Suppose you have nothing to lose, suppose you have complete freedom, dear reader - what would you do ?

How would you picture yourself ?

Visualize.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8sC9b-15cL0

The beatles sang to use happiness as a defense (a gun) to all the sorrows in the world: I do not subscribe to the idea completely, but one way of looking at things.

"Happiness is a warm gun

When I hold you in my arms
When I feel my finger on your trigger
I know nobody can do me no harm"

My personal opinion is, that,  happiness and sorrow complement each other. Bevu + Bella.

Life is such a complex journey. 

hangzhou bye

it has been one helluva roller coaster ride.....i go back to dear bangalore sunday....phew!

Opposites

make x break
secure x insecure
gain x loss
love x hate
innocent x guilt
great x miserable

Hmmm....Good lord....

How does pi sound like

Pi is 3.1415blah blah

So, assigning 1 = Sa, 2= Re, 3  = Ga , 4 = Ma, just check out how 3.1415 sounds like

http://www.collegehumor.com/video/6446891/what-pi-sounds-like

Oniondaga

Today morning I was cutting some onions and they were those organically farmed onions. I remembered this song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dsp_8Lm1eSk

After watching the video, (which maybe 6 or 7 years) , I was wondering why I remembered only the onion scene.

Good old song and good old memory....

Four principles of spirituality 


The First Principle states:

"Whomsoever you encounter is the right one"

This means that no one comes into our life by chance. Everyone who is around us, anyone with whom we interact, represents something, whether to teach us something or to help us improve a current situation.


The Second Principle states:

"Whatever happened is the only thing that could have happened"

Nothing, absolutely nothing of that which we experienced could have been any other way. Not even in the least important detail. There is no "If only I had done that differently…, then it would have been different…". No. What happened is the only thing that could have taken place and must have taken place for us to learn our lesson in order to move forward. Every single situation in life which we encounter is absolutely perfect, even when it defies our understanding and our ego.


The Third Principle states:

"Each moment in which something begins is the right moment"

Everything begins at exactly the right moment, neither earlier nor later. When we are ready for it, for that something new in our life, it is there, ready to begin.


The Fourth Principle states:

"What is over, is over"

It is that simple. When something in our life ends, it helps our evolution. That is why, enriched by the recent experience, it is better to let go and move on.


Think it is no coincidence that you're here reading this.

If these words strike a chord, it's because you meet the requirements and understand that not one single snowflake falls accidentally in the wrong place!

Be good to yourself.

Love with your whole being.

Always be happy.

I happened to watch the movie "Ed Wood", yesterday afternoon. Ed Wood was a director in Hollywood who was voted as the Worst Director of All Time : The movie potrays him as an ...I dunno how to say...." incredibly complex personality" and totally unaffected by failure or the lack of success.

Cannot stop thinking about the movie...Sometimes I felt very sympathetic about that man : How can someone be so optimistic ? This is perhaps the exact opposite of a man who is allergic to risk. He has been ridiculed enough by all the people around him.:There are some aspects of the character which I can relate to : Ed Wood is a hasty person who is more interested in completing something which he has started - Most of the time he is very careless about the outcome.There are many guys who I know and I can relate to a "do first and think later" nature. But there are some aspects which I cannot ever relate to: For example his advice to aspiring writers is : Just keep on writing - Even if your story gets worse, you'll get better. Perhaps he did not have the desire to learn from his mistakes...He was more interested in completing a thing on hand with the limited budget.

I cannot have any conclude anything on this guy, except sympathy for the optimism he has exhibited.

Also the bonding between Bela Lugosi , a man who was towards the end of his life and was acting for bread and butter and Ed Wood is shown very well.

Definitely worth a watch.

Check out this 1 min scene from the ace director Ed Wood : listen to the dialog

  Greetings, my friend. We are all interested in the future, for that is where you and I are going to spend the rest of our lives. And remember my friend, future events such as these will affect you in the future.....!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nuz7fcgSbRs

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

 Road

Close your eyes.

What kind of Road do you visualize ?

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

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

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

Roads by Portishead

hello again hz

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

Life goes on.

blank space

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

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

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

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

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

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

Video that made me write this : Moby - Natural Blues

Discovering ....Manu Chao

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


Current Music : Manu Chao - Me Gustas Tu

The sound of rain

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

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

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

An image

An image appears in my dream sometimes.

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

Would love to paint such an image someday

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

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

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

Hangzhou 再见

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

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

Starting to Blr tomorrow

Kempegowda song

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

a perfect day to blog

A friday.

Listening to Piper at the gates of dawn.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Does Not Works

SRK as Lucifer Some jokes

SRK as a Tamilian The kiddo

SRK in general Kareena Kapoor in a cut Roberto Cavalli dress

Sanjay Dutt & PC SRK dying - what a relief

The Rays Crap The Chinese chap

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

Spaghetti and yogurt

blah blah blah

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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