~~Pic for the day~~

Seals relaxing at La Jolla beach in San Diego

~~San Diego Kili~~

Refer this link in Sundu's blog

~~Great Escape~~

I came to San Diego for christmas vacation and what a great time to be here! On Saturday morning I checked the weather news and there was a Blizzard(snow storm) predicted in NYC and as predicted it poured sacks of snow all over the city.






With flights,buses and train services cancelled most of the people are struck in the city. The timing was perfect as I had a great escape by two days.



I can says its a great sight to see the pictures from sunny San Diego :)

~~Dinner at Japanese Restaurant~~

It feels great when we were done with the exams! So yesterday night right after the exam was over we went to karoke danced and sang till we got tired and I came back home around four in the night.


Today one of our classmates arranged for dinner at Japanese restaurant. The restaurant was in downtown and when I reached there it was almost 8.It was a typical Japanese restaurant where had to take our shoe out before entering into the restaurant. We started with the appitizer and then went on BBQ which we had to do it ourselves.I tried making tofus,onions,cabbage corn and potato. I also had a rice mixed with a spicy sauce which was amazing. Finally we exchanged gifts for Christmas by a funny game called white elephant.



Will write a separate post about the gift I got later!

~~Lunch with friend~~

Last few months were really busy that I had little time to catch with people in city.When Prabu on of school mates called me ,I said him to come over to college to meet me.So poor guy came all the from his place to meet me.

With lots of cuisines and road side shops around my college I asked him where he want to eat.Confused by options he said something like Indian. So I took him to the Eritrean restaurant just next to our building.I used to go this place when ever I have an urge to eat dosai, being a first timer he really enjoyed the lunch.

All said and done just one more exam to go and I m counting down :)

~~Lunch with friend~~

Last few months were really busy that I had little time to catch with people in city.When Prabu on of school mates called me ,I said him to come over to college to meet me.So poor guy came all the from his place to meet me.

With lots of cuisines and road side shops around my college I asked him where he want to eat.Confused by options he said something like Indian. So I took him to the Eritrean restaurant just next to our building.I used to go this place when ever I have an urge to eat dosai, being a first timer he really enjoyed the lunch.

All said and done just one more exam to go and I m counting down :)

~~Joke~~

Got this from one of my friends facebook status, seems to be situation song :)

(Vaaranam Aiyiram Surya style)

Hay sir im krishnan....

Nan ida solliye aganum....,

Question paper awwalavu kashtam!

Inga evanum ivvalavu kashtama oru....

Ivvalavu kashtatha paththiruka matanga.....

Nan ninaikiren intha vattiyum EXAM putukichi...

MUNTHINAM PADITHTHENE.....

PADITHTHATHUM MARANTHENE......

SALLADAIK KANNAKA NENJAMUM PUNNANATHE,..

ITHTHANAI NALAGA BOOK AIYE PARAMAL.....

ENGUTHAN PONENO SCHOOL NATKALUM VEENANATHEY.....

~~dropping glove~~

I m still getting used to grip things wearing gloves, so most of the time I used take off the glove from one hand and then use it to take my wallet or mobile but in the sametime glove which is in the gloved hand slips away.More than three occasions it had happened while walking on the street and there is always somebody nice enough to pick it up and give it back to me.

So I was bragging about this to my classmate how nice people are. He replied "try dropping both the glove next time"

~~In Heaven~~

Today morning when I woke I saw few messages from one of my classmate mentioning her laptop has some issues and was really worried about it.Since one of our exams is an online exams a laptop is necessary for that. I told not to worry and said to bring the laptop college to fix it.

So when I opened the laptop and the screen I didn't understand whats on the screen then i realized everything was in Spanish.I tried to open few applications but nothing was opening,it was affected by access denial malware.It took some 15 minutes to use my rusted computer knowledge and it back to work.

I gave it back to her and and said she is all set to take the exam on it. She was so happy and said "Sriram you will go to Heaven!". I asked " Why are killing me so soon?".
She said "No no not soon but eventually.Its where good people go". Then finally she got me packet of nachos from the vending for the help I did!

~~What I m up to~~

What else sincerely studying(!)

~~Links I liked~~

1)Funny News:
I forwarded this mail to my Serb friend and said I m expecting something similar from him this winter.

2)American population:
This link came in ny times ,giving how densely US is populated and also based on the race.

3)View from hubble:
Everyday one new picture from hubble is added to Boston big picture.Some are really wonderful.

4)Cartoon:
Really funny cartoon about wikileaks.

~~Conference I attended~~

One of the hot news over the past few weeks were the release of classified documents by wiki leaks. This has rang alarm bells in many governments across the world. We even got a mail not to discuss this in public forums and our dean later clarified the schools position. Today our school arranged a conference regarding wiki leaks inviting the dean of law school,director of journalism,two foreign policy experts and a professor who have served in Iraq and Afganistan.

From laws point of view whatever the site has done can't be prosecuted in the court.From the media point of view there were few compromises on how few individuals names mentioned cable would cause trouble to them.Then there the governments point of view and need to declassify documents as 99% percent of them are more of business as usual.From a diplomatic side there are strains in relations between countries due to release of these cables.

From my point of view there should be more transparency in the way governments run ,there is no need for wikileaks!

~~What snow did to me ~~

Yesterday there was a mild snow fall and in the morning when I walked to the college the whole street was painted white. Walking in the snow can be tricky if we are not careful there are chances of tripping over. When I was just 50 meters I saw a person riding a cycle tripping over since its break were ineffective in the snow.I immediately went over lifted his him up then his cycle and made sure everything is fine. When I started walking towards my college I felt a pat on back ,there was a beautiful Latin American girl smiling at me and said "You are a perfect gentleman!".

Seems snow is for good :)

~~Question I liked~~

I was reading for my exams tonight, I came across this question which I liked!

According to a recent NY Times article, “Believe it or not, the stock market tends to do better or worse depending on where we are in the lunar cycle. That’s the conclusion of two studies that have circulated for a couple of years in academic circles but that, until an article in the November issue of the Harvard Business Review, received relatively little attention outside academia. … during the 15 days of the lunar month closest to the new moon — starting seven days before it and ending seven days after — the stock market’s average returns are much
higher than those of the other half of the month. [Researchers] cited extensive psychological and biological literature that has found that the lunar cycle can heavily influence our moods. A full moon, for example, increases our tendency to
feel depressed and pessimistic, so investors may be more inclined to stay out of 5
the stock market at or near that time.” Suppose you agree that the moon exerts
strong and mysterious impacts on human psychology. (Certainly, economic theory allows for this possibility.) Why would it be surprising to see stock prices behave in the way the article claims?


Edit: ( answer from my professor)
A hedge fund buy one week before the new moon and sell one week afterwards. This may explain why Professors Dichev and Janes find in “Lunar cycle effects in stock returns” that “In spite of the large difference in returns, the t-statistics for both return specifications are insignificant (0.96 and 1.16). The main reason for this lack of statistical significance is the large standard deviation of daily returns, about 1 percent, which swamps in magnitude the difference in returns.” Thus, at least as far as economics is concerned, people may feel gloomy around the full moon and suicide rates may rise – but we should not see an effect on stock returns, since profit-maximizing traders will undo any observable pattern.

~~class today~~

Another class I liked this semester was Development Economics, each week one topic would be taken into discussion . There will be argument and counter arguments finally professor will give his own convincing theory.For example education improves growth or not,FDIs help economy grow,technology boosts country's progress.

In the final minutes of our last class ,our professor asked a question which is the most important factor for country's growth. We were saying lots of things from good governence to education to liberalization. After listening to all this he said the main factor is "YOU" and he ended with this quote from world bank.


"There is no universal blueprint for reform. But almost all successful reform episodes in developing countries have had one common feature: they have been crafted by dynamic leaders who shepherded changes through complicated political terrain."

~~Walk to the river~~

Its been a while I had a walk near the river side mainly because of the wind. Today I got locked up in house because it was raining from the morning. Around 4 there was some respite,one of my friend said lets walk to the river.So I got dressed up and walked to the river.



The weather was warm and I didn't take the 3 mile walk along the path as the skies were about to break anytime.Saw in one of the benches whiled away sometime and came back home. These were the places which will be crowded with people during summer but were looking gloomy these days.

~~Christmas in NYC~~

This weekend started started as usual,I waited for my cook to deliver food .Once I had delicious lunch I thought its long time I opened my books and since exams are round the corner I thought let me check whether I have books and notes in place.After sometime when when I got all the books in place and I was all set to start, Diana called and said Ganesh and she are on the way to NYC. Since there is always another time to study I closed my book got ready to meet them.

After 15 minutes of playing hide and seek in Penn station I finally found D & G waiting near knicks stadium.Then we walked to Macys,the whole store was painted
in red and white.We roamed through all the 9 levels seeing each level jam packed with people.Then from there we walked to 59th street to Columbus circle market.Ganesh saw a cap woren by a person similar to one below and wanted the same but he couldn't find the exact match.

At Columbus circle market there were lots of petty shops selling lots of knick knacks,after browsing sometime we went for dinner. After having wonderful pizza and roasted egg plant we walked through 5th avenue taking pictures and looking at the christmas decorations.Then finally reached Rockefeller center,oh man it was really crowded brining me memories of Ranganathan street. We fighted our way through the crowd to reach near the awesome christmas tree.It took sometime to take pictures right. As D & G were going for a musical at radio city I said good bye to them and came back home.

~~Movies I saw~~

Being Friday night and cold outside only good thing one can do is watch movie. My room mate got I Vitelloni an Italian movie from NYPL . It was movie taken in 1953 revolves around 5 jobless guys in a small town in Italy and how they mess up things and troubles they face.




The whole film was funny and a good time pass. A good start for the weekend.

~~What a good Professor can do~~

There are few professors who can change the perceptions you have about the subject,Professor Jehle is one among them. Microeconomics was usually my least favourite and the more time I used to spend on it the more confusing it becomes.





This semester when professor took the course I really enjoyed the classes.He never uses the book or encourage to read from it though he has written a book.He teaches things practically and the intution we get would be wonderful.Another thing I like about him is he remembers all the names of the students in the class and gets the answers from us to derive the equation or the model.His assignments would be interesting created by him where we would be finding our names in the problems for eg."Sriram is owning a company he has to maximize profit..." Yesterday was our final day of our class with him and we decided to have lunch with him to end the course on a high note.

~~Opera show I went~~

Manhattan school of music, which is around 2 blocks from my place is an arts school for future musicians theater artists.They conduct shows similar to broadway shows which will be performed by students.good to see budding artists performing live with the ticket prices will be fair enough. But since I have most of the classes on evenings I never had time to go to any this.



So this evening when one of our class got cancelled I checked their website and there was a Opera tonight.So while walking back home I collected my tickets had an early dinner and left for the Opera. "Summer and Smoke" is a romantic story setup up in the 1911. Being to broadway show before I knew what to expect but I had a pleasant surprise.There was digital board on top of the stage which published subtitles of what people singing in high decibles.I could understand the play better and get involved with it.

~~Joke~~

Q: Why did God create economists?

A: In order to make weather forecasters look good.

PS:as predicted yesterday there was no flurry today :)

~~Its Snowing :)~~

When mercury it zero yesterday we were expecting to snow sooner or later,by the time I walked to my college in morning minute dust of snow flurries started pouring,it was exciting thing to watch.But it lasted less than an hour as it became sunny in the noon.





This is the weather above in NYC in C.

~~100m race~~

Few of my class mates planned to run a 100 meter race in the park near our campus.There is a guy from Gambia in my class who used to be a sprinter during his school days, so people planned to run in a race just for the pride of running along with a sprinter.I as usual said I will be cheering the runners.




Today afternoon when the mercury officially hit 0 C we gathered in the park.So after few warm ups we started the first race with three people, the race was one sided as the guy Gambia flew like a lightening leaving others nothing to compete.So to make people not get disappointed I said I will run and asked Gambian guy to time. I came last before as the girl was tired since she ran just before. But running in winter is a good idea makes the body warm and fresh.

~~Movie night~~

Winters can be depressing when roaming around is not a good thing to do but staying inside the pigeon hole makes it even worse.So this weekend since I didnt want stay up in room I took a walk to the grocery store and got stuff,by evening went to college and sincerely studied. By night I came back to my room hating the thought of lazily killing the time. I met my room mate at door step he asked me want to come for Harry Potter movie for which I instantly said yes.

So took subway to a theater near Lincoln center for 11 o clock show.Having read all the books harry potter series are something going for a decade starting late 90's till 2011 for the final film,though its not good as the book it was a good time pass for Saturday night.

~~milk mistake~~

Yesterday evening after partying I stopped in a nearby shop on my way back home to grab a packet of milk.Today morning when I woke and made my tea I realised there is something wrong in taste as the tea was thicker and more sweet. Then I looked at the packet of the milk it was not a normal milk but it was Egg nog milk used for Christmas.
I dont know how to finish that one ,definitely I m not going to make tea using that again. Any ideas ?

~~Christmas party~~

Just coming back home from Christmas party,it was a wonderful break from the busy schedule we had.I wore the new hat and scarf which I got last week and it was a instant hit as many people gave wonderful feedback about it.
I forgot to take my camera for this event and I m waiting for my classmates to load few pictures!

~~Shopping~~

Last week after having heavy dinner for Thanks Giving, we settled at one of our friends place in Atlanta. Since next day was black Friday mamis friend suggested that we will go shopping at 4am so that they can get things very cheap.Since that was my bed time and being a good boy sleeping on time I said I will sleep. There were booklets which I browsed and circled few stuffs which I liked and I went to bed to sleep.



I woke in the morning around 10 and these guys didnt come back home yet.Finally they came back home with car full of stuffs.The above were the first installment of things which were bought on that day.

~~Windy and Rainy~~

Today morning when I got it was pouring outside so I went back to sleep again and woke up an hour later.Lazily I got up and got ready for the college. I bundled up nicely and took my umbrella to face the rain.But as soon as I got out side I felt the impact of wind which seemed to carry me away,the golf umbrella I got was no use for this wind and it got bent and taking me accross the direction of the wind.Nevertheless when I reached college I got drenched completely and with the messy weather it took hours to get my self dried.

It was not only me who broke the umbrella few of my classmates had a similar experience and even my room mate's one got broken but he was happy that he got one with warranty!