In search of Aurora

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!

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

1. Milano Blog - Milano Photos
2. Firenze Blog - Firenze & Pisa Photos
3. Rome Blog - Rome Photos

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

Scarlet red Prancing Horses !!!

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!

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..

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

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!

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

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...

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...

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

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

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?

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

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?

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...

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

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 :)

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

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!

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....