US and THEM

The night we dined in Hell !!

2009-02-07T17:19:00.002+05:30

A recent writeup I did about the IIMA:IIMB volleyball match. Enzaaai !!!!

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hero

n. pl. he·roes

In mythology and legend, a man, often of divine ancestry, who is endowed with great courage and strength, celebrated for his bold exploits, and favored by the gods.

Legend has it that whenever there is injustice in this world, the Divine powers descend down on our planet to set things right. Ladies and Gentlemen, this is one such legend. A story that parents all over would share with their children to instil courage and bravery in them. A story that would go on to inspire thousands everywhere in facing their sorrow filled pasts. This ladies and gentlemen, is the story of 11 warriors who fought for justice, for what was rightfully theirs, for Sangarsh.

Around a year ago the warriors from the Ahmedabad clan had conquered the battlegrounds of IIMB volleyball court. The scars of defeat ran deep within the warriors of Bangalore who had fought hard but lost the previous battle with A. Cavalry had now arrived in the form of new spikers (read Vibhu and Nitin) and the defence too was strengthened with the arrival of new inspired soldiers (read Raja, Behl and Harish) . The clan had trained hard this time around. They worked together; they moved together, they hunted together. A recent defeat at Kozikode was seen as a mere hiccup and a learning huddle to only jump higher, strike swifter.

The lines were drawn, the net was raised and it was time for the refree’s conch to be blown. Sangarsh – The War of the IIMs was now dependant on this battle. The warriors from Bangalore had vouched not to return home without victory. Their strategy was simple. Do not let the ball touch the ground on our side. If the other side do the same, let them suffer hell in the process. Strike first. Strike hard.

The first point was a long rally with either side wanting to taste first blood. Yadav, the King Leonidas of our IIMB volleyball team had had enough. He sent a blow so hard, so deep within the opponents’ ranks that the fear showed in their quivering legs. From that moment on there was no looking back for the IIMB side. IIMB’s anchors, Sreejan, Harish, KC and Kuppili, held ground beautifully. They were the core reason behind every IIMB strike and every sore finger of IIMA. Every time the cannons were looped perfectly into the air by them and the IIMB spikers( Yadav, Vibhu, Rowdy and Manas) jumped to shoot, the IIMA players took 2 steps back. All they could manage was to just send the ball back only to face the barrage all over again. (The following was overheard that night in the IIMA night canteen – “Dude! I rather go to K and be held under house arrest than face this legen-wait for it-dary IIMB volleyball team. No Che??”). The IIMA tactics of just trying to place their attack never really troubled the IIMB team. The war was so swiftly won that it made Blitzkrieg look like stealing kandy (no pun) from a child. While the IIMB heroes were hailed as legends and carried on shoulders at one end, the IIMA crowd decided to maintain a minute’s silence to mourn their warriors at the other.

Dear Readers. The author is at this point so overwhelmed with emotion that he is unable to write further. So, he would like to end with this little phrase: “We won easily”

Thank you for your patience

Your friendly neighbourhood reporter

Dilip R.S. aka Rowdy

The light of knowledge !!

2009-01-30T02:01:00.003+05:30

Observe the three logos below

All logos have the sun/sun rays in them :

The 3 institutes of education in my life

The man. The machine.Street Hawk

2008-10-20T03:52:00.001+05:30

One of my all time favourties

Memories ARE made up of this....

Sports journalism at its best

2008-08-22T01:17:00.002+05:30

Below is the article from http://football.guardian.co.uk
It is one the best I've read in some time. It is so moving and well written. It talks about the life of.. rather the reason for the life of the Croatian football player -Darijo Srna
Kudos to Jonathan Wilson.

Super Darijo a very proud son of the father

The remarkable life led by his father means the most astonishing thing about Shakhtar Donetsk skipper Darijo Srna is that he exists at all

Jonathan Wilson

August 21, 2008 1:57 PM

For his country Darijo Srna is a midfielder. For his club he is a full-back. At heart, he probably still wants to be the wing-back he was when he started his career. Tactically, the decline of 3-5-2 could have left him behind, but he has reinvented himself to become captain of Shakhtar Donetsk. Against Dinamo Zagreb in the Champions League last week, he was an obvious man of the match, whipping in a free-kick after three minutes to set them on the way to a comfortable 2-0 victory.

Niko Kranjčar, admittedly his room-mate on international trips, calls Srna the most under-rated player in Europe. And yet the most improbable thing about him is that he exists at all. The series of events that go to make any life can appear dauntingly improbable in retrospect, but Srna's career would have to take some truly extraordinary turns before his life-story became half as remarkable as that of his father.

Uzeir Srna was born in Gornji Stopići, a village near Čajniče in eastern Bosnia, a year before the Second World War. As the German advance met fierce resistance, the front line swept back and forth over the village, repeatedly forcing its inhabitants to flee. In 1941, though, with the fighting seemingly done, they returned home. It proved a ghastly miscalculation.

One night, the Chetniks, the Serb nationalist paramilitaries who waged their own war within a war, raided the village and burned it to the ground. Uzeir was grabbed by his father, and they fled into the forest with his teenage brother, Safet. His mother wasn't so quick. "She was pregnant," said Uzeir. "And she and my sister were burned alive."

Uzeir, Safet and their father fled north to Bosanski Samac, but amid the chaos of refugees Uzeir became separated from his father and brother. Somehow he ended up in Sarajevo, and was taken from there to Slovenia, where he spent a few months in an orphanage before being adopted by a police officer in Murska Sobota: the boy who had been Uzeir Srna became Mirko Kelenc.

Back in Bosanski Samac, further tragedy was to strike. "It was a stupid accident," Uzeir said. "My father had found a job in a small café. One day he was sitting outside it, and he got hit by a stray bullet that killed him." Uzeir has never found the graves of either his mother or his father.

In despair, Safet joined the army, but he never forgot his brother. Everywhere he went, he asked if anybody had seen Uzeir. Two years went by without any firm leads, but then he was posted to Niš in Serbia. His commanding officer there was a Slovenian, who remembered hearing about a Bosnian orphan who had been taken in by a family in Murska Sobota.

As soon as he could, Safet went to Slovenia to continue his search. It took him a few weeks to locate the Kelenc house, but when he did, he knew he had found his brother. The Kelencs argued that Uzeir would have a better life with them in Slovenia, but Safet was insistent, and took Uzeir back to Bosanski Samac, where he enrolled in the local school.

Even in the austere world of northern Bosnia in the years immediately following the war, the Srnas were noticeably poor. "I was always hungry," he remembers. "I saw my friends from school eating fresh bread and rolls, and it annoyed me, so I decided to become a baker."

Uzeir learned the trade, but barely had he begun to work properly when relatives from Sarajevo got in touch and asked him to go and live with them in Sarajevo. Delighted by the thought of a family, Uzeir agreed. "When I got my first salary in Bosanski Samac, I bought shoes, a jacket, a suitcase and a train ticket to Sarajevo," he said. "But I didn't know where they lived. So I walked round Sarajevo for hours before I found their house."

He struggled to find work as a baker, so Uzeir took on a series of manual jobs before finally, after several months, being offered a post in a bakery. It was there that he began to play football fairly seriously, being taken on as a goalkeeper by FK Sarajevo. Wandering, though, was in his soul. He met a group of Serbian engineers who asked him to go to Belgrade with them, work for their company and play for their local club. He followed them, but didn't settle there and returned to Bosnia, following his brother into the army.

He was posted to Busovača, a small town in central Bosnia. "There I started to play for Jedinstvo, the local club," said Uzeir. "I remember we had a friendly match against Čelik from Zenica. They were a big club at the time. A few days after the game, some people from Čelik asked me to go and play for them, but it was never meant to be for me in Zenica. They had a good team and decided to send me out on loan."

Before that could happen, though, Uzeir travelled to Croatia with Čelik for a friendly against Neretva in Metković. "Just before the game, Neretva's goalkeeper was injured," Uzeir said. "So they asked me because I was Čelik's reserve to play for them. After the match, they ask me to stay, because they were pretty impressed with my goalkeeping."

There Uzeir married a local woman called Nada, and they had a son, Renato, who is now a coach at Neretva. The marriage broke up, though, and he went to France, playing and working in Paris for four years before returning to Metković, where he met and married another woman, Milka, with whom he had two children, Igor and Darijo. He worked for a time as a truck-driver, before Neretva asked him to coach their youth side. One of his charges was Darijo.

"Even though he was really small, a lot smaller than the other kids, everybody knew Darijo was a great talent," he said. "He was good at handball, table tennis and basketball. One day he even came home from school and said that his teacher had told him to quit football and focus on basketball."

Fortunately he ignored him. "When he was a kid, he had offers from Dinamo Zagreb, Zagreb and Varteks Varaždin," Uzeir said. "I knew that Varteks had a best facility for young players, so I told him that best thing for him is to play there." But then the former Hajduk Split player Ivan Gudelj came to their house in Metković, offering a trial at Hajduk.

For the Srnas, that was a big risk. They are Bosniak, and as the war rumbled on, it was soon apparent how difficult it would be for a young Muslim player to be accepted in Split. "It was a difficult time," said Uzeir. "And your name was so important. But the worst thing was that the coaches came and openly demanded money for Darijo to stay there. Luckily he was so talented that when the youth coaches saw him, they decided he had to stay."

He stayed until 2003, when he moved to Shakhtar in a transfer so lucrative that Uzeir could comfortably buy a bakery of his own. Darijo has bought him a Mercedes and a BMW, but Uzeir still lives in his small apartment in Metković. "I always tell Darijo that you have to save your money when you're earning it," Uzeir said. "There's nothing to save when you're broke. The only difference to when he first moved in with Milka is that there is now an Astroturf pitch just around the corner, Darijo's gift to his home town.

"My father and my family mean everything to me," Darijo has said. On his calf he has a tattoo of a deer ('srna' in Croatian), while on his chest he has the name of his brother, who has Down's syndrome. Every goal he scores he dedicates to Igor. "I can't forget how they suffered while they were trying to find money for me during my days at Hajduk," he said.

"I can't forget that. My father had a really, really difficult life and I am very proud he can live peacefully now, without stress. I know it's impossible to repay him for everything he has done for me. But, I have bought him a car and given him enough money to live normally now, while he is old. It's the least I can do."

Beside his father's life, adapting his game to play a little deeper doesn't seem much of a strain.

Such is life

2008-08-11T19:36:00.002+05:30

I have heard of many descriptions of life, many analogies being drawn upon to explain it being twisted and complicated but this takes the cake

"The trouble with my life is that it's like a bra strap when you put your bra on wrong. So there's one part of the strap that's all twisted and sticking out under your T-shirt and you fix that, and then the part near the hook becomes tangled. Then, after you've struggled with it for a while, because you can't see so far down your back, and straightened it out, the bit near your boob is all funny. So if I've got my career sorted, my love life magically vanishes without so much as a goodbye. Then I've got my love life all perfect and I'm seeing us making fat, happy babies, and boom! my family is fighting, and so on. You get the picture."

-Meenakshi Reddy Madhavan, avid blogger ( http://thecompulsiveconfessor.blogspot.com/) and author of "You Are Here"

and on this day...

2008-08-10T02:26:00.001+05:30

On this day but years ago....

480BC: A Sparta/Greece dream army are defeated by the Persians at the Battle of Thermopylae. If only they'd worn coats...

1936: In one of the few amusing moments of the Nazi regime, Jesse Owens picks a hole or two in that Aryan wheeze by winning his fourth gold medal (in the 4x100 relay) of the Berlin Olympics. Like the sulky bastard he was, Hitler does one rather than shake hands with the winners.

1945: The second atomic bomb is dropped on Nagasaki by the Americans, finally persuading Emperor Hirohito to admit defeat.

1969: The bodies of five people - including Sharon Tate, pregnant wife of Roman Polanski - are discovered at a house in Los Angeles, having been butchered by Charles Manson's Family. Amusingly, Manson was turned down for parole for the eleventh time in 2007.

Courtesy : http://football365.com

The chosen pong

2008-08-08T18:24:00.004+05:30

Wonder what the Oracle had to say about this

Courtesy : http://xkcd.com

made in USA

2008-08-06T10:23:00.001+05:30

US ECONOMY -
Dr. Marc Faber concluded his monthly bulletin (June 2008 with the following:

" 'The federal government is sending each of us a $600 rebate. If we
spend that money at Wal-Mart, the money goes to China. If we spend it on
gasoline it goes to the Arabs. If we buy a computer it will go to India.
If we purchase fruit and vegetables it will go to Mexico, Honduras and
Guatemala. If we purchase a good car it will go to Germany. If we
purchase useless crap it will go to Taiwan and none of it will help the
American economy. The only way to keep that money here at home is to
spend it on prostitutes and beer, since these are the only products
still produced in US. I've been doing my part."

Causation or Correlation ????

2008-05-15T19:13:00.007+05:30

Checked out google trends today. It can be added to the list of "Things to do to spend time in office" along with youtube, zapak and the likes

Q) What does it do?
It lets you in on volumes of any words searched in the past (last 3 years or so)

Q) How does i access it?
www.google.com/trends

Q) I still do not understand. please give me an example.
Eg: 1

Eg: 2

Eg: 3
Please note

See a pattern?

Courtsey : 2paiseworth.blogspot.com/

Moto Racer

2008-05-01T22:16:00.004+05:30

There were these four guys. They used to play "Moto Racer 4" regularly. The game had a 4 player option. All played on one keyboard.
Those were some of the best times of their lives.

Then came some more of them. They started playing Moto Racer 1 (Speed Bay track) .
They totally loved the "You've lossst the Raaacccee" at the end.
Those were more good times.

twice lucky... third time?

2008-04-06T14:24:00.002+05:30

"From confessions of Sabauddin, one of the prime accused in the IISc attack, police have learnt the IISc attack was 'premature' and failed to 'please' the LeT bosses. These revelations suggest that LeT's first major target in Bangalore was Le Meridien on Sankey Road, followed by PES Engineering College in BSK III Stage, IIM-Bangalore. IISc was last on the list."

Once bitten.... twice shy
Twice escape.... third time jai?

all is fair in war

2008-04-06T14:13:00.001+05:30

The "just solution of the Kashmir issue should be in line with the wishes of the people of Kashmir and Pakistan," Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said

I won't say more.

Chronicles of the Monetarist

2008-03-26T04:00:00.003+05:30

Short Story 1
Forgetful,Brilliant and rarely humorous Professor :
"I will tell you all a joke. (a sly grin flashes across face) Why was Adam the first ever accountant?"

(half the class wakes up to this challenge, looks around)

Professor continues :
"Because he was the first one ever to turn a leaf and make an entry"
(grin becomes more wider with guilt)

(3 guys roll with laughter. rest of class goes back to sleep)

Short Story 2
Student : What are the end term portions? Where do we study from? What can we expect?

Forgetful,Brilliant and rarely tactful Professor :

"As usual, carefully follow the class notes. Like Philip Weiss, a character in Vikram Seth’s novel The Golden Gate (“He drinks and he continues drinking/And having drunk, he drinks again”) for the exam “Do read and continue reading/ And having read, just read again."

(evil grin surely flashing across face)

Manchester United 3-0 Liverpool

2008-03-23T21:53:00.006+05:30

This is one of the best starts to a week that I could ask for.
Was tensed all week long about the ManU- Pool match.
Rafa had commented earlier in this week that United will be challenged for their title race ( motivational talks ? ). With Liverpool's recent winning run and with the champions league ahead it was all set for a tight match.

That's exactly how it turned out. A very cagey start. But an uncalled for second yellow (red) to gifted the game to United.

From a quick United counter and brisk movement, Rooney who had a superb game (but for the finishing) sent in a lovely cross from the left flank. Brown rose high up in the center ready to head it in with ease. But Brown being Brown he turned his back to the ball and it looked all set for a bad miss. But Reina being Liverpooldian (Bah !!!!....however it is spelled) decided to shoot himself in the foot and he made sure it was an own goal. Once that happened the game was all ours. Albeit late a goal each from Ronaldo and Nani sealed the game.
I never imagined I would ever put up a Wes Brown pic on my blog but nevertheless... Manchester United 3-0 Liverpool

H

2008-03-21T19:41:00.002+05:30

Had the lots for our Hostel rooms last night. We got really lucky and so our new Homes for year 2 will be in H-mezz - my current floor

"H is where the Heart is
H is where Home is"

You know you are screwed when.... 1

2008-03-19T23:41:00.005+05:30

You know you are screwed when ...............

............... your new phone's (N73.. :( ) display looks like this.

There goes another item to my long list of "dropped it...broke it" !!!!

THE game

2008-03-12T22:14:00.004+05:30

The match started years ago
Both teams have had a very good first half.
With one team bringing the heat on late in the first half, it looked fully set for a thriller.
But then came the break...
HALF TIME !!!!

Down by Law

2007-12-11T03:51:00.000+05:30

Are we heading towards a dystopian society???? A question I often tend to ponder upon.
Came across this very interesting article
"

Are we free to be foolish?

The state thinks citizens are incapable of making right decisions; the laws it makes betray that mindset

Shruti Rajagopalan

The original purpose of laws was to prevent humans from infringing on another individual’s rights and liberty while exercising their own. So, any infringement on another person’s life, liberty and property in the broad sense became punishable by law so that men can coexist. The examples are obvious; theft, assault, murder, rape, fraud etc. These laws are absolutely essential for a free society.

The second set of laws, far more controversial, is those criminalizing acts which have no victims. Human acts which offend society in general or tarnish the moral fabric that a community seeks to preserve are also punishable. These laws detail what are also known as victimless crimes as there is no specific infringement on another individual’s life, liberty or property. These laws outlaw prostitution, suicide, drugs etc. In an ideal world, these laws shouldn’t exist and an individual’s rights must be supreme, but then that is in an ideal world.

While there is clear reason and purpose for the first set of laws to preserve order and uphold individual rights, and one could find religious or moral justification for the second set, there is a third set of laws which exist just to satisfy the whim of a nanny state, or in our case a mai-baap state, to protect an individual from himself.

The paternalistic state believes that people are fundamentally stupid and must be protected from behaving rashly, even if such behaviour affects no one else. The most obvious example of this is the helmet law, or the requirement to wear seat belts, which seems innocuous. But what happens when the paternalism is taken to a new level? By outlawing street food because it is presumed to be unhygienic? Or, in an outrageous example, the nanny state excluding the individual from litigation to protect one from one’s lawyers?

So, the real question is: Do we really need the state to protect us from ourselves or our foolishness? Or are we capable of evaluating the little risks we take to make our lives more pleasurable?

The helmet law or the requirement to wear a seat belt is an excellent example. But it doesn’t stop there. The Indian government likes to believes in the English notion of parens patriae , where the Crown is the protector of his subjects as a parent.

For instance, the West Bengal government attempted to outlaw hand-pulled rickshaws, to preserve the dignity of the rickshawpuller and to give the presumption of a less disparate society. The rickshawpullers obviously oppose the law as they are happy pulling rickshaws and value their source of livelihood. But do they know better? Can they be trusted with preserving their own dignity? Was it not the actual father of the nation who said that all work is worship?

It’s not just rickshawpullers. Virtually all labour laws in India attempting to protect labour from the exploitative capitalist actually assume that every individual labourer is incapable of entering into a contract, being aware of the risks and rewards, and making a living. It takes away the right of two adults to enter into a mutually agreeable contract.

Similarly, the government outlawed bar girls from dancing in bars to preserve the dignity of these women. What they did has put many thousands of women out of work and taken away their only source of livelihood. Did the bar girls weigh their loss of dignity against their livelihood? Or perhaps they felt no indignity in dancing to entertain at bars in the first place!

The Supreme Court, as always, has taken paternalism to a new level when it banned cooking on the streets by street vendors because street food, by default, is always unhygienic and citizens are too stupid to choose what to eat. We are all aware of the potential risk of falling sick eating pani puris on the street and yet we value the pleasure of a good, and slightly unhygienic, pani puri over the expected risks. But can we really be trusted with such an important decision?

Most of these instances may seem trivial to those who are not part of informal labour force, or who don’t enjoy that occasional pani puri. But sometimes paternalism in India takes on Orwellian forms.

The Indian government took it to a whole new level during the Bhopal gas tragedy case more than 20 years ago. It passed the Bhopal Gas Tragedy Act, 1985, which allowed only the state to sue Union Carbide.

The victims and citizens of Bhopal were not allowed to sue the company who took away the lives and health of their families and the prosperity of their city because the state felt that “ambulance chasers” would take away most of their compensation in legal fees. While the ambulance chasers might have taken away most of it, the government did an even more efficient job by taking away the entire compensation of most victims.

While each instance seems trivial, especially since it affects particular classes of people, there is a larger question at hand. Do we have the right to take risks that only affect us? Do we have the freedom to live our lives as we choose after weighing the risks, even if we are being foolish according to the government? And if part of freedom is the freedom to be a fool, are we free?"

All credits to Mint and Shruthi Rajagopalan for this wonderful article

p.s. I have a very high emotional attachment to pani puris, especially the those made by the road side made gaadis.

Call Marx

2007-10-26T15:06:00.000+05:30

Politics in Kerala plumbed shameful depths when a teacher in the most literate state of the country turned on a group of four primary school kids and thrashed them on the basis of a complaint from a local CPM boss who accused them of damaging the party's posters outside the school.

In what must set a new benchmark for reprehensible conduct, the four students — Ajin Dev, Akhil Dev, Anoy and Shobin, all students between ages seven and nine of government-run primary school in Kozhikode — were beaten up by their teacher on October 23, as a result of which the traumatised kids have refused to go to their school.

Following a complaint by their parents, the police have registered a case of threatening and hurting minors against CPM leader Yugesh Babu, who is also a member of the local gram panchayat, along with the headmaster and their woman class teacher.

The controversy assumed a bizarre political twist with rumours flying thick that the kids had to pay for the political beliefs of their parents, who, it is learnt, are sympathisers of another party. As a result of the rumours, the district education office has stepped in and an inquiry is being conducted by the assistant education officer.

This is where our country is going to. Such politicians and "teachers" should be made examples of and severely punished, should be made social outcasts. If a highly literate state like Kerala has such incidents involving educators where is the hope for the rest . And this is not the first time the communists in Kerala have taken to violence for not adhering to their ideologies.

Dumb-eldore

2007-10-20T13:20:00.000+05:30

If you thought having 2 tests and a really bad cold are bad enough to ruin your Saturday, then think again.
Read below :

"NEW YORK: Harry Potter fans, the rumors are true: Albus Dumbledore, master wizard and Headmaster of Hogwarts, is gay.

JK Rowling, author of the mega-selling fantasy series that ended last summer, outed the beloved character yesterday night while appearing before a full house at Carnegie Hall. After reading briefly from the final book, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," she took questions from audience members.

She was asked by one young fan whether Dumbledore finds "true love".

"Dumbledore is gay", the author responded to gasps and applause.

She then explained that Dumbledore was smitten with rival Gellert Grindelwald, whom he defeated long ago in a battle between good and bad wizards. "Falling in love can blind us to an extent," Rowling said of Dumbledore's feelings, adding that Dumbledore was "horribly, terribly let down."

Dumbledore's love, she observed, was his "great tragedy".

"Oh, my god," Rowling concluded with a laugh, "the fan fiction."

Potter readers on fan sites and elsewhere on the Internet have speculated on the sexuality of Dumbledore, noting that he has no close relationship with women and a mysterious, troubled past. And explicit scenes with Dumbledore already have appeared in fan fiction."

Even though I am a Harry Potter fan I find it really revolting to talk about the sexual orientations of age old wizards.
What next?
Penolope Pitstop is lesbian?????

the Centurions

2007-10-18T03:35:00.000+05:30

I was in deep conversation with Shouvik today about the latest episode of Heroes. The topic slowly shifted from Heroes to toons and to the age old Power Zone of cartoon network. It's nice to find people with similar tastes. Feeling all nostalgic I decided to YouTube the centurions opening video and to me amazement actually found it. The feeling when I hear the last line echo "The Centurions-ons-ons-ns-ns-s-s.........." is unexplainable.

Interview tips and the Giggle Loop

2007-10-14T02:52:00.000+05:30

Go beyond the obscenities

The Facebook Stalker

2007-10-14T02:48:00.000+05:30

Let the video do the talking.... or the singing

singled out....

2007-08-20T02:33:00.000+05:30

1) u have to let go off people even if it means u think u might miss them

2) being friends can be better than being in a relationship

3) moving on is not for the movies and books

4) dejaaaa vooooo is not like lightning. it is meant to occur again.

repeat the above enough number of times till you believe its true.

inspiration from Joseph Goebbels (look him up) - "If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it"

thank you. gnite. love you all

1st year good.... 2nd year better

2007-08-19T03:53:00.000+05:30

"Four legs good....two legs bad"

"Four legs good.... two legs better"

This is one of my favourite lines from Orwell''s Animal Farm. I don't know how or why it keeps recurring in my head now. I also have got very interested in dystopian books off late, not that I've read any of them. Just been wikiing them. So, decided to give it a start last week and so bought Orwell's 1984. I had read a detailed review about it and hence got interested.The craving increased after i did a movie review for one of my courses here in IIMB. I chose a movie called "Orwell rolls in his grave" and depicts the state the US media is at present and where it is heading to. Lot of analogies have been drawn to 1984. Also, am able to relate to the concept in my present context, The utopia that is "created" here in IIMB is highly dystopian where people often live with constant fear of failing to survive. I can here the drunk G block seniors pressing their loud HINDI music on my ears. It's 3:50 a.m. and yet I lie awake in bed. I wish I could do something about the music but that would be going against the system here.

So, as I close my laptop and start my book, I murmur to myself.

"1st year good.... 2nd year better"

Chronicles of the aam aadmi - I

2007-05-22T23:12:00.000+05:30

This I hope kick starts a series of my so called enriching experiences with the so called "aam aadmi"

Time : 1324 hours
Place : My office lift
Prerequisite : My office is in UB City (owned by one of the country biggest industrialists - Mr. Vijay Mallya ) and since large parts of it are still under construction we have lift operators for every lift. This is to avoid any inconvenience caused to the various non-aam aadmis

I generally have this habit of striking up conversations with the so called aam aadmi, from auto rickshaw drivers to gardeners. Today was one such occasion. Since my office lift was relatively empty I started small talk with the lift operator as to how the lift fan was so slow and the effect was hardly felt in this weather. He just gave a smile of defiance and said "Imagine. We are stuck here for around 10 hours in a day". I then noticed the absence of a chair or stool in the lift and made further inquiries about it. This is what he had to say. "Ayyo !!!! Why do you bother asking saar? We used to have stools in all the lifts for the lift operators. Last week or so, when the building MD got into one the lifts, a new recruit happened to be operating it. He failed to show the MD any respect and continued sitting on the stool cross legged. The MD got wild and decided to reprimand all lift operators by taking off our stools. So 10 hours of standing for us daily saar "

This is the state some people of our 9.0% increase GDP nation still live in. Imagine if one day u fail to get up and wish your BIG boss and in turn he decides to take off all your chairs from the very next day. What a fuss would be created bout it. I'm sure TOI will splash it all over the front page and Crime Dairy also may have an episode for it. But who will give the so called aam aadmis a voice?

Mr. Vijay Mallya . Are you listening ????

Ramanathapura 2007

2007-04-25T16:59:00.000+05:30

I wanted to write about my trip to my native place Ramanathapura. But my dear friend Ramana (who had come along with me for this year's rathayatra) has done more than justice by coming up with a highly descriptive writeup about the trip. So, here it is.
p.s. One small correction Chadrapura = Channarayanapatna
and some parts are a bit too dramatic. :D

" Trip to Ramanathapura

A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step. Ours was no different. It was 5:00 am when the alarm rang to the tune of Alaipayuthe (Sathiya). The ringing of the alarm did not wake anyone up; it was just a mere formality. I was already awake. It had been a difficult night to sleep with. I was partly excited about the trip, partly anxious about not waking up to the alarm and partly worried about the current state of the project. I switched off the alarm, said my morning prayers and got down on the “right” side of the bed. As I did so I remembered my previous day conversation with KB wherein we had decided that as soon as one wakes up he will call/ msg the other. I did so and was glad to hear that both KB and Dilip were awake. Our plan was to catch the 7:00 am bus to Arkalgud and then from there take a local van to Ramanathapura. It was 6:00 am when I sauntered to the bus stop. As I just reached the bus stop a Pushpak stopped by and fortunately for me it happened to be going towards Majestic. I got into the bus and updated the other two about my current status. A few minutes later KB replied that he too had got into the bus. At around 6:20 the bus reached the terminal. I was the first to reach the place and in few minutes time Dilip also reached the terminal. It took us a few minutes to locate each other and we identified the bus that would take us our destination. It was 6:40 am and there was still no sign of KB. The driver had started the engine when we saw KB rushing to the bus through the crowd like a raging bull. Just as the driver put the bus in gear, KB jumped and caught Dilip’s outstretched hand and entered the bus. The door was shut and the wheels were in motion. The first step had been taken.

The bus we had boarded was a KSRTC bus, an ordinary one at that. It has to be noted that the suspension that was being used in the bus must have been as old as the village we were going to visit. Speed breakers started feeling more like back breakers. We did not let the condition of the bus affect our high spirits. The 3 of us tried keeping each other involved in a discussion which was primarily focused on the LIST and every now and then some memorable incident was recalled and laughed at.

Soon Dilip fell asleep and KB and I tried keeping the conversation going. Just as things started to settle down and we were cruising along in the highway a person who was sitting a couple of rows ahead of Kb and I threw up (vomited). The aroma of that really took our breaths away. It gave us a reason to practice holding our breaths which would be useful later on when we would dive into the Cauveri. Dilipa was sleeping away to glory in spite of this. As the aroma started dispersing away and our breaths became normal, the unthinkable happened. The front right tyre had a puncture. We had been traveling for just over an hour and a half and were on the outskirts of Kunigal when this happened. We were 2 hours away from the midpoint of our journey and we had disembarked from the bus. Just as we started thinking that things couldn’t get much worse, the driver told us that he ha no spares, no stepnee and we had to wait for another bus to take us. Bus after bus passed by but not all of them stopped. Those that did stop were not the ones which we could board. Things had come to an absolute standstill. Our spirits had started to sink.

As we stood there waiting for a bus to pick us up, we could not help but admire the villagers who were putting up a good fight with the driver and conductor. The driver then took a bus and said that he will get another bus to pick us up. We knew that expecting him to come back with another bus would be too optimistic but we still waited. After 45 min of waiting a bus that was headed to our destination came by and without giving another thought we jumped in only to realize that there was no place to sit. And so it was that we had to stand and travel for the next hour and a half until we reached a place called Adhichunchungiri. There the driver stopped for a small break and we helped ourselves to some idly and vada with hot steaming sambar. As we were getting into the bus we overheard someone saying that they would be getting down at Channarayanapata which was around 37 kms from our place. So we stood next to the people who were getting down at the next stop so that we could take their seat when they got down. Seconds became minutes and the minutes ticked by. We didn’t let the standing dampen our spirits and kept chatting away to glory and then as another hour passed by, the bus came to a stop at Channarayanapata. The couple got down and we were lightning quick to occupy their seats. 3 people sitting in a 2 seater was not an easy job but we weren’t complaining as we got a place to sit. Our next stop was Arkalgud which was another 2 hours away.

As time passed by our conversations started dwindling. The strain on our bodies due to the cramped up space was beginning to show. We tried to catch up for the lost sleep but it was all in vain. Finally at half past 12 we reached Arkalgud. As we got down from the bus we were greeted by sultry heat and dust. We identified a local van that would take us to our final destination Ramanathapura. The van wasn’t scheduled to leave for another 30 min or so and so we helped ourselves to mouth watering cucumbers and raw mangoes. After the van was filled to the brim, it started to move. After stopping at every possible stop on the way, the van finally reached our destination.

As we stepped down from the bus a cool breeze blew, taking away with it all the stress built up inside us. We started our walk towards Dilip’s home stopping by every now and then to admire the natural beauty of the village. As we approached Dilip’s home, we were greeted by a lot of smiling faces all of them enquiring if we had a safe trip. As we reached Dilip’s home we were told that lunch was about to be served. We wasted no time in freshening up and rushing to the lunch hall.

The minute we entered the hall cups of Kesari bath, curd rice and ven pongal was handed to us in the form of prasad. That curd rice is the best I have tasted till date. Kesari bath and pongal were steaming hot and covered in ghee and were gobbled up in no time. Lunch started in a few minutes and went on to last for an hour and a half.Whatever adjective I use will not be sufficient todescribe the quality of food.It was an apt occasion to sing the song from maya bazaar:

Kalyana samayal sadham, kaigarigal pramadham

Andha gaurava prasadam, idhu veyanaku porum

Angara bajji angei, jungara sojji ingey

Sandosham meyi ponga, idhu veyanak thingah

Puliyogarin soru, peru porithimai sambar

Poori kizhangu paaru, idhu veyanaku joru

Jorana peni laddu, suvayana seeni puttu

Peralamana thattu, ini ishtam pola vettu.

Every dish was served in liberal quantities. We finally got to taste the famous Iyengar puliyogare and relished it to our hearts content. Rasam was again top class. We were in state of confusion as we didn’t what to eat the second time. Each item was excellent. If it weren’t for my stomach I would have gone on eating. For desert, steaming hot Jilebi’s was served. With great difficulty we had lift ourselves from the floor once lunch was finished.

Finished with lunch, we headed towards Lakshminarsimha temple. The outside of the temple had this cool floor on which on could just sit and talk and that’s precisely what we did. Leaning on the pillar and talking away to glory took its toll on us and soon we were fast asleep.

It must have been around 4:00 in the evening when we woke up. After a hot cup of coffee we headed off to see a one of a kind suspension bridge near the village. After spending time admiring the bridge and an old temple next to it we headed back to the village. The next hour or so was spent feeding groundnuts to the fishes in the river and watching them fight over the groundnuts.

We then headed to a place Gayatri Sheelay. This is a rock formation along the riverbed and is an ideal place for meditation. We spent the next hour at this place, staring in to space, searching for answers to questions we didn’t know.

We then headed back to the temple to watch Gajendra Moksha. This is a particular event at the temple where they depict the gods fighting off the demons. We were treated to some brilliant display of fireworks.Dinner soon followed and we feasted on steaming hot bisibele bath. After the heavy dinner we headed to the Lakshmi Narisimha temple to catch up on some sleep. There was another event @ 1am in the morning which we cunt attend but Dilips mom was considerate enough to wake us up @ 2am and give us steaming hot sakre pongal with ghee, puliyogare and avalakki. That was when I made a big mistake. As it was pitch dark I could not differentiate b/w puliyogare and sakre pongal. I thought both were the same and gave the sakre pongal to KB. Fortunately for me, Kb was considerate enough to share some of it with me.

We woke up in to the morning to the raga of various hymns that were being sung in the village. As we stepped outside we could see major preparations being made for the Rathotsava to be held later that day. The below song will be an apt description of how it felt then :

Morning has broken like the first morning
Blackbird has spoken like the first bird
Praise for the singing, praise for the morning

Praise for them springing fresh from the word

Sweet the rain's new fall, sunlit from heaven
Like the first dewfall, on the first grass
Praise for the sweetness of the wet garden
Sprung in completeness where his feet pass

Mine is the sunlight, mine is the morning
Born of the one light, Eden saw play
Praise with elation, praise every morning
God's re-creation of the new day

Morning has broken like the first morning
Blackbird has spoken like the first bird
Praise for the singing, praise for the morning
Praise for them springing fresh from the word

After a hot cup of degree coffee, we headed towards the river ( Cauveri) for a swim. The next couple of hours were spent rejoicing in the cool river water. Of course Kb and I didn’t know how to swim and so we were just standing and playing around in neck deep water while Dilipa on the other hand was exhibiting Backstroke, breaststroke and so on.

On our arrival back at the house, ven pongal , Kesari bath and thate idly awaited us which was devoured in no time flat.

The cool floor of the Lakshminarsimha temple welcomed us back again once we had finished our sumptuous breakfast. Dilipa introduced us to his friends and somehow it seemed that we all knew each other in some other time. We were treated to lots of village stories and incidents. Hour after hour passed by, until it was time for the BIG event, the Rathotsava.

It was 14:00 when the rathotsava was about to start. The Chariot which we had to pull was around 50 feet in height. It had to big ropes in front and each rope was pulled by around 50 people. The boiling roads and the frying heat did not have any effect on the people pulling us. All of us were clothed in dhotis and our top clothing was tied around our waist. As the Lord’s name was chanted loudly we started pulling the chariot, united in heart, soul and sweat.My dhoti was bit low and someone stepped on it and it almost came off. Fortunately nothing embarrassing happened.

The chariot, it should be said , does not have any steering mechanism. So whenever we approached a turn, a wooden ledge was kept under the wheel so that the wheel would go about it and turn itself. After a grueling 60 minutes the Rathotsava was over. We immediately headed to the river for another swim. An hour passed by before we made our way back to the house for a sumptuous lunch.

Calling Dilip’s grandma an amazing cook would be a BIG understatement. Delicious majjige huli and Rasam along with spicy home made pickles were served. this was topped off by ice cold butter milk. Done with our lunch, we headed back to our Lakshminarsimha temple for a small siesta. As the clock struck 16:00 we woke up.After some hot energizing coffee we embarked on a small journey to a place kushalnagar which was around 30kms from our village. As we reached the outskirts of the village, it started to rain and we were mere spectators to the spectacular show nature was providing us. As we traveled through the Mungharu Mazhle, we could not help but sing:

Mungaru Maleye..
Yenu ninna Hanigala Leele

Ninna Mugila Saale , Dhareya Korala Premada Maale
Suriva Olume Aajadi Malege, Preeti Moodide

Yaava Chippinalli, Yaava Haniyu Muttaguvudo
Olavu Yelli Kudiyoduvudo, Tiliyadagide

Mungaru Maleye..
Yenu Ninna Hanigala Leele

Bhuvi Kenne Tumba, Mugilu Surida Muttina Gurutu
Nanna Yedeya Tumba, Avalu Banda Heggeya Gurutu
Hegge Gegge Aa Savi Saddu, Premanadavoo

We had entered the Coorg district. The bad condition of the road was an indication of that. The farmer tilling the soil in his field in the rain, the beautiful mountain ranges in the background, the eye charging greenery around was simply breathtaking. The irregularity in the rain pattern and the surface of the road did not allow us to get bored and soon we were at the parking lot of the Namdroling Buddhist monastery.

The monastery is must see sight for all passing by that place. It’s beauty and sanctity is appealing to one and all. I was touched by the tranquility of that place and there were times when I was thinking if it as all worth it and ven considered joining that place. The walls of the monastery are decorated with beautiful paintings, each being a masterpiece in its own right. Inside the main hall resides the 60ft Golden Buddha and 2 58 ft golden statues of 2 monks. The monastery also has a beautiful waterfall similar to macchu picchu. Next to the waterfall is the play ground for all the students studying in the monastery. We exited the monastery and went to the shopping mall next to it. We looked at all Tibetan handicrafts that were on display and then treated our stomachs to some Chinese food at the Shanthi restaurant in the mall. The calm state of our minds was evident on the journey back to the village with each one of us reflecting our thoughts on life and beyond. The rain Gods had decided to call it a day and we could for a change open the windows and glance at the fireflies outside. Mahamanglarti had just got over as we reached the village and avalakki was being given as prasad. As we did not want the prasad to get wasted , we helped ourselves to steaming, delicious avalakki. We headed to Dilip’s house and soon a major round table conversation was going on. Major entertainment was provided by Dilip’s neighbor and his cousin. Soon our eyes could stay open no longer and before we knew it, we were fast asleep.

As the clock struck 6:00, the day I had begun to dread had arrived. It was Sunday and we had to leave by 1:00Pm. As we didn’t have anything much to do that day, we decided to spend a long time in the river. Dilipa showed us a sand bed in the middle of the river where in the water level was just a few inches above the ground. One could lie down on the sand bed and water would flow by giving a soothing massage. There are also certain rock formations in form of crevices in the middle of the river where one can go and sit and water will flow by you which gives a soothing feeling. We made our way to the other bank by walking along the rocks in the river and once there we were trying to pitch the stones on the water. After we came back to our shore we were trying to see who can hold our breath for the longest time under water which I must say Dilipa won hands down. We had spent 3 hours in the river when we decided to head home. Dilipa’s mom and grandmom had prepared something called ubburotti and gojju for breakfast which I must has been the highlight of my stay in the village. I have so far never tasted anything so delicious. The taste of the gojju alone was mindblowing and when it was mixed with curds it was nectar like. Once breakfast was over we made our way to the various temples to offer our prayers to the Gods for one last time. We spent a lot of time in the Subramanya temple which was where Kb’s mom had prayed before Kb was born. We headed back home, packed our belongings and left with a heavy heart. None of us wanted to leave but what choice did we have? With each of our projects in a precarious state, we did not have an option. Dilipa had decided to stay back and come the next day.

Kb and I took a bus to Hasan at 12:15 and had the best seat in the house. We were sitting next to the driver and beautiful countryside was visible in its entirety to us. The bus journey was filled with conversations ranging from the romantic love story we had witnessed between a 93 year old handsome young man and a beautiful , equally young woman to the temple and it’s pillars and design. The bus reached hasan at 1:35 and we immediately boarded a semi deluxe bus standing there to Bangalore . As Kb and I sat in the 2 seater, the absence of Dilipa was but obvious. All through the journey the last 2 days experiences were being talked about. The wonderful people, their jovial spirits, the awesome food, the temple and so on. The bus stopped at Adhichunchungiri again for break and we helped ourselves to some Cucumber, ice cream and soft drinks

The next hour or so went by quickly and before long we were on Tumkur road when we received a message from Dilipa which read “dude.you missed rain of the season…its unbelievable”. Little did he know that he was missing traffic of the season, it was unbelievable. In the last 30 minutes we had traveled less than 200 yards.

Traveling from the village to the city was like going in a time travel as far as development and modernization was concerned. The buildings were getting bigger, the roads got wider but the people weren’t the same. They too had changed. Fences were built between houses. The “We” and “Our” spirit that was highly prevalent in the village was replaced by “I” and “Me”.

We soon reached Majestic and KB and I had reached a parting of our ways. I searched for the platform that would take me to my home and soon found a Volvo bus that would take me to my place. On the way back as I looked back on my stay in the village the following lines from “The daffodils” by wordsworth kept flashing in my head:

For oft when on my couch I lie

In vacant or in pensive mood

They flash upon that inward eye

Which is the bliss of solitude

And then my heart with pleasure fills

And dances with the daffodils.

As I sit back writing this article I can feel the rocks in the river beds below my feet, I can feel the wind blowing against my face, I can hear the river gurgling as it flows by. It is then I realize that a part of my soul has decided to stay back in Ramanathapura forever and I’m glad that it has.

It is good to have an end to journey towards. But in the end it is the journey that matters."

-Ramana

A song to remember - 2

2007-03-09T23:47:00.000+05:30

I'm in a very good mood now as I shall be making defense cutting passes in a few hours time.
Below is a link to another one of my favourite Kannada songs.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=zS9NwjUrm-4

Unfortunately the link is for the video. So one request. Please close your eyes and listen to the song. The video does no justice to it. It's just a imagination spoiler. I think I address everyone when I say, it is a song for anyone who has ever been in love with anyone. Enjoy !!!!

p.s. The western bits in the songs are definitely unnecessary.

A song to remember - 1

2007-03-09T23:06:00.000+05:30

First I must thank my dear mom for dragging me to this movie. I am a big movie buff but not the blockbuster regional kind. I dislike movies where heroes land in copters and heroines' dress in a single dance costs more than my 1 year's salary. Anyway, not digressing, this movie- "Mungaru Male" ("Pre-season showers" in Kannada) was unlike any other I've seen. Of course it had its normal unreal fights and cliff dancing, but the cinematography was unbelievable. Hats off to the director and script writers for making a very practical story. Ganesh of the comedy time fame was at his best and believe me it was an act worth an applause. Another round of applause to the ever youthful Ananth Nag. :)
The songs (but for one pseudo punjabi style dance) were music to one's ears. There was no Kanglish involved. Swacha(clean) and Shudha (pure) Kannada involved. Reminds me of the Kannada songs of the yesteryears.
Below is a link to one of the best songs of the movie. Enjoy !!!

http://youtube.com/watch?v=8uxLD9DI0kY

p.s. the melody makes up for some of the distasteful costumes of the heroine.

Gone to the dogs

2007-02-06T15:40:00.000+05:30

I came across this and thought it was worth putting up here :

The current debate on the fate of the stray dogs
resting in human hands, remind me of a saying of
Winston Churchill, that goes
"Dogs look up to us. Cats
look down on us. I like Pigs. They treat us as
equals."

Home Theatre

2006-12-22T15:57:00.000+05:30

"MUMBAI: In one stroke, Optical disk manufacturer Moser Baer has destroyed the business model of pirated movie seller and even the DVD libraries across the country. Delhi based optical disk maker is going to launch Hindi movies on DVD at Rs 38 and VCD at Rs 24. The price of a Hindi DVD at the retail end varies from Rs 200 to Rs 400 and even higher if it's a new release. Moser Baer's comparable price is one tenth of the existing retail price for these disks. The MRPs for Moser Baer movies will be even lower than rentals from libraries or buying pirated DVDs or VCDs. Moser Baer has developed new technology to bring the price down for the Digital Video Discs (DVDs) and Video Compact DisksTheatre"

There go the theatres !!!
As if the movie watching experience wasn't shifting from the cinema hall to the living room quickly enough thanks to increasing piracy, now Moser Baer have come up with this.
If what MB claim is achieved, then at least the prices of PVR and I-nox should come down a bit.
This can change a lot of ways.
The whole distinguishing factor as to why the crowd in such multiplexes is so good at present is largely due to the prices as it kept the cheap junta out. The decreasing quality in scenery will in turn keep out a lot of people who flock to the malls just to exercise their eyes. Traffic might reduce a great deal, enabling more parking space making Bangalore a more pleasureable place to live in once again. This in turn will attract a lot more people from outside and voila !!! The people ready to spend now will increase as a result of which the economy of the state would go up in turn causing an infaltion in prices. Hence, MB may hike their prices with the theatres soon to follow. We come back to square 1.
So, it really doesn't change anything.

Bowled over by the WIZARD

2006-12-22T11:55:00.000+05:30

"Test cricket's greatest bowler Shane Warne announced his retirement from international competition Thursday, drawing the curtain on one of the most celebrated careers in the sport's history.
Saying he wanted to go out on top, the 37-year-old Australian leg-spinner with a world record 699 Test wickets revealed the two remaining Ashes Tests against England will be his last international matches. "

Heroes come and heroes go but legends are there to stay.
One such legend of my generation is Shane "the Wizard of Oz" Warne. Having grown up seeing him bamboozle batsmen from all over with his leg spinners, leg breaks, flippers etc., his retirement from the international cricket gives me such a big heartache. This year has seen too many sporting legends retire;Agassi, Schumacher, Zidane and now Warne.The cricketing world is surely losing one of its gems and I sincerely hope that ESPN Star can somehow bag him as a commentator at least.

Here s little video showing how magical the wizard's bowling was.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=YDqn043XhQ8
It's a little compilation of Warne's best wickets.

Masala Dosha

2006-10-11T15:24:00.000+05:30

Your Dosha is Pitta

You have a quick mind, a gift for persuasion, and a sharp sense of humor.You have both the drive and people skills to be a very successful leader.Argumentative and a bit stubborn, you have been known to be a little too set in your ways.But while you may be biased toward your own point of view, you are always honest, fair, and ethical.
With friends: You are outgoing and open to anyone who might want to talk to you
In love: You are picky but passionate
To achieve more balance: Be less judgmental of those around you, and take cool walks in the moonlight.

What's" Your Dosha?

I wanted to be an Italian ...

2006-10-11T15:07:00.000+05:30

Your Inner European is French!

Smart and sophisticated.You have the best of everything - at least, *you* think so.

Who's" Your Inner European?

two days in the life of ......- Part 2

2006-10-10T12:01:00.000+05:30

Monday was never one of my favorite days and this one was no different. The only consoling fact was that I hadn’t had to travel 60 kms to do nothing.

Job 1 ) Give the car to the service centre. My dad and me went along and gave our car to Trident Hyundai and waited for like 1.5 hours before we could get the estimate. It was a shocking 48 000. There went my appetite along with my mood. Lucikly , 15 grand was labor charges which was fully insured. The remaining amount comprised of spare parts to replace, Bonet, side panel, headlight, compressor, radiator, windshield, coolant etc etc…The list was just endless.

Job 2 ) Go to Peenya Police Station and collect the acknowledgement. We made our way though to the station only to discover the cop we were supposed to report to was on rounds and as his junior put it ..”ille hogidhare saar. Kothkoli. Aydhu nimsha ashte banbidthaare”("he has just stepped out saar. sit down. will be back in 5 mins"). That “aydhu nimsha”("5 minutes") turned into 2.5 agonizing hours.Every half hour the constable would come out and reassure us that the cop was on the way. Eventually at 1:30 the cop landed up and said . “Saar. Firsht you call the other party. Make sure He doesn’t file a case against you. Also, call insurance agency and enquire about the amount they will cover upto. Becaaase an acknowledgement may be enough to cover only upto 10000 Rs in repairs. You might need ad FIR for more amountu.” We left the police station dejected that 3 hours of waiting accounted to no work being done.

Job 3 ) We called Mr.Prasad, the other party. He said his Ford service station has given him a bill of 12 grand, which he was ready to produce in front of us, and as his insurance company wouldn’t reimburse a lot as the bumper was a plastic part, he wouldn’t claim the insurance as his premium for next time would go down compared to the amount he would gain out of the compensation. Whew. Long sentence !!! Basically he was driving to the point that we give him the full 12 grand. Obv we weren’t ready for that and hence told him that we would talk to our insurance guys and get back.

Job 4 ) After a tidy meal at home, we met up with our insurance agent and he explained tht an acknowledgement would suffice for the amount we are claiming for. That was the only piece of good news we received all day

Job 5 ) We headed back to the station and asked for the acknowledgement. The cop as usual was insistent that we settle the amount we pay to the other part first as he shouldn’t file a complaint later. So, negotiations began over the phone with Prasad and we settled to a reasonable 7 grand. Now, it was time to feed the devil The cop was hinting at a bribe. My dad said he worked in BSNL and any problems regarding phone they had he could help them. Nothing more. Eventually he asked for a new instrument as his cabin didn’t have one. My dad agreed to that demand as we had quite a few spares at home. After getting the acknowledgement from him, first hing we did was to get him a new instrument from home. The joy on his face was unbelievable and I actually felt an iota of pity for him. The kind of office he had was a pig sty compared to the ones we sit in day in and out. The kind of people he deals with on a daily basis are rednecks compared to those we encounter. If we thought local politically stimulating Bengalis were the worst, he has to deal with drunk lorry drivers. At the same time, a huge 7 foot cupboard was delivered to his cabin and I was about to walk out when I noticed the sign “Donated by ITP Industries” on it. One more accident case eh?. Couldn’t help but chuckle over it

Job 6 ) Went to Mr. Prasad’s industry and gave him his 7 grand and he was throwing all dialogues like. “Noodi saar. Ee accident nanige losse alla.. Nenne ondhu property deal madodhikhe hortidhe. Full mood offu aagoythu. Adhu nange real loss”("Look sir. This accident is no loss for me. I was going to do a deal on a major property. My mood turned foul after the accident.That is my real loss") Just as I was about to take my money back and say “F**k off then !!!” my dad butted in saying “No sir. You may take this in the wrong sense but whatever happens is for the good only. Maybe something was wrong with the property. So, maybe this accident will benefit you in the long run.” Why doesn’t he say the same to me ?? J J. Anyway, I walked out of there 7 grand poorer and hopefully if the insurance guys strike us a good deal, maybe only 15 grand more to go.

Worst of all, I felt very guilty and offered my dad to pay the entire amount from my savings. He obviously refused.
Me : “look pa !! It’s my fault and I’ll pay with my money. Don’t spend your savings for that. Etc etc”
Dad : “Look son. If I had done the accident, would you not have paid then??”
Me : “Errr. I.. err..definitely would’ve paid….Ah My phone is ringing….Aaaa….Helloooooooo”

…walk off into oblivion..

This, my friends is the story of my last 2 days.
A few words of advice to all you people.
1) Wear seatbelt. That was the only thing that prevented any bodily injury to any of us. Please heed this always
2) Please cross check with your insurance company as to how much you are covered etc etc.
3) Don’t beat me up after listening to this long sad tale of mine. I’m jobless

two days in the life of .... -Part 1

2006-10-10T11:59:00.000+05:30

Oct 8th 2006 (19 days to go)1) Had my mock CAT early in the morning. Thats where the ill feelings started.
2) Anyway, that was just the start. After CAT a friend suggests we can have lunch. The buffet in Mainland China is 170 and is really good. So, we go for a Sunday afternoon outing. We eat to our stomach’s content and then the bill comes. 350 bucks lunch !!! luckily I had my card on me.
3) I got home and then we were suppsed to go to Bobby house. I think most of you have met him at a football game or two. PK might remember him better for those unstoppable (always used to hit a stone and change directions) penalties he used to take. As I was saying, I had my mom, my sister, grandma and another aunt with me in the car. Was zipping through Ring Road on way to Magadi Road. It was raining very heavily and visibility was very poor. The car ahead was a new Ford Fiesta and he had his lights on in order to enable the driver bhind aka me to follow at a safe distance.
Me : Look Ma…tahts the way to drive. You must turn the lights on and drive in the rain. Atleast the parkings ones. So, that people coming behind, can get a measure of how far you are.
Mom : Have you got the lights of your car on??
Me : Yes. Yes……….BBAAAANNNNNNNNGGGGGGGG

The guy in the Ford had encountered a road hump and had braked suddenly. I too braked as soon as I saw those brake lights go on. Unfortunately due to the large amount of rain water collected my car just went into a skid. I swerved at the last minute to avoid hitting him straight from the back and ended up making a huge impact to his right side rear bumber with my front left side of the car., Thanks for the seatbelts.
He pulled over to one side. After checking that everyone was ok in ym car, I drove next to his car and asked him everything is fine there.
That bastard did’nt even roll his windows down and finally I had to pull over in front of him and then run to his car int eh rain (very filmi indeeed). Then he let me in his car. He was pretty polite. We decided that in order to claim insurance for the damage done, we needed a police report. Hence my Sunday night was spent at the Peenya Police station. The effeciency in the Indian administration was highlighted on that very night. The cop we were supposed to report to came after around 2.5 hours of waiting. He wasn’t that bad a person. Explained the facts to us and said that filing an FIR etc would mean useless running around for a week or two and having your cars parked at the station for a few days etc etc. Hence we would be better off to amicably settle a amount that I would have to pay him and be o0ff our ways. In order to claim insurance he would give us aan acknowledgement stating so-and-so happened in his station limits.
The other party, an entreprenuer from Peenya said he couldn’t afford to have his car parked for a few days and run around for the case. SO, whatever insurance doesn’t cover him for, I should pay him . I agreed and we returned home with a sigh of relief.

mash them macedonia

2006-10-07T22:48:00.000+05:30

I'm watching the Englan-Macedonia match on Tv right now. The england team are reminiscent of the Sven era. Boring, lacking imagination and with Frank Lampard in it.
Come on Macedonia !!! Come on Macedonia !!!
I think if Macedonia can return with atleast a point from Old Trafford, the press will go all out at Steve "Second choice" McLaren. Wonder which secretary he will sleep with now?
Elsewhere the Czech are having a saturday night out with San Marino. That match ended 7-0

my bread is full of jam

2006-10-05T22:25:00.000+05:30

Today was another of those 'road gets narrower/traffic gets worse' days. I left office at 1725 . Happened to reach home at exaclty 1950. No energy left to even smile at my sister and help her with her math assignment. No energy left to adjust my Iodiot Box to get good reception. No energy left to talk to SS. No energy left to take my CAT books out.No energy left even to take a pi*s.
Thats how bad it gets. That too, after I saved walking 100 mts. by convincing the bus driver to take a different route in the last stretch as I was the only guy left on the bus. Hopefully he found his way to the stand from there on.
God bless Hosur Road and all the daily commuters on it. Anyway, I'll be off from it all in another 22 days. Hallelujah !!!

This reminds me of one of the cleverest lines I've ever heard (from an employee of a famous IT company in Electronics City,Bangalore) is
"I travel 60 kms daily for my bread and butted, but all i get is JAM"

right,left,right !!! right??

2006-10-03T14:51:00.000+05:30

remember the basics of crossing a road??
"look right, then look left, look right again and then if on all occasions no vehicle is approaching, cross the road"
I have always wondered about the idea behind looking right the second time. One logical explanation is that after the first look to the right side, when you turn to look left, vehicles might have started coming towards you on the right side and hence you look twice to check again. Ok!!The logic is flawless till that point.
The question I have is why don't we look left again. What makes it so sure that no vehicles will come from the left again. This way, we keeping looking left and right over and over again and end up stuck on the same side of the road. Highly pointless !!! But why should we ignore the left side? Is it because for the majority the right hand is more dextrous compared to our left and hence any damage done to the left is sustainable? Millions of kids all over our country have grown up with this rule of crossing the road. This could be the major reason for the thousands of hit-and-run cases in our country.
Think about this next time you cross the road.
Ssomething doesn't seem "right"???

time and time again

2006-09-29T12:11:00.000+05:30

here we are again. the entire team is supposed to assemble at St.Peter's square for a team photo at twelve. its already 12:15 and noone has lifted their arses of their seats. as usual my PM hasnt yet come to office. why can't these people just keep up time. its the same story for all team meetings as well...
anyway, am glad am quitting this place in a month's time..three cheers !!!!

just eat it..

2006-09-28T16:17:00.000+05:30

Just returned from my trip to the Capital. It was panda's sister's wedding. my first experience of a full fledged northie wedding. and i must say it was brilliant. ghee.. errr. i mean gee!! thats what it was all about. the amount we were fed has reached new gastronomic widths.
Few things i noticed :

south and north india are two worlds apart
north indians earn all their lives to spend on a wedding (it is a good thing for people like me)
everybody eat everything only with a block of butter or a pot full of ghee.
number of two-wheelers in bangalore + pune = 1/2*(number of cars per house in delhi)
all cars in delhi must have a dent as an indication to the fact that people can just buy another instead of getting the old car repaired
the people are really nice, even the auto rickshaw drivers (i come from bangalore you see)
carry a big iodex bottle with you before going bird watching in delhi as turning your neck in 1923874 different directions in 0.152 nanoseconds will need some doing
infrastructure in delhi is just really unlike any i've personally come across
i can dance and am not as bad as i thought i would be

i'll add more whenever i can think of them

capital deserving , that is delhi
rivers of ghee, that is delhi
birds of beauty, that is delhi
north indian wedding?? please call me...

Exodus 2005-2006

2006-06-12T13:46:00.000+05:30

It has begun. The exodus from our beloved place, our ADDA, our true home. For those of you who don't know what I’m talking about, sorry I really am not in any mood to explain it. Its 12th June today. Time is 11:15. Am in office. Was done with my work last working day only, so not too busy and also I wanted to put down my feelings somewhere.

It’s been coming for the last one year and today was just one more dent in the armory which is all that is friendship, comfort and fun. No matter how many dents are caused, I am hoping the armor will still hold fort in the coming years. Adda is what kept us going during our school and college life, the life that we remember best, the life that, 10 years down the lane when we look back at will miss thoroughly. It was basically a form of living. It had its hard-core members and followers and many others joined us in the quest to nothingness, a quest so different, that its not what at the end that matters, its what you do and whom you meet along the way that counts. Sadly, like all good things, this too has an expiry date. It was roughly 9 years ago that ADDA was formed by 5 members- Sandy, Sureka, Tushar, Myself and Rahul. It was a different kind of living then. Cricket was the religion and we used to live for it. It used to be evenings when we used to meet regularly for a game of fun and physical activity. Then more people came seeking this path to freedom of speech and expression. - Amrinder, Karthik, Ram, Panda, P.K and Vicky and the girls – Smitha, R.K.etc. The time of 11^th and 12^th were totally fun. No matter what people said about NPs being nerdy, only studies etc. I wish they could see my two fingers up now. It was one of the best times I had in life and will always be. How we never got around to studying in 11^th and how we wasted our parent’s cash and our time in BASE. Geez. But I don’t remember the times we had to sit through KVC’s or CRR’s class. All I remember is the time we spent in class waiting for a bite of that yummy Hathwar Bakery’s capsicum puff., the “IIT methods of KVC”, the”atul gupta belching” incident, ammi’s “you can feel it if you can’t see it” incident, the” sandy removes starter” incident, our “daddy’s girl’s daddy”, our “aagala” case, our “steal guava from ashram” cases, “NTTF bus journeys”, “put stones in ram’s bag” pranks, “I don’t know I say, put ladder to the moon” dialogues, “chalk baeka” questions, our “slides down Beugal Rock”….. I can go on. There is no end to this list. And I am sure I would have brought back so many memories for all those who spent those glorying weekends at BASE along with me. And beat this, we never used to bunk BASE (I eventually quit it in 2^nd year middle). That year was tough on all of us. We were uncertain of our futures, some aspiring to be IITians (people like Vicky did succeed), some hoping to get into good engineering colleges (all of us did that) and others just to be somewhere in Bangalore (no one left). We all came out in flying colours, mind you; it’s a very relative term I am using here.

The next phase began with us spending our post CET hols contemplating where we would get in, which college, which field. That too we got through without much problems thanks to the ADDA, the members, the road, the garage and the ADDA itself. Everyone was entually happy, or shall I say satisfied with what we had in our hands. Even me, who took up payment seat by being lazy enough not to go for a 3^rd round of counseling and missing the merit seat. ( It’s quite funny that I am actually feeling guilty about the fact that I am not feeling guilty for missing that seat and making my parents part with a lot more of their savings) We took up part time jobs selling toilet papers, kitchen towels and car tissues and we gleefully spent that cash on our first ever trip outside Bangalore- a supposed “counseling” to the RECs. The counseling I can remember is ,Ram who never even bought the form I suppose, Sureka who I guess bought it but didn’t bring it. Pai, Sandy and Me – who bought it, brought it and said screw it, Ammi – who did everything right but attend the counseling and finally the sole man with the purist purpose Tushar, who even attended the counseling with all of us in wet shorts and t-shirts, questioned by the REC faculty and finally ended up with a NO to go to Kurukshetra REC. What a rocking trip it was. The beach, the rain, the “you lost my best Undi” incident involving Sureka and Sandy. Unforgettable!!!

The next stage of our lives were college life, a first for me. It meant just more than colour dress and new friends. It could have meant end of time spent together. Yet again, the ADDA came to our rescue-car pooling, sharing lunches, and evenings of seeking solace from our capricious and universally dreaded principal and our college in the ADDA. Also, came Karthik and Kurie, two bital important members of the present ADDA.Those games of cricket in the road, challenging teams for a game of cricket or footer in our beloved home ground aka Kamallaman Gundi (K.G.) Grounds.. Eventually we all grew old or shall I say old-er and hence were not enthusiastic about running up the slope on the ADDA road to bowl (I shall quite honestly exclude my name from this list of such people) and our cricket became “throw”. I suppose even that took a toll on people and hence it went indoor. Improvisation ruled and voila we had our very own version of under-arm cricket with our very own rules. It ranged from tushar’s super supler “I will only be only 2423 nanometres away from the ground” low balls to get out Sandy, to Ammi’s “Sehwag ki Maa” style batting to me playing with my leg (I always did that. What can I say. football came naturally to me) to Panda or Ram fighting not to last. We had our very own zones and it was a crime to ask a fellow player to step into your zone to fetch the ball. Hahaha. I cannot forget that rule we made up. One of our best. But alas, that too had an end and we ended up playing Business aka Monopoly aka “the game is so boring I decided to become banker” aka “ Sandy : No, I cannot give you this card because if I do so, how can I win” (don’t deny it sandy). In all this playing and studying for our boring VTU exams, we did manage to go out on a few trips. Yercaud and Coorg for 4-5 days where we experienced what it was like to live in a cloud and a quails. And a few 1-day trips to Mekhedhaatu, Talkaad and Muthathi. We all got placed, most of us in Bangalore. But unfortunately Karthik, Khushi and Tushar had to leave for Bombay. I thought it would end there. But Ammi Bummy had other ideas. He decided to re-unite with his family abroad and so it started….

The next and current phase in life has been the toughest for me. But before things changed, we had one great and so far the best trip so far. The trip to MUNNAR. It would definitely not take a PROFOUND thought to say that it was the closet I’ve got to heaven (really sad AMMI and PANDA couldn’t make it) After that, I have seen my friends depart, my fellow ADDA mates leaving to pursue better futures.. I too was off to the place where I first came from (I was born in Mysore) in September. Seeing P.K. leave was sad enough but seeing Ammi leave the country was the saddest part esp the fact that his parents also moved outside Bangalore back to the north was very depressing as that would mean he no longer might spend good amount of time in his “BIRTHPLACE” (remember ammi??...hehe). Tushar, Khushi and Karthik left for Bombay, and eventually got separated there and R.K. left for Hyderabad ( but she came once a fortnight atleast). But I didn’t feel that bad then, cause I knew they would be back in a year or two. I was to leave ADDA for my work but I could be back only on weekends. It was bearable. Ammi’s absence was duly felt and I suppose, the practical owner of the ADDA will have felt it most. I was back in Bangalore in 5 months time and so another 4 months and Khushi, Karthik and Tushar would also return. It was just like old times. But not for long, I write this today as it is the end of this phase and beginning of another, another that can test all that is ADDA…

Smitha has officially left ADDA for higher studies and God knows when she’ll be back next. I wish her all the luck in the world for her future endeavors. Next in line to leave the country is Sandy (who has already got his VISA) and Ramu. They shall be off in two months time and just the thought of that leaves a bad feeling in my stomach. Tushar will be here along with Kurie and Khushi for company. I do not mention Karthik, Sureka and Panda’s name as they will be off in the coming year. Everybody wants to leave this country eh??? The only lass here is Kurie and I felt bad for her when she shed some tears today morning at the station. Tushar, my fellow arien , myself and Khushi all plan to crack CAT or the likes of it this year and hopefully be on our ways by next June.

Just the very thought of all this that gives me a bad feeling in my stomach. It’s that we may never be able to and by we I mean the whole jing bang lot may never be able to meet up together again, all of us in the same place at the same time for quite a few years to come. But no matter, what happens, I am sure of one fact though – The ADDA always has been and always will be one of the most influential factors in my life. We shall each lead our own lives and we will all grow old by ourselves but the one thing that shall forever remain young in our hearts are the sweet memories of the ADDA, the memories that have got us through tough times, rough times, good times and bad. And though it is a bit too early, I would like to thank the ADDA and all its fellow members for those memories and I think I speak for more than just myself when I say………

“Once upon a time, there was a tavern

Where we used to raise a glass or two

Remember how we laughed away the hours,

Think of all the great things we would do

Those were the days, my friend

We thought they'd never end

We'd sing and dance forever and a day

We'd live the life we'd choose

We'd fight and never lose

For we were young and sure to have our way

Then, the busy years went rushing by us

We lost our starry notions on the way

If, by chance, I'd see you in the tavern,

We'd smile at one another and we'd say

Those were the days, my friend

We thought they'd never end

We'd sing and dance forever and a day

We'd live the life we'd choose

We'd fight and never lose

Those were the days, oh yes, those were the days

Just tonight, I stood before the tavern

Nothing seemed the way it used to be

In the glass, I saw a strange reflection

Was that lonely man really me?

Those were the days, my friend

We thought they'd never end

We'd sing and dance forever and a day

We'd live the life we'd choose

We'd fight and never lose

Those were the days, oh yes, those were the days

Through the door, there came familiar laughter

I saw your face and heard you call my name

Oh, my friend, we're older but no wiser

For in our hearts, the dreams are still the same

Those were the days, my friend

We thought they'd never end

We'd sing and dance forever and a day

We'd live the life we'd choose

We'd fight and never lose

Those were the days, oh yes, those were the days”

one of each kind

2006-04-25T15:07:00.000+05:30

I haven't blogged in some time because a lot of things have been happening lately in my life. Some of them have turned my life the other way around, other not so significant and some have made me ponder over various trivial issues which we normally "busy" people tend to ignore.

"It was around 9:30p.m., on a Friday night. My dinner was done. it was my treat along with 7 other people for my entire project team. The food was great, so was the ambience but as usual people just did not want to be on time. So, whilst some of us finished licking our lips after the yummy carrot halwa, others just started arriving. And these others include even the senior most of people who are supposed to set examples to us beginners. Life is not just about being and doing well at your work place. it is about carrying that same spirit and ideas outside too. It is quite sad to see how the very guys who insist on punctuality and efficiency in some delivery to be done to some person sitting across the world just because he pays us in those little green notes, now do not care about keeping up time and making people wait as the stakes are apparently much lower. This is one form of hypocrisy I despise and i suppose one form which cannot be stopped. It has to come from within. It cannot be induced. Anyway, not deviating from my main theme, I had to excuse myself from the dinner party as it was quite late and I would miss my bus to my place if i didn't leave then. So, I said a final good-bye to all and left for the night. Waited at the bus stop for 15-20 minutes but there wasn't any sign of the bus. There was this other lady who had to go to her home which was quite close to my place. She was a little older than my mother and I felt maybe if we were off towards the same way, we might as well share a rickshaw, as it was getting pretty late. She agreed on the condition that i share the fare with her. OKKKKK...In the rickshaw I did offer her, more than 2-3 times, the choice of taking the auto to her place, and I said I would manage if she dropped me off somewhere close by to my place but she politely disagreed. The whole journey was quite eventless. She said a sentence or two about how she had to get home before 11 as her son would be home then and she had the house keys. That one concern of hers quite touched me. Here she was, this lady, who knew nothing of me and yet in these dangerous times where the headlines in most papers read about so-and-so person being abducted, abused..etc etc., accepting an offer to share a rickshaw with someone less than half her age, all for the fact that her son need not wait after he gets home. WOW. I was quite amazed by the unconditional love a mother can have for her child. Then, her stop came and she paid for more than her share. Asked me to keep the money in spite of my reluctance to do so. She then quickly jotted down her number on a piece of paper and asked me to call her around 11. That was quite surprising. I reached home at around 15 minutes to eleven. And then called her exactly at 11. She asked whether i reached home safely without any problems and said I could call up anytime I needed to talk. "

I do not know how much significance this incident may seem to have but it sort of gave me a new look to life. there I was surrounded by people who I work with day in and day out, not caring much for making me wait and showing that all I really was to them was a piece of resource to show to the client. And here was this lady, who knew nothing of me and yet she was concerned whether I reached home safely and invited me to call up anytime I wanted to talk... What a world we all live in!!!!
" Tell me, tell me, who are these around me with no mask
With no more, with no more intentions than those shown
In their words, in their covers.........."

comfortably bum-ed

2006-04-05T23:06:00.000+05:30

YES!!! its the Floyd influence which has got me writing again. This time around my behind is comfortably sitting in..wait..lemme check..nope.... the maker's name isn’t there anywhere on the chair.Surprising!!! probably they didnt want people like me to come after them for making such comfortable chairs and making us soooo very lethargic and make us think so much. You may wonder why they call it "BENCH". shouldn't it be called like "CHAIR".

Where does the "bench" word originate? Maybe in the dark ages times, in the times when feudelism was a craze, the landlords and the czars used to punish people by locking them up in dungeons and giving them nothing but a bench to sit on with no work also. just chained to the BENCH. I probably guess thats what set the "BENCH MARK".I can imagine the simple peasants who eyed the evil landlord's daughter with little malicious intent sitting on planks of oak or teak muttering to themselves." how can this be that bad?". MUHAHAHAHA. Thats all we all think at the start.."hey. i am on bench. not bad. i get paid for doing nothing. only research or prostitution can be more gratifying". But thats why peasants will be peasants.

Let my take you briefly through the course of the evolution of the BENCH....
It all started out one fine day when HE got bored with just creating archaeopteryxes and brontosauruses. HE decided to have some fun and create a new funny breed called MAN. Well, actually this new breed was called NEANDRETHALS but then he gave them two bad characters. ONE was the opposing thumb(you know...that’s how you grab stuff) And another was intelligence. The power to think. The power to say what you are thinking. The power to BLOG. These Neanderthals decided to call themselves different things from ramapicthucus, sivapithucus(yes. Mrs.jyothi…I didn’t sleep in your bio class so much after all.) and now they are called HOMO sapiens (gee!! I wonder why?). Anyway, as I was saying, the HOMOs…wait.. lemme just refer them as humans or MAN in general so that I can be spared being called a sexist and a narrow minded person….so, these humans got bored of doing nothing all day, and hence “adam” and eve decided to PLAY around and eat the APPLE (and they say, “an apple a day…”) and pissed HIM off real bad. He decided “you HUMANs always keep running around, destroying whatever I’ve built. I am going to punish you now. Now go, sit on that little plank of wood and think it over about how bad you have been.GO!!!” and that my friend is actually how MAN was doomed and the tradition began. Because that’s what made man THINK. He was happy till then playing around , eating fruits, screwing “eve” all day long. But now he was on the BENCH. His mind was subjected to what we have called now learnt to call as BOREDOM. He began to THINK and hence he EVOLVED. That’s what set the cave man thinking and he got this load of inventions and discoveries. And all thanks to the rest his buttocks got on that little wooden plank. That my friend is the HOLY GRAIL of all humanity, That very plank of wood on which humanity began. We have all been mislead so far to think it was some cup, a chalice etc.etc but NO. The first bench is what most historians consider the true holy grail.

Anyway, going ahead, that thinking of man is what led to the civilized world Man created fire. He must use it to make women cook and not to light his friend’s cigars. That’s what exactly happened to bench. Men used to worship it in the early ages. Then came Christianity (thanks to something that Constantinople did).which forbid IDLE worship..err …I mean IDOL worship. They preached religion and soon in then dark ages, the bench evolved from being a sacred symbol of worship to a means of torture. People did try and fight back all this during the Renaissance period and then the Reformation period. The great thinkers from all over the world hid their message in their paintings and statues. You think Leonardo drew the last supper to indicate whether the person next to Jesus was a man or a woman? He couldn’t have cared less about it. He was actually showing us THE BENCH on which Jesus had the last supper. That’s where Jesus thought and that is the Holy Grail we should all be after.

A few centuries later came the industrial revolution and along with that came with the steam engine..the printing press. Books were written about this BENCH. And that’s what Thomas Moore wrote when he talked about UTOPIA (no use arguing with me about this because I have’nt read the book). But, man conveniently chose to ignore this message. Anyway, then came the world wars. And again THE BENCH was responsible for this. Some smart ass decided “Throw HITLER in prison. He is no good.” And voila. They put him in those prisons (highly evolved dungeons) and gave him nothing but a BENCH to sit on. That’s where he wrote the MEIN KAMPF which translated in german means MY BUTTOCK. He thought when he was on the bench. And hence decided that the best way to teach the world was a lesson was to go out and kill a few jews and you know how the story goes from there. U.S. and their allies somehow won that world war too, not realizing what the true cause of it was. The cold war, the Vietnam War and many such useless wars came and went but no one realized the truth. All the wars were fought by men, who resting their behinds on a one or the other form of a BENCH. It makes you think man!!!

That’s the power of the BENCH. One bench to control them all. THE LORD OF THE BENCHES. Why do you think football coaches put their not-so-good players on THE BENCH? So that they can think. Think of what they can do to improve the game and the world in general. That’s the true power of THE BENCH. It makes YOU think. Not many people realize it though. Why do you think modern day policticians fight for the “KURCI”?. It’s just another form of then bench where the person sitting in it has to do nothing all day long and he gets to think. This has been the best kept secret in the world. So, I hope I did my part in spreading the message. Now I must go, before I can be tracked down and beaten to pulp for writing this article. But what can I do, it was my duty. I had to keep up the tradition. Don’t blame me. Blame it on the BENCH dammit. I cannot help but think when I am sitting on it…

“…………. Now I got that feeling once again.
I can’t explain, you would not understand.
This is not how I am.
I have become comfortably bum-ed.........”

just another day

2006-03-31T11:26:00.000+05:30

Am this close to heaven
but am leaving another behind
Why must we face these times
Just another day I ask

Much to touch,so much to feel
A lifetime of misses
Just one day to make up for all
Cannot i have just another more

My last sight of her to savour
stored in my head for eternity
How can heaven be a better place
when the angel is right here

They wait for me to come back
but going i was far away
The light at the end of the road
is shining brighter than ever

Why couldnt i see this coming?
Why was i so blind?
Just another day is all i seek
to undo all that was done

Standing at the gates
I realize that life can be so short
Savour every day while you can
You never know when you'll need another

-Dilip R.S.

Santiy Testing 1….2…3..

2006-03-30T15:06:00.000+05:30

Does that make sense? If it does, then please click the little cross mark at the right hand top corner of this window and you can be on your way to wherever you were while you stumbled across this. If it made no sense, then you can go on reading further.
“Started Sanity Testing…..”…those words still echo in my mind, not because I have had a bad experience with it but because I get a mail with that subject every 1/6th of a nanosecond from my team members. It apparently is something to do with our project. What kind of project would be testing sanity? Well, I suppose the lack of something is what makes you want it more. No question of sour grapes now eh? Definitely one should start to expect such things in the IT industry. IT industry and sanity, what better oxy moron do you need. Hey, if you are a proud member of this famous industry, then you know where to click. If you are not, please feel free to read further. Its not that I ….
( OH HELL YEAH !! HERE WE GO AGAIN. Just as I was talking about it, here is another mail I get. “Sanity restarted…”. Don’t trust me. Check out the screenshot)

….have anything against THEM, its just that I am so very jobless and am a big fan of Seinfeld. I like to ponder on the little nothings of life which everyone else conveniently chooses to ignore. As i was saying why do you need to restart SANITY? Why does it have to stop? Its not like you have a little hole in the six inches between your ears and it just pops out and you go like “Oops!!!!. Dropped my sanity folks. I gotta restart it now.”
And maybe test it a few times over. Why do men, men who have joined THE COMPANY (which according to CNN is harder to get in than HARVARD. Who are they kidding??) not keep their sanities safe in some secure place like their pockets or wallets where all their other materialistic precious belongings go. Is it that normal to not be careful about your sanity in this industry? Am I making any sense or is it that I have just dropped mine? I guess we all have our sanities kept somewhere, safe or not. And once in a while it is needed to restart it to be normal again. Some of them run servers to restart and test sanity, some of us write blogs which make no sense and some of you read such blogs.
As I finish abusing this useless piece of virtual space we all get for free, I hear the murmurs somewhere in the next world ( yes, though its in the next cubicle, the conversations there gives me the feeling that we are worlds apart)
”..sanity testing shuru ho gayaa…tera baari hai…
(translated to all as : “…sanity testing has started…now its your turn”)….

us and them

2006-03-29T13:53:00.000+05:30

what is this blog? is it me? is it you? is it us? is it them? questions i should'nt be asking and you shouldn't be thinking about
leave that. the title for this blog is quite simple, i am listening to floyd's "us and them". i must admit. i had not heard much of floyd, just that one p.u.l.s.e album. i always used to wondner what is it with drunkards and floyd? now, being a similar state of mind i.e. being wasted, i know why floyd is what it is.
"Heaven from Hell,
Blue skys from pain.
Can you tell a green field
From a cold steel rail?
A smile from a veil?
Do you think you can tell?"
anyway, i am not "drunk", am just wasted. wasted by this bloody industry, this revolution that is supposed to change the face of our country. the only thing revolving here is my buttock in my nice little chair, looking here and there, begging for some work to be given. that my friend is truly what i define as wasted. some people in this famous IT industry also use another 5 letter word for it. B.E.N.C.H
finished my training in THE COMPANY around 50 days ago. got into a project 15 days ago. got some crappy documents to read whilst THE COMPANY negotiates with THE CLIENT to finance for our SPECIAL training. bless the bureaucrats.
how apt !!! the song playing in my windows media player now. is it coincidence or a sick joke HE is playing on me
"As you look around this room tonight
Settle in your seat and dim the lights
Do you want my blood, do you want my tears
What do you want
What do you want from me
Should I sing until I can't sing any more
Play these strings until my fingers are raw
You're so hard to please
What do you want from me.........................."