i guess it was high time that i put in another entry. first of all happy new year to me and everyone else. it may be a bit late to say things like this but i had to say it once here. new year wasnt so smooth for me. i had to get past a lot of hitches to see my new year start in the right mood. lemme remember how i spent my new year......wine.....cigar. it was a good cigar. ann arbor has got a new smoky cigar place with a walk in humidor and stuff. so when varun came here in the last week of 2005 i decided to check out some cigars. i did a theory search on cigars the previous day........u know.......the usual stuff-how to light it and how to smoke it kinda thing and went ahead and did the practical. i guess thats how life goes on-learn theory aka google it and then go out and try it for urself.

lots of other things happening-seems like i will be going to france for my iarc study. and the things i have to do for the visa-thankfully its not as painful as the u.s. visa when i had to dig out documents that went upto 2 generations before me. it feels nice finally to be able to do things that i had always wanted to do....think about new stuff,design studies and find out what has never been found out before. i would be really happy if i would find out something totally new-that would be AWESOME!!

things are moving at a fast pace and seems that this the pace i would have to get used to. one things ends or hardly ends and the other thing starts-unending cycles and chains and bonds. and how much ever i earn seems to be less compared to all things i might need for myself. well modern capitalistic markets are supposed to work this way. if i get satisfied i guess i would become an anomaly.

by the way, i have started teaching and its kinda fun to know from backstage all the things which teachers did to get things into students all my life. now i am in the thick of things and know all the mind games people play to get and keep the attention of the students. either way, i feel that teaching is fun and being a good teacher sure is a skill on which one must work just as on a lot of the other things.

right now i am trying to download some international lounge music but the fact is that i havent heard some kinda music for a long time which i would just feel like going out and buying. i feel life was much better in india in terms of music because i could listen to all sortsa music and i could also get them in formats i love. but here there are only costly cds and limited choice unfortunately. i love those times music things although i guess i can get them online. i am going to do that soon. by the way that reminds me that i also havent known of any book which would blow my mind for a long time.

the previous one that i read was maximum city and it was pretty good. but books apart right now i am addicted to movies. i got this huge sony wega tv from best buy for new year and with my netflix membership i have an unending river of movies coming home to me everyday. some of the movies have been really amazing. actually some of the foreign movies have been out of the world.

other than that i have been exploring ann arbor and surrounding areas. the previous weekend i went to the detroit institute of arts to have a look at the sculpture show of two famous french sculptors-claudel and rodin-the ones which i really loved were the waltz, thinker ofcourse, sakuntala(that just blew my mind), abandon, maturity, implorer......whenever i would get a chance to get replicas of these i would not waste anytime in getting them. that apart i also have a few concerts lined up this semester including an arabian music festival and odisi dance performance. i am slowly realizing my penchant for arabian music, latino music and chants. i also got introduced to krishna das-wow! lovely bhajans.

by the way, the idiots guide to hinduism is a pretty good one. i will get a copy soon. even a hardcore hindu can learn a few things from there. i saw rog today....hindi movies are getting better. apaharan was also good. lets see what bluffmaster gets us! so those were the highlights. more later.