Doodlemania

Google has become such a household name thesedays that almost every kid would know about Google. But they are also very creative. I love their search engine and also the main page during some important occasion or festival. They put up some nice holiday logos on that. Recently their Holiday Doodle is on for Xmas... Click on their logo and it will take you to page where they have put up everyday's logo for this Xmas season.
http://www.google.no/doodle10.html

In case you have missed previous Holiday logos.. go here for their entire collection...
http://www.google.no/intl/en/holidaylogos.html

Enjoy Googling...

Disclaimer: I am no employee of Google or a paid advertising agent for google. This is no advertisement for Google either.

Something that caught my attention

Some of these popular dialogues from movies are just very fresh in my memory, though I dont remember them word for word. So maybe you(movie buffs) guys could tell me who said this and which movie? or atleast movie... most are cult-movies, not very hard to figure out... Do not Google for answers.... well. you will anyways...

1. I don't tip because society says I gotta. I tip when somebody deserves a tip. When somebody really puts forth an effort, they deserve a little something extra. But this tipping automatically, that shit's for the birds. As far as I'm concerned, they're just doin their job.

2. Choose life. Choose a job. Choose a career. Choose a family. Choose a fucking big television, Choose washing machines, cars, compact disc players, and electrical tin openers. Choose good health, low cholesterol and dental insurance. Choose fixed- interest mortgage repayments. Choose a starter home. Choose your friends. Choose leisure wear and matching luggage. Choose a three piece suite on hire purchase in a range of fucking fabrics. Choose DIY and wondering who you are on a Sunday morning. Choose sitting on that couch watching mind-numbing sprit- crushing game shows, stuffing fucking junk food into your mouth. Choose rotting away at the end of it all, pishing you last in a miserable home, nothing more than an embarrassment to the selfish, fucked-up brats you have spawned to replace yourself. Choose your future. Choose life... But why would I want to do a thing like that?

3. I will make him an offer he cant refuse

4. " The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he who, in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of the darkness. For he is truly his brother's keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know I am the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon you." (too easy to guess)....

5. I wouldn't go so far as to call a dog filthy, but they're definitely dirty. But a dog's got personality. And personality goes a long way.

6. Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don't need.

7. You're not your job. You're not how much money you have in the bank. You're not the car you drive. You're not the contents of your wallet. You're not your fucking khakis. You're the all-singing, all-dancing crap of the world

8. Remember Sammy Jankis?

9. Memory can change the shape of a room; it can change the color of a car. And memories can be distorted. They're just an interpretation, they're not a record, and they're irrelevant if you have the facts.

The Graveyard blues

Have you, anytime, passed through a graveyard and not felt happy and felt very gloomy or afraid ? I always used to. Gloomy is still Ok as the place is supposed to be a burial spot of dead people etc. But I used to get slightly scared. I never figured out why. I am thinking probably because of the movies. In most movies we would find some horror things happening in graveyards or some murders or death happening in graveyards and some horror music in the background( Though I love the Nagesh's narration in "Kaathalika Neramillai" and the hindi equivalent played by Mahmood). It is always portrayed as a spot where bad things happen to people. I have actually never gone to a graveyard or passed through it in the night. But the very thought itself is slisha scary. I guess there is a little child in every one of us.

Glimpse of Greatness

One week in Norway and it feels alrite. Definitely very cold but can handle it as it is not very windy. Got bored of swtching channels only to see most of it is in Norwegian, me and my roomie went for a walk in Oslo City on Sunday. He is from Algeria and is a very nice guy. We talked about respective countries and cultures. Just then we passed the 'Grand Hotel' on the Karl Johan's Gate in Oslo, and we saw big entourage and heavy security waiting for someone and suddenly we realised thats where IAEA President, Mr. Mohammed El Baradei, was put up. People were waiting outside in the cold just to have a glimpse of this Year's Nobel Peace Prize winner. Just as were expecting He came out of the hotel and got in to his car and went with his security to some place. Well, Now i can write in my dairy that I caught a glimpse of a nobel peace prize winner. Closest I could ever be to Greatness...

Winter in Oslo

After so much of confusion with packing and finally realizing that I have put my passport pouch with my cargo stuff after it was packed and taken to the mover´s warehouse gave a quite a scare and esp when u have to fly out that night and u have sent the passport with movers.. But they were nice enough to unpack and get it to me in the heavy rains that drowned Chennai... These rains have become quite a menace now.. too much of water all around this year ..
anyways amidst all this, my plans were all set and finally after gettting my passport back after that scare i was focussed on packing my other stuff to carry with me. i cant ever travel light. Gues i am not a travel person.. or light travel person.. i guess i have to improve upon traveling light and leaving old baggages behind and move on w/o carrying them (pun intended)..
So after all that it was cool... slight delay with flights..chaltha hai...
reached Oslo around midnoon only to find it covered by a sheet of snow and still snowing... so naturally its very cold also... and it got dark by 4 PM (duh....).. guess thats also something i need to get used to.. very little day light during winter...
So far so good... have to report to work tomm.. and lifes going to be diff.. but miss everybody at home.... guess thats something i can put up with...

P.S: Saw the tamil movie 'sachien' on flight... i would highly recommend that movie .. watch it and curse me... dunno how such worse movies are made and actors get paid for that...

Sooper Starrr...

Though I am not a great fan of Rajni or anything.. but this was a forward I got which was damn funny...

There is a popular story saying that wherever you go, you will find atleast a Rajinikanth fan, here is an interesting new story!...Rajinikanth was bragging to Jayalalitha one day, "You know, I know everyone there is to know. Just name someone- anyone, & I know them." Tired of his boasting, Jayalalitha asked, "OK, Rajini how about Tom Cruise?" "Sure yes, Tom & I are old friends, I can prove it" Rajini said. So Rajini & Jayalalitha fly out to " />Hollywood & knock on Tom Cruise's door, & sure enough, Tom Cruise shouts "Thalaiva! Great to see you! You & your friend come right in & join me for lunch!". Although impressed, Jayalalitha is still skeptical. After they leave Cruise's house, she tells Rajini that she thinks Rajini knowing Cruise was just lucky. "No, no, just name anyone else" Rajini says. "President Bush", Jayalalitha quickly retorts. "Yes", Rajini says, "I know him, let's fly out to Washington". And off they go. At the White House, Bush spots Rajini on the tour & motions him, saying, "Rajini, what a surprise! I was just on my way to a meeting, but you & your friend come on in, let's have a cup of coffee first & catch up". Well, Jayalalitha is very shaken by now, but still not totally convinced. After they leave the White House grounds, she expresses her doubts to Rajini who again implores her to name anyone else. "The Pope", Jayalalitha replies. "Sure!" says Rajini, "My folks are from Poland & I've known the Pope a long time". So off they fly to Rome. Rajini & Jayalalitha are assembled with the masses in Vatican Square when Rajini says, "This will never work. I can't catch the Pope's eye among all these people. Tell you what, I know all the guards so let me just go upstairs & I'll come out on the balcony with the Pope." And he disappears into the crowd headed toward the Vatican. Sure enough, half an hour later Rajini emerges with the Pope on the balcony. But by the time Rajini returns, he finds that Jayalalitha had a Heart Attack & is surrounded by paramedics. Working his way to Jayalalitha's side, Rajini asks her, "What happened?" Jayalalitha looks up & says, "I was doing fine until you & the Pope came out on the balcony & the man next to me said, "Who's that on the balcony with Rajini?"... regards rajni

Freedom of Speech (Kushboo Episode)

What's your take on the whole issue? I think its pretty stupid. Kushboo went out to say something which got twisted and the demented, extreme right wing extremists like Ramadoss make a big deal out of it and some male chauvinistic pigs jump on it and now shes landed up in a big legal tussle with these idiots.. Btw Whats wrong in her statement?? When Men can have Premarital affairs, Y cant women have the same??? I mean its fair enough. Ofcourse not all do it and not many will in favor of it. Each to their own. After all it was her view. Why cant they respect it, disagree and then move on? Why legal issues and non-bailable warrants etc...?? Bunch of Hypocrits.. billions of blue blistering Banacles... ten thousand thundering typhoons... Grr....
I fail to understand all this... and most of these politicians and their party people i am sure would have had hundreds of affairs in their lives and a few mistresses. Are they morally qualified enough to claim she's wrong? Most ppl who initially supported her like Suhasini and Sania Mirza etc are backing out now due to the pressures from unknown places... Their reputation at stake now... and most of all the TV clip of Kushboo crying when they issued a Subpoena and a non-bailable arrest warrant was very sad...Shows The sad state of Freedom of Speech in our country and Twisted minds of the few Hypocrits and demented souls... May God not haveth the Mercy for these and unleash terror upon them... atleast set a few dog on them...

Spidey's Spiderman

This was the Parting gift given by my Friends and Colleagues at work. Isnt that Cute?

My last day in my first job :-(

I ve got mixed feelings about this. This is my first job after I finished my Master's in the US. I was initially very reluctant to come to India to accept this offer in Bangalore but then decided to come anyways. With all that said about low salaries, work culture or the lack of it, etc. etc. in normal Indian companies, I was initially very guarded. But I felt that it was completely normal and an excellent facility and great people made me at ease. I really started liking this place and the city mainly for the weather, but for all the traffic jams and lack of infrastructure, which I dont even want to get into. Nevertheless its been a great ride for an year and half and I made some good friends, had good times, few treks and picnics and some good quizzes and great food. Plus point being, it is only 6 hours from Chennai either by bus or train. But now that I have to leave this job for a better one, i got a mixed feelings. Dont want to lose an excellent opportunity and get stuck here and at the same time I will be missing this place and people.
Just been sending Good bye mails to all the people I ve interacted here and I got this interesting quote in reply from a very good friend. Thought I should put it here...

If we meet again, we shall smile
If not, why then, this parting was indeed well made!
- Brutus to Cassius, Julius Caesar

Coincidentally I played the role of brutus in 'Julius Ceasar' Play in High school.

For those friends and coleagues, whom I leave here.. but I will always hold u in my memories. So long and hope we may meet again. Until then, Ciao.... and Good luck and best wishes...

Holiday Season or was it the Rainy season :)

Well spent holidays at home with family.. but damn those rains.. they made my life horrible. U can already imagine a Calvin looking up at the sky and shouting a few expletives.. :)
I think it was sunday morning, I was woken up in a jolt by a loud bang... for a moment i thought it was some terrorist bomb attack in chennai near my house. But it was a huge nerve racking lightning and thunder.. one followed another and spoilt my sleep. On sunday it rained so havily that there was knee deep water in front of my house and i had to literally carry my luggage on my head like a coolie and walk the waters a long distance to catch an auto and ofcourse i had to shell out more than twice the regular charge to get to the station only to find that all trains are running late atleast by 2 hours. Train which was supposed to depart at 11pm came to station around 3 and left around 4... we were late by almost 6 hours to bangalore.. thank god, i had some good company. Chennai central station looked so yucky and not a place to sit. The moment they announced the platform for the train to Bangaloore, you could see loads of people converging to the platform from all directions all in no time. It was as if there was an organized Flash Mob. Rains have completely played spoil sport damaging all good roads. I dunno when they will be set right... But they def have brought lots of water to the city. Atleast Chennai will not have water problems, or lack of water to be precise, for sometime.

Sad day for India :-(

Its a very sad day indeed. 3 Blasts rocket the nation's capital and one train derailed and so many dead after all those who have died in the recent rains in south. Nature has been unleasing it force and now those damn terrorists across the border. I sincerely wish all of them just fall dead in the next tremor in POK. Damn you guys.. If it were US of A they would be scraming for blood by now. Whats the next course of action by the PM?? Lets wait n see. Hope the rains stops soon. There has been enough damage due to water all over the world in the last one year starting with Tsunami. Hope the festive spirits are not dampened due to this. Though they may try toi create terror, lets us stand up to it and show them the middle finger... Lets continue to live our life.. Though I still feel sad for all those who have died... ok i will stop this arbit scrapping... Happy Diwali again folks and take a minute to mourn all those who have died...

Happy Diwali

Amidst all the waiting time for the wait listed train ticket to get confirmed and scramble to buy a comfirmed bus ticket, finally i had to part with 460 bucks to get a A/C bus ticket finally. Theres so much of rush to get tickets to Chennai and now all chennai bound trains are getting cancelled left right and center. Thank god I got a bus ticket.
So much for the Diwali season and for the hacov wrought in by the monsoon rains. Its going to a Rainy Diwali. But atleast I will get to eat mom made sweets and namkeens and good festival day food on the Diwali eve and Diwali itself. Yummy....
So guys n gals.... Happy Diwali to one and all... Nalla enjoy maadi.. Khoob sweets khao... maze karo... Bring some light into your lives this time... I am still looking for a good source of light for my life... ;-o) Hope I dont find a toally fused tubelight. haha.. Bad PJ.. with that all I have to say is Happy festive season and happy shopping.. I ve already blew more than 10 grand so far on shopping on different sales..

Something I read about Success

This has already got a bit serious tone to it. So if you are in a jovial mood, you may still want to read it becos the person I am going to quote is none other than Daily Show host "Jon Stewart".
My friend, Sumit, brought my attention to this link. This is the commencement speech given by Jon Stewart in his Alma Mater. Very funny and very sensible too... In between all the jokes and the sarcastic quips he did mention something about success which totally floored me. This guy is great.... it goes something like this....

"College is something you complete. Life is something you experience. So don’t worry about your grade, or the results or success. Success is defined in myriad ways, and you will find it, and people will no longer be grading you, but it will come from your own internal sense of decency.
Love what you do. Get good at it. Competence is a rare commodity in this day and age. And let the chips fall where they may"

If you want the complete transcript of his hillarious commencement speech please go to
http://www.wm.edu/news/index.php?id=3650

and if you want to listen to the audio...
http://www.wm.edu/news/av/jonstewart_audio.wvx for Windows media Player and
http://www.wm.edu/news/av/jonstewart_audio.rm for Real Player

P.S: Thanks Sumit for sending me this link. I thought it was a wonderful one to listen to.

Its Holiday time

Just the time I have been waiting for. Go home chill out, eat n sleep peacefully. haha....
that just goes to show that i ve absolutely nothing interesting to write about except for some office jokes like dilbert or relate dilbert to things happ in my office. But since i dont want to talk about work in blogs, i will refrain from doing so. So that leaves me prety much nothing to write about. Just when i think i have something to write, i dont have access to my comp and when i sit in front of the computer, i dont remember what material i had. some of my freinds from work are planning a trip to Ooty without any solid plan. So i hope it works out ok for them. they have just packed their bags and come to work today. They will leave from work to bus station or train station and see what options they have. Thats a pretty bold thing to do. Just get there somehow and work out your options later. There would be a nice dussera festival procession in Mysore.

My whiteboard is cluttered with phone numbers and my mind is wandering around and my fingers are just typing something that makes sense to nobody including me. Guess this is what they call Iirelevant conversation if I were to talk to somebody, assuming ofcourse there is someone who would lend their ears to all the crap i would say.
The weather outside is so beautiful and tempting and i dunno what i am doing inside my cubicle. That reminds me of a dilbert jokes about cubicles at work place, personal furniotures such as Chairs and office stationaries. Want to watch Pink Panther and New Harry Potter movie.

Ok thats enough crap for the day... those who read, dont curse me. I didnt ask you read this far. Life is all about choices. You had a choice and you chose to read this. So Curse yourself.

More to follow.... Matrix Exploded....

Life in Bangalore

Havent seen a single movie in a long time. There is no good video rental shop near my house and besides by the time i get back home its pretty late to sit and watch a movie. I leave home by 8 sometimes and reach back home only around 10. almost 3 hours gone in commuting trying to cope with all the traffic in bangalore. some 8-10 hours gone in office, leaving very little time for oneself. I wonder what is the quality of life in such cases. Even if you plan to leave early say 6 PM invariably you are struck in traffic and reach home only around 730 - 8. some how life just goes on and nobody really gives too much thought to all this. I really dunno how married people cope with this esp with lot more responsibilities at work for their position and more responsibilities at home too... Its almost as if there is no life. Thank god, most companies work only 5 days a week. Otherwise life would just be hell. I know always keep complianing, but atleast some will agree that living in a place such as bangalore, life on weekdays is almost non-existant.

Rains in Chennai :)

Surprise Surprise.. It is raining in Chennai... This place really needs some rains and water. So finally Gods have answered to my calls... while its raining i can write about my weekend trip to Oslo... :)
Well... Dont ask how i went why i went.. i would like to akip all that.. maybe some other day... but i went to Oslo for a personal trip or more for a future, i would say....
it was a lovely place to be in.. had sat evening and sunday to roam around and explore the place. Its not very difficult for a new person to find his way through. I asked the Hotel people about the places to visit and they handed me a map and explianed where i could go and how i could get there... the city is so well connected with buses, trams and subway trains... buy one pass and thats enough to take you by any means of transportation. i walked on the streets of oslo to get a good feel of the city. Oslo ppl like to dress up well. They dont mind spending a lot of their clothers esp for branded stuff. There are tons of cafes/bar/restraunt all over the city. You can walk into ay restraunt and u can find a mini bar there and get a drink. People party a lot and party till late night. All in all it was a wonderful city. I also visited couple of museums to get a feel of the culture, some norwegian expdeitions etc. Lots of visitors still pouring in Oslo even though summer is officially over. But i really liked the place. wanna see some of pics click here http://photos.yahoo.com/jsprasanna Look up Oslo folder.

Long due

Its been a long due posting. But I still dont have enough time or material enough for a good post. So Keep refreshing this page on your computer every now and then and keep looking at it intently and something will appear in the near future. Thanks for your patience and have a good day.

New Trailer is out!

'Harry potter and goblet of fire' new theatrical trailer is out. Watch it on Yahoo Movies or ifilm.com. Personally I would recommend ifilm.com cos it has lots of nice clips, like Jon stewart in CROSSFIRE firing paula begala and his co-host and many more. Cant wait till November to watch Harry Potter. Sounds very kiddish when u say I am a harry potter fa, but then its really a griping story full of action. wathehell i dont care what ppl say... Harry potter is a very good read and movies are ok..def not bad...

Hail England

Congratulations to English cricket team for their fantastic Ashes victory. Aussies didnt look like themselves. Somthing wrong with them. Its their bowlers who have always lifted them and won their matches and so this time too. Mcgrath didnt play 2 matches and both were won by england. Warnie is getting only better with age. But find of the series is Pieterson. and ofcourse Freddie has shown why he is great. Lets see what the aussie selecters come up with now... Will hayden, martyn and katich be shown the door? End of dizzie and kasper??

Finished Half Blood Prince..Hurray!

Its so hard to keep it down that i finished the whole book on monday... was just very thrilling. now i cant wait for the thrid book. Hope JKR comes up with it soon enuf. So many questions on my mind.. and so many predictions... who is RAB and if that is Regulus, what did regulus do with Horcrux he stole... what will snape do now from now after having killed dumbledore. my guess is snape is a good fella.. but doesnt want other deatheaters to know he is good. He will eventually help harry kill voldemort.. but what will the ministry think of snap now.. by killing dumble he has angered all the good wizarding community. How will he regain back that trust? How will dumble be able to help harry.. somehow he has to come and help harry now.. either he must have stored all info he has in some penseive or some book like voldemort.. w/o dumble i dont see harry even killing lowlevel deatheater...

Half way thro the Half-Blood Prince

What a gripping story it has been so far. I am almost halfway and I cant keep the book down. But I feel that maybe I should refresh Book-5 a little bit for the perfect continuity.

The Grand Finale!

The Ashes final test has already started and I am so excited. What a series this has turned out to be ! I wouldnt want to watch the boring India and Zimbabwe tests after this. I am sure Indians will get beaten and roughed up pretty badly. I am sure both teams are going to fire on all guns and it would be a thrilling encounter. McGrath and Lee firing on all guns and warnie bamboozling with his legbeaks, flippers and rippers and Flintoff carrying the entire England team on his young shoulders.... what a way to end the series... If Aussies win, they retain the Ashes and if England draws its enough for them to claim back the glory which they lost after 1987. I really dont care who wins this series, bcos if England wins its very difficult to stop the meadia gloating about it for years to come and if Aussies win, it would be very sad to see the English Cricketers lose it after a very tough fight. The closest anyone has ever come to derail the Aussie juggernaut... So ppl comment and let me know whom u will be supporting... for the moment I am all for a great cricket.... be it Fredie, or warnie or the gritty lee...

Hail Ganesha !

Since it came int he middle of the week, I had to visit my sister and her family for the awesome food they had cooked instead of going home to chennai. I was so stuffed that I felt like ganesha for a few seconds there. ahem..ahem.. anyways good food.. great sleep.. wat a way to spend a holiday..

Dil Chahta Hai

I dunno Y , but I am totally stuck on this movie's soundtrack today. I heard 'Tanhayee' yesterday and got reminded of this movie. I think it was an awesome movie and well made one. It has the fun elements, emotions and the whole lot. All 3 characters were dealt with very nicely. My favourite songs are 'Tanhayee' and 'Kaise hai ruth ke'. Both these songs were very situational and capture the emotions and feelings of the actors. Very nice meanings to it too. You can relate to it if you are either in love(kaise hai) and if you are in love and it doesnt work out(tanhayee). Especially I like the Tanhayee song. Aamir Khan's character is such a fun loving until before this song when he realizes that he is in love and he is not able to tell her and now she has left her. Sonu Nigam has sung it so well and its really a moving song. Aptly Aamir's character just breaks down at the end of the song which gives that extra depth to that song. 'Kaise Hai' is such a melodious and feel good song. You can listen to it anytime and it will make your day. Other songs are mostly timepass songs with the exception of 'Woh Ladki hai Kahan' which had such a hilarrious video in the retro style.

Another nail biting finish

Its all happening here in England. What a thriller this Ashes summer has been for the Cricket fans!. Another flamboyant century from the Big man Freddie and wonderful reverse Swings from Simon Jones and Fighty gritty knock and Final burst from Brett Lee and Leg Break magic from the Sultan of Spin, himself, the one and only Warnie-the blondie! With a target of 129 to chase, England really started to struggle once warne was introduced and Brett lee unleashed Hell on england by removing the funky hair-do - Kevin Pieterson and Freddie Flintoff. Somehow Giles and Hoggard England through some really tough times. It was a great to see somebody challenging the Mighty Aussies and never give-up attitude of the ozzies. The OZ tail has played really well thro out the series with shane going very close to a century. Undoubtedly the closest test series in a longtime between two top quality teams.
And in the other Hemisphere, we see the exact opposite. the worst display of cricket by an international team- India. Whatever happened to the magic of Team India and the famous 'Huddle'. First the Kiwis almost made a world record by scoring 397 in 44 overs and next day we see Indians getting out cheaply for 48-8. Cant handle a different Shane. Bond, Shan Bond as he would like to introduce himself, he removed the Indian top order so cheaply that they can all retire. Whats with the captain Saurav. So many years in International arena and he still cant handle short pitch balls aimed at mid-riff. Whatever happened to the Wall. I really sympathize with Greg Chappel.

Finally I moved into my new apartment

After 2 months of payingf rent and not occupying, i stayed in my house yesterday among all the rubbish and some new construction work going on to remodify the house. so much of dirt piled up over the days that it took me a long time to clean up the place. Lots of arraning to do still and its going to take a long time.

Two Weddings and lot of fun :o)

Took a long break from work and attended couple of my cousin's weddings. Lot of fun after a long time with all the relatives whom you havent met for a long time. But it has its cons too. Everybody starts asking Whens your turn? Why would ppl do that... Why cant they just say hi then talk about nice things and just push off. Anyways it was fun nevertheless. Lots of nice food to eat and good sweets. Those idlis, masala dosas , mouth watering ladoos and badam halwas... It was great. and some dance too. In one of the weddings, we did dandia dance too... it was lot of fun and it was a slighlty new concept in our family weddings and esp in chennai. Weddings in chennai are usually not so much of fun. But this time it was. Music, dance and all that... A nice break after a long time. Total refresher.

Landmark Quiz

Come 15th August, there is a big open Quizzzing event in Chennai conducted by Landmark Book store. Its an amazing event with high quality of quizzing. This is the first time I am attending in Chennai and it was fantastic. A couple of college buds and I tooks the prelims and did decently or so we thought. But the usual suspects made it to the finals. The finals was done by the famous Bounvita Quiz master Derek-O-Brian. He was pretty ok this time around compared to last year when we saw him in the CRY quiz at Bagalore. Less theatrics and more of serious quizzing. But on the whole it was total fun. 5 more points and we probly had a shot at the finals. Maybe next time we will make it. Watch out Landmark Quiz in Bangalore on Nov1st. I know I will be there.

Happy Independence day

Happy Independence day folks !!!

Everybody says F*** OFF Mate, but POMs say Flint OFF Mate

That was the caption on a card which an English Cricket Fan was holding in the Second Ashes Test between the Ozzies and POMs. Man, what a thriller it turned out to be!! Warnie tried to googly the English by a sizzling 45 in the second innings and Brett Lee's stoic 46 amidst all the blows he received from Flintoff, but all in vain as they lost the test by just 2 runs. In the end England FL*** OFF'ed the Fighting aussies. Warne;s 10 wickets and Brett's crucial 4 in the 2nd innings and solid 46 didnt help them much. Only australia could have fought back from the position they were in. 182/8 and 100 more to win, anybody would have written off the batting team with tail enders to come. But the 'never say die' attitude of aussies almost won them the game, but for the brilliant catch by Geraint Jones, the Wicket Keeper to dismiss Kasper.
Day-3 was meant to be Flintoff's day out. Whatever he touched turned out to be gold. He hit 4 towering sixes, 2 of Brett Lee and 2 of Kasper. One of Brett Lee went on top of the roof near the camera man. It was just fun to watch him hit the ball effortlessly. The raw power of flintoff gave them enough hope both in the 1st and 2nd innings and he also took 3 crucial wickets all at crucial times and also took the most important catch of Gilcrist who could have changed the game. All in all, it was Flintoff's test match. If England go on to win the Ashes, No doubt it will be tagged Flintoff's Ashes somewat like Botham's Ashes. Afterall Flintoff is England's new Botham.
Moral of the Story: Next time you meet an aussie, its enough to say FLINT OFF MATE to offend him.

How to choose the Correct shoes?

Over the past 2 years I have to come to realize the importance of correct footwear to suit the purpose. I used to have a slightly loose tennis shoe, used it for running and thought it is too loose and not serving the purpose. So I went for one size lesser and ended up with toe pains. That is becasue I was using tennis shoes for running and running shoes for cros-training. So to practise for long distance running, I bought a Reebok Premier Road Plus shoe, which is a piece of art. This shoe provides the right amount of cushioning and great balance while running. Then I realized the importance of footwear match. Its so important for comfort and to avoid injuries. I have this problem of twisting my ankles even while walking. Call it lack of balance in life or walking on wrong foot. But now-a-days shoes come with a transition bridge beteen heel and center foot. This also prevents your shoe from twisting. This helps you to acheive balance.

Choose the right tool for your battle.

Check out these links for choosing the correct shoes.
http://www.athletesfoot.com.au/documents/Howtochoosebrochures/HTC%20Tennis.pdf
http://www.epinions.com/content_1068933252
http://www.footcaredirect.com/shoes.html

From my previous blogs you can clearly see that I am so fond of shoes. The other day I was talking to my friend about my goals in life. I jokingly mentioned that my goal in life is not to think beyond this week, to buy my next pair of shoes, next pair of Shirt and Trouser and next few meals. Ofcourse it was just a joke and I hope my friend didn't that seriously. But looking at the amount of research being done in coming up wth new models of shoes, it is really tempting to buy them just for the foot comfort it provides. I pity those pre-historic guys who walked on barefoot to hunt. That reminds of 'George of the Jungle' movie, where Brendon fraser, after his trip from the Big Apple, gets a new pair of Nike Air and flies like Air Jordan.
I wouldnt mind if the shoe companies give me a free pair for all the advertising that I have done for them in my blogs.
BTW I am still waiting for donations to Shoe relief fund to buy a "Adidas One-Intelligent shoe". Hurry up people!

Intelligent Shoes

Check out these babies!!!
http://www.adidas.com/campaigns/adidas_1/content/index.asp?strCountry_adidascom=in&strBrand_adidascom=performance
with your headphones on.
This is Frikkin' awesome. If somebody wants to gift these to me, that would be great. (Btw my Shoe size is American 9 and UK 81/2)
Seriously, Impossible is nothing. Its like stretching your imagination. Its pretty cool.
When you can spend 11K on a small mobile instrument, why not on shoes?? You dont even have to remove them except while changing the socks, Otherwise it would turn out pretty nasty.
I will soon start a Sriram Shoe Relief fund. Then I would post the link. Please donate generously towards the fund so that I can buy these dream pair :-o)
Speaking of shoes, my god!! these companies price the shoes at ridiculous amounts here in the outlets. The shoes which sell for 50 USD on Reebok Website is being sold at Rs. 5000(roughly 120USD) and shoes which sell at 70 USD are being sold at 8K and 9K Rs. This is atrocious. Is it just bangalore or all over India?. Somebody, please do something. They are selling at double the price you can buy it in the US and making hello lot money. Down with these companies in India. They are ripping off the people here.

So long and back again !!!

Two football matches, sudden change in weather and some rains were all that was needed to give me Cold, Fever and Sorethroat for the past week or so. I was a makde shift goalie in last match I played and shouted so much from the back that my throat was badly affected. Some anti-biotics and bunking 2 days of work just to sleep at home was the cure. Damn, I didnt check my email for 4 long days. That was like 4 days in Hell not to be in touch with the world. Now I know I can live w/o a mobile but not w/o internet connection. 3 Cheers to WWW.
Heavy rains in Bombay, One Oil drilling platform down in Bombay High and with that went 38% of Oil supplies for India for 1 year until a new one comes up and another 15 ,000 Crores of rupees(roughly some gazillion dollars) to Re-build a new one and bomb blasts all over London and Egypt and some Lathi charges in Gurgoan. What is the world coming to?? One more Samaritan crying out for goodness.
I think there should be samaritan law (like the Seinfeld episode) implemented everywhere. People who are the scene of the crime and dont help should be jailed. Maybe this will reduce some crimes.
Aandava ellarayum nalla padiya vaipa... Enna mattum konjam nallave gavanichiko.. :-o)

5-0 and badly beaten!

Enter the Soccer tournament, and I see so many companies field their best teams with great amount of practice and here we go with 3-4 days of practice and completely match unfit to take on a very good team which had good soccer sense and passing skills. Not surprisingly we were beaten 5-0. Though i was just standing in the lines cheering for my team for most of the playing time, it was great fun just to be there. I got to play approx 1 min of playing time towards the end of both halves. We got one more match today and I am already looking forward to it. It was great to play on grass again after a very long time.

How do you add smileys or emoticon in blog postings?

Please comment and let me know

Top Question of this Week

"How does one know when you have run out of Invisible ink?" (Source: Invisible as per request)
All creative and innovative answers are most welcome. I cannot promise any patent or IP rights :-p)
When you solve this, the source will become visible to you :-o)

PotterMania to SoccerMania

The title says it all. Yes.. I have started playing soccer again. There is an inter-corporate soccer 5-a-side tournament going to happen in 2 days and I am nowhere close to match fit. In fact most of my team mates are also in same condition. But some are experienced footers and athletes from school and college. So they will manage. Though I will be on the bench, if not a water boy, I am very enthu about going back to soccer field. I always used to feel great pain in my toes after soccer. Now I figured out that I was using Soccer boots, one size smaller. Somehow I have to manage this time and buy a new pair later. Boy...it feels great to be kicking the ball high and up and running and passing it. Reminds of KINE Soccer class I took at TAMU and the soccer games we used to play in summer with Desi boys and some other guys at Rock praire, CLL.
Sad part is that one of our soccer buddies, met with a horrible accident in College Station and another guy who was in the same car passed away. He was also a good friend. Condolences to his family and I hope my soccer buddy recovers soon enough to play soccer again in College Station.

New Mobile T630

Electronic Cousin of T610, not Cosmetically though. I think 610 is more cute and sexy than 630. T610 had the awesome curves and looks that anybody would want. 630 is same on the features side and so-so on the looks. No complaints though. and this time I have insured it. So much for a small piece of electronic device which makes or breaks lives and relationships. So much packed in this small instrument that literally you can spend one whole say with it and not feel bored at all. All the new gadgets have Mp3 players, FM Radio, Internet and also tons of games and MMS. Wat more do u need from a mobile phone and some occasional calls too.

Manic Monday

It's just another manic Monday
I wish it was Sunday
'Cause that's my funday
My I don't have to runday
It's just another manic Monday
-- Bangles

Thats sums my mood for the day. What a beautiful day outside. Nice weather and so inviting to sleep all day. And here I am sitting in my cubicle in front of my comp. Lifes like that.

Still no concrete evidence in Rove case and I am just waiting to see the Google News flash up saying Rove is Guilty. I also wish it says Bush and all his aids are guilty of the Iraq War. Well.. I am not hoping for too much though. London bombing and 4 people captured, watever happened to those who attached the Ayodhya and many more who keep attacking J&K everyday or every nook and corner of the developing world. Well.. Nobody cares for those who cant make the news or who dont have money.
Been reading lot of books lately. Jack's autobiography and his 'Winning'. Pretty inspiring stuff really. Yet to get my hands on Harry Potter and Half blood prince.

Rove on the Rover to Moon!!!

Haha.. Catchy title eh!
Karl Rove... I am missing Jon Stewart's jokes on all the Rove investigation going on in DC. I hate Rove for the main reason that he was the architect of the Bush's election campaigns and mainly the Re-election in 2004. Now that there is so much of information coming out of the box everyday and more evidences emering to prove that he may have been behind the CIA leak. I would like to see the Dems get back at him. They are already calling for Bush to remove Rove from White House. I hope he goes to Jail, not because I have anything against him, but it will be a defeat for the Bush team. I also hope Karl Rove spills the beans about Bush team's real intentions on going for the Iraq war, which is very unlikely to happen. He may probly be removed from his office and given a nice Retirement in Some Villa on the beaches of Jamaica or Virgin Islands or maybe in the Posh Colonies on the MOON with a Land ROVER to explore the landscap of the Moon.

PotterMania(c)

Potter.. Potter..Potter...
I dont have a kid brother or Kid sister or else I would have heard only Potter..Potter everywhere. A great fan of Potter myself or should I say a great fan of JKR. I am also eagerly waiting for the Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. I havent reserved a copy myself so far. I will wait for som more time. Last time around I caught hold of a 'pdf' which was doing rounds on the net just after the release of the book. Can u imagine I read the 700 odd page book on the comp putting 2 nightouts. Damn... I was so jobless. This time I will wait for paperback to hit the streets and I will buy at a cheaper price than the hardbound copy. So who is dying in this volume 6? Could it be Dumbledore?

Sarkar - Ek Soch

Watched it yesterday on my Comp. Would still like to see it in Big screen. Amitabh has done full justice to his role. Somehow I felt some discontinuity or lack of smoothness in the flow of the script. Good that they didnt try to fit in songs just for the heck of it. But would rate 'Nayagan' far better in this category of Don movies ripped off from 'God Father'. Cant obviously compare either Kamal or Amitabh to the legendary Marlon brando as the DON. Good Movie nevertheless. Lots of movies to be watched in my list.

Word Origins

I was just wondering what if Sandwich were Sandwitch and what would have been the origin to it? Then i realized that I did not know the origin to Sandwich itself. My Frnd and I googld and my frnd stumbled upon this good site. So here you go
http://www.brownielocks.com/wordorigins.html (courtesy Deepti)

Its got some real good word and phrase origins. Good site for more Trivia. Idle mind does wonderful things such as these. I am still looking at a good model to buy. I narrowed my options to 2 models. K700i of Sony ericsson (advanced T610) and Moto V3 RAZR (pencil thin Moto). Now please do let me know if you have heard about any negative points on any of these. I am reading all reviews online. But if you have any info please pass it along.

Ra Ra Ra.... Raa... Raa ...Raa....

Ra Ra Ra.... Raa... Raa ...Raa.... Raa ...Raa... Raa... Ra Ra... Ra Ra Ra.... Raa Raa Raa.... Raa Raa Raa Raa...
Fortune Fame
Mirror Vain
Gone Insane
but the Memory Remains!

Ash to Ash
Dust to Dust
but the Memory Remains!!!

-- Hail Metallica.. You Rock....

Question of the Day ???

My friend recently asked me this question
"Observation: while going on train or for that matter a bus or a car, if I sit on a window or stand at a door, I always feel air rushing in. I hope u all feel the same. If not, please ignore the rest of the mail.
Question: if so much of air is entering the system from all possible openings, how is it going out? otherwise we may someday see a phenomen of train burst, if we dont find an answer."

Please let me know if anybody knows the answer and I will pass it on to my Curious friend.
He is planning to collect Question of the week. If he does and if its intersting I will pu it up here.

Time for a new Post

Still havent bought a mobile! What am I waiting for... But I do find it convinient w/o it. I dont have to bother to call anybody and for all those who constantly tell me 'You havent called me in a long time. You have forgotten us etc etc" .. one simple excuse... I lost my mobile.. Let us se how long this goes until I finally have to buy a new one. The problem is I cant settle for any mobile which has lesser features than T610 and obviously that mean more money.
Been very busy at office in the past week with some project presentation and hence no recent posts. That should answer ever curious Sathyusus comments on Why I dont post very often?
So Whats new in life? I had a small House warming/Get together in my newly rented 1 BHK. So much for a rented house was my answer to all the pestering from my parents, my aunt and family. All thats well, ends well. All my family members seemed to like the place. Its in 2nd floor right in front of a park and right next to it is 3 empty plots. So I get all the breeze and an excellent view from the terrace. But except for the noise from the cieling fan, which I hope to fix soon, everything else is Ok with the house.

Adios! Amigos!

Protocol to be followed when you lose a Mobile

When you lose something thats worth a lot then it hits you that you never had precautions to prevent it or retreive it. So the first thing Y'all do is to find out what your IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity) number. There are different ways.
1. It should be written on your receipt or box that comes with mobile
2. Punch ' *#06# ' and then IMEI number will pop up on your screen. This code maybe different for different service providers. So if this doesnt work for you then find out your code to get the IMEI number from your sevice provider. This will come in handy

To block your SIM or your number from misused you need to file a poilice complaint and submit the complaint form to the service provider so he can block your SIM and give you the same number when you get a new SIM. I think this is cool. Even if you ve lost contacts in your phone book others can contact you. Ofcourse there are Pros and Cons :-o). But then again you ve got to shell out some money as Bakshish to the police guy to get the copy of your complaint. Aint that sucks.. you lose an expensive mobile and your SIM and then you shell out more money to block it.

Another thing I did was to write down all the Credit card info(number, exp date and contact number) and DL number in a safe place in case of emergency.

Mobile Philosophy!

Obviously it can't be Mobile Philosophy bcos Philosophy aint mobile! So it has to be Philosophy about Mobiles :-p). The term mobile here doesnt refer to the adjective 'mobile' which according to dictionary means 'capable of moving or being moved'. It refers to the Mobile Cellular instrument which is being used by the humans for communication. Ofcourse even the animals like dogs use it thinking its a bone and they can chew. In those cases the instrument more or less ends up in a dustbin. Well coming to the core pholosophy here... Can one live w/o mobiles? The relationship between a human (man, in this case) and a mobile is very special. Whenever u feel like talking, writing, reading u use the mobile. People also use it to store numbers and in some cases use it as calender and also to keep their accounts in their daily lives. Some even use it as watch for wake up alarms. In those cases its more or less shutoff immed or thrown away at the instant of the alarm sound. So when mobile becomes a core part of your daily life, how can you live w/o one?

How to cope up with the loss of your mobile?

Losing a mobile is like breaking up with your girlfriend or ending a relationship. It could be very painful. Your whole world suddenly looks dark, not that it was any bright before. You ve lost all the contacts you had(as if you ever had any contact with the human life out there), bcos they were through your mobile and you have not stored the contacts elsewhere. All accounts back to zero and Nobody owes anybody anything. Its something like somebody messed up with all your bank accounts(did u ever have a positive bank account??). Losing a mobile means, you ve got to wear a watch all the time. No more 'blackberry thumb' or in this case 'ericsson fingers'. Its like you are at the bottom of the deathvalley. So you ve got to get a new one to carry on your already non-exitant life and to improve your defunct lifestyle. But choosing a new one is a very difficult choice. There are so many Models out there. You ve got to make a good choice. The choice you make can make or break your life. How will you know you ve made the right choice? You must feel the vibes to choose 'the one'. You always make this choice in the hope that you dont lose this one as well. At the sametime you ve got to move on in your life. Cant think about your old mobile, however good it was and compare the new one with the old one. But this time you take all the precautions so that you end this relationship also. But aint the First time, always the Sweetest??
Ok.. this is by far the cheapest and lowest I can ever get in terms of PJs, but isnt it a good way of attracting your comments?? So please do comment and let me know of the available choices I have out there. Its like setting up your friend on a blind date with someone you know :-o).

Obituary for my T610

Its a sad day in my life :-( . I lost my Cute Sony Ericsson T610 mobile. That baby was very sleek and cute. I will miss it. I am still wondering how it went missing. I got out from home to catch my office bus. I realised that I was bit late to walk to my usual bus stop to catch it. So i took a city bus to my regular office busstop to catch the office bus. Somewhere along the way, either I must have put my hand in pocket and my mobile must have fallen down and didnt realise it or somebody must have flicked it in the bus. The painful part is I had stored my niece's photos in it and all my phone numbers. So for those who read this blog, please email me your phone number either to my office email or my personal email. Its sad but I ve got to move on in my life w/o my cute T610. Its amazing how we get stuck to such petty materialistic things in life. And life w/o a mobile is very difficult these days :-o)

Parineeta - The Married Woman

Kaash eisa title hota!!! then it would have definitely sucked big time. This new hindi movie is a must watch. Its got all the Devdas like settings, but only far better in every aspect including the key factor called 'acting'. If Madhuri was the saving grace in Devdas, then new actress Miss. Balan has done an excellent job in this movie. Its a very well made movie from the start to finish and should be watched in a big screen. You would clearly see how much Saif ali khan has matured as an actor over the years and even Sanjay Dutt has done justice to his small cameo. Overall its a good movie only to good to be missed. Ppl who read this blog could watch and come back and comment on it. I would greatly appreciate that!

Back to Quizzin...

Long time since I did some quizing. This sunday, Raju and I, went and took part in KQA's centennial celebrations - General Quiz, a quiz which I attended after a long time. Though we made 21 out of a possible 44(Thanks to Raju), where the cut-off was 30, we thought that was a decent performance. The finals was awesome as usual with the chennai team taking the honors. I ve Got to conduct a Dumb-C in office as well sometime in the next few weeks. So working towards that.
Jus started my week by watching some Jon Stewart's Daily show videos. The best way to start your day is by watching Daily Show at your workplace :-o). I also noticed that none of mainstream media in the US is covering the leak of Downing Street memos on the Iraq War. I looked for it in NYT, WP but in vain. I hope there is an enquiry into this and the press gets to it. I would like to see the press exposing the dirt and scam behind the Iraq War plans. Well..Lemme get back to my Daily Show videos and then maybe work a little bit today. hehe...

Finally Some relief

Yes... I finally found a 1 BHK for rent. Well it didnt quite come at the price I wanted, but a compromise worth it. Now I can chill out peacefully. Nothing's quite worth mentioning to write today. So I will come back later with something interesting.

Still House Hunting...

I will tell you this. House hunting in Bangalore is a big pain. You see all the classified columns and go look at a house. Theres always something missing in that house or it is ridiculously expensive. I wish some big metoer falls in Bangalore and land prices drop down. Cant live with prices soaring up sky high. PLEASE DO NOT MAKE THE MISTAKE OF COMING DOWN TO BANGALORE FOR ANY JOB. Look somewhere else. Bangalore sucks.
Dunno when i so picky and choosy and when i am going to get a house for rent. I hate the real estate agents also. They always hike up the prices and too demanding. I HATE YOU ALL YOU DAMN BROKERS. HEAR ME RIGHT! ITS PLAIN HATE.
well... Lifes been going on fine so far with all the calvin and hobbbes and Tintin and dilbert links I keep getting from friends. Heres a few links to make your day folks... Enjoy maadi...

http://www.uffen.org/calvin/index.htm

http://www.anuragjain.com/chgems.html

http://tintincomics.topcities.com/index.htm (its got all tintins online)

awesome stuff
http://homepage.eircom.net/~odyssey/Quotes/Popular/Comics/Dilbert.html

Dogbert's advise on Dating:

Dogbert : "Women like men who boast about their accomplishments, but they hate men who boast. I will be your designated bragger, allowing you (Dilbert) to appear Humble."

Dilbert : "One potential problem with this plan is that I have no accomplishments."

Dogbert : "Yeah, and if she isn't wearing make-up we'll be honest too."

Dilbert's Boss:

"I saw the code for your computer program yesterday. It looked easy. Its just a bunch of typing. And half of the words were spelt wrong. And dont get me started on your over-use of colons."

Wally (My fav character)
"Its now time for the Wally report, a weekly status update. My income is 80% of industry average, Enthusiasm is at 63% of capacity and my Ego Shield is holding at 15%."

"Your enthusiasm is up from last week."

"Yeah, someone left the supply cupboard unlocked."

Well.... finally I have updated my blog. Hope to update it soon with more interesting Geeky and Nerdy stuff such as these.

Looking for a house in Bangalore

Thats the most toughest thing you would ever do in life, if you were in such a situation. The rents have gone up so much in Bangalore city that you wish your father was a rich man and had a big house there. I hear the real estate prices have almost doubled up in the last 2 yrs. Trying to find time out of your busy work life to look for house is such a pain these days. Thanks to the Freeads and Admag(classified mags) job is somewhat simplified. All this, when you are not ready to just throw out money as if u dont care about money, and miserly like me when it comes to rent and advance.

Run Sriram.... Run....

After all that hype I created about marathon, it did turn out to be a good experience for me. I finished my 7K run well within 40 minutes and now I feel maybe I could have gone for a bigger challenge of Half-marathon. Well there's always next time and there's Bombay Marathon in Jan-Feb. Full Marathon (26 miles or 42 dot KM - depending on whether u go by Metric or British units) was flagged off at 6 AM and Half-Marathon (13 miles or 21dot KM) started at 6:30 AM. The Dream run or Celebrity run for 7 KM started off around 9:15AM. Yours truly! was well prepared and finished quite peacufully. But as I heard from many Marathon runners, there was not much cheering on streets like it was in Bombay and it was very hot during 7KM run. Pretty exhausting. I hope they change this event to Winter or atleast Spring time next year. I think more than 10K people participated in 7K run and it was almost like a marketing event for many sponsors and big corporates, sporting some colorful Tshirts with logos. Some took it seriously and ran the whole course like I did and some just did it for fun and ran and walked the whole way. Either way it was supposed to be for fun.
But the amazing thing was, there was a 65 year old man who finished half-marathon and a middle aged lady too. And there were many old people like these who finished the races. The smile on their face spoke of thier personal acheivement. It was quite inspiring to see that. We also witnessed some physically challenged people finishing the 7KM run in their wheel chairs and crutches. "Hats Off" to these amazing fighters. If theres anything we can learn from them, it is the fighting spirit and how to overcome obstacles. I personally went and congratulated some of them. It was a pleasure and honor to shake hands with them.
And... Thats all I have to say about that !!!

D-day has arrived finally!

Tommorrow is May 15th and come 6AM the Lipton International marathon will be flagged off from the Kanteerava Stadium in Bangalore. I will be running for the 7km Dream run tommorrow. I have been practising a little bit for quite sometime now. I was almost tempted to register for the half-marathon until I had a knee injury lastweek by hitting a stationary motorbike, while I was riding pillion on my firends bike. I am just loading up on my fluid level in my body and also taking in as many calories as I can to endure the heat and tiredness I will be encountering. Wish me all the luck folks!!! May raingods favor me, if the temperature becomes unbearable tommorrow. Personally I think this event should be conducted in Winter in Bangalore.

My Trekking and Kayaking Experience on River Varahi

This is long due. I havent blogged in quite a while now and as I was very busy at work and other social activities. This post is dedicated to my Trekking experience and Kayaking on river varahi during the last weekend of April. I am posting a friend(Vinu a.k.a coconut)'s version of the entire experience. Thanks Vinu for letting me use your trip diary, ofcourse with some editing. It goes something like this....
Let me take you all back in time on April 29th when a group of 30, many of whom havent seen each other before, on a trip which will bind them strongly in a strong bond of friendship.
Friday - 29th April, 2005
We boarded the bus after a long wait at JFWTC employee's gate, picked up a couple of people on the way and headed to a raodside dhaba outside the city for dinner. On the way we had an “introduction round”, where everybody introduced themselves revealing their embarrassing moments and previous trek experiences and all of us laughing at their expense. The intro round continued during dinner and afterwards in the bus
Saturday - 30th April, 2005
We stopped about seven in the morning for tea at a roadside hotel in Mangalore, on our way to Kollur. We entertained ourselves with a game of Antakshari with Tapori (Deepti) and Mr.Antakshri (Somansh) and a couple of others as lead singers till we reached Anejeri Nature Camp. Once at the camp we first gathered at the outhouse for a briefing session by Spider (SriRam - Thats me!!!), and then headed for our tents. [Well lot of people ask me why I am called spider. Longtime back some of us, my colleagues and I, went to Spiderman-part2 and from that day onwards I have ben nicknamed spider for no reason. I didnt mind as it was a cool name and besides I get MaryJane :-o)]
After a rather quick freshen up of our sticky selves we all gathered for breakfast (chow-chow bhat and boiled eggs), of course yours truly(Coconut a.k.a Vinu) came late and was lucky to have boiled eggs at least for breakfast. We boarded the bus, with some of us carrying life jackets, and took the bus for 6 km and started out trek for another 5km to Arsinagudi Falls. The trek was quite tiring for most of us. But some from the group were pretty smart and trekked real fast and reached the falls and chilled in the cold water for eternity. The rest of us trudged along like zombies-all zonked out. After a jump into the Arsina water and enjoying the pressure of the water on our sore bodies, we had lunch (which was carried by Chandan our dentist guide). All of us famished souls ate the veg pulav to our heart's content. Looking at the trek back there was mixed emotions among the group. Some felt ecstatic and some, like me, felt like homicide. Nonetheless we all trudged back again to the bus. Life was good again when we all sat in the bus resting our worn-out bodies.
We decided to go to the famous Mookambika Temple on our wayback to the camp and saw the deity at the special darshan. We enjoyed watching the Kerala style Architecture of the temple, temple dancers, the more than 900 lamps structure, people, etc.A few of us (Somansh, Spider, Purnatha, Tushar, Thakur, and me) got held up and delayed going back to the bus because of some change in plans and the bus left us leaving behind two informers to tell us that it will return soon for a pickup(Ragavendra and Nataraj). The bus did come back for us and we reached the camp passing thru the “starry-starry night”. Spider was trying to figure out the constellations and teach me as well. Thanks dude I learnt "a lot". - I need to add my view on this. The sky was literally filled with stars that night and we could see it clearly, thanks to the pitch darkness in the camp owing to the non-availability of electricity.
After reaching the campsite we freshened up for the nth time in the day. During dinner, we had some performances from each of us. Tapori’s dance, Joshi’s “aanke wali”, Tushar’s pole dance, Hetal and Purnatha’s ghazals, Romit, Thakur and Kowshik’s Sholay dialogues, Somansh’s guitar, my mime of my boss, and so on. We hit the sleeping sacks at about 1am. Of course a few of us (Mr.Antakshri, Spider, Uncle & Aunty duo and yours truly) sneakily stayed awake till 2:30am singing songs.
Sunday - May 1st, 2005
The camp woke up by 5:30am and we were all ready by 6am (we shocked Spider as he thought we’d be late). Some from the group are indebted to Tapori, for it was her early morning cackle that woke them up and remained awake and I was unfortunate to have not heard her! We had breakfast and had some photo ops (making of Charlie's Angels). Sriram (alias Spider) finally managed to shepherd us all together into the bus and we headed straight for the kayaking spot. The thirty of us were divided into two groups. The plan was that while one group would be kayaking the other would be doing the rope activities and after lunch we'd switch. The group I was with, did the rope activity first and spider's group went for kayaking. It was fun with all the guys guarding their “family jewels” during the rope walking and the girls having a good laugh. Meanwhile Spider's group was having fun at kayaking on the river.
Spider's account of his kayaking experience - The whole group after our practice went for kayaking in rapids. We went through many rapids one by one and in one of them romit and his mate Scorpion King(a.k.a pradip) erred and their kayak capsized leaving romit behind in the water. Luckily we were all wearing life jackets and he was picked up from the river by one of the instructors. After that eventful episode we all returned back to camp for Lunch and ropeactivities.
Lunch was extremely yummy and by then the other half of the group had returned from their kayaking (not to forget that Pradeep and Romit’s kayak had capsized). Now it was our turn to go kayaking. After getting the necessary instructions from Dev, (Greek god for the women folk, and guardian angel for all), basically our instructor, we proceeded with a little bit of practice of kayaking and then we headed straight for the rapids. Somansh and I were the boat 1 and we went right ahead carving the path for the others. We were initially terrified (or at least I was) about how the whole thing went about. At every pit stop Somansh kept reminding me "kyun tension le rahi hai, enjoy nature" and I finally let go of the tension and enjoyed nature only after the fourth rapid. I would say we did equal paddling; maybe he did a few strokes more than me. We finished kayaking at about 4pm and were waiting for the bus and the rest of the group to come and join us. Few of us took a light shower under some sprinklers in some one's garden. They must have scared the owner off. We all had tea at a local shop near where the bus had been parked, changed into dry clothes, had the last few photos taken by Shyam and team and then we left to Bangalore via Mangalore.
On the way we had an awesome and breathtaking three-hour gaana-mela where everyone, except a few shy ones, danced on top of a red box (our improvised stage). Tapori and I kept frequenting the stage as fillers. the plus ones' danced too with their respective counter parts and the official couple (Bala and Anita) took the trophy away with their waltz. Gireesha stunned us again with an on stage performance. Life was good again when we stopped at Mangalore for some "pette puja" (dinner). The non-veggies and veggies chose their respective hotels for their dinner and we met back at the bus in an hour. Now, I think for the first time no one moved and went straight to sleep.
Monday 2nd May, 2005
Most of us woke up at about seven and realized that we've reached Bangalore. The awesome trip had come to and end. The bus dropped people off at points near to their homes and headed straight to JFWTC.
Conclusion and Moral of the Story:
The trip was freakin' hot, sweaty, exhausting - but what the hell we all lived our lives to the fullest during these days! Kudos to the Sponsors JFWTC for the transportation and the organizers and the entire group for making it a big success.
Due acknowledgements to Vinu Paul Manikathan, a.k.a Cononut, for this trip diary and also her involvement in creating our photo gallery of the trek. Please click on this link for photos of the trip http://photos.yahoo.com/trip2005may Pictures speak a thousand words

Marathon in Bangalore

Talk about running and I recently found out that there's going to be a marathon in Bangalore on May, 15th. There are 3 categories: Full-marathon (26 miles), Half-marathon and Celebration run(7K). Since I wouldnt be able to get in shape and get fit for even the half marathon, I ve decided to go for the 7K run for starters. After the success of an International marathon in Mumbai, the bangalore one is expected to be a big success. Lets hope so!!!

How terribly strange to be seventy !!!

Have you ever wondered, what it feels like when you are old (well..its still a long way to go for me, I am just 26..duh..) , sitting and talking about your past memories to your friend(s)!!! I cant even imagine how it will be! Will I ever live till 70 and even if I do, I definitely can't tell how it would feel like, zimbly bcos I dont even want to think about getting older.... But my friends, Paul Simon wrote a poem, even composed a wonderful tune for that, about two old friends meeting at a park, which I can listen any number of times and anytime of the day...
Why not.. I zimbly loeve the songs of Simon & Garfunkel... All Hail 'Tom and Jerry'.. yes.. they were called 'Tom and Jerry' for their love-hate relationship :-o) .. They split up 20 yrs back and recently they joined forces and performed at Grammy's and they do some occasional tours.. tickets are so damn expensive that you can forget about buying them.

Coming back to getting old.. this is da song.. that Paul Simon wrote about two old friends....

Old Friends (2:35) P. Simon, 1968

Old friends, Old friends
Sat on their park bench
Like bookends
A newspaper blown through the grass
Falls on the round toes
Of the high shoes Of the old friends

Old friends
Winter companions, The old men
Lost in their overcoats
Waiting for the sunset
The sounds of the city Sifting through the trees
Settle like dust
On the shoulders Of the old friends

Can you imagine us years from today
Sharing a park bench quietly?
How terribly strange to be seventy
Old friends
Memory brushes the same years
Silently sharing the same fear...

and follow it up with ....

Bookends Theme (1:23) P. Simon, 1968

Time it was, and what a time it was, it was
A time of innocence, a time of confidences
Long ago, it must be, I have a photograph
Preserve your memories; They're all that's left you

I highly recommend that you hear this song. Its the song from their album titled 'Bookends'. Its just a beautiful song that will bring immense joy as well as sorrow (bcos you will be 70 one day.. :-o))..

Papal Elections

With the passing away of the pope, the world is waiting for a new pontiff to be elected. The conclave starts in few days and already there are rumours that power may shift to the east.

Thanks to Dan Brown, I gathered lot of information on Vatican and Papal elections. It is pretty interesting how the some good authors do an excellent background research before writing books. For instance, Michael Crichton usually comes up with fantastic material for his books. I loved his Congo, Jurassic Park, Airframe and Lost World. These books are just full of information. Sort of encyclopedia on the respective topics, if you may.

Well, anyways, coming back to the topic... Are pontiffs, in any religion, just the religious and spiritual leader or more of a politician who controls the religious activities and also responsible to spread the idealogies of that religion?

In early 90's when Beauty Pageants from India went on to bag the coveted Miss Universe, Miss World and Miss Asia Pacific titles when no Indian had ever won it before, rumour was rife that it was deliberate act to promote big fashion labels in India, a growing market. It definitely did increase the interest in fashion and fashion designing in our country and also there is huge demand for fashion labels now. The purpose was acheived one way or other and whether or not the rumour was true.

Though its a very loose connection, like the above mentioned phenomenon are we going to see a new pope from asia or africa, where Christianity is not so prevelant? Will this move, if it happens, lead to the spread of christianity in Asia and Africa by converting people?? We will have to wait and see. Its a strange world - In one part of the world they are waiting for a new leader who will lead them in the future and elsewhere one pontiff, supposed to be the religious and spiritual guru, is accused of murder charges and involved in scandals. Is it the test of the religion or religion and spirituality beyond all these ?
The ultimate reality is "Truth shall set us all Free" (Sathyameva Jayate!)
Oh.. Woww.. what a punch line.. Take that fellas... who thought I can never comeup with a punchline (though it sucks)

Disclaimer: The author doesnt intend hurt the religious feelings of anybody and its just a theory based on loose connections.

Running - Feel good exercise

Its been a long time since I ran. So I decided to start jogging/running to get back to shape and coincidentally a new club, called Runners club, started here mainly for running enthusiasts. I went for the kick off meeting and lo! I became of the co-ordinators straight away. It felt good to be among health freaks and I found out that one of the guys had completeted 2 full marathons incl. the recently held Bombay marathon and another guy finished the half-marathon at Bombay. So there, I can get some real good advice on how to practice for long distance running from these guys. Also the center medical doctor was involved to make sure we get good health tips to avoid injuries. After talking to one of the guys, I went ahead to buy a really expensive footwear(by my standards)-Reebok premier Road plus, to avoid more expensive medical treatments in future due to possible foot/ankle/knee injuries because of not wearing proper shoes.
Its like, God made these shoes specially for me. They are so damn good and no wonder they are expensive. I have used it for 5-6 short runs so far and I now realize why u need really good shoes for running. They are so soft and very easy on your foot and knees. I highly recommend these shoes for starters. Another good option could be Adidas-Supernova Control. You get these babies in Wide foot option called 'M 2E'. While I was shopping for shoes, I went by a Adidas apparel and they had a free foot scan done for me and suggested these shoes. They were also very good, but I prefered road plus to these.
Hopefully I should be able to participate in any of 5K and 10K runs in the coming months and maybe give it a shot for the Mumbai marathon next year. lets see!.
Some tips for starters -
1. Wear good footwear. Makes all the difference in the world. Saves you lot of bucks in future and also reduces the possiblities of knee and hip pains later on.
2. W-S-A-C-S - The golden rule of any activity.
Warm up - stretch - activity - cool down - stretch
Stretching is very important before and after running, especially the ham strings, calf muscles, quadriceps and lower back. Check this link http://www.dummies.com/WileyCDA/DummiesArticle/id-448.html
3. When you feel very tired, take a deep breath in through your nose and breathe out slowly through your mouth for sometime. You will feel better. This is only from my experience.

Happy Running Folks! and wish me good luck to sustain this passion.

Lamenting Lara's demise

This is about the loss of Our Pet dog, Lara (M), who died of kidney problems 3 weeks back.

Last I saw him was a day before his passing away, when I left for Bangalore, after spending the weekend at chennai. He was having some problems and clearly not his usual self. Before I left, I had to sit down, put him in my lap and pet him for long time before I left, only hoping that I will see him next time I come to Chennai. But he passed away the very next day. We were all sad for a week or so, but his memory lives on. You just cannot forget the sweet and loyal - four legged friend, who has been there through the best and worst and who would still remember you even after a long gap of 2 years.

I went back to Chennai to celebrate Ugadi with my parents. I realized there was something Odd when I entered the house as there was no Lara to receive me, barking and wagging his tail. There are so many things that brought back the memories of Lara. First the complete silence in the house, then there was no one sitting near your leg while we were having lunch and dinner, noone to take for walk and then those empty corners where you will usually find lara, peacefully sleeping without any worries in the world. Guess my parents miss him the most, my dad who takes him for long walks in the morning and night and my mom who walks him in the evenings. Guess we just have to move on.

I read this nice article on 'The Hindu' - Sunday columns, about 'How to cope with your Pet's loss'. It made more sense and touched our hearts esp having lost our dear one who was there for the past 11 years. May his Soul rest in peace!

Lost in Translation

Today I used the google language tool. Try translating something from English to any other language (lets say German) and take that and do vicecersa. Hence the phrase 'Lost in Translation'. Every language has its own flavor and structure. But I have no way of knowing what that means, until I translate it back to the language I know. Lesson learnt, when you want to translate from English to any foreign language, confirm that by translating it back to English.

Primo blog

Why should I blog? Is it because everybody else is blogging or is it bcos I want to stake my claim on the domain name of my choice, before somebody else wants it or is it because I am so jobless or is it because I want to show this world how poor my english writing skills are? I guess its a combination of all this ... or is it not? Who cares, watever...