Lens

Moving

2005-06-06T07:58:00.000+05:30

update: Now http://rkblogs.net
My new blog is available at http://rk.negimaki.com/blog. Kindly update your bookmarks, if any.

Taking a bit long

2005-04-24T11:40:00.000+05:30

Some time back I felt bit restricted in blogger. I started looking for some other blogging software. There were two important things(though might sound very insignificant) I was looking for
1) Categorisation
2) Calendar
I don't understand why blogger still does not support categorisation as I saw many drifted away only for this reason. Few others use some work arounds to get the feel of categorisation, but why the effort when there are lot of softwares make it virtually effortless.
I found wordpress meeting my requirements. It is a open-source software with lot of developers and users, there is a strong community around it. Thus I get lot of plugins, good support, wonderful themes to choose from !
Then it was the search for hosting site. Here again, my requirements were clear FREE and Ad-free ! I knew I was asking for a bit too much, but came across few of them which came bundled with wordpress itself ! And again there were few restrictions at few of them, but finally found the places where I get all I had wanted - Wordpress, No restrictions, No ads!! What more do I need !!

But then, with more freedom and with more choices come more work. Also got busy with many other things and still haven't been able to set it up completely. I had wished to continue posting only at my new blog, but few more will be posted here till I finish few small things there.

Lens

2005-04-06T21:30:00.000+05:30

Yes, you guessed it right !! I am talking about my new buy - Digital Camera ! Canon Powershot A520

You can see the glow of my face while I am writing this, with the camera just in front of me recording this!

One of the long-standing things in my wishlist can be striked off. This has to be my favourite possession...more than even my music system.

(Let me exclude computer). I mean I dont remember having liking for any particular toy but I liked camera. A camera was on my wishlist even before I had heard about computer ! Even later, I had to delay the buying of camera for various reasons. Now the wait is finally over.

I am at a loss of words to thank Chaitra who bought the camera from States.
I can see the complete professional review here! This is a wonderful site which lists the features, costs, provides reviews, users comments, comparisions and many other things. Must visit for a camera enthu.

Few shots:

Take One! Art

Bro all glees with US chocos!

A design!

Sky is the limit !

More professional pics coming soon :))

A heap of broken images

2005-04-06T20:45:00.000+05:30

How many times have you not spoken to yourself or argued with yourself. Arguing with oneself would bring out our own neglected views and thoughts that it might shock us.

Girish Karnad, master playwright, for the first time directed his own creation, specially designed for Rangashankara. Using the above theme, he narrates the story of a Kannada writer who becomes famous for her bestseller in English! Karnad is aptly supported by Arundathi Raja who puts up a brilliant show.

The play starts off with a TV speech of Manjula Nayak who gives credits and briefs about her success and the story by answering two frequently asked questions. "Why in English?" and "Why that story?". Soon after the briefing, she is drawn into discussion by her own image that appears on TV screen. Her digital image queries, ponders and manages to peel each layer of Manjula Nayak's life. Manjula, is compelled to look at her life, often breaking down, often complaining and often defending herself. At the end audience gets a radically opposite picture of what it gets in the first shot of speech.

The plays I had seen earlier like Final Rehearsal had only one character, Iti Nanna Amritha had only two characters. But here it was something different. The live character had to cope with the recorded show. And man, does not she act well!! For one complete hour, Arundathi competes with her own image, manages to deliver absolutely glitchless dialogues, maintains hitch pitch, coupled with impressive facial expressions.

The narration, direction and performance could have lost the track at so many places, which it didn't and this is the high point of the show. In my overall rating, this play might still rate lower than Iti Ninna Amritha amd probably Final Rehearsal, because of the rich content, pace, striking emotions and just-right comedy in the other two.
And it also depends on other factors that affect the mindset while watching.

But, nonetheless, it was a brilliant show!

Tasty, Smart

2005-04-01T22:30:00.000+05:30

I, sitting in the window seat, turn away from the busy crowd that is inside the bus- crowd ranging from young to old, rich to poor, happy to sad. Bus stops at a traffic junction and I peep out of window. The eununchs and beggars- disabled and poor, run towards the vehicles. I slowly shift my attention to a large hoarding that sports advertisement-cum-comics. A smile crosses my lips and I come out of thoughts. I read again and this time completely absorb and again smile!

I am refering to the Amul ads which slowly became a part of our talk, and which was followed keenly - more keenly awaited than R K Lakshman's You said it in TOI. And it was a small joy when the ad came close to what I had expected! The ads-cum-cartoon captured the news and current affairs and gave a nice comic touch to it. Sometimes silent, sometimes with a punching one-liner, it always maintained good standards of creativity!

Yummy, all the hits are available online :)

Why a post on amul hits ? Well, among the things I miss from Bombay, it is next only to Vada pav, beaches, trains and girls ;-)

Potato is injurious to health

2005-04-01T22:10:00.000+05:30

Over the lunch table
He: Eeks! You are eating potatoes again ?
I: Head bent and busy eating
He: Potatoes are bad.
I: Grin
He: They contain fat.You will put on more weight.
I: ..
He: Potatoes will kill you. They are so bad.
I: Hmm
He: Potatoes are injurious to health. Don't know why people eat potatoes.
I: ..
He: You should follow me. Have you ever seen me eat potatoes ?

I slowly raise my head, look into his eyes "And smoking?".
He blushes, grins, turns red in face, turns his face away.

We silently finish lunch.

Just let it go

2005-03-31T23:38:00.000+05:30

Some time back, I was recalling what Sabeer Bhatia had observed when his much hyped Aarzoo had to see the end of the road- "I do not want to put $1 from my pocket to keep it alive". Well, this was from a person who had made quite a deal from Microsoft for his Hotmail.

It might be just business in that case, but it applies to any context. The moment we stop enjoying, we better stop doing it. Those who understand this, like top blogger Kiruba , puts it to practice. And he quits blogging.

Rashmi had come up with a neat post about friendship. She gets the word right "effortless".

Back to the end-of-the road stuff. As long as something is effortless, it remains enjoyable. If we require to put an ounce of effort, then it is because, either it is no longer interesting or it has become(is) a necessity. Unless it is the latter, there is no point in bearing the burden. There have been instances of writers, painters discontinuing their years of work, or even destroying their earlier work. You call it burn-out, you call it end. Just let it go.

I have experienced this many times, that things seize to be what they were. Like the death of a pet. It is over. It was all nice. Was.

Kiruba might just have posted it for April 1st. Just may be. Or might not be. In either case, as they say, life goes on. Aaj yahan, kal kahin aur.

hendathiyobbalu

2005-03-29T21:30:00.000+05:30

hendathiyobbalu (a wife)
K.S.Narasimha Swamy

If a wife is present at home, that is crore rupees for me
If a wife is near me, I am also a soldier

If a wife is present at home,it is full moon holige light
If she wants to go to her maternal home, I am angry like anything
One who is with me, one who has not left me, cooks very well
Possessor of pony tail that resembles snake, where has she come from !

It should be a dream that there are ways to Kabbiganooru
If anyone gets to be wealthy there, it should be me
In the star light and filled palace, beautiful girl may roam
She would be smiling next to me on throne

Where are visitors from the palace of Chandiranooru, now ?
And where are the descendents from the doors of silver fort
In the company of wife, richness and poverty, are no fears
Man is not a victor, if he has not experienced the love of a wife.

Ps: Yuk, this exposed my ignorance and illeteracy in both the languages. I am sorry and I apologise to KS Narasimhaswamy.

Original Kannada Song:

hendathiObbalu

Above image and writing is courtesy Baraha and Guruprasad.

Ubuntu Tux

2005-03-27T14:30:00.000+05:30

Wow...finally I have installed a Linux Os on this system. Even though I had heard a lot about SimplyMepis by the pros, it could not detect the graphics for me. Installation, graphics, sound, modem have always been an issue for new users - I am a new user from 6 years :( . Add to that, this time SATA support was also an issue.
I have installed Ubuntu downloaded from here. The installation asked comparitively fewer questions, infact no-brainers. I was happy to see it decide what to install and proceed with the complete installation !
Next graphics...no probs here. Sound...I am installing mp3 player now, the default one does not play mp3 files. Got good help here.
Internet, it could not install my internal modem. But I didn't waste much time on it since ethernet connection was easier to set up (and am currently logged on using the same connection!). I somehow feel the browsing is slower that it is in Windows :(
But it took infinite amount of time (or did it hang--I mean Linux hangs??) to mount my sata drive :((. The fact that it could recognise the drive means it should be able to mount it as well, but somehow it stops responding. Hope I get some help on the net.

That is it for now, have to explore a lot. Good Sunday afternoon instead of usual sleep routine !!

Way to go

2005-03-23T22:55:00.001+05:30

Rahul Dravid. Anil Kumble. Vishwanathan Anand. Pankaj Advani. Narain Karthikeyan. Sania Mirza.

Indian Sports is shining....!!!

Dependency

2005-03-23T22:55:00.000+05:30

is bad ....

Skills of Interview

2005-03-21T23:00:00.000+05:30

These days I am picking up the skills of interview I guess. I am speaking in journo lingo. I feel I have certain qualities that would make me a good interviewer. I feel good interviewer should :

Be a keen listener
Be albe to relate things easily
Probe very effectively
Almost get the things what I am interested
Use the answers to previous questions to ask more questions
Grasp the flow easily
Keep an eye on the watch
Be able to direct the conversation
Be able to filter out the useful and meaningful jist.

As an example today I spoke to Deva for quite a long time. He is our seniour colleague(5 yrs), highly talented and experienced engineer. He spoke about the current trends in the industry, his concerns for immediate future, his ideas that are feasible, pieces that are missing, the actions that are necessary, possible risks and advantages in the market, anticipation of change etc. His way of looking at things is quite different from ours and I thus wanted to get a feel of his thoughts. In the flurry of his words, conclusions were often difficult. I had to cut him short sometimes.
Overall I understood lot of things and it was a good experience as an interviewer also.

7g

2005-03-21T22:30:00.000+05:30

This was the movie I saw a few days back...actually its title is longer than I have mentioned in the title, a reference to a certain colony which bears little or no significance to the story line. I saw this movie because couple of blogs mentioned about it, and also because Nbk got the CD. These thoughts are not on my movie blog because I am not evaluating the entire movie, just the story.
It goes like this: Hero is almost a fighter, and a typical middle class man with lower middle class values. He sees heroine. Continues to see her. Goes everywhere she goes. Stares at her. Continues to stare at her. Even after she is uncomfortable, continues to stare and follow her. Goes and falls on her in the bus. Chooses bus to give chain and errr the bus stops. Something happens and she slaps him with her shoes. Continues to follow her. Offers help. Continues to offer help even if she refuses. Continues to follow her. Continues to stare at her. She is engaged. But he continues his effort. Finally she gives in. But why? why ? why? Is it because he says "I do whatever I feel like. I don't give flowers, cards. But I am honest" (and I will continue to stalk you??) She even tries to reform her. And another few scenes the movie ends.
I never really got to know if the movie was progressing at all. I have seen repetitive themes in movies, but repetitive scenes ?? I am really clueless about the element that has made this movie popular (if it has become). It would be interesting to know if any girl dare say she likes the movie.
Moral to the youth : "Perseverance pays" is the only theme on which movie seems to be based. Or probably "Try try until you succeed". Only sad thing is the approach.

Delayed Childhood

2005-03-21T00:15:00.000+05:30

During school days/ college days after vacation my fellow friends were disappointed and bored at the thought of getting back to school or college. I used to pity the weeping kids being dragged to schools by their mothers on the first day of reopening. I used to wonder about the difference in reaction by me and others to the same event. I would have easily been bored with holidays and would be looking forward for the new class, new teachers, possibly new faces, new subjects and the joy of starting all over again, fresh.

Looks like I am having a delayed childhood.

Expanding ...

2005-03-20T22:36:00.000+05:30

Whoa !! Just a day after I thought this blog has limited readership, I am proved wrong ! Surprisingly, Swaroop, Pradeep came to know that I have written a post on people that feauters their names and left their comments !! I guess this should be the work of technocrati. The result ? My post was included in Swaroop's own blog mela !! What a timing of my post and what a content !

On the other hand, I should be more conscious now :( How I wish I had disagreed with this lady, who after posting many posts about the freedom of speech, has obligations to men's imagination itself :( I am way too disinterested in an argument, and thus am not linking to her blog.

In a related context, this makes an interesting read.

People

2005-03-17T22:39:00.000+05:30

Biographies and auto bio threw open the lives of people. That was limited accessibility. Not anymore. Thanks to blogging, we can follow some people live. Here are few people whose blogs I read and admire them:

First on the list is Kalyan. Managed server in college, gives speeches on Linux, wrote articles to magazines, got into Yahoo!, takes a sabbatical after 3 years, looses camera, buys a new one partly with the help of donations from friends, does a photography course, becomes full time photographer, continues his consultancy, had an offer for research at IISc, becomes a naturalist, celebrates his birthday in jungle, allows a miami cruise contract to pass, shoots wow pics in jungle, blogs from jungle, gets abducted into monkey kingdom, experiences once in a life time event etc. His posts are just too entertaining. It is a very good experience to follow the life of a man who is doing what he wants to. For any normal post of his, the comments are near half century.

Next, is Pradeep . Did work at few places, but always knows what he wants to do and where he is heading. Highly technical, has a web-site since almost a decade, a passionate open source follower, a voracious reader, delivers talks at conferences, writes articles to leading publications, can speak on anything at any length, movie-theater lover. The more I provoked him the more I got to learn, thats how I remember him! If I want to know something about an open source technology, all I should do is just bash about that in front of him ;-)

Swaroop. Wrote a book on python, roams around to give lectures on python, has plans for hobby project, has a blog that is bookmarked by anyone and everyone and has the simplest bio-data I have seen.

There are few others whose life has amused me. I will write at an appropriate time.

Blogshares

2005-03-17T22:34:00.000+05:30

Shares. Blogs. Two things all over my mind (currently).

And I stumble upon this site. 'Virtual' trading of blogs !! This is height !

Remember the good old board game of Money? Virtual bank that gave money to start business. Buying cities (metros-which didnt include Blore- were costly that time), building bunglows, renting bunglows, giving/taking loan ... The game could go on endlessly and taught small business tactics like optimising, taking chance, playing safe, playing tricks !

Freedom Of Speech

2005-03-17T22:22:00.001+05:30

The news of googler being fired for blogging about google is still fresh in the minds, here comes the extinction of Mediaah. Sad.

I am afraid . And that's the reason I put the blue ribbon in my site the moment I came across it. But I feel, my opinions are no where explicit!

More on mediaah:
But whole of blogosphere seems to be talking seriously about it and have waged a huge war against the biggie. View and Counter view (Hey, this man has same name as mine, is a piscean, uses wordpress -as I would do shortly). The posts that were removed at Mediaah already re-appears here . You can kill a man but not an idea.

Priority

2005-03-17T22:20:00.000+05:30

There are two things : Interesting and Important.
Watching cricket is interesting. Washing vehicle and stinky shoes is important.
Reading blogs is interesting. Updating technical skills is important.

Priority = Importance + Interest

Who are you ???

2005-03-17T22:16:00.000+05:30

One of the presentation tips is to "Define audience". I have absolutely no clue who is reading this blog, if at all someone is (except those regular good people). I understand that blogging is not 'presenting' and I continue writing things like these and others that appeal to me and at a frequency that suits me. But in case, you need to say something, do comment.

Few of my colleagues would require an explanation of the meaning of blog, whose limits I am only not sure of, and they look at me when I mention the word as if I am talking the internal politics of Czechoslovakia and I will end up making an easier face of "blogging-is-no-big-deal-and-i-dont-know-how-and-why-i-should-explain-to-u".
My fellow college mates require a trigger everytime to bring them here, and I am in no mood to publicize my blog (You are reading what I mean).

I blog because it is good and I shall try to follow these rules.

256 Lane superhighway !!

2005-03-17T22:10:00.000+05:30

Internet is information super highway.
I am on BSNL broadband !

Downloading Operating System(s) is fun. With Kazaa, online radio, always logged-on messenger, live news, blogs, transactions at the finger tips, technology and help at a mouse click etc, I realise
that I never knew internet.

Your friendly neighbourhood pal can take orders of download at nominal charges :)

Award!

2005-03-17T22:05:00.000+05:30

This blog is nominated for bloggies award ...Hurray !

The above is a result of day-dreaming and hallucination which was a result of ignorance, complacency, excessive browsing, insufficient sleep.

Check this anyways.

May be I can try Bharateeya Blog Mela. If you find any of my posts between 17th and 22nd worth sending as nomination, let me know.

Birthday :)

2005-03-15T18:30:00.000+05:30

My existence on earth completes its 24 years today !! Happy birthday to me :) Thanks for all those who wished me.

I have taken one week off and am sitting at home. Lot of people expressed their surprise over I doing nothing with the leave. I am just relaxing. Thats a lot of work, you see ;-)
Last time I had taken off was an year ago. That shows how healthy and efficient I am :) Also, I lookup dictionary for the meaning of on-bench ;-)

There are lot of things that I can do and time still needs to be managed well using my priority principle.

I have done a bit of wordpress, and maintaining a site parrallely. More on this later. Also, http://wakeup.to/sunshines brings you to this blog. Big deal.

Updates

2005-03-15T18:18:00.000+05:30

My previous post was almost a month back :-/ Not only because I was left with no time for other activities than work, but because I didn't have time to write about them ! So here is an update:

Pyhton Meet
Futures,Ayurvedha,Iscon theme park,Astrology,Journalism.
White noise
Office update
Vanila & Paint
Sms_Timepass

Home update

2005-03-15T18:05:00.000+05:30

I helped pollination of few vanila flowers. It is delicate work to peel the flower, lift and place pollen grain on stigma. We had just grown it for curiousity and fun. But is a strong source of economy for few farmers.

Vanila, the scent used in icecreams, looks like beans. Costly crop it is, for a kg costed 5k in its prime. The processed (dried etc) would cost 5-6 times more. This crop gave rise to lot of thefts and animosity between neighbours near Shimoga, Chickmagalur. Now the market is not in its prime; the reason being few bad quality output by some of the farmers have given a bad name to Indian crop in general.

Our house is being painted. I got confused over the options of colours to paint my room. I delayed my decision; Finally gave a nod to Pink.

Office Update

2005-03-15T18:00:00.000+05:30

Few things are happening in my sorroundings!! Pavan is leaving and so no one will monitor my mails now :) All the best Pavan! Ramakanth got engaged and now he blabbers about his girl his future etc. Its a welcome relief from his earlier blabbering about 'jagging'. All the best Ramakanth, may you have a wonderful life ahead.
Sudhakar has quit, to pursue his higher studies. All the best man! May you succeed in your efforts and achieve your goals!

My place has changed. I have selected a corner place which is almost like a cubicle and was used only by PMs earlier. A lonely spacious place with the window next to me has already become envious possession. As somebody said, I really know how to be happy with small things.

"Don't tell the world what you can do. Show it. Greatest forces in nature are silent. Electricity has no noise. Heat is dumb" This quote has moved from my bedroom to office cubicle out of need.

One good news : I withdrew from BEC :))

Futures,Ayurvedha,Isckon theme park,Astrology,Journalism.

2005-03-15T17:55:00.000+05:30

Prelude:

After confusing and clearing myself with all the tax related calculations, I am into Shares. And not with out a reason.

In a medieval period when people we knew spoke economy to an extent of the latest Rs 500 denomination, my father spoke shares,debentures,bonus etc. He had had quite a few suggestion seekers, students behind him. Over the time he just withdrew himself from it. Now, one of those students has made it big. And we attended a workshop from him where some thousands of people attended. My intention was to make myself familiar with the terminologies and to investigate the realities of the business. Of course, I had a pen and book with me to double me up as a journo!

Stocks, Futures, Options etc:

The series of seminars that lasted for more than 3 hours, started with a prayer from students of school for blind. The investment company headed by Mr NSK Murthy, donated some amount to the school. An introductory talk by Dr Krishna was followed by a seminar from Murthy. The presentation touched upon various terminologies, tricks, demo of software used to predict the share market, with some humour in between and a question and answer session. Mr Murthy's wit was at its best display during q and ans.

I am going through 4 huge books on various tactics , trends and newspaper articles. So you know whom to contact for your investment advice !

Ayurvedha:

Next was a session by Dr Krishna, who has practiced allopathy for more than 15 years in US, about an ayurvedic center he has set-up in Mysore. Very elaborate presentation covered the healing techniques used in Ayurvedha to state of the art facilities in the center at Mysore. He has plans to extend the services to other countries by setting up hospitals there.

Theme park:

Iskcon has been granted huge land by Govt near to Kanakapura road to build "theme park". If you want to experience God, see Him in all forms, even in special effects -- thus spoke Iskcon representatives who outlined the attractions and facilities being planned in the theme park. The multimedia presentation movie was as attractive as a movie and was equally professional. The park includes a 4D theater aka iMax, the 4th dimension being vibration of chairs, water sensation for legs, fog creation, smell creation etc. It would play the childhood activities of Krishna. Water sport would accompany some other stories of Krishna with special effects. Sport and relaxation for children, aged people, artistic entry, laser light movie, animated Hiranya Kashipu -the attractions and plans are too many to write down; at the end I felt that the actual is even 10% of what is promised, its worth the wait. I am surely gonna arrange a get-together there!!

To fund their construction (at least by part) they have taken up construction and selling of flats nearby to the said site. An useful intro to that was too present.

Astrology and Advices:

Most interesting speech was next by S K Jain (an astrologer and futurist) who spoke of the "luck" factor that is necessary inspite of all the smartness and hardwork. He also cited many of his achievements as futurist, but most importantly I liked his knowledge of poems and literature. He quoted Sanskrit, Hindi, Kannada quotes and poems just like I use words! He succeeded to tickle the funny bone too! Finally he advocated "Hare rama hare krishna" chanting.

The mad and ugly rush for the free lunch was no surprise considering people had come there following an advt to learn to make crore rupees in a day !!

Postscript:

Each of the above paragraphs is condensed from a 2-3 page article of thoughts, time makes the best editor!

Sms_Timepass

2005-03-15T17:53:00.000+05:30

Few plans cancelled on sunday and left with unplanned void...
2-3 missed calls from a number unidentified! Not bothered to call back or to message. I am plain bored of unidentified messages and missed calls.
A message from the same number.
Hi
Further conversations are here for you...
Hi, who are you
K:I am karen doing my 2nd pyej at jnc..was bored so just flicked thru a no and got urs..Wanna be frendz
Rk:I dont mind but i am more comfortable in emails! Whats pyej? Ur full name ? U can call me
kiran
K:hey dat wud be a prob..i wud prefer sms...Pyej stands for psyc eng n journo..N can u tell me about urself
Rk:i work in it industry. Where do you stay? How do I pronounce your name? R u a boy?
(2-3 missed calls before i finish typing and a msg- missed calls kept happening before i cud send the reply)
K:Why r u takin so long to reply ?
Rk:Mobil typin is slow. What do you want to know about me
K:I am a gal. How do i tell how to pronounce my name
K:R u a gal?
Rk:Using some other similar familiar names
Rk:I am a boy!
K:K ka is like cat n ren sounds like rin..is dat k ?
(-In between I wanted to check with my friend whether this girl is the same whom he is meeting...bcoz psy and journo sounded familiar..and was curious how she got my num...--
So this message was typed to my friend(N):
"If u dont mind give me her num. Dont worry i wont use it. By the way we need to name ur gal."
And by mistake- yes by mistake- I sent this msg to 'K' !!! Later sent it to N also)
Rk: Ok fine! not very clear but ok. By the way i think i sent a message not intended to u
K:Wat was that all about?
Rk:Sorry I am chattin with my another friend
(need to clean few sms for lack of space..just fwded few to some friends...)
K:Yeah right ..got confused ...so wat ya doin? tell me how old r u? N wat r u basically..Where did u study and stuff like that...
Rk:I am 23yrs young! Studied engineering. I like watchin movies,readin,computer,emailing. U tell me about u. give me some time to reply Do u chat like this whenver u get bored?
K:K me am 19 like listening to music dancin n readin n playin basket ball..Actually today all my friends are busy no one is free to msg so fluked ur no. So how do you look ?
Rk:Ppl say I am fat. I am not that concerned. I look confident and serious-but I make good fun. I wear specs..Huh this was like answering an interview question. I dont like talkin about myself:( u can tell me about ur looks. wat do you do in free time..So you will only chat with me only till ur friends r busy? Dont u use email ?
K:yeah..i tlak to strangers only when my frendz r busy n if u become my frend den dat wud be cool n i use an email..can u send me ur pic?
Rk:U didnt tell me how u look. Give me ur email address. U can also see my blog for my pic.
K:I am fat short dark n ugly. Im not kidding n in my free time i read..im being very honest
Rk:What do you read ? Not giving me ur email id ?
K:a_demont @ ..
(I meanwhile sent another sms to N..."I was just wondering what wud have happened if u met a short dark fat or ugly girl ??")
Rk:Whats that id mean..And r u a Christian ?
K: I am ...N its a secret
Rk:Ur id is a secret ? Give me some hints.
K:Why do u wanna know it has something to do wid my devilish ways..
Rk:DEVILISH WAYS ?? r u a part of secret society ??
(N shot back -" whats happenin 2 u? Idle mind in (-shud be 'is') devils workshop. Dont sms all these things. my sis always reads my sms, i was there with her when u sent sms...."
I replied-"Dude u r also talkin about devils?? I am chattin with a devil. Details later...')
K:Yes I am...n do u wanna join our society..?
K:V r lookin out 4 a manager 4 our society
Rk:I am not interested in managing ur society! I am getting scared :( got some work, will catch up with u later.
K:Hey,I was jus jokin...N k..Cya later ..have a nice day
Rk:u too have a nice day...i really was scared:( and u will believe me :)
K:Hmmm never mind Nway cya take care bye
****
Update : Next day I came across a matching email id in a fwd. Asked Vasanth to get the hotmail id of that person.

Cricket and philanthrophy

2005-03-15T17:45:00.000+05:30

Two beneficial matches for Tsunami victims - I had groaned at the news. Can't our players give a part (small part) of what they have already earned ? I mean, do I get to earn a day extra and paid extra so that I can donate? Or do I just keep aside a part of my earning? And we all know the difference in the impact of my donation and their donations.

But the optimist in me consoled me telling this - not only players donate, if they play lot of audience also donate. Also the amount collected from advt/sponsorships etc is enormous in any scale compared to individual donations by players. I said Ok.

Lot of publicity happened for the matches with reports and summary covering half a page of newspaper.One match played. Lot - *LOT* of money collected. Tsunami wave died down. Other match cancelled. Rs 1 crore donated. News item appeared in a corner.

Python meet

2005-03-15T17:30:00.000+05:30

This was one of the best things that I did in between my tight work schedule. Taking my time off during the compilation of our software, I attended python meet that was held at Thought works office. Pradeep keeps talking about Python, I didn't want to loose an opppurtunity to learn its basics. It was nice to meet people from various companies to do tech hobby! One person expressed with out expressing, his displeasure due to his outsourcing" to blore. Imagine you being sent on site and paid less than what you get now:-/ But his knowledge and hold on the language was well visible. I could understand most part of the talks, but was clean bowled during FP and generator expressions :( As noted by one, lot of good things are happening in blore! It was a good evening but I havent been able to learn a bit after that. I have downloaded the Swaroop's book and software but hands-on is yet to happen.

FP looked very attractive! I realised that I used Fp without knowing that it is Fp in Matlab..Or am I missing something here ?

My End

2005-02-23T23:27:00.000+05:30

If my favorite color is blue, then

Next year I would be

Choice

2005-02-14T23:40:00.000+05:30

"I observed you were not able to choose and decide!", lamented the shop keeper lady at a spectacle shop. "I'll take this", I had just said, refering to the frame through which I was looking deep into my own eyes in the mirror reflection, holding two sets each in both hands.

I face similar situations sometimes during shopping, sometimes because I realise that more often than not I "wont have a choice".

I've had quite a few choice-less scenarios in my life when I just accept the things offered to me on a platter without even thinking twice about it. And there can never be a choice to regret either! "You have made all your choices!" Oracle enlightened Neo in movie "The Matrix".

I grumble about the choice-less situations, but choices often land me into great levels of confusion. Choice is always accompanied with advantages/compromises. If those are not clear, there is greater problem. Life is a series of logic gates where you continuously evaluate and decide yes or no, one teacher spoke philosophy in a computer class. "To be or not to be?" Shakespeare could not have put it more aptly.

"Specs is just an analogy/sample", I wish I could tell her.

Philosophy

2005-02-14T23:27:00.000+05:30

"quote"
Don't put too much time and effort in all these friendship and other things. Those look rosy and just like chocolate, tastes good only as long as it lasts. They are good only in movies and fictions. There are no one called good friends and bad friends. All are good, on an average, and all are selfish on an average. There is no reason to be otherwise. I don't deny real good friends who last long despite differences and other things, but are very rare.Finding such people would be a matter of luck and testing to that effect is hardly worth it. Each one will take his/her path and move away and unless you keep seeing them and keep in touch, the once great friendship reduces just to "how are you?", and a recall of old memories. Friendship is directly proportional to the time you spend with them and I think you will not even be seeing same people after 2-3 years! There should be nothing called as "break-ups" if there is good friendship and if people can't see each other once, there can never be a real "patch up". These will look immature and silly after sometime. And more often than not, all the trouble and effort are not worth them.Try to do justice to your time and give right priority to right things.
"unquote"

Philosophy lecture to my younger brother. Wish I had an elder brother !

Business English Classes

2005-02-14T23:18:00.000+05:30

As a continuation of ironies, I will be going through Business English Classes! Let me be brutally frank and honest for the first time - I don't need it. My English is manageable, communication esp with my customers, and email communication deserve an award.

I should stop complaining. Period.

Me and my languages

2005-02-09T07:15:00.000+05:30

naanu I mein aham Je suis Ich bin

My mother tongue is Kannada. So Kannada was the first language I came across with.

My schooling was in English medium. But if you thought I right away started using this foreign language, you are wrong. Not until a headmaster came along, who observed strict rules to make us communicate in English. And what better way than entrust the job to the weakest link (remember- it was decided that I dont deserve to study UKG before 1st standard) in the class to collect the fine from other people if they didn't obey rules. I dedicated a piggy bank and went around the school collecting the fine Re0.25 everytime anyone fails to communicate in English.Of course I had to evade paying fine. At the end, all this earned me the coveted certificate "Best student for English communication".

It was then the time to get transfered to a village where English medium was present only upto the class I had already finished. I joined Kannada medium. Here in the first class, they taught "English alphabets". I had to use the dreaded Kannada script for all subjects and it helped improve the legibility. As soon as I got a bit of hold on purana, rasayana shastra and maggi, we got transferred.

In what was supposed to be English medium school, few shocks awaited me the very first day.

In maths class, I recited maggi in Kannada upto a much higher number than the entire class did in English(tables), I was still punished!

In the first class, we were asked to write Kannada Kagunita to improve the hand writing.

If that was cakewalk for me, I had no idea about a totally alien language - Hindi and an equally frightening teacher. In the first class, I somehow managed to hide my ignorance and shouted the poem in chorus. I actually shouted only one word bandhar hiding my face during other times, only to later learn that I shouted wrong word for ban kar. Before the next class after a week, I had picked enough language to read the text. I later became the most volunteered and fluent reader of Hindi text in the class, sometimes even made up for teacher's sore throat. Though that effort was not responsible for my topscoring in the language for next 3 years.

Sanskrit, actually Sanskrutam was a choice to score marks,initially. But I was so impressed with its beauty and diversity, rightfully unleashed by one of the most brilliant and talented teachers I have ever met, that I had wished pursuing all degrees in the language and settle as Sanskrit teacher. I didnt fare well in the tests,but my essays were often appreciated.

This was actually the English medium school. I could hardly follow understand first and last word of a sentence spoken in 15 seconds, in between which they seemed to utter as many words as enough for my 1 minute's writing. My fears to speak English only increased post few embarassing moments. I somehow did manage to pull off the school without communicating much in English.

Pack up and move to Bombay. Choosing to befriend with better of the evils, I started using English, instead of Hindi, for my communication. Similar logic guided me to take French as second language. Though the language didnt attract me to the class, the teacher surely did. The friendly smile she gave when we bunked her class and were caught listening to walkman in the campus, was a good enough coaxing to make us attend her classes. Her voice and accent were so soft that though it didnt help us in the language but it taught us lip reading very effectively.

In what has been my most daring attempt, I handed over some 4 pages (with something scribbled) to a friend. Her response was anything but what I feared. "Ravi, your English is byaaad" with the typical girls' face and accent when they say "bad". Time for my enlightment. If my English is any better today (she acknowledged by praising my reviews as "linguistically brilliant"), a part of the praise should be attributed to her. *Proverbial woman* behind man's success ??

Engineering was quite a relief compared to all these when I enjoyed life with languages of a different kind - Computer languages. This I may write in a separate post.

Training for soft skills - again the very basic English lessons did little help to me.

Working for a company based in Germany does not actually require me to know German/Deutsche. But then, it helps to add one more to my this post. German language class brought all my fun-in-learning memories back. Fun loving nature of our Sir added to his good knowledge made us look forward for the class and provided a deserved break from work.

Rukhawat ke liye KHED hai....

2005-02-03T23:05:00.000+05:30

Before anyone reminds, let me realise myself and accept the reality that my posting frequency is infrequent. Few other things are taking priority and time.

Currently reading : The man who knew infinity (A life of the Genius Ramanujan) by Robert Kanigel. It would take anything from 3 weeks to 3 months to finish.

I leave you with this trigger...Where do you see yourself at 33years ?

Weekend Movies

2005-01-31T07:00:00.000+05:30

National Treasure

Figure this: I watch a bad print on my 17" screen 2 days before and again I go and shell out 150 bucks for the same movie in big screen!! Finally, Nbk's jinx at PVR broken!! Waiting to break the same at RS.

Page 3

Having office in front of movie hall helps. I went back to my work after the movie and it was a nice feeling!

How I wish PVR announced some incentives for frequent visitors!!

Ps: Apart from the movies, I utilised this weekend usefully and hence there is no "great regret" about spending time on movies.

Who moved my cheese

2005-01-31T06:50:00.000+05:30

"Who moved my cheese" by Dr Spencer Johnson. Read an ebook in one sitting. Had been seeing this book in all book stalls and was curious about it.

I just rushed through first part (where the preparation for story) and the third part (the real life analogies and aplications). The third part is fine, but I felt like those managerial talk.

The second part is actually the cheese story. Moving of cheese is an analogy to some change we don't expect. Story talks about four characters different in their approach towards the change and elabarote coverage of one character,Haw. His learnings and thoughts are all displayed for us to learn.

Don't I see lot of Hem,Haw,Sniff and Scurry all around me !! What am I ? Different one in different circumstances. Since the "change" situation can occur in any context, we better practise the preachings!

Probably, the book did not ask/answer two questions (directly):
1) What if the cheese really did "disappear" overnight ?
2) What if the cheese never got over and I am comfortable in the cheese store for a life time ?
The answers I think are
1) Never loose my shoes. And keep them ready to use.
2) Even in this case, look out in the maze for cheese stores. There are all the possibilities to find a better store. Whether or not, looking out will keep one fit and "in the race".

I am searching my shoes.

Bumble bee shouldn't fly

2005-01-26T23:52:00.000+05:30

"Aerodynamically, the bumble bee shouldn't be able to fly, but the bumble bee doesn't know it so it goes on flying anyway." - Mary Kay Ash

Wow…..what an inspiring sentence! For some reason, either the rhyme or the very topic, the sentence kept on ringing in my ears. If the sentence is any right, I want to fly too and I shall. Who doesn’t want to fly ? I was waiting for Dean Kamen’s secret invention IT (code named Ginger) for years hoping that it would be a individual flying transport, until his project became 1 in top 100 embarassing businees moments!! I have the very need to fly to avoid the traffic everyday. And to explore beautiful places all around earth and beyond. Fantasies of flying can go on……

But wait a minute, if the quote is only for inspiration, we have many other stories. Spiderman, Shaktiman. And when did aerodynamics agree that monkey can fly ? Don’t we have our own Hanuman for inspiration, who achieved great feats once he was made to realize his powers.

Since bumble bee does fly, either aerodynamics was wrong /not evolved or the person was ignorant. With all these thoughts formed in the background, I explored the topic on net.

Man, people have been curious like me and have taken the quote (or the myth about it) quite seriously! Web pages have been devoted only to explain or to talk about this.. Simplest explanation (in terms of comparision) comes from Doug Craigen, who says it involves different study of dynamic aerodynamics and suggests the moral lessons to advocate “keep flapping”.

In David Cushman‘s page ,the topic looks at various factors that affect the flying of bees and implications.

Here you can find the interesting insight on how it all started ! McMasters, John H goes on to explain how Jacob Ackeret, a famous supersonic aerodynamicist was thought to be a culprit initially. But later it was found out that Sainte-Lague, a lab assistant of famous entomologist August Magnan was the actual culprit.

A broadcasting company(WBQP tv) uses bee as its “mascot” and explains how the company, like bumble bee, has beaten all odds and rules to succeed!

Books have been written only on bumble bee and the theory.

So much for the bumble bee theory ……my original (childhood) curiosity still remains…can’t man fly, just like he could swim ?

Iti Ninna Amritha

2005-01-23T23:31:00.000+05:30

I have always had clear ideas about the strengths and weaknesses of "letter writing". Letter writing, till the computers dawned and now emails have been my favourite pastime. Nehru's letters to Indira and few other such instances in history highlight the role played by letters.Someday I will also come out with my collection of letters.

Let me post a separate post about all this, currently the attention is ...

Iti Ninna Amritha

Direction : MS Sathyu
Artists On screen : Arundathi Nag, Srinivas Prabhu

Plot is simple. Two protagonists write letters(mails) to each other. The performers on stage sit on a chair and read them out, turn by turn.
In short, Amritha and Zulfikar like each other. Political compulsions force Zulfi to follow a path(both career and personal) chosen by his father and Zulfi succeeds in it too. Amritha , the rebel, takes her own path. The society, failing to understand her, brands her mad. Her story is of pain, failure.

With the help of lucid language, the story succeeds to touch upon various social/political/personal issues. As the time passes, letters(dialogues) express - friendship,love,sarcasm,light humour,failure,success,pain etc very effectively. The simple plot at times forces the intelligent audience to think/imagine beyond the said words.

Srinivas prasad with his powerful dialogue delivery does his job well.But I feel there are few areas for improvement - timing, changing facial expression. Though the role needed him to be straight faced, who said straight face cant add value?

Arundathi Nag was brilliant. Be it while childish dialogues, be it while expressing pain, she simply became Amritha. Her tongue slipped few times, some discontinuities were present. In the beginning,the tone was bit over-reactive. But these are all negligible considering her enthusiasm - she almost danced whilst sitting on the chair. And she almost wept at one point. Ma'm, we want more plays from you.

Each of the plays I saw at RS has given me different experiences. I am finding no words to gauge strength of the stage to make things look different.

Wasnt I reminded of "Raincoat" so many times ?

Da vinci Code

2005-01-23T23:29:00.000+05:30

Finally I have finished reading Da vinci code. Here are my views/thoughts.
I can clearly split the book into 3 distinct areas:
1)Christianity and other faiths
2)Cryptography/Vinci/Newton
3)Language/plot/flow

Completely ignorant about the Christian religion and other faiths related to it, I am not eligible to comment on the first. The novel hasnt certainly increased my knowledge, but has certainly made me curious/confused.

Cryptography had always been my favourite subject. The use of "language" as against to numbers made it all the more interesting and at the same time gave flexibility to the author in the name of double entendre. Da vinci's painting have been used superbly for the cause.

Bewildering plot with changes and excitement in each chapter, it is clearly a pot-boiler stuff. Despite the required flashback, the pace is uniform. The language precise.

No wonder it is a best seller and am obviously looking forward for the 70mm version.

Laugher Club

2005-01-23T23:23:00.000+05:30

Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha

In the early morning, during morning walk, the laughter wave travelled to me. These are the familiar waves from a laughter club. In the chilled morning, not only do they wake up, but manage to laugh aloud -- should be appreciated. But ask me to join them, I wont!! I simply cant laugh for the sake of it. And that too, making various hand gestures while laughing? I cant! I would rather watch and laugh.

But still, it was Kannan whose name pulled me to the laughter club that day. Hiremagalur Kannan is known for his "pooja" in Kannada Language. Not only simple daily pooja, but he also has kannada mantras for almost all rituals including marriage. Though his mother tongue is Tamil, he has done a lot for Kannnada language. He has published the kannada mantras book, and is a prominent person in any "hasya sammelana". His ability to quote Kannada poets/poems
(both old and new) is simply amazing. His memory is as much to be appreciated as his interest in reading books. He can simply quote a poet in each of his sentence!!

Accompanying him was Asadulla Beg. Being a Kannada Shayari Samrat,he (and his shayaris) displayed the characteristic humour and thought provoking abilities of a "sher". He made it so easy that I felt all it needs to create a good "sher" is open eyes and open ears.

Wish I could remember their laugh tonic....very few samples here:

Kannadadalli hendathiyannu "lay" endu kareyuttare(In kannada wife is addressed as "lay")Teluginalli hendathiyannu "dee" endu kareyuttare(In telugu wife is addressed as "dee")
Yeradu serise englishnalli lady endu kareyuttare(Both combined, in english used as "lady")

A person approaches a humour activist and says "You advice laugh.

Your maid doesnt seem to agree you". "Why?" "Whenever I give a smile to your maid, she feels like hitting me with the very groom stick?!"

Christian: Hanuman is our person.
Muslim: No, Hanuman is our person
Sikh: You both are wrong. He is our person.

All of them approach a hindu priest, who quiet naturally is surprised and asks them their claim.
Christian says " Havent u heard of He-Man, Super-man. Just like that Hanu-man is ours!"
Muslim: "Reh-maan,Sule-maan. Similarly Hanu-maan is our man"
Sikh: Who else but a Sikh will put fire to his tail and jump all

around the city if someone has stolen someone's wife??

Home Sweet Home

2005-01-20T07:01:00.000+05:30

It was 4 years ago that we had started searching for a plot. Realizing that the rates on this side of ring road are affordable in south Bangalore, our search was primarily in this area – extensions of Padmanabha Nagar.
Lots of sites had some issues or the other. Those which were neat did not suit us. Some of the plots which we had accepted sold out like a hot cake in less than half a day. After beating all odds, 2 sites made it to final selection.

Both were “like” corner sites. The roads stretching to “future” main roads. Both had a “garden/ public park” being planned near by. Etc etc was the rosy picture shown by the real estate agents.

Not satisfied, we went for our private survey. The “future-probable” neighbours know it best. “Bad choice”, was the honest, blunt reaction from the first one. All the above attractions turned out hoax. Many other critical problems were made known. The site owner had buried his parents, wife in the residential plot! “Bhoot!!”, the first choice was out.

Quite farther from the main road, compared to the first, was the second choice. Peaceful, dust free, shady, green – this area resembled a quiet village. A single house for the entire road ensured the privacy and calmness. The coconut trees to 3 corners instantly made me love this place. Encouraging comments from our neighbour strengthened our choice. The attractions mentioned by broker were not completely true, but that had no impact on our decision.

Artistically and innovatively we named our home "Srigandha"(Sandalwood in Kannada), where we started living from the very day of house warming, though partly incomplete then.

home_sweet_home
Cut to the present:
The area is no longer an extension but has extensions. The next road to our house is main road on which BMTC buses ply. Education institutions, hospitals, petrol bunks are born overnight. School buses and other construction vehicles taking the immediate road has increased air and sound pollution. No more vacant plots. Park is still future.

Number of coconut trees is 2, but will remain so. Various vegetables/fruits/flowers (cucumber, tomato, beans, ladies’ fingers, pumpkin, lots of papaya,venilla etc) have grown in our area. It’s a great feeling. It’s a joy to observe the minute growth of the plants/vegetables every day. The scent of the soil after the first drops of rain is glorious. On a quiet evening the breeze from coconut tree branches to our balcony is heaven.

Come home sometimes…..Welcome to my home . . .

Flyover - A Solution?

2005-01-12T05:46:00.000+05:30

The flyovers (their construction to be precise) have some strange relation with me. The hosur road flyover construction started just when I had started using that stretch of the road. I have probably seen the very first stone used for the construction. The pace of its construction amused me. The change of routes I had to make every another day was perplexing. The number of times I had cursed the construction outnumbered the hardship and delays due to the traffic woes it created. At least for that sake, I should have reaped the benefit of the completed fly over. But then, I changed my route.

Just when I was comfortable with the route to Kormangala through Dairy Circle, the fly over construction began. My route changes continued. Add to it the crawling through a narrow short-cut. This time the construction never seemed to end.

I can say “I did test-ride on all combination of paths under and near the flyover”. And after one year of alternate routes and suffering, the fly over finally opened to the public.

Am I happy now? One of its kind 3 stage project (underpass, flyover and normal), big budget, success story of BDA – all nice adjectives. I don’t intend to take any credit away from the project. But then, after cruising through the wonderful underpass, one needs to break hard the vehicle. It’s a “bottleneck” there!!

Where is the problem? My colleague had once remarked, the flyovers sometimes only shift the traffic jams to a different place. The solution is temporary or incomplete.

This need not be true for all cases. More fly over projects at whopping budget are planned this year. Bangalore’s infrastructure is improving- I am happy! But I continue to take the narrow short-cut, that I used during the construction of fly-over, with reduced crawl.

desk-top

2005-01-03T01:50:00.000+05:30

Got an opportunity to look at my office desk-top !!my desk is completely lost in papers....i can see papers lying all around me and all over the desk so much that i have to search a patch to know my desk's colour!

in between ...there are keyboard, monitor, coffee cup, water bottle, mobile, wires, file folders, helmet, staplers, punching machine, diary, calendar, phone-- all things in the most undisciplined way....

got back the pen and its cap which were separated from each other few weeks back (in a kumbhmela) in fact pen reminded of a person who has left the place..
monitor and cpu are actually black in color but they have this artistic uniform brown coating (of the dust).....I usually used to remove the dust. but someone has taken away my duster also(or it might also be lost in this debris....

Wow it was a good exercise to look at my desk and to look all around me....I could see so many things, which I never knew were existed right on my desk....I guess I was staring at this dumb monitor all these days....but let me be very modest...my contribution to such a set-up is minimal, its been like this even before I have come here...

Coming up: a peep into my cupboard

Flashback And Goal Setting

2005-01-03T01:10:00.000+05:30

Not many events in the previous year that will be important to my career or personal life. It was a dry year. Unplanned, directionless I just sailed.
If some things that makes the year worth remembering, they are
>> I toured/visited/trekked Pondichery, Honnemaradu, Dharmasthala, Ooty, Munnar, Shivanasamudra, Ombattu Gudda etc
>> I bought computer system.
>> Saved/invested money (Phew…first time!)
>> Arranged/attended various get-togethers!
>> Finally started reading novels.
>> Of course, started this blog!

Goal Setting:
I have decided to set myself some quantifiable and measurable goals for me this year. All previous years I called these resolutions and had no way of measure. Thanks to “industry” experience I can set goals professionally. These will be reviewed during the year end.

>> Read 10 (at least) novels/general books. And at least 4 technical books (this is too less, but better than NONE – my previous year’s count).
>>Wake up before a fixed time in the morning – any day/any weather/any going-to-bed-time.
>>Visit/ spend time with “relatives”. I can do at least this much for all the love and respect they have for my family.
>>To *reduce* money spent on movies. Instead watch “plays” and invest in “books”.

Common to every year resolutions:
>>Keep planning entire year, not just new year resolutions.
>>Manage time well
>>Keep visiting this list to review the progress.

There are few other “personal” goals set. Hope I will be able to put better stuff here next year.

Blogging

2005-01-03T01:03:00.000+05:30

2004’s most looked up word is “blog”!
Webster dictionary defines a blog as "a Web site that contains an online personal journal with reflections, comments and often hyperlinks provided by the writer."

TIME magazine's People Of The Year - Bloggers. Bloggers are being recognized as Citizen Journalists.

Bloggers beat conventional media. For complete article go to http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/mail/974504.cms

And what is the use of all the technology if it is not of help while in crisis? Visit The South-East Asia Earthquake and Tsunami
for Tsunami related news/help/links

See me!

2005-01-02T09:39:00.000+05:30

Some of you wanted to see my pic here...how do I look ?!

good pose!

hmm!

Shivanasamudra

2004-12-28T01:00:00.002+05:30

EDP Day Out.

Initiation:
Through colorful mails, the plan was intimated to all. Few more mails & reminders -- start time, head-count and pick-up points were finalized. Goswami’s and Sowmya’s organizational skills, to the smallest details, were at good display.

Our one day picnic to Shivanasamudra and if possible mahadevpura was to start at 7 AM “sharp” on 11th Dec. A typical cold start - that we were in RBIN campus even at 9. Breakfast in the bus and we start!

A stop, at Mysore road, to pick up rest of the troop. Around 10:30, as the speedometer showed signs of life, people in the bus filled the atmosphere with energy and enthusiasm. Vikas’s people management skills and energy were best displayed. His enthu was so infectious that he finally succeeded in making most people in the bus to dance to his tunes. It was followed by antakshari but late-morning sleep dampened it later.

Pop-corn, juice, another round of breakfast happened on the way. Fun n frolic continued. The decibel level at the back seats of the bus was constantly above average. Vikas, Dodda Ravi, Magu, Manjupai, Rukumani, Kantha make ideal recipe for laugh track. Dhanaji, Bhandu, Sunku added spice.

1:30 PM: At “bara chukki”. Cucumber, tender coconuts were ideal refreshments. With few photo sessions, we stepped down and proceded to falls.
step down

Water is such an attraction that we could not wait to jump into it. Playing in the water and under the falls made all the planning and the wait - worth.
wah...ter

falling...

Two small unlucky incidents was the sad part of the picnic.

We returned to bus and it was time for lunch. Hungry stomachs, which were forgotten till now, were satisfied with delicious food. A small time gap to digest food was allowed so that drinks could be poured! We stopped on the banks of a water body. Like the water, drinks flowed. The shady, vast enough place, which was waiting for us, was just right for our snacks and refreshments.
juices ;-)

Time for lucky dip to distribute mementoes. And time to wrap up the day.

In the bus, “dumb charades”, “guess the good word” occupied time before a short nap. Around 11pm comfortably in the bed at home.

Three cheers to picnic organizers, managers and participants.

myDesktop

2004-12-28T01:00:00.001+05:30

After lot of research and compromises I have bought a new PC. Hunger for memory in my earlier version ensured I gave it a high priority. I now have a 1/2 GB ram! Having heard lot about AMD, I decided to go for it. Athlon 64bit processor now resides in my box. Motherboard availability and configuration for Athlon is very diverse. I went for MSI motherboard, half whose resources I don’t use at present. Other configurations are normal.

myComputer

I have always hated floppies. I agree that they were once saviours for data transfer. But certainty in unreliability, when it mattered most, has often made me pull my hairs. And a fatal virus attack due to a floppy is unforgettable to me.

I now have a Pen drive. And whats more: It is a mp3 player Also it is a voice recorder. With 256MB USB drive, my needs are more than met for another 10,000 read writes.

mp3Player
Suggestion: If you are going to buy this, look for the one with display for mp3.

Club eXperience

2004-12-28T01:00:00.000+05:30

(This is about my friend’s first visit to a club. Then why is it on my blog ?? Bcoz efforts to convert “a casual conversation during coffee” to “written words” are mine.)

Fresher’s party – the event I had been looking forward to from past one week. It’s a party for freshers of a reputed engg college. I, being a respected alumnus, was invited. Rs 150 – A mug of beer, dance, an intro to juniour girls – what more do I need for an eventful weekend.

So there was I, wearing my favorite funky dress to match the occasion, on time. The atmosphere was dark and smoky. Music was ear shattering. The surrounding would persuade a non-smoker to turn into chain smoker in few minutes. And the wild-dances and other histrionics displayed, though were expected, were disturbing. And there she was, my once darling, avoiding my eye contacts.

I thought, let me gulp down a beer at least. And soon after, without even giving a second look, I literally ran out and away from that place. I didn’t want to return home so soon. I entered town-hall, where as a part of Bengaluru Habba, a classical music concert was going on. The soothing music made me realize my taste. At the least, my taste is NOT ear shattering loud noise. Also, “she” wouldn’t have been *right* in my life.

All the best, freshers! May you learn your lessons soon!

(Hope he finds all his correct destinations in life as soon and easily as possible. –Rk)

Packed Weekend

2004-12-28T00:02:00.000+05:30

I have learnt that I should also count *nice* stuff as much or more than *not nice* stuff. . . . . .
Thus, since I wrote about my dismal weekend, let me also write about the *packed* weekend!

My this weekend was superb.. weekend started on Friday evening itself.....since a long time I had been wanting to go to pvr..that I went....watched raincoat with colleague....
Saturday ...went to temple the first thing(I go to temple on every Saturday....)then went to Swades with my brother...visited my friend .returned home to see some relatives...played with their cute kid.... attended a friend's reception, there had an amazing,joyful good time with a friend.

in between something had hurt my eye and it was intolerable...but somehow I managed to spend the day..

Sunday...attended our class get-together...it was fairly successful with 17 friends dropping in...had met few of them months ago...had loads of fun...went to Nandhini for lunch, icecream....roamed around.

One person who had maintained silence with me(because he could not stand me when I could not stand him) in college re-started to speak to me......returned home and 2 friends came home...I never feel bored to talk to these guys for hours....one is a walking encyclopedia with no ego problems..and our wavelengths,tastes match so well...we gossip about all things under sun...
If I can continue the weekend enjoyment to Monday....yesterday evening we had project dinner....good food and drinks....

What do I do ?

2004-12-25T01:28:00.000+05:30

When the work completely engulfs me so much that not leaving me time to answer/return/reply calls/mails...

When the tension / pressure strains me...

When most of my friends have seen Swades and reviewed it...After having seen "Musafir","Aitraaz","Hulchul","Enter the dragon","Mi2" on comp-monitor and havent been left with time to write reviews for new ones...

When, even after weeks of the opening of PVR , which is just in front of my office, I havent been able to check that out...Once went all the way to find "no tickets"...Missed several other times..

When the various confusions continue to chase me...

After working against time and deadline on a friday evening, I give up for the time being...

I wish I had just gulped down few pegs...
******************************************************************************
Instead I decide to go to PVR and shelled out my hard worked money to watch Raincoat...Its reviewed at 70mm, but never mind, link is not even worth clicking...
I wanted to go alone and difuse myself, but believe me(and dont blame me) Ved,Sudha it was *your* destiny to join me...

PVR:
11 screens at one place have always interested me. Given that it is just a stone's throw away from my office, but for the sky-high prices, you would have found me there most of the time. Screening various languages's movie, the prices differ depending on the language(kannada>regional>hindi,english),time(weekend>weekday and evening>morning),and the class of theaters(gold>europa>classic).Booking tickets is possible thru net/phone/counters. I liked the giant screen near the counter which shows trailer.

Someday I shall have seen all screens, all classes.

On my way …..BEAT

2004-12-23T07:15:00.000+05:30

Oh my God traffic is so bad …..Wish I didn’t need to travel …BEAT

I have to buy those books. Have to borrow that from her, return this to him…And in between I need to read them…BEAT

She is getting married…..He is seeing her….BEAT

He is changing his company….She is changing her city….BEAT

Need to call up him…..need to mail her….BEAT

That person’s birthday is coming up……Got to see this person’s new bike....BEAT

I better manage my time….the list of “tbd” is growing…But weekend was over just now, will have to wait for the next which will also pass soon…next one and the next one….BEAT

Havent met him…haven’t spoken to her….BEAT

And who is this person who just smiled at me..Oh ! I know him...I didnt even return the smile...BEAT

Appointment with Doc is pending ….and the vehicle servicing….BEAT

Gotto see that movie…..listen to this music…BEAT

That damned code is acting up, deadline is fast approaching…..Tch, this meeting is today…BEAT
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
On a scooter, two pillion kids....In their KG classes....
In the best costume- school uniform...Lost in their own world......
See me…With eyes that spell innocence......
Open little mouth to a broad smile...Smile that is most beautiful on earth...
Wave their hands ...Say in chorus... “Tata Tata Tata” ...B......E.......A.........T

Rangashankara - The Final Rehearsal

2004-12-19T23:35:00.000+05:30

The day I had been waiting has finally come. After a ride in dusty Kanakapura road, thanks to Chill, we entered RS just in time. Unlike last time, we got the tickets.

We comfortably placed ourselves in the top most row. The theater has a homely feel and at the same time, is grand. The 3.5 crore project can not leave any stone unturned. The lighting, sound arrangements are all set to give good experience of theater.

For the next one hour we observed and absorbed the play silently. The different story from the usual stereotype movies was a welcome change. Our group has shown interest to watch plays regularly.

After visit to bookstall and a sip of coffee we parted.

Play – The final rehearsal
The protagonist was sitting on the chair quietly much before the play started. The bell rang and the drama unfolded. The difficulties faced by an actor and his undying spirit to win the best actor award are the main jist of the play.

The obscurity of the content was itself a good strength. The play gripped the audience despite its initial enigma, thanks to its intensity. The versatility of the actor was exhibited. His voice modulation and the sudden change in facial expressions were laudable. The effort-estimation behind a single person performing continuously for an hour, is difficult.

Well, there was another sensitive co-actor Brownyell(a chair). The satire and pun were present throughout, but I liked the great detail in the personification of brownyell.

Let me not claim that I followed each line. But the abstractness was challenging. Distraction and relaxing for even a second meant you missed something. And as later suggested by my friend, I realised that reviewing a play is difficult and useless. One has to see it to believe.

Acting and dialogue delivery fetch full points to the performer. Its nice to know that director-actor Pawankumar is from our college(PESIT)!

Post blog:
Read a better blog My tryst with Theatre by Chill about the same event.

Oo Aa Ouch

2004-12-18T06:54:00.000+05:30

I sprained my leg :(
It hurts most when I sprain my leg on a saturday morning with lot of things planned for the weekend....

g* = simplicity

2004-12-18T06:49:00.000+05:30

I am simply overwhelmed by the look n feel of Google products. Google- the word always brought the picture of search engine in front of my eyes. Not anymore.

It has spread wings to all web-based products like email, and soon we will be chanting google for all our needs!

Where-ever they have been, they stirred competition. Searching, which was just an add-on feature provided by other websites, got a new meaning with google search. To an extent that google site is synonomous with internet.
Its announcement of offering free 1 gb web e-mail literally kicked the email giants , who had been sleeping with the thought –“2 mb of email space is enough for anyone”.Other innovative features (eg:sorting,archiving etc) were simply unheard of,even though web-emails have been around for an era. Didn’t understand their logic of restricting its number of users (only via gmail invitations) though!

This blog site is also a google product (no, they have not sponsored me to write this!). The simple sign up is good enough reason for me to be here.

The context based ads in gmail is simply the best I have seen. When links related to the topic I just read in the mail, are displayed below the mail – I am tempted to follow them.
To provide another example of simplicity, I like it when I see my mails(to me) being marked as “me” in the sender coloumn!

My gmail : rkrules AT gmail DOT com.

Heard they are coming up with an OS .... Also heard, they are recruiting !

My Daily Happenings

2004-12-07T07:06:00.000+05:30

My good friends who are already saturated with my movie reviews and trip logs, want me to blog my daily activities.

So here it is:
On all weekdays (which sometimes includes saturday-sunday)

Get up
go to work
Work
return home
go to sleep.

On the positive side of it,I never have had to skip line 3 and 4 above,which few of my colleagues skip occasionally.

You can keep coming back to this page whenever you feel like knowing my daily activities.

Munnar and Ooty(which comes on the way)

2004-12-04T09:35:00.000+05:30

Oct 30 to Nov 2nd

Participants: Manohar, Vipin, Sameer, Gaurav, Kiran, Ravikiran

After planning, re-planning and cancellation of tours to Pondichery/Munnar, nobody thought that weekend would be so eventful. Friday 4'o clock, it was decided to go ahead with the Munnar trip with the available 6 persons. Manohar and Sameer rushed to book a vehicle and finalized to leave Blore on Saturday morning 9 AM.

Quite after 9 all of us assembled , breakfast followed and started by 10:15. "Do you want to go to temples or you will be going only to beaches?" first puzzle from driver Raju ! Gaurav was most confused - last time he went to Munnar there were no beaches! "Which route you would like to take - via ooty - kodai ? All the three can be finished in 3 days!" another attractive package from Raju. Dil maange more and we chose Ooty-Kodai-Munnar.

With frequent stoppages, it was noon in Mysore when we stopped over for the lunch. Journey after that was smooth. On the way we deviated to visit Bettada Gopalagiriswamy Temple. The hill was an indication of what we could expect from Ooty- the mist, the cold. Drive through Bandipur reserved forest gave us the sights of peacock, deer, one elephant family. Reached Ooty by night leaving us time only for drinks-food-sleep.

Visit to Munnar was at stake. After realizing that we were not left with any time either in Ooty or in Munnar if we want to go to Munnar, the plan was shelved. 3 days from blore and one can't visit Munnar?? I and few others were visibly disappointed. We checked out the possibility of night journey and decided that we visit Munnar come what may. Vipin's desire to go to a beach and its possibilities were also being considered all the time. All these planning left Kiran totally confused that he kept querying "Lekin Munnar kaun ja ra ha hai?" all the time.

All boys group, all through out the journey, obviously missed the obvious. Lets see if Manya keeps up his promise of arranging a “fairer” and “better” tour next time. This time only possible solution was to talk about them.

Open-heart which was happening all through the journey, now continued formally. Bday boy Vipin entertained us with his stories of Lalbagh, childhood crush, and ofcourse aunty's was well-known to all. Sameer with a story of handshake with his competitor. If Manohar finished with breakfast, Kiran went a bit ahead with his Dhandiya story. My "swapna-sundari" story didn't impress/convince people. Gaurav kept mum throughout.

It will be unfair if a small note is not made about the service/hospitality (its absence) during our stay. Repeated requests for glasses/candles/blankets/pillows were royally neglected stating some dumb reason. We continued with our (insufficient) candle light dinner. At the end, hotel proved costly too.

In the absence of hot water none was ready to bathe and it saved us some time. Breakfast and we left to Doddabetta. 8640 feet above sea level, the cold embraced us. The mist covered views opaqued us from beautiful top views and scenaries.

The never ending uniform tea estates were a attraction by themselves. Varieties of tasty tea samples at a store compelled all of us to buy & take some tea powder to home.

Journey continued to Munnar broken by lunch, by Coimbatore and by frequent permit checks and dinner. Twas 11 pm when we were finally in Munnar.
With the ooty hotel experience still fresh but behind us, in much smaller town of Munnar at 11PM our prayers of good stay were more than answered. We stayed in a cottage (actually a house where 10 ppl can easily "live"!!). Hot water for bathing was provided but cosmetic lover Gaurav was not affected.

Munnar was not as cool as Ooty. The scenaries' beauty met our expectations. After the breakfast and quick plan of places to be visited we set off to the lake. Boating was great fun (made more exciting after we bribed the sailor). The surrounding gave us a hint why Kerala is known as "God's own country!". We continued to "high-point" with a break in between at "echopoint". The mist again played spoil sport and we could not capture any scenic beauties.

With the company of few water falls we continued our journey down the hill, just trying to capture as many as wonderful sights all around us.

Lunch and we continued our further journey. En route we spent some time near a dam. Around 3 am we were back in Blore thanks to heavenly roads.

Except for Raju who would have been happier if we had been to Kodai rather than to Munnar, all of us were satisfied inspite of investment of weekend in continuous journey. Uncrowned PJ king Vipin trained others so much that at the end his own title was at crisis with Kiran making most of his training. Vipin's PJs and other stories, Silent sameer's timely one-liners and accountancy, Kiran's "Munnar kaun ja ra ha hai?", Gaurav's planning and ability to sleep anytime-anywhere, Manohar's shooting ------ all these entertained us through out the journey. But for these, the tour would have been as entertaining as a lonely sailor's.

"Leave only footsteps, take (away) only memories" - one signboard had urged.

(This write-up was mainly targeted to the participants. Also, any similarities with TRAP is unfortunately co-incidental)

Launch !

2004-12-01T02:00:00.000+05:30

This is how I launched this blog;-)
Hi,
I now publish my thoughts on the net...visit my blog at Lens ….It is dedicated particularly to the one who inspired, urged and helped me to start a blog and in general to each one of you who gave *me* a pat when "you" liked my writing and slammed *me* when "you" were disappointed…

As an introductory offer I have 3 new posts…Though I don’t promise regular posts, there are chances that the enthu sustains…

Stop by my blog and do leave comments…remember “even mosquito expects a pat for its work” …

Urs,
Ravikiran R

oxymoronica

2004-12-01T01:00:00.000+05:30

After a great deal of research, I stumbled upon a neat book on quotes.

Oxymoronica , a word coined by Dr Mardy Grothe , a psychologist, author of "Never let a fool kiss you or a kiss fool you" , has come up with a book of same name, containing paradoxical wit and wisdom from greatest wordsmiths.

Oxymoronica is a superset and mixture of paradox, oxymoron, chiasmus, as author says. I felt it also encapsulates irony, sarcasm and many other things. Author goes on to define oxymoronicas to convey deeper meaning than they mean superficially. Before I began to read, I wondered about the existence of so many quotes to fill the fat book. But after finishing I now will have to search for normal quotes.

Paradox – A statement that looks false but is nonetheless true(Less is more OR The more the things change the more they remain same-Alphonse Karr)
Oxymoron – Two contradicting terms (pretty ugly)..Oxymoronica is not just contradicting terms, but contradicting ideas (Free love is too expensive-Delvin)
Chiasmus – Reversing the order of words.
First I dream my painting , then I paint my dream –Vincent van Gough

Infact may of all our favorite quotes (and e-mail signatures) could be categorized into one of these groups. Or they are our favorite only because they are oxymoronicas.

Neatly broken into 14 chapters depending on interesting basis like “ancient oxymoronica”(The half is greater than the whole-Greek poet Hesiod) , “political oxymoronica”(“Your greatest enemy is your greatest friend) “oxymoronic advice”(Never take anybody’s advice- George Bernard Shaw), “oxymoronic insults(and few praises)”(she never was really charming till she died-Terence), “oxymoronica on stage” (I just want to be normally insane) and the ultimate “inadvertent oxymoronica”(oxymoronic quotes by accident). Inadvertent oxymoronica, where most of Bush’s quotes are found, is an ideal last chapter of the book. And I stil have my reserves about author’s decision to place many quotes in chapters other than “inadvertent oxymoronica” and vice –versa.

Most often , his definition of oxymoronica – any variety of tantalizing self-contradictory statements or observations that on the surface appear false /silly / illogical, but at a deeper level are true, often profoundly true – fits the quotes.

As suggested on the cover “as addictive as a bowl of peanuts”, it made a fast read. If sometimes I would just laugh loudly at the quotes, other times I would take a break to understand and absorb the inner meaning.

If in an effort to find the oxymoronica meaning in normal quotes, if one succeeds, purpose served is only less (Because “less is more”).

All my best thoughts were stolen by ancients- Emerson

Veer Zaara

2004-11-30T13:02:00.000+05:30

Story is one thing; story telling is another thing. Script is one thing; movie-making is another thing. If both are strong, the result is a block-buster. If shortcoming in one can be made up through the other, one would still sit through it. Veer-zaara belongs roughly to this category.

Rani, a lawyer, wants to fight to regain the identity and respect of Veer (SRK) who has been jailed for past 22 years. In the flashback we come to know that - Veer, a rescue operations Hindustani soldier, falls in the love with Zaara (Priety), a Pakistani, who has come to India on a mission. But she is already engaged and is to be wed. In the backdrop of political compulsions and other stuff that are not very easy to digest , story continues. After unreasonable twists and turns, the train finally manages to stop and audience head towards home.

For most part of the movie it looked like a DDLJ remake (intro song of heroine/one last tour of heroine/meeting hero in that tour/ heroine already engaged / ready to get married after returning from tour/ Punjabi songs and dialogues / heroine’s late realization of love/ hero entering the heroine’s marriage preparations).But later in a very compulsive need to create a different story, the movie wanders.
A conscious effort to woo audience is visible in “deliberate linking & liberal usage of Hindustani-Pakistani”, glorifying love, hyperbole dialogues, punjabi touch.

Performance by Srk is controlled and is ok. Preity, Rani do justice. Supporting cast of Anupam Kher, Amitabh, Hemamalini, Manoj Bajpai, Boman Irani add weight with their screen presence.

Yash Chopra movies used to create some unknown magic and everlasting dreamy feeling.

RangaShankara – Rehearsal

2004-11-30T12:55:00.000+05:30

Theatre festival – screamed the posters hung all over the city. With an abstract face painted in bright colors, the publicity by Hutch could not go unnoticed. The interviews of Arundathi Nag and other information by the media could only add to interest among the people.
The bug could not leave me – occasional visitor to theatre – unbitten. Work pressures and other appointments kept me away from it but I finally managed to allot it priority and time on weekend.

Located in the quiet and residential JP Nagar, it is little easier to approach RS compared to heavy traffic ways to other theatres in Blore. Plays are to start at 7:30, but anticipating some rush (weekend), we decided to be there by 6. To our surprise there was a long queue. We were told there were available only 10 tickets and since there was no point standing in queue (as told by security), we tried to explore the place.

The architecture of the building itself adds it to visit-worthy spots of Bangalore. The stone kept at the entrance, interior decoration, lighting, colors all try to imitate the abstract beauty of plays.

There is a bookshop whose shelves are decorated with all kinds of books. It will just be another hangout place for book lover. Spotted cinema related books and other best sellers.

There is a café where one can taste light snacks and sip coffee. What makes it look trendy and different is the homely feel due to unconventional chairs/tables and their placement. Candle lit tables and the surrounding dark atmosphere makes it a right hang-out place for people who love peace.

A platform performance was going on…(a puppet show managed by a single person behind the screen) but my disappointment of having missed the play came in the way of enjoying the performance.

Thanks to good publicity and class performers from all over India associated with this festival, there was a good crowd. Crowd varied from mature old people to MTv isthyle young people. From serious looking faces to time passing couples. From people wearing dull jubba to colorful dresses. All this only added to already vibrant atmosphere. Among the celebrities I spotted were, apart from the very Arundathi Nag, some other TV/Theatre personalities(Mukta,BAB etc)

Shankar Nag:
Rangashankara is erected in tribute to Shankar Nag – one of the most versatile artist India has ever seen. From acting to directing, from theatres to tv/movies, if there was a person whose thoughts were always ahead of his era, it was Shankar. Nick named Karate king, some of his movies had ingredients of popular movie while others had a touch of art cinema. But of all his works, Malgudi Days remains my favorite and is a timeless work liked by all ages. It is only a tragedy and loss of unknown impact that death hugged him in a hurry.
His friend and wife Arundathi set out to put one of his many dreams into reality. Her second child – Rangashankara – is the result of her efforts to create “dedicated space for theatre and theatre related activities”- a dream she shared with Shankar Nag and other friends.
Though it feels nice to imagine Shankar Nag to be breathing all over the place, mind looks out for his presence. There it is – his picture with his hands held high, welcoming us right in the entrance.

With a disappointed heart, we had to depart – having smelt, seen the food, without tasting it. We bid bye with a wish to go there once again, soon.

Coming soon : Rangashankara – Once more.

Hum Tum

2004-11-05T23:00:00.000+05:30

I had plans to post all my earlier reviews in their chronological order...but too many requests for Hum Tum ..so here it is ..
_____________________________________________
Me: Vakao!!Chalo , hum tum ke baare me baath karoonga
You : What ?!
Me : Chalo, hum tum milke humtum ke baare mein baath karenge .Vakao!!
You:
*********************************************************************************
Me(Now on wards Hum): First scene is in aerodrome.Vakao
You(Now on wards Tum):So?
Hum: Movie is from Yash Chopra , so you get to make world tou. After all he has been given award by Swiss govt for promoting Swiss tourism !!
Tum: So what all we can see?
Hum: Delhi, Mumbai, Paris, New York, Museum, Amstedam etc
Tum: How is India ?
Hum: Huh! What a question ! It is so beautiful , small kids do this that on the roads, wow! Vakao!
*********************************************************************************
Tum: Why the hell u r shouting Vakao?
Hum: When I saw Tom cruise hair style of Saif, I remembered tarzan and felt like shouting Vakao!
Tum: Y tarzan ?
Hum: Saif has the same body also Vakao
Tum : But this movie has Rani
Hum: Ok I will shout Fanta ...Fanta
Tum: Also Lays...lays ...
*********************************************************************************
Tum: Tell me the story
Hum: Have you seen DDLJ ?
Tum: Yes what in ddlj?
Hum: Train, bus, city sight seeing , love-hate , meeting again and again ...
Tum: So ?
Hum: Nothing yaar ... I am simply recalling
*********************************************************************************
Tum: Tell me the story
Hum: There r cartoons in the movie
Tum: What do you mean? Rani aur Saif kartoons hain ?
Hum: No I mean there are cartoons ...actual cartoons..animations
Tum: I dont believe you, What are their names ?
Hum: Hum Tum
Tum: Tera matlab , mein cartoon hoon ?!
Hum: Nahi yaar, why do you want to misunderstand me always?
*********************************************************************************
Tum: Tell me the story
Hum: You have seen the re union of Rishi Kapoor and Rati agnihotri in Kuch katti kuch meethi ?
Tum: yes so what ?
Hum:Nothing yaar ... I am simply recalling
*********************************************************************************
Tum: Tell me the story
Hum: Tune KKHH dekha hai?
Tum: What in that ?
Hum: wo small fighting, woh kajol's haircut, wo confusion between love-friendship
Tum: Yeah it was so very ...
Hum: so very ...so very....
*********************************************************************************
Tum: Tell me the story
Hum: Have you seen Kal ho na ho?
Tum: yes what in kal ho na ho?
Hum: Hero ka kudna machalna gaana nachna hasna hasana
Tum: Yes to impress heroine..or rather make heroine come out of boredom
Hum: And finally try to "fix" someone else to the heroine
Tum: yes...
Hum: Heroine ka dukaan chalana...hero ka madad karna....
Tum : so what ?
Hum : kuch nahi yaar , recalling ...
*********************************************************************************
Tum: Kahani batao please
Hum: Tune DTPH dekha hai ?
Tum: yeah
Hum: Woh confusion whether friends can be lovers or lovers can be friends
Tum: You are confused.. Friends can never be lovers but lovers can be friends
Hum: No
Tum: Yes
Hum: Ok forget it, do you remember that : daaru peene ki baad dil ki baath zuban pe aana
Tum: yeah it was in some other movie also .. but y r u telling all this
Hum : Because ...all ....those ....cowards (coward boys)...hic... should...hic... drink ...to ...tell ...the matters of ..hic..heart
Tum: But what happened to u ? why are u speaking broken
Hum: Maine bhi kal daaru piya... kuch hua mere saath ...??
*********************************************************************************
Tum: Kuch undono ke pyar ke baare mein batao
Hum: Rani gets married ...event manager is influenced by monsoon wedding...
Tum: Gets married to whom?
Hum: AB
Tum: You are kidding....
Hum: Haan shayad ...mujhe har jagah AB hi dikhta hai aaj kal ...
*********************************************************************************
Tum: Which paper do you read?
Hum:I dont read Times of India
Tum: Why ?
Hum: Bcoz, kal mein Times of India nahi padtha tha , aaj bhi Times of India nahi padoonga , kal bhi Times of India nahi padoonga.
Tum: But why?
Hum: Mein sirf Times of India dektha hoon ;-)
*********************************************************************************
Tum: So what happens next
Hum: Hum keeps meeting her again and again
Tum: Kyon?
Hum:Zindagi bahut lambi hai
*********************************************************************************
Tum: Times of India mein tujhe kya pasand aata hai?
Hum: Dubyamaan or Kapoor ka HumTum
Tum: OR ?!
Hum: Dono bahut similar hai . Isliye confuse hota hoon konsa pasand karna chahiye.
*********************************************************************************
Hum: Zindagi bahut lambi hai
Tum: So?
Hum: Hum can write a book
Tum: Why ?
Hum: So that tum can read it and come back later ...
Tum: Why does he have so much belief?
Hum: His father also gets back his love after satra saal baad..Zindagi bahut lambi hai
Tum: He also wrote a book?
Hum: No yaar.. if you can use your speaking ability you need not write a book..
Tum: Then is hum dumb?
Hum: No yaar ... how do I make you understand ? Usse galati ho jati hai ...
Tum: Kya galti?
Hum: eeee..... ding dong ding dong
Tum: What...?! Akele se galti hoti hai ?
Hum: Oh get lost I cant tell you further ...
*********************************************************************************
Tum: Please tell story ...
Hum: No ya .. I have got to go....bye
Tum: Tu kaha chala ?
Hum: Kaam karne !
Tum: Magar zindagi bahut lambi hai
Hum; Zindagi lambi hai, movie bhi lambi hai. Aur mera bak bak bhi lambi hai. Magar kaam bahut hai, deadline kal hai, PM peeche khada hai!
*********************************************************************************

Some points
1) Catch Rani, who is looking better and better in each movie.
2) Catch Saif who continues his re-invented form from DCH, which he improved in Kal Ho Na Ho. His ability to portray different variety of emotions is commendable. And what else, his tom cruise look is so good !?!!??
3) Catch some timepass dialogues.

For all you those who thought Yuva was a little taxing on brains and it was too serious and it was non-realistic , catch this one with your sweetheart with a pack of popcorn.

Yuva

2004-11-02T22:59:00.000+05:30

What happens when too many talents come under one roof ? Utter chaos ? Fortunately not so , when they are guided by a person who is a master of his task. Manirathnam one such master , clearly knows the strengths and weaknesses of his team.
Yuva, a cinematically near perfect show piece unfolds in front of you , describing the life of three youngsters. One ,a lower middle class "tapori" being exploited by the big-shots in politics. Whence , he realizes his being exploited , he decides to take a hold on it. And to achieve that , he can go to any limit.
Other , higher middle class person , having ambitions to pursue higher studies abroad. A typical rich,party going, flirt, vulnerable teenager. Clearly knows what he wants ( though that gets changed ). And last but not least , middle class college going person , does not like what ever is going on and takes a plunge into setting it right. He sure knows the difficulties , but then , is also sure of his success.
What comes striking is the fact that these youngsters are not the puppets of the situations , instead dare enough to control it for themselves. Clearly acknowledging the mindset of today's generation.
The three plots are tightly woven and brilliantly crafted. The characters are well defined. The performances are just flawless. The cinematography, dialogues ( though it requires good concentration and knowledge of mavalli hindi in some parts), music are all good in their own standards. Particularly, song picturization of Anjaana is good.
Around the voilence , the hard core of the story , are woven plots to expose the subtelities/nuances of relationships. Be it the voilent love or i-didnt-know-you yesterday but i-will-miss-you tomorrow kinda feelings or be it its-all-nonsense-but-i-love-u kinda unbothered attitude, they succeed in striking a chord.
The sudden emotional bursts, the pace of events and turn of events will surely remind an avid bollywood watcher Satya (or Company). The brilliant use of flashbacks , like in Alay payuthe, is very effective. Confused Mani of Dil Se is replaced by very focussed Mani of Yuva.
Coming to performances, Rani Mukhorjee, displaying good variety of emotions , is good. Kareena is ok. Esha is cute. Om puri with Bongal accent is good.
AD like wine ,is getting better and better in every movie. His confident looks , those expressive eyes add to his natural ability of impressive perfomance. And choclate boy, VO is cute and good enough. He also succeeds with good timing for comic shades. Hats off to AB , who had remained an unpolished gem. His sorrowful looks , voilent eyes and the gangster voice vouches him the perfect role. The dialogue delivery is simply brilliant. I think even BigB will be proud of his son's ability in dialogue delivery and facial expressions.

Fortunately , there is atleast one Mani , who polishes gems like Madhavan(who incidentally has enacted AB's role in Tamil version) and AB.
Watch the movie, if you dont look for only entertainment.

Ombattu Gudda

2004-09-08T00:00:00.000+05:30

Narration:Guru,Vasanth.
Review,Editing,Special effects : RK

This is the story of our most successful unsuccessful trek. I am always blamed for organizing surprise trips/treks. Sorrowfully my critics failed to realize the main reason - heap of uncertainity, gifted by our software industry. But still seeing the efforts which went into organizing some well-organized treks v/s the enjoyment and effort v/s the probability of a flop show, I always feel that surprise trips/treks worked better.

Preparation & Planning:
It was a long time since our last trek i.e Green Route trek. So I asked my trek-guide Prashant to suggest a tough one. He suggested us to trek to ‘ombattu gudda’ which was on the hasan-chikmagalur border. The trek to start from Gundya in Udupi Dist and pass through the dense forests of western ghats to reach Ombattu gudda. From ombattu gudda a jeep track would take us to hosakere. From there a bus ride to moodigere, mudigere to Bangalore back.

Meanwhile few words about Prashant. I met Prashant for the first time at Air Force Selection Board, Mysore during our 5 day selection process. He is a real enthu guy. He has a big group of friends who are regularly in search of new places for trekking. After that I’ve not met him in person, but he has been continuously the source of good trekking places and a guide for me.
This time I decided to give my critics a chance to rest, especially Kaat who had complained about me to Capt. Zabi. So, the bill was circulated well in advance (about 10 days). After lots of harate, inclusions and dropouts finally a team of ombattu decided to go to ombattu gudda on 03-09-2004.

Though the planning started long before, we could not escape the last moment uncertainties. We faced more challenges before the trek than during the trek. After the struggle to get tickets, fight to acquire sleeping bags backed by the punctuality of Naveen L, the final blow was a last minute drop out, sardar. And to the surprise of our punctual team, the bus which was about to leave by 9:50 PM was not to be found till 10:30 PM. Our team of 8, me, rk, vasant, sriram, Naveen L, srinivas, abhishek,anand welcomed this since it would save us from reaching our base location Gundya in odd hours.

Start:
Our bus journey was smooth. We had a good sleep often interrupted by the thought of our conductor's reminders to handover the tickets to seat no.15 before we get down.

Day 1:
We reached our base location at 5:30 in the morning. Without wasting much time, we started off trekking. Our only guides were prashant’s document and map, backed by some guidelines. Keeping all our pressures under control we walked for about an hour on the jeep track with the Kabbinale river flowing parallel to our paths. Then we decided to take a break, finish the formalities and have a nice bath in the river. It was here that we started finding mysterious wounds on the legs of our team-mates. At this moment we didn’t know that these were due to leech bites and this was just a beginning to a lasting ( blood-sharing ) relation we had with these creatures for 2 days.

Refreshed by the bath in the cool waters, we continued our trek in search of the fireline where we decided to have our breakfast. All along the path the forest was getting wilder and wilder. We also received a warm welcome by a viper which was carelessly crossing the path. Our path was cut by innumerable streams. With lots of circus (crossing the streams) and some leg pulling sessions we reached a point where the path divided into two. Now, we realized that we had already crossed the fireline. Now, we decided to have our breakfast. To our astonishment we realized that our blood had broken the fasts of many bloody leeches. Almost all of us were bleeding. The most essential commodity was salt. After freeing ourselves from the leeches we walked for some more time and we had our breakfast at around 10 AM.

The path was now wide enough only for one to walk. We came across the kabbinale river cutting our path. The best place to cross the river after some investigation was found by sriram and shek. Meanwhile the other team members freed themselves from the leeches. Crossing the river was an adventure in itself. With all the luggage, shoes in our hands, stumbling, falling and sliding on the slippery rocks, we reached the other bank.

As soon as we crossed the river, we found a path and starting walking along it. Here the path was not much distinct and it was playing hide and seek with us. Suddenly we were unable to find our path further. Our only guide was the map and everything seemed OK according to the map. At this point I felt the seriousness of my mistake of forgetting a compass. Since we were now at the base of a hill, we thought climbing the hill may give us a better picture of our location so that we can get back to the right track. Map supported out thought,or so it seemed.

So, without a second thought, we started climbing the hill. The whole hill was covered by dense forest. The presence of thorny bushes and bamboos added to the complexity of uphill climbing was. Myself, sriram and Anand were leading the uphill climbing and making some sort of way to the other team members. The humidity was killing us. Our look for the alternative was cut short by dead ends and steep downfalls in all directions. Weigth of the food we were carrying kept reminding us of the hunger. Thirst reminded us of empty bottles. Ready to attack from all directions, leeches made sure we never stopped at one place.

We reached the summit finally- wet due to perspiration, dry due to thirst, hunger,. But to our disappointment, the hill had no clear patch on the top to help us find our path. Unloading ourselves on the summit, we decided to camp there, and send some of us in search of the main stream which we were supposed to follow. I, sriram and anand set out in search of the mysterious main stream. Seeing the sun, and calculating the direction we set out in the northwards direction. After some steep sliding through the jungle, we found a small patch of grassland. From there we could see most of the major hills mentioned in the map. The condition of the grassland at some places, the dung gave us a lot of clue to prove that the place was host to elephant herds. Continuing our downhill journey, we met a dried stream, further we could hear some water source.

The whole down hill journey had cost us 30 mins. So, fearing the plight of our worried teammates, we decided to return , even without checking if it was the main stream, which we hoped. Gasping for air and water, we again reached the summit. After a light refreshment, we set out to take our team mates to the supposed main stream.

Now started the real confusion. It was here that I realized how confusing a forest can be. All the directions appeared to be the same. It went on 2-3 times, we would take the team in one direction, then feeling it was not the way we went, we would climb up again. By now, it was past 3, we were all hungry. And the confusion brought down the spirits of many. Some were of the opinion to go back and try to reach gundya by EOD. Some were against it. Finally overcoming all the difference of opinions and after Very Intense Discussion about the route to be followed ,a final decision was taken and we headed towards the North direction approximately to climb down the hill. We somehow had to manage to sneak through the tough terrain and the hill seemed to be sloppier and at one point it was around 80 degree slope.
Fortunately all our teammates managed to climb down the hill successfully and reach a stream which was flowing in the valley.
It had its tense moments - like when a small rock almost uprooted Shek who had reached out to get back the slipped sleeping bag.

By now everyone was exhausted with energy and we all knew that we are completely lost in that wild jungle. So here we had to apply some common and direction sense and with bit of discussion we all agreed upon that the destiny of the stream we found would be kabbinale river.

We couldn’t dare to take rest or sit for a while b’coz of those leeches, we walked for about 2 hrs along the stream and finally we could see the boisterous water of kabbinale river.

By now it was around past 5 and uncertainity about our location still prevailed. Finding small patch of dry and vacant land , big enough for our gang, was like finding an oasis in desert. We found the tailor made oasis and almost immediately decided to rest there and spend the night there. This is where we encountered our second snake, think it was king cobra, black in color and about 6-7 feets. May be because of our foot steps it rushed away from us and disappeared into bushes in Nick of time.

On river banks, sufficiently away from river could be the best thing on earth for us to spend night. But the next day we heard from localites , that place is not visited by them ! Fear of wild animals like tiger and elephants stop them from going around that place, let alone spend nights! Over overnite stay there almost shocked them.

Preparation for night camp was done : Accumulating dry sticks, getting water from river, getting ourselves rid (as far as possible) of leeches. The agenda for the night was that 2 people would stay away for 2 hrs and turn by turn all would sleep/stay awake. Their activity would be to chat and to keep the fire alive Music of the dark jungle and some food was the company. Their another important responsibility was to shoo away the wild animals by making sounds (hitting the plates with spoon), or so we planned !!

Day 2:

After a strenuous day, naturally we all slept well in the warmth of sleeping bag. Our day started lazily, trying to wake up and trying to wake others. Hesitantly we wore the same stinky clothes, stained with blood. After our morning activities and a quick breakfast, we started off at around 7:30.
One thing I can’t forget is the sweet water of Kabbinale River. The river is true to its name. The water is as sweet as sugarcane juice. We all drank water heartily.
Our path was all along the river. Ups and downs, rocks, bamboos… oops, by then even my bag had given up. The 150Rs was worth only for 1 ½ days. I had to tie up the bag to my shoulders using towels, this added to the thrill.

The whole path had its excitements and challenges. We had to walk through the bamboo, slide on the fallen trees, climb rocks etc... Etc. We saw some of the beautiful curves of the river as we walked along. As the path became difficult to walk along, we crossed the river and trekked along the right side of the river. We had to face some more challenges. The challenge was to recognize the place where we had crossed the river. Along the river side, full of boulders and rocks, it was not a easy task to recognize the place where we had crossed. As we walked along we started finding clues of human intrusion, like bamboo cut using a sickle, foot prints.

I forgot to mention, we had also found feline foot prints along the riverside. By this time we had also stopped worrying about leeches; RK had become their best friend. Especially after being bitten by mosquitoes in the night, he was in all praises for the leeches, as they would silently suck blood even without our knowledge. No evidence/pain left. And they would silently retire after their job is done.

At around 10:30 we came to a place which according to shek and sriram was the place where we had crossed the river. But, rest of the team members were in doubt. Then our detective shek discovered the IKON sticker of RK’s shoes to convince the rest. I fear what would have happened if RK had not shed those stickers. Probably, we would have to go till the sangama and again trek all along the river to reach gundya. In that case, I doubt if we could reach Bangalore by Monday morning, since river side trek takes horribly long time due to slippery path and rocks.
After much discussion and argument, we found a path which we presumed to have used to come till the river. All along the path shek would try to convince the already convinced team showing their shoe-marks that it was the right path. Rest of the trek went smoothly.

We could even find some local villagers by now. We also met a group of shikaris. They had killed a large squirrel which I doubt would not even suffice them for a day’s meal. I really wondered, "the purpose of it’s living" only to fill the stomachs of 2-3 people ? and that too would not last there more than 4-5 hours. This is nature. The weaker ones exist to fulfill the needs of the stronger ones. We were helpless. We silently saw the magnificent animal being taken away. After having a small talk with them, we went to have a bath in the river.

After a hearty bath, we had our lunch on the way near the stream. Also a paper boat race kindled the child in us. We had lots of photo sessions too. By the time we reached Gundya, srinivas was limping due to the bad state of his shoes, shek due to the rolling rock.

Final Phase:
By God’s grace we all reached Gundya in full piece by 3:30PM. From there we alighted a bus to Hassan. The whole journey, was spent sleeping. We didn’t even bother to think of the state of our fellow passengers who had to bear with our stinking clothes and shoes. At Hassan, our team minus Vasant alighted a bus to Bangalore. Vasant departed us to meet his sister.
We reached Bangalore by 11PM. With the sweet memories of the Kabbinale river trek and a burning desire to go again and reach ‘OMBATTU GUDDA’ we departed to our HOME SWEET HOMES.

And though we did not go where we intended to , this trek gave our mechanical life all the required masala, - we had more adventure, more uncertainities , faced more challenges, did more trek than it would have been possible if we were to trek to original destination. After the strenuous trek, we really learnt to appreciate the luxuries of city life. But, we have also learnt to live without it. And also to enjoy the journey along the path the destiny dictates us rather than we choose.

(If guru was thinking about the wild-life we lived, I was actually discussing with sriram the plight of those leeches for whom I might have given a free ride till Bangalore. And their city-life in Bangalore !
-RK)
See here for the log embedded with pics.

TRAP - Trip Report and Analysis (Pondicherry)

2004-05-15T08:00:00.000+05:30

Things in navy are edited by my friend Guru, who is also to be credited with the title.

Project pondy stands for the project which was discussed for 2 months, post poned morethan 2 times,in which team members dropped in and out at a rate faster than fall of cycles in the cycle stand,and which finally got excuted in 2days. Of which here is a project report.

The project involved all major phases of meticulous design, planning, reviews, estimates, decisions, change-request, customer service and finally released with shortcomings. Unfortunatelythere is no provision for rework/change requests.

Guru,Madhu,NaveenL,Ganesh,Vasanth,Manoj,Ravi started to Pondy on 11th night. At chilling 4:30 we landed in Pondy. After waking up Dam and reminding himto join us, we check into the hotel. Wait for Dam continues even as we finish the morning formalities. Finally he arrives just before noon and we visit Aurobindo Ashram. We salute Him and have alook at the various books and His memorables. Of His advices, the one that caught our attention was the advocate of watching movie.

We hired bicycles and started to Aura beach. Initially there was a competation to be pillion riders but later it was changed to be riders.

Then our patience during lunch was tested with the delay in serving the food and also offered us the stiff challenge of finishing the ordered item. The confusion led them(servers) not to serve an ordered item and thus averted us of the bad health. Miscalculation in bill gave us of the satisfaction of revenge.

From the main road , Aura Ville is 8 km. After much discussion, our team set out tothere. The flood of foriegners to that place made us curious to know thespeciality of it. It is a calm place with a huge well maintained park. In themidst of it, stays a sphere , Golden Globe. Speakers voice(without any mic) wouldbe heard to 300 ppl who can be seated inside. Alas, due to renovation ,visitors are allowed to have a look only on Sunday.

Finally the long awaited beach visit. And the joy of playing in water. Time runs and wewind up half-hearted.

A tiring return journey. We split up for dinner to facilitate like minded people to taste their individual choices. Mouth watering soups accompany Italian dishes.

Back in the hotel,it is time for gossiping. And most easily available and most often talked about topic among boys is about gurlz. Turn by turn ppl underwent the open-heart surgery done by Dr.RK. Theydiscussed about their dream girl/latest crush. Each one was in a different phase of the crush/love - life-cycle. Some wondered about the foolishness of guys to fall in this mad world while others realized the joy it gives to share the feelings. Some prayed their turn comes soon while some prayed that their turn may never come. The main attractions in the stories were RK's swapnasundari, Manoj's Doora -vani, Madhu's Aunty No.1, Naveen.L's sister,Dam's April fool, vasanth's bus-stop story.

After detailed planning for the next day, which few of us knew would fail invariably, we hugged sleep grumbling about the failed plan of seeing a cab-'beeeeep'. The beautiful sea view from balcony and the cosy bed vied for our attention. As expected , the start of theday itself was delayed. We were off to Mahabalipuram. The beautiful sculptures, rock carvings made us proud of our ancestors.
Another short visit to crowded seashore. Volleyball, football under hot sun sawus drain ourselves more.

Back to Pondi, a just in timevisit to Boat house, provided the oppurtunity of boating. The calm water and the beautiful sorrounding scenary was as attractive as the voilent beach.

Another try at different food and we wind up the project.

Few things did not happen as planned either because planning was similar to biting morethan we can chew or because lack of experience(and or time) in executing the plan. Complaints, regrets were no lesser than satisfaction. Nevertheless, it was a memorable trip. If not for anything, it was for new-found-sense-of-humour of madhu , absent minded-ness and hidden talent of the inability to speak/translate tamil of naveen , charm of damodar, confident and i-will-pull-everyone's-leg gani, anything is ok and silence personified manoj, intentional visit of guru to another room where "beeeeeep",bus-stop is beautiful by vasanth,book keeping and open-heart surgery of Ravi.

There is so much invisible around the visible , the suprasensible , the sensible even asthe infinite sorrounds the finite.- Sri Aurobindo.

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