When someone uses the phrase "The Road Ahead" , Just think about the word:

 Road

Close your eyes.

What kind of Road do you visualize ?

a) Do you see a vast empty road with no civilization with just shrubs with you on a convertible ?

b) Or do you imagine yourself with a "?" look wearing seat belt on Goods Shed Road waiting for the signal with the goods-auto behind you honking coaxing you to jump the signal ?

Being a dreamer, I visualize a).
You may say I am a dreamer - But I am not the only one. I hope someday you will join us. - Lennon

Roads by Portishead

hello again hz

Back to Hangzhou. Rainy days and cold days in Hangzhou ahead....The best part is , someone told me it is summer and I have brought summer clothes and had a military cut.... the winter is pretty chilly here....and the apartment is quite far.

Life goes on.

blank space

The weekend was spent on the white elephant flying to the sea shore and attending a marriage: Picked up a copy of the book "The witch from Portobello" : The book is good in parts but not good as a whole.

But one thing which really caught my eye in the book was about calligraphy. The book talks about calligraphy in detail and calligraphy emphasizes blank spaces between the words and the lines so that the words look more beautiful. And the author relates it to life in general : The blank spaces are the times when nothing eventful happens - But these blank spaces are really essential to make things in life look good.

A blank space could be a good sleep or it could be looking and pondering about something really not tangible/sensible at the moment. Tangible at the moment for me : traffic, bank, television, cubicle, laptops and gadgets. Intangible at the moment : hmm the list is endless.

Bheeshma had the gift of choosing the day of his death. When would a person consider that his life has been meaningful ? What would be the ultimate satisfaction for a person to say he has led a fulfilling life ? Everyone would have their own version of the definition of leading a good life. What is yours ?

As Steven Covey had said: Imagine yourself (or rather your soul) hearing the eulogy from your friends and relatives. What would you like them to remember you as ? What would they talk about you ? They would talk about you as a person .. What legacy would you want to leave ? That's where your vision should be - To begin with the end in mind

Sometimes, I feel that the desire to live and the willingness to adapt to new things , the zest to live makes you more ALIVE. It seems that the desire to do something increases longevity.

Video that made me write this : Moby - Natural Blues

Discovering ....Manu Chao

I like airplanes, I like you.
I like traveling, I like you.
I like the morning, I like you.
I like the wind, I like you.
I like to dream, I like you.
I like the sea, I like you.
I will do,
What times these are, my heart
I like the bike, I like you.
I like to run, I like you.
I like the rain, I like you.
I like to go back, I like you.
I like marijuana I like you.
I like Colombian, I like you.
I like the mountains, I like you.
I like the night, I like you.
What times these are, my heart
I like the dinner, I like you.
I like the neighbor, I like you.
I like the kitchen, I like you.
I like to cajole, I like you.
I like the guitar, I like you.
Regaee I like, I like you.
What times these are, my heart
I like cinnamon, I like you.
I like fire, I like you.
I like to move, I like you.
I like Corunna, I like you.
I like Malasaña, I like you.
I like the brown, I like you.
I like Guatemala, I like you.


Current Music : Manu Chao - Me Gustas Tu

The sound of rain

I stumbled upon a website which experiments with the sound of rain as a background to any melodious song.

Trust me, it creates a mood to a particular song and for a moment I thought I was sitting in a restaurant with a lot of woodwork and listening to the Bongo Bong song.

Try http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqD4lC6VX90 with some rain background http://www.rainymood.com/

An image

An image appears in my dream sometimes.

The image of Adi Shankara going towards the Kedarnath-Badrinath region amidst the lower Himalayas at the tender age of 32. Searching for .... I do not know what was the degree of involvement (if I may use the word involvement) with the supreme being  to brave the chilling cold.

Would love to paint such an image someday

I have not yet seen Don-2 yet. But one song from Don-2 is so , so old Bollywoodish, that I really started to like it.

The male voice is the highlight of the song. They have done some voice processing and the voice  sounds a lot like a  Kishore Kumar and Vinod Rathore.

Take a bite of Dushman Mera and concentrate on the baritone.

Hangzhou 再见

Hangzhou, bye....
It was a good experience...Stayed the longest duration outside India this time.

Lots of memories .... Lots of fun....

Starting to Blr tomorrow

Kempegowda song

One of my favorite songs in recent times is from Kempegowda....The singer VijayPrakash (from Mysore) has got a rocking voice ! Humming that song since this morning......

Check out this song makkalra....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUV1s-NfTS0

Amazing song....What voice ! Both the singers ( Shreya Goshal and VijayPrakash) have done a great job...

Had to really google a lot to find this song....Had heard it on radio and I did not remember the lyrics and did not know the name of the film...

The kind of feedback we get from parents and teachers as young children has a major impact on the implicit beliefs we develop about our abilities

According to the article - Kids must be praised for the EFFORT they put  for  the work ..... Instead of praising them for how SMART they are....

Read this article "The trouble with bright Kids" , really thought provoking.

a perfect day to blog

A friday.

Listening to Piper at the gates of dawn.

Early morning CCTV english news made me realize that the world economy is in a bad situation. With this kind of news looming in the telecom industry, I believe this is true. Hmm tough days ahead.  Find ways to stay afloat and the start water skiing.

Great to be back on the blogging dashboard - it is tough to cross the great firewall of china.

Ra.One - Is it the beginning of the end of SRK?

Thanks to the neighbors, we ended up watching Ra.One on Saturday (free tickets).

We were literally scared of being caught by ppl we knew (esp Salman khan fans) and being branded as "u 2 Brutus" as we were/are one of the leading SRK bashers post Kal-ho-na-ho... with the exception being "Chak De India".

Landing in a theater in shorts (for me) and skirt (for Pushpa) in the midst of uncles, aunties decked up in Kanjeevaram sarees , over the top salwar suits and bachha log- contributing to the cacophony, after a dinner of not so good Sichuan food almost made us sick. Not to forget we are always wary of 3-D movies after the Avataar experience at iMax (this is not Apple's isn't it?)couple of year's ago.

We literally prayed for a quick start and hopefully a swift end to the movie.. we were making plans as to what time we should leave the hall and had an agreement anytime after 30mins, if the movie went horribly wrong was appropriate.

I was desperately hoping we will have some good peek-a-boo at the upcoming movies so that it was worth the Sichuanese food we spent on (tickets were free remember). But alas, the screen lit up to Ra-One and the numerous "thank you" notes and media partner lists.. sickness increases..

And then SRK starts as Lucifer with some cliched jokes - iski lee, uski lee and sabki lee, but it works and surprisingly we sit through the first half without much issues.. below is the list as to what works and what doesn't in the first half

Does Not Works

SRK as Lucifer Some jokes

SRK as a Tamilian The kiddo

SRK in general Kareena Kapoor in a cut Roberto Cavalli dress

Sanjay Dutt & PC SRK dying - what a relief

The Rays Crap The Chinese chap

Dilip Tahil The R-One vs G-One fight sequence

Spaghetti and yogurt

blah blah blah

both of us nod that first half relatively went in a breeze and we agree to continue .. and this is where we make the mistake ..and probably the writers, directors of the movie as well... in the second half , two things work in every category

songs - chammak challo and dil dara.. and only because of Kareena

actos - arjun rampal and kareena , especially her under Ra-Ones influence.. she should take up some vamp role..

rest all, including superstar Rajini:( and the climax are a waste of time.. especially Mr. Satish Shah..

looks like initially Ra-one started out to please the kids, but then SRK wants to get to uncles, aunties, girls, boys, straight, gays, lesbians, south indians, north indians, auto drivers, it folks, so on and so forth which ends exactly like "spaghetti and curd" concept.. surprisingly the animal kingdom is let un-touched.. due you have missed a cat/dog in the movie..

also he wants to please by having terminator, spider man, iron man, torn, hulk and blah blah blah all in one single movie.. as he knows this is his last opportunity to do so..

on a whole .. if you reserve 5-stars for rating and split it between the first half and second half.. you can award 1.5-2 for the first half and anywhere from 0.5 - 1 star for the second half.. giving it a total of 2 to 3 stars..

after watching bodyguard and Singham, certainly feel this one is not the crappiest movie to reach 100 crores this year.. seriously do not know if we felt this way because we had ultra-low expectation and also that we did not spend HKD 200 on the movie ticket.. after all it might not be paisa vasool..

whatever SRK has got from the endorsements, cable, and other rights .. he will probably take a loss... looks like distributors will probably take a loss too.. and this will certainly reduce SRK's clout...

its a steep hill for the self-crowned King Khan to climb back.. and i dont think switching gears to Don-2 will work either.. Farhan akhtar will be cursing SRK as to why he had to release Ra One..

ps: i cannot go through the blog again and re-correct myself.. its too much of a pain..

I have just lost the interest to work today. Some days (esp. yday and today, it is just not me). Very bored. Reminds me of those lull days. Third time happening in my life....Reminds me how a careless mistake can cause big misunderstandings. Really bad days.

Hope things will be right soon. Nothing much to say.

Buddhist temple near QindaoHu

A lake.

An island on the lake. A tall mountain on the island.

Stone steps more than 1000 years old. A hard climb. First we see a stone hand sculpted with a Shanka and Chakra. We go higher up the mountain. A flower garden. A pond with gold fish with clear water. And some lotus. Even more higher. We see statue of the Laughing Buddha - He must have been a buddhist monk. Go further, you see a peach tree with pink flowers and then Buddha smiles.

Beautifully maintained temple. Spiritual. It was so silent and a very wonderful experience.

The Art of War

The art of war is an ancient Chinese military book from a Chinese military general called Sun Tzu. Although the book is about military strategies, it has found applications in the modern business strategies. The book is engrossing and free available on the web. You can read it in your free time.

Probably Sun Tzu was like Chanakya.

By the way, I am randomly playing a song from a Norwegian band. Ok, one of the rare Scandinavian bands which does not sound heavy at all. Sounds like a modern beatles song. I highly recommend this song.

Your girl from KakkMaddaFakka (the name is an onomatopoeia for ...well...) 

Wet

Hangzhou is wet for the past one or two days. The trees and the leaves look very green and beautiful. Had a nice walk to office today - many people are wearing silk with large floral patterns and there are colorful umbrellas everywhere. The weather is pleasant and the environment is reassuring.

However there is a turbulence in my mind.Nonetheless, I have put my career on an autopilot mode and it floats on.

The october season is a national holiday time here and people are busy buying fresh crabs, ducks and lobsters. I am buying time and indulging myself in laziness.

Why is it I find so difficult to concentrate some days ? Let me get back to work. Tired of reading stupid stuff on rediff and answering to useless emails which is taking me nowhere.

Here in Hangzhou the car owners have a great diversity in their taste. I have seen cars from the humble suzuki alto and swift to the high end hummers, land rovers

BMW is like Honda City (compared to Blr here). Very common. However the most common cars are something called as "Buick" (seems it is a General Motors' brand). Also many s/w engineers have skoda fabias and skoda octavias and lauras.But the buick brand is the most common one here. Also there is one more brand called geely and some antique looking car called cooper.

I do not see renault's here.. ALL THE OTHER CARS in India are here and more

Bridesmaids

with the wife accompanying me to various 'male oriented' movies, it was time for pay-back. So we decided to watch the "Bridesmaids" this Saturday which captures the travails of a struggling single woman presumably in her thirties, having to undergo the trauma of being the 'maid of honor'. This after a 10K walk/run session in the morning and a heavy south Indian breakfast

For the first time in our HK movie watching history we arrived way too early -20 mins before the show had started. That gave us enuf time to surf for a good sandwich and coffee in the IFC mall, which is not so a great place if you are looking for anything apart from the BRANDED overpriced clothing and accessories.

After 15 mins of loitering we finally settled for a coffee and a sandwich from the multiplex's cafe . My initial discomforts on watching a 'chick flick' were put into rest when around half of the viewers were men or women who sounded like men. The show began with the trailer of "Point Blank". (probably something we will watch, esp it sounded like a Spanish movie) I hate it when there are no or just 1/2 trailers. I usually watch movies for the trailers as well and HK leaves me disappointed in this arena.

Anyway, the movie starts with the lead character having a somewhat humbling sleepover, and goes through her emotional travails with a sense of good humor, as she tries to see the positive side in her best friend's wedding. Agree its no "The Hangover", but it certainly is not one of those Hugh Grant movies, and actually falls into the categories of "Bridget Jones Dairies" movies.

So ladies go watch it for some good fun and guys if you are into a relationship suggest this movie to your better halves and get some brownie points or else wait for its appearance on Netflix, HBO or Star Movies. ( don't sue me pls)

When you are dealing only with signed and unsigned integers to represent antenna transmission powers expressed in milliwatts and decibels and there are lot of logarithm and exponential function conversions in a signalling processor where floating operations are banned due to CPU cycle consumption (as per coding guidelines), life is difficult.

But then that's what programming on a dsp is all about - hard and challenging and dealing with only integers. tough stuff. Yesterday we are faced with a problem of calculating (y)^x when x can be = {2,4,8,16,20,40,80,160} and y = {0.000 ..... 0.9999}. Yes there is a 4 digit precision needed and you need to use only integers. But then we saw some code on the web and we could adapt that code.

It was interesting to say the least.