Taare Zameen Par

This has been really long... long time after I have written something. It may have to do something with my laziness, but you know its procrastination.
Been busy, been lazy, been tired, been angry and been worried. That makes up all my reasons for not writing regularly. If you think of anything else, do add that in my behalf.

Been a long month, and if I now look back, I think the only thing that made me happy about it was watching Taare Zammen Par. I had first thought I wont watch it, but then when Friday night, I did not get tickets for Welcome, I decided to watch this. Tears shed and 2 and half hours later I was filled with pride for having seen this. There are very few movies that touch your soul and this is one of them. The message from the movie is very clear and apt. Earlier I had thought its a movie for children, but frankly its meant for adults. Everyone at sometime or the other will relate to this movie. Its cause its so natural and so very common.
This is the kind of movie that makes you think and ask questions. It stays with you for a long time.
"If you want to grow horses, why give birth to a child" This sentence says it all and it has the same effect on everyone who has lost all sense in this mad race. I saw many people not smiling, but thinking after they came out of the theater and thats where this movie will succeed. Of course the movie is entertaining in many aspects but it brings about a very strong subject and a very well said message. I dont want to write about the acting and the direction since its something my words cannot describe and give it due credit. What I can only tell is, if you havent seen it, or if you dont like movies.. or if its been like ages you seen one, You got to see this one.

Airport or Railway Station !!!!

If you ever been to Bangalore Airport on Friday evening, you would have asked the same question. "Is this an Airport or a Railway Station!!!"

Never even on a railway station will you find the amount of crowd and the queue to start your journey. Last week I reached two hours before my scheduled flight time.. and I had thought I will have to find ways to kill time. Was in for a huge surprise when I had to queue up for 90 minutes for the security checkup. No doubt the flight was delayed but the scene at the airport that Friday evening was shocking. It was chaos all around and nothing seemed to make sense as to why is there such a huge queue. There must easily be around 200 hundred people in front of my queue alone and there were like 4 such queues lined up for the security check.

I was shocked and so I asked the KF attendant as to what is wrong today. She replied graciously that this is normal ever friday. I was more shocked since just 3 weeks back I was at Bangalore Airport on friday and all the security check took was 15 minutes max. Anyways, everyone in the queue was complaining and shocked but as you would expect from our AAI (Airport Authorities of India) they were least bothered. The airlines couldn't help cause this was AAI matter and they anyways were having a tough time managing the angry crowd.

Even after having my check done, which individually considered, took the same amount of time as it always does, I couldn't understand why was there such a huge queue. It was like entire Bangalore was flying out at that exact moment. From where did all these flights come from.

The AAI security staff were coolly and calmly doing their check as if they have no clue whats going on outside. Obviously they didn't care.

The respective Flight attendants were seen fighting with the security guards to let some of them in since the flight is waiting just for them to get in. All that made no effect to them. Its as if the AAI just didn't get it. You don't take a flight so that u have to reach 3 hours in advance and stand in a queue that takes 2 hours for a security check. Somehow all that made no sense to AAI. The guards were doing their job, but the Airport management was definitely sleeping.

Om Prakash Makhija - Bests flim

Well.. I havent waited longer for this day when I get to watch these two mega buster movies... Om Shanti Om (OSO) and Sawariya (SAW). I will though admit I got dragged into the hype by everyone else around me.. and not cause of the media flashing the posters twice every ninety seconds.





Anyways, when my friend (Manmohan Desai fan) did advance booking on Wednesday, I was glad that I will watch OSO atleast this weekend. Next day I saw the trailer for the first time.. and I called him. I just asked... "Tell me you got middle seats." Now we normally watch films between 6th and 10th row.. in Eternity.. that makes almost in the middle of the entire auditorium. And we had got exactly that.. I knew it but still had to ask... :)

Anyways, I went to office on Thursday, had to go last minute for some conf calls. After that we were just chatting. It was around one in the afternoon when I was chatting and suddenly i realize everyone wanted to go to Sawariya instead of OSO. I felt, maybe I got on the wrong side of the hype. Not wanting to miss any of this, I decided to call up people. In no time, the gang was ready for SAW as well. My friend logged on the Cinemax (the fastest login I seen) and I gave him my CC.. and we got tickets booked for Saturday for SAW. Ofcourse we got the same seats.. and then I gave a double pat on my back... Now I got both. I proudly logged on to chat telling everyone I am going to see both, thats when one of my friend says shes watching both the first day... DAMN!!!! This wasnt the end, katz calls me at 4:30 from Noida giving a detailed review of SAW... and how she liked Ranbir... but the movie sucked. Now, I wanted to be the first to watch.. damn it. I give reviews.. i dont take em. Anyways.. things happen.. one has to move on. I read a blog of someone who described three pages on Life and Moving on... (think I went there through another blog I read). Anyways... I had to move on..and i did. If she reads this... this is moving on girl!!

The last challenge was to ensure that all the late comers in my gang actually came on time. Tough as it stands.. i announced the ticket timings being 15 mins earlier than actuals. Phew... some ppl... Now enough on the logistics... we finally saw OSO yesterday.

The only thing we all had to say was.. wished we seen OSO on both the days... watching SAW after OSO will be a huge disappointment. I have put my short reiview on flixter app on facebook..

"This is what i call a classic tribute to old bollywood era. Very nicely done.. the spoofs were amazing... and SRK rocked. Farah Khan has done brilliantly in making this no-logic-only-fun drama... and made it in style. Deepika is gorgeous.. The OSO ti...(read more)tle song has the entire filmcity stars in it..a treat to watch..but looses the track of the film since its too long. Its a tribute to the Manmohan Desai era..a full entertainer. A great entertainer and you will appreciate it only if u have seen many films of 70s era.. the Manmohan Desai clad. If u havent, you may find things strange and will say the story did not make sense...SRK over acted.. and puff!!! The spoofs were great.. the best actually.."

Worth it!! totally.

Am gonna watch SAW today.. but frankly.. not that enthu at all....

Life of Quality??

Thinking about life.. and what does that depend on.. makes me ask various questions in my mind.

What is Life about? - What is Quality of Life? - What does Quality of Life depend on?

I wouldnt know all the answers.. but I know definitely that one thing that it depends on is what you are as a human being and what u dream of becoming. You might not do lot of things, but in this bad bad world, not doing bad is good. Hence I would argue that not doing anything is also adding to goodness, since at least you are not doing bad and making things worse.

Not many would accept this ideology, but its simple equation of keeping bad constant and not adding more to it. Its like, if u cant add value.. dont spoil it.

There may be some who think that doing good only improves quality. But then, good actions in isolation doesnt mean anything if you don't have a bigger picture and dream big.
Anyways, would love to know what others think about quality of life and what it depends on?

Advice asked..... best given

Disclaimer : I found the image on some other site. The below comments are mine.

Dont you feel sometimes people ask you "What should I do" and suddenly you feel you could answer it like this. WOW. I wouldnt know what the rest of you think, but I liked the answer.

It is not about this women per se, but sometimes people do ask you only, not to know the answer, but to convince themselves. I might have done it sometimes as well.

There is one character in my society where I live, who has the nasty habit of asking the weirdest question on technology whenever he sees you. When you reply, he shoots back saying NO, YOU ARE WRONG.. ITS NOT LIKE THAT..IT WORKS LIKE THIS. Me and my friends now ask him back first "What do u think?" and whatever he replies back... we just agree. There are many incidents where we have made fun of him on his face .. but some people never change.... :)

Just a thought

I normally read whats happening around on the virtual worlds. There are few blogs that I have RSSed and enjoy the fascination that I derive reading the happenings around the globe. Google blogoscoped is one such blog that I dont miss. Like the name suggests, its much about Google, but this blog talks about the good and the evil of it.

Anyways, am not talking how good the blog is, but rather link up an interesting read. Shocking for some, reality check for others, opportunities of better life if used right for a tiny 0.1% in this world.

http://blogoscoped.com/archive/2007-10-15-n68.html


Do check the site. The dog poop girl incident is the extreme that can be reached at this age. Certainly not deserving to the girl and the crowd just couldn't control their anger on the thing that got blown out of proportion. But remember, no one person was responsible. A certain 'society' as we call it, was responsible. This society is not differnt from the society we live in, but the members of this society profit on the nature of the virtualisation the internet is and do things that they normally wouldnt do in a real society. Making things in perspective, the person who wrote the article on the net wouldnt have gotten down at the next station, called the police and made sure the girl was fined or punished for her deed. Instead he choose to let it happen there and published the story later online. Like that helped the smell at that time!!!

The reason I put it on my blog is to highlight that these things happen. The reach of the net is phenomenal and sometimes under estimated. It is a distant possibility that the virtual gang can hijack the current society systems if the entire society is on the virtual world.

It reminds me of the incident few months back, where Digg.com got hijacked by its own customers who voiced out their anger against their decision to remove a certain post on DVD decrypting key. That incident spoke many things of the virtual society and what it is capable of. The entire top 10 Diggs were only about the Key later on as a challenge to Digg management "try removing this now". For those who not aware, it is not easy to get your story on top ten in Digg. Just cause Digg management tried to act as moral police by themselves by deleting a certain story, the community woke up and next thing you know every story on top 10 is about the DVD key that they intended to block in the first place. They simply couldn't control it. They learned it the hard way that the society they started is above them.

Well, if you think of it, anything can happen and will happen, till you allow it to happen. We travel daily and see so many things that are certainly wrong with the system. We see corrupt officials taking bribes, we see them talking foul language, manhandling someone, illegal stalls, intolerable bus conductors, reckless and useless rickshawallas. If the dog poop girl story can be frowned and highlighted on net, then why cant these issues be brought to light and the damned section of our society punished. Just a thought.

Anyways, before i try and preach, let me clarify that the things I said is only cause I see the problem and I see that can be used as common good rather than working that as a problem. Certainly online identity sometimes can be daunting if thats not what you are anymore. But the organizations and the intellects who rely on the information also need to be understanding to the fact that the information is true today as well before taking a decision based on that information.

Pulp Fiction

Pulp Fiction



Made in 1994, one of the most influenced movie of that decade.

Am writing about it cause -

1. I saw it recently like 5 times in 2 days and cant get over it yet.
   
2. To let me write about something which is more valuable (fiction).

"I always hope that if one million people see my movie they see one million different movies."
- Quentin Tarantino (Writer Director)

The movie starts directly with a scene in the restaurant a couple is talking over breakfast and having a conversation. At first, you feel that you missed the starting, but somehow thats how the movie actually starts. The conversation is then related back to the end of the movie, but till that time, it makes you feel that it was only some scene to fill up the tempo of the movie.

The movie is about three interrelated stories (directed by different people) that come together at one place in the movie. The story telling style was simply amazing. If you appreciate cinema closely, then this is not a film to be missed. At every scene, you will be encountered with a masterpiece of Quentin story telling magic.

Take for instance, the scene where Samuel Jackson and John Travolta are going to snap a guy and on the way having a conversation of metric systems. It was like a typical office goers conversation. You might feel that the movie has no meaning or is very slow, but you need to appreciate the storytelling ability in this particular movie. How the references to various scenes are related to the earlier classic movies and makes you subconsciously occupy in the thoughts.

The dance scene between Uma Thurman and John Travolta is the most memorable scene and amazingly done. You can distinctly identify the steps as an impromptu dance steps so you know the actors have not come prepared but still, they dance well enough. It is more important to realize that they do not show you the entire dance and maintains the focus on the story. Though you would have liked to see the entire song, you quickly come back to the chemistry between the two actors which is being set in the dance. I read this later, that the dance sequence was always the part of the story with or without John Travolta. When they got John Travolta, they were happy that they got him and more over they get to see him dance again.

This was the best. In the movie where Uma Thurman narrates about her 5 band group in the pilot episode to John Travolta in a particular scene, Quentin used the same characters - repeat as she had described them here - in Kill Bill which was again made by him 10 years later. Uma Thurman did act in that movie. It is said, he had thought of Kill Bill while making up characters for Uma in this movie.

The way Bruce Willis controls his anger later on when he finds the watch missing.... thats control. You should see the eyes of Samuel Jackson when he narrates the para from the Bible before shooting. You can almost feel the terror yourself.

Anyways, there is lot of history and trivia about this movie. Knowing it makes the movie more pleasurable to watch. I would not want to capture everything here. This is just to mention few great things that I like about the movie.

You Stop asking questions

----------
Chapter 1

Recently, I read a post and it brought a smile to my face. The post, I am sure, is nothing to do with me nor anything I know. But, still it makes me write this post out of curiosity more than anything else.

The smile I got, had nothing to do with the quality of the post nor the thought of it. It was a smile of failure, stupidness or the sorriest attempt to gain sympathy. I dont know what.

oo... am a real looser since life has been so bad to me... I can enter and get out of lives as and when I want. Thats my right.

Some people want to fail and try their best to fail and then come out for sympathy in most obnoxious way,

"Hey, you know i am this and i am that. I am not this and I am not that, so let there be light...." (makes no sense, i know)

Responses,
"Oh please, don't do this and dont do that", "there are times like this and there are times like that..", "believe me Been there and done that", "I know the world and things will be all right"

hahahhahahahahha - this is all funny. Aint it? If you cant find humor in this, then you need to go to hell. Wait you are in hell..... guessing in hell, anyways you would be deprived of sense of humor.

Ok, i accept, that was harsh. I shouldn't have done that. I feel so terrible, I will think I should stop writing. WOW, what a wonderful idea!!! It will do wonders. It will get me all answers since stopping to write is hard and hurting. If I hurt myself, I get all answers. So that makes me happy. So, to make myself Happy, i need to hurt myself.
Wait!!
What the hell am I talking about. This doesn't make sense. Well, it doesnt, that is why i was smiling in the first place. hahahahaha

Ok, there is a fair chance, I have got it wrong. In which case, whatever i have written till now makes no sense and I am the ugliest person on earth to be thinking it in this way. I admit, I can be wrong.
But then, who is going to correct me. I am not listening. I have blocked all channels of sound waves reaching me. I have the ability to go away from everything that was so near to me. So what the hell, even if I am wrong, I am always right. You loose..... Looser!

----------
Chapter 2

Well, so far what i wrote, gave me a way to exhale my frustration on others being so unwise. I know, my friend will think I have lost coconuts. But well, the thought is mutual. But, since you wont write any further, I am the one people will read. (God, that makes me happy)

Things have become croocked, but then who is to blame. Whos gonna correct it. It aint gonna happen on its own.
These days, it becomes like a herculean task even to meet together. I am sure, now its not possible. I often hear questions like, should we call him, if we calling her? Should we do this and that and all those multiple choices to have an evening spent together!! Now, this is mess and mess that can be trashed.

I am sure, I will not write about this more. Cause, I neither have the time nor the inclination to make things right. People refuse to grow up. Yeah and, me the Kido!!!

----------
Chapter 3

Was listening to this, when I started writing the post.

"Comfortably Numb"
-- Pink floyd

Hello,
Is there anybody in there
Just nod if you can hear me
Is there anyone at home
Come on now
I hear you're feeling down
I can ease your pain
And get you on your feet again
Relax
I'll need some information first
Just the basic facts
Can you show me where it hurts

There is no pain, you are receding
A distant ship smoke on the horizon
You are only coming through in waves
Your lips move but I can't hear what you're saying
When I was a child I had a fever
My hands felt just like two balloons
Now I've got that feeling once again
I can't explain, you would not understand
This is not how I am
I have become comfortably numb

O.K.
Just a little pin prick
There'll be no more aaaaaaaah!
But you may feel a little sick
Can you stand up?
I do believe it's working, good
That'll keep you going through the show
Come on it's time to go.

There is no pain you are receding
A distant ship smoke on the horizon
You are only coming through in waves
Your lips move but I can't hear what you're saying
When I was a child
I caught a fleeting glimpse
Out of the corner of my eye
I turned to look but it was gone
I cannot put my finger on it now
The child is grown
The dream is gone
And I have become
Comfortably numb.


--------------
Chapter 4

When life runs out of answers.....you stop asking questions

Chapter 5
----------
THE END

Well, I dont give a damn...

I am having the hardest time to write down this post... am not been able to think clearly lately. Or maybe lot of things are not clearly happening right now.

How else can I explain, having spent my weekend with collapsed plans. Saturday got duped and again. Well, ya... experience didn't help me there.

I just need one day, and the important days are gone. Guess when will that happen. Spending day was not really important, but that can be done any day. Yeah.. right!!!

Am trying to think, how the world works and how people behave, and prioritize things. Guess am never gonna be good at that. Haven't been so far... I guess given a choice, I would also not think about you.. but then I know how I think, so I know how others would think. So, I know exactly what you thinking when you decide to prioritize against me. With all that thinking, I am tired now. Would sleep soon, so dont worry.. wont have to read much.

Saw Pirates of Caribbean, all 3 parts today. Had to hear lot of shouting as well, but my new Headphones really helped. The India - Aus match was the best part of the day after the pirates.

Next holiday is gonna be my lucky day. As experience says, sure it will be. I have already started thinking. The special days are gone...and so the special times.

Well, I dont give a damn.. since there will be more...
just one change... they will be without you.... :) <<<< ---------------- Now playing: Evanescence - Bring Me Back to Life
via FoxyTunes

A Bad Comment

I am fond of cricket and cricketers, but i enjoy the most when players are called up to speak after the match. They are mostly nervous, dont know what to say in front of the entire stadium, and usually spill their heart out.
But, this time, after loosing the T20-20 worldcup, Shoaib Mailk, captain of the Pakistan Team, made a disastrous comment that has irked everyone around. In case you missed the comment, it said :
“First of all, I want to say something over here. I want to thank you back home Pakistan and where the Muslim lives all over the world” - quote Hindustan Times.

When i heard that, it did strike me as to why did he specifically use the word "Muslim all over the world", but I thought it must be his language and not knowing what to say. But, now that I think of it, is that an excuse good enough.

Many news papers (TOI) and bloggers around the world have expressed their anger for his choice of words and have interpreted it in various ways. This was bound to happen.

So, Mr. Shoaib Malik, when you represent a team for your country, when the highest authority of your country personally meets you before the final match to motivate you, you have a huge fan following, not only in your country, but even else where around the world, you have to be correct in what you say in front of the whole world. You cannot go away by saying that My English was poor, I didn't mean that or anything and get away with it. It is certainly not expected that you to please everyone, but when you stand up to speak for your team and your nation, there is a huge responsibility on your shoulders. You made a good point that you gave 100%, but you gave the sympathy away by only saying that to the particular set of viewers.

I do cheer for India and I know many here who cheer for you. So please, don't make us conscious of the religion here. That has nothing to do with the sport.

And if you did mean what you said, then I can only express my sympathies.

To dear Anonymous

This goes to dearest Anonymous.

They say, it protects the identity if i use Anonymous. Correct?
Well, keeping secure ones personal identity is ....................... hmm whats the word for it... ... courageous???

Comeon dude.. its required.. I am not comfortable sharing my actual name..... isnt that allowed?

Yeah.. right .. you are sure entitled to do that... But then, cant one just choose a Nick name. Is it really that difficult ???? Or you thought the site just selected a good nick for you and that is named coincidently 'Anonymous' for you. It must be a real good coincidence that many are given the same name.. isnt it ?

Gone are the days, people used to write diaries on physical piece of notebook. Do you still know some people who do. Ofcourse YES. The idea of a physical diary is that the world DOESNT get to read it. You choose to do blogging and the world to see what you write.. and then claim under the pretext that .. ." PLEASE.... lets not use names on a public forum" ... Is that some irony or what?

Anyways... blogging was meant to express views or ideas.. not to point fingers at. Who cares..And since the sites allow you to do it for free.. then why not everyone sign on to it. Believe me.. if it were like just about 5 years back.. where personal web page and address would cost you like 5 grands, and visual internet would cost 25 grands a year on telephone lines with separate dial-up bills, who would be blogging anyways. Thats what you ought to give out to this free world. We all owe it to.

I think it doesn't hurt to do anything in this free world, where everything is justified. I work in this IT company which has a fad in adopting new technologies.. self created or not. It is here I learn so much about the free world. The etiquettes that would not run through our normal chain of thought, but suddenly seem to be so obvious. Its been over 6 months now, I am regularly getting mails that events are being hosted on 'Second Life'. This company has even bought premises and rented space on 'Second Life'. Somehow due to time difference or not, I didn't get chance to attend any, but am sure, the general rules still follow. Sometimes, it is common sense, sometimes its just follow the leader, unless you can justify clearly to everyone why using something like Anonymous is a mandate. We recently started Wikis and adopted all the podcasting that could leverage collaboration. Suddenly, I know so many in my company, that otherwise I could not. Would that have been possible, with people posting as Anonymous?

When i thought about it, I was scared. I knew, I would have to do it first.

Then I said to myself, Big Deal. What worst can happen, people will know what I think and will talk about me? I trust in everything I am. Nothings gonna change. At least, tomorrow if I meet someone, he will say, hey.. I think I read your blog... lol .... I know its no chance something like that will happen.. but then, it doesn't matter anyways. And if that happens, at least I have communicated and been known. I owe this to the free world. Am sure, am only gonna improve from here. So lets give it a try.

----------------
Now playing: Michael Jackson - You Rock My World
via FoxyTunes

Sense and Sensibility

Am thinking if things still make sense in this world.

We live a life that makes no sense. I have problem understanding the fact that we ourselves chose this kind of life... having had an option to do something else with it. But we chose it and made it the way it is today. We get up everyday, have set a routine for ourselves to follow and thats it. Think of it, as human race, our life follows the following stages : We Grow - We Reproduce - We Die. Everything that we do is to support these stages in life, kinda entertainment to go through these phases. Its the same thing that the entire animal kingdom does, we have added sophistication to it by going to schools, getting married, working for someone or doing business. We have started relating our growth to the entertainment factors.

People, just think for a while, about the early days of human life in this planet. Think what would have been happening at that time, and how it is shaped today. At some point in time, some one, sure intelligent enough, decided that we need someone to do things for us. So instead of me doing things for myself, i want you to do it for me. Thats where to concept of WORK evolved.

Why do anything myself, that I can get it done from you. Of course, the way it started was with bonded labor and now we get paid for it, but apart from the money thing, there is very subtle differences between the two. You think you have the choice of doing what work you want to do, well that choice is only hypothetical. What ever you do, you are doing something for others and getting paid for it. Be in research, consultancy, programming, teaching, policing.. what ever. And we chose this since we don't want to do everything ourselves and would like to get things done from others.. so that they can get money and get someone to do something for them as well. Its the circle in which it follows.

If only, the human race would focus on the very basic thing and find some facts about the purpose of their own existence, we would know where we are and where we want to go. We are currently all blind.. and living life with no sense and sensibility... just running the mad race...

One done.. One more to go

These days I am enjoying the pleasant climate of Bangalore. Its already been a week since I came and still more 5 days to go from today. This time around, the experience has been really good.

The flight was really neat.. had some firangs behaving like bunch of kids.. but that was OK. They were clapping on Take Off and Landing.. which was like really really.. UNCOOL...But I guess they had fun. Don't know from which part of the world they came from.. since couldn't understand a single word they spoke, and neither was I interested. Though, one of them had a very pretty face.. :)

Last time when I came here, I learnt that the best way to catch autos is the prepaid autos. So without spending a brain cell, I went there and took one. I had studied about the place where i had to go from airport through Google Earth. I even had it written down the landmarks I will be visiting, the names of the roads (making the roads overlay on) that I can take to make myself sound familiar and it worked!!! I was able to spot most of the turns that the guy would take and could sense the direction where I was to head. Do bless Google Earth.

The place where I was put up was like a high security luxury residential complex. After the escort came and showed me the place, I was impressed. The 8th floor room .. swimming pool facing.. with great view from the balcony made the day. So I enjoyed the Sunday as much as I could, and was mentally getting ready for the next day at work.

Finding office wasn't difficult. I wanted to avoid long travel.. and my place was jsut walking distance from the office. So the first day the class was almost empty. Apart form the two instructors from whom one was from my team.. and the other was from US who was really very friendly and two more people in the room.. it looked odd. There were 3 of us from my team amongst the others.

So the daily routine from Monday to Friday involved.. attending the class at 9 in the morning. Going through the course, giving presentations, which by the way was really fun, the class used to get over at 6. From there, the US guy used to go to his palce... and I used to hang out with other two people from my team. We went to Forum Mall.. which like half the size of Nirmals and thats the only Big mall they have there. After having the most untastelful food there.. we decided to hang out at pubs rather than eating at malls.

On Friday we met some guys from our company who lived here.. were willing to show us around. We went to see Rush Hour 3.. which was kinda OK... then went to have dinner with them. The place the offered to take us was cool... and had the best time discussing the various cuisines of the world. Imagine talking over dinner.. things that Chinese and Japanese manage to eat - Take octopuses - squid to crickets.. even have blood in some of their dish.. which is kinda delicacy. We went on and on.. and Yes.. we did finish out dinner talking about all that too.

Now Saturday was great.. since the US guy asked us, if we were willing to hang out. Myself and my team mate from delhi, who was assisting him in teaching, went out. The day went great. I had a perception that the US guy would boast us about everything.. do talk talk talk,.. and not care what we think. On the contrary, he was quite well behaved.. listed to us.. laughed with us.. shared jokes.. he managed to seem interested in learning cricket.. as much as we were in telling how its played. So we decided to go to Mainland China restaurant.. which was a cool place to start with. The 4 course meal was simply amazing. The US guy even taught me how to eat with the chopsticks. He kept talking about his girlfriend, which made me wonder.. that the 36 year old guy is so different from various 36 year olds here. He was free like a bird... free to do anything he wanted.. whenever he wanted and still keep a committed relationship with no pressure of getting married. Thats cool. He told us how he read a book, where people who design things around us have got it all wrong. It applies to IT software as well as various things around us. Like, How many times we have come acorss doors who have a huge metallic rod like handle.. and its meant to be pushed instead of pull to open it. Its like cant they just put a metallic plate instead of a handle.. so no one will PULL !!! I think that book would be worth a read.

He then took us to his hotel where we watched the disappointing Indian batting.. and I felt sorry to have told him so many great things about Indian cricket. He kept saying when they showed the score.. "isnt that bad!!"

So, finally he told me that my performance in the class was amongst the best. Though he said, in US they would expect more, but compared to what he saw here and in China.. it was great. He encouraged me to take trainings up.. and build my confidence.

One thing that really shoked me was while going home.. we told our driver to take me home first. On the way a police guy stopped us.. and asked him to open. He lowered the window.. to which he shouted open the door.. damn you!!! He openeed it.. and they guy started to look inside and get in. Our guy told him.. we are going MG side.. and he then mumblled something and got out. Later our driver told us that he wanted lift. Now, we were shocked that how can he just stop a car at night.. and demands to be given a lift. We could have a family in the car.. or picking someone up. What the hell was he thinking.. and is that normal. I cant imagine that back home.
There were so many small things that happened.. that its difficult to jsut remember all of it.. but definitely a good week so far.

Lets see how the other goes.

From Earth to Sky

If mapping the earth was not enough, we now have free access to the sky and the stars, planets and -- the empty space, all thats out there.

I am not going gaga over technology or product reviews here. There is Tech Clocks for that kinda stuff. This is about pure Joy and amazement to the idea of mapping the sky like they mapped the earth.

If you have used Google Earth before, trust me guys, you have to see Google Sky to believe it. It is awesome. Its still in its initial beta, but once you see it, you will get the idea where its going.

I dont know about you guys, but I have always wanted to see the sky and keep zooming till I can. See the farthest end of space. Well, Google Sky will not keep zooming, since it has only got images what NASA has captured so far using the various satellites and telescopes out there. Still, having access to the whole thing at one place is a dream come true. Moreover, the view is such that you dont feel like you are accessing pre-stored images, that you normally see on NASA or any other site, but it feels like you are watching through a high end telescope and you are zooming into the constellations towards the farthest place in space - watching the distant stars come closer.

One moment you are viewing the Earth and you press the toggle switch that takes you to the sky exactly above where you were on earth. From there, you are free to navigate as if you directed Star Wars.

This I can surely say is the best age for digital revolution. Internet communications is transforming knowledge and accessibility to knowledge to a whole new dimension - that wasnt envisaged a decade back.

Welcome and enjoy unrestricted access. Only spoil brats will feel threatened to such accessibility of earth and sky. Maybe about those in another post, sometime later. For now, enjoy watching the sky.

A preview :

Lonavala Heights

We decided to head for Lonavala for the weekend - away from the heat, pollution and boredom. It didnt take us long to decide the place and even lesser time to book the tickets of the resort there. Once this was done, all that was left to do was to go there and chillax. So, that was it. Have been there before, but since every trip is different, it felt like never before. True to its reputation, the climate was awesome. We headed towards Amby Valley and half way there we stopped at the bridge where people chill in the waterfall and enjoy the clouds and the greenery around. While climbing up there, the roads were steep and wet. The visibility was just of few meters. It was like walking in the clouds.
The five of us, having met just a year back, relieved ourselves of the office chores and mechanics and had altogether different experience that wasnt shared amongst us before.
The waterfall place was amazing.. though photography was prohibited.. it seemed painful not capturing the moments on camera. Sinfully, we did so and never regretted it. Those are the moments to remember... RIGHT !!
Going there after enjoying a heavy meal at Toni Da Dabbha at Kamshet was the best part. We had not decided of going there.. but just as we left Tonis, it felt obvious to carry on towards Amby Valley where on the way this spot existed.
We slept that day at 4 am and got up at 8 morning to head back towards bombay, we left many memories behind.

Bloody hell

These things get on my nerves... whenever theres something happening in the world.. our own grown and self moralized politicians start blaming something or the other for it. Now these days, the role of the politicians is also shared by the media.

Media was so far responsible for reporting news AS-IS, but has slowly become the haven for publicizing opinions and suggestions to common man without any ado. Who ever gave them that right. They are to report news, they way it happened. Instead they entice people and encourage them to form opinions, such as they construct their story. I remember, when Amitabh Bacchan had gone to the temple to offer prayers.. and stayed in the temple over the prescribed time limit, the correspondent on one news channel was so vociferous in alleging that a crime has been committed.. he was so narrating the incident as if he was the Judge and had the sole authority to decide what punishment will he serve. Is this News Reporting any more !!!! Let the appropriate action be taken by appropriate person by appropriate mechanism. Just cause some Idiot gave you the mike to stand on the road and speak.. you decide to dictate whats right and whats wrong. Do we really need this!!!
Again.. the number of news channels and they importance to the subject that they give. Boss its utterly humiliating at times to see all that. Its ok if you do not have news to show.. but is showing Amitab's son's wedding.. Sanjay Dutts ventuers FOR THE ENTIRE DAY called news or what. Is this India.. and is this all thats left to report for the entire day. A foreign news channel (BBC) reported about an Indian Army officer being killed on Line of Fire in India saving people the same day when all of our country news channel was busy waiting for the verdict of Sanjay Dutt's case. Hello.. any body there !!!

Politicians were not enough that we got these news channels. Here are some of the idiotic recommendations to save human kind....

Ban camera phones cause there can be voyeurism or MMS scandals..
MMS Scandal victim : "so what I allowed it to be clicked.. and i thought you wont share it. Now u disgraced my dignity. I thought i could trust you.. but u were so naughty..."
Voyeurism : this is a true issue.. but is banning the solution? say after you ban it, will it stop. It was there before the camera phones were invented.. and will be there even after you ban it. How about banning Cameras and Video Cameras production througout the world. Digicams available at as low as Rs 5000, does it really matter.


Ban Orkut cause people get kidnapped and killed or acts as a forum for talking bad about someone special on this planet...
so what those special people talk bad or audaciously vulgar about everyone else openly. India is truly democratic ... only for few it seems.

It gets nuttier
Ban cyber cafes since they allowed people to use Orkut from where someone allegedly accessed a hate community of somebody. No ... not just ban... blow them up!!!..Cyber cafes after all are not paying me for living.

Ban Valentines day cause ... its against our culture.

Ban outsiders (from other states) cause they took jobs away from insiders (homeland).. so insiders have right to vandalize.. now dont complain.

This was just a thought. It came up again today since sadly few days back a rich kid got kidnapped and met with a tragic end.

So now dont share personal info on Orkut. Remove all your pics and images from there or you may be the next victim.
Maybe Yes....But, media did the right thing of flashing the news in all news channels about his kidnapping. So what they were told to keep quiet. So what the first time offenders came to know about the news flash and decided to kill the kidnapped son. So what the parents gave the 16 year old kid a big car to roam at nights. So what, the son called up his parents saying he wont come home.. and thats OK.

So what.. but please dont share personal info on Orkut... thats important. Bloody hell !!!

Technology Cycles

I was wondering, how to do it... but then i realized that the best thing is to do start it and then improvise on it.

I was thinking since a while now, how do I start writing about technology? Human times isn't the best place to discuss all that. Frankly with the nature of the comments I get here... i feel hardly any room here to talk technology.

Anyways, this is not to say that I dont like the comments so far.. its just that this blog has evolved more of leisure kind and things that seem to happen ... but not really what I do for a living.

So started a new blog called Tech Clocks.. and this is purely to stop people keeping away from visiting my this blog if I had started writing technology here.

Just so that i mention it.. since you have read it so far... that Tech Clocks is more like technology for dummies. Thats the whole idea... its from non technical perspective - a technical understanding. Am not kidding !!!

You can see the link on my bookmark. Am starting to write about the latest craze in technology circles which is SOA. My first blog is the foundation or the first brick to the caste on talking about SOA i.e the Web Services, but it will get there.. as I, myself, learn about it... :)

So till that time.. posts will continue here on friends and families. For technology updates, please do visit Tech Clocks.

Bangalore Blues

I had been recently to Bangalore, and I think I will have to go there again... This time for two whole weeks. Oh Shit… Its still not confirmed... but let’s see.

Its not that I hate that place, but I do not like it as well. After spending my entire time in Mumbai, and then going to that place, many things don’t make sense. It just doesn’t.
The foremost of them are the Auto Rickshaws. If Himesh Reshamiya had ever been to Bangalore he would really start hating Auto Rickshaw walas there. And frankly, I really hoped he had been there... since that would have avoided making the unbearable torture movie of all times "App ka Suroor". That was just a thought..I know he would have made it anyways... how else will the world know Why he doesn't smile or Why he wears a Hat .. or why cant he sing or why...... is anybody still reading !!!

Anyways.. Coming back to the point, I hated the auto guys there.. Since there is no fairness left in any one of them. I had to deal with around 30 auto guys during my past visit.. and I have in all paid 30 times more to them... being stood around for 30 minutes each time for gaining sympathy of any Auto Guy to take me where I wanted to go... every time I needed an auto. Of course we were allowed to take cars.. But then, I had to go out for non official purposes, for which I couldn’t take one. It’s not what you think, but we didn’t really get good dinner any place close where we stayed.

The worst incident was the day I reached.. I was coming back after having dinner with my colleague. We were put up at different places for the first day.. dat was due to some confusion while booking.. so had to travel alone. We negotiated with a Auto guy with double rate at 10:00 PM. We thought that was loot.. but later realized it was a steal. I know.. living in Mumbai.. even an Auto at 11:30 PM will be normal meter rates. But in Bangalore, we have paid almost Rs 200 to travel 1 KM at 11 at night and mind you.. that was at proper city places.. not long lost deserts.

Anyways.. after settling for double fare, I was happy that the night was over. While we were going, after a while.. some place in middle I asked him.. do you know where we going. He said this is where u said "Airport Road". I just told him.. "I said, Airport Road, Diamond district". He schrreched to halt. He shouted saying, “you said Airport Road and not Diamond District". BTW, for those who dont know Diamond district is on Airport Road. It was late and I didn’t want to argue, but I still managed to ask him.."Airport Road is so long.. the way you are going you will reach Airport.. Diamond district is before that.. so what is the problem". He said, it will charge me more. Now, I really hated to answer him back.. but something in me just made me ask him.. "When u agreed to take me where I asked.. where did you think I will go on Airport Road". Since he did not take me on meter and took fixed charge, where exactly did he think I wanted to go. To that he said "Just till here" . Now he had stopped me in the middle of a road and that too since I asked him if where you are going, I realized he thinks I am new and alone ... so chance to make a quick buck Asking for double rate was not loot enough.. he wanted more. Basically I asked him a wrong question and he took an opportunity to get more out of it. Now, I don’t think I have ever done this before, but I was shocked with the attitude of this guy. I said.. "You stop me here.. i will not pay you anything". He did'nt reply.. I just got down and started walking…..

He started speaking in his language.. and I could guess he wasn’t praying. I reached a phone booth and asked the guy where is Royal Orchid hotel... that’s where i wanted to go. The Auto Guy also went up to him and started explaining him something. I couldn’t understand what he said.. Since it was entirely in the state language. Whatever the version he said.. the good phone booth guy realized that he was trying to take me for a ride... so instead he told him to take me to my hotel.. as it wasnt far from where he had stopped.

So after some 10 minutes of arguing.. he took me there. At the gate of the hotel, since he wasn't allowed to enter in, some five star guidelines…, I had to get down at the gate which was again lonely at that time. Security was behind the gate. I took out the money. He then says… he doesnt have change.. so I will need to get it. I now realized that he is just trying to give a hard time .. since he didnt get his way before. I said fine.. and I started walking towards the gate. I wasn’t carrying anything.. and it was dark. I was determined.. if i entered the gate.. I will not come back till next morning. To hell with him. He also thought I wont come back.. so he said.."Saheb... not that side.. we will go back and get it from the nearest store". I said, "You are driving, and you don’t have change.. and you want me to come with you at 11:00 at night .. dat too for you !!! You can go and get change.. I am waiting.. I didnt give him any money. So now.. he wasnt ready to leave.. and I wasn’t ready to go with him an extra inch.. I was again stranded. I thought.. What worst can happen !!!! I had the Hotel security just few meters away.. and I really didn’t want that guy to get his way... If it was someone else.. I would have told him to keep the change…. but not with this guy. So he started shouting…”You don’t know who I am… blah blah !!” . I have never really confronted anyone like this, that too in an unknown place.. at close to midnight. I just said.."I don’t have change.. you don’t have change.. and I wont come with you. What do you want to do you decide.. And I don’t want to know who you are." There was a silence for sometime… and then he finally realized I wasn’t budging... so with fist of anger, he reached his pocket.. took out a bundle of Ten Rupees notes and handed me exact change. I smiled and I walked away.

The Art of saying 'No'

This is not a lecture or katha.. but just random observation
If you don't agree.. please comment.. if you do agree.. still comment !!!

You would be lying, if you had ever said 'Yes' to something where internally you just wanted to say 'No'. You are forced sometimes to do things where and crib about it for ever, where else you had a simple choice to say 'No' in the first place. But u didn't. Thats what this is all about... Some people can say it easily .. and better.. where as some just cant.

I realized this cause lately I have started saying 'No' and believe me.. its more satisfying.. :) Again, let me iterate, theres nothing wrong in being helpful.. rather one should be.... but sometimes.. one just has to say 'No' so that your answer is not taken for granted.
Be it to friend, parents, brothers, sisters.. acquaintances just about anybody for that matter...

It does get hard to say 'No' when someone comes over specially for you and asks you to do some favor. Cause when u say No, you are sure that the other person will feel something bad about you and you don't want that. To keep up the image and to keep the entire universe happy.. you commit the crime of never saying "No" to anything..to anybody.
I know some of my friends.... at work . they get tied up at situations where they don't want to. Others know their weakness and hence they take advantage of them. Who wouldn't !!!

If you had a choice to get something done for you.. and you know for a fact that the particular person will not say 'No'.. you will never hesitate to ask. If a shocking 'hmmm' or.. *thinking looks* appear on his face.. then all you have to say is 'PLEASE'.. and thats it.. the job is done... Why even bother going to others. Convenience huh!!!

Being in other persons' place.. you would keep thinking.. why the hell does he always comes back to me.. why!!! Well, why did you say 'YES' when you could have said 'NO'.

And by the way, I know there is someone on this planet who will think me writing this post for some other reason... And hence to clarify...this is NOT targeted to the Girl-Friends of all the Boys.. who say YES to their requests.. and daily proposals... :)
(*I still wonder was it only me who suffered :(( *)

This is mostly targeted to people and friends at work and home.. who get these typical questions like.. "Please do this for me", "Will you go to that meeting since i have work", "can you help me with this", "Can you stay late and help me if you done with yours".

I know few people who have developed the art of saying No.. and they say it in such a way that you wont even realize, until later, that he said no to what i asked. Thats where the real fun begins... To be in control .
So how to do that.. no clue.. but wouldn't it be great to be able to tell your boss NO without he even realising you actually declined the request.... wow.. that would be cool..

Will stop to write now... and i know you want to read more.... but I Have to say 'NO'.

I was tagged

I got tagged.... I got tagged by someone...Dats all !! Dont u get it.. Its outta be some invisible thing on my blog or on my face...

In return to this unforseen gesture, I have to write this post.

Now this is the rule of tagging. First someone invisibly tags u with something... that u cant see... then that person has to tell you that he/she made this invisible tag on you
.. (offcourse, how else would u know abt it) and then u gotta write what was written by that person filling in the blanks....Phew !!!!

Believe me ppl, if there was anything more interesting that this.. i would stop coming online....

Anyways... i ottcha do wht i gottcha do .... So here it goes.

I am thinking
What is the purpose of existence of myself and everyone around me.. What big picture are we serving on this infinite space and time. Guess thinking about Contact :)

I Said
We are here for a purpose, lets not forget that... the toughest part is to find that purpose.

I Want
Peace in mind.. and babes in real

I Wish
Everything gets all right

I Miss
Every moment i shared with her...

I Hear
People talking behind my back...........that i am d best...(*kidding*).

I Wonder
How did this happen... how did i get here.. I wonder sometimes how life is . . and how people can be so cruel.

I Regret
nothing... regretting is usually a choice taken wrong ... giving u a path that u cant undo. Regretting is usually a waste of thought (takes brain cells to do that)... i regret i regretted before.

I Am
Free

I Dance
when my feet cant do with just tapping.

I Sing
when i am alone....

I am listening to
Chains around my heart - Richard Marx

I Cry
When i am lost... and when people close to me take me for granted

I Remember
the times I laughed... i cried.. i sang... i danced.. i loved....i was loved... i fell down ... i was helped....I remembered who came close to me and changed my life ... gave me their part of the memories to share.

I Recommend
Take Lite

I Write
When there is no one to talk

I Confuse
myself at times

I Need
to be remembered

I Should
believe in myself

I Finish
whenever i can

I am Sure
Life is not meant to be like this... It means more than living day in day out...It is meant to be for something else... someone ought to be watching... and laughing at the way we made it out to be.

I am Not
Just somebody else

Phew...
All done.. and i need to ask..
How the hell do I tag someone else..

Ppl, if you know.. please comment.

Rains to Remember

This has been second time in 7 days...

-Eventful story ahead...

Rains Rains Rains...

It was last friday I walked home from Mulund station to home... due to trains being jammed. The memories were fresh in my mind when I was walking on the tracks, drenched in rains, today.

Last friday was destiny... today was stupidity...

Chapter 1

We left office at 6... tried our luck with the cab.. but as usual.. the cab Maharajahs had some other important appointments to meet... I mean.. they decided not to take us in.. but rather stay gossiping about God knows what... Then finally got into an auto and went towards Mulund...
We took the dharavi route to sion to catch the express way.. but it was already 7 by the time we touched sion. I had a colleague with me and I kept telling him.. it was a bad idea.

It was raining heavily and enough for us to get wet sitting inside the Auto. As we were passing the BKC road towards Dharavi.. I noticed so many people asking us.. if we were headed towards bandra station and could split the auto. It is really sad that we have to put up with the govt. that does nothing for the roads and transportation.. to make it comfortable.. that we now have to be on the mercy of the autowalas and the taxiwalas to help us reach our place..

I mean.. ARENT THEY SUPPOSED TO TAKE ALL FARE!!!

Anyways.. it was their day... I decided to go to Mulund station and would get a easy train to thane... since I fancied better chance getting auto from station than the check naka to my place.. I surely added 30 more minutes to my journey.. but that would have presumably avoided me to beg for a ride in the auto or worse.. walk home from checknaka.

As I reached Mulund in middle of the heaviest of the jams.. I saw the scene that I had dreaded. Mulund station in knee deep water.. and water flowing from the road - to the station - on to the tracks. I head a woman saying.. no trains in 40 minutes.
DAMN !!!!
I waited for 30 minutes thinking what to do... everyone was waiting on the station .. for the train to come.. It was already 9:00 now. I got a call from my friend saying we have no electricity in our society complex. I decided to get out on the road, rather than waiting for the miracle to happen.
My friend on the other hand, saw a train coming at the station, climbed in it.. he had a quite a bit of journey to make from there...whereas I was just 4 KMS far from my house.
We exchanged goodbyes on phone.. and I decided to walk towards checknaka.
Believe me.. on any other day.. even in the rains.. 4 KMs is not a big deal... not for me..
But the bloody bag with my laptop and stuf.. protecting it on my shoulders was the worst nightmare. There were no streetlights to add to my joyride. I reached home at 10:15 and called my friend. Not so surprised, he was still where I had left him. The train had not moved from there.

It almost felt like a re-visit of 26/7 to me.. but luckily.. not everyone had a bad time.

That was last friday.

Chapter 2

Today, I decided to go home.. after waiting for an hour (from 9:15 am to 10:15 am) at Thane station.. I realized my friend was at the same station. I decided to catch the train and go with him...(I can deal with pain if I have company)

We were standing at the gate..(which is another part of the unforgetfull journey) and getting wet by the rain water coming in as it is..

Our lady luck striked when the train got really slow after Kanjurgmarg.. and eventually stopped. We were busy cribbing about our office.. when later we realised we were actually in the same place for a long time..

I tried looking left right and talk to people.. and we understood that all train services have been stopped. We had trains waiting behind us.. ahead of us and in side of us..none of them thinking of moving. We saw people walking on the tracks to the nearest station that had gone. The thought of getting down again reminded me of past friday.. but having the same laptop hung in my shoulder in the crowded train.. I felt.. walkign freely in rain would be better.

And so me and my friend jumped down and deicided to walk to the nearest station. None of us wanted to go home.. so we decided to catch a movie at the mall.. which due to some luck was near to the station. Having cursed for the next 3 hours.. watching CASH, we came out and deiced to got to office from there.

I know you would now say... I am stupid.. but I was not alone..... I hope i get a concession on the stupidity rating now.. :)

Search for the New House

Got tired looking... I think the real estate market is really bad these days. Never thought the prices were shot up this high. Saw few.. liked few... left all. I mean, comeon.. cant I even get one on my own !!

Today, its been 3 days, my internet@home is down...
cant download, cant share, cant chat, cant LIVE !!!
The last one was just a thought, but if it continues for a week, well.. i am changing my house. This is where my search for a new one comes in... :)

Lately been facing repeated problems with my connection... and unfortunately with no solution. My broadband allows me other (unspoken in community) useful facilities which I may not get with other ISP. My Hubs that I connect and download stuff will be gone if I switch over.

Been used to being connected so much that I think I am living in another generation; it almost feels like early 90s when I used to come home and watch TV with parents. Am sure people still do that even now and will find this really surprising or disturbing (depending who reads it), that I stopped it around a decade back. Nothing against it, but the urge to be connected was more satisfying than the silly bolly soaps with target to empty 10 kits of glycerin per episode.

If it weren't for my cell phone GPRS, i guess I wouldn't have been able to write this too... and vent out my frustration. On Sunday, I told my buddy, this blackout looks like a long haul, and he said, it will get up tonight. Well, as u see... he was wrong. Now even hes worried. Am I always right or what..

I have no idea if the latest Harry Potter Order of the Phoenix DVDRIP is available for download, my hub users might be having a ball.. watching it and I am here in my misery.

Overstated... well YEAH !!!

God knows whats new in the download list....wanted to complete 'Blame it on Rio' for the Sunday popcorn time.... Also had the complete Wonder Years series (all 125 episodes) to share.. plus 4 seasons of Sherlock Holmes.... but I guess the Hub buddies will just have to wait for that a little longer now....

I cant vent out on my local ISP office.. as he has his phone number conveniently run out of service. The guys in their HO chennai have said.. 12 hours wait.... Hope they know they better do it right....

In the mean time searching for a new house.. with a good stable broadband LAN NET connection... only in thane. If you known someone or have one to sell, please reply !!!

Its a long road

Its a long road...when you on your own
- OST First Blood (written & music - Jerry Goldsmith)


Well this song cant be more true today. It really seems a long way where you want to go.. theres the neverending struggle to get there... you sacrifice, hurt people... and in the end you ask yourself.. is anybody winning. Is it really worth it!!!

You dont travel the road which has hurt you again, jsut cause you remember that you trying to find peace of mind.... but then do you realize, that peace of mind is exactly what breaks your heart. Is really anybody winning? You ask yourself..

Its been a long road so far.... and every step you take is still just the beginning. Have you ever felt this before? You ask yourself.

Where does the road lead you? you say, where i want to go... Is that really true?

We are bounded by invisible forces...which is the direct result of of thinking.. and in turn that makes it the direct result of ONESELF. These invisible forces are what makes you take the road and leaves you there .. where you start asking these questions.

The point is, were you ever in control? If "Yes", then you outta be the most stupidest person to lead yourself here... but am sure the answer to most of us is simple "No". You are never in control. The invisible forces take that control from you and make your mind think that its right.

More over its always your selfish self that makes you do things and justify it as holy.

I try my best to be in control of the invisible forces, and i cant. Was it ever meant to be controlled? Who knows.. The only regret is, it makes me do things I dont want to. And I can even justify it in the end that I did it right.

Its a long road, and you're on your own....and it hurts when they tear your dreams apart...

Only if, these invisible forces were not there.. you would do what you wanted to do... not having the selfish gene acting on you... where would you have been... Just a thought..

The curves of economics

I don't know about the rest of you.. but whenever I think about economics.. the only thing that comes to my mind is the curves. The Demand Supply Curve, The Price curve, The Cost curve, The Marginal Utility Curve and The Phillips Curve. Now this could be easily taken as the flirting curve, but to be honest, i think the only thing that made any sense in economics to me were the Curves. Now this is not to take anything away from such an interesting subject, but everything was explained in curves in economics. Maybe I saw it that way cause it never interested me much studying then.
Anyways, how would anyone have understood economics without curves. Please its required.

Now Why am talking about this.....??? No reason at all. It just a thought about the subject, which has so much significance in our lives and all I can really remember about it after studying for 3 years (graduation) and 2 years (MBA) is curves.

Was game theory part of economics?

So tell me, all those NOT done majors in economics and had the chance in life to study it.. what does the subject really remind you of? Comments are welcome.

Yes, this is a random post like all the others and bears no resemblance to anyone living or dead. Just wait till I write about statistics !!!

The Week that was

My past week

I saw Shawshank Redemption, and it would sound strange if i mention I saw it twice in two days. It would sound even more strange that I had already seen it before I started watching it the first time couple days ago.
Not surprisingly, anyone will think I have got time to kill.. but I must mention it was not during office hours. At quarter to twelve.. I am about to sleep and I suddenly feel the urge to watch it.
"Get Busy Living or Get Busy Dying", hats off to Stephen King. Capturing the balance between hope and patience in life, it kept me high for few days now. There are so many great moments in that movie that I think theres not a single frame in the movie thats not great. I think am all set to write a review at IMDB now.

Also, past week, am listening a lot of MJ stuff. Am also posting the infamous Michael Jackson's moonwalker clip. When I was a kid, I used to listen to his music almost the whole day. I had all his music alums, but concert videos were not really accessible. It was only restricted to what the MTvs and the Vs used to show. Now, thanks to the net, I have this, think no other star in the world can do it like he does. Its almost magical. The classic moonwalking step and standing on the tip of his shoes... that ought to be genius...that guy was and will be the King of the Pop. Its really sad the guy has been implicated in child abuse cases. Cant really judge if he did it or not.. but if he can create music like he did.. and if he could dance like he did then he has to be God gifted and for such a person involved in this... only brings sadness.
Anyways... I hope that doesn't take away the credit for the magic that he created.. and am sharing the clip with you.



Wikipedia article on his biography click here.

Have a great day.
---

That thing you do

1. At midnight if I got any energy left to talk, then it must be due to that stupid thing you do. The philosophy of life is so different, but still very cute. Friendship was the natural outcome of that thing you do.
2. You come online .. and share the cam .. not for me to see you.. (*romantic*)..... but to see yourself and keep smiling.
3. You type one word in one line .. just so that i don't think u take too much time to type ... and expect me to scroll from the top of the chat window all the time to understand what u meant to write.
   
4. You believe that friendship is not a multi-level decision to make but a natural outcome of feelings and understandings and that being in friendship is a mutual gift to each other, in our lifetime, rather than keeping multi-faced rules of Dos and Donts !!!
5. You smile and laugh first at your PJ without even caring if the other person is laughing at it or not...
6. You express yourself in the most simplistic way rather than keeping the eccentric view of criticizing everything else.
7. In the middle of the conversation you start singing a song just so that the other person knows what you are listening. Its that stupid thing you do.
8. You will go all the way to talk through any medium, just cause you will appreciate the time and the moments that are more important than anything else.
9. You know whom to trust and how to show someone that you trust; not by saying meaningful things, but by rather not saying anything at all.

Small things get noticed and thats what makes the best memories. This is to remind you that not everyone's perfect and sometimes imperfections are more likable than perfections. Sometimes....
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Ringtones

Walking on the road, and suddenly you hear some soft good music following you.. you are happy and tapping on the beat of the good soft low music... and suddenly you have your friends telling you thats not music, thats your ring tone... bloody pick up the call..
Thats embarrassing !!! You dont know what ringtone you have.. eekss !!! what kinda person are you...

Cant help thinking how can ringtones suddenly become so important part of life. Today, it has slowly become something that identifies you different from others; giving you an identity. It is a style statement.

The list may not be comprehensive, but it will surely serve as pointers.

1. Dont put your ringtone as the song that you like the most. This comes from my personal recommendation. You wont like the song anymore. You will not lsiten to it whenever it plays anyplace else.. and will hate it whenever it plays.. cause the sound of the phone ringing will be enough to make you sick of that music.
   
2. Put a ringtone which has, if not foot tapping, loud clear music, rather than soft romantic tunes.. which start with five seconds of initial silence is golden rule..
   
3. Please DONT put ringtones of babies crying/shouting/laughing. It highly irritates everyone else.
   
4. If people dont admire your ringtone, you probably must listen to them and change it.
   

And, if you dont have a cell phone with a mp3 ringtone option..... my sincere advice is ..... use the VIBRATOR.... (*kust kidding*)

Averse to change

I know very well in my last post, I wrote about ‘Change’ and it didn’t exactly go as intended. But in this post am going to specifically talk about people who are averse to change. I am talking about those stereotyped personalities who think especially since they didn’t discover something on their own; it’s not worth looking at it. It actually goes to the self styled individuals who are ‘Spoilt’ brats in their own individualistic sense and make no attempt to discover the universe beyond their own intellectual capability; those who remain confined to their self belief and are not open to anything “defying conventions”.

God really help such individuals.

Am not against people as such, but am fighting against those people who Refuse Change… people who do not want to be educated, who want to live in their own self defined world which am sorry to say is a most of the time a pit full of garbage. I guess there’s a thin line between being stubborn and being stupid.

In the entire history of life in the planet, we learnt that the only way to grow is by adaptation. You adapt to changes around you. You look at bad things and try and make something good out of it, rather than proclaim it’s your right to ridicule.

I also do not expect everyone to adapt to everything that’s there to be adapted. I know you cannot see a drug addict and adapt to him and try and see good in it. Its to be dealt with common sense. The entire philosophy of change resides with common sense. There is nothing that will tell u what to do and what not to do except for your own judgment and that is where the entire thing falls back to. How do you judge between good and bad, required and not required? It is this distinction that makes you a better person than the other. Well the answer to that is education. From where do you get educated? By doing things differently than they were done before. And how do you know whats good and whats bad? By experience. Not all need to be yours. You can learn from others’ experiences as well.

Apart from that, I think all the scene between Irfan Khan and Konkana sen sharma at the rocks from the movie “Life in a metro” says it all. It is where Irfan tell her about his friend, who has bought a car and kept it in a garage and never taken it out. He says that his friend will take it out only when all the signals on the street are green. Konkana says ..wht an idiot.. if he never takes it out.. how will he ever know if signals are red or green. To this Irfan says,, exactly, how will u ever find out if its good or bad if you never took the car out. “Gaadi Bahar Nikalo” !!!

Have a great day !!!

Mean Machines

Let me just talk about 'Change' for a moment. Over time, things change, people change, situations change, feelings change, places change, ideas change, ideologies change, to cut the long sentence short... EVERYTHING CHANGES. And i think the best way to live is to surrender to changes... consider it inevitable way of life.

Now coming to the reason why am talking about Change.

I have had 3 great changes in my life so far, and with each change it seems like a generation of difference.

First change : a new Pentium 100 (just after school)
Second Change : Pentium 100 to P4 1500 (just after Graduation)
Third Change : P4 1500 to P4 2800 GHZ (Couple years after doing MBA)

I know most people who wanted me to talk about philosophy of change (reading my opening statement) will stop reading from this point onwards. But, yes, am going to talk about my 3 machines which saw me through the age of adolescence to the man I am today.

In 1995, I got my first PC. It was a P100 MHz, 8MB RAM, 1.2 GB HDD, 1.2 MB and 1.44 MB diskette drive. It did not have a soundcard or a CD drive. When I switched it on, it used to give me a black screen. These were the golden screen in back old DOS days. The only windows I had was windows 3.1, which was just another application on DOS. Though later on i did upgrade my ram and got the first next generation OS, i.e. Win95. I could have tea and come by the time it booted. I saw more of the infamous blue screen of windows than the actual windows. I loved whatever I had, was content and life was fun. Though I always thought their next version should be called 'Doors' rather than 'Windows', but they had other things in their minds... with the year naming convention.

Well, after using it for almost 5 years, having spend a ton already, i decided to get the latest. Got a P4, monster with 128 MB RD RAM, a DVD drive and a great 3D card.

I was really happy with my piece.. after all i had decided exactly what to buy and it was the greatest combo. I browsed like i never did, watched video, frankly never ever upgraded this one till it gave away.


Am with this new ultra mean monster for now.. on which am writing this post. I can write pages on how my life was changed in these 3 changes. With is 2800 megahertz raw power, a dvd writer, 160 GB HDD and 1GB of ram space that is enough for most of my loved ones (apps) to sleep inside. Hope could get enough room in my house too... :)
So compared from my first machine (12 years back) to the current one (1 year back) is alteast 30 times faster, has 128 times more memory and 133 times more space. Guess if Moore's law applies. Well thats for you to find out... This is a tribute to my Mean Machines...

SE K750i vs Nokia 6233

i never thought, i will settle for SE... specially after being with nokia for so long.
having had nokia from 3310 days.. and using N70 now... i have had a fab journey..

but recently went lookign for a cell for my dad.. and after series of casual arguments with my friends on SE over Nokia, i decided to take a plunge towards SE.

let me tell you that SE K750, even now, gives a good run for money to many other phones around. With the price under Rs. 10K, the only other nokia model that came close was the 6233. Having stereo speakers to boast of, and even after the sales man tryign to hard-sell nokia, i still went for SE simply for its looks.
Am trying my best to be un-biased, since i have N70 myself, i feel a phone which was launced in 2005, gave some great features whcih even today phones are struggling for.
Though, the video recording is not good as compared to Nokia, the music and features are way beyond. Panorama mode was the best.

anyways.. i went in for the style within my budget... and am very happy at the end of it for my choice.
I almost hated not taking nokia, but SE won this time in this range of-course...:)