is dope as addictive as hope?

These Days...

2006-11-15T05:30:00.000-08:00

Have been a little away from Blogger
Have been concentrating on trying to settle things at my perofessional end
Have been eating a lot and putting on a lot of stomach ;)
Have been rising up early in the morning and going for a jog just to balance
Have been reading a lot of books - starting from Freakonomics to books on Body language
Have been finishing the given work on the stipulated deadlines
Have been generally happy about nothing or all the things around

These days...have been endeavouring to make my mind do things that I would like to do rather than doing it the other way

These days..ive been falling in love with myself...all over again...

Touchwood ..:) Cheers

Brotherhood...

2006-10-20T14:01:00.000-07:00

Just a message that did something to me...could not help sharing with you folks out here...

Was passing by one of the areas around Bangalore when my eyes fell on this message..

Wishing you a very happy Deepavali
- Muslim association of XYZ colony

One of the most powerful messages in modern times. Wish we could have more of these. May the tribe increase!!

Just a piece...

2006-10-12T17:02:00.000-07:00

Its 5.27 a.m. on a Thursday morning. The dogs have stopped barking outside. Below, I can hear two and four wheelers passing by. Have been working on a project which has taken the entire night. Yet to complete. My eyes are giving up, my head is not. In the backgrond, K.K (whatever his expanded name is) has been belting the same song again and again and again...that's how I wanted it to be. Have been listening to Pal for more than 30 times easily now.
Memories attached to it. Some want to keep, some want to erase off. But memories are memories. They follow us wherever we go....Here goes KK once again with the same song...and how beautiful it sounds even the 31st time!!

Some melodies act like sponges. They soak the memories out of somewhere and the nostolgia just haunts you. I realize that I have no time for haunting nostolgia and try to get back to work.
No remedy. They just flash like magic. A crow crows outside. The nearby mosque invokes the day through the loudspeaker. KK sings for the 32nd time.

Just to understand what I missed, I open orkut.com. I search for the community of Asian College of Journalism, Chennai. Get a couple of communities. I kow what to search. Fortunately there's the batch of 2007.
Some seen faces, many unseen. I would have been there, had I not chose to chuk it. Nevermind, life's all about choices. My probable classmates :)
I close orkut. I am satisfied. Existence bless them...they look like a great bunch of students...

KK has finished belting the number 33rd time...lemme give the guy a break...cheers :)

Here's a new one :)

2006-09-26T04:48:00.000-07:00

http://whiletravelingaroundindia.blogspot.com/

Gandhigiri...sounds cool!

2006-09-11T16:25:00.000-07:00

Have to admit that I have not had the privilege to watch it. Had been to PVR today for a late night show, but the tickets were sold out. 3rd week and a Monday night to add to that! This might just be the biggest blockbuster after Shloay..well hopefully im not going hyper over it and blogging my conclusions without watching the sequel of the Munna - Circuit riproaring comedy Munna Bhai MBBS..Well some beg to differ that the movie was never a comedy..All respects to them for their thoughts :)

Coming back to the sequel..Where did the inspiration come from? None other than one of the most masaladar (spicy) news channel called star news...
They make a special story on everything and everybody...From the tiff between 2 celebs on a non descript TV channel to Rakhi Sawant to the boy who had been there in a tunnel for oh so long hours to god knows what...There's a special story for everything in this channel.

Mind you, they might just do a special series on yours truly if they come to know that I have done a special blog on "Lage Raho Munna Bhai"...;) Mark my word! Ahem ;)

Again coming back, this special story was really special. A hug to Star news for that! Inspired me to rush to the theatre as soon as it got over, irrespective of my schedules..
Not getting a tic is a different thing altogether..but yeah it did some real good cover on the story.

For instance, the guy who played Gandhiji apparently saw a pirated version of the movie being played in one of the night coaches. He complained the incident to the police and a case was filed against the company for showing pirated movies!
Now that, would he have done it if it was any other movie is a one crore rupees question. Nevertheless, the fact that it might serve as a lesson for other tour operators who show movies in their coaches is a satisfying feeling for a traveller!

Next good feel. Pop comes Raj Kumar Hirani. The reporter sticks the mike to his nose and asks the best cliche that could be asked..what's the response been like?
Hello, homework, someone please explain this reporter that my movie is a super duper hit!!! (Well that's your director thinking, not my words;)

And our magician, gleaming in the glory of showing the nation one of the finest samples of creative imagination recites an incident..

To quote -

"You see, the other day I got a call from one gentleman who said that after watching the movie he threw the ticket on the ground...but suddenly he realised that he should not be doing that..picked up the ticket from the ground and threw it in the dustbin.."

That's Gandhigiri at its best, I presume..and a nice one at that!

Heard that the movie is tax free in Delhi..and they want to show the same in the Parilament! Im sure that they would be quite fluent with the mamu language..and Gandhi? well, your optinism is as good as mine!!

Though I have not watched the movie, intend to watch it sometime, if the movie has and will be able to put in place a few things, we would be a great nation. The things which we as Indians should get in our head is as follows, again according to moi :

1. Do not piss on the roadside..That brick was not made for you to relieve yourself..And by the way, where will the poor dogs pee?

2. And the watery stains of that betel remains! When you build a house make sure you do not paint it! YOu got what i meant to say right? Target your house with that rather than roads, public toilets, neighbour's walls, dark corners of your office et al...

3. Do not honk when the traffic light is RED! Colorblind?

4. While at temples, do not push, shout, shove or belt out explitives to be in the front..remember you are at the temple!!

5. After cleaning your home, do not nicely pack the rubbish and neatly throw at your neighbour's door!

These are some of my suggestions..Make sure it is taken!!

Rest after watching Lage Raho Munna Bhai..Gandhigiri definitely seems cool!!!!

Its been a while...always feel like home at blogger :)

2006-08-31T12:54:00.000-07:00

So good to write after a long long while. First I owe a lot of thanks to people who have been around me, at blogger, outside blogger..always inspiring in their own sweet ways...love you a lot for whatever you guys have been to me :) The world definitely has a lot of ups even when the downs try to desperately suck you into it :)

So updates as of now...

Left Mumbai and headed straightway to my friend with whom I was envisaging to start up an enterprise of my own. Apparently, both of us having the same wavelength for the project, did not take too much of a time deciding what to do and how to go about it.
So we started "travelogues", a travel company which endeavours to make travel plans for people wanting to travel towards Darjeeling and Sikkim, the gateway to the Northeastern part of the country.

Travelogues is about a month and a couple of days old baby. We are operating from Kolkata and Bangalore with our head office in Sikkim.
The response from people to whom we have spoken the idea of travelling towards those parts has been quite positive. We are in talks with a couple of organizations at present and hopefully we would be able to give them a trip of a lifetime if we take them to these places.
We have been offering specialized travel packs which include the following -

1. Adventure tourism
2. Trekking
3. Village and Eco Tourism
4. Regular sightseeing

The details of which is quite an elaborate one :) If someone is interested in specific details, I could answer the same :)

Why tourism? Someone asked me? All of a Sudden? Well hoestly speaking, I always wanted to do something on my own. A regular 9 to 6 work schedule has had never been my idea about work. My idea of work was something which I give 100 percent and atleast get 50% of it..atleast on the satisfaction front.
On a tiring day from work in my previous company, as I rested and stared at the celeing, tired and completely drained out, the first question that would come to me would be this:
"What if I had sweated out this energy in something thats my own?" Maybe that was a selfish notion but the fact never changed. At the end of the day, the feeling was just so overwhelming.
Sometimes working for 4 hours was such a trouble with the mind playing a lot of games...u know what i mean to say..today I work for almost 20 plus hours, trying to figure out things here and there..how to go about things..how to see that my customers get the best of deals...what hotels to reserve..what cars to provide..if teens then what kind of enjoyment would they relish..if elderly, what kind of music should the driver play...et al..all minute things but very vital....cos travel is all about the comfort life can provide..and a customer is just paying you for relishing the small happiness that they can get in taking a sojourn :)

So lots of things happening at my end..am learning, but enjoying every bit of the learning :) meeting a lot of people, focusing towards spreading the network and trying to give it my best shot in whatever I intend to do :)

That's a lot I have spoken about myself and what I have been doing in these days:)

Hope this is not boring. Its 2 a.m. have been listening to "Someday i'll be Saturday night" for the nth time as of now...lots of things to catch up with...catch ya guys in the next blog soon..and yeah i hope i do mean it when i say soon ;)

Once again, thanks for being there guys..love you all a lot and a little more....:))))

Learning sans earnings:)

2006-07-14T04:00:00.000-07:00

Am pitched in Mumbai right now. Been almost five days. Had recieved a call from one of the software giants to attend an interview for the position of a technical writer. Sprung up to the occasion and did head straightway from Bangalore to Mumbai in flat 22 hours. This includes the time taken for travel rituals as well. 2 months off paycheck had definitely done a wee bit of damage to my self identity.

Was ready to grab "any" chance that favoured me. Knowing that there are certain jobs which would not be justified if I did take the offer. One of them being definitely technical writing. Apologies if this hurts the sentiments of anyone reading this, but honestly speaking I do not fathom myself to be in the field of technical writing.

Movies, writing ad copies, public relations, travel writing and such adventurous endeavours have been my passion and longing.
Nevertheless did go for the interview on the desired date and time. The written round went on quite well. The HR lady was sweet enough to make me feel comfortable and explain in detail what I was supposed to do and what would be my role if I did get the job.

1 and a half hours later completed the paper. The lady told me to wait for a while while the result would be declared on the very same day. Waited for atleast 2 hours and that's where my mind started playing games with me.

Questions like, would you really like to do it if you got it? Would you be happy doing this? What if you are bored after a while and further disillusioned about what to do next? started to play merry go round with me. Truely, I was zapped by my own ruminations!

After 2 hours the HR lady came by and said that the written round was through and the next level would be the interview. I was confident that I would fumble. The confidence of not being able to answer my own internal
questions make matters worse. And as expected the interviewer asked me the "how's of something" and I replied the "what's and whys of everything". Result, it was nice meeting you :)

Came out of the office, a little humilated, agitated, and with an urge to punch myself and the interviewer ( let's leave the man alone, I suppose). Walked up the road with no aim at all. Things getting heavier inside the head.

Had been working on a proposal of setting up an enterprise with a couple of friends. After digesting the result called a friend and took a stock of the project. Fortunately for us, things were rolling as we wanted it to.

Would be joining the project sometime next week so that we can get things rolling and do what I want to do the most. As for the sustainance, will let you guys know as the project unfolds.

(Note: We would be having an office in Mumbai too. Hopefully I do come here for handling the same:)

An interesting phase!?...Whateva.......

2006-07-03T01:17:00.002-07:00

Its an interesting period for me. Had been trying to continue with my post grad in broadcast journo. Somewhere and somehow things did not go the way I intended it should have. And that's made it further interesting. Some revelations, some flashes of wisdom, some sweetness in the flavour called friends while some well...not so anticipated change of hearts and guards.

As I gave up my cushioned job about 2 months back, wanting to persue my studies, never did I realise the agony of being a jobless person. Further more, I did realise the pangs of someone who is so very out of work is agonizing. Had a friend who used to be with me during the times he was scouting for the means to his bread and butter. The irritation he had written all over him, interview after interview, sometimes getting knocked of in the first round itself, sometimes going till the HR round and opportunity slipping like an eel....the wrechedness is so very understandable and empathizing by me at this point in time.

Those days, I relaxedly sitting on a couch caled job used to give him all the fundes about how to go for a job and what to say and what not to say..how to greet, make eye contact et al...the world's round..definitely proved!

But that's okay..It gives me further impetus and realization about optionizing situations. Did not very seriously think of an option what would I do if I did not....My optimism then graced me with rose colored glasses...Well all in the umbrella called experience, guess:)

That was the job thingi...Now sustainance..Spent about a month and half traveling to places for the admission thingi. Got some but did not intend to get in. Lost where I badly wanted to enter! Lots of Gandhis flowing through the hand. A month..have to get a job anyhow...Its not a comfortable feeling when one is just spending and no assests to fall back on :)

Third time... Have been watching movies at home, reading a lot (thanks to my unemployed status:), loggin on to Naukri.com again and again and again, writing some ad copies (again thanks to unemployment:), now intending to read a few hindi books to sharpen my ad-copies...:) eating on and off and yeah sleeping too:)

Fourth people.... some nice observations made, interesting enough to make me think..some have been like angels, helping me whenever and however they could and can, some been thete consoling its okay to be as I am right now ( i know its not OK:) but still the empathy is a nice thingi, some 'good friends' whiskered away, while some are just there to laugh with..they too are as jobless like yours truely...the difference..they bunk college:)

Been an interesting observation..this phase giving me enough time to separate the wheat from the shaff...

Hopefully I come out of this situation soon and bounce back with inspired energies as I enter a new place and a new office:) Yeah btw planning to leave bangalore for good and endeavor towards reaching my dreams in Mumbai:)...and Hopefully again, the next blog would be of my finding a new place, space and wisdom....
Cheers....

Just needed a dose of inspiration, so plagiarized this one ;)

2006-06-26T07:21:00.000-07:00

WHEN THINGS GO WRONG

When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,
When the road you're trudging seems all uphill,
When the funds are low and the debts are high,
And you want to smile,
but you have to sigh,

When care is pressing you down a bit-Rest if you must, but don't you quit.
Life is queer with its twists and turns,
As every one of us sometimes learns,
And many a fellow turns about
When he might have won had he stuck it out.
Don't give up though the pace seems slow -You may succeed with another blow.

Often the goal is nearer than It seems to a faint and faltering man;
Often the struggler has given upWhen he might have captured the victor's cup;
And he learned too late when the night came down,
How close he was to the golden crown.
Success is failure turned inside out -
The silver tint in the clouds of doubt,
And you never can tell how close you are,
It might be near when it seems afar;
So stick to the fight when you're hardest hit -
It's when things seem worst that you must not quit.

Unknown

(Just needed a great dose of inspiration, so pasted this beautiful one by some unknown angel..Thanks for the poem whoever has written this one...i'll come back again and again and yet again when im low...maybe u guys could also refer this :)

Mumbai: The city of elastic opportunities

2006-06-20T03:08:00.001-07:00

I blog from Mumbai. This is my first time at the city. One thing that hits me on and on is the term "elastic opportunities". Why? For the simple reason that this city is beyond extended opportunities. Opportunities are extended only to a certain limit. But elasticity, you can stretch it to whatever extent you want to. The city has never been berift of possibilities and opportunities.

Coming from Bangalore, this city seems to be in such a flushed hurry. And courtesy, just goes out of the windows of the local trains that are stocked with humans, rushing to leave from "dont-know-where" to "dont-know-where"; that's Bombay..err Mumbai for me...
A new city, brimming with teeming crowd and each one hunting for a possibility somewhere at the next station!

Sorrys and thank yous is as extinct as the dodo! This morning as I was travelling on a local train, happened to bump with a fellow traveller while getting down. Tried to extend the courtesy of saying sorry but the guy was already half a mile ahead.
This is a city in a hurry! No time to extend courtesy and no time to recieve one!

Traveling in local trains is so much of an education on the way this city transpires, conspires and inspires! Some blokes gazing at me on my face with that question mark, some pushing me to the corner of the compartment, some trying to squeeze themselves to read the morning paper, while some just yapping away to glory, the best form of entertainment enmass.

One of the local slangs learn on my way to VT. " Champion ki dum" ( tail of a champion)
Apparently for one who tries to act smart but fails miserably :)

Whatever said and done, this city is full of life. Rush is by the hour but yes that's whatMumbai epitomises...
I am in a rush too...Maybe the Mumbai effect!! Catch you guys later:)

Mumbai: The city of elastic opportunities

2006-06-20T03:08:00.000-07:00

I blog from Mumbai. This is my first time at the city. One thing that hits me on and on is the term "elastic opportunities". Why? For the simple reason that this city is beyond extended opportunities. Opportunities are extended only to a certain limit. But elasticity, you can stretch it to whatever extent you want to. The city has never been berift of possibilities and opportunities.

Coming from Bangalore, this city seems to be in such a flushed hurry. And courtesy, just goes out of the windows of the local trains that are stocked with humans, rushing to leave from "dont-know-where" to "dont-know-where"; that's Bombay..err Mumbai for me...
A new city, brimming with teeming crowd and each one hunting for a possibility somewhere at the next station!

Sorrys and thank yous is as rare as a dodo! This morning as I was travelling on a local train, happened to bump with a fellow traveller while getting down. Tried to extend the courtesy of saying sorry but the guy was already half a mile ahead.
This is a city in a hurry! No time to extend courtesy and no time to recieve one!

Traveling in local trains is so much of an education on the way this city transpires, conspires and inspires! Some blokes gazing at me on my face with that question mark, some pushing me to the corner of the compartment, some trying to squeeze themselves to read the morning paper, while some just yapping away to glory, the best form of entertainment enmass.

One of the local slangs learn on my way to VT. " Champion ki dum" ( tail of a champion)
Apparently for one who tries to act smart but fails miserably :)

Whatever said and done, this city is full of life. Rush is by the hour but yes that's whatMumbai epitomises...
I am in a rush too...Maybe the Mumbai effect!! Catch you guys later:)

Sea: bringing out the beauty in me!

2006-06-13T07:32:00.000-07:00

The tide seemed to be a hungry one. Sea on one side and humanity on the other. Which one had the greater power, this was left best for existence to fathom. But at that time, trying to figure out as we moved towards Marina beach, a feeling of humans overpowering the sea seemed quite evident.

The beach seemed to be coloured with denizens out and out, some spreading themselves across the light brown soft sand, some squatting in small groups, sharing eateries along with laughters, some talking sweet nothings into each other's ears and some well, just enjoying the fun and frolic of a Sunday evening.
Afterall, sand, sea and the evening, the combination could not be less than enthralling.

The poet in my friend came alive. His heart spoke out. The mouth was just a medium. His description of the sea was alluring enough for me to figure out his romance with the sea. As we dug our legs into the sand and moved towards the sea, he ruminated about his longing for the sea, bringing around streaks of nostalgia as he smiled towards the horizon.

I could not see the sea, yet. He could feel it from a distance. That was my friend for you.
Finally after a 200 meters walk, we could watch the sea. What a beauty it was! All of a sudden the whole place which brimmed with activity felt so nice an pleasant. The focus was generated to the sea and the rest, well was oblivion!

We rushed like small kids towards the water. Did we care less? Heavenly is all I can say as my feet touched the first waves of the sea. After that, I was all poetry!

We stood at the shores of the beach for quite sometime, speechless and looking towards the waves play their game.

Many thoughts lingered in my mind, of them some being calmness, happiness, gladness and blast me could not help thinking about the great Tidal Wave Tsunami!

Imagining the tide outdo its patience was overwhelming! The sea definitely did make me feel humble. Could thank it no less for bringing relief to my senses in whatever ways it could. Surely there would be many like me who feel glad about nature playing its mystic flute and soothing us in whatsoever ways possible, but the thanklessness of we humans was one which I could not get rid of even then as I looked around.

But that's a different story altogether. So let's keep this to thankfullness at this point in time. :) Cheers.

Fanaa: the movie's worth its name..nearly killed yours truly ;)

2006-06-06T12:37:00.000-07:00

As the clock ticks, it reads 1.12 a.m. A minute away from the famous Nelson number which our cricketers are afraid to tread! I am just back from watching the movie Fanaa and what an experience it was. Imagine inspiring one to write about it as soon as back from the movie would definitely be a worthwhile one!

How I too wished that I could write a pleasant note on Fanaa. How I sincerely wished that Aamir Khan and Kajol would have never accepted the script at the first place. On second thoughts, maybe the whole idea of Yash raj films producing the same, the duo would have just missed reading the script.

Result. Utter waste of public time and money. How could the great star Aamir do this to me? How could such a loosely bound script be enticing to a star who has ultra hits like Lagaan and Rand De Basanti to his credit, with its script so tightly packed.

The story is so loosely bound that one is surprised by the compleities of coincidences that happen around the lives of the cast and crew of the movie.
The screen play is so hilarious that at one point in time when there is dire treat of the country coming under an attack, I could not get off my head the thought that maybe Rajnikanth would be the surprise entry and he would save the country.

Many must have watched the movie. Many would be wanting to watch. For those who want to watch it, a serious piece of advice. Don't, or else you might just be Fanaa...

Note: There are people who absolutely loved the movie. No issues. I just put my POV, that's it. Debates for another day, please:)

How much do we contribute?

2006-05-30T19:39:00.000-07:00

It was a nonchalant discussion that heated up as the power failed at office the other day. Power failure, an AC chamber and a debate! Could it get any hotter than that? The topic of discussion: individual contributions of “us” outsiders to the city of our destiny, Bangalore.

For one, there is a hysterical passion inside me towards this city which has given me so much, figuratively and literally!

The chamber was a perfect halo of diversity. One from the capital, one from the economical capital, one from the land of Godhra, err.. Gandhi and myself a self proclaimed lover of this city! So that makes me a guy from Bangalore, right!

People who have been an agent in stuffs like debate would well agree that it may start taking opinions from the group as a whole but after sometime the onus of continuing it further lies on the shoulders of only two individuals.
As it happens in casual debates, the germ of the topic arose from somewhere which nobody in the group could fathom. But because we had started it, so it continued.

The topic – the contribution of outsiders to this city

This opened up a box of bees. The noise started buzzing frantically. Me pointing out that most of us coming from outside have been selfish enough in our contributions towards the city, which apparently is our karma bhoomi.
The guy from the capital popped first “ Arree yaar what do you talk about contribution? The whole point that I have been working here itself is a contribution to the city from my side.” A typical style from one of the parts of our country!

The guy from the financial capital asked me, “You tell me what has been your contribution to this city?” “You talk about feeling proud and contributing towards the city, can you elucidate something that you have contributed?” A very nice question!

Having belled, and afraid to be given a politician tag, blurted a few areas where I had utilized my physical energy and personal time. Ending the sentence with ‘ feel proud that there has been some contribution from my side towards the positive development of the city”.
“So even we are paying taxes? Are we not contributing towards the city?”, blurted the guy from the money capital of India.

“You may be, but that contribution is by default. Everyone who’s working here has to pay that,” I justified back. “Moreover the money that you say goes to all the litter we do around the streets. Throwing garbage, pissing around trees, spitting in public places, throwing soft drinks bottles wherever we want… whatever “professional tax” we say that we are contributing goes for cleaning all the literal rubbish we do in this city… Maybe that was not a valid point but the bottom line definitely hit somebody’s head.

“Who said I do all these here?” spoke the capital city guy. It must have hit him real hard.
“Nah, please do not take it subjectively but objectively. This might not be the case of us but the larger part of the influx does this. We are bloody selfish,” I remarked.

“Chal pagal… let me do some work”, said the guy from the financial capital and started
fidgeting with his mobile. In the meanwhile the guy from the land of the Gandhi quietly stepped out of the discussion. Now who’s left? An adopted Bangalorian and another from the heart of the Hindi heartland!

The topic had not yet got a final farewell when all of a sudden the debate of north and the south sprung out from somewhere. Casual debating at its best!

The north felt offended with the attitude of the south and the south decried the arrogance and narcissism of the north. Issues rose from both the sides. Of north being the bread bowl and with it south would have been in a soup, south being spoilt to a certain extent by the influx of the culturally spastic north…both the sides had our own point to defend.

That the recognition of this city is all because of the people who have come from the north to work and my justification that the state was better without people from outside…all formed the jamboree of our discussion.

The culture of wearing a shirt worth thousands apparently bringing the social in thing to the south (an apparent contribution of the north. And what a contribution it has been;) was shredded in this potboiler of a debate.

Power still seemed miles away. No body questioned me on that, at least!!

The debate went on and on. Voices started getting louder. The chamber belonged to the guy from the financial capital, so he played the good moderator and put water on the fire by suggesting that the debate would go till eternity.

But the question still remained unanswered “How much are we contributing towards the city? Is paying a default professional tax enough a contribution to the city?”

The debate did not get a fair conclusion with too many things coming in between. Maybe we are too selfish in our contributions or am I to jingoistic about this city?

Am a little confused on this?

RESERVATION DESERVATION!!!!

2006-05-25T07:22:00.000-07:00

Reservation incidentally is not the idea of an India whose time has come. The repercussion of the political decision for reserving half of the quotas for the scheduled castes and tribes has starkly divided the nation into educational ghettoization. This certainly does not augur well for a nation that so very well is trying to root its paws into the den of developed nations.

More importantly, this does not hold good for the tomorrow of a nation which seems inspiringly proud of having in possession the youngest dormant human resource pool available across nations.
The oft repeated plagiarized quote by our Prime Minister Dr. MM Singh sounds so much a farce at this point in time. To put it accordingly – “An idea whose time has come”

This certainly is not a blueprint whose time has come, Dear Sir.

Reservation subjected to caste is an initiative that has had to be aborted at the fetal stage itself. Or rather an idea which should not have been impregnated into the minds at the first place!

What are we talking about? Reservations in the name of caste!?

Honestly speaking, as an inspired nation, we do not expect us (read: India) to be led by mindsets pertaining to the 18th century! The obesity of eccentricities by a bundle of jokers sitting at the helm of affair is very perplexing!

There are some exceptions to the rule though. And the exceptions are distinctly well laid when it comes to reservations. Provide enough and equal opportunities for “reserved” ones from primary and high school levels, so that they could be in great competition amongst equals!
After all, no nation can afford to rest assured its future on semi-boiled talents.

Also provide opportunities (economical as well as social security) to the real latent potentials amongst these camps that are oblivious in this muddle of caste and creed.

Surely, there would be academic gems in the scheduled castes and tribes too. Scout for these talents, nurture them at nascent stages, condition them to succeed and then watch the bloom of a nation showering out from a rainbow of talents.

Reservation on the basis of caste! The sooner we dump those fuddy-duddy baggages, the better it would be promises for our nation. As the thumping cliché the generation next has been vociferously sloganeering - “Let merit be the deciding factor and not the womb!”

Now let us shift our focus on another aspect. But equally knitted with this paraphernalia of “reservations”!
This would be one of the most hilariously ridiculous prepositions any nation would have faced.

A year back, our Honorable Prime Minister unveiled a project which he made everyone believe was a dream project.

Christened – NATIONAL KNOWLEDGE COMMISSION

Goal – Advise the Prime Minister on matters relating to institutions of knowledge production, knowledge use and knowledge dissemination.

Mandate of the commission – To sharpen India’s “knowledge edge”.

Now does this have any place in our country where in a class of hundred, 50 would be burning the midnight oil to get well placed into respectable positions in the society and the other half would be as relaxed as ever, comfortably squatting on the sofa called reservations.

Reservations in premier and specialized institutions today might percolate into private sectors the day after tomorrow. This is very much a possibility looking at the way the politics of our country functions or rather malfunctions.

To relate an anecdote -

During my sojourn to Pune recently, the gentleman with whom I had the pleasure of sharing my seat was an alumnus of the prestigious IIT – Kanpur who was also presently pursuing his MBA from IIM – Ahemadabad (both on merit basis).

The journalist in me cringed to take his views on this whole reservation debate.

If his thoughts on reservations could be taken as a symbolic representation of what runs through the minds of the students who have made through the merit list vis-à-vis, the reserved lists, we could well come up with some conclusion on whether to put this thing in or to dump the issue in the bin.

“Personally if you ask me, I would say that it is ridiculous for us to still debate on this issue of reservation based on caste. During my engineering at IIT (K) most of the students who came on the so called “quota” were so casual about their studies. And mind, you they were not from families who could not afford them the luxuries of a good life. They belonged to rich families and had all the pleasures of living. Not saying that there were not any students from the list who did not do well, but most of them took things so nonchalantly and relaxed. Some of them have been there for years”.

Let everyone play on an equal field. Do not elevate the field for somebody just on the basis of their caste or birth.

The people who are for the reservation bill say that since India has 50% of SC and ST’s, and only 15% of general merit class, there has been huge injustice for them in terms of reservation.
Well said. The point is respected.

In that case, an out of the box solution is to be thought with respect to the reservation issue.

Maybe we should make the whole country OBC or Other Backward Class!

After all in the world’s eye, we seem to be going backwards anyways, right Mr. Arjun Singh?

Rendezvous with the Happiest City of India

2006-05-18T06:18:00.000-07:00

The expressway that connects Bangalore to Pune could be a biker’s bliss by all means.
With roads as smooth as actress Madhuri Dixit’s cheeks, one could well afford to skate
down to Pune, only if the distance was not a whooping 500 plus kilometers.

After an idyllic zoom of 16 hours, through a scale straight highway, and 360 minute of
visual entertainment in the form of two movies, I load off at the “happiest city of India.”

Poona for the old denizens, U replacing the double OO for the young!

The humidity is conspicuous. 12.30 p.m. is no time to enter a city; or rather the outskirts
of a city. Trying to get some refreshment, I walk into a hotel which looks greatly
magnificent by the standards of the area. I ask for a bottle of soft drink, immediately
requesting for the directions to the rest room. The man on the other side of the counter uninterestingly points somewhere outside. Obediently I wag myself towards the direction.

It is an open space outside. Not convinced by the outside, I go and intrude his privacy
again. He looks unimpressed. Outside, means anywhere, he barks.

I pick up my bags and leave.

Welcome to the happiest city of India.

The auto guy is a little decent though. He shows me the safest place to relieve
myself, far from the screening eyes and humungous traffic that snarls through
the expressway. The place – the rear of a dilapidated wall!

Like a cute puppy, I happily oblige.

After all a new city, one tends to become clueless about the amenities available.
So you go by general hearsay;)! My sincere apologies for that to the
city of Poona / Pune!

My next rendezvous is with a glib of an auto driver who convinces me of the fact
that the auto fare takes a bull run as it enters the city premises.
And I? What about it? Fell head over heels at the smooth operation, not forgetting
to shake his hands and thank him for dropping me at the destined place.
Only later, realization dawning upon me for having paid at least three times the
regular fare.

The auto driver is crazily happy as he bids adieu to me.

Must be the “happiest city” tag, I summarize!

En route, he extracts the most of my coming down to his city. Jokingly, I refer of
coming to Pune with an objective of staying at Osho’s ashram.
That would have been the most ignorant mistake committed. One of the reasons,
I fathom later for me being ripped off and fleeced! But that’s that about that:)
(Whatever that means)

Reach the destination. My friend, sweet enough to pick me up from the spot,
thence ending my first adventure with the “Eton of the East”!

The second adventure….well just a blog away!!! Cheers.

10 jingles remembered…..

2006-05-08T06:36:00.000-07:00

There are certain advertisement jingles that are so deeply rooted within us.
Wedged by nostalgia, I take the privilege of presenting 10 of them. Hope these
jingles remind you of the good old days and weave the magic of yesteryears.

Do try to hum them as you read these lines.

Apologies that the copy of some of the jingles has been washed away from my grey
cells! Still an attempt has been made to give out as much as remembered.
The translation has been italicized.

Note: The jingles are as per my preference.

One of it, “The 5 star” is a great source of inspiration till date,
when the blue clouds hover over me! Thanks to whoever created that!

Please accept my humble bow and also a 21 gun salute!

5 star (candy bar)

Jindagi mein na rahe jab, koi sapna suhana..
Din mein josh bharlo, tumhe kuch hein kar dikhanaaa…
Choo lo sitaro ko, aab door nahi hein manzil (2)

(When there are not enough inspiring dreams in life,
Make up your mind to do something...
Catch the stars, the destination is not too far away….)

Cadbury’s

Kuch khas hein, jindagi meinnnnn…
Kuch baath hein, hum sabhi meinnnn…
Baath heinnn, khasss heinnnn,
Kya swadh heinnnnnnn,
Kya swadh heinnnn, jindagi mein

(There’s something special about life, there’s something special in all of us,
Something, something special,
What a taste life has…. )

Anyone (Everyone) remembers the ad? The extremely cute girl whose boyfriend
(or brother or uncle:) hits a six during a cricket match, how she dodges the guard,
gives a perfect zig and reaches to congratulate her boyfriend (or brother or uncle)

Lifebuoy

Lala lalala lalala lalalalalalala…..

Tandoorosti ki raksha karta hein lifebuoy,
Lifebuoy hein jahaannnn, tandurusti hein wahannnn….
Lifebuoy…………

(The agility lies safely under the aegis of lifebuoy.
Wherever lifebuoy is, there is agility)

(Surely the copy writer would hang himself in shame if he reads my trans. What an ad what a translation)

Lal Danth manjan

Arree Raju, tumhare daath to Motiyo jaisey chamak rahe hein?
Kyo na ho masterji, mein dabur ka lal danth manjan jo istamal karta hoon!!!

(Raju your teeth are sparkling like pearls? Why not masterji, I use dabur’s
Lal Danth manjan)

What simplicity and class!!

Bajaj Scooter

Just remember a couple of lines…sorry!!! If anyone remembers, please do help me

Buland Bharat ki buland tasweerrrrrrrrrrrrrrr…
Hamara Bajaj (2)

The strong face of a strong nation…Ours Bajaj

Nirma

Nirma, Nirma, washing powder Nirma,
Doodh sein safedi, nirma sey aayi
Rangeen kapdey bhi peel peel jayey,
Sabkey pasand nirma …
Washing powder nirma…NIRMA!!

Nirma, Nirma, washing powder Nirma,
Milk like whiteness is given by Nirma
Rangeen kapdey bhi peel peel jayey, (don’t know what this means?)
Everybody’s favourite nirma
Washing powder nirma…NIRMA!!

Amul Chocolate

I am too old for... (just forgot)
Too young for …. (just forgot)
But I guess you are just right for Amul Chocolate..

Amul – the gift for someone you love!!

(Everything in English. Wish not to translate the same in Hindi…
that would look horrendous!!:)

7. Natraj Pencil

Yeh laga phir sixer
Natraj Phir Championnnn........

Here goes another sixer (cricket) Natraj is once again the champion

8. Nirma Super

Shopkeeper: Ohhoho..deepika ji
aaiye aaiye yeh raha aapka saman

Deepika ji: yeh nahi, woh..

Shopkeeper: Par aap to hamesa who mehanga wala tikiyaa….

Deepika ji: Leti thi
Kam damo mein wahi safei miley to koi woh kyo leh…
Yeh kyoo na ley…

Shopkeeper: Maan gaye

Deepika ji: Kisse?

Shopkeeper: apki paar ki nazar aur nirma super dono ko!

Shopkeeper : Welcome, welcome deepikaji
Here are your purchases
Deepikaji (picking a soap from the basket) : Not this, that!

Shopkeeper: But you always take ….?

DJ: Used to take! When I get as good a wash as this soap in that why should I take an expensive one?

Shopkeeper: Impressed!

DJ: of what

Shopkeeper: Your far sightedness and Nirma super, both!!!

9. Mango frooti…Fresh and juicy

A relatively new one this is….

Still trying to figure out who this guy called DIGEN VERMA from the Frooti ad is?

And if we could take this in the jingle section…

10. Miley sur Mera Tumhara

Miley sur mera tumhara…
To sur bane hamara…
Sur ki nadiya, behti sagaroo sein mileyyy
Badalo ka roop lekey, barsey halkey halkey….
Miley soor mera tumhara…

This is a long one......

(This became almost a national anthem. Especially when Mithun da, Jacky shroff??
And the villain Shetty clasp their hand together calling for unity…man that was raw inspiration!!! Sorry this I cannot translate in English.. one for my shortcomings and
other for the respect I have for this song!!!!

This sounds brilliant in the language it has been sung!!!

Disclaimer: The translations in English are remote. It might not be the same as the copy writer intended. That’s what yours truly understood. Hence, seek no litigation:).

Some of the exclusives remembered

2006-05-04T09:19:00.000-07:00

Search the meaning of the word “exclusive” and about a dozen meaning pops out from Dictionary.com. But looking into the context of my ramblings, I choose the juiciest and the apt meaning which defines the term as “ Not divided or shared with others: exclusive publishing rights. (sic) exclusive broadcasting rights.

Now if only Aishwarya Rai’s sprained ankle or Salman Khan’s bulldog not eating its food could
be deemed as exclusive!

Off the cuff, let me share some of the exclusives I remember to have seen in the great Indian Idiot box.

a) The “exclusive” cover operation done by one of the channels to prove that the “Jadoo” of the Hritik Roshan featured mega-movie Koi Mil Gaya was not a robot but a fellow who lived in one of the apartments in Mumbai. The apparent puny guy was never seen on television but his family was tortured with inundated questions by a channel which beamed an exclusive logo on the left hand bottom of the screen.

b) The exclusive story on the first Indo-Pak bus trip where early in the morning an extra charged reporter asked an overtly excited reporter this question in hindi
“ Aab wahah kya ho raha hein/ aap uske bare mein batayenge hamare darshako ko? (Can you say what is happening right now over there?)
And the answer from the field, “ Aaap ko bata do ki abhi yaha pey log death manjh rahe hein….( Let me tell the viewers that the dignitaries are brushing their teeth:)
bottom centre “exclusive”.

c. The exclusive story carried by almost all the channels including the local ones of the Vivek –Ash, Salman-Ash relationship and the trauma that followed…could not decipher which one was the real exclusiveJ

d. Why is Saurav Ganguly not talking to the boys on the field and vice versa…another exclusive story. The reported stubs the mike to one non descript fellow to give an comment and the fellow also in the hoard to become famous belts reason after reason. On to the stage, an “expert” commentator who has not even played 15 matches for India gives his reasoning and expert advice about what Dada should do now…all this while the excusive band is rolling. You know where…bottom centre!!

God bless!!!! Who??

We viewers, ofcourse...:)

NDTV: I clapped for thou...

2006-04-25T10:31:00.000-07:00

Mornings for me is generally reserved for music television. Simple reason, you need not understand the crooning. So happily can go for my morning rituals.

Today it was a little different though. Finished my chores, ready for office preety early, glanced through the Times of India ( an avid reader of the TOI can well understand how much time is required to read the paper. Glancing the same takes one nano seconds or a little lesser than that;)..and no exxageration intended:)

Through with browsing the TOI, and tired with listening to all the clowns croon,
started playing with the remote... A glance at NDTV breakfast and I was hooked... What a revelation it was to see NDTV anchors punching out news after news in the freshest of cuts and crispily conveyed across...Marvellous I gasped at the synchronization of style and content..

No bias in this!!

The programme kept me mesmerised me for sometime as I was just smiling at the screen... not for the news but for sometihing else about the news. Moreover, not many news channels make you feel happy for reporting, especially when you have 75% of news generated as the aftermaths of destruction and havoc.

The programme was so fresh and refreshing. Awed subconsciously my hands just joined together for an encore... foolish it may seem but yes I did clap for the programme....I know I would be hooked for sometime henceforth:)

The difficulty in deciding things

2006-04-19T07:53:00.000-07:00

One of the first things that decides the worth of your professional salt definitely has to be the clarity one has to take tough decisions and at the same time convey the message across diplomatically..
Balancing these two aspects would according to me give an indication of one's coming of age (to a small extent) in the corporate world.

It is really difficult to decide on certain things on behalf of a department when you see that there have been people in the department who have been around since the last so-many-years.

The incident related below is a personal dilemma which I have faced since a couple of days at work. The gnawing thought of offending a senior but at the same time desperation of not being able to give a fair chance to a fresher whose ideas smells of spring had been making things a little awkward at workplace...

I take the privilege of sharing the incident with my fellow bloggers, with the intention that the same might be of some use to someone if they have the dilemma of deciding.

Period.

A sweet little farewell and the person who had been designing certain journals in the department since the last 11 years was ready to take off to the Middle east. On personal grounds.
11 years in an organization taking care of a particular thing is no small task. Tears marked the farewell with my colleague wishing well to the department and the newly entered chap.

All's well that ends well.

Period.

2 weeks the green horn of the department comes out with amazingly fresh ideas, totally impressing us with his eye for design. We set to work, making some amends time and again at the work place and culture. Mind you we are not an extra large department. 3 people. And that's it!
14 days is too fresh for a green horn to settle and thud the ex-designer comes in. Reason. Visa delayed for 2 months or so.

On grounds of familarity and with the intention to advice the new fellow, the management takes the person. On project basis work would be alloted, decides the HR. Fine with it, we device some projects. The fortune of not having lavish projects put us on great fixation.

1 week and all the project is over. The ex-colleague is totally jobless..
Private organization and joblessness is not digestable to say the least.

So, what my ex-colleague does is take over the hot seat of designing, make the green horn pull a chair and look at the veteran at work. Absurdity at all its colours!

If that was not enough, whenever the new fella designed something new, the veteran just comments that this was not how it was done earlier...this was not the font to be used..this was not..this was not...confidence subtly but surely going to the dogs!

Attempted to indirectly comment about the new guy's role to the veteran and the need for providing opportunity to vent his skills but to no avail...Things would just not stop being done at the whims and fancies of the veteran..

Not an easy thing to see when you are responsible for the departmental ongoings..Thinking about means and ways to suggest the veteran, I finally decided to talk across.

Today, after lunch, called the veteran and we sit for a dialogue which goes as follows:

Me (M) Veteran (V):

M: So how are things going at your end?
V: Fine, it wuld take some time for visa to be processed and then I would be away.
M: Its nice that you have been around to look after how the new guy is faring..
V: Ya, he's doing quite well...
M: I was just thinking that looking at his skills, we should be able to give him a confirmation by say 3 months! What do you say?
V: Ya, ya, he's quite talented and does his work quite well...
M: So he's learning things fine right?
V: Yes
M: I was just wondering that if we want his confirmation soon, we should be giving the guy more avenues to express his creativity. What are your feelings?
V: Correct
M: And for that, we should be giving him more time in the design table right?
V: Right
M: We are really glad that you have been around to guide the guy. You actually would be more of an consultant to him, right?
V: Hmm..
M: By the way, has he understood everything that is required?
V: More or less, but the placing of photographs have to be looked into..its more of a plain thing.
M: Have you discussed with him?
V: Yes, and what he says is that I do the photographs this time..
M: You know, that's where you should help him but exactly as a consultant. You guide him, explain how things should be done but give him hands on experience on the thing
V: Hmm..
M: Its really nice to see that the guy has been fortunate enough to have you around...
If there are any mistakes happening, you can always guide him, right?
V: Correct..
M: Can we do something then? Can we let the giy come out with whatever ideas he has on the paper. If the design is coming as per the aesthetics of the journal well and good, if not we can always sit, discuss and guide him how to go about it, what say?
V: That's fine, I have no problems.
M: And moreover having hands on experience would do a world of good to him...
V: That's fine..I'll just guide him through the process..
M: Ya, just let him come out at his creative best and if there are any recommendations, we can always discuss after he finishes the design aspect..
V: Okay..thats fine with me...

Hence, we parted. The veteran promising not to intrude in the work of the young gun and me satisfied about a matter settled well...
All's well that ends well..let's see if this thing did get into the head...

But as I finish, there's a small voice that is ticking somewhere in the background

Old habits die hard dude..old habits die hard....

Well,hope for the best!!!!!

(Note: It would be quite a cake walk for professionals who are in the industry since a long time..But for starters like me, it was quite a learning...baby stepping into corporate diplomacy:)

Violence Bangalored!!!!

2006-04-14T04:37:00.000-07:00

There are times when you just want to detach yourself from something which you so very cherish.

Be it out of choice or compulsion.

This is one such moment.

Just want to compulsively detach myself from the city, under whose aegis yours truly felt ever secure and protected.

Selfish it might sound, but honestly this was never the city that had accepted me and vice versa.

The violence that was Bangalored would leave a bitter taste for a long time in the souls of many like me who have belonged themselves to this once “peace” loving city….

Horrendous sadism!

Under the pretext of paying homage to one of the greatest sons of the soil!

What a shame to a doyen’s name and fame!!!

Tumi Bongla hobey? translated...are you a Bengali?

2006-04-12T02:40:00.000-07:00

“Tumi Bangla Hobe?” (translated, are you Bengali or Bongali).
As I was opening up to reply, pat came another from her, “ Travolling (as in traveling) to Kolkata?”
I smiled and nodded a no and a yes to her, providing her the option to wander which gesture was for which. The lady seemed to be traveling from Bangalore to Kolkata with her kid.
I looked at the trolley that carried her luggage. 1 heavy suitcase, 1 bag that looked heavier
than the suitcase, a carry bag which seemed to contain eatables for herself and the kid, a personal handbag. And obviously the kid to supplement with!

It would not take a rocket scientist to guess the reason for her question. After all, I wasn’t traveling with too much baggage. Just a hand bag and that was it.
She continued, “You know, its very difficult to travel all alone with a kid. My brother is a software engineer in Infosys, you see. He insisted that I come down to Bangalore and stay
with him for a couple of days. I spent 15 days here in Bangalore, you see. If you don’t mind,
can you please help me carry the bag? This kid you see is so much of a trable (trouble) to
move along with.”

I looked at the kid. An angel with a pair of eyes that could melt the toughest of mortals. I could not resist saying yes to the request of helping her.
Between talks, we finished away with giving off the luggage, moved towards the security check and then to the plane. She seemed so much at ease that she insisted I sit next to her in the plane. I obliged yet again. So we started talking again. She the speaker, me the listener.

“So where do you stay in Bangalore? Bangalore is a nice place to stay, but the pallution (spelt pollution). I went to Banerghotta National paark (Bannerghatta National Park), Commorcial street (commercial street) Lal Bhagh (lal Bagh). My brother took us around to many places you see. He’s working for Infosys and is likely to go onsite soon.”

In the meanwhile I forgot to respond to her inquiry about where I did stay in Bangalore. Only if she was interested in knowing, I say;) Cricket and Kolkata are synonymous of each other. So I diverted our talk to the game of cricket, the prince of Bengal and the injustice meted at him.

Me: Do you watch cricket?
She: Very moch (much). My hosband (husband), brather (brother) and me..all are fans of the game.
Me: So you must be quite unhappy about the treatment India has done to Saurav Ganguly?
She: Until and unless, Kiron More (Kiran More) is there, Shaurabh (Saurav) cannot come in the team. This is all politics, you see. But Shaurabh will come again. Take my word.
Me: But they say that he’s to old and out of form?
She: So is Socheen Tendulkaar (Sachin Tendulkar). Why is he in the team vhen (when) he is not scoring anything?
Me: So how do you think Dravid is doing?
She: Dravhid is a fine chap but Shourabhda should have been given some chance, you see.

Cricket and Bengal. Nobody wins them at this. So I put down my sling of questions and shut up.

The she started “When I came down to Bangalore, I came in Kingfisher Airlines. They had TV also. This plane seems to have nothing. What do you say?”
I could not comment and did not even want to sound arrogant. So I just smiled and nodded yes. After a couple of things here and there, I excused myself and dozed off.

As the plane landed and we were moving towards the bus, the lady said, “ You know, God has been very kind to me for having sent you to help me while coming back to Kolkatta. Thank you so much.”

“It was a pleasure traveling with you madam”, I squeakingly replied, kissed the kid on the cheek and waved goodbye to the mother and the son.

I was just tempted...

2006-03-26T08:47:00.000-08:00

to copy this link from Shobha's interesting blog http://differentstrokes.blogspot.com/2006/03/buhaha.html

Hope you do have a great laugh too:) Courtesy MTV

Sometimes cluelessness is so exciting

2006-03-24T21:17:00.000-08:00

For a couple of days things have had been quite hectic. Hitting the sack past midnight after a hard day's slog, yet finding something missing in life or rather in whather I do. That has had been going on for sometime. Taking quite a toll out of me. Cluelessness abut too much of activity sans much productivity is so much of a burden to think about.

Time for serious introspection. And what an introspection it has been. Without any clue whatsoever, booked ticket back home and would be flying off for the next 10 days. Sans mundane activities of office, sans phone calls, sans deadlines, sans bosses, sans the same expectorant people..all by myself..

Lots of work still to be completed piled up at my desk but cannot even give enough justice to it by just making half hearted attempts as my soul desperately cries for something different.

So would be visiting the forests, would spend my time at the lush paddy fields, meeting people whom i have not met since ages, eat food cooked by mom, spend some worthwhile time with pop, my sis and her kids and several such things which we tend to forget as we get so much involved in our daily lives.

Friends have been asking me about the reason for a surprise decision. Is anything wrong back home they have ben inquiring? I just smile back. Think they do not realize how exciting sometimes clueless endeavour is:)

Next 10 days, starting tuesday, i just would switch my mobile, no internet, no official talks, no deadlines and no hurry to finish things.

Completely realize the value of these things but we sometimes long for simple things which give us a much needed relief in these days of cut throat competition..
Escapist? whatever...;)

The mass' revolution

2006-03-19T05:45:00.000-08:00

When Satyendra Dubey became the victim of a system intolerable to honesty and fair play, the first signs of a resolute mass revolution showed its seeds.
Then came Manjunatha, a very inspired individual who became yet another casualty of the system that so much loathes people geared up to do some public good. Being an alumni of a premier institute, the man’s martyr collected huge public support and great media attention, with bloggers leading the way. The mass revolution started budding, indicating a greater revolution in the coming times.

The time was not yet ripe!

Rang De Basanti followed. The youth of the polis, inspired by the message of the tele-fiction just wanted a chance to showcase the rebel inside them. The movie proved a match stick in a haystack.

As of coincidence or by sheer bad luck of some rich brags attempting to escape from the crime committed, Jessica Lal murder trial chapter opened and err… closed.

Right time for a mass revolution!

And what a show of mass outburst it has been since then. The judiciary has been shaken by public outcry for justice, the young brigades leading the way, lamenting injustice on the Jessica Lal case, TV channels making it exclusives in as many angles as possible and blogs… well once again leading the way in this growing movement.

The case has twisted and turned once again for good and it seems likely that justice would be anywhere round the corner. Wish and hope the mass revolution works and she does get a posthumous fair trial! Atleast for the sake of the bereaved family!

The mass revolution seems to have picked up. I am convinced! How?
Remember the model who was allegedly raped in a parking lot a few months ago? Well, she’s chosen to fight back. CNN-IBN (once again these guys do itJ ) carried an exclusive sound bite of the lady who clearly indicated that she’s going to fight no matter what be. Though she’s confessed that there’s the fear of threat but whatsoever she’s going to come down to India and seek for justice.

So how does one get convinced that a mass revolution has picked up in this country? Simply relate the above incidents and the jig-saw puzzle of a revolution who’s time has come stares straight on your face.

The outburst of the public and ably supported by the media during the Jessica Lal trial clearly indicates that mass revolution in our country is moving in a clued direction. Had Jessica’s case shut down into the confines of anonymity, I feel that the model would have never seen a feather of a chance to open up her mouth and challenged herself to give it a shot fighting these richly pervert souls.

Great that there is mammoth public participation against injustice done by the system. This is a great turn-coat for a country which so much prided itself for keeping its mouth shut, either due to ignorance or fear.

Hopefully, the culprits of these lamentable acts do get their share of justice; for if the mass of India does not see the results coming, they might once again pull themselves into the cocoons of non - assurance and fear.

Of which we are so very famous of.

Till then, mass revolution…way to go!!!

NDTV or CNN-IBN..Who's eating the bigger pie?

2006-03-16T07:14:00.000-08:00

Interestingly, browsing through the websites of both these media mammoths (one a dinosaur, another a humming bird, looking at the speed it is fluttering itself in the TV screens nowadays) I felt that the dinosaur is just loosing the sheen it carries along with it. Once upon a time there was the 8 o' clock news in Doordarshan which all of us swore to. News given by the national television was taken by all and sundry as the bible of information with no questions asked whatsoever.

Then a non descript half an hour news section and another programme which entertained us on a weekend by giving us an overview of the world in this national channel kissed goodbye the fuddy duddy Bheesma Pitamah and moved to create history.

The history being NDTV or New Delhi Television. The meteoric rise of the channel was unprecedented. The cable revolution in India picked up pace. Along with it ran NDTV 24x7. And what a marathon it ran. It kept all the small fry satallites revolving around while it cushioned itself in the minds of India as the most authentic source of tele journalism.

What days were those for NDTV. The deadly combo of journalists, each one a king or a queen in their respective genres....The salt and pepper bearded boss lavished in the curtains of NDTV, only to be seen occasionally...somewhat like a guest appearance on this extra popular news channel.

Period.

2005. One of the most recognized face of NDTV quits and with the pied piper follow many of the journos (small fry though then) to hibernate for about a year to come up with yet another minty fresh channel CNN-IBN. The outcast of NDTV start churning stories after stories, hugely popular shows and messages the common man could empathize with. The channel becomes a hit. From a no advertisements in the first few weeks to a humungous flurry of ads every 2 minutes shows how popular this channel is be - coming .

Now.

NDTV has great competition. One can see the pepper bearded man very regularly on almost every exclusive shows nowadays. Day might just be around that the man would be moving around street to interview the aam junta on some issue of public interest. Hope the time does not come.

CNN-IBN also has to tread a long way. To start is easy, to sustain; that's what will bring out the mickey in them. Nevertheless, they look promising.

Though who's eating the bigger pie is still a thing to be debated on.

Or thinking aloud, is it Headlines Today, Star, Times Now or rather Sahara that share the bigger pie?
Well....the day they do, i'll stop watching TV;)

Period!!!!

The excitement of blogging and reading blogs

2006-03-14T10:44:00.000-08:00

Have been coming home really early these days..been two days to be precise..reason? have taken an internet connection at home, so am real excited to enter this fascinating world of blogs as soon as i get the chance..finishing my chores (washing, cooking dinner, washing the utensils et al) subconsciously the hand types the seven letters which starts from B and ends with R. com

This is so spooky addictive.

As I write this its already 12.12 a.m. Day had been quite hectic as ever but the tiredness just vanished as I read and read and read one view after another after another on varied issues..truely there never was enough a medium which could become so much of an information reservoir. Cheers to all the bloggers across the world who make sure that the world is not dictated by a few forced ideologies and opinions are not pushed down people's throat by a few loud mouths.
This medium has given each one to express their views on things that interest, instigate or excite them.
Justice for the Jessica Lal murder case which seems so close is a fine example of blogger power.

Keep the torch of expression burning fellas..the world belongs to those who communicate:)

On women's day, I thought....

2006-03-07T22:54:00.000-08:00

As my auto traveled towards office, the chirpy RJ at Radio city FM 91 called upon women around the city to join the Radio City gang for coffee.

9 to 9 blazed the RJ in her chirpy best. Meaning : morning 9 to evening 9; any angel could drop by the Radio City office at Residency Road, sip coffee with the gang and celebrate the day.

All fair, all good. Great going! Hopefully by the end of the day, Radio city would have
humungous number of women visiting the office and celebrating the spirit of womanhood.

Fair enough. I smiled.

The auto took a left turn from Jayanagar 7th Block towards Jayanagar 4th T Block.
Fresh morning, fresh air and equally clean roads! Couldn’t have asked for more to start off a day!

Nearing office, as I was exploring the street outside, my eyes fell upon a lady clad in green shirt, pushing the garbage cart in one hand and picking up wastes from the road on the other.

For the uninitiated, here in Bangalore, we have the concept of Pourakarmikas (this is the name the government has given to these people), who make sure that they meticulously collect the wastes from our houses each morning and also make sure that they keep the city streets clean.

My head started spinning. Suddenly Radio City seemed so dull to me. (No complaints thought to the RJ who was making the show as exciting as it could be).

Does this lady know that today is Women’s day? Even if she does, so what? Does it mean anything to her. The same work, starting 4.30 a.m., the same dirt, the same hassles of people littering places across the city; the responsibility of cleaning it lying in her small but sturdy shoulders.

Why did there no invitations for people like her by the Radio city gang, to have a cup of coffee with the team? Why should only people who SMS get the privilege of celebrating? Why could women’s day not encompass these professionals too, who have been working hard to make ends meet, thereby proving their worth in the society they live in.

Who knows they might be the sole bread winner for the house with husband either a drunkard or a spoilt brat. (This gives them much more reason to celebrate womanhood) Why is the spirit of being a woman not being shared with them?

Likewise construction workers, daily wage owners, bus conductors, the lady who sells lunch in the interiors of Electronic city, the Dhobi walli who makes sure that our clothes are washed and ironed spick and span, the juice seller, the lady who sells tea-coffee in her small angdi…the list goes on and on and on….

Do they not belong to the celebration called womanhood? I am sure they do.

Some of them more belonging than our Page 3 celebs who splurge in these celebrations in their better half’s wealth!

I think we should give it a thought, what say?

In the meanwhile, happy women’s day to the better part of men’s existence:)

Timepassing in a coffee shop

2006-03-06T00:39:00.000-08:00

Hard day’s work, cold coffee, Saturday evening. Nice place. Lots of people. Music playing on the background but completely overpowered by the noise of the teens enjoying their weekend evening.

Single guy sitting in the next table.

What must he be thinking looking at almost all the doubles who have filled the coffee house? At least I am doing something;) and not ogling at the couples having a good time at the place!

Talking about couples, I screen around the place. A pair coochicooing in the corner ( there’s no corner btw, only if they knew that they were so very visible to the whole public).

The guys sitting behind me are at their merry best. Yes, I can hear the nursery rhyme which sounds something like – Happy Birthday….Great!

One of the guys has such a loud voice. Forgiven!

They are celebrating. The coffee is being brewed. Can hear the noise of the machine.

Some guys are hanging around the book store. Looking at the segment they are fiddling with, no second thoughts that they are software guys. Bangalore. Software. That goes without saying eh..

Err.. forgot to point out that this is a coffee shop which has a book store attached to it.
Sounds great but this comes with a rider. You cannot take any book to the table until you have bought it.

Forgiven again!

Music has stopped. The RJ is interviewing some guy. My mobile gets a message.

I stop writing and respond to the msg.

I’ve heard the song before. This is the Punjabi MC guy.

Music gets louder. Maybe the guys behind the counter want to keep the tempo of the music with the noise of the place. This is too loud now… I hint the counter guy to lower the music. He smiles and does not oblige. Well the smile defeats me.

The guy sitting next to me gets up and moves towards the counter. Leaves the shop after paying the bill. I look towards the wall.

Ravi Verma’s reprints. 10,000 plus rupees. So pricey even after death.
Cool!

Move my eyes elsewhere. The Mitrokhin Archive II, Chiefs, Andy Menab..

The guy sitting behind me walks out. The next one follows. I can hear the coffee machine.

The table next to mine is cleared…

Vikram Seth - Two lives, Jack Welch – Winning, Digital Photography…

Music still running..place is much more silent now..Can hear the music clearly now..
Talatum is what the singer croons…100 times repetation of the same word!!! ( anyone can solve the mystery meaning of the same?)

Can see a hip looking guy at the book store! Gut feeling that he will not buy any…
......................................

I see my friend arrive. Wrap up my pad, focus my attention towards my friend, smile and start enjoying my time to glory:)

First shower of the season

2006-03-04T04:11:00.000-08:00

Ecstasy has its own ways of expressing itself. Yesterday night it happened to me. Exhausted after a hard day’s work, as sleep lullabied me closer towards it, I saw a flash outside. The rumblings followed. I gave a damn.

After all, when you are exhausted to the hilt and there's no current to keep you busy with the television, the only thing which you can do is hitting the sack. After sometime, another spark of light hit on my window pane. Rumble followed after. The mind was so exhausted to conclude what was happening outside.
Or rather, I was bloody less interested. After all, sleep is also an ecstasy, right;)

Distractions followed. Maybe it was the rumblings outside or within myself for not been able to get a restful sleep, I woke up. As subconsciousness would have had it, I headed straight to my veranda. And behold what do I experience?

The first smell of the season!

The smell of earth, as rain hits the hot boiling gravel was indeed an experience to be experienced. 12.30 a.m., I felt so happy for nothing. I had experienced the first pour of the season in Bangalore.

Water flew like bullets on the skin of the gravel. The smell felt so relieving. Maybe the thought that Mother Nature was generous enough to give the earth some cooling effect was indeed relaxing for me. The hard day’s strain precipitated from me as I stood in my balcony watching the pour increase its force. I too shared the blessings of existence along with the tired earth. Both of us were more or less in the same situation.

This went on for almost half an hour as I stepped inside not to play alongside Nature too much to start with.
By the time I went to bed, it was almost 1.30 a.m. Had to come to office at 7.30 a.m., so had to hit off the sack by 6.00 a.m. The day started fresh. Without any tiresome whatsoever. Its 6.00 p.m. now and the enthusiasm of work is still on a high.

Whatever be the reason, some part of me knows that the first showers of the season is doing the trick for me….

Veterinarians: Serving in silence

2006-03-01T23:27:00.000-08:00

One of my pals is into software. A computer engineer to be precise, working with an Indian multinational, he shuttles between the metros, now and then, on project works and stuffs which is pretty difficult for me to fathom.

Whenever we catch up, we make sure that we discuss issues and debate around it past midnight. That’s one of the beauties of catching up with pals after lengthy gaps. You have the entire world to talk about and all the people to be laughed about, save yourself:)

In one of our late night chats, we hit upon a very interesting topic revolving around veterinarians of our country. These are the guys who have been directly or indirectly contributing to the national exchequer by their service to the rural populace.

Well, not exactly though, but definitely in terms of giving respite to their livestock which means the world for the denizens in rural India.

I have great respect and empathy for veterinarians. The feeling of having contributed so much to the growth of the nation but still existing in an under privileged state (in terms of income, respect and recognition) is one thing I cannot understand.

My friend related his idea of what he thought a vet was. He illustrated his understanding by giving the real time example of a vet.

Moi dude is a funny chap; so the way he expressed it was quite amusing.

To quote him : “The only way I can relate to a veterinarian is through this quote “ Yaha Kutto Billio ka ilaj hota hein” (Here dogs and cats are treated) .

Glorious laughter followed. I too joined in the show. After all, friends right!
Amused he further quipped, “And you know what - all this is written in a black board, hung outside a dilapidated house, just waiting for a push to crumble”.

We went on and on. He spoke and yours truly listened. My NRI (Newly rich Indian) friend had so much to comment about a poor veterinarian (both in terms of income and recognition).

But somewhere I felt that we had missed the point. These professionals who have given so much to the society definitely deserve better than this.

Thought sharing with you guys....

Of funerals and birthdays:)

2006-02-28T03:52:00.001-08:00

It is generally said that the popularity of an individual can be felt during his/her funeral. That means the more the number of people crowding the place and the number of cars lined up in the entrance of the mourning house, the respectable and loved the person was in his living years.
But again, this might be elsewhere but in India..err..enough scope for one to give second thoughts about..
In our country any funeral or marriage in the neighbourhood, its celebration time for the even the most distant of relatives and people known.
Reason? Free food, dude what else:) The ambience depends though. If it is marriage sumptous meal and plenty of incidents to laugh at..
If its funeral, again plenty of food but a gloomy countanance to carry along with you.

So that was that.

Coming to the objective of the post. I celebrated my birthday yesterday. And what a nice day it was. Reason?

Recieved inundated calls and messages from far flung friends..some very known, some distant friends, some friends of friends, while some you would never have expected to receive any message or call from. The phone started ringing exactly 11.45 pm, 26th of February and the last message recieved was 12.30 am, 28th of February.

Felt glad to be remembered.

Now coming back to the topic. How are we supposed to judge about how people feel about you while alive. Solution - Just check the number of greetings and messages you recieve from people.

Man I am exceedingly satisfied.

The day made me realize that I am being remembered by people on the day which matters to me a lot..and I have in turn realized how much they mean to me...

Through the blog just wanted to thank all those people who did remember this man's birthday, who might not have bothered to remember theirs....so much has been conveyed in one day.
Am glad that I have so many people to relate to:)

Im sure u guys would be wishing me a belated one. Thanks for the same.

By the way, anyone in Bangalore should go to a place called " Roomali with a view" situated at 100 feet road, Indiranagar.

I swear that's a place to go for a delightful evening:) Go for it fellas.

Please give out the right information, Sir!!!!

2006-02-22T22:26:00.000-08:00

Information is the need of the hour. To be more specific, “the correct one”!
A fight for the chicken and the egg is getting murkier as each one (keeping the concern of their individual industry), tries to pitch fork their opinion.
That, one should protect their respective industry is perfectly fine. But at the cost of what or who, is the bone of contention. One sector says that it is not the case of H5N1 but a classic case of a lesser devastating disease and that there are no threats in terms of the same spiraling into a pandemic or anything of that stature. The other says that Bird Flu has entered the country and that the people were kept under wraps for a very long time.
We have a classic paradox running across the country. Concerned officials eating chicken at “press conferences” but abhorring the same at their official canteens; politicos ridiculing each other at the drop of a hat, trying the game of one-upmanship, without much knowledge whatsoever; human health doctors being interviewed and sound bytes taken from businessmen on the cause of the flu and its containment instead of inquiring from professional veterinarians who have knowledge on the subject. This is so very paradoxical.

Information as a medium is being relayed as per the whims and fancies of individuals, instead of institutions that have the capacity of providing the right whats and whys.
So who loses in this cockfight? The common people, who else?

The common man is confused at the reports that come from the forked tongues. In the middle of one upmanship, the common farmer is culling thousands and thousands of birds, which would be of utter loss, if tomorrow the case is not of bird flu and some small disease. Where does he go for compensation? The sound bites given by the higher ups regarding compensations in TV channels and newspapers look and sound convincing!

But its to everyone’s guess how much will this be implemented, right?

P.S. Bloody why are we Indians so secretive about everything????

Bird Flu was so bound to happen...

2006-02-21T22:21:00.000-08:00

We are a country blessed with enzymes to digest from bone to stone.
This was one of the reactions I remember, as we debated over coffee cups, as the avian influenza hit the world a couple of years back. India as a casualty was brushed off by many in the group. Afterall, we are a strong nation with the strongest of immune systems.
Our discussions more or less summed the feelings of the entire bunch of over-confident officials who sat at the helm of affairs, with less of ground work and more of sound bytes.

Period.

Yesterday, I saw a press conference on the idiot box. Officials in the best of their "suit & boot" were performing something that amused me. It was fun to watch the hungry cameramen taking shots from all angles of these officials "Munching" roasted chicken.
Reason. India has apparently been hit by bird flu.
In order to convince the people that its okay to eat chicken, this adventure of calling for a press briefing session and munching chicken legs was done by these top officials.

This is so very amusing.

1. Just because they are munching chicken sitting in the cozy confines of an AC room with the best of legs to bite on, does not mean that every part of the country is safe.
2. What happened to their over confident statement that India would not be a breeding ground of the flu.
3. And 1 vet for 1.5 birds in one of the regions of Maharashtra (apparently the first state to succumb to the flu
4. Looking at the minister of the state's comments conflicting with the central minister and the centeral minister's statements conflicting with the Chief minister of Maharashtra's statement was indeed amusing.
5. And what about the vaccines. Where are they.
6. The way these birds are being culled is surely a breeding ground for another new disease to spread its wings..
7. Are those safety equipments (to me it looked like blue polythene covers from some retail shop, carefully stiched to look like professional equipments) adequate enough for the people culling these birds
8. And is the equipment given to "all".

Well the list goes on and on.

But more important is to confirm whether the flu has hot Indian shores or not.
And how do I find it? Well, tonite I will watch another press conference by these "officials". If I see anyone missing, will check the obit pages tomm and confirm if the flu has hit us or not.
Till then..well no clue of the flue I guess:)

A sea of humanity has descended in Bangalore...the repurcussions of it!

2006-02-16T19:54:00.000-08:00

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's, Art of Living Foundation celebrates its 25th year of birth, starting today.
The 3 day extraveganza is anticipated to be an ultra grand one. This goes without saying. After all, the foundation has rooted itself in 125+ countries across the globe.
Newspapers and channels have been potraying the "sea of humans meditating on a single spot at a given time". 25 lakh people (2.5 million) are expected to participate in this religious picinic.
Amazing is the only thing one could gasp.

Okay, so people of all class and creed have flocked down to Bangalore. 10 heads of states from various nations are attending this spiritual confluence . Great!
Religion was never so much of a fad! That's only if the Art of Living calles itself a religion, I say.

It would just be another cliche to write about what is going to happen there. The repurcussions in Bangalore is what I am much worried about. How would this poor city, already overdosed with "outsiders" coming from different parts of the country for professional endeavours cope up with another 25 lakhs coming from different parts of the world?

3 days is no small time!!!!

Positives will come out of this gathering, no doubt. But the trouble is its repurcussions to Bangalore city.

Just a wild soothsay. This is what this religious Mega Mela would bring.

1. Horrendous traffic. Vehicles overloaded towards Jakkur junction
2. Hotels overflodded,with spiritual folks paying premium prices to get a room for themselves
3. Tired people who have muscled with the others to find a seat on the first row
4. Books, Tapes and CDs of the foundation selling like hot cakes with the publishers and record studios (appartantly the AOL foundation) screaming their way to the bank
5. Dust, dust and more of it
6. Food vendors outside the venue almost doubling their overtime and tripling their sales
7. Humungous compilation of Litters (water bottles, paper plates et al) all over the venue and 5 kilometeres beyond it

And a lot lot more of which Bangalore is not in a state to oblige.

No doubt this would be a conglomeration of spirits, yet care should be taken that because of this event this beautiful city should not be hooting in pain and screaming for air.

"Cleanliness is next to Godliness"....sorry to end it with a Sri Satya Sai Baba quote:)

Watching The Idiot Box....

2006-02-16T00:59:00.000-08:00

As the journalist hems and haws in front of a bereaved family asking absurd questions like - How are you feeling? What were the last words uttered by your son/daughter when he/she left the house in the morning? Did you ever anticipate such an event?....you feel neausea and irritation getting into you too...

More so when you see one of the "professional" of your fraternity acting like a pest, trying to dig in his terse claws of questions into the emotional flesh of individuals who have just lost a beloved soul from the family.

Son murdered...daughter raped...train accidents...natural calamities....feelings of nostalgia lingering in the minds of the family members as they huddle with each other, trying to find some solace in one another...thud a "professional" journalist, wanting for a "scoop" puts forth a 10 inches mike and adds 10 questions at a shot!

This is so very inhumane. Have our fellow journalists lost their consciousness for the want of professional TRP's? Do we have no emotions to respect the sentiments of that families and individuals?

As the barrage of amoebic channels spurt like mushrooms in the length and breadth of the idiot box, I can see my professional friends, in the want of TRP's and advertisements for their respective channels, going to any extent in the name of professionalism.
The term unfortunate needs to be redifined, it seems!

Can something be done to stop this inhumane symbolism in the name of professionalism?
Or will my journo friends get more parasitic in the want to more scoops?

Inside us we should define our boundaries. Somewhere, I read this quote which I would like to share with my journo friends -
"Deep within us lies the meaning of everything that's outside".

Let us give this a serious thought!!!

(The picture in the page depicting a news channel is just indicative. It is not to be understood that this channel is being accused of trying to act as "pest" or its journos as "parasites".
Infact, this is one channel which I am really appreciative of. Remember their exclusive coverage on the farmer story and how the family was helped through the news:)

How nice of my friend to send me....

2006-02-09T00:38:00.000-08:00

This beautiful forward..hope u guys like it too:)

looking into this picture..........

2006-02-07T22:00:00.000-08:00

Necessity does some exemplary wonders. Like the one in picture. For us this is just a water bottle, which we either "crush after use" or just throw it wherever we want..no second thoughts given..
But for this person, the same water bottle means so much.. this ingenuity of thought has saved him from the harsh gravel of rustic roads.....
A salute for this innovativeness...Necessity sometimes can be the grandmother of inventions..
Lessons galore:)

Inside Google India............

2006-02-07T03:37:00.000-08:00

“I googled for it but could not find the same, said my friend famished by the pressing load of searching something over the net.
“Did you look into some other search engines?” I enquired
“Hell no! what’s the point in searching when the content seems to be non existent in google”,
my friend shot back!

That’s the power of this search engine. Period. 5 years. We had these search engines with
all the non descript but funny titles like altavista.com, hotbot.com, dog pile.com, bucklemyshoe.com and the likes. But the market seemed to be mainly dominated by MSN search. Maybe because our own Sabeer Bhatia was a craze then for having sold hotmail.com to the richest man on earth Bill Gates!

Where is MSN search today? Straddling between the default browser pages of personal computers and the colossal stature of a search engine that has changed the way the world perceives information.
Information has become so bloody cheap. You want something (or rather anything) you
get it in google. Except, our sweet kitta angdi that stands majestically at the corner of
South End Circle, where delicious tea sells like hot cakesJ (an odd comparison) and where software engineers from Caritor (you will get the search in google btwJ) splurge after a
tiring day’s work.

Coming back to the issue of google. In India, as in the States this is a web browser’s
best friend. Taking this into consideration, a popular magazine, (Business Today to be
precise) in one of its recent issue carried out a cover story. It was an interesting read.

Seems this company is only growing. Prices of shares rising, the company diversifying
into several newer entities, the search engine itself anticipating great prospects and the employees…Well they seem to be the happiest lot. Good for them.

There is a religion in India called...

2006-02-07T02:09:00.000-08:00

Cricket...

And this binds the country from strength to strength...How passionate are we with this colonial sport that our spirits soar to heights of zingoism at the mention of this "C" word.
As in life and coins of course:), so in sports, there are always two sides who heat the debate..
And the fire burns off with no conclusion at all..
What happened today is a classic example of cricket acting as an ice breaker for any situation.

There we were standing in the nearby canteen, stuffing fried rice and discussing what happened yesterday at the indo-pak cricket pitch.. Comments were flying like UFO engines, never validated yet always debated..
Inzamam Ul Haq acts like a sloth always..
On what basis was the DW method taken
Is it fair when Inzy spent 5 minutes on the pitch and distrupted
7 wickets had already fallen and we were sure to win.... etc..add 10 more etc to it:)

We, a motley group were joined by 2 more voices, then another 2 and another 2..we started discussing with strangers and started venting emotions on them..they too reciprocated..and shared our thoughts..
The same went on for the next 10 minutes until we finshed our tyrst with fried rice and moved on to wash our hands..
They too finished off their tidings and left the table..

All fine..We see each other again near the juice counter...strangers once again? The same people we spoke so lavishly on the food table...now look at us as if we have met for the first time!!!

Great binder this game of Cricket is..funny thought most of the times..and ridiculous to think about how we are bound by these 22 players...

As destiny would have had it, Karnataka will in the next 2 hours have a...

2006-02-02T21:48:00.000-08:00

Chief minister who is a
Farmer
Movie Producer
First Time Politician
and who
Holds asset worth 2.2 crore only!

The chief minister of Karnataka is being chosen today..I write this at 11.20 am Indian Time..There is some Rahu Kalam or Sani Kalam (unaspicious timings) till 12. 30 p.m.

Hopefully he will do something for the infra of Bangalore city..
Wishful thinking:)

A friend of mine told me that the Chief Minister of Karnataka looks like a "Bean Bag"

2006-02-01T03:41:00.000-08:00

I would add..not any more! Things are changing..from a bloated basketball the baton of power is being passed on to a "farmer" who produces movies! You've read it right!
It happens only in India.
And you can well imagine what the immidiate priorities of the new chap would be... (just a guess though:)
Producing more and more movies, of course!

India today, especially the youth is hit by this bug called talent contests...Indial Idol, Best singer, sa re ga, ma, pa, et al.. No hassles with that..but just a small concern that our country might just be entering the next decade with a humungous volumes of singers and dancers...
Am I straying from the topic? Well, a yes and a No!

No because, we are talking about a farmer Chief minister (soon to be former too:) who produces movies! So these talents could well have a feather of a chance in trying their hands in Sandalwood industry. That's the South Indian (or rather Kannada) version of Hollywood!

Now coming to the yes part which is graver.

Should such talent shows be encouraged to such an extent that the whole country cherishes to be a singer or a dancer? If you do not believe, you should be watching the mushrooming of these kind of shows in almost all the channels that are aired in India. National or local.

40 plus thousands and only one winner? Well can anyone let me know the entering ratio of IIT or IIM grad colleges?

This is utterly ridiculous. And where do these guys go after a year contract.
We have seen VIVA (Part I) VIVA (Part 2) and the likes...faded in oblivion..seen in a few patriotic songs..standing last in a crowd of 35-40 talented singers!!!!

Where are our Bournvita Quiz contests?
Why can't we have any talent show which would be more productive in terms of giving the grey cells something to chew on?
Why can't we have a contest from colleges for selecting the best of writers, artists, scientists, mathamaticians and the likes?

Would these kind of events fetch no TRP's? I beg to differ. Giving the style and substance in presentation things would definitely work out!

Let me not vent too much..I just am getting a vent of preachiness creeping in...
So, let me end this here by ending with the same line I started with....

A friend of mine told me that the Chief Minister of Karnataka looks like a "bean bag"

Well my friend- he's already "ex", the farmer movie producer....:)

As the auto rickshaw stops at a signal in Bangalore road

2006-01-31T21:46:00.000-08:00

You are thinking something and all of a sudden you get a sudden pat on your thighs from nowhere. The lamenting follows. For the uninitiated these are the chidren of God, guess less loved.
A three and half year olf baby girl carrying a one and half year old brother of hers is such a common sight in the traffic signals of Bangalore. Sometimes, out of compassion you dig into your pocket and give a dime or two but when this becomes a regular event, at each of the signal, you get a little pissed off.
Sometimes you just spit venom on the poor little child which you realise you should not have. But what can we do? How many dimes can we give and to how many people. Existence forgive me!

How unfortunate are these beautiful little faces to have exited from a stomach which could not give them anything except misery and..well a begging bowl. How would these children feel when they see som many of their own, neatly dressed, travelling in the best of buses early in the morning...How they would wish to be playing along with the other children in the park nearby at the end of the day..
Swings, see - saw, merry go round...you name it and they are deprived of it.

What happens to these kids 15 years from now? Would they be around to see the world? If yes, with what eyes would they be seeing everything. From the eyes of want and hatred or the eyes of love and acceptance.
Something has to be done of them..
The traffic lights go green..I cross the street and forget about it...
Forgive me existence for being so damn selfish..

Mike- Sense or nonsense

2006-01-31T21:06:00.000-08:00

The lock is in Mike’s hands and he knows that the key fixed on the door can only be opened by the other lock.
After not trying anything, stands there gets the lock from his car and latches the key with the other lock.
He is impressed. He bolts the door and gets outside.
He unlatches the door. He stands fixed towards the table.
Just returned from office, he picks up the car keys. He is tired and he feels that he is full of energy. So he wants to exude the energy within him.

Today, he has been traveling throughout the city, so he has been constantly sitting at his office the entire day. Yesterday he was at office so he traveled throughout the day. He is hungry. He does not want to eat.

He boils French fires and fries tea in the cooler. Impatiently he just relaxes in his couch. He is tired because of the comfortable cushion on which he is not sitting.

It has been so cold a day that he wants to take a dip at the swimming pool. The temperature of the pool writes -12 degree Fahrenheit. Mike dresses up wears his shoes, wears his watch, zips his pant, arranges the neck tie and dives outside the swimming pool. He is boiling in the chilled water of the swimming pool.

He waddles through the ice solid water, without much disturbances. After sometime, he goes into the pool. Wets himself with a dry towel and stops towards outside his house. Again he unbolts the keys with the lock. This time, he is unlucky to open it at a single go.

Mike is a computer engineer with majors in history, geography and children issues. The subjects which he did not read at school always made him fearful after his examinations.

He was a bright student, failing three times at high school, good at sprinting, always poised last at the finish line and a non-eater, finishing even the leftovers of his friends during hectic class hours.

For his friends Mike was Bamboo. Nicknamed! He weighed 225 pounds, height of 5.3 inches. Being quite a thin frame, he was the undisputed champion in college wrestling. Mike always had a desire for gymnastics which due to the over flexibility of his body came quite handy while he was learning chess.
His mother always used to praise him for failing in exams while his father got an attack when he was chosen as a wrestler representing the school at the annual snooker competition.

Today, after the qualifications of being a successful undergraduate, failed 3 times tried as many, Mike is one of the most respected members of the literary academy of the school.

His unpublished book won the booker prize for the year titling ‘Nothing and everything’.
With an asset of over 10,000 million dollar today Mike is the sole face of the underprivileged society of America.

So here’s for mike!! The only man who had everything wrong for everything right!

Sometimes

2006-01-30T04:29:00.000-08:00

This thing called sometimes.

Its so very funny. Sometimes, Im so excited,
sometimes jaded thoughts overpowers me;
sometimes things seem so clear to me
Sometimes negativity overwhelms me

Sometimes I feel as if im living in the best of times,
sometimes the thought of dreadiness looms over me

Sometimes my own enthusiasm is so contagious
Sometimes weariness infects me,
sometimes the heart feels so glad
Sometimes the whole world seems so very mad!!!!

Finally blog is setting into me

2006-01-30T01:54:00.000-08:00

Took a refreshing ride of the blog world.. with great interest read some short blogs..scanned through the longer ones..seems one could get hooked into the same..i already am..
Thanks to blogger and all the participants of it for making blog such a wonderful tool of communication..hope im not sounding senti..:)

I am going to continue writing, whatever be it!

2006-01-21T02:33:00.000-08:00

Had been sometime since I filled up this space, so practically out of compulsion I am doing the same..well only if sudden inspiration could come out of compulsion.
To be straight, while searching for something through google, happened to link myself with a great blog which I would recommend each one of you to read. Looking at the frequency of bloggers who visit my site, it would be only me who would be reminded to see that wonderful blog. The name of it just slipped out of my head.
Fortunately though! I need not write another blog, till another inspiring blog comes my way:)

So there was this damsel who has passed through the hallowed gates of the IIT and IIM in India.
That's a dream come true for anyone. for the uninitiated in the west, wait till you get the winds of what these six initials mean in business and technological arena.

Continuing my story, there were many things to learn from there but most importantly, it was the continued effort of the individual which inspired me to write.
Read it or not, henceforth I am going to write it very often...

let's see when do I log on to it next!

Creating something is so very inspiring.

2005-11-30T23:11:00.000-08:00

Creation has its own ways of expressing the depth of satisfaction. You feel proud and priviliged to be a part of something afresh. Its not that there is a feeling of doing the first thing "ever" in the world, but a feeling of satisfaction and positive anticipation that what we did becomes a part of the bigger answer to a problem. And not vice versa.

The same thing happened when the idea of vetjobsindia.com was slowly and subtly brought out from the confines of the mind to the reality of the web.

It was a dream which all of us visioned...a hope that this would provide a platform for providing information on the job opportunities of available through out the length and breadth of India as well as countries abroad.

How satisfied we are today that this endeavour has become a reality and it will definitely prove to provide encouragement to veterinarians across the country.

For in a profession as diversified as it is in a diversified country like India, we feel it indeed is worth it provifing information in a nutshell...

Acheievment is indeed inspiring, but there's miles and miles to run with the passion of it.

Something fishy

2005-11-29T05:32:00.000-08:00

How can they spend their lives in entirity just as mere decorative pieces, living a restricted existence with their boundaries confined and limited just within the cylindrical glass box?
That's what comes across when I look at these creatures, fiddling along in their own space with the same shoal of friends. What must be crossing in their minds as they bang again and again the walls of confinement?
Have they given up?
Or not yet?
Then suddenly my friend interrupts my thought process. Would these creatures still be surviving in this world of "if i catch you, youre gone"!
Feels good that these creatures have been surviving the onslought of the gigantic fishes of the sea wide open.
But again would it not have been exciting to live a life of freedom rather than being lavish
yet bound to the chains of confinement.

All these came as I saw this aquarium at my friend's place.
Sometimes how a mind works..amazing..

Can you believe the ridiculousness?

2005-11-29T04:51:00.000-08:00

Half an hour back I created my blog. 3rd to be precise in as many months. Wrote two inspiring articles too..inspiring atleast for yours truely. Satisfied I logged out and went away from my seat to engage the loo pot.
Washed my face, hearts of heart satisfied at a blog well written. Came back to my seat, my creative viens at its furious best.
Typed in the log in name and the password just to find the invalidity sign pouting on the screen.

Amused at first, grossly irritated later, I furiously try to match names after names, password after password...sometimes to find the name as invalid and sometimes the password invalid...

And you won't believe the jackass I had been. Even the email id mentioned was invalid. Somebody give me a gold medal for winning the contest on self stupidity:)

This what you see is another blog created. Fourth in 3 months.
Hope this survives the ignorance of my mind.