to see them all. Everyone was excited about my trip and my upcoming job. I was excited to find out how business was going and thought it was very interesting to find that the department I was a part of is the one that is not performing very well as we speak. On Friday, I went to see the PPV gang and ExpressVu and it was great to hang out with them as well and show them my photos. All in all, my two days visiting ExpressVu were awesome and made me realize how much I actually miss that place.

test

Insomnia.

Nope, I am not suffering from that these days although I think that I may have had a mild case of it a few weeks ago (perhaps that was just jetlag coupled with staying up to watch world cup soccer though). In fact, that is the title of the movie I watched this evening with JLo. We saw Insomnia staring Al Pacino, Hilary Swank (I like that last name) and Robin Williams. The movie was good but at times, it was a little farfetched. Not to say that it was way out there but there were just a bunch of little things that didn't totally make sense (i.e., why did ____ just do that? or why didn't ________ admit that?). Anyway, overall - a pretty good movie. Three thumbs up from this critic.

Still on my list this summer are minority reports, road to perdition, star wars, spiderman, about a boy and goldmember (soon to open).

Tomorrow morning is golfing with my uncle. Should be good and I am looking forward to lighting up the course. On the weekend, I played in Hamilton with Vas, Jay and his father-in-law. I played pretty well - it was my first 18 of the year and I ended up shooting a 108. But, I did have an over 300 yard drive so that was pretty damn sweet!

This past weekend, I saw Karsh Kale perform at the Harbourfront Centre. The concert was fantastic and you all gotta listen to some Indian Fusion. Check out his site, Talvin Singh's site and stuff about Tabla Beat Science. All very very good music to dance and also to chill to. The highlight of the night though occured back stage after the show. Me and some of my marathi buddies had gone back to meet Karsh (cause he is Marathi and our paraents know his parents). Anyway, my buddy Nikhil a.k.a Jugular just started beat boxing on his own (He is a professional). This other guy came up and joined him. For the next 45 minutes, the two of them were beat boxing, freestyling and ripping off wicked lyrics to all sorts of different beats like jungle, soca, reggae and hip hop. What an awesome performance. By the way, for anyone interested - Jugular is performing on August 16th at Mendi, Masti, Masala at Harbourfront Centre.

Yesterday, I had a conference call regarding orientation in three weeks. MAN, I AM STARTING WORK IN LESS THAN THREE WEEKS!!!! Holy, I can't believe that "the rest of my life is starting so soon".

it's july 12, 2002. i got home on june 12th, 2002. can you believe that i have been home for a WHOLE month already? man, where did the time go? and now, i've only got 3 weeks until work starts...and then oh boy.

My dad and I finished sanding the deck yesterday and stained it today. To be honest, it doesn't look as good as I expected, given all the work that we put into it but let me wait to pass judgement until I see it again tomrrow cause the, the stain will be all dried and it might look a lot better. I'll keep you posted.

Before I move on, happy birthday to Rachel and karen. Hope you lovely ladies had/are having excellent days.

I am sitting here at 3:56 in the morning. I got home from Niagara Falls about 2.5 hours ago and I tried to go to sleep but I just couldn't fall asleep at all so I've been surfing the web for the last bit. Decided to update my blog as well cause I've got all these random thoughts running through my head. I am happy with my life today. Although, there are things that I would like to definitely change. I am back onto that whole "body/health" kick and I've gotta get on that joggin bandwagon again cause I've been falling off as of late. Also, my appetite has seemed to return after I thought that I had lost it after the trip. I've gotta stop snacking. I guess more than anyhting though, it just comes down to self esteem and self confidence. In Asia, I was brimming with it cause I felt I was invinceable, traveling all by myself on the other side of the world. Back here though, I don't feel like I have that same uniqueness and at times, I feel like just another face in the crowd. I am not worried though...

Big News. I am car shopping with my mom. We are looking at Civics and Corollas - pretty standard but really, they are the two most popular cars on the road at present with good reason. Gonna do some test driving next week so that will be a treat.

Check out these battling rhymes...

it's 3:33 am and i just got back from the bar with my brother, raj and my cousin, ratheen. i must say that tonight started out as a debacle but ended up pretty good. we left the house around 20 after 9 and got to the leftbank by about 9:50. we parked and walked over to the club only to find out that it was closed!!! i was very pissed off and quite embarrassed actually. here i was having just sent out a shitload of invites to this "party at the leftbank on thursday july 4" but here i was standing in front of the leftbank with no party. very very aggravating. i'm still not sure why they were closed but i am not impressed at all. their website says that thursday night is martini night but there was nothing going on...not even like it was a private party or anything cause all the lights were out. i waited for almost an hour and felt really bad the entire time. the thing was though that most people didn't get back to me saying if they were coming or not so i didn't know how many to expect. we ended up writing a note and taping it to the door of the leftbank cause we found another bar called element just down the street. hung out there for a bit and a couple of raj's friends showed up after seeing the note and an old friend of mine, nanda, showed up as well so that was great. stayed at element for a bit and boozed and chatted. then, raj, ratheen and i went to the molson indy part on john. st., 309 on king street and indian motorcycle club. it was good times and we just enjoyed the rest of the night (after i got over my embarrasment and the constant ridicule i was taking).

sorry to anyone that showed up and didn't find us or the note. i am truely sorry but don't have any idea why it was closed.

the rest of the day was okay. i went to the airport twice to pick up my cousin first and then, 3 hours later, my brother.

i've been running for the past two days so that is good.
tomorrow - finish the scrapbook and nitin/manju's wedding at night should be great - can't wait.

good night

Just got back from an excellent long weekend. Actually, I guess these days...for me there are no long weekends but in any case, it was an excellent weekend. Before I go on...

Happy Birthday Canada and Happy Birthday Dad.

Montreal is a fantastic city. I really like the vibe there and definitely think that I could live there for some time. I would love to work there and stay there for an extended period of time. The people were all nice and good looking, the city itself has some cool neighbourhoods, style and architecture. Cool shopping indeed and of course...food was excellent. We had Montreal Smoked Meat twice - very yummy (I didn't try the "Beaucoup de fat" though"). The trip posse consisted of Tai, Linda, Su-Lin, Ketan, Tchao, Miranda and me. The drive up to Montreal on Saturday was really fun. Tai, Ketan, Tchao and I got talking about Transformers and then for approximately 2 hours, the conversation didn't stop and we ended up speaking about Transformers, The Baseball Card Conspiracy and Old Skool WWF. It was hilarious...we all were just so into it and I'm pretty sure that neither Linda or Su-Lin said anything. When we arrived in Montreal, we got ready and went straight for dinner and then to the Jazz festival. The Jazz festival was huge but I didn't see any of the wicked jazz that I was expecting. We should have probably tried to go to a smaller more intimate venue or club to see the good performances. After the jazz fest, Su-Lin, Tchao, Ketan and I went to an alternative club and got into this huge discussion about the merits of Capitalism vs. Annarchism. It was quite an intense debate.

The next morning (Sunday), we watched Brazil defeat Germany. I was upset to see Brazil win but I am glad that Rivaldo didn't score any goals. I have found my favourite football player though. Ronaldino is his name and he is classic. Just take a look at that smile and tell me that he doesn't look like a fun guy to be around. And, he is a good baller! After the game, we saw so many Brazilian fans shouting and honking their horns in the streets and waving their flags. It was nice for a little while but after about 5 or 6 hours, it was getting tiring and the worst part was definitely seeing all the wannabee fans trying to look cool with their flags. That afternoon, we went shopping, went to the casino and had some beers. At night, we went to a Mexican restaurant and afterwards, we were all bloated so we ixnayed the club and ended up walking around the Old Port (Old Montreal). It was so nice and crowded there. We raced and did tricks in Quadricycles so that was a lot of fun.

Today, we got up pretty sluggishly and ended up in Ottawa by about 1:30. It was cool to be in Ottawa for Canada Day but it was SO hot. It totally reminded me of India or Thailand. All in all though, the vibe was nice and there were so many beautiful ladies everywhere (just like in Montreal). We missed a Maestro performance but we did leave at a decent time and got back no problem.

I am pretty tired now so I'll tell you more stories later.
Good night.