Letters

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

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

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

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

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

Enjoy Googling...

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

Something that caught my attention

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

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

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

3. I will make him an offer he cant refuse

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

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

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

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

8. Remember Sammy Jankis?

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

The Graveyard blues

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

Glimpse of Greatness

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

Winter in Oslo

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

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

Sooper Starrr...

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

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

Freedom of Speech (Kushboo Episode)

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

Spidey's Spiderman

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

My last day in my first job :-(

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

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

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

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

Holiday Season or was it the Rainy season :)

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

Sad day for India :-(

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

Happy Diwali

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

Something I read about Success

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

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

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

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

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

Its Holiday time

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

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

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

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

Life in Bangalore

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

Rains in Chennai :)

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

Long due

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