Tuesday, December 9, 2008

My Israel trip

Just was wondering what i should put as the title. Then I thought I should stick to the customary default title as it was my maiden trip outside India. To be quiet frank, I was not very overwhelmed by the fact that I was going abroad. Infact I surprised myself, as I did not get excited. I took it as just another trip. It quiet did not dawn into me, I mean the significance of this tour.

I packed my bag; just like another trip. Went around picking things and carefully noting everything, so that I dont miss anything. I do it meticulously every time. This time was no different. Even after all this meticulous crap, I forgot to bring my USB cables to transfer photos for my digital camera.

After all this, let me tell you that it was an official trip. So there was work and inbetween fun and not fun and inbetween work. The flight like all the international flights, was early in the morning. Had to get up early and get to the airport well in advance for the vital checks. Carrying a passport for the first time; thinking about how the journey would be. Will there be lot of checking, how will the new country would be. Its a nice feeling, which struck me somewhere when I was on the plane.

First stop was Istanbul airport. The stopover was 2 hours and then the next flight to Tel Aviv. The Alaturk Airport of Istanbul; was huge and with its duty free supermarket was splendid and cool. They only accepted Euro there, which was a little heavy on the pocket. Istanbul airport is very near to the sea. Awesome skyline, marvellous build and very cool interiors. Finally people, the girls were very stylish. I did not see one girl without a stylish dress. Sometimes it was the hair; sometimes it was the shoes.

A totally different culture as compared to Indian dressing I should say. Even the taxi guy wore denim jacket with a cool goggles. The office was not far off from our hotel. Stayed at Ramat Gan, office was in Tel aviv. Amazing roads and awesome road discpline, very knowlegable pedestrains crossing. If there are no traffic lights for pesdestrians, (zebra crossing everywhere) pesdestrains get the first preference to cross roads. The motorists stop for them, it is an amazing site to watch.

Then the food, even if you are veg or non-veg, you have a lot to choose. But the diet here; if you dont stick to vegetables, will result in obesity. Lot of pizzas, loads of cheese and all fatty foods. Exercising is a must, no wonder people here have bicycles to travel. I must add that the roads here are not completely flat, they are very steep at some places and going up in a bicycle is not easy.

It has just been a first few days here in Israel, it has already proved to be a majestic experience to see the other world. So far, the work has kept me busy. I will make time to go out and see the beautiful landsides and places of Israel. I would have loved to add some photos, but for the transfer wire. I will try to get some snaps from somewhere. Till my next blog......

Thursday, November 27, 2008

The Real Heroes

The time was around 4:30 am in the morning. I was in a rather unconscious slumber upto a point that I did not know what was happening around. Suddenly I could feel a kind of cool breeze blowing around. I was certainly in a 100% oxygen environment, I should wonder. But wasn’t to be. Just my Kenstar Little cooler- dx, which is a cool compact Air cooler, which my brother had bought just months a ago for himself.

Before I went to sleep that day, I checked my clock it was 10 pm. My brother had not come home from his usually tiring job. Software professionals, tend to work so much that they start to like their job and the codes they develop. They become workaholic by their own will. He was late again. As usual, I left my mobile phone for charging and dozed off.

I usually set the air cooler facing me before going to bed. And as it happens often, my brother takes the bed, he moves it towards him and gives me a cool air deprived environment to sleep with my darling blood sucking mosquitoes to mumble about. But surprisingly, this air cooler was still towards me at 4:30 am. I thought my brother must be very generous leaving the air cooler for me today. Then in a jiffy, thought otherwise. A cold spine chilling feeling gripped me.

I got up from my ever solace bed and ran a quick check with one eye still refraining to open. I did not see him on his bed. It suddenly stroked me that he had not arrived. Double checked my watch, it was already dawn. A strange feeling was also beginning to dawn with this dawn. May be he was in the master bedroom with a temporary truckle. The mas
ter bedroom was air conditioned. I checked there as well, this time with both my eyes wide awake. It was clear, he was not home.

I went to my mobile, unlocked it. The light coming from my mobile made me blind for a second, as there was no light around. There was a missed call and a message under my brothers name. I read the message which said “I will not be coming home today, because of the bomb blast. Security not allowing me”. I did not waste much time. Called him
up and his mobile started ringing. Someone picked up, but it was not my brother. He said, we are still in office could not go out as the security personnel, were not allowing them because of the blasts and added that my brother is sleeping.

I switched the TV on. It was beaming images of people running like hell. The phrase as it appeared in the next day newspaper, aptly suites the situation “Bloody Hell!!”. Mumbai had yet again made an unprecedented, catastrophic date with terror. Panic struck, I woke my daddy up, carefully not to wake my mom. I asked him to come to the drawing room and wanted him to take a look.

To my relief, my brother had already called him and sent the message that he was okay had asked us not to worry. My dad, had switched the TV on and seen all the news when I was asleep. I was once told by my grandmother that, my sleep is very deep. But this was indeed very deep. Till by brother returned home in the morning, it was rather disturbing I should say.

Mumbai is a nice place, commercial and financial capital. People dwe
ll here and make money. It is not often that everyone meets crisis, even though there are blasts every now and then. As long as you not in the firing line, life just moves on. Mumbai spirit will eventually come out. Here we don’t care who the hell bombs us. We move on, we just move on. Come what may, I went to office the very next day. Most off them were home, waiting for things to settle down.



Finally, I salute the police inspectors how have given their life and also not to forget the hotel staff of Taj, who are the real heroes who have saved the lives of the foreigners and guests of the hotel. I had recently been to Hotel Leela at kovalam. I vividly remember the faces of the hotel staff who welcomed us and made our stay heaven. They say Taj is one step better than The Leela. What better than to have staffs who give lives for their guests?


Friday, October 31, 2008

Round the world in just two books!!

The world goes around and comes back to the same place they say. I was taken on a journey, which brought me back to where I started, when I read the following novels. The Inscrutable Americans, some kind of defines the path followed by more than a thousand Indians, who go out to US in hunt for higher studies and higher glory with a profound settlement strategy. They quiet feel US is some kind of atonement, in their small cantonment.

Anurag Mathur defines his central character Gopal with characteristics disembarking as and when the pages of the book keep turning and the story unfolds itself. A guy from the hamlet of India, goes to US for his higher studies. He has never been in a city in India, is completely taken aback by the city culture in US.

A complete catastrophic change of paradigm and morality, which has been portrayed in a rather hilarious endeavour. The author tickle that laughter bone. The innocence of Gopal and the more extravagant American born Randy, brings the humorous coefficient which multiplies with the story.

The one thing I will never forget from this book is this, The offer by "a very good looking, black man, dressed in a breathtakingly beautiful gray overcoat" of "some real live pussy" begins the theme of the book, Gopal's quest, initiated without his slightest understanding, to get laid before he returns to India. "No thank you, sir," Gopal declines."I'm vegetarian." And when he returns to his cousin unscathed (and unlaid), he says, "I met friendly man selling vegetarian cats."

Randy on a mission to get Gopal laid, fails miserably each and every-time. This is kind of a book, surely makes you wonder, why the hell didn't I try going to US. The book is a good time killer and leaves you with a rather, cool note. A great travel read or a weekend stress buster. I do recommend it.

The other book I read was out of total curiosity, a book which I picked up just because it was something to do with IIM and business schools. Turns out, it had a completely contrasting nature. Samrat, a young American born with a Indian origin working at Wall-street, (Not quiet a story now, because of the financial crisis. This is sometime when there was no crisis) gets increasing frustrated with his monotonous life and wants some change. He comes back to India and enrolls in IIM-Banglore for doing his MBA.

His Indian experience is very nicely explained. Coming from US, Samrat, meets his fellow students at IIM, Sarkar(a guy from IITs mindbogglingly brilliant but a marijuana addict) and Vinod (ex-Indian army solider). The author gives us a birds-eye view of how things are go around in the IIMs.

Samrat comes to India, in search of happiness, but he just finds the gruelling IIM schedules. He gets a interim with one of the top companies and loves completing it. With Sarkar, he goes for a 10 day soul stirring experience in a yoga session at the Himalayas. After 2 years of Indian experience, he finds his happiness in a less dramatic job. A frugal salary, not a demanding life style.

Does Samrat find what he is looking for? Very cool book for casual reading!! Keep off the Grass here means nothing but marijuana. But marijuana does play a vital role in the story line!! :) Ruskin Bond, does tell you a a thing or two. I enjoyed every bit of it!! After all this reading, I could not sit home reading, so I planned to take a drive for a sandwich. I ordered a sandwich and was reflecting the books. As I was thinking, I was eyeing my bike which was parked on the other side of the road. Just lost in my thoughts.

The sandwich wala came out and asked me, do you want to have it here or take it as parcel. I said, I will have it. As I was having it, I still reflected the book. As I finished it, I asked the guy for a tissue paper. The guy replied-"Tissue paper tho nehi hai saab, yeh Indian paper he hai" and trusted me a old newspaper. Then I felt, wherever I go, India and the Indianess in me, will never change!!

Saturday, October 25, 2008

It is not fossil; it is Tommy Hilfiger!!

I had been shopping for some watches....this Tommy Hilfinger watch caught my attention.....I was inclined to go for a Fossil watch....I did not see the range, that met my criteria of requirements in a watch.....

1. Dual time- Which meant I can see two time zone on my watch simultaneously.
2. A formal watch.
3. Round shape, which is retro considered today exotic shapes of titan fast-track.
4. Elegant and at the same time simple.
5. No steel watches, I hate them as they are very bulky and very heavy
6. Leather straps, neat finish with date and day.
7. Not to forget I got a Tommy Hilfiger laptop back-pack free......:):):)

This Tommy Hilfiger met all the above conditions........hurray! finally got it!!

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Those Childhood days!!

Gone are the days, studying, laughing, playing. What not, do we miss from those "magic" childhood days. The total number of friends and those playing days, goes on decreasing exponentially as you move on in your life. Every now a then, we do get in touch with those friends, but the fun and happiness is still deprived. Every now and then, we do remember lot of incidents very fondly. As we grow older, today would be remembered fondly.

When some similar incidents happen, we get those childhood chubbiness and laughter out of no were. Considering the busy schedule we cope with everyday, the time to spend time for ourselves is completely nil. I still think about those pranks, which was very much part of my childhood days!! Whenever something happens, which reminds me something from the past, I quietly smile at myself, thinking what an idiot I was back then.

Today, we had a supposed power cut, at office. So we had been to the pantry, just to enjoy and kill time. It was time for some carrom. Noting, as most of them at office come from somewhat similar back ground, it was quiet evident from the style of play. Every body were rusty. No one had played carrom for a long time. Simple shots were quiet miserably missed resulting in embarrassment.


I for a change was getting the hang, so what early in the game, just to slump in the middle. My partner, was getting those crucial punches every now and then. He was on his "hot and cold" form as one of my friend coined it. We hit a purple patch wherein, we won some boards. Getting those sleek cuts and majestic straight shorts, made me very happy. Got back those childhood tensions, describing other's shots, exclaiming when my shots did not make it.

Carrom did get those mickey out of us. Thoroughly enjoyed the crunch situations, playing under pressure. Getting that tough shot in, missing a simple shot. Feels great to be a child again. Hope such moments, brush us every now and then. I meant the carrom part, not the power cut. It is damn hot now a days.


Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Fossils

I was just going through some cool watches....I found this website for Fossil...

Really sleek, very good formal stuff. The first look, made me fall in love with these. The colour shades, round shaped watches, are such a rarity now a days. I would think about buying these, some day!!




Friday, October 3, 2008

Kovalam,

After a long time!! Many a trouble, running from pillar to post, I finally made video of our Kovalam trip!! It is a self explanatory one!! check out the video guys!!






Monday, September 22, 2008

Traffic with life control!!

I was on my way to Kanyakumari from Thiruvanathapuram on a bus, quiet a comfortable one I should say. The bus was trotting along, for most of the distance. It moved so slow that, I could formulate a theory for road traffic. An aberrant comparison between road traffic and life itself. It sparked my mind, which is always is in random ramblings and shambling. I should attribute these random thoughts to the latest book I read, "Freakonomics".

As the name goes, the book is about freaking thoughts and comparisons proved with profound intellectual statistics, hanging on with ground reality of common sense. Just as you go through the book, you will understand how different it is from the rest of the platoon. A book, which gives out of the world thinking profess, collaborated with disbelieving facts and stats, that will totally rock your contemplating prudence.

With topics viz. questions like-"What Do Schoolteachers and Sumo Wrestlers Have in Common?" and "Why Do Drug Dealers Still Live with Their Moms?", all I can say is these comparisons resemble a kind of freakish random non-collinear thoughts, that in-turn flips your rather diabolic paradigm of thinking. Such penetrative ideas, gives your relating brain an upliftment and makes you think in a collateral way.

Coming back to my Traffic theory and my comparison. Traffic today, can be related with our life itself. The author in Freakonomics compares two totally different real world entities. I thought of comparing one real world entity with our life. The fuel to each vehicle can be seen as not only the food we eat, but also energy and hope of life. The way you ride or drive the vehicle describes your attitude towards life. The vehicle itself indicates your status, your financial background.


The rate of overtaking, leaving behind many can be attributed to your growth. Each and every think a traffic on the road has can be had parallelism in our life. We do have road signs, that lead us to the proper destination, without getting entangled in the never ending road to our pinnacle of success. These road signs, can be considered to be our advisers and teachers.




Again, when it comes to rules, the road has its own set of rules and regulations that has to be followed. The same is applicable to life as-well. You have to abide by the law. Surprisingly, both the traffic and life are punished by law. Just that, the colour of uniform of a traffic police and the real police are a different. You can cheat, but some day you will be caught.

After all, the life and traffic does go hand in hand well. But there are rather different things like friends, parents in real life, cannot be had substitutes. Life does do go on different roads, to reach a specific destination. The roads may change, the traffic may change, the destination might change, your financial background will change with your vehicle, but rules remain constant. Success in life means a lot, but reaching your destination on road is just a mere accomplishment!!

Friday, September 12, 2008

What is the Lipstick's colour?

It might be quiet surprising, that I am writing about the Lipstick colour. On the other day, I was talking with one of my friend about lipstick colours. A girl can explain you, in better standards and depth about the various brands and various variety of lipsticks and lip gloss you get in market. But all we know is a stick with some colour, which when applied to the lips gives that colour. And it remains, for some time unless we disturb it.

Lipstick has been a symbol for a long time to show kisses in many movies. In a paper, which I found online-"LIPSTICK IMPERIALISM AND THE NEW WORLD ORDER:WOMEN AND MEDIA AT THE CLOSE OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY", the author Margaret Gallagher, considers a media women to be a lipstick. She goes on explaining about what kind of imperialism a women is subjected. She also explains, the role of media, and says that today's world should make women getting into media easy. So a lipstick symbolises a women of Twentieth century. But have you ever wondered how many vibrant colours there are? Lipstick colour defines a girl, the way she behaves and how stylish she can be. It sometimes, shows the basic thinking. Let us just gasp, and take a look around, to find what is the similarity between a colour, lipstick and the character of the person.

Lets start from North-East of India, where in lies West Bengal and Bihar. The ladies from here, what colour of lipstick they use. It is usually (when I say usually, it is majority) darkish red, maroon or even say dark black. It is more and more towards the darkish side. Now dark colours indicate strong will power, determination, self control and resilience. Black colour absorbs light, it simply means there is no colour. Darkness gives stability in life. The women from these places, are usually very strong characters from within. They are very bull hearted, they are strong willed. Even in movies, a women who is a villan is shown wearing a dark to dark lipstick. For example, the Disney creation Cruella de Ville in One Hundred and One Dalmatians, who wanted to skin little puppies to make herself a fur coat.

Light colour of lipstick indicates, the person is very simple by heart. She does not have an attitude, beyond the limits of apprehension or acceptability. She is very subtle in all she does. She knows herself better and wears herself splendidly. She is very intelligent too.

There is one more logic, that involves, fair girls would like a light coloured lipstick, and the dark ones will go for more darker ones. I don't know if it is true with body colour, but with lipstick colour usually it does hold true. Dark coloured lipstick women (DCLW), are a little less on the intelligence quotient. But exceptions are very much there. But try doing something wrong and asking forgiveness, you will know what you are up against. You will never be forgiven. They are too hard to crack, as their hearts are made of rocks. Believe me, this is experience talking!! So don't try to fool them. They will not forgive you. And to add more, they are very adamant on their point of view. Cannot change it as they think they are correct.

Then there are these funky coloured lipsticks, used by girls mostly in the western part of India. Colours like orange, green, dark pink etc.. These girls are very beautiful, but overdo a lot of things. They don't realise if they are beautiful or not. They are not stable in a relationship. They lack the emotional balance. Usually these are teenage girls, who try different things. After all today's generation of girls funky, if not they at least try to look like they are funky.

Cigarette smoking is injurious to health. But today's women from India, a staggering one third of them indulge in atleast one kind of tobacco consumption. About 3% of urban women are into Cigarette and bidi smoking. Actually it is far more than that I believe in a city like mumbai. Around 22% of women from India, are into tobacco chewing, which is even more dangerous. The Indian tobacco market is surely rising, as the women are also pitching in. Global tobacco investors can make a note of this and begin aggressive marketing. The reason, I brought this is because, when you smoke, your lips darken. To cover up this, women use dark coloured lipstick. This can also be a point of view. In this case, it is rather very iffy to guess the character of a women. The laser thinning procedure, that reduces the effect of darkening of lips due to smoking is on the rise among dermatologists.

Finally to round it up, off late lipstick has caught up with presidential elections in US. The outrage between, Obama and McCain has taken a lipstick curve. Sarah Palin's comments started of outrageous speeches. The US call it a direct bombardment of individualism and sexism. Check out the following videos.


Thursday, September 4, 2008

Rock on!!

Phew!! It was a quiet a movie guys. I loved every part of it. The music was mind-boggling, really exhilarating. Hindi movies getting a rocking paradigm shift. Rock music, in general does not care about the lyrics in the song. Usually, it is very light on the lyrics, but very heavy on the metal rock. The songs in the movie "Rock on" are no different. The lyrics are very light and has simple words, which makes the songs even more enjoyable.

The storyline, was again a disguised one, and reveals itself when the movie progresses. Where-in the present life of the rockstars are shown. And for some reason, there has been a split in the gang in the past and the rockers have gone different ways, which is kept as a secret beyond the interval. As and when, one explains or thinks about the past, the past life of the band is revealed.


Farhan Akhtar, the lead singer(wealthy investment banker now) and Arjun Rampal, the lead guitarist being such good friends, have a bitter fight and every thing falls apart. The band as they name it 'Magik' has the 'Killer drummer' as he calls himself, Purab Kohli(KD) and the electric piano player, Luke Kenny. The subtle humor part in the movie is taken care of by Purab Kohli and Shahana Goswami(Deebie), who is the wife of Arjun Rampal. Shahana Goswami does have a great impact left on you after the movie. She has a great body language and acting skill, that will sure leave you searching for wallpaper of her on Google. (I searched for her wallpapers, man I did not get any!1 :(

The main character of the movie is Farhan Akhtar's wife, Prachi Desai, who wants to see her husband happy. Very lazy wife of a very wealthy investment banker, I should say. She is the wholely responsible for the reunion of the rock gang. The group Magik, as it is called reunite after running from pillar to post almost 10 years.

Farhan starts to feel very good about the reuniting. Arjun Rampal being very poor, scraps his way through hurdles in life. Luke Kelly being a cancer patient, fights against death and music. The movie see lots of some twists and curls, but finally it meets the Rock concert, wherein all the four unite to play the concert of their life. Starting with the "Tum ho to" and a wonderful song of "Sindbad the sailor"..... Follow your dreams, is what they seem to say from this movie. The happiness in life is when you follow your dreams, which will help you achieve limitless goals in life.

I have been learning a Indian drum. After this movie, I thought I should rip some music out of it. So guess what, I just struck the tone one fine evening; and played it after a period of around 1 month. Feels awesome to be playing and making music. Music is indeed magik, which stirs soul of life. I have included some of the clips of the drum evening. Listen to it, it might ignite some music in you!! :) :)

I call this "The Reverberating Thunder"




This one I call, "Sound from Kailash"

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Developing Personality from within....

Every single day, you meet so many people, who touch your heart. Make a mark in your mind and some whom you look forward to meet in the future. Some of the characters are so pathetic that you don't even bother to remember their name. We don't kind of remember such comic people until you really have some thing that they can help you with. Otherwise, it is just that "hi-bye" kind of relation.

Even such comic people have lot of characters that you can learn from. Yes, let’s not talk about them. Coming back, the charisma the different personality’s exhibit are really so attractive that, we without our realization start liking that person. We start to collect reasons to meet them. We want to know more about that person. Human tendencies of curiosity will eventually make us know more about them.

We live a life copying style, lifestyle, characters, dressing and eventually personality. Each and every person has a role model, whom we look up to follow the trend. Many times we tend to loose our individuality, and try morphing them. Eventually we end up being the role model, if not look like them, but feel like them from within.

We look for mutual acceptance from others for this personality. It may be a change in dressing style, may be a hair style, little make-up, dying hair colour, etc… We kind of expect some comments from others, to feel that what we have done is good. Sometimes there are good comments, sometimes it is bad, and sometimes there might be no comments at all.

Impressing others can also be motive behind such morphing. Just from wearing a so called cool pair of shoes to a fancy hat!! Everything is going down and up for that tiny comment from the person you like. When that compliment never comes from that intended target impressing group, the other compliments seem to be just statements. Humans are always looking for acceptance for what personality they want to be, rather than the personality they are.

Individuality is a price word, which is something no one else has. Individual likes and dislikes cannot be buried, for just that personality development. Today’s generation of youngsters are becoming more erratic and ruder. The attitude and language sense are more tilted towards rudeness in the “Rude or Not” scale (I saw “Hot or Not” show just yesterday). Attitude problems have become not a problem, but a worry. What kind of personalities will our future generations instil?

As the research goes, it seems we inherit morphing personalities from people who are alive and present in our era 80% of the time rather than people, who have found their graves. If this rudeness continues, then our future generations will follow suit, without even knowing that they are rude. Let’s stop here and think a little about the derogatory comments and talk to the hands attitude, we possess without out notice. We are born with a pure heart, only the situations, surroundings and people around help us build our attitude and personality towards life.

The style guru’s think they are very cool, by morphing them you think you are very cool. Life goes a whole circle. So the style guru will eventually follow you, thinking you are cool. Break the morphing circle and eroding rude personality attitude. Next time listen to the heart of the person you are talking to, rather than his cute face. Bring out individuality and bring out kinder heart.

Friday, August 29, 2008

ब्लाह ब्लाह ब्लाह.......

किलर जेंस, मक डोनाल्ड'स, स्पघेट्टी, रीबोक आणि ब्लाह ब्लाह ब्लाह.... This is what you will see, in the sign board of all the European brands around the city. Many many boards, have been changed. All the English brands are now, showing Hindi name board. All just to amuse the on looker.

For a second, I felt hang on, how will the guys who cannot read Hindi find out which shop is where. Aren't we down grading our public value. Outside India, the whole world thinks in English. Is English so bad that, we cannot use it on the name board, on our own shop? I agree to the fact that, speaking in English does not make you great person, nor does it get you money. But it makes someone understand what you are exactly saying.

It is the language the globe is meeting out. India is no longer a under-developed country. It is one of the strongly developing countries, which the world is looking out for. More and more foreign companies are investing here in India. It is growing by the day. Just yesterday, I saw a English guy, in his tuxedo, trying to cross the road. I don't know how they wear a tuxedo, in the humid weather of Mumbai and when it looks like it will rain.

Tell me how will he read a shop with a Hindi sign board on it. I am not against the fact that vernacular language should be used. Nor am I against people thinking in their mother tongue or people being thought in mother tongue. All I want to say is, English is what will make you reach out to masses and make them understand you as you. Yes, there are always exceptions, you can do business and earn the money you want speaking just Hindi or Marathi. But your sphere will always be limited.

But all in all, I guess asking shoppers to change the English name board into Hindi or Marathi was taking the discussion too much into orbit. Having, both Hindi and English is fine; but not just Hindi. Raj Thackeray had commented that, "if the shops don't have a Hindi sign board, they will be demolished by his men." some days back. The changing of name board at many places also shows that, in mumbai, how many people who want to play safe and don't want to get into any kind of trouble. I wonder, what I would have done, if I were a shop-keeper!!

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Rubik's cube solved!! :) :) :) :)

Hey guys!! I did it. I formulated some algorithm's of my own and solved this rubik's cube!! check out this snaps!! Yipeee!! I am very happy!! Yes I got some help online and hints, which helped me a lot, but patience is virtue for this......

It is not that bad; but you need to work out on the algorithm a little bit. I would need to perfect these algorithms, which I have formulated. For now I just sit back and enjoy this moment. :)
The last picture here is a video; don't miss it!! :):)


























Sunday, August 24, 2008

Rubik's cube!!

Ernő Rubik is the Hungarian who is the inventor of Rubik's cube, which is the 3*3*3 cube. Considering the fact that, there are six colors which has to be grouped on 6 sides respectively. It seems rather simple at the start, to get one of the colors grouped. Then it is kind of tedious and becomes rather a head ache to complete it, as and when one color is grouped, the other goes away.

Last week, I saw the movie "Pursuit of Happyness"; very good movie that. Will smith plays the role of Chris Gardner, who is a homeless salesman-turned-stockbroker. Based on the real life story, with his own son acting as his son in the movie, Will Smith comes out with a splendid act. There is one scene in which; to prove his intelligence, Chris Gardner has to solve Rubik's cube in a matter of minutes. Even the mathematicians, take some time to get the hang of it.

Chris Gardner must have been a real intelligent guy. The very next day, I had been to my cousin's place, where in I had a great meal. I never knew my cousin sister was such a great cook. Well seems like very are going on aberrant from the topic. You see, I have a weakness for good food. So coming back to, I found this Rubik's cube, which they had gotten. I tried my hand on it. Trying many permutations and combinations. But finally I gave up. I could get only one side filled with the same color!!

I was looking for solutions to solve the Rubik's cube online. I got some pages, but could not quiet get the hang of it. Now I will buy the cube and practice to fill more than one color!! These are some you-tube links I got!!






Wish me good luck to get all six colors!! :)

Monday, August 18, 2008

Men with Golden Arms and legs

To be frank, I am aquaphobic. I have been like this, right from my childhood. Quiet a guy who runs away from water. During my childhood, my dad used to play with my fear, when he used to take me to the beach. He used to deliberately take me inside the water and drop me in middle of no wear. I get those spine chilling feeling and run like hell towards the shore. So I am not good when near water, and don't know how to swim.

So coming from me, you should think over this. I marvel this guy, Michael Phelps. Getting a gold in Olympics is as they say, very difficult (From an Indian). So getting 8 in the same Olympics should be (very) raised to eight times difficult. There is something special with this guy. Just some days back I read an article, which said, an IITian Rajat Mittal, has been researching Michael Phelps style of swimming. He says, "Phelps is able to use his body in a way that is very, very different from the other athletes...much closer to dolphins than we have seen for any other swimmer’’.

He says, "Phelps is able to straighten his massive size-14 feet to a greater angle (about 15 degrees) than any other swimmer to reduce resistance. Almost 90% of all the thrust is coming from the foot,’’ Mittal explained. “And the flatter and bigger your foot is, you essentially have a bigger paddle. Michael’s foot size and the angle he generates with it plays a big role in his ability to swim very well.’’ The irony of a IITian from India studying, swimming patterns of a guy from some other country.

Whatever he does, he must be an expert at that. He has 8 Olympic gold medals to show for that. He might eventually end up as a great Olympian ever. I have been greatly blessed to be born in the same era of such an awesome swimmer. Before the Olympics started, Michael had quoted that it is his dream to win gold in all the 8 events that he participates in. Well isn't that apocalyptic. I would say it is a complete devastation and dilapidation of gold medals, which gave the other swimmers very little time to even grasp, what has hit them.

Only one could even come close to Phelps, he came so close that he was one hunderth of second late. Milorad Cavic of Serbia, would be tearing his hair out for losing out on chance to upstage Phelps. The Serbian team even protested about the judgement. But the officials were spot on with their Omega clock. To add to Cavic's fury, Phelps just 2 days back had said, “There are still three races to go and I am not unbeatable. No swimmer is unbeatable,”.


Truly, this man has been born with a golden arm. He has made a complete mockery of these medals. He is very close to his mother. I came across this video from ESPN, an interview of his mother after the Athens Olympics 2004. You should look into this one. This video was taken before this Olympics. Just look at, how much training goes in becoming a champion.

http://sports.espn.go.com/broadband/video/video?id=3511562

They say Athens Olympics 2004 was just an start to his swimm
ing career just at the age 18. Phelps won 6 gold in that. Now at the age of 22, he has 8 in Beijing Olympics 2008. He will be 26 in London Olympics 2012 and raring to go. All I would say is he has ignited interest in me to join swimming. Not many can do that, my dad tried. So I would be behind him in London, to win 8 again. Go Phelps Go.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYdmo8DMIuQ

Just to complete the legs, Usain Bolt. A man with legs which can run 100 mtrs at 9.69 seconds. Well, just imagine what you can do in 9 seconds. You can use the oven and set it to get your coffee warmer. Try to catch a fly. Thinking about changing the channel on the TV. Opening a can, which is very badly closed. The door which has self closing tag to it, after it is open fully, closes in 9 seconds. Trying to remove a knot. Man this guy must be fast.


Closer observation shows that, Usian Bolt had come without his shoe lace done. And he lost composure, in the last 3 strides, as he was holding his arms wide and pumping his heart. Otherwise, they say he could have done it in 9.6 seconds. The people with golden arms and legs are surely too quick to catch.

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Who is King?

It was kind of a off season for good movies. No movies could have been categorized as it will go down the memory lane. Bored of the routine life, it is these movies that give us entertainment; show us something new to revive some fresh energy. Refreshing our minds about some real life story, or a fantasy story. Never will we forget out action heroes. The spider mans, the super mans, the fantastic fours and the new mutant heroes like the x-men. These characters have not only etched our memories, but also made us watch the movies made out of these characters, some of which have made down the memory lanes.

The Dark Knight, was one such movie, which has made the characters from DC comic series of Batman alive. The back ground score has been made with elegance. The story has got great twist and turns, which makes Batman always shift his gears. The bike and tank car are in the class of their own. The Batman movies are always dark, set in the night with amazing picture clarity. This one is no exception.

Heath Ledger, has done a once in a lifetime role of the Joker. Mindboggling stuff this. He has completely blown away everyone. He has not performed in the movie, rather he has turned himself into a joker. I would say, you should watch the movie for the joker instead of the batman. Morgan Freeman, has shown his sarcastic brilliance. The Batman, Christian Bale, with all the gadgets, is good. Always the movement and expression of the Batman are minimal due to the suite and masks.

Amazing story line, complete bass background score for batman, Heath at his best, amazing cinematographies and best stunts. I know the stunt double for Batman could never been seen, even if he is right in front of the camera. All these make 'The Dark Knight', really a great movie to watch during any dark night. I saw it on the big screen at IMAX wadala, worth the money I spent.

From million dollar hollywood movie to a bollywood movie, 'Singh is king'. I watched this with no expectations. One thing was totally different from the other bollywood movies was, the dressing sense and the songs were unusually very short. Only the title track went the distance for some time duration. All the other songs were very small. A comedy movie, which has a little bit of emotion. The best was the dance from Javed Jaffrey as "Mikha Singh".....


A comedy movie that can be given a slip I guess. Not a great story line, but Neha Dhupia and Katrina Kaif, make it a good reason to give it a try. I have never seen Neha, being so stylish in her movies. Meanwhile, I got hold of a old movie, 'Notting Hill'!! Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts, with a very simple movie.

I have seen this movie before, but in parts. The spellbinding romantic movie, with julia starring as a heroine 'Anna Scott' and Hugh Grant playing a character of a guy with a travel book shop. Each and every scene has been made so wonderfully done that it goes into that memory lane of the brain.

The costumes, not to say the sarcastic comedy in almost all the scenes and above all the supporting cast have given a brilliant performance in tickling the laughter bone, quiet so often. In all I would consider Notting Hill, as one of my favorite movies off the 3. But the Dark Knight will surely go down the memory lane!! The batman, does not want him to be called as the king. So I would go with Notting Hill.

Monday, August 4, 2008

Where are the Real Olympians?

India a land of so much culture, so much brilliance around, should defray the fact that Real Olympians from India are more or less like the Apollo 13 mission. (Successful failure) From the fact that we don't take Olympics seriously as compared to a Cricket world cup, is because we don't have a Olympian. Why can't India with all its Adonis and Dhonis come up with an Olympian, who can match the ever elusive Olympics standard.

Every time, the results come up, we can see a lone Indian with a bronze medal or a silver medal. Then comes the celebration in all the news channels, with a spine chilling questionnaire to the athlete's mother. "How do you feel after your son's performance?" Till then the name of the athlete is a complete puzzle. Over night he becomes a legend, as he has done something that no one can ever imagine, a medal in Olympics. And after all this Marion Jones of US, quietly walks away with 5 gold medals. As per Indian mythology, she must be legend of legends. (Like the ammas of ammas).

Why can't Indians think about getting more than just one silver medal? Is it so impossible that we have to just be happy with just one medal? What is the nexus between a Indian and a Olympic gold medal. When I say gold medal, it is not one; many. Indians are very well trained, in giving reasons for their failure. If they use the reasoning brain, as a performing one, they will get all the accolades for their efforts. Just the mindset has to be like a Micheal Phelps or an Ian Thorpe.

Indians are more into cricket. The famous quadrilateral, best test middle order in the world, failed more than once in the current test series in Sri Lanka. The Little master, Prince of Bengal, The wall and Nawab of Hyderabad all failed in the first test. India had to score 400 runs to avoid the follow on. The famous quadrilateral never even made 360 let alone 400, which is the sum of all the angles in a quadrilateral. In the second test, it was the top order of Sehwag and Ghambir who made all the runs. Even then they failed.

We have to keep asking the questions to ourselves. Where are the Titans? Where are the Real Olympians? The mindset, training equipments, training coach and above all individual desire to grab hold of an Olympics gold, is completely missing in today's middle class Indian families. The swimming gear for Ian Thorpe was designed as per his expectations by his sponsors. The cost of the gear, is as good as buying a flat some where in Navi mumbai!!


Unless, there are proper equipments, thinking coaches and compromising sponsors, it is very difficult to breed champions. Champions can be created by a developing and nurturing the mindset of winning; infrastructure is always other side of the coin. Instead of just engineers, doctors and cricketers, there should be a different breed for Olympians!! Lets see how many medals we win in Summer Olympics Beijing 2008.

Friday, August 1, 2008

Once in a while~~

Once in a while, we meet strangers, who are totally different from what we consider ourselves to be. Just look at these people all around you. Everybody is having his own problems, his own world in which he/she lives. As we have our own temper arousing problems, we never think about them. There are a lot of strangers whom you will never meet again in your life. Online friends, pen pals, friends from a different country, wherever you go, what ever you do, there are stranger aplenty.


Once in a while, when you feel you are alone and lonely. Even a stranger can make a great friend, only if we have the time to speak. Some are very flashy, with fancy hear gear or dresses. The pretty girl walking next to you. The bald man with a big fat tummy. The busy executive formal guy with a bluetooth headset in constant conversation. The attitude guys, direction seeking moron's, typical chinese guys, not so pretty girls showing attitude, guy speaking loudly on the phone with a paan in his mouth.

Once in a while, we get to know people, through work and through friends. We meet so many people that, we don't remember names of many. How often do we store a number in our mobile phone, and afterwards wonder whose number that was? Unless you have good memory, it is pretty difficult to trace it out. Sometimes there are these elderly strangers, who give some advices as to how to fill a form, how to solve a certain problem. There are many things in life that we get help from strangers.


Once in a while, we meet with an mishap, while I was riding. Just as I always do, I raced my bike to the front row of the signal. When the signal turned green, I was off like a unstoppable river, slushing and gushing through the roads. Like a nightmare, a cyclist came on my way from no were. I thought of bypassing him, but he came right in front of my bike. So I had to break all of a sudden. That was an example of a sudden break!! Everything came to a screeching halt. I lost control of my bike and had to taste the ground.

Once in a while, I took the ground for a change. I lot the next 5 seconds, I did not know what happened. I lost consciousness, I was there, I was awake, but could not trace the thought process of my mind. It was a complete blank. The next thing I saw was, 3 complete strangers, got my hand, lifted me up. As I could get my bike up, stand, nothing had gone wrong, just that my mirror was broken, with its impact to the holy earth.

Once in a while, comes God, in human form of strangers. Gives us good will, protects and helps us to stand on our own foot. Strangers, come and go. They have life of their own. If only we can see them from their point of view. After all they are also human beings, whom God has summoned in this world to help us.

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

AR.Rahmanised

Getting into a weekend; brings a great joy. Saturday always comes with a free token of happiness. Lot of plans, lot of places to go, sure you we have a plan. How many time do we call our friends, for a movie and go out to a mall on a Saturday or Sunday. Staying home on a weekend, gives a different feeling for the whole feel.

Starting the free day with music, gives a great kick for the rest of the day. This Saturday, I was listening to my world space radio. Usually I am more into rock, rap, hip hop and traditional music. When I was changing the channels, I came across a channel, which played orchestra music. The likes of italian and american jazz. So majestic setting with climatic crescendo.

It started rather nicely with slow pace; but gathered momentum and turned into something like the back ground score of Adam's family. Something which is usually played in the Hollywood horror movies. My mom listening to this, was taken aback. Born and brought up in a completely traditional kind of taste, she could not digest this kind of music. She was of a the feeling this is Christian's church music. This coming from a south india religious hindu house wife, I just smiled at her comment; changed the channel.


It was bollywood music now!! All latest movie numbers we being endlessly being bombarded. Sometimes when you hear to a super-hit song, many a times, you get bored of it. There were some fast paced songs; some slow ones. Then it was AR Rahman's soul stirring, music like never before. It was the turn for the song "Kwajaji!!" from Jodha Akbar. A song based on qawwali music, which has got a ancient history of singers, who have sung this kind of a style during the mughal empire.

A completely Persian style, with a lot of devotion in it. When the song started, my mom started singing with it. Just to complete the story. A person who is so much against the so called orchestra church music, is singing Persian Muslim style song. Well, and we think Muslim's and Hindu's don't go well with each other.

Why has this happened? The credit goes to AR Rahman, because his music seems to break boundaries. Seems to reach places, where no one can and will. Just getting my mom to sing traditional qawwali style of music, totally astounding. The latest songs of Janne Tu Janne Na, are also gems. I have to say, one more feather on the cap for the maestro. From Roja, to Airtel commercial. The journey as he says, keeps getting better and better. He is also going to feature in the next "The Lord of the Rings" movie, whose back ground score I am sure will be similar to church music ( not exactly). May be that is why, they call him, "Lord of Music".

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Life in a slow lane!!

Today's life has gone into fast-forward, with the amount of the time required for travelling a distance always tends to reduce, as the technology and innovation make it faster and faster. Many of my buddies will disagree with it and say nothing will give heed to Mumbai traffic. The serious bottle-necks eventually impedes the movement of traffic, which by far helps us to have a look at our wrist watch 15,000 times before we reach our destination.

Being in a fast lane, always feels wonderful. Reaching destination in very less time, makes us feel there is nothing to do. Just taking the traffic jams out of the equation, we should say we are still in the faster lane. The electric trains, which are lifeline of Mumbai makes the faster life even faster. People living in a city, when they go back to their native place, feel the life at their there tends towards nothing but slowness. But the slowness of life also shows us things that we would never notice if we would be in the fast lane.

I have a bike, pulsar 220, which makes my travel very easy and of-course faster. I ran into my second servicing. I had to give away my bike for repair works. As long as I was travelling on my bike; I never had the time to look around. I just love riding bikes. The surroundings kind of moves as well in the rate of knots. I was used to the fast lane driving.

When I gave my bike away, I had to travel by bus or walk. I choose to walk for some days. There is were, I came across many late developments near my home. I would have never noticed a new bank, a new showroom and a new ATM. It is now I understood what all round development means. It was marvellous to see so many people choose walking after work.

Water logged areas, how to get around them. I found many cross roads, short cuts. Got to see small temples and places which I had seen during college days. It was great refreshment of fond and vivid memories. New hawkers, new bhel puri stalls, new offices many many more things!! Also to see, some major landmarks diminish to nothing. Roads widened, when you are on the bike; you never notice the width of the road unless you cross it. Some old shops taken over by new ones, remodelled and refurbished.

And finally, I found a brand new Nike showroom. It has been started 2 months back. I never knew it. I got a Federer's Head Tie I was looking, for a long time. After all, being in a slow lane helps us catch up with things that we have missed, in the fast lane!!

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Eats, shoots and leaves==Kung Fu Panda

I just finished a book called, "Eats, Shoots and Leaves"....a book about today's usage of English punctuations. Well we can never guess that from the title of the book. The explanation of the title goes something like this. It has been explained in the form of a story.


A giant Panda, enters a bar, asks for a sandwich, eats it happily. The panda was about to leave, when the bar attender asked it, money for the sandwich. It removed a gun out of no where and fired twice in the air and left. Before it left, the panda tossed a animal book to bar attender. An book with descriptions of all the animals, but with poor punctuations. It read, Giant Panda: Animal found in parts of china, feeds on bamboo. Eats, shoots and Leaves.

I have to say, the author of the book Lynne Truss, has read most probably all the books of English punctuations and also history books wherever the word punctuation appear. So much references on each and every page, it makes the reader feel like, he has missed all the books in the world. It also shows how learned she is. Taking nothing away from the book, it does not make one very curious to read the book. Only a persistent voracious reader can finish this book.

The writer is against the way today's generation of people have turned the punctuation symbols and made their own grammar out of them. She goes on and explains how it should be properly used, by explaining how it is wrongly used in today's bits and pieces English. The author throughly disagrees by the way the today's English has been broken up in emails and smses. Like gr8 for great and 10x for thanks. She feels we have to start a revolt against such things.

A through professional with majestic sentence formations skills, spell-binding descriptions with eloquent and free flowing effluent, expressive English. To be frank, I guess you can give this book a miss, if you are looking for humor. It is not as humorous as her "Talk to the hand". The sarcastic comedy of Truss is missing in this one.


To continue with panda story, I saw a movie just yesterday Kung-Fu Panda. An awesome animation movie. Complete opposite to the above english punctuation crap!! Amazing story line, breath-taking animation, stomach aching comedy. Even the expression on the face of the panda makes one laugh his heart out.

The complete setting in china, with Kung-Fu, and all these animals, this movie is here to stay. A complete contrast to the book I read. You see, there is always a lighter side of things in life!!

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