A year that was.. and A year that could have been

As an eventful year approaches an uneventful end... I brood over the events that have and that could have changed the history...

It was an eventful year for me, so according to the butterfly effect, it has certainly changed the future for good for each one of you out there on the planet.

I have chosen to tread a path that does not exactly fit into the picture considering my past educational history. An organised progression, something which i lacked all through my life.

For the past 2 years (before Nov 6th), I was working for Manhattan Associates as a Software Engineer. Life was pretty O. K. with a few movies, weekend shopping, occasional trips to nearby places in bangalore and few more futile attempts @ admission into a B school. (Not that i was, very clear why i wanted to do an MBA)

But, this year when i was again denied an admission into a prestigious B school, life has taken a big diversion. I decided to call it quits, and look for something that I loved.

I now aspire to be an academician, a teacher, a prof or whatever that you want me to call. So, I quit MA, and then joined Abhyaas, a venture by a senior @ college. Thanks to many friends from whom i draw inspiration and many more who give me that impetus to chase my dreams.

I also thank god for giving me a family that bears with my eccentric ideas...

I joined with the infatuation that I would just take academic responsibilities, but it is much more than that.

I am entrepreneur now...!!! (Yatta.. Hiro Nakomura style)

Thanks to Naresh and the Abhyaas team...

This was about the year that was... Now, the year that could have been...

Had i not quit, I could have ended up anywhere. Probably, at this particular moment i would have ended up in some pub with my friends @ MA. Life would have been mundane enough and I could have had my eyesight grow a notch higher by watching more sitcoms on my laptop.

This is my story.. what is yours...???????

I sign off for the last time this year... Meet you in the next year.. Happy new year...

Hope the new decade brings joy and prosperity to all of you... and billion others who are deprived of a chance to waste time reading this.. :)

Funny questions on Answers.com

I received a mail from Answers.com saying that there was an event where you can win $1000 amazon.com gift coupon if i answered the maximum number of questions.

Amazed by the prize amount, i wanted to see what kind of questions are hosted in the website . I came across some of the weirdest questions that can be framed.

Take a look at few of the questions i found hilarious. These are of of course, unanswered.
(I don't think anyone can answer them at all)

1. What do elements in the periodic table do? (Dance , of course.. :P)

2.Who made the first colour wheel? (do they have colored wheels too)

3.What are you doing when you use your 5 senses? (Hmmm… this is a tough one)

4.Will someone tell you how to make anti gravity? (No, they won’t.. You have to figure it out)

5.What is the speed from solid to liquid? (approx,.. 50 kmph)

6.Is Mr M-nan the best Grade 10 Science Teaher in Canada well I think he is? (this was under science category)

7.What does s in science stand for? (Toughieee)

8. What does a speedometer of a car measures? (its weight)

9. Is the human non-vegitarian? (toughie again)

10. What Procedure to fill hsc board form direct in vashi? (again found under science catgory)

11. What are 2 national capitals? (delhi and Colombo)

12. What is the symbol of because in science? (oh my god!!!)

Lyrics of a melodious song from the movie Anand

Kahin Door Jab Din Dhal Jaye...
Sanjh Ki Dulhan ... Badan Churaye....
Chupke Se Aaye...
Mere Khayaalon... Ke Aangan Mein...
Koi Sapnon Ke... Deep Jalaaye....
Deep jalaaye...

Kahin Door Jab Din Dhal Jaye...
Sanjh Ki Dulhan ... Badan Churaye....
Chupke Se Aaye...


Kabhi Yun Hi... Jab Hui.... Bojhal Saansen...
Bhar Aai Baithe Baithe.... Jab Yun Hi Aankhen...

Kabhi Yun Hi... Jab Hui.... Bojhal Saansen...
Bhar Aai Baithe Baithe.... Jab Yun Hi Aankhen...

Kabhi Machal Ke... Pyar Se Chal Ke
Chhuye Koi Mujhe Par... Nazar Na Aaye...

Nazar Na Aaye...

Kahin Door Jab Din Dhal Jaye...
Sanjh Ki Dulhan ... Badan Churaye....
Chupke Se Aaye...


Kahin To Yeh Dil Kabhi... Mil Nahin Paate...
Kahin Pe Nikal Aaye... Janmon Ke Naate...


Kahin To Yeh Dil Kabhi... Mil Nahin Paate...
Kahin Pe Nikal Aaye... Janmon Ke Naate...


Thami Thi Uljhan... Bairi Apna Man,
Apna Hi Hoke Sahe... Dard Paraaye...

Dard Paraaye...

Kahin Door Jab Din Dhal Jaye...
Sanjh Ki Dulhan ... Badan Churaye....
Chupke Se Aaye...


dil jaane mere saaare... bhed ye gehre...
ho gaye kaise mere... sapne sunahre...

dil jaane mere saaare... bhed ye gehre...
ho gaye kaise mere... sapne sunahre...

yeh mere sapne... yahi tho hein apne...
mujhse juda nahi honge..inke ye saaye...
inke ye saaye...


Kahin Door Jab Din Dhal Jaye...
Sanjh Ki Dulhan ... Badan Churaye....
Chupke Se Aaye...

Mere Khayaalon... Ke Aangan Mein...
Koi Sapnon Ke... Deep Jalaaye....
Deep jalaaye...


Kahin Door Jab Din Dhal Jaye...
Sanjh Ki Dulhan ... Badan Churaye....
Chupke Se Aaye...

Oskar Schindler: A Hero

I just completed watching the movie the Schindler's list...I consider this to be one of the best movies I have ever seen and he is a hero i will not forget till i am dead. I have been thinking how a particular human being, race or community can unconditionally hate and be so stoical to atrocities committed to the other. The movie was about the holocaust during the world war 2 where the german army (nazis) brutally killed and tortured jews. Among these nazis was a good man, infact a great man called Oskar Schindler. As the movie's name suggests, the movie is about the list of almost 1200 people Schindler saved from the clutches of the cruel germans.

The holocaust is the highest degree of brutality that mankind could have ever exhibited. Old men, childeren, women who were of no use to the nazis were burnt alive. People were randomly murdered for no reason or for being unlucky to be born as jew. Only those jews who could work or were fit enough to work were allowed to live. Even they had to pray to ensure they had a tomorrow that they can live for. Among these circumstances, a man called Oskar Schindler established a factory called DEF (Deutsche Emaillewaren-Fabrik). His factory was a haven for the jews and he struggled relentlessly to save them from the onslaught. He bribed, pleaded and got arrested for the noble cause of saving his employees. By the end of the war Schindler had spent his entire fortune on bribes and black-market purchases of supplies for his workers. I have read that more than 4000 descendants of the Schindler saved jews live in Poland today.

Grave of Oskar Schindler with stones depicting

the number people who worship him

The movie depicts the story of this great man who was like the noah of ark for these jews. The most touching part of the movie is when he explains to his manager how he could have saved more people if he had not wasted money all along his life and if he had not worried about saving his material belongings.

One of the dialogues from the movie: "This pin. Two people. This is gold. Two more people. He would have given me two for it, at least one. One more person. A person, Stern(manager). For this. I could have gotten one more person … and I didn't! And I … I didn't!"

Watch it to believe it.

P.S: The movie is rated R for explicit content and violence throughout the movie.

A soothing effect for all losers - "It ain't our fault"

If you are one of those guys who thinks that you have worked damn hard but didnt succeed in life, don't worry, it aint your fault.(Yes!!! :) ) You just werent there at the right place at the

right time. You probably weren't the son of a tailor, grocery store owner or like me you were born neither in the 1930's nor in the window of 1953-56. I think i am getting too ahead in myself. Now, don't take these as my words, my dear, but these are the facts that are very well laid by Malcom gladwell in the book "The Outliers". For all of you who don't know what

an outlier is, it is a statistical term which represents a data which is extremely deviant from the mean(average).

The author claims that successful people are not just successful beacuse they are talented, or they worked their ass off every time it was needed, nor because they toiled up in the

night, when there friend slept ( one of my favorite quotes ). And this holds true for the highly unsuccessful outliers too(in the other way, ofcourse). Gladwell quotes quite a few examples

of people who are extremely successful and also few examples of why few people are really bad at performing specific tasks. Billy joy, Bill gates, Eric Shmidt, Steve jobs, Chris

Langan are just few names in this book, but there's lot more than that. There are various fundae like how a thing called power index affects airplane pilots, how working for zillions of hours in the rice paddy fields help asians do better in math, or for that matter why being born in the first few days of the year will help you become a canadian ice hockey star. It is so uncanny that things so not related to each other are responsible for the success.

I wont spoil the fun for you by delving more into the details of various other fundas that the author puts acrosss. The book is priced at around 400 bucks. Do read it, it's worth it.

For people like me.. it was a huge morale boost. :) Though i did not ever work hard... i still can say, it ain't my fault.. The world just did not make my a "successful material" ;)

P.S: My plants are suffering from Photosynthesis, need money.. so click the ads... :P (Please don't sue me for plagiarism )

Sachin Mania

From all the die hard fans of sachin tendulkar -

"We dont love you bcoz of cricket, We love cricket bcoz of you"

To all those who idolize the genius named “SACHIN TENDULKAR”!!!

Few great things said about Sachin tendulkar by various personalities....

Hashim Amla

Nothing bad can happen to us if we're on a plane in India with Sachin

Tendulkar on it."

Hashim Amla, the South African batsman, reassures himself as he boards a

flight

=====================================================

Yaseer hameed

"Sometimes you get so engrossed in watching batsmen like Rahul Dravid and

Sachin Tendulkar that you lose focus on your job."

========================================================

"To Sachin, the man we all want to be"

- What Andrew Symonds wrote on an aussie t-shirt he autographed specially

for Sachin

======================================================

BBC on Sachin tendulkar:

Beneath the helmet, under that unruly curly hair, inside the cranium, there

is something we don't know, something beyond scientific measure. Something

that allows him to soar, to roam a territory of sport that, forget us, even

those who are gifted enough to play alongside him cannot even fathom. When

he goes out to bat, people switch on their TV sets and switch off their

lives "

==================================================

But the finest compliment must be that bookmakers would not fix the odds -

or a game - until Tendulkar was out.

=================================================

"Tuzhe pata hai tune kiska catch chhoda hai?" Wasim Akram to Abdul Razzaq when the latter dropped Sachin's catch.

=============================================

Brian Charles Lara:

Sachin is a genius. I'm a mere mortal.

==================================================

Mark Taylor:

"We did not lose to a team called India...we lost to a man called Sachin" -

Mark Taylor, during the test match in Chennai (1997)

===================================================

M. L. Jaisimha:

"The more I see of him the more confused I'm getting to which is his best

knock."

===================================================

McGrath:

"The joy he brings to the millions of his countrymen, the grace with which

he handles all the adulation and the expectations and his innate humility -

all make for a one-in-a-billion individual,"

=========================================================

Wife- Anjali:

"I can be hundred per cent sure that Sachin will not play for a minute

longer when he is not enjoying himself. He is still so eager to go out

there and play. He will play as long as he feels he can play,"

==========================================================

HAYDEN :

"I HAVE SEEN GOD, HE BATS AT NO.4 FOR INDIA"

====================================================

"Even my father's name is Sachin Tendulkar."

Tendulkar's daughter, Sara, tells her class her father's name after the

teacher informs them of a restaurant of the same name in Mumbai

=============================================================

KUMBLE :

I am fortunate that I've to bowl at him only in the nets!

===========================================================

Shahrukh:

Q:Who do you think as most important celebrity ?

Shahrukh: There was a big party where stars from bollywood and cricket were

invited. Suddenly, there was a big noise, all wanted to see approaching

Amitabh Bachhan.

Then Sachin entered the hall and Amitabh was leading the queue to get a grab of the GENIUS!!

=====================================================

Navjot Singh Sidhu:

India me aap PrimeMinister ko ek Baar Katghare me khada kar sakte hain..Par

Sachin Tendulkar par Ungli nahi utha Sakte..

===========================================================

Waqar younis

He can play that leg glance with a walking stick also .

=========================================================

A banner once said-' I WILL SEE GOD WHEN I DIE BUT TILL THEN I WILL SEE

SACHIN ' that quiet defines Sachin-The greatest.

====================================================

Sachin Tendulkar has often reminded me of a veteran army colonel who has

many medals on his chest to show how he has conquered bowlers all over the

world

Allan Donald

=================================================

And i remember reading in one of Allan Donald's interview. This interview

was in Cricket Talk

and 7-8 yrs ago.

I was bowling to Sachin and he hit me for two fours in a row. One from point

and the other in between point and gully. That was the last two balls of the over and the

over after that we (SA) took a wicket and during the group meeting i told Jonty (Rhodes) to

be alert and i know a way to pin Sachin. And i delivered the first ball of my next over

and it was a fuller length delevery outside offstump. And i shouted catch. To my

astonishment the ball was hit to the cover boundary. Such was the brilliance of Sachin. His

reflex time is the best i have ever seen. Its like 1/20th of a sec. To get his wicket better not

prepare. Atleast u wont regret if he hits you for boundaries.

=======================================================

Peter Rebouck - aussie journalist

On a train from Shimla to Delhi, there was a halt in one of the stations. The train stopped by for few minutes as usual. Sachin was nearing century, batting on 98. The passengers, railway officials, everyone on the train waited for Sachin to complete the century.

This Genius can stop time in India!!

=======================================================

NKP Salve, former Union Minister

This was when he was accused of ball tempering

"Sachin cannot cheat. He is to cricket what (Mahatma) Gandhiji was to

politics. It's clear discrimination."

=========================================================

Andy Flower:

There are 2 kind of batsmen in the world. One Sachin Tendulkar. Two all the others.

kya ye cup kahi nahi jaayega part 2

You might have seen the different versions of this ad in the tv... especially in star cricket channel...

people of different ages... saying.. "Aane de..." and the ad ending in saying that "ye cup kahi nahi jaayega"
And the one where saif and deepika promote two things... One their upcoming movie... Love Aaj Kal and The T20 world cup...

But do you seriously believe ki... ye cup kahi nahi jaayega... ???



Can Yuvi's heroics repeat the inaugural world cup feat ?


I dont think so.. atleast after the way india lost against west indies yesterday. One would say that west indies played a better match ... but .. indians didnt play well either... One if you see there are three contenders who are really looking dangerous.. and the probable cup holders for this year... no points for guessing.. it is south africa, sri lanka and west indies...


India... lacks the agility of the africans... pace of the west indies and the allround ability to win of the lankan tigers...

Though india has yuvraj, raina and rohit who are as good as any in the field... the others aren't as good..
though india has zaheer, ishant and pathan... who are good in seam and swing.. they lack the pace...like the edwards.. malinga and steyn
Though india has bhajji and ojha.. they cant match... the likes of murali and the mendis and botha..
India's batting is no good either.. expect for the heroics of yuvi and rohit... Dhoni has degraded as a batsmen in this form of the cricket... I dont understand why he has to change his batting style...and lose those shots where he could smash any ball out of the park at will...





Is Rohit the alter ego of Virender Sehwag or better than him?


One thing which is stange.. which if you wud have noticed... was that.. the last year when india went to the t20 world cup...in the league matches..india played against an asian team and ireland..and even in this year india played against an asian team and ireland.. and in the super eights.. india lost its first match against new zealand... and had matches against england and south africa... which it won eventually... here in this year india has matches against west indies... england and south africa... and it lost its first match...

Strange coincidence..ain't it...

So does this make.. india's chances any better... i doubt so..But.. u never know..

It has a long way to go... though...


P.S: Dont keep looking for kya ye cup nahi jayega part 1 post.. because.. there isn't any,,, :P

The day bengalooru ran...

i have been itching to write a post for more than a month... but ya you can call me a darned lazy guy .. but i have been between things and could not actually put across many events...

Let me start with one of the most significant event that happened recently... the sunfeast 10k run.. yes maadi.. i ran... i ran 10 km in staggering 1 hour 10 min.. (yes muddu.. it is 1 hr 7 min... but i just dont want to boast abt me :P) seems ordinary for an athlete ... ain't it??.. but i am no athlete.. and to complete it in that time is phenomenal..at least for me. This was my second sunfeast run.. the first was the majja run that i participated last year .. where i had run for 5.7 Km in 33 min... ( even that's not bad).... So this time when the ad came up.. i decided that i will run the whole 10kms... and damn i did it...An event which has had more than 15000 registrations and above 5000 people registered for the open 10k run had to have some colors and some panache...and so did it... Kingfisher and Sunfeast's synergy resulted in an event that had fun, fervor and fully charged running. The best part of the run was that civilians( ya i am talking about those babes.. :P) who were in and around the race cheered for everybody... who was running...And one more thing that caught our attention was the old lady who completed 10k few minutes after us who must be easily 60 yeasrs old.. Holy cow.. she was fitter than many of my age..ore even me...!!!... As usual the coordination and organisation of the vent was exemplary... refreshment stalls at every 500m ( i mean water and glucose.. not burgers and pani puris... :) ), medical camps at every other km.. and cheer girls... to cheer... To complete a race.. we needed inspiration and we got our inspiration by targeting two ladies... who were constantly trying to better us.. finally we did finsih at a better time than them.. but they gave some tough time over there... At the end of the run we got to know that 10k run was not much abt the physical fitness... but more about the mental toughness that you have to show...

One thing that annoyed me and muddu was that contrary to the last year, many people did not get their pictures uploaded on the marathonphotos.com... murali was at his slowest best and thus got captured 5 times...( he complains of a sprain at 6 km... and had to do a 4k walk to complete... the run.. :P) and goddamn we who completed the race at an avg speed of more than 9.5 kmph... did not even get a pic to show people that we came... we saw.. and we conquered...

and this was the day we ran with bengalooru...

lazy lamhe... part 2

a lot has happened lately and i as usual have been at my lethargic best not to pen down all of them and keep this blog updated.


All my roomies left to different places and left me all alone in bangalore :( { miss u all }, went to college and got some really nice pics... i have also been to an exhilirating trip to coorg, ran 10 km in 1 hr 10 min... {yeah i am a stud :) } ... and i have shifted to a new place in bangalore... i have seen some good movies.. read some nice books.. wanted to post a blog about sachin tendulkar too {I am a die hard fan of sachin... and most of you know that}..... but all these have to wait. .. err.. had to wait..

will update this blog soon....

Cycle

Every year what happens with you is mostly like a cycle, like a series of events which happen sequentially spread over a time of a year and that cycle changes from when you are kid to a teenager to a man who has responsibilities until you finally die. At least this is what I think. Over the years, the cycle has taken different shapes for me and many who are reading this.
I used to hate holidays when I was a kid and was very eager to see the school start so that we can have one more year of competitive knowledge thirst quenching. That cycle was interesting for me. The part of the cycle which is called holidays was the one that I did not hate though but did not enjoy very much. Then it was when I was college during my under graduation when we had 4 months of holidays per year which was some amount of time. But then the 4 years of college did not seem much of a time to pass by as events like ragging in the first year, getting adjusted to a new class and classmates in the second year, tours and event management in the third year, placements and parties in the fourth year took place. Time passed by, I did not even realize that I had to spend the rest of my life either by taking responsibilities or more responsibilities. This cycle was the best of all and never did I hate any part of the 4 years much.
But when you get an opportunity to study more, you would die to do that, for reasons which more or less obvious. Firstly you are doing that to earn more. And again you meet more people, you have 2 more years of fun and 2 more years where you do not have to earn money and spend, rather you have papa’ s money to spend :). So, I have been trying to do this from the past three years. But somehow the odds do not favor you and suddenly you are stuck in another cycle, another year of confused, complex living where you just go where the fate takes you. God, I hate this cycle. Having said this, aren’t many of you going through one or the other cycle, which has complications either less, equal or more than what I have? Sadly, you can’t escape it, neither can I. So, just relax, take a deep breath and keep cycling :).

Tour Diaries-1

Antara gange.... hmmm..let's see... the idea to go here all started an hour before we actually started... which might seem stupid... but actually was worth more than what we really expected...

the idea of going somewhere started a week back with the most of the discussions driven crazily by muddu. At first, we were all game to go to Skandagiri, which is a damn good hill trek and a nice spot to catch the glimpse of the early sunrise... two of our team(rampi and rp...for convinience .. i named the people in the photo) were already there and thus thought it would be a redundant effort for all of us to go there..( though i am bit sad that we did not make it to skandagiri.. i am glad that we made it to antara gange...)



we started on a saturday night... in fact to say..it was the early hours of sunday ... at around 12... i took uma's bike... (my room mate... and no uma is not a girl...it's uma shankar)... fuelled it at the nearest spot and we 8 ( me, muddu; rampi,rp; kasyap,jp; macha, murali) hit the roads... at around 12:30 in the morning... the ride to antara gange.. was scary.. as the roads to that place were all under construction and with the heavy truck vehicle traffic .. it was hard to drive at more than 50... (for me)... we stopped at a near by dhabha to fuel our stomachs... i as usual had a cup of tea... ok..two.. to get going....

funny things happened enroute...macha... forgot to actually turn on the lights of his bike.. and all the way was complaining of bad light... and murali was scared...because macha has some history with his bike...rampi and rp encountered with a local police who reprimanded them for the very idea of going on a night trek to that place...

at last we reached the place at 3:15 and the we were looking for the way to start our trek.. we dint have a clue where to start it from.. neither did we find a potential start point in that night... all we had was 4 torches and 8 of us... then we saw ... two ghostly figures walking towards us... actually they really looked like ghosts from a distance... and when asked if we could go ahead and start the trek... one of them was really serious and asked us not to start that... in arundhati movie style... which mr murali.. by the way... has copied very well...



but then ... this another guy turned up and he encouraged us to start our trek.. and with the torches we begin our trek up hill. it was a good trek...with the torches.. and we reached up hill by an hour.. then at around 4:30... then we did try to explore some places over there .. as the uphill part was like a small village... but we were dead scared.. as a herd of dogs almost chased us.... from no where... and some how were out of that hitch.



next thing we did was to find... a nice to place on a hill top to watch the sun come out and dazzle us.. which it did..eventually...

overall the tour was damn good... and a night trek worth remembering...


and in the end... pradeep and bhanu... dont tell mom that i went there on bike... she will kill me...

sweet syllables....

Nothing great from side... just wanted to post lyrics of one of my favorite songs


O cheliya naa priya sakhiya ....
Movie: Premikudu

o cheliya na priya sakhiya chey jarenu na manase
e chota adi jarinado aa jaade marichitine
nee andelalo chikkookoondani nee padamoola cheritine
premante enni agachatlo mana kalayika telipinade
na goondelalo prema paravasamai iru kannulu solenule

o cheliya na priya sakhiya chey jarenu na manase
e chota adi jarinado aa jaade marichitine

eepoota cheli na mata ika karuvaipoyenule
adharamu udharamu nadumoona edo alajadi regenoole
veekshanalo nireekshanalo ara kshanamoka yoogamele
choopulanni ventadinattu madi kalavaramayenoole
idi swargama narakama emito teliyadoole
ee jeeviki jeevana maranamu nee chetilo unnadile

o cheliya na priya sakhiya chey jarenu na manase
e chota adi jarinado aa jaade marichitine

kokilamma nuvvu sai ante ne padenu sarigamale
gopurama ninu cherukoni savarinchenoo nee kooroole
vennelamma neeku jola padi kali metikelu virichene
veecheti chali gaalulaku terachapai nilichene
na asala oosule chevilona chebutane
nee adugula cheragani guruthule prema charitalu antane

o cheliya na priya sakhiya chey jarenu na manase
e chota adi jarinado aa jaade marichitine
nee andelalo chikkookoondani nee padamoola cheritine
premante enni agachatlo mana kalayika telipinade
na goondelalo prema paravasamai iru kannulu solenule

o cheliya na priya sakhiya chey jarenu na manase
e chota adi jarinado aa jaade marichitine


ain't they beautiful lyrics....??

India Calling ...

Need an Oscar???... come to the east .... Slumdog has revealed just a few aspects of Indian cultures and poverty at its best. You will find more...

Pinki smiles is one other documentary on India which has won the director an Oscar. Centuries ago, many travellers and foreigners came to india as it was called the golden bird... "Sone ki chidiya"... And they thought they looted everything from india... the britishers, the portugeese.. the mughals..

Nope.. they were wrong ... India still has a tremendous potential to be exploited.. and no it is not it's riches that i am talking about... it's the mediocrity... that the world is trying to cash upon ...

I feel slumdog is a decent movie but it is over rated way above it's standards.... and it has won 8 oscars.

And Anil kapoor says.. "Fantastic!!! Can you believe it??"...

No i don't... As many other indian directors and actors would agree that there were many other great movies that Indian cinema has come up with,,,

The likes of black, swades, taare zameen par, lagaan, ab tak chappan... are rarely acknowledged in the global arena..

Million other rahman fans would agree with me that he has produced better songs than these..
I agree that... the hard work has payed off...but i feel that... the music scores for the original indian movies should also be nominated for the awards tantamount to the oscars...


In these tough times of recession... if you want to have bullish run... come to india... :)

Random observations

Random Observations:

I solicit the readers, followers of this blog not to expect any correlation between the posted observations...( i know this is redundancy as the topic clearly mentions..."Random Observations"...but still... bolne mein kya jaata hai...). this post is intended to be a big one as i have taken long time to write a new post...


1) I have recently completed the book "Between the assassinations" by Aravind adiga and it is a not complete let down but a bad second one after a good debut. The name of the book is in no correlation with the content and it would have been better if the author named it as "Kittur days". The two assassinations mentioned in the title of the book are that of Indira gandhi and rajiv gandhi. I am not sure whether the incidents are real life incidents btween these to incidents but the content was surely not comparable to White tiger. The story is very much similar to the R.K. Narayan's Malgudi days. I am a very big fan of Malgudi days.. so might be many of you, so i found the book by adiga a bit interesting. The narration as it was in white tiger, very good in this book too. I would rate it 2 out of 5 and recommend you to buy Malgudi days than this one as it is much cheaper and much better.



2) Recently, i have been to warangal, my native place and have been to few temples. due to the unavailability of bike, i had to travel in an auto rickshaw. I have observed that the margins that they strive so hard for are in the range of 1-2 rupees per ride. It has been the same always, but as i have been staying in bangalore for the past 16 odd months, i have observed how totally contrasting the two regions are. I accept that the living standards are very high in bangalore, but margins of 15 bucks(average) per ride in bangalore is really very high. Hardly any auto rickshaw driver in bangalore agrees to abide to the rules of the meter. Time may come when.... the only customers in bangalore malls will be auto rickshaw drivers going for pepe's and wrangler's and chilling out in coffee day's and barista's.
Hope in the times of recession (and due to reduction in the global crude oil prices) at least the prices of auto charges come down.



3) The above pic is from the train from bangalore to kacheguda, which i captured in my mobile camera. It is sheer negligence of the railway department and this lax can be very dangerous. the dc power outlet where there is a facility to charge the mobile phones was kept completely open. This happens to be just beside the sink and rest rooms and thus can be very dangerous. I incidentally warned one of the co-passangers of the peril as he was about to rest with his back towards the dc power outlet.


4) In the wake of the recent developments in karnataka and the actions by sri ram sene(SRS) in mangalore, the chief Pramod muthalik has been arrested and the same person has been released on bail after 2 days. He happens to make a statement yesterday in CNN-IBN that he has plans to ruin Valentine's day in bangalore. He says "Pyaar karne ke liye ek day nahi chahiye. Aaj karo, abhi karo, kabhi bhi karo (You don't need a day to celebrate love. Do it whenever. It's a feeling, why a day?)".....

I have utmost respect for the indian and hindu values, but this kind of moral policing is not just. I believe that the traditional values of India have been and will be carried generation after and generation and there is no doubt about it. But we have to welcome different traditions into our system. It is absolutely the right of an individual how he wants to lead his life , ofcourse not disturbing the communal harmony, and Amen!(So be it!)....

The statement made by muthalik can be easily countered that any other festival in india which are celebrated with great enthusiasm and shraddha.. can be celebrated on any other day.. why have specific dates to do that. For example dusherra which is celebrated on the name of the victory of good over bad... can be celebrated on any other day... why celebrate on that very dashami of the year....



Many more incidents to discuss.... but.. i shall pen down my thoughts...soon..in another post... Till then.. Have a nice time.. Aloha!