Whims published...

Preparing for Auroville Marathon

2012-01-23T17:20:00.000+05:30

On 12th Feb is the 5th edition of Auroville Marathon, an annual event held in the Auroville campus. If everything goes as I expected, I would be running my first ever Full Marathon [42.195 Kms] there. Having bitten by this long distance running bug since 1.5 yrs, I have run many half marathons [which includes many practice sessions]. A Full Marathon is going to be a big challenge for me. For many novice runners, running a marathon is a dream, for some, it is one of the entrants in the wish list of their lives! Frankly speaking, I am not feeling any such thing about it. I am pretty anxious about finishing it that’s all. Neither Auroville Marathon is a timing event, nor I have an earlier timing to improve in Full Marathon. Hence I have nothing to lose, as long as I manage to complete the distance.

I have been practicing hard for the event from last 1.5 months. Sad to say, I was never able to run a Full Marathon in my practice sessions. I can run a Half Marathon comfortably. I have pushed my limits to 33-35 Kms once. The thought of last to last weekend practice session demotivates me! I had run Half Marathon and then ran for some 20-25 mins more. I had reached the farthest end of GKVK campus. I stopped for a sip of water and just did not feel like running after that! I wasn’t really tired; I could have surely run for another hour or so. But I just got bored! There was no company of fellow runners that day. Usually I do not carry any music players while running, so though I was capable of running few more kilometers, but damn.. I just got bored running. It took me 30 minutes to reach the place where I had parked my bicycle. This very thought of boredom while running scares me. I think it is high time I accept running too needs a motivating partner like in gymming. I am sure this problem will never occur in an actual event. With so many fellow runners, with runners motivating each other, with some music and dhol played at frequent intervals, I am sure, the milieu will be as exciting as ever.

Rajendra, an interesting person and my new friend from my cab, suggested me this website by Hal Higdon, a marathon runner and a coach. It is a very useful site for Marathon enthusiasts with many training programs under different categories. All the training programs Hal Higdon suggests are of 4.5 months duration. I do not have so much time left to take this training up. I better stick to my learn-from-mistakes-regime for rest of the days and perform well in the event.

No Reservations - Movie Reco

2011-12-30T12:45:00.001+05:30

Dir: Scott Hicks

Cast: Aaron Eckhart, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Abigail Breslin

There are these special movies that make you feel good after watching them. ‘No Reservations’ is one such movie.

After watching 5 movies by a famous Hollywood director whichrequired thorough analysis, brain storming, reading reviews after reviews andthen re-watching them again, I felt a bit tired. I was dying to watch somethinglight, something soothing and I could not have asked something better than ‘NoReservations’. In a way, rom-coms are pretty much predictable; this one is notan exception. But what makes some rom-coms special and deserves multipleviewing is, the apt cast at the core, blended with crisp humour, garnished withdelightful music running in the background, then served fresh to the audience.Oh... well, No Reservations is lot about cooking too :)

It stars Catherine Zeta-Jones as Kate a bachelorette Chef, who isjust too serious about her passion - cooking. She works diligently in thekitchen of a NY restaurant, who believes she is the best cook in the city,throws tantrums on customers when they nitpick about her dishes, in turn invitingthe rough relationship with the owner of the restaurant. She attends counselingsessions upon insistence by her restaurant owner often wishing ‘there was acookbook for life’. Kate’s sister dies in an accident and gets to take care ofher sister’s young daughter Zoe (brilliantly played by cute girl - Abigail Breslin). Initially Kate fails to cope-up playing the role of a caretaker for herniece who is missing her dead mother terribly. There enters Nick (Aaron Eckhart), the newlyappointed chef by the restaurant owner as a replacement for a pregnantchef. Nick considers working under Kate is an honor. But, Kate is unhappy overNick’s unorthodox working style, she is even insecure that Nick might take overher kitchen. Over the skirmishes with Nick, Kate learns to let her hair down;she even learns few lessons on parenthood from him. What follows after that ispretty predictable, but thoroughly enjoyable.

For me, a good movie is all about those special moments in it.Remember the scene where Julia Roberts asks Hugh Grant “After all... I'm just a girl,standing in front of a boy, asking him to love her” in Nottinghill.Remember Richard Gere saying, ”When you're not fidgeting, you look verybeautiful...” to Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman or Julie Delpy enacting atelephonic conversation with Ethan Hawke who would be sitting right opposite toher in Before Sunrise. No Reservations too leaves you with memorablescenes that you would just not forget. There is a scene in the movie where Nicktries to kiss Kate in front of Zoe at the dining table. Kate turns her faceaway saying, ‘not in front of Zoe’. To which Nick says to Zoe, ‘I am now goingto kiss your aunt’. Then Zoe covers her face saying, ‘OMG, this is soembarrassing’. I liked the expression on Zoe's face so much that I watched this scene many times.Every time I watch it, it never failed to convert the smile on face into adelightful grin.

Aaron Eckhart is very impressive in the movie. Check out the waydelivers those smart lines, the way he uses his charm to flirt with Zeta-Jones.I have never liked Zeta-Jones this much earlier. The young girl AbigailBreslin is adorable too. Watch this movie when you are feeling little heavy in thehead after a boring day at office, you will surely hit the sack smiling.

Itsy-bitsies

2011-12-21T23:45:00.000+05:30

Did you guys notice the striking similarity between the teenage sister(?) of Nargis Faqri named Mandy in the movie Rockstar and French actress Audrey Tautou; The female who played the lead role in the movies Amelie and The Da Vinci Code. I was already smitten by Audrey Tautou and now by this Mandy! Talking of Audrey Tautou, the movie I fell for her is neither Amelie nor Da Vinci Code. In fact, I am a ‘Dan Brown Agnostic’, when my friends who had read the novel were enjoying the movie in theatre, I had fallen asleep! The movie that cast the magic on me was Priceless, a French rom-com which I watched in UTV World Movies some time ago. It is a nice little movie with this cute actress in it. I would like to take the name of Priceless in the same breath as that of Pretty Woman and Nottinghill, for its high cuteness quotient. Watch this movie without a miss.

Since I mentioned Rockstar, I must say I liked the movie incredibly. Was unable to mention in my blog as the post on it has been the state of draft for quite some time and I am failing miserably to transcend my thoughts about the movie into words.

I know it is quite late to comment on the music of Rockstar after many people admiring it and some calling it an average work of A R Rahman. But I will comment about the film’s music anyway as I have taken the name of the movie. Remember the song ‘Masakkali’, the first hit song in Mohit Chauhan ARR combo? I remember watching the interview of ARR during the release of Delhi-6 in one of the news channels. When the interviewer asked who is ARR’s favourite contemporary singer, ARR mentioned the name of Mohit Chauhan and even hummed his favourite song by Mohit Chauhan - ‘tum se hi..’ from Jab We Met. I was not very surprised by what ARR said, because it is very common for celebs to say their most recent work being their best and to take the artist’s name they have last worked with as their best colleague ever, as they would be paid to promote their recent work. With my limited knowledge of music, I do not think Mohit Chauhan is an accomplished singer, although there is a sect of film music to which his distinct voice and style of singing suits perfectly. After all, to score a match winning century in cricket you do not need to be a technically perfect batsman. I was amazed to see almost all the songs in Rockstar being sung by Mohit Chauhan. Not sure if ARR has used the any other singer so extensively in any single movie before. I no more doubt ARR. Mohit Chauhan must be his favourite contemporary singer. I must also say, listen to ‘Naadan parindey..’ carefully. It is sung by both ARR and Mohit Chauhan. In few places, it is difficult to say who is who. In high notes, their voices blend beautifully in unison.

I took part in 5th Bangalore Midnight Marathon which was held on 10th December. I finished the half marathon with my personal best timing of 2 Hours 7 mins and 58 secs. It was really an amazing feeling to run in the night with so many of enthusiastic runners. The energy really was infectious.

Got to read a quote by Javed Akhthar in TOI recently, which perfectly sums up the debate of who is the master of one’s destiny. “Your life is designed by three important factors – circumstances, coincidences and you. At any given moment, any of the three could be the chief designer”.

There is a scene in ZNMD where Farhan insists Hrithik and Katrina to take a stroll after dinner, so that he can share some private time with Nooria. On their long walk, during their conversation about the ‘type’ of guy Katrina prefers, Katrina blames Hrithik that he belongs to the type of guys who considers money as the only important thing in life. To which Hrithik retorts, “don’t judge me, you don’t know me”. I found this statement ‘very much mine’. I have said the same thing in the past many a times to different people under different circumstances. Is it the itch to shout out that I am off the herd, an exception to the generalization.. a craving for distinctness.... Hmmm...

The mention of ZNMD makes me write that it is really amazing that Farhan Akhar is associated with all the three best male bonding movies in Bollywood according to me. He forayed into direction with DCH, then he acted in Rock On!!, which was directed by Abhishek Kapoor, lastly he has acted in yet another brilliant movie on male bonding with ZNMD, directed by his sis Zoya.

It has been quite some time since amma is staying [vacationing] in my native. This has rekindled my passion for learning cooking. I have been trying out few of the dishes on my own with some useful tips from akka. I am glad that there has not been a disaster till date. I believe any person with good amount of common sense can never be a bad cook, but to be a really good cook, you need to have real talent man...

Whenever I prepare some dish which has come out pretty good, I keep it in fridge sticking a small note on the door of the fridge for my cousin to taste it. My cousin who stays in our home works in night shifts. Since I hardly get to speak to him during the weekdays, the sticky notes has been the effective medium of communication between us. These handwritten sticky notes reminded me of amma teaching me to write letters to my aunts and cousins during my school days. I used to be really happy when I used to get the reply for my letters. The advent of email and SMS has killed the communication through postal letters. The joy of seeing those cute handwritten paragraphs, the crossed lines, the corrected misspelt words is certainly irreplaceable. I feel there was warmth in that medium of communication... the emails and SMSs look pale, cold and impersonal in comparison.

An old A R Rahman song

2011-12-19T00:42:00.001+05:30

Good that I checked my mobile just before starting my car. Basu had messaged to carry my small portable speakers [as I do not have a music system in my car yet]. I went back and got my speakers hoping that it has enough charge to last for few hours during our drive. My friend Basu and me had planned a day's trip to Kolar. More than the destination, both of us actually wanted a nice drive on an open road.

Basu had got his iPod. He connected my speakers to the iPod and asked me what kind of music I wanted to listen, he was all set to be the DJ during the drive. Off late, I have gotten bored of my own selection of music. It's my own predictable set of choices that has bored me! Knowing Basu since little more than a decade, I had total faith in his taste for music, I told him to play anything he liked. He was "mixing" it well with few recent Kannada numbers, some ARR Tamil hits and few Hindi hits. Then he played this Tamil number 'Kannukku Mai Azhagu'. I had never heard it before. He told me it's an ARR number. He told me to guess the singer. Since the song sounded pretty old, my mind started matching the voice with some of ARR's favourite female singers. It wasn't Sadhana Sargam, It wasn't certainly Chitra, It wasn't Kavitha Krishnamoorthy. I am not even sure if Kavitha Krishnamoorthy has sung any Tamil song for ARR. Then Basu said, it is P Susheela. Waaww, that's really a rare combo.

Googling a bit about the song, I got to know the song is from the movie Pudhiya Mugham (1993). The song has a male solo version too by Unni Menon. ARR has used the same tune in the Hindi movie Vishwa Vidhaata (1997). There the song, 'nazaron ke milne se' is sung by Kavitha Krishnamoorthy.

The tune is very very soothing. Those were the days after Roja, when ARR used to use minimalistic musical instruments, used to use all well established singers of music industry. Though the song sounds pretty much like a lullaby, it is a romantic song with very beautiful lyrics. Check out the translation here.

I know I sound pretty old in saying this, I doubt such an amazing tune and lyrics fit into the scheme of things in today's music in movies :-/

Meryl Streep

2011-12-13T17:29:00.000+05:30

Watched Adaptation last night.May be I will go gaga over Charlie Kaufman’s script in my coming posts, butcould not resist posting about Meryl Streep. I have seen handful of moviesof this elegant lady. In each of these movies, there were moments when I havesaid to myself ‘Waw… this is it. This role could have never been played by anyother actress on earth’. I just wonder how her expressions and gestures can beso unique and precise. Just a sigh, a smirk, a heave, a shrug, a huff, an emptysmile, a happy smile, a sad smile, not-so-happy-smile, i-am-not-falling-for-your-jokes-smile,I-am-a-married-woman-knowing-my-limits-smile, wait-I-am-thinking-smile, anuninhibited laughter, a nervous laughter, I-am-on-high-laughter, the wave of ahand, just by looking away, by slightly shifting her body weight on one of herlegs, just by leaning against the wall, by repositioning her slightly slidspectacles, just by touching the rim of her hat to make sure it is in place…. such minute nuances and she conveys a lot. No wonder this female has got maximum number ofnominations to Academy Awards and Golden Globe, at the same time, I feel sadshe has won only 2 Academy awards and just 7 Golden Globe. She should have won it everytime she got nominated!

For all the actresses of ourIndian cinema who yearn for a role in parallel cinema, or the role of a psycho killer or a prostitute toshowcase their acting prowess, they should learn it from Meryl Streep to playany ordinary character extraordinarily.

Image courtesy: Simply Streep Media

Phantoms In The Brain by V S Ramachandran

2011-12-07T10:16:00.001+05:30

There is a famous quote in PauloCoelho’s ‘The Alchemist’ which goes like, “When you want something, all the universeconspires in helping you to achieve it”. I would like to alter this statement slightly, “When you got to read a book, all theuniverse conspires to lead you to it”

I first came across this bookwhen a friend of mine blogged about it few years ago. After some time Ashwin,another friend of mine recommended it to me. Though it is a fascinating subjectto know about our brain, I had relegated picking this book up, thinking itmight be too much of neuroscientific jargon for me. But I was wrong, now Irepent not reading it much before. The author of the book, V S Ramachandran isa credible neuroscientist who has proposed his own theories in the field ofneuroscience and has solved many of the mysteries behind the working of thehuman brain.

When my father was paralyzed,there were instances when he moved his paralyzed left hand and leg whileasleep. He even used to raise the left arm involuntarily when he used to yawn.This always made me wonder, how the brain could make his hand/leg moveinvoluntarily on these particular occasions but fail to do so when he wishesto. When I told about this to the doctor who used to treat him, he had given aplain reply – ‘it happens some times’. I am not sure, if the doctor did notwant to explain me the complications of the mechanism in brain, or was he not awareof the actual reason for it. I found the answer for that in this book!

Ramachandran, an ardent believerof simple and inexpensive experiments, conducts many such experiments on hispatients and presents many of the interesting case studies to the readers. Takefor example the finger agnosia - where apatient fails to recognize which of his finger is being touched when blindfolded, dyscalculia – a stroke patient who understands the concept of large andsmall numbers but fails miserably to do simple addition and subtraction, idiotsavant syndrome – an autistic patient’s ability to generate a series of largeprime numbers, an epileptic patient who claims to have realized ‘the truemeaning’ of life and could converse with God after an episode of major temporallobe seizure, a patient whose brain was normal in seeing and identifying staticobjects but could not identify motion after a brain injury and the patientswith phantom limbs – the major interest area of Ramachandran. These cases mightappear crazy initially but Ramachandran says when physicists say these arecrazy, it is their failure to understand how brain functions. And he digs deepinto these exceptional cases in letting us understand the mystery behind some ofthe cases or leading to some significant clues behind some insolvable cases.

Throughout the book, the authorgenerously quotes from Omar Khayyam to Upanishads to Charles Darwin to SherlockHomes to Bhagavadgeeta, which made me awe at his areas of interests. Ramachandranis as good a curious human being with wonder-eye as he is a neuroscientist.This serves as the constant undertone in the book, which appealed to me themost. He knows the art of explaining complicated things in a simple manner to alayman, with his great sense of wit it makes the book a very fascinating read.

There were sections in the book,which I found little difficult to understand. For example, some of the sectionson interpretation of vision by brain and the last chapter where Ramachandran explainsconsciousness and qualia. My favorite chapter in the entire book was ‘God andthe Limbic System’. There are some serious questions raised here about theregion in the brain which makes us an atheist or theist [believe me, in one ofthe speeches by Ramachandran in youtube, I have seen him introducing thespecial case of a patient whose one hemisphere was atheist and another hemispheretheist!!], what makes a human being a great artist/musician/mathematician, howdifferent is his brain from normal human being, what “makes” it different? Thenhe touches upon the evolution of human brain, Darwin’s natural selection ofspecies, Wallace’s counter argument to Darwin where the former orients towards ‘divineintervention’ in making some brains special (?!). This is a chapter I wouldlove to read it again and again.

It’s astonishing to see somepatients turning into great painters after epileptic seizures. I have even readsomewhere an honest man turning into a con after brain damage! This raises thebasic question of ‘Who am I?’ If a brain damage can change my personality, mywhole perspective of the world, of the right and wrong, ‘Who am I?’, ‘What ismy identity?’ When I was listening to a discourse by Osho some time back, herefers to the rules and prejudices that are imposed upon us by our culture andsociety as if some person inside our brain is commanding our actions. What ifthere is one such thing..?!! Ramachandran too says some of our reflexes arecontrolled by ‘zombies’ inside our brain!!! Like I thought, did u also thinkabout the movie Inception here..? Where the seed of an idea can be planted insomebody’s brain..? Think over, it’s time for you to scratch your head J

Thanks to Tess for lending me this book.
Do read it without a miss. It’s adelightful book.

PS: I was hopingRamachandran would shed some light on another mysterious topic - dreams. Whichis not mentioned in this book.

Time for some chest beating :)

2011-11-18T15:06:00.001+05:30

The official ranking of Ultra Marathon 2011 was announced today. I came 20th in my category 12.5 Kms, which had 311 contenders. As mentioned in my previous post, I expected to finish within top 50, but it turned that I had really performed well :)

Below is the info available from Timing Technologies India

Bib	Name	Gender	Category	Rank	Category Rank	Net Time
1179	ANANTHA MADHAVA	Male	Open	26	20	01:17:47
To share your Timings on Facebook				Share

Below is a pic of mine collecting the finisher medal

Bangalore Ultra Marathon 2011 – It’s tough, are you?

2011-11-14T00:11:00.001+05:30

The 5th edition of the Ultra Marathon which was held at Our Native Village at Hesaraghatta [as always] yesterday was my first Ultra. As mentionedin my previous blog post, I had reduced my running category from 50Kms to12.5Kms considering the state of my left foot. This was more of a safety net Ichose for in case I could not complete 50Kms on the race day, I did not want myname in the list of DNF [Did Not Finish]. Though my new category was of 12.5Kms, at the back of my mind I had a thought to run few extra miles andcomplete 25Kms. Well, Ultra allows that. Only thing is, the timing certificatewill still be given for the officially registered category.

I woke up 5AM in the morning and left home around 5:20AM towardsHesaraghatta. Though people had suggested me to take the road viaYelahanka-Rajanukunte, the route was quite unfamiliar to me. I did not want torisk it and reach late for the race. I took the Hebbal-Goragunte Palya-TumkurRoad route instead. The directions to the venue were very clear and descriptivein the Racer’s Kit. The frequent hoardings by the side of the road guided mewhenever I was in doubt. Ultra as well as RFL insists on car pooling. I wasmore than willing to share my car / take a ride to the venue, but most of myrunning acquaintances living close to my house were going on their own. Ithought it would be foolish to share my car with some strangers in the weehours by posting an ad in the site or anything.

12.5Kms category was to start at 7AM. I reached the venue around6:45AM. As soon as I reached I realized that it would be a trouble to carry mycar keys with me while running. My running shorts did not have pockets. I wasready to keep my wallet and mobile phone in the car but where would I keep thecar keys. The lesson learnt is that I should have gotten my waistband to carrythis little stuff while running. Luckily the wrist band I was wearing couldhold the car keys! I stuck my keys inside the wrist band and noted in my mindto keep checking the car keys while running. Going to the race ill-equipped islike not able to learn that one important theorem before going to the Mathsexam. I pinned by BIB to my t-shirt and headed towards the start point. All the12.5Kms guys were given red colored bib, green for 25Kms and I think purple for50Kms and more.

The start point was quite far from the parking place. The 75Kms,100Kms race had begun at 5AM and 37.5Kms, 50Kms race 6AM. The specialannouncements about the senior citizen’s participation, people who shared theirbirthdays with the race day and participation of last year’s winners went onfor a while. There were also instructions about the refreshment counters at thefrequent intervals of the trail. I was surprised to see not many peoplestretching when race was about to begin in few minutes. I did a bit ofstretching which is very very necessary before the long distance running. Itwas time to say, ‘on your mark, get set, go!’ Like all the marathons, thepeople crowd a lot in the initial 2-2.5Kms, which curtails the speed and henceaffects the time of people who run little faster than the aam-junta. Imanoeuvred to attain my normal pace of running. The initial 2-3 Kms of race routealways sifts the grains from the chaff. What remains after that is seriouslytrained runners. And I must say, there was very less chaff in Ultra. After all,Ultra is known for its tough trail and only the trained runners participate inthis.

I had caught a guy who was running with pretty good pace that Icould keep up with. He kept pulling me for quite some distance. I think after5Kms of running, there was a slope where that guy maintained his normal speedand I had to slow down. Many 12.5Kms runners overtook me as well asparticipants from different category who were on their 2nd lap of the race. Forthe next 5kms or so, a colleague of mine and me kept overtaking each otheralternatively. It inspires me when such a runner is around. This went on for awhile. I slowed down to sip some electrolyte at a refreshment counter. By thenmy colleague took a significant lead over me. I think around 7Kms [I do notremember this precisely] the runners had to take U-turn of the lap. My timingchip tied to my shoes beeped for the 2nd time when I stepped over the magneticmat, the first time was when I started. My white running shoes had turned redbecause of the mud on the trail. The return from the U turn to the startingpoint was getting tougher and tougher because of the Sun. I had startedsweating profusely. I kept hydrating myself with more liquid at the refreshmentcounters. An old problem revisited. The chapped nipple! The friction with theT-Shirt causes chapped nipple to long distance runners. There was a severe burningsensation in my right nipple. For me, it is always the right nipple that gets chappedmore. Being a rightie, I think it is to do with the way I swing my right armmore while running. Runners usually apply lubricant to their nipples to avoidthis. I prefer putting a band-aid over the nipples to avoid the friction. I hadforgotten this on the race day. I kept asking for the band-aids in therefreshment counters. The two of the counters did not have it. I kept runningin pain towards the finish line of the lap.

The board on the way read 10Kms. I looked at my wrist watch. I hadtaken exactly 1 hour to complete 10Kms. That was not my best timing. I had lostpace because of pain and also merciless Sun. I was left with 2.5Kms more. Imade up my mind not to let more than 3 runners overtake me till I cross thefinish line. I think that was too ambitious of a strategy. Within the next 1Km, more than 5 strong runners overtook me.

I put all my energy towards reaching the finish line. Diya burnsbright before it dies . I went past the final curve to the finish line. I couldhear people cheering the finishers. I pushed myself hard to reach the finishline. Made sure nobody overtook me from that point. Ran under the arch towardsthe point where we had started our race from. I could hear a female announcingon the microphone, “Here we have another 12.5Kms finisher”. One of thevolunteers presented me the finisher medal. I looked at my watch. I hadcompleted 12.5Kms in 1 hour 17 minutes. Not bad, but not good either. Ultraannounces the position and the timing of each of the participant in 2-3 days.Will I hold a position within first 50 runners off the 300+ runners? Well thatwould be too much to hope for.

By the way, with these many thoughts running in my mind, soon afterreceiving the medal, I returned for the 2nd lap. I had made up my mind tocomplete 25kms. The burning Sun had turned more violent in the 2nd lap. I hadreduced my pace significantly. My right nipple’s complaint was still notaddressed. I held the front of t-shirt little away from the chest for a while.But this was just the temporary solution. The moment I let my t-shirt touch mychest, the pain used reoccur. I had started feeling hungry. I munched pieces ofsandwiches, oranges and drank lot of water at the refreshment counters. Iran really slow towards the U-turn of the lap. Thank God, the refreshmentcounter there had the band-aids. I stuck two of them to cover my right nippleproperly. This avoided the friction and pain vanished. That does not mean, Istarted running well after that. In fact, I was just pushing my body too hardto complete 25Kms.

Umpteen number of participants overtook me. Kudos to theirzeal and fitness levels. After 16Kms or so, I stopped running and startedwalking. Thinking that it would be a good break for my legs and then to startagain. I usually never do this. The problem with this approach is it breaks themomentum. The more I walk, the more difficult I find it to resume my running. Ikept run-walk-run-walking for few more kilometres. I saw the board that read22.5Kms. I was left with 2.5 Kms more to finish my first ever 25Kms mark in anofficial marathon. I decided not to walk any more till I reach the finish line.I tried to gear up. But my legs were too tired to run anymore. My hands weregesturing of a run but my speed was nothing more than a brisk walk. Few runnershad gathered around a fainted runner!! The help by the doctors and themedication was timely I hope. The delay in these situations could prove fatal.The doctors there said runner’s pulse rate was very low. I felt sad for theperson. I stood there for a while. A doctor injected him to bring him back toconsciousness. I started running again.

Somehow, I managed to reach the finish line. I had finished 25Kmsin 3hours 27 mins! That means, for the 2nd lap of 12.5 Kms I had taken close to2hours 15 mins. 1 hour more than my first 12.5Kms. That is pathetic.

To sum up my first experience in Ultra, I ran 12.5Kms successfullyand barely managed to complete 25Kms.

I'm back!

2011-11-03T11:38:00.000+05:30

It has been over an year since Iblogged. Now that I have rediscovered for the umpteenth time that hardly anyconversation satiate my desire to communicate, the desire to be heard, I amback to my blog. Well, the problem could be with my conversational skills or itcould be with the receptors or both. The former problem makes me shout aptly,“jo bhi main kehena chahoon, barbaad kare alfaaz mere…. ”. Needless to say I lovethis song. “Oh ya ya yaaa”…

Just to give you readers aglimpse of my life in the last one year, aanu expired on 7^th ofOctober. It made me think about suffering and death more seriously. I scrapedthrough doctrines, blogs, books for answers pointlessly. Unsatisfied with anyanswer, I quit that, more like the way I have quit many quests in the past withoutreaching the goal, without finding the answer.

Nothing much has changed in lifeotherwise. We shifted house from Malleshwaram to Sahakaranagar. Since then myrunning trail has been shifted from Sankey to GKVK campus. More about myrunning escapades later. I learnt driving and bought a second hand car. I canmanage through the traffic of Bangalore now. Off late I have realized drivingin the traffic is nothing less than a torture. It is not the traffic that isunbearable but the impatience of the fellow drivers on road which irks me themost. I got to read a quote from Jaggi Vasudev which goes like, “You live theway you drive”. I found this statement very intriguing. I am thinking ofsticking this quote at the back of my car. I do not expect the fellow driversto read this and get transformed by reading it, but I have a feeble hope thatthere might be some guy who thinks before he honks unnecessarily or overtakesfrom the left, after reading the sticker at the back of my car. I am quite acynic in these matters. I have no hope that anything would transform anybody soeasily because, if it could, it should have happened by now.

Oh, about my long distancerunning, I am into this madness but without any method yet. One of thementionable achievement has been finishing 600 odd amongst the 5000 odd runnersin TCS 10K run that was held on 5^th June. That was my firstparticipation in a recognized running event too. After that the long distancerunning taught me that there has to be a method to this madness. Stretching thebody limits is not an easy task. My mistakes have earned me a stress fracturein my left foot. I have stopped running since 1^st August. Thepersisting pain has made me visit a Sports Medicine Specialist. Right now Iam in the middle of physiotherapy and ultrasound sessions. The injury made meskip Kaveri Trail Marathon. I had registered for Wipro 10K Run also. The footwas not so bad; I could have taken part in it. But, my enthusiasm to runnosedived on the previous night of the event, because I did not feel like goingto Sarjapur all the way from Sahakaranagar! Moreover, amma had said she willprepare masala dosa for breakfast. I did not want to miss amma’s masala dosafor a marathon!! Knowing the current situation of my injury, I have reduced mycategory of run from 50Kms to 12.5Kms for Ultra Marathon on 13^thNovember. I am hoping my left foot allows me to complete 12.5Kms on the raceday without any problem and also hoping that amma does not prepare masala dosafor the breakfast that day J

Dat’s pretty much of an update..will keep posting regularly from now on…

I'm a social investor now!

2010-10-07T00:28:00.000+05:30

Ever since Muhammad Yunus got a Nobel Peace Prize in 2006, the idea of Microfinance has always fascinated me. I think Microfinance as one of the earnest modes of economic inclusion of the poor and needy people. I was more than happy when I was introduced to Rang De through Srinidhi. After a bit of initial hesitation and procrastination, I decided to become a social investor by lending Rs.5000/- through Rang De.

I let Rang De decide the borrowers for my investment. Below are the profiles of two borrowers, both from Orissa who are going to be benefited by my money.

I will be more than happy if both Tara Bai, Khileshwari and many such women in India are able to setup / flourish their businesses by the concept of Micro Finance. Read the FAQs in Rang De if you are interested in becoming a social investor. Watch this interesting video about Rang De too.

An interesting categorization

2010-10-04T23:27:00.000+05:30

While watching a special report on the South Indian cinema in CNN IBN recently, an interesting quote by former underworld don, currently an editor and a film maker Agni Shridhar caught my attention. When the talk was about the type of movies and it’s categorization, instead of the stale terms like art, commercial, parallel etc, Agni Shridhar says, "For me, there are only two types of cinema. One which makes you remember things and the other which makes you forget things"

Now, that’s a very very interesting and profound saying. I leave that to you for your understanding...

Did you know this about Big 10 bus logo?

2010-08-28T00:18:00.000+05:30

Well, for those who already know this, this could be a 'duh' post. But for those who did not, the creativity behind the Big 10 bus logo will surely amaze you.

I think Big 10 buses which ply between some important city locations were introduced in late 2008 or early 2009. I wonder how come I never got the amazing creativity behind their logo design, until my friend Hemanth told this recently. It is quite common that every one reads Big 10 in English fonts, but to get amazed tilt your head to the left and read it again...

Don't you see the letter B as 'bi' in Kannada and the letters I and G when combined as ardhaakshara 'ga' in Kannada..? Isn't that awesome..? We all must have seen some amazing logos of international brands with calligraphic designs and negative spaces, but to combine two different languages and making such a logo of this kind is really laudable. Dig Design Studio has designed it. Hats off to those guys.

Watched Pantha in Ranga Shankara

2010-08-26T00:57:00.003+05:30

Watched Pantha, a Kannada play in Ranga Shankara yesterday. The play is an adaptation of Anton Chekov’s short story named ‘The Bet’. The play is directed by Prof Sudhindra Sharma, belongs to the genre of narrative theatre and CheSwa [Chennabasava Swamy Hiremath] alone plays the roles of narrator, lawyer and the banker.

It all starts as a serious conversation between the intellectuals at a dinner party, the topic of conversation being the best between death sentence and life sentence. This turns int to The Bet between a young Lawyer and a rich Banker, with the former agreeing to lock him self up in a room for 15 years to prove his argument right and Banker agreeing to pay Rs. 2 crores if the Lawyer succeeds to do so. One of the terms of the bet would be that, Lawyer could request for any number of books of his interest to the Banker and the Banker would provide them on time. With Lawyer reading lots and lots of books during his self imposed imprisonment, the subject of the play ultimately transcends into money vs knowledge. Watch the play to know who or rather what wins at the end.

Both Prof Sudhindra Sharma and CheSwa are talented actors and well known to people who watch Kannada TV serials regularly. CheSwa plays the role of Dheeraj in the serial, Muttina Torana. I have seen monologues before. It is really a tough job for a single actor to entertain the audience for the entire duration of the play. This one being a narrative theatre play, CheSwa did a good job of switching the roles and enacting all of them convincingly. In few places I felt he was loud in his gestures, but I think it must have been intentionally done to add the visual impact. But when it comes to the climax of the play, where CheSwa delivers a really lengthy dialogues of the Lawyer, comparing money and knowledge, I wasn’t into the play at that point of time. Some thing in the play had let my attention go. So I did not have the impact of the play at the end. Last but not the least; I must say the lighting was just superb on stage. Try it, it wont disappoint you..

Run bhola run

2010-07-30T16:37:00.001+05:30

Being a fitness conscious person, I have been jogging for quite a few years now, though not regularly on a daily basis. But, distance running is a bug that has bitten me off late. Believe me, distance running is one of the best stress busters! What actually started as a stress buster for me has now become a passion. Sankey being my favorite spot in my neighborhood, I started distance running around Sankey few weeks ago. I usually run there in the late evenings after returning from my office. I cycle to Sankey and run till the Sankey gate closes at 8PM. Quite a few times, I have even ran from my home near Malleshwaram Rly station to Sankey and then after I have finished few rounds around Sankey too. Distance running you see.. ;)

The last Sunday evening I achieved my first ever 10K mark [6 rounds around Sankey] in 52:57 mins. That's certainly not a bad clocking for a starter of distance running. Hoping to better the record both in terms of time and distance some time soon. btw, thanks to RunKeeper for a detailed activity planner.

Some interesting gyan

2010-06-24T16:47:00.001+05:30

My dear friend Jagadish who has also been a guest blogger of my blog in the past, who comments on my blog by names Deva and Anonymous is bitten by philately off late. Or should I say, his craze for it has grown exponentially in the past few months [Jagadish, correct me if I am wrong]. Every time, I chat with him, he proudly passes on the URL of the stamps he has recently bought online. He also shares the collections of other passionate philatelists. One such is a dude named Karthikeyan from Chennai who has some amazing collection of some rare stamps, which he has shared here. Though I still have preserved few stamps that I had collected during my school days, I can not call myself a philatelist when compared to Jagadish and people like Karthikeyan who are more serious and are passionate about this hobby.

Every time I see a collection of stamps, what interests me is the theme of the stamp, rare shapes of it and most of all, the geographic details of the unheard of countries they belong to. I can boast of identifying many such remote islands and countries on the world map now because of this quest of mine. One such island is privately owned island called Sanda Island with a total area of 0.58 square miles (!!), situated at the south of Scotland. Below are the stamps of that island owned by Karthikeyan.

Surprised to see the pics of Gandhiji and paaduke [wooden slippers] on it..!? Though I could not find any information on why Sanda Island is having stamps of our dear Baapu and paaduke, but what blew my mind is that Sanda Island's population is 1!! I mean a single bloody person is living on that island. This sole resident being the European tycoon named Michi Meier who bought this island very recently on 30th March 2010. It seems that the previous owner of the island Dick Gannon, 59, was owning this island for past 20 years! It is also reported that Michi Meier wants to use this island as his bolthole and may not encourage tourism unlike the previous owner Dick Gannon. Read the complete story here. Now you might wonder why some one would release stamps for this one manned island? Find the answer in Wiki here.

Philately is really interesting hobby isn't it..?

Rabba luck barsa!!

2010-06-22T16:06:00.004+05:30

This is the first time I am mentioning Himesh's name in my blog! Let me confess, I have liked his music in movies like Tere Naam, Humraaz, Run, Namastey London, Kyon Ki.., Aksar, Aashiq Banaya Aapne etc etc until he went overboard with his nasal singing and forayed into acting. Albeit the whole world hates him, but there is some thing about his music and singing that is extremely inflicting and deeply penetrative. Or should I say, once you hear his music, you can't get rid off it however hard you try. You try harder and harder to forget that one song and those catchy repetitive words, but the song is going to loop infinitely in your mind for days together. The tune displaces your favourite and often hummable song without your knowledge and the song spills out from your mouth involuntarily! Then you suddenly become conscious about if any one around heard you humming Himesh's latest tune. A recent article in Sunday supplement of Deccan Herald rated Himesh's tunes as one of the top guilty pleasures of Indians!!

Remember the title track of the disastrous movie 'Shakalaka Boom Boom'? Yes, I confess again, that irritating tune had run in infinite loop in my mind for days together. Now is the turn of the tune, 'Rabba luck barsa..' from his yet to be released movie 'Kajra Re'. Watch the video and start singing 'rabba luck barsa... rabba luck luck luck.. rabba luck barsa' :)

Ye maya chesave - it's magical

2010-06-08T01:37:00.002+05:30

This is my first Telugu film reco for you guys. I was prejudiced that Telugu films are only about mass masala run of the mill movies, but I was wrong. I saw 'Ye maya chesave', the Telugu version of Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa. Let me confess that I can understand Telugu in bits and pieces only; I was able to get the complete meaning of the dialogues only when the main characters uttered some lines in English. Forget that, I don't even know exactly does the title mean! I just know, it means some thing similar to 'fascinate me' or some thing of that sort. But there was some thing magical about this movie which surely mesmerized me. Just finished watching it and cudnt resist myself from writing this post.

I wanted to watch this movie badly after reading the review by Hemanth here. A simple 'yes-no-yes' love story is made extremely believable and adorable by Gautam Menon. Hemanth had said, Naga Chaitanya is unlike the other Telugu star sons who are miles ahead when it comes to the screen presence, dancing, stunts and other heroic mannerisms. I totally agree with that. This guy worked for me in this movie, because he does not look like a star! He is 'the perfect' boy next door. He is not great when it comes to acting, but a good director like Gautam Menon can brush his weaker virtues under the carpet. I mean I cudnt think of any hero who could do the role of boy next door so convincingly. Portraying Karthik who is 22 year old mechanical engineer and an aspiring film director - he is not the bravest character who can do any thing for his love, at the same time we get to see his foolhardy traits play peekaboo throughout the movie. He hides inside his house when heroine's parents come to his parents smelling some fishy things happening between Karthik and their daughter. He sheepishly and helplessly sits in the church when his love is about to get married to another guy. He looks coward in those moments. At the same time, this guy follows the heroine all the way till Alleppey just to say sorry! He is even capable of hitting heroine's brother when you least expect him to do it. Though he is just 1 film old and not a gifted actor, but Naga Chaitanya pulls it off!

Coming to Samantha playing Jessie in the movie, she seems to be better equipped with acting abilities than Naga Chaitanya. Samantha looks pleasant on screen and ravishingly beautiful when she is saree clad! How can a guy's heart not skip a beat when she wears all those green and orange sarees. Samantha is made to speak in husky voice in the entire movie (not sure if her voice is dubbed by some one). The way she checks if any known person is checking them out when she is talking to Karthik or the way she pulls back strands of her hair behind her ear lobe, I simply loved it. I was smitten by this lady! Just not the screen 'pleasance', her character is also carefully etched by Mr Menon. Her reaction to Karthik when he proposes her, her mood swings, her tantrums over his profession is all made to look so natural.

Camera work by Manoj Paramahamsa is awesome. The best scene for me is when Jessie calls off the relationship with Karthik in the night near the compound of their house - the light and the shade playing on the faces of Jessie and Karthik and the hand held camera zooming in and out slowly during their entire conversation is amazing. Add some classic background score bits in this scene by ARR - this is my favorite scene in the movie. Talking about the music, few weeks back I had argued with a colleague that ARR's music is not so great in this movie. I eat my words now after watching this movie. I know ARR's music is slow poison, but this is one of the movies where I have liked music more after watching the movie. The frequent bits of violin and guitar being played in the background in many scenes is so apt, just adds to the mood of the scene. I do not remember any recent Indian movie, where the background music is used so effectively. Kudos to Menon for perceiving this and kudos to ARR for proving his brilliance yet again.

This movie is a refreshing tale about first love... Dont miss it.

PS: Now having seen this Telugu version, I am curious about how Simbu and Trisha would have played these roles in Tamil version. I also want to watch it for the sad ending in Tamil version of the movie.

Pic courtesy here

No-Federer-grand slam-semis after 6 years! :(((

2010-06-02T00:36:00.002+05:30

As the battle was heating up with the 16 pre-quartet finalists in Roland Garros for this year's French Open title, I had changed my wallpaper of my comp to the below one.

Federer was cruising through until the quarter finals which ended just few minutes before. Soderling avenged for the loss in last year's French Open finals by defeating Federer in a four setter match. I was left shattered to see Federer losing it so easily to the big serving Swedish giant. This is going to be the 1st grand slam in past 6 years where Federer will not be playing in the Semis! He had appeared in 23 consecutive Semis after 2004 Wimbledon championships. That indeed is sad news for Federer fans.

Being a die-hard Federer fan, I am not looking for excuses for his loss. But this rain hit match was interrupted many times and it is easy for the players to lose concentration and to lose the momentum. Moreover when the match resumes in such conditions, it becomes easy for the big serving guys like Soderling where the ball becomes heavy. It was evident from the serve speed of Soderling which even reached upto 240kmph in last few games. Whatever are those reasons, we have to admit that Soderling adapted well to the conditions and gave no chance for the Master to come back into the match.

With Murray being ousted by lesser known Berdich, Nadal seem to kiss French Open trophy yet again this year. Let's see if Djokovic or Soderling has any plans of devouring the run of 'The Bullfighter'.

Foodies

2010-04-10T00:17:00.000+05:30

If you are a regular TV surfer, the chance of you not hitting Highway On My Plate (HOMP) on NDTV Good Times is very very less. And if you belong to this minority, let me explain what is HOMP. Evident from the title, it is a travel cum food show. The program is hosted by two witty and burly gaurmets named Rocky and Mayur. These guys travel to nook and corner of the country tasting yummy local cuisines in hotels, dhabas, chat streets, bakeries and less likely in star hotels. Basically their quest is, interesting Desi cuisines across India. In the just finished first season of the show, Rocky and Mayur have tasted various dishes from Idlis of Murugan Hotel in Chennai to Tunda kebabs of Lucknow. The show is currently running the successful second season where Rocky and Mayur have gone to phoren to taste the exotic cuisines. Usually in each of the episodes, they travel to a new destination where they cover 2-3 famous hotels. After belting, they neatly lick their fingers and then rate the taste, ambience, service of the hotels. In most of the hotels, they even engage the owners, cooks of the hotels in hearty conversation, where they try to share the information with the viewers about how some special dishes are prepared.

As a matter of fact, I see lot of travel cum food shows. 'Around the world in 85 plates' - hosted by one named Magandeep Singh in NDTV GT again, The Foodie in Times Now, Chak Le India etc etc. But what makes me feel great about this show is the witty one liners Rocky and Mayur deliver spontaneously. I dont think all of those are scripted, in which case they must be good actors and I know they are not. Rocky and Mayur having known each other for 32 years(!!) share a great chemistry on screen. It is quite weird that Mayur being a hard core vegetarian, is one of the hosts of such a show. When both of them get to visit hotels best known for non veg food, Mayur does all the talking about the place, about the ambiance, about the history of the place etc etc but food. Rocky after belting the non-veg, comments on the taste later. On any given day (episode?), both of them keep pulling each others legs, mostly Mayur ending up in the receiving end when it comes to taunts of Rocky about what all Mayur is missing in life by being a vegetarian. It is a great treat to watch them together. Rocky blogs about some of his experiences during the shoot of the show in his blog. Do read to know the pain of being a food show anchor and some serious side of him which you do not get to see while he is hosting the show.

Some of my favorite one liners that I remember right now, cracked either by Rocky or Mayur are - "The closest thing to my heart is my stomach", "Eat till you fall asleep, sleep till you wake up of hunger". What else can you expect from the guys, whose basic mantra in life is 'eat and let eat'. Ohh.. by the way, never miss the faltu food quote at the end of every episode that Rocky and Mayur utter in unison, punching in for-the-sake-of-rhyming words, that never fails to bring a smile on your face, no matter how silly or stupid they sound :)

Sports and Genes

2010-03-17T17:09:00.002+05:30

India was hosting the prestigious Hockey World Cup this time. Media publicized the whole event quite well. Hero Honda roped in Sehwag, Priyanka Chopra and Rajyavardhan Rathore to promote Indian hockey. People had forgotten about the rift that had erupted between the Indian hockey players and the FIH just few months back. Sports enthusiasts were ready to keep aside some time of their TV watching for hockey matches. After plundering their arch rival Pakistan, Indian hockey team got back into their groove with miserable losses against Australia, Spain and England. By the end of the tournament, India managed to finish 8th in the tally table. I do not follow Hockey much, have never touched the hockey stick in my entire life, but that is never a criteria for me to not notice that we guys were never a match to the Europeans, South/North Americans or the Australians in this sports. They were quicker on the field, their passes were precise, they had stronger legs. Our guys looked totally illeqipped and underprepared when compared to their counterparts. That reminded me of a discussion I once had with one of my friends about the athletic ability and genetics. On a serious note, this can not be an excuse for the dismal performance of our sportsmen in any sport, this is just a parallel thought on the role the genes could play and how influential they are.

None of us can deny cricket is the only sports Indians seem to have excelled in. At the same time, I do not consider Cricket is an athletic game. Hope you all agree with me. Let me consider some athletic games (case study kinda). In Tennis - though we have soft corners for Paes, Bhupathi and Sania Mirza but let's be frank in accepting that they can not even come close to win a singles grandslams tournaments. Football - we hear the names of Bhutia and Chhetri now and then, but Indian football is ranked 130th in the world currently. That says it all. So in which other sports is our 100 billion populated country good at? When it comes to Track & Field events, it is sad that I can remember only PT Usha and Anju Bobby George - former won at least an Olympic medal, latter cant boast about the same. Swimming, Gymnastics... I do not know a single Indian who has shone in the international level.

Enough of scratching our heads to get the names of Indian sports personalities. Now try answering these:

Name a white athlete who holds the world record in sprinting (100m / 200m).. It is always a Caribbean or black Americans who have ruled this sport.

Name a black guy who has won an Olympic medal in swimming (any style, 100m to 400m).. It has always been the reign of white people in water.

Why Chinese gymnasts always dominate that sport...?

Why Kenyans / Ethiopians always win marathons..?

Don't these questions ring a bell in our minds..?

Researchers say, athletic performance is affected by genes (particularly the genes which regulate cardio vascular endurance, lung capacity and muscle fibre type) and there are also more important external factors like motivation, training and equipments, nutrition and environmental influences. Apart from them there are also characteristics that are less influenced by genes such as reaction time, agility and balance. Check this, this and this for more info. Myriad of research papers would have been published at the expense of millions of dollars all over the world, but till date genetic scientists have not been able to pin-point a gene/set of genes that affect the athletic performance of human beings. So it is a secret yet.

Until then, Indian athletes, footballers, tennis players, hockey players have another excuse for their under performance - their 'inferior genes';)

Women's Day Quiz!

2010-03-08T16:42:00.006+05:30

On the occasion of Women's Day, I wish all my female readers, friends, cousins, colleagues a very happy Women's Day. And a special salute to my Amma and sis.

Below is a mail FWD I got containing a collage of 25 famous Indian female personalities. Name them!

I will keep the contest open for few days and will update the answers in the end.

Update - 15th March:

My friend Rekha had forwarded this mail to me. It is always fun to answer these Who's who kind of quizzes, especially pictorial ones. That is why I posted it in my blog. Without any help I could recognize 22 pics. I could not name 13th, 14th and 15th pic. Then an intelligent Google search revealed me the name of the person in 15th pic. Rekha gave me the answer for 14th. ~~I still am not convinced about the answer for 13th pic.~~

So here is the list of answers:

Madhubala
Indra Nooyi
Arundhathi Nag
Kirron kher
Medha Patkar
Kalpana Chawla
Sudha Chandran
Shabana Azmi
Kiran Mazumdar
M.S.Subbulakshmi
Usha Uthup
Sania Mirza
~~Kiran Desai (I doubt this...)~~
Kamala Selvaraj
Rukmini Devi Arundale - famous dancer
Shubha Mudgal
Arundathi Roy
Karnam Malleswari
Shobha De
Kamala Das - Rebellious bilingual (Malayalam & English) poet who passed away recently. She had gotten converted to Islam and had assumed the name Kamala Surayya in later part of her life.
Barkha Dutt
Kiran Bedi
P.T.Usha
Shanaaz Hussain
Mira Nair

Update - 19th March:
13th pic is of 26 year old Lakshmi Venu who joined as board of director for TVS in August 2009.
Thanks to Rekha for giving me this answer too.

Gem of a medley

2010-03-04T02:02:00.004+05:30

The almost forgotten face of the singer Bela in this post of Deepak Iyer, brought me back the memories of my school days. Those were the days.. yes, how can nostalgia be explained without the phrase, 'those were the days'. Those were the days, when TV shows were not riding a tiger named TRP, those were the days when singing shows were taking baby steps, those were the days when (few) singing and (very few) dancing shows were not bitten by the bug named reality, those were the days when judges of those programs were treating each other with respect, naively critical and never harsh on the participants Those were the days when participants never begged for TV audiences' SMS votes standing in front of the camera making faces. Those were the days when the contest winners were neither lured by crores nor by brand new cars. Those were the days when a Final was called a Final and not a Grand Finale. Those were the days when there used to be music and only music in the singing shows unlike today's reality shows which brims with high intensity drama every minute. Those were the days when the singing shows were unadulterated unlike today, where every week a celebrity pair appears in the singing shows to promote their new movie or music. The only purpose of those programs was to entertain the audience with sheer quality music.

Those were the days, when TVS Sa Re Ga Ma was very famous singing show on Zee TV. It was then hosted by the small screen heartthrob, chikna Sonu Nigam, who shot to fame after this TV show. I would not be exaggerating if I say, this TV show taught me to enjoy music. Below is a clipping of ONE OF THE BEST MEDLEYS I HAVE SEEN ON TELEVISION by Jagjit Singh. It was the Mega Final of Sa Re Ga Ma, where there were 10 'mahaan hastis' of music industry to judge the penultimate male and female winner. Naushad saab, Anil Biswas, Rajkumariji, O P Nayyar, Pt Jasraj, Khayyam Saab, Begum Parveen Sultana, Kalyanji, Anandji and Jagjit Singh himself - were the judges. In the third episode of the Mega Final, Jagjit Singh renders this gem of a medley.

Almost all the finalists sitting around Jagjit Singh are quite big names today. From left to Right are Bela, Sudeshna, Sanjeevini - debuted as lead singer in Kareeb with Chori Chori jab nazre milee, Mohammed Vakil - though he is not much heard of these days, he was and still is my favourite singer, Mukund and Parthiv Gohil - debuted as lead singer in Saawariya in 'Yoon Shabnami' song.

Last but not the least, TVS Sa Re Ga Ma was a brain child of Gajendra Singh, who is now directing Amul Music ka Maha Muqabala in Star TV. But the two shows are incomparably poles apart.. Those were the days... :-/

Alex and Emma - Another enjoyable romantic comedy

2010-02-23T00:24:00.004+05:30

Whether it is after a hard day's work or on a lazy Sunday afternoon or when I am feeling low, good romantic comedies always work for me. I know no better way to pep myself up. A light plot, an apt cast, cutesy scenes and dialogues sprinkled with humor that does not fail to bring a smile on your lips. And when you are walking alone down the road, sitting alone at home doing nothing or when you are walking up the stairs of your office, you remember those scenes, think how silly yet cute were they and bring a smile on your lips again unmindful of the world around you.

I saw one such movie few days back. Was bored to hit the sack and started surfing TV. Sony Pix was airing Alex and Emma, starring Luke Wilson and Kate Hudson. The movie is directed by Rob Reiner, of When Harry Met Sally..., A Few Good Men and The Bucket List fame. The movie is about an author Alex, played by Luke Wilson who is in need to churn out a novel to repay his debt to Cuban mafia within 30 days. Having got his laptop destroyed, he hires a stenographer Emma, played by Kate Hudson. Alex with a perfect author's mindset and Emma with a mind of a not so keen literary enthusiast, give us the viewers some real funny moments through out the movie.

The movie also shows us a parallel narration of the fictitious plot set in some unmentioned era on some imaginary island, where Luke Wilson himself plays the role of the protagonist and Kate Hudson plays the role of a nanny. It is fun to see the nanny changing from Swedish, to English, to Spanish, and finally as Anna, an American - all played by Kate Hudson herself, as Alex changes the nationality of the nanny in his novel as per the needs of the story. Predictably, Alex and Emma fall in love during this transcription process towards the end of the movie. A hitch is introduced to the storyline with characters in Alex's novel being inspired from his past experiences that make Emma doubt Alex's love for her. But in the end, the differences vanish and movie ends with Alex and Emma locking their lips..

A perfect movie for a boring Sunday afternoon..

16th kiss!

2010-02-02T12:13:00.004+05:30

To know who kissed whom or what, and why am I counting them, read this.

The spotlight was on Andy Murray, the runner up of Aus Open 2010. Whole of Rod Laver Arena was silent to hear him speak.. And he broke down uttering "I am sure I can cry like Federer, but I am sorry I can't play like him!” Yes, this time too the runner up of Aus Open was in tears like Federer did it after losing to Nadal in the great 5 setter finals of Aus Open 2009.

I could see only the third and the final set of the finals, thanks to KPTCL there was a power cut in my locality. I kept messaging my colleague who is also a Tennis maniac for the updates till the power came back. When the power came back, the third set was going on. Murray was fighting hard to stay in the match, taking the set to a tiebreaker. For the first time in my life I wanted Federer to lose that set! Only to satiate my thirst of seeing him play another set. But Federer not only denied me the pleasure of watching him play, but more importantly crushed the dream of Andy Murray to become the first British to win a Grand Slam. British press always has projected Murray as the next-big-thing on tennis court, the tennis experts say he has got the near perfect techniques to match Federer on any surface, he might be a capable guy but personally I do not enjoy his game!! There could be lot of factors why Murray lost so easily to Federer in that match, the fatigue would have taken a toll on the young chap, there could also be a great amount of pressure on him as he is yet to win a Grand Slam. Though I am happy as a fan of Federer, but as a fan of tennis, the match did not excite me much. It seriously looked one-sided with Federer winning the first two sets so easily. I think Murray fought hard only in the final tiebreaker. Only the third set had some awe moments.

Looking at Federer's journey to final, he never played 5 sets in the whole of the tournament!! He got to play with very few big names in his draw; Lleyton Hewitt(22) - who is not as menacing as he was 2-3 yrs back, Nikolay Davydenko(6) - not a serious threat to Federer, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga(10) - who is playing the best tennis of his career. Where as the other draw had many big fighters; Andy Roddick(7), Juan Martin Del Potro(4), Andy Murray(5), Rafael Nadal(2), Marin Cilic(14), Gael Monfils(12). So comparing them, I feel Federer had relatively an easier draw this time.

I am keeping my fingers crossed for the French Open, expecting the battle for title to be fiercer and more aggressive with hopefully Nadal back to his usual fitness and many other hungry contenders.. Lets hope for a great tennis season ahead.

Lastly I want to quote an excerpt from ‘The master and the apprentice’ - "If Federer plays as he did in the semi-final against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, the Frenchman believes that no one can stop the Fed. And if Murray plays like he did in the quarter-finals against Nadal, Nadal does not think anyone can stop him either.

The only certainty is that if both men play to the peak of the abilities, we are in for a belting final". I totally agree with that.

Pic courtesy: Australian Open

Best and worst Hindi movies of 2009

2010-01-15T12:04:00.007+05:30

In 2009, I have watched 20 movies in theater (to be precise 13 Hindi, 4 Kannada and 3 English). That's more than 1.5 movie per month on an average. That is really a huge amount of time and money I have spent for movies in theater compared to any other year in the past. Though I usually post the reco/review of a movie I have watched, I could not do it for all the good/bad/worse movies I watched in 2009. As the year 2009 has ended, here is my pick of some best and worst movies of the year. I have rated them purely on the basis of how much I liked or hated sitting through those movies, not bothering about their Box Office collections.

Best 5 Hindi movies

--------------------------

5. Luck by Chance

Dir: Zoya Akthar

* cast: Farhaan Akthar, Konkana Sen Sharma, Rishi Kapoor and a whole bunch of cameos

A classic cover drive to the fence off the first ball by Zoya!

This is a story very very well told about a struggling actor becoming successful in his career. His talent combined with his street-smartness and also luck playing a major role in his success, but in the bargain he loses his girlfriend who had supported him in his tough times. The movie seriously makes us ponder over some of the important questions like, 'what is success?', 'Is is OK to compromise on some values to achieve it?', 'What role does luck play in our lives?', 'Does always a street smart opportunistic guy outsmarts the hardworking guys in the race of life?' etc etc. All this with a mockery of the stereotypes in Bollywood to make you LOL, the movie is a great watch. Though Farhan Akthar gets pretty much predictable with his expressions, but suits best for the role of Vikram (This role landed in Farhan's kitty after most of the Bollywood biggies declined it). Konkana Sen Sharma is just brilliant and I have no second thoughts to say she is the best actress we have in Bollywood today.

Scene to watch out for:

Check out the scene where Isha Shervani tries to seduce Farhan in his hotel room. I call this a sheer act of brilliance by Zoya to think of such a scene where Isha had to be shown with a childish charm but at the same time she had to be portrayed that she is not as dumb as she looks.

4. Dev-D

Dir: Anurag Kashyap

* cast: Abhay Deol, Mahi Gill, Kalki Koechlin

What initially was a storyline proposed by Abhay Deol to Anurag Kashyap about a boy falling in love with a stripper in LA was later groomed into a totally different and very bold version of Devdas, compared to all the other adaptations of Saratchandra Chattopadhyay's novel. Shifting the locale of a Bengali Brahmin, Devdas Mukherjee of 1900s to a spoilt Punjabi brat, Devender Singh Dhillon of the modern times is really commendable. Comprehending to the complex relationship Dev shares with Parminder and Chanda, movie is quite dark and layered and also abstract in many places.

Song to check out:

No... not emosanal atyaachaar, Im tired of it. Listen to 'Payaliya..' sung by one named Shruthi Pathak. I liked her husky voice as much as the song.

3. Kaminey

Dir: Vishal Bharadwaj

* cast: Shahid, Priyanka

I am not really sure if Vishal Bharadwaj has consciously adapated Guy Ritchie or Torantino's style of movie making in Kaminey. But what I am really sure about is, Vishal Bharadwaj is one of the best directors in the industry today.

The story is about twin brothers Guddu, a stutterer and Charlie, a lisp, who would be living their own happy lives in Mumbai with former working in an NGO which fights against AIDS and latter working as a horse race bookie until one day when fate decides to intertwine their lives with a regionalist politician, two police cops, two African drug peddlers, an Indian drug lord and 3 Bengali brothers! Shahid, for me was good in playing both the roles, but was not excellent. Priyanka Chopra was superb as Sweetie. Tenzing Nima as Tashi and Amol Gupte as Bhope Bhau are surprisingly brilliant. The movie has a great music score composed by Vishal Bharadwaj himself.

Dance step to check out for:

In the song Raat ke dhaayi baje, check out Priyanka in typical Maratha bridal green saree doing 'that particular step'. U know what I mean.. :)

2. Wake Up Sid

Dir: Ayan Mukerji

* cast: Ranbir Kapoor, Konkana Sen Sharma

Another promising director forays into Bollywood! The story of a slacker was never told so well before. Yes, we had Lakshya, but I felt Wake Up Sid is way better. A perfect casting of Ranbir as a slacker, Konkana as a strong headed career oriented girl living with her own petty insecurities, Supriya Pathak as a doting mother who tries hard to bond with her son by speaking in faulty English, Anupam Kher as a caring but concerned father - the casting could not have been better. With many of the nuances of human behaviour and relationships well depicted, I liked this movie a lot. A last word on Ranbir, I was surprised to see him slipping into the skin of Sid so well and with such an ease.

Song to check out for:

No doubt 'Iktara..' sung by Kavita Seth is brilliant, but the Punjabi male version of the same song sung by Tochi Raina is utterly soulful.

1. 3 Idiots

Dir: Rajkumar Hirani

* cast: Aamir Khan, Madhavan, Sharman Joshi, Boman Irani

I rate this movie the best of 2009 not because movie is flawless, not because there are no unquestionable scenes but for entertaining me and indulging me into the movie for every minute of it. I think Raju Hirani has mastered the art of preparing a heady concoction for any screenplay - with great concept and a message to convey, with enough twists, some great lump in throat moments, superb humour, some special 'Hirani Tadka' and last but not the least, a consistent 'flow' of the story. 40+ year old Aamir has adapted some mannerisms to slip into the body of an engineering student, but according to me Boman Irani beats Aamir in this area. Boman was exceptional as Dr Asthana in Munnabhai and he matches that performance here as Viru Sahastrabuddhe!

Accent to check out for:

Every word Chatur Ramalingam utters in his Uganda born, Pondicherry brought up accent is hilarious.

The movies that deserve a special mention are: Paa, Gulaal, Love Aaj Kal

The movie that I missed watching: Rocket Singh

After the best, now comes the turn of the worst. Wherein the above movies were the best of 2009, the below are the worst among the 13 Hindi movies I saw. There were many other worst movies that were made to torture the audience, but these are the tortures I went through.

Worst 3 Hindi movies

-------------------------------

3. All The Best

Dir: Rohit Shetty

* cast: Ajay Devgan, Sanjay Dutt, Fardeen Khan

First of all stop calling Rohit Shetty a new master of comedy. Only Golmal was his best (that too was a remake of a Malayalam movie), Golmal Returns was miserable and then All the best is a classic torture. Making a comedy movie is the most difficult thing, watch this movie to see how director and actors fail to make you laugh.

2. Wanted

Dir: Prabhudeva

* cast: Salman Khan and Ayesha Takia

I have said enough about this movie here.

1. London Dreams

Dir: Vipul Shah

* cast: Ajay Devgan, Salman Khan, Asin

Why the hell this movie is so silly!?! Not a single sequence made any sense to me. The so called friendship between Salman and Ajay looks so synthetic, the so called ego clash between them looks funny!, Ajay introducing Salman to drugs and Salman coming out of the habit is hilarious!!, the gem of all this is Asin as a 'dancer' in a Rockband!!!

Trek to Bandaje falls - Part 2

2010-01-07T23:03:00.005+05:30

Renting a 'farmhouse'
Walking down for few hundreds of meters with the help of marks that we made on the tree trunks, this time we saw the door of that house open. I went there and spotted a lady there. She said the falls is not that far away from there but she also said from her house we had gone in an opposite direction to the falls! It was disheartening to hear that. I wish some one was here in that house when I had come there while trekking up, we would have reached the falls by then. The sky opened up and big drops of water started falling on the dry leaves on the ground with a thud. With that our last option of trekking down also withered. By then the lady gave us a ray of hope that in the supposed to be direction of falls, there is an empty outhouse owned by a family living close by. That news was sunshine for us in that heavy rain. The lady asked us to follow her, as she herself had to go to that house. On crossing the bamboo fence of that house, she pointed her fingers towards the outhouse saying that was the one she was referring to. We all looked at each other thinking, there could not have been a better ending to our trekking for the day and to celebrate New Year if we get that house for a night's stay. We crossed a small stream of water and entered the house of our potential tenant for the night. There lived an old farmer's family. The lady who had brought us there, explained our situation and requested the outhouse on our behalf in Tulu to the old lady of the house. Though our heavy bags and drenched bodies had almost convinced her how badly we wanted a roof to spend the night, I started requesting again in Kannada to that old lady. The lady who had come with us cut me short saying the old lady does not understand any language except Tulu (Do not be surprised; There is a huge populace in Daskhina Kannada and Udupi who speak only Tulu and does not understand a bit of Kannada. I had seen so many such people near my aunt's house in Udupi). Hearing that I turned to the old lady and uttered, "Tulu barpujji (don't know Tulu)". Listening to that, the old lady grinned showing her stained teeth and replied, "yenka Kannada barpujji (I do not know Kannada)". That was the verbal rental agreement the four of us made with the old lady and her family. The old chap who knew Kannada unlike his wife, inquired if we had carried food for the dinner. I replied in content saying we have enough food. Byre smacked his lips looking at the brood of hens running around in the yard.

The old lady gave us a broom to clean the outhouse before entering in. Jumping in joy for getting a 'farm house' to spend the night, we thanked the farmer's family as well as the other lady and headed to the outhouse. Opening the latched door, we found a spacious hall with a door to the left leading to kitchen. The entire floor of the house was covered with some bird shit. We spotted few bats clinging upside down to the roof. Byre threw an empty plastic bottle to scare them away. The bats gave away hitherto their residence without any resilience to the unexpected guests. We cleaned the bat shitted dirty floor with the broom, spread the tarpaulin we had carried and threw our bodies on the floor. It was still raining heavily outside, after changing our wet clothes we belted Jowar rotis, Sharath had packed for all of us. Tired bodies caught sleep soon after the late lunch we had. After an hour or so we all woke up and saw the rain had stopped, Sun had set. We all went to the nearby stream to freshen up. Returning to the outhouse, we lit a candle. Sitting around the candle we chattered till we started feeling hungry..

Needless to say, the trek to Bandaje falls was a flop. But who cares! Four friends sitting around a candle in a cozy room in the cold night of the Western Ghats munching delicious food to greet a New Year.. I don’t think it could have been better.

Trek to Bandaje falls - Part 1

2010-01-05T00:28:00.003+05:30

First of all, I want to wish all the readers a very happy and wishful new year.

Here is an account of another wild New Year eve celebration with my close buddies. As we friends do every year, this time too we had plans of welcoming the New Year atop any hill or amidst any thick jungle. The plan was to trek to Bandaje Falls near Ujire (near Dharmasthala).

Byre, Sharath, Pujar and me boarded a red KSRTC bus to Dharmasthala on 30th night at 11 PM. The ride was smooth till the bus crossed Sakleshpur. The road after that till Dharmasthala churned out all the internal organs of our bodies not letting us even blink our eyes for the rest of the night. We reached Dharmasthala around 6 AM. The place seemed to be crowded with most of the guest houses and hotels hanging out 'No Rooms' board near the reception. Lord Manjunatha being Byre's family deity, he has been to Dharmasthala umpteen times. He knew every inch of the place and led us to a guest house where he was sure of getting a room. We alighted our heavy bags, freshened up in the shared rest rooms of the guest house. After resting for a while there and having the most terrible breakfast of my life we headed towards Ujire in bus. About the shared rest rooms, terrible breakfast available in the hotels of Dharmasthala and the Darshan we had of the Lord on the next day, I am planning to write a separate blog post, because it deserves at least some hundreds of words to describe what I under went and what I feel about the place!

It was surprising that some locals and auto drivers in Ujire, seemed unaware of Bandaje falls! From the details we had collected from the net, it was said that one has to go to a place called Mundaje from where the trail starts towards Bandaje falls. We hired an auto from Ujire to Mundaje, till the point we saw a board reading Bandaje falls. Bandaje falls is visible from this point, at least a kilometer right to the highest peak in the range of mountains. In many of the blogs and sites, it was advised to hire a guide to the falls from a local landlord named Narayana Gowda. The board had his contact number too. Underestimating the dense jungle trek to the falls, we planned not to hire any guide but to explore the route on our own. The auto guy was kind enough to give us some tips to camp near the falls during the night. He also warned us about the wild elephants on the route to Bandaje Falls. The four of us started our trek with our heavy bags loaded with food, water bottles, sleeping bags and other necessary items to survive in the wild.

Raise to the falls
The hot merciless Sun of coastal Karnataka shone above our heads. We kept walking on the mud road, reconfirming the route from the unfamiliar but friendly faces peeping out from the stranded tile roof houses. The distinct brownish red colored tile roofs amidst the green Areca nut plantations in Karavali and MalenaaDu region are always a treat for the eyes. After walking on the mud road nearly for 4 Kms, we got what we believed as Narayana Gowda's house. Firm on our decision of exploring the route on our own, we did not stop at Narayana Gowda's house for a guide. After walking for a while, the mud road narrowed down to the gate of a house. Inquiring there, we were told to follow the main trail to reach the Bandaje falls. I know that is really a vague way to direct some one when the path itself is less traveled. After freshening up near the stream of water there, we marched ahead in the Areca nut plantations which appeared to belong to the house where we had last asked for the directions to the falls. We hit the hedge of the plantations with no clear path beyond that. That is when Sharath murmured, "I think it is better to hire a guide"...

We walked back for few meters and took the deviation from where the hedge had a clear trail further up the jungle. At that point, we thought that was the last point of civilization and we would be facing the wild jungle from then on. But later we got to know that there were many other houses hiding their roofs in the greenery of the Western Ghats. After crossing the hedge, it got steeper and all of us started sweating profusely except Byre. I have trekked for hours together with Byre earlier too, what I have noticed is he does not sweat out a single drop of saline from his body pores. I do not know if it is some rare disease or some thing ;), but it feels so awkward to see a fellow trekker without a droplet of sweat on his forehead when the rest are profusely sweating. The sight of the peak and Bandaje falls was hidden behind the thick canopy long back. It was a combination of our instincts, sense of direction and the pale trail which was the 'guiding' force for the rest of our trek.

Trek n untrek
There were many deviations that kept confusing us. In all such moments, one or two of us would go in each of the directions for few meters and find out if there was a distinct trail ahead or not. Also, we used to scrape the trunk of a tree as a mark of the path we took, thinking it would help us while trekking back. This act of doing and undoing continued till 2:30PM. The sky which was bright and sunny when we had started the trek turned out dark and cloudy. We spotted a house there - While Sharath and Byre explored the trail further, Pujar and I went near the fence of the house to ask for the directions of the falls. Unfortunately no one was there in the house to answer us and we had to again rely on our 'guiding' force to trek ahead. The trail led us to the thick jungle from there on and the ticking clock and the dark sky made us rethink our decision to continue our trek to the falls. All of us sat down munching some snacks and discussed about our altered plan. It was evident that we had given up the idea of going to Bandaje Falls by then. The concern then was to find a safe shelter in case it starts pouring down. This time we did not have tent and all we had was a tarpaulin. Knowing the frenzy of the rains in Western Ghats we thought of trekking down before it starts pouring.

(to be contd...)

Two men and a lion cub

2009-12-14T13:35:00.008+05:30

[Animal Planet aired a documentary, 'A lion called Christian' last night. Touched by the documentary I thought of sharing this with you all]

This is going to be a special one of all the tales of reunion you have heard and seen till date. The reunion I'm referring to is between a lion named Christian and two Australian men Ace Bourke and John Rendall. The two men on a trip to England in 1969 bought a lion cub (it seems it was legal in England then to buy and rear wild animals!) and gave him all the love and care 'the small cat' needed. Ace and John kept supplying 3 kgs of meat everyday to Christian; they played with him in the garden of a church after seeking special permission to use the garden as a playground for the lion! Christian started growing big and strong and was becoming unwieldy for the two men day by day. Not willing to leave Christian to the Zoo and to confine his life to the cage forever, Ace and John thought of alternatives. Then the men happened to meet Bill Travers and Virginia McKenna of Born Free fame, with their advice, the two men sent Christian to Kenya for the rehabilitation under the supervision of George Adamson, an animal conservationist. The bonding between the men and Christian was so much that the two men quit their jobs and relocated to Kenya for few weeks to spend some time with Christian before he was trained, acclimatized and released to the wild by George Adamson.

Below is the famous clip of reunion between Christian and the two men after one year of Chrsitian's release into the wild. When Ace and John flew to Kenya to see Christian, George Adamson had warned the duo that Christian might have forgotten them and could prove fatal to their lives if he leaps upon them thinking they are strangers. The video features Christian leaping upon the duo, but only to bear-hug them with the joy of finding his old pals.

Kudos to the unconditional bonding between humans and animals..

[Two young men in the video are Ace and John, the old chap is George Adamson, the commentary is by Virginia McKenna]

Find some more info here

Sshhhh... silence please

2009-12-10T00:54:00.005+05:30

The other day I was watching a lesser known small budget movie called Hulla [Cast: Sushant Singh, Rajath Kapoor et al] in Zoom channel. Most of the movie is about how the central character played by Sushant Singh is bothered and irritated by the noises in his apartment and his surroundings - the whistle blowing watchman, the loud music of the neighbor and even the lesser loud noises in his apartment. I did not watch it fully cos I found the movie quite sloppy in the direction and the acting departments (Rajath Kapoor was good, other cast members were really pathetic). It is quite possible that this movie wanted to convey some thing more than just the noises affecting a person psychologically and making his life miserable, but I am not very sure of this as I did not watch the movie fully. But in a way I could relate myself to the central character! I do not usually over react as he does throughout the movie but I do get irritated to the core by the noises around.

I wake up around 6 every day. I like calm and peaceful mornings, but my neighbor strongly feels the louder she plays Venkateshwara Suprabhaata, Lord Venkateshwara appears in front of her so sooner. I have requested her few times gently, but she turns down the volume just for 2-3 days after my request, after which the speaker gets tested for its full power.

The moment I get into train/bus, the unpaid ubiquitous DJs play their favorite music in full volume on their China Mobiles. Why can't they just burst their own ear drums with that poor quality mp3, wearing a pair of head phones, why are they all bent upon torturing people like me? It irritates me even if my favorite music is being played aloud and/or when I am not just in a mood to listen to the music. To rub salt into the wound, most of them like the Hindi songs of the period when there was a void in the music industry after the death of Kishore and Mohd Rafi, making the likes of Shabbir Kumar and Mohd Aziz famous overnight. And this time to add some lemon to the wound already rubbed with salt, there will be many times War of the DJs too, 2-3 guys playing music simultaneously! I am not exaggerating; do not take a Volvo and travel by ordinary blue bus to Whitefield from Majestic some day to listen to these DJs. While I wait on the platforms or I travel in train, I get to hear another genre of ‘noise’. It's tapanguchi jingchak Tamil songs. Yes, you guessed it right the same overused pattern of beats to which you find Vijay/Vikram/Dhanush/Bharath/Vishal dance with 100 co-dancers on the filthy streets in every other Tamil movie. I have requested, ordered, threatened these ardent music lovers to use head phones or to turn down the volume, but 99% of the time they just have not cared for my request, order or threat.

Though hardly you get these DJs in Volvos, but seems like silence will be granted to me only in my grave! Here the buses have the FM and the bus driver himself dons the role of my torturer. Why is the whole world bent upon bombarding some noises on my ear drums, why is it so much against me wanting some silence or me sitting with my favorite book open while I am traveling?

Why are 'our people' like this? Why do they play music loud? Why do they talk so loud in public places? Why do they want to let the whole world know that they are praying to Lord? Why can't they keep the volume of the ringing tone low? If at all they keep it high, why do they always keep the phone on their desk and go away? Why do they talk so loudly on the phone? (Now I even know my neighboring cubicle guy's wife is 26 years old and the couple have applied for a house loan at an interest of 12% from a private bank. And I even know what tablets are to be given to the aunty's (who sits diagonally opposite to me) 8 year old daughter who frequently falls sick). Why do they set up public festivals and orchestras on road? Why do they honk even after knowing there is a red signal in front?Why can’t they be just quiet? Why are they so uncivilized? Is the silence so unbearable for all of them? Why don't they realize that they are disturbing others?
And the last of all, am I the only one who has so many complaints about these things..?

Kanyakumari

2009-12-01T15:00:00.006+05:30

Mohan, my colleague and I reached Kanyakumari around 8 AM on 28th Nov. The plan was to roam around Kanyakumari that day and travel to Tirunalveli to attend my team mate's marriage the next day. We reached a hotel named Cape Residency, where Mohan had already booked a double bed room for our stay. The hotel is situated on the same single main road of Kanyakumari but away from hustle and bustle of the town. Kanyakumari is a small laid back town, more or less sprawled along NH-47, the only main road of the town.

After loading our stomachs with a delicious breakfast served in the hotel, we headed straight towards the Vivekananda Rock by walk. NH-47 diverges into narrow shopping streets leading to the beach. Frankly speaking the beach near the Vivekananda Rock and Tiruvalluvar statue could well be called as a rocky shore than a beach. Mohan said, Kanyakumari does not have a great beach and most of the tourists head towards Kovalam beach after paying a brief visit to Kanyakumari.

3-4 ferries commute from the shore to Vivekananda Rock Memorial and Tiruvalluvar Statue. We waited for the ferry in a long but fast moving queue. Those ferries had the capacity to transport at least 100 people at once. The life jackets meant for the passengers were safely placed on the rack of the ferry! I believe the ferry was not over crowded but it certainly reminded me of the recent boat tragedy in Kerala. Assuming that those life jackets were in good condition, I think if each of the passengers is allowed to wear while embarking the ferry and return the same while disembarking, it would take at least 20 minutes extra for each of the trip for a ferry. Which would mean the ferry guy is losing the business of another trip in those 20 minutes. So it was a trade off between 100 lives and few hundred bucks for the owner of the ferry, and the owner had chosen the latter!!

Vivekananda Rock Memorial is a magnificent monument built in the year 1970 as a tribute to the sacred place where Swami Vivekananda was enlightened while meditating on this rock. The Rock Memorial has a tall bronze idol of Vivekananda. This rock also has a Mantapam of Sri Padhaparai, the place where it is believed that Devi Parvati stood on a single leg for Tapasya to propitiate Lord Shiva. Going on a PradakshiNa around the Rock Memorial, it is really a breathtaking view of the confluence of Arabian Sea, Indian Ocean and Bay of Bengal. But as many people had told me, I did not see the color difference in the water of 3 oceans. The wind was strong enough to sweep off any puny human being. Then the ferry took us to 133 feet tall Tiruvalluvar statue, 200 mts away from the Vivekananda Rock. The statue is 133 feet tall signifying the 133 chapters of Tirukkural penned by Tiruvalluvar. This is supposed to be one of the tallest statues in Asia. To be frank, I would have admired the beauty of the statue more, if it was monolithic and the structure of the statue had been more proportionate. Then we gave a brief visit to Gandhi Memorial. The Kanyakumari temple was closed during the afternoon.

After resting for few hours in the hotel after a heavy lunch, we caught an auto to the Sunset point. As I mentioned in the previous post, Sunset and Sunrise are special in Kanyakumari. It was really a unique Sunset of all the ones I have seen till date, because while Sun sets in the Arabian Sea, it appears so that only a portion of the horizon is set as a platform for the Sunset, the rest of the long horizon being stretched in the direction of South and East.

The next day though we woke up early to see the Sunrise, clouds denied us the sight of Sunrise :( After checking out from the hotel we headed for the marriage of colleague in Tirunalveli. After wishing the newly wed couple and having a nice lunch, we boarded the bus back to Bangalore in the evening..

Trip to Cape Comorin

2009-11-26T16:19:00.006+05:30

A visit to the southern most tip of Indian Main Land (Cape Comorin) has always been a dream of mine, ever since I read and got influenced from the preachings of Swami Vivekananda in my school days! A colleague of mine is getting married in Tirunalveli,which is about 90kms from Kanyakumari. So I am heading first to Kanyakumari - will be visiting all the interesting places there and then going for my colleague's marriage the next day.

While gathering some info about Kanyakumari, I read that Kanyakumari is supposed to be the only beach in India where you can witness both sunrise and sunset! I think this is going to be really exciting. Though this is kinda obvious from it's geographical position, but I doubt if it is the only beach in India. I mean, aren't there any such beaches near the Souther tip of Gujarat or W Bengal..? Im not sure of that.. For those of who do not know much about Vivekananda Rock, this is a huge rock-island 500 meters from Cape Comorin. Swami Vivekananda got enlightened when he was meditating on this rock in the year 1892. By the way, Swami Vivekananda used to swim to this rock when ever he used to go there for meditation!

Above is the satellite image of Cape Comorin, Vivekananda Rock and the famous Tiruvalluvar statue. Also found this site, giving an exhilarating 360 degree view of the Vivekananda Rock Memorial (be patient when your browser loads the view, do not miss it!)

See ya all.. will blog about my trip once I am back from Kanyakumari.

Life's never so bad that...

2009-10-30T16:26:00.003+05:30

A dear friend of mine called me up from UK last night to say that he is returning to India this weekend, as Doctors treating his mother have told that she is having breast cancer. It was evident from his tone that he was broken by that. I tried to fill in some hope and courage in that conversation.

After hanging up the phone, pondering over, I thought that was another whiplash this time for another friend's family from the BOSS above. I say this as another family because; all my buddies have received at least one each in the recent past. A friend's father is suffering from recurring slip-discs, another one's father is living on anti-depressants after some feud with his siblings over some realty, another friend's father is a cancer survivor, a colleague's mother underwent knee cap replacement surgery recently.... And as you know my father is not well from past 2 years. Sorry to say, I am not able to find a single happy and healthy family around.

They say Life is not just about chasing happiness and being happy.. Happiness and sorrow are two sides of the same coin blah blah.. This is all best said and heard in some Satsang. But for a person dealing with all this every day, it is nothing but misery and only misery.

So at this point of time, I can't agree more on the saying, "Life's Never So Bad That It Can't Get Worse..."

Shantaram - quotes 2

2009-10-17T00:07:00.010+05:30

Any Indian man will tell you that although love might not have been invented in India, it was certainly perfected there- pg 393
Mistakes are like bad loves, the more you learn from them, the more you wish they'd never happened - pg 402

Prisons are the temples where devils learn to pray - pg 404

Hate strangles a man, that's why hate has no great literature - pg 414

The only victory that really counts in prison is survival. Survival is not just about being alive. It's not just the body that must survive a jail; the spirit and will and the heart have to make it through as well - pg 415

People say that money is the root of all evil, but it's the other way round... Evil is the root of all money - pg 444

Pumping iron is Zen for violent men - pg 452

It isn't a secret, unless keeping it hurts - pg 454

Wherever you go in the world, in any society, it is always the same when it comes to questions of justice, We concentrate our laws, investigations, prosecutions and punishments on how much crime is in the sin rather than how much sin is in the crime - pg 472

People haven't stopped believing in love. They haven't stopped wanting to be in love. They just don't believe in a happy ending anymore - pg 504

There's nothing so depressing as a good advice - pg 545

Depression happens only to the people who don't know how to be sad - pg 546

It's better to have a weapon and not need it, than need it and not have it - pg 585

If we envy someone for all the right reasons, we're half way to wisdom - pg 607

A good man is as strong as the right woman needs him to be - pg 645

When the student is ready, teacher appears - pg 708

Wars can't change things. It's peace that makes the deepest cuts - pg 728

The best revenge, like the best sex, is performed slowly and with the eyes open - pg 805

Fate always gives you two choices, the one you should take and the one you do - pg 858

Old habits die hard, lie harder - pg 918

It is always a fool's mistake, to be alone with someone you shouldn't have loved - pg 921

Every human heartbeat is a universe of possibilities - pg 932

Following are the lines with which Shantaram ends:
I'd always thought that fate was something unchangeable; fixed for every one of us at birth, and as constant as the circuit of stars. But I suddenly realized that life is stranger and more beauitful than that. The truth is that, no matter what kind of game you find yourself in, no matter how good or bad the luck, you can change your life completely with a single thought or a single act of love - pg 933

Though I love each and every one of the quotes from Shantaram, following three are my personal favorites.

3. Fate gives all of us three teachers, three friends, three enemies and three great loves in our lives. But these twelve are always disguised and we can never know which one is which until we've loved them, left them or fought with them - pg 632

2. Personality and personal identity are in some ways like co-ordinates on the street map drawn by our intersecting relationships - pg 632

1. We know who we are and define what we are by reference to the people we love and our reasons for loving them - pg 632

Shantaram - quotes 1

2009-10-14T23:09:00.011+05:30

I finished reading Shantaram! This mammoth autobiographical fiction is penned by an Australian born writer cum armed robber cum heroin addict cum prisoner cum Jihadi soldier cum slum dweller cum doctor in slum cum Mumbai mafia member cum charity organizer cum screenplay writer, Gregory David Roberts!! Yes, you read it right; all these roles/professions (?) are of a single person in the very same incarnation. Shantaram is a rechristened name for Lin (which again is his name in fake passport) or Linbaba, as fondly called by most of the people in slum of Mumbai. This novel was written over a period of 13 years!, literally in blood and sweat as Gregory Roberts himself says. Twice the manuscript was destroyed by the police when he was being tortured in jail.

After escaping from high security Australian prison in broad day light, Lin travels to few countries holding fake passports and lands in Mumbai. From there begins this inspiring and vivid tale of Shanataram. This book brims with one liners and quotes. I am sharing a few with you guys... Hope this inspires you to take up this must-read-book.

The simple and the astonishing truth about India and Indian people is that when you go there, and deal with them, your heart always guides you more wisely than your head. There's nowhere in the world where that's quite so true. - pg 35

The only force more ruthless and cynical than the business of big politics is the politics of big business - pg 52

The truth is a bully we all pretend to like - pg 62

It is the mark of the age in which we live that the style becomes the attitude, instead of the attitude becoming the style - pg 91

The real trick in life is to want nothing and to succeed in getting it. pg 96

Sometimes you have to surrender..., to win! - pg 115

It's a fact of life-on-the-run that you often love more people than you trust - pg 156

We can compel men not to be bad, but we can not compel them to be good - pg 184

The worst thing about corruption as a system of governance is, that it works so well! - pg 186

There is no believing in God, we either know God, or we do not - pg 194

Suffering is the way we test our love, especially our love for God - pg 214

I think it is a part of growing up, learning to control our suffering. I think, when we grow up and learn happiness is rare and passes quickly, we become disillusioned and hurt. And how much we suffer is a mark of how much we have been hurt by this realization - pg 294

Like most things and most people, slum is not as bad as it seems - pg 329

I dont know what frightens me more, the power that crushes us, or our endless ability to endure it. - pg 336

You are not a man until you give your love, truly and freely, to a child. And you are not a good man until you earn the love, truly and freely, of a child in return - pg 353

The contours of all our virtues are shaped by adversity - pg 379

One of the ironies of courage, and the reasons why we prize it so highly is that we find it easier to be brave for some one else than for ourselves alone - pg 381

Im tagged..

2009-10-05T17:00:00.006+05:30

Sum tagged me..

Below is a list of things that irritate me... that tests my boiling point:

Untidiness and untidy people
Lazy bums
Loud TV volume of my neighbor
Public festivals
The Pop-up ads in websites. They irritate me more when they keep the Close Window button on top left corner. They irritate me to the most when there would be no Close Button for the window and I am just told to wait by a count down timer, stating Ill be redirected to the site in N seconds. What makes those guys think that I visit their news website and get impressed by their forced-upon-ad and will end up buying an Audi!
Poor interpersonal skills
Poor listening skills
Egoistic people
Half baked pots boasting themselves as next Einsteins
Bullies
Plastic smiles
Guys who try to impress any and every girl/female they come across
Reality TV shows and all the daily soaps
Auto drivers
BMTC bus conductors

"Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves"

Carl Gustav Jung

This was mentioned as the GTalk status msg by my friend Suksy. I could not agree more with this saying, as all the above things listed and lot many which I've not listed here, have helped/have been helping me in understanding myself better.

I love people:

Who trust me..
Who have helped in my bad times..
Who are intelligent..
Who understand me

"If you judge people, you have no time to love them"

Mother Teresa

This is another gem of a quote that I admire the most. I have experienced this thing literally happening with all the withering relationships I’ve had in the case of some of my friends, acquaintances and some special people. I make my decisions by mind and not by heart. I am a ‘mind guy’ and not a ‘heart guy’. I wish I could change this virtue of mine… :(

Though these are the things that surface my mind at this point of time, but to see only four entries in the second list against the 15 in the first is surely disheartening. That says I have more things around to hate than to love... :((

I tag Shashi, Saravanan, Suksy n Anonymous aka Deva :)

Wanted - No! this was never wanted and will never be!!

2009-09-22T15:00:00.007+05:30

Friends,

If you have read any of the movie reviews in my blog previously, there is one thing in common with all of them - all the movie reviews are my movie reco's to you guys. I've never wasted my time and energy in writing a review for a movie which is bad/worse according to me. But this is going to be an exception! I am writing this, because I felt there is no better way to vent my anger out!!

Was forced to watch this movie last evening. As every one knows, Prabhudeva forays into directing Hindi movie this time with a remake of smash hit movie Pokiri(Telugu) originally directed by Puri Jagannath.

When Murugadoss remade Ghajini in Hindi, though the plot of the movie was very ordinary, hero seeking revenge for his GF's death, but the 'gimmick' of anterograde amnesia + the greatly talented Aamir Khan carrying the weight of the whole movie on his newly built bod turned the movie into a run away success. But what is Wanted offering us..?
Let me say, I have not watched both Telugu and Tamil Pokiri's, even after many of my friends insisted. So I do not know how good/bad they were (after all, a hit movie need not be a good movie and vice versa) and I can not even comment whether it was a bad 'transliteration' that made Wanted look so bad.
Wanted's plot would have been apt in the 1970s era. It is so overused, lackluster thing now.
Salman yet again proves he is a bad actor. The very few expressions on Salman's face have never failed to confuse me. I always think, what does this expression mean..? Is he worried about some thing? Or is he just making faces? Or is he thinking how to emote this one? Or is he trying to smile while dealing with some problem in his stomach?
There is always so much of Salman Khan the star, his attitude, his so called style in all his characters that whether it is Radhe or Prem or Suraj or Aman or what ever, he looks the same.
There are so many scenes in the movie that look so 'south', I can not digest them in a Hindi movie.
I agree Prabhudeva is a good dancer, but he is that bad a choreographer.
There is a repetitive dream sequence in the first half of the movie - whenever Salman sees Ayesha, he becomes Salim and Ayesha becomes Anarkali and 'Jab pyaar kiya tho darna kya' runs in the background. In all these sequences, Salman gives a priceless expression of not-knowing-what-to-do. I probably had the same expression on my face in all those scenes and many other so called comedy scenes.
Why are there so many songs in the movie? Why Sajid-Wajid again..??
I congratulate Prakash Raj on winning the Best Actor award, but I humbly ask him, why did he do this role of Ghani Bhai? I've seen Prakash Rai doing this weird villain role in so many Tamil and Telugu films; I can not stand him doing the same thing again.

The Hindi movie scripts are much more intelligent and complex these days catering to the equally demanding audience, Prabhudeva should get updated before he even thinks of his next Hindi movie.

Love Aaj Kal - not a great work of Imtiaz Ali

2009-09-10T11:37:00.007+05:30

As evident from the title of the movie, it is an attempt to juxtapose the 'love of yesteryears'(of 60s to be precise) with today's 'modern love'. This is a comparison of the love as an emotion and as an expression and how it has changed during the course of time. There are two story lines of the couples, Veer and Herleen (Saif and debutant Brazilian model Giselli Monteiro) and Jai and Mira (Saif again and Deepika). The love story of Veer and Harleen is simple, cute and innocent and touches the heart. They hardly talk to each other throughout the movie but convey a lot through their silence. Where as in the story of Jai and Mira, they are the perfect representatives of today's Gen-Y (or Z or what ever) world. They love by mind and not by heart (according to Rishi Kapoor who plays the older Veer so adorably), who choose career over love, who throw a party to their friends on their break-up, who are spoilt by choices, who are more 'practical' than their previous generations. Now that's quite a lot of things to tell in the story of just over 2 hours. Though Imtiaz was successful in narrating the story of Veer and Harleen (quite a simple and easy job though), he seems to have lost grip in telling the story of Jai and Mira. The love story of a pair which is torn between the decisions made by head over heart has not come so endearing. The attempt to show the characters of Jai and Mira as confused pair, yet they themselves thinking that they are very firm about their decisions taken in life is not successful.

That does not mean the movie is not good, it is certainly a good movie, but not to the standards set by the same director in his earlier movies like Jab We Met and Socha Na Tha. Love Aaj Kal has it's moments, is funny in parts, is touching in few scenes. As a matter of fact, my favourite scene in the movie is the one in which Harleen brings a cuppa chai hiding behind her dupaTTa to Veer who would have travelled all the way from Delhi to Calcutta just to have a glimpse of her. The other one being Jai just making it to the airport to bid farewell to Mira.

I liked Saif more as Veer than as Jai. Saif seems to have done some homework in bringing across the body language and gesticulations of a Punjabi munda of 60s and it has worked very well. He has done pretty decent job as Jai too. Deepika looks stunning in few scenes. Not sure if I am the only one who is having problems her dialogue delivery. I feel it is some what not perfect, not right. But if we have lived with two left feet of Saif all these years of his acting career, who seems to have no interest in improving his dancing skills, then Deepika is pardonable. Just check Saif struggling to shake his hip in the song 'Twist.. twist'. The credit of managing Giselli Monteiro as Harleen by giving her hardly any dialogues should go to Imtiaz. Rishi Kapoor as older Veer is simply superb. Of all the songs by Pritam, I liked 'Chor Baazaari' sung by Neeraj Sridhar, Sunidhi and 'Aj din..' sung by Rahat Fateh Ali Khan.

Overall, the movie is good, but not great. Love Aaj Kal looks like the best work of any debutant director from Yashraj Banner, the movie seriously lacks the spark of Imtiaz Ali.

Green Route trek - Part 4

2009-08-24T23:49:00.012+05:30

I remember a railway guy saying that there are totally 17 tunnels and 20+ bridges. But it is not easy to keep a count of tunnels and bridges when you are trekking. After the initial drought of tunnels in the trekking route, we kept getting tunnels after tunnels. Entrance of each tunnel seemed like a big mouth of some demon; we helplessly kept surrendering ourselves into it one after the other. Then we reached another abandoned station, but this time we saw some 20+ trekkers from some adventure club from Bangalore, that included some stout girls. Sighting the waxed legs exposed out of the three-fourths, Narayan seemed rejuvenated. He started walking faster and faster to reach that gang ahead. Narayan wanted to join them, but Byre had different plans. I think Byre hated to follow the slow moving gang. He pulled us along and walked faster. That gang was split into 3-4 smaller groups. Byre and Sharath walked faster to overtake some of the smaller groups. Pujar, Narayan, Ethapay n me were walking slow along with few members from other gang. Byre was striding through the tunnels. That guy did not even want a torch! I do not know what had gotten into his mind or if some spirit possessed him when he was inside a tunnel. He was almost 'jogging' inside the tunnels. After few attempts of catching up with Byre, I gave up. I took my own sweet time and kept trekking with Pujar and few others.

That must be some 300+ mts long tunnel, we had crossed nearly 3/4th of it. Byre and Sharath were already out of the tunnel. We could see the exit of the tunnel. That is when the people from the other gang who were following us shouted, "train.. train..", we turned back to see an engine approaching us with a considerable speed. The tunnel was curved and that's the reason the light from the engine did not reach us until it was so close, but I am not sure why dint we hear the honk at least. We could have stood in the ditch leaning against the wall, but I think it is a natural tendency to run towards the light when we are in danger. 4 of us and a guy from the other gang ran towards the exit of the tunnel. And just stood safely outside the tunnel (See the pic). We stood there taking snaps for 2-3 minutes until that long goods train went past us. It was a narrow escape, though from a self imposed danger.

Landslides in this place are as common and as natural as rain! As I had mentioned previously, there is a great amount of man power deployed to monitor any fresh landslide obstructing the movement of trains and also to clear them with highest priority. In some places we also saw some people checking, fastening the giant mesh that was hung on the rocks along side the railway tracks. Near the entrance of a tunnel, we saw a customized truck on railway tracks! [tires were replaced by train wheels for this truck] and a JCB clearing a fresh landslide. A large heap of mud was spit on the railway tracks by the hill that stood aside the track. 6 of us and also few people from one of the smaller gangs had to wait till JCB gave us some way to go ahead. One of the stout girls from the other gang was also waiting along with us. Later when we reached Yedakumeri, Ethapay said he shared his *torch* with that girl and helped her walk through one of the tunnels. We believe Ethapay and what ever he says must be true. I know it was cold and raining and they had a single torch in the dark tunnel but now you guys don't get some dirty ideas ;)

I think except me, others were happy with their shoes to walk on gravel; all hard soled ones. Some website/Wiki had an exclusive tip saying one should wear moderately hard soled shoes for Green Route trek. Harder the soles, the chances of getting the ankle twisted were more according to them. That sounded extremely sensible to me and I had worn some shoes with not thick (but strong) soled shoes, and I ended up being the worst hurt guy in my gang. I think the last stretch of 5+ Kms to Yedakumeri was THE MOST PAINFUL trek for me. My calf muscles and thighs absolutely had no issues. If I had to walk for another 10 Kms also they would have borne the load of me on them but my soles... arrggghh every inch was paining like hell. I felt as if every stone I kept my foot on was piercing my sole. I felt I was bare footed. Adding to the woes, I had got 3-4 boils on my toes. The pain made me behave cranky, I could feel it but I was helpless. It was like, all my energy was channeled to reach Yedakumeri and I wanted not to have an extra step wasted in that effort. So much so that, once when Byre and Narayan called me back to have a look at some creature or some thing I did not walk back even for few steps. As I told before, I did not want to waste a single step of mine.

It must have been around 4PM, we sensed that we had cleared all the tunnels and bridges and were just few minutes away from our final destination, Yedakumeri station. Some more enduring steps, Pujar, Ethapay and me spotted the station. It started pouring as if the rain waited for us to reach Yedakumeri. We strode towards the platform. Stepping onto the concrete floor of the platform, I screamed at the top of my voice, it was more of an outlet for my subdued pain than a cry on reaching the destination. We occupied relatively a warm place [warm place is one where ceiling does not drip] and had lunch for the day. We had to kill 6 more hours in that place before we catch the train to B'Lore. We started playing Dumb Charades, as Byre had forgotten to get a pack of cards.

---------- x --X-- x ----------

The corridor of the old railway station with algae coated walls and leaking roof was providing shelter for six of us with few other trekkers. The railway platform was facing the gigantic rock covered with thick moss and other bushy plants. Two railway tracks were lying cold between the rock and the platform. The moon was playing hide and seek behind the dark clouds. The pattering drops from the edge of the roof of corridor were rhythmically causing ripples on the stillness of the night. We were resting on the floor with our towels and half dry jerkins protecting our backs and asses from the cold concrete floor. The railway officials had switched off the 4 tube lights that were lighting up the entire stretch of railway platform after their dinner; they had dozed off in their cozy rooms remaining indifferent to the guests sleeping outside.

We were waiting for the arrival of a train @ 11:30 PM to that station. The train was coming from Kukke Subramanya and was destined to reach Bangalore but via Hassan n Mysore. The train did arrive on time, spotting a door open we got into it. The train was overcrowded. Badly wanting for a good night’s sleep and some cushion to our asses we got down of the train in Sakleshpur. Caught a bus from there back to Bangalore…

Last few tips to trekkers:

Tip 1: Once when the track was abandoned, bridges must have had missing planks. After it's conversion to broad gauge there are no missing planks.

Tip 2: The trek is very safe (both through tunnels and on bridges), until you really have bad reflexes or you panic or you try some thing really really foolish

Tip 3: Monsoon might not be favorable to trek this stretch , but I would say Green Route is best relished only during monsoon!

Green Route trek - Part 3

2009-08-19T22:54:00.014+05:30

Sharath and Ethapay were cautious about leeches and smeared (poured?) Neem oil on their legs and shoes. The sight of the tracks enthused all of us. After spending few minutes on the photo session marking the initial point of trekking, we started the famous Green Route trek. The railway milestone there read 47/400. It took us few hundreds of meters to decipher that the milestones were indicating Kms/Mts, so that made us fix the number 47/400 in our minds as the reference point. Sharath exploited his Digital SLR by taking the pic of mist on leave, mist on spider web and all such tiny little but beautiful things. Knowing the imitations of our cameras, Ethapay n me concentrated on the big things like the trees around, the shrubs and fellow human beings, which were big but not so beautiful :)

After trekking for over a kilometer we were eager to spot the first bridge. While crossing the bridge, this time there were more camera clicks and solo pics taken, mostly of Ethapay :) By then we had managed to learn the art of walking on the gravel not hurting our soles nor getting our ankles twisted, Only to realize later @ the end of the day that there IS NO trick to walk on gravel for 20+ kms not hurting our soles. We spotted a woman walking between the tracks, greasing the edges of the tracks with a sticky black fluid which she was carrying in a plastic bucket. That woman was wearing a pair of Hawai slippers putting us to shame. If she had not got the task of checking the oxidized edges on tracks and greasing them to prevent them from further rusting and hence to prevent friction with the train wheels, I bet she would have walked with a better pace than us. After trekking for nearly a kilometer, we heard the honk of a train. Spotting it in the opposite direction, we all got off the track. The goods train was trying hard to pull the load with a slow pace. Sharath wanted to take a pic of train approaching in opposite direction and moved back on the track to take a pic. Seeing Sharath's heroics through a small rectangular 'windshield' (Volvo buses would have bigger rear-view mirrors :)), the driver of the goods train honked loud but in short bits. I think it roughly translates to 'Get off , you heroic ass****' in English ;) The goods train in these region usually have two engines, to pull the load in the slope and also to help the train decelerate quickly.

Many more photographs snapped and many more PJs cracked, we now could spot the stranded railway station of Donigal waiting for the guest trekkers like us. We alighted our backpacks in the corridor of the platform. We freshened up; thanks to the wash basin with a tap there. The platform has few rooms for the railway employees who patrol in shifts to notify any landslide obstructing the movement of trains and also validate other technical details pertaining signals and railway traffic round the clock. Sharath handed over our share of Chapatis neatly rolled into a parcel. Thanks a ton to his mom for the effort. Chewing every morsel of my share of Chapatis, I relished the whole milieu of the stranded railway station more and more. The sight of empty stations and empty platforms always fascinates me. I stared at the empty platform as a spectator would stare at an empty stage, just after his favorite play has gotten over. Yes that’s the precise feeling I have every time I look at an empty platform. There must have run a Simran towards her Raj, from the loosening clutches of her father around her wrist. There must have been a Geet just making it to the train, traveling to meet her Aryamaan. There must have run a Veer wriggling past the people on platform just to get a glimpse of Harleen before she leaves his town for ever. I know these thoughts are highly cynical, but it amuses me the most. I was brought back to the reality when Pujar asked whether we have carried sufficient food for lunch. We relished Chapatis and saved few for the lunch in the given share for each of us.

Having a clear goal of reaching Yedakumeri railway station before the dusk, we did not rest in Donigal station for a long time. Carrying our backpacks, we trekked ahead. The drizzle accompanied us throughout. We kept getting bridges after bridges, but much awaited tunnels were not seen at all. Almost all the bridges we crossed had at least one stand-by just to safely (!) run to it and stand aside when the train comes when trekkers are in the middle of crossing a bridge. Luckily we did not get the train when we were on the bridge.

Tip: Be careful when you are running to the nearest stand-by, some of them have missing planks and more over they would all be very slippery during rainy season.

Trekking ahead, as precisely told by a railway employee, we got our first tunnel. Near the entrance on top of the tunnel, all the tunnels are etched with the year it was constructed in (most of the tunnels are built in 1970s) and the length of that particular tunnel (ranging from 100+mts to the longest being 572 mts).We were all excited to walk through the pitch black darkness. We all made sure we hear no sound of train before entering the tunnel. Every one of us had obeyed to the trip itinerary by carrying a torch each. The first tunnel was some 100+ mts long (I think). We walked few steps ahead and felt as if the darkness has engulfed all the six of us. Pointing the bright spot of the torch on the track, I looked ahead; my eyes failed to spot any source of light or any other bright spot in the tunnel. For a moment I thought I was blind. My eyes were wide open but I was seeing only darkness and nothing but darkness. Walking through the tunnels is more fun when the tunnel is curved and there absolutely is no chance of sighting the other end of the tunnel.

Tip: When you are in tunnel and train comes in, do not panic. Just stand resting your back against the walls of the tunnel. All the tunnels have this sufficient gap.

[In the next and the last part of this travelogue, expect to read about Byre - the Usain Bolt of trekking through tunnels, a narrow escape in one of the tunnels, a landslide, Ethapay's chhoti si love story inside a tunnel and reaching Yedakumeri station]

(to be contd...)

Green Route trek - Part 2

2009-08-13T23:19:00.015+05:30

The bus driver seems to be was in real hurry and dropped us off in Sakleshpur very very early than we expected. There we were... in the sleeping town of Sakleshpur at 4:45 in the morning. Donigal, the place to start the trek is 6 kms away from Sakleshpur. Our bus was going further to Mangalore and we could have requested the bus conductor to stop @ Donigal, but we did not. We had thoughts of taking a lodge for freshening up. But after seeing no lodge is open, we decided to walk till Donigal. Foreseeing the food we were carrying would not be enough; we got some bakery food parceled. Actually we had plans of buying some apples, as we usually do while going for any trekking, unfortunately no fruit shop was open so early.

Tip: Get down in Donigal than walking all the way to Donigal in the wee hours. Any speeding vehicle could knock you down

Though the official Green Route trek starts from Donigal but we had started trekking to Donigal. The street lights bid us adieu after walking for few hundreds of meters from bus stand. We all switched on our torches to let know the drivers of trucks, buses and other speeding vehicles going past us in both directions that there are some poor souls walking on the edge of the road in the dark. While walking, we heard a peculiar rhythmic sound as if a wooden gong is hit with a wooden mallet. Later we were amazed to realize it was some insect making such a loud but musical sound. Ethapay said it could be mating season for those insects and males could be producing that sound to attract females. I hope these male insects dont lose all their energy in just producing that loud sound and get exhausted, I dont think those tiny creatures will be left with any energy when they have to actually perform ;)

Seeing not a single inch of land dry, we forecast the weather for that day. The rain God nodded in agreement with a drizzle. We sat under the roof of a closed shop and wore our jackets. After walking for nearly an hour, we reached Donigal. Donigal is a silent village next to Sakleshpur. We counted and found 3 hotels in Donigal. The village must be so widely spread, that if a strong armed person throws a stone away and there are very less chances of stone landing within the bounds of Donigal. We chose to have a cuppa Tea each and rest a bit in the biggest of the 3 hotels The other 2 hotels did not have tables and chairs, they were mostly like kiosks but a bit bigger in size. All of us had tea. Byre, Narayan, Ethapay and Pujar lied down on the benches of the hotel and utilized the hotel as a lodge. Sharath and me clicked some pics within the hotel. We ordered 2 plates of parathas which was more of an act of returning favor to the owner of that hotel, for allowing us to sleep on the benches in his hotel.

Six of us shared those parathas and were about to leave the hotel for Donigal station around 6 AM. But, this time the drizzle was an understatement. It was raining well. Ethapay and Narayan wanted to start the trek waiting for the rain to stop or slow down. But rest of us convinced them that it is gonna rain this way throughout the Western Ghats during the season of monsoon. Asking the hotel owner for directions to reach Donigal station, we left the hotel thanking him again. The dampen road and the surrounding greenery inspired us to click many photos on the road to Donigal railway station. We made few calls from the public 'one Rupee coin' booth in Donigal. We were almost sure that, that was going to be the last link to civilization before we start our trek.

Tip: Only BSNL network works here. Better carry a BSNL sim

Tresspassing through some private estate, we reached the railway track to Donigal station. Donigal station was still quite far away.

(to be contd...)

Green Route trek aka Sakleshpur Railway Track trek - Part 1

2009-08-11T10:04:00.006+05:30

It was 10’O clock in the chilling night of Yedakumari. The corridor of the old railway station with algae coated walls and leaking roof was providing shelter for six of us with few other trekkers. The railway platform was facing the gigantic rock covered with thick moss and other bushy plants. Two railway tracks were lying cold between the rock and the platform. The moon was playing hide and seek behind the dark clouds. The pattering drops from the edge of the roof of corridor were rhythmically causing ripples on the stillness of the night. We were resting on the floor with our towels and half dry jerkins protecting our backs and asses from the cold concrete floor. The railway officials had switched off the 4 tube lights that were lighting up the entire stretch of railway platform after their dinner; they had dozed off in their cozy rooms remaining indifferent to the guests sleeping outside.

The six of us had just finished our ‘royal’ dinner consisting whole wheat bread slices with pickle and sauce with some Haldiram’s bhujia for garnishing. Sharath was lying left most next to Byre. Narayan was snoring next to him. I was involved in nonsensical talks with Pujar and Chetan to my right. I had held my bright torch up on my stomach pointing upwards to the white roof with many yellow and greenish patches, that serving as the only bright source of light after a dimly lit incandescent bulb at the other end of the corridor. To our left there were few other trekkers from Bangalore, most of them were tired and half dead after trekking on the Green Route for 20+ kms whole of that day.

A thought occurred in my mind. It was a Saturday night; all the 6 of us could have been on our cozy couches of our warm rooms in our respective houses in Bangalore, if we had wished to. But instead, we were lying curled up in some remote railway station in the windy and chilly Western Ghats waiting for the arriaval of a train @ 11:30 PM to that station. The railway employees there had said that train which usually does not stop in that station was stopping to our luck that day due to some signalling problems. Our calf muscles were tested to their best and our soles were paining every millimeter after walking on the gravel of the railway track for 20+ kms and other 10 kms on road. I had 4 boils on and in between my toes caused by my not so comfortable shoes. I just thought, was this misery worth in the name of thrill and adventure? Then my heart said, it was worth every penny of the pain! My mind was filled with the picturesque landscapes, fog covered mountains, innumerable streams and waterfalls, pitch dark tunnels, mind numbing metal bridges and fresh green vegetation that we had seen while trekking on the railway track that day.

---------- x --X-- x ----------

A trekker’s CV in Karnataka is incomplete if s/he has not been to Green Route aka Sakleshpur Railway Track trek. This has been a long pending plan for us. When we were searching for places to visit in monsoon, Green Route was last of the options. People and expert trekkers warn it as not a safe thing to trek in the monsoons on Sakleshpur Railway Track. With some hesitation and queer enthusiasm, 6 of us had gathered in the Majestic KSRTC bus station on Friday night.

The 6 trekkers are,

Pujar: He is in search of a Mexican Lingayat girl to marry and is very particular about this specification

Chetan aka gungru [not ghungroo]: People who have seen a recent Kannada movie Eddelu Manjunatha would know the reason behind calling any person gungru and are free to laugh to their heart’s content :)

Sharath aka Techie: The proud owner of D-SLR camera and the most organized guy in the gang

Byre: Toughest guy amongst us. Kannada movie director Suri is thinking of casting him in the sequel to Junglee

Narayan: The silent killer had grown thick stubble on an insistence from some hot aunty

and

Me: the loaferest loafer of the gang :)

Carrying enough food items and all the other necessary equipments for the trek, we boarded the famous red KSRTC bus to Sakleshpur. Chetan and Narayan preferred Volvo bus, but Byre chose Red bus over Volvo as he wanted this to be a tough trip preparing us for the tough trek of the next day.

The bus was relatively less crowded. We occupied 6 seats in the middle rows of the bus. The bus left Majestic exactly at 11 PM as scheduled. We all were pulling each other’s legs, cracking PJs bigtime and sipping Sprite, were just 5 hours away from what could be called the best trek of our lives.

(to be contd..)

First day of Nandan Nilekani in Parliament

2009-07-24T11:18:00.006+05:30

[This is one of the mail FWDs I got and felt like sharing with you all. This is a work of fiction by a creative blogger and NOT by Nandan Nilekani himself. I know this mail is going rounds these days as the genuine first person account of Mr.Nilekani, but it is not true. Just read on and appreciate the creativity of the blogger who composed this. btw, Nilekani has published his Last Post in his official blog and has mentioned that he is not supposed to comment on any Govt policies and hence ending his blog.]

The House was in pin drop silence. I was brimming with anticipation and excitement!!!! Manmohan had informed me that my introduction was one of the important points of the agenda. I hoped that I will be able to make my speech properly. After so many interviews and conferences, I was nervous today!!!! After the Speaker indicated that the proceedings of the House could begin, Manmohan formally introduced me to the entire House. He mentioned that as the head of the Unique Identification Authority of India, I was responsible to ensure that each and every Indian had a digital smart card as a proof of his existence.

Manmohan spoke about why I was selected and also some references to the various projects executed by me in Infosys were mentioned. The House listened with rapt attention. I was asked to say a few words and I did exactly the same!!! I thanked the Government of India for having given me this opportunity and I assured the House that I would strive to successfully deliver this project. The Speaker then formally inducted me into the House and before the proceedings could move any forward, there was a small commotion on the other side of the hall.

It was Minister of Textiles who had a comment to make before the next point on the agenda. He made a request that I should be attired in a more austere way instead of a flashy suit. It did not go well with the image of a minister who should live to serve the common man and should be less ostentatious in his habits. I stood up to reply. I offered my apologies to the Honourable Minister and assured that I shall be in a more acceptable dress next time. I felt that he was right. We also used to have corporate dress code in Infosys. So it's here as well!!!!

I sat down and felt somebody nudging me. I turned around and to my surprise; it was the former Indian skipper and one of my favourite batsman Mohd. Azharuddin. I remembered that he had recently won the elections. I smiled at him and mentioned to him that I used to like his game very much, shaking his hand. No Rolex, I noticed. Azhar told me that he would fix me an appointment with an Italian designer who had designed his dapper Kurta suit. An Italian designer in Milan doing Kurtas!!!!! I made a note of this and reminded myself to give this example to Friedman for his next book, The World Markets are flattened.

Since there was no doubt about the Fixational capacities of Azhar, I told him to give me the details and I would consider. The proceedings of the House went on with numerous bills being debated and passed as I sat as a passive audience waiting for my projects turn to come up. After the lunch break, it was the moment for me!!!!

MY PROJECTS FIRST REVIEW CAME UP FOR PRESENTATION.

I was at sea. My laptop did not have any reserve power. I went to Manmohan and apprised him of the situation. I was sweating. He calmly replied that this would not be a cause of concern. I was flummoxed!!!! The Speaker asked me to explain to the House on what were my plans for the Unique Identity Project. I replied that I have a plan prepared for 30-60-90-120 days milestones and I have presentation to make for which I need a power socket, a projector and a screen. I had no idea what was going to happen after this.

The next couple of minutes were a complete jolt for me. I was completely in a tizzy. Let me just summarize what happened. A Joint Cabinet Secretary Committee was set up to judge the feasibility of my request. The Under Secretaries for the Ministries of Power, IT and Broadcasting will prepare a Viability Report after scrutinizing National Security threats to my request. This was because the power socket comes under Power, laptop comes under IT and projector comes under Broadcasting. I have also been told to reconsider my timelines of 30-60-90 days and start thinking in terms of years. Probably, they are right. I did not have the foresight in this matter.

The summary of the issue is that I need to come up with a more inclusive, democratic, comprehensive long term plan for this project to be executed over the next five years. I have also been given a presentation slot 3 months from now (by which the issues related to the power cord etc will also be resolved). I am filled with mixed reactions. I was planning for a quick resolution; the management wants a strategic solution. I come out of the House and text Murthy.

"You wont believe it but these guys work just like us. I am on a NATIONAL BENCH for the next three months!!!!!!!!"

15 kisses that changed the history of world Tennis

2009-07-10T23:15:00.004+05:30

Pic courtesy: Go Roger!
Check here for Federer career statistics

Some straight questions

2009-07-04T02:53:00.012+05:30

Caution: Explicit use of language when and where it is required

You could call it just a juxtaposition of some of my genuine questions, some info to pass on and few of my opinions; that's what is my say about gay rights, about recent decision of Delhi HC on 377, about the altered sexual orientation of nearly 20 million people in India. As I am not able to take a firm stand on this topic with my current knowledge on this subject, I could sound idiosyncratic in few places, but can’t help it! Being a heterosexual I could also be biased about this topic!!

First of all, is homosexuality and bisexuality normal..?

I know normalcy is subjective. So heterosexuals not supporting this could call it not normal, LGBTs (Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals and Trans genders) and liberal supporters could call it normal. So that was a really vague question...

Science:

Biologists have proved that homosexuality is observed in many of the animals like antelopes, boars, bulls, chimpanzees, cows, ducks, cats, dogs, fruit flies, geese, gorillas, gulls, horses.. etc Is human being just an addition to this?Is sexual orientation of a person decided at the time oh his/her birth? Or is it a trait picked up by some hormonal changes during puberty? Or is it an influence of surroundings or is it a mix of all these or any of these? This research says, though there is a region identified in X chromosome, if it is present in heterosexual females, it gets passed on to their male children. This could make that child a homo. Again such a gene was not found in female homosexuals. This research also says that just a region in X chromosome is identified but not the exact gene. Also there is no measure of how much this gene could influence a male child to be born as homosexual.

This study says, it is largely shaped by genetics and by few random environment factors.

What about bisexuals?

I read some where that these are the people who are still exploring their sexual orientation. Some might remain exploring; some might be bisexuals with a liking for one gender over the other.

Don’t bisexuals increase the risk of spreading HIV and other STDs?

Isn't homosexuality a dead-end of evolution?

Isn’t homosexuality being considered as dead-end of human evolution? Read this and this. Though these articles do not give a clear cut answer, they throw light upon lot of aspects.

Indian Mythology:

Khajuraho sculptors and Kamasutra have mention of homosexuality. But does that mean it was prevalent in India from a long time? Was it considered 'abnormal' even then? Any mention in old scriptures about this?

I know Amba reincarnating as ShikhanDi in Mahabharatha, Lord Vishnu taking the avatar of Mohini to kill Bhasmasura, Arjuna assuming a transgender named Brihannala during the period of Pandava’s disguise, but these are anecdotes from our mythology about male transforming into female and vice versa. But Is there any reference to homosexuality anywhere?

Indian Penal Code:
IPC 377 states, “Whoever voluntarily has carnal intercourse against the order of nature with any man, woman or animal, shall be punished with [imprisonment for life], or with imprisonment of either description for term which may extend to ten years, and shall also be liable to fine.”

Delhi HC has decriminalized IPC 377, and the section still exists. Meaning, a non-consensual sex against the order of nature with man, woman or animal is still a punishable offense.
Dat also means homosexuality is still not legal in India.

When IPC 376 states a rapist gets an imprisonment of 7-10 years, was’t the pre-existing 377 (before decriminalization) little unfair? Because a consensual sex with a partner of same gender would put a homosexual behind the bars for years equal to that for a rapist?

Does IPC 377 (before decriminalization) imply a consensual anal sex by a man with his own wife considered as domestic rape?

Uncategorized category:

Do people become gays/lesbos by choice..? Is it more to do with their life style..?

Conservatives might call it lifestyle chosen; liberals might call it an orientation by birth.

What about some young people who indulge in homosexuality for fun, in the name of adventure, in the name of exploration, or just for gimmick? Are they formally considered gays/lesbians?

Why do eunuchs act so horny? Any research on desire to indulge in sex is more/less in people with altered sexual orientation?

Why do most of the fashion photographers and designers "act" so feminine?

What about those porn actresses, who say they love girls and also love to suck co**? Is it their profession pushing them to the edge? or is it that many of the porno actresses are bisexuals?

In a threesome or group sex, if a person is *helping* the other same gendered person, is s/he called a lesbo/gay?

What if a set of people in future dare to reveal their sexual orientation towards animals like dogs/horses/goats or minor children, would Indian Judiciary reconsider the existing laws then also?

Most of all in future, if your daughter comes home with a daughter-in-law or son with son-in-law one day, would you welcome them?????

90% of eveything is.....

2009-06-15T17:05:00.004+05:30

Happened to read this quote by this wise man named Theodore Sturgeon, a science fiction writer.

"Ninety percent of everything is crap"

That's stunningly true isn't it...?

Doing a bit of Googling, found out some interesting facts about this so called Sturgeon's law. Though he quoted this aiming at the Science fiction published all over the world, but later argues that 90% of film, literature, consumer goods, etc. are crap.

PS: Though, I personally feel ninety percent is an exaggeration, or may be the things I consider which are not crap now might actually turn out to be crap at later point of time. So there are chances that I might totally agree to this quote some time in future..

To Federer, with love

2009-06-08T23:05:00.007+05:30

Dear Roger,

First of all congratulations on achieving the feat of winning 14 grand slams and sharing the page of History books with Sampras for the moment. Most of all, congrats again for breaking the jinx of Roland Garros.

I have been following your game since the day you lifted your first grand slam. Since then I have been loving your game, not because you kept lifting grand slams one after the other, not because the tennis experts speculated that you would be the greatest ever tennis player one day, but just for making the game look so beautiful and stylish!

I still remember when Leyton Hewitt [I think] said, "It is unfortunate that we are playing in Federer's era". I enjoyed the way you dominated in all the tournaments, no matter who the opponent is. That is when the grey-heads of Tennis stirred up a debate, whether you could be called the greatest ever Tennis player, they compared you with Rod Lever to McEnroe to Bjorn Borg. I never bother about these kinda arguments, because firstly I feel it is unfair to compare two players of two different eras, secondly I have not seen them playing! No matter what people opine, for me you are the God of tennis. In future when a new champion emerges (who would certainly have to bear the comparisons with you) and my kids watch him play, I would love to tell them how better were you!

Then Rafa emerged as the 'next big thing' of Tennis court and started showing the world that you are not unbeatable, that even you have a vulnerable side. With an amazing combination of controlled aggression and precision, Rafa surely is a toughest contender for you. Every time you played against Rafa in a big match, whether on clay or grass, I have prayed to God as if I was waiting for the results of my final exams. When Rafa firmly denied you a French open in all the 3 finals from 2006-2008, I had feared that you might also end up like Sampras, without a French open. Every time you lost to Nadal, a very basic question that does not only pertain to Tennis but life as well used to rise in my mind - In the war between aggression and grace, why does aggression turn out to be victorious most of the times?

I was less disappointed when you lost to Rafa in straight sets (1-6, 3-6, 0-6) in French Open 2008 finals than when you broke into tears after losing to him in this year's Australian Open. I could not believe it. I mean I did not like it! What was that indicating, a man who hardly used to show his emotion on field once, has given up? Did you accept Nadal as your jinx not only on clay but also on other surfaces? I am sorry to say, I had not expected that from you.

Though this victory in French Open would add to the tally of career grand slams, I would say, you won it easily this time. Your nemesis was defeated by Soderling quite early in the tournament. The other threats, Djokovic and Murray also not making it to the final 4. Though Tommy Haas and Del Potro made you sweat, I think this was relatively an easy grand slam for you! Hope it gives you the confidence of clearing the mental block of Roland Garros and a sigh of relief.

Agree you have won it, but I want you to EARN it beating Rafa in French Open finals some day.... I know that victory would be more satisfying for you than the current one.

Your greatest fan...

IPL10 - A futuristic look at IPL

2009-04-27T23:55:00.006+05:30

Disclaimer: This is a hypothetical and futuristic take on IPL

This is the year 2017. 10th season of IPL is about to kick off in few days in Las Vegas. Here is an account of IPL, the way it has grown and changed in the last 10 years since it started in 2008.

The IPL which started as a league of 20-20 game back in 2008 is now reduced to 10-10 overs, making it the shortest form of Cricket. The reason being cricket enthusiasts started to lose interest in 20-20 after few years of IPL. People demanded more excitement as they considered 20-20 was pretty slow game (!)

There are 15 teams now participating in this IPL-10. Shimla Apples is the newest team playing its first IPL. Preity Zinta who was once a co-owner of Punjab Kings XI, is the sole owner of this team. She ventured into owning a team of her own after an alleged spilt-up with her long time beau Ness Wadia. The pair has finally split after multiple reconciliation efforts by their family and friends. She says now she will be able to concentrate fully on IPL as she has taken a sabbatical from her acting career. Well, we all know that she hardly had any roles in her kitty, since the first season of IPL ;) Yadavs of Patna is another relatively new team with Lalu Yadav's son Tejaswi Prasad Yadav captaining the side. The team is owned by none other than Rabri Devi. This team is a good contender for the IPL trophy this time.

This season of IPL has most number of baseball players (on an average, every team has 2) than any other IPL seasons in the past. Most of the team owners and coaches felt it was a strategic necessity to buy baseball players for the team as there are records that 220 (in 10 overs) is also not a safe total to defend these days. For this reason, team went on a buying spree across the world. Most baseball players were bought from teams in US. This is when BCCI showed interest in conducting IPL-10 in Las Vegas. BCCI says it is also an effort to popularize cricket in US. The newly set up Cricket Board of USA has managed to set up a new plush indoor stadium for IPL-10.

The cricket pitch is prepared of synthetic material unlike the hard soil pitches of the outdoor stadiums. This kind of pitch is supposed to bring ball straight on to the bat without any scope for spin, swing, and enabling batsmen to just cudgel the ball. The ball is also a made with a mix of leather and special rubber, making it much lighter and is supposed to cover long distances when hit by batsmen.

Ever since IPL-7, ICC has permitted the use of double sided bats made of special fiber instead of wooden bats used in other conventional formats of the game. These double sided bats help the batsmen to hit the ball farther without much effort. These bats look very much similar to baseball bats, which also helps the baseball players in the team. The word club is being used synonymous to bats these days.

New set of rules say every team could only play 4 Indian players and the rest have to be foreign players. This is an encouraging move as it gives the team the best of talents across the globe.

This is the 3rd successful year of the new chairman Another Bindralmiashah, after there were allegations on Lalit Modi of dwindling the money of BCCI during his long tenure as IPL chairman.

18 year old Arjun Sachin Tendulkar is the new sensation of IPL-10. There were rumors that his father, legendary Sachin Tendulkar did not want his son to start his career with T10, instead he wanted his son to start with the traditional format like ODIs. Arjun Sachin Tendulkar is the costliest buy out by any team in the history of IPL. Rumour mills say Mumbai team quoted him close to 500 million USD for a contract of 3 years.

IPL-10 is also going to be the last IPL of arguably the God of IPL, Yusuf Pathan. He has decided to retire from cricket after this season. When asked about his next plans, he says he is already in talks with few of the team owners to join them as batting coach. Yusuf is the only batsman in the history of IPL to have an overall strike rate of over 250!!

There is also a new variable being added to the statistics of batsmen. Along with number of matches played, run aggregated and strike rate etc, this new variable is gonna be number of sixes hit by the batsman. A similar element will be included for bowlers, for the number of sixes conceded.

Cutting edge technology always has been part of cricket.

The new technology enables to sniff and tap the thoughts of the brains of bowlers, batsman and fielders which is available for the analysis when the match is in progress. But grey heads have revolted against adapting this technology as this information could be used by the opponent coaches to guide their players on field.. But there is also an argument that it is fair as the info is open for all to use and make plans and counter plans.
Umpires no longer stand in the field. In an effort to nullify human errors, all the umpiring decisions are taken by the third (but the only!) umpire.

There are also rumors that there are gonna be no bowlers in any team from next IPL. Due to this bowlers' future is in doldrums. Instead of bowlers, there are gonna be bowling machines used. Automotive giants of Japan and S Korea seem to have prepared the prototypes of bowling machines which can generate a maximum speed of 200 mph. Whether there has to be a regulation on this speed of bowling as it requires super human batsmen to judge the balls thrown at these extreme speeds is yet to be decided by ICC. The legends of the game like Sunila Gavaskar, Steve Waugh and likes who have always expressed their dismay against commercialization of cricket now have openly lashed out at robotizing cricket also.

Bryan McFixer is returning to T10 format after clearing the charges of match fixing in IPL season 9. He had played four continuous dot balls in the semi finals of IPL-9.

Television broadcast rights have been bought by Zoom channel this year in India.

There are close to 250 official commercial sponsors overall for this year’s IPL.

The popularity of T10 has affected the snail paced ODIs let alone Tests. There are only 5 test playing nations remaining now. Kenya being the last and latest team to get the nod from ICC as test playing nation. Rest of the teams are England, Australia, West Indies and Sri Lanka. India stopped playing tests 3 years back, as BCCI decided it was not a lucrative business.

According to the latest rule, if a batsman fails to score in the required run rate, he could be called off by the batting side captain. A batsman of choice (any player from the squad who has not played yet in that innings) could replace him. Mostly like a substitute in a football match.

At last how on earth can there not be anything special about cheerleaders when IPL is being held in LV? This time many of the teams have hired strippers from various Clip joints of LV. Various Women's rights activists in India and as well as in US have protested this nanga naach in the name of Cricketainment. But chairman of IPL, has announced a part of the profit of IPL is gonna be donated for the welfare of Commercial sex workers in India. This has pacified many of the activists in India.

BCCI is also thinking of introducing 5-5 overs match before cricket enthusiasts turn their faces away from T10. Would they name it F5? And will it remain a mass hysteria like F1 for decades? Only time has the answers in its belly...

Husbands and Wives play Dil Kabaddi

2009-04-23T23:50:00.007+05:30

Saw Dil KabaDDi few days back; thoroughly enjoyed it. I thought it was the best 'Romantic Adult Comedy' I have seen in Hindi. I found the screenplay fresh, neat narration, excellent pool of talented actors and hilarious dialogues, only to realize later when Saravanan pointed out that Dil KabaDDi is blatantly ripped off from Woody Allen’s Husbands and Wives. I watched Husbands and Wives the very next day. I was shocked. Dil KabaDDi is almost a Hindi translation of HAW. Dialogue writer of DK has shown his credibility in English to Hindi translation. Or did he just get the Hindi subtitles of HAW and provided a printout of the same to the actors while acting/rehearsing? One could notice the finger count of differences between the two movies.

Having said that I would also like to say it is a very rare thing to happen for a ripped-off movie to come out more enjoyable than the original! DK is one such movie!!

Husbands and Wives
Dir: Woody Allen
Cast: Woody Allen, Mia Farrow, Sydney Pollack and Judy Davis

This is the first Woody Allen movie I have seen. After reading/hearing a lot about him, I witnessed his style of film making in HAW. In the beginning of the movie, many of the scenes are long shots, actors speaking to each other for long without breaking, cinematographer moving along with the characters; My eyes usually take time to get adjusted to the camera, when it is moving between the characters, dodging the shoulders and heads of actors (if they are also moving along the camera), maneuvering not to hit the static objects in the scene. But at the same time it gives an impression to the audience as if they are dropped right in between the characters, which is very nice.

It revolves around 2 couples, Gabe, Judie and Jack, Sally. The story revolves around infidelity, adultery and about their unsure decisions they take in life, letting them split, re-unite, live apart, find another companion etc. Though it is being categorized as a comedy movie, I hardly smiled at any of the (if any) jokes in the movie. May be I am not of the types who laughs for Woody Allen type of jokes.

I also felt, all the lead actors were too old to deal with these marital problems; well that’s purely my personal opinion.

Dil Kabaddi
Dir: Anil Senior
Cast: Irrfan Khan, Soha Ali Khan, Konkona Sen Sharma and Rahul Bose

Dil Kabaddi opens with one of my favorite scenes in the movie. Irrfan starts with a monologue on love. Speaking about to what extent people go crazy for love, he continues, "boss, bees saal tak ek hi building ko banwaana koi mazaak kaam nahin hain, woh bhi ek hi color main.. banaane ke liye patience chaahiye. Shah Jahan bawra nahin ho gaya tha buddy.. marble pe marble kharch kar daala, kaay ke liye..? true love, sachcha pyaar.. ruh se ruh ka milan... wahh.. but then... times changed... ". Irrfan’s voice gets sidelined in the noise of ringing phones.. sound of horn, vehicular movement, traffic chaos.

Samit played by Irrfan is an on-the-edge-eccentric kind of guy, who thinks it is style to wear sun glasses while driving the car in the night. Who wears silver grayish tie for a bright pink+blue striped formal shirts, has a penchant for kinky sex, also thinks his body-brain balance is screwed up because he is sex starved. Check out another gem of a dialogue by Samit, "bed room ke under kya hota hain usse romance ka kya lena dena... woh bhi husband and wife ke beech main….. husbands and wives are beyond romance”. Well, that's Samit for you :) Add to this, the unique dialogue delivery style, his mumbles, deliberate repetition of words, that makes Irrfan Khan THE BEST guy to play the role of Samit.

Soha Ali Khan is surprisingly refreshing in the role of Mita (Irrfan’s wife). Though Irrfan and Soha look very odd as a pair, but that is the exact requirement of the script to have a couple who are not so alike, who make an odd pair. The other couple, played by Konkona and Rahul Bose suit the role of Rishi and Simi at their best. Payal Rohatgi has overplayed the role as a dumb bimbette. Though Rahul Khanna has nothing much to do, has done justice to the role.

Even after copying scene to scene from HAW, the director of DK, Anil Senior deserves a mention for the portrayal of subtle man-woman relationships (in the very few original scenes of the movie). In both the movies, a narrator guy keeps questioning / prodding the characters to speak out to the camera. No better way to spill out the insecurities, idiosyncrasies and confusions about the relationships of the characters than this. I enjoyed it.

Though portraying all the men as creatures who think between their legs is questionable, I would recommend this movie to all the people who love laughing on this vice of men.

Adventure sports is not all that fun

2009-04-13T13:59:00.005+05:30

My friend and ex-teammate Satish called me up on SAT night around 8:30 and asked me to switch to TV9. News reader was reading out the tragic incident of Bhargava, who had met with an unfortunate death trying reverse Bungee jump near Bannerghatta National Park. For me name of the adventure club was as shocking as the incident itself. The flash news read, the Bungee jump was jointly organised by CARE* and Head Rush adventure sports club. Satish on the other end said, 'remember the name CARE?', I uttered in shock, 'Ohh shit..'.

I think it was nearly an year ago, Satish and me with few other friends had tried parasailing near Kolar, which was organised by the same organization, CARE. I remember it was an open field [I think it was a big lake before] where the event was organised. There was absolutely no ambulance organised by CARE, nor did they have any first-aid kits!! I don't even think they had valid license to conduct such an adventure sporting event that day also. More shockingly before the flight, each one of us signed a printed copy which stated**, 'I _____, hereby declare that I am fully aware of the risks and injuries caused by this adventure sports. Organisers are not responsible for any kind of injuries or mishap'!!!!!

We were given a demo by one of the professionals there and we blindly had signed that copy. How foolish were we to sign that! All of us had risked our lives for few minutes of adrenalin rush. Though nothing went wrong that day, but any thing could have happened....

No doubt these kind of organizers should be severely punished, I also insist Govt to conduct an investigation to verify the valid license of all the so called adventure clubs all over the state. I also would like plea to all the adventure enthusiasts out there not to try these adventure sports without adequate safety measures.

* careindia.in is shutdown. Expected eh..

** It is not the exact text, but that was the intended message

Revised blogroll

2009-04-09T11:07:00.001+05:30

As you guys might have observed by this time, I revised the Blogroll for my blog. It is like cleaning the desktop, lot of old and unused things had piled up. Cleansed up all such links and now I have categorized the blogroll as the blogs I often visit and comment, photo blogs, few very very interesting Kannada sites and also few sites about Movies.

Hope you guys like it..

My graphiti

2009-04-04T19:21:00.004+05:30

There are some of the things that are best represented in graphs than in words

PS: These graphs are heuristic, based on my current take on the world

Friday comedy - a drama

2009-03-13T23:53:00.005+05:30

[Sutradhar speaks, “This is a satirical take on the status meeting in my previous project. Addressing my team mates with their mother land or mother tongue is not meant to hurt any one’s feelings. It should be taken in the right sense. I prefer this way than addressing a person by a single alphabet. Not only it sounds weird to hear ‘P sat next to W who was speaking to J about D’, it is quite confusing also.
All the characters in the drama are my ex teammates made of flesh and blood, resemblance to any dead person is purely coincidental. Though I had written this script many months back, did not dared to post this script, otherwise my appraisal ratings would have got affected. So, here I start.. Hope you enjoy this one”. Curtain opens, audience applaud]

It was a practice in our team to have a status meeting every Friday exactly at 1:30 PM. This is the dais for us to confess our failures of the past week, to boast about our achievements in front of the whole team, to blame one another for each others’ failures. Hope you got the enough intro on this comedy drama.

Let me introduce you all the characters one by one.

EM : acronym for Engg Mangr. We have to plea to the same guy for our appraisals and sick leaves. Hence a very important person, With whom you can not take punga

PM : an obvious acronym. This guy is supposed to control the events of the Fri comedy. Has a docile voice which contradicts the purpose of his role

TL : obvious acronym. A knowledgeable guy, who feels he is the Atlas who carries the project on his shoulders [nevertheless to say, who feels PM doesn't know the head n tail of the on going project]

Supporting cast:

Bihari babu : He speaks English in Bhojpuri

Oriya guy : with long hair, always gives complex to the other 2 females in the team

Female-1 and Female-2: PM mellows down when he asks status to these gals

A Mallu - whose second name belongs to the world's toughest tongue twister's list

Tamailian-1 and Tamilian-2: Tamilian-1’s face always reflects the pain of losing the race to the post of TL to the existing TL, Tamilian-2 always bears an im-under-utilized-in-the-team-u-see look

A Geek : who always makes sure his sentences contain at least 2-3 words which nobody understands in the team. And gives a wry smile after finishing every sentence

A guy from Nagpur : Has a very juvenile face. Some day I want to see this guy dressed up in a school uniform, with blue checkered shirt and plain blue shorts with a hankey pinned to his shirt

And then there is me, the Sutradhar – Sutradhar agrees with the saying, ‘team meeting is where we conclude that none of us is as worse than all of us together’

OK enough of introduction, its time to start the drama now.

It was already 1:40 and no clue of meeting still. OK at last every one started heading towards the meeting room. There was sudden tension in the air, the PM noticed that the meeting room booked by him is occupied by some other biggies from the higher management. But PM felt it is too ridiculous a reason to cancel the meeting. Soon he found another empty one and we all march towards that empty room as per his directions. We occupied the seats in hurry. By the time PM connected his laptop to the OHP [overhead projector - it has always lived up to its name by causing considerable overhead from connecting the laptop to zooming and focusing onto the screen] it was 10 to two. Tamilian-1, Geek and Oriya guy were yet to come. At the beginning of the meeting PM informed us that EM would not be able to attend that day's meeting as he was busy with some other work. Some of us sighed in relief. But there was a price we had to pay for his absence. That is a proloooooooonged meeting. EM has a good habit of talking and making us talk to the point. The team gets unruly in EM's absence. When I mean unruly, I never meant I liked the team to be ruled by some one like EM... ok.. Let me re-phrase it.. shall I say team mates behave self-managed in EM's presence... hey, but this became an oxymoron. How can you call some one self-managed when he behaves so only in some body else's vigilance... ha ha. Forget it hope you got what I wanted to say. Some things are better explained by what they are not than what they are. This was one such thing.

“Ok..”, PM opened the Status tracker Excel sheet intending to start the meeting. He continued, “what is the status of this tagging work..”, turning to Mallu. If you are wondering what is this tagging thing, do not worry. No one in our team is clear about it, including our Mallu who is working on it.
Mallu just opened his mouth to speak.. Geek, Oriya guy and Tamilian-1 entered the meeting room disturbing the whole ambiance. Each one of them hunted for an empty chair.. but found none. They had to be content standing in the meeting room.

Geek had an apple in his hand. May be he wanted the PM to understand that he has skipped his lunch. His hair always remained tousled. The harder he works, the more tousled it gets. I feel there is a jaani dushmani between his hair and all the combs in the world. Geek said, “I was just replying to Johan’s mail”, sounding an explanation for his late entry for the meeting. Tamilian-1 and Oriya guy did not bother to give an explanation, neither did PM ask. If you are wondering who this Johan is, do not worry again. Think he is a gora sitting in London, our client guy. You can replace Johan with any English cricketer or footballer you know, no body would mind. Some day even I want to enter the meeting room saying, “sorry.. I was just having a chat with Kevin Pieterson about our team’s performance in the last quarter”.

Mallu found a Milli second of time interval and opened his mouth to throw up his updates… but geek had his own plans of interrupting the flow of the meeting. He said to PM, “can you just check my reply to Johan.. I have put you in the loop too”.

May be PM also felt it was more important to see what the Geek has replied to him. He opened his mail box. And I started glancing the subject lines of all his mails. I expected his mailbox to contain mails with subject lines like, ‘Katrina new photos - CRFL’ or ‘Mumbai girls playing Holi’ OR ‘sard jokes – new collection’. But I found none of that kind except all project related crappy mails. His life must be as colorless, spice less the way he looks. He opened the mail by Geek to Johan, read the first few lines and pretended as if he understood the idea proposed by Geek. And said “this should be fine..”, continued, “lets wait for his reply..”, in a diplomatic tone.

How could a TL keep quiet in such a situation, which demands his explanation and enlightening solution for the problem. He uttered the cause of this issue, even showed a glimpse of his foresightedness saying he had expected this to happen some 70 Yrs back. PM nodded in agreement to his solution. Oriya guy caught every one’s attention by saying “is issue ko mera code change merge karne se kuch pharak padega na..?”, combing his long hair with the tips of his fingers. He uses our Rashtra bhasha liberally even in the team meetings. Nobody has a problem with that, but we had a problem with where the hell was meeting going towards? What the hell was meeting for? Geek said, “No… ur code change addresses a totally different issue”. Oriya guy looked happy with that statement of the Geek.

At last Mallu guy stole a micro second of silence this time and started reporting his progress. He had a mission accomplished kinda expression on his face, once he finished speaking. Then it was the turn of the Female-1 to talk abt her achievements or misdemeanors in the last week. This female has a habit of jilebi-ying any given topic [which means beating around the bush]. I was following her till she spoke her third sentence, then I got lost in one of the sharp curves of the jilebi. I started looking blankly at the other blank faces in the room. Then that pretty girl from the other team happened to pass off our meeting room. I thanked the guy who designed the glass walls of our meeting rooms. What I like about that pretty girl is the way she walks, with letting her hair sway in the air. Unknowingly my head traversed an arch of 270 degrees, till she went out of sight. Soon I became conscious if any body had noticed my traverse, I looked around to see Bihari babu also following her walk. I smirked at Bihari babu. Knowing that he was caught leching, maintained his dignified posture continuing listening to Female-1’s status report.

Tamilian-2 controlled his burp, it could have sounded less louder if he had let his burp pass. He does this very often. May be the gastric problem u see.. I just thought, the day somebody invents that burp-gas is combustible and could be used as substitute for LPG, this guy would become millionaire, man. Female-2 was examining her nail polish closely. If she had given 10% of this attention while coding, she would have been the most productive person in our team after geek. TL was not finding the gap to poke his nose in between. He was fiddling his beard.

“We have borne a lot of pressure in the last release…”, PM’s words sailed in air and happened to enter my ears. I could see he had felt the word ‘pressure’. I really get pity when some one with meek voice uttering the word ‘pressure’ in the post lunch hour. I am damn sure the word ‘pressure’ originated directly from his bowels. Why are you laughing, after all he is also a human being, it can happen to any one after the heavy lunch on a week day. Nobody understood his expression except me. PM continued the status meeting with his constipated looks.

I don’t know whose bright idea was to put Team Outing as one of the action items in the excel sheet. When every one saw this as the next item to be discussed, every one of us waited like a tiger waiting for its prey near the stream. I know the moment PM utters team Outing, there would be an endless conversation. Every one in the team suggested all the tourist spots around Bangalore as if it is their birth right to visit that place. I even heard some one suggesting UK for team outing, may be some soul which was longing for an on site trip. But it was fun to hear that. Every one of us bursted into hearty laughter. Then guy from Nagpur suggested to take this topic off line. Every one nodded their heads. That Nagpur guy acknowledged as it was his best suggestion given to any one in his whole life.

It was already 3:40 and my turn had not come still to explain my inventions of the last week. My mind just thought posting this meeting comedy in my blog. My mind started thinking of a good title for my post. I thought of few titles, by then heard a voice calling my name. It kinda brought me back to the reality of the meeting room. PM was demanding me to give the status of last week. I told him convincingly that my coding of few lines was the next best invention after Edison’s bulb. Though every one did not agree to that, but every one agreed that I was successful in bamboozling the PM.

I even observed that Geek and Oriya guy had disappeared from the room, giving an excuse of handling some urgent submissions may be. But I bet both would be found in smoking zone. As I had finished giving my status, I just uttered a word ‘excuse me’ holding my cell in hand and walked out of the room. This is an additional feature of my phone called walk-out-of-unwanted-meeting. Nagpur guy was chaloo enough to understand that I had never got a call. But who cares.. I just walked out the drama.

This drama will be screened every FRI…

Movie mania

2009-02-20T15:35:00.008+05:30

Im on a movie watching spree like never before. To be precise I have watched 13 movies in last 1 month!! I know there are movie maniacs out there who watch a movie every day, but 13 in 30 days is still a whopping number for me. I am impatient to write a review/comment on each one of them in separate posts, though some of them deserve at least a post on them.

So I here I write few lines about those movies.

Slumdog Millionaire
Dir: Danny Boyle
Cast: Dev Patel, Freida Pinto
Much has been written and discussed about this movie. Keeping aside the flaws; it is a very good entertainer. Kudos to Simon Beaufoy for an excellent adaptation of the novel by Vikas Swarup. I read the book, Q and A too which is not as good as the movie.
The disgusting cesspit scene of the movie tops my list of 'Most disgusting scenes ever in cinema'. Guess the 2nd and 3rd in the list, they are from the movie, Trainspotting again by Danny Boyle!! 2nd best being a stupored lead actor defecating on the bed in his GF's house, 3rd being Ewan McGregor diving in to the commode of the filthiest toilet of Scotland. But, however disgusting the scenes might be, I still love Danny Boyle's movies! :)

Lake House
Dir: Alejandro Agresti
Cast: Sandra Bullock, Keanu Reeves
Watched it after Ethapay reco'd this to me. A nice romantic story with a mysterious time difference of 2 years that separates the lead actors. Liked it in parts. Watchable for the very idea of the screenplay.

Raaz – The mystery continues
Dir: Mohit Suri
Cast: Emraan Hashmi, Kangana Ranaut, Adhyayan Suman
I watched this in theatre. Quite gripping and scary too in places.

Salaam Bombay!
Dir: Mira Nair
I had not commented when people said Salaam Bombay is the best portrayal of Indian slums and a better movie than Slumdog. Watched it just for the sake of it. Believe me, I could not tolerate the movie for more than 45 minutes from its beginning. I know the lead actors are kids from slums, but I simply could not feel empathy for the characters who just can not emote a single scene well. It just does not bother me when a character in the movie is dying in boiling oil in hell with an eternal wooden expression on their face. No special accolades for then not so established actors like Nana Patekar, Irfan Khan and Raghvir Yadav too.

It might be considered a good documentary in my opinion. IMHO, Slumdog is a way better movie, technically, screenplay wise, direction wise, cast wise and background score wise. I do not wanna praise Salaam Bombay just because Mira Nair is Indian.

BubbleShare: Share photos - Easy Photo Sharing

Before the rains
Dir: Santosh Sivan
Cast: Linus Roache, Rahul Bose, Nandita Das
This is an Indo-British collaboration. I am not sure whether this movie got released in India or not. Picked this one up only because of Santhosh Sivan and the movie did not disappoint me at all. The movie is 'painted' on the canvas of Kerala by Sivan. Neat performances by all the lead actors and an awesome handling of the subject by Sivan. Watch it.

Wrestler
Dir: Darren Aronofsky
Cast: Mickey Rourke, Marisa Tomei
This is one of the best movies I have seen in recent times. Thanks to Ashwin for giving me the DVD. I dint know who Mickey Rourke was until I saw this movie and now he is there right on top of my favourite actors list. I simply loved his performance in this movie. I hope he wins Best Actor award in this year's Oscars (Sean Penn for Milk will be a strong contender too).

The story of Wrestler is about Randy 'The Ram' Robinson, a wrestler in the descent of his glorious years in the ring. He is old now, his ageing body will no more bear steroids and sustain on pain killers, he has a daughter who lives apart and hates him immensely and he does not know any thing but wrestling for his livelihood. He often visits a strip club and shares his thoughts and emotionally connects to a middle aged stripper named Casidy (Marisa Tomei). Casidy is no more a young and voluptuous stripper in the club, her skin is sagging, and teenage boys humiliate her when she offers a lapdance. Once, after a brutal fight in the ring, Randy collapses in the locker room of heavy heart attack. Undergoes a bye pass surgery and is advised by doctor not to continue wrestling at the stake of his life.

The portrayal of these miserable souls, the emotions they undergo and the choices they make in their lives make the movie immensely adorable. Don't miss this one.

Luck by Chance
Dir: Zoya Akhtar
Cast: Farhan Akhtar, Konkona Sen Sharma and a whole lot of cameos by Bollywood biggies
A satirical take on clichéd Bollywood, protagonists' struggle to stardom and a believable role the luck plays in shaping the protagonist's future. The self clowning acts by many cameos are surprisingly wonderful. A must-add DVD to the personal collection.

Dev.D
Dir: Anurag Kashyap
Cast: Abhay Deol, Kalki Koechlin, Mahi Gill
A bold and modern take on Devdas in quintessential Anurag Kashyap style.

I bet this is going to be the only movie that stands apart from rest of all the Devdas versions in various languages. An excellent act by Abhay Deol and new comer Mahi Gill. Though Kalki Koechlin suits well for the role of Chanda, a better rendition could have been possible by any other capable actor. Thank God Anurag Kashyap did not make it as cryptic as No Smoking, still Dev.D is abstract enough in places. I wanna watch it again to connect the dots that are left over in my mind.

Curious case of Benjamin button
Sorry to say I was not impressed. Movie was not engaging for me.

7 pounds

Dir: Gabriele Muccino
Great performance by Will Smith, a well made movie. But, not as good as The pursuit of..

9 ½ weeks
Dir: Adrian Lyne
Cast: Mickey Rourke, Kim Bassinger
The movie is based on the erotic escapades of Mickey Rourke and Kim Bassinger in a duration of 9 ½ weeks. Watch it to see a charming and young Mickey Rourke (unlike in Wrestler) and hawwttt Kim Bassinger.

Elegy
Dir: Isabel Coixet
Cast: Ben Kingsley, Penelope Cruze
I picked this to see 'more of' my favorite actress Penelope Cruze. Ben Kingsley is charismatic as ever. This movie would not have been so special without these two actors.

Old Boy

Dir: Park Chan-wook

Cast: Choi Min-sik, Yu Ji-tae
Thanks to Ashwin again for giving me the DVD. This is a South Korean movie released in 2003.
I finished watching this movie at 2:15 AM last night. Could not bate my eye lids till 3 AM! This movie leaves you stirred, shocked and amazed! This is the 2nd of the Vengeance Trilogy by the director Park Chan-wook. Im dying to watch the 1st and the 3rd part too, search for the DVDs in on.

Oh btw, Zinda starring Sanjay Dutt and John Abraham is based on this movie. Seeing the violence, brutal revenge plot of the original I am convinced Zinda would be a much softer version of Old Boy to fit in the frame of Bollywood, but I wanna watch it for the mere comparison's sake.

Slumdog Millionaire and the brouhaha

2009-01-30T11:45:00.008+05:30

There has been plethora of debates, interviews, blog posts by celebs, comments and counter comments about the way Indian underbelly is depicted in the movie Slumdog Millionaire.

Before jumping into the debate, let me give you a fictitious analogy. Assume an acquaintance of yours drops into your home unexpectedly. The moment he enters the house, he observes nook and corner of your house with sheer curiosity of a newly arrived guest. He notices a huge cobweb in the corner of walls underneath your attic. Then in few other corners of your house too. Not only he notices, but also utters a word about untidiness of the house. What would be your reaction?

A. “It is my house; I can keep however dirty I wish it to be. If you have a problem with it, GET LOST! ”
B. “Oh come on! You visitors always point out such things in the house. Do u ever see beautiful antique furniture, the exotic vase with fresh flowers on the teapoy etc..?”
C. “Aah.. I cud not clean it as I can not reach there”
D. “You are saying it as if cobwebs do not get formed in your house!”

I hope you got the relevance of the analogy (quite lame though). Our reactions to Slumdog Millionaire or to any foreign filmmaker making a movie on the hard realities of India (that we are not so proud of) would fall into at least one of options A, B, C or D, mentioned above. Certainly there is an element of embarrassment when an ‘outsider’ points at the filth in our house.

Would our reactions be different if the movie had been directed by our own desi filmmaker?

Would our reactions be different if the movie had not hogged the limelight as it has done now with winning 4 Golden globes and earning 10 Oscar nominations?

Are we expressing the anger only because we are worried about the projection of India to the so called First World?

Why don’t we talk about Smile Pinky or The Final Inch [which are Oscar nominations for this year’s best short documentary films], which deal with similar themes?

In my opinion, after all Slumdog Millionaire is a fiction movie which deals with the hard realities of India. The movie might have exaggerated the slums and poverty in few places, but we can not deny the fact that Dharavi is the 2nd biggest slum in Asia (after Orangi Town in Karachi, Pakistan) and close to 1 million poor people of India live there in Dharavi. There have been movies in the past by Indian film makers which have dealt with similar subjects. Why should we treat Danny Boyle differently from Madhur Bhandarkar, Govind Nihalani and Mira Nair?

If our concern is projection of India and the notions First World derives out of this, I say it is also India but not India in its entirety. Also how just it is to set our notions about a country watching the movies made on it? Or does any one ever refer to the movies or television series of a country to study the geography or history or politics or progress of that country for that matter? If yes, then it is as fair as presuming US as a land of teenage pregnancies after watching Juno, calling it a land of troubled families and pervert fathers after seeing American Beauty, To presume China as a land only about Martial Arts after watching innumerable famous Chinese movies, to presume Iran as the country where children wear torn shoes after watching Children of Heaven, to presume Brazil as the land of drug dealers after watching City of God and at last UK as land of racists after watching Big Brother! When firangs called India is a country of snake charmers, I laughed at their ignorance. My reaction would be no different if they now think Dharavi is India.

You can only capture or understand a zilch of India in a fiction movie or a documentary. India is not only culturally and demographically diverse but also economically diverse.

Forbes lists 4 Indians in the roster of top 10 richest men on earth, at the same time 300 million people leave below poverty line in India.

India can design PSLVs to reach Moon indigenously, but in rural areas there is no adequate transportation for kids to go to their schools.

Indian Pharmaceutical industry is one of the biggest exporters in the world with US$ 7.2 Billion (in 2007-08) but India is also known as Diabetes capital of World, It has close to 2.5 million HIV infected people, a source says the estimate of new cancer cases every year is 8 millions in India, which is one of the highest in the world.

IITs and IIMs are one of the best educational institutes in the world but the same country has innumerous Govt schools with no teachers and no proper facilities for children.

India is estimated to surpass China in population in 2030, but also India accounts for more than 20% of the global maternal and child deaths.

India has a varied caste system from Kashmir to Kanyakumari and boasts of unity in diversity but also accounts to thousands of barbaric deaths in the caste riots every year.

These are just few examples depicting poles-apart facts coexisting in this glorious country. There are things to be really proud of, there are also things that make us Indians cringe. So when there is an honest attempt of making a movie on hard to chew facts of India, do not banish the director or the movie. But when First World thinks India is a nation of slums and poverty, just laugh at their ignorance.

TOI columnist Santhosh Desai says very rightly in his last column of ‘Citi Citi Bang Bang’, “It was perhaps more understandable why we were touchy about the representation of Indian poverty 20 years ago. At that time, we feared that to be our unchanging reality and it made us deeply ashamed. Today, when we believe that India is on its way up, why do we still respond negatively?” These lines quite sum up my thoughts too.

Kumara Parvatha conquered - Part 2

2009-01-16T00:08:00.009+05:30

‘Hay!’ We are coming.. [bhattara mane to Mantap]
Just few meters away from the toll gate we decided to rest for some time there. This was to compensate for leaving Bhattara Mane in hush after the lunch. We rested under the shadow of a tree. We sat there almost for half an Hr and started trekking after Ethapay and I reminded the rest it might get dark before we reach the peak otherwise.

The evening sun provided our cameras just-perfect light. Kumara Parvatha started revealing its beauty as we kept ascending. There were hillocks covered with hay every where. We blindly followed the trail that was penetrating through the hay. We were taking pit stops more often than ever now. Kumara Parvatha was testing our stamina. The guys who had left just before us from Bhattara Mane were visible now at least a km ahead of us. The long pit stop we had taken near Girigadde had clearly widened the gap between us.

After trekking nearly for three hours we sighted another mile stone, Kallina Mantapa [Stone Mantap]. I remembered Mantap’s mention in many of the blogs and websites when I was gathering info about Kumara Parvatha. Sun was calling it a day and it looked impossible to reach the peak before the Sun sets. After taking few snaps of setting Sun we ascended ahead. We were searching for a plain land to set up our tent. We got down from another mile stone called Shesha Parvatha and found a plain land there.

Men vs Wilderness [night in the tent]
While setting up the tent I observed a drastic change in the weather. What was Sunny and humid had suddenly turned to windy and chilling. The tent was easy to set up. It was dark by that time. There were three torches with us. But we decided to set up a camp fire. Byre showed he is better equipped to leave in jungle by breaking few dry twigs from the bushes around. Byre even cut a bundle of hay. We tried lighting the twigs with a lighter I had carried. Even the camphor did not help. Just the hay burnt bright, but a single twig. It was so windy we gave up the idea of camp fire.

We crouched into the tent. Spread our sleeping bags and circled around the three torches that were serving as artificial camp fire inside the tent. We soon realized the tent would be a bit congested for 4 of us. But sleeping in a congested tent was lot better than dying in the cold out side. Few apples, biscuits and some other snacks were in the menu list for the dinner. While having our food Ethapay and I were alerted by a sudden scary noise out side the tent as if some animal is trying to tear the tents with its paws! It sent chill down my spine. We did not speak for a moment. The sound vanished; Byre took his knife in hand and said, “come lets all go out, if it is any wolf or some thing it will run away seeing people”. I agreed hesitantly. We all peeped out of the tent to see no animal around. Later we realized it was flap of our tent which made that noise. We all sighed in relief. We sat out side the tent for a long time discussing crappy topics. I shared some tips by Bear Grylls to others which I had learned from his TV Series Man vs Wild. I adore that guy for his guts, Im a great fan of Bear Grylls. Pujar and Byre added their share of info in the conversations.

We screamed at the top of our voices when the clock ticked 12 AM. Wished every mountain around and billions of stars above in the sky. There were no echoes for our screams, I think it got frozen in the cold. We all thought a New Year celebration can not get better than this. After chatting this and that for some more time we crouched back in our tent.

Foot on peak
I set the alarm to wake up @ 5:45 in the morning. I was expecting to see some clouds around. The plan was to trek to the peak getting up ASAP in the morning. The congested tent helped in a way to keep the warmth inside. We all zipped ourselves into our sleeping bags. Our bags served as pillows. The tired bodies caught sleep in fraction of a second.

I woke up before the alarm rang. It was few minutes to 5:45. I woke the guys up and told it was time to resume our trek. Byre unzipped the zip of the tent door and noticed it was still dark outside. So we decided to sleep for 15 more minutes. I did not get sleep. I woke them up again @ 6:00. Ethapay was hesitant to wake up and trek further. He said he will continue sleeping in the tent and did not wanna join us for trek further. We did not pester him much; as he had already been to this place once and he looked liked he needs some rest.

Sun had not yet shown up. Byre, Pujar and I were trekking in the direction of the peak. After trekking for about half an hour, the magnificent peak of Kumara Parvatha was visible, at last after a whole day of trek… I sighed. But to reach it, we had to cross a patch of a Shola forest. In the Shola forest we met the guys who were trekking ahead of us the previous evening. It was evident seeing the half burnt logs that the guys had successfully lighted the camp fire the previous night. I think that place mustn’t have been as windy as our place. We uttered New Year wishes to them and they did it in return. That was much of a gesture of solidarity. We met another group of 4 further down in the forest. After crossing the forest, we were challenged by a steep boulder-y climb in front of us. That hinted us that we were now climbing the ultimate tip of Kumara Parvatha.

After few minutes of trekking we were more than happy to land our feet on the second highest peak of Karnataka. We felt we were on top of the world. We gave hi-fives to each other. The view from the top was mind boggling. Sun was casting his bright rays on our elated faces. We clicked few snaps. All the three of us found a slope-y rock on one of the edges of the peak and rested there for a while. The view from there was worth the total ten hours of trekking.

Painful descent
We returned to the spot where we had set up our tent last night. Ethapay had woken up and folded all our sleeping bags and kept it ready to carry. Ethapay turned out to be less lazy than we had thought about him ;) We munched few apples and folded the tent back in a bag meant for it. It was 10 AM, by the time we started trekking down from that place. Trekking down did not turn out to be as easy as expected. It needed constant care not to step on a rolling stone and firmly gripping on each of the stones our foot was kept on. We took far less pit stops. Reached Bhattara Mane around 12:30. Bhat said it will take few more minutes to prepare lunch. We lied down on the mats and polythene bags laid out on the floor of verandah.

After finishing the lunch [menu was same, Malabar Spinach sambar, white rice, pickle and buttermilk] we decided to take a good siesta again. This time we were woken up by the commotion around by the new group of guys who had stopped for lunch on the way up to Kumara Parvatha. In fact there were more people that day to trek than the previous day. We carried our backpacks and headed back on the path to Kukke.

At last the whining calf muscles and thigh muscles got the much needed rest in the lodge when we reached the lodge @ 5:30. We all had a sense of accomplishment of trekking the 2nd highest peak in Karnataka.

Kumara Parvatha conquered - Part 1

2009-01-15T23:36:00.014+05:30

The plan of welcoming 2009 on the peak of Kumara Parvatha at last seemed to come true. Bhai had backed out from trip; we also had cut short our long trip which otherwise was of 4 days , because of some unavoidable reasons. At last Byre, Pujar, Ethapay and I, all were standing in the mist coated Kukke KSRTC bus stand on 31st morning.

It took no time for us to find a lodge near the bus stand. Though we all tried our best to finish the morning rituals and the breakfast ASAP, it was already few minutes past 10 in the morning. Then Ethapay made sure we all stuffed our bags with at least 3 big water bottles each, along with few small bottles of soft drinks, apples and Glucose packets. The sleeping bags for each and a tent contributed its share of weight in our back packs. Each of our back packs were already weighing close to 10 Kgs. Amongst us Ethapay was the only one who had trekked Kumara Parvatha before.

Get set, Trek!
Ok.. there we were on the road adjacent to Kukke Subramanya temple which leads to our destination, Kumara Parvatha. It was 10:30 in the morning with Sun all set to roast us alive. There we read a board welcoming the trekkers, pointing to the direction of route to Kumara Parvatha. The board read the height of Kumara Parvatha as 5615 feet above the sea level. It also mentioned about the mile stones for trekkers. That said, to have our lunch in Bhattara Mane we had to trek for 6 Kms. We started trekking.

Walk in the woods [from Kukke to Bhattara Mane]
The initial stretch of trek to Kumara Parvatha is all along the trails in the woods, with bare roots of trees paving the natural stairs up the hill. Thick canopy protected us getting exposed to the sun light. Ethapay kept warning us that it is going to get steeper and steeper as we proceeded in the woods. Few chocolate wrappers and empty water bottles thrown along the way signed us we are not going to be the only crazy gang who is gonna celebrate new year on the tip of Kumara Parvatha.

When we were all wiping our first drops of sweat on the side burns, we got to hear some people speaking. We were surprised to see a couple resting on the rocks there. The guy looked more tired carrying their only back pack and his huge belly. We also pit stopped there enquiring the whereabouts of the couple. We came to know the couple is not actually planning to trek till the top, but only till Bhattara Mane. Their plan was to return down after having lunch in Bhattara Mane. Even otherwise the couple did not look fit enough to trek to the peak of Kumara Parvatha for me.

We left the couple behind and trekked ahead. We were amazed see a shirt and kaavi dhoti clad Tarzan overtake us carrying a 25 kilos sack of rice on his head! On enquiring him, he said he is from Bhattara Mane [must be Bhat’s son]. We were stunned to see his climbing pace and wiped our sweating faces. It reminded me of the saying ‘Udara nimithham..’. When we asked him he said we still have to climb 3+ kms to reach Bhattara Mane.

We kept mixing Glucose in the water bottles and kept emptying the bottles. Soon we realized the water were carrying would almost be finished by the time we reach Bhattara Mane.

Bhattara Mane
The last stretch (say, of 1 km) to Bhattara Mane is off the thick woods. There was no canopy to protect our beautiful skin here after ;) Now we could see the town of Kukke, which seemed like a blot on a green canvas from that altitude. Our calf muscles had started whining already. Ethapay said to reach the peak of Kumara Parvatha we have to trek almost the same distance we trekked from the foot of it to Bhattara Mane. That info almost killed our enthu. Byre started blaming Ethapay for demotivating the boys.

Around 1:30, we got the sight of a red tiled roof and few Aracnut trees. All of us sighed seeing Bhattara Mane. Dozens of pairs of shoes outside his house said we are not going the only gang that is going to celebrate New Year atop Kumara Parvatha. We splashed the cold water from the tap all over the face, took some snaps and rushed in for the tasty food that was awaiting us. Ethapay had already called up Mr Bhat and booked our share in the huge containers kept on the compound of the Verandah. We joined the queue with a thali in hand.

I don’t know whether the basale soppu sambar [Malabar spinach] was that tasty or it tasted so well because we were hungry and tired and half dead. While chatting with Bhat, the man himself he said walking 200 mts from his house we get a place called Girigadde. It is basically like a toll where we have to pay Rs. 115/- per head to trek ahead towards the peak of Kumara Parvatha. I was surprised that Govt does not spare to loot people even in a spot like this. I quipped ‘Why?’ my voice quoted with rebelliousness. Bhat said it is for the Govt, just like paying at toll. He even agreed that is quite too much to pay.
Bhat even warned us that toll keeper does not let people after 3:00. I did not understand this rule too. It was already 2:35 and we hurried up swallowing the last morsels left in our Thali. The other gang had already left when we were having our lunch. We paid Bhat for the delicious lunch, filled empty water bottles and walked towards Girigadde toll.

It takes just 10 minutes walk from Bhattara Mane to Girigadde. The toll keeper there instructed us not to litter around while trekking Kumara Parvatha, to put off the camp fire before descending down. We nodded our heads. Toll keeper asked us how much time we took to reach Bhattara Mane, we said 3 hrs. He said, ‘then it will take you guys 4 Hrs to reach the peak’. We thanked him and left the toll gate.

[to be continued...]

Celebrating New Year eve atop Kumara Parvatha

2008-12-30T18:43:00.004+05:30

Plan:
To leave for Kukke Subramanya tonight. Trek Kumara Parvatha and celebrate new year eve atop the hill under the dark open sky. Also planning to visit the temple the next day.

Hum-sufferers:
Ethapay, Pujar, Byre and yours affectionately...

What to expect:
> The pain of carrying sleeping bags, tents, food and water bottles to the top
> hot Sun of Dakshina Kannada
> picturesque western ghats
> severe cold during the night
> clouds
> leeches
> camp fire
> loads of fun and guffaws

All in all another great adventurous outing

What not to expect:
Rain

Food:
On the new year eve, we have to settle down for bread slices, jam and biscuits :(
But on Jan 1st night, I am gonna try prasadam in Kukke temple. I am told the food is tasty there..

Would be missing:
Bhai, he had to back out from the trip because of some crazy project schedule planned by some crazy sadist chap [Bhai calls him PM]

Mode of transport:
KSRTC

C ya guys.. in the next year! Wish you all a very happy new year..

Slumdog Millionaire and its rich music

2008-12-20T00:59:00.009+05:30

The dictionary definition of the word ‘chug’ reads as, ‘To move or travel while making dull explosive sounds’.
I no more agree with this definition after I listen to the song ‘O sayaa..’ from Slumdog Millionaire, music scored by The God of music A R Rahman himself.

The movie is quite in news before its release in India because of the Oscar and Golden Globe nominations in four categories. I believe even the audio is not released in India, but thanks to piracy I got to lay my hand on the music of Slumdog Millionaire. BTW, I did not know who Danny Boyle was until I Wiki’d for his bio. After reading which I had to laugh at my own ignorance. It’s the same guy who has directed Trainspotting and The Beach. That adds Slumdog to my must-watch list.

Coming back to the definition of ‘chug’, the other day while I was traveling in train back to home, had a discussion with a friend about the sound of chugging of the train wheels. We were discussing the rhythmic noise it produces. I am amazed to see how ARR has used the same rhythms in ‘O sayaa’ of Slumdog. I think Shivmani and ARR when combined can extract fine quality of music from any noise in the world. ‘O sayaa’ must be picturised on some train sequence in the movie. The song begins with a pacy techno beats and magical voice of ARR complementing it. Then begins the chugging of train wheels. The beats transform to crescendo further. Now chugging of train wheels is accompanied by other orchestration and gets transcended to classy music. By this time I bet you would have started swaying involuntarily. To describe the transition of sound from chugging of train wheels to rhythmic beats, I am falling short of adjectives. So I would settle for the phrase ‘Its so Rahman!!’ Listen to it to experience the sheer genius of ARR.

Not only this, I found many other tracks of Slumdog great. As in one of the interviews Danny Boyle says that he wanted ARR to score ‘something very pulse-y’ for this movie. ARR took 2 months to conceptualize the music and just took 2 weeks to deliver this incredible product. There are also many other pulse-y numbers and classy background scores. I loved ‘Jai ho’ sung by Sukhvinder – the resonant voice of Sukhvinder makes the song even more splendid, ‘Ringa ringa ringa’ sung by Ila Arun and Alka Yagnik – brings back the memories of controversial ‘Choli ke piche’, ‘Gangsta blues’ rapped by Blaaze makes me consider him as a special talent, ‘Paper planes’ by MIA – an original song of MIA herself is used by ARR, also sounds good. ‘Lathika’s theme’, ‘Mausam & Escape’, ‘Riots’, ‘Liquid dance’, ‘Millionaire’ proves the eminence of ARR in the modern era of music. There is also a surprise track in this album, ‘Aaj ki raat’ of Don with some top-up beats by ARR. No wonder ARR won Golden Globe for this album.

Though I have downloaded the music, I am a chor with some usool you see :) So I am planning to buy the Audio CD of this album. Guys, don’t miss to listen to this audio.
I consider Slumdog Millionaire as one of the best works of ARR till date. I hope ARR wins Oscar also for this.

Ae Dil Hai Mushkil Jeena Yahan...

2008-12-01T01:16:00.005+05:30

There were numerous terrorist attacks in various towns and cities of India in the past, but the recent attacks on Mumbai is the one that made by blood boil, to the most. No! Not because of the magnitude of it. Because of sheer ease with which the terrorists infiltrated into our country with loaded ammo. Because of the ruthlessness they displayed in killing hundreds of helpless civilians on the streets of Mumbai. Because of holding the best and efficient lot of the security @ bay for 60 hrs. And all this is done by just 10-12 well trained, brain washed bastards in their 20s!

The death toll has reached to 200 almost. The magnificent 100 yrs old heritage hotel is damaged now. Many of the brave soldiers and police have lost their lives in fighting against the terrorists. There is condolence expressed from every nook and corner of the country. At this juncture, being a responsible citizen of the country, I have few points to raise.. I need answers…

To political leaders:

Is this brutal incident which killed 200 helpless people and damaged a heritage hotel of India enough to open your eyes?

There is enough evidence that the attack was backed by LeT. Stop playing diplomatic game with Pak at least now. I am not saying to declare a war against Pak. But this is the best opportunity to be more aggressive and combat home groomed terrorism in Pak.

High time to tighten the loopholes in the border security via the air / land / sea routes.

Publish the detailed usage of the funds released for border security.

Stop blame game.

And please be sorry for the whole nation, for the families of the brave hearts who died in the encounter and also for the families which lost their kiths and kins in the terrorist attack.

To media:

I was glued either to the TV or news websites during the entire Operation Cyclone. I consider you did quite a fair job of the coverage. But in the hush to be the first one to cover the news, mobbing the hostages who were just let out of the captive and covering the footage of the critical positions of the NSG commandos in and around Taj and Nariman house was quite unpardonable mistakes you did.

I just wonder none of you bothered to think the same info could be used by terrorists to kill more NSG commandos. Dint it come to your mind that you are actually putting the lives of our commandos @ stake?

There were also instances of reading out the news before processing the facts and figures. AFAIR, at least thrice the Taj hotel was announced clear of terrorists but firing kept happening and grenades kept blasting quite later too. And all the hostages were finally rescued hours much later.

To NSG, Military, STF, and Police force:

I salute you for your courage and thank you for saving so many lives. I deeply respect your sincerity and commitment but have some questions to ask you too!

Why was the info revealed by captured terrorist in UP blasts during interrogation neglected? I believe the captured terrorist during Feb 2008 UP blast revealed the vital facts about terror attacks on Mumbai. Is this a thing to be taken lightly?

I never thought infiltrating into a nation with heavily loaded ammo via sea route was so easy. Please explain how could this happen.

I admire the perseverance you showed for 60 hours continuously. I agree you had to play it defensively caring for the lives of the hostages. But isn’t there a better option than to wait and counter attack the terrorists holed up in buildings? Just to mention, Russian soldiers injected some anaesthetic gas into the AC duct when Chechan soldiers had held 800+ people inside a theater.Does India have any such chemical warfare techniques first of all?

To Supreme court of India:

We Indians want the captured terrorist to be executed without mercy. We don’t want to see another Afzhal guru episode here

Of late….

2008-11-07T01:19:00.004+05:30

Its more than a month since I posted any thing in my blog. Not that the life was uneventful, I just did not slip into the groove of writing some thing, that’s it.

The month of October was quite happening. I was on the gap between projects, lemme get it straight, yes I was on bench nearly for 20 days :)

In those on-the-bench-days I was reporting to my office in Koramangala. I had all the free time in the world, I frequently visited Landmark in Forum. I used to sit and skim through some of my favorite and latest releases. I read few pages of ‘Go kiss the world’. I remember, I started admiring Subroto Bagchi from the days his columns use to appear in TOI [I think his column used to feature fortnightly on the business page]. I think I should buy this book. Picked up ‘Three mistakes pf my life ‘, but some how it did not inspire me to finish it. I loved Chetan Bhagath in ‘Five point some one’, loved him less in ‘One night..’ now I have become very skeptical about loving him in ‘3 mistakes..’. BTW, currently Im reading ‘PS: I love you’ by Cecelia Ahen. Again my instincts told me to pick this book. But after reading it for 300 pages, Im finding it boring. The theme of the book is fresh and inspiring, but the events that happen with the characters in novel look very repetitive. Lemme see if I can complete it or not. There is book festival starting in Palace grounds, Im planning to go there this weekend.

In the 1^st week of Oct during Dasara, there was a music concert by Shaan, sponsored by a private builder in Palace Grounds. I had been to the concert with a huge gang of buddies. It turned out to be amazing fun. There was also this Mandira Bedi and Samir Soni’s play ‘Any thing but love’ being staged as part of Times festival, but I came to know about it on the same day and did not get passes for it.

Of late, did not get to watch any good movies. I watched Ru-ba-ru for the sake of Shahana Goswami [she is my recent celeb crush ;)]. The idea of the movie was fresh, but ultimately seemed like a failed attempt.

Felt bad to hear Kumble hanging up his boots. He is one of the most committed cricketer I have seen. And a great gentleman too. Dada also retiring after this last Test in Nagpur. I loved Dada for his aggressive histrionics as a captain and as a player too. Who can forget the gentle strokes on off side and his straight sixes over the head of the bowler. The BCCI buffoons seem to be targeting another favorite player of mine, Dravid. Its disheartening to see Dravid failing continuously in this Test series. BTW, check this splendid article by Dravid about VVS on latter’s 100 Tests feat. Both these great players seem to share a nice camaraderie, which is evident from the article. If these great guys are bidding adieu to cricket in the next 1-2 years (forced exit or wishful exit), there will certainly be a void created in what is considered to be the strongest batting line up in world cricket.

Now having been allotted to a project in the last month, I have landed into a whole new milieu, a whole new project with whole new faces. Now the most interesting part is I have been traveling by train to my office!!!! No Im not posted in Mumbai, Im very much in our own namma Bengalooru. Till I start to avail the company provided transport, I am going on my own. I traveled by BMTC for first few days, but every time I got stuck in traffic jams or did not get a seat to rest my ass or every time a manner-less co-passenger stamped my foot, my blood used to boil. And some one suggested the idea of train from/to KR Puram from/to Majestic. I have the luxury of choosing this option, as my current office is close to KR Puram. I have been saving nearly one and a half hour of travel time since then. Even you guys can try out train if your office is in Whitefield / KR Puram or any where near these places. Im not saying this option is better than company provided transport, this has its own woes, but still a lot better than traveling by BMTC.

Ummm.. what else..? that’s all I could think of @ this hour in the night… bye… chau..

Rock On!!: the ‘Magik’ of friendship

2008-09-06T01:36:00.007+05:30

Few years back when Sid had slapped Aakash for a nasty joke of the latter, I had cringed on my seat. But in the end when Aakash says, “aaj.. abhi….. just turn around” and Sid hugs Aakash in that hospital, I had felt those were the most memorable moments in the Indian cinema I have ever experienced. Who can forget DCH?

And now it was a deja vu. The difference here is Joe gives a proper mukka to Aaditya and when they reunite for the sake of re-creating 'Magik' on stage, they both hug each other. And the warmth in the friendship is rejuvenated. Silence is the best orator in such moments. And this time I said Waaaawwww!! The subtleties of friendship indeed were captured at the best again.

Before I go ga-ga over this movie, lemme tell you that from the day I came to know Farhan Akhtar is making his acting debut in Rock On, I was dying to watch this movie. I am a great fan of Farhan and I believe he is one of the best directors in the contemporary Bollywood. I also was curious about the plot and his role in the movie. And when I listened to the music of the movie, I just got restless to see the movie on big screen.

I watched the movie yesterday and I had already read innumerable reviews of the movie [many were plot spoilers] and I was actually left with no element in the movie unknown. Then I stopped reading reviews as the curiosity had killed the cat already. Now having watched the movie I felt no review had actually captured the essence of the movie [neither am I making an effort to do that… Im just writing a nice experience I lived for 2+ hrs]. Some reviews said Rock On is just another version of DCH in the backdrop of a rock band. I disagree My Lord! This time it is just not about ego clashes amongst friends, it is also about following your dream, it is also about compromising in life at the stake of our dreams, it is also about the price people pay to re-live the dream, it is also an attempt to say it is never too late to re-live your dreams.

I had read it somewhere that friendship is fighting for each other and fighting with each other! It is so true. I have hated almost all those movies in which the second hero comes in the way of a bullet shot by villain to save his jigari dost, the hero and that was all the epitome of friendship depicted in Bollywood. Bollywood have churned up zillions of movies based on friends fighting for each other, but there would be few movies based on friends fighting with each other. Even if there are many of these kinds, I bet any succeeding in narrating it effectively [DCH and Rock On are bench marks in this].

If you feel that was enough of ga-ga over the movie, lemme start with the actual review :) I assume that you readers have either watched the movie already or would know everything about the plot of the movie from the other sources. So I am not even going to mention about the plot here. I will just say thumbs up to Abhishek Kapoor for giving us the gem of a movie. Hats off too to the guy, who has done the casting for the movie.

Farhan Akhtar is superb and lives the role. Arjun Rampal’s not so expressive face actually works on his favour to portray the role of Joe. I liked his looks especially, the bandana, the long hair and his moustache. Purab Kohli as Killer Drummer is apt. Luke Kenny is just fine as Rob. Prachi Desai is so so so sweet as wife of Farhan. I would love to watch more of Shahana Goswami in future. Every one fits the role so perfectly.

Saving the best for the last, about the music of the movie.. I liked all the songs. Rock on – the title track, Socha hain and Tum ho to being my favorite. Zehreeley zehreeley is my super favorite :) [any idea who is this Suraj Jaggan who has sung this…?]. Undoubtedly Rock On is another remarkable entry in the CV of Shankar Ehsaan Loy. Farhan Akhtar seems exposed in many songs, but that goes well with the heavy rock music. At first I could not believe that Javed Akhtar has penned the lyrics. I couldn’t digest Javed Akhtar writing a song like Meri laundry ka ek bill, ek aadhi paDhi novel.. etc etc. Its not so easy for a great lyricist to come up with such free flowing and ordinary yet lovable lyrics.

Wait wait wait its not over yet. As the movie was not the only best thing that happened for the crowd in Fun Cinemas yesterday!! Guess what… Yesss 4 guys of Magik did appear on the dais after the movie. All 4, Farhan, Arjun Rampal, Purab Kohli and Luke Kenny had come down for the promotion of the movie. The atmosphere was just electric. We were all shouting at the top of our voices. Farhan sang few lines for us. They distributed [read frisbie’d] few audio CDs to the crowd. I cudnt catch any, neither cud I get autograph :(

Guys, all in all it’s the best movie I have seen in recent times. Go watch it if you have not caught up, watch it again if you have seen it only once !!

cafe masala

2008-08-17T01:00:00.011+05:30

Hemanth was wriggling his bike past the other vehicles in the traffic. I was the pillion. My phone rang. That was the 3^rd time Sri was calling me in last 20 minutes. She asked me, “Where are u guys?” This time she was angry. I chose an appropriate lie from the template I usually carry, “We are in the Brigade road signal”. We were actually some where near Rajbhavan. “K.. come soon..”, she cut the phone. We reached Brigade Rd signal five minutes later. While waiting for the traffic signal to turn green, a chick in frilled white skirt crossed the road in front of our bike. I told Hemanth, “I wish it was windy today” and grinned. Understanding the gross intention behind my dialogue Hemanth laughed. I imagined a ‘Marilyn Monroe act’ by that chick in the middle of the road. I bet Hemanth was also thinking about the same. We guys know how kameena our brain is. But I get angry when any female comments, “you guy are mean”. The word mean makes me angry, I prefer kameene :) If you gals have just coined the word ‘kaMEANe’, No I hate that word too. The signal turned green and our bike cleared the last hurdle to reach our destination, Eva Mall.

We reached Eva Mall. I got down from the bike. Hemanth told me to face the music first and drove to basement to park the bike. My phone rang for the 4^th time. “this is too much…”, this time it was Rakhi speaking. Before I could reply, I saw Rakhi and Sri waiting near the entrance of the Mall. I said, “we have reached, I can see u gals..”. I could listen Rakhi saying, “at last.. they have come” to Sri before I cut the phone. I strode towards them. Both of their faces were angry red. I think this angry red shade is inimitable by any artificial coloring agents. The shade can be seen only on the cheeks and the nose tip of the females whom you have made to wait for an hour for the dinner. I greeted them and blamed on the traffic for reaching late. Though every one curses Bangalore traffic, but it surely has rescued all the late comers/goers like us. Seeing an Archie’s gift wrap in my hand Sri’s angry red face shed its inimitable shade and returned to the usual fairness. The very sight of her BDay gift had pacified her. It was for Sri’s BDay treat we four had gathered for. Café Masala in Eva Mall was her own choice; we guys had no problems with any hotel in Bangalore as far as we are getting a free meal. Hemanth appeared making ‘we are really really really sorry’ face. Sri patted hard on his back in acknowledgment. Rakhi said “you guys are so late I think the reserved table would have been given away to others by this time”. This time I genuinely felt sorry for the girls for the effort they have put in to come early and book a table.

Sri was enquiring the receptionist for the booked table. A suit clad guy escorted us to the table reserved for us. It was a table for four. Sri and Rakhi sat next to each other, leaving Hemanth and me no option to choose but to sit next to each other. The very next moment I felt the place was just nice for both of us guys, as we got to face the people in that room, where Rakhi and Sri were facing the boring wall hanging behind me. My eyes took no time scanning all the beautiful females in that room and shortlisted few of them for the further scrutiny.

starters
As decided before only, we chose to go with buffet for dinner. My eyes were planted on a female on the diagonally opposite table. That was a gang of 6 adults and 2 kids. The female I was looking at must be wife of one of the three morons there. I believe any guy however intelligent looking he is, who accompanies a beautiful female becomes a moron for the other men in that premise. This could be called as one of the postulates in the huge book called Letch Sutra which I am penning. Hemanth and I are no survivors of this rule, as we became 2 morons with 2 nice looking females for other men in that hotel.

Ok.. the starters started descending on our table. We were waiting for it with our sleeves folded. Hemanth felt it wudnt be too nice to make Sri wait for her BDay gift till the end of the dinner. He handed over the gift to Sri. Sri said thanks to both of us with a 10 inch wide Julia Roberts smile. I told her to unwrap it and see the gift. As if she cared to wait for my consent, she had already started unwrapping the gift. Most of the females I know unwrap the gift similar way, they do it with so much of care not hurting even a single piece of cellophane used to wrap it. Unlike we boys who love tearing any paper given to us. The gift was a soft toy, a puppy peeping out of its dog house. The roof of the house was pink in color and Sri lovvved it. She re-iterated, “Thank you so much guys”, with a 10 and a half inch Julia Roberts smile this time. We started belting the buffet.

Hemanth was teasing Sri for her weight issues, Sri in return was pulling Hemanth’s leg for his lazy looks. Rakhi was laughing for and against the three of us. Sri was also giving a fair share to my canine teeth and receding hair line. Though my canine teeth are not the things I am very proud of but my receding hairline has never been a concern for me. My mother and my sis worry about it a lot. Chhmnn.. I forgot to update you on the beautiful female in the next table. How rightly some one has quoted, ‘all the desirable things on earth are either illegal, banned, expensive or married to someone else’. In between our conversations I made it a point to check her out. Every time our eyes met, My heart got a mild electric shock. She looked the most beautiful when she was sipping the soup from the edge of the spoon. The strands of her hair slid down to taste the soup in her spoon. She displayed the slightest discomfort and quickly grabbed and restricted them behind the lobes of her left ear. I felt she flaunted her left cheek to me. This time my heart failed almost. Aloo tikki in my plate appeared like pacemakers to me for a moment.

main course
We were done with the starters that were served to the table. That means we had to walk to the place where food was kept for buffet. That also means, that opens the door of opportunity for Hemanth and me to check out some more females on our way to the food and back to our table. We did it no different. I got to see the face behind that English music that was being played all this time. It was actually a talented singer, who was singing all this time, which I actually had thought was a tape that was being played. All I could say about his singing was it was melodious but I did not understand it. I cant distinguish the genres Jazz, Blue, Reggae.. et al. According to me there are only two genres of English music. The music I like and the one the one which I don’t. So this talented guy was playing the former.

I stuffed my plate with all the varieties of food that was there and returned to the table. While returning I got to check out another female in deep necked black dress flaunting her not-so-nice cleavage to all the men in the room. In my early teenage days I had this weird perception that all females would have perfect cleavages. May be I had developed this prejudice after seeing some Hollywood actresses. As I grew up, the facts and ‘FIGURES’ ‘BUST’ed this myth. Hemanth and Sri followed me to the table with full plates. I think Rakhi was still surveying the variety of food there. I occupied my seat. Hemanth insisted on swapping his seat with Sri’s. Sri sat next to me. May be Hemanth was interested in sitting next to Rakhi or may be he was uncomfortable sitting next to a guy u see. That’s quite normal. Rather those kinda abnormal instincts are not yet considered normal in India. Rakhi came and sat in her place. One pokari kid of my diagonally opposite table looked least interested in food and was running around the table. He was whirling a woolen hood (kinda) in one hand. Once it slipped out of his hand and hit Hemanth’s back. Thank God it did not fall in any of our plates. Sri felt amused but Im sure Hemanth must have felt like folding that kid in his woolen hood and throwing him away. Hemanth hates all kids. I too hate kids when they act unruly. All kids act unruly all the time.

delicious desserts
Sri started taking all our snaps. Sri took the snap while Rakhi had spoon in her mouth, took snap while Hemanth was cleaning his lips with the napkin. Forget how she took my photo. I look bad in all the poses. So it did not really matter for me. We started the final round of course, the delicious desserts. I again made sure each variety of desserts has occupied a fair share on my plate. After getting it to the table, I glanced all the other plates to check if I have missed out any thing. Sri said, “basundi is yummy”. Shaks.. I missed out taking basundi. Sri told me to taste it from her porcelain bowl. I tasted and said I will take a full bowl in the next round of desserts. Sri exclaimed, “you wanna go for another round…?!?! there is still space in your stomach..?” I said, “my digestive organs stretch or shrink depending on the price of the buffet” All grinned hearing my comment.

We decided to leave the table only after I finished my second round of desserts. I bore an expression of killing 100 enemy soldiers in the battlefield. Sri paid the bill. All 4 us walked out of the hotel. My eyes were still hunting for the babes around. Bingo!! There I saw 3 RED HOTT babes waiting in the lounge. They bore Arab/Iranian looks. All were blondes. One of them had her eye brow pierced. Sri and Rakhi insisted on using the stairs to go down. I had no problems with walking but missed the sight of those 3 HOTT babes.

I said aloud what I was thinking, “those must be some exotic dancers”. Others nodded in agreement. I continued, “I believe they will be paid only 3 to 4k per performance”. I could see disagreement on Rakhi’s face. She was about to give the right compensation details of exotic dancers, but Hemanth quipped, “Oohhh 3 to 4k per PERFORMANCE is it..?” and winked @ me. He stressed the word performance. I giggled and said, “I was talking about dance..” and laughed. Sri caught the ‘mean-ing’ of ‘performance’ this time. She said, “thooo u guys are always like this”, looking at Hemanth n me as some lower forms of life.

We came to the entrance of the Mall. Hemanth and Rakhi went to the parking lot in the basement for getting their respective vehicles. By that time, the same 3 babes appeared in the coffee shop. They did not seem interested in spending lot of time there. Two of them came out of the coffee shop. The third one was buying some frappe (kinda) inside the shop. All the three were wearing short white tops and skin tight jeans. The waist line of the jeans and the short white tops seemed like lovers who have fought for some silly reason; both just did not wanna meet each other. Leaving me no option but to stare at the fair skin exposed to the cold air of the night. Sri noticed me letching, she said “Ananth.. Stop it.. ur acting too cheap today”, she was slightly angry. I smiled sheepishly. By then Rakhi and Hemanth drove their two wheelers to the place where we were standing. Rakhi looked like a fat Eskimo in her heavy jacket, Sri wrapped herself in stole and sat behind Rakhi. I again became pillion for Hemanth. We all thanked Sri for the nice treat. Rakhi n Sri disappeared in the traffic, I asked Hemanth to drop me till the door as it was already close to 11 in the night.

Huliyuru durga and Hemagiri beTTa (part 2)

2008-08-09T00:40:00.005+05:30

Heights of serenity

As we were walking in the direction of the new hill a group of people standing in a t stall called us and asked weather we were trekkers. this obvious from our nike,woodland shoes and t shirts. they asked us whether we climbed huliyu durga. when we replied in the negative they told us they had scaled the peak several times in their youngster days. they also mentioned a chap named chitradurga koti raja climbs the peak like as though it were a lolipop. we said ok and moved on. the new hill called as hemagiri betta was quite 'climbabale'. it was very slopy though.we climbed enough so as to be in line with the height of huliyudurga. from that point we could get a 3 dimentional view of huliyudurga. it looked majestic. i was wondering whether there really was some way up there. we sat down on the rocky slope of the mountain and laid back. it was a great feeling. the weather was just right. we were at an altitude of perhaps more than 2000 meters.it was cloudy with the sun playing hide and seek every now and then. there was the cool breeze and absolute silence. i felt like sleeping there for the rest of my life. ananth pulled out the apples from our bag. for the next 10 minutes it was just the apple and us. we were tired and nothing feels more relaxing than sitting there alone and munching on blood red apples. "so hows work goin" asked Ananth. " its just fine. one of my friends just got promoted" i said rather sleepishly."ok lets change the topic" Ananth said. i was glad he said that. we discussed about our family back home, the daily rat race routine,what we would be doing 10 years from now and things like that. it seemed more of philosophy than practicality. it went down well with the hilly breeze, the solitude and the apples. i saw a chameleon come out of a creek and perch itself on a big rock. it was looking up somewhere and ducking changing its colors instantly. as i turned back and looked up there was a eagle above the hill and it seemed to have noticed the chameleon. we finished our apples and started the climb uphill.

We were still half way up the peak. there were a couple of small ponds on our way up. it was a pretty wide hill top with a ganapathi temple on one side. the locals had told us that people visit the temple only during a fair held once in the year. truly, there was not a single soul in site. we explored the peak a bit and came across a natural sofa like setting carved out into the huge rock. there was ample space to sit leaning against a back rest. there was a pond in the front with some kind of crotens lining the edge of the pond. in front of the pond was the edge of the hill from which we could see the endless horizon ahead lined up with hundreds of peaks and mountains. it was bliss. we were pretty tired and immediately slumped down the moment we sat. it was really serene out there. absolutely quiet.no lorries no autorickshaws no sound just peace. the breeze blew occasionally making the grass sway in one direction with a low whistle like sound then silence again. it seemed like it was thundering somewhere and we were able to hear the echo of the thunder.

We lay there gazing lazily at the beautiful sceenery in fron of us. it was starnge local people didnt find it so interesting.why do they have to when their internal mind is at so much peace. no deadlines, no promotons, no EMIs. just sow the seeds and go to sleep or take the sheep out for a walk thats it. i wonder what pleasure people derive out of spending hours at the forum mall. ananth suggested we doze off for a couple of minutes. i actually liked the idea but did not fancy
dying out of snake bite or something. i suggested we just lie down but keep our eyes open. on the darker side of it,the spot is ideal for bumping off someone.not even your ghosts will ever find your body until atleast the next fair. just then i received an sms "happy friendship day" it was from a colleague. it was almost 4 in the evening. We spent some time on the hill talking bout films etc then decided to come down. the downward journey was butter.

'top' class journey
We passed by the same set of shops and lanes we came across in the afternoon.and reached the local bus stop. i was feeling bored that the day was about to get over and a good trip was coming to an end. but i guess only i was thinking so. the fun was far from over for mr ananth as he was sketching something in his mind. i learnt about it after the next 30 minutes. we waited for our very reliable KSRTC bus to turn up but it dint turn us down. it kept up to its reputation and did not show up. there were a lot of rangeela busses but it was being filled like a garbage truck. there were people everywhere. inside the bus, aside the bus, over the bus everywhere. they were spilling out from every nook and corner of the bus. it seemed like the bus was about to burst open. i remembered a fevicol ad once aired on TV. and i had one chance to be a part of that crazy stuff. ananth said "come lets travel atop the bus for a change.I have done it twice before and i tell you its total fun" I was like " what the hell??!!! are you crazy ? these drivers drive like hell. do u want to risk your life ?" ananth didnt sound amused. we waited for some more time. there was no sign of KSRTC. we had two rounds of cucumber laced with chilly powder. still no sign of KSRTC. "come lets go" i said.

Ananth climbed up like spiderman and sat on the roof. i grumpily followed and landed on the roof. it was a nice feeling. soon we were joined by few others and the bus started. i was feeling on top of the world. this was a never before experience. the cool village wind was hitting me in the face and the view around was awesome. just then ananth warned me and i ducked in the nick of time. one had to be very alert for tree branches which were abundant in the forested area. the roof top conductor displayed a couple of stunts as he walked by the railing of the bus dispensing tickets this, even as the bus was moving. suddenly the bus started to pick speed and we were shaking like drunkards. it felt like we could be thrown down any moment. this was the second time i realised my already screwed up, cheap life was at stake. but luckily the driver slowed down soon thereafter. it was an experience of a kind. i suggest you guys try it out sometime if you have a already screwed up life that is. as they say happiness comes in small packages our over the top journey was cut short as the conductors signalled us to get down as a couple of seats were empty. we cursed as we came down. the next moment i was inside the bus sitting in the last row next to a lungi clad old chap who was smoking beedi on my face. ananth had already dozed off.his eyes were closed, mouth was open and he was swaying about the center of axis of his body. he looked like mini gatotgach who could anytime fall on the kaurava army after being hit by karna. ananth was hit by sleep.

We got down in Magadi and got into a rangeela bus waiting for us. he dint leave soon after we got in though.it was filled like a garbage truck. 30 minutes into the journey and ananth was into the second half of his incompleted sleep. his eyes were closed, mouth was open and he was swaying about the center of axis of his body.30 more minutes later he woke up himself and started speaking about thriller movies and novels. one where several people after being invited to an island end up dying one after the other without a clue and it remains a mystery as to who killed whom. we then moved on to james hadlee chase novels agatha christie. i was simply nodding my head and looking out of the window.suddenly ananth popped me this question. "Will you write in my blog? I mean i want to try something new this time so for a change you write and i publish it" I stuck out my tongue like a cobra and continued to look outside the window. Writing isint new to me. I have written tens of mails to my PL TL PM DM and all those abbreviated higher ups you can think of in a software company and each mail was more or less like a blog just that it was on some technical issue rather than a weekend trip but this would be the first time I would be writing a blog. Kya karta boss ? public ki demand thi, toh Billa ko likhna hi padha...

Huliyuru durga and Hemagiri beTTa (part 1)

2008-08-09T00:03:00.010+05:30

We were returning back from our trip to Huliyuru durga sitting inside a Rangeela bus when suddenly Ananth popped me this question. "Will you write in my blog? I mean i want to try something new this time so for a change you write and i publish it" I stuck out my tongue like a cobra and continued to look outside the window. Writing isn't new to me. I have written tens of mails to my PL, TL, PM, DM and all those abbreviated higher ups you can think of in a software company and each mail was more or less like a blog just that it was on some technical issue rather than a weekend trip but this would be the first time I would be writing a blog. Kya karta boss ? public ki demand thi, toh Billa ko likhna hi padha.

Rangeela bus and 'Chellenging star' Darshan

As is the case with me as always, nothing about this trip was planned. Actually the bus conductor decided it for us. "where does this bus go?" was the stupid question i asked the conductor as we hopped into a Magadi going bus. he rolled out the names of some places which i forgot as quickly as he had mentioned it. Ananth asked him whether the bus goes to some place called Huliyuru durga. As Ananth and the conductor were busy deciding on the venue i was busy watching Rakshita. It was the Kannada movie "ayya" which was being shown on dvd coach. Darshan was the hero playing a cop and he was mouthing some explosive dialogues .."illegal agi janagala mele weapons use mado nimgulige ishtu kobbirabekadre legal agi weapons use madoke license iruva namage yeshtu kobbirabaradu ?!!!! niyyatatagi yella ketta vyavahara galannu stop madi. idu ayyan warning alla, ORDER ORDer ORder Order ..." just then somebody patted me on my shoulder and said"ayya kutkollike solpa seat kodayya" some old lady with all broken teeth was asking me for a seat.it was actually an implicit order. chivalrous that i am i gave up my seat. Ananth too gave his seat to a lady.

We reached Magadi at about 9 and started hunting for something to eat. Ananth suggested we try out the local vendor by the roadside. there was tatte idli dosa onion bonda and uppitu. one thing thats worth mentioning is the food served at this roadside eatery would beat the best of hotel foods available in bangalore. it was so very tasty and we relished nearly 4 dosas tatte idli and bondas. the bill: Rs 18/- !!!!!!!!

We soon hit the roads for huliyuru. it was a ksrtc bus. we were sitting in the last row and the driver drove like he was participating in motocross madness. needless to say our kidneys and livers were getting displaced every now and then.

Where there is a hill, is there a way?
In the next couple of minutes we were standing in front of a tall hill. it was a monolith, a one piece rock they called Huliyuru durga. maybe for the first time in years i felt scared to my bones, not by looking at the hill but for the stunt we did in the next 30 minutes. after climbing half way to the hilltop through steps, we hit a dead end. the steps ended there and there was no mad made way further up, but that was not what we were told. a shepered told us get in through the bushes and find a way up there is one in there. we trusted the shepherd u know. we are so used to trusting our PMs when they say "u can do it" arent we? but as usual we were asking to get screwed.

Above scary pic is the aerial view of Huliyuru Durga.

Ananth boss took the lead. he disappeared inside the bushes. I followed suite. inside the bushes it was actually difficult to say wheather we were climbing up or climbing down. we were keeping our legs on whatever was visible. a branch, a tree, a twine or just anything which could take our weight. ananth was determined to find a way up. after following him up to some distance i realised we were going somewhere we were not even sure of + it was not even clear how high we were from the ground.i realised my already screwed up, cheap life was at stake. i realized i had not married yet and there were other hills to explore ;). though i had climbed this up somewhere i was sure i could not climb down. there were leaves all around and i cud not even see where i would be falling. my hands and legs were trembling. the last time i had realised such fear was during my power electronics lab when i was not getting the desired output on the CRO in the final practical exam. i had survived that one. i just prayed God to pull me out of this one safely. Ananth was blissfully unaware of my feelings and busy trying to see if he was already at the top. what he was not aware was that even if we reached the top and dug our flag there it would require atleast a rescue helicopter to get us down. A fact he would agree with after the next 30 minutes.

We scampered down the thing whatever that was we had climbed on to and started looking for alternate routes through the thick growth of bushes. at one point i was running through a new found route through the bushes but stopped short from a huge spider web. i am scared of spiders and luckily for me the spider was not at home at that moment or else i would have anyway jumped down from the hill. at one point there was a huge beehive but again luckily at that moment they were busy with their honey buisness. then, after searching madly for quite some time the truth dawned on us that there was indeed no man made way up there. all we could see was plain barren rock. from that point we could see another huge neighbouring hill at a distance and there seemed to be some kind of a temple at the top. annth said that we had to climb atleast one complete hill that day as we had come so far. so we started for the new found hill from down town.

(lets trek Hemagiri in next post)

Welcome the new author

2008-08-08T23:45:00.002+05:30

Guys,

I had been to a day long trekking trip to hills in MagaDi with my friend Jagadish last weekend. It was evident that I was going to post about this in this space. But having known that Jagadish is a keen observer of facts and a good thinker, I thought that he could be good blogger too. So this time I wanted him to write for my blog about our adventurous [read foolhardy] trip to MagaDi.

Though he appeared a bit hesitant in the beginning, he accepted it and composed a really really really long post for me. I am actually confused where to run the scissors to cut down its length.

May be I will publish his write-up as next two or three posts. I enjoyed his writing style, hope you guys like it too..

welcome the new author and my great friend Jagadish to my blog space..

Lost in translation

2008-07-29T00:07:00.008+05:30

The other day, got to see this marvel which won Oscar for the best original screenplay, 2003. I donno how could I miss such a nice movie all these days.

"For everyone, there are those moments when you have great days with someone you wouldn't expect to. Then you have to go back to your real lives, but it makes an impression on you. It's what makes it (life) so great and enjoyable".

- Sofia Coppola, in one of her interviews

If the above statement struck a chord in your heart, there is no reason why you would not like the movie Lost in translation.

Most parts of the movie is shot in Tokyo's Park Hyatt hotel. Bob Harris [played by Bill Murray] is famous actor who has been staying in Tokyo to endorse a Japanese' whiskey brand. He has a wife, to whom he whispers the three magical words mechanically before he hangs up the phone every time she calls him, but doesn’t actually mean it. He has kids, who miss their dad, but 'they are OK with it' [as he says]. He is a man who is undergoing mid life crisis. And the female lead, Charlotte [Scarlett Johansson] is a young female married to a fashion photographer, who actually wants to be a writer or a photographer but she knows she is not good at either. Basically she is bored by the monotony in her married life.

The movie beautifully depicts how once strangers, share a great camaraderie after spending few memorable moments with each other. And if you expect them to start liking each other and sleep together, no you are wrong! They share an intimate relationship which is more beautiful than just what you expect. The movie ends with an amazingly beautiful climax, making you feel you have just been released from an incredible experience that you will cherish for a long time.

The director justifies the lead actors’ relationship in the movie as, "I liked this relationship. I've had friends like that where you have a flirtation but you're just friends. I wanted it to be more innocent. If they slept together, that would bring in reality".

That says it all, Im not going to elaborate more.

Watch it for the sake of brilliant acting by Bill Murray and Scarlett Johanson
Watch it to experience how nice a movie can be made..
Watch it for the ethereal bond two strangers share during their ephemeral encounter...
Watch it for the portrayal of a nice camaraderie between the opposite genders..

Thinking out of the body!

2008-07-15T15:00:00.004+05:30

These topics spur out occasionally while conversing with colleagues / friends. Though I dont wanna tag these discussions as purely philosophical, but they have small dosage of philosophy in it... beware!

One such discussion with my colleague dealt with the subject of sufferings the human beings undergo on earth. Suffering can be because of poverty, hunger, lack of basic needs, ill health or because of any external or internal factors which we believe will affect our lives. When I mean suffering, I mean a person being unhappy for what ever reason.

Our discussion went beyond blaming any country/Govt/System/life style for one's unhappiness.

Why should there be a gap between rich and poor? Why people in Ethiopia starve and rich people from big cities of world are obese..?
Why people in Kashmir get killed for none of their mistakes? Why kids are orphaned for no fault of theirs?
Why people fight with each other?
Why do people have to suffer from incurable diseases?
Why people are born physically or mentally challenged?

And now a very important question, How is the share of unhappiness and happiness credited in each person's account?

Haan.. there we are, we are discussing the very basic question, First of all why should living beings suffer or be unhappy? Though this question seems to project me like a selfish happiness monger, but that makes perfect sense because I am not begging for the happiness of only my family, I want the whole world to be a peaceful place and tenure on earth a life long vacation for every one who is born here.

My team mate who seems to be conversant on these topics, started justifying the concept of re-incarnations, human race being the best form of life, all people suffer on the basis of paapas they have committed in previous janmas. More the sins, severe the punishment on earth. He also enunciated the mention of earth as a prison for human beings in Garuda PuraaNa [or some thing, I dont exactly remember]. He also said the souls attain moksha after clearing all punishments for all their cumulative paapas of all janmas [pretty lengthy process eh... :-/].

Though I am not a firm believer of the concept of re-incarnations, I half heartedly agree with it till I have a better concept to believe in. Actually speaking my dissatisfaction is not towards this theory but on the whole system of it. Assume souls 'wear' different bodies in different incarnations; the memory is not a thing that gets transferred across different janmas. What I mean is nobody will ever have knowledge of the severity of the sentence s/he is going to serve in this prison. And when the punishment actually begins, all of us suffer without knowing the reason for suffering.

Isn't it like a child who gets beatings from his teacher without knowing the mistakes for which he is being punished..?

I am OK with the punishment as long as I am told the reason before I get spanked.