Off to school

Maya started kindergarten yesterday. She had been pleasantly obliviously to the whole hoopla that is kindergarten preparation till I bought the whole list of books from the library about kindergarten, "first day jitters". Even then the first day went pretty smoothly. She ran and gave her teacher a huge hug. Anjali this year has the best teacher in the whole world as her preschool teacher and the year is off to a good start:-).

End of an era

Exactly this time, next week, I will be handing in my doctoral thesis and with that, my student identity over to the university. It ends a 10-year tertiary education era for me. I remember, I always wanted to be an academic, at some level, inspired by my father. But it became definite in my first semester of undergraduation when we had the pleasure of being taught by Prof. Banerjee, who is way better than ANY other lecturer I have ever come across. Infact, I don't think it can get any better than that. Of course, I can't imagine coming close to his level of academic excellence.

Here's a picture I took with him and Madam during the last trip to India. (From L to R - mom, madam, me and sir)

bad guys cooler than good guys lately

It appears that in recent years of Hollywood blockbusters, the bad guys have been way cooler than the good guys; while the hero requires a whole network of people and devices supporting him, the villain seems to be a self-sufficient guy...or girl.
The best instances of this are in Agent Smith from Matrix, who was much smarter than Neo (of course, except at the end), Silver Surfer from Fantastic four (unfortunately he goes over to the 'bright' side :D), Green Goblin against the super-lame Spiderman, and the best of all - the Joker!!! Batman was just a whiny wuss in the movie dominated by the Joker. Who could forget his "Why so serious", "It's NOT about the money" and "Look, I'll make this pencil disappear ...... ta-da!!"


Go the Joker and the gang!