Ram's Den

Bungeeeeeeeeee !!!!

2009-08-14T16:47:00.005+02:00

I have always wanted to do Bungee jumping. Its just the thrill of jumping from height and still be safe ( if u r lucky ) and the idea of Freefall and flying like a bird.. Its just looks really coool...
Finally I got a chance to bungee.. I managed to jump in a place called Sigulda, 1 hour outside of Riga in Latvia. It was a jump from a cable car that is used to cross a river. It was an awesome experience, except that I dont remember most of it.. Pretty funny huh.. I was strapped etc. and then off we go in the cable with other jumpers. Then I was the 1st one to jump. I step close to the edge and look below into the River and then adrenalin pumps up and I panic. I just keep looking down and almost decided I was going to quit. Then the guy said he was going to count from 1 to 3 and then I jump at 3. Ok.. Now i feel fine.. then he goes 1.... then 3... Push.. oops.. I was almost unprepared.. and then i was going down.. So in a momentary flash.. I was almost not thinking anything and just falling... I guess i was too scared to think about anything at all... next thing i saw was the rope tugged onto my legs and I knew I was still connected and not going to fall below. yoohoo... then I could see my reflection below in the stil water... It was Awesome... Perhaps next time, i would fully enjoy it from the beginning... So I am just waiting for the next time... :)

Disclaimer: This is not a photo of me jumping as there was noone to take photos of me.. So it was the next guy who jumped. :) ..

Starry Starry Night...

2009-04-17T10:33:00.014+02:00

"Starry, starry night.
Paint your palette blue and grey,
Look out on a summer's day,
With eyes that know the darkness in my soul.
Shadows on the hills,
Sketch the trees and the daffodils,
Catch the breeze and the winter chills,
In colors on the snowy linen land
Starry, starry night,
Flaming flowers that brightly blaze,
Swirling clouds in violet haze,
Reflect in Vincent's eyes of china blue.
Colors changing hue,
morning field of amber grain,
Weathered faces lined in pain,
Are soothed beneath the artist's loving hand" - Don Mclean

Somehow after listening to this beautiful song ages ago and some discussions with an old friend, I have always been curious about Van Gogh's Starry Night and why it is so famous... While I was in Amsterdam for the Easter, I went to the famous Van Gogh Musem and spent almost the entire day looking at some of his best works... We were also lucky that the Museum had a special exhibition " Colors of the night" and they had loaned the famous "Starry Night" from its home (NY Museum) to Amsterdam for display during Spring... What more could I have asked for... It was an amazing experience walking through thr exhibits and spending time on each of his painting to understand the psyche of the great artist (one who was not recognized while he was alive)... Starry Night especially was very interesting more so because it is not painted like how a night would be, but more of artist's imagination... I ve never been a great art lover.. but Van Gogh's themes were so simple yet complex that draws you towards his paintings... Apparently there are so many interpretations to this painting and what artist might have imagined (literally and symbolic), but it still remains a mystery....

"Now I think I know,
what you tried to say to me,
How you suffered for your sanity,
How you tried to set them free,
They would not listen,
they're not listening still.
Perhaps they never will... "
Links: http://www.vangoghgallery.com/painting/starrynightlyrics.html

Schindler's list

2009-04-06T23:55:00.001+02:00

After so many years, I finally sat down and watched the entire movie Schindler's list.. For some reason I've never seen this before... probably bcos i thought i wouldnt be able to stomach the cruel scenes... I thought Ralph Fiennes was the pick of all..playing Amon Goeth, the cruel pshycopath with his cold blooded eyes and complete disdain for human life... Sorto like Kenneth Branagh in "Conspiracy" as Heydrich.... Also loved Liam Neeson playinng the charismatic Oskar Schindler and Ben Kingsley as the accountant...
Having been to Krakow and seen the real location of the Ghetto,the labor camp at Plaslow, Schindler's enamel factory and also Auswitz & Birkenau concentration camp and heard from tour guide about the real Amon Goeth character and the sad history of Polish jews in Krakow, the movie appealed more to me... makes me wonder how humans could do this to each other... reminds me of a certain dialogue in the movie "Blood Diamond" = "Sometimes I wonder... will God ever forgive us for what we've done to each other? Then I look around and I realize... God left this place a long time ago".. Will such acts of cruel genocides ever stop in Human history :-( ??

Disastrous weekend at Hemsedal

2009-03-09T18:15:00.004+01:00

hemsedal is one of the biggest Ski resorts in Norway... A big group of people from work decides to go and I joined them hoping I could take some lessons and improve my snow boarding skills... well.. i thought wrong... back pains previous falls started surfacing making my downhill experience unbearable with backpain... and to add to the woes, i hit my head at the cottage entrace on a low ceiling, which required immediate medical attention and some stitches .. No wait.. Super Glue... which basically confined me to the cofe at the ski resort playing some sudoku with a friend and a cuppa hot tea ... so much for the ski weekend.. :( ...
did you know that urban legend says that super glue was accidentally invented to find a replacement for stitches for body wounds during WWII ?? I didnt know this until today when someone mentioned it... It was relatively painless experience of getting glued in place of stitches... :)... wel.. it remains to be seen if the blow to my head has anything to do with my behavior in the coming days :-D) ... haha///

Chasing Aurora

2009-02-16T11:14:00.020+01:00

After my last attempt at chasing Aurora in Tromso turned out to be in vain, I decided to give it another go. This time we decided to go to Alta instead. Alta is a city in Norway at 70 Deg N. Very close to being the northern most point in Mainland Norway. Quite a nice place to go to if you want to chase the Aurora Borealis. "Chasing" is quite the apt term here because even on a clear night, it is difficult to predict where the lights will appear and when they will. You might be watching the sky for hours and then go inside to get a hot cuppa, and viola it might have appeared and gone by the time you come back out again. Ofcourse, if the activity is quiote strong then it does stay for longer period of time and does appear quite powerfully.
Having spent a fortune on my last trip and possibly this time around too, we were quite cautious in choosing the correct timing for the trip and hoping for a good weather forecast and solar activity. Fortunately the weather turned out quite good and we had a clear sky, which means the temperature is really really low and it was mostly between -15 to -25 Deg C during the entire trip.
So we thought it would be best to rent a cabin outside of the city so we can lose the city lights and also rented a car from Rent-a-Wreck so we can just hop in and keep driving out in the winderness until we have a "Sweet Spot" where we get a clear view of the horizon and far far away from the city lights... It was worth it... After having spent few thousand kroners on both trips for the Aurora, Dog Sledging, Reindeer Sledging + Sami culture and Snowmobiling, I would say this was one of my best experiences of Norway...

More photos to come on my photo album....

Tribute to the legendary comedian - Nagesh

2009-02-02T11:02:00.005+01:00

I feel a great deal of sadness reading the news about the demise of great comedian of yesteryear's - Thiru Nagesh. There is one thing about the likes of Goundamani, senthil, Vivek, Vadivelu... but I dont think I will ever like anyone better than Nagesh... Sometimes I feel comedy in today's Tamil movies is very crass and vulgar and completely meaningless... the level has declined... Its almost like the comical bits is completely off-track from the movie itself... they might as well have it as stand-up in between the actual story...
Nagesh's movies were class apart... There was a sarcasm and also meaning in his routines... I will miss it... The movies like "Server Sundaram", "Kaadhalika Neramillai", "Ethirneechal"(Maadipadi Maadhu poi maadiveetu Maadhu ayi), "Thiruvilayaadal"... the list goes on... May the Force be with you even in death... We will miss you... !!!

Slumdog becomes a millionaire

2009-01-25T23:12:00.002+01:00

So many raving reviews in the Indian and Foreign media about this one.. Had to watch it to see what it was all about.. yes.. it did portray the true reality.. from a different angle.. I really enjoyed the movie.. I didnt care much if it was made by an Indian or Foreigner. As a matter of fact, if it was made by an Indian, I am not sure if he would have portrayed the India as it is shown in this one and may be Danny Boyle had that advantage of not being attached to the theme as an Indian or nationalist and just purely as a filmmaker. Some people say that it is getting credit because of Danny Boyle.. maybe it is.. but it does bring the likes of ARR in the global arena, once again... and i will be rooting for him in the Oscarss... :)

I read AB's comments.. "if SM projects India as [a] third-world, dirty, underbelly developing nation and causes pain and disgust among nationalists and patriots, let it be known that a murky underbelly exists and thrives even in the most developed nations".. Well.. AB... maybe u should take a walk out in the the reality i.e India.. India is a land of contradictions and surprises... Yes.. we are great country.. we are proud and we are a developing country and at a fast rate at that one... But the true reality is that more than 80% of the 1.1 billion population (all these numbers might have changed by now.. :) is living in poverty... Face it.. Just becasue it is shown that way in the movie does not make it bad... As Indians, I have always felt that some of us are hyprocrits and also have an inferiority complex... Lemme explain what i mean by this..

I was once making a comment to a friend long time ago that lot of these tourist places are ridden with scoundrels and crooks who try to take advantage of the foreiners and this projects a bad image of India to them.. etc etc/... and also about beggars and how the government r the police never do anything about it... Interestingly my friend pointed out that it was a problem indeed and we should focus on solving it not because of improving our image in the international arena, but more so for the people themselves and how they should get a better life that they deserve... I thought how silly of me... How could I not think of it that way... although I had the right intentions... After a while I was chatting a different friend during a backpack tour and we came across a foreigner who was complaining about something and I had to agree with him based on the facts (dont exactly remember what the issue was)... My friend although agreed with me privately on the matter, but didnt like the fact that I was open about it in front of a foreigner and it projects a bad image of India.. I have come across many other situations with many other people, but the bottomline is always good/Bad image of the country... What I think is... Lets face it... we are a big county with many people, lot of poverty exists, we have many problems.. yet we would like to project a rosy picture of it... Why? who are we kidding ?? why live in a Denial?? Why not accept the fact that problems exist and try to find a solution rather than brushing the dirt under the carpet and make it look clean rather actually cleaning it out for the better??

so AB, I think this statement of yours such a hyprocricy... What the movie shows exists in real life.. I dont care if it portrays a bad image of India... and I dont think we should be ashamed of it either... Lets not live in a denial.. Lets accept it and try to do something about it... I dont think any movie can ever truly capture India as it is... India is so large and so complicated to be even covered completely in a movie.. Thats what makes India so interesting... If anything, I think this movie is not far from reality.. esp. the bit about blinding kids to beg in the streets was very sad to see... makes me wonder how can people do this to kids.. how can they be so cold hearted?

The wait is over... Snow everywhere...

2009-01-19T10:08:00.003+01:00

It all started when I went for a lunch at nearby place called Sandvika to see the frozen fjords .. Snowfall was expected, but didnt know it was going to be a blizzard... More than 12 hours of snow and still going strong upto now.... The whole of Oslo and Asker (Place where I work - suburb of Oslo) looks like a winter wonderland... 1/2m of snow so far... all the snow men/women factory will jump start into production... you can see plenty of snow angels everywhere.. All of a sudden the whole place looks so beautiful... and my balcony is almost half filled with Snow now...
Fresh snow... Fresh powder.. I have to hit the slopes to snowboard ... yipeee... :)

A nerd trying to date another nerd :)

2009-01-06T23:22:00.007+01:00

I've been watching this TV series called "The Big Bang Theory" lately and I must say it is quite funny. All the physics mumbo jumbo and intellectual crap in every dialogue is really funny... I love the Sheldon character. He is the ultimate intellectual human robot(watever that means :D). One of the episodes where Leanard tries to ask his labmate Leslie out on a date... It goes something like this... pardon me if I didnt get it completely correct ...
(Leonard is going to ask Leslie out on a date...)

Leonard: I was thinking more of a Bio-social exploration with a Neuro chemical overlay
Leslie: Wait.. Are you asking me out?
Leonard: I was going to characterize it as a modification of our colleague/friendship paradigm with the addition of a date like component.. but.. we dont need to quibble over terminology
Leslie: what sort of a experiement would you propose?
Leonard: There is a generally accepted pattern in this area. I would pick you up, take you to a restaurant.. then we would see a movie... probably a romantic comedy featuring the talents of Hugh Grant and Sandra Bullock.
Leslie: Interesting... Would you agree that the primary way we would evaluate either the sucess or failure of the date would be based on bio-chemical reaction during the good night kiss?
Leonard: Alright...
Leslie: So... Why dont we stipulate that the date goes well and move to the key variables?
Leonard: You mean kissing now?
Leslie: Yes
Leonard: Can you define the parameters of the Kiss ?
Leslie: Closed mouth, but romantic.... Mint ??
Leonard: Thank you...
Leonard: Shall I count down from three?
Leslie: No. I think it needs to be spontaneous
** Kiss **
Leslie: Soo.. what do you think?
Leonard: You proposed the experiment. So I think you should present your findings first.
Leslie: Fair Enough. On the Plus side it was a good kiss, reasonable technique.. on the other hand no arousal.
Leonard: None.
Leslie: None
Leonard: Ah... Well.. Thank you for your time
Leslie: Thank you.

Cmon.. How can you not like this show? Its brilliant. I wonder how someone hadn't thought about it before. Check it out on IMDB. :-)

Bus to Rome Fiumicino airport for early morning flight

2009-01-02T10:35:00.009+01:00

If you have a early flight out of Roma Fiumicino airport (a.k.a Leanardo Da Vinci airport) and do not want to spend a big chunk of money on taxi, then take a look at this post.. I recently had to do the same and there is very little information available about these buses (very cheap compared to Taxi) and noone really knows much about when and where these buses come. So I just put up some info .. Bon Voyage !!

A thing or 2 about staying in hostels...

2009-01-01T18:35:00.005+01:00

Whenever I travel in Europe, I always like to stay in hostels instead of hotels.. althought its mostly for students and youths... :) .. Lot of people dont particularly like staying in hostels and consider it very noisy, not very private accomodation etc.. but I like it for the fact that you get to meet fellow tourists from all over the world and sometimes u also get company to travel for a day or two.. i agree .. it could be noisy, sharing a dorm room with so many strangers can be a bit overwhelming for some, and if u r not so lucky then it could be very unclean and messy.. but it has it advantages... i ve gotten some real good travel tips, maps, someone planning out your itinerary, tips about transportation etc.. really priceless... i ve always been lucky to have stayed in some good hostels , clean and freindly service, some with free internet and also tv room... and i highly recommend them.. cheap accomodation when you are on tight budget, possibility to meet fellow travelers and get some good tips and also share stories... i havent traveled so much outside of Europe. so i dunno about the hostels elsewhere, but this is mostly my opinion on the hostels inside Europe...

Existential questions..

2008-12-23T23:08:00.003+01:00

I was overcome by curiosity to google the term existentialism and came across tons of information, that I neither could comprehend nor hope to.. what i would really like to know is that.. when does one start to think about such existential questions?? Is it when they are happy or when they are sad or when they are bored or ... ??
What I think (or I guess) is that most people are sad or bored when they start looking for happiness and start asking questions about life, universe, birth, death, the meaning of it all... so if this assumption is right.. then it must be true that when people are perfectly happy they never ask existential questions... and that people stop looking for the meaning of life when they are happy ... and all great philosophers became so great only becos they were sad, or bored beyond their wits that they did not know what else to do....
so if a perfectly happy man knows the real key to life and how attain salvation, can he stay happy forever?? would he not get bored because he has been happy for long time?
so isnt it all a paradox ?? If u r not happy , u look for happiness or meaning of life, and once u find it you become happy... once u r happy u r not going to stay at that state for too long and so u get bored out of it... then u become sad because of boredom... and complete the cycle...
or.....
is it that once u actually find the meaning of life... happiness, sadness, boredom etc.. means nothing at all??
ok.. now i am actually confused as what my whole point was... :-D) hehe... if someone does, please do point out... Underlying point is... Why are we as Humans so complicated when it comes to emotions ? ... We look at squirrel or rodent and think.. what a stupid animal.. wonder what the 'emotionless' robot might think about us humans.....
Ok.. thats enough non-sense for the night... got to wake up early to fly to Italia... dont want to miss my flight this time around, like last time... :)

Holy Gaucamole !

2008-12-14T18:35:00.005+01:00

I dunno when i developed a love for Gaucamole.. maybe during my regular lnches at Freebirds in College station or perhaps of the Mexican restaurants... but its a love story that still continues... and guess what, now i can make my own Gaucamole.. and prettty good... its quite simple actually.... heres the recipe...

1 Big ripe Avacado (not Avagadro :D tee...hee..hee..)
1/8 - 1/4 of big Onion
1 or 2 cloves of Garlic
1/4 - 1/2 tomato
1/2 lemon or few drops of concentrate
Salt to taste

Chops onions, garlic and tomato in to fine pieces. cut the avacado and scoop out the avacado fruit from the skin and put them in a bowl and start mashing them with a fork. If its ripe enough then it becomes a pulp soon. Add the chopped onions, tomatoes and garlic. Mix them well with the fork. Add the lemon at the end and salt to taste. Lemon keeps the gaucamole greeen instead of becoming black soon (due to oxidation).
Viola !!! Gaucamole is ready !! You can eat with Taco, Fajitas or with chips as dip at parties....
You can add a spoon of sour cream to get a sour taste to it.

Enjoy the fruit of your efforts ;-)

Too cold..too cold...

2008-12-10T12:55:00.005+01:00

After a few emotional outbursts as a concerned Indian who is away from his country, when it was being attacked by terrorists... its back to blogging about usual mundane stuff....
like how cold this place is... how badly i need some warmth... how i dress up like an eskimo everytime i walk out... how i almost killed myself by walking out in the cold with just a sweater for almost 15 mins (ok.. getting killed was too much of an exagerration :))...
how it felt great to take my snow board out for a ride at tryvann (ski slope near Oslo) after it was waxed.... how i am waiting for more snow so I can go again... how i am also gearing up to go Cross-country skiing.. how i am waiting to go to Ice skating and how my inertia(read as laziness :-) is preventing me to get there...
and again how cold it is .... bloody hell... its frikkin -9 now... forecast says its going to get back up to -1 or -2...

No end in sight...

2008-11-27T23:04:00.004+01:00

When will all this mayhem end?? 2 nights and 1 full day... and its still going on... 125 lives lost and many more injured... when will it end and where will this lead us?? Whats the government going to do?? Will the government actually do something or just sit and issue statements like the previous attacks?? has this situation make Indian security situation look like a big joke?? should the internal affairs miniter saty on?? or should he resign?? he hasnt done anything and there are reports that he has goofed up by revealing sensitive information on TV... these are the questions racing in my mind.... i dont have answers to any of these and neither do i expect anyone to give me ...
but what i do know is this... any government that has lifted a finger and not done anything to improve the security of its citizen, any government that is spineless to take tough decisions should not remain... the government is for its people.. not to rob the people of their tax money and do nothing in return... such a government should be removed.... I wonder who would win if elections were to happen in a week or so?? not hard to guess is it.. BJP would sweep the elections....
As to the Pakistani link, i think the officials and PM shouldnt have gone public blaming them without solid proof.. or atleast wait until its over and present some proof and then accuse... this is childishness... there was no diplomacy in it... it only makes us look like jokers... we always accuse and point finger across the border straight away w/o any solid prooof... has all these attacks been solved completely ?? I think theres a lot to ponder about that....

Short history of nearly everything

2008-11-26T16:54:00.005+01:00

I ve just started to read this book by Bill Bryson - A short history of nearly everything and its just fabulous. Being a Science and Engineering student, this book is like going back to basics and also a revelation of many sorts.. things you didnt understand being presented to you in a basic layman's terms... He writes about everything... the title says it all... he talks about Cosmos, Universe, Big bang, life, evolution, civilization, how it all began... simply fascinating... safe to say its a book about Life, Universe and Everything... After reading this book, I ve got to revisit Douglas Adam's - Hitch Hiker's to get a new perspective on it... :) .. Maybe read it at sipping a coffee in the restaurant at the end of the universe... hehe... :) .. watch the end and then go back and watch the Big bang too... :) ... Bill Bryson also talks about the Scientists(Newton, Cavendish, Hooke et. al) of many eras, their works, and their eccentricities.. I would highly recommend this book as a text book for 1st year college student to really understand what they studied in High school physics and chemistry... this book will take you to a new level of understanding of all that you ve learnt so far... Because it is written by a non-scientist for a layman... so you can expect lot of simplicity and no scientific mumbo-jumbo and no complex equations... just illustrations..

Some of the interesting quotes I ve come across so far...

"The universe is not only queerer than we suppose, it is queerer than we can suppose" - JBS Haldane

"What would happen if you traveled to the edge of the universe and peek your head out of the curtains? what would you find beyond? where would your head be if it was not in the universe? "

Yoohoo ... I waxed my snow board for the 1st time and it wasn't all that difficult..

2008-11-20T22:39:00.004+01:00

I thought it takes a lot to wax the snow board... apparently it isnt if u have all the right tools.. and ofcourse with a little help from friends who know how to do it.. and its a great feeling to have maintained your own stuff rather paying someone else to do for you... :) .. Now the wait is for a good snow fall and I will be off to the nearest ski slope to practise my snow board skills or more like learn how to snow board :-D)...

Gastronomic indulgence :)

2008-11-15T17:55:00.006+01:00

Being a visitor to home once a year , one simply has to satisfy their taste buds at all costs.. esp. when you miss good food for a long period of time.. In Norway, only Indian food that is easily available is Punjabi tandoori cuisine.. and if you come from South India like I do, then you would miss good south Indian food a whole lot.. so my only chance is when I come home.. which is once a year.. so the days when i wasn't eating Mum's home made food... I went on a rampage in the city.. :).. Those idlis, dosas, vadas, appam, chaat and the list goes on...

some of the places that satisfied my appetite are...
1. Cream Corner @ RA Puram (just around the corner from my place)
2. Sin city @ Alwarpet (Choc and ice cream corner)
3. Sanjeevanam @ Adyar (Health food concept - Kerala Style)
4. South Indies @ Indire Nagar in Bangalore.. (Interesting mix of dishes from all 4 south Indian states)
5. Usuals like Saravanas, Sangeetha, Gangothri chat corner, Fruit shop...

Its always quite a thing to look forward to eating good food at home and in your favourite restaurants that you grew up with... and its always sad feeling when you have to go back and that you will miss it until the next trip.... umm.. this too shall pass.. !
Now I have to start thinking about how to get rid of all the calories gained... hehe... like thats going to happen :)

What happened to my Country ??

2008-11-13T17:23:00.004+01:00

Lawlessness and Outrage - words that you have come to embrace and commonly associate with things happening in the World's largest Democracy i.e India...
The recent incident at Chennai Law College - Clash of two student groups led to violence in the college campus where one group beat up 4 students to near death (still admitted in critical condition).. all the while Police were standing right outside the gates watching the whole incident without lifting a finger.. and mediamen taping the whole violence and showing it explicity on prime time news...

I dunno what else to call outrage... the fact that 2 student groups clashed, or fact that police actually arrived and stand neatly in front of the gates even before it escalated and yet didnt no anything about it, media taping the whole incident and flashing it all over the news w/o any restriction of footage what so ever, the college officials not acting quickly to intervene, common bystander just watching the whole incident unfolding...

One begins to feel... Does anyone beleive in Police these days?? Does one really bother to go to Police to give a complaint?? It has ccome to stage where you could see a murder in broad daylight and yet not intervene or even to go police, because common man does not want to even associate himself with the police or the harassment thereafter...

My own experience in Bangalore sugguests that if you lose your mobile phone and want to file a lost report, you will be harassed and asked bribe for losing your phone and and to file a complaint form for lost mobile.. this is reality.. welcome to India..

Makes you question the meaning of Democracy, when common man on street is even afraid to discuss the political situation , law and order situation or the lack of it, simply because he might harassed or attacked by a political fanatic "rowdies"...

Is this the end of meaningful Democracy ?? Is it Gunda'cracy' or Rowdy'cracy' ?? Just like how Chennai has a Ganesha temple in every street corner, political parties have sprung up in every street corner and each one has a big band of rowdy members and each one wants a pie of Common man's tax money... Nobody cares about the issues to common people or even think about service to people... Its like Democracy has lost its meaning.... How will the common man still beleive in Democracy or the Law and Order system, if this state of affairs prevail and continue to prevail??

Maybe this is the decline of Democracy in India?? Maybe we need another Indira Gandhi to bring about an Emergency in India and weed out all the corrupt politicians to officials of lower order and throw out the gazillion parties that have sprung up and build a 2 party system like the US or a few party system (not more than 5 or so) and set strict rules for contesting elections so Convicts and Murderers like Shibu Soren does not even walk anywhere near the Parliament.. Or worst yet.. bring about a Military rule.. until things get better... Only Force seems to work in India.. Too much divide, too many factions, too many religious clashes, lack of internal affairs, scores of recent bomb blasts, outrageous prices, high inflation rates... and the list goes on...

WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO MY COUNTRY ?? We learnt "Mera Bharat Mahan", "Vande Mataram" in school?? Seems like it was only a dream of likes of Gandhi, Nehru, Patel, and the million freedom fighters who died for her ... I sincerely wonder if the common man even bothers to go to the polling booth and vote ... and even if u do.. your vote has probably been cast already and you are being questioned and challenged for the proof of Identity...

I weep for my country.. Hope I don't live to see the eventual demise of the dysfunctional democracy and hope it does not come to that...

Still weeping for her... helplessly... :(

My 1st Dolphin show at sea... :)

2008-11-03T18:35:00.005+01:00

I ve seen Dolphin show at an aquarium before (or i think so.. not sure now..:) .. but seeing them in their natural habitat is quite a different thing...
Had been to Goa recently and did a Dolphin safari... they take you out on a small boat out into the sea far from the coast where Dolphins usually go for a swim... look for yourself.. Need I say more?? It was awesome... :) .. ofcourse Blog and photos of the trip to follow in due course of time :)

Farewell to thee O'Jumbo

2008-11-02T19:07:00.003+01:00

Adieu Kumble.. One of the greatest cricketers India has ever produced.. totally out of spotlight until recently, highly respected and talented cricketer Anil Kumble was one of the genius India has produced ... How can we forget your 10 wickets in one innings or courageous jaw strapped spell nad finger strapped spell... we will miss you... you will be the inspiration to the future generation of spinners (wait a min.. you werent really a spinner !!) Hope India still survives the loss of a great cricketer...

Paris, je t'aime

2008-10-24T09:34:00.007+02:00

There is something magical about this city. well thats such a cliche!! But it really is... I have been there 4 times so far and only on 2 occasions did I have had anytime to go and see the city properly... and I still havent seen the Museum at Louvre or Orsay and also Versailles. One thing I love to do there os to walk the streets of Paris during the evening, when all the buildings and bridges are lit up... My favourite walking route so far is to start from St. Michel and walk all the way to Notredame and continue along the river Seine to go to Louvre and then walk along Avenue Champs Elysees and end up in Tour de Eiffel.. You can see most of paris landmarks lit up and it is a magical and romantic experience... especially when there is full moon... I took many photos of Paris at night and I ve shared some of the good ones... check it out... This one on the right here is my favourite photo of all... the tower and moon.. two symbols of romance in total harmony...

Booze cruise to Copenhagen :)

2008-10-01T10:42:00.000+02:00

Really.. thats the word for it.. Booze cruise for the ferry between Oslo to Copenhagen. It is like the fun cruise most people take and sometimes also refered as dutyfree ferry as everything is dutyfree prices once the ferry leave Oslo and starts sailign towards Copenhagen.. Its rather a huge cruise ship with 13 levels with great food, entertainment and drinks.. The booze cruise term comes in bcos booze sells at duty free prices .. :) .. Some of us friends decided to take a break and visit Copenhagen for the weekend and took this cruise... To follow the journey, follow this link...

Polish travels...

2008-09-10T10:37:00.003+02:00

Ok.. finally i have written about my travel to Warsaw and Krakow... Mostly known for cheap travel, cheap food and drinks... what i find is that it is not so much cheaper than any other place... and prices may soon be on a upward trend just as any other place... I really enjoyed the city of Krakow with all the old castle and history preserved as opposed to Warsaw which was completely flattened in WW2 and rebuilt from ashes... Warsaw in my opinion is not that great compared to Krakow... Guess for each his own... I also got a taste of Polish food ... yum..yum... loved those pierogis (dumplings)... anyhoo.. check it out... on my travel blog.
My photos from trip: Warsaw , Krakow

Rabbit food...:-o)

2008-09-08T17:22:00.007+02:00

Being a vegetarian in a country like Norway is sometimes difficult if you expect to go out and find plenty of veggie options on the menu, although sometims chef's can always make something for you... During my travels I ve always found that there are some nice vegetarian places to go and eat authentic food (or fake authentic) if you look for it and know how to find it... Like when I was in Paris, I googled for a good veggie place and ended up in "Le Grenier de Notre Dame". I really enjoyed the vareity of food for a reasonable price on the menu.. food from different cuisines, but very much veggie friendly... Sometimes it can be hard in Paris to find a place to eat veggie version of French cuisine... This place was very good for that purpose and I highly recommend it...
When I was in Krakow (Poland), little did I expect that they would have a fully veggie/vegan place in Poland.. Eastern Europe known for its meat'ful' cuisine had something to offer for veggies too... Apparently vegetarianism and healthy organic food is gaining momentum here... I visited a Vegetarian placed called "Bar Vega". Food was so cheap here that I almost had all my meals here during my stay. They served some tasty Polish and Russian dumplings with cheese, sour onion, potato etc. Compare that to the steamed Kozhukattai.. :)... These dumplings a.k.a Pierogi were very tasty... I also tried out the Soy version of Hungarian Goulash (usually has beef) and traditional Polish soups.

In prague, there are plenty of options to choose from for a vegetarian.. There are lots of ISKCON places that offer Vegan/Indian food. I found a place called Country Life that offered organic and fresh vegetarian/vegan food option. prices were a bit high compared to other restaurants in Prague, but it was worth the money.. Very tasty and healthy...

I ve learn one thing to do before my travel.. check out the such veggie places in Happy cow :).. They always come in handy... Its always more fun to eat traditional food in a new country.. and such veggie places offer great options... Bon Apetit !!

Lazy...Lazy...

2008-09-01T14:10:00.002+02:00

This blog has been very dormant for a while.. Please check back when it is updated... :) ... So many trips to write about... just not enough time to sit down and write about all of them... hopefully i find time soon enough...

3 cups of tea !

2008-07-16T15:12:00.003+02:00

"The first time you share tea with a Balti, you are a stranger. The second time, you are an honored guest. The third time you become family" -- Balti proverb

It's such a wonderful book to read. Its about an American, Greg Mortensen, and his failed mission to climb K2 that led him to a remote village in Pakistan and his fight to build a school for the entire region with one school at a time. It is such an inspiration effort to promote peace by educating the children of small villages in the backward regions of Pakistan and Taliban occupied Afganisthan, who otherwise have no opportunity whatsoever to be educated. His efforts are remarkable especially in the times of war when this whole region in Pakistan and Afganisthan is considered a haven for terrorists and jehadis. If you are looking for inspiration to something worthwhile, start by reading this book.

There is a website that gives more information. www.threecupsoftea.com

If you order the book through this website, 7% of the money goes to the trust building schools to educate the children in central asia. It is the least one can do help out the children in these areas who otherwise have no hope.

Merci Zizou, El Maestro!!!

2008-06-23T20:13:00.003+02:00

2 years gone by.... and the world of football and French football still misses Zidane.. the one who played football like it was art... he played football like it was some sort of orchestra.. grace at large, simple and soft touches like it shouldnt hurt the football, control the pace well and fooled all the defenders like it was some treasure hunt... God... we bow to theee... we miss thee... Any possibility that you might come out of retirement?? miss watching El Maestro in action... the genius who can never be replaced... Been watching Euro2008 and its just not the same as watching Zidane in 2006 WC or Euro 2000 or WC98... I guess it will take another decade to get another genius like that...

Those who win by penalties, die by it...

2008-06-22T23:23:00.004+02:00

Distinctively remember this caption on Hindu newspaper when Argentina lost to W.Germany in 1990 WC...

Finally justice is done.. Italy lose in penalties... again... I am not sad for them..
They beat France( w/o Zizou) in the WC, but now they are knocked out in penaties...
A test of 2 world class keepers to prove who is the best in the tournament.. Van der saar is already out.. and now Buffon bows out too... so Casillas seems to be the winner so far.. unless Lehmann comes out in the top... interesting to see how it plays out... Germany seem to have an edge.. solid defense, good attack and motivating captain in Ballack... Spain, if they play like today, dont even stand a chance against Russia... Russian attack will expose them...

Malta... Yalta...

2008-03-28T15:20:00.002+01:00

Malta.. Beautiful island in the middle of mediterenean !! Fusion of different cultures and languages, steeped in history, clear blue and sandy beaches, heaven for tourists, good spot for scuba diving and water sports and a big harbour... Smack in the center of Mediterenean it has always been a strategic location for all the powers of Europe, Africa and Persia in olden times.
Since I had very litle time, I explored the historic places of Malta, old chappels, factories from the last century fully preserved, catacombs from the Roman times etc. I went and checked out the night life in St. John's bay and St. Julian's bay which are known for the trendy bars and night clubs. These places thrive with huge crowd of college crowd hitting the bars late at night. Wish I had more time to explore this beautiful island..

Check my travelog for my stop over at Malta...

Crossing the Suez

2008-03-18T21:00:00.000+01:00

I was so excited when I got to know that we will be joining the boat at Port Suez and crossing the canal with the boat and not join the boat at Port Said(located after the canal) as originally planned. I just thought it would be such a cool idea to cross the Suez canal and I wasn't wrong at all....

It was such a narrow canal, that the captain and the officers have to be very careful navigating the boat through the canal along with an pilot from the Suez authorities. There was so much to crossing the canal that I was not aware of until that day. Apparently ships go in columns or what is called "convoys" when they cross the narrow canal. The canal itself is made of 2 parts, south part between the Red sea and Great bitter lake and North canal between the Great bitter lake and Mediterenean sea. Usually there is only one convoy at a time, meaning only one in a particular direction. There are also preferences in which convoy gets to go first. The oil and chemicals tankers almost always go through straight from the Red sea all the way to the Mediterenean sea. The others have to break their journey in the great lake and wait for their turn to do the second convoy. It was all fascinating for me to learn about it and to be on the Bridge to see how the officers and Pilot function to navigate the ship through the narrow channel.

http://www.ship-wrecks.co.uk/images/SuezCanalMap.jpg

I was chatting to a native Egyptian on-board and learnt a lot about the history of Suez canal which I was not aware of and how strategic Suez is to Egypt and how much money is made each day in the canal. I wikipedead and found tons of info on this. I invite you to look through it if you are interested.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suez_Canal

My date with Ancient Egypt :)

2008-03-17T20:59:00.006+01:00

Egyptian civilization, as they say, is one of the most ancient civilizations in the history of human beings and is well recorded too through heiroglyphics and no trip to Egypt is complete without a trip the great pyramids and sphinx. I had a day in Cairo and I went to Giza to see the great pyramids and Sphinx and then to the National museum in Cairo to see the ancient Egyptian artifacts. It was truly an amazing adventure to visually experience the ancient Egyptian architecture and their glory... I was so thrilled just to be there and experience all of it... Maybe some day.. I will get more time to travel all around Egypt, travel along the Nile and visit all historic places...

Check out the complete travelog on my trip to Cairo and also the photo album.

TIA

2008-02-18T00:49:00.004+01:00

TIA - This is Africa..
Finally I sat down and saw the movie BLOOD DIAMOND after hearing so much about it... I was so rivetted to the tv while watching this movie... making you think about the atrocities brought upon in many African countries by any kind of wealth, the corrupt governments, civil wars and lack of peace.... I couldn't help but shed a tear or two for all those people who die in such civil wars throughout the ages in Africa due to power struggle and civil wars and when you see those refugee camps and the children carrying guns, you really want to scream and shout.. somebody please help them... but what can you do.. send a cheque or cry for them... one can only hope that sanity prevails and these people find their peace.. and you realise that at the back of your mind that you are very lucky not to be there in their situations and you proably never want to go there and witness such a scene...

Makes you wonder... Are diamonds really worth so many people's lives and their freedom.. and so does oil or drugs or any other thing that makes people so greedy that gets them to kill their fellow beings ??

Quite a poignant movie.. If nothing atleast an eye opener... Do watch if you haven't watched it before...

Some quotes that stuck to my head:

Sometimes I wonder... will God ever forgive us for what we've done to each other? Then I look around and I realize... God left this place a long time ago

You come here with your laptop computers, your malaria medicine and you little bottles of hand sanitizer and think you can change the outcome, huh? ..

My new board...

2008-02-18T00:38:00.004+01:00

With my new born craze for snow boarding antics, i started looking to buy a snow board pack and found it quite expensive 500-600 $ and more... so i started looking out for used boards on the internet and look what i found... A nice K2 snow board and bindings (almost my size) fully intact with my size of boots... all for 600 NOKs ~ 120$... Its a deal.. Its a steal.. Although the seller said hes used it few years, it still looks quite neat and needs just a little bit of touch-up... Guess i would take her out for a spin hopefully next weekend if theres more snow... expect a few falls, few bruises... I am ok with that as long as i can confidently go down the slope properly turning both ways... just waiting for more snow now.. :)

boarding on snow...

2008-02-05T23:37:00.000+01:00

It is such a great feeling to be able to go down the hill on a snowboard... the rush you get when you go down the hill fast enough to feel the speed.. its just amazing.. ... It looks so cool when you see an expert do it on tv .. and it feels cooler when you actually try it yourself.. 2 years back when i tried for the first time, i fell down so many times and had a few horrible falls which made me think i will never try this again in my life... i took a lesson this year and it made so much difference that I got the courage to try it again and this time i managed to go down the hill 7 times in a day and i was so proud of myself.. just the feeling of acheiving something which you thought you were never going to succeed.. its just a great feeling... and the fact that if you continue doing this you can actually be good in something is also great... anyway... long story short... it just feels amazing. to be able to spray the snow all over and sometimes even get it all over your face when you fall down... i should thank my friend for letting me borrow his board... maybe thats my next target.. buy a good board and wait for more snow and give it a go again... better to try it on fresh snow which cushions your falls than hard compacted snow which is too fast when you have little control over the board... :)

Happeee new year

2008-01-03T16:19:00.000+01:00

This blog has bcome a very dormant one in the last few months and needs lot of updating. Have lot of stuff to write about, my trip to Lisbon, my trip to India and other weekend activities in between... Until then... I wish you all a very happy new year...

Smiley Potatoes

2007-11-06T16:39:00.001+01:00

I was in Lisbon for a long weekend and I went to Pizza Hut. This is what I found on their Menu. Fried Mushrooms, Garlic Bread and Smiley Potatoes. Look at them, they look so cute and perfect smiley. How can you eat them, when they smile at you like that..... :) Nevertheless, the beast that I am, I ate them with great pleasure...

Trip to Bessegen

2007-09-28T23:34:00.000+02:00

Besseggen is a very popular destination for hikers in Norway. It is one of the mountians that belong to the Jothunheimen mountain range in central Norway. The hike takes approximately 6 hours w/o any stop and very steep in parts and more importantly very scenic and extremely beautiful. To read more about this trip, please click HERE to go to my travelog.
Photo album from besseggen trip

Preikestolen and Kjerag

2007-09-26T00:49:00.000+02:00

Weekend trip to Preikestolen and Kjerag in August 2007. Read my travel blog.

Bharat ek Khoj

2007-09-24T14:57:00.000+02:00

I dunno how many of you remember this by name. It was a popular Telly serial on Sunday afternoons during my middle school days. It was based on "Discovery of India" by Jawaharlal Nehru and directed by Shyam Benegal. I thought it had one of the best cast among the comtemporary telly serials. I used to love watching this series. I dunno if the theme song (Shristi se pehle ...) attacted me more to it or the historical story in each episode. Long time after during grad school days, a group of us friends were discussing about this serial and we all remembered the powerful opening and closing themes(hymns) from the Rig veda (Ancient Hindu scriptures) and how much of philosophical meaning was attached to it and how we desired to watch it again or atleast listen to the theme songs.
I don't know what prompted me to look for it today, but Google gave some search results with some videos and Mp3's of those themes and some explanations of the same. It really felt nice to listen to it and remember the old days, those lazy sundays in front of the telly with the whole family.

MP3 of Opening theme also on You tube and Mp3 of Closing theme : Courtesy of links and full test
Warning: Volume maybe a bit loud on the Mp3's.

I also found an interesting explanation to this hymn. It is really quite amazing reading through the whole of this suktha. some really deep philosophy about creation... It teaches how to question the unknowns. Quite interesting!

Weekend trip to Hemsedal

2007-09-23T01:34:00.001+02:00

Another late blog... This is about the trip to hemsedal with some friends and colleagues. Hemsedal is a beautiful ski resort to the north of Oslo, roughly about 3-4 hours drive from Oslo. It has many ski slopes and some steep which makes it a very popular destination during winter. even in summer, this place is really beautiful and good for hiking, biking and kayaking. We did some hiking and also kayaking over the weekend and enjoyed the cabin experience with Sauna. All in all it was a nice trip to wind off from the busy week and the weeks before.
To read more about the trip, please go to my Travel blog

Photo Album

Funny prank

2007-09-22T21:45:00.000+02:00

This very funny.. *LOL*

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yaS28MHHZk

Trip to Brugge and Bruxelles

2007-09-19T18:50:00.000+02:00

My 3 day trip to Brugge or Bruges and Brussels in Belgium. It started off with flight to Paris, Thalys fast train (cousin of TGV) to Brussels and a local train to Bruges. Bruges has this beautiful small city feeling to it and its canals and the lovely buildings and oh. not to mention the Beer, chocolates, Belgian Waffles, Fries with Mayo or many different vareities of sauce and yummy food. The famous Bruge dish is Mussels and Fries :). One of the artistic attraction was the sculpture 'Madonna and the child' by the genius Michael Angelo and artifact of religious interest was the vial carrying blood drops supposedly of Jesus Christ.
Brussels, the capital of EU, was also equally impressive. All its old buildings gave a sense of history amidst all the modern new buildings and constructions. Star attraction was Grand place, central market square which feauturs the city hall and also the statue of Manekin Pis just around the corner from here.

All in all it was a nice weekend to spend exploring new cities, drinking lots of belgian beer, eating belgian chocolates, waffles and frites. :)

To read more about the trip, please visit my Travel blog

Photo album

Trip to Germany

2007-09-19T01:23:00.001+02:00

I ve always wanted to go visit Germany, go see the Berlin wall... and finally I did that this Easter.. Well just 6 months late in blogging about it.. been too lazy to blog.. :) I went to Bremen, Hamburg, Berlin, Munich and Heidelburg. A week full of walking, doing touristy things... Well you got the picture..

This is the picture I liked the most.. The broken chapel with the dome destroyed in the bombing during WWII in the backdrop of the modern Sculpture.. That paints the picture of Modern Berlin.. A buzzing city with so much of good and bad history behind it..

THE WALL that once divided the West and East berlin.. THE WALL that fell in 1990 unifying the FRG and GDR into one unified Germany.

Please go to my Travel blog for the complete Travelogue...

PHOTOS from the Trip

Doh... Eat my shorts... !

2007-07-31T13:26:00.000+02:00

Hehe.. I am so thrilled.. I am going to watch Simpsons today and I can't wait till evening.. Hope its not 4 episodes in one movie and story long enough for 2 hours... I would watch it anyways... cos its Simpsons...

What can I say?? It was fantastic... I enjoyed every bit of the movie from the titles to the end credits. It is a must watch movie... Highly recommended if you like Simpsons..

Fed Ex rolls on....

2007-07-09T13:52:00.000+02:00

What an amazing game it turned out to be! The world best battled it out for the best grass court tennis torunament and the best player wins... It was just great to see both Federer and Nadal playing a superior level of tennis, reminding of some of the previous duals between Ivanisevic and rafter or Edberg and Becker. Finally Federer proved a bit tougher for Nadal with his big and precision serves.
He also equalled Borg's record of 5 wimbledon's in a row. Ironically it was Federer who beat Pete Sampras in 2001, when Sampras was going for his straight 5th Wimbledon championship. This time around Federer got a walk-over in the 4th round. Maybe this is an indication of several great things to come from this amazing player.
Also watch out Nadal... He has just lifted his game in the last year or so... apart from the titles, there is very little that seperates these two guys who are playing their best tennis.. or maybe their best is yet to come... :)

Goooooalllll.... gol..gol...gol..gol..gol... Messi..messi..gol..gol...

2007-04-22T20:14:00.000+02:00

Finally the much talked about boy wonder delivers in fashion.. the world was expecting something of this sort from Argentine 'Lionel Messi' who now plays for Barcelona F.C, to deliver a Special goal during 2006 Worldcup.. Just a bit late, but he did it in style by treating all the football fans by doing a Maradona... His goal for Barca against Getafe brought back the memories of the Goal of the previous century by Diego Armando Maradona against Peter Shilton's England in 1986 wordcup in Mexico... This solo run by him beating four oppnonents and the goal keeper to the net the ball in.. its just superb.. Watch it in action.. No wonder hes going to be a future superstar or maybe already a superstar!!!...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSBAMIkigUE

Fantastic Sunset(s)

2007-03-08T02:34:00.000+01:00

Sunsets are always a treat, especially when you are on a boat away from the shore and all you see is the infinite stretches of waterbody... and those beautiful full moon nights with moon light reflecting off the water.. I am jus lovin it! Some of my pics which came out very well.. Enjoy!

Sky on Fire...
Sun just vanishing beyond the Hoziron... leaving back quite an impression!
Delightful Contrast of Colors...

In search of Aurora

2007-02-12T09:53:00.000+01:00

Aurora Borealis, other wise called Northern Lights is supposedly a Celestial Phenomenon which can be observed in places above the Arctic Circle on a Clear night. To read more about Aurora go here. One of the places where it can be viewed best is North of Norway. So we decided to go to Tromso, a city in the North of Norway which is located 70 Deg. North of Arctic Circle, aslo called gateway to the Arctic. When you hear Arctic Circle, you already feel the cold as if you are going to be shut in a Freezer or in a Eskimo Igloo. Well to a large extent, it was like that. Temperatures around -5 and -10 Deg. C and even colder in the night with chill winds.

Few of us friends from work decided to go here to try our luck to view the Aurora. First factor was the Solar activity which cannot be predicted much in advance and second is weather, which stood against us. But we took out chances with a forecast of not so clear skies and cloudy weather with some snow fall and medium Solar activity. Unfortunately when it cleared out, Solar activity was at its low and we could not see the Aurora even after staying in tromso for 4 nights. We did get to see some of the Arctic Museums, a Cool Arctic Cathedral and also did Dog Sledging on a Very Cold Snowy night(padded up with a warm suit to survive the Cold Outdoors :) and finished off with Dinner and Coffee in a Sami(Original inhabitants of the Arctic region, Sort of tribes) Hut. It was a cool(literally) trip all in all, but due to our bad luck we couldnt see the Aurora. Oh.. well.. maybe next time...

Photos from the trip to Tromso

Ave Caesar!

2007-01-09T15:05:00.000+01:00

They say All roads lead to Rome. So just take any road and it should lead you to Rome eventually. Thats exactly what I did. I flew from Oslo to Milano and took the path to Rome through the beautiful cities of Florence and Pisa, famous for its renaissance art and home to several great artists Leonardo Da vinci, Michel Angelo, Donatello, Raphael(Reminds me of the Four Mutant Ninja Turtles ;-),Ghirlandiao and several others... As I explored more on why they made that statement, I found out that wherever Romans invaded and occupied(Brittany or Gaul or Spagna) they put up a Mile marker along the path specifying exactly the distance between that point in the occupied territory to a specific point in Rome called 'Milarium Aerium' which was supposedly the Center point of Rome in those days, located inside the Roman Forum(only ruins remain now). All roads were considered to start from this Milarium. So the reverse must also be true. Q.E.D (Hence Proved!) ...
Ave caesar! Morituri te salutamus - Hail Caesar! We who are about to die salute you. (gladiators before the fight) ... Kill...Kill..Kill...
This fervent chant seemed to resonate through the building in space and time in this Colossal Colosseo in Rome. In the Movie Gladiator, Juba says to fellow gladiator Maximus(played by Russel Crowe): "Did you ever see anything like that before? I didn't know man could build such things". It was so true and that showed the power and richness of the Roman Civilization hundreds of years ago. I don't support the reason for such a cause to kill and play with lives of men and animals just for entertainment, but just the architectural beauty of the whole building itself is a wonder. It is well planned with wide stairs and can seat easily around 50,000 people and whole concept of elevator to being men one level up to fight in the arena has been well thought of, many centuries ago. It apparently had 52 gates so people can be seated in their seats in just 5 minutes after entering the Colosseo. Now all that remains is just the ruins of a great Roman empire which once ruled much of Europe and some parts of Africa and Asia. Marching along the different streets or 'Viale' of Rome, chances are that you will come across a historical monument every 100 metres. Such is the beauty of that city and its just a view to watch a technologically advanced fast car zipping through a road with the Roman ruins and Colosseo in the background. Its purely a city of Wonder. You need a lifetime to truly explore and understand the history of this magnificient city. Remember "Rome was not built in a day". Being and there and done that, makes me feel very happy now.

To read the whole blog about my Italy Tour, Please read my Travel Blog and also individual blogs. For Photos check out my photo album

Milano Blog - Milano Photos
Firenze Blog - Firenze & Pisa Photos
Rome Blog - Rome Photos

**Not all links are active as of now. So please check back later.

Scarlet red Prancing Horses !!!

2007-01-09T10:38:00.000+01:00

What better way to follow up one beast with another one... I mean a Concorde followed by none other couple of Scarlet red Prancing Horses! I saw a couple of Ferraris when I was touring Italy in Rome. The Home of Ferrari... What a beauty! Enjoy....
This F1 car was sighted in a Ferrari Store on 'Via Tomacelli' in Rome. The store was closed and I couldn't go inside. What a tragedy! They had lots of Ferrari Accessories for Ferrari Fans and naturally looked very expensive from Outside.

The sporty scarlet red car was the beautiful V12 Ferari Enzo(named after Enzo Ferrari) sighted near Piazza Del Popolo in the Center of Rome.

P.S: For Serious Ferrari Fans - Please forgive me if I am wrong with the Ferrari Model or the Technical Details.

Piece of History!

2006-12-16T19:35:00.000+01:00

Little bit of Aviation History here.. The last of the Concorde Fleets which has been exihibited at Aeroport de Charles De Gaulle in Roissy in Paris. Doesn't it look awesome? Cant imagine this has a beast of an engine and the only Commercial Supersonic aircraft in the history of Humankind.. Quite a view! Sad indeed that this has to be sitting like this instead of flying like a Monster at supersonic speeds..

So much to write about..

2006-12-06T20:36:00.000+01:00

Back home after almost one year and vacationing with parents, met old friends and made new friends, relaxing at home.. Its seems like Bliss to just laze around and sleep in the comforts of home with someone to make your coffee and meals.. :) .. Well... got a lot to write, but need a faster connection for that.. So Keep staring at this blog for a longtime and one day some posts with lots of Pics will appear.. :-)

Another Yoohoo.. Bought my first Ski set

2006-11-13T20:31:00.001+01:00

I finally bought my first new pair Cross Country Ski Set for a very good price. Now I need to figure out how to put them to good use. I have never skiied before and its going to be a very interesting project for this loong winter weekends. :) . and thats something I am looking forward to right now apart from the Idlis and Dosas I am going to eat for the next 3 weeks, back in Good Ol' Madras..

Yoo..Hoo... Going Home finally!

2006-11-10T22:17:00.000+01:00

Finally going home after almost an year in Norway..
I feel good.. So good.. So good.. well.. u get the drift.. :)

Of Brazilians and their Football skills

2006-09-14T10:54:00.000+02:00

There is a memorable dialogue from the movie "Ice Station Zebra", a movie set at the height of the Cold War era.
The British Commander says this to the American Nuclear Sub Captain "The Russians put our camera made by *our* German scientists and your film made by *your* German scientists into their satellite made by *their* German scientists".

Similarly these days, you can find that Most of the big names in European Football, ought to have a brazilian in their team if they are going for championships. A weak analogy, but an analogy nevertheless..

Matchday-1 of UEFA Champions League has been very entertaining so far. I loved Barca and their awesome Ronaldhinho.... What an entertainer!, especially his late burst on rainy pitch in Nou Camp.. Eto' wasnt left behind either... But a striking thing is that every one of the big names had one or more famous brazilians and they played a very important role in their team's victory(Ronaldhinho, kaka, Juhinho).. Seems like thats the winning strategy...

Barcelona - Ronaldhinho, edmilson, sylvinho
Real Madrid - Legendary Ronaldo, R. Carlos, Cicinho, Emerson, Young Robinho
Arsenal - Veteran Gilberto Silva, Julio Baptista
AC Milan - Kaka, Veteran Cafu, Dida, Serginho, Young Ricardo Oliviera
Bayern - Lucio
Inter - Adriano
Lyon - Juninho, Fred and other teams as well...

One way or another Future looks very bright for Brazil with Robinho, Rodaldhinho, kaka and Juninho up front and Gilberto and Lucio holding up the Defense... But only problem with such a start studded team is that they never play well as team as they do individually for their clubs..

Did you hear this news that during our prime minister Mr. Manmohan Singh's visit to Sambaland they signed some economic treaties and some cultural, which included Brazilians helping Indians with their football... I dunno how thats going to be implemented.. But would be nice to ship some of our buys to their B or C level clubs and get them trained so India, boasting of more than 1 billion population, can atleast fare well in Asia...

Known and Unknowns...

2006-09-13T16:22:00.000+02:00

As I was walking the corridors in my office and looking at the notice boards, this caught my attention. Ofcourse this was aided with some analogies in the office.

But take a guess who came up with the poem or write-up below, w/o googling???
Take an intelligent guess...

The Unknown

As we know,
There are known knowns.
There are things we know we know.
We also know
There are known unknowns.
That is to say
We know there are some things
We do not know.
But there are also unknown unknowns,
The ones we don't know
We don't know.

—Feb. 12, 2002, Department of Defense news briefing

Wah.. Indian Judicial system ka jawab nahin...

2006-09-12T17:00:00.000+02:00

13 years later, some decision has been made and but its not over yet! They still havent given the verdict to the guilty and havent finished their complete judgement either. 13 years!... I am amazed at the snail pace of this Indian Judicial system.. No wonder there is prevalent corruption everywhere.. People dont even want to take the pains to lodge a complaint against anything these days, instead pay some money to the right person and get your job done. A common man cannot afford any lawyers fees for any of his problems and he may not even live to see the judgement being made. Thats the sad status of our judicial system.. Then again, the system is not completely dead either... there is hope and optimism.. afterall some decision was made even after 13 years.. and I wouldnt be surprised even if Munna Bhai was acquitted for the lack of evidence or something like that.. Hope the younger and new blood into the law system of India bring in some pace and sanity...

Existance and Laws of probability

2006-09-05T17:21:00.000+02:00

Have you ever wondered that your existance in this planet is just by a mere chance or governed by laws of probability? Though Science would say, one's existance was decided nine months(or lesser) before when your genetic material was decided... but your characteristics and what you are now, would it all have changed if you have been born a second earlier or later?? Do you beleive, You(however u define it even in a deepest philosophical sense) could have been born in a different time with different genes in a different part of the world? If you seperate soul from body, then you could say my arguement holds good.. though scientifically I am not sure if I am making sense or even otherwise :)... But thats my thought for the day, however wierd it sounds.. or however profound it may come across... or is there a big flaw in my arguement??

Trip to the Norwegian Fjords - Aurland, Flåm and Gudvangen

2006-08-10T19:34:00.000+02:00

If you’ve read Slartibartfast talking to Arthur Dent in Hitchhikers Guide to Galaxy, you would have heard that he received an award for designing the Broken Coastline, full of Fjords, of Norway, when they designed the Supercomputer called Earth to find the Ultimate Question to Answer (Meaning of life). Now having been to the Fjords myself, I can say that maybe he really deserves such an award even if was reality. Such a wonder, these Fjords are... Truly amazing!

To read more, Please Click HERE or go to my Travel Blog.

For Photos, click HERE

Wanna scratch you head?

2006-07-25T16:53:00.000+02:00

Here is a hot online game(well.. dont get any ideas !! :), which was brought to my attention by a good friend and fellow blogger.
http://n.nfshost.com/1.html
Well.. at first it looks silly.. But what you see is th clue to next level...
Hints: After a level, if you think you are stuck, try modiying the URL to get to the next level.. Thats the mantra of this game... There might be visible clues, invisible clues, hidden clues and many more... So nalla Mandai-Odanjax (loose translation for Go bang your head)

Sail Boat experience

2006-07-13T13:00:00.000+02:00

Summer is the time you would want to be in Norway :) Nice weather and Good sunlight lets you do lots of fun activities in the evenings after work and in the weekends. and July is the Vacation time. Even some shops close for Summer vacations. Thats quite a contrast to many other places.
One of the evenings on a weekday, we had been on a sailing trip with some colleagues who are good in sailing and all the Summer Interns for a Team Building excercise. We split up in 2 boats which are owned by 2 of our colleagues. The boat where I sailed in, was owned by an expert sailor who has travelled around the world ( I mean a complete circle around the world) in his sail boat for 4 years. That is quite impressive. He gave us some basic tips about the sail boat structure and how to use the Main sail and the auxillary sail named Genova and booms to line up with the wind and use the wind speed to go faster. Then he let us work in teams to figure out how to sail into the wind and also with wind on the side and then how to make turns or tack, as it is called in sailing terminology, by shifting the sails from one side of the boat to the other side using the sail ropes. It was a great experience. Since he is an engineer, he also gave us some insights into the fluid dynamics of the wind around the sail which makes it move forward.
It was a pretty interesting trip. I also got to steer the boat for sometime and it felt great to be the sailor. I wonder how it must have felt for him to be on the boat for so long in the seas and then hopping on to many islands along the way. Its so fascinating to read about Travel advntures and I cant imagine how he must have felt about this. He told us he took 2-3 years just for preparation for his Around the world in 4 years trip.
We stopped on a small island to relax and have some food and drinks and then we used to Motor to get back to get back to Oslo. For a first timer on a small sailing boat, it was a wonderful trip for me and weather was just perfect and made it memorable.

Click here for more photos.

Need a laugh?

2006-07-11T13:49:00.000+02:00

After so much of serious football, if you need a laugh read this post from a friend of mine.
http://maduraiarian.blogspot.com/2006/07/everybodys-writing-football-why-not-me.html
The questions from a Non-football fan or Non-Sports fan... If you can answer his queries... :)

Au Revoir Zi Zou...

2006-07-10T01:09:00.000+02:00

What a sad way to end one's glorious career!!! Head-butt someone and pick up a card and in the process walk away from glory, a certain glory which he could have easily acheived like he acheived so many championships with great ease. He lifted the spirits of the whole team and the nation and made them beleive in their team and their abilities only to throw it all away in a moment of madness. Why did he do it?? Why .. why.. why??? Couldnt he have just shut his ears off to that Frikkin Italian guy's chattering..?? I take back my comparison of Zidane to God, which I had mentioned in my previous post, as he proved that he is nothing but a mortal...
I feel so sad for him and yet can't accept that he actually head butted someone in the finals of the world cup. His Momentary madness cost him and his team so badly. I am sure the Italian guy provoked him to such an extent that he just lost his cool. The ref. wasnt any better in the game. So many times he turned a blind eye to what was happening on the pitch, when all of the italian defense was all over zidane and roughing him up. But Italians did what they always do the best. Just sit back and defend and wait for the other team to make a mistake and make the best of the situation. They did win it fair and square alright. Congrats to them and for many of their players, this is their trump card for their Pardon for all the cheating and match-fixing they did in their league.
Materazzi will always be remembred as the bad guy who effectively sent off Zidane from the game.. and Zidane will always be remembered for the great player he is, yet walking away from the glory and away from the World cup as one of the TV replay showed him walking with his head down and looking away from the trophy and disappearing into the tunnel. That was a poignant and symbolic moment of this worldcup which will haunt him to his death. What a player and what an end!.. Certainly, not the end he wished for and neither did his fans.. Just one of the bad incidents on the field.. Mr. Cool losing his cool in the Most important game of his career.. Shit Happens...
I was watching in a pub which was packed with both side fans who were waving their flags proudly and singing their Anthems. French fans were going crazy until this incident happened and then there was just absolute silence. Nobody knew how to react and what to do. Sorry guys.. You were robbed off your victory by the indecent action of a certain Italian guy and Most stupid reaction from your captain.
I still can't digest what happened and maybe tommorrow, I will wake up and move on.. But what will I do tommorrow? Everyday, for the last one month, I always had a game to look forward to and now it seems like I have fallen into an Hopeless Abyss.. Both teams I supported so vociferously just lost out. One team didnt play to their potential and lost and other one surprised everyone by reaching the finals and lost out because of a single moment of madness from their Captain, Marshall and Leader. I will just have to forget about this and wait for 2010.

P.S1: I took this pic from this website.. To read their full-story on this please click here

P.S2: If you are still speculating why zidane may have done what he did.. read this..More speculations..
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,28783-2263995,00.html

Azzuri Victory

2006-07-05T11:31:00.000+02:00

I didn't quite expect a thrilling encounter between Germany and Italy. Seems like they both play a very attacking game of football, which every fan wants ofcourse, especially when they are in search of a goal rather than trying to defend a goal advantage. Thats when the coach brings in an extra defender in place of a forward and then the whole game becomes extremely boring to watch. But this game was really interesting with both teams attacking and taking shots at goal. Italy on couple of occasions came so close that Woodwork denied their goals. But in the end they were deserved winners with couple of really good goals.
So one finalist is decided. Whos going ot be the next? I so cant wait to see the Fracne - Portugal game tonight. Its going to be very interesting or atleast I hope that it will be so.

Some history and Coincidences...

Euro 2000 in Holland...
Semi-Final 1 - Italy Vs Host Holland with Italians winning on Penalty Shootout... (*Except this time it was Host Germany)
Semi-Final 2 - France Vs Portugal with France winning with a Golden Goal by the God Zidane himself...

Finals: France Vs Italy and France won with 2 late goals from Wiltord and Trezeguet and Zidane was voted the player of Tournament...

Can History repeat itself?? We will wait and see... Atleast Italy are through.. We have to wait for France or Hope for France to get through to Finals... Both teams still have many players from their 2000 squad playing current team.

A Happy day for Indian Cricket :)

2006-07-03T00:58:00.000+02:00

After drowning in sorrow in the wake of Brazil's deserved defeat to the Much better French 'Les Blues' team, this news is something to cheer for.. Atlast after 20 something years Indian cricket has finally won a test series outside Indian Sub-continent.. Isnt that great?? Again the Unpenetrable Wall of Indian cricket, Rahul Dravid - the Indian Cricket captain, leading from the front with 2 half centuries made it possible. After the controversies surrounding Ganguly's exit and all the drama and the media criticisms, Dravid has finally lead the team to Series victory which none of the captains in recent past could acheive. Hail India and sing praise for Dravid... the unsung hero on most occasions standing up to the challenge everytime India needs him to deliver. This has more than made up for Brazil's loss for me..

Sad day for Brazilian Football

2006-07-02T17:02:00.000+02:00

It was so sad to see the mighty brazilians just go down so tamely. A team filled with stars and worth more than any other team on paper and also on bank accounts, but unfortuntely just didnt gell so well as a team and didnt play much like they were supposed to. Then again they lost respectfully to a much better team in a game, which was not marred by any bad incident or bad ref. decisions. It was a graceful exit for the brazilians well scripted by the Master himself, the one and only Zidane. There is a saying that 'Wine only gets better with age'. and theres another that When a tiger is cornered, all it can do is bounce back with a mighty growl. So did Zidane.. All the criticisms against this Geriatric, but highly experienced French team, pegged them back on to the wall and the only option was to fight back. Fight back they did, but with great spirit and some wonderful football. Its just Zidane and Viera at their best and Henry with his clinical finishes. If they continue this way, I dont see any Portugal, Italy or Germany stopping them. Personally I wouldnt like the blue eyed italian sissies winning it, cos they are just cheaters and they also play a very boring game. Germans are Ok with a decently attacking team, but just not as good as this Resurgent French team. Portugal seems to be getting better and especially if the game goes to Penalties, I have no doubt esp. after Ricardo showed England that he can block anything. I expect a very boring First Semi between Italy and Germany and a very exciting attacking game of football between France and Portugal. I would like Zidane to announce his retirement with the Cup in his hand as the Captain of the Winning team. Go Blues...

P.S: Remember, in 4 years time, the trophy will be back in Brazil with Ronaldhinho...

Allez les Blues!

2006-06-28T11:43:00.000+02:00

Allez les Blues.. Allez les Blues.. That seemed to be the chant all over the stadium once the game was over and doubts put to rest by the most graceful footballer in the current era.. A finishing touch by the Maestro put spain out of their misery and booked a place for France in the Quarters against Brazil. For Spain, Its a series of continuous misery. They just cant seem to proceed ahead in the Knockout stages and the sadness continues. They had such a good team and good budding stars, but didnt help against a great team with proven winners, though fading.
Even I didnt like the way France was playing in the first round, but they seem to have found their old winning ways once Zidane is back in action. Oh.. What a player.. He is the Grace at large, Mark Waugh of Football and the most lazily elegant football you can find.. and he played like one yesterday. Every touch of his almost created an opportunity for a goal. Spain had many but they wasted their chances. One thing that would bother me was the way Henry faked to get the Freekick which resulted in the winning goal for France. Poor Carlos Puyol.. he had to get a card for nothing and France got through... I didnt expect Henry to do this... but in the end France won..

Well what now.. France meets Brazil.. Another classic encounter with both teams finiding their magical tough.. replay of 1998 finals... Brazil would like to avenge their defeat 8 years ago which robbed them of 3 consecutive WCs and France would like to give Zidane the best possible retirement gift.. and I am still supporting Brazil.. Too bad for France.. Wish they met Brazil in the Finals.. So the World cup gets more exciting .. Ger Vs Arg, Bra Vs Fra Eng Vs Por .. what a classic encounters all of these... VIV LA BRAZIL....

Buffet's Generosity

2006-06-26T22:31:00.000+02:00

Did you guys hear about Warren Buffet's generous donation to charity?? Just 85% of his Personal assets, which runs in billions of dollars, go towards charity and most of it to Gates Foundation. isnt that amazing?? What kind of a person would do that? He said he doesnt beleive in inheritance.. So he doesnt want to leave so much of his smoney for his kids.... Cool guy, i would say..

Good Show Socceroos

2006-06-26T22:17:00.000+02:00

Too bad for Ozzies that they had to lose out to lackluster Blue eyed Pretty boys who fake injuries and fall in the box just to get ref's attention.. Poor Ozzies, after putting up a fantastic display had to lose out on a Spot kick in the last minute of the game. It was a total heart break for them... then again materazzi's foul was not so bad that it deserved sending off. Both teams had so many chances, one italian was a good actor whereas none of Ozzies could manage to pull of a fake fall like he did to get a penalty kick. Well.. all said and done, at the end of the day if you dont score, when you get a chance you just have to wait for your luck to win it and luck may desert you at the very last moment just like it deserted the Socceroos today... Well now Italy even with their substandard display can easily beat Ukr or Swiss to get into Semis easily.. Germany vs Arg will be a classic replay of their 90' Finals when Lothar Mathaus, present coach Klinsmann and Co. beat maradona's argentina... Just cant wait to see that... and tommorrow is Brazil's game with Ghana.. Hopefully Brazil should breeze through to Quarters ...

Football mania

2006-06-20T16:45:00.000+02:00

Yipeee.. finally its here.. After a long wait of 4 years, World Cup football is back in action with the best of the best fighting it out for the most coveted trophy in the world. I beleive the FIFA World cup finals is the only sporting event watched by most number of people in this planet, although the americans would claim the same for SuperBowl. If the World were just the US of A( as it is often joked about them), then their claim would be true.
The Entire world is going crazy over football and so is Norway. Every pub/bar/cafe is busy with Television sets showing this Mega event. There is a even a big screen close to the Pier called Aker Brygge. Lots and lots of fans come here and watch the game on big screen where they also sell drinks. Its amazing atmosphere here watching the games with so many people, just like watching cricket or football in big screen in besant nagar beach or watching formula one in the Forum Mall in Bangalore.
There are so many diferent people here living in Norway from different countries supporting their teams. So its a great experience watching the games with fans supporting their countries. On Odd occasions you can see tempers flaring up between two country fans or small fight between two drunken fans. But its cool. I watched the Brazil Vs Socceroos game here and the whole place was full of yellow and green.
Needless to say, I was also wearing a Brazil Yellow Jersey except that I was wearing a wrong shirt, Ronaldo instead of Ronaldhinho. Ronaldo looks like a spent force with nothing to prove and absolutely no motivation to play out his 5th world cup. Hope someone kicks his ass and gets his game to very top and lead from the front. So you can see, I am very busy with Football. Between Work, Football, Food and Sleep, I just dont have time for anything else until this event ends...
So until then Adios - amigos and Senoritas, Au Revoir, Ciao and Shukriya and Nanri... Catch you all in July... Hopefully I will still be wearing a Yellow Jersey celebrating the Brazil's 6th World Cup victory...

P.S: One question I always get from many people here is : India is the second in Population and you still cant field a good team in the top 32 to compete in World Cup?? Someone Please answer this question for me.. I hope someday India will also compete on this level.. Until then I will support the samba boys..

Squishy... Squishy...

2006-06-20T16:41:00.000+02:00

Only Nemo and Dori are missing.. :) .

This was taken from my boat trip during part of my field testing related to job offcoast Bergen in the west coast of Norway. Nice trip, it was. Will write about it someother time. Now is the time for watching football... Go Brazil.. go

Another sad day in Indian History

2006-05-23T11:01:00.000+02:00

I hope there doesnt come a day in the future when you sit and wonder.. Jeez what went wrong.. and then you go back in time and see the stupid decisions made by such stupid Blood sucking, money minded, conniving theives, who call themselves Politicians that serve the people of India...
This is an excerpt of the Interview given Arjun Singh to Karan Thappar brought to my attention by one of my friend.. Thappar rocks..

Karan Thapar: Let’s approach the issue of reservations differently in that case. Reservations mean that a lesser-qualified candidate gets preference over a more qualified candidate, solely because in this case, he or she happens to be an OBC. In other words, the upper castes are being penalised for being upper caste.
Arjun Singh: Nobody is being penalised and that is a factor that we are trying to address. I think that the prime Minister will be talking to all the political parties and will be putting forward a formula, which will see that nobody is being penalised.
Karan Thapar: I want very much to talk about that formula, but before we come to talk about how you are going to address concerns, let me point one other corollary - Reservations also gives preference and favour to caste over merit. Is that acceptable in a modern society?
Arjun Singh: I don't think the perceptions of modern society fit India entirely.
Karan Thapar: You mean India is not a modern society and therefore can't claim to be treated as one?
Arjun Singh: It is emerging as a modern society, but the parameters of a modern society do not apply to large sections of the people in this country.
Karan Thapar: Let me quote to you Jawaharlal Nehru, a man whom you personally admire enormously. On the 27th of June 1961 wrote to the Chief Ministers of the day as follows: I dislike any kind of reservations. If we go in for any kind of reservations on communal and caste basis, we will swamp the bright and able people and remain second rate or third rate. The moment we encourage the second rate, we are lost. And then he adds pointedly: This way lies not only folly, but also disaster. What do you say to Jawaharlal Nehru today?
Arjun Singh: Jawaharlal Nehru was a great man in his own right and not only me, but everyone in India accept his view.
Karan Thapar: But you are just about to ignore his advice.
Arjun Singh: No. Are you aware that it was Jawaharlal Nehru who introduced the first ammendment regarding OBCs?
Karan Thapar: Yes, and I am talking about Jawaharlal Nehru in 1961, when clearly he had changed his position, he said - I dislike any kind of reservations.
Arjun Singh: I don't think one could take Panditji's position at any point of time and then overlook what he had himself initiated.
Karan Thapar: Am I then to understand that regardless of the case that is made against reservations in terms of need, regardless of the case that has been made against reservations in terms of efficacy, regardless of the case that has been made against reservations in terms of Jawaharlal Nehru, you remain committed to extending reservations to the OBCs.
Arjun Singh: I said because that is the will of Parliament. And I think that common decisions that are taken by Parliament have to be honoured.

To read the Full interview, which you must in my opinion.... CLICK HERE

Eddies in Space-Time Continuum

2006-05-22T16:25:00.000+02:00

Eddy who?? whats he doing in Space-Time continuum?? What the hell is space- time continnum?? What the frikin hell is continnum anyways?? ahem.. ahem... Who cares...
I have been re-reading the master work HHGTG - 5 series novel by Genius Douglas Adams.. Hence the title inspired from that....
Was watching this Romantic comedy "Kate and Leopold" on TV. Now dont ask me why am I watching such Tear Jerkers or Chick flicks... and why the second post on a such kind of movies.. When you live in a place, where you dont have much of a choice to see English Programmes, you have to put up with what you get.. evening movies that incl. the 3 hours epic Titanic.. Pity me... buhu.. buhu..
Well anyways.. In the movie, a guy travels back in time , not using a time-machine unlike most of the Time travel movies, but due to the Gap in the Time Field... I thought that was pretty interesting concept for a romantic movie and got me very interested in the movie. So a guy travels back and forth between 18th and 20th century by falling off Brooklyn Bridge. Apparently, thats where there is a GAP in Time field or Domain(if you want to gt very geeky). So he can jump off that bridge in the 20th century and land on the ground in 18th century and vice-versa.
Now call it a Black hole or Worm hole or Eddies or Currents in the Space-Time Continuum as Douglas Adams likes to call it.
Isnt that prety interesting to stand in one place on Earth(itself an insignificant part of the whole universe) and then just travel back and forth in time to see how this particular location would be in different time periods?? Wouldnt it be amazing to see the history of that place and how it evolved into the present and how the future shapes it?? all this w/o needing to invent a time machine... and all this is just One-dimensional travel.. Time travel and space coordinates fixed...
What would be even more interesting is to travel in multi-dimensional Time-Space coordinates.. But I am not sure if we can comprehend how it will be... Like for instance travel from one place in the present to go to a different place in the past through several different places in-between the present and past... I would go nuts if even to imagine such a phenomenon... But wouldnt it be amazing just to "fall and fly" and then catch this train journey through the Gap in the Time Domain by falling onto the right spot and then keep traveling .... Seems like a fantasy.... Seems like you are on ecstasy.. Is it really so?? I dunno... What d'ya think?? Lemme know if there is a real time gap in the brooklyn Bridge, I can risk my life for such an experience even if its One-D Time travel.... :)
P.S: Oh.. Space-time geeks(Scientists incl.)... Pardon me, for such reckless usage of High level Geeky words like Worm Holes and Black holes and Eddies and even Space-time w/o understanding them properly... then again they are just some english words to me and I can use them how I want to, depending on my understanding of those words, which may or may not be the same as what your dictionary says... So Sc*** you if you ve got any problems with it.. :-D)

Homer Simpson - The Philosopher

2006-05-19T17:00:00.000+02:00

Homer Simpson rocks... and so does Bart.. :)
Check out this article on BBC

I love the Simpsons....
Forever the 10 year old kid... the Kid who never grows up... the bratty bart....

and zimbly amazing Homer...
his funky hairstyle (just 2 strands of hair) and the efforts he takes to maintain it that way, his totally cool and awesome lifestyle - sitting in front of TV with a beer can and doughnuts and creating craters on the sofa bcos of his big fat ass... well..well.. If you havent watched Simpson, you aint lived your life.. well thats just a phrase which sounded nice... So dont take it too serious and argue with me on it.. Just read what BBC has to say and post some nice comments about Homer and Bart... or else "Eat my shorts"

London Trip - April, 2006

2006-05-05T16:58:00.000+02:00

Time line: April 1st and 2nd, 2006

Took my own sweet time to write this ... Infact the previous post on Lord's Cricket ground should be associated with this post...

Another training and another weekend to spare.. where to go... when the training is in Milton Keynes, UK and an hour away from London, there wasnt much of a debate there... to London obviously...

Highlights of the trip... Saw the Aston Martin Workshop from the outside on a dull and rainy evening in Milton Keynes, Big Ben and the House of parliaments, Lord's Cricket Ground and Baker Street... if you have played the board game called "Scotland yard" you will be even more excited to follow the map and make your way through the Undergrounds and buses to get to your destination quickly in London...

To read the complete Travelog, CLICK HERE

Photos of my London trip

Photos of my guided tour to Lord's Cricket ground

Recent Late-night Anti-Bush Jokes :-o)

2006-05-03T13:44:00.000+02:00

Did you guys hear about the Stephen Colbert's Speech at White House Correspondent's Dinner... I watched the video on the net and it was damn funny. Check that out...

"Best of all, I got to meet my main man, George W. Bush. I shook his hand -- very soft hands by the way. ... I delivered the closing speech. Needless to say the audience could not contain its excitement [showed footage of the audience looking bored]. ... Very respectful silence. The crowd practically carried me out on their shoulders. Although I wasn't actually ready to leave." --Stephen Colbert, at the White House Correspondents' dinner

On Faith-based initiatives: "When President Bush was in New Orleans, he said 'We pray there is no hurricane coming this year.' This is what we call faith-based disaster planning." --Jay Leno

"President Bush says he wants to find alternative sources of energy. He says they're looking towards solar power. In fact, he and Rumsfeld are planning an invasion of the sun." --Jay Leno

"President Bush introduced former Fox broadcaster Tony Snow as the new White House Press Secretary. See, this is the perfect example of wasteful government spending. I mean, why is the president paying someone to join his staff and tow the party line when he was doing it on Fox for free?" --Jay Leno

"At a press conference, President Bush introduced his new press secretary Tony Snow, and the president said, this is a quote, 'His job is to help explain my decisions to the American people.' Yeah, then Bush turned to Snow and said, 'Good luck, you poor bastard.'" --Conan O'Brien

"It's been announced that White House adviser Karl Rove will not be creating the day-to-day policy for the president anymore. You all know Karl Rove, he's the man they call Bush's brain. No, that's what they call him, Bush's brain. Now he's only going to be working part of the time, just like Bush's brain." --Jay Leno

and just one more... :)

"Republicans in Congress are demanding that President Bush investigate whether oil companies are now gouging consumers on these gas prices. That's a good idea, Republicans asking Republicans to investigate other Republicans. And you know who they're going to blame? The Democrats." --Jay Leno

These are just select few jokes picked from the following website which regularly updates with jokes from all the late-night comedy shows...
http://politicalhumor.about.com/library/bldailyfeed3.htm

Tidbits from TV

2006-05-01T14:52:00.000+02:00

Did you guys watch CNN International's 'The End of AIDS' - Talk show by Dr. Sanja Gupta featuring Former US President Bill Clinton?? Did you notice the lady sitting behind him?? It looked to me like Hot Property - Vasundara Das from Hey Ram. As always she looked hot.. :)
Did you guys hear about the recent stunt from the Man from texas... Dubya... He and his lookalike had lots of fun in some presidential dinner at Washington. Dubya standing on the podium with his lookalike, who is poking fun at Dubya's scholastic skills in in English. What has the world come to?? Dubya is actually poking fun at himself, in front of his own crowd in Washington?? I should say, it was a bit funny.. those jokes.. Among the two, who do you think was "The Decider" :-o) there? Take a guess... Looks like Karl Rove is doing his job well... Tring to get some attention before the Mid-term elections... Something like President Clinton appearing on Jay Leno show and playing Guitar and singing a song to catch the Youth's attention when he ran for his second term... What do u make out of this?? His popularity is going to increase bcos of this stunt?? I say he has set some standards which no future president can even dare to dream of.. I mean how low can u stoop down than our own Dubya??

Paris trip - March, 2006

2006-04-27T19:38:00.000+02:00

Bon Jour.. Mesdames et Messieurs..
I am just very lazy when it comes to new posts and this sorto post takes quite sometime to put together... Finally, I have logged my trip to paris a month back...

Timeline: March 4th week, 2006

I had a great time this week. Last time when I came to attend a training, I had very little time to explore this wonderful city. But this time around, I had plenty of time to walk around and see some of the famous monuments in Paris and just roam the streets of Paris, hop on and hop off the Metros and RER's(Fast trains) from Point A to Point B. It was just fascinating, that you can go anywhere with very little difficulty with just the help of a map. Its like a dream come true, though I really never dreamed so much of visiting Paris, dunno why and pls. dont ask me, why not. Def. Heard from friends and read in a few books, but being there and seeing it, was totally a different experience.

Veni, Vidi, Felix Sum... (rough translated as I came, I saw and I am happy).. Blame google, if this translation is wrong :-o)

Let me try to summarize my visit in Chronological order...

Read on....

Check out for more photos HERE

My Best Friend's Wedding

2006-04-20T10:20:00.000+02:00

Well... this is not about my best friend(s) or his/her wedding. This is about the movie which goes by the same name. Again this is not a review or critic. The movie had two gorgeous women (Cameron Diaz and Julia Roberts) which basically tempted me to watch the entire movie flipping the channel between the Champions League game between Aresenal and Villareal. I started focussing more on the movie after it was clear that Arsenal were going to Win.
I thought it was pretty interesting movie. Two women going for the same man kind of story. Just in case if you havent watched it, Julia and the guy were going together in the past but then remained closest friends. Then the guy falls in love with Cameron Diaz and they both decide to get married. But Julia after a long gap suddenly finds her in a position that her best friend is being stolen away from her and she also realises that she actually loves him. So she is making desperate attempts to stop the wedding at any cost, but in the end just gives up and lives with the fact that she was just too late to realise that she actually fell in love with him.
Now comes the point of my blogging about this. I agree it was more hollywood and dramatical, but in reality do people realise that they actually love something only when they lose it/him/her the most(I know this cannot be generalized)?? Like in this case the women had the guy all ga-ga over her in the past, but she was just happy to be his friend and nothing more. In a casual conversation with a friend of mine, he was saying that women, when they date guys dont want to commit, but want to keep their options open, sort of like window shopping. Maybe there is a better guy outthere. Some I heard even handle 2 or 3 guys at the same time, by calling them friends. It was his opinion from his personal experiences perhaps. But interesting thing is, when the same woman finds the guy taken away from her, then she realises how badly she likes him and how much she wants him. There is another point of view that most Indian women always start things with guys as good friends. They somehow find this very comfortable to start with. But does this phenomenon lead to a stage that they actually become close friends and then suddenly something tells her that how can u go for a guy who is your closest friend. Ofcourse I have seen the cases where 2 very good friends have ended up being together and things have worked out too. So I am not trying to generalize, but merely trying to see what other people think about this situation.
What I am wondering is that, is it human nature which common to both men and women or is it more feminine charecteristic?? I know its kinda silly post to even talk about this. But consider this as a Tea-time or Coffee table talk over a coffee table with your friends and post your opinions or comments about the same. You could go anonymous if you want to share personal experience and dont want to be public with it. I would def. love to hear the opinions from the fairer sex on this.

My trip to Luxembourg

2006-04-06T17:09:00.000+02:00

After so much of confusion and indecision, I finally made the decision of buying the train tickets to Brussels from Paris upon my friend's insistance. He was nice enough to offer me a ride in his car from Brussels to Luxembourg and back to Brussels, in time, so I can catch my train back to paris. After lot of considerations, what if my plane gets delayed, what if there are strikes in France (which is so common these days!) and lots of other what ifs, I booked my tickets in Thalys for the TGV train from Paris airport to Brussels.
I was quite excited to make this trip. I was traveling in a TGV and average speed of that train is about 250 kmph which is almost double the speed limit in most highways except Autobahn in Germany where there is no speedlimit . I know I sound like a small kid out of rural village saying 'oh. thats a train. I would like to go on one of those'. That was precisely my feeling back then about TGV. I realised the high speed only after we zooming past a few cars in the adjacent freeway or motorway(however u call it).
After reaching brussels, I went and parked at my Friend's colleague's place for the night. Just went out for a couple of hours in Brussels city late in the evening, but did not get enough time to see the city properly. Old and typical European buildings, Some palaces and Museums in the city center are the main attractions. It was quite amazing that they have about 3 languages spoken there and most official business is done in 2 or 3 languages (French, German and Dutch). Just had enough time to walk the streets for an hour or so and headed back.
Next day, we started early to Luxembourg. Having lost the way initially and losing some time enroute, we finally reached luxembourg. As lonely planet describes, it is a tiny country on the map with not enough space to contain the letters of its name. Considering the size, you can easily travel north to south or east to west of the country in about 2 hours time. As expected it was a very beautiful city. We took the map and started making our way through the streets, full of fellow tourists. We went to a old Fortress which consisted of 2-3 levels and long corridor which was mainly a hiding place and a bomb shelter during the WW2 from the German attack. We then walked the market place and saw the Grand palace from outside and a few old cathedrals.
We were then told that there was a beautiful old Castle in a place called 'Vianden', an hour's drive from Luxembourg city. The drive through the country side was the most fascinating part. Those Valleys and Lushgreen countryside was very picturesque. Maybe it seemed even more so, bcos I was just starving for a change from snow. However the Castle trip didn't let us down. It was a very beautiful Medieval Castle with lots of old artifacts and armours, swords etc etc. We went inside and on to the top and got a good view of the entire areas surrounding it. They also lots of Wineyards nearby that area. Thanks to my friend, we were back to Brussels intime for me to catch my train back to Paris.
Click HERE for more Photos

Home of Cricket

2006-04-04T18:04:00.000+02:00

I assume it must be every cricketer`s dream to play for his country and to play at Lord`s Cricket Ground some day. Just for the same reason, it must be every cricket fan`s fantasy to watch his team win at Lord`s. Well I got pretty close, except that noone was playing and tt was open for Public Viewing.
Yes... I went to Lord`s Cricket Ground and..My god.. It was a great feeling to be Up Close and Personal with the Lord`s Lushgreen Outfield where many a great cricketing heroes have stamped their authority. Well this is how my trip goes...

As an ardent cricket fan I had to make a trip to the two of the great cricket grounds in London city, the Lord`s and the Kennington Oval. I couldn`t get a sneakpeak of Oval ground bcos the security wouldn't allow me inside. But I found out that they have a Guided Tour of Lord`s ground in the Off-season. Its an hour and half and it covers almost all the parts of the ground. Off I went and bought a ticket to catch a glimpse of Cricket History and enter my name in the guestbook of the Lord`s.

First we were taken to the Pavilion and into the Visiting team`s Changing room. It is the same room where the visiting team uses when they play any game against England or the Host team(if its a World cup game), however the case maybe. It was just great feeling to be in that room. There were couple of boards which carried the names of Visiting team Batsmen who scored centuries at Lord`s and Bowlers who took 5`s and 10`s. Saw some of the familiar names on that board. The room led us to the Visiting team balcony. It was a Grand view of the ground from there. Its the same balcony where Kapil`s Devils celebrated their 83` World Cup Victory and where Saurav did his Famous Strip tease and thumped his barechest after beating England to clinch the Natwest trophy in 2001. Many a great cricketing moments come to my mind right now related this same balcony.
After taking a couple of snaps, we were taken to the Museum of Lord`s where the Prudential World Cup, Famous Ashes Urn and the Recently won Ashes Crystal cup and also the Diana Memorial Cup are preserved. I also saw framed photographs of some of the great moments of Cricket like Kapil Dev's Famous 4 sixes against England to avoid follow-on, Brian Lara's Wagon Wheel when he scored Record 375, Original Scoresheet of Indian's Victory against West Indies in the World Cup '83 and several others.

Then we were taken to the side stands to get a closer look at the ground.

Later we went to the Media center end and got a closer look at the outfield from there and then we went upto the top of the Media center. There were 2 levels, one for the Journalists and other for the Commentators. It was much like the Media Center at Aggie Football stadium at Texas A&M with many small rooms for different channels(Closest I can think of in Comparison - then again not trying to compare these 2 gounds. That would be a sin). We were breifed about the Design and planning of this Odd Space ship like structure. Infact it is just an inverted Hull of a ship which was actually contsructed by a shipyard company in England. So many times we have seen the view of the ground from this center on TV, but it was a different feeling to be there to see it. Then we came down and we were shown the practise ground where players usually practise before the start of the game. Finally before we left, I signed the Guestbook, the same book where the 'Pigeon'- Glenn Mcgrath had also signed.

For More photos Click HERE

Some Tips: Nearest Undergrounds: St. John's Wood or Baker Street. I suggest Go to baker Street and take a Bus.
Timings for Guided tours: http://www.lords.org/lords-ground/tours/

March Madness ... !!! :-o)

2006-04-03T16:59:00.000+02:00

If you are an ardent basketball fan and expected to read about NCAA basketball I am terribly sorry :-o). I just borrowed the term as it sounds cool. Anyways this March has been totally crazy for me. First I moved into my new apartment and had to settle down with all my stuff in my not so big but centrally located apartment in the City of Oslo. Needless to say, that my House is a total mess right now. I still need to do tons of work cleaning up and arranging and re-arranging stuff which I haven't gotten around to, yet.
Then comes the best part.. I had a couple of training programs to attend. Guess where?? One in Paris and One near London :) My last week to Paris was so hectic that I barely got a chance to go around the beautiful city of Paris. This time around I had lots of time and an excellent company to tour paris(You wouldnt believe if I said We had people from pretty much from each continent except Australia and that in a small group of 10 or so). I had 2 weekends and the weekdays in between. 4 days went off for training, but we still got the evenings to ourselves and the Friday off-work. So thats a lot of time to see paris.

First weekend I went to Brussels upon my friends invitation and from there he took me to
Beautiful Country/City of Luxembourg. Tiny as it may seem on a map, it was really picturesque. The city had lot of history and also the country has some of the oldest castles. We also visited one of those. I didnt have much time to go around Brussels though.

Then back in Paris, I was able to visit almost all of the main tourist attractions and enjoy the most beautiful and romantic city in leisure using the Metro trains and buses and ofcourse 'with a little help from my friends'. I will blog about each of these trips seperately with some pictures taken later.

Following week I had to attend another training program in Milton Keynes, an hour or so from London city. Very calm and nice place, it was. Come weekend, I went to London and stayed right in the dead center of city, Piccadily circus. I found out later that it is the most happening place on a saturday night in London where all night clubs and famous pubs are located. Got lucky I guess, but at a high price(Had to shell out close to 50 pounds for a room/night with shared failities and it was the cheapest I could find.. ridiculus maximus!!). Got to see many a famous places incl. the Lord's Cricket ground (which was on top of my list), 221 Baker street (which actually doesn't exist !), Former house of H.G.Wells on Baker Street, palace, Big Ben and all that. But couldnt find time to knock on 10 Downing street or to see the Famous London Tower Bridge(I feel like an ass for having missed out on this). Also did the Famous Open top London Bus tour(which I feel is very overrated and not cost effective). I felt more comfortable taking a map and using the underground to go different places. Anyways Will Blog in detail later. Never thought touring is so easy in such big cities esp. when you are single.

I am still on a floating high from the last 3 weekends. I am not sure if it was from the sheer thrill of seeing these places or just excessive French Wines and Warm English Beer from London(Asterix takes a dig at British for drinking their beer warm:-). After such a hectic touring (or should I say official touring!), I am back in Oslo in the middle of an extended never ending winter which is just not giving away to Spring. I miss the wonderful and Sunny weather from Paris and London :(. But snow is slowly melting now and thats a welcome sight for me. Spring is coming.. yee..haw.... Watch for more travelogs..

Of Commas, and Dots...

2006-03-27T17:27:00.000+02:00

Why do we really need punctuation marks to convey our message? Most of time I am more comfortable writing without any of those commas and fullstops.. but more generous with my dots which I think is more cool than just one dot for a fullstop.. Why does the language have to be so complicated so that we lose the meaning if the commas and dots dont fall in the right places? Why do we need them at all?? For instance I ve pretty much managed so far without the dots and commas but then again I have not written anything so complicated that it will lose its meaning if I dont include these marks... I frikkin hate them... Again there is no standard way of using also.. In the US you will find that USD 4,000.00 means that it is 4 thousand dollars and Zero cents... The same amount has to be written as 4.000,00 in Europe ... Isnt that crazy?? Anyways now that you ve come this far you can put commas and dots as you wish and decipher this code .... Watch out for more Travelogs to come...

Sledging

2006-03-03T16:30:00.000+01:00

Sledging is lot of fun. Not the sledging between players in sports, but Snow Sledging. It was a small sledge where one person can sit and go down a hill packed with snow(see pic). Last sunday was fantastisk with Bright and Sunny day and perfect for outdoor activities. Getting used to the idea of sitting on a sledge and going downhill at reasonably high speeds negating some dangerous turns and quite a lot of dangerous bumps was bit of a challenge. After couple of trips we sort of figured out how to steer the sledge in steep turns and to avoid hitting fellow sledgers.

Since it hadn't snowed for couple of weeks the course was more of hard packed snow than fresh snow. So sledge picked up speed very fast as you go down hill and those bumps were very dangerous for our Bums. We almost fell off the sledges few times, but it was total fun. Plan to do some more this weekend with lot of fresh snow and also try snowboarding.

Cosmo Kramer - The Assman

2006-02-21T15:04:00.000+01:00

I was watching 'Seinfeld - Merv Griffin Show' yesterday night and I decided to dedicate atleast one of my blogger posts to the Legendary 'Cosmo Kramer' a.k.a Dr. Van Nostrand.

There are 2 types of people in this world, among those who regularly watch sitcoms. They are Seinfeld fans and Friends fans. If you are a die-hard Friends fan, there is still a possibility of appreciating Seinfled and become a seinfeld fan. But once you become a Seinfeld fan, you will probably never become a fan of any other sitcom. Guess its the Famous Seinfeld curse, which extends to its fans also and not just the actors.

Well, coming back to Merv Griffin Show, its just simply amazing the way Cosmo Kramer character picks up the old furnitures and Tv-show setup from the trash and creates a Virtual talk show environment in his own house and invites people(ofcourse his neighbours and friends) to participate in his fantasy. I just love this character 'Kramer' and his Kramerisms(his signature sliding in act when he enters Jerry's house is my numero uno). He is the life of the entire show. I can't even imagine Seinfeld w/o kramer(well i can extend that to every main character :-o). Such is the genius of Michael Richards who brought this character to life.
Kramer and his fantasies, his new and bizzare money generating ideas like collecting cans for recycling in Michigan state or Coffee table book and so many others just makes you think, if this character were in the real world how wierdly creative he would have been.

To sum it all up, Goerge describes Kramer's lifestyle in episode - The visa

"Kramer goes to a fantasy camp..??. His whole life is a fantasy camp. People should plunk down two-thousand dollars to live like him for a week. Do nothing, fall ass-backwards into money, mooch food off your neighbors, and have sex without dating. *That's* a fantasy camp!"

Hail the genius of Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld, for having created Cosmo Kramer !

Love actually is all around you

2006-02-17T12:06:00.000+01:00

Well.. that was the tagline for a stupid but funny, bollywood type romantic comedy which Sumit(my friend and ex-roomie) would call a total chick flick. And here I am writing my review for this movie in another one of my Boring posts, which completely lacks imagination and creativity. Oh.. wat the hell... I need to update my blog with something.
I was surprised to see such a heavy weight cast which incl. liam neeson, hugh grant, colin firth, emma thomson and so and so forth...
The film started out to be just yet another romantic comedy which wouldnt make sense in real life. Totally stupid at times and very loose story line with lot of loopholes and many things unexplained. But in the end, i really felt good after watching this movie. So I would say its a feel good movie. As usual High grant being the king of such Romantic english comedies takes the lead role and also that of the narrator. He always gets lucky with his dialogues in many of his movies, catchy and funny at times. But I liked Chick who plays his assistant. She was Sexy and Chubby. I especially liked Mark(Friend of married couple)'s character.

Message was very simple - No matter wat, Love is all around you. Something that is definitely needed with so much violence all around the world. Didnt mean to end in a philoshical way, but it just happened.

So if you havent watched the movie yet, I suggest its a good timepass and you wouldnt regret watching it.

Sexual Harassment in Indian Court of law

2006-02-13T15:01:00.000+01:00

http://us.rediff.com/news/2006/feb/13guest.htm?q=tp&file=.htm

Can you beleive this? Sexual harassment right in the middle of the Court of Law. How low can the judge stoop down to? I sincerely feel sorry for this Lady lawyer. Only goes to show that Our judicial system, a corrupt system heavily influenced by Money and Politics, needs a big revamp.

Letters

2006-01-23T19:14:00.000+01:00

Oh.. boy. doesnt it feel good to make contact with those old friends from good ol' school days... ?? ... Out of the blue I got an email from my old friend my Primary School (or do you call it middle school). I had no idea about internet until I came to College. So you can imagine how communication would be with your old pals, esp when you keep moving from one place to another and one school to another every 3 years or so. I guess we wrote couple of letters (hand written). Cant even imagine that I actually wrote a letter... Anyways got tired of that and we lost touch. and today I get an email from my good ol' friend and hence restoring that lost contact. It definitely feels good to read his email after such a long time and knowing that he is doing very well in some part of the world(well.. not that far from where I am actually).

My Go-Carting experience

2006-01-12T14:05:00.000+01:00

for the racing fans.... yesterday i went for go-carting as part of a group activity. It was fantastic. it was bloody cold , almost 5-6 Deg C and it was raining on the track and it was night time and floodlights all over. basically vision was blurred bcos of misty, rainy and cold conditions and on top it track was bloody slippery. well def not a great way to have a first time experience on carting. We were given a pair of thin cotton gloves which didnt help much and got wet and was even more difficult to drive with. after making whole lot of spins on track bcos of slipping and hitting ppl with full speed headon.. i can feel how diff it must be out there even for the best F1 drivers... it was bit scary and fun... ofcourse carts are not at high speeds.. but was nice experience to know that YOU DONT BRAKE HEAVILY when it rains and also DONT Go at HIGH SPEED when roads are slippery... out in the cold and rain after 10 mins i really wanted to run back in.. cos my hands were just frozen and were dead meat in those conditions... but was a fun excercise... you guys should try some carting if you get a chance and opportunity .. i highly recommend.. esp for racing fans...

Oscar '06 Host - Jon Stewart

2006-01-06T13:06:00.000+01:00

Yo ppl.. My man 'Jon Stewart' has been chosen to host this year's Academy Awards. Its going to be one heck of a show. I can already imagine myself laughing at all his jabs at the right wing conservatives and his short & quick punch at everybody in general. This guy knows how to make people laugh. If you 've watched Jon Stewart's 'Daily Show' on comedy central, you would also agree with me in saying that this is an excellent choice and for once the Academy has chosen a right person than the likes of Whoopi Goldberg. Go Stewart, go... and for those who lives outside of USA, you can watch weekly edition Daily Show on Saturday around 11PM on CNN international. Check local timings just to make sure.

Doodlemania

2005-12-23T10:49:00.000+01:00

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

2005-12-22T15:51:00.000+01:00

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

2005-12-20T17:08:00.000+01:00

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

2005-12-12T09:29:00.000+01:00

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

2005-12-04T18:36:00.000+01:00

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...

2005-11-26T05:55:00.000+01:00

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)

2005-11-18T19:16:00.000+01:00

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

2005-11-18T09:47:00.000+01:00

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

My last day in my first job :-(

2005-11-11T05:52:00.000+01:00

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...