Top Of My Charts!

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 !!

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

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

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

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!

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!