Digressions

Heh!

2009-07-29T18:19:00.001+05:30

What's special you ask? Look at the number series.

I generally am fascinated with such occurrences. That's me!

PS: BTW, posting through e-mail doesn't let me embed a picture into the post :-)

Led Zep v/s India

2009-07-23T16:24:00.001+05:30

Amazing work of animation. The Immigrant Song embedded into Ramayana :-)

Height of Hypocrisy

2009-07-23T13:32:00.001+05:30

Now the M.P.s want a ban on Sach Ka Samna. Why is Indian democracy a hypocrisy?

Random Quotes

2008-08-03T09:29:00.001+05:30

Consider him the best, competiting with whom, the best in you comes out

-Says Suren

Ichalkaranji Weather Forecasts on Yahoo! Weather

2008-06-13T16:47:00.001+05:30

Nothing new about the weather forecast on Y!, but this post is about the new screenshot plug-in for Firefox. Its called DashBlog. You can take a screenshot of the page you are viewing, add text to it and post it on your blog. All in one tool.

I got to know about it from Digital Inspiration.

New Bangalore Airport

2008-05-26T10:21:00.004+05:30

So, here're the first photos of newly operational BIAL.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/photoyogi/tags/bial/show/

Geez, I'm so excited I want to go there. Namma Bengaluru, namma hemme!

IPL

2008-04-21T11:33:00.003+05:30

I don't know what are people's opinions about IPL. But it feels so great to see Kallis-Boucher take Dravid's team to victory against Sachin's team, Ponting congratulate Ishant Sharma on taking a wicket, Symonds rub shoulders with Rohit Sharma. Besides taking Cricket to the new masses, IPL is doing more to the game :-)

A Dream

2008-02-06T07:11:00.000+05:30

My dreams are always nightmares. Invariably. (But I'm lucky that they don't turn real ;-)

Interestingly, I had a beautiful dream today early morning. Too beautiful for me to believe. It has left me thinking whether its possible for it to see day's light. And I have to admit that I am disturbed by this dream.

Sometimes, dreams are so beautiful that you keep thinking whether they can even come closer to be a reality. You keep guessing whether they'll come true. And what happens if they come true. What if they remain mere dreams, do not come real?

RE: Gen X

2008-02-02T06:49:00.000+05:30

Few months back I had asked you guys this question. Not that I wanted to test your GK. But when I had first got to know the logic behind it, I was amazed to know it.

So, here's the deal. United States got independance in 1776. And a generation is generally considered to change after 20 years. So, the generation of 1976, which was a generation after 200 years (or 10 generations) of independence, was called Gen X.

So generation next to that, i.e. the generation of 1996 should be called Generation XI and not Generation Y.

What do you say?

And the woes continue...

2008-01-26T01:03:00.001+05:30

....I have changed two hotels in two days so far. And am going to change one more time. Only thing is I have to carefully choose from the choices of hotels I have. After that should be easy to manage the shifting as weekend is coming.

Lets see, how things turn up.

PS: Finally I'm shifting to the regular hotel! Sigh...

Airport Blogging

2008-01-24T23:32:00.001+05:30

Or transit blogging?

I am at the Frankfurt Airport right now. In transit to Los Angeles. I am travelling to our HQ for work. The trip was decided in haste (unlike my previous tours). Could not write about it on the blog before starting.

This time around, I want to jot down my experiences properly. And I already have lots to talk about. My previous trips to Irvine, New York, Beijing, Colombo went untalked about. I don't want that to happen this time. Why? May be I want to have a travel diary.

This time I am flying Lufthansa. First time this airline, first time this route. Generally we at work, fly Singapore or Cathay to West Coast of the US. Both are good airlines. But both seem to monopolise their USP. The tickets are skyrocketing. Lufthansa was cheaper, hence this route. But with cheaper ticket come poorer services. At least compared to Singapore/Cathay.

Before starting for the journey, I had a feeling that all's not well with this trip. My doubt was turning into suspicion once I got hotel reservations for my 7th preference. (But that's what generally happens if you book on eleventh hour, isn't it?) Then I got the last seat in the airline while checking in. Its the worst seat you can have in a flight journey. The man in front pushes his chair back to your laps but you don't have any choice other than looking him sleep peacefully. You have to sit upright (you can't sleep on the last seat). I could not sleep for the whole journey. Then my flight got delayed. I missed my connecting flight. Not that it hasn't happened to me before. But it looks worse after a 9 hours' flight journey on a upright seat, without sleep, with a bad cabin service (I am comparing everything here with Singapore. Please forgive me) and losing a chance to meet a friend in Frankfurt. Right now, am waiting for the boarding to my re-booked United flight to start. My arrival in LA will now be delayed by 6 hours. Won't be able to go the office now. A day is wasted.

Whatever. I am not in a mood to think much about the delay, given my tiredness. (Now, I went to have a shower to freshen up. But the ONLY shower-room on this airport is closed. I can not but compare it with Changi Airport. No wonder Changi is the best in the world). Right now, am sitting here, with a nice view of flights taking off from Frankfurt (couple of them, our own Air India flights) and just waiting.

You may not find coherence in this post, but that's because of my tiredness (BTW, isn't that the usual thing on this blog? incoherent thoughts. And isn't that this blog all about? Digressions! :-)

Chalo. Will see you guys from Irvine. And that will be pretty soon.

Written: Frankfurt, January 23rd 2008, 1:45PM local time
Posted: Irvine, January 24 2008, 10:10AM local time

Is Movie Going an Experience?

2008-01-17T14:53:00.000+05:30

...PVR doesn't think so. And I have reasons to say so.

For long, I have been suffering watching movies in PVR. PVR is milking the opportunity created by lack of good theaters in Bangalore. There are lot of reasons why I have started disliking PVR. Their shows don't start on time. The A/Cs in the lounge never work. The sound system/projector fails during the show, without fail. You get this service for paying a meagre amount of 200-250 bucks (depending on the movie) to PVR. And all this continues even after you fill-up the feedback form, expecting something to change. False hopes, you see.

But my recent experience was horrible. It topped them all.

I had been to PVR to watch Taare Zameen Par (yeah, even though I knew that PVR will screw up everything, I had to go there. That's the only theatre in Koramangala, where I stay). I paid an outrageous sum of Rs. 260 for the privilege. Its not that I did not have to go through the usual routine of having to wait too long in the lounge for entering the auditorium, with 500 similar fools and disfunctioning A/C. I had prepared myself for it. But, once we were seated and before the show started, there was an onslaught of advertisements for almost 15 minutes. I stood it thinking that being the co-producers of the movie, PVR had to make use of every opportunity to get returns on their investment. I thought, once the movie starts we all will forget about the adverts and enjoy the movie. But the adverts had their effect. I was so eagerly waiting for the movie to start that once the initial credentials started, I felt like the movie is moving really slow. I could not understand the actual pace of the movie. I was disturbed. Somehow I could understand the hardships Ishaan was going through. I could understand how difficult it is not to be understood. When Aamir Khan entered the movie just before the interval, I saw a ray of hope for Ishaan. And as I said and as you all know, there was the interval. PVR started its moneymaking business again. It again threw some 15 odd, totally unrelated to the movie, adverts on me. I was so convinced by the logic in those adverts that I decided I will buy Surf Excel tomorrow, instead of Arial for my washing machine. I was convinced that wearing Nike shoes with iPod is better for your health than actual jogging was.

And what happened to Ishaan? What? Who Ishaan? Exactly this was my reaction when the movie started again. I had forgotten all that I had seen before the interval. The momentum that was created so far was all lost. I was totally disconnected with the movie. I had no sympathy/anger/support left for any of the characters in the movie. All the efforts put in by Mr. Aamir Khan the director had gone down the drain. How's that possible, you may wonder. PVR made it possible. Their acute sense of business made it possible. Who cares for the movie anyways? In the end I was least bothered how Ishaan passed the hurdles with the help of his teacher.

A good movie was thus wasted by PVR (once again. They are experts at it).

I don't have any requests to PVR though. I am dead sure they don't care for customer feedback. I have only request to Mr. Aamir Khan. If you really care for your product, really care that the movies you act in do convey the message they intend to, DO NOT SCREEN THEM IN PVR.

PS: I recently heard that PVR hiked the ticket prices to 300. They reduced it down to 200 after Govt. freed it from tax. We are obliged.

Random Thoughts at Random Times - I

2008-01-15T15:11:00.000+05:30

Just a few thoughts which came while I was taking bath today morning.

Everyday life in this age has become so hectic. You are either in the rat race or left out. You just can't afford to run at your pace. And everybody can't succeed in this rat-race. There are bound to be failures as there can be only one winner.

So what's the way to live life with this rat-race an integral part of life? I was just thinking about it. (And I think a lot. For last couple of years, I am trying to 'think out' an answer to the quest for my purpose in life! Whoa) My guess to this question would be, to win the race, you just have to be yourself. This looks easy but is not so.

You try to compare yourself with others. Others' success. To succeed, we try to do what others tell us to do or what others do. In this process, we get dominated by this 'other' factor so much that we forget what our natural way of doing things is. (And everybody has his own way of doing things. We just can't follow successful people blindly and get results. It doesn't work that way for the reason as simple as 'every one's unique') We lose ourselves by trying to emulate others. We become what we are not. Obviously, we fail to succeed.

And may be this is the reason why we don't have mentality for innovation. To be innovative, you have to be in your own skin. You have to give yourself the freedom to think in your style. You lose that by trying to emulate somebody else.

New Year Resolution

2008-01-02T17:20:00.000+05:30

I had started this blog to talk about whatever came to my mind. While writing, more often than not, I digress. I never stick to the point. I can't. And this blog is about such digressions. I just wanted them to flow freely.

I haven't been able to write much here. There are lots of reasons. One of them being not having access to a computer when I feel the urge to pour out. I 'think' (or ideas come to my mind) when I am riding my bike or when I am in the bed or when I am bathing or when I am not in front of a computer. But whatever the reason, my blog has suffered some invaluable posts. (yeah, in my opinion, I get some really good ideas to write about)

I have made a decision at the start of this year that I will try to be regular here.

A lot of times I feel like expressing myself. And I feel helpless because I don't know any art. Neither painting nor writing. Not even playing any musical instrument. I feel one can express oneself perfectly through art. For long, I have been contemplating to learn playing guitar. Actually, its a dream since childhood. I also want to learn Spanish. So, I will do one of these things this year. For sure.

That's my new year resolution.

My first ever new year resolution.

Graffiti

2007-08-30T15:07:00.000+05:30

I had used one of the Sakal Graffiti in one of my previous blog entries. Here's the Blog of the man behind these now-famous graffiti in Sakal.

Gen X

2007-07-17T19:17:00.000+05:30

Why is Gen X called so? Watch out this space for the answer.

Signature City

2007-07-06T12:25:00.001+05:30

Just took this test on Tickle. Have started liking Tickle (may be because it shows the results that I like;) )

It says that my signature city is Seattle.

What's Your Signature City?
Take this test and let me know :)

Professional Expressions!

2007-07-04T11:50:00.000+05:30

Today I feel the urge to update my blog. I am getting a solid kick to write something. But don't know what to write.

I actually fear writing. For some strange reasons. I fear that when I write, I digress too much. I create small loops for every sub-thought and what I write, gets lost in these small loops. The main topic is forgotten at some point. I forget what was it that I was writing about. It becomes a mess.

But still I feel like writing. I get good ideas to write about. And if I don't jot them down at that moment, those ideas never see day's light. Thats why I want to write.

I wonder how a good blogger writes? Does he make a rough draft of what he's going to write and then he formats it? But it becomes so professional. And blogging to me is not a job to be done professionally. Its a way to express yourself, more of artistic nature. It can not be planned and done in a professional way. One just expresses himself through blogging and how can a expression be planned? (unless you are in the business to get paid!)

Lessons..err

2007-04-13T11:46:00.000+05:30

Long time since my last post. A lot has happened since then. when I posted last time, it was from the US. I came back to India, went again to US for another stint of two months and life suddenly took pace. But I am not here today to write all that.

My mind, body is in a wonderfully relaxed state these days. I am in no hurry to reach the destination and tend to enjoy the journey. Weather in Bangalore is also somewhat a reason for that. It rained here heavily yesterday.

It was my room-mate's birthday yesterday and we were supposed to go out for dinner. The plan got cancelled, revoked and again cancelled for few inexplicable reasons.

When we started to go out, it rained and we cancelled going out lest we would get drenched in rain. But once the rain subsided we decided to go out. My room-mate was supposed to pick up a friend coming from Chennai, from the Railway Station. and I was supposed to reach the Restaurant myself. When the guys were coming from the Railway station, they stopped on the road, as the rains started heavily again. My room-mate lost the key of his bike while standing there. (how? I don't know). T

..Fuck it. The incident happened eons ago and I have forgotten the lessons.

Hi

2006-03-30T13:21:00.000+05:30

As this is my first post (and God only knows how long this will be my last post) won't write much! Just a 'Hi' to everybody out there. :)