Whatever!

2009-10-25T13:40:00.000-07:00

Watch the two videos below and decide for yourself whether humanity deserves this world..

Quotable Quotes - 3

2009-06-10T04:06:00.001-07:00

The fire which enlightens is the same fire which consumes. -Henri Frederic
Amiel, philosopher and writer (1821-1881)

Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does. -William James,
psychologist (1842-1910)

You can tell the ideals of a nation by its advertisements. -Norman Douglas, novelist (1868-1952)

Conscience is a dog that does not stop us from passing but that we cannot prevent from barking. -Nicolas de Chamfort, writer (1741-1794)

A man can't ride on your back unless it's bent. -Martin Luther King, Jr., civil-rights leader (1929-1968)

What sane person could live in this world and not be crazy? -Ursula K. Le Guin, author (b. 1929)

When you battle with your conscience and lose, you win. -Henny Youngman, comedian and violinist (1906-1998)

Whenever two people meet, there are really six people present. There is each man as he sees himself, each man as the other person sees him, and each man as he really is. -William James, psychologist and philosopher (1842-1910)

Some people with great virtues are disagreeable, while others with great vices are delightful. -Francois, duc de La Rochefoucauld, moralist (1613-1680)

The artist brings something into the world that didn't exist before, and he does it without destroying something else. -John Updike, writer (1932-2009)

As the pain that can be told is but half a pain, so the pity that questions has little healing in its touch. -Edith Wharton, novelist (1862-1937)

To profess to be doing God's will is a form of megalomania. -Joseph Prescott, aphorist (1913-2001)

Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth. -Oscar Wilde, writer (1854-1900)

Poetry, indeed, cannot be translated; and, therefore, it is the poets that preserve the languages; for we would not be at the trouble to learn a language if we could have all that is written in it just as well in a translation. But as the beauties of poetry cannot be preserved in any language except that in which it was originally written, we learn the language. -Samuel Johnson, lexicographer (1709-1784)

Truth, in matters of religion, is simply the opinion that has survived. -Oscar Wilde, writer (1854-1900)

Learning without thought is labor lost; thought without learning is perilous. -Confucius, philosopher and teacher (c. 551-478 BCE)

Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God? -Epicurus, philosopher (c. 341-270 BCE)

travelogue...well, sort of!

2009-02-12T05:39:00.000-08:00

Following is an account of my first flight to the US of A. It was a business trip and i was living way way beyond my means. It shows in the writing!In retrospect, I'm amazed at my excitement given that I've written such a long narration of just the flight. A part of the credit should probably go to the hours I had to kill in transit. Without further preamble, here's the real deal. Hope you like it :)

Bangalore - Frankfurt - Chicago - San Jose

24.04.08 - Frankfurt, Germany

Here I am, in the lap of luxury at the Frankfurt international airport. I'm within the United airlines red carpet lounge, surrounded by 5 star luxury, in the first class section. I began my trip from Bangalore to San Jose at the Bangalore International airport, technically referred to as the Hindustan airport. Truth be told, it is a pathetic excuse for an airport. I hope the new international airport lives up to the international standards I'm now seeing and saw a little earlier on my trip to Australia.

My first flight on this trip was Lufthansa's LH755 to Frankfurt where I'm currently in transit. I next board a United airlines(UA) flight to Chicago. This was my first experience traveling business class and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Its quite fantastic, the amount of technology thats crammed into a business class seat. I sat upright through my meals, reclined comfortably while watching the programs on my personal screen and slept fully stretched on a near flat bed, being gently massaged in the lumbar region. All this on the same seat. Pure luxury, I say. I can't imagine what better is in store for me on my next flight, where I'm traveling first class (whoa! Probably the only time in a long long time)

So here I am, getting all my batteries charged (literally and figuratively). I arrived here at 9 am, local time (12:30 pm, IST). The flight duration was 9.5 hrs. Now its 9.30 am here and my UA flight is at 12 noon. Once I've charged up all my paraphernalia, I propose to check out any airport tours, if available, though I'd be more than happy to roam around and absorb new experiences.

**

I'm sipping on bitburger, premium pilsner…its some beer, is all I could figure out since the rest is in German. In flight, I was presented with the daunting task of choosing between champagne, chardonnay, red and white wine and spirits of the highest order. I went for the champagne, the name of which I've already forgotten. The options are so overwhelming and your knowledge so elementary, it's a humbling experience.

**

Food on the flight to Frankfurt, of course was straight out of an Indian kitchen. Dinner had tomato rice, kumbh palak, thick yellow dal, aloo mint raita (with no aloo), pakoras in a mayonnaise sorta sauce and bread of choice from croissants, tandoori roti, buns etc. It was fab. For dessert, rabri was served. Breakfast had, granola porridge, upma, kanchipuram idli with ginger chutney (delicious) and bread of choice.

The choice of food at the red carpet lounge is mind boggling again. We've got burgers, hot tiny pizza slices and an assortment of bread with a variety of spreadables. There is cereal and milk. There is an assortment of nuts. A good collection of fresh fruit juices; whole green apples too. Tea, coffee without question. Coke and beer. And, last but not the least, an assortment of chocolates including ferrero rochers and toblerone. So without much ado, let me proceed to raid 'em in typical Indian ishtyle. To hell with decency!

**

I have my eyes on a view drinks here. I think I'll consider myself successful in life the day I speak of them in the same vein as coke/pepsi. I'm talking of Jack Daniels, VSOP champagne, johnie walker – black label premium scotch whiskey.Sigh!

**

24.04.08, mid-atlantic ocean

Alright! Welcome back as I approach Greenland. We've(the flight is family now) passed Iceland and are cruising 36000 ft above the Denmark strait. We've covered 2898 km since taking off from Frankfurt and are expected to reach O'Hare International airport, Chicago at 2 pm, local time. If I thought traveling business class was something, I had in mind an even better expectation from first class travel. Now stretching on a fully reclining seat in my personal cubicle sort of space, replete with a luggage area and a cabinet, and smoothing off scoops of hagen daaz ( vanilla and chocolate with chocolate sauce, cream and fine sliced nuts), I can comprehend the difference.

**

Not to mention watching a yet-to-release-in-India Jodie Foster thriller sipping Chivas Regal on the rocks with assorted and freshly roasted(warm) and salted, mix of macadamia and cashew nuts. The movie is "The brave one". Its your regulation thriller; will spare the review for later though.

**

Whats been excellent this time has been the good fortune to witness something rare and magnificent. So our pilot comes alive on the PA system and points us to a sight outside. And what a site it was! Cruising alongside us (well seemingly!) was another passenger jumbo and further away, yet another one. The nearer one, we were soon told, was a good 2000ft above us. How distances pale, I swear! Anywise, the beauty in the sight lay in the streaks from the steady stream of air being churned out by the other plane. Luckily, I captured the same on video. Lots of brilliant shots of the peeks of landscape through the clouds. Oh! How beautiful are these clouds! You just want to jump out of the plane and float on them.

Food has been a major problem on this journey. There's such an overdose of delicacies, that its painful to choose. I opted for the following

"Spinach and ricotta stuffed tortellini Antonio with creamy chive sauce"

Simply put, rose shaped pasta chunks stuffed with spinach and swathed in creamy sauce. I chose this over my specially arranged Asian veg meal. I was told it contained rice and vegetables and that didn't look too inviting. I was worried that the pasta would be bland, but it turned out to be perfect. For entree I was served as per the special Asian veg course; deep-fried, flour coated cauliflower dumplings. Quite bland they were and hence in retrospect, I feel vindicated in my choice of main course.

One silly thing I notice is that, the first class doesn't have a charge point for the laptop. That means, I'm gonna have to shut this thing down soon before it conks out on me. This seems to be an older aircraft. It's a Boeing 747 for the record. The business class in the Lufthansa craft was snazzier technology wise. I can't imagine what might await the first class of the latest aircraft – a mini golf course, maybe!!??

Alright, so I'll sign off for now. I will catch you in the common waiting area at O'hare if I can find a charge point. No more swanky lounges from here on. Domestic flights are strictly economy class, as per company policy. If the checking for US bound passengers at Frankfurt is anything to suggest, customs at Chicago is gonna be a pain. Strength to me!

See you on the other side of the Atlantic. Ciao!

24.04.08 – UA star lounge, terminal 1, O'hare International airport, Chicago

Welcome back! I was wrong. My first class ticket till Chicago got me into the first class lounge. Its 4 local time and my flight departs at 5:30 to San Jose. Need to download all the pics so far onto the lappy. The videos just suck up the memory, but it's the videos that give so much more effect.

Another beautiful highlight of the flight to Chicago? View of Greenland. The pics and videos will describe in a better way, the beauty of an entire landscape iced with snow; snow covered mountains, snow covered valleys, it was as if the earth below had been painted white. It was a beautiful sight!

Saw another movie titled Dan in real life, starring Steve Carrel and the beautifully sensuous Juliet binoche (of chocolat fame). A nice movie. I started of on the third one "Redemption" starring Reese Witherspoon and Jake Gylenhall. Yes! You guessed it right. They got together on the sets of Redemption. Unfortunately, I didn't have enough time to compete the movie, but it is a must watch. It's a pity I didn't go for it earlier.

Its 3:15 am back in India, but I'm feeling as fresh as thushar (pun intended, go figure!). Thanks mom for inculcating the nocturnal tendencies in us ;). Sleep is not an issue, but I'm tired of being enticed to eat more than necessary. Add to that, there's hardly any exercise to push the food around. I'll have to probably run a marathon a day to fight the damage so far!

Another 15 minutes to go and I'll board my flight. I just wanna get to my hotel room now. Somebody invent tele-porting!!

A word or 2 about Chicago? Well, o'hare used to be the largest in the world at one time. I landed at terminal 5 and had to take the monorail to get to terminal 1. Now terminal 1 has 3 concourses (I think). Mine is C and the gate is 9. C has gates from 1 to 100. You can do your math. Remember namma HAL bengalooru airport has 1 terminal and 2 adjacent gates all together. Every time I look out from where I'm sitting, I can see a plane landing. Oh! There is this nteresting confluence of modes of transport at the O'Hare. At one point on the monorail ride, we passed under an over bridge. The over bridge is used by aircraft to taxi between the runways and the terminals. Besides the monorail line, the over bridge runs above a four lane road highway. And, at another level below the monorail and the road, run a pair of broad gauge railway tracks along the centre. So at the same spot, we have road, mono-rail, broad-gauge and aeroplane. It's quite a sight to watch a plane taxi right over your head. Right! I'm now gonna head for my flight.

25.04.08, 10:45 pm, in my room

Spent my first day in San Jose. I'm put up in a suite at the Residence Inn Marriott. Had a novel breakfast comprising of waffles with honey, bagels, jelly like scrambled eggs and milk. Went to office which is just half a km away, met all my team mates, whom I all knew but hadn't met before. I've settled down into my cubicle and set up my work environment. I had a colleague with me throughout the day. He was quite eager to father me around. So I didn't have to explore much. We had lunch at a nearby Mexican chain called Baja Fresh. Its final now! I don't like Mexican food!! And to top it, my colleague again took me to another Mexican place for dinner. So next time I need to throw up, please just say "borito". That apart, I've to figure out a lot of Motorola protocol with respect to calling home, car rental etc. Being the first person from office to travel as per Motorola travel policy, everything is a bit hazy. So it'll be a while before I can call you guys. In the meantime please add me on skype. My handle is thushar.kumar. I'll try to be online as much as possible.

The Weather is pretty good except for the wind chill factor. The sun set today at 8:00 PM. I plan to go running tomorrow morning. The area around here is hilly with beautiful mountains looming in the distance. Roads are spic and span as expected and I actually saw a man mowing the grass on the roadside. That then only leaves seeing the roads being washed :P

What else to pen. I'll call everyone soon. Later :)

The Pancha Shila to happiness

2009-02-11T03:49:00.000-08:00

The Pancha Shila, or five moral precepts of Buddhist teachings:

1. Avoid killing, or harming any living thing.
2. Avoid stealing -- taking what is not yours to take.
3. Avoid sexual irresponsibility, which for monks and nuns means celibacy.
4. Avoid lying, or any hurtful speech.
5. Avoid alcohol and drugs which diminish clarity of consciousness.

To these, monks and nuns add...

6. One simple meal a day, before noon.
7. Avoid frivolous entertainments.
8. Avoid self-adornment.
9. Use a simple bed and seat.
10. Avoid the use of money.

Some of it obviously makes sense. The rest prompt me to ask 'why?'

Proponents of the above principles would argue against my myopic view of 'happiness', that spending money and enjoying what it can buy is superficial happiness which is fraught with underlying grief.

I agree. The world happens to work such that my happiness is mostly at the cost of someone else'. In other words, humans have devised a system that redistributes a static quantum of happiness amongst the system's members - us

Against that, 'nirvana' is akin to the creation of happiness. It is not borrowed or bought. To that extent, it's projected quantum is infinite. Ideal happiness doesn't come to one at the cost of another's; it increases collective happiness. So then, that seems like a sound goal to have for humanity. right?

"There is only as much light as there is darkness", I can argue. If you don't know how dark it can be, you can't appreciate how bright it is. A person is only as tall as another is short. Most of what life has us deal with cannot be measured in absolute terms. We need a reference for everything and that includes happiness.

However, I'd like to believe that I'm wrong. I'd like to believe that there is something called Absolute happiness, which I cannot comprehend now. At the same time, I don't see myself setting out in quest for it. I appreciate those who do. good for them!

I'm happy with my hedonistic life and accept the bitter-sweet relationship with 'happiness' that 'normal' life offers.

But i see no harm in slowly moving in the direction of absolute happiness. We could surely make collective progress in increasing the quantum of happiness that we share amongst ourselves. This comes from being good and doing good.

So be good! and do good! For now, the Pancha Shila can wait!

et tu, Anil Kapoor?

2009-02-09T06:10:00.000-08:00

I'm guilty of engaging in the twist-news-to-your-comfort brand of journalism that media today increasingly and effectively employs, but I couldn't resist the temptation when it came to the following quote from Anil Kapoor in the context of the mammothly hyped cinematic phenomenon called slumdog millionaire. Anil Kapoor gushed,

"It's once in a lifetime that you get this kind of work"

To purge myself of the guilt, please read the context of the statement.

Surely, you've done better roles than this Mr. Kapoor! or were you thinking of Tashan and Welcome at that time? or maybe naksha??

Is Indian cricket going the Australian way?

2009-02-04T20:50:00.000-08:00

News: Invited to a formal dinner by the President of Sri-Lanka, the Indian cricket team turned up in jeans and team tee shirts!!

The Indian cricket team is on a high! With 8 consecutive wins, team India is becoming all-conquering. But is it introducing arrogance into their attitude?

Offlate, you see a lot of aggression from the Indian team on the field. When it comes to effecting dismissals and scoring centuries, there is an excessive display of emotion.

It was never the forte of Australians and South Africans to sledge. It was just a case of others not being at the top. Now that the Indian team is getting there, we're not exactly trying to restore gentlemanly behaviour on the field.

From the team's point of view, probably, we viewers are not entitled to such judgments. We do not rub shoulders with the players of opposite teams. We do not stand at the crease and get subjected to sledging. So maybe we don't know what team India goes through. The issue then transcends a particular team and lands in the ICC's frontyard, which then becomes a different story.

Returning to the Indian team, I feel there should be an effort to curb the aggression. You may argue that its the aggressive mentality that makes a Yuvraj or an Ishant succeed. To that I'd respond by taking the case of Sachin and Sehwag. Their agression needs no introduction, neither does it reek of arrogance and certainly, its not that they've mellowed with age.

A case in point: Yuvraj Singh coming to bowl with his reflective goggles on. Some other player bowling with his cap on. Basic sporting etiquette being flouted here

Agression that remains in the mind is good agression and attitude that doesn't need to be explicitly expressed is real. The indian team would do good to realize that

read: Bill Bryson, A Short History of Nearly Everything

2009-01-29T00:56:00.000-08:00

In today's encore excerpt--Sir Isaac Newton, whose masterwork Mathematical Principles of Natural History was one of the two or three most foundational and influential works in all of Western Science. This work had as its core his three laws of motion and his universal law of gravitation:

"Newton was a decidedly odd figure--brilliant beyond measure, but solitary, joyless, prickly to the point of paranoia, famously distracted (upon swinging his feet out of bed in the morning he would reportedly sometimes sit for hours, immobilized by the sudden rush of thoughts to his head), and capable of the most riveting strangeness. He built his own laboratory, the first at Cambridge, but then engaged in the most bizarre experiments. Once he inserted a bodkin--a long needle of the sort used for sewing leather--into his eye socket and rubbed it around 'betwixt my eye and the bone near to the backside of my eye as I could' just to see what would happen. What happened, miraculously, was nothing--at least nothing lasting. On another occasion, he stared at the sun for as long as he could bear, to determine what effect it would have upon his vision. Again he escaped lasting damage, though he had to spend some days in a darkened room before his eyes forgave him.

"Set atop these ... quirky traits, however, was the mind of a supreme genius. ... [As recounted by] Newton confidant, Abraham DeMoivre, 'In 1684 Dr. Edmond Halley [of Halley's comet fame] came to visit at Cambridge and after they had some time together the Doctor asked [Newton] what he thought the curve would be that would be described by the planets supposing the force of attraction toward the sun to be reciprocal to the square of their distance from it.' This was a reference to a piece of mathematics known as the inverse square law, which Halley was convinced lay at the heart of the explanation, though he wasn't sure exactly how. 'Sir Isaac replied immediately that it would be an ellipse. The Doctor, struck with joy and amazement, asked him how he knew it. 'Why,' saith he, 'I have calculated it,' whereupon Dr. Halley asked him for his calculation without further delay, Sir Isaac looked among his papers but could not find it.'

"This was astounding--like someone saying that he had found a cure for cancer but couldn't remember where he had put the formula. Pressed by Halley, Newton agreed to redo the calculations and produce a paper. He did as promised, but then did much more. He retired for two years of intensive reflection and scribbling, and at length produced his masterwork: the Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica or Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy, better known as the Principia."

Bill Bryson, A Short History of Nearly Everything, Broadway Books, Copyright 2003 by Bill Bryson, pp. 46-48.

2009-01-23T01:36:00.001-08:00

In today's excerpt--Fritz Haber, whose 1909 development of a process to synthetically manufacture nitrogen was perhaps the most important invention of the twentieth century, since it enabled the synthetic manufacture of gunpowder, thus enabling wars of the unprecedented scope of World Wars I and II, and also allowed the manufacture of artificial fertilizers, thus enabling the growth of world population from under two billion in 1900 to almost 7 billion in 2000. Haber's story embodies the paradoxes of science: the double edge to our manipulations of nature, the good and evil that can flow not only from the same man but the same knowledge:

"The discovery of synthetic nitrogen changed everything--not just for the corn plant and the farm, not just for the food system, but also for the way life on earth is conducted. All life depends on nitrogen; it is the building block from which nature assembles amino acids, proteins, and nucleic acids; the genetic information that orders and perpetuates life is written in nitrogen ink. But the supply of usable nitrogen on earth is limited. ... Until a German Jewish chemist named Fritz Haber figured out how to turn this trick in 1909, all the usable nitrogen on earth had at one time been fixed by soil bacteria living on the roots of leguminous plants (such as peas or alfalfa or locust trees) or, less commonly, by the shock of electrical lightning, which can break nitrogen bonds in the air, releasing a light rain of fertility. ...

"Before Fritz Haber's invention the sheer amount of life earth could support--the size of crops and therefore the number of human bodies--was limited by the amount of nitrogen that bacteria and lightning could fix. By 1900, European scientists recognized that unless a way was found to augment this naturally occurring nitrogen, the growth of the human population would soon grind to a very painful halt. ... "This is why it may not be hyperbole to claim that the Haber-Bosch process (Carl Bosch gets the credit for commercializing Haber's idea) for fixing nitrogen is the most important invention of the twentieth century. [Geographer Vaclav Smil] estimates that two of every five humans on earth today would not be alive if not for Fritz Haber's invention. We can easily imagine a world without computers or electricity, Smil points out, but without synthetic fertilizer billions of people would never have been born.

"Fritz Haber? No, I'd never heard of him either, even though he was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1920 for 'improving the standards of agriculture and the well-being of mankind.' ... During World War I, Haber threw himself into the German war effort, and his chemistry kept alive Germany's hopes for victory. After Britain choked off Germany's supply of nitrates from Chilean mines, an essential ingredient in the manufacture of explosives, Haber's technology allowed Germany to continue making bombs from synthetic nitrate. Later, as the war became mired in the trenches of France, Haber put his genius for chemistry to work developing poison gases-ammonia, then chlorine. (He subsequently developed Zyklon B, the gas used in Hitler's concentration camps.) On April 22, 1915, Haber was on the front lines directing the first gas attack in military history.

"His 'triumphant' return to Berlin was ruined a few days later when his wife, a fellow chemist sickened by her husband's contribution to the war effort, used Haber's army pistol to kill herself. Though Haber later converted to Christianity, his Jewish background forced him to flee Nazi Germany in the thirties; he died, broken, in a Basel hotel room in 1934. Perhaps because the history of science gets written by the victors, Fritz Haber's story has been all but written out of the twentieth century. Not even a plaque marks the site of his great discovery at the University of Karlsruhe."

Michael Pollan, The Omnivore's Dilemma, Penguin, Copyright 2006 by Michael Pollan, pp. 42-44.

2008-12-16T00:17:00.000-08:00

The Sri Lankan Cricket board says it's ready to send its team to Pakistan, if India refuses to tour the world's new found punching bag.

Not surprising! having borne the brunt of LTTE for decades, Pakistan could well be like a second home to the Lankans!

2008-12-14T23:24:00.000-08:00

Amidst all the seriousness of carbon trading, CO2 emissions, global warming, The Kyoto Protocol and the efforts of scores of environmentalists world over, the nonchalant common man in India still burns his share of dry leaves and other "easily bio degradable" wastes, daily.

Today, I extinguished one such burning pile; mainly due to the nuisance from the smoke. It should still count.

To end on a funny note :-

RupeeMail - apparantly, it pays!

2008-12-09T23:03:00.000-08:00

Invitation to join RupeeMail!

Hi ,

I have something interesting for you, RupeeMail!

It’s really amazing! You get paid to open & read the contents of RupeeMail. You receive promotional offers & special discounts in RupeeMail.

Interestingly RupeeMails will reach you based on the preference list you opted for.

Create your RupeeMail Account & refer your friends to earn launch referral bonus on every new registration.

Try this... http://www.rupeemail.in/rupeemail/invite.do?in=MjQ1NjUzJSMlbmR0aDVtRDZCZmJhQ3FTdUhrSnoyc1FYeA==

RupeeMail, It pays

thushar

in the name of security

2008-09-02T01:09:00.000-07:00

A few interesting observations about the security system at the office gate

- It doesn't matter what a visitor enters in the security register. He could carry a bomb in his bag, write Osama as his name, put 911 as his contact number and doodle a cartoon as signature, and security will promptly give him a visitor sticker and let him through.

- You could keep a bomb in the passenger seat beside you and sit smugly while the security checked the boot and admired the chassis using the roller-mirror. No problem sir! drive on.

- You can flash any colourful, embossed plastic card as ID and sail through.

for the numerically challenged

2008-03-24T05:44:00.000-07:00

......presenting 'lift-boys'!! They will press the button on the control panel that you tell them to. how brain-dead a concept is that? Add to that those 2 times out of 10 when they'll mess it up and send you in the opposite direction or zooming past u'r floor, as u look at the LCD display in despair. The worst is when you enter the lift to experience a rather unpleasant smell, crudely put namely 'fart-filled air'. They're human, after all. High time they're done away with

New Photo Album Updated!

2008-03-24T05:40:00.000-07:00

I think I got you with that one Mohit!! ;) Pray tell me how you update a new photo album. This is in the same category as "new and improved" xxxx'l'.

Sreesanth, king of gaffes

2008-03-20T04:34:00.000-07:00

Shantakumaran Sreesanth is all but his namesake. Where 'Shantakumaran' literally means 'silent boy', our S. Sreesanth is as depicted in the pics above. What you see are his actions on the field. What is more potent, however, is when his mouth does the talking (pun intended). Sample these

"If you are asking me, it was just an event and nothing else. I don't need to run after actresses"

this, after being linked with Priyanka Chopra post a promo event in Mumbai. Surely he should have spared a thought for the former Miss Universe. she must have been devastated!!

"Is this the King Charles Lara? Who is this imposter, moving around
nervously"

this, after beating Lara one ball. He was promptly pulled past the boundary, the very next ball. No one messes with Lara!!

"The Aussies should be worried I'm coming"

this, before the recently concluded Australia tour. Rajnikanth has competition!

There was this one time when, Sreesanth came good on a nel bowl, belting it straight over the bowler's head for six. He'd made a statement, a tremendous one at that. You're standing up to applaud when you see him perform that disgusting prolonged dance. The guy needs to develop some class!! He wasn't short of words this time either

Nel: (tapping his chest)"You need a big heart to play", I smell blood(sniffing the air)
S: (sniffing) "where, where?"
(after that memorable SIX)
S: "How was that slap and where is your tongue now?

But i still admire this guy. I think he has single handedly brought aggression into the Indian Team.

Quotable Quotes -3

2008-03-10T02:02:00.001-07:00

The dust of exploded beliefs may make a fine sunset.
Geoffrey Madan, writer (1895-1947)

Society is like a stew. If you don't keep it stirred up you get a lot of scum on the top.
Edward Abbey, naturalist and author (1927-1989)

I cannot imagine a God who rewards and punishes the objects of his creation, whose purposes are modeled after our own -- a God, in short, who is but a reflection of human frailty.
Albert Einstein, physicist, Nobel laureate (1879-1955)

Knowing what / Thou knowest not / Is in a sense / Omniscience.
Piet Hein, poet and scientist (1905-1996)

A good listener helps us overhear ourselves. Yahia Lababidi, author (b.1973)

Who breaks the thread, the one who pulls, the one who holds on?
James Richardson, poet, professor (b. 1950)

Cowardice asks the question, 'Is it safe?' Expediency asks the question, 'Is it politic?' Vanity asks the question, 'Is it popular?' But, conscience asks the question, 'Is it right?' And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular but one must take
it because one's conscience tells one that it is right.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

The knife disappears with sharpening.
James Richardson, poet, professor (b. 1950)

2008-02-14T01:51:00.000-08:00

i now realize how important a right setting is, to write. This template i have here feels so uninviting that i'm giving up every time i feel the urge to write. ho hum!

food for thought

2007-12-18T08:52:00.000-08:00

This is a shot from the cafeteria within Motorola office, Bagmane tech park, bangalore. I was there today again for some work. The board displayed the wastage for y'day as 137 kg.

Innovative idea, i say :)

ultimate 'swing' bowling

2007-12-18T08:48:00.000-08:00

shot this at a park in Rajaji Nagar, bangalore. There were about 10 teams playing cricket on criss-crossing pitches in an area about 1 quarter of a regulation cricket field. talk about population explosion!!

Unmatched Coverage!!

2007-12-18T08:38:00.000-08:00

clicked this from a window at office!

Quotable Quotes -2

2007-12-12T23:29:00.000-08:00

I shall allow no man to belittle my soul by making me hate him.
Booker T. Washington (1856-1915)

Science is built with facts as a house is with stones--but a collection of facts is no more a science than a heap of stones is a house.
Jules Henri Poincare (1854-1912)

Those who are incapable of committing great crimes do not readily suspect them in others.
Francois De La Rochefoucauld (1613-1680)

God gives every bird his worm, but he does not throw it into the nest.
Swedish proverb

Anyone can do any amount of work, provided it isn't the work he is supposed to be doing at that moment.
Robert Benchley

Doubt comes in at the window when inquiry is denied at the door.
Benjamin Jowett (1817-1893)

They know enough who know how to learn.
Henry Adams (1838-1918)

Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention to arrive safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming: Wow!! What a ride!
Anonymous

They deem him their worst enemy who tells them the truth.
Plato, philosopher (427-347 BC)

They laughed when I said I was going to be a comedian. They're not laughing now.
Bob Monkhouse, comedian (1928-2003)

It is not giving children more that spoils them; it is giving them more to avoid confrontation.
John Gray, author (b. 1951)

Sometimes I need what only you can provide: your absence.
Ashleigh Brilliant

The most civilized people are as near to barbarism as the most polished steel is to rust. Nations, like metals, have only a superficial brilliancy.
Antoine de Rivarol, epigrammatist (1753-1801)

A politician is a man who thinks of the next election; while the statesman thinks of the next generation.
James Freeman Clarke, preacher and author (1810-1888)

A myth is a religion in which no one any longer believes.
James Kern Feibleman, philosopher and psychiatrist (1904-1987)

I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent.
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869-1948)

How can we expect another to keep our secret if we have been unable to keep it ourselves.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld, writer (1613-1680)

Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather. John Ruskin, author, art critic, and social reformer (1819-1900)

Neither great poverty nor great riches will hear reason.
Henry Fielding, author (1707-1754)

an earlier post on quotes is here

Crypt Raider

2007-12-10T07:08:00.000-08:00

Here's another game that I've become hooked to. I started playing thinking it'll be over by level 30...it didn't...i thought it'll end at 50...it didn't...now i'm at level 91 and apparently stuck! I'm doing everything right, but my keyboard isn't sensitive enough to move the character quickly enough from the about-to-explode bomb...sigh!
I found out there are 100 levels in all. So close yet so far! try it out

India Shining

2007-11-05T21:04:00.000-08:00

It was heartening to read this article on CNN-IBN. I see it as a glimpse into the future of our country...people from all walks of life making their mark in life

Bloxorz!

2007-10-04T22:56:00.000-07:00

This is what happens when u get addicted to these smart little flash games that abound on the net.

Got the game from a friend. The moment i started playing, i got hooked.

I haven't done much work at office, the last 2 days.

But now i am at peace with the game and myself. The software Industry will soon show a teeny weeny spurt in employee productivity.. he he

Apparently, the different levels can be loaded at will using the respective passcodes. I have here a list of 'em if u need em.

passcode level
098598 15
000241 16
683596 17
284933 18
119785 19
543019 20
728724 21
987319 22
293486 23
088198 24
250453 25
426329 26
660141 27
769721 28
691859 29
280351 30
138620 31
879021 32
614955 33

Interestingly, dudes and dudettes have uploaded videos on youtube showing how they solved the levels. I confess to 1 count of using them. forgot which level. But to my defense.. nevermind!!

Enjoy the game!!

what would you have done?

2007-09-27T02:19:00.000-07:00

I found a dead roach in my food today.
I was at this newly renovated restaurant near my office.
I used to go there once in a while, before they closed down for renovation.
I found decor to have changed.
The table cloth and mats were matching with the decor.
They'd installed a juice counter. The woodwork was nice.
Even now though, the floors weren't as clean as they should be. As a result there were a few flies
I used to tell them earlier to try and maintain some more cleanliness
I used to always have the veg thali they served. Pretty decent stuff
Today i found a dead roach in my dry sabzi (palya, in kannada).
I stopped eating and observed the roach for a second, maybe to confirm
I called the waiter. He came
I just pointed to the roach and smiled. He sheepishly smiled back and hurried to the manager.
I got up and went to the wash.
When i got back, the manager came over and told me that i need not pay the bill.
Note that he didn't say 'sorry' first.
I said i don't want free food and requested for the bill.
He began ranting about how the appearance of the roach is the result of the renovatio n work and not of the practices.
I didn't react to that. I just told him that i've always mentioned that the cleanliness was never up to the mark and that fancy table cloth et al is not as important as hygiene is.
Now he says sorry
He mentions about a suggestions register.
I pay the bill and leave.

what would you have done?

culture shock!!

2007-09-18T03:59:00.000-07:00

This is how this particular non-indian eats a masala dosa!

i hope i'm not sued for this....you never know!

Divided it stood, a United made it fall

2007-09-11T07:04:00.000-07:00

Today is the anniversary of a great tragedy. Today is 9/11. I happened to note the date a few minutes back and was surprised to realize how obscured the day has been this year. Time, apparently, cleans even the toughest of stains. I clearly remember the day it happened. I was at my native place. We had all assembled to perform the traditional rites for my Grandfather who had then, recently left us. While preparations were going on in the house, i was watching tv in the drawing room. Incidentally i was watching the news. And then it was brought on. I took a few seconds to digest the breaking news. I still couldn't fathom the gravity of the incident. It looked bad, but never as bad as it turned out to be. I rushed to inform the others. People started trickling into the room. Surprisingly i don't recall much thereafter. It would have to be what would be expected. some shock! some disbelief, widespread curiosity, sporadic judgments and so on!

The world trade centre is no more, but nothing daunts the human spirit from resurgence. Ground zero is yet again a buzz of activity as thousands of men work towards erecting the freedom tower. With the anniversary in mind i googled for some information and this is what i have. Rather nice i say!

I run with your money!

2007-09-10T03:29:00.000-07:00

I apologize to whoever originally said this, but its the simplest way to put it, pun intended ofcos. Jokes apart, let me announce my commitment to run the Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon 2008. It will happen in the last week of January and I'm in the process of training for it.

If you're done with your laughing, let me get to my motivation. A few months back, i joined an NGO by name Asha. Asha is primarily into children's education. They (its 'We' now) started out strongly in Silicon Valley and with the tremendous support from enthusiastic members started out in India, where they are needed the most. Asha-Bangalore is an energetic group of like minded people and is involved in a few projects in and around the city. I was introduced to Asha by a friend of mine and being a part of it was the least i could do.

Everyone freely joins NGOs and other such organizations. But when it comes to doing the spade work, very few are able to do it. I for one am still to be involved in a grassroots level project of Asha where my actions will directly help a child improve himself/herself. But there are more sides to it. I realized that, to start with, i could help raise funds for the growing activities of Asha-Bangalore.

Marathons are a done event in The US. Its a very common physical activity and there are a lot of popular marathons which are calendar events. Awareness is very high, there are well developed training programs and it is a big Corporate Social Responsibility(CSR) attraction. Asha chapters in the US have been actively involved in marathons and have raised a lot of money through individual runners who pledge to raise x dollars/mile run. Most folks of Asha-Bangalore have been involved with such Marathons while in the US.

Marathons are catching up in a large way in India. There are a few Calendar events which are participated in large numbers, including celebrities like Anil Ambani. The SC Mumbai Marathon is one such. There are also several local runs organized by dedicated running groups like Runners For Life (RFL).

So with this as my motivation and no background in running, I've set forth to achieve the daunting goal of running 42.195 km and raise Rs 20,000/- in the process. Thats roughly Rs 1000/- for every 2 km that i run.

My training is happening in full swing and since yesterday I've started documenting them here. You can also have a look at my fellow Asha guys' pages. The links are present at the left-bottom of my page.

Asha-Bangalore/marathon
Asha-Austin/marathon

My runner page on Asha Bangalore website is under construction and will be up soon :)

food for thought and psyche

2007-09-07T20:23:00.000-07:00

People who waste food should be starved; they shouldn't be allowed to die of hunger coz there's no point then. They should starve to the point where they'll realize the value of that half roti they wasted, that one spoon of sabzi(veggies) they ignored and that almost large serving of dal(pulses) they left to spoil.

The saddest part is that many such people shovel in tonnes of food and the half roti et al is by no means an unacceptable extra. Hell, the last thing they are bothered about is that extra calorie.

No, its not about any of the above. Its about a stubborn ego. An ego i don't have an explanation for.

Its also probably a fallout of our cultural insecurities. They say, the host should refill the guest's plate of food, till something has been left uneaten. If the guest leaves behind a polished plate, it invariably has to mean either that the host ran out of food or that the guest couldn't be satiated. What rubbish!! I can vouch for this because in all traditional feasts that i have been a part of, it is customary to serve once more, after the guest has declined the offer!

But I'd like to come back to the ego bit. Its a depressing ego, not the condescending type but the hanging-onto-dear-life type. An ego which is looking for an opportunity to be bruised, an ego which doesn't want to rise up in life, which pulls down its owner further...a cruelly vicious circle, i say. I actually have sympathy for such people. They really don't understand, u know! But i have no sympathy for the fact that they don't try to change...i have no sympathy for their 'anti' attitude which says, any feedback received is bad feedback and to be taken offense to. They don't realize that people are actually trying to help them out of it. They don't want to think that their friends are going out of the way at times. I can again vouch for this because i came out of it. I changed for the better! I changed because I'm always looking to improve myself. I still have long distances to go, and I'm constantly trying. They should too!

Oops!...ummm!..damn!..too late!

2007-09-07T04:51:00.000-07:00

Sometimes you want to rewind and playback time for the most trivial, yet compelling reasons. Like today, when i was walking down a narrow aisle in my office; A colleague with whom I'm on smile-when-u-pass terms, was coming from the opposite direction. I was ambling down, lost in my thoughts and didn't consciously recall his presence in my path. Ok! i didn't ram into him or anything, but i trudged on impervious of him and he had to squeeze past me. He was well past the moment by the time i realized this and i guess "arrogant bastard" has now been firmly registered against my name in his brain's registers.

If only i could rollback time, and graciously give him way with due respect. Alas! the motivation is not strong enough to pursue a research in Physics. So I'll let it be and stalk around his cubicle for another opportunity :D

Pleased to fleece

2007-08-13T06:17:00.001-07:00

I saw this ad in BTM layout.
I must say, I admire the candour of the Landlord!!

Fwd: Fwd: Fwd:

2007-08-10T23:21:00.000-07:00

Ever wondered who creates mail forwards? Countless hours are spent by one and all forwarding forwards. From 'funny video' to 'amazing pics' to 'sardar jokes' (my empathies) to 'sms jokes', everyone's seen 'em all.

this last time, while going through one such forward, i tried to picture myself creating one. Its not easy man!! Creating mail forwards is no longer amateurish stuff. It has its own protocol, it is well documented (but of course), it uses all available technologies and so on

here's a list of requisites as i see it

1. foreplay - you can't just attach a set of pics and write 'here goes'. At minimum there should be a "you won't believe this!! or "Check this out...u'll be surprised" etc etc. its just as in the big job!!

2. colours/dots - packaging man!! very important. no one wants to be associated with dull stuff. there should be a minimum of 3 colours, 5 font changes and a few italicized words. you could throw in a couple of gifs 'just for fun'

3. the link..hyperlink - there should be something under the skin of the mail. Most successful forwards that allegedly make their way to more than 50% of inboxes worldwide always entice the reader with hyperlinks. the links are mostly advertisement gimmicks, but thats ok. As long as you can click on the text, thumbs up!!

4. the connection - of course, the stuff should be good. It should connect with the reader. No connection implies a free ticket to the trash box.

Forward this to 5 people and i'll be happy. Forward this to 10 people, i'll be more happy. If you forward this to 50 people, i'll suggest that you read more than my blog

you think all this is bullshit? many have received forwards that they once forwarded, Have you met anyone, who has received a forward that he, originated? if you have, he's probably read this post..hmmm!!

cemented!

2007-08-06T10:01:00.000-07:00

cement's been a recurring theme for me today. In the morning cement was the topic for the calvin & hobbes strip in TOI. After returning from office, i was glancing through the paper again and found that the T-shirt quote of the day was again related to cement. "drink cement, get stoned". pretty good!

i hovered over the calvin strip again and the sight of cement sticking to calvin and hobbes' back prompted a scary thought. How effective a tool for torture, grievance addressal, revenge etc can cement be! picture this - there is a person u want to badly hurt, but don't want any blood shed. Simple! tie him up, preferably with his limbs in awkward positions, pour cement over them and leave it to dry! boy! thats gonna cement his fate literally. how the hell is he gonna get it off him?

but seriously, cement can be a potent 'weapon of mass restriction'. i wonder why scriptwriters never thought of it. Imagine the prospects, Rajnikant has, to display his extra human (not to be confused with extra terrestrial, however suggestive his looks might be) skills.

Its the climax. Rajni who had been drugged and captured by the villian is covered from neck to toe in cement. An obviously irritated Rajni's temper is pushed to the limit when he sees the villian publicly challenging the heroine's modesty..next moment is heard a deafening roar from Rajni accompanied by vigourous shaking of the head and before anyone realises, cement splinters are flying in all directions and there stands Rajnikant, brushing off some dust off his shoulders, one eyebrow raised, giving his sexy look. thts fodder for a month of housefulls in chennai, i can bet.

concrete thought?

Quotable Quotes

2007-06-24T23:35:00.000-07:00

Here's a small compilation of quotes that i liked and built up over an year or so.. not many, but i love each of them for one reason or the other. been pretty selective but hey! its all about the mood that was..happy reading! :)
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Between men and women there is no friendship possible. There is passion, enmity, worship, love, but no friendship.
-Oscar Wilde, writer (1854-1900)

People do not wish to appear foolish; to avoid the appearance of foolishness, they are willing to remain actually fools.
-Alice Walker, writer (1944- )

War, at first, is the hope that one will be better off; next, the expectation that the other fellow will be worse off; then, the satisfaction that he isn't any better off; and, finally, the surprise at everyone's being worse off.
-Karl Kraus, writer (1874-1936)

Be like the bird, who halting in his flight / On limb too slight, / Feels it give way beneath him, yet sings / Knowing he has wings.
-Victor Hugo, writer (1802-1885)

The river does not swell with clear water.
-Italian proverb

Whenever anyone has offended me, I try to raise my soul so high that the offense cannot reach it.
-Rene Descartes, philosopher and mathematician (1596-1650)

Don't go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first.
-Mark Twain (1835-1910)

Flattery is like chewing gum. Enjoy it but don't swallow it.
-Hank Ketcham, comic artist (1920-2001)

We either make ourselves happy or miserable. The amount of work is the same.
-Carlos Castaneda, mystic and author (1925-1998)

I found one day in school a boy of medium size ill-treating a smaller boy. I expostulated, but he replied: 'The bigs hit me, so I hit the babies; that's fair.' In these words he epitomized the history of the human race.
-Bertrand Russell, philosopher, mathematician, and author (1872-1970)

Most truths are so naked that people feel sorry for them and cover them up, at least a little bit.
-Edward R. Murrow, journalist (1908-1965)

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; The unreasonable man persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man
-George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)

The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.
-Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869-1948)

Once you label me you negate me.
-Soren Kierkegaard, philosopher (1813-1855)

Not ignorance, but ignorance of ignorance, is the death of knowledge.
-Alfred North Whitehead, mathematician and philosopher (1861-1947)

One of the best ways to get yourself a reputation as a dangerous citizen these days is to go about repeating the very phrases which our founding fathers used in the great struggle for independence.
-Charles A. Beard, historian (1874-1948)

If any kid ever realized what was involved in factory farming they would never touch meat again. I was so moved by the intelligence, sense of fun and personalities of the animals I worked with on 'Babe' that by the end of the film I was a vegetarian.
-James Cromwell, actor (1940- )

Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are.
-Benjamin Franklin, statesman, author, and inventor (1706-1790)

The truly creative mind in any field is no more than this: A human creature born abnormally, inhumanly sensitive. To him... a touch is a blow, a sound is a noise, a misfortune is a tragedy, a joy is an ecstasy, a friend is a lover, a lover is a god, and failure is death. Add to this cruelly delicate organism the overpowering necessity to create, create, create -- so that without the creating of music or poetry or books or buildings or something of meaning, his very breath is cut off from him. He must create, must pour out creation. By some strange, unknown, inward urgency he is not really alive unless he is creating.
-Pearl S. Buck, novelist, Nobel laureate (1892-1973)

The pursuit of truth and beauty is a sphere of activity in which we are permitted to remain children all our lives.
-Albert Einstein, physicist, Nobel laureate (1879-1955)

"We judge ourselves by what we feel capable of doing, while others judge us by what we have already done."
-Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882)

In the small matters trust the mind, in the large ones the heart.
-Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)

Criticism is prejudice made plausible.
-Henry Louis Mencken (1880-1956)

The only means of strengthening one's intellect is to make up one's mind about nothing -- to let the mind be a thoroughfare for all thoughts.
-John Keats, poet (1795-1821)

The foolish and the dead alone never change their opinions.
-James Russell Lowell, poet, editor, and diplomat (1819-1891)

Kindness is more important than wisdom, and the recognition of this is the
beginning of wisdom.
-Theodore Rubin, psychiatrist and writer (1923- )

Dissent is what rescues democracy from a quiet death behind closed doors.
-Lewis H. Lapham, editor (1935- )

The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails.
-William Arthur Ward, college administrator, writer (1921-1994)

God loved the birds and invented trees. Man loved the birds and invented cages.
-Jacques Deval, writer and director (1895-1972)

Man is the best computer we can put aboard a spacecraft and the only one that can be mass produced with unskilled labor.
-Wernher von Braun, rocket engineer (1912-1977)

Evil is like a shadow - it has no real substance of its own, it is simply a lack of light. You cannot cause a shadow to disappear by trying to fight it, stamp on it, by railing against it, or any other form of emotional or physical resistance. In order to cause a shadow to disappear, you must shine light on it.
-Shakti Gawain, teacher and author (1948- )

We lie the loudest when we lie to ourselves.
-Eric Hoffer, philosopher and author (1902-1983)

It is a funny thing about life, if you refuse to accept anything but the best, you very often get it.
-Somerset Maugham (1874-1965)

Imagine a world in which generations of human beings come to believe that certain films were made by God or that specific software was coded by him. Imagine a future in which millions of our descendants murder each other over rival interpretations of Star Wars or Windows 98. Could anything -- anything -- be more ridiculous? And yet, this would be no more ridiculous than the world we are living in.
-Sam Harris, author (1967- )

Many are concerned about the monuments of the West and the East- to know who built them. For my part, I should like to know who in those days did not build them- who were above such trifling.
-Henry David Thoreau, naturalist and author (1817-1862)

Extended empires are like expanded gold, exchanging solid strength for feeble splendor.
-Samuel Johnson (1709-1784)

Only enemies speak the truth; friends and lovers lie endlessly, caught in the web of duty.
-Stephen King, novelist (1947- )

You can't live a perfect day without doing something for someone who will never be able to repay you.
-John Wooden, sports coach (1910- )

In some circumstances, the refusal to be defeated is a refusal to be educated.
-Margaret Halsey (1910-1997)

What I stand for is what I stand on.
-Wendell Berry, farmer, author (1934- )

The reward for conformity was that everyone liked you except yourself.
-Rita Mae Brown, writer (1944- )

A woman can become a man's friend only in the following stages - first an acquaintance, next a mistress, and only then a friend
-Anton Chekhov (1860-1904)

The crucial disadvantage of aggression, competitiveness, and skepticism as national characteristics is that these qualities cannot be turned off at five o'clock.
-Margaret Halsey, novelist (1910-1997)

What loneliness is more lonely than distrust?
-George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans), novelist (1819-1880)

Don't be yourself. Be someone a little nicer.
-Mignon McLaughlin, journalist and author (1913-1983)

open your eyes, if u haven't yet

2007-06-08T00:13:00.000-07:00

read this and then think about what you've done with your life. Ponder over whether you've justified your means. If not, there is still time, its never too late to start. Its not for nothing that it is said, "where there is a will, there is a way". From my experience, i'm dead sure that its trying that matters; trying with, if necessary, blind faith and commitment. think about it

www.spoolpool.blogspot.com

2007-06-02T08:15:00.000-07:00

hey!

i've been motivated by the movie i just saw, to dedicate a blog to movies. I present to you this

hail hollywood...and occasionally bollywood

Khosla ka ghosla (2006)

2007-03-31T03:37:00.000-07:00

First and foremost, let me tell you that i'm only halfway through this movie at the moment. But its been such a pleasure so far, that i'm sure its going to be one of the best movies i've seen in a long long time.

Khosla Ka Ghosla, deceives by name, but more than makes up for it in virtually every department of film-making. If i had my say, this film would have gone to the Oscars as India's official entry. Yes! it has a very strong and relevant story to tell and its telling it beautifully to me. Anupam Kher and Boman Irani need no eulogies, but every other member of the cast has been a revelation. Ranvir Shorey and Vinay Pathak have newfound respect in my eyes. they are truly magnificent in this movie.

I'm yet to see Navin Nischol take centre stage, but its understood that he'll do a damn good job. Everyone fits their role to perfection; Tara Sharma as a slightly hare-brained theatre artist, Parvin dabas as the no nonsense software professional, Kiran Juneja as the mediating and caring house maker and surely every other character that i'm yet to come across.

Three cheers to director Dibakar Banerjee for his brilliant effort behind the camera. The pace of the story is just right and interspersed with the right amount of comedy and executed to perfection by the aptly selected cast. The plot is so real, i got scared when i put myself in the protagonist's place. This is something that could so easily happen to you and me. And this is something that, if it happens, you'll have very little that you can do about it.

Whether the Khosla family has what it takes is to be seen and i can't wait to get back to the movie for that

If you think Hindi films have lost their meaning , this is the movie that will prove you wrong and wrong, in a big way. So go ahead and redeem your faith in Bollywood. I got to rush now

ciao :)

samjhauta blasts...hand of God?

2007-02-21T08:26:00.000-08:00

it was saddening to read about the samjhauta express blasts that killed several people. Among the several people who lost their dear ones is shaukat ali. i was touched by the quote on the front page of today's TOI. it read, " chacha, ayesha bach gayi". It is hard to express how much those words mean to a parent who is ruing the loss of 5 of his 6 children. 6 children...6 children...its not a normal number...its high, abnormally high... so high that i'm forced to think that god is involved in these blasts

yes, i'm being highly insensitive...yes, the blast could happen to my family too...so i specify now that when i speak, i speak in general...for everyone...for india.

i somehow am forced to see this event as part of a bigger scheme of things...something that is under the control of a superior power...well, it can also be reasoned beyond doubt to be the error-correcting manifestation of a master algorithm that governs life on earth. the former is beyond the scope of everyone;
think about the latter, its just like a dense forest burning itself in a forest fire; friction....nature's corrective measure

help yourself

2007-02-13T03:34:00.000-08:00

i realised why i never read self help books. there are 2 kinds of people in this world - people who put into practice what they read from such books and people who don't. I clearly belong to the latter set, which is why i don't see any point in them books. It is clear to see that whatever said in these books is logical and practical and all that. There are hundreds of them and i can confidently say that all of it makes sense. But there is one basic pre-requisite to imbibing from any of these books.

It is called determination/hard-work

the crude diligence to stick to it. someone give me a book on that so that i can procrastinate over reading it

Doing my part :)

2007-01-28T21:46:00.000-08:00

quote

Dear All,

I have a request for you. If you have a function at home or at office,
and food gets wasted, don't hesitate to call 1098 - Child helpline.
They will come and collect the food. Do remember this number folks. Keep
circulating this mail amongst all your friends. We have to thank God for the
food that we have. But on the other hand ... ironically, we still waste
the food that we buy. Please folks, don't break this chain. "Helping
hands are better than Praying Lips."

Rgds

unquote

blech...burp!!

2007-01-23T10:01:00.000-08:00

see, writing is all about expressing your thought. the difference between good writers and bad ones is that the good ones do have a thought when they're trying to express it. In my case, i have no thoughts but am in a jolly good urge to express whatever shit that hits my black/blue...aha.. GREY cells. its not for nothing that i've titled my blog cereral puke..:) So what are my thoughts?

One definitely goes to the riots that happened in bangalore over saddam's execution. Note the use of the word 'saddam'. Its not common for internation/national media to refer to a world figure by his/her first name. agreed hussein is a very common surname, but had saddam been worthy of respect, he would have been invariably addressed as saddam hussein. Thus when the whole world and especially Iraq cares a rat's ass about this guy, why the hell is Bangalore burning over it? that too after a good few weeks of his execution!!

Greg Chappel lands somewhere in Orissa along with the team for India's next cricket match with the west indies. At the airport, a man physically assaults him from the back. Purportedly the guy was upset over the exclusion of some orissa player from the national squad. Guess it would make sense to amend ICC rules and have a 29 member indian cricket team!!

I happened to catch tonight's episode of KBC2 (thats Kaun Banega Crorepati 2 ...lawfully plagiarized and indianized version of Celador's Who wants to be a millionaire) The news is that the this is the second episode after SRK (shah rukh khan) took over as host from Amitabh Bachchan...err 1 sec

ok..am back!..so SRK sux big time. thats the news!. I missed the 1st episode y'day and so didn't grant it much, when people opined the same. But today i saw it and boy..oh boy!! did he suck..he's outright clueless as to what he's doing. He starts of with some 'prose' before giving out the correct answer, to add to the contestant's tension, and then loses track or motivation to finish it off smoothly. His gig with his cell phone today, at the end of the show should earn him the "not-my-scene lifetime achievement award 2007"...man!! and i thought this guy talked sense and consequently had it too...i still hope that he'll come to his self soon and rock the show. The man has charisma..He just needs to come out of the haze/maze/glaze created by Amitabh Sophisticated Bachchan...yes! the suit doesn't look SRK...i'd be darn impressed if he can turn around the show to a jeans and jacket jingbang..so much for J(pun intended)

thts all folks...am catching a movie tonight..name's Syriana..Clooney, Matt Damon and the works...hear its darn good..lets see

Of words sans actions

2007-01-18T21:05:00.000-08:00

Early morning today, i went to the Popular Bajaj service centre to collect my bike. While waiting for it to be brought out from the parking lot, i noticed the day's activities gearing up. Bikes were trickling in for service and the staff was booking them one after the other. I'd gone through the process y'day and it was slightly painful then due to the rush. Today morning was very peaceful in comparison. Still, i found this balding,lean guy cribbing away to glory. He'd found a faithful listener in a similarly grieving soul and was voicing his displeasure pretty loudly. He wanted everyone to hear it. There were others around too, waiting for their bikes to be booked . But they were just hanging around with sad faces, mentally gritting their teeth probably.

So this angry young man goes somewhat like this,

"People are waiting since 7 o'clock. If they can't book promptly, why do they assign drop-in times to customers? Let people come whenever they want. Either way they are making us wait so long. What are they doing? Are they waiting for a Tirupati Darshan to book these bikes for service. Why don't they understand that people might have pressing needs to attend to?..hrrmmph!!"

Let me explain. A customer calls up the service centre and reserves a date and time for service. He can then drop in his bike at the said time and collect it later at a prescribed time. Now it so happens many times, that people do not bring in their bikes on time. this creates undue rush later on. I faced that y'day. It took me about half an hour to get my bike booked. But if i hadn't done what i did, it would have taken an hour easily. I simply walked up to the reception and asked to speak to the head of the service department. They guided me to him and he immediately struck me as an honest man. I softly told him that it would be nice if he could press a few more of his staff into booking the bikes considering the situation. He took it very sportingly and himself moved around speeding things up. And it did speed up. I didn't get an opportunity to thank him later, but that would have been the icing on the cake.

There are a few points noteworthy here. Firstly, our angry young man could have reacted on similar lines today morning rather than shout his anger and exacerbate the general discontentment around. His words wouldn't speed up the process as mush as they would irritate the staff and thus further adversely affect the service.

There are days when I'm in the shoes of the angry young man. Its just that y'day i happened to be more reasonable. I think we all should try to do that.

The other noteworthy point is about complimenting good work. We are all very quick to point out mistakes and mouth criticism. But rarely do we appreciate good work or a nice thought. An unexpectedly received 'thank you' or 'well done' can make the day for a person and it comes at no cost.

Thats all i had to say, thanks for being with me till here :)

tipping point

2007-01-17T02:11:00.000-08:00

when you go to a restaurant, you go there expecting good food and good service. So when you get bad service, you naturally become angry. I,become confused! Coz good service, is a pretty straightforward thing to deal with. Everything is prim and proper and there are smiles all around. All I have to do, is place a handsome tip and i'm done. But when service is bad, lots of possible reactions fight for attention in my convoluted mind. For one, i contemplate not tipping the waiter at all, thus punishing him for his incompetence. Then i think he'd take revenge and spit/fart/(whatever) into my order the next time; well, if there be one. Another thought tells me that i should be more compassionate - "what if he's having a bad day?" or even better "what if he's serving his notice period after a pink slip" - if the latter be the case, he certainly wouldn't be too concerned about service. Then again, i presume that he might be in need of money and it would be harsh on my part to not tip him.
With all these perspectives in mind, i end up neither here nor there. I tip him a pittance and walk out with mixed emotions. The waiter mentally yells "bastard" at me and makes sure he rigs my order the next time. I thus successfully demonstrate a lose-lose situation

i make it look so easy. don't i?

CAT 2006 results out!!!

2007-01-02T04:26:00.000-08:00

you can check your scores on the followng link

CAT2006 results

there is speculation that what you might see (website is very slow) will not be your actual percentile, but a percentage of the topper's score. So decide whether you want to believe that.

Personally, i haven't been able to get to my score yet. I'm just experimenting to see if this post will increase my site hits..he he

all the best!!!

male or female??

2006-12-27T23:15:00.000-08:00

this is in view of the recent disqualification of Indian athlete Shanti Sounderajan(25), after she failed a gender test at the Asian Games 2006 at Doha. Shanti who won the 800m silver medal is to return them

gender test

the above link is a scientific approach to the process of gender testing.

It is interesting to note that she passed a similar test at the Asian Athletics Championships in Incheon City, South Korea, last year.

- is this a case of foul play on the player's part?
- is this a case of a biological aberration?
- is this a case of inconclusive testing?

whats happening?

its all happening

2006-12-26T08:26:00.000-08:00

i was casually channel surfing when i came across an interview of tanushree dutta. she was waxing eloquent on internet policing and the proliferation of morphed sleaze pics et al. through repetitive nonsense, she was amply demonstrating her general lack of knowledge when without any cue she starts talking about her career. things like , " even if i get a fresh chance to start my career, i'd like to start it the same way with 'ashiq banaya aapne' and 'chocolate'." she was lauding the experience and exposure she got in the 2 movies. i agree on the 'exposure' part of it. then for no reason she starts delving into matters of the skin and soon there's this expression on her face which says "damn! what am i saying?" before she knows it she's talking about intimate scenes and on screen love making. she hilariously concludes it by saying that she is now experienced and so will be able to handle such requirements if she's not comfy with them. on thing's for sure. she can't give interviews

my roomie is telling me about this nice restaurant near the National Games Village (NGV) called Mast Kalandar. He tells me that the food is very good. Try it out. More interestingly, he tells me that its started by the wives of 2 wiproites. Does that say a thing or 2 abt the payscales in wipro? jus kidding :)

One of the news channels was having a debate on who's the world's greatest cricketer, now that shane warne is in the limelight with his retirement and for his haul of 700 test wikets. There was this guy who was hell bent on tarnishing Don bradman's image to promote shane warne as the greatest. I wonder if shane warne got too drunk once while in India after watching brokeback mountain?

on public demand, i'm also posting about the accident i had today. but hush!! no one tells my mom. i was banged from behind by a maruti omni when the traffic signal went green. i got thrown off the bike and lay spread eagled at the centre of pbbly the busiest signal in blore :)...escaped with very minr bruises. however, the icing on the cake was when after i'd moved over to the side, the traffic cop comes to me and asks, " are u allright? shall i let him go" and i magnanimously reply, " yeah, its ok". ha!!

when i became a bakra...

2006-12-22T02:21:00.000-08:00

I, have been, made, a BAKRA!!! poor, unsuspecting, honest, goodfearing me has been duped by a dastardly act of devious deception by thy dilapidated room mate ( that word associates so well with you varun :P) I was ensnared by an enigmatic and effervescent Kruti Mathur. But,..but, ultimately i was so boring throughout, that i came out trumps. It seems my nemesis got tired of my ghisi-piti replies and called it quits. But i must hand it to him for the spade work. Its almost flattering!!

So we had this Kruti Mathur, Romania brought up, globetrotting daughter of a business diplomat who lives in a mansion in Bangalore with her own gym and swimming pool. And with all that, she hits on me. Only a fool would fall for that! I did

Once, as a bakra, i have been exposed to the perils lurking in this world. All ye kruti mathurs out there will have to be henceforth subjected to severe scrutiny. Oh! how cumbersome and boring is that!!. balls!! why can't life be simple and sunny?

yaake?????

2006-11-30T20:39:00.000-08:00

Damn!! I'm falling asleep right in the morning at office. help!! As part of my fitness drive, I'm doing some kickass swimming in a pool nearby. I go early morning and splash about for about an hour. I return home, get ready for office and reach by about 9:30. A decently heavy breakfast follows and am in my seat by 10:00 with my morning cuppa. Within minutes of finishing it, my eyes are drooping shut. Where am i going wrong. I get ample sleep in the night, no concerns there. If anyone has any insight on this, do advise.

Sleepy in Symbol

2006-11-29T02:40:00.000-08:00

I've had a particularly heavy lunch and am falling asleep at my desk here. A session of TT did not help and this particular song from 'guru' is definitely not helping. Its a nice song, but not to be fed to a sleepy mind. I've read that food activates the digestive process. Is it part of the body's energy conservation mechanism, that it simultaneously tries to shut down the brain? Most people as a habit have an afternoon nap. How do they manage during working days at office?

I hear Dhoom-2 is a pathetic movie. I expected such a verdict for Don, but not for this. sad!! with such a cast, the movie should have done better. Unfortunately, the producer and director too felt that way and didn't bother about things like script and screenplay. I'm being a son-of-a-gun here by judging from the covers, but i think i can trust my friends when it comes to bollywood.

On another flank, Indian Cricket has successfully proclaimed Greg Chappel as the scapegoat for all conceivable issues plaguing the team. Note my use of the words 'Indian Cricket'. Yes, its not about the team or the BCCI. In India, many advise and many listen, nobody acts and the remaining, like me criticize. It seems, Ganguly is going to pad up now to counter the domineering Chappel. I have a confusion here. Which game are we talking about?

Walmart plans to set shop in India. I'm reminded of a particular South Park episode which was a good take on Walmart. South Park is a great series. Its taught me so many things. For example i didn't know apriori that 'turd' means shit. The spoof on Walmart was, on a serious note, a little scary. I therefore, read in detail about this news. Some news article enlightened me that when Walmart 'takes over' a particular neighbourhood, it calls upon all the small shop owners and trains them on "how to stay afloat inspite of Walmart" and also allows them to advertise for free in Walmart outlets. Now how condescending is that?

good...i think i've successfully fought my urge to sleep. Time to get back to work :)

CAT 2006...the fiasco continues

2006-11-20T01:19:00.000-08:00

Now for the other side of the coin. CAT 2006 had 1 wrong question in quants and printing mistakes in one or two sets. A question in verbal is also purportedly wrong. This is not excusable. It was a godsend that i didn't have the set with the printing mistakes and i chose not to attempt the erroneous question, but what of the thousands who did. It was a couplet worth 8 marks and anyone who attempted it would have gone over it again and again on not finding the answer in the options. He/she could have spent close to 10 minutes on it for nothing. When 1.91 lakh students compete for 1200 odd seats, 10 minutes/8 marks is very very BIG!! It is indeed shameful that the IIM's CAT cell cannot set one error free question paper over a period of 1 year. The worst part of this fiasco is that, there is no judicious way in which this error can be compensated/rectified. Marks cannot be awarded to students who attempted the question. Many of those who got stuck with the question would ultimately chose to not attempt it in fear of losing a mark. They can't award 8 marks to all as it doesn't make any difference in an eliminative exam.

As a friend suggested, and i agree with him totally, the IIMs should increase the no: of GD/interview calls to include those students who would otherwise miss out because of this question. Of course, it won't bring justice to all, but its a fair thing to do.

Also, and this is very doable, there should be a new option given to the student to deal with erroneous questions. If a student feels that a question is wrong, he/she should be given the option to indicate that in his/her OMR sheet. Shading all the options for a question can be taken as an indication that the student has referred this question to be wrong. If, indeed it turns out to be wrong, full marks should be awarded to that student. However, if it is a valid question, he shouldn't be penalized for the same. A penalty for the same will again act as a deterrent and keep students from marking a question as wrong.

This, however, could create a scenario where a student choses to mark all the questions that are not attempted by him as wrong since he's not penalized for that.
To prevent that, a ceiling can be imposed on the number of questions that can be marked wrong...maybe 5. We can at least trust the IIMs to not have more than 5 questions wrong. If a student marks more, only the first five will be considered. Can't see any other loop hole at first sight. It seems pretty practical to me. What do u think?

CAT 06

2006-11-19T05:50:00.000-08:00

CAT is such a leveller. Just till a few minutes ago, my entire life was passing in front of my eyes like a flashback...that was after i realised i'd screwed my chances, based on the answer key broughtout by PT. ..now i'm much better...almost my normal self, after checking with the Career Launcher answer key. there is hope, good hope, i dare say.

Drop in a prayer for me if u can. thanx :)

The British Psyche and the Ashes

2006-11-09T03:18:00.000-08:00

This is an obituary that appeared in the Sporting Times, an English newspaper on 2nd sept, 1882. Interesting as it appears, it was responsible for the test cricket series between England and Australia being named,...... The Ashes.

What i find more noteworthy here, though, is the tremendous capacity of the English to mock at themselves. I cannot dream of such an article appearing in any Indian Newspaper.

The above mentioned obituary was reported after England lost the deciding test of the series by a mere 7 runs. It was the 9th series between the 2 countries and the defeat heralded the first defeat of England at the hands of Australia, in England. Archives of the test say that the spectators went into a state of shock when the last English batsman got bowled after making just 2 runs. When he had come in to bat, England needed just 9 runs to win the match and the series. Mind you, England had not lost to Australia before and an English win was the order of the day.
the spectators went numb but recovered slowly to give the victorious Australian team, a standing ovation. A very impressive and sporty gesture, given the magnitude of the loss for the English

It all started with an friendly argument in my house over what comprises the ashes. I was stubbornly set on the bails while my friend was backing the stump. As my reading brings to light, the contents of the ashes urn is still a mystery. The contenders currently are, bails ( i'm still in), stumps( you're in too Ashish) and the outer skin of the used ball. Another source suggests it to be the ashes from a burnt veil, which is very weird. To droll on, the urn made its first appearance after England won the 3rd test of the series, the following year. the urn is preserved permanently in the MCC museum and is not awarded to the winners each year, as maybe wrongly assumed.

Operation Citizen Alert

2006-11-08T00:34:00.000-08:00

The more i hear about Mumbai, the more i'm impressed by the city. Operation Citizen Alert (OCA)comes as yet another reinforcement of my belief that Mumbai is one professional citzenry. OCA is an ad campaign brought out by Grey on behalf of the Mumbai Railway Police. As part of the campaign 1 Rupee coins are left randomly at public places such that they catch the eye of passing people. When picked up the coins will be found to have a sticker on them which would read

"If you are as alert to unattended baggage, lives can be saved".

This is a brilliant campaign. The message really hits one, as he/she is caught in the act. With the only requirement being Re 1 coins and stickers, this is easily one of the most cost-effective campaigns in a long long time. Moreover, Grey worldwide has reportedly donated the coins for this campaign.

The RBI deemed it "a contempt of currency" reportedly, but this response does raise a valid question. Should this campaign be seen as a defilement of the 1 Re coin? Personally, I don't think so. As a one off campaign, there shouldn't be any concerns. But it would be a different story if the multitude of advertisers take this cue and bring out similar campaigns. Its probably in anticipation of that, this reaction from the RBI

To come back to where i started, i am really impressed by the modern outlook of the Mumbai Railway Police. It is very rare to see such innovative campaigns associated with the public sector.

I've heard so much good about the people of Mumbai...the 6 sigma certified dabbawallahs...to the minute precise local trains....no nonsense professionalism of the public....the undying spirit demonstrated through the flood and blasts....Great city!!

Rocky Balboa ( Rocky VI)

2006-11-07T04:43:00.000-08:00

Rocky VI is slated to release in the third week of December '06. The sixth edition of this blockbuster series comes as a very pleasant surprise. That Sylvester Stallone plays the lead in the movie might raise eyebrows, but the movie trailor will convincingly dispel all doubts. He looks as fit as ever and age seems to have added an aura to his personality.

As far as the story goes, Rocky Balboa, is leading a peaceful retired life running a deli in his native, Philadelhpia. The love for boxing ceases to leave and he is drawn out of retirement by a one match challenge with the current world champion. Its the typical Rocky theme, but what is interesting here is that Rocky Balboa is an old man. At 50 odd years, what's in favour of him is his experience and his trademark "undying spirit" that made him what he is - the champion. How he works that to his advantage or if he does at all, will be soul of the movie.

Stallone writes the script and does the Direction too for this sequel. Reviews from a premiere held 2 months back, suggest two moving speeches by Rocky during the course of the movie. I don't know much about the new soundtrack, but the old one is still there and that in itself is more than enough. "Eye of the Tiger" is one helluva song

This is one movie I'm gonna lookout for!!!

oh! i'd been tagged

2006-11-06T05:51:00.000-08:00

This tagging business never really did strike a chord with me. But a boring day at office can make a lot of unexpected things happen. Firstly i'd like some expert opinion on the previous sentence. which is the best? "never did really ", "never really did" "did never really"l..i'll spare the 3 factorial (ahem!!) combinations

What exactly brings me here now, is the fact that i had been tagged about 4 months back. This means, i now need to post on the same topic viz - a list of my hates.

For the record, i'm a very calm person. I just murder a few people now and then, when i lose it. But otherwise, yeah, i'm a saint.

My hates:

1)Fart-artists : You just can't tell them anything new. They'd invariably come out with a 'been there done that' response. Earlier i used to make it a point to crucify them. Offlate i jus let them be. After all, it takes all kinds.

2)Pedestrians in b'lore : they deem it a colossal waste of time to look both ways before crossing a road. If they're a group of friends, they'd not even hear the honks

3)tHiS sOrT oF wRiTiNg StyLE !!!

4)there is this particular flavour of ego that gets on my nerves. the afflicted, in this case, deliberately defies your suggestions as if to affirm - 'who's the boss'!! weirdos!!

5)i'm a tidyness freak. I like everything to have a place and be there when not in use. A good percentage of people aren't so.

6)i don't like this tagging business.Period

P.S If i use the word 'period' at the end of a sentence, i should ideally omit the '.' symbol. shouldn't I? should I?

Landmark Quiz '06, Bangalore

2006-11-01T21:25:00.000-08:00

was a very neatly conducted affair. The ambience was perfect, Chowdiah Memorial hall being a very beautiful auditorium. The audience was very receptive and enthusiastic. IT was interesting to observe the mix of people. We had families with newly borns, school kids, senior citizens, corporate quizzers...an encouraging audience for any Quizmaster. Not that Derek O'brien needs any. Sometimes i wonder if he's more a quizmaster or an entertainer. After seeing him at the Brand Equity Quiz, i was a little skeptic when i came to know that he is going to be the quizmaster here too. But fortunately, his sexual innuendo's and PJ's were at a minimum y'day. Infact some of the questions in the final were pretty good too. The elims were decent at most with some outrageous questions like

Q) which is the largest milk producing country in the world?
Q) which is the Landmark site to purchase books? ( the ans was printed on the brochure given to each team + displayed on a banner extending from the ceiling to the floor on the stage...well lit stage)

Understandable coz the Landmark Quiz is primarily a school level quiz made difficult because everyone participates.

The finals, however, had some good questions and some great teams. I especially remember a guy named Anushtub (i guess) who got crowned the best quizzer in b'lore after a solitaire between the finalists. He was just too good. They however lost the lead in the last 2 questions of the quiz, to be upstaged by a team from Chennai which had earlier won the Chennai leg of this quiz. This team from Chennai did exceptionally well to tide over a solid 25 point deficit in the last round of the quiz to emerge emphatic winners. Great comeback!!

Some of the good questions...

Q) a connect question based on 2 pictures..one of Harrison Ford and the other featuring few sheep in a meadow and an android in the centre.
Ans: Bladerunner, the movie - the 2nd picture is the cover of the book " Do androids dream of electric sheep by Philip Dick" which was the inspiration for the movie Bladerunner. Harrison Ford played lead role in the movie.

Q) a connect again with a picture of dilip kumar and one of Manoj Kumar and the song "mera naam hai shabnam" being played in the background
Ans: the character played by Dilip Kumar in the movie 'Shabnam' was named Manoj Kumar and Manoj Kumar took his screen name from this movie.

Q) another connect..audio of the Star spangled banner + video of a duet dance from a movie.
Ans: Scott Fitzgerald. the star spangled banner played by Jimi Hendrix in the played piece was written by a scott fitzgerald. the video was from the movie "the great gatsby" which was written by F Scott Fitzgerald. same name, unrelated people..that was the connection. brilliantly answered by one of the teams

Q) this question is connected to a british sport and refers to the largest animal conservation efforts by a govt. the animal in question is the Harvest mice. What did they do?
Ans: they spread out thousands of broken tennis balls from wimbeldon on a ground and used them to breed harvest mice, which were becoming endangered

Q) what is the difference between sushi and sashimi?
Ans: sushi is raw fish with rice, while sashimi is raw fish alone

Q) what was carried in compartment no: 2949 of a train to triveni in india on Feb 12?
Ans...a giveway clue would be the yr..1948. answer is Mahatma Gandhi's ashes

Q) which element is responsible for blue colouration in diamonds?
Ans Boron

Q)which flower is named after a French General
Ans Bouganvilla (not sure abt the General bit and the spelling of the flower)

Q)which famous indian changed his name to Kareem Abdul
Ans Kishore Kumar after marriage to Madhubala

Q)what is Unique about a canoe race held in the Andamans by the name "asol tale aap"
Ans the only canoe race in the world on sand

2006-10-30T00:55:00.000-08:00

this is my newfound hobby. to hunt down blogspot posers from user profiles and puke on them. here's the first one..

"You're trapped in a well with a goat and a slinky. Describe how you will escape."

i'll wring the goat's neck, probably use the slinky as an aid coz it doesn't figure otherwise in my scheme of things. Once the goat is dead, i'll tear it open and bring out its 'stuff'. Next, i'll throw each part out of the well in a different direction. aah..the slinky might be of some help here...see! its all part of a bigger plan. on foresight, i'd do good to keep the eyeballs and some liver. tht done, i'll jus wait for the stench to draw people. In the meantime i'll rehearse a nice opening line when the first head peeps into the well. something like, "got a smoke?"

pot pourri

2006-10-25T04:02:00.000-07:00

"tad ada dan" - got yet another dose of the movie 'Masti' while travelling on a bus from Cochin to B'lore. Whats with the travel operators-Masti distributors nexus? Interestingly i've started watching this movie 3 times before, all while on a bus, but never watched till the end.

"tad ada dan" - this time around it was a KSRTC(Karnataka) Volvo. Lots of interesting features on this one. They have seat belts for every seat. They give you small water bottles. They also give a white polythene to every passenger to cope with motion sickness. Now thats Tender loving care!!!

"tad ada dan" - got introduced to muveemix; an interesting site where u can mix videos and pictures to create interesting outputs. Its still in the development stage, but looks promising. the interface is pretty neat. I created a muvee-mix myself. check it out

caveat: absolutely random selection of videos.

till next time, take care and make sure u don't have to pull out u'r hair :)

A Volvo's martyrdom

2006-10-17T06:00:00.000-07:00

this is an outburst on my part. a few hours back, a bad accident happened on airport road, bangalore, involving a volvo bus. Current reports suggest that 6 people died in the mishap. It also mentions that an irate mob that gathered at the spot, burnt the bus. This is extremely disgustful. With all due respect to the departed souls, why the hell does the bus have to be burnt? Goddammit, kill the erring driver if u have the guts, you illiterate, uncivilized bastards!! If the people died, its because of him, not the bus. If he too hasn't died in the accident, make sure he is incapable of ever controlling a steering wheel again, provided he is guilty.

Its frustration. thats what it is. Not one in the mob cares for the people who died. They in all probability are the losers who have nothing going right in their life and honestly think that the govt is fully to blame. They're just looking for avenues to vent out their angst. What better way than this?

The bus has no value when compared to the lives that were lost today ofcos, but does burning it justify anything or mean anything? These have been procurred at great cost for the convenience of the people, especially to encourage them to use public transport and thereby reduce traffic woes. Each of these volvo buses that you see on the roads easily costs above Rs 70 lakh. The money that went up in flames today would have been enuf to support the families of the dead for a long long time.

There's this other angle too to this. That of bangloreans being outnumbered by the influx of people from other states and the feeling that these 'outsiders' are usurping their homeland. IT being the biggest attraction in the city, software engineers are venomously branded 'outsider'. Thus anything that has to do with a higher standard of living gets associated with them and thereby a source of discontentment. The volvo buses are seen in the same light.

It doesn't stop here. It never will. One day there will be an implosion. God forbid that, amen.

Spit-o-mania

2006-10-15T09:22:00.000-07:00

Geoff boycott said it right when he commented on Flintoff spitting on the grass. The match between India and England was a foregone conclusion soon itself; after the first few overs of india's batting. So it seemed to be a good time to delve into social issues..er..well spitting IS pollution!!

Its a common perception in india that the world is my spittoon and spitting indiscriminately is my birthright. Now combine that with another popular habit, namely chewing 'paan' (chewing the betel leaf along with tobacco)and you have a population, which to an outsider, seems to be suffering from a tuberculosis epidemic!!

Its a risky thing to walk/drive alongside a bus coz u never know when and from where that mass of spit will land on you. Its as if humans are competing with the birds at air bombing the earthlings.

Then you have this heroic connotation to spitting. Yes, if u see the hero of the film spit sideways, while looking at the villian from the corner of his eye, you can be rest assured that the bad guy is a goner.

And don't forget, Jack wooed Rose in Titanic by demonstrating his ability to spit to great distances.

All said and done, it is one of the most disgusting habits to be associated with a civilized population. ah did i say civilized? guess then we can be forgiven outright.

I don't see anyway to stop this. When peeing and pooping in public remain rampant, spitting hardly warrants a second thought. But!...thats something the human body has to do. What i fail to understand is the need for people to spit every now and then.

"Hey Geoff, join the club"

Hero Honda CBZ Extreme

2006-10-11T08:21:00.000-07:00

I decided to check out this bike's specs seeing the huge amount of interest it has generated with 'pricey' ad campaigns ( pretty neat i'd say). Also, CBZ being among the avant garde of powerful street bikes, CBZ Extreme definitely warrants a look up. so here we go

Firstly the looks. A disappointment, i'd say, as it looks more or less like the Apache or as a good friend pointed out, Karizma, with its front bracket cover removed. It looks good just like its competitors do, not refreshingly good!!

Specs reveal the bike to be heavier than the pulsar(137Kgs) by 6Kgs at 143 Kgs (kerb weight) The CBZ as such was bigger than the pulsar, but was lighter, at 130 Kgs. With the CBZ Extreme, we're talking an increase of over 10 Kgs!! Handling woes, I predict.

Of course its more powerful than the pulsar 150, but less than the 180(14.4, 13.5 & 16.5 BHp in that order) and significantly more than the 12.6 BHp of the CBZ, which is expected, with the increased weight.

How its AMI (Advanced Microprocess Ignition) compares with the DTSI, time will tell. An Advantage with respect to looks is the stock alloy wheels for both the tyres(absent in the CBZ and the unicorn). the rear tyre comes with a stock tuff up tube as well. The petrol tank capacity is slightly lesser than that of the pulsar, but that hardly matters.

The CBZ was never known for its mileage. With no snazzy looks and a significantly heavier frame, mileage will be the clincher for this bike. It looks like it'll position itself between the 150 and 180 pulsar.

train of thought

2006-10-09T05:17:00.000-07:00

today morning i went to book some railway tickets. I had quite a few to book, 6 to be precise (which i like to be :P) I entered the reservation centre within Koramangala BDA complex, went straight to the counter, got hold of a small stack of reservation forms and took my place in the queue. The sitting queues here are a welcome respite from those in allahabad (where i did my engg.), where one has to gamble on a particular queue and stand till his/her turn in blistering heat or numbing cold, the only options in allahabad. Lets not get into the more sordid details. Here in B'lore, however,u can sit down comfortably in a row of chairs and drag u'r arse (literally) to the next seat as the queue progresses. So that automatcally takes care of the cleaning. (:P) I reckon there were about 15 people ahead of me, which, i calculated, would give me enough time to fill up all the forms by the time it was my turn. Unfortunately ( Ironically), the guys behind the counter were pretty fast today and i stood facing a reservation clerk with one form fully filled, one almost filled and the remaining untouched. I gave him the finsished one and completed the other in the nick of time. I noticed some irritation but didn't think much of it and thought he wouldn't think much of the fact that i din't think much of it( he he...i know!!). Alas, he did and started blasting me for not having my forms filled up before pressing my sorry face against the perspex separating us. ahem! i still didn't think as much, nevertheless, said sorry and attempted to give him a barely completed third form. Nothin doing, he makes clear and i trudge back to the end of the queue ( very small luckily). I fill it up quickly and replay the incident in my mind while periodically sweeping the seat with thee arse towards the front of the queue. I could have been angry/rude to him then, which is what most people do. I didn't and opted to placate him. Obviously it didn't work. Now i can be rude when i face him again, coz technically he's got nothing to complain this time round. That was what my instinct had decided for me. I proposed to my mind to think more spiritually.

Ultimately my turn came and i went up to him, stuck my nose on the perspex, slipped in the remaining forms and said,

"sorry Sir, twas my mistake"

I looked upwards from the corner of my eye after saying so, at an imaginary thought bubble in which i could see ice breaking and his smiling face emerging into the foreground. It remained a virtuality. (mean bastard!!) He just took the forms and booked the tickets, maybe with a teeny (bordering on my imagination's tricks and reality) weeny bit of gentleness. Oh well! i thought, paid him and left the scene. while walking towards the parking lot, i chuckled at my new train of thought. My imagination had cooked up another possibility. While he was going about booking my tickets the second time, seeing that he's not pleased even by my submissive apology,i'd subtly ask him, "having a bad day at work?" he'd stop typing on the keyboard, stare at me for a second and burst out crying, "my wife left me y'day night for my neighbour"

:P

The Boondock Saints (1999)

2006-09-23T04:35:00.000-07:00

very interesting movie...has 'different' written all over it. a feel good movie in a primal sense of the term; triumph over evil couldn't have been more literally potrayed than in The Boondock Saints.A movie that would have definitely done wonders at the box office with a more powerful cast. William dafoe starts out shakily, but one comes to terms with his character soon and then on its smooth sailing...the fraternal siblings, who are the joint heroes of the film come across as a fresh interpretation for heroism...no overtly hyper display of emotions, yet clinically effective.

a crisp movie with a crisp plot...good watch!

second guessing

2006-09-10T07:13:00.000-07:00

For a writer, being able to second guess his reader must be very gratifying. Its like telling the females who are reading this,

"i know the use of only 'his' in the previous sentence jarred in u'r mind for a second".

Or something like telling the male readers,

"relax, i'm not as good as you. fine?"

Ok, i need to go. catch u later.
did i hear "good riddance"? or was it "god! u'r a dunce". lol

an impromptu story

2006-09-04T09:25:00.000-07:00

Its abt 15 minutes before midnight. Under the moonlight, the wastelands of chennai look just the same...filthy, smelly and outright unhygenic. "its heaven here" says big bob. Big bob is head of security and the right hand of Mos Q Toe, otherwise known as 'The Toe'. 'The Toe' heads the most notorious swarm that the city of chennai has ever seen and for that he is both dreaded and respected by one and all. He's 12 days old and dying. The eldest of his 500 son's Toe jr. 1 is being trained to take over the reigns once the godfather resigns to nature's laws. But for now, he is the law.

At the stroke of midnight, 3 black sedans pull up at the entrance of the wasteland. on Big bob's cue, a swarm of security-mosquitoes approach the vehicles. armed with anthrax tipped stings and nitrous oxide boosters on their wings, Big bob's army is not one to be messed with. well aware of that, the 3 gentlemen step out slowly from their cars, arms raised. the swarm leads them into the interiors of the wasteland. As the men look around the place, they see that the wasteland is a fully functional civilization of mosquitoes. Being midnight, most of them have gone for work, but they could notice the training camps 'abuzz' with activity. young mosquitoes were being taught the anatomy of the human body.

a sudden silence drains the atmosphere as they near the godfather's haunt. The 3 men find him relaxing in his favorite cesspool. The stench was unbearable for the men, but they had no choice. business is business. To aid eye to eye talk, a truck windscreen from the adjacent junkyard has been installed in between the 2 parties to magnify the godfather. A discarded loudspeaker placed beside him will help the men hear his words. the men are offered the comfort of the best dumpsters in the whole of the wasteland and in true spirit of the godfather's hospitality served the best bloods in town, freshly sucked from leading movie actresses in chennai. the godfather's personal favourite is J Jayalalitha though. "if the body ain't healthy, the blood ain't too" drawls the revered Don. Can't agree more with his taste then.

courtesies done, the group gets down to business. the 3 men do not seem to be happy and that has only partly to do with big bob's swarm buzzing around their ears. the major reason is that their business deal with the don is not going as per the book.
the 3 men represent the CMRMC. thats Consortium of mosquito repellent manufacturers in Chennai. the men report that the CMRMC is not happy with the rate of execution of the deal. The godfather is surprised and draws the men's attention to the article in the day's edition of the Hindu. it says amongst other things

"Residents spend anything between Rs. 15 crore and Rs. 20 crore every month, buying mosquito repellents such as coils, mats, sprays and ointments, according to an industry estimate."

"doesn't this satisfy you gentlemen", growls the don while sipping on his drink. He may be frail, but one command of his can send thousands of his winged soldiers on a stinging spree and you and i know how painful just one can be. so if the men's hearts skipped a beat, it wasn't for nothing. one of them manages to draw some courage to present their case.

"godfather, the sales are not as good as they appear on paper. they've been inflated to keep our stock prices stable. In reality we're not exceeding the expected sales as per our deal with you. The agreement was that your soldiers would torment different parts of the city in a phased manner so that residents in those localities stock up on our products. Ofcourse, except for the physical products, our chemical products have been carefully designed so as to not harm your kind. For the martyrs and for your suicide squads which lend credence to our chemical products, however, we agreed to compensate with a lifetime supply of blood and onsite opportunities to the USA. From our side of the bargain, we agreed to make sure that your thriving places are kept intact. We are making sure through our connections that the drains remain clogged throughout the year, the garbage disposal system never gets its act together and whatever else we can. Everything is working fine except for one hitch"

"which is", asks the godfather not so pleased. his experience and his intuition, which brought him upto where he is now guessed that something was amiss. he is not happy

"Godfather, your rival gang on the outskirts of the city limits is trying to foil our plans. they have plans to launch sting operations on the concerned authorities in the corporation. If they succeed in their plans, the corporation bigwigs, out of sheer pain from mosquito bites may decide to eradicate your gang and that would spell doom for both our parties. Something needs to be done Godfather."

1 day before, in the CMRMC boardroom, the board of directors are involved in a discussion on stagnant sales.

Mr. Ramammurthy, chairman of the board speaks, " Its time now to launch our backup plan. we'll send across our envoy to Don Toe and then lets see how things shape up. Mr. shastry, i hope you have briefed our men on the plan....Good, so we'll have our next meeting precisely 24 hrs from now. thank you gentlemen."

the don is thinking. Its been a while since tony's gang has started causing us pain. If i continue to tolerate their enroachment into my domain, it might be harmful for our future.

"i'll take care of that then", says the don.

"may we know how godfather"

"i'll make them an offer they cannot refuse", declares the don.

without much further ado, the men are escorted back to their sedans and they speed off, happy to be out of there alive.

In the don's cesspool, he summons his trusted lieutenants and instructs them on his plans.

in the Hindu, next morning:

"Mosquito menace spreads as the tambaram area saw an unprecedented surge in the no: of mosquitoes overnight. Affected residents claim that they saw unnatural behaviour what with mosquitoes preferring to hover around rather than bite people. they also observed unnaturally high sound levels in the mosquitoes and many reported having seen abnormally big ones. The corporation advices the citizens to take adequate precautionary measures. Scientists say that this unnatural behavious may be attributed to the dip in pressure in the pacific ocean over the Hawaii Islands in USA. We are not sure of that though."

Meanwhile in the CMRMC boardroom, Mr Ramamurthy, "gentlemen, i'm proud to announce that our backup plan has been a roaring, or should i say "buzzing" (laughs out loud while drawing double quotes in the air using his fingers ) success. reports from my marketing managers suggest a 20% increase in our sales since y'day night. That is indeed a job well done. congratulations to all"

In the Don's den, Big Bob enters the don's retiring cesspool. the don's slept through the morning. Age is catching up say the mosquitoes.

Bob kisses one of the don's numerous legs and says, "godfather, your plans have been carried out to perfection. Tony's gang has been wiped out from Tambaram and that area is also under your reign now. Our foot soldiers duly investigated the locality and there seems to be lot of good blood to be taken"

"well done Bob. I knew i could trust you with this", whimpers the Don and goes back to his sleep. Bob nods in acknowledgement and flies away gently so as to not disturb the Don.

This is the inside story of the corporate-mosquito nexus that is responsible for chennai city's woes. It has been around for many months now and it is high time that the wasteland is cleared of the don's gang. We can clearly see why thats not happening. CMRMC should not be allowed to get away with this.

"HA HA HA HA HA...HA HA HA HA HA. and he thought he could get all this published", bellows Mr. Ramamurthy. "Good work James, this journalist could have brought us a lot of damage. Dump his body neatly in the wasteland. Let it be my personal gift to the Don..HA HA HA HA HA....(burns the report)

food for thought...literally

2006-08-29T22:21:00.000-07:00

majority of the people do not have value for food. they waste food without thought and think its the normal thing to do. So many people, put on their plates, much more than that they think can consume and shamelessly waste the rest. If i could have my way, i'd keep such people starving for a day, all the while with the food that they wasted earlier in their sight but not within their reach. that'll teach them the value of that half-paratha that they left on their plates, those extra slices of bread that they discarded and so on.

I see the amount of leftovers that accumulates at the place where we all deposit our plates, after lunch at the cafeteria. i'm sure the quantity from a single session would be sufficient to feed 20-30 people. for people who do waste food like this, just imagine that a starved family is staring at you while you are depositing your plates. If you have even an iota of conscience, you will surely feel a pang in u'r heart.

Please order only that much food that you can consume. If u end up with a lot of extra food on u'r plate, its not a state of helplessness, but a state of guilt. its your fault which u have to make amends for. Do whatever it takes. get it parcelled and give it to a beggar on the roadside. You'll get his blessings at least.

dilbert blog

2006-08-25T03:51:00.000-07:00

i just discovered a brilliant blog to read and have a good laugh. its authored by scott 'dilbert' adams . His sense of humour is spot on. i love his perspective of the world around him. hope i can write like him. check out his blog here

Need For Speed Carbon

2006-08-18T02:27:00.000-07:00

Need for speed carbon is releasing on Nov 1st. can't wait to get my hands on it. NFS 10, as per the trailor looks to be a re-tryst with drift after the success of NFS underground. From what i hear, the story is in continuation from most wanted and is set in the hero's hometown, which incidentally happens to be in the mountains...so get ready for some treacherous tracks and minblowing drift opportunities, but careful...the way its designed this time, if you crash into the barrier, it gives way, hurtling you down the slopes into shame..so drive safe..hyok hyok!! jokes apart, there seems to be no premium on adrenaline rush here what with new concepts in racing being introduced. there's something for the pitstop babes too...a cool tool to deck up your car. lots of varitaions to give your ride 'da' look. Not heard anything about the music yet, but yeah this time round we have apparel brands chipping in with their line of clothing for the drivers...now thats snazzy!!! fashion street wear brand 55DSL is going to design for..come to think of it, YOU!! Emmanuelle Vaugier is the new face of NFS and from what google images had to offer, looks like eye candy is definitely not going to be in short supply. to give you a hint, Maxim puts her in the annual list of top 100 females.

Among the cars, i'm most excited about the murcielago (forget the spelling). after gliding on the gallardo in most wanted, (yeah...i live the experience) big bro here should be a dream. Rest of rides are the typical melange seen in NFS, but lots more R tweaks this time around.

Having just watched fast and the furious 3 - Tokyo drift, i'm itching to do the drift. Nothing beats drift in terms of satisfaction. the movie was a testimony to the class of drift racing and NFS Carbon promises to be the icing on the cake.

way to go EA...u guys rock!!

Omkara

2006-08-07T04:05:00.000-07:00

at the end of the day, is too marvellous a movie to be summarized by a mere blog. this is how i'd like to start my post on this movie. i would hence share a few among many noteworthy features of the film which caught my imagination/attention.

As far as i am concerned, any director should feel successful in his endeavour of making a film, if he is able to transport his audience from their world to that in his/her film. With Omkara, my world for the whole 3 odd hours was the village and its people. It requires tremendous care for detail and originality to get an audience' mind to do that. Major credit here goes to the performance of the cast and the camera work

That a layman like me noticed the camera work and mulled over why a particular angle was chosen over another indicates some exceptional camerawork in Omkara. Some of the shots were refreshingly new.

Saif Ali Khan provides with yet another great performance and come to think of it, no one could have done it better than him. Ajay Devgan is his brilliant self as a serious, no nonsense man and Konkona sen adds meat to the cast in her supporting role.

Omkara will be a film remembered for its technical brilliance and for the power performance from a well selected cast

height of vote-bank politics

2006-07-25T02:15:00.000-07:00

Two otherwise unrelated incidents that occurred over the weekend have caught my attention and it is a rather disturbing conclusion that arises when i compare them. One incident pertains to the rescue of 'Prince', a 6 year old boy who fell into a deep, narrow pit while playing, and spent over 50 hours there till he was pulled out safely. The other incident relates to the israeli bombing of lebanon which claimed the life of Devendra Kumar Swain, an indian working in a glass factory there. Seemingly unrelated news, until you get into the details, political details that is.

Firstly, i must say that it is shameful that it took 50 hours for the combined forces of the army and the fireforce to rescue a child from a 50 odd foot deep well.

The disgusting fact however is the way the issue has been dealt with. The Haryana govt announces a relief of Rs 2 Lakhs to Prince, the Central govt tops it with another 2 lakhs and then the Haryana govt ices the cake with Rs 50k each to the men who went down under to help the child. A TV channel goes as far as offering to sponsor his entire education.

At the other end of the spectrum, the bereaving family of Devendra Kumar, for which he was the sole breadwinner, for who's wife it will from here on be a considerable struggle to bring up their 2 small kids; for such a family is announced by the Govt. of Orissa, a pittance of Rs 25000. I actually saw it on T.V when the CM of Orissa, Mr. Naveen Patnaik announced this.

Why?

All because Prince happens to be an OBC and further still, a christian. Poor Devendra Saini's family will have to be content with next to zilch probably because they belong to the 'general' category, i'm not sure on that. But what i'm sure is that the Haryana Govt. displayed outrightl cheapness with this incident. Consider this too. The Haryana CM spends one whole day at the site where Prince was trapped in the hole. Ofcourse he is a poor child, but by rescuing it, i think the govt has served its responsibility to its citizens. Whatever else transpired is a clear case of votebank politics and diabolical at that.

This is why no one will no nation will take india seriously, as T V R shenoy rightly pointed out for similar other reasons. Votes come first here. then comes everything else. what a pity!

an accent on accent!

2006-07-24T09:21:00.000-07:00

I think i have stumbled upon quite an interesting discovery. I repeat, I think! If there is one word in the colloquial English language that I despise a lot, it is the word 'anyways'. Its on the lips of everyone nowadays and has somehow become a 'hep' word (or is it 'hip' word?). Anyways, (see! its contagious !!) I was pretty sure that such a word does not exist in the English language; that is before we Indians started speaking English. Just to confirm, i checked to see if 'anyways' has a mention in any of the online dictionaries. Here's what i found in merriam websters online

anyways

One entry found for anyways. Main Entry: any·ways
Pronunciation: -"wAz
Function: adverb
1 a archaic : ANYWISE b dialect : to any degree at all
2 chiefly dialect : ANYHOW, ANYWAY

'Aha' shouted my mind. Unfortunate as it is that it does exist, just look at the explanation therein. Knowing how dangerous accent and pronounciation can be, i'm convinced now that it was a case of 'anywise' sounding like 'anyways' that gave birth to this retard of a word (pun intended). I stand vindicated and hopefully will convert my 'anyways' toting circle of friends to 'anywise' uttering enlightened circle of friends. 'Ahem Ahem' to that, will aver my dear friend

helpless to help

2006-07-22T09:49:00.000-07:00

i am walking down residency road towards brigade road, just out of crossword. i've just spent some quality time there and my mood is all upbeat. I'm bouncing down the pavement watching the world, singing to myself. Some distance ahead, i see a confused family looking quizzically in all directions. apparantly they are lost. My first reaction is to develop a desperate urge to help them in whichever way i can. But i can't just barge into them and suggest that i could probably give them directions. You never know how they will take it. Who knows they might not even be lost. So suppressing my altruism, i silently walk past them. wish they had imploringly looked at me. It would have been such a good feeling to be of help.

extreme bull...

2006-07-21T11:31:00.000-07:00

I happened to watch an episode of AXN extreme dhamaka today. The way these guys hype up childish stunts, the television oscars should have a special prize instated and awarded to the AXN team behind extreme dhamaka. Oh! and a consolation prize should be given to the masterpices that they select to perform these stunts.

This particular episode featured a stunt wherein a person has to drive a bike through a burning bus. Sounds treacherous? well, i have to hand it to AXN to make a mockery of it. The setup consists of a bus' skeleton placed on an elevated platform. There is a ramp leading up to it and out of it, along the length of the bus. Basically, it is big enough to comfortably allow a maruti 800 to pass through it. The purported 'challenge' is to drive a hero honda karizma through it. utter bollocks considering that the rider is padded from head to toe in fireproof clothing, his hair is coated with fireproof gel and whatever little of his face is exposed is also coated with fireproof cream. the whole stunt in reality translates to drving a bike over a small bridge with ample side space to have two other bikes beside you.

Tania Zaetta is all nervous and our masterpiece has almost peed in his pants after seeing the burning skeleton of the bus. Pardon me for this slight deviation, but there is also a muscular puppet man who is supposed to be the co host with tania. All through the episode, he does not say one word..wonder if he's her bodyguard? Anyway our stuntman here manages to accomplish the stunt without even having to move a muscle, though in all probability he was already a vegetable while riding through it and unable to move a muscle even if he wanted to. I'm sure about this because as soon as he's back in front of the camera, he exults, "i did it" as if he just jumped of the Mt Everest without a parachute and lived to tell.

It would be interesting to follow what other challenges they have up their sleeves. For all you know, the next episode might require another masterpice to hmm...lemme think.....aah, forget it. They'll beat me hands down anyway, when it comes to conjuring hair raising 'challenges'

Tata Crucible 2006 - B'lore Zonals

2006-07-16T12:45:00.000-07:00

Giri Balasubramaniam a.k.a 'Pickbrain' is a very good quizmaster. After an engrossing Tata crucible zonals, he comes across as an ideal blend of quizmaster qualities. His questions are pretty good, he doesn't forget his sponsors, but doesn't bloat about them, unlike some others i know ( b'lore quizzers will understand whom i'm referring to). He has a subtle way of putting across the sponsors and a good sense of humor. a very enjoyable quizmaster indeed. To top all this, he's got a top notch support team and the logistics are exceptionally immaculate, i'd say.

Now to talk about the quiz, the elims saw the last year all india champions, WYSE technologies, crashing out which was sad because i became quite a fan of them after watching them perform in illuminati-05, a local quiz conducted by concorde motors in association with ITM. In the finals of that, these guys were shown the logo of a company which had the shoot of a plant in a circle or square and they worked out the correct answer. Monsanto was the answer and i was damn impressed.

Moving on to the actual finals, we found a demolition man in a guy from Kotak mahindra who along with his teammate, at the end of the quiz, had 20 more points than the sum of the scores of all the other teams. Absolutely scintillating answers from him. believe me when i say that i got goosepimples on hearing some of his answers.

there were a lot of workable questions and that is the heart and soul of a quiz. A question is called good, if on hearing the answer you exclaim, "ohhh!". There were a lot of them today.

Overall, a nice quiz and a very good quizmaster. Except in terms of the display of genius, even better than Parnab Mukherjee...may u'r tribe increase

the i'm ok u're not ok types

2006-07-04T12:48:00.000-07:00

as much as i hate to do it, i just have to crib about certain despicable qualities that i see in people around me. one is false prestige and the other is inflated ego....bah! whats the point? my write up is not going to change them. In turn it'll spoil the mood of the reader when there are so many nice things to write about.

i can understand moderate amounts of ego. its needed...but beyond a limit, abhorable...sad

An Ideal citizen's tragedy

2006-06-28T02:40:00.000-07:00

I really want to be a good citizen and keep the city clean. But where are the public dustbins? I once, in an ideal citizen's frame of mind, carried a piece of paper all the way from museum road till M.G road and dropped it in a dustbin i found there. If you expect me to do that on a regular basis, don't you think its a little too much to ask?
So before falling for "keep you city clean" hoardings, try to keep a track of dustbins in your locality.
If one fine day, your ideal citizen conscience pricks you, you can atleast walk confidently to the nearest dustbin and deposit your itch.

Road Rage in India

2006-06-28T01:06:00.000-07:00

One of the headlines on rediff, today, proclaims "indians are road ragers without sense". Its true, but nobody has, or rather has tried to, get the right perspective. A very simple example. Say,you have 2 bottles each with you and say you fill one with 5 ball bearings and the other with 50. Now, if you shake the bottle, which bottle do you think will make more noise?
I noticed the same argument in a different context, ala Karan thapar's show on some news channel. Herein they were debating on mumbai's newly acquired tag, " rudest city in India". while listening to the teleconferencing panelists, i quite liked what rahul bose had to say. He said in not the same words, " Yes! its difficult to drive on Indian roads. But look at the traffic. Accidents happen because there is no place to drive. Compare this with L.A where many people die due to actual road rage. Empty roads and overspeeding cars with no regard for pedestrians. Thats road rage". That was my interpretation as should be anyone's. The point, however, is that road rage is primarily a function of the traffic and secondarily of road manners.

hand to pocket existence

2006-06-27T00:27:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I accompanied a friend to the local police station for passport verification. We found the concerned person at his seat and my friend proceeded to get the paper work done. With some time to kill, I thought of spending it observing the surroundings. This is something i like to do very much. It was just another police station in every respect, but what caught my eye was interesting. It was a sign affixed above the doorway and it read " No fee for passport verification ". I couldn't help let out a chuckle, after reading it, knowing how farcical that sign is in the indian context. However, hoping for a miraculous exception, i continued my gaze around the place. I saw antiquated rifles in the guards hand which am sure have not been oiled in years and in case of an emergency will at most serve the purpose of a heavy rod. More antiquated though were the policemen themselves. Invariably pot-bellied and proud of it, they walked around the place with an air of importance, which had more to do with their backward s leaning stanze, thanks to the paunch!
Anyway, my friend was done with the work and just to gift wrap the session, i casually asked the person, " Is there anything else?". Prompt comes the matter of fact reply, " Processing charges ". Although it was expected and unavoidable, i decide to try my luck and bring his attention to the sign. The statement that followed was very interesting one. He replies with a smile, " that way, even cigarette packs have a statutory warning printed on them saying Cigarette smoking is injurious to health. But does that stop people from smoking ?". Realising the futility in debating, we proceed to the bargaining stage. We asked him bluntly, "how much". He replies bluntly, "Rs 200". Finally we give him Rs 100 and get going. Between Rs 200 and Rs 100, transpired a lecture on middlemen and how we are depriving one hand of food while feeding the other.
Good philosophy, wrong audience, what more can i say?

Quotable Quotes

2006-06-19T23:31:00.000-07:00

I've found a new hobby in Quote collection. Kinda hard pressed for time, so here's one for you to chew on.

"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; The unreasonable man persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man"
- George Bernard Shaw

Hey God! i'm a believer!

2006-05-13T21:07:00.000-07:00

Its about 10 in the night and i'm sitting at home watching my roommate idle away on the laptop. i've just returned after dinner and am thinking about my next activiy. That is when i feel like talking to my sister ( she's 6 yrs elder to me, married and settled in chennai) I pick my cell, flop onto the bed and give her a ring. In my family we have a unique way of greeting each other, which is my mom's creation. so we both went **** with a chuckle each. "So you remembered now, huh", she exclaims. Tactless taurean that i am, i bluntly reply, "remember what". Just as she starts with "well...", it suddenly dawns on me that today is the 12th of may, my only sister's birthday!! Now, you don't keep birthday reminders for your sister and mother, doesn't make sense. So if u're absent minded like i am, you end up forgetting and i just did. As is expected i start, " Oh! how cud i...". I sheepishly wish her, she laughs it off and we delve into the details of her day. In between i also speak to her 7 month old bundle of joy, whom i hear from her is getting more irreprissible with each passing second. After he advocates his stand with "ga goo yumm geee", we talk for some more time and hang up.

Though i was sad that i'd missed her birthday, i was very happy for another thing. Something that i hope she realizes and if she does, would be the best birthday gift she's ever got from me. Its the fact that, when i called her now, it was because i felt like talking to her. When you're very close to one another, things are taken for granted and i don't usually call my sis without reason. But this was different and i loved myself for it. I thank that superior power which compelled me to call up. hey god, i'm a believer!!

the power of dreams

2006-05-10T22:15:00.000-07:00

I'm sure many of you have had this dream. You are walking down a path all alone. Its pitch dark all around. You are feeling a little creepy and prayers are slowly developing on your lips. You don't know where you are, what you're doing there, nothing at all, for that matter and all of a sudden someone holds your shoulder from behind. Instantaneously you scream and wake up, sit up straight in bed, and still in a dazed state realize that it was just a dream. Your breath returns and you're normal. You breath a sigh of relief and go back to sleep hoping that you sleep peacefully.

Now analyse this. You got scared because something unexpected happened in the dream, your dream, something that your imagination created. Don't you find it spooky that you were surprised at your own creation, something that your mind meticulously planned and you didn't even realize? Chew on that and let me know what you think!

orkut profile views

2006-05-08T02:17:00.000-07:00

Orkut has added a new feature called profile views. People have immediately taken a typical stand on it. " i want to know who all visited my profile, but i don't want others to know that i visited theirs". I think thats not a fair thought. to win some, you gotta lose some. Infact i find this 'profile view' thingie to be neat in many ways. As a s/e, i can't help first mention backward compatibility, sorry abt that. i mean, if u want things to remain the way they were, just turn the feature 'off'; simple. Now coming to when the feature is 'on', i think its a nice feeling to know who all visited your profile. that i guess, everyone agrees upon. that, others will come to know that you visited their profile, is also a nice thing according to me. You can actually make a statement without typing a word. How many times have you had to stupidly say 'hi' to someone, just to keep in touch?
Finally, here's a workaround for those of you who want to have the cake and eat it too. when u're overcome by the orkut profile browsing syndrome, turn off the profile view feature and go about u'r activities. once you're done, turn it back on. you sure can afford to miss whover visited your profile in the meantime. deal?

I beg to differ!

2006-04-19T07:04:00.000-07:00

I've been seeing a lot of write ups and forwards on commonly used illogical statements. There are plenty of them and i honestly find many of them, to be logical enough, to be pardoned the brickbat. This post draws inspiration from a post which i came across while surfing through blogs. I diplomatically apologize for copyright violations, if any; here's what this person had to say.

"Ok...this is not something entirely orginal. But i saw a similar forward which got me thinking. What are the things that I find irritating? This is what I ended up with. Not necessarily a wholesome list, but just the things on top of my mind

1. People who point at their wrist while asking for the time...I know where my watch is pal, where the hell is yours? Do I point at my crotch when I ask where the toilet is?

2. People who are willing to get off their ass to search the entire room for the tv remote because they refuse to walk to the tv and change the channel manually.

3. This one just came into my mind, since its my birthday in another hour.
When people say "Oh you just want to have your cake and eat it too". Damn right! What good is cake if you can't eat it?

4. When people say "it's always the last place you look". Of course it is. Why the hell would you keep looking after you've found it?

5. When people say while watching a film "did you see that?". No Loser, I paid a 100 bucks(yup surat is damn expensive) to come to the theatre and stare at the damn floor.

6. People who ask "Can I ask you a question?".... Didn't really give me a choice there, did ya?

7. When something is 'new and improved!'. Which is it? If it's new, then there has never been anything before it. If it's an improvement, then there must have been something before it, it couldn't be new.

8. When you are waiting for the bus (not in surat, but in hyderabad) and someone asks "Has the bus come yet?". If the bus came would I be standing here, dumbass?

9. When they say, "Hey, what's up?". Its always the ceiling or the blue sky idiot.

Am pretty sure everyone of us has had a similar feeling sometime or other, but then why dont we stop saying such stupid stuff? "

i beg to differ as follows:

1) to counter morons who never hear anything the first time. point at the wrist and they get the point. time saved, effort saved!

2)ok, went to the T.V and changed the channel once, twice, thrice...then?

3)forget the logic, its a highly inappropriate phrase. If u have friends who say so, i pity you!

4)if timed correctly, there wouldn't be any plausible place left to search under normal circumstances, when said so.

5)i partially agree...but then, in a hypothetical scene from a hypothetical movie, would you notice the nameboard on a beach if mallika sherawat is in the vicinity in a 2 piece?

6) a genuine paradox..bingo!!

7)advertising has its own sense of logic (mind recall tactics, i'd say)..nevertheless, to argue, new needn't necessarily be improved!

8)very valid...my regards to the masterpieces who coined such phrases.

9)welcome to Americanese! its not even english in the first place!

B.R Hills trip

2006-03-30T10:49:00.000-08:00

I'd initially thought that i'd skip the description of my trip to B.R Hills, and put the blame on Mr.Procrastination. But, just realised that i have a lot of time to kill ( at 12:25 A.M..god save me!), so here goes.

We started out soon after i put in my previous post. Early mornings are rare occasions in my life. Hence there was more excitement. The journey was to be made on bikes and both man and machine were all set. A chilly,fast and uneventful drive later we were on B.R Hills, short for Beligere Ranganatha Hills. Beligere is the place name and Ranganatha(perumal) is the presiding deity in the major temple out there. The hill side is densely forested and under protection. The biggest draw to B.R Hills is the chance of spotting wild animals in their natural habitat while travelling through the jungle roads. For that u need to get permission from the concerened authorities there who will then provide you with an armed guide and options of a safari through the jungle. Unfortunate as we were, we landed at a time when they were not giving permissions, due to reasons which didn't matter to us. So we had to be content with driving along the main road, admiring the occasional plump of elephant dung. Well, not so bad! we saw deer, peacock, a few new bird species, wild boars and some monkeys. Not the menagerie that one would expect. Nevertheless!

At dusk, we paid a visit to the temple i'd mentioned before and we were right in time for 'deeparadhana', which is a ritual performed in temples all over south (AFAIK) wherein the sanctum sanctorum is closed for a session of puja while temple musicians play typical instruments which mainly include variants of the chenda(drum). Once the puja is done the doors are swung open and the waiting devotees are treated to the 'darshan' of the deity decorated by a lot of lamps. Every such experience has invariably been very spiritual for me and this was no different. After we were done with our prayers, we all sat at the footsteps of the temple for a while looking out at the expanse below, lit up by scores of bulbs. The temple was atop a hillock and the view, even at night was very nice.

We had rented a dormitory for the night, but slept on the terrace in our sleeping bags. It was special, because we were at a high altitude and the sky was amazingly clear. Some 'gyaan' on the various constellations later, everybody had a peaceful sleep.

Early morning next day, few of us ventured out for a walk and got fresh. We started out soon towards b'lore, contemplating a course of action, as Mr. Permission had left us with a lot of time. Little did we know then, that the best part of the journey was yet to come!

While travelling the day before towards B.R Hills, we had covered the shiv samudram hydel project (estd. 1901, india's first). Nothing much to see there though. On continuing from there, we'd seen an inviting reservoir of water, but no access to it. We were hoping to find a water body nearby while returning from B.R Hills.

Between Bangalore and B.R Hills, the major places are Maddur and kollegal. Some distance down from kollegal to bangalore, we took a turn which promised to lead us to a waterfall. Boy! that was a promise well kept! One of the best waterfalls i've ever seen with respect to being able to safely play in it. We were there at noon and the heat made the water all the more inviting. Without undue haste all of us were in the water. The moment i hit the water, i was a possessed man and thenceforth my actions were determined by the challenges that the waterfall could pose to me. A few hours in the water later, we were back on our vehicles towards bangalore. We stopped for lunch at some restaurant on the way and that was when i first realised that i hadn't taken breakfast. Talk of being possessed!

Its not over yet. Sumptuous lunch later, it was the turn of the bikers to be possessed. When i say that the average speed was between 95 and 100 km/hr, i mean every pixel in it. The surroundings were mostly a blur as we zipped past honda cities, mercs(yes, one bike did!) and the sundry. A terrific journey later, we were welcomed by our first redlight and with that the bangalore city traffic engulfed us into its chaos.

We were back to normal life.

BR Hills, here i come!

2006-03-24T15:23:00.000-08:00

its early morning 5:00 and i'm writing this while simultaneously battling battle cries from friends to get ready to move out. we 're about to embark on a road trip to BR hills! all i know is its a wild forest. So if i don't end up as sumptuous dinner for leopards ( tasty that i am!), u'll hear more from me on monday. ciao!

footnotes in the book of life

2006-03-22T06:48:00.000-08:00

Have you ever observed how music serves as footnotes in your life? You're idling your time in front of the television, switching channels; you unexpectedly hear a long lost tune and it immediately throws you back in time ...to a place, different; ...to a time, nostalgic. As the music catches on and the lyrics seem to appear onto your lips from nowhere, your mind is flooded with events and thoughts that belong to a different time, that probably defined a different you then, and you think; ...you think about your life, begin to recollect how you were then and what you are now. Mostly you'll observe the good changes and that will make you happy and proud of yourself. But at times, you'll stumble upon the mistakes you made then, and you'll now resolve to take corrective measures.
It all happens in there. You chance upon a peppy number from the past and all the good times flood in; the song that epitomized the party atmosphere during college days, the one that was the mainstay during dance competitions when you forgot everything else and jumped around, even though you couldn't dance to save your life.
A soulful melody reminds you of your private moments; the times when,cuddled under the blanket in winter, with the same song serenading the silence of the night, you introspected and thought about your future, or about your family, friends.
Music livens up your past.It opens different chapters from your past, depending on the song or tune; some good some not so good, but nevertheless, very nostalgic.

Of fragile egos and flayed tempers

2006-03-11T20:40:00.000-08:00

I recently had the opportunity to be the only dedicated witness to a 'middle-of-the-road' fight. That the driver of the vehicle i was in, was in the fight, didn't offer me much choice is hmm..come to think of it,a half-truth..more on that later.
So it happened one night that i hitched a ride on a cab. For the benefit of non-bangloreans, company cabs are another mode of transport here. They do official pick ups and drops for the concerned company, but take passengers for a fare on return trips. You pay them nominally (its investment free income for them) and they drop u wherever, as long as its on their route.
Hmm..so i was on a sumo at abt 10:30 in the night and travelling towards BTM layout. There was minimal traffic on the road and we were doing well, until we encountered a motorcyclist 'snaking' down the road. As we neared him, it appeared obvious, that he was drunk and not in much control of his bike. To avoid anything untoward, the sumo driver honks before going past him. Our man on the bike is not pleased and utters some pleasantries while we cross over. Not to be outdone, my guy returns the courtesy. Unfortunately, we reach a red light (silk board junction) and the biker promptly parks his vehicle across, in front of the sumo. A middle aged, shabby looking man, he looked perfect to get into a fight, he more than lived upto the expectation.
By now, the sumo driver is also out of the vehicle and the word duel has started,unfortunately for me though, in kannada. So I had to be content with the hysterical gestures and decibel level variations for entertainment. We missed the next green light, i feared for worse. So far the biker seemed to have the upper hand in the 'wordwar'. At the next red, luckily, a police car pulls up beside us. Peace seems to be restored as the biker reluctantly begins to move his bike. After all, he's totally at fault here, because the premise for the fight was, "how dare you honk from behind and disturb me!". Alas, our driver, feeling emboldened by the cop presence, starts releasing all his frustration. Idiot doesn't realize that the light is about to turn green. It promptly does, the police car leaves the scene and our sophisticated biker brings back his bike to position. Man! am i getting mad. Through all this, i have the option of leaving the vehicle and walking the remaining 1.5 kms home. Still, i stayed put.
Now both parties seem equally poised in the war. Things were escalating and I was expecting the first blow to land any moment now. But, surprisingly, it never did. It was all abt threats and phone call attempts. Our man, the biker, at one point starts to unzip to show his manhood, probably in a desperate attempt to reinforce his manliness. Fortunately, he stopped just short of displaying it. I wonder, what effect it would have had on the situation. Anyway, both of them then get busy, presumably trying to call their pally big shots. Nothing much happens on that front though. The fight goes on for a few more minutes after that and stops when both of them run out of expletives. The biker goes his way, the sumo its, but not before the biker brandishes a paper with the sumo's license no: and the sumo driver gives him an 'as if i care' look. Peace!

What do i say about people who do not carry a pen on their person while at work?

2006-03-08T05:20:00.000-08:00

I thought it was a given until i realised to the contrary, and rather irritatingly at that, when i failed to get one from any of my colleagues nearby, when ran out of ink. I find it thought provoking, that people do not find having a pen very useful, because they sure do remember to carry their combs,cigarettes, gutkas and whatever things. Is it coz, its more convenient to borrow one when needed? Or is it coz it will be borrowed if u keep one? beats me!

Brand Equity FARCE 2006

2006-03-03T20:07:00.000-08:00

Parnab Mukherji once replied, " Derek O' Brien? he's excellent for class 6 quizzing ". I was taken aback then, but, couldn't agree more after attending the b'lore leg of the Brand Equity Quiz -06. Absolutely trash questions interspersed with perverted jokes and obscene slides and downright PJs...thats BEQ-06 in a nutshell. When the top team to qualify in a prelim round scores 23 out of 30, u can gauge the level of questions. Morover, when u find that the National Champions of the Tata Crucible and a few other prominent teams did not even make it to the final round, it too says something about the standard of the quiz. Had i participated as a 12th grader in y'day's quiz, i would have easily managed to qualify. An example..the magazine ad of which company reads "find the dog". the first answer that popped into my mind was HMV. But quizzing at this level is all about working out. I kept HMV aside and thought. Hutch advertises with the ubiquitous pug. It would be logical for Airtel to have a go at them. Had i been a participant, i would have decided on Airtel over HMV. the answer was HMV. Another one. During the Californian gold rush, who was called the 'cowboy's tailor'? Mind you, there are teams here who can narrate the entire life story of Levi Strauss backwards and you give them such a question. Unless u're used to derek's brand of quizzing, u would be forced to think twice and thats what they must have probably done to get a wrong answer. Amidst all this nonsense, if it weren't enough, our man was dressed in army camouflages and displaying a mighty sorry sense of humour.General rumdi from ruski institute of ....disastrous interpretations.........God! get a life dude.Quizzing is not visual entertainment. Its cerebral entertainment.If u want to be a joker, join a circus. Leave quizzing to the sane

Hum Log - serious musings

2006-02-03T09:37:00.000-08:00

saw Rang De Basanti tonight. comments on that can wait, though. Before that, i want to express the thoughts i had while pondering over the movie. what we see and know and what is depicted is a situation of extremes. At one extreme, there is a constant lament on the state of affairs of the country and at the other, we see, and in movies alone, people going all out for their country. Just as bad it is to keep cribbing about our country while doing nothing about it, equally impractical it is to do what is shown in the movies. What i'd like to share is something i feel can be done by one and all effortlessly.
what struck me as unnerving is the level of cynicism in our society. even my mom had the standard comment after watching the movie, " nothing is going to change". by saying so we're killing an idea rightaway. Its our defense strategy. If u can't do something, label it impossible. When everyone thinks like that, we have india as of today.I myself have been a cynic throughout my life. But i have started changing. I ask you to change too. I think it can make a big diference to our society. Try to respond positively to everything that you see around you. If you don't find it at frst sight, look for it. everything has a positive side to it. I know from experience. Only the staunchly resolute can self-motivate them. For the others, a simple word of encouragement or a gentle help can do wonders. I think that there are many people amongst us who wish to do good for the country but lack the initiative. After all, you don't want to fall flat on your face trying. Life is also about being practical.
so in the end, its a very simple thing to do. Just be positive to whatever you see and hear. Who knows, the friend you encourage today may actually do something really great which otherwise may not have materialized.

what india needs is not a set of great people at the helm of affairs, but an entire population of good citizens. The rank of an ideal citizen is a difficult one to achieve and hence it can take time.

Mario Puzo syndrome

2006-01-04T22:35:00.000-08:00

i experienced a classic case of the mario puzo syndrome while reading the tipping point, by malcolm gladwell. before that i'd read Blink, which was actually his 2nd book, so that, most people have read tipping point first...I liked what i read in blink, but the person i borrowed tipping point from vehemently maintained that blink is crap and nothing compared to the tipping point. well!, i felt otherwise..whle blink was an interesting read throughout, tipping point started of nicely but the middle pages featuring sesame street were such a drag..the ideas seemed to be a tweaked version of those in blink....probably the others felt the same for blink after reading tipping point first...even so, i must admit that tipping point does overcome the syndrome at times..surely blink would do too!...
...apart from the concepts presented, the most striking thought that came across my mind was the amount of time spent and dedication showed by the researchers mentioned in both the books..we had guys sending letters to over 500 people, people doing tests on hundreds of children individually and what not...i admire their conviction.

Hum Log - ep 2 "awaken"

2005-12-26T21:28:00.000-08:00

we are simpletons, we indians. we are intelligent, but we use our intelligence to mostly sit in a group and crib about whats wrong with the world, whats beyond the universe and of course whats happening in the neighbour's house.now don't imagine mahatma gandhi,subhash chandra bose et al, i'm talking about the common man...hum log...what we lack most and which makes a hell lot of difference is ATTITUDE..you don't need a PhD in comparative social studies to figure that..just watch an india australia cricket match...while an indian batsman, in a crunch situation, looks to defend every ball; the first thing, an australian, even a tailender, would do is ,maybe, step out and hit the bowler for a six and dominate him...thats ATTITUDE and it has very little to do with skill...we've all seen Irfan Pathan's devastating form in the ongoing indo-srilanka series...its attitude dominating there!..a devil may care attitude, coz he has nothing to lose if he gets out for a duck...his reputation remains the same..but that cannot be said of sachin,dravid,yuvraj,kaif...they are burdened by expectations and that gets to them more often than not...the australians don't seem to have such mental issues...just watch gilchrist playing for that matter..absolute abandon! and that's why he's able to play like he does...its very difficult to have such a mental frame..and thats why i say its genetic...or from a different perspective, socially induced...

Afterthoughts:
we are an 'unsure of ourself' race..maybe we became so as a result of british domination...we look down upon ourselves and look up to the west...because our society brainwashes us to do so...because, in a way, its true...but don't forget that our histories are different...our generation is more confident, but we are yet to bravely look everyone else square in the eye...that day will come and it will come soon...and then there is no stopping India...All of us should do our bit to make the future generation of india confident..we have one of the best cultures to fall back on, we are among the most intelligent races in the world, we are globally acknowledged as a peace loving nation...we have what it takes.
..Be proud to be an indian,Be proud to be yourself.

hot cocoa psychology

2005-12-19T22:56:00.000-08:00

i was having my morning cup of hot chocolate when i was reminded of the innumerable ocassions when authors have extolled the combo of a hot drink on a cold/rainy morning...i went on to relate it to the feeling you have when u'r all warm and cozy in your seat,looking out of the window of a car/train at a wintry morning..its a very nice feeling, very romantic too!..nothing like it, if there is someone to cuddle up with under a thick blanket and watch dew drops condensing on the window pane......well,aside for the romantic touch, my point revolves around the human thought process. the pleasure we derive in such an environment is not as much as from being warm than from experiencing the contradiction....just imagine, would you feel as happy if you are in a closed room all warm and cozy....definitely no! knowing that you're warm, while seeing that everything around you is in the cold, gives a kind of ego boost and that is what makes us happy. So childish is the human mind!

Hum Log - ep 1

2005-12-14T06:04:00.000-08:00

i closely observed a man yesterday..... for the record, i'm as straight as a lamp post ,but, i was in a lift and moulded aluminium cannot sustain my interest for long. Fortunately, my senses were treated to an interesting, though commonplace phenomenon... That is the beauty of places like lifts, long, slow queues, deserted bus stops.. you tend to realise the things that are so in your face, yet normally unnoticed...So, this person here, let me name him Mr x, rushes into the lift on the 13th floor. He looks to be in his mid 40s and has the airs of a managerial position. The lift starts to move down. Within a few seconds, Mr x gets a call on his cellphone. what transpires is interesting.

Mr x: hello
other end:
Mr x: tell me tell me.
other end:
Mr x: go back go back.
other end:
Mr x: fine fine.
other end:
Mr x: ok ok.
other end:
Mr x: ya.

and Mr x hangs up.

Didn't it strike you as odd that he repeats almost every word that he speaks. Yes! but then it doesn't strike you when you yourself do it..i'm taking the liberty to call this the lift effect..anyways the point is, whatever be the psychology behind it, isn't it wierd to sound like that?

The reason as per first thought is to explain urgency of some kind or to assert importance to. But i believe, in certain contexts, its also a case of low self esteem. i.e, the person is subconsciously convinced that people will not pay attention to him/her and hence involuntarily repeats himself

its all blah...basically. the observation was interesting. needed some inferences to lend support...

Being Big B

2005-12-12T21:31:00.000-08:00

Amitabh Bachchan is taken ill and the entertainment industry suffers a loss of 120 odd crores of Rupees.Just as the first impression registered is the power of this great man, similarly is the thought that goes towards the people at the receiving end of these losses. I'm very poor in finance, so i don't know if producers are really affected by such ocurrances, but if they are, it must be a really risky proposition. Set aside for a moment the initial risk associated with launching a production venture. That is valid for everything. But to be vulnerable even when your production is a success; thats scary. Taking the instance of KBC2, probably a week of shooting has been postponed now.So many losses immediately come into the picture: studio rental, man-force compensation, participant's boarding/lodging..and lots more that i'm unaware of. On the non-monetary front, pressure of production deadlines, pressure from advertisers and the nity gritty...
Baseline..Amitabh Bachchan cannot afford to have a stomach upset. Henceforth, every time he sneezes, the producers of KBC and of the zillion movies that he's a part of, will miss a beat

movies huh!

2005-12-11T03:54:00.000-08:00

One fine day i decided to update my profile on orkut. After having done that, i focussed my thoughts on the difficulties i faced while doing so. well, for one, i didn't have a definite answer to the music,books and movies fields,especially the movies, so much so, that i left it as it was filled in. i think i did a fair job of defining my kind of music. But i reckon, its difficult with movies. there are so many good movies and so many categories if you try to sort them.

At one end you have SWORDFISH, where if you're observant, you might just get the gist of the movie in the last frame. the level of satisfaction that such movies provide, of course, when u're able to figure out the proceedings is awesome.

At the diametrically opposite end, you have A WALK TO REMEMBER. Beautifully played out emotions and an adorable mandy moore. In the same league is NOTTING HILL. Each time i catch a glimpse of it on TV, i end up watching till the end.

At another corner of the ring (double pun intended) we have the ROCKY series.Now thats what you should watch and 'eye of the tiger' is what you should listen to before an exam.You just can't categorize movies like this one here.

For pure genius of conception and technical perfection, we have the MATRIX TRILOGY.

Now what do i say about movies like THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION, FULL METAL JACKET and FORREST GUMP?

Full metal jacket reminds me of the armed forces and i recall AN OFFICER AND A GENTLEMAN; powerful dialogues,powerful emotions, powerful performance. Tom cruise transports me to THE LAST SAMURAI, beautiful for its melancholy yet aggressive feel. the samurai leads me to RONIN, which features one of the best car chase sequences in the history of hollywood. talk of cars and the adrenaline rush is immediate..TOO FAST TOO FURIOUS, for the car sequences alone, mind you!...a temporary blank drawn, i shift to A BEAUTIFUL MIND, no elaborations needed and Russel Crowe effortlessly takes me to GLADIATOR, with one of my favourite dialogues ever. I am not a war movie fan, but gladiator stands out..from gladiator, lets move on to.....ah! SCENT OF A WOMAN. Al Pacino all the way! He also reminds me of SCARFACE, for the initial 20 minutes., scarface to devils advocate to keanu reeves to.. but of course SPEED1, awesome movie..speed reminds me of the tube and tube reminds me of PREDATOR2, another great concept...from there to hmm, ALIENS..to jurassic park to sam neill to national treasure to nicholas cage to hoo haa, CONAIR!..moving on to face off to john travolta to BROKEN ARROW, mighty good! to OCEANS 11 to ENTRAPMENT to ITALIAN JOB and all great con movies...charlize theron reminds me of trapped which reminds me of the road accident which inevitably takes me to FINAL DESTINATION 1 & 2; ultimate conceptualization is what you get here...its all coming like a flood now..the cube,saw(not in bold cause they're worth seeing once),...i shift gears to comedy and immediately its jim carrey all over the place..BRUCE ALMIGHTY, ACE VENTURA,MASK...tough competition from MRS DOUBTFIRE and the emotional comedy of PATCH ADAMS to the action comedy of RUSH HOUR to jackie chan and lo and behold POLICE STORY,FRENCH CONNECTION, and many others , dunno remmember their names..jackie chan to the baap of martial arts...ENTER THE DRAGON,FIST OF FURY, THE BOSS...going back to rush hour and taking of in the direction of will smith's style of comedy, its MEN IN BLACK to ENEMY OF THE STATE...to harrison ford to air force one to mmm....enough.its never ending
Now i think u can understand my dilemna!

need for speed

2005-12-05T05:28:00.000-08:00

it was one of those trips which for once and ever confirmed the fact that i love travelling by bus..for any overnight journey, henceforth, i'll prefer a bus to a train...lemme elaborate my convictions in this regard...i love adventure of any kind...and unadulterated adventure is what you get when u're travelling in a volvo at over 100km/hr all the while looking for 'prey' to overtake....catching up on them...tailgating them with a revving engine and lunging sidewards and ahead as soon as the oncoming vehicle has passed..its a treat! pure bliss!..to stress on my behaviour let me add that i abandoned my push back seat in the a/c cabin on my journey home to sit on a foldable seat in the drivers cabin talking about the vehicle and enjoying the mile munching. the vovlo happened on the return journey. but the to journey wasn't bad at all..it was a rip off on a vovlo but not bad at all...an ashok leyland product with a 7 speed gearbox and fuel efficiency of 4 km/ltr....now thats awesome when u consider that the volvo gives u at most 2.5 km to the litre..the gear box, i'm unaware of, but while a volvo costs anywhere around 50 lakhs, this baby is yours for 35...well, the volvo's price is not unjustified, it sure is a class apart when it comes to pickup...even this baby can't match that...all in all i had a great ride to and fro..the best part, however, was that the owners had the decency to not label it a VOLVO or a VALVO...

Thank you God!

2005-11-18T06:21:00.000-08:00

yesterday was a very happy day for me....just wanted to let it be known.......

i couldn't think of a title

2005-11-16T05:38:00.000-08:00

i read other blogs and am left to wonder, " why don't just i have anything to write about?"....Reflecting on the previous sentence, i find it interesting to note, that 'read', pronounced as when in past tense or present tense, makes full sense... Definitely queer, is the English language, build on the whims and fancies of wordsworths and shakespears, the identity of the latter, incidentally, now being suspect. Every body must have heard of the 'gh-o-ti' to fish mapping. its too cliched to reproduce here. when i see it from that perspective, english as a language, definitely sucks! On comparison, i feel hindi is a very complete and refined language. till date, i have not been able to find any flaws in hindi............mmm..... she just walked past. there is something about this girl who just walked by. i just feel like staring at her...there is this serenity on her face and in her gait...someday i'll tell her.........ladies! don't despair, she's older than me.

poof!..coming back, the most beautiful word in hindi is 'aap'. there is no word in english that comes anywhere close in sense and respect as conveyed by 'aap'. Again, phonetically, hindi is perfect and gh-o-ti proves sufficiently that english is not. I realised this when my dumb-c team happened to participate in a hindi dumb-c and we successfully used the few 'matras' to illegally decipher the words...sigh, those were the days...

well, all that English has on its side is its universality and the thrust-upon sophistication...well maybe earned too, i dunno. But i'm not complaining. Its just that i read other blogs and am left to wonde.....................

bowled over!

2005-10-30T11:29:00.000-08:00

i've been smitten by gul panag ever since i saw her in the toyota corolla ad with rahul khanna. Boy! what a powerful face! what a powerful voice! enchanting, enthralling and what not! fida ho gaya!!