Minutes of Mind (Minuti di mente !)

Happ New Year 2008

2008-01-01T14:42:00.000+05:30

Happy New Year Blokes! What an year 2007 was! Hope 08 will be equally good to everyone.

OSO - Brilliant, Simply Brilliant !

2007-12-04T13:20:00.000+05:30

The stats are officially out, OSO a.k.a Om Shanti Om is the biggest Indian grosser of all time. The loud one pager ad in times of India confirms this news.
The entire OSO teams deserves applause for they are also the biggest conmen of all time! Look what they have achieved! They could sell the old wine in new bottle! Old and routine "reincarnation" based bollywood script, mediocre songs, equally mediocre acting and still it is the biggest grosser! Bravo. How stupid of us to have fallen for this scam.
But, honestly I am one of the admirers of this movie! I liked it, call it a slick spoof on Bollywood and et all if you wish, but it was entertaining. OSO's main stay was -what else, its age old script! Thats what real Bollywood movies are made of it, its their USP. They got it right.
However, I hope I dont fall for a similar trick from the stables of Farha and SRK again. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me!

Winds of change!

2007-12-03T13:09:00.000+05:30

Since last few months (or is it since I touched the dreaded age of 30 ?) I have seen a marked difference in my reading habits. Like age, even that has matured:) Or maybe it's due to lack of wider choice in my present library which is so poor as compared to my earlier one. It's really hard to say. But albeit poor, my library has a collection of classics. There are rows of books with yellowed pages which are any true book lovers' delight. I have always loved reading fact better than fiction, the last fiction I read being Da Vinci Code and last episode of H. Potter. Pretty mundane and commonplace reading, ain't it? But wait, this has changed.
Since there is nothing particularly interesting to read at my library all I do is randomly scan the book shelves during my weekly visits. But during one such aimless mission I hit upon a shelf of books related to ancient history, India and especially auto-biographes which are indeed my weakness. I had discovered an old treasure! Over weeks I devoured most of the books from that shelf. Following is a summary of the myriad reading done in last few months. Surprisingly, I have read most of these seemingly boring books at un-earthly hours (around 3AM!) thanks to the vigil we have to keep for our sweet pie daughter! Here's the list for the record:
1. Life and times in British India : This book chronicles events and history from 16th century when British first landed on shores of India and until about 1857 when the Queen of England became true empress of the sub-continent. It explains the day-to-day life of Europeans in India during that period with real life stories.
2. Lives of Indian Princess: This book, written in the seventies is extremely well researched and contains first hand interview based accounts of he last few living prince and princesses from the erstwhile princely Indian states under the British rule where they describe the royal past and life styly of their "illustrious" families. It has many rare photographs, some as old as early 1800. It feels almost surreal to read the exotic lives which our ancient kings lived, but at the same time this book was an eye opener that Indian Princess were actually allies of the British and were responsible for their elongated rule in India and they deserved every bit of raw treatment they received from Nehru and Indira's Congress which snatched away their privy purses.
3. Baburnama: I pledge to give a reward to anyone who can complete reading this autobiograpgy of the first Mughal emperor, Babur written in 14th century!! Never in my life have I read a more boring book. The translator himself has written a note inviting readers to drop passages from the book if they feel sleepy:-) I promptly returned it well before its due date. But this book is the only surving literature from that era and describes in great detail day-to-day life of the Mughal emperor and his lineage of that bygone time. A true Indian treasure. The only other boring book which can compete this is Hitlers Mein Kampf!
4. Ancient Egyptians: This book chronicles the history of Egypt from 3000 B.C onwards and covers overview of all important Egyptian Pharaohs and building of Pyramids. I now know exactly who Tutankhamun (King Tut) is!
5. Ancient Indians: This book was another eye opener on the real history of ancient India. I have been raised in my child hood on a staple diet of Amar Chitra Katha, which I believe is the best kiddo book series. It introduced me to ancient, medieval and modern India very early in my life. However the series has a serious drawback that it is based on popular folklores rather than well researched historical facts. This is where Ancient Indians opened my eyes to the hard fact that our great country had lost it greatness as early as 300 B.C, since then it has been ravaged and ruled by foreigners. The last true Hindu king was Ashoka. The books covers summary of our ancestors from 7000 B.C onwards!
6. Ancient Romans: This book is not as impressive as the other two. But it served the purpose by introducing the Roman ancient civilization and their quite modern governance of that era which provided, roads, canals, national laws and even a senate!
7. High Adventure: This auto-biography by Sir Edmund Hillary describes his adventures in Himalaya including his and Tenzings conquest of Everest. It is written in great detail and you climb every step along with him on that behemoth while reading the book. Deep in my heart I have always wanted to be a mountaineer, but my fragile high altitude worthiness never allowed to me attempt that profession. My love at first sight for the mountains began in high school when I trekked 3500 mts Kedarnath peak. The scary Himalaya instantly attracted me, but that love was short lived because by the time I finished my trek and spent the night in sub-zero temparatures at the temple on the peak it was clear that my physique is not made for those altitudes. Though I am quite immune to cold climes, altitudes of over 3500 mts are different game altogether!
8. Our Everest Expedition: Ths book by Sir John Hunt, who was the leader of the expedition in which Hillary and Tenzing conquered Everest is another text book of montaineering. It teaches the planning and leadership skills required to climb such mountains. These expeditions can last for about 6 months from start to finish! So meticulate planning of about one year is a must!! The photographs and trekkers maps are invaluable and of antique value.
9. Ascent of Nanda Devi: This book, printed in 1936 and last issued from the library by someone in 1942 (before I issued it) is yet another text book of mountaineering and describes the first ascent of the in-approchable Nanda Devi by H.W Tillman and his team. From mid 1800 to 1900, Europeans spent lot of time surveying and mapping Himalayas which attracted many talented Alpine mountaineers who were hungry for high adventure. Tillman was one of them. His description of their 3 month trek to the base of the mountain is simply engrossing. The ascent was quite easy as compared to the trek. Nanda Devi was long considered un-reachable but Tillmans team found a way to reach the mountain and also climbed it. All these books introduced me to great mountaineers like Eric Shipton, Hillary, Hunt , Tillman who were real pioneers with lions hearts who dared to climb the Himalayan peaks which remained virgin for so many million years! A recent series on Discovery called 'Everest' which showed the most detailed videographed expedition under leadership of Russel exposes how Everest is now a tourist spot! With the kind of technology available any Tom, Dick and Harry can climb Everest these days. The likes of Russel are actually running a tourist company by helping a legless clmber, 70 year old man and a asthama patient to climb Everest using latest technology! The age of fearless and serious Himalayan climbers is long over.
10. Five past midnight: This book is written by one of my fav historical writers, Dominique Lapier (who wrote City of Joy and Freedom at Midnight) on the worst indutrial tragedy which occured in Bhopal on 3rd Dec 1984. Till date, all those responsible are roaming free and justice evades those 30,000 lives lost due to it. Its a very well researched book which raises goose bumps when you read the chilling accounts of people who died fighting for breath on that fateful night. My parents told me that just about a day after that incident we were on a train which passed Bhopal! What if we had been one day earlier? Probably you would not have seen this blog!

There are still many books waiting to be read from that shelf. But for now its goodbye and G'night

Signing off,
~Amit

15 Nov 2007 !

2007-11-21T09:11:00.000+05:30

15th Nov 2007 heralded the arrival of a very integral part and parcel of my life! My daughter and my bundle of joy! She's such a darling. This blog may soon be splashed over with tits and bits of my parenting experiences ;-) They are really blogworthy subjects!

Saawariya review !

2007-11-12T07:38:00.000+05:30

He he he haa haa haa ho ho hooooo....

Got it?

Smile and bear, if you dare watch it.

~Amit

Nuovo aspetto (New Appearance) !

2007-10-30T04:32:00.000+05:30

Was quite bored with my old template. And always wanted to give my blog a touch of everything Italian. Fortunately Blogger had one template to suit my needs, so I settled on this one which gives a nice antique paper look to my blogs, very Italian rennaisance-ish look right? Anyway my blogs tend to get antique very soon since I am not updating them often. And moreover I am into "old" things these days (mainly books). More on that soon.
Till then Ciao!

Craig Venter - New God ?

2007-10-21T20:56:00.000+05:30

Craig Venter, the name doesn't ring any bells for a layman. I too heard of him recently. He is credited for his pioneering effort in sequencing the human genome few years back. I read a news about him in the news papers recently and was shocked by what he and his team claims to have achieved or will soon achieve. Its seems his team has built a synthetic chromosome out of laboratory chemicals. Though these are uncomformed reports it dawned on me that this discovery implies that he can create the first new artificial life form on Earth!!
Here is the extract from the news paper report - "American biologist Craig Venter used his knowledge of the human genome to create Mycoplasma laboratorium, a chromosome that is 381 genes long. When transplanted into a living cell, it is expected to take control of that cell and become a new ‘life form’. Until now, scientists have managed to take the genome out of one cell, put it into another cell and create an altogether new organism. But nobody knew how to create the genome itself. Venter just did that. "
This discovery, if true, will allow "Him" to play God. In time, "He" may be able to experiment with various life forms and can create hedious creatures as we see in ET based movies or create human beings who look like Roman Gods and Godesses.
I am a "limited-aethist". What it means is that my belief in God starts where science ends. There are still zillions of unsolved mysteries of nature which may force one to believe in Omnipresent God at some point. But "creation of life" was one such mystery which I always believed was as unsolvable as "is there after-life". Craig Venter and his team may be on the path to solve this mystery and redefine our concept of God. Who knows some day even human babies will be "made-to-order" in laboratories! And China, the manufacturing hub may overwhelm the world with its low quality "life-form" :-) So I sincerely wish "Him" bad-luck. Hope "He" doesn't succeed. Human life will then be so farcical. What will be difference between us and the "made-in-china" merchandise on display in Walmart?

(Btw, is the saffron brigade listening? Guys, it is not too late to change your concept of God and give up the resolve of building the financially unviable Ram-Setu bridge)

R.I.P Roger Palmer

2007-07-31T11:03:00.000+05:30

Donno, how many of you still remember this stylish and awesome blues singer of the 80s -Roger Palmer. Roger is best know for his song "Simply Irresistible" which had turned into a Pepsi jingle. But there's another song of him, which I had completely forgotten and accidently came across on You Tube recently and I was bowled over once again- "I didn't mean to turn you on" is a blue print of sheer coolness. Roger Palmer at his best. What kind of man can sing this song and boast this kind of effect on Women ? Hear and see it on You Tube to believe it! But I also read in comments that he is dead now! Poor soul...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9P2hoO088lc
Here's how the lyrics go:

When I took you out I knew what you were all about
But when I did I didn't mean to turn you on

Now I bring you home
You told me goodnight's not enough for you
I'm sorry baby I didn't mean to turn you on No, I didn't mean to turn you on

You read me wrong
I wasn't trying to lead you on Not like you think I didn't mean to turn you on

I know you Were expecting a one night stand
When I refused I knew you wouldn't understand
I told you twice I was only trying to be nice Only trying to be nice Ooh, I didn't mean to turn you on

Babe now why should I Feel guilty 'cause I won't give Guilty 'cause I won't give in
I didn't mean to turn you on Ooh, I didn't mean to turn you on

When I took you out
I knew what you were all about
But when I did I didn't mean to turn you on No, I didn't mean to turn you on

I didn't mean to turn you on.... (REPEAT TO FADE )

May God forgive the piracy these U-Tube fellas promote and bless their noble souls! Thanks!

~Amit

Reservations Vs Merit

2007-06-15T03:09:00.001+05:30

I have never written about "casteism" in my blogspace. It is a very popular and blogworthy subject and thousands of blogs have been written over it. I am just adding my own. A very long one! The recent "Gujjar Vs Meenas" riots in Rajasthan were the catalyst in nudging me to vent my frustration. For the un-initiated, the core issue is that Gujjar's want to be "downgraded" as "scheduled tribes" just so that they can get a share of the pie called "reservations" and "affirmative action". Meenas already "enjoy" that "proud distinction" and obviously do not want to share their spoils with the Gujjars. Hence the riots.

This incident should have been a very big source of embarassment and also eye opener to all those politicians who are championing "reservations" as a tool for eradicating social inequality in my country - India. This blog is an open letter to Hon. Indian minister for HRD, Mr Arjun Singh who I percieve as the current representative of the entire reservations brigade for the purpose of this blog. I should also mention that I belong to the so called "upper castes" and I might be a very ignorant intellectual on this subject but these are just my personal views, whether right or wrong, to accept or reject it is your choice.

Sir,
With the Rajasthan incident as the backdrop, don't you think that it is time to reconsider the merits or de-merits of your strong opposition to withdraw reservations for the "creamy layer", and from instituions of higher learning (read IIM) and private companies (read IT companies)?

Let me place my view points in perspective vis-a-vis yours :

I am Not opposed to reservations if they are designed to help ONLY the needy. My definition of needy is a "person who is oppressed, is poor by Indian standards i.e lacks basic necessities like food shelter and clothing education and finally, lacks access to internet, because then he cannot read my blog and understand his or her rights". In a nutshell reservations must be made available only to the needy and not necessarily to a person belonging to so called "lower caste".

I remember reading your comment somewhere about reservations that it were not incorporated in our constitution for the purpose of upliftment of poor but instead as a tool to eradicate the social inequality. I fully agree with the spirit in which this dictum was written by our national forefathers. HoweverHowever I am now 100 percent sure that our honorable forefathers NEVER foresaw a situation similar to what we recently witnessed in Rajasthan. It never occured to them that the very people for whose upliftment they were struggling would one day desperately want to remain classified as "downtrodden"and all because of this "reservations" policy. Oh I wish they were alive to see this rotten fruit of their labor!

Sir, did it occur to you why this anti-climax happened ? I think I know few reasons why. Listen.
My simpleton 2-dimensional belief is that when ancient Indians flourished they never meant to create caste based society, it was supposed to be a role based society. A potter, a blacksmith, a king, a knight and a teacher are some role based examples. Very logical indeed in those stone age days. Over the years, the teachers, by virtue of learning and Kings by virtue of power flourished and progressed well beyond other fellowmen. The "vaishya's - business men" did not really become "Brahmins" but due to virtue of richness were not really considered "Shudras". The people left way behind in the race were potters, blacksmiths etc, basically unskilled labourer class who finally grew into "lower caste". This disparity slowly evolved and turned the entire society into caste based where somesection of society called themselves "upper cast" and rest as "lower caste". Some of these ancient people nowbelonging to "upper caste" wrote the dictats of the Hindu religion and the vedas and everyone else simply followed it. Thus the one-way wheel of religion and caste was set in motion. Give or take some from this story but I believe thisis the bottom-line of our caste based society. If you need a modern equivalent of this evolution cycle just look at the economic disparity brought by IT revolution, people working in IT can afford the sky while similarly placed public servants cannot! One day this will turn us into another "Class" based society! Who knows....

Note the glaring absence of "omnipotent" GOD from this story. I dont want to complicate it by adding the 3rd dimension that it was GOD who created upper caste (Brahmins) from His forehead and Lower castes (Shudras) from His feet and blah blah...

Presently, it is a known fact that Hindu Religion and Vedas cannot be re-written. It is therefore IMPOSSIBLE to completely eradicate casteism from psyche of Indian people belonging to both castes simply because the provision to upgrade someone from lower caste to upper caste DOES NOT exist in Hindu Religion or Vedas!! So you have to be born a Bramhin to belong to upper caste and if you are born in a lower caste, you are done for life that way. No matter how many reservations you reservefor the lower caste. UNFORTUNATELY this distinction will always remain in one form or other. Period.

So then, what is the real "solution" to this problem? I feel it can only be two pronged:
1. Abolish reservations based on caste, instead make it available only to economically backward. Because as we have seen in Rajasthan it only encourages people from "Lower Caste" to be proud of themselves but it does not really help abolish casteism!
2. Encourage social equality in a very social way, namely through MARRIAGES. Encourage inter-caste marriages AND announce HEAVY reservations for any FAMILY which is wedlocked from lower and upper caste. Provide police and legal protection to such families from harassing and opposing parties.
My challenge to you Sir, is the above. Can you pass laws to make and promote inter caste marriages? Do you have the political guts to incur the wrath of so called "upper caste" and cajole or lure grooms or brides from upper casts to wed someone from lower caste? Only when this is achieved the real social equiality will return to our society. Any other solution is farcical and only politically motiviated.

Now you may call me a dreamer to even believe that such inter caste marriages will gain acceptance. To this I would once again point you back to Rajasthan episode. What Gujjars are doing is out of greed, and greed comes naturally to us Indians !! So if you dangle the reservations carrot to "Upper caste" for marrying their children into lower caste I am sure atleast 8 out of 10 will fall for this carrot sooner or later. Maybe even I would have, had you shown me this carrot before I got married!! The reservation benefits will be obvious and lucrative enough to bend even the most adamant. Divide and rule, buy them if you cant mend them! Havent we learned from Britishers? You may question about the quality of emotional bonding which such marriages born out of greed will have. But that is something we can try risking. Boys and and girls from upper caste will surely think twice before they fall to their greed and they will be mentally prepared before they wed into such marriages. Even if this does not happen in large volumes at least a time will come when even people from upper caste who dont agree to do it themselves will atleast not look down upon other who embrace it. It may take decades but will SURELY succeed. With your current approach, it will never succeed to remove the equality even if it may help people from lower castes to become rich. And that is not what you really want! I believe if my solution is achieved we will not only achieve social equality but it will also promote a merit based society and help the really needy -the economically backward! Its a win-win situation for all. I urge all to think over it seriously.

Say NO to reservations and Say YES to MERIT. Our country needs Merit badly.

~Amit

Domestic Tension !

2007-05-26T21:02:00.000+05:30

This blog was supposed to be updated weekly. Hence the name weekinmylife. But looks like I will have to change the name to monthinmylife or even quarterinmylife :-) Anyway..."I was busy ay work" is as socially acceptable excuse as "I am running half an hour late" these days as. But I must make sincere efforts to keep this blog active. Hence here is an interesting tit-bit of a blog-worthy subject that I came across in last few weeks:

An Iraqi immigrant Wafaa Bilal in US who is a new age live artist has put up a very innovative exhibit to protest US war in Iraq. The exhibit is called "Domestic Tension". Basically it consists of a small room where Bilal has locked himself up since last few weeks. He feeds live video of himself over internet (www.wafaabilal.com and www.crudeoils.us) 24X7. And now the real crux of the exhibit: The webcam acts as the view finder of a paintball gun! So viewers can see him online and move the gun left or right (not up and down) and shoot him with paintball pellets at will ! So there will be two categories of viewers, one who wish to shoot him and others trying to save him by pulling control and turning arond the gun away from these trigger happy men.
The idea of the exhibit is to show the world the sadist ways of US military might which can shoot at will from thousands of miles away at some target which they cannot see and hear. The light bulb moment came to Bilal when he watched an interview of a US soldier sitting in Colorado shooting missiles remotely in Iraq which he doesnt even know for sure whether they hit intended target or innocent civilians. So civilians in Iraq live in constant fear of some bomb falling over their heads and that is the experience Bilal wants to live through by way of this exhibit. Bilal wanted to name this exhibit "Shoot an Iraqi" but his sponsors and the art gallery for which he works toned it down to "Domestic Tension". Also search for "paintball project" on YouTube for watching and hearing Bilal's daily video blogs.

So pick your choice "Shoot an Iraqi" or "Save an Iraqi"...
~Amit

Happy Holi !

2007-03-04T10:47:00.000+05:30

Happy holi to all ! Enjoy! Hope to come back here soon!

Las Vegas & Grand Canyon!

2007-01-24T03:46:00.000+05:30

Yet another comeback on the blog with yet another (very long) travelogue! Though it has always been my hobby to travel, but off late only travel and vacation seems to rejuvinate my sagging spirits. Earlier a bottle of beer and music in a pub used to suffice. But that was in some past life. If old age is approaching fast on you then take my word, nothing can uplift your spirits like a visit to Las Vegas - the city of lights. Literally. Read on.

We started off with a flight from Chicago to Vegas where Dear A's bro joined us from Phoenix. Then we rented a car to Grand Canyon on a drive through beautiful desert landscape of Nevada and Arizona. On the way we halted to see the mighty Hoover Dam which is an awesome monster of cement and concrete blocking the course of mighty colarado river. We took a guided tour around its power station. It reminded me of a school trip to Koradi thermal power station in Maharashtra,India many ages ago. Then we continued onward to one of the natural wonders of the world - Grand Canyon! My "visited" list of worlds wonders is fast closing in to completion! It was a scary ride through the nite in the deserts with hundreds of miles of straight-line pitch dark roads with hardly any other roaring engine nearby. Dear A drove all the way from Hoover to Canyon, I was asleep most of the time. By the time we checked in the hotel it was quite late, but we still managed to sneak into the Jacuzzi to wash off weariness of the journey. Next day, we got up at the first light to watch the sunrise in the Grand Canyon. First halt was at a Gas Station and in the 10 min that it took me to fill the fuel my right hand thumb was frozen solid!! I actually had to use other hand to bend it. Then I looked at the exterior temperature meter in the car which showed -24 Celcius!!! Brrrrr.....But still we braved on and caught the sunrise in the breathtaking Canyon, shivering all the time. The snaps are worth a laugh.I really missed hot corn and road side tea stalls that you get in good ol' Lonavla:-) Rest of the day was luckily quite warm and sunny and we spent it seeing various spots in the Canyon. One gets a very natural and breathtaking view of a landscape formed about 6 million years ago. You can neither capture it in cam film or eyes. It can be stored only in your memory! I also bought a replica of an Red Indian musical instrument as a momento. I like to pick up one momento of every place I visit for my collection. Another sign of approaching old age:-))

By mid afternoon we left from the natural wonder to the man-made wonder - Vegas and reached there late evening. After a short catnap we were rested and raring to see the Las Vegas Boulevard - the main street called as "strip". We dressed up in our best Vegas clothing only to be spoiled by bulky winter jackets we had to wear over that:-( Winter in desert is such an oxymoron. Nature is crazy. Ain't it? The first night was, I must admit, badly planned so we basically did nothing more than hanging around and walking up and down the strip in the cold. But I actually wanted to do just that. Hang around and soak-in the spirit and spectacle of Las Vegas. So we just saw things around, visited miscelleneous places and retired by 3AM. The next two days were more organized as we now knew what to see and do. So by end of the trip we kind of covered everything there is to see in Vegas: The free shows, Bellagio fountain, Freemont street experience, Casinos, Buffets (Alladin notably), malls, and et all. We visited all the casinos on the strip in the 3 days but just kinda window shopped. I had come prepared with a resolve not to gamble. Visited Vegas and did not gamble? That would be a natural shocked reaction from you dear reader, but gambling is not my forte and I am never lucky enough to win anything free. But, I spent a small fortune seeing some of the outrageously expensive Vegas shows. If you dont have the big heart required for gambling, then the next best thing to do in Vegas is to watch these shows. Atleast you are guaranteed to win. Each casino has a trademark attraction in form of a comedy, erotic, magic or some other creative art form in their respective theatres and some of the shows have been running uninterrupted for several years. It's next to impossible to see all of them in 3 days, but top 3 on my list were "The Blue Man Group", "Bodies Exhibition" and "Bite".

I had read about the Blue Man Group show in some flight magazine years ago. This show is a must-see for all those in "creative art form" business or even otherwise. The show is basically a comedy without any dialogues. The actors are these 3 bald blue colored men who ooze creativity from every pore and the audience! Yes audience too is actively involved in the show. It cannot be described in words, the show entertains your visual and auditory senses. See it to belive it. Period.

The other unique exhibition that I saw is called "Bodies" and it exibits well preserved human bodies in various states of decomposition!! It would have been a hideous site if it were not for the tastefully arranged exhibits who once were living human beings like us. Visit http:/Also demonstrated are various "components" of human body in entirety or as cross-section dissections. Another hideous exhibit is pre-mature babies from 1- day old to 2 months including a pair of conjoined siamese twins! The best exhibit was a "skeleton" with just viens and arteries which look like a huge mass of entangled wires. Visit http://www.tropicanalv.com/ent_bodies.asp and see the image gallery to get an idea. It is undoubtedly the best exhibition in the world which leaves no bad taste but awe for natures best creation - the human body.

The 3rd show was called "Bite" which is basically a erotic + acrobatic show based on the theme of vampires and their hidden world. Though it was nothing like the Lido show that I saw in Paris, it helped "complete" our Las Vegas "pilgrimage": Been there and done that! We left back for Chicago on the 3rd day with a resolve to come back soon. One can never get tired of that place called Las Vegas!

Cheers!

Happy New Year

2007-01-06T21:20:00.000+05:30

I have been hibernating again! Hope to be back soon. Happy New Year Bloggers!

~Amit

The Dream Library - At Last

2006-11-04T01:58:00.000+05:30

Another long one.
Ever since childhood, I guess since age of 7 I was imbibed with the love for reading (But not exactly study books. I am honest you see!) All thanks to my mom and the lineage on her side. My collection has always had numerous comics, books, novels in all the three languages I read and speak. I have also been life member of various libraries throughout my life. But all of these libraries had one thing wrong with them - they were Not libraries. They were just a one or two room collection of books of some individual running that humble but God-sent place. Yes some real libraries did exist in some of the cities I have lived but either all of them were too far from my home and hence not accessible to the young and minor myself or they belonged only to members of some universities / societies to which I did not belong. Note that one never belongs to an univerity/college which has best infrastructure. Grass is always greener in the other campus, be it facilities or uhmm, gurls:-) Anyway, even when I was independent and eligible (read "Mr small money bags") to be member of such libraries or owned a vehicle for going that looonnnng distance to fetch a book, I was already entangled in the rat race life of an IT professional which left me with little or no time for persuing this hobby at peace.
Cut to circa 2006, I come and land in a subarb of Chicago and I chance upon this treasure trove and huge building which houses the local county library. More research reveals that it was numero uno library in its category of size last year and this year it still ranks in top 5 in entire US of A!! I lost no time in registering there as a life member and have since (3 weeks) been reaping fruits of this small fortune.
It happens to be that dream library I used to see in my dreams all these depraved years of my literary existence (OK. A little exageration never hurts anyone!) It has just two but really huge floors full of book shelfs neatly organized by every category of books that one can possibly imagine. Rows after rows of shelfs containing reference books, study tables, sound proof study rooms and a eerie pin drop silence litters the vast expanses of the library. Every nook and corner has a comfy sofa or chair to relax and read as long as you wish. No pesky librarian will ever come and bother you. That PC where you can look up, search and explore the online catalog of the library is never too far from you. Just search the call number of the book, wade through the shelfs and reach the book you want! Only a reading enthusiast knows the pleasure that this small treasure hunt gives! I was impressed by the number of PCs they have. They also boast of an internet cafe, a small pantry and a entire section devoted to the library of DVD/CDs of latest movies within the premises!! And the proverbial icing on the cake is that the service is amazing. Each member gets a digital membership card which makes check-out a hassle free process and believe it or not, you can check-out as many books as you want!! You don't need to go to library to if you want to renew the book! Do it from comfort of your bed and laptop through their neat website which does much more than renewals and reminders. And as if all this was not enough the building itself is located in a very picturesque place just 10 min drive from my home! I am simply in love with this place and dread the day when I will have to bid goodbye to it. There might be better libraries in the world than this, but it happens to be my first real library.
Since I have devoted so many pixels to this new abode of mine, a few words about "what I am reading" currently are also due! Well my current fav section in the library is "World War 2 Literature". I have read quite a few horrendous and rare books detailing the holocaust in last few weeks apart from some other. Then Asterix and Calvin N Hobbes are my other constant companions. Right now I have checked out "Tales from Arabian Nights" to lighten the dark mood which these war books have created and I have blocked Parvez Mussharafs latest: "In the line of fire" for my next check out.

Don - Remakes Work!!

2006-10-24T02:18:00.000+05:30

Usually you wont find too many moview reviews on my blog. It's because likes and dislikes in movies is a highly personal and individual choice. So if some slap stick Govinda humour can tickle one it may give seizures to another and like wise Sharukhs stammering may seem "style" to his fans but gives me the hickups:-) So this is my view of Farhan Akhtars "Don-The chase begins" you are free to have yours.
The verdict upfront is that Remakes, if not the Remixes, work well!! You will return fully satisfied with the wholesum entertainment that this thriller offers. Even if you spend $25-for-two as I did, it will be "fultu paisa vasool". Except Sharukhs repetitve acting style of menacing sneers, stupid smiles, slightly improved stammering and a desperate but inadequate effort at matching the original Don (Big B) everything else in the moview is well above average. It is slickly shot and can easily compete any above-average hollywood thriller.
Acting Department: Sharukh is routine. But his extremely trendy wardrobe and a fitter physique make him look ultra cool.He is a delight to (just) look at. Priyanka Chopra and Isha Koppikar are regular looking gangsta molls, hot bods with attitude and everything. Even their acting is believable. Boman Irani, though a misfit (due to his physique) in his role of a crime branch action packed DCP, is excellent as usual. He has a meaty role in the movie and does full justice to this opportunity. Then there is a surprise guest appearance by a leading actress for the main event item number - "Ye Mera Dil...". She fails miserably to oomph even an ounce of sexiness in the gyrating moves of the song which the original protagonist - The sizzling Helen could do even in sleep. But still she looks hot, what with those lost pounds which she badly needed! Om Puri has no role worth mentioning. Arjun Rampal, gets yet another role where is shown handicapped. Poor fellow, as if his handicap of acting talent is not enough!!
Music & Choreography: Considering that new "Don" is a remake, I did not expect new songs. But unfortunately Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy did add few soundtracks of their own and ended up diluting an otherwise excellent remix score. "Ye Mera Dil" and "Khai Ke Paan" have some new foot tapping beats. Udit Narayan did really well at the latter song. But the best part was the background score throughout the movie. It is inspired from the original Don but the music directors were successful at adding a hypnotizing lull to that. There is one particular piece which stills rings in my ears. Dance sequences in all the songs were a treat to watch. But the director cum script writer Farhan Akhtar has got the "set" and "situation" for the rustic holi number "Khai Ke Paan" entirely wrong. Its difficult to digest traditional "Bhaang mixed with milk" being available in Kaula Lampur!
Script & Story: THIS is the biggest plus and stronghold of the new "Don". For a change there is a main stream hindi cinema which has strong, gripping and flawless script which covers all other flaws mentioned above. The pace of the movie is just right, not too fast nor too slow. Gives time to digest while keeping you on tenterhooks until (literally) the last scene. Suspence is maintained well and even and is very hard to guess. Be ready for a double whammy!
The script has many deviations from the original one, which I believe does not qualify this movie as a version-2 but a real remake complete with makeover. Though it is a remake it has its own personality which refrains the audience from comparing it with original Don. And for this I raise my hats off to Farhan Akhtar. It was very intelligent of him to do so, because it frees his new Don from shackles and shadows of original one which otherwise would have been its own dejavu! Well done. Here, take your five stars *****
Now lets wait for Ramgopal Varma's Sholay!

Frogs in the (huge) well

2006-10-18T00:39:00.000+05:30

This is a long and maybe a boring post. So be warned.

I have been a regular newspaper enthusiast since childhood. I guess I started reading newspapers since the 7th grade and always had subscription to at least two of them - one in English and other local vernacular edition. That was always in addition to subscription to various magzines like Outlook and libraries. Some of the best papers I have been reading since childhood are The Hitwada, Navbhart, Dainik Jagran,Economic Times, Sakal, Lokmat, and ofcourse the Times Of India(ToI)which I prefer to call TOIlet paper these days. I would love to switch over to The Hindu which I have heard is a much better paper. I will never get tired of praising the benifits of reading a newspaper, especially Indian newspapers.
Thanks to the Brits for leaving us a gift, the lingua pura- English language which I feel is spoken in its purest form only by Indians these days. I see only "slang" and "spoken" English in US, UK and other tradionally English speaking countries. The worlds business language is now limited only to that - business, in form of ultra shorthand emails and crisp news items which sounds like notes from technical manuals. The poetry and prose heritage of English is found only in some rare novels now a days.
Anyway lets come back to the subject of this post again: The above gives a background to the audience that yours truly has been a regular newspaper reader.That holds good even here in US since I have subscribed to "Chicago Tribune". This paper rougly compares with Tabloids as far as dimensions are concerned and is so thick that I feel it is humanely impossible for anyone to ever finish reading the paper all in a day. Such a waste of paper and environment.In contrast,I find the size and dimensions of Indian newspapers perfect.
But that is not my key complaint. I wont mind such thick news papers provided they have some QUALITY news in them. One thing that I have noticed in all the developed countries that I have visited is that their media (Print as well as Television) is very country centered. For them international news is limited to natural disasters
(that too only if they are the size of Tsunami), nuclear explosions,big explosions,tiny explosions,diwali cracker explosion and of course those political turmoils which can be a "threat" to their existance. Everything else is immaterial and not news worthy.
And US seems to be leading the pack of such nations whose media believes in keeping their masses highly ignorant of happenings in the world other than those mentioned above and in their immediate vicinity and radius of about 50 miles. And this I believe is the root cause of the shock and awe an average american felt after 9/11 while he or she was left wondering why on earth would someone want to hurt their "peaceful" country so badly. It was only after that they woke up and took notice of existance of many other smaller muslim/asian countries and read about how their wrong foreign policies lead to a general discontent and discord against US in minds of these nations.
Had the media of these developed countries fed information about the issues facing the developing world, I believe at least the shock would have been less. How can anyone explain the Breaking News of "a mother and a child disappearing somewhere in US only to resurface later" being covered round the clock on CNN when there are many more important news worthy things happenings all around the world? Watching news channels and reading news papers here is a joke.I sincerely wish the media in US sets their priorities right and dishes out something interesting and informative to read in tomorrows paper. That may be a tall order considering the average inability of an american to comprehend issues not related to them! Alas they are the frogs in the Well who believe that they live in a ocean. Only difference here is that the size of thier country and economy is really oceanic so it doesnt really matter to them!

Clemency for Afzal ? - An unwilling NO

2006-10-04T04:07:00.000+05:30

Here is the reproduction of a reply that I gave to an opinion poll on a popular portal on the subject of clemency for Afzal who is facing the noose in the 2001 parliament attack case:

"I am usually against the institution of capital punishment due to the human values and principles that I have imbibed. However since many decades the so called freedom-fighters have been targeting India for the cause of "free Kashmir" and that this idea was fomented by Pakistan is a well known fact.Recent statements made by Pakistan Govt clearly indicates that "free Kashmir" is an already lost cause and all its original instigators have given up on the idea.So what they do next is to make "use" of local Indian youth by misguiding them through false propoganda and cashing on their poverty and unemployment. Even highly literate youth are easily tutored, not because they believe in the Jehadist cause but simply because literate people can think logically and all their masters need to do is spin their thoughts with consistant propoganda and thus make the idea of jehad seem very logical. Thus homegrown terrorist are born. Due to this, difficult times have set in for the country and tough times call for tough measures. It requires us to toughen our hearts, overcome the emotions and clench the jaw and give a nod to hang our own brethren who have gone horribly wrong, including Afzal"

Space Tourism & Blog!

2006-09-27T09:37:00.000+05:30

This blog of first women tourist in space, Anousheh Ansari is a must read http://spaceblog.Xprize.Org/.
I am sure you will be jealous of her just like I was when you read about her exploits in space. Well a millionairess can afford such expensive getaways. Sigh...There are some things which money can't buy and for everything else there's wishful thinking! (p.s: Did you note it's my parody on the master card punchline? I might have some blog coming up over my own master card).

Bad Writing? Naaahhhh

2006-09-21T06:00:00.000+05:30

Dear A asked me few days back why I tend to write long and complex sentences in blogs or emails in general which she feels average people may not understand. I took that as a compliment because I dont think I am that good a writer! Thanks to a link on Sidins blog I found a article on "awards for worlds most badly written sentences" which I showed to her in my defense. You can read about the awards here-> http://www.aldaily.com/bwc.htm. Some of these very serious and scholarly writings are actually nonsensical to the point of being hilarious. So if I compare my writings to worlds worst writings I feel good about my blogs! Gives me a tad bit more vigour to keep it alive and ticking!

Suicidal Instincts?

2006-09-04T23:47:00.000+05:30

How much ever I hate to reduce this blog to just a compilation of travelogues of little interest to others, of late this "trend" seems to be ruling the roost on this space. I would like this space to be used more for current topics which are my favorite. But alas...there's something called lazyness...
So, coming back to the title. Suicidal instinct is about an inherent trait which every human has though in different levels. Ability to kill yourself; one form of which is taking your adrenalin and testosterone levels to himalayan peaks so much so that your heart stops beating for some excruciatingly never ending seconds. What can motivate you to hurl yourself at 300Mph vertically up into the sky to a height of 420 ft and at 90 dgree incline saddled in a open chair on a train going up on metal rails with just a tight harness around you? Or what can motivate you to sit in worlds 3rd biggest and scariest roller coaster which takes you to some 250 ft high and drops at mind numbing speeds into a loop of roller coasters which swirl you around at death defying speeds? And to top it off you are also willing to stand in a serpentine queue moving at snails pace which takes at least 1.5 hours of wait only to experience these 30 sec ride and torture. Ofcourse it is your suicidal instict showing its signs of life!!

That very much sums up my and Dear A's trip to Cedar Point (www.cedarpoint.com) in Sandusky, Ohio yesterday. (Dear A also shares my penchant for thrill). Cedar Point boasts to be worlds best and biggest amusement park for 8 years in succession. It has 4 of the top ten roller coasters in the world, each scarier than the other. I was talking about "Top Thrill Dragster" and Magnum XL 200 roller coasters respectively in the description above which rank as worlds number 7 and 3 respectively. Unfortunately we could not do the worlds biggest and number one ride the "Mellinneum Force" due to lack of time and long waiting queues. But we also experienced "Raptor" which literally stretches your face skin back as it hurls you around in impossible twists and turns. But magnum is scariest of them all though Top Thrill Dragster simply scares the sh*t out of you just by looking at it. I had been to this place two years back as well and then I had chickened out of riding Top Thrill Dragstor, but this time I did it! We could not do Reverse Bungee jump due to lack of time and a small dis-agreement on its moneys worth :-(

Our day started bad, first we both and two other friends got up late and reached very late to the park only to find these long queues for each ride and could manage just one ride on Raptor by late evening. We were about to step into Top Thrill Dragstor when it was shut down due to mechanical failure (I though it was not in my destiny 2nd time in a row!) but just one hour before park closes at 10 PM we got to do both Magnum and Dragster! That rounded off the day well and happy for all of us. We had the fun and rides of our life. On the way back we had to drive 6 hours with sleepy eyes in the witching hours and finally reached safety of the home at 5 AM. On hitting the bed I just went into baby sleep but not before this thought - "How the hell I managed to do such suicidal things" I believe I have a lions heart and am game for such thrill, but still these death defying rides in one single day was stretching luck too far. But then what the heck, I enjoyed and then with a smile of achievement retired for the day. Been there and done that. Peace!

Will be back soon !

2006-08-20T10:01:00.000+05:30

I was off from this space for an extended period. Hope to be back soon :-)

Amsterdam!

2006-05-02T00:36:00.000+05:30

Yet another vacation and yet another Travelogue. Its little long and self-indulging.

We are just back from a 3 day trip to Amsterdam (27 to 30 Apr), the city of canals and known as the most tolerant country in the world. Sex, drugs, gays and lesbians are all perfectly legal here. You can just walk into any authorized coffee shop and order your spacewalk Hashis, Weed or Marijuana cake or jut smoke it the old style. Then there is the famed red light district complete with its exotic escorts sitting in shopping window. Interested in Window shopping anyone? Well, ofcourse I did not indulge in any of it thanks to the "you know what I mean" angry glare from Dear A! You know, there is some cross between me and this city, I passed it thrice before, planned a trip 3 times as a bachelor but still it evaded me. Fate wanted me to visit this city for bachelors only as a married man! So be it. I still made a perfect vacation out of it!

On Day-1 we visited Madam Tussauds Wax Museum, Amsterdam Dungeon (which depicts the atrocities and torture inflicted by raiders on the dutchland in 16th century, its enacted byy live dummies, its horrible, not meant for weak hearted.) Then we visited the Anne Frank house belonging to Anne Frank and her family. This Jewish girl is famous for her immaculate daily diary she wrote when she and her family were in hiding for 2 years in that house in a secret Annexe. Even the neighbors did not know for 2 years about their existance in that house! I am currently reading her diary which was later published as a book. Later in eve we vistited the Teaser club, the disco and pub chain famous for its topless waitresses and beer. Its works on the lines of Cayote Ugly. Later we had leisure walks on sides of many canals and also the red light district.

On Day-2 we started with a 3D movie showing all Holland attractions. It was a dream come true because we took the early morning show and theatre was empty with just two of us!! Then we visited Rembrandt (16th century dutch master painter) museum, Van Gogh museum (over 200 of original Van Gogh masterpeices) and the National museum showing the prime time of Dutch royality of 17th century. Later in eve we visited the Holland casino and tried our (rotten luck) on some tables. Then we had a romantic canal city tour by on a cruise. It must be heaven for those living in house boats in those Amsterdam canals. In late night we saw a live show meant for couples at one of the joints in the famed red light districts. Been there and done that! You cant miss the red light district in Amsterdam and say that you visited it!

On Day-3 we visited our prime attraction and reason to visit Amsterdam- The Tulip Gardens. The Tulips are in full glory in this season and we had a fortune to have a bright sunny day. Its the most romantic place and has to be experienced first hand to belive it. All photos are like picture postcards...perfect! Yash chopra made the Tulip feilds immortal in his romantic classic - Silsila. Though the tulip feilds (not the gardens! in Holland they farm variety of Tulips on miles and miles of land, its a sight to behold forever) were already cut to a large extent but we still saw a major part of it. Next we visited Madurodam, the minitaure to-scale model of all attractions of Amsterdam. Its amazing, you feel like King Kong in a toy city. Wonder why India cant have something like that. Its such a hit with the tourists!

Apart from this I must mention the lively ness of the city itself which manifests in the numerous coffe shops, bars, pubs and discos which can be found in every nook and corner of this city. Its always full of young party animals and the city itself never sleeps, its like one big party day and night. We also had the fortune to visit the city during the time when Queens day is celebrated in Amsterdam, its their yearly showpiece event celebrated this time on 29th Apr when whole city traffic comes to a halt as party animals, road side stalls, live music bands swarm the city which bears a look of one bug 24 hour carnival. It was simply amazing, not a inch of space to walk. It was full of revelers. The city smacks of beer smell for next 3 days! Amsterdam is one hell of a city to enjoy, married or bachelor. It has something for everyone. I wouldnt mind visiting it every year!

Down With Lido !

2006-04-23T20:32:00.000+05:30

The icing on the cake in our trip to Paris was a 'big-dent-in-pocket' but must-see hotspot of the famed nightlife of Paris - The Lido cabret on the Champs Elysees square (akin to the more famed but too crowded Mouline Rouge cabret). It was a formal black tie affair with a sit-down evening complete with champagne served with a flourish while the exotic and elegantly-nude dancers present various spectacular dance and gymnastics sequences on equally elaborate sets.

However after many breathtaking and awe inspiring sets they came up with a "eastern" (read Indian) dance sequence which had some nude dancers dressed like Lord Ganesh and the Deity Nataraja giving the backdrop of the imposing set for that sequence. I can understand their usage of dummy Elephants and may be even Nataraja (which I guess is a godess worshipped by dancers) in designing the sets. I can also understand other dancers dressed in mythological Indian dresses dipicting the Apsaras, because the beautiful Apsaras who used to dance for the Gods are mentioned in Hindu mythology. But neither the nude dancers were any Apsarsas and nor the audience were any Gods. So seeing Lord Ganesha in female form portrayed by boob showing whores was bit of a shock even for a mild atheist like me!! It was out of place and smacks of complete ignorance to cultural sensitivity of the French who boast of their religious tolerance. It was downright disgusting and deplorable and I strongly protest through this humble blog. Though I can try to do it myself, but I leave it to the numerous cadres of the saffron Brigade to book the culprits and bring an end to this sequence in this show (not the show ofcourse because other sequence were really good!!). I hope someone reads this and takes it up in Paris! I am a couch potato for doing all that.

This and all the further acts did not get any applause from us. Period.

Evenings in Paris !!

2006-04-20T23:25:00.000+05:30

I am just back from a 3 day vacation to Paris- the numero uno romantic place and the fashion capital of the world!! Me and A had a perfect spring vacation. Memories of the Eiffel, Louvre Museum/Mona Lisa, Champs Elysees square, Notre Dame, Siene river, Arc De Triomphe, Disneyland, Mouline Rouge, Lido, Renault F1 showroom are still fresh in our memorries. And so are the leisure walks on sprawling Parisian boulevards, fashionably dressed french babes and the evenings in Paris in open air bus which are well captured in about 900 odd snaps in my digi cam!!

Paris is a city you will never get tired of, its lively a any time of the day and has got romance in its air. Its fun to just walk hand in hand along the siene river and see the illuminated historic monuments in the evenings. Then there is so much to buy, see, eat and if there is nothing else to do then just travel in the parisian metro during non-peak hours. The metro is fun and it probably ranks the best in the world. I guess after our Italy trip this one would rank next best in our memory! Now we are planning to visit Amsterdam on the coming weekend, hope that turns out even better!

The let downs were the Mona Lisa which seems to be too small a painting for its tall fame and a bit of cultural in-sensitivity of the famous cabret of The Lido. Read the next blog for details.

The Toy Train

2006-02-12T23:56:00.000+05:30

How many of us have an attraction to the coochie cooing train when we were kids? I guess to some extent all. Every little boy (and some girls also) has a collection of toy cars and trains in the kinder days and I was not an exception. I too had my cache of toy cars and amidst them was this toy train which did the job of carrying around the cars and other assortement of toys from one room to other:-) This train was down to earth it had a dummy steam engine with about 3 bogies. It had nothing electronic about it. So I had to push it around while kneeling on the floor and all the time wishing that it somehow worked on remote control. This childhood fantasy never came true, but I did have the fortune to see the spectacle of one man actually using a real life train for real life purposes with remote control as part of his daily work! The train station in the city of my work place has a some manufacturing factory behind it and it requires train to transport its goods to and fro. The factory has its own locomotive shed and a mini railway station. There is this man who doubles up as driver, lineman, shuting man and signal controller all rolled into one. He uses a hand held remote control to shunt wagons and attach or detach them to the engine. He also runs along and changes tracks manually until he gets the sequence of engine and wangons behind it correct. It is such fun to watch this man working that almost every passenger on the railway station enjoys it while waiting for their respective trains. It is my favorite pastime in the mornings. I really wish this stranger of a hard working and lucky man who is living my childhood fantasy all the wishes!

The Baby Boy - 12 Feb 2006, 11.24 PM

2006-02-12T23:03:00.000+05:30

This blog is for the latest addition to our family and my brand new nephew, who was born on 12th Feb 2006 at 11.24 PM actually while I was writing a blog (the next one) :-) until named formally he will be known as 'baby' and will be the cynosure of all eyes. He will always have a special place in my heart. Love you baby and wish you all the good things in life!
Yours
Mama (maternal uncle!)

Music and Swear Words!

2006-02-05T00:41:00.000+05:30

Sounds like yet another indi-pop remix? No! This blog is about two songs, which seemingly are latest college and hostel anthems across India. One of them originates from Pakistan! After a long time I came across some rustic teenage humour which reminds me of the carefree college days and it was quite refreshing!

The first song "Sutta Na Mila" is by a pakistan based band called "Zeest" and has swear words like BC and MC used liberally:-) The second one, "G***d mein danda" is by XLRI band "Bodhitree". Its interesting to note that XLRI band also has some girls jamming on these words!! They also have other songs which are also ok....

Read more about the songs and download free mp3 from the links:

Sutta Mil Gaya-> http://www.jammag.com/etc/etcshow.php?art_id=21
G***d Mein Danda-> http://www.jammag.com/rock/show_rock.php?article_id=66

Rashmi Bansal too has covered them in detail. See the link to your right. Enjoy the songs, and just dont take them too seriously!

~Amit

Yuva!

2006-01-22T15:30:00.000+05:30

The Indian youth is breaking traditions and daring to explore new avenues, freeing themselves from the rigmarole routine of every average Indian household-> kindtergarten-high school-graduation-engineer-doctor-service-retirement (and a marriage in between)! We are going the Western way and for once, imitating a better trait of "doing-your-own-thing". Two such news I heard recently were Sidin, a fellow and already famous blogger quitting a dream consultant job after going through labour pains of IIM-A and deciding to become full time writer, and the other was about 5 ex-IITians who floated a political party called PARITRANA (www.paritrana.org) with idealogy that was depicted in Mani Ratnams experimental movie - Yuva (sans violence). Rashmi Bansal's - "youth curry" has covered both news in detail, so that spares me from re-writing a stale story. Look to your right for the links. My best wishes to both endeavers!
~Amitk

VIT Alumni Association Formed!

2006-01-15T23:05:00.000+05:30

I am an alumnus of VIT, Pune. I could have easily been an alumni of a much better known (at least then) competitor institute (OK, I will name it- PICT) but for a freak twist of destiny. But within a year of joining VIT all my regrets were gone. VIT raced and arrived neck to neck with PICT in just one year. So, for those unaware, VIT does have a good reputation of its own and I am proud of being an VIT alumni!
The news is that VIT is still doing good and it has also started a brand new initiative - "active alumni association" complete with well defined goals and objectives and a also a new dedicated website! My best wishes for its success! It offers further education programmes, free access to library, meeting point with other alumnus et all. It is really heartening to see your alma matter growing. But I do have some cribs, first, please paint that building and second, make all links on the website working!! While updating my profile on it, I encountered a question whose essence was- "in what way do you think VIT has contributed to you?". Honestly I was at loss of words for this one. It never occured to me to think seriously about it and figure out "exactly how" it has contributed to my career! I always thought that its not the alma matter but it is the "quality" of your peers and the competitive environment that they bring with themselves that shapes your future! Atleast that's my experience with my batch at VIT and even my secondary school. Had I had been an alumni of some big ticket brands like IITs or the IIMs it would have been much easier to say "I owe all it to you". But a lesser sibling like VIT contributing to my career almost as equally as an IIT/IIM could have done is really creditable. So on the hindsight, apart from the peers, the alma matter itself does seem to play a major role which one can't possibly define. I have left that question in the profile un-answered, will think about it and update it later!
Peace be upon you VIT, may your tribe grow!

Travelogue - Italy!

2005-12-31T14:28:00.000+05:30

We are back after a great tour of Italy. 6 fun filled days from 25 Dec to 30th and revival of some old memories of Italy. I will keep it short with just some highlights!
Day-1 (PISA)
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The leaning tower is still leaning as it has been since the 11th century. We also climbed it to the top and found that one really looses balance while climbing while climbing the 1st and 2nd floors!! What appalled me the most was the lack of security for a wonder of the world. Me and A had the fortune to see the tower at late night while it was raining and from a distance of just about 10 feet and not a single soul was around for miles probably. Quite romatic. Its like seeing Taj Mahal all alone on a moonlit night. But a thought struck me that in this world full of zealots isnt Italy too lax about safety of a monument so important both historically and for its tourism? Same goes with Colloseum in Rome, we saw that too from close quarters late into night with secirity almost non existent!
Day-2 (FLORENCE)
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This city is meant for people with an artistic bent of mind. Paitings and sculptures by the likes of Michaelangelo,Botticelli and Leonardo Da Vinci galore city's every nook and corner . But Michaelangelo's world famous "David" (of the David and Goliath fame) stands apart. This sculpture invokes a dumb awe. Its gracious to the core and personifies the perfection in the art of stone sculpting ever done by man. While in Florence I could not help but compare the artwork of Mughals which we see in our own country in places like Taj Mahal, Various Moghul palaces or the Dilwara temple in Rajasthan with the Roman architecture. To my un-trained eye, the biggest difference is that Romans believed in size, each and every Roman monument is huge,enormous and grand, whereas Moghul architecture is about fine art of extremely intricate stone work.
Day-3 & 4 (Rome)
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"Rome was not built in a day". You need to see Rome to believe this adage. The bloody history of Collosseum, the magnificient Palazzo Victoria Emanuelle-2, the trevi fountain and of course the St Peters Basilica of Vatican are all things worth seeing at least once in lifetime. The grand squares of Rome and ruined palaces scattered all over take you back in time when Roman empire was at its peak. On the flip side, Rome is very much like Delhi. Its full of pick pockets and Mafia. We had a incident of A's rucksack being probed by some pick pocket girl in a subway. Fortunately nothing was lost.
Day 5 & 6 (VENICE)
-------------------
I believe that Venice is also a wonder of the world and one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. It is ranked as the worlds second most romantic place after Paris. I celebrated dear "A's" birthday there on 29th Dec! Venice is known for its opulent palaces of 17th century and the opera's. And also for the most romatic "Gondolas", the beautiful San Marco described as worlds best drawing room by Napolean and the Rialto bridge which gives a great view of the Grand Canal. We also visited one of the glass factories of the famed Murano glass works and saw first hand the process of glass artifact making. The Murano glass is damn expensive and meant probably only for the rich and famous.

The trip was one of the best I ever had and we both will cherish its memories for many years to come!

Million Dollar Page

2005-12-31T14:20:00.000+05:30

This idea beats all dot.com ideas. Envy is the only emotion it invokes. Alex Tew, a 21 year old student from England came up with this bright idea just to sponsor his university education and today he posesses a cool one million dollar booty. All he does is to sell a 10X10 pixel area on his website, aptly named http://www.milliondollarhomepage.com/ to anyone who wants to advertise their enterprise with a logo! The result is a unreadable collage of logos which looks more like modern art. This sheer stupid idea has earned him millions. Sigh...I will try not to env him. You have a look at it.

In Quest of Zero !

2005-11-26T23:13:00.000+05:30

Yesterday on the train to Amsterdam (before it was cancelled..uggghhh...cant get over it yet) me and A happenned to meet a Portuguese gentleman on the train. He is a professor in Hamburg university and naturally knew a lot more about Goa, India and indian IT success story than a average German. While chatting he "demonstrated" his knowledge about Indian culture by telling me that Sanskrit was the first known langugae in world with advanced structured grammer and he also had read about ancient Indian literary great- Panini. To add to his knowledge and maybe little gloated with his flattery I boasted that Panini gave the world the numeral Zero. I was not sure if Panini or Arybhatta invented it, but knew that he would lap it up as a fact:-) I know Panini had something to do with sanskrit grammer and not math, but its such a old story..who cares...I was not even born then! But today I wanted to really check with Dr Google about invetor of zero and I was amazed to read that it is a debated issue amongst scholars and its NOT conclusive that India gave this world nothing - the zero! Zero was invented independetly thrice, the third time in India, which is debated. After reading many websites, I reached this website and found it really interesting. Read - http://www.mediatinker.com/blog/archives/008821.html I am still trying to search more on Google and will try to post when I find out the real history of Zero. Let me know if you do!

Not been there and not done that!

2005-11-26T22:58:00.000+05:30

There's some cross between me and Amsterdam. Thrice in last 4 years I went almost through that city but for some or other reason could not see it. This time me and A were prepared, with tickets, hotel reservation, backpacks and we also embarked on the trip but...as fate would have it, could not reach Amsterdam. The first snow of the season here was so heavy and un-expected that it put the entire Deustche Bahn(DB) railyway system out of gear. It was a crazy blizzard going all over north Germany yesteday night and our train got cancelled in Osnabruck. The service point redirected us to Munster and the service point their adviced us to go back home as there was no way rails would run and so we reached a city called Hamm. But their, I was really impressed with DB serivce, they not only arranged a 3 start hotel for our overnight stay and arranged for a return train back home today morning but they also refunded the entire journey tickets !!! Now Laloo, Indian Railways and even the airlines have a long way to go before they catch up with this kind of service...anyway, we returned back safe and sound today afternoon, it was nice free trip to 3 bundesland cities and a free overnight stay at cost of DB:-) "A" was also very happy since this was her first experience of a snowfall and that too so heavy! She is always lucky...I remember my first experience of snowfall in Italy 4 years back was quite a damp squib as compared to this.
But I have not given away the hopes, will keep a watch on weather and will catch the next possible train to visit Amsterdam, the happenning place know for its nightlife (probably next only to Vegas). Could not go there as a bachelor, but so be it:-)

Life in Deutschland

2005-11-06T20:15:00.000+05:30

For those who do not know, I am in Deutschland/Germany these days along with dear A. Contrary to my expectations,settling down here was not too difficult, thanks to my earlier visit to this same place. Some stark differences as compared to settling here and in US or India are worth noting. Things are REALLY very expensive in Europe, be it clothes, furniture, electronics et all. Only daily and basic needs are maybe affordable. This observation quickly brings my train of thoughts to halt at a discussion which I had with a friend few days back and a article which our sales lead in Europe forwarded to me recently. "Socialist Capitalism" of Germany as I call it, is the exxagerated form of democracy and symbol of protectionist government of this country. In a developed nation with 11% un-employment it is really difficult to belive that people work only for 7 to 8 hours and practically the whole nation is holidaying on Sundays. Its mandated by law. I am sometimes at loggerheads with a German colleague (who works for same company as mine but being German has to work for just 8 hours and has almost 45 paid casual leaves!!) who keeps asking me why I work so hard and for such long hours (10 hours min which btw, is below average by Indian IT standards:-) ) I always end up explaning him that it is competition (read china) and inherently hard working (ass like) attitude of Indians which drives me, but I also do not fail to point out that working 8 hours a day, 5 days a week is a luxury which this country cannot afford for long. Everything here is govt controlled, house rents, working hours, minimum wages and unions meddling with company affairs is very normal. No wonder German workers are known to be most expensive.Slowly but steadily jobs are shifting to cheapers destinations. The US like anti-outsourcing backlash across Europe is just waiting to happen...the only way out for Europeans is to rise and face the realities and work harder, 10 hours minimum and OPEN all shops on Sundays too(thats a personal request)!
Btw, amongst all this talk of capitalism I saw a very cute and appreciable gesture which argues in favour of protectionism. While standing in a queue at the bank I saw a very young kid (hardly 10 yrs old) holding his piggy bank (so small that it cannot hold more than 10 Euro) and bank pass book!! He promptly gave them to the cashier who counted the coins and deposited to his account! Dont know what really drived that kid to save his pocket money in Bank instead of spending it on candy, did he foresee capitalism over shadowing his future?
~Amit

Coming back soon!

2005-10-28T02:53:00.000+05:30

Have been idle for too long. Will try to be back soon!

The Red Belt !

2005-07-18T16:39:00.000+05:30

(17 July 2000 - 17th July 2005)

Yesterday marked a milestone for me. I completed 5 Yrs of service in my company and my first job!! The emotions are mixed: sense of satisfaction and achievement and also of having missed some opportunities:-)

At my company symbolically this milestone means, changing the color of my ID card belt from blue to red and hypothetically it heralds my entry into the trusted and priviliged echelons of old-timers which is an un-written (and hopefully true) rule. Getting red belt is the time to reap fruits of 5 years of toil at this software warehouse. However this red belt has also got other practical significance, we are told that US consulate recognizes significance of my companies' red belt tag, which makes getting those oh-so-hard-to-get US visas a little more simpler. Then you also stand apart amongst the zillions and ever increasing population here. I also get a Long Service Award which means 3 nights and 2 days free stay for me and my wife at one of the 4/5 star resorts in exoctic locations like Kerala, Goa, Ooty, Kodai, Manali etc. I might settle with Ooty. We also get appreciation certificate and a written feedback (which is obviously sugar laced) from peers and seniors...

These 5 years have given me an opportunity to travel across the globe: Italy, Spain, Germany, France, US and ofcourse within India. It has made a professional automotive embedded system 'expert' out of the naive and unpolished fresh-out-of college graduate. I learnt the bits and bytes of micro controllers and micro processors, the design patterns of OO programming, Seeing the subtleties of C, the threads and processes of RTOS internals, the highs and lows of analog and digital systems, and ofcourse the inside out of body electronics and the cutting edge (literally) future of vehicles- Telematics. And the financial independence brought by the job after the poverty stricken student life also deserves a passing mention...
On the flip side, the project pressures, impossible deadlines and sedentry desk job have taken its toll on the health and relations. Hair lines are receding and other lines are bulging. Some Ol' friends were lost on the way and new ones were made...But thats what life of a s/w pro is made of. No regrets.
Now that first milestone is reached, I am free to set my eyes on the next one. I am not sure if it will be in the same company! Lets see what life has in store!
Peace and Content
~Amit

What Braveheart ?

2005-07-12T14:04:00.000+05:30

Its a long time since I have bitched about social issues and its impact on me:-) A few days back TOIlet paper (Times Of India) carried a front page news of a 7 year young Delhi kid driving his injured 5 year young Bro to a hospital for emergency treament in guess what - a car!! The news bite was titled 'Braveheart' and was laced with accolades and praise for the young kid. I have been reading readers-letters in response to that for quite some days after that. Here's my take on it:

The boy does not deserve any accolades, instead he should be placed in juvenile remand home and his parents in Jail. What was ToI journo thinking when he praised the kid? Does he want to project the kid as a role model for other kids? Does he want more 7 year olds to learn car driving and run amock on the roads? Does he want parents to teach driving to their wards and make them wonder kids, for all to admire ? Well, if I had read this news about 15 years back, I would have run with it to my dad and demanded an explanation for not allowing me also to drive the car or even the scooter for that matter. I remember I knew the son of one of dads filthy rich family friend (a marwadi) who used to drive car at age of about 13. He was same age as mine then. And not just that he used to haul cash and made business deals for his dad at that age! His father used to tell stories of his prodigal son to my dad with pride, and I used to hear it sulking all the time. Well we were quite the salaried class for making the business deals but we did have a car and I could have defintely driven it if allowed! And I did defy the rule once and took dads scooter to school while my parents were away, and I still remeber dads stony silence towards me after that for about 2 days!He never scolded but the message was driven home. Well, looking back now, I feel how right he was. I was too young and naive, could have easily harmed anyone including me with reckless driving! Even today I drive reckless sometimes, though I am trying to be a more responsible driver. I never thought I would start thinking like a stereotyped grown up, but I too have grown wisdom teeth, and they are not for nothing. I am determined to be a righteous parent whenever that happens!! I think thats a natural progression in homo sapien growth!

The best day!

2005-07-08T09:46:00.000+05:30

8th July, 2005, 12.35 AM
This day heralds advent of a new and close relative to my life. I am very happy today.
Infact this calls for a off day at work. I mean I would be physically present but mind would be on a holiday:-)

Nothing !

2005-06-29T10:35:00.000+05:30

Nothing much happenning in life. Like Garfield's owner John, I am waiting for something to happen. Something exciting, new and a turning point.
Last couple of weeks were spent watching movies. Paheli is good. Worth seeing at least once. Its slow but OK. Nothing more to write...

The final top 10+1 :)

2005-06-08T18:49:00.000+05:30

1. Patrice - Soulstorm / Nile / www.patriceonline.de
2. Switch - Will Smith
3. Boro Boro - Arash
4. Sunset Strippers-American Idiot
5. Signs - Snoopy dog feat featuring Justin Timberlake
6. ich ich - Du erinnerst mich an Liebeich
7. Shut Up - Simple Plan
8. Mockingbird - Eminem
9. Daddy Yankee - Gasolina
10. Emanuella - ??
11.Akon - Lonely

There are many more "I too ran" in the race for my top 10, but I finally chose the above.

Enjoy and Plz share the mp3s if you find them:) Hsshhhh...

Time To Go Home!!!

2005-06-07T13:59:00.000+05:30

Yeah! I am alomost nearing the end of my short stint here and looking, no bending forward to return to dearest A! It was a nice stay though without A. Its a satisfying feeling to work on the bleeding edge tech, especially automotive domain where you know that your creations will be used by the masses,though you are behind the screens. And I was working for a very popular vehicle! Though it was tough to do it in such a short time, I dont think I am the one to shy away from challenges:) And the fact that it has greyed few more hairs and added some kilos to my already decent resume is what makes me happy and content. There will be tough decisions to make soon and god willing everything will go fine..Now will wrap up my nomadic life here and will return on 10th. Got to do lot of things before leaving...these last minute blues never fail to give me butterflies! And yeah for my own sake I will post my final songs countdown soon. Thats was another thing which I enjoyed here. Ciao Tutti...Tschus...

Top Of My Charts!

2005-05-26T19:33:00.000+05:30

One thing I like best about Europe is the non stop supply of brand new and cool songs on Mtv Europe and Viva channels! Here is a list of top ten songs on my chart. I forget some of the artists' names. Their names are quite a mouthful! Now I have the tedious task of searching for these Mp3. I did buz couple of albums here, but they are damn expensive:-( I paid almost 36 Euro for just two songs!!!!

1. Isyankar - mustafa sandal
2. Kavrulduk - mustafa sandal
3. Gel askim - mustafa sandal
4. ich ich "Du erinnerst mich an Liebeich (I dedicate this song to Jijo!)
5. Switch - Will Smith
6. Bora Bora
7. Emanuella
8. Patrice - Soulstorm (Nile)
9. Mockingbird - Eminem
10. Signs - Snoopy dog feat featuring Justin Timberlake

Some more noteworthy are Ghetto Gospel, Give a little bit love ....Will post more later !

Youth N Berlin !!

2005-05-20T22:44:00.000+05:30

This is a small travelogue! Last weekend I had been to Berlin.My first impression was that its not a very great city. Definitely not in league of Paris or Rome. Maybe one reason which is very obvious is that the city has not yet recovered from after effects of WW2 bombings and division of east and west germany. The damage is still evident as you can see construction going all around. Anyway towards the end of first day, in fact as night peaked, I realised that the city is not so bad afterall. The nighlife rocks. The sony centre at potsdaimer platz is fabulous and lively. The erstwhile west Germany downtown is much better than the east. We had a nice time in a happening pub and also watched shark 3D in IMAX! this is my second IMAX movie and the experience nevers fails to awe me.
However my most memorable memory of the trip will be the AO youth hostel where we stayed. A damn cheap place for budget conscious people, but also attracts.. ahem..rich Indian s/w folks like us since it is right in city centre. The place is simply full of life and energy, just young people around, a nice pub cum recpetion area, huge dormitories and independant rooms, a cafeteria for breakfast which doubles up as internet, booze,smoke, cycles, backpacks, lockers, WCs, and constant chit chat and laughter of students from all all races and countries! The dorm where we stayed accomodates about 50 people in one big room whcih just has mattresses on the floors with comfy blankets and you can see both boys and girls, couples, young single mothers with kids all sharing the room without any consicousness! I must accept that for a while it was a culture shock to see girls freely sleeping in their nighties with room full of boys, but no one bothers to look or ogle :-) Hope my wife doesnt mind when she sees the snaps. But I really went back in time when I was a teenager, I shud have coem to this place when I was in my teens, I did feel old and out of place to see so many young men and women even though I am myself in my twenties!! There is nothing like youth and thats the point the youth hostel brought home !

The Hot Zone

2005-05-09T12:26:00.000+05:30

I am still not out of the hangover of 'Shantaram' yet I have already started reading a new book. I picked up two news books from flea market yesterday. The one I am reading now is called 'The Hot Zone(THZ)' and the other one in the pipeline is 'Hannibal'. After reading such profound books like Shantaram for couple of weeks, the character and the story gets under your skin and its difficult to shrug it off. However THZ is already creeping under me. THZ is a true research novel written by an author of MIT leneage and is based on true life accounts of researchers and victims of the deadly Ebola variety of filo-virus. Its sporadic outbreaks were seen between 1965 to 1980. These virus originate in the rain forests of Africa and it is our great great greatest grandfather virus - the single strand RNA molecule, which is as old as the primordial oceanic ancestors of ours and is the basic buidling block of earth life. AIDS, Rabies, yellow fever and even common cold virus etc are its siblings and derivates in some form. And this virus seems to have deadly combination of all other lethal viruses known. What the AIDS virus can do to humans in 10 years this virus does it in 10 days and that to with such viciousness that organs within a persons body simply melts within and victim bleeds to death from all orifices like an exploding bomb when the desease is at its peak!! Mortality rate is 9 out of 10. But only solace is that unlike AIDS this virus has not yet learnt how to survive longer in its host i.e. humans. It kills the victim in 10 days and then dies itself unless it jumps to some other body. That is why there have been only sporadic outburst in Africa and the first one in Germany between 60s and 80s. It is highly contagious and even spreads through air unlike AIDS.So it is just a matter of time before it learns to survive longer. Scientists predict that it is probably practicing its survical skills on monkeys in the forests. It obviously has no cure and is currently dormant in the forests and in some US army labs frozen at minus 130 celcius. Amongst all doomsdaz theories for earth like asteroid strike, global warming, burning out of sun, nuclear winter, I believe that the probability of this virus killing the human race is the highest. All I can do is hope that it does not happen in my lifetime!!

Software Engineering-The KS Paradigm

2005-05-09T12:18:00.000+05:30

I came across this today. Its quite apt and cool :-)
"Progress in software design is like progress in the Kama Sutra: we've tried all of the positions, some more than once, some we enjoy and some hurt because we aren't flexible enough, and yet we keep the book open next to the night light!!"

Assasin Grief

2005-05-06T19:04:00.000+05:30

Today is one of the saddest days of my life. I learned today that Jijo died about one and half years ago.Ever since I heard this pangs of grief and his memories haunt me every now and then as - Assasin Grief. A term I read in 'Shantaram'. Jijo was separated from me due to some reasons...He was my best friend ever and more than my younger brother. No one has given me so much un-conditional love and support during some of the tough and loner days of my life. Sorry bro I left you midway, I owe you one..in next life. Forgive me if you can and I pray that your soul rests in eternal peace. You were the best dog in the world. Period.
Jijo (1994 ~ 2003) : RIP

Shantaram!

2005-05-04T22:00:00.000+05:30

I am reading this true life autobiography called Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts which I picked up in a bookstall in Hannover. What an extraordinary adventorous life this man lead and definitely an awesome book it is! I must say it is one of the best novel I read in a long time.
This man was a drug junkie and fugitive on the run who escaped from maximum secuirty prison in Australia (on a 20 year sentence) in late 70s and reached India on illegal passport. Then his adventure began which took him to a life in Mumbai slum,6 months in a remote village in Maharashtra and a short but violent stint in Arthur Road Prison and also made him right hand man of underworld don of those days in Mumbai. He learnt Hindi, Marathi Urdu languages! He did charity work in the slums and also dealt in smuggling, passport forgery, black money, drugs, murders and also went on to Afghanistan as a Mujaheedin fighter and also acted as a extra in bollywood movies!!! He lived in India for 8 years without getting cought. Later he was caught in Germany and served remaining yrs of sentence in Australia..He wrote this mammoth 1000 page books 3 times since prison guards destroyed earlier two versions! He is now a free man and runs his multi media company and is a full time writer...and he writes like a pro!

Hats off to this man and his spirit of freedom (though it was for wrong reasons) ! Do read the book. Its a must have in your bookshelf!

Bad Salzdetfurth

2005-04-29T17:11:00.000+05:30

Picture this. A village of 3000 houses. Houses 120 yrs old. Lush green and serene surroundings. A flowing river through the village. Straberry and other assorted cereal farms, orchards, ranches. A tiny 800 mts long city centre with few shops. Two small but decent hotels, few pizzerias and chinese restaurants to boast of. Preferred mode of transport of the masses: Bicycle. Good weather, rains, cold, sunshine all in right mix and amounts. Everyone knows everyone. Majority oldies, tiny kiddos, occasional beauties and stud atheletic cyclists. Couple of typical european road side cafes.
And picture this: A bunch of apartments, village outskirts, view of lush green and dense forest, pin drop silence, occasional sound of rubbber grinding the asphalt, 2 adjacent hospitals, negligible human presence. Apartment number 3, house number 28. A married yet single man. Longing. And thats me, thats my apartment and thats the village where I am located now. I have tried to paint a very +ve picture, but true to its name the place is really Bad! I mean, if you are a loner and love peaceful life without any worldly disturbaces then this place is for you. But its not my type of place. Too dull for me, yet I am enjoying this change for a change! I have a rented bicycle and doing loads of necessary excercise. I was done exploring the place on the very first day! Now trying out some nearby cities. But most of the time I am counting days...want to be back with dear 'A' as soon as possible !

Europe Calling

2005-04-07T12:19:00.000+05:30

Its time to pack bags again. I am off to Europe for a while, and will be busy with work. So I guess this blog may go silent again:-(

The place where I will be travelling is pretty remote, a small but picturesque town of just 5000 inhabitants. I need to catch 3 different trains to reach the place after I land!! And with language problem its going to be even greater fun. So adios friends. But I hope to keep the blog alive n kicking every now and then.

IT Woes-5 (Semi Final)

2005-04-07T12:10:00.000+05:30

Finally, it was (almost) done. But not yet. I had been to IT office on Tuesday with a determined mind to put an end to this story.Anyway I had lost my last bit of patience. I fought like a wounded tiger and blasted everone in sight. Luckily the trick worked. Apparently they are not used to hearing someone who is desparately waiting for his money shout at the ITO !! So it was a case of shock and awe which won me the battel without any bloodshed. I got my cheque and the battle was own. However war is not yet over. The lazy bas***** have still not sent the advice for my cheque to RBI, so I have to wait for somemore time before encashing the cheque. There is every chance that the cheque may bounce! I'm hoping for the best.

May my soul rest in peace.

Real Politik

2005-04-04T12:08:00.000+05:30

Politiks is real especially at work places. You need cunning of a fox and meanness of the Jackal to first understand the plot and then counterbalance it :-)A lot can happen over a cup of tea. Quite literally. Someone tried to play games with me today. I was outnumbered but still managed to stand my ground and took he easiest way out of crisis situations- I bought time. I believe the balance is tilted slightly in my favor, but now I need to bargain, and that too wisely....

IT-Woes-4

2005-03-31T14:31:00.000+05:30

Its time to crib. kindly excuse my swear words. But they give this post a very natural touch. My IT story seems to have become a regular column on this blog. The latest update is that the laziest and most in-competant ITO in Bangalore(Vasanthi Ashokan) has come up with a rule up her sleeve that cheques of bigger amounts need to be re-printed and sent only by post!! She cannot sign and re-validate it over the counter! I'm sure it is not a rule and is just another sample of her adept and infinite red tapism tricks. Gawd, f**k her wide a**. So now I am really back to pole position. I have submitted the cheque and am waiting for those lazy, corrupt pests to crawl and send me my much deserved cheque. I wish it were not a big amount, otherwise I would have just went and told her to keep the change...that bitch...

Human Brain & Cognition

2005-03-28T11:04:00.000+05:30

I had received this email on cognition capability of human brain many moons ago. Today I got it again and it still amazes me! I hope somewhere, someone is working on applying this discovery in research on artificial intelligence in computers. If we can have a digital model of how human brain can read and interpret this, I am sure it will take cognitive capabilities of a super-computer to un-precedented levels ! How? because we would have found a algorithm for making sense out of given gibberish. Many contemporary AI softwares rely on parsing vocabulary for natural languages, this algorithm may reduce the search involved!

"I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer inwaht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig huh? "

Bangalore-A Maze Game!!

2005-03-23T18:49:00.000+05:30

Roads in Bangalore resemble a snake N ladder board game. There are so many worthless flyovers (ladders) which taper into narrow bottleneck roads (snakes)!!! And add to it the fact that almost 50% of the arterial roads are one-ways.And what you get at every junction is a feeling of being on number 98 on the board game facing the prospect of dicing that dreaded digit '1' per chance and slide along the snake waiting on number 99...back to square one (btw, is that the origin of this quote??).
To cut the story short, if anyone of you have seen the kader khan movie in which someone asks him for directions, and he says: "Go straight, take left, then again left, then one more left and again a left. Then ask someone else standing here for directions" :-) Well, today more or less same thing happened with me. I was coming back from railway station side and reached an unknown one-way. I asked someone directions for MG Road, and then followed a series of 4 one ways and came back to same spot!!
Maybe I took a wrong one-way somewhere. I could not help but smile:-) God bless this wretched city.

IT Woes-3

2005-03-23T08:52:00.000+05:30

Yes, I visited The Hell again. No, the job is not yet done. Period.
Ok, here's the scene: The secretary, abbreviated AH (as* h***) is lazying around in front of his PC. Her Almighty, the income tax officer(I will also give her name- Vasanthi Ashokan) abbreviated ITO is missing from Her chair.How natural !! The victim, abbreviated ME, is impatiently strolling outside the room with a big Q-mark on his face for last 10 minutes. he has aksed every passerby about Her whereabouts and got a sympathetic nod and advice to wait for a "while". The victim looses patience after a wait of half hour and decided to take charge of things and decides to enter the room and ask the secretary about Her schedule.
ME: Excuse me sir, can you tell me when is madam going to come?
AH: (mutters under breath without looking up) I dont know where she is.
ME: (After a pause to control temper) Ok, today is working day and these are meeting hours right?
AH: (looks up with incredulous look in his eyes) Yes
ME: So, when is she going to come?
AH: She will be back only after 5.30 (thats after meeting hours are over..)
ME: But just now you said you dont know where she is!
AH: (with a mock on his face) She is gone on "official duty" you know...whats the work?
ME: I have blah blah....
AH: Oh, you can leave a application at the counter it will come to your residence..
ME: No sir, I dont want to lose the cheque once again, I will get it done personally.
AH: (again without looking up)I told you she is on official duty elsewhere and will come late today, no point in waiting...come later...

Then I gave up and got out of the room, and tried to ask the maid-peon who I had be-friended before entering the room. She tells assuringly with gestures and sly smile, that madam is upstairs and will come back after meeting hours are over, you just have patience !!!!!
Then I realized that during public meeting hours the ITO disappears on "official duty" to avoid doing work and meeting people!! And if public knocks during non-meeting hours they are asked to come during meeting hours! How ingenious and simple way of avoiding work. I wish I could do that to my customers! Anyway I decided not to give up and waited for about one more hour after that, only to find that the Almighty had not turned up yet. Finally I entered the room again:
ME:(sarcastically) So, madam is still on official duty? I have been waiting for over 2 hours!
AH: (smile, probably to see me still waiting) I told you she wont come today. Either leave your application here or send someone else with authority letter..there is no point in waiting.
ME: (well, you cant bear torture beyond a certain limit) OK,are you sure job will be done with authority letter? Will I be required in person.
AH: (assuringly, with a hint of mock) Yes sir, it will be done.
ME: Ok, I will send someone tomorrow, I cannot come during working days everyday. Will madam be here tomorrow or will she be on official duty again?
AH: (with a sad look, probably for me)I think she will be here...
I just turned around and left the premises coz I knew that one more smart answer from him and I would have wrenched his b***s and ruined my case. I have asked my consultant to try his luck today. I just hope its done now, I have lost patience. next year I have decided not to pay taxes for my extra income, if any. Either way you get harassed, so instead dont pay taxes and then get harassed! Take my advice...

From Fascism to Secularism!

2005-03-18T12:40:00.000+05:30

Yesterday I saw Karan Thapars talk show with ex-shiv sena MP, Sanjay Nirupam. It was a pleasure seeing it! For once I saw a politician putting foot in mouth and also chewing it! This firebrand ex-shiv sainik recently quit shiv sena and is actually in search of a job. His plight while answering extremely pointed questions by karan was pitiable:-) here are samples of some of the killer questions posed by KT and Sanjay Nirupams pathetic and desparate replies:
KT:You have changed from hindutva to secularism overnight? You are planning to join a secular party now. Are you opportunist or is it genuine change of mind?
SN: Well, their is nothing like secularism, I like secularism, but you see I am a young man of 40 years, I cannot sit idle, I have to make my career somewhere! So have transformed my heart and become secular now
KT: You called Sonia a Liar and a threat to the nation sometime back.(KT also shows some proofs) Do you still think she is a threat.
SN: (After a long long sigh and with a sheepish grin) No, I dont think so now.

There were many more gems like these but the the above were my favourites. In my hostel days I was staying with my good friends who were stauch shiv sainiks. I remember I used to have nice spats since I was a so called pseudo secular. I wonder if this interview would have helped in registering a thumping win in many of my arguments then :)
I am waiting to see SN blasting BJP and SS in the parliament. I wish to see how a person who has lost all credibility stands his grounds.
~Amit

IT Woes-2

2005-03-11T10:06:00.000+05:30

I have to write this. Reading is ofcourse your privilege. Or prerogative, if it pleases you:-) A short essay on "2 hours at income tax office". Read at leisure, if you wish!

As it was destined on that fateful day, I visited Bangalore IT office with my auditor to trace the missing cheque of my IT refund on 10 March'05. This was my maiden visit to income tax office and it was an eye opening experience. Nothing beats the thrill, excitement, agony, despair and helplessness that you experience in a Indian govt office. This blog stems from first had experience and every word is authentic. So here it goes. We had to wait outside the IT officers (ITO) cabin for half hour watching with growing impatience, while she fussed on absolutely un-important things and disappeared frequently. She looked bored to her bones and was giving everyone a pitiful look. The secretary was running the whole show in her absence. He looked street-smart. Know what I mean? In Hindi its called 'Shyana'.
We got an audience with Her almighty eventually, and waited with baited breath for Her to look up from the important looking papers and glance at us. Finally she did and with a disdainful look asked with eyes "What?" My auditor, being experienced, forwards her my request papers without a word. She looks at it and asks "Who is Mr Amit?" I say meekly, Ma'm its me. Then she asks whats the problem! Thats when my tempers started simmering. After reading my application she asks whats the problem? Then some small talk went on where I pleaded and explained my case that I have not received my cheque and I wish to trace if it has come back or can they issue me a new one as I was submitting an indemnity bond. She keeps cross questioning all the while. Then she starts arguing her case with so many classic babu type comments that I hardly remember since I was too shocked to hear them. At one point of the time she made a statement " People wait for years for their refund cheques, and you are tired in just six months!" My jaw dropped at this! I was spellbound, tempers were at boiling point, but I controlled, I realized just in time that just one counter argument from me on this and she would raise her hands and show me the door! In fact she did ask me to go and complain elsewhere and not trouble her. Then I literally begged and pleaded at her to at least search her records.
She finally pitied and tried searching her records in a software which seemed to crash every now and then. She hardly knew how the software worked, and her secretary kept coaching her. She was taking his opinion on what to do on my case!!! She also rejected my indemnity bond saying such legal papers have no sanctity now a days and also lectured me on how Indian mentality is. We are all thieves she said!! She also refused to accept that my PAN number was not issued in Bangalore!! She had never seen of that series of numbers! Then after lot of persuasion and pleading she agreed to search through their paper records and after much haggling, coffee and disappearances she managed to trace the bar code of the speed post by which the cheque was sent to me. I then told her that my auditor has already done that search and we know the cheque was sent but it has never reached me! Then she shouted saying if you know it was sent, then why are u complaining!! We were back to square one after 1.5 hours of haggling!! I again explained her the problem and believe me then she understood my case, and her simple solution was " Go to a net cafe, find Indian postal dept website, then find their customer care number, give them this bar code, try to trace what happened to that post, if required go to postal dept office, talk to postal manager and then come back with the result Its my responsibility to trace that cheque, they cannot keep trace for so many cases!! Then only she can take further action!! "
I was about to cry, but controlled my emotions. Tears were was not due to dejection of not getting the cheque. I was way beyond that state. I simply wanted to f**k her hard and kick her wide a**, but knew that I just could not do it! Sheer helplessness!
Then she got a phone call, and someone with same case as mine was enquiring. She told the guy on phone that they send the refund cheques on whatever address is associated with the PAN number and not the one which you file in your returns, because they want to avoid extra work of typing addresses written on return forms!! Then it struck to me like gravity struck Newton! I knew that the address associated with my pan number was my old and outdated address of my earlier office. The moment it dawned, I quickly wound up and told her that I would take her advice and try to trace the post with the postal dept and come back with results! I went to my old office and found the cheque lying innocently in a carton containing hundreds of old mails! I simply smiled with a tear trickling down (I guess, but am not sure). The dispatch guy looked at me with utter amazement! I just said "Thanks" to him and opened the envelop, only to find that the cheque had already crossed the validity period of three months and it took only nano-seconds to realize that I will have to visit that hell of a IT office once again in front of that Almighty goddess and once again plead her that I was guilty and she was righteous and her good self should pity and give me a boon and re-validate the cheque! I am trying to gather courage before I go there again next week. Wish me good luck.
p.s: Though it was partially my mistake of not updating address on my PAN card, I still dread what must be happening to genuine cases and people whose cheques are really misplaced! The register with about 5000 names of such pending cases stood silent testimony to this fact!

IT woes ;-(

2005-03-10T14:34:00.000+05:30

First things first. I DONT like paying taxes. Yet, being a salaried employee of a filthy rich IT firm compels me to pay the taxes against my better judgement. So being the good citizen that I'm, I paid up a little extra to the IT dept last year. Now in this land and era of Gandhis (remember? they are still ruling!!) IT dept has no intentions of refunding me my hard earned Gandhijis (rupee notes!). I tried every trick in the bag, hired a tax consultant to do the job (its like hiring a contract killer for someone else who in turn kills U instead!!), Phone calls to the public relations officer, all possible emails that I found on the IT dept websites and ofcourse yes the inevitebale Bribe! But nothing works. Not a fu***ng hair on their eyelashes blinked!

But now I have decided to take the legal course, I am going to send out some stinker letters to the commissioner. If that doesnt work then I am going to march into the IT office and kick some asses..and I can kick real hard...I mean it. I am a angry young man.

Wish me good luck ohh Gandhiji !

The Law Paradox - My Analysis:-)

2005-03-04T10:58:00.000+05:30

The paradox given below is probably one of the greatest paradoxes, but I feel it has obvious flaws when seen in the light of real world. I know it is not meant to be taken seriously, but if ever such paradox occurs in real world it will not stand in any court of law!! My argument is given below the paradox:-)

A Law teacher once came across a student who was willing to learn but was unable to pay the fee. The student struck a deal saying, "I would pay your fee the day I win my first case in the court". Teacher agreed and proceeded with the law course. When the course wasfinished and the teacher started pestering the student to pay up the fee, the student reminded the deal and pushed forward the days. Fed up with this, the teacher decided to sue the student in the court of law and both of them decided to argue for themselves.
The teacher put forward his argument saying: "If I win this case, as per the court of law, the student has to pay me. And if I lose the case, the student will still have to pay me because he would have won his first case. So either way I will have to get the money." Equally brilliant, the student argued back saying: "If I win the case, as per the court of law, I don't have to pay anything to the teacher. And if I lose the case, I don't have to pay him because I haven't won my first case yet. So either way, I am not going to pay the teacher anything."

My arguments as a "public proescuter" are:
-------------------------------------------
There is a solution to this case. The argument of the student in court is proof enough that he acknowledges existence of the promise that he would pay up if he wins the case (which would be his first one). Now, as per law of any land justice is based on validity of facts (which the student has already accepted) and if prima facie the mutually agreed understanding between sparring parties are violated by one of the plaintiffs. In this case fact and the judge can give a decision in favor of the teacher provided the teacher manages to loose the case somehow. No matter if the student wins judge can always justify his decision due to the fact that the student has promised to pay of he wins. The student has a chance of winning only if he denies making such a promise to the teacher, however in that case the teacher only has to prove that he taught the student and so deserves compensation..

Avatars!!

2005-03-03T10:04:00.000+05:30

After Yahoo Messenger Avatar, here is another kind of Avatar for identifying your weblogs its called "Globally Recognized Avatar" (gravatar). Visit http://www.gravatar.com/

I am trying to get one for myself..go fetch yours!

~Amit

Organization & Employee Growth at Cross Roads: Anti-Analysis

2005-03-03T09:44:00.000+05:30

This blog of mine got posted on my companys' intranet website!!!

Disclaimer: Dear Reader, this blog is philosophical and in a lighter vein and not be taken literally!

Recently I came across a thought provoking quote, the essence of which was: "Every employee in a organization eventually rises to his or her level of incompetancy". It supposedly means that people keep rising in an organization until it is found that they are incompetent to rise any further. In other words, every growing individual rises to his/her peak potential which is nothing but his/her minimum in-competancy level. From there onwards the road goes only downhill. Followers of Murphy's law of negative thinking will readily lap up the quote as a fact. But for the positive and rational ones,a second and a deeper thought provokes an philosophical and also at times curious analysis. The point of contention is whether "Peak performance amounts to minimum in-competancy and can address the resulting problem". Let's try to prove and address some solution for the contention:

In the rat race for growth, it is making the right choices on the part of employees and creating right choices on the part of the organizations which ultimately differentiates winners from losers. Employees confront the if-else dilemma quite often in the course of their careers, and those who make the right choices too often will reach their peak performance too soon. While the organizations which generate enough choices or opportunities for their employees are only speeding the onset of peak performance of their employees. This should be generally considered true because every individual practically has some or other limitation, whereby he/she will reach potential peak someday. One more understood fact is that not every employee can reach the top simultaneously. Some room is needed at the top for vertical movement. So employees who reach their potential peak positions in the organization are at the cross roads of their career and usually do not know where to proceed for further growth. Eventually the smart ones quit and look for greener pastures and start it all over again and the tired ones stay put and continue to stagnate and reach their saturation point which can also be termed as in-competancy in today's cut throat competitive world. So it does prove that peak performance may amount to in-competancy in many if not all the cases.

Now, the compassionate ones may counter-argue that it is fault of the organization if it does not generate further growth opportunity for their already peaked employees. But then haven't we all heard that "Its employees which maketh and grow an organization"?

The above discussion in turn means that employees should make wrong choices to "avoid" reaching their peak performance (minimum in-competancy) and also organizations must do everything possible to stunt growth opportunities of their employees to avoid them from reaching their peak (minimum in-competancy). Now, this is a rhetoric statement which is as absurd as it is in-correct. So then what is the right thing? Should or shouldn't the employees peak? Should or shouldn't the organization encourage employee growth? The answer,dear reader, lies in collective growth and not individual growth!! Few peaking employees can never grow an organization (since they will eventually reach their in-competancy level !!). Leaders cannot lead dumb followers, they need an intelligent herd to follow them. So it is the collective and relative growth of all employees which can build successful organizations and address the problem of career peaking. And yes,by the way, the quote also stands proved!!

Anniversary !!

2005-03-01T14:54:00.000+05:30

Yeah! Its exactly 1 year since I started blogging and also first month anniversary since I got married :-)
It has been good going. Lot of water has flown under the bridge! Quite literally! I am not a bachelor any more! Thats the big Before & After difference. Here are the indicative accounts on the first anniversay of blogging and marrying:

Profits:
Good food, Peaceful life, Someone to talk to 24 hrs a day, Free early bird a/c on gmail, and many more...

Losses:
"Wise men say, that losses are what you count on an ongoing basis after marriage"
But I feel:
"Wise men say only fools rush in (to marriage).. but I can't help falling in love with my wife" !

But the losing fact is that my wifey doesn't read my blogs as yet ;-(

p.s: Those who have heard this UB40 song will appreciate the above remix....

:-)
~Amit

Budget 2005 - My Take

2005-03-01T09:46:00.000+05:30

The pundits say that the FM has done a good job. Big deal. That was expected from the celebrated trio of economic reforms, Manmohan, Montek Singh and P Chidambaram. But I really dont care what it means to the markets, equities, FDI and what not. To me it means only two things: Personal taxation has been simplified and eased a bit, and my perks have been taxed. I learnt as a kid that +ve and -ve nullify each other. So my finances stand as they were earlier. That's my take on the budget. I may be reading in between the lines and taking it quite literally. But I am not an expert in economics so I will wait till my tax consultant beams some sunlight down my brain. ...And btw, Times of India (ToI) has gone crazy, oh sorry, it was already crazy and now they are hell bent on proving it. Its budget printed on all pages today and that too colored with crayons and graphics!! What people will not do to sell these days! Somebody recently and rightly termed the new look Times as ToIlet Paper !!

~Amit

KingMaker !

2005-02-28T14:41:00.000+05:30

Assembly polls in Bihar were truly entertaining. The whole exercise of polls in Bihar are usually a mockery of democracy and a farce, but Mr Ram Vilas Paswan has just added a new dimension. He is the kingmaker now. And look at his cunning! He went through the process of elections, campaigning and now that there's hung assembly, he has the nerves to play hard ball and demand presidents rule ! Why? he quotes ideological differences with both RJD and NDA, but every deaf, blind and dumb Indian on electoral roll knows he needs more time to bargain a good deal. A railway ministry berth, Oust Laloo and family, and Snub NDA by asking for muslim CM..now thats what I call being a Kingmaker who can bake a cake, get an icing done, have it and eat it too !!

New Look!

2005-02-28T14:39:00.000+05:30

yes, my blog sports a new look. I was too bored with the old one. I opted for a standard blogger template, it looks sporty, hip and yet suits a married man;-) I hope I can justify the new look and be more regular at posting tit bits from the weeks gone by!

Say Cheese!

2005-02-28T13:07:00.000+05:30

Honesty is a virtue. After Marriage I am trying to be more honest. It pays, you know, accpet your mistakes and save hassles or pay the price! Otherwise also I am being honest with myself these days. I have accepted the fact that I have put on some extra kilos (10 Kgs extra to be exactly honest!) and badly need to shed them. I have started some honest efforts at reducing intake (food) and increasing outflow (sweat) by giving up on yummies and picking up my latest hobby of playing basketball respectively. AK (my wifey) is good at basket ball and she is giving me some tips at being nimble footed on the court. It is a addictive game indeed, especially the shooting part :-) Though she keeps shouting at me for running my ass around the court more than just standing and aiming at the ring with one eye shut and toungue peeping out the corner of the lips. But its fun to play on basket ball court at night in floodlights and that too just the two of us..Infact thats quite romantic! ever heard of romantic basket ball! Dream team will commiy mass sucide if they read this...Anyway, I hope to improve on my dribbling and shooting very soon...and I will beat AK at her own game..maan she is good in dribbling..and yes will shed those layers of flab too !
BTW, these few extra kilos have given a whole new meaning to the photographers catch phrase "Say Cheese"! You ought to flash your dentures when someone shoots thru lense at you and is about to click ( btw, ever noticed that your eyelids are craving to blink at that precise moment?) but for me "Say cheese" means inhale deeply and hold your tummy in until you hear a thanks. Needless to say that you cant give a good smile while you are holding your breath (try that right now!)..so folks crux of the story is that I look like a man in desparate need of potty in most of my wedding n H-moon snaps. Thanks to cheese, It has cheesed me off!

~Amit

I am back..just for a moment!

2005-01-13T03:35:00.000+05:30

Life is keeping me busy. Conspiracy theory!
Anyway forget my news they are all stale. Real good news is that Sidin is back. I was polling his blog and he is back!! with a bang! The guy has topped IIMA ! Now thats throws an area of research open for a different kind of nerds- medicos/shrinks. How can a homo sapien with that caliber of humor be a IIMA topper??
Let me know the results when they are published!

more soon..
~Amit

Have to recommend this fellow!

2004-11-08T13:26:00.000+05:30

Visit this mallu at http://sidin.blogspot.com/ . He comes from Planet "Hilaria". Some of his posts are real gems..I have read most of them...Keep it up sidin.

Thnx to Neeraj for giving link to these masterpeices...

BTW, this guy also figured in Indian Express some months back for his great blog fan following see this link:
http://sidin.blogspot.com/2004_07_11_sidin_archive.html

Enjoy siding!
~Amit

And The Wicket Falls !

2004-11-03T16:31:00.000+05:30

Finally, I am getting married:-) It was decided just in last two weeks. There are too many trivial details and its not worth burning pixels with story that I have told to so many over n over again. But just one thought: I have lost my freedom forever! Now a naive reader may not understand the gravity of this statement..but just think..its a scary thought :)Especially for a bachelor of 8 yrs experience on living out in the 'jungle'. But yet, marriage is a lovely thing to happen to anyone, give or take some fun....So i'm getting married in Jan'05 and bidding adios to this nomadic bachelor life forever...

Lot of activities on work front too...but they all are in-significant in view of the afore mentioned big news! Looking forward to the new life and trying to sink in the feeling:-) Cheers and bliss to all!
~Amit

Indian Ordinance Factory

2004-09-07T08:37:00.000+05:30

I bought a toy gun for myself last weekend. It is a fake plastic Air pistol with 6mm plastic bullets for kids older than 16 Yrs. Its a cool looking black pistol with all real life functions such as push button sliding magzine, laser (bulet proof cheats) and awesome power which can be harmful from very short distances. It resembles the 9 mm pistol which cops in India carry and I am told that Mumbai ka bhai log also prefer that gun. I had fortune of seeing one closely while in college. I had a penchant for nasty looking guns and toy cars as a kid and remember having a collection of at least 5 toy guns and about 15 hot wheels cars, all working models...Old memories came alive when I saw this gun in Walmart and just bought it for a cool 45$. I was tempted to buy a real air rifle with metal pellets, but it was little expensive and I am not sure if I could carry it back to India and will I ever be able to use it there..so finally settled with this toy gun. It will look neat in my shelf!
OK, now coming to the title of this post, Indian Ordnace Factory, I saw a advt in Times of India today that IOF is inviting application for its 0.32" revolver and has given its website http://www.ofbindia.com for downloading the form. Well I have no intention of buying this revolver (dont have a licence anyway) but just wanted to tell everyone to visit this website and see how advanced our ordnance factories are! Iwas surprised by the quality of the website as well! good job IOF....

2004-09-05T03:00:00.000+05:30

Zakhm Dikhne Lage Dararon Se!!
----------------------------------
Came across this Gazal Today, Excellant Poetry!

Zindagi is tarah se lagne lagi
Rang ud jaaye jo deewaaron se
Ab chhupaane ko apna kuch na raha
Zakhm dikhne lage daraaron se
Main tere jism ki hoon parchhaai
Mujhko kaise rakhoge khud se judaa
Bhool karna to meri fitrat hai
Kyoon ki insaan hoon main, nahin hoon khuda - 2

Mujhko hai apni har khata manzoor
Bhool ho jaati hai insaanon se
Ab chhupaane ko apna kuch na raha
Zakhm dikhne lage daraaron se
Jab kabhi shaam ke andheron mein
Raah panchhi jo bhool jaate hain
Voh subaah hote hi milon chalkar
Apni shaakhon pe laut aate hain - 2

Kuch hamaare bhi saath aisa hua
Hum yehi keh rahe ishaaron se
Zindagi is tarah se lagne lagi
Rang ud jaaye jo deewaaron se
Ab chhupaane ko apna kuch na raha
Zakhm dikhne lage daraaron se...

2004-08-31T08:02:00.000+05:30

Gaayab!!
---------
Haaaahaaheeeeehoooooo...this film is a riot....noooo I mean its a riot of mind numbing medley of incoherant shots born out of overly pregnant thoughts of some crackpot script writer who just lost his mind one fine day and met an equally nut case director on his way to mental asylum. At the asylum they got as lucky as that one speacial sperm and found a deranged producer who had money to burn. Then onwards it was a piece of cake...they just picked up other inmates such as Tusshar kapoor, Antara Mali et al at random and lo behold! masterpeice 'Gaayab' was made! The movie leaves you with a lingering feeling of being mentally challenged, dumb struck, awestruck, shock and numb to the extent that your jaw drops to the floor and rolls right unto the screen until your toungue is lapping up meekly what ever is dished out to you on the screen...ypur fingers will be too numb with the shock to even dare to press the stop button on the remote once...
HOW, I mean HOW can any legally sane person even think of making such a movie and HOW can any erstwhile normal person like me (remember I have already seen this movie and so do not count in the normals) even think of seeing it!! maaan....three hours of sheer torture & pain, ..go watch it and join me soon...I will be waiting at the asylum...will read your comments their...
boo hooo hoooo...

2004-08-23T05:55:00.000+05:30

My MI Driving Licence & Other Trivia!
---------------------------------------
Yeah, I got my michigan drivers licence on 19th Aug...this thing was pending for a long time...due to the SSN number which just seemed to elude me..well the test here is quite a serious thing, one major mistake and you flunk the test and loose 40$..and I made it without single mistake, first a reverse park, then parallal park, city roads with varying speed limits and turns, and then the freeway... not even a minor mistake! Quite unlike in India, where I got my drivers licence hand delevered to me :-)
On the work front, I am in a comfy position now, looking forward to my return back to homeland provided nothing new comes up here....
Btw, another news is that more friend 'P' from hyderabad has bitten the dust..he is getting engaged, it was a shocking news, till yesterday he was normal and quite OK!! :-)) ha ha...
I had a funastic experience of watching the best movie experience ever - IMAX 3D. One hour of documentary on NASCAR..the biggest spectator sport in the US of A. It was awesome...next week I will go again for spiderman-2...and now back to the grind...

2004-08-21T05:24:00.000+05:30

Indian rock coming off age...
--------------------------
I got introduced to metal and rock pretty late and am still picking up the threads..(for those living under a stone I'm talking about rock and heavy metal music). Couple f years back I accidently landed in a place called 'The Hell' on airport road (the place has disappeared now) , where local Bangalore band "Threinody (spelled Thre-Nerdy)" had put up a jam session of their own original-indian-metal-music. And know what? I was zapped by the wizardry of their lead gutarist and his monster of a guitar...I have heard metal since I waz a child and seen many good local guitar players over the years (also tried being one sometime in past life) but realized the hidden beauty of metal only on that day. From then on there has been a conscious effort to apprecite this form of art...now I understand when people say that hard rock sets u free...
OK, so coming to the point after the above preamble...Threinody has a mailing list on which they are now introducing upcoming Indian bands...one of them I discovered is called "Shrapnel" . They have recently launched their album "Intellectual persuit" which is available for just 100Rs in metro cities. Visit their website shrapnelonline.net for listening to their sound bites and to shop for their CD. I am gonna buy it when I return to india. The Threinody website " Threinody.com " is unfortunately dead now..but keep visitng it , I hope they get back in action soon...3 cheers to indian rock...!!

2004-08-18T02:05:00.000+05:30

Two Rocking Cities
-------------------
Yes, I am elated to be back on the site I usually miss so much! Gallons of water has flowed under the bridge since my last blog, and unfortunately I waz stuck in its flow...But I desparately hung on to every bit and straw (read 'weekends') that came my way. So these breathers lead me first to the city where people live their great american dream - New York. I flew their for a get together with my college days roomies K & B. K has not changed a bit; still the same ol cool guy...B has become a typical american patel :) Honestly the guys treated me royally, we drove around generally in Dil Chahata Hai istyle and visited all the cool places : Empire State, Times Sq, Statue of Liberty (my 5th wonder of the world!) , Manhattan, Central park and the stuff. K's friend N and his wifey invited us for a cool dinner at his place. Thanks 'N', it was nice to know u..but all the time these guys kept rediculing me as a village bumpkin, and I kept calling them ABCD :) Well, yes for a Europe familiar techie New York is still an alien place..its a man made wonder...I could not meet my friend 'S' in New York whom I had met in France few years back..She is a school teacher in Ney York and teaches High school...she was out of town :-( 'S' hope to meet you some time in future!

The next straw took me to Chicago, the windy city. I had driven there with some friends here. Heavy traffic on I-94 on the way back killed some of the fun of driving but overall it was fun driving...I averaged 140Kmph:) Chicago resembles Venice in Italy. A river runs right through the city and gives a spectacular view of its modern architecture buildings. Sears Tower (the tallest in US today) gives a awesome view...Navy Pier is a hip place on the banks of lake Michigan. Cool and polished crowd, live music and fantastic road side cuisine completes the picture. But the higlight of this trip was the Inidan Independance day parade which we got to see un-expectedly. It was a complete desi show on the Devon Street (full of desis) like the one we have on Janpath on 26th Jan. Mrs Madhuri Sriram Nene-Dixit and Munnabhai Sanjay Dutt were present as Parade marshals. Took some nice snaps of them to send to some of my madhuri crazy sisters! As for sanju baba, I myself like him as a actor. Best of the breed in bollywood I would say...watch his old movie called 'Hathyaar' its pretty good..!
The water is still flowing in full force, lets see if I can catch some more straws on coming weekends..cheers people!!
~Amit

2004-07-31T02:20:00.000+05:30

Umm Nothing Much..
-----------------------
Ok. What do I write? Don't really know.. Well, I recently had a bad bout of self-introspection. A strain of soulful music and a leisurely drive in a car on a scenic road is enough to put me in that mode. I was on this wonderful "Hines drive" the other day. This time I was thinking about morality. Some email discussion with old friends on this subject few days back triggered it. We were discussing extra marital affairs (most of my friends are slowly giving up and getting married). I am generally the adventurous type and honestly think that I MAY fall for an extra marital affair given convenient surroundings. Why? I really do not know but I am just being honest with my gut feeling. I also strongly feel that any average indian man is pretending if he says that he loves his wife dearly and will NEVER try for any adventure and that too when his history has not been particularly clean! So here it was that some of my friends who had enjoyed many(so called) 'immoral' things in college days have suddenly turned saints after marriage! Almost an overnight change! Is it really possible? People do change its just that they don't want to accept it or realize! One more friend recently blogged (rather bragged) that he hasn't changed after marriage... :-) All I can do is wonder and smile...

2004-07-14T02:13:00.000+05:30

Long due update
---------------
Let me come straight to topmost points otherwise I will just go haywire since there is so much to update!
1. Had been to Niagra 2 weeks back. It was a GREAT unforgetable trip,S & M also turned up their. That's it, I am in no mood to repeat the story I told so many times. But would like to mention that with Niagra I checked the fourth landmark on "7 wonders of the world" list:-) Pisa, Eiffel,Agra and now Niagra..Statue of Liberty is next on my wish list...
2. Rented a car few days back, brand new ford focus ZTX, wanted to take a Ford Mustang, but budget beat me first to it :-( Wish I could buy a Ford V6 engine Grand Prix had my stay been a little longer here...Alas..anyway I'm practising my driving now, and may visit chicago and live my dream of driving on a US freeway.....wheeeeeee
3. Bought a nice, expensive digicam (yet another hole in an already ragged pocket),with that my picture in photography equipment is complete...a sexy piece of 35mm SLR and a digicam is all you need to shoot the world...handycam and AK-47 owners, go kick your A**
4. More later:-)

~Amit

2004-06-20T20:38:00.000+05:30

Haah! Finally settled down in this place. US is a drag sometimes. I moved in with two other friends in their flat through miindia.com. One great surprise was that the flat is already weel furnished! broadband, TV, cable and all that...I will give my driving licence test next week, got to prepare for it! feels like giving my primary school tests, but still god knows why I am getting butterflies in my tummy! strange feeling...anyway I'm sure I will get through..Just finsihed with my breakfast, laundry, ironing and now back to more household work..Enjoy ppl!

2004-06-17T17:02:00.000+05:30

Long time!
---------
Hey guys! long time I was out of action here. I have landed in US of Mr Bush. Came here last weekend and from day-1 was neck deep in work..blah blah..
Here I'm still trying to settle, this place sucks..its not like Europe, here you are just handicapped without a car! I have yet to get my Michigan DL. So no pubbing, no outings just office N work....haah...
Got to go..will blog more later

2004-05-28T10:14:00.000+05:30

Hutch - Bow Wow!
----------------
Urrrhh, I feel like tearing at my hairs everytime I get a call on my Hutch pre-paid mobile.The network coverage is so pathetic, 80% of the times the calls are dropped or I have to shout at the top of my voice (aka those very old days of BSNL landlines)..Have called up customer care 112200098373789 times but still not a single Hutch tail has wagged! I have also noticed that the kid & dog Advts have disappeared from the TV networks...Now you may ask why dont I change to CDMA, a much better technology, agreed that the idea makes sense,but I find prepaid hassle free and I like my number and blah blah.
BTW,If things don't improve soon I'm planning to take a 'Morcha' of all the dogs in my neighborhood to nearest Hutch office, any fellow Hutch sufferrer interested in joining??

2004-05-26T15:43:00.000+05:30

I'm Back from my Hiatus!
-----------------------
Yeah I was on a much needed 10 day holiday. Lazed around,slept,ate like a pig,snored,zipped across,visiting relatives,friends, booze etc, did it all.Scorching summer heat, books and long travels kept me company..I somehow like travels and especially enjoy travelling alone..reading books and gaping at the setting sun through the railway window..Wearing jeans and T-shirt and standing on railway door with cool evening breeze blowing through your hairs! That feeling of freedom is unmatched even by a Ferrari..

I finished reading Pupul Jaykars "Indira Gandhi" during my leave. Its the 4th Political biography/novel that I have read in last 3 months. It was a necessity, because I'm a original congressman who later converted to BJP after seeing the downfall and plight of mighty congress.But,I can indentify myself with 'secular congress' and saffron BJP simultaneously. And with the melodrama that unfolded on the Indian Political scene last week and the Joy to hear that Sonia "listened to her inner voice" and turned down post of PM I was forced to re-examine and revive my congress roots. And this book did wonders for it..It fills you with awe for that Iron lady called Indira and the congress that she raised.There is this episode from 1971 War where she gave a tactical defeat to even US!! Another book that I wish to read next is "Is New York Burning" by Dominique lappeier and Larry Collins, it is a well re-searched fiction on possible nuclear threats from terrorist networks in the backdrop of 9/11 and Israel/Palestine conflict. After reading "freedom at midnght" by same set of authors I'm sure I will like their new work as well...
Now I am back to work,trying to oil my lazy bones to start working once again and it is a herculean task..

2004-05-13T12:41:00.000+05:30

Party #1
--------
Last night I threw an impromptu booze party (first one) at my place for colleagues from my office. Occasion? Well for my new house ofcourse! It was a decent get-together,especially being midweek,I guess it gave all a necessary break.But it had a flip side as well, M and P dropped out,we could not carry it late into night and even hard-drinks were off the menu to avoid hangovers.However A1,A2,A3,A4,V,P and R had come.Thanks guys N gals! However 'S' was the guest of honor:) Wny? just bcoz she is the latest entry into my list of friends! Thanks for coming over 'S'. you seem to be a true blue aquarian! Nice meeting you...

BTW,people did you notice that writing no-names does not affect readability of a story at all.It also augments privacy! I remember getting a forwarded mail on some 'research' done by someone that in any given word only the first and last few characters matter the most for readability by human mind. This fact can be used for optimizing computer AI. Though I was revolted by the absurdity of the idea [Who wants to read a word document full of spelling mistakes in each word!] But now I think,that it can be given a chance! I think by the year 2050AD, we all will be anyway called by some 20 digit number tagged with some pseudo code names! Can someone file a patent on my behalf for this 'original' idea of using pseudonames at least in blogs??

2004-05-11T14:55:00.000+05:30

At The End Of The Day!!
---------------------
About a month back some magzine in UK conducted a survey to find the most hackneyed, widely used and most hated cliches prevalent in daily use English in UK/USA.Guess what? "At the end of the day" was the ultimate winner,and rightly so.I perfectly agree that this is indeed the most boring,lame and meaningless term that anyone can use! It always goes like this: "Anyway at the end of the day what really matters is who wins" :) Yeah you guessed it, In India, our cricketers abuse it the most. Ganguly, Dravid (especially), Tendulkar, Gavaskar,Sherry all use it very often. But what they forget is that at the end of the day (sic) we feel like hitting them at the end of their bums. Vinod Mehta, editor of Outlook, also conducted a mini survey in the last issue after taking a cue from the original survey..the response in India was also overwhelming.I cant remember which one was the winner. But surely it should be "India Shining" :) The whole idea of the original excercise was probably to pass a international law banning use of such cliches (I hope). Here is a list of top 5 cliches that I bear grudge against:-
1.At the end of the day[Instead say "In the evening at 11.59 PM what really matters.."]
2.India Shining [Needs immediate ban!!]
3.Cool [OK,I use it myself, but I'm trying to give it up]
4.Outsourcing [Why not call it "sourcing it out"]
5.Cliche [:-)]

2004-05-11T14:26:00.000+05:30

Update!
------
I have been irregular off late in updating my blogs. Was kind of tied up...just moved into my new appt,trying to set it up. Its not so easy!! Too many things to do...and as they say the real devil lies in details! I went shopping for collecting basic necessities to get it functioning and was simply boggled to see the varieties available just in types of brooms! All shapes N sizes and colors, it took me neat 10 minutes to pick three of them:) Then came curtains which put me in the "To Buy Or Not To Buy" dilemma. I shopped till my mind went numb running AI algorithms deciding "which choice is best amongst given N choices". Gone are the days when u just call up the marwadi grocery shop round the corner and he dispatches your broom and groceries through a lad..Finally I had to run the "shortest path" algorithm to find way out of the shopping mall fearing that my credit card would run out of credit..but then my efforts did bear the fruit (sic/cliche) and the place is now habitable and infact looks fantastic!

2004-04-29T11:43:00.000+05:30

Japanese!!
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Konnichiwa, Watashi wa maverick Desu !!
Bow, bend, bend, bend..Until U Drop Down :-) Thats how you greet in Japanese! ok..just kiddin... The latest news is that I have started my one month crash course in Japanese,with this travel to Japan on the anvil, I better take that seriously,for its a matter of survival their...My first impression was that Japanese is very similar to most of the Indian Languages' grammer, very scientific and visually appealing. Not like English which is a Phunny Language,you can walk English N talk English, but in Japanese you can only draw...And since my folks N teachers never bothered to improve my hand writing when I was a kid, I am now left wondering whether to join some drawing classes also to get my Hiragana/katakana & Kanjis right!
Have you seen the T-Shirts which says "I was born intelligent but education ruined me" That is very true with me, as a toddler I was quite good at drawing all sorts of linear N curved lines on walls, mom tells me...but when I joined a drawing class when I was umm in 6th grade...my teacher saw my pathetic potential and desire at becoming piccaso and gave me homework to fill a drawing book with just Straight N Curved lines until I get at least one of them right :-( and that folks, ruined my natural talent in drawing!! I hope my japanese instructors take mercy on me and this time at least they dont kill a potential japanese scholar:-)

2004-04-27T14:39:00.000+05:30

All Time Fav Flicks!!
------------------
Just thought of keying in some of my all time fav movies....

A few days back on a lazy afternoon I caught a fleeting glimpse of a couple kissing (or was it just a closeup shot??) while auto-scanning channels (my fav pastime when the idiot box is spewing cluttered distorted incoherent, nonsense moving pictures...I generally scan from 0 to 100 and back again,until my roomie snatches the remote and kicks butt--mine, not his) sleepy neurons suddenly srung up alert and quick database search discovered that the scene was from the movie 'Dance With Me', a musical romantic flick that I had seen long time back...it is a sheer delight...top class choreagraphy..amazing salsa/latino dance sequences performed by professional dancers...the movie undoubtedly ranks tops in my list of romantic flicks that you ought to see with your wifey/gurl friend...i.e. if they appreciate any form of art other than nagging....yes nagging is an art; which female species use deftly with their hubbies!

Another movie which has a place of pride in my CD Rack..is Top Gun..I picked its original DVD in Europe..this movie serves like booze to raise my sinking spirits...anytime I see it you "feel the need, the need for speed". I am yet to buy the DVD, but "Face Off" ranks second on my must see flick list....have you seen a stud more stylish than John Travolta?? Yes Tom Cruise n George Michael give him a run for his cigars, but then they are in a league of their own....

And for those who are wondering why am I talking only about male favorites, then lemme tell you that I love gods own creation - female specie in any form: mother,sister,daughter, wife and slut ...[man was ofcourse born to a female, the chicken N Egg story does not hold good here..] so thats about it....One last thing... the term "oomphmatis" coined by [V] for sluts N Sexy type females is tops on my vocabulary these days ;)

2004-04-23T11:49:00.000+05:30

Dido!
-----
Have been seeing these Dido videos on YumTV/VTv for quite some time...but overlooked her album on my numerous visits to the nearest music shoppe...but on sunday I visited this new hip shopping mall "The Forum" and finally decided to pick up Dido~Life for Rent instead of Patience~Geroge Michael. Why pick up girlie songs?? well I am abosolutely delighted by the way she looks....perfect Ms Girlfriend types for me....short sporty hairs, atheltic & sweet looks....the album is good, can listen to songs when you are not doing anything in particular...lots of vocals, soothing keyboards and hawaiian guitars in it...good for a change from the currently reigning hip/hop types....

2004-04-19T14:23:00.000+05:30

For all Connoisseurs of booze, here is a link (Reference: An article in latest issue of Outlook) that gives all information necessary on the art of drinking...It talks about how to setup an home bar, basics of drinking and also reviews on popular hangouts. It also coordinates guided tours to vineyards near Bangalore.

http://www.tulleeho.com

2004-04-19T09:31:00.000+05:30

Lajja!
------
On last Friday I reluctantly picked up Taslima Nasreens' "Lajja-The Shame". It was lying at my place for quite someime but I could not muster enough enthusiasm to read it. This book which took just 7 days for Taslima to write and 48 hours for me to read is....not so great. Yes, its umm boring at times...though the narrative is flowing and the English is quite sub-continental. One strinking thing was that I was expecting some religion bashing in it, considering that it was banned and earned a Fatwa...but surprisingly it has nothing objectionable as per my judgement...it just preaches secularism under the guise of a ficticious story based on the post Babri riots in Bangladesh...and that I think, is no crime..anyway, I dont feel like elaborating more....the striking message from her is that "secularism does not mean treating all religions at par, but it means rooting out religion from politics all together!!" I was of the first opinion earlier but now after a second thought I think what she says makes more sense. The ambiguous word Secular is now much more clear and meaningful!...Its high time someone wrote a similar book on Hindu fundamentalism preached by the likes of Modis/Togadias. Secularism is the basic fabric of any democracy..it should not be tampered with...being religious is OK, but making it a premise for political gains is not acceptable....IIMs are suffering due to same reason....My food for thought.....
~A Hindu

2004-04-19T09:14:00.000+05:30

The Puppy Night!!
-------------------
Last week, on tuesday I went out on my daily after-dinner walk in the park nearby.BTW Bangalore really is living upto its name as garden city, some beautiful garden it is!! It was about 11.30 PM and I suddenly see this month old puppy stuck in a hole in the railing around the park. Quick inspection suggested that a puppy clan was probably trying to get out of the park and this poor chap chose a hole just enough for his tiny head to pass. The idiot could not figure out that he will not be able to wrench his body out of it and got stuck. So here I was..trying to prise his head out of the hole in which I succeded after about 10 minutes of effort. It was wailing all the time. I picked him up, consoled him and tried to find the rest of his brotherhood, who had sadly disappeared. Quite perplexed on what to do I decided to leave him near a ground in the vicinity in the hope that his mother might come searching for him..I had just about done that and turnded around that I see a pack of street mongrels growl menacingly at the poor kid...they attacked him even before I could pick him up..but I managed to shoo them away and was once again left with this terribly shaken baby. It was 12 PM by the time...I stood their for a while patting him...then decided to take him home...so I called up my roomie and we both took him home on bike and I placed him in the corner of the lawns in my appartments. Then we arranged for some water and biscuits for him.The poor kid was so shaken but comforted by our efforts that he waked up every now and then to check if we are there.I stayed up with him till about 2.30 AM!! and when he was asleep I asked the security guard to leave him with some street kids in a nearby hutments next morning...and went home.
Few days later I was again having my regular evening walk in the same park and I saw another puppy playing their:-( I feel awful for separating them but I guess it couldnt be helped...the other puppy is nowhere to be found now..I will anyway keep searching for him....God bless him....

2004-04-14T16:12:00.000+05:30

Enrique Live in Bangalore!!
--------------------------
What an evening! Yesterday had been to Enrique live concert in Bangalore..hot babes all around...that was anyway expected....girls going crazy..I even saw few "I luv u Enrique" posters:-))
Anyway the show was good, slickly packed and presented...It started little late as expeted...so we were there standing for about 4 hours...hairs in a disarray with dust and voice hoarse with shouting...the Latino chorus singer he brought along was hot N sexy...he even gave a sizzling show of love-making while performing one of his songs;-)..the crowd was also boisterous and supportive...so all in all a rocking night....thats one good thing I like about bangalore...it is always the first to host such shows...Bryan Adams, Scorpians, Pink Floyd, Enrique, Richard Clayderman, Elton John...long live DNA....
One life Live it!!

2004-04-07T11:13:00.000+05:30

MURDER! Rating 3.5 Star (Parental Guidance Recommended)
--------------------------------------------------------------
This one's another hot, humid, sultry & sizzling flick from the stables of Bhatts! Mallika Sherawat is indeed one of the boldest siren in bollywood. The first half is value for money...the second an excellent ROI (i.e. Return on Investment).
The movie goes into nested for-loop right in beginning (flashback within flashbacks )...Its about a couple settled in Bangkok whose marriage is in rough weather for flimsy reasons...the hubby is a computer engg who was probably gifted the house of the CEO of his company..because all Comp geeks that I have seen onsite DO NOT live in lavish houses, but in a dingy shared accomodation to save dough....anyway, the USA (UnSatisfied Aunt) Mallika Sherawat bumps into her old time beau (Whats his name??) who went to jail for her sake for some petty fight. This dude manages to find his way into a pub in bangkok as a DJ after his jail term. He then lures and seduces his long lost love back...(lots of filmi "Situations" for hot songs) and is determined to win her back from the clutches of her inconsiderate husband....wont tell you more cause thats what you ought to see....
Acting wise Mallika has no scope, but has covered for it mostly by uncovering herself....good job babe...The hubby (whats his name??) looks cool...and ofcourse the lucky dog Anish Patel has had most of the fun in the movie....worth seeing when your spirits are down.....I suggest see it on DVD with a peg in hand :-)
Enjoy!

2004-04-02T14:37:00.000+05:30

"Goodby my friend...." thats how goes one of the Boney M songs. Well this is for another good ol chum of mine, Anand, who is shifting base back to his hometown today. We have been together since college days, were project partners, joined our existing firm together, were roomies for 2/3 Yrs until he got married to his childhood love RJ... this cool chap has got an uncanny ability to get on your nerves for his sheer careless attitude towards life:-) His interests include girls and only girls.. all ages, shapes & size at any given time of day, morn, noon, night...he has had enough girls swooning over him, but he will never have enough of the female species...though he is hopelessly devoted to his wife..he is equally flirtatious to ever reform from this habit of his....for his send off yesterday we went out past midnight searching for a cuppa of cofee a la our college days...on the way came across a...Uhm...C-Girl..were tempted to go for a bachelors night out...but ignored her...(btw, we dont come across them every day!!)...then had a nice filter coffee at 'savera', came back & then slept over late at his place, had nice breakfast in morn...before seeing him off...
So long AJ, lets hope we meet soon again...all the best N Enjoy!

2004-04-01T16:43:00.000+05:30

Some sidey friend wished me "Good Morning" early today morning with an SMS. He timed it so well that I received it just about when I got up from sleep and was scrambling to stay wide awake...I too promptly forwarded it to few others to bug them... ha ha!! Here's how the SMS went [ Its in Hinglish, see if you can understand..]

"Arey o peeple ke ped ke sukhe hue patte me chupe hue Bhoot ke panje ki last ungli ke tute hue nakhun se behte khun ke bimar bacteria, Uth Ja! Good Morning!! "

Maan just imagine, U a Sick bacteria running in a ghosts blood! what a wierd concept! I couldnt stop my laughter on reading this, thanx maan for starting my day with such a good laugh :-)

2004-03-31T15:49:00.000+05:30

Here is the link to the blog site of one of my best pal. We were roomies in college days...this cute guy is a diehard Microsoft fan!! A techie who used to be a part time hacker, web designer and what not....
He used to put on Blue eyes (contact lenses I mean) and flirt with every other short gurl he met:-) Saw many ups and downs in life and now found a perfect partner, married and settled:-)

http://fireix.blogspot.com/

2004-03-30T16:57:00.000+05:30

A couple of days back I came across a article in Outlook. It was written by some well known (I did not know...) pakistani fashion designer, choreographer & columnist- Freiha Khan. It was about indo-pak relations and the ongoing cricket series....I found one statement in the article which best summarizes pakistani psyche.."Ours is an emotional nation and people here love and hate with tremendous passion. Currently our love knows no bounds" . How true! we have seen their hate before and for a change we are seeing their love!
As for India, I think we too are emotional and can love with passion, but about hate I think we are little meek...I feel ones love and enemity should be at par..But I'm not sure if I can put on a pakistani T-Shirt and cheer their team in case they visit us, like their people are doing for our team...double standards u may say..but I feel that its all about craze for cricket, When indo-pak meet it has to be the home team which wins...great job team-India for proving this false....congrats!

2004-03-29T16:23:00.000+05:30

I interviewed a college junior yesterday. Maan she was pathetic, zero fundamentals! Looks like I will have to go and talk to my college dept HOD N tell him that the standards are really going down!!

You see I was not too bright in college (what do u expect when u miss half the lectures and sleep in the remaining half ?? ) but still I managed to score decently in most of my exams and I do know a thing or two pretty well..but this junior of mine really made me ponder.....

2004-03-26T11:31:00.000+05:30

Yesterday, I finally managed to catch the glimpse of George Michaels new song "Amazing" from the new album "Patience"...simply too good !, once again the venerable, dashing gay proves his merits....maan how many times do you wonder about sexuality and why men go against nature! Imagine what that stud dude must be missing on account of being a gay! (with all due respects to the gay community) ..but sheer waste of life...

2004-03-25T10:02:00.000+05:30

Here are two blog sites I came across recently [source: a good friend of mine- sada], these belong to two nice girls just out of there junior college, they have got a great bunch of friends network and i should say their blogs are full of life!! Though I'm not too old myself, it does remind me of my teens! gone are those
days.. Alas....

http://mblog.com/khushee/
http://rash.diaryland.com/

2004-03-24T10:45:00.000+05:30

Democracy- Apathy is thy name!
--------------------------------
Last week,I did an important thing in my life. I mustered up all my enthusiasm to get some documents like passbooks photocopied and approach the nearest revenue office in Jaynagar.Why? to get my name enlisted in the voter list for the upcoming general elections. Had no idea that I had a typical 'sarkari' welcome in store for me!
The babu sitting there looked very bored to see me, when I told him in english about the purpose of my visit, he replies in impeccable english that he doesnt speak english! Then he asks me in kannada if I speak kannada, I understood that much and replied in hindi 'No'. Then he gave a wicked smile and says to some chamcha nearby that "these ppl stay in bangalore for 3 yrs and doo not speak kannada" I understood the meaning from few words I heard and then started a flurry of choicest abuses in Marathi, my mother toungue. I fired him and gave a sound lecture to him on importance of learning hindi as a govt official, he was quite aghast at that (looks like no one had fired him that much inhis entire life). But by that time the ass* had thought of some clever means to fend me off. he asked me what address proof I had brought when I told him about bank passbook, he gave a triumphant smile and said that it cannot be accepted as proof of address and only gas and telephone bills will do.I didnt have it and it was the last day to get enlisted:-( Though times of india had given a news for public convenience that bank passbook also will do as address proof...
(Note that now all the conversation was in english!) So finally the rascal had won and Indian democarcy lost a responsible citizens crucial vote!
So much for democracy....

~Amit