On a Mind-Trail

A Year to the Day

2011-08-20T17:22:00.004+01:00

Its been exactly a year to the day since I set foot on the good old blighty shores and such a monumental occasion can not go by without as much as a blog entry. :P So here I am, making a fleeting come back to list my top 5 events of the year gone by.

The Wall

The topmost entry can be nothing else. It was 'The Musical Event' in my musical events depraved life. To think I almost didn't book the tickets trying to find a holiday in the spouse's holidays-free calendar and the exorbitant rates for the concert! And fate was such that, the day I found after juggling the calendar, was to be the D-Day when my fave member of the band David Gilmour also chose to keep his promise to play guitar on Comfortably Numb. Can you imagine that?, hearing him and Waters Live!!! I was in heaven. Then seeing all the remaining band members joining in for 'Outside the Wall', couldn't have asked for more! :)

Its a shame I couldn't manage Rs2500 when he performed in Bangalore. Now after attending the concert, I feel any amount is justified. Watching the concert on the dvd is just not the same. If you are a Pink Floyd fan, even if you are not, you should make it a point to catch this, such is the musical theatrical extravaganza!

Travel

I remember coming here with a sinking feeling that most of my travel was behind me. A Doctor's calendar can make you feel that way. But as it happens little persistence and leaping at any chance you get is all it takes to travel. :) I should admit the winter months were the hardest. Now after spending one winter where you hardly see any Sun at all, I understand how people can easily get depressed here. Beatles' 'Here comes the Sun' becomes so much more meaningful.

Cornwall

The part of England where I stay in or rather most of the England as such is devoid of beautiful landscape in the sense there aren't any hills, mountains, rivers, forests(you can't imagine what passes off as forests here!). Staying in Bangalore, with its easy access to rivers, falls, forests, mountains etc one can imagine my plight after coming here. Cornwall was my first vacation and it made me realize that England is beautiful. The south west coastal path in particular, I just wish I could do it in entirety once.
The one thing you got to appreciate about UK, is the way they preserve their heritage. If you walk anywhere, you will see things seeped in history. Why, even our own house is from 1800s! So Cornwall with its old fishing towns, narrow roads, beautiful coast, ruined castles on clifftops, renowned pasties and clotted cream was a proper English vacation.

Switzerland/Germany

Got to envy the doctors' conferences at awesome destinations. I know there are quite a few ones in our tech world too, but either you have to be willing to pay ludicrously high fees and traveling costs or be in a company generous enough to fund you. So I did the next best thing, tagged along with the spouse to Montreux for his conference, which made for an awesome 5 day trip. :) Montreux is an amazing place, with its perfect location on Lake Geneva, lovely colorful houses on cobbled winding roads in old town, the really beautiful long, flower-bordered lake promenade going all the way to Chillon Castle and casino!. No wonder the residents list reads who's who of celebrities. Villeneuve, Vevey, Laussane(where I experienced my first and only European carnival yet), Luzern(with its wooden bridge), camping beside Lake Geneva, first experience of Auto-Bahn and the famed German bakeries were the other highlights of the trip! :)

Amsterdam

I'm pretty sure there's a saying - 'What happens in Amsterdam, stays in Amsterdam' ;) If its not there, well I'm just extrapolating the Las Vegas one :P

Paris

The best part about this continent? How incredibly small it is! Every thing is so near, or if it isn't its so well connected that it still feels like its near :) So Paris is still just a night's journey even if you travel by coach. So Paris, 2 days I had is no where enough to see/experience/know Paris. I didn't like it first day started to love it by end of second. It is really the most beautiful city I've seen so far and it will be the place where I found and fell in love with Macarons. *sigh*

Scotland

Loch, Loch everywhere and Ben Nevis, my first trek in this part of the world.

Almost getting fired

Yes you read right, but no worries I am still here. Looks like nothing can beat my inertia, not even almost getting fired. Guess fired is wrong word, correct term is being made redundant.

Royal Albert Hall

THE Concert Hall. Experiencing Donovan's Sunshine superman and Jimmy Page of all people joining in, what more could I ask for? Pure bliss! :)

Sloth & Gluttony

I'm not sure which will do me in first but past one year of work from home has fueled both on.

Adiós

So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish

2010-12-31T16:50:00.003Z

I always planned to use 'The End' as the swan song for this blog but alas I already used that up here. Hence resorting to one of the most used goodbye lines ever and in a way its my small tribute to one of my all time favourite book(hopefully 'll get back that book from my friend sometime! you know who you are :P).

It should have ended last year itself but somehow dragged it on for this year. Its not that I am not getting posts ideas anymore its just that they have a very low hit ratio of making it on to keyboard than ever before! For one of the recent ones I'd even thought of a very fancy sounding title (for my standards) - 'A discourse on the limited imagination in the fantasy world of Harry Potter'. Then there was a 'tribute to my friends in B'lore' post, but that also never made it to the keyboard. :(

One of the reasons for this abysmal hit ratio is probably got to do with the combination of my new vice of 'Sleeping' with my ever old vice of 'Laziness'! I no longer see the magical hour of 2-3am which used to be my blogging time before. And with the few waking hours filled with Work, TV etc you see its almost impossible to find time for blogging now! :)

And so with the perfunctory posts mounting up, it just didn't make much sense to continue this for any longer. I will probably continue to write once in a blue moon types, but it just won't be at this address any more. With that I bid you goodbye. Happy New Year to any soul reading this out there.

Adiós

a perfunctory post

2010-11-13T16:46:00.000Z

Nice Person,

Wrong Planet.

A t-shirt I bought recently.

(Since I can't publish an empty post just for a November entry)

2010-10-13T15:25:00.003+01:00

If I am silent,

It doesn't mean I'm angry

It doesn't mean I'm unhappy

It doesn't mean I'm tired,

though on few occasions it can be one or all of the above

but most often it just means that I've nothing important to say.

Green is the Colour

2010-09-06T01:29:00.001+01:00

Quickness of the eye deceives the mind

Envy is the bond between the hopeful and the damned...

Arrivederci

2010-08-18T21:40:00.001+01:00

Its 2am and in another 4 'n half hours I've to leave the only home I've known in my life so far...

I had initially thought some big senti almost autobiographical thingy for this post, but alas sleep angels are beckoning me... so this is gonna be just a placeholder post for now ...

Arrivederci - until we meet again...

C'est la vie!

2010-07-29T20:41:00.001+01:00

Arguments,

Bickering,

Contention,

Disagreements,

Exaggerations,

Fights,

Grudges,

Hassles,

Insinuations,

Jabs,

Knocks,

Leers,

Misunderstandings,

Nicks,

Oppressions,

Peeves,

Quagmires,

Resentments,

Subterfuge,

Tantrums,

Usurpations,

Vandalism,

Weaknesses,

Xanadu,

Yearnings,

Zero-tolerance ...

...

C'est la vie!

Note: I had first initially put it up on facebook, some words were later filled in by a friend...

The Final Cut

2010-06-22T16:50:00.001+01:00

Through the fish-eyed lens of tear-stained eyes
I can barely define the shape of this moment in time...

the 'Last Time' effect

2010-05-30T20:28:00.002+01:00

things that in normal circumstances you would've found irritating/tiresome and done anything to avoid, suddenly not only become bearable but also become enjoyable and something that you look forward to, just because it is the 'last time' you may get to do that...

2010-05-13T20:29:00.000+01:00

Like a dog chasing cars.

Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind

2010-04-26T19:27:00.005+01:00

A friend asks 'What are you doing at this hour?!'
'n I say 'Just catching up on the world, just catching up..'

A world, thats long past
a world, that many have walked before...

a world, where memory footprints 'n gchat records
are all that one has to retrace the way...

way to?

one's blindness? one's mistakes? one's naive dreams?
to a world, half imaginary?

magical songs with perfect words
'n long talks into the night...

people who leave,
do they spare a thought for ones left behind?

a world, thats long past
a world, that many have walked before
'n to this world i walk now...

a friend asks 'What are you doing at this hour?!'
'n I say 'Just catching up on the world, just catching up..'

It is all that is left unsaid upon which tragedies are built...

2010-04-15T17:07:00.002+01:00

you would think that in this day education/intelligence/character is what a person will be judged by and that those are one's real 'aasthi' but sadly even to the so-called well educated society the bottom line still is - 'how much material aasthi one has' ...

For the times they are a-changin'

2010-03-14T18:52:00.003Z

...

No facebook

'n no more Twitter

GReader is a distant past

...

For the times they are a-changin'

...

The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is
Rapidly fadin'.
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin'.

...

Emotional Attachment

2010-02-08T17:52:00.002Z

Changes working at a sub-conscious level have a way of sneaking up on you that you don't notice them until its too late.

2010-01-15T20:58:00.002Z

a late night...

a song...

a dream...

an echo...

KP

2009-12-25T18:26:00.002Z

I did it...I didn't know it all...But i did it justice...It’s a nickel or a dime for what I’ve done, The truth is that I don’t really care, For such a lovely crime I’ll do the time, You better lock me up I’ll do it again...

yeah using DMB's words shamelessly here to say I finally did KP!

For the trekkers fraternity, KP needs no introduction but for others, KP stands for Kumara Parvatha, a mountain in Western Ghats. At a height of 1712m its one of the favorite trekking destinations in Karnataka. More info here.

Before the start of the trek I had this fear that I wouldn't be able to complete the trek, and that I may end up staying back when all the others would go ahead. In a way that did happen, except I was on the other side, out of 13 people only 5 of us went all the way! :)

Another 'proud of myself' moment was completing the first stretch to Bhatta's Mane in just 2.5Hrs and that too without sitting anywhere in between! Though i did have many standing rests on the way... :) , but yeah I didn't sit... :P

The next stretch was not as gr8 as the 1st one, was really sluggish, after a heavy lunch...and it took quite a while to burn it off. Watching the sunset from the peak and doing a moonlight trek down to the base where other guys had camped were two other memorable parts of the trip.

But even those pale in comparison to what followed next - the worst night of my life. An entire night spent in the tent, with wind almost flattening the tents, wondering when the nails would give way and tent just fly off...Thankfully it didn't happen, but there was no sleep either, what with tent flapping on the face and at side and all that noise... Sleeping outside seemed like a better option later after stepping out early morn around 5am...

But morning was beautiful and all the bad memories of prev night seemed to be gone with the wind... :)

The climb down from Bhatta's Mane was painful, thanks to the hit on my right knee I had while coming down in the moonlight prev night... But on the whole this was one of the treks i escaped with least injury, just 2 minor slip-falls (I still slip a lot, but i seem to be getting better at stabilizing myself and not falling :) ), 2 bruises - one on knee and one on arm, though I've no idea when the one on arm happened...

Oh yeah, talking of injuries, used the pain relief sprays for first time and they actually sting! :|

Few more things -

> Don't wear Jeans for trekking

> Find a good camping site, not in terms of scenery but in terms of shade, I did know this but yeah got reinforced as to how important it is...

> A cap and a jacket - can't appreciate their value enough...

Now for the best part of this post, Snaps.. :P

Pls: On a side note, after all this years i went for go-karting... :)

Grief

2009-12-12T19:05:00.002Z

stages of grief -

Denial
Anger
Bargaining
Depression
Acceptance

sooner you can accept things, the sooner it is to move on...

kodagana koli nungitha

2009-12-07T15:03:00.002Z

Last week was FOSS.in week and this was probably one of the best ones I've attended so far. I never got to attend all the talks i wanted to but it was still good. And instead of attending I actually got conned into giving a talk! It wasn't much of a talk but yeah whatever... :D :P

Plus thanks to conference, got to know few ppl, whom I knew for many months, much better. Angels i thought them to be and they turned out to be Devils(in good sense of course) :)

Saw Raghu Dixit live for the third time, and this was their best gig by far. All the geeky jokes, with live twitter feed projected behind the band, it was awesome! Also they played 'kodagana koli nungitha' 'n I'd never heard their version before 'n it was pretty good! If you were wondering abt the title, now you know. Its this really nice kannada folk song, you can listen to the original version here. Kodagana Koli Nungitta

After the concert went to a friend's friend's place and had the most amazing home cooked pasta, not the stupid sunfeast thingies either! Friend prepared this marinara sauce with the whole oregano, parsley, olive oil, white wine etc the whole deal! I'm really surprised that he managed to find all those ingredients, considering he had come to B'lore just that day before! It was fun time, somehow even though I was meeting other ppl for first time, it didn't feel awkward.

Finally fulfilled my wish of taking long exposure shots! You know those 'gimme red' torch writing thingies, it was so much fun!

Next day was again interesting. Had slept ard 4am prev night, then got up at 6:30, reached home at 7:30, took head bath and then left for tennis ard 9:30, played till 11. After playing it for some 3-4 times now, I think I actually like playing Tennis! :)

Later on went to Forum 'n Landmark, bought 'Thus Spoke Zarathustra" then met friends at Meghna's for Lunch. Had amazing Andhra food - Chicken 555, Chicken Biryani, Kakkinada Fish curry with white rice...yummmm... :D Later on as friends went shopping, I'd a tough time trying to stay awake, kept dozing off every now 'n then! But somehow managed to keep myself awake on the ride back in auto. Once reaching, nicely slept from 3:30 to 7pm. :)

So yea, that was last week!

I told you not all of the words

2009-11-18T18:54:00.004Z

I told you not all of the words

I lost them halfway.

I told you not all the words --

They are so hard to find...

as they say much of beauty is lost in translation...

but music transcends all...

Dr. Zhivago 'n now this, makes me want to pick up Russian...It would be really nice to read Dostoevsky in native...

hmm, wonder if there are any Russian language schools in Bangalore...

fall

2009-11-08T15:42:00.004Z

sharing few esoteric learnings i had over the last week -

Don't play tt wearing some 3inch high heels - not that any person would do that but in case you ever feel like it - Don't!
Whatever the backgrounds, people essentially remain the same...it pays to have/develop an extra layer of patience and accept the fact that somethings don't change...
Don't wear gold rings on treks, especially if you are planning to slip, fall and slide over rocks - 22K gold is easily chipped.
If gold is easily chipped, what chance does a finger nail have? So say No, No to long finger nails as well.
Learn how to fall safely, 'coz fall you will! But don't ever let that stop you from climbing. :)

Pics from recent trek - here

Pics from old trek -

http://picasaweb.google.com/puthali/HimmavadGopalaswamyBetta

2009-10-19T15:38:00.000+01:00

what if this is as good as it gets?

2am

2009-10-12T21:33:00.001+01:00

I sense history repeating itself...

Boredom

2009-09-18T14:17:00.003+01:00

Was speaking to a friend, when the question of being bored with people came up. Now being bored with people is not much different from being bored with anything else.

There will be few like chocolate, ice cream, floyd et al, that you will never get bored of...
Then there are the ones, long exposure to whom will throw you into that familiar state again. Similar to the way you get tired of certain music/TV series/games/activities on doing it continuously. But this is not so bad, as you can take a small break and you will be good to go again.
And then there are those, who just bore you to tears!

'n yea, i am using bored of/tired of interchangeably here...

2009-09-15T17:33:00.006+01:00

As he walks on the shore, with the silvery waves lapping at his feet,

"Night is dark.", he thinks and immediately chides himself for such an obvious, weak remark.

" 'Night....Night is dark but still not as dark as the one in my life'...now, thats much better!", he thinks and starts laughing, oblivious to the image he painted to an onlooker, with his tall body silhouetted against the dark sea and sky, and hair ruffling in the gentle sea breeze which also spread the sounds of his sad, maniacal laughter, all along the shore.

After a while, tiny lights in the distance comes to his view and thinking

"I may just yet...

I may just yet, start some new lives..."

he bursts into laughter once again.

Leh'ed

2009-08-31T18:59:00.007+01:00

Had just settled into room after reaching Leh and having dinner...around this time last month.

Can't believe its been a month already and i took this long to get around to blogging it! But better late than never...huh? :)

So here's a very very tiny summary of my 2 week long road trip from 7th Aug to 23rd Aug:

Bangalore--->Delhi---Chandigarh---Manali---Leh---Chilling ~~~~Nimu---Alchi Monastery---Leh---Pangong Lake---Leh---Lamayuru ---Kargil---Drass---Sonamarg---Srinagar---Gulmarg---Dal Lake---Jammu___Amritsar---Wagah---Amritsar___Delhi___Bangalore

where

---> by Flight

--- by Road

___ by Train and

~~~~ by Water (Rafting :D )

It was truly an outstanding trip from many aspects.

> Just being on the road for two weeks!

The Journey...such varied landscapes...being bounced around in the cab...slumdog toilets...3~4Hrs of sleep...'n Maggi - the official food! :)

> Puking at the 2nd highest motorable pass...

> Feeling of dried blood in your nose...always!

> Rafting on Zanskar river...truly an unforgettable experience! the mountains towering over you and the icy cold Zanskar waters falling over you....just amazing!

> Frescos @ Alchi Monastery...

> Night camping beside Indus river - can never forget this!

Sleeping on the bank, seeing the moon rise over the horizon, searching/forming constellations, counting the shooting stars(had never seen one before 'n that night saw so many, there was one almost every other minute, apparently August is shooting stars month!), listening to river flow beside you...just heavenly!

> 'n yeah bought my first mineral, a first tiny step towards my childhood dream of collecting minerals :) Its a small l'il amethyst..hmm, which reminds me, 've not taken any pic of it yet...neways it looks something like this -

and *a big big hint* for all those ppl, who ever want to gift me something, please think about adding to my collection ;)

> Pangong Lake - such a Beautiful place, never seen such crystal clear waters before...'n what shades of blue and green! But the best part of that trip was definitely the crossing of 'paagal nala' - a freezing glacier water streaming down with full force 'n carrying with it chunks of loose pebbles, which when they hit you at that force...ouch! the pain would've been even more, except one minute into that freezing water, your feet go all numb... :)

> MonaLisa - A nice li'l restaurant attached to our hotel, who played Pink Floyd all the time!

Any wonder i fell in love with that place? ;)

> This trip taught me so much about the interactions & dynamics involved in a group...varied tolerance, irritability, stubborn quotient among individuals....learnt so much about myself, realized 'm still way too emotional when it comes to few things or maybe 've changed 'n need to change again... :)

> Lamayuru - wish i could've spent more time there, but hopefully there's always a next time?

> Drass - No Words!

you can go through my friend's blog on this - http://jencya.blogspot.com/2009/08/tribute-to-heroes-of-kargil.html

> Srinagar - idyllic place but with gun wielding police every 100mts...

An interesting thing was the comment our cab driver who drove us to Gulmarg made. He said that there's no terrorism now but the police themselves throw bombs now 'n then to maintain that unsafe situation so that Government keeps them, 'coz apparently they get 3K more for Srinagar duty!

> Dal Lake - shikara ride, ppl selling all sorts of thing on boats, the house boat, vegetable market on the lake, floating gardens!

> Ride to Jammu - very scenic! Highlights: Green Tunnel, Bhagliar Dam on Chenab, Patnitop 'n the 3Km long tunnel!

> Amritsar - Balle Balle! :)

Golden Temple - most neatly maintained religious place I've seen in India so far! Plus a really beautiful building to boot...

> Wagah Border -

crass entertainment...

> Highway On My Plate -

Had seen the Amritsar episode where they had shown Makhan Fish Dhaba 'n Since I was in Amritsar I didn't want to miss it, so began our long search for that place 'n it was so worth it. Was the best meal I had on the entire trip! Check out the snaps to see how much we enjoyed... :)

> Delhi -

With huge backpacks, searching for hotel room in paharjung...

Watching 'Kaminey' @ Regal theatre, which is Dehi's oldest theatre, was an experience!

Chandni Chowk - really awesome place, now i can understand why all these bollywood movies are so fascinated with it but frankly they don't do even an iota of justice to that place...!

> The BEST experience of the trip was how we managed to catch our train to B'lore just in nick of time all thanks to the Heavy Rain storm which took away the roof of newly built airport terminal! Explaining this would be a new post altogether and its already 3am, so I'll end it here...

Link to the snaps -

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=307477&id=563525433&l=fb06618388

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=307924&id=563525433&l=d802faf610

Pls: Going through the snaps maybe a better idea, as its almost like a photoblog of the trip, arranged in chronological order with appropriate comments :)

2009-08-02T08:53:00.003+01:00

pedo mellon a minno

Hi-there-badh

2009-07-25T06:19:00.004+01:00

Well a friend was to write a detailed post 'n i was supposed to just link to that but alas not sure when she will get time to publish it, so here i am, as another friend was asking to explain more - 'to my surprise i actually liked Hyd' remark.

I ♡ Sharing Autos

- Amazing seriously, wish B'lore had such a system. Plus found the autowallahs to be very amenable, donno if it was just my good luck though? :)

I ♡ Food

- Should i even explain? Was jokingly remarking to a friend's query on the purpose of my Hyd visit, that I've gone there to eat and thats precisely what end up happening! The entire trip was one eating marathon. Look out for the Hyd post on my friend's blog for a detailed account of what all we hogged in 3 days.

I ♡ Cheap Prices

- Of food, of autos, of buses, of everything when compared to B'lore...the cost of living in B'lore is getting seriously insane these days!

Now for the not-so-good stuff.

Defi found the pollution to be much worse. One disadvantage of all those sharing autos, you would be horrified at the condition of few of them. Irrespective of all those broad roads, i still found its traffic no better than B'lore's.

Another thing which struck me while i was traveling via Kasturbha Road on my way to work, was that I didn't see any such tree-lined roads in Hyd. But the way trees along roads are being butchered in B'lore, it won't be long before B'lore resembles Hyd. Already B'lore has some 1/4th of tree-lined roads it once had before.

Now coming to the all important factor - 'Weather'. It wasn't that bad, slightly hot but not unbearable. And I'm sure if I'd gone during the typical Hyd weather, I would've not liked the place at all. So thank the Weather God. :)

Pls: Got to experience sleeper class, one more ticked in my checklist.

Best Seat - Side Lower Sleeper. Hardly slept for couple of hours, rest spent gazing at the sky, the stars, the horizon, the rolling fields, the passing stations, the sleeping towns, vehicles on paralleling roads...

Goodbye

2009-07-14T17:14:00.004+01:00

This is the end

Beautiful friend

This is the end

My only friend, the end

Of our elaborate plans, the end

Of everything that stands, the end

No safety or surprise, the end

I'll never look into your eyes...again

Can you picture what will be

So limitless and free

Desperately in need...of some...strangers hand

In a...desperate land

This is the end

Beautiful friend

This is the end

My only friend, the end

It hurts to set you free

But youll never follow me

The end of laughter and soft lies

The end of nights we tried to die

This is the end

- Beautiful song by Doors

2009-07-10T20:29:00.002+01:00

Its a sad thing we don't honor our promises to self,
as much as we do our promises to others...
when self is infinitely so much more important.

2009-06-18T16:52:00.001+01:00

Juvenile
Puerile
Imbecile
Senile

take your pick.

2009-06-03T18:39:00.004+01:00

All Along The Watchtower

2009-05-31T12:53:00.000+01:00

Damn, i missed the May entry! And i didn't, as it looks like Blogger does support back-posting! :)

One thing about not getting to publish the posts when you actually thought of them is that you get to combine all into one. Its not such a good thing as entire posts get reduced into single entries with many things getting omitted but this suits the lazy me just fine. :)

> Last month was BSG month. Completed all the four seasons in 4 weekends, with one season per weekend except for one weekend when i had been to Sharavathi Valley. So thats 73 + (3Hrs of mini-series) in front of TV/laptop screen. Dad started bemoaning my lifestyle - watch till 3/4am and then again start off by next day noon. But its done now. :)

Coming to BSG, now this was one series where all the seasons were good, no floundering off mid-way as Heroes or continuing beyond its age like Prison Break. The characters were the best part, many interesting ones who kept changing as the season progressed. Though one thing i didn't like was lot of supernatural,religious stuff being thrown in at the end, would've preferred if they had kept to pure science 'n logic.

> Sleeping on water, the sense of being adrift - no sense of time, direction...there's nothing like it! Souvenir of this blissful indulgence - complete sunburn on face. Always thought it was only fair-skinned ppl who got sun-burnt, looks like not. But no regrets, from now on i won't be forgetting/ignoring Baz Luhrmann's advice so easily.

This was supposed to be a post of the entire trip - from start to finish, but since now its reduced just to an entry, I will re-direct you to this page - as they say picture is worth a thousand words. :)

> Elation - Barcelona won

Heart broken - Nadal lost

In case you are wondering about the title, its the theme music which plays a crucial part in BSG, some of you may already know it as the brilliant song by Hendrix, though the original song was by Dylan, ppl mostly remember Hendrix's version...

There must be some kind of way out of here
Said the joker to the thief
Theres too much confusion
I cant get no relief

...

King rides By

2009-04-20T17:24:00.002+01:00

was playing 'What would the community think' album after a really long time, when this song started playing -

and remembered it was through this song or rather through the wordings of the song that i first came across 'Cat Power'. And nice part of blogging is you can find stuff long gone from that li'l brain of yours. So thanks to it, i found the pic which had started it all in the first place -

So afterwards on googling the wordings in the pic, came to know its from a song called 'King Rides By' by an artist called 'Cat Power' of all the names. I mean what kinda name is that?

But what an amazing voice! Plus such wonderful and varied songs, especially in this album. This is one album you should listen to.

hmm...just realized blogger doesn't have a cross-post feature :| Bad. I'm sure people maintaining multiple blogs would like to have this, so you could just cross-post to your other blogs.

2009-04-05T19:10:00.004+01:00

> Whats with this whole cliche of 'Group of guys, set out on a task, one by one keeps getting killed, until at the end, no one is left or only the lead characters are left standing'!

I was watching this '3:10 to Yuma' movie and this set of guys set out on a task and immediately i knew that one by one all the side characters(good doc, old man, bad cop, etc ) will die on the way to destination. Wonder why they do it, sometimes its so unnecessary, like those teen movie cliches -a token black guy, a dumb blonde, a golden-hearted geeky guy/girl etc. This cliche also makes use of the other best cliche of all time - somehow a bullet/knife always always misses the main character but will manage to hit a side character. I know its kinda inevitable that they end up using it, but the least they can do is not make it so damn obvious.

> While watching 'Die Hard 4.0' for 2nd or 3rd time on Star Movies tonight, saw Danko from 'Heroes' playing a part and realized how an important part in a TV series, can make an actor get noticed in roles where normally he wouldn't have been noticed. There are so many such instances, just day before while watching Transformers yet again on HBO, was surprised to see 'Sucre' in a scene. If not for Prison Break, I would've probably not noticed him.

> Today after F1 got over, was shuffling channels to while away some time and saw that the cable guy was playing some Tam Movie starring Vijay and Nayantara. As I'd heard that Tam Movies are known for their comedy, started watching and i couldn't believe Tam comedy has gone so bad. Googling now, i came to know movie is titled 'Villu' and directed by PrabhuDeva, who directed 'Nuvvostanante Nenoddantana' which was so much better. Well maybe 'm not the right person to say it, as i did see only tiny part, basically saw from the scene of Vijay coming in a bullock cart, till the stupid well scene, after which i couldn't bear to watch any more of that inane stuff....you should be able to see it on youtube - Villu parts 3, 4 & 5.

These were actually twitteresque posts that were too big for me to tweet...

Objectionable

2009-03-20T16:53:00.003Z

Just now a colleague sitting beside me reading a newspaper pointed out to me this item - "Three men beaten up by Bajrang Dal, for talking to girls". If you are wondering what I'm doing writing with colleague sitting beside me, its 'coz I'm in the bus - the place where most of my idle thinking happens. Now that i carry a laptop to office, i can actually pen down my thoughts right then, instead of the usual composing posts in the mind and then promptly forgetting. :)

And the reason why i started writing, was 'coz of my reaction or rather lack of it towards the incident. One has come across so many such bizzare mindless incidents that nothing surprises/shocks anymore. Well probably complete lack of reaction may not be true, as I'm very much dismayed at these stories. Just the other day, I was going back home after an outing with friends, around 9'ish, not too late by any standards and suddenly i got this crazy fear of "will i be attacked for what I'm wearing" and all these thoughts started entering my mind - "its slightly late...not good traveling alone...probably i should have worn a salwar-kameez". And I wasn't even wearing anything objectionable, just a three-fourths jeans and a top but then what you consider objectionable is relative, ain't it? If they have objections about women wearing western wear, how come they conveniently ignore the fact that even they do!

Well that thing aside, what i find the most deplorable part of the whole situation is the absolute failure of police and legal system. Where stern punishment needs to be meted out, so as to make an example that such kind of behavior won't be tolerated in the society, we have people people being let go scot-free. Is it any wonder that such incidents are on a rise? If you know you can get away with it, whats stopping you? Its like the burning of the buses/public property which we read in the paper almost every other day. I can't understand how they don't realize that they/we are the ones ultimately hurt by loss to public property, that we are the ones who will suffer from lack of buses later...?

Ah, just now friend started calling me 4th Generation, as talking about colleges, usual RV/PESIT/BMS discussion, they suddenly realized we have 4 generations of PESIT ppl from campus in our office(3 in my bus itself - myself and my 2 and 3 year juniors) and me being the old lady of the lot, so guess 1st generation would be more right. Can't believe its been almost four years since i graduated!

Well thats where the post ended, wrote it two days back but finally got around to posting it today! so guess, some things don't change, laptop or no laptop... :)

2009-03-16T03:31:00.000Z

friend in a dream - "Whats the point, power will go now..."
and immediately after that i hear the UPS start beeping as power goes...
now thats what i call a bhavishyavani dream... :)

2009-03-10T20:13:00.002Z

if i were you
and you were me,
it would still remain the
same old situation, wouldn't it?

Different Names For The Same Thing

2009-02-27T20:13:00.003Z

Was staring at the blank page when this song started to play and realized thats what i wanted to say -

Alone on a train aimless in wonder
An outdated map crumbled in my pocket
But I didn't care where I was going
'Cause they're all different names for the same place.

The coast disappeared when the sea drowned the sun
And I knew no words to share with anyone
The boundaries of language I quietly cursed
And all the different names for the same thing

There are different names for the same things
There are different names for the same things...

and you know whatever you call it, how much ever you dress it up, shit will remain...well shit!

2009-02-07T21:19:00.000Z

"Why can't we get all the people together in the world that we really like and then just stay together? I guess that wouldn't work. Someone would leave. Someone always leaves. Then we would have to say good-bye. I hate good-byes. I know what I need. I need more hellos."

2 Concerts - Recipe for perfect weekend

2009-01-26T15:30:00.005Z

Past week, the Gods/Stars have been more than favorable @ personal front but not so much @ the work where 'm getting totally hammered 'n as though my project alone wasn't sufficient enough, tomm on 'm getting pulled into other as well :(
But who wants to talk about work anyways? This post is about all the wonderful things that happened from last fri.

RDP aka 'Raghu Dixit Project'
Last Friday, finally managed to see 'Raghu Dixit Project' perform Live! Since my college days when Raghu's first band 'Antaragni' came out with 'Mysore se ayi..' wanted to watch them but something or the other always came up. Thankfully last fri, everything worked out and got to watch them at 'Nokia - Touch the Tune Concert'. They were amazing and for the first time i saw a predominantly Kannada speaking crowd at a concert!, which isn't all that surprising considering that Raghu Dixit's songs in 'Psycho' movie have been such huge hits. You can listen to RDP here - http://raghudixit.com/ . Later on were 'Karsh Kale' and 'Medival Punditz'. They were good, but the kind of music they played, is best listened while chilling @ some goa beach and not standing @ palace grounds... Anyways it was a nice way to spend a friday evening, hoping such things - getting free passes to these kinda events, continues to happen... ;)

Saturday was get-together @ Grandma's house, gorged on yummy food!

'n Sunday? Sunday was for Opeth! Things didn't start off on a very good note, infact the entire trip was like that, where one or the other thing kept going wrong.

The train to Chennai was @ 6:30am and i had slept the previous night only ard 1am, but still somehow managed to wake up and thanks to some nice piece of driving by my bro 'n the railway station clk being 5mins slower than mine, i made it to the station just in time. :)
The train journey itself was quite uneventful, except finding a person to swap places with a friend. Chennai welcomed us with its usual hot sun 'n humidity. One thing i realized in this trip, it doesn't matter if you know Tamil or not , you will still get conned. We took a bus to Adyar, so far so good and from there we were supposed to catch '5c' bus or something but being the impatient we, took an auto. Rs100 just from Adyar to IIT, wherein apparently for 120, an auto guy will take you from Chennai Central Station all the way to IIT!

Anyways, after that came the best part. This friend of mine - a crazy crazy opeth fan, had somehow managed to become pals with Opeth's band manager! So courtesy him, we got to stand right in front and watch Opeth do soundcheck! Got to take videos 'n click some decent snaps, which you can't do during the concert, with the huge crowd pushing you here and there. As you may know, 've run out of space on picasa, so pics are not there @ usual place. I've uploaded them onto facebook, you can check them out there. Facebook was suggested by my friend who also had ran out of picasa space. And considering that i came to know abt previous RDP's concert through facebook, maybe its time i (re)start using it more often? Though i didn't see an option where-in you could upload videos there, anyone knows if you can do that?

Daylight robbery @ Saravana Bhavan
Well after the soundcheck we headed out to get my friend's eticket printout, which he had left @ his room. Since you could exchange them for real tickets until 5:30pm, we headed out for lunch. Saravana Bhavan was what we decided on and what a crazy trip that led us on. My hunch that you can never get decent directions in TN especially for non-tam speaking ppl was proved right. One guy would say left, (wait not just left but last-left, no idea what that was!) another right...ppl who knew english wouldn't know abt the place 'n well ppl who did wouldn't know english...but yeah after taking some umpteen last-left we did reach the place and i had the costliest 'Onion Utthapam' ever - Rs 84 for this tiny dosa and it wasn't even as good as some of the ones you get in Bangalore! They did serve it in some fancy silver-coated cutlery, so was wondering if the exorbitant charge was for that. Anyways the many varieties of chutney 'n sambar which he served were really good, so we consoled ourselves with that.

An essential skill to have - Picking a car's lock!
Came out of the restaurant with happy smiles on our faces that comes from full stomach, only to realize the car key is missing. Found it later safely inside the car's ignition 'n we were locked out, with all our bags, cameras 'n most imp etickets inside the car! This was around 4:30 so we had one more hr to get IIT, to xchange tickets. And that was the most crazy one hr i ever spent in Chennai. Came to know, picking a car's lock is actually very simple if you know what to do. A knife and a wire hook or a scale depending on which car you have, is all you need. We had a basic idea what needed to be done but no matter how much we tried somehow nvr managed to break it. So decided two ppl will go take an auto, goto some internet centre, take printouts and head to IIT. Well that led me to lrn some more abt Chennai autos - It seems the drivers are pretty much local to an area, so this guy from T.nagar wouldn't know abt Adyar or IIT Madras well thats what our auto driver told us neway. It was surprising to see so many autowallas not knowing where IIT Madras is, would've thought it to be some kind of landmark.
And finding an internet centre in Chennai turned out to be another herculean task. B'lore is so much better in that way! Finally managed to find one, took printouts and then hurried to IIT to get the real tickets into our hands.

The Concert
Well words would do injustice, you just had to be there! Sad thing was they weren't allowing cameras inside 'n for the first time i seriously wished i had one of those cells with 5Mp cameras. Did try with my good ol' cell not for any serious recording but just to note that 'I was there'. Yet to upload them onto comp though.

After the Concert headed out to some midnight canteen to replenish ourselves. Food was good 'n cheap. It was nice chilling out there. The Campus is just freaking amazing! Its humongous 'n most of it looks like a forested area. It was really nice walking in the campus @ night.

My Train Saga continues...
And i think 've experienced all there is to experience in train journeys. Our return train was supposed to be @ 4:50am. Friend dropped us @ the station ard 2, many security checks later we enter in, to see that our train is delayed by a good 4Hrs! So for the first time in my life i spent the night in the waiting room. Got up ard 5am, as there was a shatabdi @ 6am but alas no general class 'n no tickets available in any other section as well. Went to Saravana Bhavan for breakfast to be looted again, Rs 25 for two Idlis, which were just Ok kinds but yea as usual the chutneys were good, so... Anyways after breakfast went to the platform to see that 7:15 'Brindavan Express' had already reached and all the initial General Class compartments were full. Walked all the way till the end and as luck would have it, found two seats! And yea so for the first time i traveled in General Class 'n it was an Experience!

Reached B'lore ard 1:30pm, took a BMTC bus to home. In the bus, I managed to make the lady sitting beside me, totally concerned. I kept dozing in and out and she is like keep your cell inside, someone may take it. I was like Ok, then i again start dozing. Since i don't have a habit of sleeping, i keep waking and seeing where i am, seriously when u doze one minute can feel like an eternity, 'coz whenever i opened my eyes i saw that the bus had hardly moved! Anyways this lady starts looking at me, as though she doubts if i'm really in my senses, 'n starts asking me where i've to get down 'n starts telling me the bus number 'n what is the last stop in case i miss my stop... :) Reached home ard 3pm, did get down @ my stop itself... :)

'n that was my weekend. Now back to the usual grind.

ghajini

2009-01-08T21:18:00.002Z

just finished watching it 'n i really can't believe what they 've done to the original 'n by original i mean the real one - 'memento' 'n not the tamil one...

a real let down for an amir khan movie...nvr xpected such a stale masala movie from him, well considering tht it is almost scene to scene copy of the tamil except for the climax, i probably shdn't have expected much...'n thts wht baffles me more, how a tam friend of mine could argue tht ghajini is better than memento, 'n 'm not joking here, it seriously happened, for a sec i couldn't believe it myself 'n thought i hrd it wrong but sadly no...

i just found the whole movie comical, especially the action sequences...surprisingly the only thing i liked in the movie was Asin considering that i never liked her before 'n some 3 songs...

'n 'm back to my old habit of blogging at 3:40-4am types, feels good :)

Fitter Happier

2009-01-01T17:02:00.003Z

Fitter, happier, more productive,
comfortable,
not drinking too much,
regular exercise at the gym
(3 days a week),
getting on better with your associate employee contemporaries ,
at ease,
eating well
(no more microwave dinners and saturated fats),
a patient better driver,
a safer car
(baby smiling in back seat),
sleeping well
(no bad dreams),
no paranoia,
careful to all animals
(never washing spiders down the plughole),
keep in contact with old friends
(enjoy a drink now and then),
will frequently check credit at
(moral) bank (hole in the wall),
favors for favors,
fond but not in love,
charity standing orders,
on Sundays ring road supermarket
(no killing moths or putting boiling water on the ants),
car wash
(also on Sundays),
no longer afraid of the dark or midday shadows
nothing so ridiculously teenage and desperate,
nothing so childish - at a better pace,
slower and more calculated,
no chance of escape,
now self-employed,
concerned (but powerless),
an empowered and informed member of society
(pragmatism not idealism),
will not cry in public,
less chance of illness,
tires that grip in the wet
(shot of baby strapped in back seat),
a good memory,
still cries at a good film,
still kisses with saliva,
no longer empty and frantic
like a cat
tied to a stick,
that's driven into
frozen winter shit
(the ability to laugh at weakness),
calm,
fitter,
healthier and more productive
a pig
in a cage
on antibiotics.
Sample looping in background:
[This is the Panic Office, section nine-seventeen may have been hit. Activate the following procedure.]

~my 2009 anthem
(you can listen to it here)

Mahabharat

2008-12-17T15:48:00.015Z

मैं बैंगलोर से गई काशी,
काशी से गई डेल्ही,
डेल्ही से गई आगरा...
और Neha को मिला उसका Sudhir :)

Thats the 4 line gist, sung in the tune of the song from HHRPK. :D

some other salient points of the trip -

> My 1st ever North India Trip, well 1st ever anywhere above Karnataka in India.
Note: I'm not including Goa, as i don't consider it to be above 'n that reminds me i never got around to blogging my Goa Trip...umm...bad...

> My 5th Train journey and the longest! From 5th Morn 10 to 7th Morn 7, it was quite an experience! The longest hitherto had just been an overnight travel to Dandeli.

> Most of the time on the train was spent playing cards, infact playing cards would account for the lions share if i were to plot a pie chart of the time spent on the trip(Let me see if i can do that sometime, it would be great).
We played cards in the train, @ marriage place, @ the room, @ the airport 'n in the flight as well!

Playing cards in train

Playing cards @ Airport

Playing on the flight! :)

Somehow snaps of playing @ marriage hotel 'n @ the room in Delhi are missing.

This brilliant poem by Sailesh pretty much sums it up, but guess not many ppl will get it, but if you do, you'll automatically earn a place in our gang ;)

Guess, the only place we missed playing cards was in the cab but that turned out to be a blessing in disguise as Madam Jency came into her ragging best.
'n Attur turned out to be that special stone on which Jency kept sharpening her knife... :D
the entire duration all of us were splitting our sides with laughter, never had so much fun!
'n revenge was never sweeter as she more than made up for all the fun we had @ her expense while playing cards for 5 days...

> Managed to wear a sari all by myself! 'n most importantly it stayed put! :)

> 1st canceled train 'n all the awesome adventure it lead to after that!

reach station @ 8th Night 10:45, train canceled, wht to do? meditating is not a bad idea :)

in comesum restaurant @ station, ard 2:30am, waiting for the Howrah express

Change of plans, @ Nizamuddin station Delhi 9th Night 10, after some 19hrs in train
Got in ard 3am, but train left varnasi, thats the place we got in at, only around 10am!

> "destined Puthali , this is luck ." as Meena remarked in my picasa album.
got to see the famed Taj Mahal, but sadly it didn't do much for me :(
Also went to Mathura 'n Brindavan, its amazing how much Aurangzeb managed to destroy in his lifetime.

> Sarnath, BHU - Amazing places, everyone shd go thr once! History is so much nice when u actually see it! 'n shamelessely copying what a friend just said in chat, as thts the exact thought i had when i was seeing these places - "i don;t know why, but something about such a progressive outlook when most of hte rest of the world was in dustbowls , somehow makes me wish that this civilization and philosophy shouldn't be lost and relegated to the history books"

> 'n Khashi/Varanasi became 'Tenali' Khashi. ;)

> Food! Man, is it expensive in North India! Became 'Tenali' here as well. Interestingly don't have any snaps of food :(

> What else? oh yeah - a Rickshaw ride!

'n some yummy tomato chaat!

Guess, thats about it, the photos are @ the usual place.

Adios
Pls: its still 2:10 'n not 3, improvement! :)
Pls: If you are wondering abt title, ask Sailesh, as he was the one who asked me to use 'Mahabarath' as title on hearing that 'm writing a blog on the trip.

2008-11-27T19:56:00.003Z

back from watching 'Quantum of Solace' @ PvR, nice movie, don't know how ppl didn't like it 'n tht too giving reasons for dislike as too much of action! pray how can one have too much of action? 'n how can tht be a cause for dislike? :) :P

neways this post is not abt the movie, while coming out after the show, ard 00:45hrs, saw these policemen patrolling with the guns and immediately wondered for how long? Everytime after some attack one sees all these increased security - checking cars, asking for id's, police patrols...but just after few days as things start settling down, things go back to the way they were before. So all the terrorists have to do is - li'l waitout before launching their next attack for it to be successful.
Even my friends have gotten tired of changing their IM statuses. The general behavior of the ppl residing outside India, was to immediately change their statuses to something abt the attacks. But guess, after so many the novelty has worn off 'n its almost like a daily occurence.

Another thing i wanted to talk abt is this 'refrain from public places' virus. Its funny to see this in action. A colleague of mine from US who has come down to B'lore has been asked not to venture out. :) I call my dad before movie, the usual call, 'n he starts hyper reacting, saying things like lrn to come home before 9:30, its not safe 'n so on...i had no clue why he was saying all these suddenly when he said something like didn't you see what happened in mumbai...'n then i understood the reason behind such behavior...
But somehow seeing these smart ppl falling prey to this illogical fear psychosis makes me sad...thrs more chances of u getting killed in an accident or u can slip on bathroom tiles, hit ur head 'n die...point is u can die newhr, netime! So avoiding public places like malls, that too immediately after attacks doesn't make much sense, as its then when you have maximum security....

well, enough has been said already in better words by much better ppl, 'n also 'm feeling lazy,sleepy & cold!(shd go buy a new blanket), so 'll just end this post
wishing for a more peaceful world

2008-11-07T16:01:00.001Z

sometimes safe life ain't a life at all...

one junk thought...

2008-10-27T05:22:00.003Z

yesterday eve, after losing big time to me at foosball, Sailesh was saying that he will sneak in, practice, improve and then defeat me....and thats when i came up with this fundu thought -

"You shouldn't practice and improve, 'coz then its not 'you'. You should be your natural 'you', if you are naturally good at it, well and good, otherwise even if you practice and improve it still won't be 'you'" :D

And in a way, thats what i follow...I still don't make an attempt to improve at 'tt', my forehand still sucks, i don't hit smashes...but its still lot of fun playing it that way :)

Nevertheless i know its a junk idea...but point being ppl make so much hublaboo of changing oneself for another person, instead of changing i would say think of it as 'improving' yourself... :)

On a side note, finally got my hair cut, where hitherto i had never paid more than 25, yesterday i paid 500! well some ppl say its normal or even cheap...that makes me wonder which world i live in...neways me still getting used to this style as my long tresses ain't so long nemore... :(

plus chelsea's unbeaten home record got broken :(

2008-10-14T15:36:00.002+01:00

before you accuse a person of not talking much, just look within and see if you genuinely listen...

"if you cared enough"

2008-09-30T20:30:00.002+01:00

this post has been pending for some time now but somehow never got around to penning it down until now...

if you cared enough
you would have remembered
you wouldn't have done it
you wouldn't have said that
you would have called
you wouldn't have left

'n the list goes on...

"if you cared enough, then you would/wouldn't have done this...", will probably be the standard template for one of the most uttered dialogs during(causing?) disagreements in any relationship.

Its a loaded statement, often intended to induce guilt and remorse in the other person, used with care you can achieve the results that you want through it. But it can also be a very damage causing statement in a relationship, more so when its not voiced out 'n is eating away at your heart. And whats worse is the other person would've no clue whats eating you.

Now, the answer to why this statement arises is no rocket science - mismatch of expectations due to miscommunication. Well, expectations is a big topic in itself...hmm...i rem writing on it during some unix class in engineering :D, should go search if i still have it... darn so much for my resolution to not get side-tracked :(

Coming back, at the root of it is the every human's innate need to be cared for. Don't all of us just love the notion of having someone to care for us? Seriously its amazing how so many people base their life actions on this. For eg: I often hear my smoker friends saying that they wouldn't smoke(so much) if they had a girl friend. The powerful idea to be noted here is that if someone was there to care then they would go to great lengths to please or not disappoint them.
Its another matter that personally i don't understand it at all, how you can give up smoking for a girlfriend but not for parents. Actually forget parents also, i feel if at all you want to give up smoking it should come from within, from self-love and nothing else. If you really like smoking and don't care a fig for your health then please go ahead and continue to smoke. To give it up for someone else is as insane an idea as say the idea to give up chocolates for someone else if you were a chocolate lover...

Hmm...before i got sidetracked yet again with that smoking bit...we were talking about caring. I love chocolates but don't care for them. On the other hand if you cared for the environment you wouldn't use plastic bags. It doesn't take much to get that its not love but caring that drives any relationship.

Yeah 'm not talking anything new in here that you didn't already know but what amazes is how many of us are still prey to it...he he, talking of prey, reminded me of something i had blogged long time back -

"Embrace apathy,
You will feel better"

now that is a nice solution, if you could adopt it... :)

Anyways ending with the ending dialog of many such if you care discussions-

"If you cared, you would understand"

which results in a stalemate and from caring it then enters into the compromise domain.

Beauty

2008-09-11T19:55:00.003+01:00

To use Ricky's words:

"I realized there was this entire life behind things, and... this incredibly benevolent force, that wanted me to know there was no reason to be afraid, ever. Video's a poor excuse, I know. But it helps me remember... and I need to remember... Sometimes there's so much beauty in the world I feel like I can't take it, like my heart's going to cave in."

which also happens to be one of my all time fave dialogs. Sometimes i feel are we really that different from Ricky; ain't we all psychos in our own l'il way? Anyways let me not go on that track now.

Morning, randomly picked a video to watch on my ipod, while traveling to work and it happened to be a TED talk by Gregory Colbert. Absolute Brilliance, is all i can say! Tried finding the video to embed here but google gave me a dead link :(, so you guys will have to pretty much find that video on your own, but trust me its just amazing! You can explore more on this ashes and snow website, but sadly there's not much video footage, so its better you watch the TED video first.

The next video happened to be Cultures at the far edge of the world by Wade Davis. Another beautiful video this one. He makes a case for preserving the indigenous cultures, stopping the ethnocide thats happening at an alarming rate in the world. A must watch for all of us human beings.

Evening, on my way back, while looking for something interesting to watch in ipod, came across something titled pilobolus, clicked on it and it turned out to be this very beautiful, mind-blowing performance titled Symbiosis by a dance troupe called Pilobus. A note of caution though, some may find it offensive, so don't blame me later for not warning before.

So, that was the day, somehow felt like the 3 videos were all linked somehow...all the beauty twice, i mean thrice again... :) , for ppl who didn't get the connection, all the beauty twice again is a nice song from novembers doom.
2:50am and i better stop...

Adios

(un)lrnings...

2008-08-20T17:16:00.004+01:00

hmm...thr r so many posts pending, donno which one i shd start with....neways here are some thoughts/lrnings tht passed thru my brain 'n stopped for some time to register their presence...u know the stuff that i was referring to in my previous post...

> Simple Life = Oxymoron

> Stereotyping ppl is not bad, in fact its good, even your prejudices(they are almost always right, you know)...save you from having to experience the sad disillusionment at the end...

> Of all the possible ways, being content is the worst possible way, to be unhappy...

> Its so much more easy, nice and fun to explore the places alone....or even with strangers...than with ppl you know...or whom you think you know, as the fact is you can never truly know a person...

> Friends...you find them at unexpected corners in life...'n then you lose them as well...

> to get lost in a big city....actually feels good...no modify it...being lost, feels good...

> 'n most importantly, why the hell am i still awake @ 3:33am?!

tacit != tact, thrs an extra 'i'...
didn't get it?not to worry...it only means, you are still not infected! Be Happy!

tweetalogue

2008-08-09T18:40:00.004+01:00

was lazy to write a complete post abt the travel, so pasting here my tweets frm the time i reached US of A up till now... will probably write another post abt some lrnings 'n other stuff missed out here but that will be for later...

Tip: it would make sense if you read from the bottom up :)

after 16hrs of sleep, 'm still feeling sleepy....or maybe its 'coz of tht... :)

about 6 hours ago from web

@ramkis, yea will do @ 5:20, will ask bhavani to wake me up when stop comes :) 01:08 AM August 08, 2008 from web in reply to ramkis

feeling terribly sleepy...*yawn* 11:27 PM August 07, 2008 from web

will update tomm, how it goes @ work without any sleep...wish me luck... :) 01:45 PM August 07, 2008 from web

clk reads 5:15AM 'n i still haven't slept, 'n gotta catch off shuttle @ 7:30, so guess 'll ditch sleep plans 'n just go for a walk/jog... 01:44 PM August 07, 2008 from web

just came back upstairs after watching 'against the ropes', another late night...sigh! wonder if its jet lag or plain old insomnia... 10:36 AM August 07, 2008 from web

clk reads 4:34AM, shd probably sleep now as 've to go to office as well tomm... :( wish i cud just WFH... 01:07 PM August 06, 2008 from web

OMG, 821 items to catch up on reader! 12:39 PM August 06, 2008 from web

@skid_butt yea, i know! its just awesome, you shd have simply got this instead of hp... :) 12:36 PM August 06, 2008 from web in reply to skid_butt

back home, finished unpacking 'n now online after some 2 days... 12:35 PM August 06, 2008 from web

on a side note went to ESB, did some shopping apart frm Mac 'n yea had an awesome dinner @ Olive Garden looking down into Times Square... :) 08:01 PM August 04, 2008 from web

'n yeah, an ipod touch 'n a printer free :) if not for the outrageous NY tax, it wud've been even better... 07:59 PM August 04, 2008 from web

twittering from my new Black MacBook :) 07:56 PM August 04, 2008 from web

deciding on whether to goto AMNH or not, $15/+$22, man here everything is charged 'n so expensive, unlike DC where everything is free... 03:52 AM August 03, 2008 from web

'n thts saying a lot if you consider how finicky i am when it comes to weather... :) 07:07 PM August 02, 2008 from web

back to room, man do i luv NY!...after B'lore i think this is one city i wouldn't mind living in... 07:06 PM August 02, 2008 from web

'n Nadal all set to become No. 1, hooray! :D 04:18 AM August 02, 2008 from web

wake up to first morning in NY...yest night was pretty good, went to HRC! will probably go again today... :) 04:03 AM August 02, 2008 from web

gonna do america, do do america...Knopfler's song plays on my ipod...so apt! 02:14 PM August 01, 2008 from web

connecting from a bus traveling from DC to NY, joys of technology! wish our Novell shuttle buses were also wi-fi enabled... :) 02:13 PM August 01, 2008 from web

'n yea...street view rocks, was just checking out whr the bus stops in NY tomm :) 08:23 PM July 31, 2008 from web
2:30am shd crash now, got 7am call tomm :( 08:21 PM July 31, 2008 from web
got to start packing now for tomm... 05:18 PM July 31, 2008 from web
got some more DVDs today :) 05:08 PM July 31, 2008 from web
roger taylor. the cross, the breeders 'n some more zappa :) 04:51 PM July 30, 2008 from web
got a whole bunch of DVDs frm a colleague here, artists/bands include: zappa,pixies,tripping daisy,polyphonic spree,frank black 04:50 PM July 30, 2008 from web
is tired of seeing 'why so serious?' as every tom,dick 'n harry's status msg in gtalk! ppl, plz find something new! 05:32 PM July 29, 2008 from web
@sshreyas,oh my! those plate tectonics 'n earthquake stuff,i saw @ Air 'n Space museum,suddenly makes so much sense...lucky it was only 5.8! 05:08 PM July 29, 2008 from web in reply to sshreyas
desi bachelors in US know how to cook! :D 04:49 PM July 29, 2008 from web
just came back after having a very yummy 'n filling home-cooked indian dinner from a friend's brother's house... :) 04:46 PM July 29, 2008 from web
had a long long day! DC is finally done, next its NY :D 04:45 PM July 27, 2008 from web
switches on tv in a hope that it will mask the snore decibels... 05:47 PM July 26, 2008 from web
friend is snoring away to glory, wonder how will i ever get sleep, may be 've to do a night out... :( 05:30 PM July 26, 2008 from web
@ramkis, had been to DC today, went to couple of museums 'n walked ard a lot, will be going thr again tomm 'n pretty much the same plan :) 05:28 PM July 26, 2008 from web in reply to ramkis
'n yea it was an amazing day, cool 'n cloudy reminded me of b'lore, such a welcome change frm the 85F 'n tht humidity! 02:39 PM July 23, 2008 from web
'n yea it was an amazing day, cool 'n cloudy reminded me of b'lore, such a welcome change frm the 85F 'n tht humidity! 02:39 PM July 23, 2008 from web
lying on the bed with curtains completely open 'n looking at the amazing lightning show playing in the sky... :) 02:33 PM July 23, 2008 from web
got a new 40in LCD Tv in hotel room :D, thinking of getting a cable 'n connecting my laptop to it :) 02:35 PM July 22, 2008 from web
just had 3rd cup of hot choc for the day... 11:43 AM July 22, 2008 from web
'n seriously christian bale as john connor? as though we didnt suffer enuf of him in the dark knight! 04:32 PM July 21, 2008 from web

@srinidhibs maybe your lucky stars were really high ;) 04:23 PM July 21, 2008 from web in reply to srinidhibs
just came back from 'the dark knight'...'n man wht can i say abt it, tht already hasnt been said?... its all tht 'n some more... :) 04:22 PM July 21, 2008 from web
'm still amazed by the large portions of food you get here, end up leaving 1/4 of it despite valiant efforts to not waste food... :( 04:22 PM July 19, 2008 from web
just back from tysons corner, man is it huge! i didn't go to 3rd level nor to bloomingdale's & couldn't even check out 1st level completely! 04:10 PM July 19, 2008 from web
@sshreyas - yea it was one cult series 'n 'Tippu Sultan Airport' has a nice ring to it :) btw Malya owns the sword now, right? 04:00 PM July 19, 2008 from web in reply to sshreyas
nice morning, i can see a water body in distance thru da window! though shd say its not as scenic as Utah... 12:31 AM July 19, 2008 from web
off to sleep after a cool long bath on a very very comfy bed...bliss! :) well after spending nearly a day in those crammy airplane seats... 02:56 PM July 18, 2008 from web
exploring the room, outside the window the roof is covered with what we call 'jali' stones in kannada, wonder why? to reduce heat/cold...? 01:02 PM July 18, 2008 from web
one day w/o net access 'n 480 items in reader to catch up on... 12:40 PM July 18, 2008 from web
back to land of free unlimited hot choc ;) :D 12:17 PM July 18, 2008 from web

Phantasms

2008-07-20T13:39:00.002+01:00

Indie t-shirt designers 410BC are channelling Descartes in their spring collection, with a brain emblazoned t-shirt that declares 'I think therefore I am'.

Not a bad shirt for $15 dollars I think you'll agree, especially if you're hip to 17th century French philosophers.

The phrase "I think therefore I am" originated because Descartes wanted to know about what sort of things existed in the world, but realised he couldn't trust his senses because they could be fooled.

He imagined the most extreme example he could think of, where an evil demon was keeping him in a Matrix-style universe in which everything he perceived was an illusion. He asked the question, if he couldn't trust his senses, what could he truly know.

Descartes came to the conclusion that he could doubt everything except the fact he was doubting and therefore concluded that his ability to doubt, and consequently his thought, was proof of his existence - summed up in has famous phrase "I think therefore I am".

In part, this also led him to believe that thought was not part of the physical universe, and that thought and matter were separate entities. In fact, he believed thoughts were part of the soul but interacted with the body through the pineal gland - a small structure which occupies a central position in the brain.

Descartes' proposal that thought and matter (or mind and brain) are separate entities is known as as Cartesian dualism and is now much derided.

One difficulty is that while few people deny that both mind and brain exist in the physical world, it's difficult, and some would say impossible, to talk about them in the same way.

For example, it's easy to answer the question 'what colour are your neurons?' but impossible to answer the question 'what colour are your thoughts?'

This causes all sorts of merry hell for cognitive scientists and leads to the rather bizarre tendency for people to think that every explanation that includes the mind needs to be reduced to brain function for it to be valid.

Philosophers, who tend to be much more able to think about these things without panicking, tend to favour what's called property dualism, which says that while we accept everything happens in the physical world, we can't always match every aspect of one level of description to another, even if both are both completely coherent on their own level.

Mind Hacks: Cogito ergo t-shirt

well just came across this item on google reader and i remembered i was supposed to do a follow up on that unified theory post, with that philo stuff that got left out. Here it goes.

Hmm...ok, it all started with the song 'Phantasmagoria in two', amazing song from this brilliant album. Doing define: phantasmagoria in Google, gave me this -

'a shifting series of phantasms, illusions, or deceptive appearances, as in a dream or as created by the imagination'

along with a whole lot of other stuff, who knew that the word was so popular?! :)

So, anyways googled 'phantasms' (some ppl may know this word from my gtalk status msg 'n did i get some interesting comments for it! :) ) to know the exact meaning, when i landed up on these pages. This first one talks about the connecting the concept of phantasia in greek philosophy with modern philosophy's notion of the idea and imagination. 'n yea this basically reminded me of the book 'Sophie's World' that i had read long long time back and how much i had forgotten :( Anyways its a really good book, do read it if you get chance.
Now coming back to phantasms, you will find this in the above post -

The ancient greeks--beginning with Plato--used the term 'phantasia' to refer to the faculty
of sense judgment or belief and 'phantasm' is the belief itself; i.e. a
belief (doxa) which arises though sensation is a 'phantasm'.

See the paradox in the meanings? And the second page i came across talks about the same. Do read it and check out the complete site, just amazing some of the stuff covered there.
In the previous post i mentioned 'Plato’s Theory of Love: Rationality as Passion'. And since i can't remember what i wanted to talk about that or maybe 'coz 'm just tired and lazy, 'll let you guys to read it for yourselves here. Its an interesting read actually.

'n that concludes unified theory :P

adios

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Unified field(s) theory

2008-07-06T09:52:00.008+01:00

First of all this post has nothing to do with the UFT in physics that one is familiar with. Moreover there is no theory at all. Who said the title/subject should be an appropriate reflection of the body anyway? like this comic or the innumerous sensational headlines one gets to see on TV these days. Anyways the reason i used it was 'coz this post was touching so many fields, including bit of physics, which is the reason i remembered it in the first place. :)

Well it started off with me finding these couple of printouts @ home, which i had probably taken around 2 'n half years back, the time around which i started this blog. Let me check, yep somewhere during this 4th post of mine. Hmm, they were some amazing days...all those discussions on physics/philosophy/religion/life ...learning about so many new things...
Its sad that 've completely lost touch with it now, don't even read! :(

Anyways the printouts in question are - 'The Meaning of it All' by Feynman and 'Plato's Theory of Love: Rationality as Passion' , which a friend had forwarded asking my views on it. The former i saw that i had read almost half but not remembering anything i restarted from the first page. It made for a great reading, as all his other stuff. Its a collection of 3 lectures -
I. The Uncertainty of Sciences
II. The Uncertainty of Values
III. This Unscientific Age

The first two are brilliant but the third i felt was a bit dragging. Many parallels can be drawn from the present world to the ideas expressed there. For eg, this paragraph from 'Uncertainity of Sciences' -

"Most people find it surprising that in science there is no interest in the background of the author of an idea or in his motive in expounding it. You listen, and if it sounds like a thing worth trying, a thing that could be tried, is different, and is not obviously contrary to something observed before, it gets exciting and worthwhile. You do not have to worry about how long he has studied or why he wants you to listen to him. In that sense it makes no difference where the ideas come from. "

can easily describe the open source community. Or take this -

"It is better to say something and not be sure than not to say anything at all"

Don't we all hear the exact opposite? Say something, only if you are sure. Can you imagine how boring the world would be if it was like that? Of course if you say something stupid, just be prepared to accept that you were a dunce and move on. Reminds me of this nice post and the inspirational Google quote - "don’t run from failure — fail often, fail quickly, and learn."

Then you have references to Cold war, Communism in Russia and one is amazed at the intensity of it. For later generation people in third world countries like ours , cold war just remains something you read in history text book or Robert Ludlum's novels.

In the third lecture, there is this part where he talks about statistical sampling and arriving at (wrong)conclusions. It seemed so relevant to what i was coming across in google reader these days. I generally lean towards the opinion 'Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics' and looks like 've valid reason to be, as this latest post in freakonomics blog, points out people generally lie. Even if you assume the people surveyed, told the truth, theres the question of whether it was the correct sample i.e sufficient and unbiased to arrive at a possible right conclusion.

But seriously some of the ones one comes across are so ludicrous, they insult your common sense. A new sensational view of the society is portrayed as a result of some survey whose sole participant(s) will be the author of the piece. The best example? TOI of course. Well you can't blame them as they generally source their articles from outside(rediff,internet...). Actually there is a much serious problem here, that of reporting without verifying the story first. The recent prank played on the leading newspapers in India brings out this issue to the fore. You can read more of that story - here.

Another more worrying problem is the effect on the younger generation. Unless its some film gossip, the general attitude is to believe everything they report in paper. Say supposing an article reads 'more than 70% of under aged students indulge in pre-marital sex'(i really wonder where TOI does its survey to get such data from), now wouldn't other normal kids think that its ok? Yea i know its not such a gr8 example, its a grey issue like many others but you get the idea. This twisting of data/results to come up with a sensational headline is what i take exception to. A funny thing happened just few days ago, which exactly illustrates this process.

Couple of days back, friend shared this item on google reader . It boldly proclaimed -

"Why do psychopaths exist? The ladies help the psychopaths reproduce by going to bed with them. Men who are narcissistic, self-obsessed, liars, psychopaths, Machiavellian, and thrill-seekers get laid more."

Well naturally ones eyebrows will rise at such a statement. But funny part was that another friend of mine had shared this article almost a month back. Now just notice the difference between the two. This one at least mentions more about the study, how it was done 'n so on. Others don't even mention it. So just imagine the third level of referencing done by some other paper from the 2nd source, how would it be?

First of all there are many issues with the way study has been done. I mean with a statement like 'Psychopaths get laid more', one would expect that in the survey one went and asked some known psychopaths how many times they got laid and compare it to normal men. Well this itself will give you a skewed picture as the ratio of psychopaths to normal men is so less but say, lets still grant this one. But alas, this wasn't the way it was done. Just read the article to find more as to how it was done, the only thing i would like to draw your attention in that is to this line -

"He came to the conclusion after conducting 200 surveys on psychology students which asked them about their sex lives and attitudes towards sex and relationships"

Pretty amazing huh?
Now couple it with the fact that most people lie when it comes to self-reporting, aint this result just amazing?

Its not to say that the idea is wrong, it may be right(for all other reasons), but come up with the right set of data to prove it. Well it wasn't the chap's fault, a grad student who had to submit a research paper but you would expect the media to report for what it is and in the cases where they are sensationalizing it, at least give a link to the original research.

hmm....thats a lot 've written!
Time reads 3:35am, guess 'Plato's theory of love' 'n philosophy part will have to be some other time :)

Adios
'n yes Rafa won :D
just an awesome match, estupendo!
feel blessed if you managed to watch the entire thing. :)

>>Update/disclaimer/correction
Say supposing an article reads 'more than 70% of under aged students indulge in pre-marital sex',
The keyword there was 'supposing'. Note i don't quote any specific TOI article, mainy 'coz i'm really bad at remembering the details, but do remember coming across a TOI article similar to this long time back and that time thinking how ludicrous it was and wondering where they got the data from.
So ppl are asked to not use the above as their reason to vow not to marry a b'lore girl :P
as i don't even mention b'lore in there.
he he, 'n this incident perfectly illustrates what i was talking about, namely how a simple number can have such far reaching effects.

2008-06-30T18:56:00.004+01:00

Last few days, couple of ppl have been asking me, if i stopped blogging and i was wondering why they are doing that, as i had the feeling that i did blog recently. Anyways tonight after a friend asked, came here and realized that i hadn't blogged anything at all this month and today is the last day of course. So here i am :)
As they ask, its not that my mind hasn't gone on any trails recently, its just that they aint logged here on the account of me being more lazy than the usual. Hmm...well its not just laziness i suppose, it may have more to do with my feeling to be 'off the net'...yeah i know, ppl who knew me earlier will find this hard to believe, but it is true...
guess 'm finally bored/done with it, where before i used to fight with my bro to be online, now even when friends ask me to, i don't. or didn't as 'm logging in for past couple of days but even then its more of a forced task, than a voluntary one...'n its not only being online on im, just being on the net 'n surfing...max i do these days is check reader 'n even tht most often just speed-glance thru...

sad...totally sad...

he he, i was reminded of my prev post -
http://mindtrail.blogspot.com/2006/12/off-net.html

Actually thats another thing, thats been happening a lot off late, whenever i feel like blogging i realize 've already blogged it a long time back...just goes to show life runs in one loop, doesn't it?

A Story...

2008-05-25T19:06:00.002+01:00

a story...
a story, you told...
a story for me...
night after night...

wouldn't you tell me one,
for old times' sake now?

there used to be so many then,
or maybe it just seems so
'coz there are almost none now...

a story...
a story, you told...
a story for me...
night after night...

what were they?
who knows?

there used to be so many then,
maybe that we grow
a li'l older, a li'l farther...

but wouldn't you tell me one,
for old times' sake now?

Sometimes you're the windshield; sometimes you're the bug.

2008-05-09T17:02:00.003+01:00

yesterday while coming home, as the bus was waiting @ the turn into old madras road during a red light, suddenly felt 'ALIVE'... i know, it kinda sounds stupid, but 'm sure everyone wud've felt that way sometime or the other....'n ofcourse things that makes one feel alive will vary from person to person...it may be finger lickin' food...chocs...coming face to face with nature's beauty...'n i suppose yesterday it was probably the last one....with everything beautifully wet from the recent downpour 'n the flamin' red gulmohar trees made me feel glad that i was alive 'n to be there...after a week or so of feeling down, this felt good....
that happy mood continued for some time, until sometime during night, when i suddenly felt like in dumps...it was weird in the sense that nothing drastic happened which would've made me feel that way...hmm...may be it was everything...the cumulative effect of small small tiny things...
neways this post is not to be abt my mood swings....this is just the rambling me laying down the context for what follows next...'n yea i know u r thinking "this post ain't ended still?! " :)

So feeling down 'n all, i made my way downstairs, took the remote from my sleeping bro on the couch...the Knight Riders innings had just finished, so started surfing channels 'n hit on VH1, to see Gods of Guitar featuring Pink Floyd! The show was on how 'The Dark Side of the Moon', came to be the way it was, as in the entire making of it, thoughts/ideas behind each song,sound....Gilmour,Waters,Mason,Alan Parson...basically everyone involved in the making talk through how they came to develop each song...
when they started showing 'on the run', how they developed it, i suddenly realized how much the sound is similar to Vangelis' spiral...hmm...make it the otherway round as this came first...so it was in many respects a cult album which showcased the sounds of the future...
watching the episode, i felt better...somehow listening to floyd always settles my mind, even when i don't know whats troubling it! :)

well neways it was a gr8 episode but the sad part was i only caught it @ the end :( i sincerely hope they play it again...'n should i even bother telling how brilliant DSoM album is? :)
'n if other episodes are going to be as good as this, with artists like Hendrix,Clapton,Knopfler,Satriani... this is one series not to be missed...
speaking of which, i think its time for the show, so...

Adios

2008-04-30T18:50:00.001+01:00

its not you, its me
its not me, its the world
ah ha, what do you know
its not the world, its you!

summer days

2008-04-27T18:50:00.002+01:00

this post is on a trail of thoughts/reflections i had tonight, on the way to my swimming class. As dad was driving me down, i just started thinking -'What next?'. Two more days and another of my "hobby learnings" will come to an end. First there was the guitar, then the spanish classes and now this. well probably you can include driving also....hmm...i was thinking swimming is the best among them, in that 've learnt it, but now 'm wondering....hope it doesn't end up like others
'learnt, only to be forgotten'...
neways interestingly all of 'em i started after i joined work 'n thats what i was thinking....it would've been gr8 if every summer holiday you can pick up/try ur hand @ a new thing(which reminds me i forgot to add salsa to the above list)...that led me to wonder, how come i never did this when i was a kid....nowadays all the kids seem to be in either this or that camp...tennis/cricket/dance/swimming/theatre/art ....
i couldn't remember how i spent my summer hols...i never went to camps...nor to some out-station relatives place....hmm guess i just chilled around(tv,playing with other kids,books)...pretty much the way i do even now... :)
But yea now i wud jump @ such a chance, wudn't it be nice if companies too cud've something like summer camps? :)
yea i know its childish...as my dad remarked today - "she is behaving so so like a child these days, how do we marry off such a li'l kid?" :) after seeing one of my childish antics with my bro who not being able to withstand my torture was asking him to get me married off.
guess instead of growing up 'm growing down... :)

One more journey

2008-04-25T16:37:00.004+01:00

Start - Domlur Bus Stand
Dest - Kathriguppe Stop
Medium of Transport - 201 Bus
Got in - 6:15pm
Got off - 8:30pm
'n a special mention of the mosquitoes that kept me company all the way through.

another 45 mins and i could've as well walked home. :)

Well on the way finished the remaining chapters of 'The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe'. After that started with the Rapaccini's Daughter and when that got over, i was still @ JP Nagar. After that started listening to some songs and the best part of it was the last song. I stepped into home as the last notes of 'The End' faded away. :) It was the 'Essential Rarities' version, running into 18 odd mins, its one amazing trip. Morrison's voice is @ his theatrical best. The song itself is one of my fave fave songs for many reasons, has some of the most beautiful lines and as Morrison said - "it could be almost anything you want it to be."

Speaking of Morrison, i was reminded of the Sunday Brunch. After telling a friend the day-before not to miss it, i ended up not watching it myself...well i did catch the starting before some workers came to my home 'n started their cacophony :(
Anyways on a side note i liked the promotional poster of it, displayed @ many BMTC terminals all over B'lore. Its a take on the Last Supper, with Morrison, the GOD he is, @ the centre. :)

2008-04-22T17:55:00.002+01:00

Swimming in rain is so much fun. :)
All those rain droplets hitting the surface of the blue water, makes for such a pretty picture.

Walk On

2008-04-19T18:35:00.003+01:00

Start : Bagmane Tech Park
Destination : Home (BSK 3rd Stage)
Distance: ard 18-19Kms
Pit-stops/Refreshments on the way: A Mango shake, a nandini buttermilk packet and a tender coconut.
Total Travel Time: 4Hrs
Walk Time i.e. TTT 'minus' Pit-Stop/dilly-dallying/window-shopping time: approx 3.15Hrs
For exact route, click here or copy this in ur browser - http://tinyurl.com/5v6bjo
Traveling Companions - My fave Musicians, on my ipod ob... :P

Ok so thats the brief 'tippani' as we call it in Kannada. And now for a li'l more details-

> Had first Mango shake of the summer and was it a perfect timing! 'n notable part is the guy charged me Rs13 for it! When did they rise the rate so much? Btw had it @ the Trisha Juice Centre(hope i rem the name correct), its the one you get, as soon as you take a left @ Corporation circle. I donno if it was only this chap, or the prices are same elsewhr in B'lore?. Well doesn't matter, it was like heaven for me then! :)

> My floaters served me pretty well, nothing against it but i wished i had worn a decent pair of shoes.

> You have to be extra careful even when you are crossing turnings of small roads, you will have bikes coming right behind and cutting just in front of you and all you can do is come to a screeching halt. Yea i know that sounds funny :) why i mentioned it is 'coz, its not only that you have to be xtra careful, but when it happens it just breaks the whole rhythm.

> It was fun except for, my face and hair which were covered with an inch of B'lore dust 'coz of all that traffic and not to mention the horrible pollution.

> On a side-note today was family day @ work, so in afternoon i was playing with all these kids on my floor, and one of my colleague's wife asked me - 'Do you like kids?', well was wondering @ it, as i rem talking on this with a friend long long time ago. Anyways guess one can say i do, but not really that much as some/most of the others do.

guess thts abt it, ending with few lines from U2's walk on -

Leave it behind
You got to leave it behind
All that you fashion
All that you make
All that you build
All that you break
All that you measure
All that you feel
All this you can leave behind
...
Walk On, Walk On...

2008-04-15T15:15:00.001+01:00

walking in the middle of road is fun! :)
wait lest ppl think 'm really crazy let me modify it to -
walking on the divider in the middle of the road with the headlights of the vehicles on your right side, shining in to your face is fun.
uf...tht was a long sentence... :P
Next time you take a walk try it. Find a divider that doesn't have too frequent obstacles like small trees, light poles etc. Its best if its not too broad, infact the narrower it is, more fun you get.
Let me put this disclaimer - 'Try this @ your own risk' :D
But then again whats fun without a li'l risk...eh? ;)
Just try not to take a bigger risk, like trying this on a highway with a divider as wide as ur feet 'n with trucks zooming past your ear on either side, for eg: the one near jalahalli... :)

2008-04-05T20:45:00.000+01:00

sleep, DBC 'n a long long walk...

walk down the memory lane...

2008-04-03T18:33:00.004+01:00

With such cliched title for a post, you can't expect nething better from the body of the post. :P

Well today, i had to goto NCB, for ppl wo donno b'lore, it stands for National College, Basavangudi. So I took another Novell bus, which passes via that. Now to set some background, you should know that a wave of 'Last time we will be doing this' kinda feeling is travelling through entire Novell office. So you have ppl, saying my last tt game, last lunch @ cafetaria, last tender coconut 'n so on... :) Now this bus that i took, as a custom of something called 'idli-party'. So some more history on this custom - well aeons ago, when i was still a starry-eyed noob, fresh into the corporate world, i was introduced to this culture of 'dosa-party' by old-timers on the bus like Geetha, Vijaykumar, Renuka etc. Basically its nothing but, the ppl in da bus deciding to stop @ a food sagar on the way, and hogging. 'n each one wud take turns treating, well one nvr falls short for treat xcuses...right? ;)
And then Geetha left, Renuka left, many ppl joined in, some more ppl left, bus got divided into two routes...hmm just looking at the changes that've happened in the bus, i feel 've come so far... :)

Anyways now this bus i travelled in today, is Vijaykumar's bus, and he had kept up the tradition, but now it was an 'idli-party' instead of dosa. 'n today was supposed to be the 'last idli-party', remember the last feeling wave i was talking abt? :) Well ppl forced me to stay o'er for the next stop, instead of getting down @ NCB, and to my pleasant surprise, discovered it was @ the one 'n only 'Brahmin's Coffee Bar' :) Now this was where my walk down the memory lane started. The last time i had eaten thr was when i was this jumpy school-going kid, who walked in front of it every morning 'n evening. So it was nice to see that nothing had changed, except there was a BIGGER crowd now, a Helmet stand for the convenience of innumerable bikers who turn up and a person standing outside with a big container of the most delicious chutney, ready to pour out the second/extra helpings to the ppl which was invariably everyone. :) My friend's remarks @ the end when i was leaving - "You are lucky yaar, first time in our bus and you get a idli-party!" Can't agree more, was indeed lucky today. :)

While walking from there to my friend's place, i passed by this bonda/mixture stall, opp Uma theatre. Now this is another famous landmark in my memory lane, so stopped by and bought some mixture and bonda/bhajji, 'n man did it feel great! :)

But yea what happened next wasn't good. Eve-teasing 'n that too three times in a single day! Started in morning while walking towards bus-stop, then this and then once more while walking back from my friends place. Thankfully they were all mild, only once i remember being scared, when a guy followed me all the way till home @ night from my aunts place,...yea tht was scary! Anyways generally i just ignore and walkby, no point giving it notice, which i feel most often is wht they xpect u to do. So yea ignoring works, actually ignoring works for so many things!

tht was a detour, coming back..yes, after some more trippin' 'n reminiscing abt old times with my friend, was waiting at the bus-stop and guess which bus comes, '43A'. Now thats the bus i used to travel in everyday! I get-in and i see the driver was still da same, though now he had grown a full beard. The bus remained pretty much same, except they had removed those stickers 'n God's photo frame @ the back of the name-plate door. Everyday morning the driver used to buy these flowers and put it on it. It was like a tradition, not to be broken, so was suprised not to see it. Anyways the conductor had aged quite a bit and sadly he dint recognize me, well he dint look @ me much but still...

neways this rambling has gone for quite long, so lemme stop.
adios.

Dr. Zhivago

2008-03-30T18:13:00.003+01:00

Yesterday night, watched this amazing movie. Its a true classic! Easily one of the most beautiful movies 've seen so far.
I got the soundtrack of this movie when i was in US and had listened to it couple of times before this, but its only after watching the movie, that i can appreciate it so much more. The music by Maurice Jarre is outstanding. Well what further cements it in ur memory is the haunting cinematography. The images just stay with you for a long long long time.
Then ofcourse there's the story with the Russian revolution as the backdrop and the brilliant direction of it by David Leane. Its so beautifully narrated, with the whole emphasis on the human characters but still cuttingly portrays the turmoil, that was Russia during the revolution.

Anyways for more information, you can check out imdb, which will give you a much better review, than one i can possibly hope to write.

Do try to watch it, if you haven't done so. The film is a work of art!

2008-03-28T13:26:00.000Z

the trouble with the world is that its filled with way too many freeloaders...

Pulsar

2008-03-16T14:56:00.004Z

I was actually supposed to blog something else, but Roshan's comment on the previous post, made me think, probably it would a bit too much, if i did it now. :)
Anyways this is abt the ad which has caught my fancy these days. Everyone should have seen this ad by now, if you haven't here it is -

I loved the whole concept of this. Just the music and the stunts and the 'Bajaj, Distinctly Ahead' screen at the end.I can just imagine even a small kid lapping it up. This shows the evolving Bajaj brand. For me 'Bajaj' will always be synonymous with 'Hamara Bajaj'. That ad would probably be one of the iconic ads in India. For me the last scene of two guys on a bike, with the pillion holding the sitar, and in the background, Rock influenced music and the riders expression was like the ultimate image. If you liked it before, you can watch it again here-

Thats how Bajaj brand was reborn. I remember long long time ago, my dad used to own a Bajaj Chetak scooter and Bajaj was pretty much known only for that. Its/we come a long way since then.

2008-03-11T14:32:00.002Z

whats an abyss but a never ending inverted hill....?

it only matters which way you choose 'n everyone knows sliding down is the easy way...

Silence

2008-03-10T16:51:00.002Z

It hides the sadness,
the loneliness...

the hurt, the pain,
the fear, the anger...

the love,
the hate...

the hunger,
the ache...

the darn silence,
it hides everything,
but yea, it shows the dead...

Tagged

2008-02-26T12:06:00.003Z

hmm...doesn't it sound bad? the word 'tagged' i mean...

well from the time i first started blogging, 've kinda kept myself aloof from the blogging world 'n all its cultures,norms...using it as and when i need it but never completely adopting all its practices....
Blogging has generally been a vent for all my thoughts,opinions,rants...so it has never been aimed at any readers, infact this was a topic for major discussion between me and Vijesh, he criticizing me for writing posts which didn't make any sense and that by writing such cryptic posts, 'm alienating my readers. But then this blog is first and foremost for me, 'n as i commented on one of my previous posts, ne readers are purely incidental... :D
yeah i know 'm selfish to the core... :P

Anyways as it happens John tagged me, 'n 've been delaying doing this for sometime now....but here i am finally ... :P

The Rules:

Link to the person that tagged you.
Post the rules on your blog.
Share six non-important things/habits/quirks about yourself.
Tag six random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs.
Let each random person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their website.

so now for a few inane stuff abt ME, which you can skip over, 'm hoping that you do... :) -

> I can never say no to choc! doesn't matter how many pounds 'm putting on, you will still find me gorging on DBC's,Choc Fantasy,Ferrero Rochers... :)

> 'm addicted to Google Reader...

> this is a totally weird habit which 've acquired ...every morning when bus passes silkboard, i look-out for the white-headed brahminy kites which usually perch on the trees in the triangular junction, infact i was supposed to write a post on 'em longtime back, but never got ard to it... :(

> 'm a total lazy bum, if you didn't know it already.

> Can never stick to/follow a routine of any kind whatsoever!

> 'n yeah, i still don't have an aim in life... :P

hmm...now for the tough part....tagging other ppl,...hmm...most ppl i know aint regular bloggers...neways lemme think....thr's Rohini, Sailesh, Vitta, Sameer, Sarfraaz, Jawahar...neat six over... my first blogging duty is done... :P

book hunting with a candle... :)

2008-02-22T18:21:00.004Z

yea thts a crazy thing sailesh and i did tonight. Well apart from walking all the way from ragigudda to my home that is, but yeah this time thr was no rain...
Today(by which i mean 22nd Feb, as i see time is almost 1am) was quite an eventful day, which means i may go on a rant on quite a few stuff , so ne readers out thr, you have been warned! :D

Morning passed away in checking mails,meeting 'n misc daily tasks...but noon was the best part. went to indi joe for lunch, this was the second time i was going there in as many weeks. Like many others, 've gone bonkers o'er the sumptuous lunch buffet they offer. The best part of the buffet apart from the yummy salads,pizza,chicken wings, is ofcourse the dessert section...fruits,pastries,ice creams 'n most imp Chocolate fountain! 'n yea since its a buffet it means its "unlimited"! :)
'm only glad that my office is not nearby, otherwise considering tht i can nvr say no to choc desserts, nor resist the temptation of such yummy calorie dripping food, i may had to get used to seeing a new me a lot sooner, 'coz its happening even now but @ a slower pace... :)

Well after that we went to Bagmane Tech Park, to have a look @ our new facility, which we are supposed to move into on April 8th. To say i was disappointed, would be quite an understatement. Almost all the people in our team felt a li'l let down. Some ppl seeing the i-flex 'n other wonderful buildings in the tech park, were rightly disappointed with the simple, old plain rectangular building. And it didn't even have a lake view. For me the most saddening thing was the look of our new cubicles! 'm not even sure if i want to air my exact impressions and what i think of it. It may be pushing it a bit far, tht too on a public blog. Apart from it, i had some minor gripes, which are just me. One of it was why do ppl use brown 'n some other color combo for buildings? Is it like a new fashion fad? i mean you see the UB city, and you can't help but wonder how did they arrive at such a horrible combination, brown 'n blue?!
Apart from this, the new cubicle layout (which is best suited to a services company btw), means, thr are no window cubicles! So, you can imagine how hard it will be to move from my current cubicle to one of those... :(

Anyways enuf of griping abt the new facility. Let me move onto the good things after that.Coming back from there, Ravi dropped me to ragigudda, btw traffic totally sucks, it will take min 1hr to reach ragigudda frm cv raman nagar, i.e if u r lucky.
neways i cudn't not goto CH after getting down @ ragigudda. So sailesh 'n myself went, 'n had a nice cake fudge. Vitta joined us after he finished his call with XXXXX :) After which we went to his dance class and had some/lots of fun looking at their dance practice. :)

we were supposed tol walk down to banshankari and plan got changed later to walk all the way till my home, as we had done once. On our way, happened to see this book shop with 85% discount. Infact what caught my eye was tht thr was no power 'n the shop keeper had just 2 candles. i thought it wud be fun to hunt for books with a candle and so we went in. And for almost 30-40 mins or, had absolute fun. we wud 've painted a eerie picture moving through that dark place with huge racks filled with books, holding a tiny candle... :D We kept coming across this 'queen of the damned' book by anne rice, and we had some silly conversation, regarding how it was a sign... :D then later me saying i wud prob come in his nightmare, holding a candle....'n so on... :D Well we finally ended up buying 5 books for 240, the 5 being - 'Dracula', 'Forrest gump', 'Children of Dune', 'Cider house rules' 'n ofcourse 'Queen of the damned' :D Not a bad job only with a candle...eh? :)

think this post has gone too long already, so won't go on further. After having matke paani puri in front of big bazaar, finally reached home at 9:50. Thats it, ur agony comes to an end, pat yourself on the back, for making through to this point... :D

Adios.

questions and answers

2008-02-19T15:57:00.005Z

these days on my way back home, when the 5:30 bus nears the silkboard, i tend to look out for the sun, sunset actually. Not all the days since i usually sit on the other side of the bus. I picked up this habit one fine evening, a month or two back when i chanced upon on one of the most marvelous sunsets!

Anyways today I happened to sit on the right side...now while just typing the 'right side' a Q popped into my mind - "Why is right, 'right'?" in the sense "Why is 'wrong' not 'left'? 'm sure an etymologist can tell me, "why its so?, 'n how it came to be like that" Another thing that entered my mind - 'leave...left', a single word and so many different meanings...hmm, wonder how i ever came to learn this language... :) now imagine a student asking such questions in a classroom....wonder how the teachers answer that, doubt they would know the answer...guess the kids will just be told - "you just learn it that way and don't ask why"...if only we could arrive at answers with simple reasoning...which reminds me of what i was gonna write before i went off on this tangent!

So Yes, today i was sitting on the right side, and looked out at the sun, but instead of a nice sunset i was met with a still glaring sun. I didn't give it much thought then and got busy reading my book and playing DC in-between. Somewhere near kadrenahalli cross, i happened to look-out and saw an amazing sunset. And thats when it struck me, that its no longer winter, so sunset is a bit late which explained why i don't see a sunset near silkboard anymore. Yeah, I know its a lame observation but for a moment i was marveling at that simple thought which entered my brain. I know its that science which we study during primary school,nothing special about it. But its still special that here was something which could be explained and had a definite answer for "why is it so" question.

Wish all the questions in our life could have such simple and straight answer. As we grow up in life, the number of 'why' questions that can't be answered increases exponentially. Or may be exponentially may be stating it less :)

pls: just filled in the title, 'questions and answers' is a great song from one of my all time favorite album -'It'll all work out in boomland' 'n yea, i know this is as lame a post as you can get.

2008-02-15T15:34:00.002Z

the best thing you can give a person, is your time...
'n undivided attention during that time goes without saying...

It's a Wonderful Life

2008-02-09T16:25:00.000Z

Life is ironic ain't it...?

Anyways this post is about the movie i watched yesterday night. Last Monday, I found this on one of the DVD's, Aditya had burned for me a couple of years back. And yesterday night set about watching it.

That 'm blogging abt it, means either i really liked it or hated it. In this case its the former. Easily one of the best movies 've ever seen. Everything is top-notch from story, to actor selection, to each individual's acting, to music...
One thing which really strikes you, when you watch it for first time is the splendid portrayal of 'George Bailey' by James Stewart. I was awestruck! I can't remember when i had last seen such powerful acting! And the perfect diction! Actually it was the last thing that captured my mind and got me thinking. I mean why don't we no longer see such enunciation? If you see anyone of the old movies, the first thing that strikes you is their voice and how well they speak. Can anyone forget Gregory Peck? If at all you can have perfection, then that was it! I wonder why they don't make them like that anymore...
Good ol' times, few ppl will say....kinda makes me feel older thn my years...hmm...guess 'm just a nostalgic person...no thats not the right word, what do you call people who have a liking for old stuff?

Well anyways, do watch this movie, its absolutely brilliant! And i totally dig its tagline -

They're making memories tonight!

pls: just realized, i think this is the post with maximum '!' usage... :)

2008-02-07T18:47:00.000Z

it was a sad day...

mélange of sounds,smell,images,memories...

2008-01-30T14:54:00.000Z

This post is abt a thought trail i had recently...hmm...not xactly a thought trail, probably observation(s) based on my experience(s).

Couple of days ago, i was applying a sun cream, when it's smell hit me...so vivid was the sensation, that i felt almost like i was back sitting in my hotel room in Provo. I realized it soon after, that it was 'coz that particular sun cream, i used to use when i was in Provo. What i found funny/amusing was how my mind had associated both the things. Also more importantly i was shocked by how strong the association was. Even now, when i smell it, i feel 'm back there....! I realized/marveled at how mind can conjure up such powerful images.

This made me think of a related experience, that i always used to wonder about. Whenever i start listening to T2's 'It'll All Work Out in Boomland', my mind immediately goes to 'Dune'. Somehow the images of planet Arrakis and Paul Atreides just pop up in my mind. Now when i think about it, i do feel there's something connecting both(Don't ask me whats that something!). But question is how did i even first arrive at the association? Guess its something which everyone feels...you listen to some music, and you instantly know it will perfectly suit some situation...How does this happen? Is it that both trigger off same set of emotions? But what are emotions? some nerve circuitry in our brain? So all those association are formed by closing/opening of some switches in that complex network?

Hmm...while writing the above lines, i remembered a TED talk i had seen sometime ago. In that the Indian Scientist basically explores the mind...analyzing what part of brain is responsible for part by examining what imparities are caused when that part is damaged. In that he talks abt why for some people few numbers appear as colors, phantom limb pain,capgras delusion...
hmm...let me find the link for it, its a really great talk, everyone should watch it.

Here is it, its 'A journey to the center of your mind' by Vilayanur Ramachandran. Apt title indeed!

Another such instance: my current skydome image, also keeps reminding me of 'Dune'. Its funny how while reading a book, your mind conjures up images! If you think abt it, its such a complex activity! Truly makes one feel what a marvelous thing our brain is!

Office Alone Part 2!

2008-01-15T18:52:00.000Z

well i have three posts in my mind, donno if i will pen 'em down all tonight, but doing this one for sure as this is from yesterday's backlog... :)

Yesterday(by which i mean Jan 14th) was a holiday for my company, but me went to office nevertheless, and no before you think let me tell you, 'm not a workaholic! Its just that had to go to PVR later in the afternoon, and me thought it would be a nice idea to get some work done @ office, its another matter that of 5hrs i spent in office, i wouldn't have worked for more thn an hour! :)

Well all this is besides the point, the main thing is "i was office alone" :) It was amazing, long time since i had done that. It reminds of my first such experience, eerily i think it was somewhr ard this time, when i had just started blogging. Hmm...'n tht reminds me its been 2yrs!!! man how the time flies! :(

>>Update

For people who wondered why part 2, this is part 1 - Office Alone

Update

more law

2007-12-21T09:28:00.000Z

The 'more' law as i term it, is like this -'more is less', mind you not to be confused with 'less is more' which is another thing altogether.
e.g:
"The More you sleep, the More you feel sleepy"

2007-12-11T08:31:00.000Z

when one starts resenting
good can't be good enough
bad can't be worse enough

2007-12-02T07:27:00.000Z

Sometimes its best to act ignorant of what the other person is alluding to...keeps things less complicated...

Dandeli Trip

2007-11-30T05:53:00.000Z

2007-11-22T04:11:00.000Z

sometime ago, when Louis Hamilton failed to win the championship and England lost the rugby finals, Bro had remarked now what would be fantastic to add to that is if England failed to qualify for euro championship as well....
'n its happened now, 'n McClaren says he is not stepping down but FA is to meet on thursday to discuss his(McClaren) future, it wud be interesting to follow what happens :)
btw one of the comments by an english supporter on BBC board read - "Anyone got Mourinho's number?" :)

2007-11-16T06:53:00.001Z

Yes.
No.
Maybe.
Whatever.

2007-11-11T10:37:00.000Z

in this world of madness, expectin' one to remain sane, is insane...

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Now playing: Travis - Sing
via FoxyTunes

Rangaswamy Betta Trek

2007-11-02T13:54:00.000Z

hmm...not much in a mood to write 'n donno when will get into one, so please excuse if it turns out to be a real dry post for such a subject.

This marked the first ever outing of the newly formed 'Columbus' group in Novell.

destination: Rangaswamy Betta

crew: Aditya, Harshad, Gitanjali, Vishal, Jayanti, Rohit, Nikita, Bharath, Rashmi, Kali and yours truly

vahanas: A Scorpio, one Safari 'n a Pulsar.

A few observations/thoughts -

I was quite surprised with my own stamina on the trek. May be all that weight 'm putting on has some gud benefits after all! :D The villagers had said, you require around 3Hrs but Aditya and I managed to do it in just around 1.45 Hrs. Kali 'n Rashmi joined us coupla minutes later. Harshad 'n his wife after few more mintues. But others took more than 45 mins to reach the top.
Floaters, no matter how gud it is for climbing up are really a bad idea, when climbing down. Rather thts what ppl blamed, when i kept slipping or another thing maybe i just don't know the technique of climbing down.
Guys, okay i will make it few guys (dont wanna get into trouble) are really bad, when it comes to directions and on top of it they don't listen, especially if the directions happens to come from girls. And on top of it arguing, now that totally ticks me off!
Bikers/two wheelers don't get da same respect as a four-wheeler! plus wonder how can one drive in the night, in that headlights' glare madness! wonder why can't ppl just do dip 'n dim!

hmm...guess thts abt it. On da whole it was an awesome outing, hope i get to do this more often...
for more pics you can check out ma picasa...

Bored!

2007-10-31T14:14:00.001Z

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http://www.flickr.com/photos/63781227@N00/544827032/

A Walk in the Rain...

2007-10-27T17:18:00.000+01:00

Came home few minutes back, after having dinner @ Chung Wah, a branch of which has opened up recently near my home. I was reminded of last saturday and saw that i hadn't blogged abt it, so here you go -

Last Saturday had reached home just around this time, after walking all the way from Silkboard. The whole crazy thing started off with vitta saying - 'lets walk'. Since its almost impossible to walk on Hosur road, we decided we will take a bus till silkboard and then walk from there to 'ragigudda' and from where i was supposed to catch '201' bus to my place.

So we got down @ Silkboard and started walking. The roads were all wet and I got to know later from sailesh that it had rained heavily just a few hours back. Anyways vitta kept commenting, that it should rain, and i kept scolding him for it, as how it wont be nice @ all if it rains! Just to irritate me, whenever we walked under a tree, he used to catch hold of branches and shake 'em, so that all the water droplets fell on me. Yeah he is one crazy, enthu guy :)
While on our way, he remarked 'how surprised he was, tht i walked!' which led me to start telling him stories of my walking days and i jokingly remarked 'for all he knows i may walk all the way to banshankari, and if i was crazy enough all the way till home' :)

With two pitstops @ 'Chowpatty in BTM' and 'Poonam Furniture House', we reached Ragigudda, just as it started raining. And i thought lemme give a call to Sailesh whose house is right beside 'corner house'(yeah! one lucky chap he is!). He had left office early saying he had plans to go to some pub and later in the night to Madhur CCD, so i was surprised when he picked up and said he was @ his room. So i asked him to come to the bus-stop, the plan was to go drink buttermilk(which vitta 'n i couldn't find on our way) and then me catching bus to home.

Sailesh came and vitta took us to this place near his home, which sold buttermilk. I donno how many days' or months' old that packet was, after somehow finishing half of mine, i gave it to vitta who promptly threw it! shockingly sailesh somehow managed to finish his whole packet!By that time it was drizzling a bit heavily and Sailesh said that he could go get a jacket from his room and i declined very forcefully, a decision which later both of us regretted but not for long :)
neways Sailesh suggested, lets walk down to Banshankari. Vitta declined, saying he had to go to his room. So i and Sailesh started walking. And we hadn't walked a few steps when that heavy drizzle turned into full-fledged rain. Since we were already a bit far from his room, we decided to continue walking in the rain, as i had a waterproof bag and he wasn't carrying nething.

And so it started. Sailesh kept cursing his long hair, whenever he bent his head, hair kept falling, dropping water over his face and into his eyes :) Somehow we ended up deciding that we will walk all the way to my home, probably 'coz we were already completely drenched. We took the montoype route(near which, it started raining cats and dogs! ) and went to BDA complex to have hot samosas. Hot samosas in rain, heavenly!
But both of us realized its bad to go back into rain, once you are out of it. Anyways from there, continued, stopped in between to call my home and say i was stuck 'coz of rain 'n tht i wud reach home soon ;) I think we reached the turning to my home around 9:50pm. Bid adieu to Sailesh there, who caught an auto back to his room. After coming back home, realized it was a long long long time, since i had done such a crazy thing. Somehow water had managed to enter into my bag and Dilbert book was wet around edges, couple of printout sheets had gotten wet. But thankfully, all my electronic items, most importantly my ipod was ok!

So that was my last saturday, compared to that, today has been completely uneventful, just slept, lazed around @ home, went out for dinner and now back, more sleep beckons :)

Adios

month names

2007-10-24T05:20:00.000+01:00

yesterday on my way home, the cab driver remarked tht it starts pouring when one nears home 'n i remarked saying how unusual is this october showers we are having in b'lore for past one week.
and somehow that 'october' word triggered of this thought - "what do you call october in 'kannada' or any other indian language for that matter?" Sadly i couldn't think of an answer :(
I know the local season names, names of the days in a week but month names? i do know the respective month names in spanish, which brings me to the question - don't we have indianised names for the months in a year? If anyone knows, to please leave the answer in the comments section.

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Now playing: Santana - Eternal Caravan of Reincarnation
via FoxyTunes

2007-10-20T09:15:00.000+01:00

when you cry and u dont wash ur face, u get an irritating sensation in ur eyes...wonder whts da composition of tears....which is responsible for tht....

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Now playing: Pearl Jam - Alive
via FoxyTunes

Netherlands bans magic mushrooms

2007-10-13T07:36:00.001+01:00

A woman harvests magic mushrooms in a grow room at the Procare farm in Hazerswoude, central Netherlands, Friday Aug. 3, 2007
Magic mushrooms are big business in the Netherlands
The Dutch government is banning the sale of all magic mushrooms after a series of high-profile incidents involving tourists who had taken them.The decision will take effect within several months, said a spokesman for the Dutch justice ministry.

BBC NEWS | Europe | Netherlands bans magic mushrooms

sad, recently only was telling two of my friends, one of whom is planning to visit Amsterdam, how everything is legal over there... :(

so thr u go, one more free society comes under the hammer....

which reminds me of one of the discussions i had with my friend on 'freedom'....can one have absolute freedom? can such a society ever exist? should freedom of all people be curtailed just 'coz some can not handle it responsibly enough? do restrictions/ban ever serve their purpose 'n in a way don't they bring about just the opp effect? 'n all those restrictions won't that make us a weaker species in gen?

guess as someone said before -

the average man does not want to be free. he simply wants to be safe.

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Now playing: Morrison Jim/The Doors - The Hitchhiker
via FoxyTunes

2007-10-12T12:50:00.000+01:00

today on my way to work, observed two things. first one being that one half of the beautiful madivala lake has been completely covered with hyacinth :(
madivala lake used to be cure for an eyesore many a times. And that was one part of my journey i looked forward to. the bus i travel in takes this curved road right along the lake and one gets an amazing view of the vast expanse of the lake. the island grove in middle of lake makes it even more picturesque. at any time one can see birds, lot of birds! white birds perched on trees in the island grove, ducks sailing...infact just a few days back i saw this big team of ducks...alas now i wonder what will happen, 'coz with the current viral growth of hyacinth, the lake will be covered in no time. this thought reminded me of holden's question to cab driver in 'catcher in the rye' - where do the ducks in central park go in winter?
hmm...interesting how brain remembers some arbit stuff...

neways da 2nd observation is so very insignificant when compared to above...wonder if it deserves a mention @ all now...hmm....but yeah i guess i will go ahead 'n pen it down neway. at the bannerghatta road and jp nagar 100 ft road junction, one can see a shoppers stop hoarding. well the model's backpack placed beside her is mine, i mean i possess a similar one, one detachable 'giordano' backpack. i consider it as one of the best buys of my life.

tht said
adios

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Now playing: The Monkees - Words (single version)
via FoxyTunes

2007-09-24T06:29:00.001+01:00

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Now playing: the spacious mind - House in the Country
via FoxyTunes

2007-09-20T16:56:00.000+01:00

every once in a while the bubble you live in, bursts 'n you see others who are so busy ensuring that ur bubble doesn't, that they can't even have one of their own...

Manager Mourinho leaves Chelsea

2007-09-20T07:16:00.001+01:00

Jose MourinhoMourinho's position was the subject of continual scrutiny last seasonChelsea manager Jose Mourinho has sensationally left Stamford Bridge by mutual consent, the club has confirmed.

BBC SPORT | Football | My Club | Chelsea | Manager Mourinho leaves Chelsea

hmm...wonder whats next for him? though shd say me enjoyed EPL only 'coz of him...
hmm...so with him gone...i hate to admit but i think Arsenal may be the team i would like to see winning....'n tht is ofcourse 'coz Henry is no longer there... :P

Blogged with Flock

RIP ‘Wheel of Time’ author Robert Jordan

2007-09-17T16:18:00.001+01:00

RIP ‘Wheel of Time’ author Robert JordanPosted by Ariel on September 17th, 2007 at 8:34Powered by Gregarious (35)Detail: James Oliver Rigby Jr. - better known to the world as bestselling fantasy author Robert Jordan - passed away at 2.45 p.m. yesterday afternoon, September 16th, having finally lost his battle with a rare form of cancer which was first diagnosed in March 2006.He had continued to publish new work in the months since the diagnosis and had been working on the twelfth volume of his best-known series, The Wheel of Time, which remains unfinished. During his career Jordan also wrote the Michael Fallon historical romance trilogy (originally under the name 'Reagan O'Neill') and seven well-received Conan novels.More Info: www.dragonmount.com

RIP ‘Wheel of Time’ author Robert Jordan | The UK SF Book News Network

just came across this terrible news in reader now...
donno wht to say...will prob update this post sometime later or maybe not...
'death' its funny...how it selects its victims...

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Mind Jam....

2007-09-15T15:17:00.000+01:00

is what you get...when a ride which @ worst shd take 40 mins takes 3 hrs...
Its enough to get even the most upbeat person like me down...doesn't matter that i was having a good time playing DC, anthakshari,reading book... but it still gets you down at some level...

lines of motionless vehicles stacked one behind another....there's just something depressing about da whole scene...and when its not just one road but all da roads display the same picture, 'n there's no escapin' how much eva u try...

hmm....guess we find most beauty in motion....

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Now playing: Lata Mangeshkar - rulake gaya sapna mera
via FoxyTunes

Blackstratblues

2007-09-05T17:58:00.000+01:00

hmm...well i was going through feeds in my reader when i came across this post, and i thought 'knights in shining karma' by Blackstratblues would make an amazing background. Anyways while shooting out a mail, i happened to see major updates to the website and most importantly came across links to Warren Mendonsa's Gig Videos. He's just so freakin' good! Check him out in below videos -

My friend was lucky to catch him live for like till 2am @ some pub in Mumbai....if he comes down to b'lore, i don't mind even going to a pub to hear 'n watch him live...

Anyways do download the album from his website...its absolutely FREE! 'm sure you will love it.

2007-08-27T09:07:00.000+01:00

oh, the ugliness of it all!

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Now playing: Pink Floyd - Terminal frost
via FoxyTunes

Blow your harmonica, son!

2007-08-20T11:29:00.000+01:00

Well I'm about to get sick
From watchin' my TV
Been checkin' out the news
Until my eyeballs fail to see
I mean to say that every day
Is just another rotten mess
And when it's gonna change, my friend
Is anybody's guess

So I'm watchin' and I'm waitin'
Hopin' for the best
Even think I'll go to prayin'
Every time I hear 'em sayin'
That there's no way to delay
That trouble comin' every day
No way to delay
That trouble comin' every day

Wednesday I watched the riot . . .
Seen the cops out on the street
Watched 'em throwin' rocks and stuff
And chokin' in the heat
Listened to reports
About the whisky passin' 'round
Seen the smoke and fire
And the market burnin' down
Watched while everybody
On his street would take a turn
To stomp and smash and bash and crash
And slash and bust and burn

And I'm watchin' and I'm waitin'
Hopin' for the best
Even think I'll go to prayin'
Every time I hear 'em sayin'
That there's no way to delay
That trouble comin' every day
No way to delay
That trouble comin' every day

Well, you can cool it,
You can heat it . . .
'Cause, baby, I don't need it . . .
Take your TV tube and eat it
'N all that phony stuff on sports
'N all the unconfirmed reports
You know I watched that rotten box
Until my head begin to hurt
From checkin' out the way
The newsman say they get the dirt
Before the guys on channel so-and-so

And further they assert
That any show they'll interrupt
To bring you news if it comes up
They say that if the place blows up
They will be the first to tell,
Because the boys they got downtown
Are workin' hard and doin' swell,
And if anybody gets the news
Before it hits the street,
They say that no one blabs it faster
Their coverage can't be beat

And if another woman driver
Gets machine-gunned from her seat
They'll send some joker with a brownie
And you'll see it all complete

So I'm watchin' and I'm waitin'
Hopin' for the best
Even think I'll go to prayin'
Every time I hear 'em sayin'
That there's no way to delay
That trouble comin' every day
No way to delay
That trouble comin' every day

Hey, you know something people?
I'm not black
But there's a whole lots a times
I wish I could say I'm not white

Well, I seen the fires burnin'
And the local people turnin'
On the merchants and the shops
Who used to sell their brooms and mops
And every other household item
Watched the mob just turn and bite 'em
And they say it served 'em right
Because a few of them are white,
And it's the same across the nation
Black and white discrimination
Yellin' "You can't understand me!"
'N all that other jazz they hand me
In the papers and TV and
All that mass stupidity
That seems to grow more every day
Each time you hear some nitwit say
He wants to go and do you in
Because the color of your skin
Just don't appeal to him
(No matter if it's black or white)
Because he's out for blood tonight

You know we got to sit around at home
And watch this thing begin
But I bet there won't be many live
To see it really end
'Cause the fire in the street
Ain't like the fire in the heart
And in the eyes of all these people
Don't you know that this could start
On any street in any town
In any state if any clown
Decides that now's the time to fight
For some ideal he thinks is right
And if a million more agree
There ain't no Great Society
As it applies to you and me
Our country isn't free
And the law refuses to see
If all that you can ever be
Is just a lousy janitor
Unless your uncle owns a store
You know that five in every four
Just won't amount to nothin' more
Gonna watch the rats go across the floor
And make up songs about being poor

Blow your harmonica, son!

thats 'Trouble Every Day' one of Zappa's greats(for me)...
no particular reason other than tht 've been listening to it on 'n off today...
'n feel everyone shd know of it...

Hooray!

2007-08-13T04:17:00.000+01:00

Finally we have a eatery on HR! 'n of course i mean the part of HR near my off...today on way to work, just happen to see a CCD open beside LootMart... :) Now just hoping that we will get some special Novell discount... :)

'n yeah yest Chelsea beat the long-standing Liverpool record for the number of top-flight home games without defeat...now hoping tht Mourinho also gets his century(he's currently @ 99)...so hopefully the team can/will do that much for him... :)

'n it was fun watching the arsenal game yest...they somehow managed to scrape through in the end...

'n of course ManU were held to a goal-less draw... :)

update:

Just saw that Woods has won his 13th Major...Way to go!

'n that Novak Djokovic has defeated Federer! now i don't mind his defeating Nadal day before... :) btw he's one amazing player both on 'n off...such a fun character...if you haven't already seen the video of him imitating Nadal, Sharapova...watch it...its fun!