KANK review

The movie is bad. I have evaluated on the parameters which Karan Johar considers as his forte.

Casting of Shahrukh
Karan's trump card.

Shahrukh The dude, just has lost it. Was it the same Shahrukh who delivered Baazigar / Darr ? Or even recently, Swades ?

He keeps chewing gum throughout the movie and the damn words wont come out of his mouth properly. Second he looks visibly queasy to carry out a guy who has an extra-marital affair. He lacks Notoriety to that role....

He doesn't dance, in the movie. He just spreads his arms like an eagle and looks at the sky.Shahrukh is a good dancer....He hasnt danced in this movie.

And he plays a football coach....A loser in life...A la Million Dollar baby.But he plays it real badly.

Clothes and appearance

Good job, in my opinion EXCEPT for Amitabh Bachan.Preity looks like a porcelain doll. A little too perfect and very un-indian.

The heroines

Historically, Karan's heroines are good to look, talkative and they wear sarees during traditional dances in Punju style marriages.

Rani Mukherjee and Preity Zinta are good. I mean, they're good to look at. But, there is so much of them on TV/ads etc. you actually know the person....How many time are you gonna see those people ?

Rani Mukherjee tries to a play a dominatrix!!! ugh...A dominatrix has a whip, I know.But as far as I know, no dominatrix wears a cloth to her eyes.....(They generally wear face masks, if they wanted to conceal their identity).

Amitabh and Abhishek
Karan's ability to bring many people into one movie....

Big B has been harassed (not harnessed) as a jerk, and looks like a mess. I mean no-one can identify such a character...Neither NRIs can identify their baaps looking so damn silly and a UP doodhwala will be thinking "wtf" (in Hindi) looking at Big B....One more piece of info to Big B/ Karan.....There is no use faking ...the world knows about Hugh Hefner and his blondes..THe world knows about Ali G..

Abhishek Bachan has identified himself with bacchanalian parties...He is a cool dude with a coat ALL THE TIME...(and in one scene without his trousers, but he still has a coat)

Direction & script

1. Many, many closeups. This looks like a sitcom, with talking faces. Rani Mukherjee emoting her face has an overally duration of approximately 3 or 4 minutes. Shahrukh also has so many closeups. My question to the director is why should you become so dependent on an actor's emotions. Big mistake.

2. The extra marital affair scene was revealed sloppily to the viewer. Shahrukh and Rani getting a room-key looked awkward. If I were the director, I would have shown Shahrukh opening the room curtains in the morning and a surge of anger/confusion/hesitation in both Shahrukh and Rani, after the previous night's mistake (I use "mistake", to make it Indian).... And noone in an extra marital affair make love slowly... I think there should be fear, instinctive , animal-like and really quick ...Not like a godammn suhaag raat scene.

3. The dinner scene where Amitabh says "good joke" was good.

4. The relationship between Amitabh and Kiron Kher is weird. It is like "I am Amitabh and you are Kiron, and we have to know each other in no time, otherwise the movie wont proceed !!!"

5. Too much of inter-dialog, coud have been avoided. What I mean is :- Consider 2 scenes Scene#1 and Scene #2 which are taking place at the same time.Now the scenes 1 and 2 are switched rapidly, yet the context doesnt change, because the discussion is on the same topic.

6.Repetitive use of dry leaves flying around in the "fall season" of NewYork. If a house is shown in a shot, you can see dry leaves flying around on the isolated road.He has repeated this atleast 5 or six times.

7.The song "Where's the party tonight?" is very reminiscent of "its the time to disco" of Kal Ho Na Ho....Big mistake...and there is Preity Zinta also in that video....

--------------------------------------
LAST and the MOST IMPORTANT
--------------------------------------

India is tired of Manhattan movies. People can't identify with so much richness.

True it is dreamy, but we are tired of NY , Philadephia etc. If you want dreamy stuff, take us to Florence, Milan, Venice etc....Better make an adventure movie set in Congo or Tanzania or on the banks of Amazon....The world is a big place.

I want this effeminate jerk, Karan Johar, to make a movie EXCLUSIVELY in India...With SRK wearing a Dhoti....Maybe that will never happen.

On the eve

of India's 60th year of Independence and an article of Outlook I am wondering about Mahatma Gandhi.



For a country of India's size, illiteracy and general laxity of the public perhaps shrewd negotiable diplomacy was the need of the day. Even today the huge Indian public has its own diverse problems. There are national issues when we are at war...however at most of the other times, local issues are much more important to an average Indian.

When I say "general laxity" i feel this laxity is because of this prime reason :-

India WAS and India IS VERY diverse , geographically, culturally from one state to another...Thats why the public are were (and even now) more bothered abt local issues on a day-by-day basis.

Each one had his own ideals.Looking at the very diversity, the best option was Civil Disobedience and Gandhiji was instrumental in coming up with the philosophy.
Gandhi was a great leader in many aspects. Moreover what strikes to me is that the philosophy of "Non-Violence" is not "Non-Agression".

Power depends on the co-operation of others. Indifference and non-cooperation makes the enemy lose his cause.If you are violent, you are basically giving motivation. Nonviolence undermines the power of rulers through the deliberate withdrawal of this co-operation.

Finally, the notion of Satya, or truth, is central to the Gandhian conception of nonviolence. Gandhi saw truth as something that is multifaceted and unable to be grasped in its entirety by any one individual. We all carry pieces of the truth, he believed, but we need the pieces of others’ truths in order to pursue the greater truth. This led him to a belief in the inherent worth of dialogue with opponents, and a sincere wish to understand their drives and motivations. On a practical level, willingness to listen to another's point of view is largely dependent on reciprocity. In order to be heard by one's opponents, one must also be prepared to listen.From Wikipedia

And finally this post was written, because of a GREAT AD which I stumbled across while browsing an Italian Telecom company's award winning ad!!!!

You can check the ad, by clicking this link

Sudeep discovers youtube....

I am loving it....It is MUCH better than your music channels....I got a few lovely music videos....One of them was a home made video with a favorite Lynyrd Skynyrd's song "That Smell".....The video was made using clips of "Pulp Fiction"....Really creative.......Check it out guys....

So many events in one day.

Creme de la creme was MJA leaving to a univeristy called "INSEAD".

It was a big surprise to the whole team. He is the founding person of our 20-people strong team and one guy whom our clients hold in very very high esteem. His listening skills are something which I have never seen in my whole life. He listens even to a godammn rock. Whether the rock is speaking bullshit or GPRS Packet Core software. I wish him all the best.

ANd Today....

The roads were empty in the morning.
The team looks empty from my perspective (for the moment,atleast).

It is gonna be a major hit to the team and we need motivation and crisis management.

Today

->One guy leaves to Delhi to start his career at IBM research labs.

->One guy leaves Infosys after a stint of 4 exciting years to Hongkong University.

All the best guys !!!

Life is a long road, keep vrooming.....

Work hours

I always observed that an average Indian spends more time in the office than an average American or an average European. This survey puts the same point.

However, Asians seem to be partially compensating for low purchasing power through longer working hours as they work the longest hours in the world, which is almost 50 days more per year than West Europeans.

People in Delhi work 2,121 hours and are entitled to 15 paid vacations per year; in Mumbai people work 2,205 hours and take holidays on 17 days a year, as against a global average of 1,844 working hours and 20 vacations. Seoul tops the list with 2,317 hours per year or 50.2 hours a week.

The bigger question is Even though we spend more time at work , why are we less productive ? . Hopefully with better ethics and values we can move out of this ineffectiveness..

Man ! What an idea for a resume

I really liked this guy's effort to make his resume.
Very nice. Have your speakers turned on and have flash player on your PC.

:-)

Nice resume

Quote - Unquote..

'I can give John what his bike can't' - Bipasha Basu...

Wowww isnt that wonderfull !!!! Yipeee John whoever will be so happy hearing this one

I do not know who to pity

Bips Basu - Who percieves that bike is her competitor
John Abraham - The beneficiary in the above scenario
The interviewer - who decided to highlight this in bold 24 as the catchy stuff on his/her article
The editor - who approved it

The article is on Times Life - this sunday. I dont know how many of us should read an article which has such a wacky statement

FAITH WITHOUT FANATICISM; LOVE WITHOUT POSSESSING

Stuff from Infy BB. :)


“Faith without fanaticism; Love without possessing” - cannot exist in the material world. Further, if you defined true faith as directly proportional to one’s ability to forgive; and the ability to forgive is inversely proportional to fanaticism, then true faith can never exist because it calls for man to be perfect. And given that man’s basic instincts dwell in greed, jealousy, hate etc., the only faith he can naturally exercise would be material in nature. Material faith is inevitably followed by fanaticism. So when fanaticism increases, forgiveness decreases. Going forward with this hypothesis, it implies that material faith is directly proportional to hate. (this implies that the Material ‘God is Hate” which should not be confused with the version ‘God is Love’ which is representative of True Faith).

Again in the material world, we see that material love almost always possesses. There is a sense of ownership associated with material love. In my mind, I feel this sense of ownership associated with ‘society’s’ version of so-called “true love” (essentially ‘material’ love) is a function of subliminal programming that has occurred through the ages. For example, let’s take a husband-wife relationship or a parent-child relationship. These relationships are primarily dictated, directed and governed by social rules. Consequently, we see that love almost always imposes itself in the guise of “I know what’s best for you; I’m doing this for you etc.” Love as it exists in the world today is hardly ever giving in nature; it takes more than it gives. How many of you have actually seen love that is eternally giving in nature?
We have thus far proved that “True love” is inversely proportional to possessing; and “Material love” (which is what exists in the world today) is directly proportional to possessing.

To summarize - If forgiveness is defined as directly proportional to “true love” and inversely proportional to fanaticism which is directly proportional to material faith; It implies that Material Faith and True Love cannot exist simultaneously in harmony. It also implies that material faith is directly proportional to possessing. Does this mean we are all resigned to live a life hating one another? This could possibly be true because that is what we see in the world today – Hate thriving at an exponential rate. Additionally, since material faith is directly proportional to possessing, we see wars being fought under the guise of faith. Evidence to this fact are the Christian and Muslim crusades of the middle ages. In the modern world, of course, the spin doctors have disguised it to pass off as ‘a war against evil doers; a war against terrorism, terrorist’s holy wars, Islamic jehad etc’. However, this is nothing but a manifestation of material faith being directly proportional to possessing, albeit in various disguises.

Proof:-
Material Faith α Fanaticism 1/α Forgiveness;
Material Faith ≠ True Faith (Premise: Man’s basic nature leads him down the path of material faith. So he is not naturally capable of pursuing “True Faith”. Hence True Faith can never exist in nature!!)
But we said True Faith α Forgiveness. Therefore, we see that Material Faith can never be equal to or directly proportional to Forgiveness.

But Forgiveness α True Love 1/α Possessing
And Forgiveness 1/α Material Love α Possessing
This implies Material Faith ≠ True Love
Instead Material Faith α Material Love α Possessing

Contained in the proof above is wisdom that points to why nations like to wage war; terrorism; origin of pre-nuptial agreements; increase in divorce rates etc. The list is endless.

I am very bad with the array errors. This is the second time I am getting ^##^!@$ with this. :-(

For example, this code wont crash in C on Unix with your gcc and gdb or your windows compilers.



int a[3];
for i = 1 to 35
begin
a[i] = 40;
end



And these kind of things go undetected in Unitary Tests. And in the target compilers, the program just freezes.

Uff....I am really tired of this.Such an embarassment when it is detected at such a late state of life cycle.

Western Classical CD

I just got a Western Classical CD lying at home. It contains compositions of many great composers et al. But the point is :-

Everyone has heard it !!!

I think may of us can recognize many compositions.

Courtesy :-

All the damned cartoons you watch on TV!!

Especially Tom and Jerry has borrowed many , many tunes from the classical compositions. And some "serious" and "agressive compositions" sound like the background music of the fight sequences you see in the Kannada movies....

Well.

So much for my curiousity of Western Classic. I just stopped listening to that CD. I relate to Cartoons and Kannada Movies when I listen to that!!! It was hilarious

Very old-style post of mine

Whats happening in my head right now :-

1.Maruti Swift requires a clearance much more than my Maruti 800 (which was nicknamed H-B2B by me)...I still cant figure out accurate clearance.

2.Too many sweets eaten today....SHucks...

3.Cycle has to be given to refitting....I have been delaying this. Dammit.

4.One game of HALF-LIFE 1 brought back my (post-8th sem && pre-Ordyn) days memories.
One game of Road rash brought back memories of Naga ...THose rainy nights and Vikram's house and Ashoka pillar days....

5.DTM

6.Life goes on....Life is beautiful and nasty at the same time. I am feeling like a complete stranger lost in the ever changing city of life.

7.It's been awhile ............

8.God loves to spring surprises....There is no doubt abt that.

The email distraction.

The email distraction is the most common screwed-up distraction I face during work hours. This is beautifully brought out by one comic strip, which I am following for a week :-). I dont know about you guys, but this happens to me very often !!

It can be a small forward or a mail from a friend or somebody else.

himalayas

Ever felt travelling to Himalayas for 'satyanveshane' ? or concluded that it is just another crap idea ?

The quest for Truth about the purpose of life has mainfested in different religions, in different texts, different swamis, mullahs, priests, yogis, bhogis etc etc etc.
Each of these elements have exploited the human race in their own way.

We were better like animals, killing animals for food and sometimes each other. That looks cruel. But, what we do daily isnt any better. We kill aspirations, joy, peace etc etc of others knowingly or unknowingly. We lose temper, we accuse others, we judge, we misjudge, we manipulate, we hatch schemes, we do a lot of things.

Life in this society is just the quest for power, richness and glorification. This is neatly wrapped in concepts like dharma, karma, goodness, charity blah blah blah. The mundane truth of like is just power, richness and glorification.

I felt like going to Himalayas yesterday evening. ;-) This was in a fit of rage. I feel stupid looking back at that momentary decision. F**K my vague ideas. As if truth is embedded in Himalayas.. or badri, kedar, haridwar.

I am feeling hungry. This is the truth, hunger is so tangible, pain is so tangible, but happiness is never tangible :) GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

lunch time folks...

ps :- again not reviewing the text

Passion..

Ever since I started thinking, I havent discovered a passion in me. I have seen a lot of people(almost everyone) being passionate about something or the other, trivial or non-trivial. But I never could find one. I also doubt if I will have one in the future. I am kind of a shallow guy or a superficially deep(as worded by Sudeep about himself). It just struck to my head like anything. I too am superficially deep indeed :).

In school, I used to play basketball very passionately ( I think so cos back then I dint know about what passion meant). Give me a basketball I could play morning, evening or night, in my own Lousy way, but still would play :). This was one game where I was a little better than others, so I enjoyed playing it :).
But, I was sent to tutions and I never could improve my game. Why blame the tutions?? I never wanted to improve the game at the first place and hence never found a way, I needed a pretext and tutions were it.

Studies - aaaahhh, I was good at it, but I never liked any subject over and above the rest. I never aspired for a 100 in math or science in my school days. All I wanted was 90% to join NCJ, which was 3 km from my home. I was tired travelling long distances in BTS.

NCJ - A place where I learnt what LIFE was. At school I was a 'koopa mandooka'. The college was this cruel world, with ups and downns. And the end result was a DOWN. I fared very badly in my board exams (85% PCM was badddd, according to NCJ standards), but some how recovered in CET.

PESIT - What did I do in PESIT ? After obtaining a payment seat my goal was to get a placement and repay the same. I was never passionate about computer science. I took it cos, I wasnt good at troncis or mech (realisation from 2nd pu). The only two subjects I really liked were MuP and Network Theory. I read these out of passion. THe marks reflected it too. I was good at these. I joined PPR - so that I could be more assured of placements. I got Infy, so never seriously tried any other companies. I could clear the written tests, but not the interview, I was lazy to prepare, I dint have a field to target - networks,systems etc etc. I had one company offer, so I flirted with others. End result - I was left at home for 7 months.

Infy - Started with a bang, mostly out of need. Was scared I would be kicked out. 4 years down the lane, there is nothing I feel passionate about my work. I was good at onsite. I felt I had strong domain, analytical and tech skills. I could easily convince the best of my clients. I got borred there too. Headed back home.

Future - MBA, I do not know what I want to do - consulting, finance ?? are my options. I am passionate (oops - wrong , I think I am passionate )about consulting, let me see..

adios

ps : No patience to review this one :)
Paaps car banta ?

My TOP 13 Guitar solos in songs

Well, I hate to admit it...but guitar is an integral part throughout the history of Rock music. I think, The Beatles were one of the first "Guitar bands" and there have been COUNTLESS Guitar bands ever since. And there have been GREAT guitar solos which have kind of enriched our lives.

Guitar enjoys a status in Rock n Roll which was enjoyed by Violins and Pianos in Vienna types "classical music".

OKAY HERE GOES THE LIST !!!


13. COME AS YOU ARE, SMELLS LIKE TEEN SPIRIT - Kurt Cobain From Nirvana

"Come as You Are" is remembered as being one of Nirvana's more optimistic songs. While many other songs by the band would feature dark, bleak lyrics, "Come as You Are" welcomes the listener "as a friend". The song has a weird and really awesome sounding guitar solo by Cobain.

The same sound can be heard in Smells like Teen Spirit.

12. BEAT IT - from Michael Jackson's Thriller Guitarist : EDDIE VAN HALEN

One song which is very different from any of Michael Jackson's songs. The guitarist is from the band Van Halen. The uniqueness of the song "Beat It", is that, it has got a R&B style of vocal rendered by Whacko-Jacko and there is this dreamy guitar solo.

11. LIGHT MY FIRE, FIVE TO ONE - The DOORS

The Doors were a great band. They had keyboards, bizzare lyrics , outlandish and bigger than life singer in Jim Morrison. They had a cult following. Personally,I like many songs of The Doors. Not for just Jim Morrison's lyrics. But the MELODY was an essential component in their music. The guitar just speaks with Morrison and played very naturally.

10. WHILE MY GUITAR GENTLY WEEPS - The Beatles - Guitarist - Eric Clapton

The Beatles.

They are just too big as a band.

But when it comes to Guitar, Harrison and Lennon were okay (if you ask me, that is). But the guitar in this song is GREAT !!! This is because , Eric Clapton was requested by The Beatles to play this song.Clapton is one of the "slow" Guitarists. Plays really slowly but he kicks your head when he plays .... wooooo hooooo!! I need some cocktail RIGHT NOW....

The composition by Harrison, was met with little to no interest by the other Beatles. Let down and yet undaunted, Harrison invited his friend Eric Clapton to join him during a day's recording session. Despite Clapton's doubts ("Nobody ever plays guitar seriously on the Beatles' records"),

9. SULTANS OF SWING - Dire Starits - Mark Knopfler

A guitarist who plays the guitar with lots of "ticks".I mean "short twangs".It is actually difficult to appreciate this guitar solo, because the guitar takes a "soft lead" .

The album version of the song featured an extended guitar solo. Knopfler improvised and expanded that solo many times during live performance

8. FADE TO BLACK, UNFORGIVEN - Metallica - Kirk Hammett

Kirk Hammett is a very talented guitarist, plays really very fast. Fade To Black was a favorite of mine during my college.It is a thrash metal song. And the opening sequence is really amazing.

7. N.I.B aka Nativity In Black - BLACK SABATHTH Guitarist :: Tony Iommi

One of the better Black Sabbath songs with a very good guitar.Forget abt anti-christ and all that crap...The vocals are really simple in this song, but the guitar solo is long, prolonged and very good!

6. SWEET CHILD OF MINE & NOVEMBER RAIN - GUNS n ROSES - SLASH

A GnR song generally goes like this :-

Axl Roses used to create good lyrics, but not THAT good compositions. However, Slash used to build the tempo and change the chords and take the song to another dimension. Axl used to join Slash in the finale and the songs used to END very well.

Probably everybody reading this post will have heard these songs. GnR was the late 80s/90s band which tasted success like CRAZY. Slash really gears up "November Rain" with that solo of his and the chorus. This video is very often requested in many music channels.

I like the "Sweet Child of Mine" solo. It appears to be easier to play and more relatable.

5. HEY JOE, VOODOO CHILE, FOXY LADY - Jimi Hendrix

Jimi Hendrix !!!!
The man....The Hippie....The guitar....The Wah-Wah Pedal....The number #1 guitarist of all the time as voted by many people.

He was an innovator while playing guitar.....But his solos, in my opinion, are really too techincal to undertsand.

Voodoo Chile is one of Hendrix's greatest solos. I love it!!

4. ONE OF THESE DAYS , TIME , COMFORTABLE NUMB , HIGH HOPES & ECHOES - PINK FLOYD - Guitarist :: David Gilmour

Pink Floyd's forte is really complex and intriguing lyrics. Taking a concept and visualising and coming up with a whole album of songs.David Gilmour has the speciality of playing the Guitar like a Violin. He can make it moan in melody.Pink Floyd can depress you with its lyrics and the cynical look at reality.

From a keyboard POV, Gilmour's rifffs and chords are mostly black keys. There are rarely white keys :-)

ONE OF THESE DAYS is not exactly your regular Psychedelic piece...But it is really eerie. The guitar makes an slow entrance and in a minute gains control of the whole song.

TIME : The lyrics are legendary. Penned by Roger Waters, they can instantly send you to a bloody depression of meaninglessness. But the guitar piece is melodies.


3. BLACK DOG , COMMUNICATION BREAKDOWN , BABE Im GONNA LEAVE YOU - LED ZEPPELIN Guitarist :: Jimmy Page aka the Boss

Hmmm...Led Zeppelin, any comments ?
Hmm...James Patrick Page , any comments ?

This guy is WAY tooo good. He'll play fast. He'll play slow. Each one of the above song's solo is unique. Black Dog's riffs are quick. "Babe...." is a rock ballad. Communication Breakdown is a short song with a terrific solo well complemented a skipped beat by the drummer.


2. STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN, HEARTBREAKER - LED ZEPPELIN Guitarist :: Jimmy Page

It's Jimmy Page again!!!

Heartbreaker solo is one of the most difficult solos to play. It is a marvel.

And who hasnt heard of Stairway to Heaven ?

1 FREE BIRD - LYNNRD SKYNNRD - Dont know the guitarists

This Southern Rock band rocks like hell! And the guitar solo is long , and fast and lots of adrenaline...I heard this song when I was in Infy...Boy! I was blown by the guitar !!! For the moment, I dont have this song and I am looking for it....If you have it, please let me know :-)

DoT versus the ISPs

Welcome back!

Okay now the blogging websites are accessible from my ISP (atleast). So as I understand it, the story so far, is as below :-

a) DoT asks the ISPs to block SELECTED websites.
b) ISP blcoks everything.
c) This causes a furore amongst the naturally very vocal blogging community. They bring up freedom of speech etc. and floor the DoT with verbal attacks.
d) The DoT gives a press release and an explanation.

Whatever.Regular updates will continue from my side, atleast.

21 tribals killed by Naxals..

and the world is MUM about it,
Indian government too is MUM about it
the public and media too is MUM about it (compared to the voice raised against Bombay blasts)

Why ?
Arent Tribals human beings ?
Arent Naxalites TERRORISING people ?
Isnt this a form of terroism too ?
Shouldnt we tackle this too ?
Why isnt media sesnitive about it ?
Why isnt the public sensitive about it ?
Is this double standards ?

I am confused, I feel sorry for these people, I feel helpless

All in the family...

We have relished the dishes at Brahmin's coffee bar, SLV and Adigas. Now a little history abt the foodie chains.

http://www.discoverbangalore.com/restreview7.htm



ADIGA'S

Majestic, Bangalore



For an old time Bangalorean, the Idlis and steaming Coffee at Brahmin's Coffee Bar in Shankarapuram is part of their life. I have known several people who would break their journey when they are passing the Brahmin's Coffee Bar to take a bite of the hot idli. Such is the popularity of these Idlis and coffee and Adiga's Chain of Hotels took its birth from this Coffee Bar. The entrepreneur in Mr. Vasudeva Adiga from Kundapur (South Canara) made him chart a course of his own. Armed with an engineering degree in 1984 he did the rounds of job scouting, before taking over an ailing eatery SLV hotel in Gandhi Bazaar. The small but well known Brahmana Coffee Bar noted for its Idlis in Shankarapuram which his father maintained is where he learnt the ropes of the trade. He renovated the SLV hotel and the response was tremendous. The take over of his brother in law's ailing eatery and naming it as Adigas Fast Food by maintaining high standards of quality and hygiene (fully mechanized) and service has resulted in the well known ADIGA'S CHAIN of restaurants. A gamble well executed as in the offing is two more branches to delight the addicts of the Adigas hotels.





For a first time visit at any of their outlets, it is recommended to order for their famous Masala Dosa, Rava Idli, Vada, Gulab Jamun and Coffee. The taste of Coffee is unique and reminds me of the MTR variety with the just right flavour bringing out the richness of the coffee bean. For a growling tummy this is manna. The rotis and accompanying gravy dishes are excellent. The specialty at Majestic branch is the newly introduced Jollada rotti meals (50/=) a North Karnataka specialty. The South Indian meals priced at 30/= is wholesome. In the self service wing mini meals at 15/= caters to small budgets, and those in a hurry. Keeping the diner's pulse in mind he has the Executive meal, for the calorie conscious with less rice, but with chapattis, salad etc. "VALUE FOR MONEY, SERVICE WITH a SMILE and CUSTOMERS KNOW BEST" drives his business enterprises. At the restaurants the day starts early and closes by 11 pm. It will not be a surprise to find a friendly gentleman sauntering towards you, to chat and casually take the feedback - That's Vasudeva Adiga. A lot of foreigners frequent the Dickenson branch.

Idiots

The Indian Press needs really a good lesson. Whenever a blast or a terrorist attack is well executed, they really go gaga all over the media and it gives a reader, like me, a feeling, that the journalists and the Indian public are in awe of the planning.

I fail to understand, the purpose, this statement serves :-


“Only engineers know how maximum damage can be caused while blowing up mountains and trains,’’ he said. “We think the services of very well qualified people have been used in the Mumbai attacks "

It's okay and even I agree that some terror techies may be involved.

But my question, is what is the use of saying statements like :- "The attack was well planned and executed"...."Skilled manforce was used".....

Somwhere a terrorist sitting and reading press statements will be encouraged to plan even more hi-fi attacks.I remember that during 9/11 2001 there was NOT A SINGLE WORD MENTIONED that the attack was well planned.....These kind of statements are very encouraging to the terrorists....In my opinion, that is.

Terror techies

Shine on you Crazy Diamond

Syd Barrett of Pink Floyd dies at 60. One of the most obscure musicians I have ever listened ...
The guitarist was the band's first creative force and an influential songwriter, penning their early hits.

But he was crazy. Reclusive.

So was his music and lyrics....

To give you an example :-

One of my favorite songs of Pink Floyd was "Bike".


In the song, Syd Barrett offers a girl his bike, a cloak, an old (but good), homeless mouse that he calls Gerald, and a clan of gingerbread men - because "she fits in with my world". Towards the end of the song, he offers to take her into a "room of musical tunes".

Thats okay....Now comes the absurd part :-


The final verse is followed by an instrumental section that can be referred to as a piece of musique concrete: a noisy collage of oscillators, clocks, gongs, bells, maniacal laughing, and other strange sounds edited with tape techniques. This "other room" has been interpreted by some as being symbolic of insanity, and may have been a foreshadowing of the eventual mental breakdown that forced Barrett to leave the band. Another interpretation is that these noises symbolise sexual intercourse - Courtsey Wikipedia.

Pink Floyd's Barrett dies aged 60

sasken office yesterday on my 6630 

Sad day for Bombay....I am feeling so angry and helpless....What the heck is this...

Brain vs Brawn vs Beauty

I read this somewhere in Seattle "If you dont have brains better be tough". I pondered over this statement after reading the comments from Sudeep and Bridget Jones (Kriti) on my last post Cup of Glory. And in response to it I write this piece. These are purely my thoughts again. (Usually I write opinions from others, gathered over discussions and potray the thoughts to which I have acquiesced, as mine)

We are often very critical about display of Muscle power,as against the display of brains and almost non-critical about beauty flaunting. ZiZou might have been wrong according to the football faternity and the codes of the FIFA worldcup and he rightly recieved a RED card for it. May be he should have acted as Kriti puts it
"I would have expected the "best player of the tournament" to be self-assured enough to laugh away insults ", but I would not agree with the part of to laugh away insults'.

How often can we swallow insults or racial abuse, of origins, of religions, of language, of stature, of looks and of behaviour ??? When will the abusers be punished? I know world cup finals is not the right platform to do it. I am highly disappointed about the French not winning. But I believe, if Zidane had stayed back for the full extra-time there would have been any difference to the score line. David Trezeguet was slated to take the 'penalty', and he would have missed it anyways.

The FIFA has just looked into containing the PHYSICAL ABUSING, and havent done much about the verbal abusing. Hence, I prefer the football of the 80's where men fought, like men, for the glory. Now, they act, they deceive, they taunt others with abuse of all forms.

We cannot see a kick in the BUTT, but we are okay with verbal bashings, the Nazi salutes of Buffon, the spitting of the players, their diving, their remarks. speculations are that Mattarazi called "Zidane a terrorist", "His sister a whore" etc etc. How often can you swallow such remarks ? Sometimes your personal pride takes over the World Cup. May be Zidane dint want the world cup then, may be he wanted to teach the Mattarazi guy and his likes to behave properly. Italians are accused often of being racists Okay this is not about Italy. Its generic - its european in nature.

Coming back to the Brain vs Brawn vs Beauty. Brawny ppl are the most accused, followed by brainy ppl and then the beautiful. If you display your muscle power you become an instant hooligan (They do it cos thats their act of defence and offence. They lack brains so they go the muscle way). I am not justifying that they are right in doing so, but I am pleading that we need to be equally critical about the others too. We never condemn the killings/assasinations of thousands/lakhs of innocents, who are victims of diplomatic screw-ups in the same way (with the same fervor) we condemn the burtal killings (see the word brutal comes naturally) behind which the muscle power has ruled. Given the choice between 'concentration camps' and 'nuclear bombing in hiroshima' the 'concentration camps' will be voted as more cruel, where as both these acts are equally despicable to the highest orders respectively. One was a muscle power and another a brilliant tactic. Ofcos brilliance gets away easily in words of diplomacy. (this has been derived from the disussion I have heard so far, we often discuss too much abt Nazi vs Jews and occassionaly discuss abt Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings. I might be wrong here)

Now to Brains vs Beauty. If you flaunt your brains, its an offence - you are headstrong, you are not humble, and you are a jerk too at times. But you flaunt beauty and no one complains. Everyone loves it. Its gone to an extent that 'if you have it flaunt it' . Now if a person has brains and a lesser capacity in beauty, doesnt he have the right to flaunt it. Why are we biased here again ? Why do we taunt poeple with remarks and put a tag on them as 'headstrong, arrogant' etc etc.
Again I am against both or I am for both, not for a step-mother treatment of brains or beauty. Research in the US have reported that offenders with better looks have escaped the wrath of the jury many a times. Why so ? why are we so much tuned to be so partial towards beauty?

If a physical damage leaves a scar behind which is very much visible, then a moral/mental damage leave a deeper wound which is not percieved by many. I am in total support of ZiZou (if the allegations made on Mattarazai were true). For me he will be one the greatest footballers. My best would still be Maradona. I havent seen Pele much but I dont think even if I see him I would like him. Genius ppl have a slight madness in them, and that madness is what makes them a genius. ZiZou also got support from his coach, co-players and PM. The cup of glory can be won again and again and again. It's tough but it is not impossible. But it takes a lot of time to regain personal pride, as they say it in Kannada 'adikege hoda maana aane kottru barolla'.


And I agree with Kriti

"The diving, the anger, the head-butting, the goals, the referess, the brilliance - all seem like parts of a well done play, where the suspense stays on till the end. Thats what is so much fun about it! :)
"

only thing the Italians should not have won the world cup. A team which plays 10 ppl in the 18-yard area, doesnt deserve the highest reward of this sport 4 times. All said and done, well played Italy and ZiZou you deserved the Golden ball. Keep your head high

ps: only person who I have seen coming close to evenly critical abt brains, beatuy and brawny is Chilli

Cup of Glory..

Bullshit!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Its a Cup of Debauchery, Genius acting skills, hooliganism
Cup of Money (for rich nations), while a Cup of struggle for the Poorer nations
Cup of Pride for the starters, whereas the europeans fight as if it is a world war
Crazy refrees, coaches and even crazier players.

Only good match was Germany vs Italy, thanks to refree, who dint care for the player's acting skills and diving skills. The footballers can seek a career in Hollywood. Next it would be like 20th Century Fox presents 'The world cup 2010'

Racist remarks would be made on the ground, but we cant hear what the players speak. All we could see in Zidane heading Mattarazi and earning a RED card. Which moron in the world will hit a guy without being provoked. ZiZoU u need a mental asylum. People are not ready to forget is from Algeria, a muslim. Similarly the Africans would have been slurred for sure . Things which we see on TV are never true aint it.

The clash between Argentina and Germany after the match. What was that ?

Its been a disappointment of sorts. The whole world cup looks flimsy. Thanks to Shakira it looked somewhat colorful.

The only team I really liked was Ghana, for their sprit (they too had some actors though)

A huge disappointment, though I watched most of the matches with fervor, made a 100 buks too.

Kopa

Zidane was hallucinating that he was a bull yesterday.

24 hour news channels ..

Solutions

Solution to the coconut problem

Well, the solution is not even n-nary. It goes something like this :-
a) Go to the eight floor and drop the coconut.

b)If it breaks
{ then the floor "x" is such that 1 <= x <= 8.
So start from 1st floor and drop...2nd floor and drop....8th floor...
Until you get x.
}

c)If it doesnt go to 8+7 = 15th floor.Drop from here.
If it breaks
{then the floor "x" is such that 8 <= x <= 15.
So start from 8th floor and drop...9th floor and drop....15th floor...
Until you get x.
}

d)If it doesnt go to 8+7+6 = 21st floor.Now the search for x is between
15 and 21.

:
:
It goes on till 8+7+6+5+4+3+2+1 = 36.

Solution to the Prison Problem

Richie got a beautiful deduction as :-
Prime numbered cells will be closed.
The state of the composite numbered cells depends on the number of its unique factors.

Among composite numbers , consider the numbers which are squares. e.g. 1 , 4, 9 , 16 ...These have an ODD number of factors. eg :- take 49. The factors of 49 are 1,7,49. So Door# 49 will be opened during 1, closed during 7 and re-opened during 49. So, All the numbers which are perfect squares will be opened and the rest will be closed.

Note:-

There are some more puzzles coming. But yesterday's coffee discussion was centered around the fact that Kannada movie heroes are ugly. I couldnt disagree on the fact that, the movie which was being showed on TV at the cafeteria when this discussion was going on, was a lesser know movie called "Chaitrada Premanjali".On second thoughts,should heroes always be good-looking ?

The old guns fired

Against Brazil :), and they looked tired against Portugal :(, but they still made it, thanks to Henry and Zidane. I am concerned as to how will they perform against the energetic Azzuri. The Azzuri's hold the edge. They have talented people matching France, man to man. Yeah, there is no Zidane in the midfield, but Pirlo is good enough. And there is Buffon. How can French get past him. Answer is Henry, Buffon can be beat only from near >2 mts & <>4 mts he can respond easily. Where does Barthez stand against Italy? He has a crucial role to play, but he acts like a jerk sometime. (sometime ? most of the times).

And the French get tired easily. Old soles. Almost everyone wants to retire after world cup :). Vikash u are missing the game man. I especially dislike the forwards in both the teams. They get exhausted without doing much of running around. They act as if they are precious soles. They expect the ball to be thrown at their feet. Uhhh they suck. But, Henry is a better forward (probably cos Shammi, my friend,is nicknamed Henry. that reminds me the following - Teju looks like Del Piero, and Dhi like Klose, someone suggested me Sudeep looks like Lahm, no personal opinion here. Avi can get an entry to the Italian side for his looks and shaven head;-). One person I cant imagine in football is SP.. lazy couch )

Okay, back to the match. What would be the scoreline ? Very difficult to predict. 1-0 France or 2-0 Italy. I like France, but I am not a hardcore French fan. May the better team win. Going by the last match performance Italy is a better team. Going by quarterfinals match France is a class apart. Only expectation is a classic encounter similar to Italy vs Germany, Brazil vs France :). I dont have tears for any team that loses. It is left to their country men and women who weep so much. They wouldnt have done cried so much for their parent's demise. Thus are the strange ways of europeans :). They blame Bangalore for the Rajkumar incident, they dont mind killing each other on the football field (as pointed out by Sudeep) :)

Okay tomorrow 11:30, get glued.

Welcome to the new look

Guys,

How is the new look ?

"The Adda" turns two years today.

I started blogging after I stumbled across a few blogs.Since I had the habit of mailing people left ,right and center (Oh yes, I am a natural human spammer) and I had the strange feeling that people dont like many mails in the mailbox , I thought I will write whatever comes to my head,instead of mailing people...If people like it, let them look at the blog....Otherwise, let them go to hell.That was the main motivation of starting THIS blog.

Before this blog, I had two very personal blogs which I used to vent my frustrations and I was going through a personal turmoil of a heartbreak. I deleted it.Thank god.

Well today the blog count reads 13,229 visitors. It has become a vital part of my sedentary life.And there is a community of bloggers (I have edited and put the links in the left).Apart from the last two, I know everyone.

Coffee Time puzzle #2

In continuation to the coconut problem , I posted , here is another one.

Vivek keeps flummoxing me with these puzzles....

Anyone try this ?


There is a prison with n cells. All the cell doors are in the closed state.
On the first day, they are all opened. On the second, all multiples of 2 toggle their state (cells 2,4,6...close). On the 3rd day, all multiples of 3 toggle their state (those which were open now close and those closed open). This goes on for n days. After the nth day what would be the state of the cell doors and why?

IBM's new ad

Have you heard the new song which features in IBM's ads ?
I was desperately searching for the mp3 (below), and found it on dogpile.

It is froma sixties(1966) band called "The Kinks".

Check out the lyrics...This is what every damned human thinks!!!


I won't take all that they hand me down,
And make out a smile, though I wear a frown,
And I won't take it all lying down,
'Cause once I get started I go to town.

'Cause I'm not like everybody else,
I'm not like everybody else,

And I don't want to ball about like everybody else,
And I don't want to live my life like everybody else,
And I won't say that I feel fine like everybody else,
'Cause I'm not like everybody else,
I'm not like everybody else.


Here is the mp3 :-
I am not like everybody else

I havent

been following the world cup THAT closely, but I have seen around 4 to 5 important matches live and a few highlights of important matches (being an early sleeper), But today's match seems to be a very special.

ARGENTINA v/s GERMANY. at 8:30 India Time.

The amount of media attention will persuade even an ignoramus to wake up all night and watch the match .Boy! am I real excited or what...Let's see whats gonna happen....

Accounts of the day so far...

I wake up realising I am late for the bus. I see my mum sleeping still. Oh mann this cant be real, mom and still sleeping, then it shudnt be late, it should be just 6:30 am. Not bad, I wake up at my usual time 7:40 am. But, wait I see the papers, the milk packet on the desk . Ahhh, she never misses her duties.

I decide not to wake her up (but little I know shes always awake). I start thinking about my breakfast ( I have been moulded into a selfish fella). I decide it should be idlis at Terminal (Infy food court). Then I feel I cant be hungry for such a while( I get these terrible headaches). I open the refrigirator. Glad to see papayas and mangos. My worries have vanished :).

I grasp the newspaper, superficially observing the events of the previous day (by now I have forgotten everything literally, with faint memories of football news). I rush to take a hair bath, mom wakes up with instructions to bro to prepare the dough, change the cylinder etc. Mann how does she manage ? ( how many times have I lost my sleep to serve dad/mom/bro?? > 0 ? ).

I finish my bath, eat a slice of mango, dress-up, arrange my bag and peep at the kitchen slowly to see if my breakfast is ready. There it is along with the tea . I make a fuss I might miss the bus if I wont eat it asap. I finish it on-time, grab my bag and "Shalimar-the clown" and rush towards the bus. The bus is late too. I am happy :)

My mind drifts to other things

1. the sudden demise of my friend's father.. How can death be so cruel ? We know its inevitable, but why cant it be more graceful. I see the person at 6:00pm arraning plywoods for a new wardrobe and I hear at 2:00 am he suffered a brain stroke.... CRUEL, totally cruel
2. I think about the person who I have disappointed one more time (but as usual do not know the reason). This is repetitive through out the day.

*The bus arrives. Am confused to take this one or wait for the next one. Finally decide to board. I see a macho guy occupying 3/4th of the seat in a 3-seater in my favourite first seat. I manage to push his bag and make a seat for myself. I start my adventure into "Shalimar-the clown". I get lost in the book and the music on the radio (dont know which song's playing), the book is more enchanting.

*The bus travels along the BTM main road, I peep out of the window from the start to the finish and I see a beautiful person in maroon top. Just missed. Never mind. I get back to the book.

*I am disturbed by a lady who wants to share the seat between the macho and non-macho guy(me). Its uncomfortable for her (the macho guy has 40% of the seats share). I decide to make the place a little more comfortable for her and move towards the aisle and again get back into the book.

*Enter Infy campus, see my cubicle mates having tea and smoke for breakfast. They are suprised to see me in a cotton shirt(denim types), codroy and reebok shoes. They say I will get caught for violating the dress code. I pass the security with ease (as they do), they are baffled I am not caught. I am not surprised, as I enter Infy this way almost daily.

* I almost trip from the steps near my building (this could have broken my leg, however there were only 2 steps). The guys tease I am thinking of someone. Yeah, I was, thinking of someone & trying to surmise something.

* Enter my building, see a friend (girl) of mine turned totally from western to Indian outfits. Want to compliment her, but she rushes out with a notebook and we just exchange an 'HI'. May be trainings I presume.

* Land at my desk, check the usual sites, put two stocks on trade on ICICI direct. Keep track of the paisas.

* Sudeep calls me ( I am in the cloak room, reading Shalimar the clown). I say will return in call. I do it, Sudeep says he will return the call again.

* Ping a friend (maroon top) for tea, and see the person is shown away

* I decide to sip tea and read the book, walk out of the building (after giving the download command for Khalballee song from RDB)

*Reach the food court, buy tea (simultaenously speaking to sudeep on phone and having a good laugh abt myself, sudeep, teju, kummi and sumanth).

* See the maroon top lady with her friend walking towards the food court. i decide to have the company of "Shalimar the clown". (not that I had a choice ;-) )

* It starts drizzling, it feels like heaven sipping tea and reading a novel. Finish a chapter, walk back towards my PC. (PCs beckoning me).

* Listening to Khalballeee, log into blogge.com, read Sudeep's blog, and for some starnge reason decided to write down all this.

music still in the background, I type the events of the day so far.. so mundane, yet so different set of events, not exhilarating but still enjoyable, such a pleasure yet so painful

done with the review and here I go

The Coconut Problem

A problem discussed over a cup of coffee and peanuts with one of our Project leaders.



There is a building with 36 floors. It is known that, starting from the floor "x", if a coconut is dropped it breaks.

A boy is given 2 coconuts. Using these 2 coconuts, he is supposed to find the least floor "x" from which it starts breaking, when dropped down. Note :- The boy can break both the coconuts.No problem. But his aim is to find the floor "x" using the minimum drops !!

Example :-
A gut-feel-approach tells you that :-
Let the boy goto floor 1. Then let him drop the coconut. It breaks ! Then x is found and x = 1.
If it doesnt break goto floor #2. Then let him drop the coconut. It breaks ! Then x is found and x = 2.
:
:
If it doesnt break goto floor #36. Then let him drop the coconut. It breaks ! Then x is found and x = 36.


Bigger clue :- Think binary search.

Biggest clue :- n-nary.

Congrats to Kummi

Congragulations for Kumar.N. for publishing two one paper, submitted in the IEEE conference. I didnt know N stood for Nagaraj until I saw your IEEE paper!

He has explained what he has published here

Way to go Kummi ! Great to see guys going places :-)

EDIT:made correction. The other one was just a contest and will not be published as proceedings.
-Kummi

$37b dollar charity vs $26- $33b business deal

and the Arcelor-Mittal business deal wins the media attention. (talking about the Indian media). The only reason Mittal has Indian origins. He is the aggressive face of Indians, the go-getter, can do anything fella and media is projecting it as a picuture-perfect future of India.

There was rarely any coverage about Buffet's philanthropic act. Buffet has decided to donate $37b worth value to Gates-Melinda Foundation. India is one of the prominent recepients of the Gates-Melinda Foundation. Indians have been hugely supported by this foundation and a $1.5 b extra funds to this organisation every year is incredible. This might alleviate a whole lot of problems of a whole lot of people all over the world.

But, who cares? all we are worried about is one man getting more richer, more powerful, and one day who might dictate the prices of steel.

Media has its own ways.

Guru Shishya #7

I started writing this episode of Guru Shishya after a good refreshing episode of Socrates and Plato from DhiOnlyOne's blog . I enjoyed writing this. Hope you like it !



FADE IN :

INT. A BOEING BUS - SEPT.11-2001 MORNING

The Captain of the flight makes an announcement.

Ladies and Gentlemen. We are headed to San Francisco International Airport. We have reached an altitude of 39,000 feet. Please relax and enjoy yourself and enjoy yourselves.There will be refreshments and programs on TV. We hope you enjoy your flight.Thanks for flying with us.

An OLD MAN dressed in an English attire and wears an English Beaver Top Hat. He rests on his walkstick.Sitting next to him is a hippie who plays a song on his ipod, The Beatles's "Free as a Bird".

The hippie looks at the old man's hat. He is surprised

HIPPIE
Strange!

OLD MAN
My man. Whats strange?

HIPPIE
I think we are all gonna die in half an hour.

OLD MAN
(chuckles)
Why? How do you know ?

HIPPIE
Dont worry. Take some oxygen. Tyler Durden said Oxygen gets you high. I believe him.
But the truth is, most of us look like we may die in half an hour.

OLD MAN
(inquisitively)
How do you know ?

HIPPIE
My name is Samay Agarwal.I have a very rare gift.I can see and tell the exact date & time about when a person is gonna die. You know, just like how medicine bottles come with expiry dates, we also have expiry dates written just above our heads. And I can see it.

OLD MAN
Hello Samay. Nice name.Nice gift you have.

HIPPIE
And I see, that everybody on this plane have an expiry date of September 11 2001 and about half an hour from now.

OLD MAN
So you reasoned it to be a crash ?

HIPPIE
Oh yes.

OLD MAN
Why dont you tell to anybody on the plane?

HIPPIE
I am a hippie. The world thinks hippies are mad.

OLD MAN
I dont. :-)

HIPPIE
But there seems to be something special about you.
Your expiry date is set to :- 0xFF-0xFF-OxFFFF.

OLD MAN
Oh thats right. My name is ......Oh never mind. Just call me a Guru.

HIPPIE
Can we do something about the situation ?

OLD MAN
Nope. I am afraid, we cannot. We have to leave to George Bush and a person known by the name Osama Bin Laden.

HIPPIE
So what happens next? What do I do ? I am sure there will be a crash.

OLD MAN
Well, I was sent to take you back from this plane.

HIPPIE
Who are you ? Will you rescue me, from this place ?

OLD MAN
Call me Guru. Become my Shishya. I will take you away from this place.

HIPPIE
Oh Guru! Please rescue me from this place!!

OLD MAN
Surely, Samay.

Poof! The Guru and Samay are teleported to .....

EXT. THE GURU's ASHRAM - DAY

Children,deer, rabbits, peacocks and attractive women play in front of the ashram and the guru takes Samay, beneath the Peepal Tree.Some shishyas are studying the vedas and some of them are staring at the hippie.

SHISHYA#1
So Guru!! This is Samay.

GURU
(to Samay)
Samay, dont tell any of your expiry dates fundas to any of the people here. I run an ashram not a psychiatric consultancy. People will get psyched if they hear their expiry dates.

SAMAY
Sure, Guruji.But why did you bring me here ?

GURU
I didnt bring you here. MY GURU asked me to bring you to her.

SAMAY
Is she here ?

GURU
We have to meet her.She'll decide what to do next.She is the greatest teacher, mankind has ever seen. Mankind will ever see. Unfortunately she has killed all her disciples. And I am supposed to die on 0xFF-0xFF-OxFFFF.

SAMAY
So, where does she stay ?

GURU
She stays in dimension 4.

SAMAY
How do we go there ?

GURU
It is a part of imagination, dude. You have to imagine Dimesion#4.

SAMAY
How do I do it ?

The GURU picks some GRASS on the ground.

GURU
This is called , "The Holy Hashish". Just have it.

SAMAY
I have hash very often.

GURU
This is a different version, which I use to go to meet her. Have a place and let us smoke it,my dear hippie buddy.

SAMAY
Yeah sure man...

Amidst a lot of Psychedelic Rock, the Guru and Samay start smoking The Holy Hashish.The surroundings suddenly melt and everything is white.An ocean of whiteness. Samay and the Guru just sleep. Then they are placed in a googolhedron based structure. And we see a very beautiful woman wearing a red gown.The woman looks like Liz Hurley (or is she ?).

Her name is Time.Rather she is Time.

TIME
Welcome Guruji. How is mankind doing? So you bought Samay with you ?

GURU
My best wishes to you madame.This is Samay.

TIME
Hello Samay :-) .

SAMAY
(sweating)
Hello.

TIME
I just came to know, you got this gift, after your overdose of narcotics and OD-ing.It's been more than a month. And it took some time to understand about your gift.I took sometime to decide to do what with you.
(PAUSE)
I think, it is best you go back to the flight.

SAMAY
Why ? I want to live!!!

TIME
I am afraid, you cant Samay. Your "gift" is a little too dangerous. I dont see understand how you can see the patterns and sequence of events. We dont want a change the careful events which have been generated.These events are generated strictly in complaince with the Laws of Matter and Energy.But if you start taking proactive actions because, you can "see" the future and change patterns, You are almost as capable as the Guru, himself.

SAMAY
Thats okay. I understand, I'll die. But what abt you ? What abt the Guru ?

TIME
Well, I'm just a concept.I have been a major subject of philosophy, art, poetry, and science. I cannot be killed. I dont have a beginning or an end. People say something called Big Bang! My ass!!Let them waste their time creating theories.

SAMAY
So who are you, according to you ?

TIME
Guruji, you wanna explain ?

GURU
My pleasure! Every atom in YOUR WORLD can be located in the (x,y,z) plane. So, is only (x,y,z) enough ? Not at all. For YOUR WORLD, an atom in the year 9.A.D. may be present in one of Jesus's hair. The SAME atom, would be present in a rock in 1895 A.D. Now, it may be a dirt in your eye! So (x,y,z) and time can locate any ATOM in your world ! So, time is a sort of "dimension" which aids in locating an atom.

SAMAY
So, is Time the fourth dimension ?

GURU
Time is not even 4 dimension. Time is the (n+1)th dimension for an n-dimension creature. Think of it this way. Consider a two-dimensional world resembling a sheet of paper.The atoms in THAT WORLD can be located by (x,y) and TIME which is "z" in your world!

SAMAY
Thats amazing! How do I look to a 2D world ? How does a 4D creature look ?

GURU
Have a look here

TIME
Guruji, can you please place him in the aircraft, United 93.We dont have time and energy.

SAMAY
Yes, I will go.But,one last question.Who is the Guru ?

TIME
Guru is the compilation of Human Knowledge. It has a birth. And it ends. Unlike me. By "ending", he will attach himself to me, physically.

The girl "Time" winks at the Guru.

TIME
Wanna attach to me, Gurujee....teehee

GURU
Time and Space is running out! Samay, You must have heard the Pink Floyd song.

SAMAY
Yeah...I breathe that song....So, What am I supposed to do ?

GURU
Just stab the Pilot of United-93 with this kashmiri dagger, so that it crashes in an empty field just outside Shanksville, Pennsylvania, about 150 miles (240 km) northwest of Washington, D.C.

SAMAY
Let the pattern grow as it is supposed.

GURU
Dont worry buddy. You will have a very interesting next Janma. Bye!

SAMAY
Bye Guruji

FADE OUT


Previous Guru and Shishya Posts can be found here :-
6,5,4,3,2,1.

Krrish

I dunno whether teens and adults may laugh at Krrrish, but I really admire the efforts of Rakesh Roshan to actually make a desi superhero out of Hrithik. I have noticed MANY,MANY kids anxiously waiting for the release of this movie. Koi Mil Gaya was a HUUUUUUGE hit.

The first, very popular Indian Superhero was Shaktimaan. Shaktimaan just asserted the fact that a desi superhero can do wonders in pinning down kids to Television.

Not just that, Krrish has been shot in Singapore. And Bollywood to a tourist Destination means money.So just Check check out Singapore Tourism Board promoting Singapore to Bollywood here

Ofcourse , Superman will get released....But I doubt it will be a big hit in India.
I think Krrish is going to win the competition.

Wheat and Sugar...

Should I blame the government for importing Wheat and Sugar for controlling the prices? Read the set of events and decide for yourselves

1. Government doesnt give a good support price for sugarcane and wheat (infact it doesnt give a good support price for anything ;-) )

2. Farmers stop growing sugarcane (escalating costs, sugar mills not paying them on time and properly, more than 50% of the sugar mills shutting down) and wheat (Punjab farmers are avoiding farming due to high costs of agriculture involved and are chosing cab driving in Europe America, Australia.. they go to every nook and corner in the world ;-).. wheat is not the only reason though ;-) )

3. There is a supply crunch due to step 2, where as the demand is on the rise. (people are switching from rice to wheat to shed flab u know ;-) kidding , but the demand is certainly high )

4. Prices spike due to step 3.

5. Government decides to import wheat and sugar from foriegn nationals at a higher price.
(Aus govt is involved in a wheat scandal, so in Indian government)

OVerall effect - A few richer pockets. Other coutries making benefits at the cost of Indian farmers. Way to go India

Postlesss country

When was the last time you used a post office in India for transporting some letter/documents ? Wellll, for me I think it was in Chamrajpet when I was studying in primary school.

The post offices were primarily meant for communication. Once upon a time these ppl used to be the backbone of Indians to exchange personal/professional messages. With the advent of technology snail mails became a passe, almost non-existant now. People started moving towards telephony and later e-mails for basic communication needs. Now u have scraps, blogs and what not. The postal department crumbled.

The postal department did not re-invent. It did not bother to take a cue from the foriegn postal departments. Every advanced economy has a postal system and they are one of the richest organisation in their respective countries. USPS, DPWN, AUPost .. just to name a few. Infact USPS figures in top 50 for the Fortune list. DPWN owns behemoths like DHL, EXEL etc. AUPost is the leading courier in Australia. And where is Indian post? Its lost its battle. A loss only due to not re-inventing. Not changing according to the market needs. What is the main revenue for these companies ? It is still posts. But they do a lot more than documents. They are couriers now. They have collaborated with the private players. They offer a wide range of solutions. They re-invent themselves and stay profitable.

The 1991 economic reforms have been a boon for several industries, but became a bane for the postal industry. The Indian postal department wanted people to send mails and give them revenue. They were not ready to carry your goods. They might have felt they would be coolies ;-)

Today the Indian postal department to save itself wants a legislation that private carriers should not be allowed to transport any documents/ packages < 500gm. WOWWWWWWW thats a magnificent invention :) with left's support this might be achieved too as there are no big players in the transportation industry to muscle the governement. Way to GO. :)

Mr. laloo has to be patted to try and make Railway industry the most preferred Freight corridor. I think with the low-cost airlines coming into picture, the railway industry had to look beyond passengers for profitability and they are moving in the right direction.

Railways Re-invented. Posts - shutdowned
U can no more sing chitti aayi hai chitti aayi hai

World's rudest city ?

Mumbai is the world's rudest city it seems....and and New York in the US are among the most cordial, a survey has found !!! Bollocks...

http://in.rediff.com/news/2006/jun/20mum.htm

I think the joker who did the survey had a nasty experience in Bombay...So he came up with an idea of screwing India in general and Bombay in particular by creating a survey.

And what was the basis of the survey ? Here it was, deliberately gathering points
where we are actually having a defect:-


The magazine sent its over 2,000 reporters to gauge the politeness level of leading cities in 35 countries where it publishes from.

The survey used three tests to take stock of the politeness factor -- dropping papers in a busy street to see if anyone would help, checking how often shop assistants said "thank you", and counting how often someone held a door open.


Well...There is one valid point. The politeness factor test done in the survey, is NOT just in Bombay but in the whole of India. The point is, are we THAT bad to top a godammn list ?

Hilarious !

Question : Who / What is "Lara Lara" ?

When Lara Dutta marries Brian Lara she'll be called "Lara Lara"....

Bolo tararara :-)

Testing using the hello blogger bot 

Techie Product startups ? ....nah!

Why is India not going into the Products ? Why do we need to be led by somebody else ?
Why can't we lead the world ?

We have to admit. We have the man-power and we have the talent(well, we are there....almost, i guess), we have resources. Some of us have the motivation. But what do we lack ?

We lack Venture Capitalists. Thats what is pushing us to the pit (right now). I hope there will be change. One of my friend's friend worked in the US for 9 years on a SINGLE PRODUCT comes to India with the hopes of starting a company. He has a working model of his product. But nobody in INDIA is ready to fund him.I heard that Venture capitalists are ready to fund amusement parks like WonderLa.

Venture-Capitalists in Bangalore are ready to fund SERVICES sector and they consider Indian Manufacturing Segment as too Nascent to invest. Venture Capitalists in the US want to invest their money which is somewhere close to their houses.

Venture investors, however, prefer to fund startups within an hour's drive. For one, they're more likely to notice startups nearby. But when they do notice startups in other towns they prefer them to move. They don't want to have to travel to attend board meetings, and in any case the odds of succeeding are higher in a startup hub.

Bangalore is a big Services Hub atleast now. But there has to be some sections which should encourage "StartUp hubs".

StartUp Hubs should have (according to an article , I read) :-

a) An attractive town with a fabulous University nearby.

b) Liberalism.Most good startup ideas seem a little crazy;
What sending Text on a mobile phone ????!!! What ANOTHER SEARCH ENGINE ??? !!! What another mobile phone ???!!!! That's the connection between technology and liberalism.It's because liberal cities tolerate odd ideas, and smart people by definition have odd ideas.

c)Usually startups are started by Geeks.Most geeks like quieter pleasures. They like cafes instead of clubs; used bookshops instead of fashionable clothing shops; hiking instead of dancing; sunlight instead of tall buildings.

A professor at an IISc or an IIT who is highly regarded by his peers will get funding, pretty much regardless of the proposal. That wouldn't work for startups, whose founders aren't sponsored by organizations, and are often unknowns.In my opinion, companies started by Professors are way too focussed on academic self-learning rather than focussing on a buyer-base.

Everything is about TRUST & BELIEF in technology. Strongly for VCs and very very strongly for the founders of start-ups.

Wake up India !!! We gotta show to the world that we are more than just cheap workers !!

odd-sized trousers

Arent you a victim of buying only even-numbered trousers. I mean you just get 28,30,32,34,36 etc. Why is the garment industry so much against odd-numbered trousers. Why cant I get a 29,31,33,35 etc ? Is it so difficult to manufacture these ?

Thats the exact reason as to why tailors still are in business (purely my thoughts). The tailor has a margin of 1/4 of an inch. You can get your trouser with a 32 1/4 waist size, where as in the ready-made industry all you will get is 32 or 34. Isnt this a real problem ?

Now you have three choices..
*cut down 1/4 of flab and fit into a 32.
*Or buy a 32 and walk with a tucked in stomach whenever you wear the trouser and be proud of the 32 waist (temporary one).
*Else buy 34 and try to get to 34.

All the above of these methods suck.

When was the last time I went a tailor to get a trouser stiched?
hmmm.. cant exactly remember at all.

I mean who has the time/patience to buy the material , go to the tailor, tell him your odd sized figure and wait for another 15 days to get the trouser. You need to be one helluva guy to do all these.

Trouser manufacuteres please do provide a margin of 1 inch to poor folks like us. Introduce odd sized pants.

I dont know whether Ghazals are very romantic....I dont understand complicated Hindi/Urdu...
But I think Beatles song take me to the mushy mushy mood !

It is not the lyrics....It is the voice of John and Paul. The innocence is undeniable.....
Yes, that was before India-Cocaine-Ashram-HareRamaHareKrishna.

I think they must created a mania in the early 60s....The original boy-band....
Real talented one at that!



My favorite Beatles Love Songs
-------------------------------
#5
I want to hold your hand (REALLY OLD ONE!!!)

#4
Im happy just to dance with you....by John & Paul. (The starting guitar chors is really cool)

#3
All my loving ----This song will is SOOOOO filmy...so bollywoodish!!

#2
Girl......by John Lennon

#1
Something in the way , She Moves....by George Harrison

Charity...

I never knew it could be so difficult, so damn difficult to run an NGO. It is easy to be an outsider/volunteer and criticize about the way of functioning of an organisation. We do it all the time. We criticize and do it damn well indeed, abt our workplace, our city, state, country .. infact anything and everything we are associated with. If there is a competition We-Indians would emerge as the best critics.

Enough of digression. The running cost of the NGO approximates to 2 lakhs INR per month. To mainatin a student body of 140 people ( free food and accomodation), a staff of 50, including 30 teachers. The teacher's salary is given by the government.
Now with such costs I am dumbfounded how the organization meets the escalating costs every month.

Thanks to the concept of charity ingrained in humans there are many NGOs which are up and running fine. I am amazed to know there are around 3000+ NGOs in bangalore alone, 10000+ in karnataka and over a lakh in the whole of India. All of these are supported by charity. There are a barely few of them which are sustained by themselves (by income generation projects). Most of the NGOs are into mid-day meals distribution(thats what I hear). This is source of income for them. Well a lot beneficiaries of a noble scheme. I have become a big fan of the mid-day meal scheme. It is an awesome concept and it works stupendously well also.

Now with a lakh NGOs and say 100 inmates in each of them, we have around 1 crore people being given a decent life and supported by Charity.

But how long will the method of charity sustain? For how long ? Shouldnt the NGOs move out of the charity mode to income-generation mode. Sympathy sells and the NGOs need to sell sympathy. They need to make products and projects to the AAM AADMI and sell it with the NGO tag. They should come out and cut deep into the daily bread & butter market. Thats where the money is. Get into catering, Laundry services, Waste paper collection drive etc etc. Give what the markets need wiht your tag. Give quality products and you can make the best run business out of business.

Aha,easily said than done. Charity is a better way. Someone might listen to you and donate. But, how long would it work ? just how long enough ? What will happen if people stop donating. What will happpen to the kids? will they run out of food & shelter ? I AM SCARED.. how can we depend on the humans, the sinister evil social animals?

Charity.... a blessing/curse in disguise

Disappointing

performance by France. ZiZu, Henry, Vierra, Viltord ..all you guys suck mann.. I liked the guy with Indian chromosomes - Vikash Dhorasoo. He was brilliant :). Cant believe he is 32 years old. He should have scored. His effort was the best for France. The other players are just CLUB players. They just could not prove their mettle on the international scence.

I do not know why you are paid so much and so many crazy heads following your sport day in & out on EPL, Seria, Bundesliga, Spanish football etc etc etc.

France will be out of first round this time too. Hang up your boots guys.

10th June 2002

And 10th June 2006.
====================

I complete 4 years in the software industry. I really dont know what have I learnt after four years but there is certainly a learning. But not a great learning abt way things work in an industry , but I cant say that I have learnt nothing.

Dont know how / what the future is gonna be like.

But just like one of the wordings which I see when at my granpa's room :-


If life is a question, find an answer.
If life is a challenge , accept it

Cops with blogs

One day I had made fun on a doctor maintaining a blog. I thought blogging was a little too "techie" behaviour and something not appreciated by people in any other field. I was surprised that the Dakshina Kannada District's Superintendent of Police, Mr.B.Dayananda (IPS) maintains a blog and it actually serves as a useful interface between the police and the press.He also uploads photos using flickr.

Congrats Sir!! Way to go....I appreciate your faith in blogging and technology and more importantly, the way you have productively utilised resources in the web.

A short story ...

Amy Screams: Joe wake up, please wake up Joe. Joe stays motionless

Cut back to May 31st 5:00pm Seattle…

Amy sits at the Starbucks coffee shop at the junction of pine and 1st street sipping a double shot espresso. It’s a beautiful evening. The summer has never been so beautiful at Seattle. Had it been Friday, she would have atleast enjoyed some novice rock group drumming to glory, and the attention of onlookers on her. Amy thinks, it can’t get worse than this. This is my birthday, Joe still hasn’t wished me and now he is late. Well when was he on-time anyway.

Her cell-phone beeps. It’s Joe, he might be somewhere arnd the corner fishing for the elusive parking space.

Joe: Hey baby
Amy: Joe, where are you. Its been an hour and you aren’t her still. We need to catch the Symphony at 5:30
Joe: Sorry babe, I have an urgent delivery to be made this evening.
Amy: Whaaaa???
Joe: Please pull in Christine. I promise I shall keep it up for the next time
Amy: Atleast be on-time for the dinner
Joe: Am terribly sorry again. Have to deliver the movie reels from Technicolor to the theaters. You know how important is that. All the incentives for on-time crucial delivery Sorry, babes.

Amy snaps the phone.. The line goes muted at Jo’s end

Joe is a driver with DHL and studies law(part-time) at the University of Washington. He met Amy there 2 years ago and today they stand committed. Joe wants to be a millionaire. He puts in 18 hours per day in work and school. Amy is a girl with small ambitions and gets hurt when she misses the small pleasures of life. But, today was no other day. It is Amy’s birthday today and she has every right to demand Joe’s exclusivity for the day. But Joe being Joe…….

6 days later…. Monday 9:00pm.

Joe’s cellphone beeps. Its Christine. Joe thinks why is Christine calling at this hour. Joe picks up the phone

Christine: Joe, its me
Joe: Yeah, Christine wassup?
Christine: Joe, Amy is hurt. Its been a week since you have met her outside school
Joe: You know Chris, how I have been working off-late and I thought Amy would understand
Christine: Yes Joe, I know and I am quite sure Amy does too. But it doesn’t mean you forget her bday, miss the Symphony and the dinner arranged by herself. The least you could have done is had dinner with her on her bday
Joe: ohhh maannnn… it totally got off my head… how could I, I mean how could I, this the second year in row… no wonder she aint talking to me properly.. Oh Christine ..I am so dumb.. isn’t there a way to get out of this.. there should be rite
Christine: there is one, but I don’t think it would workout
Joe: hey hey tell me what it is, I shall give in my best shot to make her happy
Chris: okies, tomorrow is her registered bday, the official one you seee. You might want to pull in some surprise on her…
Joe:how could that be possible… I always thot it was registered 31st only
Christine: Some mainframe glitch when she was born and they could register only for tomorrow
Joe: oh Christine you are a darling.. thanks a lot Christine .. I shall sneak in a surprise this midnight.

Joe switches out of his Pyjamas, wears a cool jeans and a T-shirt. He boards his DHL van and rushes towards the nearest Safeway. Picks a bunch of red roses, a yummy cheese cake, pays the bill and heads towards the Univ. He re-checks the backyard of the van to see the reels of the new movie are intact. He arrives at the woman’s hostel and parks his van safely. Checks the time on his watch 11:55 pm. Exact 3 mins to Amy’s room and perfecct Joe thinks. Joe takes his cellphone to wake Amy up. He gives up the idea half way. Plans to sneak into Amy’s room and throw a surprise. He walks around the lawn and peeks into Amy’s room. Amy is in a deep sleep. He opens the window and sneaks past. Checks the time again 11:58:06, the time glows on his Casio. He hurries inside, keeps the cake on the desk, lights a small candle. Checks his watch again 11:59:57, 58, 00:00:00.. Joe sings

‘Happy Birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you dear Amy, happy birthday to you’. Joe goes near her ear and say : “Happy bday Amy wake up, Amy”

Suddenly the door opens, Amy comes in from the front door. ‘Thank you Joe’. Joe is perplexed, if that’s Amy who is on the bed. He hears another voice ‘ Thank You Joe’. He turns quicky, He sees Amy inside the wardrobe. Joe is confused, he rubs his eyes. ‘Thank you Joe’, Amy in the bath tub. ‘ Thank you Joe’, ‘Thank you Joe’, ‘Thank you Joe’.. Amy everywhere.. Joe screames holds his head out, realizes something and panickly looks at his watch again .. he realizes he had missed something befoer, the date shows ’06.06.06 ‘– he realizes the Omen has arrived’… and Joe crashes to the floor with a loud thud

Feverish - Unleashing a series of blogs

Give the devil a much needed time and he will blog - mostly crap.
quote - GD

I have been unwell the last 4 days. The constant rumblings of the
hot headed brain comes out as follows. Read on and suffer :)
(no its not anymore abt resrvations)

Disovery - the 3rd and the best way for washboard abs

Get sick :) Am not crazy. This is self-tested method
Anything of the following would do:- Fever (preferably viral),
thypoid, jaundice, chicken pox, herpis, measles.
There is no better way. 4 days and I have lost around 4 kgs.
Mann, this I think is the secret.

After my MBA i will start a
weight loss clinic. There will be 4 solutions
Serum A - induces fever - 5 days and 5 kgs - prescribed yearly twice
serum B - induces typhoid - 15 days and arnd 8-10 kgs - not repatable for next 10 years
(based on history give SERUM A)
Serum C - jaundice - 1 month and 10-12 kgs - not repatable for next 10 years
(based on history give SERUM A)
serum D - CHicken pox - 1 month and 10-15 kgs - not repatable for next 10 years
(based on history give SERUM A)

maximum weight loss is based on individual ability.

All the serums will be carefully manipulated and given. Also the customer
will be instructed to have all kinds of chats, road side junkies, high profile
junks(oily and fatty stuff- high intake of this for Serum C),
veg, non-veg, mixed veg blah blah on the pretext that he will
be missing all those once the weight loss course begins.

But, the real intention is to avoid the docotor to trace out the Serum.
You c need to protect intellectual property. ;-).

Next day mrng send ur physical instructor to the customer's home in sexy outfits.
He will complete the formality of admitting them to the hospital. (sexy outfits are to misguide the doctor)
After the prescribed duration the results are achieved automatically.

Petrol Prices Up ...

This is really bad.

I should think of some alternate mode of transport, otherwise half my salary goes to the transportation charges.

Change in Behaviour.

Well :-
Can a characteristic of a person change overnight ?

I think it is in your hands.

This is a measure of "flexibility" of an individual.
An intelligent person is very flexible, tries everything and very quickly adaptive to change.

I am trying to develop a new theory called "Version2" theory.
If you have the time to listen what the Version2 theory is about, here it is ......

An individual, an ordinary individual tries to "change" himself (doesnt care about the consequences, in an ideal situation.The consequences may make him a devil or an angel).The change is a conscious effort and he changes himself based on this statement :-

WHATEVER PEOPLE SAY I AM, THAT's WHAT I'M NOT

The simplest motivation to move to Version2 is to avoid PREDICTABILITY.

PREDICTABILITY is something very boring. It irrtitates me when people say that I reacted predictably.

I am coming up with my Version2. (Ofcourse in an ideal case, it would be like Captain Jack Sparrows. A cool and composed man in any situation. Thats exactly what I am NOT)

Do start thinking abt your Version2.
It is HIGH TIME.

One day you should say :-

"Hello Buddies, remember Me.
I am the man , you thought I'd never be"

Current Music : Depeche Mode - Try Walking in My Shoes

Stubborness and Woman

probably have been fed from the same breasts - inspired by 'The Kite Runner'

Warning : Apologize for the topic to be named so, and there is no resemblance to the women I know personally. Please do not misunderstand me.

The lady was stubborn, believe me she was hard like a rock. She stood to her point. You twist the question, rephrase, paraphrase etc etc etc, she wouldnt fall for the trap. Instead, she corrects the question everytime before she answers. The interviewer is flummoxed. He is desperate to tie her up using his most powerful weapon - words. But, alas he is dumbfounded everytime. The interviewer had put others in a state of flux almost everytime on his talk show. But this time he was at the recieving end.

Aaaa, Karan Thapar, you could not get out what you wanted to of Miera Kumar. The lady was pretty smart, rather she had only one point - "Reservation for SC (to be Yesh C - in her accent)/ST in private sector" is a must. She spoke as if she was born to achieve this, this was her soul aim in life and GOD had sent her to achieve this on his behalf.

Karan Thapar tried to squeeze in statistics, quotes from business leaders, protests etc etc. But the lady was stubborn- if you dont do it, I have to enact a legislation. Her stubborness was vindicated by herself. Affirmative action is not enough I want reservation for YESH C/YESH T in the private sector. Its their moral right. Its their fundamental right. I want reservation YESH C/YESH T in the private sector.

Karana Thapar had to resign with "Thank you for joining us" ( you stubborn lady - in the background).

I kept switching between "Jack Nicholson's witty remarks in 'Something's gotta give' and ' I want reservation YESH C/YESH T in the private sector' "

I have lost my belch

Aargh. My fridge is empty. To quote Sinistar, best among philosophers, I hunger ( enter for wisdom ). (clarification: there are leftovers, but I hunger for good food.) It seems that it is time to run to the Indian store.

Mobile Spamming ..

I have been a viticm (and a grave one) of mobile spamming. Its gone to such a level I decided to throw away my mobile for a while.

Airtel is the mother of all spammers (belive me, though I havent used HUTCH or BSNL or SPICE I can promise that Airtel can be a frontrunner in spamming).

Just some of the messages they send.

1. Call #$%^&* and get free tones of Himesh Reshamiya and similiraly from kannada movies, upendra movies, sallu bhai and every tom dick and harry in the world and they dint leave DR.Raj also ........only clause Rs 6min/call

boooooooohhhhhhh, my phone is only for talking

2. Recharge now or never options. Do this you get that stuff with conditons apply clauses

3. Win Jackpot SMS &*() ..
Dude I havent been that lucky in my life. I am happy if the values of my stocks rise and I am out of loss okay.

Imagine this, you are sitting all alone from morning and you would not have talked to anyone and no funny SMS from your friends also and suddenly your mobile beeps. You excitedly look into it for a message from your beloved (I have been greedy here, we spend our time together always :) ) , your friend sending a cheapo forward (atleast this one).. okay, some emergency message ( I need help types...yuck no luck here too) and you end up getting one of those sutpid AIRTEL stuff.

If they gimme free SMSing facility == the number they send, I will be a true and loyal customer of theirs for life ;-)

Now they have gone to a whole new level, you get calls from AIRTEL, some cranky lady's voice recorded in the following way

"Namaskara, idhu Airtel inda Uchita kare ...." , I havent gone past Namaskara most of the times, but I have sometimes progessed till here.

Thank you Airtel lady for making my day. I may not get any calls from my known people but you for sure, make sure that you make (read mar) my day my day.

Similar viticms, suggest a solution if you know pleaseeeeeeee

Back in Bangalore

Life is again at full speed.....I have to realise that it is not just abt the jetlag, but lag in everything. Indian cities are "fast", because of the sheer amount of people everywhere.

There is a new Radio Station at Bangalore called 93.3 Radio Mirchi. No idea, when the hell did it start.My car has magically picked up that frequency.There are promoting words like "sakkath" and "maga"....Lol... First was "Enjoy maaDi" , now it is "sakkath hot maga".....Whatever! So people are making some effort to familiarise the slang.

Meanwhile, Bangalore is the same as ever. The chaos , buildings rising up in no time...This city never stops and this time I am not surprised.The are two apartments (which were at ground level next to my house) are nearing completion.

The petrol prices have risen up again. What the heck !!! There is a massive media coverage on reservation and medical students...I have to look into that. Didnt get time to understand the whole controversy.

Meanwhile, a few liquor chocos I bought went into the wrong hands (my father,mother,grandfather,grandmother).....Some people dont look at a chocolate's cover while devouring it.....Thank god they didnt recognize what they ate!!! muahahahah....

Way to Washboard ABS

There are 2 ways to get back to 6-pack washboard abs. The one I read in the newspaper yesterday and the second one is my own funda

one -

Hi-protien diet coupled with cardio for 40 minutes & weight trainging for atleast 3-5 times a week. Avoid sweets, choclates, fatty food, junk food, soft drinks, night meals.

Walk, run, jog, use stairs, walk to office, swim the drain,
climb the tree,sit straight, sit crooked, push ups, pull ups, single bar, double bar, parallel bar, perpendiuclar bar, pendulum, uranaium blah blah blah which will avoid/ burn down calories.

Second -

Forget it and chill thinking that
"Truth is stranger than fiction"
"if u aint have paunch you aint a software engineer" "Even Neo has it"
"Paunch is in,slim is out"

and enjoy the mangoes this summer.

Have a good day.

Btw, SP and Avi meet you in the gym for a 2 hour workout ;-)

Adios

Oh-tata-wah

guys i am leaving ottawa this sunday.
i will be back in bengalooru tuesday.

i had nice time here.hmmmm...lemme recollect catchwords that MAY trigger memory!

PCU CELL Zahir 3500-Carling 166 DaysInn Laura PeanutButter+Frooties Haroon Kodbele Subway Loblaws Moody-Robertson Ravi Sudeendra 116-NapeanNorth 118-Kanata 118-Hurdman 116-SouthKeys Stefan Perry Pizza Subbu Srikanth Ananth BusPass theWhskyBar 1624-Baseline(!!) BAYSHORE-BASELINE-LINCOLN_FIELDS Accu-Rate Wendy's LittleIndia FamousPlayersColiseum TimHortons DoubleDouble Ryan VendingMachine Snooker&theChineseGuys Dollarama Bassano RotiWrap Helmi NiagaraFalls Montreal Toronto Rideau 64445820 that_hrrbl_friday_with_bengali_pg Oh-Henry Dani-California long-afts 6:49 riversideWalks&Paradoxes sudeep_v2 the_jeans

Dude, where's my gun!!!!

Apna Rathore (Olympic medalist) lost his gun in the airport! Losing a gun in an airport is a security issue.

What bothers Rathore is the fact that trap shooter Ronjan Birendeep Sodhi too had lost his gun while travelling on the same airlines 10 days ago and is yet to find it.

Talking about Guns, I read an interesting article about James Bond. The REAL JAMES BOND is an ornithologist who had written a book called "Birds in West Indies".Iam Fleming got the name for his character by seeing

this book , which was lying on his table.This real J.Bond had difficulty at an Airport when he showed a passport having a name called James Bond....Hilarious!

UPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

The PM and FM are making ppl dance to their tunes. While the PM along with HRD has managed to create some drama on the street, the FM has managed to pull off a Mayhem on the Dalal Street.It is so ridiculous to provide statements which can be misinterpreted in a hazzaaar ways. Kudos to the duo :)

UPA, Please stop the non-sense. UPA you are building enemies. Now even dalal street wont vote for you ;-). Let us see how many you will corner before your term of 3 yrs gets completed. You might say as Mahesh Bhatt puts it. We should not be reactive to how Stock market behaves. Only a million people depend on the stock market.

With Kamalnath and the social welfare minister pressing on a 2 year deadline on reservations in private sector, do u feel there is a chance that you will be voted back to power?

Your alliance partner DMK is in power, so its sure that the LS seats will go to AIADMK. You have lost another 40 votes. Kerala too has gone out of your hands, so will be Karnataka. Your darling x-CM - Dharam Singh- has managed to irke the people of this state to a maximum and HDK is doing quite well you see. Goa is volatile and you do not know about AP with your alliance working like a unhappy couple.

You will probably loose Delhi, Bombay and other urban/semi-urban seats where u r dominant right now, say around 25. There is no water/power & the infra is crumbling in these cities. To these existing woes, you have added the Reservation saga, without bringing in reforms in the existing reservation policy.

You have irked the muslims through your foreign policy (Iran), so no chance of a comeback in UP. The nuclear deal has mixed reactions. So it is not a clincher either.

Now the farmers and the rural poor. I know you wont keep your promises cos in 2 years you have not done much towards that. I am ransacking my brains, as to see if there is something...hmmmm... aaaahhh...noooo a zero over here too. Your agricultural minister is busy handling the BCCI, when there are suicides in his own state. Recentely Punjab too has joined in protests ??

Okies I know Sonia has made some tremendous grounds in politics, but she wont be enough to sweep the elections right ?

Now you might be wondering with NDA weakened with a poor BJP (Advani, mahajan etc etc being the reason) you have a fair chacne, but the answer is NOO a big NOO.

Right now you are in power but dancing to the Left tunes, I feel the you might have to supprot Left from outside or worst case the Left will manage without you, which again means there is no future for anyone in the country. No offecnce meant UPA. O dont mean that the NDA provided any better governance. There were lots a complaints from the rural poor, who voted NDA out of power. But with no good monsoons and hazaar farmer suicies, I think that was inevitable (though not predicted) that NDA would be voted out of power.

In short we have a bunch of losing political parties fighting hard to win. Each one have their own agenda to screw the country. We need to pick the best of the lot.

As Bill Gates put it rightly 'Democracy is the least corrupt way to run a country'.

So we really dont have a choice in here.

Da Vinci Code

Well, I saw this movie. This movie had a damn housefull theatre. This was least expected, considering the facts that:-
a) Mission Impossible #3 had arnd 40 people in the whole theatre
b)United 93 had 10 people in the theatre
c)I heard that Rang De Basanti was watched by 4 people in the theatre.

The same theatre was HOUSEFULL yesterday, something unseen by me.

The movie is very collinear with the book.They have not deviated and called a spade , a spade. However, it is very difficult to write a screenplay for a novel like Da Vinci Code.The acting job is challenging especially for the protagonists as they keep falling into loooong religious controversial conversations.

Nevermind the movie. I loved Audrey Tautou.Such dark, big expressive eyes.