Thinking Aloud

Hampi - City in Ruins

2009-09-22T23:34:00.003+05:30

"One and half times hoga saar", said the auto driver. At 9.30 in night in Bangalore i was almost happy to hear that. Agreeing to pay what he wanted i boarded the auto and started my first solo trip. After many days of deliberation on to go solo or to not to go ... encountering a few raised eyebrows ... i was finally off.

After he made a copule of attempts to talk in kanada, tamil and telgu i finally told him that i could understand only hindi. He promptly asked me where i came from and my mother tounge. When i told him i was marathi and came from Pune, he recited a list of marathi surnames, all his friends. At that point i realised that the ride was going to be intersting ... good begineing for the trip. Looking at my bag and since i was going to Majestic bus terminus, he asked me in decent hindi where i was going. On knowing that i was going to Hampi he started to give me a lot tips on what to see what not to see, where to eat and where to 'drink'. I soon learnt that he was a Telgu guy, born brought up in Bangalore. By the time he dropped me off at my destination, he had asked me almost everything right up to where i work and what salary i earn! ! ! Wishing me a happy journey he bid me goodbye.

The bus journey was uneventful as it was spent mostly sleeping. The bus reached Hampi at 7.30 in the morning, almost an hour late than the given time. The second i got off from the bus, i was mobbed by at least 10 -15 guys soliciting their autos, guest houses or restaurents. With great difficulty i made my way out of them, but one persistant guy continued to follow me and finally i had to give in. He was an auto driver and also had some accomodation facility. He asked me to sit in his auto so that he can take me to his guest house. Sensing my hesitation, he immediately said that it was a free ride. The guest house which he showed was in a pretty much diaplated condition which i could see without even when there was no electricity (power cuts were almost after every few hours during the day). i somehow excused my self from that place and decided to look around a bit myself. As i found my way through the maze of streets of Hampi, i realised that it was full of guesthouses. Almost all the streets looked pretty much alike with the guesthouses having names like Gopi, Vishwa, Vicky ,etc and almost all of them having their own 'rooftop' restaurents. after checking a couple of the guesthouses a short portly man approached me and asked if i was looking for a place to stay and requested me to follow him to his place. surprised by his politeness and way of approach as compared to others i followed him and liked his room enough to shell out Rs. 200 for it. He made me write all my details in the register and handed me the key.

After freshning up, i again caught up with the guy and asked him for any suggestions to plan my sightseeing. He asked if i wanted a bicycle or two wheeler for rent which i refused as i had plans to walk around the place as much as possible. Next i reached the tourist information centre of KSTDC, who gave me a brouchre with a map and tried to hook me on to one of their guided tours. As i came out of there another auto driver came upto me with a map of hampi and started explaining about the different places and their importance. trying not to pay any attention to him i kept walking but he kept pursuing. finally i stopped and listened to what he had to say. i told him i would prefer walking around a bit and i would come back to him the next day. He immediately shoved a card in my hand , "Prajwal - King of the road". The card with the rickshaw name, propriter name, phone number and also an email-id ! ! ! It was really amusing to see the card of an auto driver. Accepting the card i went forward to some actual sightseeing.

First i saw the Virupaksha temple situated right in the middle of the Hampi bazar, or its the other way round ... its the hampi bazar surronds the temple :). This the only place where you have to pay to take photographs. Other than the tall, nine storeyed gopuram, i did not find anything of much interst here. I met an old man who was the temple trumpeteer. With the traditional Indian horn shaped trumpet, he was standing in one corner and blowing his trumpet (only literally :)) and people passing by were giving him alams for that. Requesting him for a pose to the photograph i too followed the others. The temple is just by the banks of the river Tungabhadra, and a walkway is built along the bank with a number of spots for the pilgrims to take a holy dip in the river.

After a walk along the river, i started to go up the Hemakuta hill on which while coming i had seen a couple of places marked by the tourism department. On this hill is a temple of the monolithic Kadalekalu Ganesha or Gramseed Ganesha which is about 4.5m high. The idol was partly destroyed by the attacking sultans and hence no one worships here. This is the case with almost all the temples at Hampi, and some of them not even having the idols in the temples. The Hemakuta hill is dotted with remains of numerous shrines. Some of them being just columns and beams now. On the other side of the hill is another Ganesha temple known as Sasivekalu Ganesa. A little further from this is another massive monolith, that of Lakshmi-Narasimha. Though sasdly the lakshmi is now missing ... only her hand at the waist of Narasimha remains. Even the Narsimha idol has all its hands broken off but you still find the towering image very majestic. On the way there is Krishna temple, which is also good, but nothing spectacular.

A little further down the road are the 'Royal Citadel' ruins. This is a vast area which includes Palace quarters, Gaurds quarters, Elephant stables, the Queens palaces, bath houses, the kings audience hall and a large stage like structure for public functions. Of these all the Lotus mahal, the elephant stables and the stepped tank are really worth visiting. The Lotus Mahal is a two storeyed building which was used by the king to spend time with his queens. This building had pipes in the ceiling which used to be filled with water to provide a cooling effect. The elephant stables is a long complex and the with the garden in front of it, it looks really nice. you only wish there would have been some majestic elephants trumpeting in them. The stepped water tank is infact the most wonderful structure in entire of Hampi. It is tank with four steps, each of the step having a number of symetric steps. The visual effect of the steps is something really different. This tank was fed by aqueducts which brought the water from the river to the tanks. The remains of aqueducts used for supplying water have been found in a number of locations near Hampi. There are another couple of temple complexes here out of which The Hazara-Rama temple is the better one. Though architecture wise there is not much difference from the rest, it has elaborate carvings of scenes from Ramayana carved on its walls and pillars which makes it stand out. Many other buildings are in complete ruins with nothing much to see or only the base of these buildings is what remains.

All of these monuments i was able to cover on the first day itself, mainly by walking with a couple of auto rides in between. By evening i was pretty much tired and after an early dinner all i wanted was to sleep. The food at Hampi is not very great. You will find places which advertise as "recommended by Lonely Planet" but serve only mediocre food. Unfortunately the foreign tourists cant tell the difference.

The next day i woke up pretty early and after a quick bath i was out again to see the remaining monuments. This time i chose the safest option for breakfast, plain dosa and it proved to be right choice. The big crispy dosa, with the spicy chutney washed down with a big glass of coffee was sure to keep me going for a long time.

After the breakfast, i first decided to climb up the Matanga Hill, thefabled hill where according to the Ramayana, Monkey king Sugriva was hiding from his brother Wali. The hill is completely rocky but has steps to climb almost all the way. The view on offer after climbing this hill was truly stupendous. The entire of Hampi could be seen from there. The towering gopuras of Virupaksha temple, the Tungabhadra river behind it, the various other temple complexes, the banana plantations and the swaying palm trees. Spent a lot of time here as nice wind was blowing and this was one of the few places where my mobile was catching some signal :)

On the other side of the hill is the Achyut raya temple. This was probably as good as the view from the top of the hill. This temple complex is spread over a large area. I reached there pretty early in the morning and i was the only person there. Not even any gaurd was within sight. THe only sound was that of the flocks of red headed parrots, other types of birds, the fluttering of the wings, the squirrles and the wind. The place was so serene and quiet that i felt like i was disturbing nature. Just outside the temple complex is huge area which could probably have been a market place and nearby is another swiming pool, Pushkarni.

Going further from the Achyut Raya temple is the Vitthala Temple which is almost the hallmark of Hampi. The road to the Vitthala temple is not very clear after one point and i took a wrong way and ended up on the river bank. But from here you can see the remains of a stone brigde that was used during those time. Now what remains is only a some columns in the middle of the river. While looking for the correct way that would take me to Vitthal Temple, i was approached by a girl who was also looking for the same. This girl, Maya, was from Argentina and had been working in a firm in Mumbai for a period just over a year as a human resource executive. On being asked how she landed up with a job in India, she did not reply but just smiled. She had probably seen more of India than i had seen with my entire life being spent here. There i realised if a lone female from a country like Argentina can come to India and travel all over the place alone, even i could do it easily. But my conversation with Maya did not take off much beyond that. May be after one year in India she was a bit tired of some Indian male following her or she just wanted to be alone. Whatever it was, i left her to be with herself once we reached the Vitthala Temple.

Vitthala Temple is also pretty much similar to the rest of the temples in terms of construction (at least to my eyes). The only thing that is striking is the stone chariot facing the main mandapam of the temple. After spending some time taking snaps here and there i was on my way out. just outside the temple is a big stone arch. This was actully used as the beam for a balance, and known as Kings balance now. On some specific occasions, it is said that gold, silver, gems and other precious things equal to the weight of the king was distributed or given away as charity.

With this i realised that i had covered almost all of the importane monments. Only a few were left which i could afford to give a miss. While on my way back i met another intresting person. While crossing a hillock, i casually checked if my mobile was catching any signal. There sitting in the shade, a man promptly told me that this would be the last place i would get the signal. After a long walk in the sun, my bag was also starting to look a bit heavy so i joined the man in the shade to rest for some time. The man soon started enquiring about me. When i told i was from Pune, his face lit up ... he told me that he goes to Pune frequently for work. Asking him further about what his work was, he told me that he had a shop near Osho Ashram, beside the German Bakery selling clothes, jewellery and other trinkets to the foreigners frequenting there. He further told that he was originally from Hampi, where he already had one similar shop. And another shop in Goa on Anjuna Beach. As the swine flu had spread in Pune, he had quickly packced up and left for Hampi. He was very unhappy that his business was badly affected due to this 'flu'. Surprisingly he was even aware about the so called 'attack' (as he said) by the Chinese which also reduced the foreign tourists to India. After chatting up with him for few minutes i bid him goodbye, but not before he invited me to visit his shop in Pune the next time i was there.

So straight away hit the bus stand and caught the next bus to Hospet. After having some better food over there i was on the bus back to Bangalore in the afternoon. The bus ride was going to be a long one as the bus kept stopping at every small/ medium town that came in the way. Most of the bus ride back was also again spent sleeping or trying to sleep.

After my first solo trip, i realised/ learnt a few things (some of which i have already mentioned in my earlier post). The expirince of travelling alone is defintely not bad and i would probably see myself doing it more often now that i have overcome the inital hesitations.

P.S.: I would be adding the links to the album soon

Travelling Solo

2009-09-20T23:03:00.003+05:30

For many days i was complaining that the weekends in Bangalore are really boring and there is nothing much to do other than just while away the time with friends or watching television and movies or going to one of the many malls in the city. Then one of my friends suggested why not travel ... my obvious excuse for that was that there is no company. To that he asked ... why do i need company? ... i can go alone where i want to.

Alone? i asked myself. Yeah you hear many times foreigners (especially europeans and americans) backpacking or travelling to some far off countries and places all alone. In a secret way many of us admire them and their carefree ways. But travelling alone and us (Indians) ?? That still raises quite a few eyebrows. Is he a loner? Does he not have any friends? Is he a bit wierd?? Doesn't it get boring? i realised that until i actually travel alone i wont be able to answer the question put by my friend ... if i need company ... or why i need company.

This weekend i had four days of leave together and so i decided that this would be it. I would travel some place even if near by, alone. i did check with few friends and they were not able to match with my days of travel ... so finally i was all set for my first solo trip. The destination ... Hampi.

And now after my trip i can now comment on travelling solo with some authority ;)

It is not all that boring to travel solo (i would be lying if i said i never got bored even for a single moment).
You can set the pace of your travel, can spend time where you want and hurry up when you want.
You can meet some intersting people and have some even more surprisingly interesting conversations with them. most of these people would not have talked much if you were in a group. And almost all of these people you would never meet again, which makes these encounters with them all the more memorable.

But even as i say this, i would still look forward to have some company to travel before i set off, but would not hold back my plans only because i do not have any company.

P.S.: the detailed account of the trip would follow soon.

My Financial Crisis

2009-08-15T15:29:00.000+05:30

Finance, economics, investments or money matters are things that i have never really been able to understand. And to add to this financial crisis f mine, i recently come across some statistics which baffle me even more.

While trying to understand how the current system works i saw myself reading through a number of wiki pages right from 'banknotes' to current account balances for different countries, the government debts, external debts and things like that.

According to these statistics USA has the highest debts and the most negative current account balance! ! ! And yet we say that it is the biggest and richest economy in the world?? And it is not just USA most of the 'developed' nations like UK, France etc are in the same boat though their statistics are a little better than USA. India fares slightly better as compared to these countries in current account balance and much better in debts. And not surprisingly China is far ahead. To me this seems like spending till you reach the limits of your credit card with no cash to pay back.

After reading this, i feel that if it is decided by all countries of the world that all countries should repay their debts in next one year, India would be in a much better position. And USA would be one of the worst hit countries. The per capita external debt of USA is over 42,000 USD, a staggering 95% of their GDP; while that of India is only 130USD, a mere 5% of the GDP. Surprising isnt it?

Even when the developed nations having a negative growth due to the economic meltdown, there are countries like Brazil and Indonesia which showed only a marginal effect of the meltdown and many third world countires showing an economic acceleration!

I just wonder how all this works ... maybe economics on a macro level is not that boring thing after all ... :)

Pointless weeknds

2009-07-19T19:45:00.003+05:30

Another perfect strip from Calvin and Hobbes ... even the most active weekends are spent doing something entirely pointless. But thats what weekends are for. :D haa.... feeling refreshed after a long time

Flight of Fancy

2009-05-03T23:07:00.001+05:30

As it happens so many times in Bangalore, as the sun sets ... the skies get overcast with dark clouds and then begins the downpour. Today was no different. As the clouds gathered and the wind started to blow i saw a kite flying high up in the sky ... almost floating there ... motionless. And for a moment left me wondering what an incredible feeling it must give being up there in the clouds ...

Lift Karade ...

2009-03-08T18:06:00.001+05:30

From last week my team and I have been relocated at a new place. This place is pretty much outskirts of the city unlike our previous location. We tried real hard to avoid shifting there but alas there was no choice left for us. Leaving aside the travel time and energy, which is high anywhere in Bangalore, there aren’t many problems as such.

The twelve storied building is occupied by a couple of more companies other than ours. But since we occupy almost 7-8 floors, four of the six lifts are reserved for us. The place allotted to us is on the tenth floor and so there in no chance that we use the stairs.

Like the roads in Bangalore have their dreaded ‘peak time’ … the lifts in our company also have theirs. You should plan your entry and exit taking into consideration the time for travel in the lifts. It is a usual sight having a big throng of employees waiting for the lifts which constantly keep doing the ‘ding dong’ sound as they reach any floor. Everyone’s eyes are fixed to the display showing the floor that the particular lift is currently passing.

Yesterday like always I was waiting for a lift with many others. As one of the lifts started to get close to our floor, everyone starts slowly inching their way towards it. As the doors opened a rush followed and with a couple of seconds the lift was full. I somehow managed to get on the lift and was smiling triumphantly at the other unfortunate souls who could not get on. But alas I was not lucky enough and the alarm that the lift is overloaded went off. Being the last person to get on I had to get down from the lift. But suddenly a lithesome beauty appeared and got on very same lift and the doors started to close without any alarm. As the doors closed on the beautiful smiling face, the same people to whom I was about to give the triumphant look, were staring at me each one trying to hide a smile.

And I was left back, wondering of my expanding waistline and humming to myself “mujhko bhi tu lift(a) karade … thodisi toh lift(a) karade … ek nahi do chara dilade”.

Cheers …

Long due Update

2009-02-01T22:34:00.004+05:30

Its been almost a month since my last post reason ... i have been a bit lazy to type out anything after beating the keyboard till 7 in the evening. Some mind numbing television is what i opt for :P.

With days running by at a furious pace i have just realised that its been almost three months since i moved to bangalore ... and today i complete 2 years as a 'working professional'. sometimes it feels like this is what i have been alwayhs doing and at times i get the feeling that it was just some time ago that we were bunking the lectures and goofing off at the college coffee shop or the hostel.

Last few months i have also realised that how all of a sudden all of my friends and me are becoming too busy in our own routine. Friends whom i used to chat daily are now not updated upon in a month or so. (thats partly because there are strict regulations on surfing in my new work place :P) I think all of us have reached some stage where we are more seriously thinking about how our choices, decisions, actions are going to affect us for times to come. The new year does seem to bring in a lot of changes.

Anyways this post was just the result of a friend asking about why i'm not updating my blog.
Hope to get active again and post something worthwhile soon

Cheers ...

Happy New Year ...

2009-01-04T22:26:00.002+05:30

Wishing all of you a very happy year ahead. A magical year full of possibilities.

Calvinism for the day

2008-12-16T23:13:00.004+05:30

This is how my mood has been for the past couple of weeks. Not wanting to read much ... even lesser to write something. So instead of pouring my lousy thoughts this Calvin strip is better. Anyways i suppose i can find a Calvin and Hobbes strip for every mood.

Got "PIN"ned Down

2008-12-03T22:45:00.003+05:30

“This ID has been locked. Please contact the authorized person for unlocking” was flashing on my computer and I was on the verge of tearing at my hair. For some unknown reason the password for one of my login ID had been reset and now the ID had got locked as I had tried logging in thrice using the incorrect password.

Isn’t it annoying at times that under the pretext of making things simpler and secure we keep providing passwords and PINs at every possible place? Email ids, bank ATM PIN, system login, email encryption, employee services, online leave management, … and the list can go for pages. Each account … each with a different password. E-security ‘gurus’ say that one should not repeat the password for different purposes. But hoe many passwords can one remember??? I am sure most of us use a specific set of words and numbers which we wont forget easily and the make permutations and combinations of them. But alas one day we run out of them too. And to top it all we have some logins requiring something like minimum 15 character length password which has alphabets in small case, upper case, it should have numbers and it should have special characters.

Its frustrating …….

I am just waiting for the day when everything starts working on biometrics ;)

BMTC ... as good as it gets

2008-11-24T21:05:00.001+05:30

Was the guy crazy?? At 7 in the evening the autowallah was asking me to pay him Rs.20 more than the meter reading … that too for a distance a little less than 10kms. This is insane I thought … cant keep shelling out Rs.60-80 per trip for such a short distance. Maybe I should wake up a bit early and take the bus tomorrow.

The alarm rings at 6.45 A.M. and I half sleepily head straight to the bathroom and stick my toothbrush in my mouth only to realize that I have forgotten to apply the paste. Somehow managing to finish off with my brushing I head for the kitchen and make myself some tea. By now I am pretty much awake and start getting ready for work. Have a bath and ponder a while for which clothes to wear … keep staring for some time at the freshly ironed clothes … not able to decide what to wear I randomly pick a pair of trousers and a shirt. By this time my sister was ready with some breakfast for me and gobbling down it quickly I start from home.

Luckily the bus terminus is very near and I don’t have to walk for long. I go to the enquiry counter and ask the grumpy bespectacled guy there which bus would take me to the place I work. Barely taking his eyes off some work he’s doing he mumbles something in Kannada. I ask him to repeat in Hindi … and with much displeasure he says something like “102” and goes back to his work. I look around only to see that the bus numbered 102 was about to leave. I make a dash for the bus and alight it … only to realize it was already carrying more than enough people. Just to confirm that I was on the correct bus I ask a young guy about my age standing in front of me if this bus will take me to where I thought it was. But alas he told me that there was no direct bus and I will have to change one after some time. The good Samaritan that he was, he also tells me which bus to take next and I request him to let me know where I should get down. After a couple of minutes of getting pushed around by some co passengers, I finally manage to find myself some place to stand. Then through the crowd of about 20 guys standing in the narrow bus aisle comes the conductor barking at everyone to make way. I ask for the ticket and give him Rs.10 for it he picks a one from the numerous tickets in his hand and plants the Rs.10 note in between the fingers of his other hand which already has more than a dozen other notes of different denomination stuck up in them. He scribbles on the back of the ticket before handing it to me, which I only later realize is the change that I should ask back before getting down.

The bus was moving at pretty leisurely pace and stopping to pick more passengers after every 5 minutes. And like Lord Ganesha who has endless capacity of taking in his belly the countless sins of mankind, the BMTC bus was showing a seemingly endless appetite for passengers. For me the bus was already full … and given a choice I would not even stop the bus unless someone wanted to get down. But the conductor and driver had other ideas. Each time the bus stops there comes a crowd of 10-15 people and all of who amazingly manage to enter the bus. The passengers keep on coming and are dissolved in the already saturated bus. I have no idea where and when my stop is coming and keep asking a fellow in front of me if my stop had come (the guy whom I had asked earlier is by now out of my sight). I am barely managing to stand straight and on my own feet (pun intended) swaying along with others stretching my arms and bending my back at queer angles. I was thinking how I must look in those poses if all the people around me disappear suddenly … hands up in the air gently swaying to the motion of the bus occasionally hugging the pole in front of me … WHOA!!! Enough … that’s getting obscene.

Finally the person in front of me tells me that my stop has come and I should get down. Somehow, I mange to find my way through the great human mass and finally breathe some fresh air. Not wanting to give it another shot immediately I took an auto for the rest of the distance and happily gave the autowallah an extra Rs.5.

P.S.: I went through this experience for the next four days for more than half the distance to and fro from work. Fortunately at the end of the week I could collect my bike from the transporter go-down and put an end to the ordeal.

From "namma Bengaluru" ...

2008-11-19T22:08:00.003+05:30

Its been pretty long since my last post. Well there are reasons. As I had already mentioned in one of my previous post that I had resigned from my previous job and now I have shifted my base to Bangalore. So last couple of weeks were spent in packing unpacking and settling in Bangalore.

I have already completed nearly two weeks at my new workplace and now the work is slowly starting to pick up. The first week was entirely spent in the mundane formalities and waiting for the breaks. The new colleagues are nice and helpful, letting me use their login ids helping me out with the formalities, briefing me with the work practices and sending countless requests for me to the administrators/ IT support guys and others for various things. Most of the things are now settled and I hope to start some actual work from this week. Just cant help but compare the things with my previous job though I know they cant be compared in any way. Anyways …

Bangalore is a nice city and I seem to like it. Fortunately I didn’t have to look for any accommodation immediately and am putting myself up with my sister and brother in law who live not that far away from my workplace. Have also taken my bike from pune so traveling is also not much problem now. The only problem is the infamous and unpredictable ‘bangalore traffic’ (last week due to some JD(S) rally the traffic in some part of the city was blocked for 5 to 7 hours :P ). Language is a slight problem but in general we can carry out the daily operations by avoiding any kind of verbs or at least using them as less as possible (just say one or two words which are language independent … like name of bus stop or name of vegetable or else just point in the direction of the object J this has atleast worked for me until now). The public transport BMTC in bangalore is much better than PMT in Pune and is very cheap but the crowds in the bus are unimaginable (the bus journey description deserves a separate post and would like write about that when I get some time). Bangalore has its roads and lanes pretty much well numbered. Any small lane which in pune can be classified as obscure by lanes are numbered something like 5th main 6^th cross or that sorts. These lanes can at the max accommodate one 4 wheeler to pass at a time. Actually the houses here are mostly independent with ground plus one floor. These houses are built barely a foot away from the compound wall and compound walls of adjacent houses are actually sticking to each other. If you lean through the window of one house enough and stretch your hand a bit, you will realize you have already entered the next house :D. also the nomenclature used for us humans is also completely different from that followed anywhere slightly north. This has caused a few problems for me and I even had people address me with my father’s name and wonder what is wrong in calling me by my middle name.

The weekends are being spent just exploring some areas nearby or catching up with some friends here. The internet access at the workplace is very strictly monitored and I cant access my mails or other stuff. So checking my mails is another important task on weekends. This is one transition that I have got myself adjusted to pretty easily than I had thought (my friends were worried that I would show withdrawal symptoms).

Anyways that is more than enough for now and will keep posting more regularly now that I have settled well in namma Bengaluru ;).

Adios….

One for the Inspiration...

2008-10-22T23:03:00.001+05:30

Off late I have not been reading as much I would like to for any apparent reason. I have at least a couple of good books with me … but just finding it hard to pick one up. But one of my monthly trip to the bookstore made me pick yet another book, “Juggling Act” by Jug Suraiya. Wanted to buy a book by Jug for a really long time. This one is a compilation of 76 of his selected articles from his column ‘Jugular Vein’ from Sunday Times. As expected it is Jug Suraiya at his best and a must read for the followers of his column. When it comes to humorous, satirical writing very few would probably come close to him. His uncanny ability of finding humor in places least expected and his style of narration is what I admire the most. The everyday situations that we all face with raised eyebrows and wrinkled foreheads can also be looked at with a smile in his writings. Escapades with his wife Bunny or Brindle the street dog that adopted them, are really funny. Though writes mostly in the light vein it is never a loud and mindless laugh riot making you show every possible teeth in your mouth. It is very subtle humor that makes you think at times which I feel is the most difficult thing.

I have been reading books ever since I remember. There are a number of authors I liked and read any book I could lay my hand on. But I can probably say that Jug Suraiya is the one who really inspired me to “Think Aloud”.

The Recipe for Fashion

2008-10-19T23:28:00.006+05:30

The much-awaited Madhur Bhandarkar’s movie “Fashion” is all set to hit the screens soon. Well when I said much awaited, I meant to speak for the Madhur Bhandarkar fans, as for me, I am not one of them. I personally feel that there never was much difference in any of his previous movies be it Page Three, Corporate or Traffic Signal. The so-called hard-hitting films that show the dark truths. So today I would try to present you with a simple and sweet do it yourself recipe for a “Madhur Bhandarkar Movie”.

Ingredients:

1 to 3 lead actresses with decent acting skills (this is very important as they have the important roles)
out of the lead actresses 1 will play the main lead role
one of the lead actresses is a shy simple girl or a small town girl with big dreams
one of the girls desperate to be successful

1 male lead (preferably a new comer or third rung actor)

a couple of other marginally important male characters who would hang out with the male lead or the other lead actresses (should be preferably unheard actors or models, don’t need to do much acting anyways)
another 3 –4 characters as per the background of movie you want (media persons, corporate professionals, street characters, fashion designers and stylists, and the like. You can choose any background of your choice like sports for example)
a corrupt power and sex hungry politician
an extremely corrupt cop or an extremely honest and tough cop
a gay character (very important cant do the film without it)
a few non regular actors donning the make up, like socialites, popular personalities, or some not much heard theatre actors will also do
two class 4 people (peons, gatekeepers, waiters etc)

Method:

Take all the above characters and mix them well

Mild to extreme harassment of the main lead actress (can be emotional, physical, sexual or whatever)
Wreck the male lead emotionally, and make the main female lead support him in the time of his crisis leading to you know what ...
The desperate female lead ready to do anything for success in the cut throat world and should brag about that throughout the movie (read anything = sex; not murder, not kidnapping, not even smuggling or anything of that sort)
Shoot at least one ‘aesthetically shot’ (read sleazy) hot scene with one of the lead actresses because the script requires some skin show
Add some controversies relating to the background chosen by you (for eg: page three drama and bitching, sex scandals, corporate spying and copying of ideas, wardrobe malfunctions, betting or fixing if sports and the like)
Remember not to give the non regular actors more than 8 min of screen space
Among the non regular actors there should be some philandering men and women (preferably old women looking for young guys or vice versa)
Actors playing the part of class 4 people discussing the ways of life of the rest of the cast from a third person perspective

Well that about sums up the movies.

I am quite sure that fashion would be no different. I wont be seeing the movie unless I am told that it is more than 50% different from what I have predicted. If it does turn out different than this I would be more than happy because probably a good and national award winning director would go back to his creative ways rather than making films which look as if he is just changing the backdrop on the stage and tweaking and twisting the actors a bit without much change in the script.

PS: I don’t intend to malign Madhur Bhandarkar, but I do feel he can and should be more creative than he has been lately.

The Grand Theft

2008-10-13T22:29:00.001+05:30

We have heard of pickpockets … we have heard of shoplifters. We have heard of housebreakers and we have also heard of dacoits. But here is the big daddy of all the thefts … right here in our state capital Mumbai. Thieves who steal BUS STOP!!!

What?? Yeah. Even my reaction was the same when I heard the news. Right in the heart of Mumbai in the busy suburb of Borivali thieves have taken with them an entire bus stop. Why bus stop? Reason is simple and clear. It was a brand new steel bus stop installed just a week or so back. The BEST has claimed that the cost of one such bus stop is about a whooping 5lakh! No wonder the thieves got tempted. The news channels swooped down on the nearby petrol pump guy, a newspaper vendor a pavement dweller, all giving the same story about how a wonderful shiny bus stop was there just a few days ago an lo behold one fine morning when they wake up the bus stop is gone. Vanished. Just like that.

Though it seems funny to hear … it also makes us aware that we cant do much to keep our property safe from the thieves. The locks on our homes or those on our bikes are probably just indicative that we are not at home or the bike belongs to somebody. Not that I am saying that our surroundings have become more unsafe just because a bus stop got stolen … it is just as safe or unsafe as it was ever before … but it is something not to be taken too lightly by the authorities and the citizens.

Hitting the Funny Bone ...

2008-10-12T17:01:00.004+05:30

Today read an interesting news bit about a museum for humor in Germany which puts on display its till now unknown sense of humor (that’s what they say about Germans … its not my opinion). The writer had written about the people who would be included if such a museum is built in India. Reading the article I was left wondering … has humor became thing of past that we have to have a museum for that? And unfortunately the answer seems to be somewhat more towards a hesitant yes than a vehement no. If you have ever watched the television flooded with all these so called comedy and laughter shows in all possible languages then you probably know why I am saying this.

The comedy in these shows is generally in your face and many a times too loud. Some guy standing on the stage twisting his limbs or face at an obscure and unnatural angle and stuttering something which is supposed to make you laugh out loud and make you share claps with the person sitting near you (especially if you are the judge of one such show, then your laugh should be the loudest). Most of the jokes (if you can call them that) border cheap talk, many a times hitting below the belt.

It is not like we never knew what humor was. Films by Hrishikesh Mukherjee or some all time greats like Janne Bhi Do Yaroon, poems by some of the hasya kavis (a species now nearly extinct) like Shail Chaturvedi are some of the landmarks indicating the quality of humor that we used to appreciate. The few artists still making sensible comedy are so few that they can be counted on the fingers. Both the Cyrus have till now managed to be really funny without crossing the border and become cheap (almost always). Then there is the combination of Vinay Pathak, Ranvir Shorey and Rajat Kapoor making some good comedies. Suresh Menon, Purbi Joshi Gaurav Gera and Gaurav Kapoor are also among the few providing some decent humor on the television.

Among all these names there is a name that is somewhat like an odd man out … Lalu Prasad Yadav. I don’t want to comment on his politics or his association with any scams or anything. But whatever I have seen of this man on television interviews or talk shows, he seems to posses a good sense of humor and a great wit. Something rarely seen in our politicians.

It’s not just that the sense of humor of comedians that has gone down … it just reflects the sense of humor of the general public. The tolerance regarding such ‘humorous’ comments has also got lost along with the sense of humor. Every other day someone seeking publicity desperately is getting offended over some ‘humorous’ remarks that were in bad taste.

All we can hope is that we get a better and quality dosage of humor. Because as it is said laughter is the best medicine … and there is no laughter without humor.

Turning down the papers

2008-10-01T22:37:00.001+05:30

It was bound to happen. Many of my friends (read ex colleagues) were wondering why it did not happen sooner. But I feel the time had just not come before. Had got very close once … but it turned out that I would continue for another year. Through the entire duration, as in any workplace, I had my share of a variety of good bad … bitter sweet experiences. But this being my first job it was always going to be a bit hard to actually put my papers down though I had the scene replayed in my mind at least hundred times. The whole day was spent with some weird feeling in my stomach … excitement … anxiety … fear … happiness … and all other possible emotions mixed together.

But as they say all is well that ends well. Its over. And I am happy.

Cheers …

Welcome to Sajjanpur

2008-09-20T22:22:00.005+05:30

"Welcome to Sajjanpur" ... the name does not sound too enticing. Had it not been a Shyam Benegal movie i probably wouldn't have mind to skip it.

Today evening after work ( yeah i have to work on alternate saturdays too :( ) an impromptu plan was made to go for a movie and "Welcome to Sajjanpur" was the one. Luckily enough got the tickets very easily at Rahul cineplex. This was the first time i was going to watch a movie at Rahul since it turned "multi screen". The cineplex, though not as good as e-square or inox, was good enough and the ticket rates were great :D. Only the sound was not upto the mark ... surprisingly for me even the crowd was decent than i expected.

The movie is set in a fictional village "Sajjanpur" with the story revolving around the only college graduate from the village Mahadev played Shreyas Talpade. Having done his BA Mahadev wants to be a writer but alas neither does he find a story to write nor can he leave his village in search of one. And so Mahadev ends up as the village "letter writer" with his shop (read a table and a couple of chairs) under a tree near the post office. Shreyas plays his part really well and convincingly. The movie has a number of threads which attempt to paint the present day rural picture. A childhood sweetheart of Mahadev, Kamla played by Amrita Rao whose husband has gone off to Mumbai for earning his livelihood. Ravi Kisen, Rajeshwari Sachdev, Ila Arun and Divya Dutta all playing small roles as the fringe characters in the story. Ila Arun is especially very impressive in her act of the desperate and helpless mother who wants to marry of her daughter. Yashpal Sharma once again plays the local village goon turned politician to perfection.

The movie coming from Shyam Benegal wont just be all fun and entertainment as you expect. The film touches upon a plurality of current problems faced by the rural population. Illiteracy, lack of jobs, power scarcity, land grabbing by industries, widow marriages, goondaism and political problems, blind faith and a lot more. But still it does not turn preachy and manages to maintain a humorous satirical angle. The only thing that could have been better is the music and the movie could have done without a couple of songs. All in all the movie is interesting and would definitely recommend for watching over the weekend.

The Kung-Fu Panda

2008-09-18T23:37:00.004+05:30

My mother and sister used to get irritated when I used to watch these Chinese/ Japanese/ Korean movies with all the guys flying about in the air kicking and punching … doing back flips and full splits … tossing up objects and catching them and always landing on their feet like cats. But I kind of enjoyed them. Maybe because I know that I cant ever move even half as fast as these guys. Well I realized this while watching one of the latest animated movies “The Kung-Fu Panda”.

The film is about a fat giant panda who always dreams of becoming a kung-fu master but unfortunately has to make noodles and soup like his father (well interestingly the father is not a giant panda but some kind of a bird J). He dreams of being like the furious five kung-fu master: the tigress, the monkey, the crane, the viper and the mantis. His chance comes when he is selected as the dragon warrior … much to his amusement and the annoyance of Master Shifu and the furious five. The dragon warrior is the only one who can save the village from the rage of the Tai lung (a former disciple of Shifu who has gone the wrong ways only to get imprisoned). The rest story shows us how the panda becomes the kung-fu panda and defeats the Tai lung.

The animation and story is good (as expected from Dreamworks) but the movie is a bit short and speedy and gets over a bit too soon. I found the starting sequence especially good. Overall the movie is good and if you like animated movies then you should surely find some time to watch this one.

Rock On ...

2008-09-02T09:57:00.001+05:30

I am not much of a rock aficionado. In fact I wont be able to tell the difference from Deep Purple and Metallica or Rolling Stones for that matter. I just know a few songs of metallica and pink floyd which I do listen to once a while when I’m in mood for that.

Over the weekend I watched the new release “Rock On” … I don’t know if the songs from the film can be actually said as ‘rock’ but I though that it was a decent effort. The music … the use of guitar … drums and the slightly coarse vocals … it was something different from the regular Bollywood stuff. It was then I realized that we don’t have much of original Indian rock bands. Actually I could not think of any good Indian rock band or definitely didn’t know any songs of some names that I had heard. So I googled for ‘indian rock bands’ to find some more bands and some good songs.

My general perception about Indian rock bands was weird guys with long unkempt hair or beards or with shaven heads trying to ape some western more illustrious rock bands. My opinion even about the music was not much different … I always thought them to be the same weird looking guys banging away on the drums and scratching their throats till they went hoarse … in short a cheap ‘loud’ imitation of the western rock bands.

But as I searched for Indian rock bands and downloaded a couple of albums of Indus Creed (Rock Machine) and Parikrama (remembered having heard these names somewhere from some friends who listen to rock) and what I found was that it was very much different than what my perceptions were. I actually liked their music. It was definitely different and not at all as I had imagined it to be.

I know its probably a decade or to two late to start listening to Indus Creed but whatever… I have a lot of catching to do now.

Cheers …

Kya Sabka Sapna Sirf Money Money?

2008-08-28T00:48:00.004+05:30

Yesterday a friend asked me to meet him to discuss something important. Not knowing what it was I went to meet him. When I meet him he says that’s we are going in for a seminar of some sorts … about e-commerce. Well without much else to do I went with him only to find out that the e-commerce he was talking of was one those things similar to the multi level marketing things doing the rounds. Just out of respect for my friend and some curiosity I decided to sit through the presentation.

The seminar began with the typical cheesy sayings and quotes of some ‘great’ men about money like “one who says he does not want to earn lots of money, may also lie about other things in life”. Then began the rounds of questions regarding the dreams of people … don’t you want to live in a sprawling bungalow … wouldn’t you like a Mercedes parked in your driveway? … etc etc …. And then the speaker ‘brought us back’ to reality’ telling us that none of this was possible now as we lacked the money. Then he gave a detailed mathematical explanation of how a person earning Rs. 1,00,000 per month in India is ‘poor’ and how he is restricted to follow his dreams and enjoy life due to lack of money and how he can manage to save at the max Rs200 per month out of the 1,00,000!!! (mind you these guys are speaking of a country where per capita income is not even be Rs.1,00,000 per year) then came statistics about rich people poor people breakeven people … and all of us were made to realize that we were in the “negative zone” of the world economy and our only effect it was that of helping to fatten the pockets of the “0.1% movers and shakers of the world.” (Sob … Sob… L) In short the speaker put before us every possible statistic from the world economy to stamp on us that we were the “people running rounds who were extremely poor and financially bonded”.

Then the speaker showed us the only way by which we can think of becoming “financially free”. Join him in the ‘business’ … build up a network of our own … get a team of our own … be a CEO of our own team … earn up to Rs.1,00,000 PER DAY!!!!!!!!! WOW … yeah that amount could probably make me financially free … “I could go to Paris just for a cup of coffee”… (at this point of the presentation I had to control my laughter coz I remembered the dialog of Salman Khan from Andaz Apna Apna … “ Main Switzerland mein aksar jata hun … mujhe wahan ki shyam bahut pasand hai” LOL :D). Finally the guy finished of asking us to decide whether we want to work with “them” or we want to work for “them”.

My friend also tried very hard to pursue me to join ‘them’ He even made me talk to his ‘senior’ regarding this. Both of them trying hard to convince me of the benefits of the ‘business plan’. Giving me examples of people who had gone to paris London new york just for a drink or coffee. Even gave me examples of some non profit organizations working for the betterment of society which work together with ‘them’. Asked me my goals … asked me how I plan to reach the top 0.1% of the financially free people in the world in just a few years? How would I manage to give my family time and money (mind you these are the only things people work for and want to achieve) to achieve their dreams? Wasn’t it so simple that by becoming financially free in just 3-4 years I could pursue whatever I want to … do whatever I want whenever I want … however I want? Phew… :P (that went on for quiet some time)

Even when I refused to budge after all the brainwashing … I was told that I was too wishful and confused. The person even had the audacity to tell me that my ‘wishful thinking’ was probably because of my ignorance!! He also went off trying his best to have a parting shot saying that he was sure that I would be coming back to him to join their business, their network maybe next week .. maybe next month or maybe next year .. but I would surely go to them .. but by then I would have to work for them. Hmmm… I just smiled and walked off.

P.S.: I know I have a precious few regular readers and even lesser ones posting comments … but I request all of you reading this post to post your comments on this one coz it would be really interesting to hear a general public opinion on this topic.

Of being wise and otherwise …

2008-08-24T22:25:00.002+05:30

My wisdom teeth grew quiet early and that too without much trouble … so much so that I didn’t even realize that. I first checked for my wisdom teeth when my elder sister had big trouble with them. I remember teasing her about me being wiser than her as we got our wisdom teeth about the same time though I was younger to her. But today morning I read a news and probably now I will have to mince my words with those very wisdom teeth.

The Sunday Times front page carried a news which would bring a cheer to the people who had their wisdom questioned because of their wisdom teeth being absent or having had to remove them by a dentist. The news said that wisdom teeth are slowly on their way out. “Wisdom teeth are extraneous baggage that will be left behind in the process of evolution. As the human jaw contracts from the roomier ape size to a narrower, more human dimension, so will the space for the troublesome third molars that push their way up in adulthood.”

This means that all the supposedly wiser beings with the wisdom teeth are actually a step behind the so-called ‘otherwise’ people in evolution. These ‘otherwise’ beings are actually more advanced … physically and mentally.

Suddenly I am picturing myself in the science textbook of the next century as one of the stage of evolution that has become extinct.

One for the Lazy Blogger

2008-08-23T22:33:00.004+05:30

Wholy smoke I just woke up to the fact I have not updated this since last year... You would not believe the amount of people that are totally stalking me. I prostrate myself in sorrow and beg thy forgiveness..

I am totally exhausted with my obsession of saving money, the waiting staff, just generally being asleep, dreaming and chancing to my dogs, my day is long and tiring from the light through yonder window breaks to reef break. I am not growing up. primo.

I vow if one more person emails me to ask why I haven't posted today I will start posting pictures of toe fungus, or fecal murals. You have my word! Don't hold your breath though, you're likely to turn blue..

Hahaha ... you all must be wondering what happened to me ... don't worry i'm perfectly alright and in my complete senses. its just that i stumbled upon this site "The Lazy Bloggers Post Generator" and couldn't help not to try it out. Its good ... you get your post ready in just about 30sec ... :)

But still i wont be using this much for sure ... i like the conventional way better.

The Bug

2008-08-15T19:48:00.002+05:30

Lately I have been caught by a bug … no not the one makes you sick or anything. A bug that is making me take interest in numbers … NO it does not have anything to do with mathematics (that ended with my last mathematics paper during engineering for good :P). Its about the serial numbers on the currency notes.

Last week during the coffee break at work while chatting with some friends, one of them told about his habit of collecting currency notes with some unique serial numbers. Like ones with same digit repeating in the number, two numbers alternating or ones having ‘786’ occurring in the number in that order which he said are lucky numbers.

At that point I suddenly realized that most of us don’t even care to give even a glance at these serial numbers … it is as if we don’t even know that they are there. So very inconspicuous, but at the same time so very important. That’s when I caught the bug … and now I find myself looking at the serial numbers on every note I get and try to figure out something interesting about the number, the arrangement of the digits or anything that makes the number unique.

Well till now I haven’t been much successful at that … just landed up with one note having ‘786’ … hoping it proves lucky. :)

Cheers…

A starving nation … digs its teeth in gold

2008-08-12T10:35:00.004+05:30

A nation of billion people starving for a hero … a sporting hero who will get his starving countrymen the ultimate honour of the ever-eluding golden dream. India’s performance at the Olympics has been anything but enviable till now. Only four individual medals at the Olympics with the best being a silver last time at Athens.

The cricket crazy country refuses to look beyond that to other sports and take them seriously. Leaving aside hockey of yesteryear's we have failed to make much of a mark in any other sport … especially individual ones. Probably the recognizable Indian faces in world sports can be counted on your hands … or may be a few more. But then most of them are of some era bygone which we still keep close to our hearts hoping that someone would come and better that record. I don’t want to get into the unending debate about the poor infrastructure or lack of mental toughness on part of our players or whatever …

Yesterday Abhinav Bindra finally bagged the first individual Olympic gold medal for India. Thank you Abhinav you have showed the way early on in the games. And Lee-Hesh, Saina, Vijender, Champia and all the others we hope that you would better our already best performance at Olympics. All the Best.

Hoping that some of the golden dust rubs off onto the nation and starts scripting the end of our search… but as for now let us savour the first bite of our meal.

Bangalore musings ...

2008-07-30T11:29:00.019+05:30

After a long time had something different on hands on a weekend. Had been on a short trip to Bangalore last weekend. Few hours before my bus, i came to know about the serial bomb blasts in Bangalore. For sometime i had second thoughts about going ... but after talking with some people down there i felt assured that it would be OK to go there in spite of the blasts.

The bus journey to Bangalore from Pune takes about 14 hours. If you have been too busy with work and missed watching a lot of movies over a couple of months ... then a trip to Bangalore by bus will take care of all that backlog. In a to and fro trip to Bangalore from pune you get to watch at least 3-4 movies. This time i got to watch 'Jaane Tu ...' and 'De Tali' on my way to Bangalore. i reached Bangalore on the afternoon of 26th and everything looked as normal as it could be ... no hint of any tension in the city even as just about 24 hours had passed by since the blasts. i guess we Indians have become accustomed to such things happening regularly.

As my destination in Bangalore was far off from where the bus dropped me, i called for an auto and told him where i wanted to go and the autowallah mumbling something in kannada turned the meter and started off. All the way looking around i could see the walls of all possible compounds plastered with the posters for some tollywood films with their mustachioed 'uncle like' looking male leads. Throughout the city the only hindi movie poster i saw was that of 'kismat konnection' and the schoolboyish looking shahid kapoor looked completely out of place. I wonder why is there such great divide over the looks of the lead actors in the movies down south and central and northern india. Going by tollywood standards, my autowallah could argualbly be said to be handsome. He had a fine bushy mustache ... a 4-5 day old beard ... was slightly pudgy and with a slight paunch he seemed to me perfect material to play lead for a movie. I could actually imagine him doing some acrobatics and gyrating to some foot thumping number with the female lead half his age. But alas ... this image that i created lived for a short time and as soon as i reached my destination the herolike autowallah soon turned villan and started asking for Rs100 more than the actual fare clocked by the meter. Finally i got rid of him by giving him extra 50 bucks and away he went cursing me in kannada i guess.

With couple of more live bombs found in the city ... and another serial blasts in Ahemdabad, i mostly stayed indoors on saturday and relaxed watching television. The power situation in bangalore is really very bad and there are power cuts for hours together even on sundays which makes it even worse. With city nearly covered with dark clouds constatnly the temperatures were really low and with cold wind blowing it was kindoff chilly even during day at times.

After enjoying a couple of days and finishing off some work i had down there i left back for Pune on tuesday evening. Nothing could be as bad as watching 'love story 2050' on the bus. The cheap hrithik duplicate is pathetic except his dancing ability.

Coming back to Pune after a couple of days always makes you feel happy ... wonder why we want change so much and when we do get it ... we are eager to go back to our normal routine regular places ... and are happy once we get back.

May the better species rule the planet ...

2008-07-11T10:38:00.007+05:30

Just yesterday when i was watching the television i came across this really interesting news. It was about some Japanese researchers doing some memory tests on humans and chimps. And the chimps outperform their supposedly more developed cousins by far.

Check the video on youtube on : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTgeLEWr614
and the news bit on: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7124156.stm

i feel that there is a high possibility that these so called lesser evolved cousins of us may not only have a better memory... but be a lot more intelligent than us in general. Maybe we should ask them or learn something from them to counter the problems/ crisis that we humans have created over the last few centuries. They seem to lead a life in harmony with nature. they don't require any kind of fuels for any purpose so just imagine the carbon credits they have accumulated. maybe they have much superior communication methods than us ... also they generally fresh food which is very healthy (have you ever seen a chimp just running around or swinging from branch to branch to burn the excess fat he's accumulated around his waist?? maybe were are the ones who are still not developed enough to understand their way of life or somewhere down the evolution steps forgot it completely. Else what is the point of making so great advances in various fields of sciences only to turn around for a "better green living".

Someone has said ... Humanity is not the last rung of the terrestrial creation. Evolution continues and man will be surpassed.

Maybe the earth could be in better hands than us humans.

Another year ...

2008-07-11T10:14:00.003+05:30

"Well, birthdays are merely symbolic of how another year has gone by and how little we've grown. No matter how desperate we are that someday a better self will emerge, with each flicker of the candles on the cake, we know it's not to be; that for the rest of our lives, this is who we are to the end. Inevitably irrevocably ..."

Clash of the Titans

2008-07-07T09:59:00.003+05:30

Was that a match or was that a match...

I have simply no words to describe the amazing final between Federer and Rafa. Federer trying to go past the great Borg and win six titles in row and Nadal trying to be the first man since Borg to win French Open and Wimbledon in the same year. It was simply brilliant. Two great players in the world matching shot for shot. Arguably the best Wimbledon final ever.

Though Nadal was in great touch on his way to the finals most would have thought that it would be Federer once again who emerges victorious on the Center court. But this was soon to be changed as Nadal broke the second service game of Federer and continued to win the first set as well as the second set with relative ease with the scores reading 6 4, 6 4 in favour of Nadal. Even in the third set they were going neck to neck till the rain interrupted the game. I trully feel that the rain gods at wimbledon could not see the King of grass losing in three sets and saved Federer the blushes. Once the play resumed Federer was looking better and more comfortable and went on to win the third and fourt set. But even though he won the tird and fourth set nadal had dominated both the sets and unfortunately could not keep his nerves on crucial points and Federer just has this uncanny ability to fire aces just when he needs them the most. In the final set they fought neck to neck. Just as Nadal got ready to serve for the match in the last game ... the crowd started to chant 'RAFA ... RAFA' ... and even me, a Federer fan found myself cheering for Nadal ... yeah i had got converted by the end of it. And finally it was Rafa who was to triumph on his fourth championship point. A truly deserved victory.

'King' Roger was dethroned ... Rafa has finally and trully arrived and the once unbeatable Federer ... best player of the recent years was suddenly left looking 'one' amongst the best. But the Federer fan that i am ... i sign off saying that next year it will be Federer, who will win at the Roland Garros and the Wimbledon, both by defeating Nadal in their fourth consecutive finals.

Till then its Adios Amigos ...

Chips ... Chocolates ... and Seinfeld

2008-07-02T22:52:00.001+05:30

Today evening i was in a very bad, crabby, sulky mood. Fought with someone over some pettiest of the matters ... dont ask why coz even i dont know. To add to that ... just as i punched out of my office it started to rain. I hate it when i have to drive anywhere when its raining. To add to that when i reached home i found some stupid delivery guy with his truck parked right in the middle of my way to my parking spot. I probably would have screamed out at anyone who tried to make any sort of verbal contact with me i guess ...

Went up to my house ... had a wash ... changed into fresh clothes. still i had not got over my frumpy mood as yet. Switched on the telivision and as usual kept on flipping through the channels in hope to find something watchable ... but as usual there was nothing worthwhile other than the cricket match which i was not much keen on watching. It was getting almost 7:30 in the evening so kept the television muted on star world ... yeah i dont watch "friends" ... then opened a bag of potato chips ... got some ketchup to dip those in and picked up couple of twix chocolate bars. took all that in a plate and sat in front of the television waiting for "seinfeld" to start ... :D

Potato chips ... chocolate ... seinfeld and all that together while lazing on the couch ... what more can you ask for. stuffing myself full with the chips n chocolate and seinfeld witticisms there was no way i was not going to get back to normal ...

My Experiments with Truth ...

2008-06-29T23:26:00.005+05:30

I like to call myself a good cook. i always liked to cook. i probably liked to cook even before i started to cook. Ever since my eyes could reach above the kitchen platform to be able to see what mom was cooking, i have been poking my nose in everything she cooks. But all the while since mom was always there i rarely took charge of the kitchen. It was mostly when mom n dad were away that i tried my hand at cooking.

But now its been around two weeks that mom n dad shifted to mumbai ... and i have all the kitchen to myself. And so a lot of time in the past two weeks has been spent in experimenting in the kitchen. From corn khichadi ... to spanish omlette ... to typical maharashtrian 'usaal' (curry made of sprouted pulses). I liked most of the results of these experiments ... as if i had a choice not to like what i had cooked. It was always when i was alone for the meal. I never had someone who would vouch for my culinary skills. well partly because i never found a subject brave enough ready to volunteer to carry out my experiments on him ... and other reason was i myself was a little bit hesitant to ask anyone for the favour. I did not want some poor guy to spend a week with a bad stomach cursing me. No, i was not ready for that.

But this weekend i got a perfect subject for my experiments ... someone reliable ... likes his food (be it of plant or animal origin ... his only clause is that it should be edible) ... will tell me the truth if i'm a good cook or not ... and most important brave enough to provide himself to conduct my experiments on. well mostly because he got to decide the menu ... a least risk preparation very less likely to go wrong. whatever ... i had got my chance to prove my worth in the kitchen and i was not going to let it go waste. So it was fixed ... sunday night dinner it would be. He came all prepared for the test ... a spare set of clothes ... just if he was in no state to drive home after the dinner [:P]. I put all my energies together and made a perfect "masale bhat" (rice with some vegetables and spices)... well almost perfect but for a little less salt. But my friend ... my subject liked it very much and cleaned up the pot and left with a heavy stomach and a satisfied soul.

Getting compliments from a foodie and seeing an empty vessel after the meal does make the cook happy ... next time i'll be a bit more adventurous with the menu ... mixed vegetables with chapatis and rice and dal... what say? Hungry kya?

Cheers... Naa... Bon Appetite... :D

Office to Home Via Darjeeling ...

2008-06-27T22:42:00.003+05:30

2:30 pm in the office ... one colleague comes up and breaks the news. A smile breaks one the face of one and all and suddenly the office which was dragging along the day wearily comes to life ... Well its not everyday your boss asks you to leave early ... and that too on a weekend. YIPPPEEEEE !!!!!!!!

Just a minute ... don't start to envy me for having such a great boss ... NO .. my boss is not all that good. It just happens that today the "Palkhi" (a procession of pilgrims) is coming to Pune and many of the roads around our office will be closed for vehicular traffic to to facilitate easy passage for the pilgrims. well since we wanted to make the maximum of the generosity of our boss ... we decided to go for a movie. On checking some web sites we settle upon a newly released movie "Via Darjeeling". At the stroke of three we dutifuly emptied the office and straight went to a multiplex where they were showing the movie. These multiplex are nowadays just sucking your money ... @ Rs150 the tickets cost us dear and that too for a place in the second row from the screen [:P]. Anyways just as we setteled down the movie started ... without any trailers for up coming movies being shown. My friend who is a total movie buff was cursing the multiplex people for that ... he has to watch atleast a couple of trailers of some 'coming soons' before the movie begins. So without much talking we settled and with our heads tilted at an obscure angle started gazing and the flurry of images being displayed. The first scene was seemingly shot from within a car moving at a very high speed using a handycam ... thus causing more trouble to our eyes...

The movie starts off with a very artificial Sonali Kulkari and Kay Kay menon who are on a honeymoon in Darjeeling. After a few more minutes of tolerating the "lovey dovey talk" of sonali (are all 'bong' girls really like this?) the story starts off. Kay Kay dissapears into thin air and no one knows where (no wonder the guy will dissappear if he has a wife who talks like sonali ... poor guy). Sonali throws tantrums at the poor hotel manager and asks him to call police ... here enters Vinay pathak. Vinay starts interogating sonali and others but finds no leads whatsoever other than a possibility of presence a third person, parvin dabbas in the mystery ...

fast forward to present ...

Vinay is telling this story of his investigation which was finally abondoned due to no clues to a group of his semi drunk friends ... Rajat kapoor, sandya mridul, some new beadred fellow (dont remember his name) and the only sober person around simone singh who all are waiting for one more copule to arrive.These semi drunk group doesnt belive a word of what vinay told and feel that he made up a nice story. So the group decides that each one will now tell his/ her own version of what must have happened to Kay Kay. The newsman Rajat comes up with a typical breaking news kinda story ... his wife simone singh cooks up an essential 'K' soap type drama. the bearded guy whos a new york studied small time film maker does a complete mash up of the story. Vinay also gives his ideas and the male hater sandhya does some male bashing in her version. Finally Vinay gets a call and he has to leave the party for an emergency duty. Later the couple all were waiting for arrives ... and Vinay returns to get back his cell phone he so obviously had left behind on the couch. Well and the story ends here... and i wont go into details or else it will spoil the movie.

The acting of everyone is average and nearly no body has a major role to play. Vinay as a cop is good once again ... rajat kapoor is not enitrely himself, simone singh is also not bad ... sandhya mridul also does a thik thak job along with the new bearded fellow. sonali kay kay and parveen are also okie types in their performance. But all these people put together look as a dysfunctional group of friends who do not get along with each other much. The director puts in front of us various possibilites of the same story with different perspectives. But the end is some what unsatisfying or ... well cant find an exact word for that.

i guess the director wanted to make a film which will keep the audience guessing even after the film ends and which will make them discuss the movie over their coffee/ drink and make them come up with stories and counter stories of their own, just like the characters in the film ... and he is definitely successful at that.

overall not a must watch movie ... but if you want to rack your brains a bit then it is worth one see.

The 3 Mistakes ...

2008-06-22T22:47:00.001+05:30

Read the third book by chetan bhagat "3 mistakes of my life" over the weekend. This book turns out to be quiet a dissapointment. It goes from being about mildly amusing to absolute crappy.

At the start of the protoganist, govind, has attempted suicide and of all people on earth sends an anonymous e-mail to the author which is the only suicide note he has left. No reason for the suicide is mentioned. Chetan then uses his contacts back in Ahmedabad to find who is the person sending him a suicide note. And if the person is alive and if so where. On finding that govind is alive and in a hospital chetan flies to india immediately to find out about this guy. in hospital chetan asks Govind the reason for his attempting suicide. here starts the actual story.

The story revolves around three friends govind, ishaan (ish) and Omi from a village in gujrat. Govind the maths wiz ... aspiring businessman ... very practical too the point of being very cold. Ish the best cricketer in the village for years ... die hard cricket fan to the point of not being able to diffrentiate his life from criclet. and Omi the guy who goes along with his friends ... only thing he knows that he does not want to end up as a priest in a temple like his father. the story further goes on to tell the different situations/ calamities/ problems in the lives of these friends and how they over come these. their starting of business (sports good shop) ... finding a gifted prodigy (Ali) and trying their best to give a good future to him (finding their way to australia for that)... a typical chetan bhagat style cheesy "love story" (Govind and Vidya- Ish's kid sister) ... devastation by the earthquake in 2000... the post godhra riots in 2001 ... thier encounter with religious fanaticism and politics (omi's bittoo mama) ... drama at the end while trying to save ali from hindu fanatics (saving him not for the sake of saving a fellow human being ... but for saving a future cricket star of india :P) and lots more. the author tries to mix toooo many things and the resulting cocktail doesnt give you the high as expected but makes you feel numb like you have a hangover and just like you rue the extra shot you had the night before ... you rue why did you even read this book. The end is also tooo cheesy but you are finally happy that its over.

As for my 3 mistakes ...
bought the book from a roadside bookwalla for Rs.50 after some haggling
read the book and
wasting my time writing on it and your time for reading this review

Adios...

How Time Flies

2008-06-16T22:20:00.010+05:30

"Know what's weird? Day by day nothing seems to change, but pretty soon, everything is different." - Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Waterson

So true. Dont you think?

I really dont know how and when the last month or so passed by. Nothing much was happenning but still a lot happenned. i wasnt busy but have done a lot. Waiting for admits ... being accepted in some rejected in some ... waiting for scholarships ... deciding whether to accept or reject the admits ... parents moving to mumbai ... not to forget all the stupid assignments at work.

Well it was not all serious stuff ... Friends coming for vacation ... a much awaited trip to goa ... watching IPL n french open ... friend challenging me to reduce weight ... trying to work at doing that (damn would have reduced some but for goa and all the sumptuous dinners before a friend flew back :( ) ... growing a french beard and have been able to keep it for more than couple of weeks now ... numerous attempts at writing some posts but not able to come out with anything coherent [:P].

You all must also be going through something similar i guess ... not knowing how time flies by only to realize that what you were thinking of future is already the past. Hoping to be less busy in times to come ... and writing something that would make some more sense to you than this post.

Cheers...

When the "Pink City" turned Red

2008-05-14T10:42:00.009+05:30

The 'Pink City' just turned red. 8 bomb blasts ripped through the heart of the city killing around 60 and injuring scores of other innocent people.

Yesterday I was at my friends place and we were surfing the television, desperately looking for something worth watching. A news channel was flashing a 'breaking news' ... "Serial blasts in Jaipur". An agitated reporter was describing the blasts that took place within a span of 15 minutes or so in, giving details of the casualties and other damages. It was shocking to see the number of causalities had already crossed 50. The Rajasthan CM, Vasudhararaje had a dozen mikes thrust in her face for her reaction on the ghastly terrorist act. (thankfully the news channels spared the victims and didn't not land up in hospitals immediately to get their reactions and first hand details of the blast).

We all were shocked seeing the scenes of the blast on television. But then as casually as possible someone said ... "Its been many days since the last major bomb blast took place", and the rest of us were also agreed (i'm sure that most of the Indians would agree). But then suddenly we realized that infact it was NOT so many days since the last major bomb blast shook the country. It was just last August that there had been two big blasts in Hyderabad. Its not even been a year since that. How easily we forget things.

What kind of attitude are we Indians developing? Do we expect that there are blasts once a month and be happy that there is no such blast for over six months? Have we become so indifferent and have a complete disregard for lives of our fellow citizens? The opposition party attacks the government for intelligence failure, the center accuses the state government for the lapse ... government sets up a an enquiry panel to find out where and how the intelligence failed. Thats it. Couple of months go by and all is back on track, all the events well forgotten ... all the victims left alone. Is there any other country in the world who will tolerate so many and so frequent attacks and still not take much steps to stop such things from happening in future? Is this indifference? or carelessness? or laziness? or 'who cares' attitude? Or is it the culture that we are brought up in which teaches us to be tolerant in all circumstances ... that teaches us not to be aggressive?

This debate has been going on for many years and can still go on. But whatever is our attitude about such events, it needs to be given a second thought and some definite solution needs to be found out for the problem. For one thing is clear that such events should not happen in future.

The Tank Man

2008-05-09T22:56:00.005+05:30

Today while browsing i came across an article by Barkha Dutt which mentioned something about a "tank man". I had never heard of this before... he was some person in china protesting aftermath the Tiananmen Square Masacare. Just for some more info i googled tank man hoping to find some pics or something. But what i found was really amazing. Along with some info on wikipedia, there was a youtube video. After watching the video i was absolutely dumbfounded... chocked. This video is probably one of the greatest act of bravery ever and surely bravest thing that i have watched with my eyes ... though only a video. Here is the video...

A single common man challenging the might of the then oppressive rule in China. With the entire streets empty with no one wanting to be the target for the bullets of the army. This man mostly a college student, goes and stands in front of a fleet of tanks that were deployed in the square. Singlehandedly he made the marching tanks stop in the street. Became an icon ... a hero for movements worldwide ... but remains anonymous till date.

While admiring the courage of the "tank man" i feel that the person driving the tank at front was also courageous enough to follow his moral instincts and try to avoid crushing the tank man rather than the easy way of just mowing him down ... who was going to care for a 'stupid person' coming in front of rolling tanks to die after the army had already killed thousands just days earlier. maybe it was he did not want the blood of an innocent on his hands or whatever ... but it required courage from both the men to bring to halt the entire fleet of tanks.

George ... George ... George and his Bungles

2008-05-04T22:48:00.003+05:30

First it was Condoleezza Rice now its Bush. The American President and his Secretary of State trying to find the reasons behind the current worldwide food crisis has stated that as demand for better food by Indians is one of the reasons for the crisis. Citing that there are about 350 million people in India classified as the 'middle class' whose economic condition has improved considerably over the past few years, which has resulted in increse in their demand for better and more food. This 350 million is greater than the entire population of the USA. Thus, the increse in demand of food in India and also in China due to increse in prosperity has resulted in substantial less amount of foodgrains being available to the rest of the world and thus leading to the skyrocketting prices worldwide.

After hearing these statements most of the Indians have gone ballistic against Bush (as Bush is not a popular person in India). The Indians are furious over how Bush, the leader of the country with highest per capita food consumption (not only food grains but also milk and milk products and most types of meats) dare say such a thing. With the average person in USA gorging five times the food of an avaerage Indian, thrice that of an average Chinese and even nearly twice that of an average person in ECU, Bush does not have the moral right to analyse and measure the quantity of food eaten by a developing nation like India, China or for that matter any other prosering economy in Asia. He should first have a look at the food habits of his countrymen, the amount of food wasted and the obesity rates in USA and i am not even considering the reduced production of food in the US as a result of his policies to grow grains for biofuels.

Having said this i would also like to add that the statement in some measure is definitely true. India with a population of over a billion, is developing rapidly. A few decades back (before the Green and White Revelution) a large amount of population was barely getting to eat food forget its quality. Since then India has Progressed a lot and not only become self sufficient in terms of food and milk, but has managed to produce enough surplus, that it can be exported. And India not only exports to America or wealthy nations just to build up its FOREX reserves, but also huge quantities are sent to the poor and needy nations in Africa. But for last few years the rate of development in India is reaching new highs. And the obvious consequnce of this is that the buying capacity of people, not only the 'middle class' but even of the poorer sections of society has improved considerably. This additional buying potential is utilized mainly on better and additional quantity of food. This is a necessity of the people in India and the first right to buy the food produced in India is OFCOURSE of Indians. And if any surplus remains then we may export it ... but only after our domestic demands are fulfilled. If till now we had 100 units of foodgrains of surplus which we could export, and now due to increase in our own demands the surplus has reduced to say 50 units, then this will definitely affect the world where these food was being exported. Thus as the demand is constant and the available stock of food has reduced the prices will go up. Thus, though in a small measure, the development in India or China for that matter has affected the availability of food and the increase in its prices.

The thing that enrages most Indians is that, in our culture it is inappropriate to measure the quantity of food one is eating, let alone what others are eating. And if someone does cross this line, the reply to that is "Tujhya bapacha khatoy ka?" or "Its we who are earning and eating what we can and you are not in any way paying for what we are eating." Thus Bush has crossed this line and infuriated the Indians who after decades of hard work gained the self sufficiency in food and now 'nearly' removed the deaths due to starvations which were somewhat common in years gone by. So even though Bush has not held India solely responsible for the food shortage and rising prices and neither does he ask that the Indians should eat less, but the leader of the most powerful nation, should have had the decency and sense not to make such comments.

Some more reading on Al & his (In)convenient Truth

2008-05-02T11:04:00.008+05:30

After the last post on Al Gore and his film, while discussing the issue with a friend of mine who somewhat disagreed with me, i felt that i should post some reference links as there will be others who would also disagree with me. So i looked for some more information which also speak of Al Gore and his film "The Inconvenient Truth" in same way as i have. There are lots more of such articles on the internet which view Al in the same light as me. Here are a few of them:

http://www.lockergnome.com/news/2008/04/14/scientists-debate-the-accuracy-of-al-gores-documentary-an-inconvenient-truth/

http://cheatseekingmissiles.blogspot.com/2007/03/global-warming-burns-hole-in-al-gores.html

http://bookwormroom.wordpress.com/2007/03/02/take-that-al-gore/

And this link http://cla.calpoly.edu/~smarx/courses/145/pro-conGore.html explores the pro, anti and neutral sides of the topic.

The (In)convenient Truth?

2008-05-01T13:01:00.002+05:30

These days you are constantly hearing and reading about the threat of global warming. Everyday we keep hearing about glaciers in himalayas melting or melting of ice in Antarctica or at the north pole and how the world will soon get flooded. cities and settlements along the coasts would be displaced and all such things. Average temperatures all over world rising so and so much degrees than some 50 years back. Representatives of countries meeting to discuss steps to be taken for keeping the rise in temperature in control. El nino ... La nina ... Earth summit ... Al gore ... An Inconvenient Truth ... Pachauri ... Global Warming Conspiracy ... Carbon foot prints ... its endless. What to make of all these things?

I agree that the indusrtializaltion ... technological advancements that human race has achieved is gained at the cost of environment. Forests have vanished ... rivers dried up ... different types of pollution ... and what not. We have been greedy and now we are at the verge of losing even more. We should act and try to pres eve what is now remaining and take precautionary measures that the situation does not deteriorate further.

But last week as i was watching "The Inconvenient Truth", the documentary by Al Gore, I was confused. The statistics that he was telling and the projections of the devastation that will result in coming decades were a bit over the top according to me. I agree that i am no genius in climate control or whatever and Al Gore must have researched for his film, but still all the data seemed to be hugely exaggerated. I felt it was the kind of documentary to induce fear in the minds of people rather than to create awareness. It gave you the feel of those sci fi movies where the world was in some terrible danger and the great nation of US of A is the only saviour. And of course Al Gore is the knight in shinning armour ready to take on the Dragon / Godzilla of Global Warming and slay it to free the mankind from its clutches. Typical American mentality i suppose. Well this may sound to be a bit harsh, but that was my first reaction after watching the film.

I reiterate that i fully understand what tremendous harm we have done to our only planet. I also would try to prevent the further deterioration of our environment which will aid the global warming and even try to persuade others to do the same.

But i also feel that the rising of temperatures TO SOME EXTENT is only normal. It has been happening since ages. Melting of ice during the Ice age was also natural ... the same trend might be still continuing but at a very slow rate. This temperature must also be following some Pattern and I feel that patterns are always cyclic in nature. This rise in temperature, flooding has happened before (references of can be found in most holy texts). It is bound to happen ... but not yet ... there is still time. I feel there is nothing much we can do to prevent it ... but the most important thing is that we should not aid the process of global warming. The Countries of the world should come together to solve the problem. The point i would like to make is that, AL gore has already pressed the panic button, which i feel is a tad too unnecessary. Instead of sensitizing the people to the possible dangers of global warming, the way he tries to frighten the viewers is the only thing i disapprove.

Its not about the bike ...

2008-04-27T22:54:00.002+05:30

I still remember the nice times we had together. Going out together with friends or the times when it used to be just the two of us. Those will always be some cherished memories. She was beautiful and i really liked her. Well most of you would doubt this, the way i treated her for the last few years. I probably ignored her completely ... and today i feel bad about it ... because she's leaving me.

She's my good old bicycle. Twelve long years. I had instantly liked her when i had seen a similar bicycle with one of my friends and i had decided that this is the bicycle i want. Flaming red and orange. Fast like the name MUSTANG. Very few others had a bicycle one like that. When we were in school, anywhere we wanted to go it was so easy .. just hop on the bike. coming back from school was the best time when we all used to enjoyed riding our bikes. Riding the bicycle was really much more enjoyable than riding any high powered five speed motorcycle ... thats just too dry ... too mechanical. The races we had with each other. trapping each other ... skiding sharply on the grounds and blowing up clouds of dust. Riding fast even though we new the breaks were not good enough ... actually even that would be an understatement [:P]. Going through puddles of water delibarately during the rains and sending sprays of water everywhere.

Alas, after twelfth "TIME" becoming so precious ... riding a bicycle became sort of history. Still i refused to sell it off. but after years of not relenting to sell her off to someone who would make some better use or at least just USE it, finally i have given up ... its time to say good bye.

A Bibliotrip

2008-04-23T15:53:00.006+05:30

23 April is celebrated as "World Book Day" and being the bibliophile that i am ... it is just another reason to get some more books.

As far as i can remember i have always been fond of books. Be it comics, novels, fiction non fiction magazines newspapers ... (ya except my study books that is :P). Even as a kid when i could not read i used to pester my grandfather to read me the same book "Basriwalla", everyday before our afternoon siesta.

During school years it was 'Tinkle' with its Supandi, Shikari Shambhu, Hodja, Kalia the Crow, Tantri the Mantri Uncle Anu and a whole other bunch of characters that used to be the most favourite reading material. Then there was Chandoba/ Chandamama with its Vikram and Vetal and loads of other stories trying to inculcate good moral values based in village with name like 'Chandanpur' or something with the characters in the stories with names like suryasen, chandrasen or like that. I still remember the typical Chandoba style pictures. Chacha Chowdhary Billoo Pinkee phantom Tarzan ..... this list could go on. This was kind of the staple diet back then. I still remember being cross with my mother for making me give all my cupboardfull of comics to the raddiwala. :(

After the becoming a little older (well i wont say that i passed the age when i would read Tinkle or any other said comic coz even today i would gladly read anyone of those) the books started to change with Enid Blytons Famous Five, Secret seven, Five findouters, Three Investigators and more of those barely teenaged kid detective stories. You could wolf these books down in a couple of hours. But it was real fun. Then came the Hardy boys Nancy drew ... a little older teenaged detectives. Boy they could have girlfriends and drive around in cars. It seemed really cooooll then.

I still remember after reading Call of the wild i was sooo in love with it that i had decided that if i had to have a pet then it would be a dog named 'Buck'. 20000 Leagues under the sea, Moby Dick, Three Musketeers, Sherlock Holmes ... Wow those were some books that still remain my favorites. Yeah and not to forget the Count of Monte Cristo and Treasure island. I still treasure these books they are truly classics.

In high school it was like an epidemic of Agatha christes that had struck my friends and me and it was kind of a race that who is reading some particular book before the others. I guess there is always a wave of books of a particular autor that gets you and you get drenched in the wave. There were such waves of Jeffery Archer, John Grisham, James Hadly Chase ... JHC ... hehe as a kid i could never take that one home from the library with those hot covers. I remember once i tried and the female at the desk gave me such a nasty look that i never again dared to take it. Only after becoming a little old enough i read those books and now with the newly published JHCs with the decent covers and all ... the very essential thrill that was there in reading it has vanished. (i guess i could write a separate post on JHCs). Since coming off these waves there hasnt been one particlar author whose books i would long to read. There are a lot of great authors but no one who can make you drop everything and read his/ her book just beacuse it is written by him. Well i can go rattling of more on books.

But i am sure each of the books i read did play a part in making me what i am today. Even those stupid stories of champak or Chacha Chowdhary where his brain works faster than a computer or a where Sabu getting angry causes a volcano on Jupiter. Whatever ... i still cherish all those books and the wonderful time had with them.

So go and get some books and celebrate the World Books Day.

Cheers...

Once upon a drowsy afternoon in College

2008-04-22T11:29:00.005+05:30

Hey ... this one is especially for the SCOE people. Well I am not much of an artist and so doing portraits is actually out of question. But the picture you see above was done by by me sometime in third year second semester of engineering i guess (mostly that was when we had PE i suppose :P). For non E&Tc guys PE = Power Electronics ... one of the most boring subjects we had for engineering. And to add to that the person who used to take PE lectures was was like icing on the cake. I don't remember anyone in the class (of who ever were present) paying much attention to what he used to teach. All we used to do was sit on some bench at the back of the class or try to get a place behind some HUGE guy who could hide you. The picture behind used to someones scribbling or doodling on their books... people reading GRE wordlists ... someone sleeping .... everything other than paying attention. Behind his back paper balls, planes, chalks would be flying all over the place. It used to be a fun hour for us. All we, i'm sure i can say this for the others remember of his lectures is the number of times he said "Okk?" or "UnderstOOd?" ... or "Please Try to undrestand". And coming back to the picture above, it his the portrait that i made during one such boring sleepy afternoon.

P.S. I dont mean to make fun of the person who taught us ... but it WAS REALLY VERY boring to listen to him. Sinhgad people try to identify him if u can. :D

Elimination Method

2008-04-16T10:29:00.004+05:30

When we prepare for some competitive exams we are always told that if you don't know the correct answer from the choices given, use elimination method. Discard the least possible choices one by one till you feel you have got the correct answer.

Isn't it same principle that we follow in our life everyday? Our life is also like a competitive exam ... one wherein we are competing with ourselves and trying to better ourselves. Here it is we who decide upon the questions ... we who decide upon the multiple choices ... but still many times don't know what is the correct or most probable answer. And what we do is keep eliminating the choices that we feel are not the correct ones, till we reach a satisfying choice which we say is our answer to the question. Sometimes we hit it right sometime not. But we only realize that our answer was probably wrong only when we read the next question. But then unlike the exams we cannot go back to the earlier question and change the answer. All we do is say "Move on ... " and start working on the next question, hoping to get it right this time.

A Chance Encounter

2008-04-14T10:59:00.005+05:30

"Excuse Me ... " A soft voice said from behind him. He turned around to see a pair of dark eyes looking at him, slightly confused.

It had been a tiring day. "Thats it ... cant handle this anymore", he thought. Just as the official work hours got over, he packed up and left. His mind too preoccupied with random thoughts to perceive what was going around. Once he was away from his desk his mind started to clear a bit. His cellphone was ringing ... but he did not want to pick it. He was not in a mood to talk with anyone. But it kept ringing. Finally he stopped, but by then the phone had stopped ringing. Thats when he heard the voice behind him.

Removing the scarf wrapping her pretty face, she asked him "Can you tell me where this road goes to?". His thoughts still somewhere between what he was thinking before he stopped and admiring the girl. She asked him again which road to take for going to some part in the city. Without much thinking he mechanically told her the way. Giving him a sweet smile and thanking she left him ... still somewhat in a trance. Smiling to himself he also started back on his way.

After some time he stopped for petrol. While an attendant checked the air pressure in the tires, he saw the same girl once again standing at the side of the road talking on her cellphone. "Some luck today" he thought to himself. Just then the girl turned and again was looking directly at him. She recognized the stranger ... and smiled again. Taking of his helmet he asked her if she needed any more help. She shook her head and smiling she walked to her bike and road off ... once again leaving him behind smiling all by himself and wondering how some chance encounters leave you wanting for more.

Arree ... What an idea !!

2008-04-10T12:09:00.004+05:30

I am deep in my work in the morning when suddenly my cellphone beeps. I have got a message. I open my inbox to find that the message i just received is from a "Sakhi". Sakhi?? Who Sakhi? what Sakhi? i dont know any Sakhi... curiously I open the message and find the following text:

"Akele ho? Na ho pareshan. Ab sathi pana hai aasan. SMS karen FIND 58888 aur banayen dost. Mil sakti hai Kareena ya mile Salman. Rs3 - SMS. SMS MENU for more services."

What the ... what is this? i was laughing my guts out when i read this message. A "Sakhi" soliciting a "Sathi"? And not just any sathi mind you ... sathis as hot n gorgeous as Kareena* and as cool and macho as Salman*. Hahahah hohoho hehehe its hard to control your laughter.

Oh My GOD this is a bit tooo much. wat do these cellular service provider people think? OR do they think at all? are we subscribers that desperate for "Sathis"? I think not. But whatever ... at least this message gave me a much needed break from my work and something to write about.

I guess after finishing this post i am sending "FIND" to 58888. Who knows i might find my Salman Ooops sorry my Kareena ... no no my sathi... kyunki "ek idea badal sakti hai apki dunyia" ;-)

Cheers...

*Disclaimer: It is the opinion of the service providers that Kareena and Salman are or would be the ideal Sathis. The author does not share these views. Also the author does not wish to refer to any particular cellular service provider on purpose. Any such indication to a particular service provider is a mere coincidence.

The Haircut

2008-03-27T10:45:00.007+05:30

Today morning as i sat at my barbers chair, wrapped up in the 'clean white sheet', there came this thirty something guy with a sweet little kid in his arms. The kid was at his playful best mood and enjoying himself. The kid's was dad showing the multiple images created by the big mirrors on both sides and the kid was thoroughly amused by it.

But alas, this joy of the kid was cut short as the wicked barber called him up for the haircut. The barber got an additional cushion for the kid to sit on and the father placed him on it. Then as father held the kid, the barber wrapped him up in a sheet. It was obvious that the kid did not have much of an experience at getting his hair cut because as soon as the barber finished wrapping him, the kid started to wiggle free of the bondage. And no sooner did the barber put a comb on his head, the little guy was already bawling. Finally the father managed to hold him as the barber tried to go about his work. But the kid was a tough customer and soon he managed to get himself free of the sheet and was waving his arms here and there making it all the more difficult for the poor barber. Finally the barber asked the kids dad to hold him in his arms as he cuts the hair, which both of them seeming thought would pacify the kid. But the kid had other plans and kept turning his head away from the barber every time the barber got the scissors anywhere near. Somehow the barber managed to snip of the hair around the ears and back of the head ... but the hair on the top still remained untouched. The barber now stood on a chair as the guy held his kid under the barbers scissors. I bet you would pay to have a look at that guys face while the kid was pouring out his eyes till no tears flowed. It was a mixture of frustration ... agony ... coated with a feeling of enjoyment. And finally when the barber had managed to chop of as much hair as possible or as much the kid allowed to ... the expression if the guy turned into that of conquering the world, exhausted and relieved.

As for me ... i was still wrapped up in the chair trying not to laugh with my barber going snip snap snip snoop around my head and saying "Aho tumhi tari doka jara saral theva na ... " (meaning: atleast you hold your head straight).

Why are we Indians so 'horny'?

2008-03-14T09:58:00.017+05:30

Oops ... that was a wrong choice of words. Well but don't deny that it got you interested immediately... ;) What i meant was, why do we Indians honk the horns of our vehicles so frequently?

There wont be a road in this country where you can go without hearing a horn for more than 10 seconds. Let the road be jam packed... or empty ... let there be a red signal or a green ... be it an expressway or some small lanes in the heart of the city ... there we are blowing the horn hoping that people will make way for us. We honk horns to call our friends out of their homes... i don't get it... how are these friends supposed to know that its we who are honking to call them out? But they still do know that its we honking the horn, which is even more amazing. Have you ever been honked continuously by someone behind you till you get irritated? Its like they have hurt our pride and then what do we do? We let them pass by and get your sweet revenge by honking behind them till the guy goes mad.

You can actually understand the mood of the person driving by the way he honks his horn. "Peep peep" is horn of a person in a neutral mood. "pip a pipi pipi ... pipi pipi" is a person who is happy or in a carefree mood. "pip pip ... pip pip... pipipeeeep" is a person in hurry or or frustrated. "peeeeeeeeeeppppp peeeeeeeeeeeepppppp... pipi peeeeeeeepeeeep " is an angry guy saying get the hell out of my way.

For last couple of days i have been trying to ride my bike without honking the horn at all (well thats partly because my horn got busted and won't work). When you can't honk you tend to drive much slowly than you normally would. You feel that the people around you are whizzing past at breakneck speed... (even though at some other time you might have done the same) and all are bent on hitting you. It is only when we honk our way that we get a true sense of driving. And we don't stop there, we love honking so much that we have it painted on the backside of all our trucks and trailers "HORN OK PLEASE". We are begging be honked at. Its like that honking our horns gives us some kind of satisfaction some kind of pleasure.

Well thats it ... enough of my experiments with the horn ... i'm getting the horn of my bike fixed right away.

Pipip pip for now....

The Kite Runner

2008-03-12T10:51:00.014+05:30

I had mentioned in one of my earlier posts that i had started reading The Kite Runner and i you could expect some post on it soon. Well i have finished reading it and feel that this was definitely one of the finest books i have read. Having already read Thousand Splendid Suns... i was expecting the Kite Runner to be equally good but it was more than i expected. Khaled Hosseini surely has a unique way of telling stories.

The story is spans over 25 to 30 years, based mainly in Afghanistan, and partly in the US. The story starts with the protagonist, Amir as a 10 year old in Kabul, at a time when there was peace in Afghanistan. Amir lives with his Baba, and their servant Ali and his son Hasan. Hasan was a very loyal friend to Amir, but at times Amir gets jealous of him for some petty reasons. Something happens later that changes their lives for ever. Amir feels guilty about what had happened, but keeps the secret to himself.

Years later, when war breaks out, Amir and Baba leave Afghanistan and go to the US where Amir is able to forget his past slowly. But one day he gets a call from an old acquaintance from Kabul , Rahim Khan, which digs out the ghosts of his past and he has to confront them and sees it as his only hope to get redemption after all the years.

All throughout the book Hosseini keeps the reader captivated. His characters seem so lively that you actually get involved in them. You hate Amir for what he did or for what he let happen. You feel sad for Hasan who even after being betrayed stays so loyal to Amir. You start to sympathize with an older Amir trying to bury his past and go on with life. And when Amir goes back to Afghanistan to you wish with all your heart that he fulfills his purpose of returning and gains redemption.

Hosseini also portrays the bad state of Afghanistan and make us wonder what had gone wrong in Afghanistan, that its people had to suffer so much for the last three decades. You can't help but feel sorry for them. But as rightly said in the book ... 'Zindagi Migzara' ... Life goes on.

Overall the book is wonderfully written and you can't put it down till the end. This one is a definite read for all.

Checkmate …

2008-03-09T11:22:00.003+05:30

After a long boring week, the weekend seems to be going much better. Yesterday evening went to see a Marathi movie ‘checkmate’. After a long time here is a really good movie and that too in Marathi. Not that some of the recent Marathi movies were not good … but this one deserves a special mention for sure.

The movie is about how a fake investment firm promising phenomenal returns on investments dupes a whole lot of customers, which includes the three lead actors of the movie. Each of the three has lost a huge sum of money, which was their step closer to their dreams. With little hope of getting their money back thorough legal procedures the three hatch a plot to get back their money. This leads them into a series of thrilling experiences … some of which they were prepared for and some totally unexpected. With the game becoming dangerous the three are forced to everything to get the money back and see that the person responsible for cheating all the people is put behind bars.

The direction is very good and the story maintains to keep the viewers on the edge of their seats till the end. Plot seems to be original and well worked on, with little or no loopholes left. All the actors have given a good performance and are natural in front of the camera. The narration of the story in between the scenes by the different characters adds a nice touch to the movie. The camera angles and lighting for these scenes is something new for Marathi cinema. The director manages the twists in the plot nicely and also manages to give a good end to the story.

Overall the movie is a good one and worth watching. The only thing that probably goes against the movie becoming a big commercial success is that being in a regional language like Marathi, it has a very limited audience. But no complaints there, as we hardly get to see these kinds of movies in Marathi.

Kudos to the director, writer and the cast and crew of the movie… and hope that they keep the good work going and come up with more of such good movies in coming times and give the audience something to cheer about.

The Empty Week

2008-03-07T16:41:00.008+05:30

Its been a week now since i started to blog. I had hoped that i would post at least one post per week. Well now i know that i was asking for a bit too much maybe. Not that i don't get time for writing ... but you just don't get enough good ideas to write about that frequently.

This has been one of those really dull and boring weeks. Weeks when you don't have much work and nothing else to do either. Now as the week ends, i really wanted to post something for the week, so finally i decided to write about why i couldn't write something which i could post...

Well, i tried to sit down and write about some things or events that i have been thinking about at times in the last week but non of the ideas were interesting enough and i couldn't make myself post anything that i wrote. i myself found it too boring to read let alone hoping you would read it. The week also passed without much happening ... well that is other than India winning a tri-series in Australia. But there is already too much said heard about that for me to add anything more.

Finished reading another of John Grisham's book, 'Bleachers'. its a very small book with the background of American football. The main character in the book, Neely Crenshaw is a long forgotten football hero, but the story actually revolves around a popular coach, Edie Rake, of the town school who is on his deathbed and the memories different people / players have of him. It was one of those which you neither especially like nor do you find it uninteresting. So there was not much to write about that as well. I'v started reading 'The Kite Runner' and mostly that would be the topic of my next post. It seems to be very interesting, not that i have read much but liked whatever i have till now. But won't write more on that or my next weeks post will be ruined. :) So keep waiting ...

cheers...

P.S. Hoping my next post would be somewhat more interesting than this one.

The Hidden Memories

2008-02-29T09:45:00.005+05:30

It was this morning that i was reading the newspaper as usual when i casually happened to glance at the date on the paper... 29th of February 2008 and all of a sudden i remembered that today is birthday of one of my friend's brother ... So whats so special about remembering that??? Well considering that i have not met this guy, the brother, for at least 10 - 12 years ... and even at that time i just knew him as my friend's brother, nothing more than that, it is quite special.

We must have been about 11 - 12 years old when my friend told me that his elder brother was celebrating his fourth birthday... i was a bit confused ... elder brother's 4th birthday when we were 11 years old??? Well it happens that his birthday is the 29th of February.

But then how and why did i recall such a piece of information about a someone whom i had no contact whatsoever for at least a decade? Was that information really important to me? NO. Then why was i recalling it and that too after such a long time? What made me store this information for so long? Have you ever suddenly recalled something that had been hidden in some remotest corner of your brain... something that is totally irrelevant to what you are doing or something that you yourself didn't know that you knew it?

I guess it happens to most of us. Something that you had heard a long time ago from a friend or something you had read.. it just pops up out of no where and surprises you. These things have nearly no significance in your life ... not when you first heard it nor when these things are suddenly recalled. Just lying there in a dormant part of our brain waiting to spring at you at a time when you least expect them.

Oh ... what else our brains might be storing to amuse us... a stupid little joke you shared with a friend when you were kids, a funny habit of a teacher long forgotten, or something that seemed so serious and plausible at the time and so idiotic in retrospect. Whatever it may be, it surely gives you this weird kind of happy feeling and makes you smile. This brain of ours surely is a great mystery.

I don't think there is a remotest chance of said person looking at this blog but anyways ... Birthday Wishes to the person who gave me something to write about in my first blog and thanks.

At last … or is it At the beginning …

2008-02-27T22:49:00.002+05:30

Following blogs of some of my friends for a few years, I always felt that I should also start one of my own. But somehow I managed to put it off for some reasons unknown.

Well actually the reasons, are not exactly unknown but it is just that I have been really lazy. For past few months I have been getting lots of free time but as always spend it doing all the nothings. And also I really didn’t want to end up as another of one of the bloggers who quit midway leaving behind ghost blogs or not updating it regularly.

Last week another of my friend, decided to start his blog … and I felt the urge to start a blog once again. And at last I'v decided to take a shot at it.

Mostly in this space you’ll find my arbit ramblings about anything and everything. Hope that you find my posts interesting .

Cheers … :)