Gobbledygook

2010-10-08T02:20:00.002+05:30

Most hated phrases as of now....

1. I need time

2. I don't want to talk about it

3. Its just sex / Its just a kiss

4. Any variant of and including boyfriend / girlfriend

5. Any sentence starting with or containing 'ex-'

6. How i met your mother

2010-07-08T17:11:00.002+05:30

Which is better...

Stuck with a question to which you know the answer ?
Stuck with the answer which you already knew but never wanted to know?

:)

Epihany Toilet

2010-01-27T18:06:00.006+05:30

A little more than year ago i was faced with a situation which every tom, dick and harry from Arctic to Antarctica will face at least once. But no matter how much you learn from others experience, each and everyone of them ends up making a mountain out of the mole hill of a situation like that! Everyone have their unique explanation on why his / her situation is so different from anything that has happened in the past thousand years of human civilization. Essentially the ingredients for the situation are the same. Only the flavor differs and its perfectly normal for any individual to not accept the mundane nature of the situation.

I too was no exception, ended up lamenting, mourning, dreaming of what could have been et al, Looking back at it now in a much more mature way it was all silly, stupid...the situation did not deserve any of the things that i went through in the last year!! You may ask why this epiphany now...well, as i said...its the process to understand that its just mundane in anyone's life. For some its painful and for others it doesn't take more than a day! In my case it was a full year :)

This epiphany has been brewing in my head for quite sometime now. I was a little afraid of what happens if the involved parties read this...Well, this fear just is the opposite of the way i want to treat the whole situation. The involved parties are in three different corners of the world and do not know about this blog, even if they do they don't give a rat's ass about what is written here, even if they do they wouldn't understand it, even if they did understand...*big deal*

Looking back at it, i feel i should have taken some initiative. I should have just blurted it out...would have been much easier to handle after that. We would have just laughed our hearts out or otherwise we would have come to an amicable conclusion that we should not stay in touch. Either ways there would have been no harm done. Given the state of the relationship now between the three parties involved, i feel blurting out what i felt wouldn't have changed anything. If i were the other party i would have said something to this effect "big whoop...you are just crazy" or "Ooookkk...sorry for the wrong sign boards, you better take the left, i better take the right. Don't take it too seriously...there is a big wide world out there". I used to contemplate what would have been the reaction of the individuals involved, given their culture i strongly feel it would have been either of the two that i mentioned, even if there was third it doesn't matter...it wouldn't have complicated the issue. The dynamics in the group would have come to the standstill, which it is now, a lot earlier and i would have recovered a lot lot earlier. The relationship would have reached the current state anyhow...it was just the time involved to reach this state. I knew that this is how it will end up, but still i didn't have the courage...i wish i had the courage then.

I still dream about it, but i am now grounded to the reality of the impossibility of what could have been or what it could be.

:)
Thats a genuine crack of smile...soon enough i will make it to this :D

Finally a BIG THANK YOU to B and N. A relatively smaller thank you to Say, Sum, Kis, Sam, Viv. Thanks for sitting through all my rants...you guys ROCK \m/

2010-01-27T17:10:00.002+05:30

Part Deux!

The week that was in Brazil:
After the long flight from Bangalore to Belo Horizonte I checked into a pretty posh hotel at around 2 am and dozed of my weariness. Was pretty much the normal on weekdays, work, experiment with brazilian food et al., My colleagues there were extremely friendly and they ensured that i didnt miss out on anything thats brazilian, from Picania to Guaranas! I was able to gel with them quite quickly and an elaborate weekend plan was charted out. Luckily it was the birthday of a colleague out there and he was hosting a BBQ at his house. I was invited to that. So the Saturday went like this, Work, then to BBQ party, then the wild night out :) My friends were able to arrange a ticket to a concert by one DJ Marlboro...*phew* girls in amazing outfits everywhere!!, people dancing their heart out...the experience was just out of the world...Not at all possible in India...Partied till 4 am or so!! Had quite funny encounters as well :P

Finally as i said, the trip on the whole was as i expected to be!! Couldn't have asked for any thing better.....

next post will be a serious one :)

2010-01-25T16:12:00.003+05:30

Yea Yea 2009 fini and 2010 started...big WHOOP

2009 was quite lousy for me, no big expectations from 2010 either!

Traveled to Brazil for a week in December. No, not a vacation but for work!
My first trip outside of India in official capacity. It was as i expected it to be. Was quite a confidence booster both professionally and personally. So this post is essentially a scribble on my 'new' experiences in a foreign land!!

Departure:
People close to me know how much of hardships i have gone through when it comes to traveling for official purpose. In general its considered a birth right of a software engineer to travel outside of India after he / she gains a couple of years experience in the industry. The 'I love India' Indian that i am :P i went to great lengths avoiding to be stereotyped like that. Still my employer managed to stamp my passport with a US visa valid for 3 years! The whole experience of applying for the visa, the documents to be submitted, visit to the consulate et al., though funny was quite a trauma and created a aversion in me to travel on official purposes. Maybe a main motivation to make my first trip to Malaysia / Singapore. The same trip made me realize that it would be simply impossible to see the world the way i imagined on my own money. So decided to join the rat race and shifted to a new company. This new one drew up an elaborate plan for me just a few weeks after joining them. Now, just a month after joining, this was the job plan they laid out for me, they said "First you need to go to Japan for a month to get acquainted with the client and learn their ways, from there you need to travel to UK where you will be trained on the technical stuff required to execute the project, and then to the US to meet the people to whom you will actually be reporting to. All in all your travel plan is for 3 - 4 months and then work here from bangalore" Imagine all kinds stars and birds flying around my head. After all the stars and birds went 'plink'...the documentation trauma started and it was literally harassing me with all kinds questions about my monthly earnings and why in god's name that am the best in the business. But it turned to worse or better, i was posted in Chennai after a long wait. I was heartbroken to be posted in Chennai after such long talks of circumnavigating the globe, neverthless i took up the challenge and failed / succeeded...depends on the way you look at it, because i for one sure dont know how to see that episode of my life! After an unconquerable battle with chennai i accepted defeat and jumped employer again. Atleast my previous made elaborate plans only after i came on board, but here the plans were set in motion even before i could join them. I was being prep-ed for an assignment in Sweden!!! Again the stars and birds came back to revolve around my head...and went plink before the birds could make any sound. After i joined them the Sweden trip was dinged because of some issue (got no clue what it was) Then came Poland. By this time i was so tired with this Cat and mouse game that i was no more interested in any of the plans anybody told me, i was just plain happy to make two more Singapore trips in the mean while :) . Back to story, when i read up the documents i came to know that the assignment is not in Poland but in Holland / Netherlands, had to use google maps to prove that Drunen is not in Poland but in Holland :D Either ways this too got dinged and i ended up in a cozy project in good old bengaluru. Side note: Came to know this week that a couple of guys went to Norway in relation to this project :D. So after virtual trips to Japan, France, UK, US, Sweden, Poland, Holland, Germany...i just gave up!! No Human can continue on such virtual plans. One fine thursday my phone rang at an odd hour and informed that i have to travel to Brazil...I was completely uninterested and said i will have the documents for visa by tomorrow, cuz all the above trauma has made me immune to such news' to an extent that i just ignore them. So finally made all the documents within a day (Oh come on, i am darn good at this documentation stuff), then came 'Yellow Fever' vaccination. This one ticked me off..what the hell..'yellow fever' vaccination, but had a fun ride to find out how to get it done in India! Anyone needing info on that please contact me :D..So all set and am supposed to fly in another week! I still did not believe in the plan...thats how much pessismistic i am :D
The actual Departure:
Now Brazil visa has an unique requirement of providing booked flight tickets to be shown! So i was real happy to see actually ticket in my name, this is the closest ever i have gotten to a official journey!!! The route was as expected, BLR -> CDG(Paris)->GRU(Sao Paulo)->Belo Horizonte (my final destination). So my Visa was under process and i was informed that it would come by friday and i have to leave the same night!! I still couldn't believe any of it!! Googled Belo Horizonte and found all the necessary information on what to do there if at all i land there. Thursday came and i was informed that Visa is getting delayed and hence the trip maybe canceled...'plod' went my face like pin pricked balloon. Friday came and the plan was brought back to life again with just a day delay. I was informed that i need to go to Mumbai, collect my passport and then fly to Brazil from there. Monday came...Still no word about my visa, but all my flight tickets are booked! In the whole drama my flight plans changed so much that the final itinerary was to fly via Dubai!! In anticipation of this trip i had gone on a shopping spree as well. By Monday afternoon everything got sorted out...I was actually leaving the same night!!!!!!!I still couldn't believe what was happening. Packed up hurriedly and left to Mumbai. Passport was waiting for me as arranged...everything was working like clockwork. Went to the Emirates check in counter and my baggage was checked in..this was the precise point in time i realized that i am actually flying to BRAZIL!!!!!!!!!!!
The flight journey:
I will be talking about both to and from journey in this because of length considerations of this post :) Bangalore to Mumbai was in ultra hurry burry, was the good old jet airways. Reached Mumbai safely...grr...humidity, and whats the deal with the taxis there! all from 80s movie set! *Pathetic* My Dubai flight was late in the night at 4am, had quite a long wait in Mumbai and finally boarded the plane at around 3 45am. Emirates. The dress of the air hostess was just plain funny..it was as though they were taking us on a camel ride :D and the in-flight music..as though you have entered some Aladdin movie set!! Complete middle east flavor. I was tired after all the drama with passport flight to Mumbai...i simply stuck the 'Do not Disturb' on my seat and dozed off for the next 4 hrs!! Tottadoin...*Dubai*, after the craziness of Mumbai airport getting to my gate in Dubai was a breeze...friendly staff, with all kinds of sign boards at right locations. But one thing disappointed me though..whats the deal with toilets, i had to walk atleast a kilometer before i could find a toilet. Realized how well connected Dubai is...there is a flight leaving from Dubai to any corner of the world..was just amazed by the names of cities they are connected to!! They even fly to Perth, Auckland, Christchurch, Dar-es-salam...you name the city...you will be taken to that place from Dubai!! Next leg of my journey was to Sao Paulo! Was ultra excited. Met a Malu guy in the same route..darn it they are everywhere and its true!! The flight was full of Pakistanis. My seat was the middle one and i was just wishing that my co-passengers better be someone nice. A nice portuguese couple were my co-passengers, but didnt interact with them much though. The flight took off, we will traveling all over middle east, enter africa, exit africa, the whole atlantic and then to destination! The sky was crystal clear and an hour later the hostess gave me a plate of the lunch and said 'Sir, Hindu meal for you'...I gave a grin at her comment and asked why am i so special?? She politely said you selected it while booking the ticket...darn travel agents, how can he assume things like this..grr..Didn't to reject the meal and get a normal one, thought it might be bad cuz emirates has taken so much pains to respect my religious views :P The meal contained *edited for family reading*. If it was any other brahmin he would have jumped out of the plane :D Sky gazed for a while...was just brownish because of the desert below, went into a sleep. After i guess what seemed like a night of good sleep i woke up and asked the hostess 'are we there yet?' She said 'Another 11 hrs to go sir' I was like !@#$@%$##$#. Yes it was a fifteen hour flight. Went into sky gazing mode and looked down..was completely green..Oh flying over Africa!!! I didnt want to miss one leg of my journey and that was crossing the equator! Kept myself awake with the in flight entertainment and savoured every second of crossing over the equator!!! Just after crossing..'YAY, am in southern hemisphere, let me goto the toilet and see if the flush rotates the other way round...darn it its suction principle in flights..grr..lets wait till Sao Paulo' Remember i am traveling with the sun...it felt quite odd not seeing the darkness after some 14-15 hrs of day light. Watched crossing over from Africa to Atlantic. Atlantic was quite stormy, it was a treat to eyes flying over a storm!! So after 22000 Kms and nearly 22hrs of flight journey we landed safely at Sao Paulo. I couldnt help but crack a smile when i saw the board 'This way to immigration' sign board..of course in portuguese. I was actually in BRAZIL, i pinched myself to get back to reality and understand where i was. The immigration was serpentine and i was nervous because i was standing behind a group of pakistanis. There were these girls with some uniform in the airport who randomly picked passengers and asked our nationality! Came out of immigration peacefully and collected my baggage. My next leg was to Belo Horizonte and the flight was at night 10pm. I had come out of immigration only at 9pm...*panic* The airport at Sao Paulo was just HUGE. Ran around quite a lot and successfully got into my next flight just 10 minutes before departure..*phew*. The air hostess lady of TAM airlines gave a pleasant smile...i kinda blushed :D and got into the aircraft. Now this is a domestic flight and they dont see much of foreigners in them...comparable to any indian domestic flight. Walking down the aisle..everyone was looking at me in a odd way. They are used to Africans and Whites. I could see them mentally calculate on whether to put me in african category or try to assess my race....My co-passengers were a old lady and a old guy. Was just thankful to sit after all the running around and took a deep breath to look at my watch...grr..immediately asked the old lady what is the local time in english. She looked at me blankly...thats when i realized the HUGE problem, which was actually not a problem at all that i would realize in just a few more hours that was in front of me for the rest of my time in brazil. Did a quick dumb charades and got the local time and wound my watch to show the same. An hour or so later my final destination BELO HORIZONTE!!! Was a small airport, was able to get out without major hiccups...The time was 1am of Wednesday

The rest in part deux...

2009-10-28T18:36:00.002+05:30

Murali went over the testimonies again. He got it after a tough legal battle. In total there were 10 testimonies from friends and families. He was looking for any abnormalities, mismatch in statements or simply put any clue on the whereabouts of his missing brother. He was due in another hour at the police station to get the latest updates. He knew very well that they are not going to produce anything new today, but still he would do it. Over the last couple of months he went through his brother's facebook, gmail, bank accounts, twitter, phone book etc. Everything concluded one fact, his brother didn't want to be found! He probed into many aspects of the whole issue like girlfriends, suicide etc., but none of the theories had a satisfying explanation. He had simply vanished!! Amma called him from the kitchen asked if she should make Bhindi fry for lunch, he could imagine the uncosolable eyes of her and simply retorted 'Amma you very well know that we can't make that, not without brother' ....

9 Years later

As usual all phone calls were attended by Murali's daughter nowadays, now that she has started to speak coherent sentences.
aaaallllo!
Thiz eeez iinspect-or Francois. I yaam calleeing regarding Mr. Christian Anderson

She couldn't handle the accent and simply put down the receiver and shouted in her shrieky voice 'Appppaaaa, phone'!

Murali went,

Hello! Murali here
Thiz eeez iinspect-or Francois. I yaam calleeing regarding Mr. Christian Anderson
Mr. Anderson, I am sorry sir, i think you have the wrong number.
No Mr.Murleee, we found your addreees in Mr.Anderson's purze. Do you know Mr.Anderson?
Am sorry, may i know where you are calling from. I am sure i don't know any Mr.Anderson.
I yaam calleeing from Nantes Poleez depaartmen. Mr.Anderson, no faamilee in Nantes. Only friends. Wee are calleeing everybody. We inform he eez dead.
Oh i am sorry to hear that, but again sir, i don't know any Mr.Anderson.
eet eez OK. You can call us if you waant more deetails.
Thanks Mr.Francois!

He hung up the phone. His daughter came running towards him with her favorite yellow book, 'appa appa story story'.Ah! all the time like your uncle, everytime Hans Christian Anderson. How many times will you read that sweetie....

2009-10-14T11:47:00.002+05:30

This one is from the movie 'As good As it gets'

"Some of us have great stories, pretty stories that take place at lakes, with boats, and friends, and noodle salad. Just, no one in this car. But, a lot of people, that's their story. Good times, noodle salad. What makes it so hard is not that you had it bad, but you're that pissed that so many others had it good."

:D :D

Surfing...

2009-08-28T09:56:00.002+05:30

This post is triggered by Jenny's post about the movie 'Martian Child'

Do you know the feeling when you end up watching a movie when you are mindlessly flicking channels late in the night? I mean your eyes are red, but still just the thought that tomorrow is sunday makes you stay awake and do channel surfing and suddenly something interesting makes you sit up and finish the movie with great satisfaction? So Here are some of my memorable ones...

Predator: This was way back in late 90's. Saw this movie yesterday...Still hasn't lost its charm. Keeps you riveted to your seat every minute of the movie

Die Hard and Die Hard with a vengeance: Imagine discovering these movies without any hype surrounding it...'whoa'

From Dusk Till Dawn: I started this movie from the scene where George clooney and Quentin Tarantino come out of a gas station and the gas station explodes and both of them with an expression of 'What? you didn't expect that?'...Do i need to explain any more?

Unforgiven: oh! Clint Eastwood..Lets see for some time. The TV is switched off after the final credits roll. Whoa...look up IMDB, damn an oscar nominee...how did i miss that?

Alien Vs Predator: An ice breaker ship is going through an icy ocean and the screen reads 'Somewhere in the Antarctic...' That's it! the choice is made.

Boa Vs Python: Come on..Boa, python, fighting. Does the channel button have any choice?

Serendipity: A feel good factor right from the beginning

Stargate: Egyptologist, hieroglyphs...and then a gate to 'don't know where'. An awesome find...

It Could happen to you: I can never forget this find!

The Thomas crown affair: Not the pierce brosnan one..the original 60's Steve McQueen one...

Network: This actually does not count...i had a fair idea about this movie

The girl in the Cafe: :) Kelly McDonald before 'No country for old men'...but after 'Trainspotting'...hey i have seen her in some other movie. You will pull your tongue out before finding out Trainspotting!

Earthstorm: Another 'made-for-tv' movie. Asteroid hits moon, moon cracks, NASA renamed as ASI sends out a team to 'weld' the moon. Imagine watching this in a half sleepy mood...priceless!

Jeepers Creepers: ROTFL!!! Just watch the movie

Stepmom: tear jerker..actually ruined the night. But still was a good find

So i married an axe murderer: Mike Myers .Period.

Big: Way back in late 90's

Chotti si Baat: yea well! it is just a chotti si baat :)

and many many many many more...

Cheers to channel surfing!

Back to...

2009-08-27T11:36:00.001+05:30

Back to nippy mornings with coffee
Back to a decent winter
Back to mungaru malay
Back to narrow roads
Back to crazy no-reason traffic jams
Back to friends
Back to MG
Back to Brigade
Back to halli
Back to 'same-cookie' smelling malls
Back to Strand book fest
Back to book-selection at blossoms
Back to National
Back to 'around-the-corner' CCDs
Back to corner house
Back to endless eat outs
Back to a decent cocktail menu
Back to proper King Fisher
Back to egg sandwich with brown bread
Back to over-the-phone
Back to Sony
Back to Bravia
Back to dish
Back to bro's veg dosa
Back to my bean bag
Back to my bed
.
.
.
.
Back to my home...Bangalore

2009-08-06T13:35:00.003+05:30

Saw this movie called 'After Sex'

Its about what people talk just after finishing up sex. The movie is a series of 10 minute conversation between two people just after they finish doing IT. No connection what so ever between the pairs shown or the conversation in each 10 minute segment. All kinds of love are explored...tender, gay, lesbian, old...i mean a cross section of the many kinds of love available in this world. Quite an enjoyable one. I couldn't relate to the movie or the characters but the idea and the subject matter made it nice.

Off late i have been watching a lot of teen flicks..I mean the dumb ones. The idea behind this activity was to stop my mind from thinking. But frigging teen movies got me thinking in a different angle and made me write this post...crap

Anyways, i saw this movie called 'On the Line'. The leading lady Emmanuelle Chriqui..,phew!!! she was cute. So decided to get other movies of this actress. After quite a lot of torrent searches i ended up with 'After Sex'. Didn't read the reviews, plot line or anything of that sort...just dove into it expecting yet another teen flick. Ended up with a nice surprise and a little disappointment...i mean come on...she only had 10 minutes of screen time :D

Getting back to the thinking part of my story, the thought process was triggered by a dialogue between two teens in a totally unrelated movie. So this particular virgin teen is about to go and do it with some random stranger and the girl who is in love with this teen says...'why are you so bothered about being a virgin?..Its just sex!'. Then the guy reels out a long speech...not required for my thinking part.

Being an Indian has its own disadvantages. We are not as promiscuous / experimental as other cultures or atleast the western side or maybe i am not aware of this aspect of India! I base this idea on the western media that i am exposed to (Yes, reality may not be close to what is shown in movies / shows...but still it must be a little close right?) and some close interactions with firangs (Some details wish i hadn't known...). We are brought up with stories of Rama and Sita and kinda mindfucked to be like them, but the same culture does not answer why Dasharath from the same story has three wives :-/ Prom night, dance, sex, one night stands, 3 or 4 meaningless relationships etc., i just feel i am being denied all this just because i am part of a society which does not subscribe to these ideas...Sad
*edit* i feel left out in this game...that would be an appropriate edit i guess *edit*

I am kinda used to the idea or maybe come to terms for a celibate life or to maybe die a virgin. I have seen what this can do to people, i have seen both plus and minus. I hardly know 10 women on this planet of which only one kinda 'got-me' but sadly enough i didn't even get an opportunity to tell her that i like her (On a side note...really funny story :D only two people in this planet know about it..i will blog it when i come to terms with the funny side...coz am the joker in the story!)

The whole point of this post is, in general i am an unhappy person and i find ways to keep myself away from worrying / thinking about my life. So an activity that started out to keep me away ended up depressing me even more...that sucks.

So, its party time today. There's gonna be me, XPS, VLC and Airtel Broadband. Gtalk is invited but little birdie tells me he may not make it. Facebook is banished from the house. Guys lets hit it...be ready!

2009-08-02T03:18:00.001+05:30

dear baby dear baby...

if i was writing you a letter it would probably sound something like an apology.i know everyone deserves a momma who would wanna nice baby such as yourselves who was also be a good wife and a fine member of the society and i cant rightly say that am any of that and i am not sure if the world is such a fine place to be bringing you. Many of the people i've met are not worth meeting. Many of the things that happened are not living through...and you shouldnt take it personal baby if i dont seem like all the other mommas to be...jumping all over themselves with joy. I frankly dont know what i've got to give you baby. What if i leave Earl and dont win that contest next week and dont have no money,,,what the hell am i gonna do with you then? All my life baby...the only thing i've ever wanna do is runaway...what kinda momma is that? I wish i could feel other things baby...like excitement that you are with me now or faith that i will be a good momma even if my life ain't such a good place in the world as i see it ain't so pretty like i want you to believe in this book...anyway i am writing this letter to you sounds more like a letter to me don't it?

Love

Momma...

2009-07-27T12:10:00.000+05:30

The connection is lost...

The year of the Dog

2009-07-22T14:41:00.000+05:30

The list is small. Write it down and it will not even cross half a page.

I give my unconditional attention, Love, affection and loyalty to this list. I am way too sensitive and get easily hurt when i don't get the same from the list. Yeah! Blame it on me for being such a immature imbecile...

I neither have the mental capacity nor the emotional maturity to live as a blip on facebook, an SMS or monthly mail...I need more than that .Period.

Heres wishing to get some emotional perspective and to the items lost in the list, items still on the list even though the item doesn't give rat's ass about the list, items eternally etched in the list...

...

2009-07-15T11:25:00.002+05:30

Just another day, Just another year came and wen t. Nothing special.
Well i am not a great gifter, actually i draw a huge blank when choosing gifts. So given that am not part of the gifting culture it was not fair to expect anything special for this particular ocassion. But still a surprise from someone wouldnt have hurt...its been 27 years of waiting for (ok knock off the first 5 years..so 22 years of waiting) for such things to happen. *snif* . So heres keeping my fingers crossed for the years to come. Too corny...i know...but hey! what the hell...

Had an awesome time with friends in bangalore...so heres hoping to have more such times.

Missed Ice age 3 on big screen...so heres hoping to catch it atleast on DVD.

Knocked on a closed door...so heres hoping to knock on a door which can actually open.

Damn its hard to live without expectations...

Anger Management

2009-07-01T14:44:00.002+05:30

"When a man dwells in his mind on the object of sense, attachment to them is produced. From attachment springs desire and from desire comes anger."
"From anger arises bewilderment, from bewilderment loss of memory; and from loss of memory, the destruction of intelligence and from the destruction of intelligence he perishes"

- Bhagavad Gita

It took me a lot of self control and changes to control my anger. To my surprise i was getting pretty good at it. I believe that i have harvested quite a lot of patience and nowadays it takes a LOT to get me angry.
For some stupid reason i lost my temper in the last few weeks, lost it after a real real long time if i may add....and the price i have to pay for that...there IS no price for what i have lost!
I am gonna regret losing my temper at THIS PARTICULAR point for all my life to come...the sad part is i don't even have the opportunity to redeem myself for my stupidity...real sad.
Here's hoping for the day when i can redeem myself from my one BIG mistake in a long time...

Bottomline, my patience is gonna be a hell lot improved...i doubt if i will ever get angry again...oh boy! if i do...there will be nobody to save me from the downward spiral...

2009-06-30T19:21:00.001+05:30

Testing Testing...123

Damn it works....

2009-05-25T23:00:00.001+05:30

All my emotions have been reduced to these four symbols

I think my gtalk IM is the real me...my physical presence is just an identity to that...

2009-02-10T23:40:00.004+05:30

10-Feb-2009 11:41pm

OK! good time to wake up from my hiatus.

So what really happened after the kaboom.

1. Still going through the after effects of the kaboom

2. Found out the 1001st reason to hate Chennai. YIP! (A loooong post is in the making :) )

3. Made some friends who came into my life and had to leave because of circumstances. There are no words to describe how much i miss them, or the feeling that i maynot meet them again.

4. Its been close to a year, so 'saw many movies' is an understatement

5. Cursor is blinking... *sigh* only 5..oops 4 points to tell after all the kaboom

Things to do

1. Change template

2. Chennai post

3. Get back to all blogging buddies

4. Making a to-do list never works

So heres me "I will be Back"

Kaboooom...

2008-04-15T18:59:00.002+05:30

"There was supposed to be an 'earth shattering' kaboom" -Marvin the martian

hehe funny little guy, wish he was with me on April 15th, i would have shown him the 'earth shattering' kaboom

I have no clue, idea, hope etc etc on how i will get back to normal life from this kaboom.

Hope was supposed to be the only thing which could take life forward.....hmmpf wonder what this means now after April 15th

Kubler-Ross cycle, i actuallly thot i had an escape route...how silly of me :)

Holy cow

2008-02-28T13:03:00.002+05:30

A French automobile company and a Japanese automobile company joint venture asking for a Japanese tech company for support employing indian engineers trained by UK engineers asking them to turn to US for tech related queries. Talk about globalization :)

Bubbaye Bangalore

2008-02-22T10:32:00.002+05:30

This post was to come out yesterday...but the absolute hatred towards the fact that i have to say goodbye to bangalore held me back from putting it up. I hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hated leaving my beloved bangalore and that too to 'Chennai'.
Anyways Time is merciless when it comes to us mortal humans...it kept on moving at its reckless pace and the day eventuallly came and lo am here in chennai for god knows how long.
I am a little surprised at how i feel about all this...coz i have been doing this all my life, i mean changing places...prolly i wasnt mature enough to understand what exactly it means to leave behind a town, the friends you made there...but i wish my experience at shifting cities helps me to blend into chennai.
Oh Blog, wish me luck!!!!

Madurai Meenakshi Amman Temple

2008-01-31T11:11:00.000+05:30

I had been to madurai for one of my friends wedding.
I was so put off by with this trip. First off i dont know what to do in weddings...its simply boring. But theni made up the weekend by giving a nice treat the day before wedding.
Anyways coming to the title, i visited the Madurai Meenakshi temple. I entered a temple after a eons. I simply dont understand the indian fixation with temples. I probably will never.
So it was a crowded sunday, and you must see the people thronging the temple. They were all charged as though they were ready to kill anyone to get ahead in the queue for the four second glimpse at the godess. What do we achieve with this four seconds, prolly the idol there might know and for sure i will never know :)
Well this visit reminded me of some memorable temple moments.
Udupi: Being the orthodox brahmin that i am this temple holds a special place in our family or in our community. This visit happened when i was just out of the 'poonal' ceremony (a holy thread making me a authorized brahmin). Well my family had given me all hype regarding this temple and the free food. I was looking forward to the food. So after the two second glimpse we followed the herd to a dining hall. It was pretty clean for the amount of people who come there, now my family came to know that there is a special service for people from our community...OK once in a life time oppurtunity to dine with your community's chief spiritual leader. We were taken through narrow alleyways and ditches and finally a dirty room. Now all Brahmacharis served us some nice food. You see food You eat it...nada this simple logic does not apply here..so there it was mouth watering food in front of you but not allowed to touch. The reason was there were a lot of rituals before you begin. Men are not supposed to wear shirts while this dining ceremony or into the temple so there i was 'skinny' with my new poonal across my chest. Finally all the rituals were over and the ladies started eating so i put my fingers onto the sweet first. The men sitting around me were shocked to see me do that coz i forgot to lend some food to my forefathers and some mantras before starting ...what an embarrasing situation it was...
Ambattur Raghavendra Mutt: My aunt and grandmom are extremely pious and my Mom just mimics them just to be in the good books of grandmom and her sister :) So off we went to this mutt becoz some spiritual leader of our community is making a rare public appearance and my aunt wanted us all the men in the family to get 'Mudra Dhaan'. So i thought what the heck Lets do it. As ususal a serpentine queue of bare chested men...finally came face to face with the guru...there two red hot iron rods kept in an amber...our man simply took that punched at five points in my body...YIKES what the heck..this is 'mudra dhaan' sticking hot rods on to your chest...but the beauty of this technique is that you dont get burns out of this...yeah your skin swells up a little bit...but then the pain vanishes in a few hours...and you are left with five marks on your body :) And you still see the scar on my body although very faint.
Tiruapthi: Why do i hate this place from the bottom of my heart? Is it becoz of the unclean city, or the unclean people, or their sheer madness with this place, or the extremely long queues sometimes even running into days of waiting in the queue...there are a zillion reasons for that. Anyways on this particular visit me and shyam were just trying to find some way to kill time (he was in his 12th or his college and iwas two years younger). So we saw this blinking light and started to understand the difference between parallel circuits and series circuits and went into an animated conversation, the guy next to us was so pissed off and started scolding us for doing something atrocious of discussing science instead of chanting venkatachalapathis name....duh..what the heck...

there are many more...someday later

Funny Ad

2008-01-25T14:37:00.000+05:30

Well the ad in point is the HCL ad. Every time i watch this i laugh out loud and here is the reason.

I have been tracking this ad and its transformations for months now.

The first time it was aired it went something like a HCL employee with a funny looking HCL cap hitches a ride with an investment banker, question number 1 Name one IT employee who travels to rural India for his work? Then they start chatting so the investment banker starts to make small talk and comes to know that this is a computer guy and our man proudly advertises that he is not just any computer guy but works for HCL, in return the investment banker introduces himself and the news our man announces after a few clicks in his 'leap'top informs our banker that the stock market is down. Bad news no 1. The banker goes sixes and sevens and stops the car, now our smart HCL guy announces that the car is out of fuel. Bad news no 2. Finally they reach a petrol pump and fill up and our computer guy proudly says that the ATM there works on his technology. Fine. Finally our guy gets down at an obscure location where theres a cow waiting and the banker asks is that his ride from then on. Here comes the punch dialogue, Our man shows a helicopter with HCL logo and says 'I have to go overseas for a health sciences project' and as a final blow to whatever respect he has for the banker ridicules him of not recognizing the difference between a cow and a bull....the expression on the banker "Priceless" :)
So what is the take away from the ad, that HCL can give only bad news anytime anywhere :) Me being in the same industry i want to ask HCL this question, please show me one employee in any IT company who goes overseas by a company chartered helicopter. Now what is the impression they provide to prospective employees, that a techie guy can have the flashy life style and such challenging work environs...come on gimme a break...for chrissakes its HCL :)

The ad team works works and works on this concept...even now they are not able to remove the stupidity of this ad....HCL start working on a new ad concept please :)

This ad drove me to the extent of reading the content code published by Information and Broadcasting ministry and came to know that we can sue these people if they are depiciting anything away from the truth...that jeopardizes the judgement of people...but hey a 4 billion dollar enterprise they would rebut us by providing atleast one person like this for the heck of it....but still am entertained by this ad at the same disgusted by it.

Acceptance theory

2008-01-16T13:26:00.000+05:30

Yesterday i watched 'Taare Zameen Par', and just reinforced my idea of acceptance theory but then gave an additional dimension to it.
I feel that every human being tries its level best to be accepted by its own tribe, clan, near and dear ones or even himself. But the beauty of this is that each individual has his own definition of being accpeted. Some of them dont know/ yet to realize their criteria or probably even cease to exist without ever knowing what was his/her acceptance criteria. I think it has to do something with our evolution like we know when our stomach is full, we have a pretty clear judgement on something new we see...is it harmful, friendly etc., likewise the human mind will know when this acceptance is reached. When this realization comes it really doesnt matter who agrees with you or not, it simply doesnt matter as the acceptance has already been done!!
analogkid had raised a nice question sometime back asking how do we handle fame and quoted a few examples...all i see in each of their reaction is that they were not accepted as they had imagined to be and this caused a great deal of dissatisfaction in them and this led to the things that they did.

2007-12-07T12:29:00.000+05:30

Too many things to post. So i decided to leave this post untitled.

So here we go....

Watched...

I now pronounce you Chuck and Larry----------5/10

Being a huge fan of Adam Sandler flicks i bought this one knowing the contents of this movie, but the movie disappointed me. It totally lacked the Adam Sandler factor

Heat--------------------------------------------8/10

An amazing crime movie. The beauty of this movie lies in the fact that it does not rely upon explosive action to reveal the genre of this movie. I liked the acting of Tom Sizemore the most in this movie. Not a huge role, but did justice to what he was asked to do.

Basic Instinct 1 & 2------------------------------5.5/10

Crap. I just saw this movies to relieve my grey cells...that way it worked. 2 was the worst of the lot

The Abyss--------------------------------------7/10

Too many plot lines. Confuses the watcher a lot on what to take and what to leave out. But nice SFX.

The Basketball Diaries--------------------------6.5/10

A standard template of drug abuse / recovery movie. Nice performance from Mark Wahlberg.

Traffic------------------------------------------6.5/10

A convoluted story telling just to keep you busy. Keeps you engaged with the amazing techniques used by Soderbergh

Work...

Its been two months at this new place. But have'nt done any credible work till now. My office time is split between gmail, yahoo, hotmail, facebook, IMDb, Wikipedia, minesweeper and nothing else. They took me to Pune, Chennai and Delhi just to show me corporate life and in view of keeping me engaged.

Coming from a huge company like TCS where there was no travel for me...am quite new to this corporate life style. For all the three trips they booked me on Kingfisher airlines...reminded me of this Dilbert strip in which the company which dilbert is visiting asks 'Dont you have one of these (Showing a Phone)' :D. But hey i enjoyed the trips to the max...understood how tough the work of airhostess is... i mean really i wouldnt last even a single day in that job.

But after all this meetings am left with more questions about my work rather than answers. For all these i get paid a hefty sum compared to TCS. Feeling guilty sometimes....but i needed this break and am enjoying it to the fullest.

Missing...

Missing my 1.5 hour ride to ITPL. This used to be my books time...Now this has put a fullstop to my reading habit...simply cant pick up a book when at home. Read after a long time on the flights and flight lounges. Splurged myself with a nice dose of Roald Dahl after a long time.

Wishing...

One day when i have enough money i wanna own all the movies released by this company

http://www.criterion.com/

And guess what the shops at National Market sell rip offs of this collection as well, but you need to sift through a lot :)

My plans for a macbook comes real :)

Fearing...

Looks like my job may ask me to relocate to chennai...the fact that am gonna be leaving Bangalore scares the shit out of me and to a city which i hate. But this is definitely gonna happen its only a matter of time... Boo Hoo :(

Found...

A nice cartoon called 'Fosters home for imaginary friends'...comes in POGO. Am hooked to this show.

Diwali

2007-11-12T12:41:00.000+05:30

Well had a 4 day long weekend for diwali. But then something was not right about diwali. I dunno why it does not evoke the kinda interest we had as kids in this festival.When we were kids we used to wait for this festival like it was the best thing to happen in life. Everything is lost, it has become just another day for sleeping. Makes me wonder why this has happened but hell i had a nice time with my DVDs and beer.

I watched these movies during this diwali weekend.
1. Employee of the Month---------4/10
This was no brain tickler, just a stupid movie thats all. A lame story to start with, poor characters, cheesy lines as dialogues. Jessica Simpson was HOT :)

2. Pledge this-------------------2/10
I dont mind watching dumb movies,but this one yikes the worst movie ever. I dont understand why did they even think of such a movie. Grrr wish i hadnt watched this one.But hell it came with the collection

3. Premonition-------------------5/10
It takes its own time to unfold the story..and ends in the lamest way possible. Reminded me of a better movie called Intersection. The confusion in the days of the week was nice, keeps you engaged for a while, otherwise nothing more to expect from this movie

4. Die Hard 4.0------------------6/10
6 only for the explosive action. The character of John Maclane is wasted in this movie. Bruce willis didnt have enough fodder to reprise his role of the original die hard. The plot was totally unbelivable unlike the first die hard.

5. The fountain------------------7.5/10
Wow amazing visuals. I mean every frame was like an art work, plus it had my favorite Rachel Weisz in it. Both Hugh jackman and Rachel weisz have worked hard for this and they achieved what they were expected to.The story line could have been a little more transperant, it was cryptic in an unneccessary way. A brain tickler.

6. Pirates of the Carribbean: Dead Man's chest------------7/10
The SFX were way better than the first one. Watching Davy Jones was nice. Johnny Depp repeats his performance in the first one.Fills the expectation of any movie buff.

7. Psycho------------------------9/10
A classic which has stood the test of time.Bernard Herrman's music creeps the hell out of you.There were lot of scenes which were memorable like the interrogation scene of Norman Bates, The sheriff trying to understand what the problem Lila and Sam are trying to convey,The long chase between the cop and marion, The final assesment of the psychologist...simply an amazing one.

8. The Number 23------------------7/10
Jim Carrey, Joel Schumacher, Virginia Madsen, an obsession with number 23...oou expect an amazing brain tickler. It fails miserably for all the expectations i had. The objective of the movie is not at all clear, were they trying to scare us, make us think, a murder mystery..this confusion is seen all over the movie. But still 7 for the way they confused the audience.

9. The Wicker Man-----------------4/10
The surprise ending made me Puke :) The movie makes you wait for answers all along the movie and makes you, like joey says "pull out your own arm to throw something on the screen",and ends with an irritating solution. Till the last few minutes of the movie no convincing question is raised nor a convincing route to the answer is laid out. Plus Lot of dangling pieces which didnt make any sense at all, it was like those scenes were added to the movie just becoz it was lying around in the editing room and they wanted to fill time.

10. Deja Vu-----------------------7/10
If you are logician you will laugh at this movie. But if you just go past the logics and look at the movie then you can appreciate the bits and pieces of brain ticklers sprayed all over the movie. Tony Scott, as usual hooks up a few big screen monitors and a joystick and makes us believe that you can look through walls from a satellite up above the earth some hundreds of Kms away...but he succeeds in making us believe that...like i said dont look for logic. Denzel does his part with dexterity...dunno what val kilmer does, i guess he would have done good with more fodder to his character.

11. Superman Returns--------------8/10
An unusally long movie for hollywood types. But nice SFX which keeps you engaged. All the ingredients of a blockbuster and lives up to the promises. Lois Lane could have been someone much hotter and Superman, dunno why they tried this hard to achieve the looks of christopher reeves. Lex Luthor could have been made more interesting with more time for his evil plan.

12. Mission Impossible 3----------6/10
Philip Seymour Hoffman...simply amazing to watch as the arrogant villain. Makes you believe that he might be a real life terrorist :) Otherwise it fullfills all the expectations of a mission impossible. Dialogues at some places were mocking Ethan Hunt for example Luther commenting after the spider man act of Ethan 'I knew he would make it'.Hoffmans dialogue after being kidnapped was very much resembling the one in Kakka Kakka...was quite funny to watch a tamil movie translated into english.

13. License to Wed---------------5/10A typical romantic / comedy. Just makes you feel good when you are feeling really blue. A sunday afternoon movie...will take you to beautiful dreams in your seista :)

14. Chotti Si Baat---------------7.5/10
As my brother put it the movie really is a Chotti Si Baat. A vintage classic of Amol palekar. I enjoyed this movie primarily becoz it didnt have any ad breaks. Plus the movie kept you engaged all through. Also Amol Palekar is one of my favorites so a little bit of favoritism involved here :)

Well saw more movies but in bits and pieces...these were movies which i watched fully.
So how was your diwali?

Hot Fuzz

2007-10-24T13:51:00.001+05:30

Its a comedy, Its an action movie, Its a whodunnit movie...nah try bundling all in one movie...thats hot fuzz. the first half awesome brit comedy, the next half explosive action and the story rides on a whodunnit mystery.
simply amazing...watch and enjoy madi :)
Lately i have been attracted to all these dumb movies which has got nothing except for pure unadulterated fun in them...you guys should try them...nothing like the satisfaction of watching a movie which does not try to stimulate your grey cells.
PS: Try this movie as a late night sunday movie with a couple of beers :)

Happenings

2007-10-18T11:11:00.000+05:30

Had an awesome trip to singapore / malaysia

Quit TCS...

Joined NEC...

And am bored now :)

Fleetwood Mac

2007-03-29T00:27:00.000+05:30

Wake up...Gosh work
-Play Fleetwood Mac
Boring ride to office
-Play Fleetwood Mac
Stupid mails to follow up
-Play Fleetwood Mac
Excel Sheet coloring
-Play Fleetwood Mac
Feel bad for this sorry little life
-Play Fleetwood Mac
Attend a timepass meeting
-Play Fleetwood Mac (In your head)
Revisit Vector calculus
-Play Fleetwood Mac
Sweet ride back home in the cab on the ring road
-Play Fleetwood Mac
End the day with this post with a vow to be active here from today
-Play Fleetwood Mac
Sleep
-Play Fleetwood Mac

Fleetwood Mac---Lifes Good
Thanks to Tom for introducing me to this awesome band

Nine favorite scenes

2006-11-24T15:35:00.000+05:30

Me and tom have a very similar taste. So most of my original choices have already been listed by him. The movies mentioned by him like leon, one flew over the cuckoos nest, three colors trilogy will any day feature in my top ten list. So these are some scenes missed by him. And all are of the top of my head. I guess thats why i have left "favorite movies" section of my profile unfilled. simply cant zero in on a few movies. :) so here it goes in no particular order :)

1. The Godfather: Two scenes actually. First one is when Don Vito is being transfered from the hospital to his house. While he is being brought the house is full of his wellwishers and the only sound in the scene is a baby wailing softly. The scene proceeds to his bedside where Tom Hagen, Sonny and all his aides update him with the current situation...all Don asks after all this is "Michael". After knowing what Michael has done he waves his hand. On the outlook its a signal for everybody to leave him alone. It also expresses what kinda stupid people are you to put Michael in such a situation. Acutally this is just one interpretation of mine of this scence, everytime i watch this scene the silence of Don, the weariness in his face speak volumes to me. The second one is the scene where they plan to kill captain mcclusky. Michael reels off a plan in detail with all the seriousness he can muster and after his minute long speech everyone look at him and start laughing. The brief silence in the room after Pacino's dialogue delivery is simply amazing. For a moment even the viewers see the don in him as did the characters in the scene. simply awesome

2.Raging Bull: Two words. "Martin Scorcese". Guess that explains it all. Well the scene is La Motta telling his brother (Joe Pesci) "Hit me, Hit me..." Nobody like Pesci to use curse words.

3. Goodfellas: The opening scene.."As long as i can remember i always wanted to be a gangster"

4. 2001:A Space Odyssey: The first 30 odd minutes of the movie. No dialogues, No sounds...only the silence of pre historic earth and the primates. Only Kubrick can dare to imagine such a scene. I have tried to persuade a lot of my friends to watch this movie explaining in detail what its all about and they go "What the heck? No sound for the first and last 30 minutes". All i can do is pity them.

5. Gladiator: "Father to a murdered son..." I doubt if anyone other than Russell Crowe could have done this in any better way.

6. A Few Good Men: The last verbal rampage of Jack Nicholson. Actually all the scenes from this movie with Jack Nicholson in it.

7. Ethirneechal (Tamil): Probably the sadest movie i have ever watched. Nagesh at his best.

8. Mouna Ragam (Tamil): The scene where Revathi asks for divorce as her gift.Try putting yourself in Mohan's character in this situation.

9. NS Krishnan (Tamil actor): I dont remember the names of the movies of this scene. One is a song by NSK "Panathai enge theduvaen.." (where should i search for money?) from the movie "Panam" (i think) and the other one is a play enacted by NSK and Madhuram as a part of the movie where he imagines how life will be in a decade from now (1950's movie contemplating the life in 1960's). I do not know how this idol of Tamil cinema was in his personal life but onscreen he was a visionary actor. An actor i love to watch any time any day any where.

The Remains of the Day

2006-09-10T22:39:00.000+05:30

I wanted to start this post with what i have been doing for the past two months. The cursor kept on blinking...nothing came out. Looking back at the eight months that have gone by this year i think this would be one of my most depressing years. Read toms and sous take on dealing with depression, i feel am getting damn good at dealing with such depressions. Am not sure if the four or five readers i have visit this place anymore, so i decided to comment on all of their blogs to announce that am back in blogosphere. This seems to be the best way to beat depression. Meanwhile i tried to figure out a cycle with all this whole depression thingy..it goes something like this...Desperation->Frustrtation->Indifference->... The depression being the initiator to a desperation for change. Now any cycle should have an ending point and restart thats the whole funda behind calling it a cycle...so therein lies my hope for better days :)

The most worth while thing i did in the past two months was reading this book 'The Remains of the Day' by Kazuo Ishiguro. Other books i happened to read are short stories by Ruskin Bond, Roald Dahl,revisited some H2G2 and 1984. But i am still hung up on 'The Remains of the Day'...its a kind of hangover i say :) I bought this book from strand on a boring saturday evening when i had reached early for my quant class. I really enjoy this process of selecting a book. Spend a good one hour collect the probable books and then decide on one or two according to budget constraints. In this regard i find landmark and crossword very boring places to select a book. Its all too much arranged, it spoils the fun in finding a book which you have never heard off from a totally chaotic arrangement. Thats where strand scores. A small place with a lot of good books. This book caught my attention on the said saturday evenings treasure hunt, and boy! what a find!!

Right from page 1 'they dont speak like this anymore' kind of language, properly structured way of writing English. This doubled my interest on the book. The storyline is the simplest i have read till date, an aging Butler looks back at his life. The most intriguing thing about Stevens, the Butler is his dedication to serve Lord Darlington. But half way through the book this attitude irritated me a bit, being the gen-y with an attitude 'i dont give a damn' it was pretty difficult to digest the sincerity and unquestioning attitude of Stevens. Many of the young crowd will definitely say that Stevens lacked the attitude to be the leader rather than being in the serving department forever. But this is justified with his constant drive to join an elite club of Butlers. Strangely i started to compare the way Stevens serving Lord Darlington to the service i do for an MNC. Found a lot of similarities here and some of the pages were an exact fit for the jig saw puzzle i was trying to create with this comparison.

The pages where the common society looks at a person like Stevens who has met Winston Churchill and the likes and been with such great people who influence the foreign affairs of Britain, were the best parts of the book. And ending the book with Stevens wondering just because he has served Winston Churchill with the best cigars and got an appreciation from him for his good work with the silverware does it justify the kind of treatment he received from the villagers, loose out on a possible love of his lifetime, what did he finally achieve after all this? , gave away the bitter truth in the sweetest language possible.

Finally about the beautiful array of characters, Miss Kenton, a lady who feels that all she can do in her life given her capabilities is raise a family and be happy with the achievments of her children, Dr.Carlisle in the village who feels that he should make use of his skills to serve the society and be happy with that, the villager Harry Smith whos too worried about the politics trying his level best to achieve a change but failing to understand his limits, the other villagers who are happy to be assured of their next meal.

The parts which i couldnt get a clue about was the chemistry between Stevens and Miss Kenton, no surprise given my romantically stunted growth :)

All we can hope for is that we dont end up like Stevens, the aging Butler. But Reality Bites...the probability is too high.

Nothing Special

2006-06-20T02:24:00.000+05:30

Its around 2 am of June 20, 2006
Just another day. Just another year.
:)

Lift Tales-2

2006-04-27T10:09:00.000+05:30

Couldnt stop! This story needs to be told. You press the upward looking arrow if you wanna go up or you press the downward looking arrow if you wanna go down. How hard is this logic to understand? Irrespective of the direction they wanna go people press both the buttons. And the poor lift heeding their request stops on the floor irrespective of the direction its moving. The door slowly opens and there are these people standing there with a grin and asking going down or up. Grrrrr...people look up at the display it clearly points the direction in which the lift is moving. Is it very difficult to understand a downward arrow and an upward arrow? And there are these superdupermans who hold on to the button as though they are pulling down the lift with all their might. Yeow..superduperman its more than enough if you press the button once...the lift sure did understand that you are waiting for it. Anyways all these stuff are not necessary for this story.

The scene is 10th floor lobby in front of the lifts. I pressed the button and sat near the flower pot with my friends. As with any trip many more people came up and were really disappointed that the upward button did not light up when they pressed and pressed the already lit up down button as though the lift wouldnt let them in if they dont press it. One of the even floor lifts came up and it is pretty usual for 8th floor people who wanna go down come in the lift moving up and go down with 10th floor people. Its just a personal satisfaction that they are not waiting for the lift and nothing to lose in travelling a couple of floors before going down. And so there was this lady inside the lift who most probably got into the lift in the 8th floor not minding the extra two floors before heading down. From her clothes and the laptop hanging from her shoulder it was pretty much obvious that she was some kinda tough manager. We all got in and pressed 0, but all this while she kept on pressing 5 and was amused to see that it wouldnt light up. We pointed her to the board inside which says it can stop only on 0,2,4,6,8. She gave a 'Oh!' and went on with poking the number 5 button. So much for our helpful gesture. The lift silently crossed 5 without stopping...and the silent lift was reverberating with her 'shhhieet'. Everybody turned to her with a look of are you crazy? Luckily for her the lift stopped on the 4th floor. Any sane human would have got out and walked up the one extra floor, this is where our manager took a strategic (not strataagic..strateeegic) decision. She came down to 0 with us and scuttled to the all floors lift to go to 5. Now a little maths, assuming she got into the lift on the 8th floor, she has travelled 2 floors up, 10 floors down and again 5 floors up totaling a 17 floors instead of a paltry 3 floors from 8. She would have reached earlier even if she had taken the stairs :)))

Every 10 second is a mystery waiting to tell a new story :)

Merlin's Beard!!

2006-04-25T13:54:00.000+05:30

The always crowded RT Nagar police station bus stop was relatively less crowded that day. Vrooom...came this uncle in his scooter and stopped right in front of me. This uncle was middle aged, his balding head making him look older. But he had a pleasant face, something like kids will go 'Yay!! uncle is home!' when he gives a surprise visit on a friday evening. Keeping his scooter tut-tuttting he asked me,

"Sultanpalya bus stop ge heng ogu beku kano?"

I didnt mind him addressing me as a kid, i thought for his age it was ok to call me a kid.

"Saar, idhe road mele straight ogithre onthu circle sigathe alli left thogoli. circle ninda onthu erudu nimisha ogithre sultanpalya bus stop sigathe"

"neenu yell ogthaidiya kano?"

"naanu alle ogathaidini saar"

"mathe naan jothre ban bidu...alli drop maadbidthni"

Wow! what a nice uncle. so i hopped on his scooter and we were off...on the way

"yavthu school alli oodhuthaidiya kano?"

This is where it struck me that, this uncle was not calling me a kid unintentionally, he actually thought i was a school kid :(

"illa saar, naanu ITPL dhali kelsa maadthaithini"

"Oh! yavathu company saar?"

I smiled at his sudden change of tone and respect.

For my stature and appearance people often mistake me for a 15-16 year old, i actually dont mind this. So what, they think i am a kid, no harm in that :) But on a serious note i analysed this mistaken identity and found out that a good beard will help people make out that am older than a 15-16 year old kid. But thats where the problem lies its never a beard for me, its only cat hair. And if i dont shave it i look sick as a TB patient. Iam kinda worried, will my dream of having a full fledged beard ever come true. I think beard completes a man. It gives him identity, like people will refer to you as "that bearded guy" or "that guy with a big mush"...its always good to be referred like that. Plus beard and moush gives a lot of options to fiddle around with your appearace...like you can be clean shaven for a month, the next month you can appear with stubbles giving you a look of someone going through a serious phase of their life, the next month could be a french beard, the month after that could be a vertical mush, there are n number of possibilities with beard and moush. I wish for a mush(hey nice opening line for a poem,wish-mush)..and a weird beard (couldnt find anything rhyming with beard)

An attempted translation for non-kannadigas

"how do you go to sultanpalya bus stop?" (i cant translate kano...no equivalent english word...lets just say a sweet way of addressing a kid)

"Sir, if you take this road you will come to a traffic light signal, take a left there. From the traffic light if you travel for another two minutes you will reach sultanpalya bus stop"

"Where are you going kid?"

"I am also going there sir"

"then join me, i will drop you there"

"Which school are you studying kid?"

"No sir, am working in ITPL"

"Oh! which company sir?"

Ice Age 2-The Meltdown

2006-04-24T09:51:00.000+05:30

Yippey!!..watched this amazing movie on big screen. Enjoyed every millimeter of the movie. Eddie and Crash were hilarious and ofcourse scrat was awesome. But Hindu had a review saying that this is average stuff becoz there were some incidents in the movie which are not suitable for kids...yes seen in a broader perspective some of them were unsuitable for kids...but that didnt stop me from enjoying the movie. Cant wait to put my hands on the DVD :)

Erebetha

2006-04-21T16:12:00.000+05:30

It takes around 10 seconds to reach my 10th floor office from the ground floor. This short duration is one my favorite times of my day.Heres an incident which happened a few days ago.Before going into the story let me just give a brief about this 10 seconds journey. Actually its not always 10 seconds, it varies with the number of intermediate stops made by the gravity defying carrier. Now my office is a biiiig complex of many companies who account for the GDP of india in a significant way. ITPB, one of the earliest IT complexes to be built in bangalore stands for International Technology Park Bangalore. As the name suggests its truly international with a lot of people from other nationalities. All though most of them are visiting india for short business trips they are thrilled to interact with us desis. The interaction between desis is a bit different from normal desi situations..not a big difference but still a noticeable difference..like for example women dont fight with men sitting in ladies seat in the buses and they dont mind men sharing their seat, buses are never crowded as other BMTC buses, drivers are real friendly helping out people to find the right bus and entertaining requests for unscheduled stops etc.,people live merrily here with a bit over priced cafe coffee day, an ice cream shop, two juice junctions, around five desi restaurants and two not-worth-the -price restaurants to make clients happy, a Sub and my personal favorite, a corn shop. But i tell you after a year or so these things get really bored and annoy one a lot. Coming back to my 10 second adventure, my building supports 6 of these rides 3 on the left and 3 on the right. Two on the left can stop only on even numbered floors and two on the right can stop only on odd numbered floors and the remaining two on all floors. All the 6 have a capacity of holding 20 people each and transporting them safely to their floors. Now on arriving at a floor it makes a pleasant slow sound of tiiiing-tooong and a sweet voice announces which floor is that. The lobby is a bit crowded in the evenings and mornings for obvious reasons. I always watch these people as amelie does in a cinema theater. All will be looking up at the LED display displaying the floors travelled and looking eagerly when it will reach 0. I think its pretty natural with nobody around to talk with all are bound to this but seriously its real funny to look at people in that pose. On one such mundane days i was the fourth guy to enter the ride and i dont know if they jumped from the sky, the already uncomfortable ride had become more uncomfortable with around 10 more people joining us. Usually an early entry will push you to a corner with more people entering but in this unfortunate ride i was kind of pushed to the middle of the crowd. Still the ride would be safe as many are bound to alight sooner than i reach my floor. As the doors were about to close an you-cannot-call-her-obese foreigner lady tried to hop on the ride. To make the incident more enjoyable to you and embarrasing to me picture this, I am standing right in front of the door and any further movement behind will make the guy behind me stand in a pretty awkward position. I thought she would decide for the next turn but fate it seems is not without of a sense of irony :) she wriggled herself in standing right next to me. If you consider the door to be north, i am facing north and she is facing the west. The distance between us near to zilch. For the petit person that i am she was really tall around 6 feet i would say and huge with a huge figure too :) If i were to lift my head all i could see was her huge..uh..big..uh...large..uh..boobs...there...i said it. To make matters worse she was wearing a loose black t-shirt with a plunging neck line (let your imagination go free here). If the guy behind me were to push me a little bit...i was to be in big trouble that day. To top it all the ride stopped on all even numbered floors that day, if i were to get out to make way for other people to come out i will have to swivel my neck around her boobs which will make her suspicious as to what i'm doing, for the same reason i couldnt get out in the ground floor itself, she blocked me in. I wriggled to let myself in so that people can come out. Boy, that was one embarrasing ride. Now people, dont give me an expression of What-kind-of-sick-person-are-you looks. Think of the situation in my perspective, what was i supposed to do? i was held in a deadlock by this huge lady :( The ordeal ended on the 6th floor with a considerable amount of people walking out, me and she exited on the 10th floor.

After writing all this i couldnt stop myself from writing what kind of people i meet in this 10 second ride.
A whole lot of interesting people, i say...here are a few
1. Grumpy looking CEO's who looks like he hasnt smiled for aeons.

2. Middle aged men worried about their balding head, trying to cover up the ground with what so ever left looking on the reflective panels.

3. Twenty something call center guys trying to prove how 'cool' they are to each other by discussing the pub they visited last week and with whom they did that.(seriously i ve never come acroos these 'cool' guys talking about anything other than their pubbing expeditions.)

4. Women with a look of men-are-scumbags, refusing to enter the ride just because it is carrying only one man (yeah these kind of people really do exist..dunno what shes is fearing from)

5. Really conservative looking girls who wish they could go invisible in the corner.

6. Attempted 'yo' looking girls.

7. 'yo' girls flaunting their assets.

8. Fat people trying to get in as the 20th person as though waiting for the next turn will make him responsible for his company to lose a gazillion rupees.

9. And there are these sweet people who give a smile, no matter if they know you or not. It really brightens up the day. I have become a strong believer that smile can work miracles.
and the list is kind of endless....every 10 second journey is a mystery waiting to tell a new story.
Heres some gyaan on behavioral sciences. It seems we all have a comfort zone surrounding us. My instructor actually told us to imagine a big invisible sphere surrounding us. That is our comfort zone. As long as we are in this sphere we feel secure but if someone breaks into this sphere we feel threatened and insecure. Thats the reason why many people flea to the corners of a lift and given a chance strangers will stand as far apart as possible in a lift scenario. Nice piece of info i got to take away from my ILP :)

The Naked Lady

2006-04-11T10:31:00.000+05:30

I am currently reading a book which is a paper back edition of a real classic booker prize winner. The publisher oddly put up a picture of a naked lady on the cover page. I will try to explain a bit more about this picture. Nudity in oil paint and canvas is art, if in the form of a photograph it becomes porn. I dont approve of this school of thought but my society does. The photo is of a lady bare naked slouched down on a sink with her left leg slightly bent at the knees as if to transfer her whole weight onto her right leg. There is a mirror just above the sink. But she is not looking into it.She is holding the rim of the sink and her head is bent down. I am yet to complete the book to understand what the picture is trying to convey. But on a general look out she looks real sad about something. I think she is purposefully avoiding the mirror, as if one look at it will break the dam of tears welled up in her eyes. She is thinking hard to come to terms with something terrible that has happened to her. She is battling with her thoughts to come over some tragedy but in the back of her head, she very well realises that she has lost the battle, nothing more to do. To top it all the picture is in black and white giving the whole picture a hue of the sadness she is dealing with. All this could well be done with the lady wearing a night gown or a towel around her body, why depict her nude? I think the nudity brings out the sadness of the moment the picture was clicked.

Now people who have read my 'love in the time of cholera' post will get confused as i had mentioned in that that i hate sad stories. I do not detest them totally. Well this picture was different, it was as though someone ought to go to her and console her to overcome the terrible event she has witnessed. She needs help.

Here comes the crux of the story. I usually read during my 3 hour journey to and from my house to my work place. The bus is usually full and someone is bound to sit near me. The only time they get to peek into my book is while i open and close the book. Its pretty much human to look into the title of the book the other guy is holding. Not that you are interested to know it or something like that..its just an instinct. They look at the cover and give me an expression of shock. I love this part. The shock in their face sure cracks a smile in my face :) But in an instant this shock turns into a look of disgust. Now this part is not enjoyable as the previous one. They look at me as if am a pathetic perverted person reading porn in public, I do not find anything wrong with their thoughts..after all anyone who looks at such a picture is bound to formulate ideas in his head. I wish i could explain each and every one that its not a porn book and am not a perverted person to do something like that in public. It becomes even more embarrasing with women co-passengers. Some go to the extent of changing their seats :) My mom has advised me to cover the book with some newspaper sheets like we used to cover our new textbooks in schools. I think i have to take my mom's advice seriously otherwise i think i am headed for bigger trouble.

The explanation i gave about the picture occured in my head for real and not something made up to justify me carrying a book depicting a nude lady on its cover :)

Reality Bites...bites real hard

2006-04-10T14:07:00.000+05:30

Larry Darrell, Howard Roark, John Galt, Holden Caulfield. Anybody who is into reading books is bound to encounter these characters sooner or later and most definetly they leave an impression on them in their own particular way. They all defied society conventions, broke the rules to find their cause in their unique way. They make you believe that everyone is unique. Its just that we fail to recognize that uniqueness in us. They dont bother about the time involved in discovering this uniqueness in you. They never talk about this time to discover. What do you do in the mean while?

What if at the end of the journey one realizes that one is no different than the guy who brings the tea to one's table,the guy sitting next to you is another fellow software engineer trying to prove his uniqueness, the people bustling in the busy roads at 9am are none but souls toiling all life just to make sure to get the next meal. Its just too hard to realize that one is normal after reading these characters. But reality bites...bites real hard.

Love in the Time of Cholera

2006-04-04T12:46:00.000+05:30

I actually wanted to start a seperate blog for my book reviews, but coming to think of it I have to link it in my present one..choose a template for the new one..link my present one in that...simply calls for a lot of work, which right now am in no mood to do it. So soon enough I will put this post in the soon to be my book review blog. Although am not an expert in doing a review I will just reflect my first hand thoughts after finishing a book here...so it will be more of a personal opinion about the book rather than a review.

Before I start my post I will just brief about my reading habit.This is the best habit I have cultivated in me in the past three years and I am really proud to say that there is nothing in this world to beat the joy of reading and writing. Am a real slow reader and in infancy stage of this hobby.By this I mean to say that I choose my books by consensus with my friends and I am yet to graduate to a level where I can have a favorite author or a favorite book.

I bought this book in Strand a month ago and boy I took a long time to finish it. The reason behind me buying this book was simple...."Gabriel Garcia Marquez", I sure knew him as the author who has won great awards for his work.The choice was between this and One Hundred Years of Solitude. I ruffled through both of them for a few minutes and just followed my instinct and picked this one over that.Dont ask me what that instinct was coz even I dont understand why I chose this.

The book so truthful to a prize winner was a real slow one.From the title it was pretty much obvious that the book was about romance, one of my most hated subjects..like as I said this was not a reason for buying this book..I was more interested to know the author. The book is about the undying love between two senile octogenerians. Can there be anything more boring than this. The book started off on a sad note of death of an old man followed by another death of an old doctor. This was more than enough good reason to shut the book then and there, because I personally hate sad stories. Still I completed the book succesfully after nearly two weeks of reading. There are somethings which I look for in a book like for example the language. This was a translation and so the language also was not that much enjoyable. I Strongly believe that translations cannot bring out the essence or flavour which the author intended to produce in his mother tounge. When it comes to the subject of love i am always left with a lot of questions and no answers. Sure enough even Marquez didnt help me in answering my questions but rather increased my number of questions.The romancing sequences between the two main characters was really poetic but no where close to reality, in reality I would say it was pathetic and dumb, probably I say this because I dont know anything about the culture in Marquez' land.But I really enjoyed the poetic aspect of the romance, this aspect strengthened my idea about love being really enjoyable only in poems and movies. What is the objective of love? to wake up everyday with your love on the left side of your bed. To me it seems a bad enough reason to keep waiting for your love to be returned for over half a century. After finishing the book I read the title once again, the backdrop of the epidemic and their civil war didnt make any sense to me. What was Marquez trying with this canvas? Surely he didnt paint a picture which I can appreciate.

Its gonna be long time till I take up another Gabriel Garcia Marquez. :)

I am up...I am up!!

2006-03-21T11:10:00.000+05:30

The tone behind the title is the same used by Monica when Chandler threatens her to boil milk in the kitchen all by himself, sorry to all fuggles who dont understand the above characters..if it helps they are from the you-know-which-show. Well for the past three weeks or so i have been busy transfiguring myself from a huggle to a non-huggle.I hope by now you would have guessed which book am busy with, you know the-book-everyone-reads.This post is just to say that am very much in this you-know-which community...phew!!..gotta stop this you-know-what stuff...there...i did it again. Anyways i dont have anything interesting in this post except for these quotes which i came across recently...pretty amusing!!

I ve also updated the supposedly word for the week too!! :)

1500 years ago, everybody "knew" that the earth was the center of the universe. 500 years ago, everybody "knew" that the earth was flat. And 15 minutes ago, you "knew" that humans were alone on this planet. Imagine what you'll "know" tomorrow.

~Agent K

Centuries ago, sailors on long voyages used to leave a pair of pigs on every deserted island. Or they'd leave a pair of goats. Either way, on any future visit, the island would be a source of meat. These islands, they were pristine. These were home to breeds of birds with no natural predators. Breeds of birds that lived nowhere else on earth. The plants there, without enemies they evolved without thorns or poisons. Without predators and enemies, these islands, they were paradise. The sailors, the next time they visited these islands, the only things still there would be herds of goats or pigs. .... Does this remind you of anything? Maybe the ol' Adam and Eve story? .... You ever wonder when God's coming back with a lot of barbecue sauce?”

~Chuck Palahniuk

Updates

2006-03-03T13:00:00.000+05:30

Yes i have changed my template and a host of other changes too. Most of my changes are in the sidebar area.

And guess what i discovered after all this excercise....i am a genius with HTML :))

Gibberish post no:4

2006-03-01T12:44:00.000+05:30

I am sure that character is not hereditary.I believe that its the society with which one grows up is reponsible for making a person with 'good' character or 'bad' character.I quote good and bad because you cant really classify people into the two groups. Good for someone might be bad for someone else.I couldnt quite get the idea of the 'real you'. So as the way i see it theres nothing called 'real you' but rather a 'made for this society you' in everyone. Discovering this 'real you' is like peeling onions...you find nothing at the end and eyes filled with tears for losing all your skin earned through mingling with your society for years.

Monday Musings

2006-02-27T11:11:00.000+05:30

Being the eldest of the Days family Monday is probably the most responsible as well as the most hated day.Sunday, the youngest is the most loved one in the family.Friday, the only daughter in the family holds a special place in everyones heart. Of all the days of the Days family I pity Monday the most. Everyone hates him for just being the first born.Even me and tommy were in a name calling spree and called monday as iio monday,moanday,monster monday,mundane monday etc..Not that its mondays fault but of the people who named him as the first day of the week.Although i said i pity monday, that doesnt change any of the hate i have for monday. Monday has to live with it...no other go.I woke up today morning with the usual hatred for monday and this weird thought occured to me.

Did people who lived around 200-300 years ago also hated monday like this? For a king and his ministers it would have been just another day saving their country. How did the worker bees like me felt on a monday morning at that time?

F.R.I.E.N.D.S

2006-02-24T11:50:00.000+05:30

Unfortunately i am lucky to have a dad whose job demands a transfer every two or three years. This means new place, new language/slang, new surroundings, new house, new school, new neighbours, insanely dusty houses for the three week transition period and......new friends. There are two ways of looking at this situation. positively...i get new friends...negatively am losing my old friends,going through the process of fitting into a group again. This is a pretty tough job for me. Or rather i would say my parents make it tough for me. I have to go out every evening to the street cricket club and supposedly gel in with the new guys. And these guys would look at me as though am blasphemous to the religion called cricket when i say that am not interested in this game. But still my wild card to escape from my dads preachings about the virtues of playing phyiscally tiring games was the bat which i owned. Pretty good one, i would just lend my bat to these guys and sit around and come back as though am dead tired of playing. Simply put i was much interested in reading tinkle or amar chitra katha rather than playing 'outside'. Now these people were 'low achievers' in school, but my parents would want me to be a part of 'high achievers' club also. Pretty conflicting requirements for a boy like me who is scared to the bones to say even a 'hi'. Even after all this geling in i wasnt good at making friends in either of the clubs. But all through my seven schools i did make some good friends whom i met in my college after what it seemed like aeons. Strange conincidence though but i enjoyed meeting such old friends. Hostel has its own way of teaching you certain aspects of social living. For the first time i was with a group of people for more than 2 years...so this culminated into a good friends circle for me. Now this was all fun until college ended. I was too reluctant to move to a new group. But life is harsh and i did have to move on to new friends again at work place. Till now all my friends were people of my same age and we had a frequency which matched. Work place is totally different. I came to be friends with an entirely diffrent species of people called married people. Friendship with this class is very very difficult.For instance i have to listen to stories on how his baby looks in his wife's ultrasound scan or how he married his own 'atthai ponnu' after years of unadulterated love or what is the cost of land in different areas of bangalore and how to go about buying properties. I was literally tounge tied when a colleague of mine announced the arrival of his junior...didnt know what to say...i embarrased myself by guessing the childs sun sign. I just wanted to become a microscopic water droplet and merge into the pacific. But sadly nothing like this happened. I sheepishly grinned and ended my ordeal with a smooth congrats. And worser is being friends with people attacked by cupid. This one is worse. You just cant plan anything with this kind. They are bound to something for which they wouldnt mind rudely cutting of a long known friend. Not that i am complaining but angry at myself for not comprehending this bonding. I still hang out with my college friends but lately they seemed to have changed a lot. For instance one is extremely workaholic that he wonders why sundays are holidays, one is attacked by cupid, one shows up once in a blue moon and grins with a shorter version of already shortened word 'hi', another who has omnipresent relatives in bangalore, one who thinks that anything outside a 15 minute radius from our airport road house is in the deepeset of unreachable amazon.Off late am spending lonesome saturdays and sundays which sometimes gets to my nerves.

Ok till now i havent gotten to the point of this post. Simply put am i refusing to grow up?

Faber-Castell Vs Apsara

2006-02-23T12:46:00.000+05:30

Faber-Castell beats Apsara

Dream No:1

2006-02-17T10:56:00.000+05:30

1. Only Movies rated above 7.0 in imdb shall be aired.
2. Friday night prime time shall be reserved for top 250 movies.
3. Friday late night shall be reserved for really dumb 'sequel' movies.
4. Saturday night shall be reserved for movie reviews of the movies released that weekend.
5. Saturday late night shall be reserved for really dumb movies.
6. Sunday night shall be reserved for 'feel good'* movies.
Ads shall be aired only in the time interval between two movies and not inbetween movies. This is just a rough draft. Suggestions to improve are always welcome.
A suitable name for the channel to be decided.
* Feel good movies may be rated below 7. Shall definitely include flicks by Adam Sandler, Rob Schneider, Jim Carrey..movies on these lines.

Gibberish post No:3

2006-02-14T12:31:00.000+05:30

How do you celebrate Val-d
:?

Bro-Bro

2006-02-13T19:01:00.000+05:30

When i was around 4 years old, my mom used to ask "do you want a brother or a sister?" prefix and suffix with all coo che coo che coos...oodlee oodlee doos...yen chella payya and stuff. At that tender age i never understood what this question meant or what will be the correct answer for that nor i was a like this smart kid in the ad who asks for a dog :) Although its pretty hard to remember my chain of thoughts that happened 20 years ago, i do remember my indifference hearing this question. Well it was whole week after my brothers birth that i saw him for the first time(my mom told me). Again i barely remember my reactions, but i can bet that i would have looked at him the same way i look at babies now...no specific interest :) And so he started sharing my princely services like rounding the city streets in Dads cycle, the daily quota of kismis etc., Still i didnt mind them as my share was not compromised :) And then he started talking....now i would say this was the turning point in our affection. I never knew this would have dire consequences. We started quarrelling on every thing like who gets the first piece of a chocolate, who gets to colour what picture in the colouring book, who gets to complete the 'connect the dots' of the siruvarmalar or the young world, in everything....he wanted what i wanted or i wanted what he wanted. Still this was all ok for my parents as its pretty natural among children. I dont know when we stopped talking to each other, but communication between us gradually dropped. We would sit in the same room watching TV, but no comments would be passed on what channel we wanted because we both knew we would end up fighting. When i went to college it dropped to mere hi's....we avoided eye contact and we drifted apart. And todays situation is no better.
This all sent me through a thought process for this post. I started observing other siblings, and found out that any day a bro-bro or sis-sis combo would never work out...either they quarell or drift apart like us, but strangely bro-sis combo always works out...no matter how much they quarrel they find a compromising solution. Isnt it??

shjeesh....Weekend

2006-01-16T12:26:00.000+05:30

Skeleton Key
Weather Man
National Treasure
Constantine
Mr and Mrs Smith
Escape from Alcatraz
The Forgotten
Elizabeth Town
It Could Happen to You

Yuck...Weekend

P.S : The only good thing about this yucky weekend was "It Could Happen to You". Aired in Zee Studio. Amazing 'feel good'movie.

Making it suitable for Indian audience

2006-01-06T11:53:00.000+05:30

I can see all those who read this crack a smile. I would say this is one of the stupidest sentences i have come across in recent times.

Well this is not any gyan posts, just a musing at our society. Every wall in the city is donned with posters of b-grade movies killing the morality of womanhood in all possible ways, yet our information and broadcasting cant stand sexual exposure in english movies. OK i still accept this, encouraging this in movies is not good, but the muting of f-word....ridiculous.

Imagine watching goodfellas or pulp fiction or reservoir dogs with the f-word muted at every occurence. A full dialogue of bruce willis is muted in pulp fiction. Courtesy star movies.

Star movies and HBO employ a team just to mute these unsuitable words for indian audience. Dunno wot they are protecting us from.

And previously star movies used to air US top 10 and UK top 10 every week. Dunno why they stopped it. Protecting the indian film industry from hollywood invasion. This is again very strange, half of the hollywood movies run for a couple of weeks in metros and nobody knows about them save the king kongs and godzillas which run in other cities also that too dubbed in their regional languages.

Well all this wailing because i didnt know speilberg's 'munich' till yesterday. Longing to watch this movie, atleast a made suitable for indians version. :))

Gibberish post No:2

2005-12-27T13:30:00.000+05:30

I wish I had a second chance.

:(

Serendipity

2005-12-13T09:43:00.000+05:30

Do I believe in serendipity? This post is precisely about discovering my belief. I had a tough time deciding on whether to share this rather curious incident in my life or not. So I might deviate from the whole truth but the truth at some places but nothing that will impede the truth, simply put there are white lies here and there.

"Travelling alone is a pain"

Well, all this happened a few days back on my train journey to Chennai. The purpose of my journey is not that much important to this story. So carrying on, it all started with my over cautious mom pushing me to the station a good one hour before the scheduled departure of my train and it so happened that i reached a well one hour and ten minutes early. Nothing much to do for the hour and i couldnt figure out any other better way to kill time other than watching all the weekend travellers.

The monotonous tone of the railway announcer went on yaking about the arrival of my train in three languages on plat form no.1 at 14:15. Thats unusual, my ticket said my train will depart at 14:30. Anyways i just felt happy i will reach chennai 15 minutes early. All though there were only two platforms i just wanted to make sure i was on the right one and went to check out the sign board which said platform 1 and it did say that the one i was standing is surely platform no 1. Satisfied with this confirmation i was looking out for my train. The announcement lady reeled off again with the same message. This time something suspicious was creeping in my mind. Just to check i pulled out my ticket and saw the train number and whoa! i was about to board the wrong train, the one which was about arrive is coming from chennai and not to chennai. Now, i had to start the procedure for looking for the platform no again from scratch. Thats annoying.

The wrong train came. But i was totally disappointed at the fact that i didnt know which direction was chennai. And to my great dismay i found out that this is the same train which should come back to pick me up to chennai. Atleast one thing was sure with the whole wrong train affair, my train was running late.

The wrong train chugged its way out of the station with a promising horn to come back as the right train. Now the lady started yaking information about my train and said it will come on platform 2. What is this happening with me? Why is everything so wrong right from the beginning? But i got few options rather only one option to walk over the over bridge and wait for the right train. As i turned a big sign board showed a cigarette in a red circle with a red line crossing it diametrically. I sighed, and went on to platform 2.

I safely reached platform 2. I was awestruck at the number of people who had got their platform information correct. Made me feel real stupid. There were these electronic sign boards changing cyclicly between train no, arrival time and the coach no which would come below the sign board. That was cool, saved a lot of time in searching my coach. So i went and stood directly below the sign board which said S5. All set now, only the train was running late. Now standing alone at a place and to pretend as though you are minding your business is not something i am good at. So to divert my mind, i strolled from s5 signboard to s6 signboard for fear of missing my coach.

I saw this lady in her pink t-shirt or tops i dont know what they call whatever she was wearing and a blue and red back pack. Immediately i could recognise that she too was travelling alone. Somethings you just feel. The right train came in 30 minutes late and we boarded the train and obviously she too was in s5 (that didnt need any guessing right!). She sat just opposite to my bay. I didnt realise the gravity of this incident then and i didnt take it seriously, she was a good looking girl (although she was pretty she was fat you know!) who happens to travel in the same train and in my coach. Things like this happen for no reason. So i started to read for my exam tommorrow (as i said earlier, this exam is not important), but whats important here is she too started to read for the same exam. I grinned at the strange coincidence. The rest of the journey was pretty much the usual with the so called teas from railway pantry, wailing kids, annoyed mothers, look-left-look-right-cross-the-road types senior citizens, middle aged men worried about the late running train...all these bafoons talking about the weather as though they are the jovialest persons you can find. Inspite all these boring types me and she were sitting there books in our hands. Being a gynophobic and a mute with girls i was not interested or rather depressed at my inability to strike a conversation.

Finally reached chennai an hour late and we departed on our ways. I was wondering if i would see her at my exam tommorrow. The next day exam went on fine, no major screw ups to worry about or rather nothing to worry about the exam and i was at the staion a well three hours ahead of my return journey train time. Now, neither i have the patience nor you have the patience to read through a voluminous account of this gruelling three hours. So lets just skip it with the assumption that nothing great happened in that time interval.

So after a long wait i boarded my train and was sitting comfortably in my window seat. As i had boarded the train real early i had the pleasure of watching the train get crowded like water trying to overflow the brim of a large tub. I call it a pleasure b'coz i love watching people. An uncle came with a open ticket and said he was smart enough to find an empty seat after reading through the reservation list on all coaches, and was so sure that a meagre fine would help to silence the TTE and to my astonishment this did happen. Then came a group of muslims. A streak of thought went through my mind as why all muslims smell of cheap perfume. Anyway as it was a very silly thought i went back to my 'through the looking glass'. Then this muslim guy talks to me in a very islamic accent that can i switch seats with a friend of theirs in the next coach. Not that i was rude or anything i promptly refused to do so. I still dont get the reason why i did that, b'coz normally i do such things without fuss.

While i was pondering can i complete 'through the looking glass' as well as the annotaions a blue and red backpack caught my attention, i thought how funny!! it looks like the same back pack as my virtual friend from yesterdays encounter. To my greatest surprise the same girl was sitting at the far end of my row at the other side window seat.

I closed my book and started working out a plan on how to strike up a conversation. In the next five minutes we happened to see other by chance and we smiled at each other invisibly. Somethings you just know. So boosted by the confidence that she did recognise me i planned to say a 'hi' while getting down at bangalore. Now for people who are wondering why wait till bangalore, she was sitting pretty far off from me...the proximity was not good.

On that day devil was in the form of the muslim guy. For no reason she just got up from her place and took her back pack and left. The devil in the white dress had succeeded in switching seats for his friend with her. All i could do was smile at the invisible force which was at work all this time. Too many questions were left unanswered after this incident. The prominent one was Serendipity or Stupidity?

The Hindu

2005-12-05T16:59:00.000+05:30

A Conflict between Science and God

and

Letters to the editor

Gibberish Post No:1

2005-11-07T18:28:00.000+05:30

Mind layer 1:
Don't expect anything from this stoopid life. Its crap.It gives you all kinds of false hopes. Face the reality..."Its not gonna happen. You have to make it happen...otherwise move on."

Mind layer 2:
Give the situation its own degrees of freedom. Its not happening because of some unexplained reason. Dont blame anyone till you understand that reason

Mind layer 3:
Why not me?....Loser

Mind layer 4:
Oh please god! let this happen to me.

Thirsty Traveler

2005-10-18T22:25:00.000+05:30

For those who dont know what this thirsty traveler is, it is a program which is aired by Discovery Travel and Living channel every thursday at 10pm. The traveler in this program is on a quest to find different kinds of alcohol made from different parts of this world. I watch this pretty regularly. So after watching a few episodes this is what i found out...

Korea famous for Soju

France famous for Wine and champagne

Germany famous for Beer

Australia famous for Wine and Fosters :)

Italy famous for Sambuca

Scotland famous for Scotch

Mexico famous for Tequila

and more

All this left me with a surprise that we as a nation have a history of many thousand years....were we not able to concoct a good drink.....

Goa didnt let me down...they did make a drink out of cashews and found more in google :)

bwuhahaha...proudest indian :))

Unspoken

2005-10-07T09:37:00.000+05:30

The engine of the 2F bus purred...

Indian engines dont purr...so let me put it this way

The engine of the 2F bus roared like a lion who was woken up from a deep sleep. One and a half hour more to go...I had completed "The Alchemist" the same morning, so nothing to do other than watch yuppies fiddle around with their mobiles,yuppies snoring their way home,yuppies looking pale after a'hard days work',get stuck in a traffic jam near KR Puram...pretty much the same old routine.

"hi there!!" i said to the guy sitting next to me.

"hi".boy!! did he have a glum tone.

"So where do you work??" i went on.

"TCS". Again the same glum tone.

There was a silence after this. Only the roaring of 2F engine could be heard.

Coelho came to my mind and i felt his concept of a universal language..which could be understood unspoken.

Btw we did not speak to each other for the whole journey.

I hate mobile phones

2005-09-23T13:00:00.000+05:30

Reason No.1
I bought a brand new Sony Ericsson K500i on February 1st 2005. This one was the best in its class then which fit into my budget.
Am not sure about other phones but this one has a feature which keeps track of how many hours:minutes:seconds the phone was used and the last call lasted for how many hours:minutes:seconds.
This is what it shows at 11:26am on September 23rd, 2005

Last Call
0:00:15
Total Call Time
24:33:11
Outgoing Calls
11:03:49

My connection got activated on Febrauary.....i dont remember....lets just assume that I was available on Hutch network the following monday which is February 7th. So From February 7th to September 23rd, comes to around 229 days...that is 5496 hours.

Reason No.2
I spend around 3 hrs a day travelling to ITPB and back to home. The bus is loaded with 35 people on an average on any given day except ofcourse saturdays and sundays. I can safely say that 60 percent of this crowd (especially girls) is either on the phone or messaging. One fine day i decided "i have to use my mobile". Proudly took out my K500i.....whom to call? why to call? whom to message? why to message? what to message?....my thought process pissed me off. And so my K500i went back to its auto keypad lock mode and faded its brightness....and i put him back in my jean pocket. He was safe and sound as usual till i threw him on my bed the same evening.

Reason No.3
I am becoming more evil because of this stupid, small, non-talking, non-noise making, and i really hate it when it illuminates with its orange glow and fades off after a few seconds as though it is the innocentest creature in this whole world, i really really hate it when it gives that innocent look. I feel as though it is mocking at me. Coming back to my becoming evil, when ever i see people talking or messaging on their mobile....i become restless and i envy them with the fullest sense of jealousy. I feel like ripping their mobiles from their hands like a monkey would do with anyone having bananas and grill them with my questions......Oh god!!! I thought i was becoming evil. Now a startling discovery after my previous line of thought..."I am evil"

All these reasons led me to make plans on how to torture my mobile phone.

Plan No.1
Take a hammer and keep hitting the curvy looking biscuit box until it becomes a 1000 pieces. Not one piece more or one piece less.

Plan No.2
Immerse him in a tank with fishes. Try calling it and make sure he is dead and proudly say
"he is sleeping with the fishes" :)

Plan No.3
Take a pan. Pour some oil in it. Make sure it reaches a temperature where you can fry potatoes and get yummy french fries. Probably take some tips from KFC for the right temperature. Throw him into it and watch him turn brown into fried 'chips'.

Plan No.4
Go to the top floor of

International Technology Park Bangalore
Top floor, Explorer Building
Whitefield Road
Bangalore-66

Drop this fellow, head down, from there. Come down to the ground floor, give a happy grin at his split wide open case, pick him up and throw him in the smoking bin which is kept in the corner of the entrance

And the planning continues.......

Finally I saw this Hewlett-Packard ad, which brags about how it supports nanotechnology. He says with nanotechnology they can create a cell phone so small that an ant can use it. What will an ant do with such a hi-fi cell phone???

2005-07-14T15:45:00.000+05:30

So here i go......

Before i started all this blogging stuff...i went through a lot of blogs just to get a feel of what to and what not to.
First thing i noticed was the innovative naming of the blogs and blog sites....so my first step was to find something which was really intelligent enough...btw i dont understand why it should be something which i need a dictionary to understand?? so i turned to my best interest,cartoons to find something unique for me...but blogger said its already being used, so finally settled for my nick name.
After some more subtle observations i did enjoy reading some blogs.
All said and done, finally i did create my space to squeeze my grey cells and spill a page full of .........brain juice, i guess :)