Thursday, October 19, 2006

Diwali time...

Goodness me - its been more than a month since I edited da blog - happened to notice it just today and tot i wasnt givin it enough justice... Of course there are lotsa reasons for the same - the work schedule is tight and demanding in these days - the project I am working on has turned 'fixed-price' (if u dont understand it - den fget it ;) )... sometimes when i look back and see at the bygone year, just working like dogs for the clients doesnt pay off - a person gotto be smarter in this new gen-IT industry - and make some smart moves to climb up the ladder - but such changes in the project progress - and mainly - getting stuck in a long term project is kind of a hindrance to one's career path...

In these turbulent days of work and god knows wat-wat - i feel its a relief to go home - yeah - its been 2 months since i went, so probably its time i took a break - although the decision still remains till the very last minute, in case the project takes a monstrous shape at the eleventh hour... :D - what prompted me to edit da blog today is the occasion for the trip back home - Diwali...

Some time back I read a short note on the significance of the same - 'Tamasoma Jyotirgamaya'... meaning 'Lead me away from the darkness and towards light' - the darkness signifying the negative aspect of life - sorrows, pains, jealousy, hatred etc - the light depicting purity, freedom, happiness, joy! - Gave me the thought that Diwali is indeed multi-faceted in terms of how it defines life... indeed if one gives a thought, the light can signify something different for each person in life... and so can the darkness... probably the effort to get away from the darkness is fulfilled only at the this bright festival - the darkness is also different for different entities in life - it may be different for a poor orphan, a farmer, a businessman, a salaried professional, a student, an organization, and even a country. One can very well deduce what is the height/variations of darkness in each of these cases - but the feeling of the darkness is unique pertaining to each of these, and can be best felt only individually.

The best part is that there is a continuous effort on the part of each of these entities to get ahead in life - not just to grope about in the darkness, but to dig out the tunnel to light, and dance with joy once its found - the light too forms a major part of life - probably Diwali - or Deepavali - the festival of lights signifies just that - to leave behind the darkness - and that its time to go ahead and witness whats in store for each one in the light of tomorrow...

A special one to all my friends who are working away from home... - Go ahead enjoy the holidays!!! :) :)

HAPPY DEEPAWALI !!

Friday, September 08, 2006

A fresher - once out of the shell...

Thought I shud share my views on an entirely different topic today...

A fresher - or a fachha (MBA jargon) is someone who is naive, unaware of the buri duniya, the 'taur-tarikey' of the people present in it - well thats how he/she gets da input in da final semester of the college - at least in Goa thats the story... plz enlighten me in the comments if ur story is somethin else...

This topic shud interest those who are emerging out of college this year, and will be doing so next year, and the year after tat.. and so on.. :D... Well lets categorise the students who emerge as so-called graduates from ne engineering college:

1: The bright stud - the hero of all - the guy who can solve any problem, who eats binary numbers for lunch, sleeps with ten problems in mind, but drinks only - well even his drink is 'contaminated' with theory stuff...
Its a rare chance that such a person will not shine in life - howeva anyone mite say that he is a bookish guy, no 'practical' knowledge etc etc. To the guys who are sayin this - well, how good are u? At least he has gained a lot by being that much...
Believe me, bookish knowledge helps too, as there is a certain point when massive bookish knowledge, and havin gone thru the same stuff repeatedly, the person acquires a certain practical sense... (even though he mite not be dat good)... and if he is sound in logical thinking - u dont need more... :)

2: The guy who neva reads a single book, who hardly refers any stuff, and still is a storehouse of 'practical' knowledge... whose problem solvin skills are faster than the guy above, and he amazes evryone by being an all-rounder in several things - though he may not shine that much in studies as our hero above does...
Such a guy will have varied interests in life - as he is multi-faceted, and can do well in anythin he takes up... he/she is so confident about him/herself that there is nothin to stop that, and in fact it is impossible that he doesnt rise in life as he has tried evry other stuff in college, school etc etc... If there isnt stuff like family responsibilities, other duties etc pullin him down...

Probably the above 2 can be generally derived from esteemed institutions like the IIT's, BITS, IIIT and so on. The possibility of such people being in ordinary engineering institutes is less, but of course there is a chance for that too - there were a number of such people in my college - and hence I am able to write in detail about them...

3: The average guy/gal - Now this is a big range... this is where all the engineering 'fachhas' get cluttered in terms of their positions - and are fighting neck to neck for marks/status/superiority and even things like well... 'I am da funkiest person in college', and 'I can study da entire syllabus even one nite before the paper'... Now where 'havent' we heard such stuff :)...
Now such guys/gals know what they want in life...are good, but lack certain stuff like resources, a good name in college, confidence, laziness etc etc. With these factors, they can remain sincere and dedicated to life... even out of college, but it takes them time to mature/realize the same...Until then its 'paaardi taaymmmm!!!' in college :)...

4: The labelled 'loser' - now this wud be a very bad word to use - i use it normally for people who smoke... its coz they dont have anythin else in life to do, hence they let go of a few puffs... Well, so these guys are those who got into engineering without a motive - probably coz they cud just make it with the percentages or coz their parents thought ki 'mera beta engineer banega'... ... of course its not they are good - they have varied interests too, and are sometimes really popular in the college... but this doesnt normally get them anywer in life later... probably these guys need to buck up a lot in life after engineering...


Lets come to the main point now - what I wish to impart by writin about such stuff. I wanted to primarily target the job one acquires after engineering - now well, i know the lines down will normally pertain to software and mostly IT-sided jobs - but this is wat the job-sector is bubbling about these days - IT is evrywhere... and engineers from all streams find solace in a developer's/tester's/call-center executive's/etc etc's job... :D... a very important point to mention here will be the recession in the IT industry, which had happened 5 years back in 2001 when i was supposed to join for my engineering - the job scenario sucked in IT, and people had driven me mad as I had chosen engineering in Computers...well what do these guys have to say now... four years with wires and circuits/noise-makin machines/desigining the ceiling of a building and now they sit with their heads buried in their desktop/laptop screens.... Does that ring a bell...? Well the job scenario is hot presently in IT... and I knew it wud always be, as the its somethin which will come out with more and more innovation - not to say electronics is bad... but the companies in India are lesser/ have more stringent requirements pertaining to percentages at graduation/have tougher entrance tests and so on...

Back to our main discussion... why stress on the fresher part? Well, when a fresher is out of college, he is unaware of wats happening in the industry, how are the different processes in the company he will be joining, and most important - what will HE be doin... Lets put some emphasis on this point... If I look back at the bygone year, I have gained expertise in the task i began with, have gained programming skills, have become logically better... but heh - see the words 'began with'... rite - for a long time, a fresher remains with the kind of job he begins with, unless he is some whimsical idiot and likes to switch companies every 3 months or so... A sensible person will of course at first think of gettin some experience, say of around 2-3 years and then make a move. But well, even in these 2-3 years, or say, even later, the person tends to normally stick to the area he began with... lets say he begins with core application programming in Java - product development for a company... now this person works for a year or more in Java, and keeps devouring skills...in fact begins a master Java programmer in 2-3 years... what happens later... lets say he isnt interested in further studies, and wants some different exposure in life - a new technology or so - mind u - this becomes real tough... the person finds he is unable to adjust fast... as he could do before - and if he has to seek help, he would normally go back to da love of his life - Java itself... :)... This scenario can arise even if he tries to switch companies, and in this case normally, he wud target a company working in a similar technology, of course with better prospects for him, or else he would feel his work-ex goes waste...

Now there isnt ANYTHIN wrong in this - its a choice he makes, but what do I want to point at with this example? The lesson to learn for freshers from this - there is something called a 'comfort zone' which develops when a person starts workin with one kind of technology or area - in fact even if he hates it in the beginning, gradually he/she gets adjusted to it, and then, moving out of it later becomes difficult for him/her... so moral of the story - CHOOSE UR JOB WISELY... I guess its the toughest for a fresher who is placed at campus as he/she is hardly aware of the job profile, despite innumerous presentations which the campus guys bring with them :)... But he/she has to get a hold of his life sooner or later... even in the company where he/she is placed... its important that he moves into his/her area of interest soon enough, hence stayin away from the comfort zone :)... I guess I dont need to explain any more...

I guess hence the position of a fresher, and the first job he chooses is of prime importance, and may even decide the next ten years of his/her life - hence the decision must be taken appropriately. With all due respect, this applies to all 4 categories I have described above... this doesnt apply to only one of them or so... so all 'fresher' readers - get a hold of ur life !! Its now... wont say neva, u mite get one or two chances, but not more than that in life...

Cheers!

Friday, September 01, 2006

Ganesh celabrations in Goa...

Posting again after long - tot I shud begin this month with my blog itself... :)

Had gone to Goa last weekend for Ganesh - and well - the work for the preparations for Ganesh festival was really a lot this time - reasons being it was our family's turn to put in all the effort for the preparations at my ancestral house in Panaji... some days back when I had left for Goa in mid-August we had already begun decoratingthe huge makar or in other words the place to keep the idol of Lord Ganesha and the topi for it. After we were done, we had a couple of other professionals to do the work for the ghumti or the seating of Lord Ganesha behind the makar. Once done, it was really looking good.





I got busy the moment I reached on Saturday. Of course in the evening, as it is every year, there was a lot of help to tie the matoli or the hanging of fruits and vegetables of all sorts (offerings to God) above the makar, and also to lift and place the makar, topi etc on a high level, after other formalities. Ganesha himself arrived at around 6 :) - well yeah, brought him in the car, with some crackers being burst here and there :). The next 2 days promised to be more hectic than ever!!

And well - yes they were... The main task I undertook was to perform the puja at the time of the aartis - all 4 times they were done - for 2 afternoons and the subsequent 2 nights. It was a long task, but it was a real nice experience. Uptil now, I had only been in the crowd singing the aartis with my sonorous voice (ahem!), or outside on the road with loads of crackers and a mission at hand to have fire around me ;)...
But this was something altogether different. It was something like what I felt when doing the abhishek at Marcel (where the temples of our kula-devta are situated. There were a lot of people to help me now and then, hence it was no problem at all. All the rituals went just as planned, though my dad was as tense as ever :), probably as he had a major responsibility on his shoulders.







The tasks did tend to make all 3 of us tired - especially my mom, who was involved in each and everything from the start till the very end. Thankfully we had called a cook who helped in the cooking ( and well, spoilt the tastes of the food made on the first day itself :( )... did miss da food made by mom for those 2 days, but none of us really wanted to put more pressure on her regading the cooking as well...

The nite of day 2 was the visarjan, when we bid farewell to Ganesha and proceed to leave the Ganesha idols in a nearby river or lake. Dats when Ganesh festival officially comes to an end for all of us - relatives etc who come from near and far to our ancestral house - whom I hardly see anytime in the year except at the time of Ganesh, plus some whom I cant even name the relation between them and me ;)... The visarjan took place in style - we started the aartis at 10 pm ( as announced - we wanted to make it as late as possible :) ).. and then we proceeded with the Ganesh idol for the actual visarjan by around 11 pm. My dad was in the car with the Ganesha idol, and I led the way with my cousins blasting crackers, fireworks etc etc and shouting 'Morya' all the way... this is certainly the most exciting part, though it brings about the end of the festival. The Ganesh idol was left in the Mandovi river atop from Pato bridge in Panaji, as usual... and then well, it was over...

Had a late sleep that nite ( wanted to wake up late too, as the next evening I was leaving for Bangalore, and wanted to have a relaxed day )... Normally this is the festival which brings all Goans closer, a festival celebrated with more pomp and show than any other in Goa. One line says it all -



'Ganapati bappa morya... pudhlya varshi lawkar ya'

PS - Visit Goa for the translation if you dont already know about it :)

Friday, August 11, 2006

Madikeri - njoy maadi :)

Gosh I cant believe I havent blogged at all for July - :) was i so busy or was it that there was no time and da patience for blogging... probably its my near and dear friends who can answer the same again... in fact the schedule i am planning is getting even more stringent in the comin days now...

Tot just before leavin for Goa today - (yippeee...) for a nice break... would share da stuff bout last week's trip with u guys... well it was an office trip, and 'supposedly' we were supposed to visit placed like Talkaad, Shivana-samudram etc... and all the office gang (da 23 of us who had joined last year on 12th September) were intimated by mail ( of course i was in the initial planning committee :D)... this was followed by a series of yes's and no's and no time re's etc etc... i had decided i would at least take a day from the full schedule and spend it with this group which had hardly received any attention from my side since I had joined Oracle SSI (no offence meant from my dearest office friends :D)...

Trip day dawned on Saturday 5th August, and a big surprise - 17 of us turned up... problem again coz the tempo-trax we had called for was a 13 sitter :D hence well... some stood, some made place for the rest, took turns etc etc... but i guess da travel was the most enjoyable part... the reason being there was more of travel and nuthin else... ;) Well... half way thru I learned that the major guy involved in plannin out had changed the destination at his own convenience and that too a place which was around 6 hrs from Bangalore - Coorg/Madikeri - had been there more than a year ago with my college friends and had had great fun with them - the place isnt all that great as much as it is hyped - but well there are some locations which are worth mentioning...

There was one we missed in the initial trip - Harangi Dam - u can see it and deduce how much we enjoyed for ureself... ;)








And there's Abbey falls - well.. it wasnt all that great the last time we had been there, but this time it was seriously overflowing...






Too bad when we reached the Tibetan monastery, it had been closed for the day...the people who hadnt seen it earlier missed somethin really good... for u guys out there - if u need some time to spend with ureself... please go to this lovely place and put aside some time for meditation... a sincere advice...

Nuthin more to tell bout the trip, except that it was another 5 hour journey back... and well - reached at 3 in the morning da next day... friendship day... what an occasion to have a nice trip and also another nice time i had with close friends da next day... would have shared that too - but some other time...

Gotto leave now as i gotto catch da bus soon...

Tuesday, June 06, 2006

Development

Blogging after a long time - near and dear people cud have figured out why from my Orkut profile...Hochtief in its last and presumably worst stages - its now that max load work is concentrated - on account of issues which were not attended to...of course the data-extraction team is first to be blamed to come out with such pathetic data, which does not pass through even da minors of da validations...da developers are left to the rest of the rigmarole - change da functionality, change the code, etc etc...

Developers...this kind of has a new meaning for me now...wen in college, it was like 'Oh which guy has coded it? Juz take the code from him man - its no use tryin...da deadline is juz too close...' or 'Why bother...so-and-so is there na?'...der were always some too-brainy, or smarty guys who could figure out da code logic better than ne other person could...I was of course lost in da crowd of experiment copiers, code 'downloaders', and whateva u wud name them to be...had hated the concept of software rite from when i had understood what computer engineering is all about - more software than hardware - skills to be applied lie more in da logical coding part, understanding the yucky syntax of languages like Java, Prolog and so on - :(...y did i come here?? It was a big loss for me...my logical mind couldnt seem to be putting coding skills in place...my partners, buddies at college could logically reason out the code theories much better...I was in deep trouble...

As we all know, engineering is a phase by itself - even da most intelligent guy either makes thru by scraping the bull-shit, learn-by-heart, mug-and-vomit exams, where brains are of less use...or the others devour the bookish knowledge part by part, learning less of actual application...this was one thing which was definitely in my mind, and settles in the mind of any engineer, say by about mid-fifth semester...dats wen people mite start snooping around for other options - just rite about wat i did...I passed out hardly knowing what horse-shit i had coded in da last 7 semesters...and also wid da advice from someone that 99.99 percent of da engineering syllabus hardly finds any application in practical work life...

Enter the work place - projects, objects to be particular, functional documents, technical documents, test cases, test documents, deadlines (have seen to it that i neva make an issue out of these)...and of course - CODE...now this is what forms the major part of a developers life...now for what i got from my software life in da company...there are some ground rules in programming/coding/development (howeva u may put it)...the biggest of them all - whateva be the syntax of the language...da basic is formed by pure programming 'logic'...probably what any one of us have leart in our kindergarten programming language - C. Features like syntax, functionality of the language hardly forms importance.Of course, if u want to progress in the functional domain, its good to know how the technical development you are doing forms the base of the object, or in a wider sense the project, and how the funcionality builds/is improved. But the fact still holds, a major part of you day is spent in pure logic...

Having passed from engineering, and now having spent a reasonable time in development...I can say that my all-time persistent fear of not-being-able-to-follow-the-code-logic has kind of stopped chasing me. Life in terms of code seems much simpler and easier now. In fact more work in pure coding has made it dat way - da comfort zone in coding seems to have developed well...though of course a new language, new syntax has to be properly inculcated...this mite be a common problem for all IT techies...(i dont like to be branded as one, mind u)...as far as the official work is concerned, coding, and software life seems fine...but as far as personal interests run, I stay as far away from it as possible...

Work is bound to more hectic until the next 2 or 3 weeks...which automatically reduces comfort in anyone's life...I too am a sofwtare engineer of the same race/caste/creed. Here's a toast to the C's, Java's, Python's ,PL/SQL's,HTML's, VB's, Sharp's and all their likes!!

Friday, May 19, 2006

B L A C K day !

There are some days in our lives when feelings of nationalism, unity in diversity, feelings to pay our respects to the country arise...one such situation was described well in RDB... In my standard 8th and 9th, I had become quite popular due to a certain essay, and later an elocution I had given on the same topic - 50 years of India's independence. I still remember a couple of lines from it. What I have been realizing in the bygone years is that I was speaking it out to deaf ears - zombies who cant understand - 'people'who dont want to break from the shackles of being pinned down first by the British, and now by sluggishness and lack of movement. Lack of movement - lack of the desire to move ahead and speak out what one really wants...speak out that whats goin on is not democracy after all..

Our thinking has most certainly acquired rust through the times - we see hundreds of things happening rite in front of our eyes, yet we dont do anything, dont move a muscle...one of my roommates gave me a good excuse for it today 'Who has the time to...' lets not complete it...dont most of us mention the same thing? Whats shaking the country at present is mainly the needs of the students, whose cries arent being heard...the decision for 49.75 percent reservation for seats in educational institutions as well as a mojority of the private sector (including companies, and even schools) is being taken forward by the Central government, and no one seems to be able to do somethin...who stands up - the people affected the most...the students from medical colleges to be the max...and what do they get in return - water bombs, tear gas...words of appreciation??

TOI mentioned May 19th to be a national 'black' day...in opposition to these reservations. As I walked out of da place where i stay today morning, I felt a sense of relief in doin at least some small thing for the country...which is at present in da hands of some bewakoofs...relieved to see that at least some of my fellow countrymen did get the message and wore a black attire to some extent...a bit cross when i saw dat people had forgotten about it, or the message had not properly been delivered across, mind u, inspite of being published in TOI Bangalore Edition...

I do not exactly know how the response was from the people from other companies, but as per one of my colleagues here, 'We could do the best to express ourselves...we cant do nethin if the others just cant or dont want to do it'... True, but expression is necessary. How closely the situation matches disaster is known only to the people who have fire within them...those who are closely fighting the people formulating these laws. The others stay in the shadows, provide comments, but use English as a powerful tool in order to express their feelings - not physical, but expressed well. 'Scholarships, not reservations', 'Why reservations in the first place', 'Give it to THEM instead of plain vanilla reservations'...such messages are across all media...and yeah they have provoked da youth to a considerable extent...

What I am searching for, though, are revolutionaries - an Azaad, an Ashfaqulla, a Singh, and so on of their kind, who will one of these days go ahead and do the needful... the country needs blood...let it be of those guys who make such 'bakwaas' laws...!

Thursday, May 04, 2006

Old times ... Old friends !

Der is somethin I havent yet mentioned in my blog - bout the team outing - in fact 2 of them, which happened in successive weeks - da only thing mentionable about them being my first experience with go-karting and bowling (I know if a go-kart maniac is readin this he wud be shocked)...

Pics of da team outings:















Howeva nuthin else mentionable in the same, as compared to da holiday which was yet to come - this holiday to my native place seemed even more important as I had missed another planned holidat in mid-April. And of course, this time da holiday was more about meetin da 'bichdey-huey' dost along with good time with the family. And so it was...

I guess da travelogue posted by my friend Kiran on his blog will be more informative, and will give a detailed explanation of da entire trip (ahem - he is a travel freak...knows all da road names, town names etc etc like nethin!)...To be more specific, he enjoyed his time on Saturday with me, and on Sunday wid his Ponda friends, so well - for da latter- I guess it wud be best to refer his write-up...






Saturday - we reached quite late, thanx to my dear friends love for Kadamba Transport, after a nite infested wid cockroaches and a punctured tyre...Was famished coz I hadnt had a proper dinner too...Kiran (for those who dont know, is my pal who had come to visit Goa where he had lived for a long time) had to leave soon to settle some rent agreement with a tenant for his own flat...so da aftnoon was more about lunch (fish of course - most non-veg Goans die for dat!)...and also mangoes...Kiran was back by lunch...

We left early in da evening...bought a new Nokia cell for mom, and den proceeded to meet all da friends at Miramar... Surprisingly a huge crowd had gathered there...realized soon dat almost evryone was down (or 'up') at Goa for this short holiday - so it was a great time to meet...met all da Goa Engineering guys first...a huge number...of course among them my school pal Sumegh, and later joined by Rohan...also met Deepa after 3 months...she had left Blore in Jan end...

dats Kiran for u...




da GEC gang...




Deepa dear...




dats me and my pal Sumegh over there...




Rohan - still da same...




Sarvesh with his new bike...




Wat do u think - a Mushti reunion...




dedicated to da old bhel-puri guy for havin always made some awesome bhel...




n finally this is dedicated to Kiran - a la Sunset...




Baatein bahut hui..snaps were clicked...then it was the traditional move-on to the bhelpuri waalaas...(there isnt a single place in Blore where u will get such awesome bhel-puri...so come to Goa and enjoy)...along who Shashank, Sarvesh, and another school pal Lessica whom we met there,we formed a school meet as well...so dat was even more fun...

Had some errands to run with Kiran later, after which we sat down at Rohan's house and had a small chat before we departed...later we went to Gauri's house (another school pal)...Kiran was meetin these people after hell of a long time (YEARS in fact!)...so it was a great reunion for him...waited for some time there and were back home then...

Day 2 - Sunday...lazy day...and even lazier coz we were in Goa...Kiran left early morning for Ponda to meet his friends there...I went out with dad to withdraw some money and for some other errands...come afternoon, a heavy lunch...(seriously yumm!)...and I was enjoyin drivin on da way to Margao...had to meet Uma and Mangirish after almost a year at Uma's place...after reachin there got stuck on da way, and had to call for Mang to show the way ahead to her place...

Had a great time there...a nice talk over sherbet and other eatables...Mang seemed da same, though Uma looked like she had put on some weight...(know she will kill me for mentioning this here)...we spoke a lot...Mang had to leave in between to Pune for some exam on Tuesday...so the remaining talk was with Uma and her parents...we knew we wudnt meet soon after this, so we spoke our hearts out!!

dats Uma and Mang...miss da great times we have had togetha!



Guess dat was all about friends for da trip...had a lazy last day to add to evrythin, and a nice trip back to blore - wid a maniac driver - no one's eva brot me faster than him at ne time!!

Sumhow took time from my schedule these days to write this...gettin back to work now...

Saturday, April 22, 2006

A farewell unfit for a veteran...

Dis new object I have taken up is preventing me from spending even some time writing stuff bout da happenings these days - although there is real much to write...sometimes even in da while travelling, so many things cross my mind n i decide dat yeah...this thing gotcha be blogged...but aft reaching office, finishin da morning chores...mails, 'fe'mails (grin)...etc...once i get on with da work, der is little time left for my precious little blog...da time i get is when da energy is exhausted...

Here is anotha day in office today...now people otha than those who are close to me in Bangalore will be wondering how come this 'dood' is blogging on a Saturday morning...has he taken the laptop home and he has no work at all?? nope peepul...hear me...its a compensatory day to be spent in office by evryone...reasons was da day which was given off last week - April 13th...da day Bangalore was in total turmoil...

Rajkumar...i really dont think i can even pronounce his full name corectly (this is for people who dont know his full name- please refer TOI dated April 13-page 1)...apparently being in Bangalore dat day gave all of da northies, westies and easties a great 'chance' to almost witness a day where evrythin was closed...a day where 'violence' was the word...a day when a peaceful burial was avoided, and instead mayhem and chaos took control...

The day was showcased in the news bulletins as when anti-social elements took over the stage and shook the foundation of stability and peace in Bangalore. The day was very correctly given as an off by the Karnataka CM (howeva a lot to refute on this from my side), officially a 'bandh' to pay respects to Rajkumar...howeva this does not find any agreement from my side, and I guess it is the same from all da other people who faced a similar situation that day.

Hundreds of people gathered in the streets of various areas in Bangalore - da so-called 'fans' of Rajkumar...what followed wasnt a silent walk for Rajkumar's moksha...but a savage battle among police and the anti-social youth, in which even police lost some men, along with several others injured...da violence shown on da television was heavy, and people dint dare to even step out of their houses. I had to sacrifice my planned trip to Goa along with da bus money which cudnt be refunded. In the evenings, non-Bangloreans in huge numbers wandered in da streets, flooding even a small shop in sight (coz all others were closed)...papi pet ka sawaal tha...I cud hear murmurs and curses all around...

Wat I concluded...

Did Rajkumar eventually get a decent burial, and a proper shraddhhanjali, from all who, in reality believed in da guy's worth, and thought highly of him? I hardly know anything about him, but can infer that he might have been a virtuous and a humble person when he lived...i even read recently dat of all da movies he did, der wasnt a single obscene or vulgar scene, not in any song too. But was respect received with grace, or lost in the wilderness? In a day filled with fire, chaos, anger, commotion, even his own family couldnt pay proper respects to him. Da rest neednt be explained...

Above all, I rightfully concluded that Bangalore has just got a cover of professionals who shield it from the inhuman anti-social elements around, among whom the thinking still runs in low grade. What must have the thousands of clients of the IT companies in Bangalore, from the US and other countries abroad, thought about 13th April? A day given off due to da death of an actor, which 'could' cause unprecedented chaos in society? What possible explanations could they have got from the people here? In reality, Bangalore has to rise in much more terms than just being a IT hub...practical knowledge remains astray... Da murmurs and curses of people all over India who find their jobs here werent all unjustified...a bandh in case of thousands of people depending on food from hotels or shops isnt exactly da correct idea... Also, can we call the city advanced in terms of security and other issues when da police werent prepared to handle what happened that day inspite of having faced a similar situation before? Once again reality speaks...if Bangalore has to progress, it has to rise beyond a lot of this and more...

Think about it people...!

Friday, April 07, 2006

From being a bad movie to being 'cyrus'...

Was thinkin da entire week wat wud be da title topic for this week's ender - and tot wat i wasted 120 bucks on 2 weeks back wud be an ok topic...at least it wud save da others from makin a dumb blunder...

I must say Pataudi's son chose a real dumb movie to start his English 'sidetracked' film career...howeeva the reasons I am mentioning this movie in the blog is coz its received real strange reviews acc to me...After da 90 minutes length of the movie, all I had in my mouth were 2 words - 'bull shit'...some dumb story spanned with events, mis-architectured to be a thriller with a sudden twist...da movie in general highlights da Parsee community - here are some noteworthy names - director Homi Adajania, Boman Irani, Naseeruddin Shah and a whole lot of other not-so-important actors.

Some dumb plot about a guy who enters a Parsee family as an apprentice, and finally ends up swindling them, extracting huge amount of notes from them...after havin seen a huge amount of mysteries and suspense thrillers, this one was a pain in da neck...da same old plot...with the meagre amount of characters, before the interval was up I could guess wat wud be goin on and who-dun-it...(mind u - the murder wasnt even done till now)...

Now why am I writin about this - the astonishing reviews (astonishin only to poor me) which this movie has received, as I have been reading from some days in da papers...'The boz office collections of Being Cyrus is comparable to the Chronicles of Narnia, ie about Rs 2 Crore. The movie has received huge accolades, and praising comments from renowned people like Karan Johar, Shah Rukh Khan, Jackie Shroff etc etc...'...this is what Karan Johar had to say...'Being Cyrus is a deviation from the normal Bollywood cinema, and explores an entirely different style of (horseshit) film-making....'and then...'(more bullshit)'...hard to expect from such a mature film director...

You guys must have definitely heard of people appreciating wat is called 'modern' art at an art exhibition or auction, especially the 'know-all' types of people. Well Being Cyrus is just that...a visit to the theatre is a must for the following reasons - If you have free time and no time to spare for good Indian cinema
- If you are a Parsee chauvinist
- If you believe ur 'free' time should be totally wasted by watchin dumb movies which also...believe it...dont make any sense

Disclaimer: Being Cyrus attempts to be a Hollywood kinda cinema, is of short length, and has a good performance by our prince Khan, but sorry performances from da others...da only one worth a watch being da scintillating Simone Singh...but alas, da movie fails to achieve wateva objective da director initially had (no idea wat dat was...)

Monday, March 27, 2006

Nice Articles - "The Meaning of Life - Raising Questions for a New World Order "

Read this - and find out how long does the chase, or rather the greed to grow higher continues life - are we forgetting our actual purposes in life due to it?

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Today, in a little cottage by the hillside, I am born. For some months now I have heard muffled sounds of the world outside, and I have been curious. Now that I am here, it’s a whole new world outside my mother’s womb. Just outside the window is a beautiful sprinkling of color on the hills, the cool breeze blowing in carries the sweet smell of flowers… and feels good on my face. My mother’s arms around me are reassuring, and as I wake up to these new surroundings, it seems like a really nice place to be in. It’s a good feeling to have a life of my own, to be able to think and experience. The world has existed for an eternity before my birth, and will continue to do so… till long after I am gone. Billions of miles wide, this universe existing for billions of years and I just have this small window of time to experience all its amazing wonders. I want to make the best of this time. I am curious to know what is beyond the hills, I want to see how the world looks from the top of the mountain, and I want to look into the star sprinkled night sky and try to understand why it all exists. I want to experience everything there is. Resting comfortably in my mother’s arms, I can only imagine how it is going to be a wonderful journey. Just then, I notice that the voices, which sounded muffled and distant, are now clear and close. There are people talking around me, and they are talking about what I will ‘become’. Someone is saying that I will study a lot and do everyone proud, and someone else is saying that I ought to become a businessman and earn a lot of money. I have never thought about this before. I didn’t know I will have to ‘become’ something, and I still don’t know why I should. Why can I not just ‘be’?



Seventh Grade. I am fourteen now. The school in my town back home apparently was not good enough, so I was sent here to this big school in the city two years back. I did not want to come, but father said I have to go if I can ever hope to be a ‘big’ man. I did not understand why it is important to become big. I was so happy there, with my mother, with my friends, with people who seemed to be my own. Besides, the mountains were there, always beautiful and enchanting. I loved the mountains and I always dreamed about climbing them, about how I would feel like the king of the universe when I would stand on the top and see how spectacular the earth looks from there. I once asked father if we could go climb, but he said I am too young for something like that. Then I came here. I am not happy here but when I tell mother about this, she says that this is a sacrifice I have to make. She says it’s a preparation for all the happiness I will have later in life. I am confused. I feel that I am in a cage. All of us here wake up and sleep at the same time; we attend the same classes and do the same homework, and we say the same prayers and aspire for the same goals. It’s like I am going through a mass production line, getting molded into the same shape as everyone else, learning and working hard so that the end product that comes out of this system is profitable. I feel my humanity is getting lost, that my identity is being robbed off for the economic cause, that I am turning into yet another diminutive cog in the giant wheel of economics. Everyone around me tries to measure me on the scale of performance. They want to know what I am worth, and my worth is measured not for what I am and what I stand for, but for how well I can outperform others and for how much money I can potentially earn. I am rewarded and everyone loves me when I succeed, and I am punished and abandoned if I don’t. Mean while, I have heard about the serenity of the great Everest, the turbulent beauty of the vast oceans, about ice caps on the poles and so many other wonderful places. My heart is there and sometimes I can’t sleep because I feel so restless that I want to just run and go where I belong. Nevertheless, I am just a little boy who likes to be loved and appreciated. So I am doing what the world wants me to do. The little child in me is dying, to make way for a successful achieving machine. I am falling into the trap.



Business School. Years ago, I lost my grip on my dreams. I gave up my deepest desires and I hoped that small successes and joys would add up to something like happiness. They haven’t. My life has become just a quest for the next big goal. In high school I always performed better than everyone else. Everyone said I could do better, so I worked hard for months and I beat a hundred thousand people in an admission test to get into the best engineering college. It was not enough yet, so after undergraduate school I outperformed a million people in yet another admission test to get into the best business school. It isn’t ending here either. Now I want the best job, and then I will want the biggest promotion and then something else and then something bigger still. I challenged my limits and I achieved goals bigger than I imagined myself capable of, and yet it seems nothing has been achieved. In the mad race for ever-bigger goals, I have never had the time to stop a while and appreciate and enjoy what I have already achieved. There is beauty all around me, waiting to be appreciated. There are thoughts in my mind that I want to pay attention to. There are people in despair, needing my love and compassion. Sometimes I want to stop chasing that elusive future happiness, and to start really living in the moment. But there’s a performance appraisal coming just around the corner, and my mind tells me I can’t indulge in silly thoughts and lose that big promotion. A part of me resists, but there’s twenty years of brainwashing and the whole world’s conventions pitted against it. I better start running again. So this race is never going to end, and it is making no one happy. My parents are old now and they need me, but they won’t leave the place where they have spent their lives, and my job will not let me be there. The girl I love and say I can give my life for isn’t as happy as I would like her to be because I can’t give her enough time. The dreams of my life are alive in a corner of my mind, and they constantly remind me that I am not happy, not at peace with myself. The ocean roars in its splendid beauty outside my office window, but I am only concerned with how much stature the view adds to my office. There are wonderful people I can be friends with, but I am too busy competing with everyone. There is a little child begging on the street, but as I drive by in my luxury car, my mind is busy making plans to get as much Nigerian oil as possible for my oil company, regardless of entire tribes being eliminated… or how best to lobby with the government so it can make the World Trade Organization stop Brazil from selling cheap AIDS medicines and hurting my company’s bottom line, never mind the millions dying. Yes, I am helping create a lot of shareholder value, but is that all my life means?



What is the meaning of life? The quest for achievement has become the cornerstone of human society. Ever more people are setting their eyes on ever-higher goals, and pushing themselves beyond what were thought to be limits of human intellect and endeavor. Certainly, modern society wouldn’t be what it is if it were not for the efforts of the enterprising, but it is nevertheless ironical that the perpetual pursuit of dominance itself now overbearingly dominates collective human thought. We live our lives as if economic prosperity is a divine cause. Material comforts and consumerism have become noble quests, but what really is humanity heading towards? The most glorious species of all, are we not just parasites destroying the planet and converting the earth into a big heap of unrecoverable waste? The blind pursuit for competitive advantage has created a world in which whole continents are dying of hunger and disease while a tenth of the world’s population consumes twenty five times the world’s average. We live in a world where the weaker nations either quietly accept foreign dominance or try to fight back covertly by using methods like terrorism, and the powerful nations feel secure by the ridiculous notion of mutually assured destruction. Economic prosperity and technological progress may have saved millions of lives from hunger and disease, but the divisions that have been created in the process have taken many more lives in countries, which have been marginalized, and in wars and internal strife. There could have been a better way, a way in which more people could have lived, and could have lived more fulfilling lives… but justified by ‘self interest rationality’ economics and blinded by the intensity of our greedy ambitions, maybe we never spent enough time finding that way at all. I am old now, and I will die soon. I have lived my life for a purpose I did not believe in. I always knew I was doing what I never wanted to, and I made a conscious choice to go with the flow. In retrospect, I think I would have had a more fulfilling life living as a nomad, or maybe just in a cave in the Himalayas. I regret I did not, but the only consolation I have is that the odds were pitted too heavily against me. I ‘learned’ a way of life before I got a chance to make my own, and later I never gathered enough courage to break the rules. The bad thing about life is that one always believes that it’s not ending yet and there will be time to do the things one wants to do, till it’s too late and reality hits home. I am too old to pursue my dreams now. I have more money than I need and all the material comforts money could buy, but still no happiness and peace of mind. I now find refuge in literature and prayer, but I think it is just another pathetic attempt to cheat myself. I never got a chance to truly experience and appreciate anything in the world, and now I am trying to find the beauty in someone else’s description of it. I never took the time to understand myself, to discover my faith and to find my own god… and now I am trying to find salvation in someone else’s idea of god which I do not believe in. Anyway, it’s time for me to go now. My eyes are closing, never to open again. All my achievements, all my successes are of no use anymore. The dream of a one day old is still a dream for the eighty year old. I am finishing my life, but I am leaving it incomplete.

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Friday, March 24, 2006

A N N I V E R S A R Y

Just realized this a week back when i was surfin thru da previous posts - cant believe I have been into blogging since 365 days now...of course - it has had its ups and downs - especially when I have had no time to blog at all - or there have been reasons why I couldnt blog (like now sometimes its very tough)...those who know me closely can understand y...

Was thinkin today morning wat would I edit in da blog today - some days back I heard from a buddy dat bloggins is used by most people in order to vent their frustrations at their work place in terms of words, and thus make an attempt to escape from their own stress problems by expressing themselves to others - personally, or non-personally. Of course it depends on da amount of people reading the blog...(smile)...

Yea - da life of a software engineer sucks big time - especially if one were to visit dat part of my company where yours truly sits...one would understand what makes up most of a programmer's life...programmer i can say coz majority of da people out here are from my team, involved in large scale, back-end programmin work (reasons for the shivers when front-end work is concerned...bluddy one doesnt even understand da simple forms u come across, n its real tough tallyin them to da back-end data)...somehow my 'brave' teammate pals seem to work it out well - n they arent even qualified com'puke'ter engi'nerds'...dey have a degree in electronics...again I would say - neone would be qualified to do coding - he just needs to get a good hand at the syntax, and should be good at logical flow...why, in a few months I seem to be coding well too...of course besides the fact dat the outer shell of the program (this holds true for a lot of software engineers as far as I have noticed)...is totally concerned with 'programmin hai waste - believe in ...yawn...u r smart enough to know wat...'...

Coming back to the point...of course till now I have used da blog to only list down my experiences in day-to-day life, and not for looking at da screen with fuming nostrils and banging away on da keyboard...though I have my own score to settle with my superiors, and of course, da great software industry, of which me and most of my readers are part of - (If you arent, then you are safe)...I had heard at a point dat blogging was started by people who felt they needed to express themselves out to da world, so that they have some earthly 'fans' whom they dint know too...and who visited their webpage now and den...feelin happy dat they have found 'another of their kind'...it mite be dat I started off blogging for the same reason, and of course hosting it on Orkut, Pagalguy, and some other places - so dat like minded people would come and share thoughts with me thru comments and so on...

Things still to be implemented on my webpage - a hit counter (this is for people who read and dont comment - maybe dey will receive a pop-up message too, in case they spend more than 'x' time goin thru any webpage in my blog, and leave no comments for me to find that that dey 'DID' visit my webpage..., also shall be putting up a list of webpages and blogs I visit on da net, including some of my own friends' blogs...want to edit my profile too properly...of course all this wen I have da time and space..maybe I shall try these things wen I leave for Goa next week...

Till then guys - happy blogging!!

Wednesday, March 22, 2006

Routine...

Had tot of this some days back - but wheneva i used to sit in da evening to edit da blog, it would be seriously boring to write about da day dat has passed...or da days dat are passing...but to put it correctly, future mite hold somethin different for me - a new environment and a new place of stay - so here I am accounting how a typical day passes in my present life. To put it more interestingly (dont want readers to doze off) I have put it in third person -

7 AM - Good morning : sleepy eyes, hangover of ruined sleep some 3 hours back due to my roomie arrivin from his work...but fine - da guy gets up...of course, checks either the mobile or the watch for the time... Utilization of free Hutch messages has already begun as he checks his GM messages and forwards, and replies back to them...

One hour - needed to finish the morning chores, got used very much to the jam/bread breakfast at home so much dat he carries da 'parampara' here too...der is always a mental tussle between all the roomies in da PG for the paper, so whenever he can sneak outside and take the paper first, he does it..(grinning)...

bout 8:10 AM - busy reading paper - takes another 20-30 min...yes da editorial page looks real boring with only text sprawled over it...but its the page carryin da most amount of sensible information...at least for an information-interested person like this person...information devoid of political fites, and wordly dramas - makin dat clear...

8:40 AM- on da road - off to hunt for the rick - a walk till busy and dusty 80 feet road, near da famous Aishwarya Department Store of Jakkasandra...some rick guys run off like as if a ghost is chasin them when the guy mentions da words 'BTM Layout', or even sometimes 'Bannerghatta Road'...not interested, also scared of the traffic, and the never ending signal timings at the famed Udupi Gardens...

Finally in some rick which agrees...the sight of an electronic meter is a delight...but most of the times he settles for an analog, mechanical one...da rick journey sometimes turns hostile, or even interesting...as he knows most of the paths very well, and the objective is to go thru the shortest path available, despite the heavy traffic jam...the rick guy mite say 'nahin saahab, bahut jam hota hai wahaan...' - reasons why the guy sometimes even settles for 'one and a half'...most readers will understand - no elaborations needed...

9:05 to 9:20 AM- probably around this time dock at office, after havins sometimes gone thru a huge traffic jam in the inner turns of Udupi Gardens hotel...(da hotel is just to be heard of, and is a great junction to meet at - mind u - not AT ALL a good eating joint)...Off to the sixth floor - dats Oracle GFIC (land of finance, n land of babes too)...nearest to my destination floor...and havin some good coffee vending machines - aha...some good coffee...!!

9:25 - 9:30 AM - Boy is he punctual or not? Sometimes, like today, he was much earlier than this...off to da most boring part of da company where I have been shifted to...nuthin but 'work' happens there...Of course checkin mails, surfin thru PG, chatting, listening to songs etc etc happens thruout da day...

About 1 to 1:15 PM - Lunch time...off to the mess...pathetic menu, which appeared good only in the first 3 days at the company...so he prefers the pastry joint for some burgers etc...a la lunch!

About 2 to 2:30 PM - yawn... yea..time for more work..so wat does this variable do? yawwn...and why is this exception not def...yawnnn..ined? Also...yaawnnn....yaawwnnn...ad guess wat....
YAWWWNNN...!!!

About 4 PM - Bright eyes - good work goin on - time for a break in another half an hour...(good thoughts)

4:20 to 4:30 PM - Coffee break - though its normally mango juice for him...or a soft drink - wateva - its all free...with some nice biscuits too...

What follows at office - some fast work - evening speeding into da darkness of the nite...

Now this varies from 6:15 to 7:45 PM - Work done - laptop closed...wires disconnected...bye guys...'me' off home...

About 8 PM - Its 90 percent Delicious Dine for dinner time, as wateva neone says, the place rules as far as taste of food is concerned...a nice dinner for a tired guy...

About 8:45 PM - back to PG - TV for sometime...surf thru channels...'bachhon - please dont check out FTV at 9:30 PM...it isnt exactly the time for 'Midnight ...' but u neva know wat turns up..hehe!!

About 9:20 PM - a refreshin bath...

About 9:45 PM - bath and prayers done...now lyin down on bed - relaxin...messaging friends...and also thinkin wat else to do for the remaining part of the nite...

About 10:15 PM - reading a book...wat else is new?

About 11:30 to 11:45 PM - Either he is already asleep...or he prefers to close down for the nite.

About 12:30 AM - Wat else readers? its done...the guy is dozing off...

U guys get back to ur own work now..and dont fget to list down ur routines in ur blogs...

Monday, March 20, 2006

PG meet...

Saturday afternoon - havin returned from my cuz's flat at CV Raman Nagar(good one - but hell far away man!!)- it was time for another PG meet as had been planned in da last week's proceedings of the 'Bangalore PG meet' thread...buzzing with activity initially, but then all blown off suddenly...a lot of guys said they wudnt turn up on account of several personal reasons - so it was known dat the meet wudnt be all dat great, as the last one I had attended...

After the morning adventure, and with a pain in da ass...(this is for real)...I wasnt actually in the mood for walking a huge distance, so a cool and calm PG meet wud be da best thing...venue - Barista - as had been decided last time too...but wat the heck? No one to be seen when me, Abhishek and another PGite Manas reached there...Some time later - we managed to find a gang of guys huddled at a corner - ready to leave - we were an hour late, but well, we tot PG meets always started at least one hour late - (grinning)...

The meet there wasnt much - except for meeting new people...just about knowing them...We moved very soon from there, to Airlines hotel, to a small hotel outside it...there mr dadaji himself - Psychodementia aka Arun was supposed to come...he arrived pretty late...but then, i guess more about this week's PG meet was Mr Arun himself...I had met him earlier - but he was new for the others...good, healthy discussions on already discussed topics like why MBA...but a good amount of info exchanged...too bad i dont have snaps with Arun bhai...but I have some of those at Barista...so posting those...





Thursday, March 16, 2006

Ethnic Day...

More snaps...you will find me this time in a kurta - nope - its not mine...my teammate gave it to me...too bad da day lacked my superb blue-shaded kurta and jacket...people were lookin real good in their respective ones, and i wished i had my own kurta too...after all - occasions like Ethnic Day are very rare in SSI...

I am postin this a week late, coz i was drowned in work...nope - no deadline...but deadlines set by me on my own work...today i am a 'bit' free...just attended training on a module in Apps i dint even know head or tail of... (serves me rite for knowing almost nothing of financials)...I know da 'veryy few' people who must be goin thru this page must be totally bugged wid me writin so less these days, just putting up photos as if this is an album or so...but yaaron...samjha karo...kaam mein dooba hua hoon, and of course...my 'physical' position isnt all that great too... (grinning)...

enjoy da snaps...hope they have come betta then the ones in da last post...took them in a hurry...













And finally - the great ME!!



Thursday, March 09, 2006

Rangoli at SSI...

Tot I'd update da blog wid da latest happenings at my company...thanx to da employee club there is more fun nowadays...for starters take the Rangoli competition...I wont write much, coz wid da workload, there isnt much energy to edit the blog...dats all dat has been happening in mu life these days - work, work and more work...tryin to get a good hold over things at work...sometimes i do feel like blogging thoughts etc which come to my mind - but then at da end of da day i realize that there aint ne time left...

To fill up some space here are some snaps i just took today...













Wednesday, March 01, 2006

Yup..its me again!

There cant be many reasons why I havent posted for a real long time on da blog...except that I now sit next to my PL - of course, though he is a real nice guy, things do get a bit apprehensive for me if he is around and i am peepin into 'wat else is new' on da net - or editing da blog...howeva I have indeed been questioned on why I havent been editing my blog for a good number of days now...

Things have been pretty stagnant - at least me in my place for sure...getting to know more about the technicalities involved in Work Orders(dats what mah latest object is bout)...and of course staring into the laptop for 8 hours every day into code, code and gess wat...more code!! Of course life has just been goin the normal way...I was down to my cuz's place 2 days back for dinner, and have taken some pics...shall post dem as soon as i get my new mobile done wid (sum probs with it)...

Da buzzing season dese days is as usual - the MBA interview season...PG seems to be flooded as usual with threads of those - every day a new institute thread springs up...for those of u who arent aware of those, the mod Simba on PG has come up with PagalGirl...a new concept - only meant for the gals and ladies from PG i guess..my my...this was news for me when i went thru PG today morning...dont know how soon PGirl will acquire the fame of PGuy...but it IS an innovative concept to add to PG nomenclature...

As usual da month of Feb hasnt been all dat great for me...though now its over, and i can hopefully look towards a successful journey ahead in 2006...to begin with, there is good amount of work...yea - da tech part, da coding etc sucks...but i realize the functional understanding in ERP is not that bad after all...

Goin to enrich some more functional concepts as of now...

Tuesday, February 07, 2006

Life is beautiful...you just gotto see it the rite way...

A small but moralistic story...

--->

Two men, both seriously ill, occupied the same hospital room.

One man was allowed to sit up in his bed for an hour each afternoon to help drain the fluid from his lungs. His bed was next to the room's only window.

The other man had to spend all his time flat on his back.

The men talked for hours on end.

They spoke of their wives and families, their homes, their jobs, their involvement in the military service, where they had been on vacation.

Every afternoon when the man in the bed by the window could sit up, he would pass the time by describing to his roommate all the things he could see outside the window.
The man in the other bed began to live for those one-hour periods where his world would be broadened and enlivened by all the activity and color of the world outside.

The window overlooked a park with a lovely lake.

Ducks and swans played on the water while children sailed their model boats.

Young lovers walked arm in arm amidst flowers of every color and a fine view of the city skyline could be seen in the distance.

As the man by the window described all this in exquisite detail, the man on the other side of the room would close his eyes and imagine the picturesque scene.

One warm afternoon the man by the window described a parade passing by.

Although the other man couldn't hear the band - he could see it. In his mind's eye as the gentleman by the window portrayed it with descriptive words. Days and weeks passed.

One morning, the day nurse arrived to bring water for their baths only to find the lifeless body of the man by the window, who had died peacefully in his sleep. She was saddened and called the hospital attendants to take the body away.

As soon as it seemed appropriate, the other man asked if he could be moved next to the window.

The nurse was happy to make the switch, and after making sure he was comfortable, she left him alone.

Slowly, painfully, he propped himself up on one elbow to take his first look at the real world outside.

He strained to slowly turn to look out the window beside the bed.

It faced a blank wall. The man asked the nurse what could have compelled his deceased roommate who had described such wonderful things outside this window.

The nurse responded that the man was blind and could not even see the wall.

She said, "Perhaps he just wanted to encourage you."

Epilogue:

There is tremendous happiness in making others happy, despite our own situationsShared grief is half the sorrow, but happiness when shared, is doubled.
If you want to feel rich, just count all the things you have that money can't buy.Today is a gift, that's why it is called the present.

LIVE LIFE TO THE FULLEST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

<------

Monday, February 06, 2006

An awakening...

It has been, that at times a movie has made me use my tear glands often during its course...and Rang De Basanti was another one in its line - no wonder it has hit the box office like nethin...especially here in Bangalore, where considering the crowd, the tickets have to be booked well in advance. The same happened to us - we had to 'enjoy' the movie in the dress circle in a theatre we normally dont 'enjoy' so much...but i think every minute of the movie is worth it...the spotlight being of course Aamir Khan, who, having crossed 40, still plays the college passout and steals the show...Howeva there is almost nothing that lets this movie down, or spoils the pastime of the viewer who visits the theatre to enjoy himself.



But besides being the 'paisa-vasool' film, with awesome performances, mind-blowing music by the genius of Rehman, and of course a fantastic storyline, the fact remains - why is the movie made? What has been showcased in this two hour forty-five minute film? With more movies being made for entertainment these days, its easy to guess that RDB is that mature kind of film, which the film-maker creates in order to set a good impact on the viewers...to set an example...to awaken a dead nation...

Life is fun, life is mazaa, but when sometimes it turns against u, the film ideology speaks of 2 ways out - either stay in the system and keep movin with it , or take the responsibility to change the system. Why has the writer struck a balance between the revolutionaries of the late 1920's and the rebels of today's generation is a thought every Indian should ponder on...even dialogues like 'Koi kuch nahin kar sakta is desh ka...kuch nahin badal sakta yahaan'...in fact the writer emphasizes on these dialogues repeatedly...

I would once again recommend that Indian cinema has indeed come of age...with some masterpieces like Lakshya, Swades and RDB...movies which are made less for entertainment, and more to set an example to the youth of today - more to reduce the myriad differences between Indians, to speak out that while resolving the petty issues like 'main hindu, main musalmaan' , the major issues like the people being fooled into unnecessary riots, insensible democracy still lie at large...and if they arent demolished, indeed 'is desh ka koi kuch nahin kar sakta'. Yes India has a huge number of records to list, India speaks big when it comes to numerous issues in hundreds of fields, India is advancing in several domains - but there are things which still remain ugly from within India - marring India's image...dont we as citizens have the duty of cleaning it up and saving it from damage...

Lets not say more - bravo to some movie directors of today for focussing into what sometimes is right before us, but cant be seen!

Tuesday, January 31, 2006

office Bday bash!!!

nuthin to say - just the pics...party time at office with my teammates...postin them a bit late - check out the one with the cake on da face...cool huh?(grinning)