tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-315404562024-02-20T11:24:05.628-08:00Beneath The Starry Skies...AVNhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09753951574652757813noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31540456.post-9702482767953475222008-06-20T17:03:00.000-07:002008-06-20T17:16:15.511-07:00Seven MonthsNovember 18th 2007 - It's now more than 7 months since that date. The 18th of June marked the end of my seventh month in foreign land, 7 months in Ipswich. Homesickness is slowly but surely creeping upon me. Especially since I have never been away from home this long. But it hasn't been tough at all.<br /><br />With time I have started to fall in love with this town. The small yet peaceful town,that is Ipswich. The narrow roads,the double decker buses, the town center, cineworld cinemas, ipswich town football club stadium and the surrounding alderman park...I love it all..AVNhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09753951574652757813noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31540456.post-3353385580970933742008-02-11T12:33:00.000-08:002008-02-11T12:52:31.474-08:00IYou and I have fallen apart<br />You have moved on,but I have stayed put<br />But your happiness keeps me happy<br />You may not remember me anymore<br />Yet you still live in my heart<br /><br />I am still mad about you.AVNhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09753951574652757813noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31540456.post-22307295037748926972008-01-30T16:09:00.000-08:002008-02-03T13:00:59.114-08:00YouI look at your picture so many times that I feel I know you<br />I think about you all the time that I feel you are with me<br />I see you all the while in my dreams that I feel you are made for me<br />I know so much about your past that I feel I was there with you since long<br /><br />I am mad about you.AVNhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09753951574652757813noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31540456.post-19794999718896783582008-01-17T10:14:00.000-08:002008-01-17T10:37:56.564-08:00Wishful ThinkingI wish I could<br />go back in time, for you<br />I wish I could<br />set it all right, for you<br /><br />To set right your mistakes<br />and erase the scars<br />To fulfil your desires<br />and reach for the stars<br /><br />To wipe off your tear<br />To drive off your fear<br />And for you to be with the prince<br />You held so dear<br /><br />If I had a chance<br />I would give my all<br />To have you live<br />The life of your dreamsAVNhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09753951574652757813noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31540456.post-36888276424028977372008-01-15T12:22:00.000-08:002008-01-15T12:48:03.941-08:00Ipswich Diary-1Ipswich is a small and peaceful town in the south east of England and home to Ipswich Town FC.Excuse me, but I have this habit of associating the places in Europe with the football club associated with them. But I will save football for another blog.<br />This friday, the 18th will mark my two months here in Ipswich.And already there have been some wonderful moments to take back home when my onsite assignment gets over. I have found several new friends here and have loved the time I have spent with them.<br />The most funny moment will definitely be the one when I went to HSBC to open my bank account.<br />The lady at the desk was trying to make conversation to fill up the silence while she did the necessary paper work. It went like this-<br />She: "Which part of India are you from?"<br />Me:"It is a place called Trivandrum towards the southern part of India"<br />She:"Is it as big a place as Ipswich?"<br />I almost burst out laughing.She was asking about a city 4 times the size of ipswich and 6 times as populous as it.I somehow controlled my laughter and replied "Trivandrum is a bigger city than Ipswich". Well,she didn't enquire anything more about my place and continued with her work.<br />May be she wouldn't have believed me since the people from the west still sees India as a place of bhookha nanga people,just as the various channels like Discovery and NGC portray.<br />It reminds me of the scene from Munnabhai MBBS: the chinese guy asking Circuit about where he can find "poor,hungry Indians".AVNhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09753951574652757813noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31540456.post-16149092209372157792008-01-08T16:50:00.000-08:002008-01-08T16:55:41.564-08:00RandomThe clock on my desktop reads 12.48am.<br />As I move my mouse over the clock it reads Wednesday,January 9,2008.<br />So what's special?<br />The answer: Nothing :)<br />It's not like I am staying up late to write a blog.But somehow I am. Confusing? Well,even I am confused.I just want to post something I guess,especially after weeks of inactivity.Not that anyone is going to read this over here,but still somehow feel like blogging something...just key in a few words...<br />I am not having the access to my office blog for sometime now.I guess there would be more people reading if I post something there...<br />Anyone out there??????AVNhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09753951574652757813noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31540456.post-21375983845506695062007-08-02T07:38:00.000-07:002007-08-02T07:46:11.378-07:00The Catastrophic ApostropheFirst things first. I do not pretend to be an English expert, nor do I proclaim myself as a great exponent of English grammar. In fact, you will be able to find several grammatical errors in this blog itself. But that is not the point.<br /><p class="MsoNormal">Now that I have got the disclaimer out of my way, let me come to the point. The topic is as the title suggests – the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apostrophe">apostrophe</a>. I believe it must be the most misused punctuation in English language. I am tired of seeing it misused in official mails, personal mails discussion forums, blogs, TV channels and just about everywhere. Hence, I have decided to raise, well…not a tirade but at least a small voice of discontent about the same via my blog.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p>The usage of apostrophe that bugs me the most is when it is used for forming plurals. For example, I have increasingly seen people make use of <i style="">boy’s </i>in place of <i style="">boys</i>; ignorant of the fact that both give entirely different meanings. </p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p>Another confusion is one that arises with the usage of <i style="">it’s</i> and <i style="">its</i>. People seem to ignore the fact that <i style="">it’s</i> is used to denote <i style="">it is </i>and <i style="">its</i> is used to denote possession.<i style=""> </i>The proper usage is well documented <a href="http://www.cgl.uwaterloo.ca/%7Ecsk/its.html">here</a>. </p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p>I will just point to one more maddening usage of the apostrophe. This is when using <i style="">your</i> instead of <i style="">you’re</i>. I fail to understand how sentences like <i style="">“Your the only one”</i> are supposed to convey the meaning they are intended to.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p>It really looks like an aggressive awareness campaign is to be conducted to save poor old apostrophe. While I was browsing the web about the inappropriate usage of apostrophe, I was pleasantly surprised to see the website of the <a href="http://www.apostrophe.fsnet.co.uk/">Apostrophe Protection Society</a>. It also provides some <a href="http://www.apostrophe.fsnet.co.uk/examples.htm">examples</a> of misuse of the punctuation mark in real life.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p>Friends,</o:p> let's all strive to avoid the misuse of the apostrophe.</p>AVNhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09753951574652757813noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31540456.post-77317924231058575862007-07-31T08:38:00.000-07:002007-07-31T09:41:52.688-07:00My pen pal<p class="MsoNormal">I was in my 6th standard when I got my first pen pal.<br />It was some sort of initiative by an international organization to promote interaction by children from various countries.I do not remember the specifics of it.At that time,computer and internet wasn't as popular as it is now and hence the mode of communication that was to bring about this interaction was by mail, or now as it is called, the snail mail.My school supported this initiative and we were all given forms to fill up.The idea was to fill up these forms and send it to the organization,which will in turn give our addresses to other children around the world.They would be sending us mails,thus facilitating interaction.<br />Now the only reason I decided to submit a form was that my friends were all submitting them.Being the ultimate lazy bone, I never had any intention of replying to any mail that I was going to receive as part of this program. So there I was,filling up the forms,which basically was about my hobbies,interests etc etc.After a month or so, many of my friends received mails from their penpals: kids from italy,germany etc. I thought,well,looks like they didn't find a pen pal for me.But after another month,when I got back home after school,there it was, a mail from my pen pal. It had the Italia stamp on it.I tore open the letter and started reading. It was a short letter from a person named Giuseppe. I do not remember the contents properly now.The only thing I do remember is that I immediately took a paper and started writing a reply.I even forced my father to take me to a studio to take my passport sized photograph to attach with my letter.This was indeed strange behaviour from me.I seldom showed this much enthusiasm for anything.My parents were amazed and confused at the same time. I send the letter the very next day itself,complete with my smiling passport size photograph.<br />It was now the time for the half yearly exams and the letter from <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Italy</st1:place></st1:country-region> was forgotten for the time being.<br />But after a few days,I got restless as there was no reply to my letter.As every child does in hours of desperation,I went to my mom for comfort.<br />"Amma, why isn't she sending a reply to my letter?"<br />Amma replied "Who?"<br />"My pen pal.Who else?"<br />"Your pen pal? Is it a she?I thought it was a boy"<br />I was speechless for a moment.I had never really thought about this possibility.The possibility that Giuseppe was a boy.All the excitement towards the whole pen pal situation was basically caused by a simple reason: I thought my pen pal to be a girl. I was so excited that I never gave it a thought that it could be a guy.<br />After a few seconds,I cautiously asked my mom "Amma,Giuseppe is the name for a girl, right?<br />My mom had somehow pieced the whole thing together and was on the verge of bursting out laughing.She said "Well,it could be.But I am not so sure". And she left it at that.<br />I was feeling really embarrassed at this point of time.All my fantasies about beautiful Italian girls vanished from my mind.I didn't take up the matter again and my mom also left it at that.<br />Now, about the reply from my pen pal...well, it never came.<br />Apparently Giuseppe also thought Anoop was a girl from <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">India</st1:place></st1:country-region> and was shocked to find the pic of a chubby faced boy in reply to his letter.<br />So as I said in the beginning,he was my first pen pal...and my last.</p>AVNhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09753951574652757813noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31540456.post-66465072685222145312007-07-31T08:13:00.000-07:002007-07-31T08:26:30.161-07:00Beneath the starry skies...Beneath the starry skies, I lie<br />As all around, time fly<br />Feels like I am frozen in time<br />Indeed there is no respite<br />From the phenomenon that we call life<br /><br />With these meaningless verses I start a brand new innings in blogosphere.AVNhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09753951574652757813noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31540456.post-1153667681496937872006-07-23T08:09:00.000-07:002006-07-23T08:22:30.150-07:00Taking Guard...And then there was blog...<br /><br />So it begins....My entry into the world of blogs.Had a little taste of blogging sometime back at my office blogs,but since then i haven't been able to keep up the start and carry on to some serious blogging.....I hope to be a regular blogger from now on..let's see how it's gonna shape up.......AVNhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09753951574652757813noreply@blogger.com2