Screwdriver

The drink shown in these pics, Screwdriver, is a popular cocktail made with orange juice and vodka. Sometimes it is referred to as "Vodka and Orange". While the basic drink has just the two plain ingredients, there are many variations, many of these with multiple names, that can be found all over the world. The name of the drink, Screwdriver, is a wordplay. In bar lingo, the two main ingredients are called screw (orange juice) and driver (vodka).
Replacing the flat orange juice with a carbonated orange drink produces a cocktail known as a Hi-Fi. A Screwdriver in which Tang is substituted for the orange juice is known as a Fuzzy Cosmonaut.
To make the beverage more palatable a sweet liquor is often added such as Amaretto. This is often referred to as a Samerreto.
Another variation occurs when the ratio of the components is switched. When mixed as 1 part orange juice and two parts vodka, it is referred to as a Drivescrewer.
All in all, Screwdriver is a really wonderful drink. In fact, its even more enjoyable when you make it at home by yourself, as we did in the above pics.
Cheers! :)

A Blog on 'BLOG'

Here goes another Blog. And this time I thought I’d write a blog on the word blog itself.
Today, almost everyone knows what a blog is. About 4-5 years ago if someone used the word ‘blog’, almost everyone drew a blank face as it was an alien concept for them at that time. Hardly one in a dozen people had any idea what a blog is. And by people I'm referring to engineering student. But in the past few years, ‘blogging’ has been gaining popularity at a very fast pace.
The reason: It is one of the best ways for people to express their thoughts and opinions on anything and everything they can think about.
Today itself I was reading about Abhinav Bindra’s blog. On the eve of his Olympic gold event, he had written about how he was feeling that day.
Various people use their blogs for various purposes. Bindra uses his blog to write down his thoughts. On the other hand, there are a lot of celebrities, like Amitabh Bachchan and Aamir Khan, who use their blog as a medium to communicate with their fans. They can also get a feedback on their performance from all the people who visit their blog. Some people use their blogs as a ‘Dear Diary’ entry too. Blogs can also be used as a knowledge repository, for conducting a survey and much more.
We use the word BLOG so frequently. I am writing a blog. You are reading my blog. But how many of us know why we use the word blog? How did this word originate? One in a dozen engineers again I’d say….. Haha! Even I was among the ignorant eleven in the dozen. And then I thought I should google it. So let me throw some light on this topic. :)
The word BLOG is a short form for the term ‘Web Log’. As described well enough by both the words, a blog is a website usually maintained by an individual, which has regular ‘posts’ containing commentary, news, thoughts, images, audio/video files, etc. These posts are generally arranged in a reverse chronological order. A collective term for all blogs in this world and their interconnections is Blogosphere.
And that's not all. There are also search engines which are exclusively for searching blogs. Bloglines, BlogScope, Technorati are good examples of such search engines. People can post comments on a blog and express their opinion. They can subscribe to a blog as well. There are many ways to subscribe to a blog. Either they can choose to get a mail whenever a new post is published, or they can also subscribe to the RSS feed(which is another very interesting and thoughtful invention) of that blog.
The blog culture is also evolving slowly and steadily, and with constant improvements (like the RSS feed and other additions) it should grow more in India. Lets wait and watch what happens next.

F1 and India

It has been about 3-4 years since I started following F1 races. And since then, this sport has really been growing on me. Everything about F1 is simply amazing. The previous season had been as interesting as the T20 world cup final (Thank God India Won!). For the first time in F1 history, a rookie had made everyone rethink their strategies with his mind boggling performance. Lewis Hamilton, a 22 year old boy, who started his F1 career with a superstar-like debut in F1 had made 2007 one of the most memorable years in F1 history. A podium finish in his debut race is something which was never ever witnessed in F1 earlier. And as if that was not enough, Hamilton had remained in the top 3 spots throughout the season. He had given F1 biggies like Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa a run for their money. Also, he was labeled as the 'first black driver in F1'. Here are all the details about Hamilton. His record is simply amazing keeping in mind that he is a rookie. Even Michael Schumacher got his first victory 1 year after his debut.
However, I feel that in India F1 does not get the amount of attention it deserves. In fact, more than half of the people hardly know who Lewis Hamilton is. In India, the only person that comes to one’s mind when we think of F1 is Michael Schumacher. The rest of the drivers like Hamilton, Alonso and Massa are as popular in India as Shaktimaan is in the US. One of the main reasons for this lack of interest is that there is no Indian driver in F1 currently.
In fact, Narayan Karthikeyan is the only Indian driver till date who has ever made it to the F1 level. But it was not so easy for him to get there. Just his driving skills were not enough for him to participate in F1. As it is an expensive sport, he also had to raise enough money to get there. And in India it was a big challenge because most of the people were not ready to invest in him as they thought that it was a big gamble. So it took him around 3-4 years to gather ample money. Then finally, he made his debut in 2005 racing for the Jordan-Toyota team. But he was not able to make it big in F1. Karthikeyan’s stint with F1 was not as successful as Hamilton’s but still there is one really good thing that he did for India. He managed to ignite an interest for F1 in the minds of many Indians like me who had never bothered to stop surfing through channels whenever they came across an F1 race on the TV set.
Since then, the popularity of F1 has been on the rise in India. Even though it has been rising at a snail’s pace, it should become really popular in the coming years. There are two major reasons why I believe so:
[1] Finally, a track for F1 is supposed to come up in India. In September 2007, the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) had announced that India will host its first Formula One race in 2010. The circuit location has been finalized as Greater Noida, near Delhi. The circuit will be 3.1 miles in length and will be designed by F1 circuit designer Hermann Tilke.
[2] Now, there is also an Indian F1 team by the name of Force India F1. The team was formed in October 2007, when a consortium led by Vijay Mallya and Michiel Mol bought the Spyker F1 team.
Ironically, Force India F1 does not have any Indian drivers at the moment because there were no Indian drivers to choose from who had an ample amount of experience in F1. Although, the team has not been performing very well, it should become better with time as they have been improving their infrastructure constantly since the time they bought Spyker.
Now that F1 is becoming popular in our country as well, we can expect to see more Indians participating in F1 soon enough, and the best part about it is that we will get to see them racing on a track which is in India itself! Cheers to Team India!

How I Came Up With burrowthoughts?

Well.... I had long been planning to write a blog. I had visited blogger.com a lot of times before this, thinking that today I will definitely start my blog, but whenever I logged into my account I just couldn't think of a topic to write on. For me, choosing a topic is the toughest part in writing a blog.
Whenever I try to pick a topic, my mind just goes blank as if someone had just formatted my brain. So I think and think till I get a proper topic to write about.
Once I get a topic to write on, then the words just keep flowing. :)
Anyways, my point is that it also took a long time and loads of confusion for me to come up with this name, burrowthoughts.
So finally here it is.
This name consists of 2 words.

[1] Burrow
[2] Thoughts

The second word is very straightforward as it just tells that this blog consists of my thoughts.
The first word is the more interesting one. The word 'burrow' (a tunnel dug in the ground by a small animal, such as a rabbit or mole, for habitation) symbolizes space, or to be more specific, my own little space where I can put my thoughts just the way a burrowing animal keeps his things in his burrow. In this burrow, from time to time I'll be putting some of the thoughts that are there in my mind and maybe some other thoughts as well.
I hope this blog becomes more and more rocking with time. Cheers!

MY TIME

The present is passing by,
As time does always fly,
This time I know will never come back,
'My Time'.... a thing that I always lack.
It's not that My time has been unfair,
But it's always in the Overdrive gear.
Still My time has been really kind,
It always gives two choices for my mind.
Either you fly along with time,
And keep up with the world's prime,
Or you can stay behind and wait,
For them to show you the Exit gate.
I chose the first and then I flew,
The consequences... I have no clue.
Just fly and fly and race the clock,
Till time follows you and says 'You Rock!'
Sometimes I wonder what I'll be,
An inspiration or a tragedy,
Whatever I will be, I will be,
But there's one thing that I clearly see,
That when this present becomes my past,
I'll look back at my journey, so vast,
And feel content that when I go,
'My Time' had been a beautiful show.