Right across from the Prudential tower in Boylston street now stands a glass building which is now the Beantown's new claim to fame. Around 1000 crazy fans stood in line for more than 6 hours to become the first to enter the new Apple store in Boston - claimed to be the biggest in US.

Earth Hour:  is an international event that asks households and businesses to turn off their lights and non-essential electrical appliances for one hour on the evening of 29 March at 8 pm local time until 9 pm to promote electricity conservation and thus lower carbon emissions. [wikipedia].

Yes, the Indian Premier League was out there auctioning cricketers (selling them ... actually) to teams named Chennai, Mumbai, Delhi, Mohali, Calcutta, Hyderabad, Jaipur etc..etc. One thing is sure - the international players would soon get to know the geography of India; whether they do end up playing well and live up to their reputation, ... err ... their "price tag", needs to be seen.

On the one hand players are getting a chance to get to know their worth in the international market, but on the other it doesn't stop one from wondering whether the $$ they are getting are justified? Is it the talent that was being auctioned at Hilton, Mumbai or was it the integrity of International cricket that was being sold.

MS Dhoni ended up earning $ 1.5 mn/yr and Andrew Symonds - $ 1.3 mn. Now come to think of the effort they have to put up - 6 weeks of 20-20 matches in a year - the price tag seems to be way too high isn't it? Of course there are contracts and bindings but who would have imagined that one day these guys would get an opportunity to break the shackles of domestic cricket, county cricket and come up this way on a new 20-20 format that was non existent a 2-3 years back.

Is this the end of Cricket as many of us are calling it ? Or is for the better? Will have to wait and watch as time progresses but one thing is sure - IPL has caught a lot of attention both domestic and international. And what on earth happened to ICL? Remember this was their idea but the BCCI owned IPL muscled them outta the race? May ICL's soul rest in peace.

The 26th day of the year does mean something for folks who hail from India; the country celebrates its Republic day. Many things come to my mind when I think about how things used to be this very day some 10-15 years ago, celebrations if you may call it.

Schooldays was fun - we never thought of it as just another off (chutti) day, rather there was an eagerness to get up early and participate in the activities organized at the school. Feeling proud looking at the fluttering flag, hoisted way up in the sky and a bright sun rising in the east, shining in the sky was how the day used to start. The chill in the January air just gave it a special feeling making the walk to the school a special one.

Now, the parade that's organized at the capital is something special too. The parade that troops down from Raisina Hill to Rajpath every 26th Jan is simply amazing and now matter how cold it is at the capital, you would see scores and scores of people gathered to watch the spectacular display of our military pageantry and the state tableaux.

The very meaning of this day, I'm afraid though, has been put to test quite a lot of times over a period of these 58 years. What used to be a celebration, an occasion to pay homage to the often forgotten martyrs, is being looked by many as just another day in the year to catch up on some ZZZs or party the night before to make use of another off day :). Little do they know that the world has changed their perception of the country, the world is taking notice of India and all this - while they were asleep.

Not only have we taken the bull by its horns, we are trying to change the fear many have when it comes to facing the bull itself. But there's lots to be accomplished, lots to be thought about for the present and for the future generations. A world class infrastructure, consistent growth in the tough times that we could face in the future are a few things to be kept in mind as we open up the gates to enthusiastic onlookers who consider the Republic as the next place to invest and to expand.

May this symbol of national integration stay alive in the years to come and may the 'Unity in diversity' that we boast about - live up to its expectation.

2:30pm PST: We started on a database upgrade and a few alters to the database structure last night. Given our scale, work like this takes a long time, and makes a definite impact on site performance.We’re anticipating a couple of hours is all we need at this point, so, we’re hoping to be back online around 4:30 PST.

If you're a regular South Park viewer, you'd remember this phrase. This is how Stan Marsh learns (or tries to learn) Skiing while they were on a so called vacation at 'Asspen'. So this Christmas weekend we decided to try it out; try out how many pizzas and how many French fries we could have in a day.

First time for me and I'd say that its a must experience and a must learn if you haven't already. Now, I know its not that easy or it may be pretty difficult to motivate yourself (it took me ~5 years, but then it was not just the lack of motivation) but must say that it was real real fun.

Who needs lessons when you got almost the whole slope for yourselves. Being a cloudy day (rains predicted towards noon) there was hardly anyone out there. After renting the heavy/bulky boots and Skis huffed and puffed I dragged myself to the lift, falling down couple of times in the process. Falling down was one thing but getting up was simply impossible. I lay there for a whole 2 minutes or so trying to get myself up and even though a voice inside me said 'Get up dude' and 'Yes you can do it' .. I simply couldn't get up !!

Reached the lifts and made up my mind to take a crack at it - Downhill skiing. Took the lift to the top of the beginners mound and the same saga repeated while getting down from the freaking lift. Couldn't stop myself, didn't read the signs put up at the point of descent and paid the price. Result - another 2-3 minutes pf 'trying to get up' .

First time going down the slope was fun. I had no freaking idea as to what to do and how to do. All I knew about Skiing was 'Pizzas and French fries' and needless to say that its not enough to know your Pizzas and French fries. Came down the slope with the wind blowing on my face and my past my ears and it felt amazing !! Its probably the closest one can get to a natural way of going down the hill (by natural I mean one that doesn't include any machines).

Stopping/Trying to stop at the bottom of the hill is something that's an interesting and an important part of the whole act of Skiing. I couldn't do it the first time - but then thats how you learn ;-). A second trip to the peak, the descent was smooth. Managed to complete the act without tasting the snow even once. Oh boy - You should have seen the smile on my face as I slowed down and zoop - a perfect stop.

In the next 3-4 hours managed to do some 10-15 trips and enjoying it every single time. Had to cut short the day as it had started raining. Realized that although skiing wouldn't have been an issue, drive back to the Cabin would have been troublesome with all the snow turning into ice on the roads.

All in all the stay at the Cabin and the Skiing was amazing and I'd really want to do that again. This winter ? Maybe yes but if not - definitely in the next one. And if you're wondering where is this place, its a small town called Windsor in VT and the slopes are known as Ascutney Mountains.

Hope you all had a Merry Xmas !!

Talk about transformations and you don't have to look any further than the Asian subcontinent; and one of the major contributors - India. Couple of years here and there and you would miss so much that you would feel nothing but embarrassed in front of "The Common Man". Yes I'm talking about the common man as portrayed by R.K Laxman; and the common man knows a lot ... lot more than one can possibly think of.

Trip back to India now a days (business/pleasure) comes as a surprise for many. The very outlook of cities change in a matter of days, forget months or years. The rate, for example, at which the shopping malls are propping up in cities is ridiculous and one starts to get a feeling that - are we in line with something like happened in the west? The way one used to spend $$ in relation to the $$ earned has changed drastically. More and more money flowing in to the market has only caused prices of commodities, real estate to skyrocket and make the common man's wallet thinner and thinner.

Sticking to 'shopping malls' read somewhere the other day that the country would see ~600 of them in the coming 2 years span. Thats an amazing rate of ~1 per day in a country that is yet to accept the rate of change that it has been seeing in the past 7 years !! Now, I'm stressing on these outlets 'cause they are nothing but hangout places for college kids and the young generation, I've seen the older generation getting lost out there and trying to accept these changes as a norm of the 21st century.

On a recent trip, learned a lot as in the way things are and the way one can expect things to unfold. Money is being poured into the stock market and every Tom, Dick and Harry now owns few thousand Rs. worth of a stock or the other. Was amazed by the interest and the knowledge that the 'common man' shows now-a-days, quite literally I was embarrassed. Cell phone revolution, SMS, Explosion of TV channels, $ being poured by investors, BPOs are all changing the face of the nation.

Slow and steady, cities are getting destroyed though. One can actually see the effect with an increase in vehicles on the roads, infrastructure development not catching up with the development, daily commuting hours rising higher and higher and what not. I also had been to God's own land for a few days and realized that in a few years it may not live up to its name!! This is something strange and something that I had not seen in the past. Things like these used to take some time to trickle down to Kerala but not anymore.

Oh well, that's probably the new face of India, changing India, Incredible India. Hope we all are prepared to accept the new face :)

Signed: Rajesh

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Name: Rajesh Warrier

Location: Boston, MA, United States

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