Thoughts infinitum..

of Aamir and his dogs..

2008-05-15T04:05:00.000-07:00

Read this interesting entry on Aamir Khan's blog. Suggest you to read if you get time. Might sound funny, comic and crass at the same time..

Heel boy, heel :-)

China faces tough time..

2008-05-13T02:35:00.000-07:00

China is crippled by a powerful earthquake on Monday measuring 7.8 on the Richter Scale as measured by the Chinese Administration and 7.9 as measured by the United States Geological Survey. As per the latest report, around 8700 people are feared dead. Continue reading here

Here is your chance to donate towards the welfare of the victims of this catastrophe through International Red Cross.

All you courageous and beautiful people out there, we are with you!

Hope is a good thing...

2008-05-10T10:08:00.000-07:00

I am finally the memeber of coveted Have-watched-The-Shawshank-Redemption club. Feels good. Hope is a good thing and no good thing ever dies! :)

The Great Debaters

2008-05-08T03:36:00.000-07:00

Got a chance to watch this movie last night. We really loved it and would like to recommend it to anyone and everyone who like watching some serious movies. This is a mind blowing piece of direction and I would rate its dialogues among the best that I have ever seen in a hollywood movie. Directed by Denzel washington and produced by Oprah Winfrey, TGD is based on a true story of a teacher called Mr. Tolson of the famous Wiley College of Texas who prepares a team of black debaters who go on to challenge whites across America. Filmed in the nigro lynching era of 1930s America, it touches upon the conflict between the whites and colored people in the country.

Heading for MBA

2008-05-08T02:18:00.000-07:00

Just to share the latest news, I have got through the SPJIMR Mumbai for my MBA. I will be joining SPJIMR PGDM batch of 2008-2010. I have already resigned from my work and 30th May will be my last day followed by 2 weeks at home before joining the campus on 17th June.

Mahaganapathim

2008-05-08T01:58:00.000-07:00

A couple of days back when I got bored of the kinds of music I had been resorting to for quite some time, I got reminded of this musical called 'Morning Raga' which I vaguely remember having seen a couple of years back on TV or/and probably just heard of it being shown to all the lady colleagues on the eve of Mother's Day of 2006 at Infosys Bangalore. All I remember in the movie or would like to remember, is this beautiful fusion number - Mahaganapathim. Click to watch.. I would keep this song in the league of Alayapayuthe song from the movie Alayapayuthe.

PS - Although I do not understand anything of carnatic music, still I find these two songs really cool! ;)

IMAP for Gmail and Log Me In..

2008-03-25T12:09:00.000-07:00

I found these two truly fascinating things over the last two days.

First is this Remote Access and Desktop Control software on logmein. All you have to do is login to this website and download their software and install on your computer. By doing this, you add your computer to the this software. Now, repeat the same on a different machine which is connected to internet. Now go to the second machine and login to logmein using the user name and password with which you registered on the first machine. Keep the softwares running on these two machines. This way, you will be able to remotely control a remote computer connected to the internet. You will do yourself good by following the instructions given on their site. You can in fact run applications, copy files and do a host of other things between the two computers. I found this really exciting. However, I could not play around much with this because of my limited download volume internet connection. Nevertheless, with 2mbps broadband connection, I had a wonderful experience.

Second is another 'WOW' stuff! You can now download all your gmail messages onto your local device like MS Outlook email client on your desktop or some other email client on your mobile phone. All you have to do is enable IMAP in your Gmail account and follow the set of instructions given here to configure your local email client. I did it myself and I can now see all my gmail messages in MS Outlook configured on my desktop. I can access my mails even when I am not connected to internet. Of course I wont be able to receive any new message when offline.

Other than this, I also got BOSE Companion 2 stereo speakers for my laptop. Watching movie at home is an altogether different experience now.

TZP Songs and lyrics

2008-03-12T12:12:00.000-07:00

In case you do not have Taare Zameen Par songs, you can listen to them online hassle free on its official website TZP. You just need to go to music section and click on play button against the song you want to listen to. And in case you want to act weird, you can play all of them together at the same time!! Now does that sound dyslexic.. :-)

Some economics related links and budget 2008

2008-03-04T10:28:00.000-08:00

I found them useful for increasing my awareness in areas of Indian Economy and Finance.

Indian economy is one place where you can get the perspective of young aspiring economists and entrepreneurs to Indian Economy.

Swaminomics if you remember is a column which appears in Sunday Times. The author Swaminathan S. Anklesaria Aiyar also writes in Economic Times and this place contains a few of his published articles in print media. Interesting insight - deep and different.

India Uncut for anything India.

BRIC and Beyond - This is the place to find the economic analysis of Brazil, Russia, India and China done by Goldman Sachs. This might help you if you are into some quantitative research on these economies.

So enjoy reading.

By the way, Budget 2008 is already in. Although it comes with an election year populist taste, it also comes with a little challenge on part of govt. It is yet to be seen how the government is going to compensate the banks for the 60,000 crores farm waiver. Its definitely a great move by the govt., but what about the farmers who have taken loan from the money lenders to repay banks for the loans? And what is the percentage of farmers who owe money to banks and how much is it compared to those who have taken from local money lenders? And where is the thrust on the farm infrastructure development? Cut on excise duty is a feel good factor and so is cut in cenvat. But will it reach the consumers and will it really ease the inflationary pressure? These are a few questions which need to be addressed. Taxes on short term capital gains will stabilize the market in the short term. The thrust on Health Care by offering tax holiday to new hospitals in lower tier cities and increased allocation in education sector is a very welcome and long awaited move by the finance minister. But the most talked thing in this budget is the change in income the tax slab. By putting more money in the pockets of middle class, consumption will get a thrust and it will in turn affect various sectors positively. Overall a good budget!

That is all for now.

My advice to Jimmy Wales

2008-02-29T00:34:00.000-08:00

If you thought this is a criticism of wikipedia, you got me wrong by hundred and eighty degrees. I am as much a wikipedia lover as you are, or for that matter lover of anything wiki.

I was just reading an article on Macroeconomics and I was really irritated with myself wanting to click on each of those sundry terms to understand macroeconomics better. It was a paradoxical situation given that I was a novice in this field and there was no way I could understand it without clicking on those links and trying to figure out what they are before proceeding further. And If I did so, there was every chance of getting lost in the sea of information and ultimately abandoning the original idea which I started with. I am sure any wiki user will agree with me at least to some extent if not completely.

So coming back to my original intent of writing this, I would suggest Wikimedia Foundation to modify the Tooltip for each of the relevant links on the page to show a standard and very precise definition of the term instead of just showing the link's name. Just to give an idea, I would suggest one to check out pagalguy and move the mouse over 'CAT' on any of the posts in there. Now I understand that this can put them in a trickier situation, because a good number of articles which these links point to will never be visited by anyone except through the links which point to them. Well, thats precisely why I said 'very precise' definition. At the end of these definitions, there should definitely be a link to the related full length article, and please be reminded that I am just asking to modify the tool tip, the links are supposed to work as they are. The whole idea is to help the users concentrate on the original article without digressing too much on other-but-still-related topics.

I am otherwise very impressed with wikipedia and the noble objective of its creators Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger. And I understand that it will continue to affect the lives of millions of users in a very positive way as it is doing today.

Growth Investment

2008-02-04T06:33:00.000-08:00

Once again :)

This time, its for you investors who believe in fundamental evaluation before investing in a share.

Growth Investment for you!

Finance blog launched!

2008-02-04T06:07:00.000-08:00

A forbes recognized forum which offers the latest in the field of Finance, Accounting, Business, Economics, Stock Markets, Derivatives, Investments, Banking is here.

And here is the part of this blog which you might find useful if you are an MBA aspirant.

This much for now :)

Happy Birthday to Suganya...

2008-01-17T04:15:00.000-08:00

Adding to my ideas of reminding people of b days, here is another one.. This is great because it brings me back to blogging after a good gap...

It's 17th Jan and time to wish Suganya..

So here is wishing you many many happy returns of the day dear!

We wish you the very best in your life. I attach for you one of my favorite snaps taken at Ooty a while ago. Reminds me of the freshness and the color that you bring to the life of people around you.

Lucky ones.
K11~

Back after a while...

2008-01-17T04:09:00.000-08:00

Ah!

Feels great to be back here after a hiatus.. yea truly.. May 14, 2006 is when I posted last.. 2007 passed in a flurry to say the least.. 2008 has just started with a bang.. yeah with feline battle half won, the pressure is back on me again..

Thats for a re-starter!
Adios~

Whatever it takes!

2006-05-14T03:28:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Mumbai saw one of the most barbaric actions that the Police in India have ever taken against the students. Yes, I just could not prevent myself from qualifying the action as barbaric and it is more pronounced when one of the senior most police officers denies all this charges, but then what about the TV telecasts? Do they think we the citizens are blind or they make an ass of themselves? I would not like to go in all those details, rather let’s come straight to the point.

Government in India of late does not consist of a single party with proper mandate; rather it’s always a coalition government which rules the roost. Be it at the centre or in some cases (rising now a day) state. But as far as the ministry of higher education and all that shit is concerned, it is handled primarily by the Ministry of HRD at the center. Now, since it’s a coalition government, ministers have to satisfy each of the coalition parties to remain in power (even if they have to go against their own ideology), else what? Else the government will lose the majority in case few ministers pull the plug; government will fall and then late night parties in the opposition camp. That’s how it works; Money (power) is primary, services secondary! Think about all the initiatives that the government in power takes at the international level and think about the effect on this due to ideology change of the upcoming government (FYI Indian politics still work on ideologies unlike US or UK, where the flexibility in the policies has taken the driver’s seat in the recent times). Not only that, as a minister, if you are not very sure about a new rule that you are going to propose, you can still just pontificate the superficial details of your proposal and stir the nation. It might bring about some more votes when the elections are around the corner in a few states. As an aftermath, people can just start staging the protest march against the new proposal, and police in turn can just start with all the castigation they had been awaiting. There would be mass incarcerations and the medical students would go on strike, the patients (and parents) will be affected and the poor and the unfortunate will die due to lack of medicines and treatment. Who is bothered? And the ministers can just dress in cocktail suits and ponder about how the GDP growth rate of the country can be improved or if the US congress is going to approve the nuclear deal or what will be the exact percentage of the new quota for OBC. It’s always the poor and common men who bear the brunt of all this shitty political game. Is our government aware of the fact that our country at the moment is the youngest country of the world? Do the guys at the top office foresee any future of this country where the polity hinders the talents and the merit of the students, and works more for the electoral gains? It’s true that we need Nuclear Deals with US and lots of FDI and Free Economic Zones and lots of Peace processes and blah blah blah, but then who will take care of those backward people of our country who don’t have access to even the basic needs of life, I am sure they don’t need to move from the under-sanitized places to the IIMs or IITs (And those who have it in them will definitely go, remember that IIMA guy from Chennai who used to sell idlis on the streets in the childhood). And what about the places like Kalinganagar and the Narmada valley where people have lost their own land in the hands of sarkaari morons without getting proper compensations. They need roti, kapda aur makaan and then assurance to get the proper primary education. People who are already in the main stream of the society should be given enough privilege to compete by themselves and not by further reminding them that they are still backward! Guys! Direct your bandwagon to those who are under-privileged and not those who have had enough!

Govt. should understand that its trickery is not going to work when the lives of we young citizens are at stake. For the future of India is not driven by the abominable state of politics that we are smeared with at the moment, but by the sheer talent and the merit of its people who are going to reshape the country to make it big at the world arena. And to achieve this, we the young guns will go far enough whatever it takes...

Being Cyrus...

2006-03-29T04:31:00.000-08:00

Saw Being Cyrus last night.

Should I say it was another off-beat and out of the box concept? Well yes.

It’s only interesting to see how the Bollywood is getting metamorphosed from the main-stream rotten-love-story-based cinemas to cinemas like Being Cyrus that pricks you sub-consciously, and leaves you agape and aghast at times.

Being Cyrus is a good movie by this standard and more so when the director is a debutant. Naseeruddin shah and Dimple Kapadia have acted fabulously, but the one who is the nitty gritty of the whole show is Boman Irani. He is just fentabulous and as usual offers more than what is expected of him.

What can not be appreciated about movie though is the story line which ultimately nullifies the great performances of some great actors towards the climax. Saif Ali khan plays the lead role, but watch him just to hear the narrative as the rest is accomplished beautifully by the camera itself.

About the story, since there is nothing much, I better don’t say anything.

All I should say is that the movie deals with subtle humane emotions tinged with some frequent sitcoms and a realistic view of a parasi family.

Leave the slang apart. Please.

Kangaroo Curry for Dinner...

2006-03-13T03:00:00.000-08:00

As an unbiased and ardent fan of the game of Cricket, what I saw yesterday was the best that the Gods of Cricket could ever bestow on me. On the soils of Wanderers at Johannesburg, Aussies after pilling up the unprecedented total in the history of the ODIs would have never thought that proteas with their intransigent self-credence and astounding temperament would thrash the record right under their nose.

Cricket is not only a mind game but a heart game too and it was probably the sentiments of the South Africans that kept pricking them and finally saw them scrap though in front of their people and their soil. At this level of the game, it no more matters as how deftly you handle your side or how well you train them, more than that, what matters most is how much you believe in yourself or how well you have tweaked your team to give them that edge which prepares them mentally than anything else, to fight the best in the business. Australia as a matter of fact, had nothing special to canon-fire in their bowling department and the dropped catch by Bracken only diminished their chances to win the series, having won the last two ODIs after losing the first 2 in the 5-game series. For South Africans, the more I say nothing it is! Their winning the series decider by scoring 438 runs in the second innings, zips up my mouth and I find myself with no words to comment on their commendable victory, the unprecedented, and the improbable.

As an equalitarian by nature, South Africans have always been my favorite when compared to Australians, and going by the same idea, West Indians compared to South Africans. Definitely, it’s the spirit of game which matters at the end of the day rather than players who are here today, but who knows if they will be there tomorrow again.

Lastly, I was moved by the kind gesture shown by one of the greatest players in the game, Ricky Ponting the Australian Skipper, when he handed over the joint man of the match title (conferred jointly on Ponting and Gibbs)to Herschel Gibbs.

Now to add to this entire whim, I have this final thought. With shorter boundaries, more all rounders and flatter wickets, Cricket has really moved on. Certainly. Give them sometime and you will hear someone yelling “Shit! They couldn’t manage a mere 78 runs in last 5 over”. My condolences to all McGraths and Akhtars.

PS: As I plan to stop here, I hear the news about India defeating England in Mohali Test by 9 wickets. Munaf Patel and Kumble doing wonders again.

Rang De Basanti...

2006-02-22T04:17:00.000-08:00

Last weekend was no different.
Absolutely.

For a simple reason that I was not allowed to do anything. If weekdays are eaten up by office parasites, weekend is eaten up by classes that I take up to prepare for a prospective MBA degree, a dream well dreamt.

Came to the office on Monday and it was the day I had to deliver all the PAM related changes for the Build.

Ok Now.

PAM. This is Product Authority Matrix and is utilized extensively in our project which is an Internet Banking Solution for a tier1 Bank of Australia and New Zealand. And hence the name. ANZ. Huhh!!

And now about myself. I am called PAM Boy. Some people affectionately call me PAM Champion, well I don’t accept that compliment, and neither do I reject it. After all where does it fit in?

So, I and Sandip delivered all the sources to the clear case and our job was done. Atleast for the time being and the relief was immense, I felt like exorcising some ghost from my body and hence cleansing my soul. That kind of a thing PAM was for us for the last 2 months or so.

I left quite early from the office and reached my home near Forum at around 8:00 pm. Everybody was at home. Rachit after just finishing his IIM L& K interview, relieved, was as usual glued to the Newspaper and NDVT 24x7. I have no reason not to mention Barkha Dutt being his favorite. Interestingly, same day we saw a Reporter called Bahar Dutt on CNN IBN reporting the story of the proposed wipe out plans of seasonal SARAS habitats from outskirts of Lucknow in a bid to construct International Airport, thanks to Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh! When they can’t take care of the Humans, obviously we can not expect them to care for Migratory Birds; after all they are migratory (with all the sarcasm I ever intended)!

Antipathetic behaviors of few politicians as shown in the report only intensified the respect for the female Reporters in my friend’s heart. No wonder we kept discussing inconsequentially about Bahar Dutt being Barkha Dutt’s sister for a little long time before I decided to visit Fabmall in Forum for purchasing some utility Items for myself. I went alone with the usual alacrity, with a Cinthol Old, Axe Deo, Old Spice After Shave Splash and a Tooth Brush in my mind. And indeed the eye warming sight of the cheesy Forum junta, though of late I have lost the interest as the girls look more masculine to me and the guys, the opposite!

I purchased all my items, had to cancel the first transaction in the middle, as I wanted to add a pack of chewing gum to the lot at the very last moment. People next to me in the queue were passing on winces at me, and getting a longer stare in return. It took me 7 minutes to purchase my stuffs at Fabmall at 2110 Hrs and believe me no one leaves this mall so soon, so I thought of taking sometime out to check the multiplex on the top floor. The posters of Forrest Gump and Life is Beautiful, engraved on the wall beside the Gold Class entrance of PVR, look just amazing and makes me nostalgic every moment my sight makes a contact with them. I went to the booking counter of the PVR Classic and asked the booking personnel if there is any show of RDB at 2200 Hrs, as the Samsung display screen above the counter looked very neutral to me, neither showing in BLUE (means tickets are all sold!) nor in RED (meaning few are left!). I was elated to get the reply in affirmative, and I was not to waste any moment in getting a ticket for myself. Though, I have rarely seen a movie alone in a multiplex, but for RDB, everything was acceptable, even without being Love or War, but being both!

Movie was late by15 minutes, so I could enter only by 2220 or so! Took my seat at D-20.They started with the usual AIDS related documentary for 2-3 minutes, boring to death, and then some fireworks with the trailer of Chingari, wherein Sushmita Sen is playing role of a whore with mind-blowing boldness in her voice and shimmering radiance on her face. Let me not reveal anything else except that Mithun is back, clad in red with a smeared forehead in the role of a king (though not very clear).So watch the movie on your own risk. 

I was almost out of my nap, just when RDB started. Well RDB stands for Rang De Basanti, in my view the movie which carries clear reflection of comtemporary society and reminiscence of the part. At the outset, the movie kick starts with sepia screen with images of revolutionaries Bhagat Singh, Ashfaqullah Khan, Rajguru et al in the Prison and the British Officer Mr. Mcauley scribbling the moments of truth interspersed with his feeling for the Indian Revolutionaries and their noble objective, calligraphically in his diary. He writes among other intriguing observations:

There are two kinds of people…
First are the one who go to their deaths screaming…
Others are those who go to their deaths in silence…

But today I saw a third kind…
People who go to their deaths dot dot dot…

Right next, comes Sue Mcauley [Alice Patten], a scene in London, reading her grandfather’s diary – Mr. Mcauley. She seems to have undergone a deep impact by the freedom struggle of the Indian revolutionaries, and so she decides to move to India to make a documentary, even after her plans were scrapped by a London film agency, making her devoid of any fund which was required for the documentary. But her love for the Land of Chandrasekhar Azad or rather Azad himself was unabated, and she comes to India unlike the Britishers came centuries ago.

Soha Ali Khan (Sonia) introduces Sue to her friends who are none other than the Gems of the movie. Let me give you a glimpse of them one by one.

DJ (Amir) – I don’t need to comment on him. He is great in his own right, yet again!

Karan (Siddharth) – I had seen him in Boys, a Tamil movie in my college days and I was impressed with his acting and persona that he carries. Well here, he is the master, playing the most important role in the movie with true depiction of the character that he portrays. Dude in real sense, with a wonderful smile and an air of dignity around. Check out the way he cuddles himself in the movie, his watches et al. Let me re-iterate, he is amazing!

Aslam (Kunal) – This dude came in Minakshi and I saw him only in one of those songs Chinmamma Chilakkamma, as watching the movie I thought was inconsequential. But here, people say, he is lovely. I too love his acting. The role he plays in the movie is that of a Muslim college student, whose parents are always chasing him away from his Hindu friends (rest of the gang), and the way he defends himself, will keep you whispering about him right on your seat, then and there! His natural acting is his strength in the movie; rest just follows the suit.

Sukhi (Sharman Joshi) – He is the coolest of all. Freaky, a party animal kind of character. Drunk and falling is what I call him. He portrays Rajguru in the documentary that Sue makes.

Lakshman (Atul Kulkarni) – His role is definitely un-usual, though started in the same negative andaaz, he eventually befriends the rest of the gang to play Ram Prasad Bismil. Other wise, he plays the role of a true nationalist.

Soha Ali Khan and Madhavan are equally magnificent. They depict probably the purest and shortest love story in modern Hindi cinemas, no lewdness, and no skin show.

Director Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra with his noble vision tries to juxtapose two different era of Indian Society brilliantly. One was the era of Indian Freedom Struggle where the country was ruled by the Britishers and the other one is the modern era of hedonistic politicians who tear the motherly flesh into bits and pieces to satisfy their own ego.

First half presents a glimpse of cynical youths who are list bit bothered about the country and lament the law and regulations prevailing in the country. The movie then paces fast, as Sue with the help of Sonia convinces other five to act in her documentary which they first deny outright, but later on as the feeling of freedom struggle starts swathing them, they accept their roles mirthfully. And hence started the Magnum Opus of a Hindi speaking English lady, the India and the Indians beckon the world!

The movie takes turn, quite abruptly in the second half, when the idealistic Madhavan, a pilot by profession dies in a plain crash, flying the defected MIG 21 over Ambala City. All hell broke loose when Sonia and Co. heard about the news, and they decide to take revenge from the Defense Minister who blames Madhavan for the incident.

What happens next was the most unexpected, and reveals some loosely coupled ends in the movie. Amir and Siddharth kill defense minister and all of them go live on All India Radio to confess their crime and defend the allegations against their dead friend.

But, what is special about the movie is the metamorphosis that these guys undergo before they indulge in the making of the documentary and putting themselves under the aegis of the characters like Bhagat Singh, Ashfaqullah Khan, Rajguru, Azad and Bismil. The beauty lies in how they transform themselves by the reminiscence of their past, that too all by an English young lady. It’s only satisfying to see them emulating the heroes of the past in their lives of the present, and use their energy in an attempt to change the society.

From Sarfarosh to RDB, Amir has done a tremendous job of bringing out the history of the country to the youths. First playing the role of an ACP, then fighting with the cruel Britishers in a game of cricket, then bringing back the moments of pre-independence era in Mangal Pandey and the RDB, wherein a Britisher herself, felt the pain and the courage of the Indian freedom fighters, attempts to pay tribute to the great heroes. What happens as a result of that is nothing short of an awakening of a generation!!

The Lyrics, the music, the actors, the acting, the fun, the romance, the love, the respect, Mr. McCauley’s observation, the tragedy, the change, the awakening! Go and watch it.

Day to remember - An act of serendipity!

2005-10-25T02:40:00.001-07:00

October 24th 2005 8:38:45 am: It was just another boring Monday for me. I got ready for the office and started from home at around 8:30. I was strolling towards the main road called BTM Main Road, to get the bus for office, but a different story was slowly unfolding with each step of mine.

Indeed I have come across the high-density-crowd-mechanics situations in Bangalore several times, but this time, the dynamics was real intense. I was able to see the crowd racing on the sidewalks on one side of the road, and I with two of my friends was standing there with few of our stranger colleagues, waiting for the bus to come and steal us. I couldn’t see my bus, though the road was jam-packed with vehicles, vehicles which do not move, which can not move rather.

It had rained quite heavily during the weekends, and the next junction called “Silk Board Junction” where we take a right turn and go along the Hosur road to reach our office in the Keonics Electronic City (read as KEC). Sucks!! This junction was bloody flooded up to the neck and getting the vehicles passed through it was a far flung dream.

9:02:07 am: My friends decided to go back home and get their bikes (though ultimately they made fool of themselves by taking their bike in this rain.) and I was left alone wondering and sweating in the cold morning. So I decided to go back to the last signal, since it was the trailing region of the traffic and I expected at least one bus of mine to be there with a vacant place to sit therein. Huhh! All in vain!! So finally, I decided to go with the wind, and like so many other people I decided to go along the Silk Board Junction, thinking either to get a bus on the way, or cross the flooded junction on foot and then try to get a bus to the KEC.

9:12:27 am: I almost ran, ran and ran. Suddenly I could see a familiar vehicle. Yes!! It was going to my office, but my excitement instantly fainted to see the crowd density less than the optimum value of one person per meter square, infact it was far less than this. But not really, I could see two seats on the back still vacant. God!! I hurriedly went back to take one of those heavenly seats!!

9:22:10 am: I was sitting in the bus for around 10 minutes, but the there was no thud in the half dead engine. It was silence everywhere in the bus, most of them were either sleeping or drinking newspaper or a half finished book, but no sound whatsoever. Commotion outside was worsening. On one side, I was able to see the people nudging each other along the way, people like us, people like them and on the other side I see the dead vehicles, including Ambulance which can’t move, who cares what is happening with the patient inside. Ladies, who were pregnant, and people who were old. Everyone was in a hurry to get out of the labyrinth filled with water from the bottom and rains (At this second, it was not heavy. Fortunately.) from the top.

9:31:34 am: Bus started to move. Slowly. Slower than the bullock cart on my village roads. But that is all driver sahib could do. We somehow reached the junction, but we are not taking a turn towards Hosur Road but we are going straight in some other route, in HSR Layout area. Shit!! What is happening? I looked at other colleagues aboard the bus, few of them were surprised like me and few of them were unfazed and rest, yes rest of them were sleeping. I tried to enquire from others. Bus was taking a round about route to reach hosur road which means I will be going to my office not from Bangalore, but as if I am coming from Hosur itself. Damn..

10:05:14 am: I almost slept and the bus was strolling quite smoothly and we have crossed HSR Layout long back and are in some place called Sarjapur road. Cool. “Are we going to the office today?” This thought had long back left my mind and I was ready for a post weekend kinda trip.Grr. Anyways. I could see lots of beautiful apartments on both sides of the road, Blue, Pink and Ivory. Few of them my favorites and few NOT. I could see offices of few biggies IT companies also. None like mine of course!!!

10:49:29 am: Where am I? I don’t seem to be in any part of Bangalore. No cars, no noise no apartments, no chicks et cetera. I don’t seem to breathe that most familiar polluted air also. “Cool man!! This route is definitely better than the shit of the road we usually take!” I thought. “Moreover, you have to work for lesser hours in the office; for this route will take most of your day time.” definitely sounds better to me. “They will have to give us laptops to work off office hours.” Hmm..

11:05:00 am: I am in a jungle kinda place and it’s just beautiful. I see colorful parakeets in the trees and host of tulips spread across the place, red and violet in color. I see few meditation and religious societies too, in this area. One of them has got a boundary wall with following words written on it:

Devoid of all matters related to cast and creed.
Don’t fight in the name of religion.
Have faith in all the religions.
Gods are same.

I could feel the breeze touching my body and cleansing my soul.

11:10:04 am: We traveled through a good stretch in that heavenly wood like area, on a half-clay-half-tar road and finally we are out on Hosur Road, guess Hosur was nearer than any part of could-not-be-seen-from-there Bangalore. We are traveling back to Electronic City. It’s around 5-6 kilometers from there.

I can feel the torrents of last night.
I can see the water logged area on Silk Board Junction.
I can see the pictures of the over flooded drains and collapsed walls, in the day’s newspaper also.

And I see the families of all those farmers who lost their onion produces in the parts of Maharashtra due to excess rains.
And I see the aggrieved face of my grandfather who is among one of those people who are terrified due to no-rain-situations in my place in the north-east India, though not out of desperation, but out of his love towards his earth which makes him cry every time she herself cries out of thirst!!

11:25:30 am: “ID Please!” says the security guard. I am at gate number 4 of Infosys City; yes that is where I work. I head for my workplace for the day’s work, but these thoughts occupy my brain till I write it here the next day.

Engdi...

2005-10-05T05:41:00.001-07:00

"Work se life mein frustrate ho gaya hoon yaar, isliye blog post kar raha hoon!!".
Then something like "Post nalla supera irrukke!!".

Well.. well.. what is the similarity between these snippets? Yes.. one is written in Hindi but mixed with english.. what do ya call this? .. Yes.. thats right.. they call it HINGLISH.. then comes the next one.. this is supposed to be in tamil, but then tinged with english.. what do you call this?.. Right again.. they call it Tamilish.. Now that is what we call English and its derivatives.. or better call it English and its integrants!!

Lets go one step forward in persuit of "Lingual Flexibility"! oops Vol 1...

"Coming for lunch kya?" or "Your code review is over kya?" Thats funny actually.. and i have been hearing this for a long time now.. specially since i came to Bangalore, around say seven odd months back.. though i am sure, this emerging lingo does not have its origin in this Garden City or ehhh Pub City.. or the newly cristianed as Traffic City.. as few techies like me often mumble when the traffic is at stand still in Hosur Road, and the upper limit of frustration is bypassed...

Coming back to the point, once i even heard one of the senior folks in my team saying "I have come across these issues some hazaar times!" to the extent of "There are hazaar errors in this code!" ( well thats humiliating if the code is yours!!).. well otherwise thats getting funnier.. In few perceding examples, it is not english which is mixed with hindi or tamil, but it is an indian language which is mixed with the big brother English..( exactly other way round) well i call it Engdi.. :) lingo!!

But how good are these kind of conversation? oh yeah.. I remember an incident when i had gone for a Selection Services Board interview of National Defence Academy.We had a Group Discussion after a picture perception test,wherein one guy in our group who was really smart failed to make it, because he started in english (which was prescribed as the only language to be used for the GD.) but sparodically kept shifting to hindi.. So, there is no denying the fact that it can lead to an upturn at times..

Will contine next time...indeed... Fundae Galore!!

Shadow Child

2005-10-03T03:50:00.000-07:00

‘Missing word. A woman who buries her husband is called a widow, a man left behind without his wife, a widower. A child without parents is an orphan. But what do you call the father and mother of a child that has died?’

This were the starting lines of the book which i recently read.
Shadow Child by P.F.Thomese.

Read More here...

Enchanting Tamilnadu..

2005-08-22T06:06:00.000-07:00

Enchanting Tamilnadu. Everytime i find these words in the magazines, my mind stolls back in the past, the day when i first landed on the Erode station, on 10th of November 2000 1:30pm. I was the most elated person probably, for i had achieved the rare feat of getting into REC Trichy, the dreamland of many and the reality for some.

My father was an equally happy soul, but that had taken quiet some time as he was initially not very happy with me having choosen B.Arch in such a distant place, unseen and unknown.But still he was convinced, for i knew, very clearly, what i had choosen and i had no doubts whatsoever.

Erode station welcomed us with dry weather, lots of fruit stalls and hanging TVs showing some melodious dance numbers featuring vijay in traditional lungis dancing to the tunes of illayraja. That suddenly reminded me of one of my childhood interests, and that is to visit madras ( as we used to call it then), likes of these types of music (only that part of it) along with the helluva of temples that i had read were the things that always used to attract me.

Now i was here, at the gate of such an entirely different region, agape looking at the sunny sky and then towards the ticket counter, as we had to take two tickets for Tiruchirappalli in one of the pessanger trains starting from Erode at around 4:00 in the evening. We somehow reached REC Tiruchirappalli at around 10:00 in the night, using our expressions ever more than words.

Actions speaks better than words..... certainly not fitting appropriately here.. isnt it?? anyways...

We somehow got into one of the First year hostels in the college which had come after waiting for some time, firstly on the trains and then on the final auto. Hostel was ok dokey. Nothing more than i can expect. It was newly painted and the floors were not neatly washed, and it was slowly getting covered with the peeling paints from the four walls and from the ceilings.

Somehow we managed, one more guy had come ( who later became one of my dearest statemates ) with his father. My father left very next day, as we had done the reservation for the next day thinking that we will be able to wrap up the admissions procedure the next day morning, but were unknow to the fact that college remains closed on saturdays. Anyways i said adieu to my dad and i was left alone in this not-so-small world, no mom and no dad within a radius of 2200 Kilometers or 1375 miles to be precise.. And i was crying internally, not for toys or books this time, but for not being able to see them...

First semester just flashed by, as we had arrived late already and we were left with just one internal test and a final semester exam.. means 30% of the full marks were already gone with the hot wind...

In between i got transferred from B. Arch to B.E ( which later on became B.Tech) and that had really made me happy for the first time @ REC Trichy. I had to complete the full syllabus at the last day of the semester as everything was new and fresh for me till the last date. I could feel the "Struggle for existence" theory by Charles Darwin, materializing just in front me, with no gap in between.

I passed and i passed quiet well in my first sem with a GPA of 6.82/10.0 and that looks the most decent GPA to me, given the amount of effort that had gone into the mill.

Second sem was like a dream to me and i just managed to pass decently inspite of sleeping full time during the lectures and taking break at times to listen to them, to come with a rank of 2 in
my department, Royal Civil, as it was called.

Department was fun, just mug up few things and learn the others how to do, and it is guaranteed that there wont be much of turns and twists, so it was easy going and i can still remember that i had never studied more than what i had studied in my first sem.In Department i started doing decently, GPA curve was increasing.. 9.24....9.50....9.60...9.60...9.60...9.30.. i was a satisfied man crossing the finishing line with a CGPA of 9.00/10.00... starting at 6.82 in the first sem..

Our department gave us enough chances to socialise with friends and their families also... Having said that, it willl be injustice if i dont mention about my dearest friends here... after my fourth sem, i with my friend Manab got a project in IIT Delhi... and then later on in IIT Roorkee and then finally in IIT Kanpur.. the choice was ours.. and we finally chose IITK for quite a few good reasons.. first of all the project were really fantastic.. and secondly there were other guys from our class who had also stopped at IITK as their summer projects location for the same reasons.. To name them, they were Saurav, acharya, abhay, kaushik, shalini, suganya, sreedevi, lakshmi and ashika.. we all started on 6th of May 2002 for IITK on TN express.. for jhanshi and from there to Kanpur... the location which consequnently proved more than just a summer project location...

I am not interested in blogging the type of work that we did in IITK in all the five different projects that we did together, but it was indeed a great time that we all had, the Kelkar Library at IITK, the restaurants, the gardens where we all had played the Seven stones still takes the prominence in our reminiscence, and will definetely remain the same as long as we remember ourselves.

By the time we came back, we were good friends and the bond of friendship became stronger and stronger with each passing day..

Then there were times when i got oppurtunities to explore Tamilnadu.. we went to places like Kodai Kanal, Neyveli, Madurai, Pondicherry ( for an instant lets consider it to be a part of TN), Srirangam, KanyaKumari and Tanjavur. All these places and many more like them, have their own characteristic importance. KodaiKanal is mind blowing for its natural beauty. Madurai and Srirangam are famous for their gopurams and huge temples and the museums bearing the life of old chola and chalukya kings.. Kanyakumari for its splendid vivekananda temple, pondicherry for its french tinge and the wonderful ourville and the aurbindo ashram. All these places are masterpieces in their own right. Along with this, i got to see the kaliedoscopic culture from a more closer view, thanks to these best buddies of mine.. and their families....

Sharing the beauty of this great place ( i am sure all eleven of us atleast will agree!) with still great people, had really made my four years of TN journey, a truly ENCHANTING EXPERIENCE.

The first class with distinction degree was just a sheer luck!!

Thought No. 1

2005-07-29T08:28:00.000-07:00

I am just too sick and tired to complete this blog. I am yawning and my stomach hurling from inside in search of that divine rendizvous with the grains, and my mind lagging far behind my heart, which frog leaps towards the distant horizon.

And I, sick and tired as you see, sitting in front of this monitor numb and blue, hammering the keyboard, with all the leftovers of the energy inside, whacking up my brain and elating my heart.

World seems to me dark in such a beautiful season outside, as my friends say, for i never got a chance to bath in the august breeze. For i am cazed in this attic, with my hands tied magnetically if nothing else to this set of black boxes, and for i am un-socialized by no-one but social mortals.

But still deep inside, i am glowing, elated with the brightness of my own world, unaffected, untouched and unpolluted. And without him, unseen as he will ever be, this darkness outside will overshadow me, deep in the abyss, and i will recede slowly due to fear of losing my own existence, each minute and each second and each moment.

Though you are unseen and untalked, still u always propel me out of such feelings, you my Lord! be with me.. always..