Heartout

Pink

2009-05-26T22:57:00.002+05:30

Different day, different colour. I simply love summer.

Boatman

2009-04-28T12:45:00.003+05:30

Orange Candy

2009-04-01T14:14:00.001+05:30

The Shore temple

2009-03-20T18:39:00.000+05:30

Sun Outage

2009-03-07T12:40:00.001+05:30

We were watching TV sometime back today and suddenly just saw this message pop up on our screens.

Apparently, it is a common phenomenon. Refer to this link for details.

Golden Light

2009-02-08T13:31:00.000+05:30

Dusk

2008-11-29T19:46:00.002+05:30

My office, on a beautiful evening - as seen from my terrace.

Green Bee Eater

2008-11-06T15:54:00.001+05:30

Ashy Prinia in golden light.

2008-10-19T21:33:00.001+05:30

Thick Knee

2008-06-03T15:00:00.001+05:30

Thick Knee, originally uploaded by kkeshav_007.

Tickel-Blue-Flycatcher

2008-05-10T17:04:00.001+05:30

Tickel-Blue-Flycatcher, originally uploaded by kkeshav_007.

This is one of the most beautiful birds I've ever seen. One amongst the most co-operative opens too! The only bird that made our today's trip to Nandi Hills totally worth it.

The Singer

2008-05-01T14:35:00.001+05:30

Pond Heron

2008-04-22T22:53:00.001+05:30

Red Vented Bulbul

2008-04-13T11:52:00.000+05:30

Grooming time

2008-04-12T14:25:00.002+05:30

One of my favourites from the recent trip to Ranganthitu.

Thick Knee

2008-04-07T21:59:00.001+05:30

Image of a Thick Knee we saw at Ranganthitu yesterday.

Laser show

2008-03-21T23:01:00.001+05:30

Please click on the photo to see it fully blown. Please bear with the poor quality as it was taken hand held in night on a windy harbour.

Victoria Harbour

2008-03-16T17:05:00.005+05:30

Click on the image to enlarge it.

Zitting Cisticola

2008-02-14T23:22:00.000+05:30

Paddy field Pipit

2008-02-09T21:25:00.000+05:30

Kestrel

2008-01-27T12:03:00.000+05:30

This is one of the most beautiful birds of prey I have seen.

Not on talking terms

2008-01-07T12:48:00.001+05:30

Not on talking terms, originally uploaded by kkeshav_007.

Taken at the lake near office.

White Breasted Kingfisher

2008-01-06T17:44:00.001+05:30

White Breasted Kingfisher, originally uploaded by kkeshav_007.

One of the most friendly birds I have seen. This bird was so close to us that I actually had to zoom out to fit it in frame.

Taken near the lake around my office.

It was very very windy and overcast, and I took it handheld at such high focal length. I think I have over-sharpened it a bit, but still I like it overall.

Devarayandurga

2008-01-04T18:18:00.000+05:30

A few photos from our latest Devnarayandurga trip.

Happy New Year

2008-01-01T11:29:00.000+05:30

Wishing you all a very happy and joyous new year.

Karanji Lake

2007-12-13T20:05:00.001+05:30

bird, originally uploaded by kkeshav_007.

This is one of the photos taken at Karanji lake on our last trip to Mysore.

Victoria Peak

2007-12-05T20:57:00.000+05:30

This is the magnificient view of Hong Kong island from Victoria peak in evening. It certainly was one of the most memorable views I have seen ever.

Sunday Sentiments

2007-11-15T18:52:00.000+05:30

This is perhaps the funniest and most entertaining piece written by Karan Thapar.
Do read and enjoy!

Manchinbele Dam

2007-11-02T23:17:00.000+05:30

These photos are taken from my second trip to Manchinbele, which was long back last month.

Hebbal Lake

2007-11-01T17:12:00.000+05:30

A few photos from my trip to Hebbal Lake:

Purple Heron:

Taken with Sigma 80-400 mm + Sigma 1.4x teleconverter handheld.

Grey Egret:

Taken with Sigma 80-400 mm + Sigma 1.4x teleconverter handheld.

Parakeet:

Taken with Sigma 80-400 mm + Sigma 1.4x teleconverter handheld.

Egret:

Taken with Sigma 80-400 mm + Sigma 1.4x teleconverter handheld.

Butterfly:

Taken with Sigma 80-400 mm handheld.

Red Wattled Lapling: (name courtsey: Rohini)

Taken with Sigma 80-400 mm + Sigma 1.4x teleconverter handheld.

Wagtail:

Taken with Sigma 80-400 mm + Sigma 1.4x teleconverter handheld.

Egret:

Taken with Sigma 80-400 mm + Sigma 1.4x teleconverter handheld.

Egret Again:

Taken with Sigma 80-400 mm + Sigma 1.4x teleconverter handheld.

Common Mynah:

Taken with Sigma 80-400 mm handheld.

Pathway:

Full Moon

2007-10-25T19:56:00.000+05:30

I had read in newspaper today that the moon will be closest to the earth tonight, and it will be the brightest full moon.

Sadly, I could not reach home early enough to capture it at twilight. I tried taking a few at around 7 pm and most of them came as a bright white disc. Only these two are worth presenting.

Statue of Liberty (2)

2007-10-24T23:33:00.000+05:30

I have never been more fascinated by any other landmark as I have been with this magnificient structure. All of these have been taken by my brand new Sigma 80-400 mm with OS.

New York

2007-10-21T12:17:00.000+05:30

I have a lot to say about New York, but that is a matter of another post. For the time being having a few photos processed, I can't wait longer to post it (this despite having an important personal affair to attend in a few hours).

Have a look:
Statue Of Liberty

New York Skyline

Central Park

Central Park

Brooklyn Bridge

Wall Street Bull

Ground Zero

I loved this

Brooklyn Bridge

The Empire State Building

Skyline from Central Park

Old New York stock Exchange

Another Skyline

Another Skyline

Jungle Dove

2007-10-20T23:34:00.000+05:30

Brahmini Kite

2007-10-20T23:27:00.000+05:30

Statue of Liberty

2007-10-20T16:35:00.000+05:30

So I'm back from the US. There is a huge backlog of photos pending to be processed.
I am extremely busy with things at office and personal life, so this has to wait.

For the time being, here is one photo I like:

Manchinbele Dam

2007-09-16T17:44:00.000+05:30

This Saturday Barun and myself went on an early morning trip to Manchinbele Dam. It had rained heavily the night before and we were extremely skeptic whether the rain gods would allow our plan to succeed.

I desperately wanted to see sunrise(if at all it arose) from behind the dam and keeping this in mind we left at 4:30 a.m in the morning. But as luck would have it, Murphy struck and we realised we were short on fuel. It was 5:15 and we were wandering desperately on Mysore Road in search of fuel. After a wild and frantic hunt
for half an hour, we finally found a petrol bunk. It really came as a surprise to both of us that an expressway like Bangalore-Mysore highway has such few numbers of 24/7 petrol bunks.

Anyways, we finally were on track and the moment we hit off the Mysore road we could hear birds waking up. It was still gloomy with no signs of sun and we were getting a little disappointed when suddenly Sun came out of clouds. It was such a refreshing sight to see the golden sun rays falling on lush green fields.

After a bumpy ride for around 15 kms we finally got sight of the dam we were heading towards, and it was truly awesome.

I have been to so many places in and around Bangalore both for sightseeing and for bird watching (thanks to Rohini), but this places wins in both categories hands down!
It is literally littered with birds - so many of them!

I am terrible with names of birds, so I can't say which all species did I see, but trust me I must have seen at least 15 different kinds of them.
The few that I could identify were:
Kingfishers,
Ashy Prinias and many other kinds of them,
Red whiskered Bulbuls,
Tailor birds,
Spotted munias,
Egrets,
Herons,
Laughing Doves,
sunbirds,
Robins,
Jungle mynas,
House sparrows,
Brahminy Kites,
Black Kites.

There were many more which I saw but couldn't figure out the species.

A few samples:

Apart from birds, as I already told, Manchinbele Dam is the most scenic and worthwhile place in and around Bangalore for a weekend getaway. With Savandurga in the background, and a huge lake in foreground it feels heavenly. One can happily sit for hours at the banks of the lake and feel rejuvenated. Every small thing there looks pretty.

Have a look yourself:

All in all, I would certainly recommend everyone looking for a weekend fun to visit this place. My trip was fully satisfactory.

Distance from Bangalore: 40 kms from Mysore Road flyover exit on your way from Hudson circle towards Mysore road

Road: Very good till Mysore Road, Bad to very bad in the first 12 kms off the main road, very good in last 5 kms.

Route(from M.G road): M.G Road->Hudson Circle->Mysore Road Flyover->Mysore Road till Kingeri-> Take a right immediately after Rajrajeshwari Dental College( It is on your right hand side exactly 2.2 kms after Rajrajeshwari Medical College)->after about 2 kms on the side road there is a small but distinguishable Y: Take Left-> Continue for another km past the Great Banyan Tree( Wonder what is great about it)-> After around 7-10 kms you will get to see the lake.

About the place: The place is totally green and free of absolutely any kind of pollution. There is nothing that you will get to eat there, though there is a Dhaba advertisement on rocks all around the place, but we found it closed. Carry your own food and water. If you like water, carry clothes to change in case you take a dip. You can even spend a night there if you are a gang of friends. You can pitch your tent and make a fire. If you like rock climbing or trekking, Savandurga mount behind the lake is perfect for that.

Request: PLEASE MAKE SURE NOT TO LITTER THE PLACE FOR IT IS SO PLEASANT AND CLEAN. YOU WILL BE PLEASANTLY SURPRISED TO SEE SUCH A LOVELY PLACE SO CLOSE TO BANGALORE. PLEASE RESPECT NATURE. :)

Rambling again.

2007-09-02T09:51:00.000+05:30

I have never had a concrete hobby and being the restless creature I'm, I never stuck to anything for long. A few things caught my fancy in past as well, but I would always end up in being impatient to follow up and finally would give up. But photography has been different.

It has been around 10 months now that I first got interested in it and to my surprise with every passing day my interest in it continues to grow. There has been nothing else that I enjoyed so genuinely - ever! It was during my Goa trip last Christmas that it caught my attention seriously when I got to play with my friend's point and shoot Canon camera. I was so excited by the experience that I got my first camera almost immediately. I had been contemplating buying a point and shoot camera for a long time anyways. But I decided (and I don't repent it a bit) to shell a little more than I could possibly afford then and asked my friend to get me a Canon Powershot S3 IS from China.

It was perhaps the best camera I could have got. I played with it endlessly for a long time learning various features it offered. After a while my impatience crept in again and I decided I had learnt enough (and this time totally wrong) to graduate to a DSLR. I bought myself a Canon EOS 350D with kit lens (18-55 mm) and a Sigma lens ( 70-300 mm). It is an exceptional camera and I feel I do gross injustice to its capabilities. I still am an amateur who got a bit too excited with the few initial photos he made and ended up upgrading a little too early. It is not that I cannot handle the equipment, I can take reasonably good photos with it for my level of expertise. But I feel I needed to utilize my old camera for a bit longer learning all the intricacies of photography.

I think I got carried away a bit too much. In my initial excitement I devoted majority of my time learning the jargon of photographic lingo. I mistook good photos with good cameras which I discovered is incorrect.

I still am an amateur in his infancy and there is a long way to go. I thoroughly enjoy my hobby and am determined to keep it going forever. All I want for myself is to learn the art well and enjoy the photos I make. With Rohini's keen interest in birds I get a lot many more chances to try my hands at my hobby. It is bird photography that made me realize my limitations. It is a very difficult art and I'm certainly not up to it yet. But I'm sure with time I will. :-)

This article by Ganesh Shankar is perhaps what I wanted to convey with my blog. I hope I have realized what he conveyed well in time.

Ashy Prinia

2007-08-26T10:31:00.000+05:30

I must acknowledge that shooting birds is the most difficult thing to do, especially if you are as ignorant of their behaviour and as impatient as me. Most of the images I made of this tiny thing turned out exceptionally bad thanks to its speed and my inability to take handheld images at high zoom.

But I still love this photo. It is so refreshingly green.

This was taken at Madiwala lake yesterday morning. If you need to read details of the trip keep reading Rohini's blog. A detailed report shall come soon.

A few other photos in the meanwhile:

Another Ashy Prinia

Dragonfly

Spotted Munia
Apparently, it is not a very common bird. For me all the birds are uncommon. :D

Butterfly

Another Butterfly

Chameleon

Egret

Common rat snake
This was at a lake near my office.

Watering the clouds

2007-08-24T19:48:00.001+05:30

Watering the clouds, originally uploaded by kkeshav_007.

Doesn't it look nice? I love it.

Moods of the sky

2007-08-20T20:27:00.000+05:30

Sometimes being a little attentive pays. I was sitting happily on my terrace sipping a refreshing up of tea when suddenly lights changed. The sun had just set and it was lovely.

I wasted not a single moment, got hold of my camera and ran up to the highest spot to capture the fiery mood of sky. And this is what I got:

I guess these are what we call magic moments in landscape photography. The moods of sky changed within 5 minutes to become normal. It really was awesome. Other than underexposing the photos by 1 stop, I have done nothing else. For a change I'm really happy, not with the outcome but with the fact that I could make some use of nature's mood and that too, in time. :-)

Twilight

2007-08-17T18:14:00.000+05:30

I was sitting on my terrace last Wednesday evening when I looked up to the sky. It was twilight and the moon had just come up. The view was awesome to the naked eye.

This is how it looked.

The moon was thinner and much much more beautiful than it looks in the photo, the culprit being a long exposure. And I'm wondering what introduced posterization.

My Bike

2007-08-06T22:20:00.001+05:30

My Bike, originally uploaded by kkeshav_007.

:-)

Green

2007-08-06T21:51:00.001+05:30

green, originally uploaded by kkeshav_007.

Isn't the richness of green refreshing? I love monsoons just for this. :)

Landscape

2007-07-25T10:18:00.001+05:30

Landscape, originally uploaded by kkeshav_007.

This was taken on our trip to Devnarayandurga last Saturday. The weather was lovely - a little dark and windy, not too good for photography actually. But it was the first time I used my tripod.

I had the best adventure of my life when we got stuck in the downpour and had to ride my bike in heavy rains for 92 kms in dark. It was a scary experience where I could hardly see a thing due to rain and was almost frozen due to long exposure to cold water.

Chameleon

2007-07-23T11:03:00.001+05:30

Picture 054, originally uploaded by kkeshav_007.

Noticed this chameleon on our adventurous trip to Devnarayandurga this Saturday. This small creature was sitting at the edge of a distant rock.

Ranganthitu

2007-07-16T20:52:00.001+05:30

Ranganthitu, originally uploaded by kkeshav_007.

This was taken on our fabulous but unplanned trip to Ranganthitu and Bandipur last Saturday. More about it in coming posts.

Walkway

2007-07-11T16:11:00.001+05:30

Walkway, originally uploaded by kkeshav_007.

A beautiful walkway noticed in Lal Bagh Gardens.

Pearls

2007-07-08T20:00:00.001+05:30

Picture 58, originally uploaded by kkeshav_007.

This photo was taken on a cloudy day at Lal Bagh after our trip to the Hebbal lake turned into a fiasco.

We had taken great pains to get up early at 5.30 to go to the lake for bird watching, but after reaching there we discovered that it was being de-silted. As a back up, we had planned to go to the Jublee lake next to the Hebbal lake, but it was too early for public entry there, as the park opens at 10.30.

In a final bid to save the day and our efforts, we decided to go to Lal Bagh and try our luck there. The weather was very windy and it was drizzling. The droplets of water looked really great on green grass. This is just a sample of how beautiful it looked.

Liril fall

2007-06-28T21:17:00.000+05:30

This is one of the photos from my recent visit to Hogenakal. Seeing it I was reminded of the old Liril advertisment. I postprocessed it a bit using Picasa to add glowing effect and some blurring at edges. I know it has a number of flaws but I still love the way it has turned out.

Along with photography, learning Gimp comprehensively is on top of my agenda these days.

Hogenakal trip

2007-06-26T12:32:00.000+05:30

Here are a few photos from our trip of hogenakal falls in Tamilnadu.

The London trip

2007-05-09T13:40:00.000+05:30

Thanks to my job, I had this great opportunity to go to Southampton in the UK for two weeks last fortnight. I made some time to see London on a day trip.

London is the city to see. Quite contrary to the quiet and boring life in Southampton, London is full of activity. A city buzzing with life and tourists. It is a city of monuments and museums. I personally feel that London, Paris and all places in Italy are a must see for any lover of culture, art and history. There is so much to see and appreciate.

The tourism department in the UK is very traveler-friendly. I took a train from Southampton to London Waterloo station. The ticket is valid for a day and covers for the to and fro train journey and unlimited rides on the London tubes and buses. All this comes for 30 RBPs. If there is a large group going, there are attractive discounts - 30% for a group of 5 and 60% for a gang of 10 or more.
I was with another colleague, so sadly no discount.

I had brought along with me a borrowed NatGeo London guide which helped immensely to pick places to see and leave certain places that could not be covered in one day. I had decided to cover the most of it on foot. According to me there is no better way to explore a city and its culture other than on foot.

Waterloo station is at the south-west bank of River Thames. Westminster bridge is at a walkable distance from there. Right at the start of the bridge lies the South Bank Lion.

And exactly next to it is the London Eye. It is a magnificent giant wheel with large glass compartments. The view of London offered by it is splendid I have heard. I did not get into it as there was not too much time and it is a time taking exercise. But it is really a great sight to look at.

We could see the Westminster's palace and the Big Ben from the banks of Thames. Westminster's palace is the parliament house of Great Britain. It's a marvelous piece of architecture. The Big Ben is a giant clock structure situated at the north eastern end of the Westminster's palace. And I must add, it is a great sight.

The next in my plan was Westminster's cathedral. It is an old structure beautifully preserved and bustling with tourists.

It was a rather long walk from there to the Buckingham palace. On the way we saw the busy London uptown market and the Victoria station.

Buckingham palace is arguably the most popular tourist site. I saw more tourists there than any other place is London. It is a delightful place. I wanted to catch a glimpse of the royal change of guard, but we reached half an hour late.

The royal palace park is the best park I have been to. A lovely family place, with a lovely lake, a few small bridges over it, nice garden, lots of ducks and swans and pigeons and an exceptional picturesque view. I fell in love with place. We spent at least an hour and a half there.

We were extremely tired by this time and took a small break and had some coffee and food to eat in the park.

Energized, we quickly walked up to the Downing Street in Westminster city. 10 Downing Street is the address of the British Prime Minister and it is one of the other popular tourist places. Walking down the same street took us to Trafagular Square. It is a majestic square and at one end of it stands majestically the London art gallery. It is such a vast sea of art that one would certainly require a full day to appreciate it properly.

This brought us to the end of my walkable route. We took a ride in the famous London bus and went to see the Hyde Park.

Hyde park is an enormous park famous for hosting biggest Rock concerts and for the Diana memorial. It is mostly a place for people with time in hand to soak the sun and enjoy a lazy Sunday afternoon. There is not much to do there otherwise. My recommendation to anyone who goes that far would be to surely walk up to Harrods. It is arguably the most famous departmental store in world, and trust me, it is worth a look. People with shallow pockets like me can just look around, it is only for the rich and famous.

We had covered almost all of what we had in our list for the eastern side apart from St Paul's cathedral, which sadly was not walkable. We took a bus to Victoria and from there changed another to land at St Paul's cathedral. We reached there just a bit late and could not get inside. But the place is a treat for an art loving soul. Have a look yourself:

Right across the cathedral lies the Millennium bridge. It is a famous bridge shown recently in many Hindi movies. At the other end of the bridge lies Tate's Modern art gallery. It is a colossal structure, one like the Art gallery which will surely take one full day. Do not enter it if you are pressed for time. Walking along the eastern bank of Thames for around a mile or two would lead you to the most famous London structure: the Tower Bridge. It is a treat for the eyes and all the effort invested is worth it. At the other end of it lies the famous London Tower which is more like a castle than a tower.

We had not enough time to see other places; it was already 8:30 by then and we were extremely tired of the day long walk, so we decided to return back. For people who have plenty of time, my recommendation would be to try to see the Lord's cricket stadium, Sherlock Holmes museum, the Greenwich, Madame Tussauds ( I personally did not want to see wax structures), the Queens Gallery and many more places. London cannot be covered in totality in just one day. One would certainly require 3 days to enjoy it, but I am quite satisfied. Every penny spent and every mile walked was so totally worth it. You will get what I feel if you too, like me love art, history and culture.

Back

2007-05-09T11:25:00.000+05:30

I am back from the UK.

Will post about the London trip soon.

The battle of equals.

2007-03-24T20:00:00.000+05:30

My office moved to its new building in Hebbal last week. It is a very nice campus with loads of state of the art facilities.

Though the building is spacious and has modern architecture, it still has its set of flaws. To begin with, the cubicles are very small; so small that if you possess a dog's smelling sense like me, you can distinctly figure out who has bathed and who gave it a miss. The separation-walls of the cubicles are made of glass, so there is no privacy. All the cubicles are interconnected with just one exit. So in effect one has to cut across many cubicles to get out and in the process disturb others and get noticed and frowned upon, if going home early.

But overall, I like it.

But it is not the new campus I want to talk about today. If you happen to be frequently traveling on Ring Road near the Hebbal-Nagwara junction, you surely would have come across my subject often and would have your own stories to tell, unless of course, you are far more scarier in your external appearances than them.

I'm talking about the great nuisances called eunuchs!

That area seems to be flooded with them. They are every where. They harass travelers at the traffic signals and if you happen to be a bit 'chikna' you are surely going to get molested. I have had my share of light experiences with them in past, a few of them memorably funny. But it is a different thing if you are caught alone surrounded by a gang of them early in morning every day on your way to office.

Trust me, you'd be grossed out if you have them touch you everywhere. All you'll care for that time is to get rid of them as soon as possible, unless you are a really shameless funny guy who does not mind getting his body felt by them. This reminds me of this train journey I took with my friends in college. It was seven of us happily enjoying the long journey busy joking and playing cards when this group of 3 eunuchs got into our compartment demanding money from every male in the compartment. I often have wondered why it is that women get away so easily. They are rarely harassed by them.

Anyways, I should not digress. So, these three came to our seats too. I'm a little embarrassed to say that I get really petrified to see them, given the fact that I'm a little 'chikna' as one friend of mine commented. So, i gave them a 10/- note to save myself from the embarrassment, but it did not help much as by then I already had got a few compliments from them. Statements like "Kya Aamir Khan, kitna chikna hai re" are fun to hear now but were really embarrassing then. To top that they were pulling my cheek as if I was a 5 year old kid. I somehow got rid of them by shifting my seat next to the window, and then the fun began.

My other six friends refused to pay a penny. They were terribly upset by the fact that I paid them so easily and they were adamant that since one in the group paid, it suffices. And then started this verbal abuse session where these three were pitched against the six of my friends. All sorts of "Aamir Khans", "Salman Khans" and "Kader Khans" were used, but my friends were not to be moved. They finally decided to let these three continue while they carried on with their card game.

One of the three was really upset at this tiny 5 feet meek friend of mine for his formidable resistance and threatened to grope him if he did not pay them 10 rupees. This tiny friend decided that it was his day to put up a brave front and he said they were welcome to go on and grope him if they wished. And to everyone's surprise he did!

Everyone was horrified and disgusted at the sight of this giant 6 feet eunuch grabbing the crotch of this tiny 5 feet idiot. But not my friend! He was totally unfazed with a halo of calm on his face busy playing the game. The eunuch tried to embarrass him by sitting next to him and singing a few abusive songs. By this time everyone was relaxed and actually enjoying the show. Everyone in the compartment and every onlooker stood there to see who would win the battle. But it was my friend's day. It appeared that he too was enjoying it. He even demanded the eunuchs to sing a few of his favourite songs and they happily obliged with the hand of this chap always firmly grabbing my friend's private.

The show went on for at least half an hour, and then the eunuchs started to lose patience. Their leader probably had some business sense; he figured out that they were merely wasting time and entertaining the compartment for free. Finally they gave up. The leader was really impressed with my friend's performance and offered him a 10 rupee note as appreciation and even made an offer to join their gang which this friend courteously refused. He clearly had won, and having won this appreciation he was very moved. He finally budged and obliged them by giving a 50 rupee note.

Finally the show ended happily.

I had great fun.

2007-03-04T22:32:00.000+05:30

The two landmarks of Calcutta:

Howrah bridge at night.

Victoria Palace

2007-02-04T20:04:00.000+05:30

The first few photos from my camera.... click on each image to enlarge it.

I hate cats but this one looked so nice and was so co-operative that I could not help but capture its photo. There is a little bit of shake in the photo, but that due to my fear of this little creature.

This is something I spotted today wandering pointlessly while my friends were yelling at and waiting for me during lunch.

I liked this too.

Somewhere on Kanakpura Road, while we were on our way to Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's aashram. (I was not going voluntarily).

This one again was at the same aashram...

Water from a fountain at Ravi Shankar's aashram...

Goddess Saraswati at the aashram..

The mandapa at the aashram..

The guru himself.. He said a few words to me but I couldn't get a bit as it was in Kannada.

Earlier in the day...

This somehow makes me believe that the Shire in the Hobbit would have looked alike. I like this picture.

2007-01-27T08:39:00.000+05:30

Finally! My prized possession- Canon Powershot S3 IS - after a long patient wait.

The one thing that I have been craving to have since time immemorial!

Random again

2006-12-04T13:52:00.000+05:30

I'm not a regular drinker to be able to comment on the finer taste specific details of different alcoholic beverages, but I can surely say that Abisnthe is the thing to have! In spite of being a novice in this field, I could taste and figure out the intricacy of the making. The mildly bitter but rich in herbs taste is a thing to savour. It does not get you drunk in the traditional way, but the buzz it generates is a thing to experience first hand.

There are a lot of misconceptions about it. Some say it is a hallucinogen if taken in excess, while some say it's addictive. I cannot comment on the former as they didn't allow me to have more than a couple shots, but the latter must be true, as I'm already craving to have it again!

Sometimes small gestures impress you a lot, especially if they come out of the blue - totally unexpected. And this pleasant surprise gift that this sweet friend gave was really nice. I was moved, not because of the gift in particular but because of the little sweet note attached with it. :) Thanks.

And sometimes certain extremely small and trivial gestures irritate you a lot. I too had one such experience last week, and I was terribly upset, perhaps unreasonably. I think it was a small bubble that had been building up for some time and needed to burst.

I heard the title song of this new movie named Salaame-Ishq, and one thing impressed me a lot. I guess it is the first Hindi song to have used bagpipers and they sound really good and add freshness to the song. But I guess the movie is going to be another of those shot-in-breathtaking-locales-but-zero-in-content movies.

I'm extremely allergic to fiction based books. But The Hobbit is one book I thoroughly enjoyed. It is like those fairy-tales that one hears in one's childhood. Written in a very engaging and convincing way, it was a delight to read. The narration at times makes you feel as if someone's sitting by you and narrating the story. The description of the characters is very lucid and I could readily visualize the vivid scenery. Perhaps due to the fact that I've already seen The Lord of the Ring, but nevertheless full credit must be given to the author. A total entertainment!

I have invested a lot of effort in making a new proposal for development of a new tool. It turned out really impressive. I hope the way it impressed my manager and architect, it manages to impress the big bosses too, for it will be a nice experience for me to work on the tool and will get me a lot of brownie points too! :D

Sri Sathya Sai Baba

2006-11-27T12:32:00.000+05:30

I was pleasantly surprised to read this article about Sai Baba by Vir Sanghvi. Having personally seen this cheat and his foolish disciples, I would have been more stern in my praise of the old crook had I written this article.

I know there are many educated people, including our president, who are his disciples, and all those who follow the crook will be upset.

But does it look like I care?

I can't articulate clearly how much I hate such cheats.

Oops I did it again!

2006-11-22T11:25:00.000+05:30

There must be something skewed with me. Whoever knows me closely enough ends up thinking I'm nuts and a little crazy. My younger sister surely does, and so do my close friends. Even my dad subtly suggests I'm a little different for I've rather weird taste in almost everything. And it reaches the heights when even my young nieces rebuke me saying "Mama, tum to ekdum pagal ho!"

My problem is I'm an idealist. And perhaps due to this, more than me, the people around me get into trouble more often!

I've got a good track record of living up to my reputation. And sometimes, my antics are extremely crazy. Though I never do any such thing without giving it a proper thought and bothering about the consequences, but mostly no sane and social human being would dare to do them.

While I was with my last employer, I had once caused a major shock in a "big" meeting with most of the big guns present. One of the big guns asked if anyone had any issues or concerns, and in case if there were any, proper attention would be given to that. I realize it now that he did not intend that people should take it literally. It was more of a formal gesture that every big shot is supposed to make. It makes one a great manager!

But, how was I to know that? I took it seriously, and with full sincerity and concern rose up and pointed my finger to one of the two team leads and said that I had issues with his sincerity and that I doubted if he was helping positively to the team! And as you all can guess, the silence was shocking! Looking at the red face of the team lead in question, and the shocked and uncomfortable faces of the people around, I easily understood that I had blundered. But the point I had made was correct and I stood my ground. Finally I won.

And I did it again! This time here, with my present employers. I will not divulge much of it, but as always, I stood my ground, and I won.

Looking back now, I feel all these sound like comical narrations and make me appear like a psycho, but I swear in the name of the biggest psycho, whoever he is, that I think a million times before doing anything drastic like that. It is a tough thing to do, you see! You do so, and your bosses too think of you as a psycho. Your teammates already are fed up with your daily dose of ethical and professional code of conduct lectures. And the worst thing is that the person you have issues with, is still your teammate. He surely has to smile at you, but the meek sheepish look he carries in your presence makes you feel guilty.

But I don't care. Perhaps I don't need to, as their curses already do the job for me. :D The day I did this latest antic, I met with an accident. My bike skidded and I fell flat on my knees. I thank God that my friend who was the pillion, my bike and my new jeans are safe and sound else that guy would have had it! Come on, I did not do anything that bad that one has to curse me so much! I had spent 2.4k on my new jeans and had it been torn I would have been devastated. Luckily I got only a few bruises and a swollen knee. The jeans is as new as it was that day!

But I guess that was a gentle reminder for me to understand that being an idealist does not help. I got the message, but I choose not to take it for I am a total freak. :D

2006-11-15T10:34:00.000+05:30

I came, I saw, I pondered and left with a mischievous grin!

I never proclaimed I was a saint.

2006-11-13T10:27:00.000+05:30

There is no trouble so great or grave that cannot be much diminished by a nice cup of tea.
~ Bernard-Paul Heroux

2006-11-10T14:59:00.000+05:30

My ex-colleague whom in many ways I consider my professional mentor, had once replied to an apology mail of mine. He wrote, "Keshav, never begin any communication whether written or verbal with an apology, no matter how sincerely you feel apologetic."

Point taken. That's why I began with this anecdote, as I did not want to start with an apology. And now, having done a lot of preluding already, I think I should get down to business.

So, I want to apoligize sincerely to myself. I really have been feeling sick ever since I erred. It's bad when you fail to live upto others' expectations, but it is worst when you fail yourself. And I did so. It feels completely like shit to even think of that. What I did was my mistake; I realised it the moment I committed it.

What I did not realise then, was that it could make me feel this bad about myself. It has been quite some time to that; I have apologised with utmost sincerity to the concerned person too, been (hopefully) forgiven too, but it probably wasn't enough.

I don't normally bother myself with what one opines about me, as long as I know where I stand. But then, sometimes you know exactly where you stand, and you HATE it. That's when one avoids seeing oneself in mirror, like I have been doing.

But that's not me anymore, atleast not in last 2 years or so. I am not going to sulk, feel bad and do nothing about it. I did wrong and I can't escape the aftermath, and I won't.

Trust me, it requires an immense amount of courage to accept it. And I am happy that I possess that it in plenty.

So, sorry once more. I'm sure I won't err again.

P.S - It's been a long time since I had written two posts in succession within an hour. But what the heck! I am as jobless as I could get, and then this gamut of emotions came flowing! :)

2006-11-10T14:44:00.000+05:30

We argued aloud. It was fun for onlookers. We were at our best trying to convince the other to accept our respective viewpoints.

Our prestige was at stake.

The choice was tough, a temptingly easier but wrong way and a complex but right way. The wrong way was practical but one could be caught, the right way was clean but demanding.

In the end, I won.

2006-11-03T11:05:00.000+05:30

How do you react to a situation of acute embarrassment?

I normally try to wear an unperturbed look. But then, some situations are so embarrassing that they leave you reactionless.

I always had my share of fun by looking at embarrassed people react to awkward situations. Never had I imagined that my turn too, could come! And it came at the worst time when I couldn't even jump off the building to save my face - in an elevator!

You wouldn't know what emotions force some people towards impulsive suicide! You just have to be in a stuffed elevator, surrounded by a few colleagues, a few aunties, and a cute girl! And the girl has to look at your crotch, smile, giggle and then inform you that your fly is open!

And given that you can't die on spot, all you can offer is grin - the biggest grin you can manage!

I can assure you that under those circumstances pulling up that damn zip can be the most painful and never-ending thing. The pain gets multiplied a million times when you see that even the aunties are looking at your pant with a smirk on their face!

I really wished I could die! But, sigh!! Such is life! You survive! You become shameless! You move on!

But then you go home, try to get your mind off this silly accident by Orkuting! And there you have the biggest surprise of your life - 7 friend requests from a gang of gay bastards sending you teasers and asking you to join them!

All you manage to do then is abuse them aloud, listen to music at the loudest, shag and sleep!

Ah!! I feel much better now!

Misadventures of a curious character.

2006-10-10T12:14:00.000+05:30

Train journeys are fun - not always apparently! Mine, in the lat 14 days were certainly not! Having spent 7 days of the last 14, in entirety, on trains, I deserve accolades as well as plenty of pity.

A whole lot of misconceptions that I had about me were broken, a few lessons were learnt and as always I had my share of misadventures!

To begin with, never travel alone in a sleeper compartment. No matter how many books you carry and how much ever you burry yourself into them, regardless of the loudest music that you play to switch off from the world outside, and regardless of the constant frowningly don't-you-dare-bother-to-bug-me looks, people still approach you for pastime. Talking, I found out, is India'a passion! My agony was intensified in my fisrt of the 4 journeys as all around me I had old aunties.

Most of the conversations that I had were scary to say the least. A typical example:

Aunty: So beta, you study?

Me: [A grin] No, I work.

Aunty: Ah great! You look quite young though!

Me: [An even bigger grin, a mild blush to add!]

Aunty: Where you do work, what do you work?

Me: I work with Philips Semiconductors and I work in IT industry in
embedded domain.

Aunty: [Puzzled by jargons] Ah! Good, good! Keep up the good work!
Even I have a cousin, whose wife's brother's wife's niece works in B'lore!
[An elated face full of pride!]

Me: [A smile] Good!

Aunty: You must be earning really well? Don't you? [A mischievious
smile]

Me: [A little frightened, you never know - even Aunties can be
horny!] Ya, good enough to survive!

Aunty: Shaadi to nahin hui hogi!

Me: [Dead frightened, wondering where it is going!] No!

Aunty: What's your caste?

Me: [Irritated by now] I'm a brahmin, why?

Aunty: [Excitedly, ignoring my question] Arey wah! Even we are!
[The same mischievious grin]

Me: [Shitting bricks. A meak smile]

Aunty: My cousin's wife's brother's wife's niece is really beautiful. She
is pucca Angrez, roz angrezi mein kya kya bolti hai. Kafi kamati bhi hai. Par
hamare sanskaar nahin bhooli, knows cooking too.

Me: [A little relaxed that the Aunty isn't horny. But as soon as I get
the drift I'm pale with fear.] That's quite nice! Umm.. Aunty I'm hungry, let
me see what's there in pantry!

Scene 2: Journey 2: Patna to Bareilly

I'm enjoying the music and am deeply engrossed in my book, suddenly there is a thud and I turn around to see an 11 year old girl crying at the loudest, in the shrillest tone possible. Before I realise that the devil has fallen from the upper berth, I feel a mild pain in my ears and see my media player in that girl's ears! The father of the girl gives me a sheepish sorry-I-had-no-other-option kind of look, and all I could offer was a smile - the kind when you want to kill someone but can't because you are so called civilized.

Scene 3: Journey 2: Bareilly to Patna

After a long tiring night been all awake being the appointed photographer and forced to jump and to wildly throw hands in air(what people assumed was dance), all I wanted was a sound sleep. What could be worse when I found a fat, pot-bellied, betel chewing Uttar Pradesh police constable lying with his scary dunda on my berth! Under normal cirumstances, I would have avoided messing with him, but the sleepless night had made me daring. Like a shameless brat as shown in Omkara, I poked a finger in his belly and rudely woke him up, showed him the ticket and asked him to come down. All hell broke loose! I never had been abused like that ever in my life, not that I have been abused even remotely close to that, but still! Wondering what to do, all I could do was shout back. Yelling at an equally loud and rude tone, I asked him to come down first and then to settle scores. Shitting in my pants at my stunts and its consequences I was about to faint when I saw the saviour! Like a messiah appeared a travel ticket examiner and I told him my problem, asked him to check my ticket and settle scores on my behalf with the constable and went up to sleep.

I have been told that the constable stood there for at least an hour throwing absuses at me and swearing to teach me a lession once I woke up, until his station came. A devout agnostic, I now feel God does exist!

Scene 4: Journey 4: Patna to Bangalore

Simply put, the worst journey of my life! Petrified by my constable experience, fearing running into him again, and frustrated by the sufferings due to intolerable heat, I decided to cancel my confirmed sleepr class return ticket and went for a second ac wait-listed ticket. Under normal circumstances, a tatkal wait-list gets confirmed easily, but not when I have to travel.

Result? I come to station and to my surprise find myself still waitlisted. Nothing can be done at the last moment, so my dad advised me to get in any how, and negotiate with the co-passengers and the ticket examiner. Well, having no other option, I do so. And that turned out to be a fiasco.

I wasn't the only waitlisted ass, there were 78 more. The scene inside the compartment was worse than a general class bogie. The passengers with confirmed tickets were totally unrelenting and rightly so, and the ticket examiner was a corrupt bastard. Couldn't keep cribbing, had to act fast. Decided to bribe the bastard, not certain how much to quote and how to do so, took a 500 note in hand, and he grabbed it the next second. Got 2 seats, was happy and contently sleeping when a Sardar woke me up! Realised I had been cheated. The bastard gave me seats till half of the journey and now the genuine occupant had come.

Result? Me standing like a complete jerk outside the bogie near the lavatory with my luggage besides me, and onlookers and passers by giving a who-is-this-cheap-ticketless-bastard-standing-here! Frankly, I had never been as embarrassed as I was then. 6 hours of torture and I got hold of another corrupt bastard! He flatly stated pay me 200 and I give you seats. Had I been alone, I would have shown him my middle finger. But cosidering the agony of my sister and fearing her you-get-home-and-I-see-you looks, I decided to pay him and finally got seats.

In totality, this trip turned out to be full of misadventures. Sufferings when I lived the moments, but in retrospect funny misadventures.

2006-09-18T13:34:00.000+05:30

Isn't this cute?

It is not only cute but reasonably good at performance too. A good gift from my employers.
I loved it. One of the better gifts one could get.

I found it better than Ipod Shuffle both in looks and performance. And who cares if it is not? Afterall it's a free gift(Isn't that all gifts are free?)!

All the best.

2006-08-31T12:33:00.000+05:30

I suddenly feel old and wise. Probably I'm wise, but definitely not old! :D

There are somethings which give you this feeling of been-there-seen-it-all kind. It seems like yesterday when I was on the other side, clueless and lost. I have grown a lot, improved by a big margin.

But looking at these young guns, I must say, I wasn't that bad.

I am saddened to see them struggle this way. It was meant to make them tough so that they learn and adapt fast, but it's been a vain excercise. They are not yet ready. Not at all. And time is running out for them.

I don't want to feel sorry for them, but I can't help. I did my bit and I failed. It's they who need to figure out where they stand. Self-denial is the worst enemy.
It's never late to accept failure and start afresh, but the analysis must be true.

I wish them luck.

Walk the line

2006-08-29T10:51:00.000+05:30

Have you ever overcome your fear of doing certain things?

Those small things, which are inconsequential in big scheme of things, yet, matter a hell lot personally.

Being a little self-contained (diplomatic way of stating my mild introvert nature), I've got plenty of those fears. There have been times when I've had to hold back my excitement, joy, anger, fear and feelings alike, for I could not dare to cross my self made thresholds.

And these aren't things of magnitude; they could be as trivial as feeling self-conscious of oneself in public, or being shy of talking to people of opposite sex.
But trust me, it requires enormous amount of courage to gather all strength to do it.
It's not the act which is the issue, it's the wrong analysis that one does in one's own mind after the act. We tend to draw wrong conclusions based on wrong pretexts and thus prejudice ourselves agaist things, atleast I do.

And I'm really glad that I made myself to overcome one such prejudice and gathered the courage to do one such thing finally.

And it wasn't bad at all.

Natwar Nach!

2006-08-10T10:17:00.000+05:30

A must read!

One of the finest exposing interviews of recent times. A Karan Thapar's classic after quite a long gap. Appears, he too reads my blogs! :D

Regarding Natwar Singh, I need not comment a bit. The poor old man has flip flopped quite a bit already, and his agony is extremely apparent in the interview. He has got what he deserved.

Nature at it's best.

2006-06-28T14:42:00.000+05:30

This beauty is what makes nature supereme. It just made my day.

Advocating for the Devil.

2006-06-28T11:46:00.000+05:30

Quite some time back, I had read a book titled India Unbound by Mr. Gurucharan Das. There, the author vehemently supports the concept of free economy and argues in favour of competition based market. I just adored the book, as it is one book, which says exactly what I believe in, and in exact words as I would have ever wanted to say. I must thank my friend for gifting me such a lovely book (though it was me who shamelessly indicated I wanted this book, if a book was what my gift would be).

Well, this book is not what I want to write about today. This topic came to my mind as I was noticing the healthy change in the number of intellectually sound programs a few news based channels have come up with. And all this must be attributed to the central theme of the book: competition based market. Since the advent of IBN Live (collaborated with CNN) and Times Now (collaborated with Reuters) on the scene, the quality in general of all the English based news channels, and the one-to-one interview based programs in particualr, have risen drastically.

There are a plethora of really entertaining as well as intellectually stimulating programs that come on these two channels, not to forget CNBC and Aawaz (both belonging to IBN Live group) and NDTV 24/7 and NDTV Profit(belonging to NDTV network). With fierce competiton to grab the widest viewership, thankfully these channels are now turning to the difficult and appreciation worthy intellectual creativity and not the easier and ridiculous gimmicks of the sort being practised by the Hindi channels like Star News and AajTak.

There are so many programs on these channels these days, that it sometimes becomes an issue which one to watch and which one to miss. I particularly like a few programs on NDTV 24/7, NDTV Profit, CNBC and IBN Live.

While NDTV Profit and CNBC are competitors in the financial segement, NDTV 24/7 and IBN Live are fighting it out in the general news based category. I must admit that almost all the programs on NDTV Profit and CNBC are worth watching, while CNBC is undisputed leader in market analysis and micro economic details, NDTV Profit is designed to cater a wider viewer base with macro economic details, and broader program spectrum. They don't frequently use the economic jargons and hence are understandable even to the lay men, while CNBC is for highly market oriented people. I enjoy both almost equally.

The difference comes in the general news segment. Before the advent of IBN Live, NDTV 24/7 was the sole superpower in the English news segment, and hence, over a period of time, their quality had become stagnant, if not detoriated. The arrival of IBN Live changed the whole scene. Like any fresh blood, this channel started with full vigour, and with it's rich program content, radically different presentation style and a set of good journalists soon caught up in the race and made news watching enjoyable. All credit must be given to the team of Mr. Rajdeep Sardesai, for he introduced a set of really enjoyable interview based programs like Being( to counter NDTV's Walk the Talk) and Devil's Advocate and a few discussion oriented programs like Face the Nation (to counter NDTV's the Big Fight).

All these programs with the exception of Devil's Advocate, were mostly to balance the viewership of NDTV, as they had their own blockbusters in these categories. But, it was Devil's Advocate that has made the biggest difference.

I am a regualr follower of this interview based program. It is one of the many one to one interview programs that I make a point to watch, the reason being the aggression and the home work of the interviewer Mr. Karan Thapar. I always was a regular viewer of Karan Thapar's interviews when they initally used to come on Doordarshan, later on BBC, NDTV and CNBC. I have always maintained that he is arguably the most well prepared interviewer I have seen. What I admire in him is his stern and aggresive approach, his skill to make sure not a single question is unanswered, and to rephrase the questions and their replies so that he viewers get the interviewee's point clearly.

This program too, started with the same efficiency. It was a tad more aggresive as the name Devil's Advocate suggested. His interviews with Mr. Parvez Musharraf, P. Chidambram, Pranav Mukharjee, Kamal Nath, Arjun Singh and many more have now become classics. But over the period of time, he seems to have lost the edge. In his zeal of aggresion, he has now begun to go over the board and watching the program is no longer fun. He does not allow the interviewee to finish a single answer, plainly refuses to take their viewpoint and almost forces them to accept his own. No body doubts his preparation and his data, but he refuses to let the interviewees put their point. These days his interviews appear like a show where the interviewee has been called to be insulted by the interviewer. A lot of recent episodes have been disastrous, a few really ugly.

Earlier, it used to be the inexplicable questions that would catch the interviewees off guard and upset them, but now it's mostly the continous annoyance of not getting a chance to speak and regualr pestering that upset them. The recent interviews of P. Chidambram, Arun Shourie, Sunil
Mittal would prove my point. The interview of the outspoken and arrogant Rahul Bajaj was a complete disaster, where both had made it literally ugly.

And this is not an exception, there are quite a few programs on IBN Live, which seem to have lost their vision. I think this comes naturally with immense success. Each phase of vibrancy is replaced by a phase of lull and stagnancy. I hope Rajdeep Sardesai and Karan Thapar too, are aware. If they are, then I know things would soon be fine, else they must read India Unbound.

Rambling

2006-06-21T12:31:00.000+05:30

It's quite ironical the way I crib! When I work, I crib for some free time to relax, and then when I get it, boredom due to inactivity takes its toll. Such repetitive are my antics that now it's become a predictable pattern. Very much like a girl's PMS, if I may call it so! :)

The last couple of weeks at work have been the most turbulent professionaly. First, a blunder of being a little casual about a job done, or rather overconfidence about it's simplicity landed me in deep trouble. Any professional thrashing for inefficiency is acceptable to me, but being myself, I associate a lot of pride in the work I do! And if, someone doubts my competency, it's the biggest insult to me. And my complacency about a really trivial thing fetched me such a remark. It was painful. Thankfully, I have proven this doubt wrong by doing a lot of other things after this episode, but the pain remains, and so remains this lesson embedded in my mind!

The second highlight was being able to finish a job in time, which had made me loose my sleep for quite some time. One gets a lot of pride and sense of achievement by being able to accomplish something, which your peers assume is undoable under the circumstances. I did one such thing and I am really satisfied. The joy in manifolded as it comes at a time when I badly needed to prove my competency.

I haven't yet been able to get acclimatised to the work culture here. Deep down, I am not happy for the lack of vibrancy this place has. To add to my woes, I do not admire the working style of my immediate colleagues. Occasional fun at work is a welcome change, but when it becomes a habit, it must be curbed. Noticing certain teammates hunting for frantic excuses to avoid work, coming up with inexplicable and ridiculous reasons about their behaviour, while me working my ass off is quite frustrating and generates a lot of negativity. The team is totally disoriented, and the bosses aren't bothered a bit. Inculcating accountibilty and seriousness in my team must be their priority, else I must confess, some of my colleagues must be shown the door.

Anyways, I must not bother myself too much with these issues, as I can't do much albeit I crib regularly.

Having a bike is so much freedom. The long countryside or highway rides with cool wind blowing into my hair is no more just dreams. It's a reality and I'm relishing every moment of my dream come true. I just love wandering aimlessly. :)

I have noticed that if I try, I can curtail my spending habits. I must work a bit harder though. Again, the bike saves me a lot of money which I earlier used to waste on Autos.

There is a certain thing which has been bothering my conscience for quite some time now. I have given in to the temptation a few times to get into something I do not aprreciate or want. And that disappoints me terribly, as I see myself in the mirror as a hypocrite. Knowing that the done cant be undone, I can only take reslove to avoid these things in future. I make myself a promise that it would not happen again.

I guess three long weeks deprived of movies is surely a torture that I have been giving myself, I must watch one today. That way, I would not have time to crib and can get some peace of mind! :)

I see that this blog is again one of those random jottings I normally write when bored beyond death. I do not like myself being this predictable! :D

Employer Appraisal

2006-06-06T16:33:00.000+05:30

It's been quite a long gap since I blogged last. I notice that my posts have become sporadic. In fact, a lot of things have been keeping me engaged and hence there is no time to blog. But now on, I would make a serious attempt to revive it from defunctness.

Quite an eventful gap it has been, the job shift and a new bike being the highlights.
Coincidently, it's been a month since I joined this place. Professional life, after a long period of inactivity, void, frustration and confusion is back on track. The work content at this place is not as refreshing and exciting as it was at my previous place of employment, but it is far more challenging. And, I enjoy being occupied trying to solve issues.

The job shift has brought a few new revelations, which have made me respect my previous employer a bit more.

To begin with, I find the pace of work in a product company way too sluggish for my appetite. I am not sure, if this is how it is in all product companies, but I am sure, be it any place, it would not match the vibrancy of a services company. The fact, that we are our own masters and aren't answerable financially to any one outside is the foundation of the sluggish pace. And to add to that reason, the roots of sluggishness and lethargy are strengthened here, particularly because of it's European origin. The whole outlook towards getting things done is totally laid back here, and no matter how important things are, there is a complete lack of urgency in approach towards things.

I wonder what the people sitting higher in the ranks do! I mean, if a relatively fresh guy like me, having a very limited view of the industry can clearly feel the lethargy in the culture, then there must be something seriously wrong. I suppose people out here must understand the importance of accountability.

There is a complete lack of process when it comes to development cycle. This is a fact that I verified with quite a few friends in other product based comapnies and barring a few rare exceptions, the situation in most of the places is almost as pathetic as here. Lack of documentation is extremely visible, the unconsistency of the document styles makes those few available document professionaly ugly and unreadable. Code rarely has comments; this I guess is an immediate result of lack of rigorous review processes. With exremely huge chunks of code, this becomes a frustrating issue which leads to reduction in efficiency.

The design of a few components makes me doubt the technical efficiency of the people involved. This does not intend any pun or humiliation to those involved, but the fact that, if I could point out such unnecessary and redundant approaches, it's an indication that things are bad. This again could possibly be because of lack of a rigrous review process. The lack of tracibilty between the few documents and the code is even more glaring. There have been instances where a documents suggests one design and the corresponding code piece implements exactly opposite.

But I guess the situation is not as bad as it appears. I happened to interact with a few different teams and saw their code and documents. And to my satisfation they all were in place, and were as competent as my previous employer. But I could not fail to notice all such teams had interactions with outsiders and they were accountable to people outside.

I suppose the solution to the problem lies in breeding accountabilty in the employees. I see that out here people are expected to work on their own. We are expected to feel the importance of the trust that's being put in us and work. The idea that this display of trust would act as a motivator is extremely noble, but I am sorry to accept, it fails miserably in our case. Or it could be that we lack direction, which I do not think is the case.

I see people here are quite settled. Most of them misuse this freedom to reduce thier efficiency. Had I been in charge, I surely would have tried looking into this persistent problem, which in my assessment is making the organization lose billions of dollars annually.

Perhaps I am a bit too judgemental and a bit too harsh, perhaps it could be the result of my extreme eagerness to work after a long inactivity. But one thing is sure, this problem exists and it needs an urgent catering.

Apart from these, it's overall a great place to be. The people are warm in general, the culture is informal, the human resources policies are employee friendly(a bit too friendly at times), the infrastructure is strong. The best practice that I noticed here is the fact that employees are treated as contributers to the company's balance sheet and are regualrly updated about it's vision roadmap. Every small decision regarding company is circulated till the lowest hierarchy.

It might sound trivial to many, but it does matter a lot. This was one of the major reasons which made me quit the last company. There we weren't treated as equals.

The work timings are flexible, and I, as always try to finish my work in the designated time frame and leave early. I hope people in general practice this. As a policy, the company strictly believes in the same. And I appreciate it. :)

Compensation package is competent, the finacial policies are very friendly, and food is edible most of the days! :)

Over a period of time, I intend trying to get people, whom I can influence, to adopt the better processes and thus help increase our productivity. And if all goes well, I see a long stay here provided my motivation does not die!

Phew!! It has turned out a very long post, but I suppose it was required to make up for the silence!

Arjun singh - Caste Away!

2006-04-10T09:34:00.000+05:30

Late Mr. Rajiv Goswami!! Don't you think you were an idiot when you did something as silly as self-immolating yourself?? You dud!! Why didn't you contact me?

Ok.. now that you are gone, it's my duty to caution any future to-be-Rajiv-Goswamis!!
Read this, all you emotional fools!! And mug it by heart!

Politics is made of two words - "poli" which is Greek for "many", and "tics" which means "parasites"

Now be ready to see the age of worms and leeches in Indian politics.

In the muck of the creepy idiots, we have got a new king and his tale to limelight!

At this young and virile age of 76 Mr Arjun Singh, honorable(I doubt how?) Human Resources Minister of the sovereign Republic of India, comfortably manages to beat the majority of Indians who claim to be the youth and the future of India!

And no!!! What you are thinking is not what the fact is! Mr Singh is not mourning or even pretending to do so in the snap! He is an old honorable man now, don't forget that! Can't the old man have a cold? Can't he just sneeze in public?

As if one disaster in the form of V. P Singh wasn't enough for the Indian youth, that we got another rotten tomato to deal with. Never in his wildest dreams would Mr Mandal have thought, that in a country obsessed with filmstars and cricketers, he too would have his share of fame(or notoriety?).

And whom must he thank? He must be most sincerely indebted to Mr Arjun Singh, to give him his desired share of reclaim to fame! And what greater an honor could be? Afterall it's a seasoned HRD minister who has found his bull shit worth acceptance. Last time it was a Feudal Lord turned politician in the form of an opportunist and back stabber V P Singh. This time it's a loyal, born-and-brought-up-in-Congress, silent, devoted, and above all most qualified person to make justice to the notoriety that Mandal has unjustifiably gained the last time around.

I recently finished reading India Unbound by Gurucharan Das! Afterall what qualifications he has to make a statement as silly as this?

We must all believe in the equality of opportunities, it's truly unjust to force an equality of results.

Mr. Das, with due respects to your ideology, I must say that it's an inappropriate fit to the modern India with her current clan of politicans! How can you even dare say something as silly as this? Look at your credentials, and compare those with our honorable minister. You think just being a Harward MBA, by featuring in three of it's case studies and heading a second rate company like Procter and Gamble you could contest the intelligence of Mr Singh? How dare you forget that your competitor had been voted the best parliamentarian in the year 2000! Go back to the definition I gave in the beginning! If you are even close to being literate, you would have got my point! Didn't you?

So what if 50% of the total seats in all Government aided institutions are proposed to be reserved for backward classes and tribes? How can one dare to question Mr Mandal or Mr Singh about the inappropriate definition of backward class? Afterall, they are the only qualified people with intelligence to interpret what our great leaders of past and makers of constitution had said! So what, if the lives of millions students and their aspirations go for a toss! So what, if thousands of seats in the reserved categories are left unfilled every year despite the relaxation in age limit and cutoff percentage! A few hundred thousand more would remain vacant! Big deal! Why the fuss?

Why is this hoopla about the so called degradation of the quality of education in the reputed Institutes? Idiots, can't you see, if the whole India is going to be degraded in terms of quality of intellectuals, why do you need to worry? Just make sure you are a better apple in the basket of rotten ones. All you need to try to achieve is the level of Mr Singh. You will become an intellectual!

And why do you need to study afterall? Don't you know 4 out of 10 kids in India don't go to schools? When Mr. Singh being such a qualified person does not think it necessary to mandate primary school education and make it a fundamental right, why do you even need to bother about higher education? What's the point in learning rubbish in the form of management and technology when you don't even know 2+2=4!

Mr. Singh is a very qualified saint. He is very much concerned about the safforonization of Indian History books. Don't you see he is busy? Don't you even dare suggest this gently, that students learning a safforonized history are much better placed than those not learning anything.

Can't we mortals see that he is more concerned about safeguarding the rights of the down trodden, there is no hidden motive! Why do we pervert minds always question his intentions? Why should elections in 5 states be a hindrance in his path to glory?
He is a saint and there is no doubts about the fact. Afterall, all his life he has lived the life of a saint. He never was in politics for his personal interests!

Those who say he is a Gandhi family's pet must die. It's an absolute insult to him and his honesty. The HRD ministry has always been his darling department. Can you ever recall him making any fuss! So what if political failures like Shivraj Patil get Home Ministry, Arjun Singh is above petty politics. He is there for the masses.

Can someone go and tell him to retire? Can't he see his colleagues like Vajpayee and Aadwani making a mockery of themselves everyday. He is our HRD minister, he must have learnt it surely that 75 and above, is the age to retire.

Let him rest now, Madam Gandhi!! This is morally wrong to make a honorable man overwork and drain him out! Let him spend his final days counting the number of sins he has committed.

Please release him of his duty.. the old man is tired. Give him peace.

Please save the youth and please save our country!

Never Resign.

2006-03-31T13:52:00.000+05:30

Never resign!

Else you would fee llike this!!

Take my word for it. It makes you the most unproductive you could ever be.

And don't ever take the lecture by anyone that it's upon us to make ourselves get back to work after resigning. It's unadulterated bull's crap!

I have tried a billion times ever since I have resigned. And I am sure if it didn't work for me, it wouldn't work for most. Not that I am that good or ethical, just that I have tried most sincerely and failed.

Initially one would really enjoy the freedom or to be frank, the lack of work. Life seems heaven. Go to office late, come back early. Catch on movies you had missed, meet friends, browse internet, read online news, chat online, talk to friends over the phone, try all the restaurants near your office. To help you further, the incessant calls from the placement firms would provide free amusement.

The actual job hunt process may be quite an easy thing. To crack an interview after around 2 years in industry should not be that bad afterall. To be honest, it's quite an entertainment. But the problem is that you get decent jobs within a couple of days and a handful of them within a week. So, now you need to stop any further hunt and sit and think about which one to take. It's the most painful process and the most challenging than anything you would have ever done. Atleast to me it feels so.

But that's not the point. The point is what next? Now that you got the job offer or rather a handful of them, how to keep yourself occupied and entertained?

The same placement firm calls now irritate you. You can no longer attend interviews and spend time analyzing the companies that invite you. So no time pass.

The problem is much troubling than it appears. The fact that you have resigned and not your friends is to be noted. So, obviously when someone is busy and has a job, (s)he has to be obliged to be working. One won't have the endless horizon of free time to push immediate matters at hand indefinitely. Initially you would be entertained, you would have company for movies, you could convince a few innocent friends to bunk and give them company. You could even pass time by calling relatives who had long in past considered you dead(because you never kept in touch). But for how many times. There is something called shame which would keep reminding you the crime you commit.

The more free time you have at hand, the better you would be in a position to discover that Google News is not as great as it appears! You would notice that a piece of news that you read online, stays there for almost a week. The updates are occasional and a few stories seem to be occupying the space for eternity.

Sadly, you would also discover that mostly movies change at maximum, once a week. To your further surprise, a little calculation would reveal that some heavy economics is involved everytime you watch them. And even worse, there doesnot seem to be any insurance policy available so that you can claim a refund if the movie does not entertain you.

The divine power somewhere in sky would also want to have a little amusement precisely at the same time when you are in despair. So, what you would read is that some deadly thing called Avian Flu is at full swing. So, you would die of chicken underdose. The heat in city would become unbearable, and the lack of healthy food would make you more prone to illness.

By this time, you would be a little mentally sick. And your agony would become unbearable when you calculate that you need to serve another month before you can breathe free air, and actually do some work. By this time, people around you in office or otherwise would assume that you were a sack of crap that you still haven't managed to get a job. This is because, they invariably end up thinking that whoever calls you on phone must be a placement consultant. and if you could not get a decent job in 2 months, then you must better go kill yourself.

But hold on! You need not make the move or be tempted; circumstances would automatically do the job for you. You would realize that the little arithmetic you did, forgot to account for a few environment variables. It would dawn upon you that March month is in progess and there is a daemon called tax to be paid. So the tiny amount that you proudly assume to be your salary dwindles majorly and you find yourself biting dust.

You would have forgotten coding. You would wonder at yourself how in the world you managed to write a huge piece of code which people tell you is your creation. To reassure yourself, you try a few silly programs. They would work. They have to, else you must die. So you feel elated. You end up celebrating your little success and end up spending again! You see, its a vicious cycle.

The companies which have offered you jobs would now start calling you. Even they need to be assured that the bakra they got would finally join. You would entertain all of them. You have to. Why? Simply for the fact that there is still a month, and things could change for worse. You need options to be safe. But this would eat you up mentally, afterall you still lhave something called a conscience. It would scratch and lick your agony wounds by telling you that you must decide upon the final company and inform the others. But how! No one will suggest.

Your managers would not look straight into your eyes. The fact that they never used to would not give you solace, you need some reason to justify your depression. Your colleagues who used to hang around with you will give you the feeling that suddenly you got this power to become transparent. They would overlook your complete existence. 72 kilograms of mass would be not noticed. And then, since you happen to have all the time in the world you would think and reason it. You would finally get the fact, that it's you who has resigned and not them. So, they need to keep their ass safe and appear committed to their job by ignoring you.

Suddenly you would see, that your telephone bills are swelling. Your internet charges are going northwards. You would even notice that you eat more. You would grow a paunch. You need to exercise. You cannot. Why? Because you sleep late, so getting up early is out of question.

So, ultimately what happens? You sulk. You sulk a lot. You hit the rock bed. You mock your own wisdom as to why you resigned.

Could not you simply sit tight, could you simply not take the onsite that you had been offered and enjoyed the Chinki babes and made some money?

So you see! Never resign.

A new facet of life.

2006-03-08T17:03:00.000+05:30

Read all the posts pointed to by the links in this post, only if you have a strong stomach!

Is "SHAME ON ME" a strong enough expression?

Modern Sati!

2006-03-01T12:11:00.000+05:30

Guess, if they organised a Husband devotee contest today, who would win?

Who else! Our own Railway Minister's wife - Madam Rabri Devi!

Trying to figure out why?

Relax.

Read this!

Now don't you dare say a word again against Laloo Prasad and fodder!

Jai Gurudev

2006-02-20T10:39:00.000+05:30

Before I write anything, let me clarify these are my personal views, and I mean EVERY single word of it, and NOTHING more than that. So, please don't read much in between lines and anticipate.

I went to the Silver jubliee celebrations of the Art of Living foundations on Saturday. Whether I believe in the teachings or not is a nonissue(which I must confess, I do to an extent), what matters most is, whether such gatherings are of any practical use.

What I intend conveying is that, when there are millions of people gathering, the purpose of the occasion is brutally killed, deliberately or not, is again, a nonissue! It becomes, just a gathering of totally annoyed and agitated people, who feel cheated, who most often, don't complain in public, but carry the frustration in their heart. And exactly for this reason, it kills the purpose of the whole event. Come on, they have gathered to seek peace and answers, not frustration!

I have absolutely no reasons to distrust the genuineness of the Guru in question, in this case Sri Sri Ravi Shankar(Could someone clarify who decides how many Sri's to be added and what rules guide it! It's a genuine doubt with absolutely no pun.) Any sincere Guru, especially a spiritual one(the religious ones do give me reasons to doubt their sincerity), would in the truest of senses want to help his disciple. And that in my viewpoint, requires a one to one interaction, you need to connect to the person in pain, feel his agony and then help flows out automatically.

I know this for a fact that millions of people come from so far away places, with such diverse set of problems. Many of them, if not all, spend a fortune of their repective life's savings to attend such events. Mostly, they are those defeated soul's who have lost all hopes, those who have tried everything that they trust and believe in, and finally they come to the Guru for the guidance! No doubt, there are many who sincerely believe in the teachings(even I do to some extent, until the God angle comes in, atleast the yoga and spirituality part), there are some who are just onlookers(like me again), who come to see what's the fuss about, and then there are a few misguided souls who blindly come there just because it's a fashion to have a Guru these days, and they have a social standing to prove by donating to the spiritual organizations.

But, isn't it the responsibilty of the Guru, to atleast try to connect to the grassroot followers? To try and give everyone equal amount of time and guidance? Even the Guru knows, that this guidance is nothing but a consolation for the troubled soul, and ultimately if the yoga helps, it's for the fact that it's a healthy excercise and that it helps to keep us occupied. There is no miracle associated. The Gurus also know this for sure. I have seen the interview of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar on CNN-IBN, and he too acknowledged it.

It's totally understandable that once a rightly guided philosophy is spread properly, it soon becomes a cult, and later the Guru just symbolises the philosophy. The organization outgrows it's own envisioned fate, and millions of follwers are born daily. But, what disheartens me is the fact, that once such a state comes, the Guru becomes celebrities' Guru. He becomes partial. Great, that one has the Heads of States who follow one's philosophy, but those are just a very few in number! The majority who really make you the Guru in the actual senses, are the common masses. And even these heads of states are just normal people. Why so much bias?

Why does a Guru allow a celebrity follower to meet him in person, or for that matter why he gets a front row seat, when he is the one who comes at the last minute or mostly late, while the million others have struggled their way through the miles long queues in scorching heat and dust storms? Why does not the Guru make things fairer, let people sit the way they come? Afterall, these are the people who need the connection of their souls with that of their Guru, the celebrity might be needy too, but not as desperate as most other.

And back to the original question, how in the world does one get the satisfaction of interacting with the Guru? how do you get the solace you are seeking? Afterall, you get to see the same Guru on TV channels daily! What's the big difference!(No pun intended!)

What I can observe, is that, beyond a point, when the organization outgrows its capacity, the Guru doesn't have a control over his way of life. He might be a Guru for millions, but his life is controlled by the set of greedy people we get to see everywhere. And the Guru cannot be blamed at all! It's quite inevitable! How in the world would the Guru know that the place which was supposed to be a ground for spiritual liberation would turn into a business center. Afterall, he is just a Guru - one who can articulate facts in the most comforting way, to help you feel special by consoling you, and yet subtly guide you back to the right track of life. He definitely is not God, that he can see with his third eye that there are cheap loafers selling a bottle of fake mineral water in his name and under his organization's label for a sum of 15 bucks!

Hell awaiting Bangalore!

2006-02-15T10:57:00.000+05:30

Read this!
I wonder what would be the state of traffic during this period! I pity every single soul living in vicinity of Airport Road, including myself!

I guess, only a participation in this event could help us absorb the pain of the traffic nightmare.

Suddenly I have become more religious. God, save me!

All are equal in the eyes of law!

2006-02-14T13:27:00.000+05:30

Read two very different, yet very similar news stories. And am still finding it difficult to absorb the fact that both the news are real!

See this! A vice president who had gone hunting birds (note Birds) accidently shoots a man standing near him. The man was hurt badly, and is still in hospital. And this Mr Vice President is still grinning about the mistake he commited, and probably is busy planning his next hunting trip in some ranch or randomly attacking some country on the globe!

Till I learnt about this news I always thought birds fly in air. Weird!

Now Read this!
A poor man, spends 38 years of his life in jail without being prosecuted for the charge of a murder. The reason? Well, the pot bellied, extra smart UP police misplaced the case's FIR and in the process happily forgot about this chap!

And why the hell must he crib? Afterall, he was getting free food for last 38 years.
Does it matter that he went mad, his wife kept expecting his return, and most of his family doesn't even know or remember him now?

Looks like a scene from some movie.. remember The Rock?

Whatever!

If this doesn't disturb you, then I have nothing more to say.

Rang De Basanti

2006-01-30T09:08:00.000+05:30

Terrific, extremely fast paced, and at the same time, a little unsettling!

Aamir Khan and his charisma are both back with a bang! The skepticism that I had while shelling out 200 bucks for this movie, especially after a big fiasco with The Rising earlier, turned out to be completely false. The buzz that these movie theaters in Bangalore have created around the movie by declaring it a premium product is absolutely justifiable.

Being one of the most entertaining movies of recent times, with the added dose of a very strong social message, Rang De Basanti is a must watch for all.

The story line may arguably not be original, but as they say, in the lingo of movie directors, the treatment of it surely is original! Rakeysh OmPrakash Mehra(I always wonder why these celebratees have to screw up their original names!) has shown yet again(after Aks) that he is a potent director, with extreme sensitivity, and a very good understanding of the intricacies of cinema making.

After Sarkar, this movie is the one, where more than the storyline or anything else, I enjoyed the direction. Every minute technical detail right from the camera position, the reaction of the characters beyond the main frame, the lighting, the sets, the attire of the lead characters, the language they speak, the environment they live in, all exemplify how well researched the director was, and how thoroughly he enjoyed the project!

Editing is the highlight of the movie. Too crisp, extremely fast paced, and very well thought and innovatively executed. The way two totally different stories have been interwoven and the message of the past and it's relevence to, and resemblance with the present is depicted, is really worth appreciation.

Aamir Khan, as I observed, is at his natural best after Dil Chahta Hai. He is witty, he is stylish, he is daring, and he is adorable. He is completely believable with his reactions - From "Are yaar ye to Hindi Bolti hai..." to the crying scene while eating, he has shown all facets of his admirable skillset.

Alice Patten as Sue is as convincing as Toby Stevens was, in The Rising. She seems to be at total ease and comfort while portraying her character. And her Hindi is really worth amazement!!

Atul Kulkarni as always is intense and a treat to watch. Kunal Kapoor, Siddharth, Sherman Joshi, Soha Ali Khan are all good and convincing. KK Raina and Mohan Agashe as corrupt politicians are convincing too. R Madhavan is not great himself, but the surroundings and the other characters not let that show.

The same A.R Rehman who was a big let down in The Rising, has shown yet again like Aamir, why he is talked about so much. The music is a delight for the ears, the songs fit the mood perfectly, and the back ground score adds on to the fast pace of the movie. I always have admired Rehman for the ease with which he turns a husky and untrained voice into melody, including his own! Prasoon Joshi is a welcome poet in the era of absolutely uncreative yet successful idiots like Sameer. The lyrics cover a galaxy of moods, be it the youth flavoured(Paathsala), or the country falvoured Bhangra(Rang De Basanti), or the inspiring and awakening songs like Roobaroo, Lalkaar and Khoon Chala. An album worth buying.

The dialogs are simple and straight forward without any emotional frill attached. And precisley for this reason, they manage to deliver. Another good part about the movie is that neither does it have any filler roles, nor it has used any cheap comedian to make people laugh. Like the Amitabh era movies, Aamir had donned the mantle himself and has carried it off as natuarally as he manages other stuff.

Now coming to story, as already mentioned, it's not original, yet has been originally treated. The first half is fun, extremely fast and never loses the viewers' attention. But the second half surpringly and rapidly turns the mood, and brings us to serious topics. When you dare to raise more than a single social message in one movie, then you are bound to be boring sometimes like Swades, and sometimes can make a complete mess of things. But Rakeysh(Ah! This spelling is a pain!) Mehara has managed things well, if not flawlessly. The ending is a little, rather extremely irrational. No one in his right minds would ever do what has been shown being done there. But keeping in mind it's a main stream movie, this masala oriented liberty is granted.

What's plesant to see is that Mr. Mehra has taken a shot at many things in one go. Right from the Indian youth's mentality, to their concept of patriotism(which sometimes is too rude, yet shockingly true), to the misguided youth(portrayed by Atul Kulkarni), to the corruption in society, bribery, recklessness, the attitude of the youth towards their parents, and finally to the politicians.

Rang De Basanti is a classic example of how team work works; appreciable direction, convincing performances, melodious soundtrack, and crisp editing, and above all very strong social messages.

You surely would come out with a plethora of mixed emotions - elated, happy, yet confused and slightly disturbed.

I have watched it twice already, and given the movie freak I am, no wonder I would watch it again provided I have company! :D

Chikna Ghada!

2006-01-25T10:08:00.000+05:30

This could very well qualify for the Happydent Chewing Gum advertisment...

Mr Sardar Buta Singh (God knows why he has to assert that he is a Sardar! No pun intended!), chewing something very similar to a gum, and grinning profusely infront of the TV cameras, adjusting his pot belly and declaring in king like manner -

Main 26 January ki pared ki salami loonga.

Now, this is something we can classify as a daredevil act!

But Mr Sardar Buta Singh Jee had more to offer. When a reporter dared to ask the Hero if he is considering resignation on moral grounds, he shot back:
Who told you I am resigning? I have not said anything on it

And who in the world can ever take the center stage away from our political jester Mr Laloo Prasad Jee? The man apparently responsible for the whole red faced cabinet had something even better to offer:

Ab jab Supereme Court ne hi kah diya hai to hum kya kahen? Ye koi political subject thode hi hai, jo hum analyse karen. Jo kahna tha, wo to Court ne kah hi diya. Ab to ye Buta Jee jane ki aage kya karenge!

Ya right Mr Laloo Jee! Ab jab gaddi hi chali gayi to Buta Jee rahen na rahen koi farak thode hi padega aapki sehat par.

I am full excited. There is plenty of excitement left in this drama, and I can rest in peace and assurance that the news channels would surely offer me some entertaining news in recent times. After all, Advaani Jee also is totally jobless and free like me - poor chap! He too got something to look forward to!

2006-01-10T12:36:00.000+05:30

Ya right!!!

Come! Meet me to believe it!!

Booooohoooooo....Somebody show me the way to Euphoria! :(

Got this from somewhere:

I am a trapped soul.. help me and God will help you! :)

New year!

2006-01-02T12:22:00.000+05:30

New year! Apart from the other good things it did, brought my blog back to life! Finally!

It's been a long time since I updated the blog, thanks to the workload, other activities and of course the sudden boredom from the blog world!!

Had an amazing time on New year's eve - spent the time with some new and a few relatively old friends. Missed a few very close and old friends, wished that we could party out together again like we used to in the past!

And finally, life after the first three days has come back to normal - same work and same mundane and monotonous life! The hangover has subsided!

To bring excitement in life, things are going to change in immediate future, I guess. Some major professional decisions are on the way - a few professional dilemmas to be sorted out and a future decisive path to be chosen.

Hope I make a right move.

But right now, all I want is to either sleep or party hard and have fun as we had on the new year's eve.

The Man who defeated Yama!

2005-10-21T10:19:00.000+05:30

For sometime I really wondered if this is the 21st century India I am living in or was it some Mughal age scene! Read this and dodge the shock it offers, if you can!

And what was more disgusting was the fact that all the News channels(I emphasize ALL) were religiously airing the footage of this drama throughout the whole of yesterday!

There were reporters in the field taking interviews from the jobless mob, asking hilariously funny questions. Every 30 seconds there were conferences with the reporter in Studio asking serious doubts and expressing concerns! Trust me it could not be more ridiculous!

There is one "Sabse Tej" channel Aaj Tak which went miles ahead and came up with a special program (they call it Vishesh, and it generally covers futile analysis of the most shitty topic of the day with all graphical descriptions, pie charts, bar graphs, et al!!) where the topic of discussion was whether there is life after death and whether Science has advanced enough to allow one predict one's exact time of death! And if not, then what the hell the Scientists were doing all this while?

Sometimes, when you have nothing better for entertainment, just try to amuse yourself with these two channels - AajTak and Star News! I don't take the responsibility if you kill yourself or kick the life out of someone nearby!

I really am fed up with such an acute shortage of intellectual entertainment on TV!
:(

India is such a funny land! We have a whole lot of weirdo shameless politicans, and then we also have mentally challenged owners of News channels, and equally jobless shit headed public with herd mentality! And after all this, we still dare to complain and crib, when the foreigners view India as a land of snake charmers and rituals!

I think we all need to grow up!

Free amusement!

2005-10-17T10:27:00.000+05:30

Can it get any worse? Read this ridiculous opinion by none other than our former Prime Minister, the sleeping lethargic creature:
Gowda Speaks!
What's extremely irritating is that after being so imprudently rude, and disgustingly unreasonable, he has gots the guts to add more to his crap:

I am not against IT. I will not allow the IT sector to go away from Karnataka

As if all this wasn't ridiculous enough, he adds further:

What spanner have I or the JD(S) put in the works? There is a whispering campaign against us. Narayana Murthy has been Bangalore International Airport Limited chairman for five years. Why did it take him so long to get it moving? Murthy is a world-traveller. He should be able to come up with a plan to decongest Bangalore’s traffic. What is this urban governance focus Murthy is talking of? Educated girls in rural areas are taking to Naxalism! I saw a movie Jagadeka Pratapa where the hero just waves his hand and a palace comes up or three beautiful women spring up. Can such things be done in infrastructure? I told the CM to send a team of officials to Rajasthan to check what extraordinary work Ramesh Ramanathan has done there.

Ya right! Now would somebody impart some gyaan to the old fellow, that Narayan Murthy is here for business, and if he is taking any interest apart from the normal business, The Karnataka government must be thankful to him. What else does he want from the industry? As if the industry is not doing enough by fetching the majority share of State's revenues, and by providing employment to so many people, that jobless inefficient fellows demand more from them!

Now someone should go and shake this man up from his sleep to make him realise his own duties as a politician! If he and his team want each and everything to be done by others only, then why don't they give up the Governance? Afterall they must have collected enough of blessings by now to be called Men of Dignity!

Bunch of jobless jokers - Nice show they are putting together by making a mockery of themselves every now and then!

Well, I guess that's what an efficinent politician is supposed to do - Amuse people!

Erratic Ramblings

2005-09-26T09:29:00.000+05:30

Life seems to be centered around movies these days - was just counting how many movies have I seen in the last month? And it's pretty high - that's where all my salary is going I guess! Atleast 10-12 in theaters(and all of them multiplexes!) and around 20 odd at home on Televison and Computer - quite good a number given that I indulge in this luxary only on weekends!

Readers - I care for you all - Please don't dare to see James! It sucks! What was in it as a story to allow a 2 hours long shitting session! No Entry is funnier - much better after you watch James!

My current project is too demanding - Well I guess it's not that way - having worked in a team of 20 for around 15 months it's natural to get a bit relaxed. And now this team of 5 (with only 3 working) is a bit too taxing! I guess it's the same case with Indian Cricket team - having worked under a relaxed and silent coach for 4 years they are finding it hard to adjust with the proactive coach! But does that make Ganguly's stay in the team justified? I'm not qualified enough for an expert commnent, but I feel NO!

Coming back to my project - whatever be the cause - the project is really tough and screwing - not to mention the confusing standard! I have been trying to read and grasp the damn thing for almost 2 weeks now - but the fact that even if I try to just read it like a speech or enjoy it like a novel, it's impossible to go any further than 2 pages in a strech! God help!

Life is fun otherwise - Never had been enjoying it all by myself so much! Great fun - family, movies, books, friends, and good work!

Mothers are the best gift anyone can get! I love you Ma more than I can express - you have spoilt me with your stay here - I would terribly miss all of it when you go back!

Off late I have become a spendthrift again! Need to save - it's insane to spend like that! I will try to keep this in mind!

My project's coding kick off is scheduled today - What the hell? Let's finalise the design first! I feel a bit proud and more concerned for the project that I have been the one who has proposed the design for it! Hope my OOSD concepts helped! I feel it's a pretty neat and simple design...but ME?? Something wrong with my PL or maybe I am good! You never know!

Why am I unable to concentrate with music on? There are so many erratic thoughts coming all the while that by the time I pen one, the pointer goes to nth one! Need a fast handler - or may be a spooler!

Was bored of the same tasteless Upma everyday - so decided against having a breakfast - but seems it wasn't a prudent decision - i can hear the bubbles bursting in my tummy! Somehow I manage to be regular in eating habits these days - thanks Ma again!

That brings me to think of Custard!! Yummy! I just love them - I feel the one that I had a day before yesterday was much better than the one I had yesterday! But the tomato soup on Friday evening was the best thing I had in longest time I remember!

Going back to music - Jagjeet Singh rocks! I now feel I like him much much much more than Pankaj Udhas! I have been wondring for quite some time now - how is it that people identify and differentiate between the various kinds of English music? I mean Rock and hip hop, Pop and Classical English are ok.. but what's the criterion for the subclassifications? Punk, Progressive rock, country rock, jazz...and so on so forth!! I have read it on quite a few profiles on Orkut - tried asking a few of them.. but nobody seems to know! I guess it's a hip thing to write it that way! Shows you are a funky dude!

I like a few English songs and a few artists, and I like them for various reasons which I can explain in detail - but I can never claim that I know what Sur or raga does Jagjeet Singh sing or what genre of music Floyd or John Mayor come in! Hats off to those who can!

I wish I could learn it someday - I am trying - Internet is vast enough!
And Google rules!

Ah.. this Google Earth thing is so damn exciting!!!! I could pin my house, my company, my college, my hostel, and what not!!! It's realy astounding - technology is advancing at such a frightening pace - I am struggling to keep pace with it!

I feel like a medivial age man - I need to pull my socks and get back to work!
But how about a hot cup of strong Coffee first? Afterall - it's Monday - we have a whole long week to slog! ;)

Salaam Namaste

2005-09-19T09:30:00.000+05:30

My suggestion to all - Salaam Namaste magar door se! A pain to watch it in a theater with dolby digital effects - all you can manage to notice is the painfully loud shoutings of Preity Zinta and the funny coughs of Saif Ali Khan ( I sometimes feel, his voice is very similar to Rani Mukharjee)

Ok, the concept of living in without marriage is sort of bold for Indian audiences, but what I fail to understand is, why such a sensitive and commercially viable topic needs to be manhandled so badly? I mean, throughout the movie you see females shedding clothes and jumping on beaches pointlessly, the guys doing Salaman Khan patented Shirtless Arnold-kind-gross-body showoffs, and third rate shallow dialogs trying uselessly to make it all seem convincing.

Fine, if your intension is to grab a feast for your eyes(there is plenty of it for both the sexes), go ahead - this is the movie for you. But if you have been fooled by the pre-release promotional stunts claiming that the movie is one from a totally different genre, you would be disappointed.

No doubt, the topic is fresh - a tad different from the regular pyar-ishq-mohabbat and the duniya-against-the-couple kind, but even by the most liberal viewpoints, keeping in mind the directorial debut of Siddharth Raj Anand, the movie fails to live up the image it's promotions created. The director seems to have potential, but I am sad to predict so, he is one of the many apirants joining the Karan Johar genre.

The storyline is convincing to some extent - finally we have Indian heros doing something other than being the business tycoons - but still, the directors must sometimes try to be realistic - come on - a chef and a radio jockey wont have enough cash to live such a lavish and posh life! But considering it's a masala movie, this much liberty can be granted!

Cinematography is mediocre. Actors are all ordinary. Saif must realise, he can't go on acting the same dumb cool dude all the time. After DCH, Kal Ho Na Ho, and Hum Tum, this is the fourth similar role(barring Parinita in b/w). Preity Zinta is too loud in the movie, irritating to the core, seems snooty sometimes. Arshad Varshi is fine, has managed to do justice to his role. Not that the lead pair hasn't done anything convincing, the movie is good in parts, there are a few touching scenes, a few very funny ones too - but all this too sporadic to make it enjoyable on the whole!

The best part of the movie to me was Javed Zafery's "EXACTLY"... he is really funny, has managed to entertain viewers for a change. The way he delivers those witty and extremely funny English dialogs makes you laugh your heartout.

Abhishek Bachaan's small presence is chaotic but funny - the viewer is lost in the chaos and by the time one manages to enjoy the joke, there is some more chaos to digest.

Overall, the movie is nothing of a pathbreaker. A normal Sharukh Khan genre movie with loads of skin show, and faltu ke emotions.

As stated earlier, watch it only if you want "Nayan-Sukh", because beyond that you will only get headaches.

Cinderella Man

2005-09-12T10:57:00.000+05:30

Master of the Commanders is back with vengeance - how could one possibly deny this man a well deserved Oscar for A Beautiful Mind? He takes all those biased bastards head on this time - come watch James J Braddock fight for his pride, his family and for the hopes of millions of poor Americans!

A couple weeks back, it was Iqbal with his passion for Cricket - the passion which defined him and gave him his identity - this week it's Braddock and his boxing - and unlike Iqbal, boxing for him is not his identity, but a responsibility - responsibility towards his family and in an intriguing fashion, a ray of hope and strength for the society he lives in.

It's about the life of an honorable man and his struggle for survival in the thickest of times, a battle to keep his family together, to live upto the promises made to his kids, and about his respect for his motherland.

A lovely movie - probably one of the better ones in English this year - it manages to touch the sentimental nerves within you. Reminds you of the fact that the love for one's family and kids is of the same purity everywhere and in all the times. That honor is what matters the most to any self respecting citizen and that only the love and duty towards one's family can overtake it.

Russel Crowe as usual is terrific - one of the few perfect actors of recent times as I feel, after Tom Hanks. His ability to portray a tough, honorable, and yet sentimental and mortal personality is amazing. He seems to be living the role he portrays - there is no effort what so ever - nothing seems fake. Be it the emotional promise he makes to his son about not leaving him ever, or the extremely touching depiction of a defeated father fighting for the survival of his family, at the cost of his self respect - which he treasures the most - He is simply astounding.

Renee Zelleweger is the ideal complimenting wife one can expect - a sublime performance which leaves you with this feeling of secret appreciation. Always supporting and understanding his husband, the moral support one would look for in times of need - the kind which makes you go out of the way - which raises you up to more than you can be.

Paul Giamatti as Braddock's manager is charming - one cunning chap with some humanity left in him, always finds himself in between the horns of dilemma. The businessman within himself and the logic of the great depression tell him one thing, and the friend and the human inside ask for something else, and thankfully the friend wins. He is particularly good at showing the emotions of a trainer and manager professionally - he pounds his fists emphatically in air everytime Braddock wins, yet he manages to control his emotions to that of a professional and never lets the friend win over the manager. Damn good.

The director - Ron Howard has done an appreciable job. He has managed to bring out the emotions from his actors, just right - he must be a keen observer of human emotions. The details about the great depression are painstakingly accurate. The sets are believable, and the best part being that, the filming of the boxing sequences are terrific. You feel the punches hitting you, you feel the pain down your ribs, you can feel the blows and the tickle of the hot blood flowing down your ears - at the end of the sequences you find yourself sitting at the edge of the seats, your hands cold, and feet moving subconsciously to control your eagerness.
It's beautiful feeling.

All in all, I found the movie worth the money I spent. If you want to appreciate the emotions, the spirit of self respect and the pain of being honest - do watch it. Let me warn you - it's not that there have been no better movies than this - all I say is, it's one of the better ones this year - and truly the one which might compensate for the loss of Crowe's well deserved Oscar two years back.

Limitations of Reasoning

2005-09-06T10:00:00.000+05:30

This is something I had to post. I have been procrastinating for so long, now no more.

Most of my family members, a few very close friends, and some acquaintances feel I am an atheist. Let me clarify - I AM NOT.

I do not go to temples that often - the last I went was exactly one year back, I do not do the regular pooja at home, I do not chant the slokas, I do not explicitly bow infront of God's idol. But does that make me an atheist?

I am spiritual - not religious. Is that a crime? I don't claim that there is no super power, just that the idea of Gods is a bit vague for me. Being a Science student, I can't take absurd beliefs. If not everything, most of the things are explainable by logic - and I feel even the unexplained ones can be, we need to think hard. Afterall every thing was once unexplained.

I am by nature very argumentative - to the extent of getting itchy to others. People say that I must fear God, must not abuse Him or His powers, for it's because of Him that I am here. All I say to such hypocrites is that if God exists, then by their own faith He must be knowing and seeing every small thing I do or feel or think. He then must be knowing what I feel inside me - he must be aware of my skepticism. And if so, then where is the question of being afraid and the fear of getting misunderstood? Do I have to be accountable to other's faith?

Faith and Logic are two different things. I believe everything is explainable by logic. Faith as I see it, is the channel for humans to appreciate the beauty of this perfect architecture - we call life, to get lost in the awe of the splendid balance that nature has, and above everything else, it's a secret way to let us be ourselves - the small, helpless, innocent beings that we actually are - and all this without giving our inner sense a hint that we feel defeated and can't see the beauty or the variety that life has to offer at the moment.

Even I have felt defeated - many a times in past, and like any normal human have had my roots in faith shaken - but that's the beauty of it.

Some people say God has planned everything for us and whatever happens is happening for our benefit - Isn't this Science? All this just makes my belief that life is like a multithreaded program stronger.

I do not go to temples, but I do bow to the power of nature secretly. I do not do pooja, but I accept the prasad with full respect - I respect the faith that others have - Sometimes it's this faith that does miracles(and I feel, even this should be explainable). I might not keep fasts, but I take care not to hurt my family's feelings by eating non-vegetarian food. I no longer wear the sacred thread that I once used to (not because I lost faith - I never had any! It broke and I never had an extra!) - but I remember and can explain the sacred mantra my Guru taught me.

I love the life I have got, I love the education I have got - and that compels me to argue, to reason. My faith tells me to respect others faith, but my logic asks me to doubt and discuss the faith!

To me being a theist is to respect my own faith, others' faith, and acknowledge the magic of logic. As long as I don't mock others' belief, as long as I have *faith* in my *logic* - I believe in God - but I don't fear Him.

A melody to ears and a feast for eyes!

2005-09-05T15:35:00.000+05:30

Last night my sister reminded me of a song from some God damn Hindi movie!

We have had our share of fun with it. You too read and have fun.

The lead couple: Chunky Pandey :D and Mandakini :))
The location: Some waterfall.
The attire: Chunky in normal clothes, and Mandakini wears a very *cute*, hardly visible wrap of leaves which somehow manages to cover her essentials and make her look just a little more civilized than Eve.

The couple are totally lost romancing and bathing under the waterfall.. when suddely the director realises, that the plot calls for a song!

And here it comes.. the song!!

I don't remember the full lyrics.. but whatever I know is funny enough.

"Kahan laya mera yaar paharon mein...
Mera lehnga phas gaya jhaaron mein.."

And that explains why the leaves!
:D

Iqbal

2005-08-28T12:19:00.000+05:30

I am no cricket freak, with my interests limited to appreciating the basics of games, and casual performances. I have rarely played the game, most of the involvement only as an umpire, yet, I know that Cricket is a passion in the subcontinent. It's a phenomenon which teaches most of the masses here to dream.

Everyone, including me, who has never known the game beyond commenting, whenever holds a bat or a ball, secretly aspires to outperform the legends. I myself have felt the butterflies when I rarely have walked on to the pitch, I could feel the world around me freeze, with the cheers and taunts echoing deep down, the time standing still - that the glorious feeling of being important, the feeling of being able to serve.

Iqbal is a movie about the same. Rarely would you get to see movies of this subtle beauty, where the characters are just you and me, they all aspire big, yet there is no melodrama.

Oh, yet another cricket movie! Subhas Ghai has gone past his creative best, and the chain of flops seem to have made him go out of his mind too! Why in the world would you want to make a cricket movie, when Lagaan arguably has already encashed that quotient, and when the state of Indian cricket is at it's dumps?

To worsen the apprehension, Dev Anand's Avwal Number and a host of other cheap efforts have already done their bits. But I assure you, you would really be missing something beautiful, if you miss this movie. It's not as hyped as The Rising, has not got the glorious starcast as Black, hasn't got the peppy numbers as in Bunty Aur Babli, yet, it is the one movie which would make you feel good.

It's one effort which, never for a moment makes the viewer feel he is in a theater. It's one movie which does not have the bigger than life Hero, trying to awaken the masses, or 100 odd extras dancing with the lead couple, at the drop of a hat - No skin show, no "Mogembo khus hua" kind villian, not even a decent music - which I personally look for - Still, it's good.

I just pray, sensitive directors like Nagesh Kuknoor get more exposure. Thank Subhas Ghai a million to trust him. Kuknoor has so effortlessly captured the lives of Indian villages. If you want to see the true Indian Villages - go watch this movie - life is not as bright as Mr Chopra has shown in DDLJ or Veer Zaara, it's not as neatly arranged as shown in Lagaan or The Rising. I feel only Swades came as close to reality as this movie has - and mind you - it's no Swades - it's not a moral Science class that you are attending here.

Villagers here don't wear starched dhotis, they wear yellowish, old, unironed clothes. And as a matter of fact, not every one wears a dhoti in villages - you obviously wont get to see a man sporting a Levi's jeans or RayBan sunglasses - but they all know fashion - they are not prehistoric chaps - and that's what Kuknoor has taken care of. People have been shown to wear *normal* clothes.

Sets are not the scenic Film City locations - he has taken care to be realistic. His brilliance in research shows when you pleasantly get to see that the hero wears a stiched White uniform, while the other rich spoilt brats are wearing the branded white sports uniform.

Shreyash Talpade stands out. He is a true champion. Enacting a dumb and deaf character is never easy. I would pity the Indian cine-viewers if they fail to appreciate his efforts. A few months back we saw Black - no doubt it was phenomenal and path breaking in quite a few senses. The small girl's (forgot her name)performance was undoubtedly wonderful - but we must keep in mind she was shown to be a troubled wild child, while Talpade in Iqbal is Iqbal himself - he is a boy with courage to dream big. He does not want sympathy as Black's character intended to. He claims appreciation, and he gets it in plenty.

Swetha Pandit is another package - a little girl every brother would associate and recognize his sister with. She shares her brother's dreams, loves him, enjoys his company, feels his passion, cries for his sorrows. And the best part is - she doesn't seem to be acting.

Naseeruddin Shah - I cannot appreciate this man. He has been one of my heroes in acting - I place him along with my other heroes - Amithabh, Om Puri, Farookh Shaik, and Aamir - is a statement in itslef! ;) You don't need to teach him acting - right from dialog delivery, screen presence, body language to blowing the screen away - he masters them all. From being a drunkard, to a passionate and intelligent cricket coach - he has shown all the colors of his art. The frustration when Sheryash pesters him, the helplessness in being submissive to alcohol, the agony and anger of being forced an unknown life, to the absolute selfless joy of a true teacher, celebrating his student's success - he shows them all.

The movie is such a light movie, with so much packed in it that I fail to explain them all. Maybe I am overexcited, as I generally am - but I am confident you too would respect Kuknoor and others more when you see the movie.

Do see it for sure, as movies like this deserve to succeed. We - the Indian viewers must get over the Sharukh-Saif-Salman designer, beyond the life movies. 99.99 percent of us, never get to romance in rain or Alps, nor do we run an empire bigger than Ambanis, or kill a couple hundred villains with just a normal pistol - but we all share big dreams, we all love our families, we all face challenges in life, and above all - we all live a real life.

Bewitched

2005-08-22T10:19:00.000+05:30

My TV tuner has decided again not to work! Mind you, this is the second "new" card that I had bought. The shopkeeper told, I need to shed some 1000/- odd for its repair. I better buy a TV this time!

My PC has got some weird virus attack - Have reinstalled OS some 10 odd times the whole weekend.

My credit card bill payment got rejected - to my surprise the signature didn't match! I am hold responsible for the denied payment on the check - have a hefty fine of 600/- to pay for that.

To top that, I am notified that, in due process I have surpassed my last date deadline, and need to pay 1700/- late fine. What the f@#$? I had made the payment full 6 days in advance!

As if all this was not enough - I swiped a card on a wrong date, miscalculating the credit cycle by just one day, and now have another hefty bill to clear this month.

And the best part being, I have just a little over a thousand in my account!

I am loosing my mind!

Freedom at midnight!

2005-08-18T13:48:00.000+05:30

Finally the much awaited day came. We had our release. And to the biggest satisfaction, it was a successful one.

The fact that the client hasn't yet come back reporting any error, is one of big relief to me, as well as for my PL. Relief for me, as I was the whole and sole responsible for this release - the Integrator.

I was the one responsible for two most important modules - the controller as well as the driver.

Everything went so smoothly that none of us can digest it - actually I get goose bumps when my code behaves as expected. :D

But I am happy and contented - for I have successfuly achieved one milestone, and didn't let my PL down. I cannot explain the importance of this release, and the deadline we had. Still we all managed it well is satisfying.

Now, we are free - atleast for this week.

And this is the worst part - having slogged heavily for last 4 months, this lull is disturbing. I don't want to sit jobless in office. Not that we have no work, but the pressure is not demanding. I feel that I need pressure to perform to my optimum.

But, it's fun too. I get childish satisfaction when I spend the whole day at office Orkuting, and mailing friends!

Basically.. I am totally bored and have nothing better to do.

The Rising!

2005-08-13T22:25:00.000+05:30

Before I comment anything on the movie, let me first thank my employers for the ticket arrangement that they made for the employees. It was a pleasure to get the tickets without much hustles, when the world was frantically trying to get them. But at the same time, it was quite resentful to see the theater chosen. Comfortably the worst theater I have been in Bangalore.

Now, "The Rising". It would have been better had they called it "The Yawning". Boring is the only word I can think of, and this too, is with extreme respect, as I am an ardent fan of Aamir.

There was a similar Aamir movie, extremely talked about, and anxiously waited for... Mela! Remember? No! Not a problem, it wasn't really worth remembering. The Rising - if not beats it, comes close.

The hype that was created around the movie, plainly, is not worth it. We have had enough of freedom struggle movies, and have had enough of a hero trying to rise the masses.

Aamir is decent. Looks quite cool sometimes with his full grown moustache, but that is it! Even any onlooker can comfortably tell, it's not his movie. It's a movie of Captain Gordon, played beautifully by Toby Stephens. Given the stature of Aamir Khan in Indian film industry, he has appreciably outperformed him.

But this should not take the credit away from Aamir, who has worked quite hard for the performance. He has been good, but only in patches.

Coming to other "stars".. there is nothing I can comment. My belief that Rani Mukharjee is much over rated than her actual potential, finds it roots strengthened by this performance. Apart from a few sleazy cleavage exposing, provocative facial expressions scenes, there is nothing more from her part. She looks gross(ewwwwww... her fingernails are dirty, and pitiful. Yuck!)

Aamisha.. God gave her amazing beauty, but forgot to guide her choose a proper career. Acting is an unheard word in her territory. I repeat, she is gorgeous. But again, the story ends there. And I can't blame her entirely, for she has hardly 5 mins of screen presence, in which she had lots (a kiss, a make out scene, one Sati scene, and a miserable gun shot scene) to her credit. But inspite such a short presence, she is far better than Rani - looks or acting! (Ok.. I like her better than most other leading ladies - but I insist on "leading ladies" - not actresses.)

Editing at best, is crap. There is no sync what so ever in the scenes... one scene erratically follows the other, and even the small interest that the viewer forcefully generates is lost. Direction is completely wayward. Mr Ketan Mehta should take a lesson or two from his younger counterparts. Just taking care, that the lead actor gives his best( which he anyways does), it is his duty to extract the best from others too. Who in the world would believe that the peasants, and the outcast harijan, would wear starched, Ala blue dhotis, and kurtas. No one is convincing apart from Aamir and Toby.

Mangal Pandey, who as the masses believe was the first Indian hero, to me looks nothing more than an drunkard idiot. An overly fiery mind(like mine), always ends up in the mess. I seriously am considering reading the new book about Mangal Pandey, whether he was a real hero, or a zealot drunkard. The high point as it should have been - the mutiny - is at best chaos. Either Mr Mehta hasn't done any research or the sepoys were nothing but a bunch of fools. Come on, even I know much more stategy than these idiots have been shown to adopt.

The biggest let down, however is Rehman's music. He has failed miserably this time. The songs are not at all those which could be remembered for long. Coming to compare his Laagan music, this is not even a miniscule close. The background music is loud, and close to noise.

All in all, I was disappointed to see such an ordinary movie, after so much hoopla. Not that the movie is bad, but you don't expect such ordinary, common, and repeated story from such a star, who claims to be the most professional and methodical actor.
Aamir, is undoubtedly one of my favorite, but I would rate this as one of the rare ordinary movies he has done.

The humidty and heat in this pathetic theater, can also be blamed for such an outburst.

Call me a nut, but I am going to watch this crap again. This time with the hope that the conditioning in PVR cools my mind, and lets me appreciate the beauty this movie has - if at all it has any.

Knowledge

2005-08-04T21:31:00.000+05:30

"Knowledge already exists, we need to discover it"

True or false?

One of my collegues has put this line on her whiteboard as her thought for the day!
Had a long argument with her about it. I don't at all agree to it.

My take is " Information exists everywhere, once someone takes the information and interprets it, it becomes knowledge."

So we don't discover knowledge, we discover the information, and this discovery leads us to knowledge. It's a subtle difference, but an important one.

Inquisitiveness leads to discovery of knowledge, and knowledge leads to invention.

Am I right?
What's your take?

Helplessness

2005-08-02T09:53:00.000+05:30

I admit being a hypocrite, acting something and secretly believing something else. Or why else would I be feeling the guilt?

How much ever do I try to act not to be bothered, or not giving a damn to what the implications of my act would be, I still can't care any less for a few special. And I know they too, do care, though not the same... worst being, even that small bit is lost everytime I act foolish.

But I am helpless.. only wishing I someday learn to control my anger. I pity myself.

Wild rush!

2005-07-30T16:07:00.000+05:30

Mr. A has to work on Saturdays to be able to digest his food. Mr. B has rented a room in a totally isolated part of the outskirts of the city to be able to commute easily back home from the regular late night stays and save a bit more. Mr. C starves himself almost to death everyday just to save a few more bucks than he already manages to save. Why? He has his sister's marriage as his responsibility. Nobel cause, but pointless execution.

Mrs. X's family life suffers a lot because of her work. Poor she, her husband's quest for job satisfaction demands him to be in a different city, and her own work ethic and the demand of her current project compel her to work in another. Who suffers in turn? Her 3 years old son.

Mrs. Y got married a few weeks back. Congrats to her. But she has come back for work after only a week's leave. Yes, her project demands it, but I thought marriages in india are generally once in a lifetime affair.

Mr. Z feels really guilty if he's not in office on Saturdays. Mr. P has mastered the art of faking a busy look. His reasons demand sympathy, but he regularly stays back in office long after the official work hours are over. Does what? Sometimes, he's genuinely busy, mostly playing games otherwise. Why would he do so? He has his manager to impress, to make himself noticed as a devoted, hardworking employee.

Mr. P is a very efficient and technically skilled person, sincerely attached to his workplace, always wanting the best for his employers. But he is a zealot. In the process of getting fame for the company, commits deadlines which aren't feasible. Result? inspite of all his interpersonal skills, and all the co-operation, earns flames from his subordinates. Yes, the same subordinates I mentioned above. Even these workaholics loathe him.

Mr. Q is an exceptionally hard working and delivering manager. Too competent - that's why at a relatively young age, he's handling a very volatile and challenging domain. He is exceptionally good at bargains, manages to fetch the best financial deals for the company. But he has a problem. He is too demanding. And no, he isn't biased. He himself slogs beyond description, and expects the same from others. And I don't know if he is right.

These aren't any fictional characters. I know them all very well, yet for anonymity and professional reasons won't disclose their names. Actually I recently

read a very interesting analysis of the difference in work behaviour between the Western countries and the Asian, especially India. It was an extremely detailed and well written analysis, minutely dissecting the most intriguing behavioural differences of the two cultures. And obviously, it was highly relevent to me, as I could identify with all the characters in the case.

Why do we Indians, or in large Asians worship work? I hope I am not misunderstood - I myslef worship my work, and am really concerned about my career, and am highly competitive. But I don't live for it. I know a very few people, who after entering the working life, manage to escape this. Work becomes the pivotal issue of their life, and every other thing comes next, even the family.

Money is a must for survival, but so is the individuality. We have somethings other than our professional talent which make us humans. One might be a nerdy coder, but he can be a great musician too. Why do we polish our professional skills and leave the other talents to rot, when most of us if not all, enjoy the latter more? Why does an avareage Indian never manage to make time for anything else other than work on the regualr week days? How many of us play?

How many of us make time for hobbies, how many of us see movies reguarly, hang out with friends as often as they used to in College days?

I noticed a sharp contrast in the behaviour of an Indian in particular, and any Western in general- while our lives are centered around money and performance, the life in West emphasises individual characteristics. We rarely save time or money for hobbies.

I still remember as young kids how excited we used to be, when our then young parents would take us on trips during vaccations. That was fun. But times changed, they matured and got the so called "gyan" about saving money. And the irony being, ever since we stopped vacating out in the name of savings, we hardly saved anything.

An average on site engineer from abroad, who comes to our company always enquires about the various places he could see in India, about it's culture and would always try to get a few typical Indian speciality back with him. And when I compare this with our on site engineers, there is a sharp contrast. We look forward to onsite tours as money minting opportunities, and as a means to bloat our resumes. Frankly, even I would do the same if a case comes.

Why do we do so?

Analysing the cause, I see the flaw in our culture. Ever since a child is born, we make it a learning tool. Studies are the utmost priority for a child. I can say that from my own experience, even now my sister compels my neice to study. We never let the child flourish and develop talents. One of my nephews is greatly talented in Cricket, but is a fiasco when it comes to academics. But I never saw my cousin acknowledge this fact. For him, it's a prestige issue to see his son get a great rank. It insults him to see him fail in mathematics. He would leave no chance to demoralise the kid for his miserable performance, and would never miss to smirk and mock his talent when he gets a trophy in sports. No doubt, my nephew must study. But isn't he loosing all the interest he possibly could have developed had his talents been acknowledged and promoted?

We are into a mad rush, spending the entire life competing to outperform a fellow being. Our society rates an individual not by his deeds, but by how much has he earned for himself, whether his children are doing good academically, whether he has got a house of his own or if he still lives in a rented flat. If Mr. X's son went to U.S, Mr. Y wouldn't appreciate it, rather he would force his son to somehow make it there too. My neighbour's son made it in a relatively reputed B-School, another neighbour of mine took it to his ego, forced his only daughter to persue an MBA totally rubbishing her interests in humanities and arts.

And I feel, ultimately this mad rush makes us workaholics. Rarely have I come across people who turn into workaholics because they love to overwork, or their feild of work is their hobby. Most do it to earn money and fame, to out perform someone. We Indians are born with responsibilites - responsibility to be educated to earn respect(rightly so), reponsibility to bring fame to our families, to earn money and more money and more money till we die. Every second Indian has his family dept to repay, a sister to marry off, parents to take care back home, a dream house to build - and all this require money, and only those who do manage to relish this mad rush, are respected. No doubt, reponsibilites must be met, but not at the cost of our individuality. If we can manage to do so many things and devote so much time and effort to achieve that, we can and should spare some time to let ourselves flourish and enjoy life.

We don't have to have out of the box hobbies or go to Alps or Himalayas for vacations. Nothing flashy. Just allow ourselves to relish the subtle beauties of life, spend a moment or two to appreciate the achievements of our loved ones, allow ourselves the liberty of self praise. Do things that makes our soul happy, spend on oursleves, relax a bit, provide ourselves the occasional halt on this journey of life to appreciate the miles traveled, and milestones crossed.
In short, not let anything, any responsibility, or peer pressure to loose the beauty, God has gifted every creature on planet - an individuality.

And I am writing all this, because I am forced to come to office on a Saturday, not that I have worked a bit!!

Mockers meet!

2005-07-26T15:12:00.000+05:30

"To hell with this damn meet, why in the world did I say yes afterall? It's raining so heavily, and me like a fool is spending already scarce money to meet a few people whom I haven't ever seen? And worse yet, I am the only fool(didn't know I had company in Naren!) who's travelling 25 odd kilometers just for the heck of it! "

These are the true feelings that were coming to my mind while making the troublesome "journey" from my place to the CCD in Jayanagar. Having no idea of the place, with incessant rain pouring and the auto meter ticking beyond anticipation, I hope you all would understand my frustration. Added fear of no one turning up was always a catalyst pissing me further off!

But it wasn't meant to be a fool's day! And I regret not a bit why I took the trouble. The Blogger's meet was an outright success, atleast for me, as I got a few more friends to mock at, and thus satisfy the sadist within me! And I swear I didn't miss any chance in sounding sarcastic! The best part being, I got a few more friends who would listen to my Pjs, not understand the most of it, and still laugh. And I again swear, all of them obliged(Who knows may be they actually got the jokes, but it's a rarity)!!

Ok.. enough of build up! Let me get to the point! After much deliberation and procrastination, we - the fellow bloggers, met! And those who planned and couldn't make it for any reasons, lost out on a great funny conversation!

The four idiots with all the time in the world were:
Srinivas - the tallest and the biggest enthusiast fool, for whom all the world is some c++ program.
Rajendra - the silent thinker with no trace of any smile, totally contrary to his blog name!! :P (But he compensates for it by dancing well!)
Narendra - another enthusiast - typical of those who feed the telecom companies' employees - an over user addict of cell phones. :-)
Yours truly - the sarcastic mocker!

Anyhow.. we all met. You can have their versions of story at their blogs. Check them out at..

Srinivas
Narendra
Rajendra

And totally contrary to what I had anticipated the meet to be, there was fun in it. Surprisingly there weren't any butterflies dancing in my stomach(as I generally get when I meet strangers - may be self consiousness!) - and the introductions didn't take much time, as the blogs already gave an idea of their indivdual personalities. And like it always happens in case of a guy gang, we started with nation's favourite topic - sports! Don't think dirty -you pervert minds, no porn involved! Starting with Formula 1, the discussion went on to Science, it's implications, music, trivia involving music, our employers, their bashing and what not.

A lot can happen over coffee - I think this is CCD's punch line, and yes - a lot did happen over it. The gelling was perfect, and time flew by effortlessly.
Strong dose of an Irish coffee and heavy rain - the combination excites the romantic mind in me! But don't worry - I am straight, and my fellow friends need not panic! It was long since I sat without caring for anything for so long. Rounds of coffee came, lots of saracasm over the hep pronounciation and the funny stylish names of coffee were made, I even had a couple of free bites of the Black Forest cake. (Naren was passionaltely defending his liking for F1 and I was enjoying the cake!). This was giving me added kicks, as I could relate it to how I saved money for the return journey, and how I could use this cash for another round of coffee! Curse me guys - but I did that! ;)

Srinivas in zeal, bought a few coupons for the jukebox, and with me and Rajendra not interested in increasing the noice pollution in the small place, happily played a few of his favourites. The passion was obviously taking its toll on us, as Rajendra and me were the poor sufferers, who were nodding frantically in affirmative to all the trivia gyan he was imparting, just to push him off the subject! Idiot him, didn't take any clues from our body language, and instead started a new thread of discussion on Metal music. Thanks to timely intervention by Rajendra, that I am alive to narrate it today, or I would have died trying to figure out who Joe Satriani is, or who is the lead guitarist of Metallica. (Co-incidently Srinivas's profile picture is of the same person, as he told!! As if I care!! :))

I had my share of fun making Rajendra, the backra, for his out of the world, in my word messy, and in his word artistic, blog template!

To sum it all, I would say, if no one stood offended by my sarcasm all the three hours we were together, and if I did not explode( as my fame goes) by anybody's jokes and remarks, then it had to be a great meet.

And I serioulsy and sincerely look forward to more of it to come, with lots of new participation.

And I know two posts a day hint that I have no work, but I insist, it is just coincidence!