In other words I meant ..

India - from Animal Farm to Angry birds

2011-07-21T18:33:00.006+05:30

In George Orwell's Animal Farm, the pigs lead by the Old boar revolted against humans,fought for freedom of all animals. Freedom was won finally. The Pigs were animal heroes. After all Pigs had freed all animals from centuries of atrocities of humans. Many pigs had sacrificed their lives for this freedom. On August 15th, 1947, The Old Boar declared At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, Pigland will awake to life and freedom. Pigs burped. Birds flapped their wings. The snakes hissed. Finally the pigs had made their tryst with destiny and Others thought their's was made as well. Snakes had other ideas. Led to believe by the King Cobra that snakes were god's favourite children and Pigs & Birds were non believers. Snakes declared freedom from pigland and built two independent hives one for the venomous snakes called Snakistan and another for the non venomous snakes called East snakistan.

In the land of pigs also lived birds. Infact many birds and just few pigs. But still it was the land of pigs. The birds knew only to nest and produce more birds, who also nested and produced even more birds. One bright pig in the late 70s wanted every bird to lay no more than 2 eggs. Even a single egg more, the birds were herded together and their beaks cut off. Birds across country protested.

Mother pig declared Emergency. Many birds were put in cages and their beaks cut off. Birds wanted a leader. One tall bird film star named Amitabh Bacchhan became their icon as the angry young bird in many films. Many believed that the birds have finally arrived. Birds won 449/450 seats in Lok Sabha and the first ever bird govt. took oath in pigland. Ask the free flying birds to sit in day long lok sabha debates, they are bound to flounder. Birds lost faith in their own bird leaders. Soon the pigs were back to power & regained their status at top of animal class hierarchy.

With an aura of invincibility, Pigs started to show their true colur. Old boar's vision had long died. Now there were saffron pigs, Maoist pigs,urban pigs & rural pigs. Pigs that wore no footwear & pigs that drank their own urine. Saffron pigs swore by their religion, Maoist pigs swore by china. All of them ate more filth than what they needed, even grabbing the whatever little was left for the birds to eat.

With the country running at less than 15 days of bid feed left in its granary, it was staring at a gloomy picture. Then came globalisation, Pigs from USA agreed to help, provided pigland opened up their markets to dump genetically modified bird feed. Additionally, bright birds from pigland were allowed to write software in USA. Many birds migrated to USA never to return. A new breed emerged Non Resident Pigs (NRPs). Mostly intelligent birds from poor styies, who made it to PITs (Pigland Institute of Technology) and PIMs(Pigland Institute of Management) & from there to US of A. NRPs sent back truck loads of dollars back to pigland. Pigland saw prosperity for the first time since independence. Every pig in pigland could now afford to have filth 3 times a day. The Dark pigs of south could afford their face whitening lotion. The fat pigs of punjab now ate their filth with basmati rice and paneer and showed off their maruti 800 to all who cared.

Across the border, the Snakistan had become envious of the pigland's wealth & prosperity. All they had was venom and all they ever knew was to bite. Little did they know anything about software or democracy. In 1947 & 1965, They tried to bite the pigs of pigland, but pigs were far too thick skinned to even feel a pinch. A few birds sacrificed their lives, but many more were born and Pigland honoured its heroes and moved on with life.

With no one to bite, venomous snakes from snakistan started to bite its own non venomous brothers in east snakistan. Seizing the opportunity, the pigs helped the non venomous snakes defeat the venomous snaked & declare independence as Snakedesh, 212th country added to the world map.

Snakistan still licking wounds of insult, decided to wage a proxy war against pigs and pigland. They recruited jobless snakes from north warziristan, indoctrinated them with additional venom imported from gulf countries and infiltrated them through specially designed snake holes across the border. Pigs were caught unawares for the first time. Soon the snakes were stealing eggs from birds all over pigland. Many birds lost their eggs. IT birds in Bangalore, Gujju birds in Mumbai, Punju birds in Delhi. Young birds & old birds, no one was spared. Needless to say, Birds were angry. Questions were asked. Leader Pigs replied with rhetoric, no one understood the reply and life was back to normal.

Money aplenty, now pigs had turned into greedy pigs. There was the telecom pig, commonwealth games pig, adarsh society pig. Birds were angry again. This time they protested differently. Birds across the country decided to starve in protest. Pigs were worried. If the birds dont eat, they wont produce enough filth for the pigs to feast upon. Birds of civil society were soon joined by yoga birds, bollywood star birds and it was mela at Jantar Mantar, when birds of all feathers flocked together & starved together.

Pigs at the pig party office on 10, race course road were shaken. Their leader, the revered pig, who was a great economist finally opened his mouth, only to cough mild and soon shut it close, disappointing all who had waited long to hear from him.

No one stopping them, Snakes struck again, this time many more birds lost their eggs. Instead of hitting back, the pigs thought it wise not to react to provocation. Pigs across the world praised the resilience of piglanders. Snakistan rejoiced.One Intellectual bird who wrote books & didnt ever lay a egg of her own, participated in seminars justifiying the actions of Snakistan. Common birds sat helplessly in their living rooms seething in anger at this absurdity shown on live TV.

One ultra stupid pig by name Diggy Piggy accused saffron pigs of trying to kill saffron birds, so that it can conveniently blame the snakes for everything. He even wanted to reward one captured snake called kasab, a cup full of gulab jamuns for all the birds he had killed.. Diggy Piggy wanted to appease the minority bird community who inturn only vote for the pig party.. He even said telecom pigs and adarsh society pigs were innocent to please their sub caste, who then decided to support pig party in the next election.

Birds are really angry now. What they will do next?. No one knows.

Haiku & Others

2011-06-26T18:40:00.000+05:30

Baba Ramdev
Amma Jaya
Didi Mamatha
Bhai Dawood
Beta Rahul
We are family!

MV Wisdom
Juhu Kingdom
Pav Bhaji anyone!

Rain, Rain, Go Away
Come again later in the day
Late to work
Boss will slay!

Abbott buys piramal
Abbottabad where in found osama
The Abbott blesses Kate & William
Numerology!

No food & drinks
Baba shrinks
Manmohan thinks
Sonia blinks
Sushma winks
Saffron links!

Sachin...Sachin
India win, India lose
Sachin..Sachin

Gay parade at Nari-man point
Slut walk at Horni-man circle
South Bombay!

Saina wins
Sania loses
The big endorsement!

BabyB for Ash
No work for BabaB
Stay at home dad!

IPL over

No good movie

Watched Ready!

3rd wife for shashi

3rd hubby for sunanda

3 cheers!

Prithivi! Fire.

Agni! Fire.

Akash! Fire.

Trishul! Fire.

GSLV! Fire.

Target hit Finally in Bay of Bengal.

Mumbai - costliest city in india
Zunka bakar- cheapest food in india
My 2 cents!

Reddy to Yeddy come in
Yeddy to Reddy over
Transmitting code 123242. confirm.
Cheque received and encashed. over & out.

Jannat-e-Kashmir

2011-03-14T22:49:00.000+05:30

I have been all gaga over the past week, posted my first photo album on facebook & still not stopped yet. Well, reason is simple. I feel a sense of accompolishment that I might be first among my friends to have been to these places. But still, I am really going over the top with this :).

Now for the post below, I am stealing Ishu's template from his latest post. I dont want to give him credit for this, just to annoy him :P

Things I had planned, but could'nt manage to do

Ride the gondola upto the peak of Mt. Afarwat (some 5000m above sea level, well clear of my previous altitude record)
Click those pretty flowers in Mughal gardens of Srinagar. They cant be blamed for not flowering in winter
Convince Kashmiris to give up their independence movement :P
Complete one full course authentic Kashmiri dinner. yuck! the smell, so non veg like.
Walking around Srinagar streets, with a kangri (charcoal pot) keeping my belly warm in near freezing weather outside

There were also things I ended up experiencing, despite never intending to

Kahwa - Kashmiri herbal tea laced with saffron, cinnamon, walnut & pistaschio nuts. Heavenly!
Spending 2 nights in a room overlooking Lal Chowk (If you havent heard of this before, ask Sushma Swaraj)
Jet lite flight announcement -Yeh Plane - Mumbai se Srinagar tak jaane wali dheemi local hey. Yah local Delhi, Chandigarh, Jammu aur srinagar inhi stanakon par rukhegi. Baaki anya kisibi stannakon par nahi rukhegi. Yeh yatra hum 6 gante aur 20 minit mein poori kijayegi. Aapki sukhad yatra ki kaamna karte hue Dhanyavaaad.
Srinagar policemen look like straight from one of the GI Joe series. What with all the hi tech armoury, seen only before in counter strike & like. May be our pot bellied maamus should take a lesson or two.
Only one thing more beautiful than Kashmir itself, its Kashmiri men & women. Such fair complexion, sharp features with that ubiquitous long slender nose, straight from one of the greek sculptures. Even the women speak hindi in soft yet fast paced accent, that is such melody to the ears.

Best android game thus far ?

2011-02-13T23:28:00.002+05:30

Due respect to ANGRY BIRD fans, I was pretty bored doing the same thing at different angles, with little else to control. FRUIT NINJA is not much fun on small screen, may be galaxy tab/ i-pad offer a great experience. RAGING THUNDER 2 is a decent car racing game, but having played a better car game in NFS2 more than a decade ago, Raging Thunder 2 offers very little excitement to me. Now, leave out the many word games, very basic DOS type games - SUPER MARIO kind. Casual games like PAPER TOSS is superb timepass, But wont really qualify as a game. I was soon back on the android market searching hard for a first of its kind game.

Finally a chance download brought me to WINDS OF STEEL DEMO. A realistic flight simulator for a WW2 plane with some cool controls & shooting options including a ultra cool dogfight campaign. Needless to say, I am truly madly deeply addicted. Last clocked 79000 points on the dogfight equal to 40 enemy planes shot with my lone fighter, with attacks coming in waves of upto 4 planes at a time.

Can we have AOE ported on android, may be a mini version?. Well, the closest I have found to a strategy game is a tower defence fame - ROBO DEFENCE. Each game lasts atleast 15 mins & reward points earned for victories can be redeemed for ugrades to higher levels. Neatly done!.

HOME RUN 3D is another game I am enjoying over the last couple of days. My endless search for a decent cricket game, ended with this one. Hand eye coordination based controls, very closely mimic the way cricket or baseball is player is unique selling point here.

I am still with free games only, any good ones any of you have come across, please let me know soon.

My Wishlist

Mortal Kombat or any similar fighting game
Any 2 player game that two android phones can play against each other over wifi, especially tennis/ ping pong between android phone & laptop talking to each other on wifi

my first android app

2011-02-08T23:21:00.001+05:30

yes! It is working

Testing blogger app on my android

2011-02-07T21:39:00.001+05:30

All is well!

Toy story II

2010-11-30T17:56:00.001+05:30

Flashback
It seems not so long ago, say 15 -20 yrs ago, I would spend nights dreaming about a funky gadgets like a remote controlled helicopter, walkie talkie that works, remote controlled butterfly, gravity defying car that can climb walls, tread upside down on ceilings, or may be my own personal robot, which can respond to my speech, may be can do a few body movements.

Well then, I did scout all neighbourhood toy stores, so that even If I chance upon anything close, I could sulk my way into getting parents to buy them. Not easy,but atleast the toy existed for me to aspire to buy it.But the best any shop had to offer was the imported remote controlled car that came with a reasonably expensive price tag, mostly stacked amidst the innumerable funskool board games.

Back to present.
Why toys all of a sudden you might wonder?. The youngest of my little cousin brother is now well into his college years. It has been a while since toys made their appearance at home. A chance visit to Heera Panna (Mumbai's very own grey market for gadgets) and a few toys shops we strolled by had some very interesting gadgets to offer at throwaway prices. Check the roster

RC controlled helicopter (upto 30ft) - Rs 1500
Walkie talkie (upto 250ft) - Rs 300
RC controlled butterfly - Rs 3000
Robot with speech recognition - Rs 4000

For a moment, I was so tempted to relive my childhood again, only If I count time travel back a couple of decades- just me & little backpack full of toys.

Common TV Games 2010

2010-10-14T13:26:00.001+05:30

It is one of those days of the month, when you feel the TV remote is worth fighting for. May be just only to watch rhythmic gymnastics or synchronised swimming. Ok. both are telecast on DD Urdu, which we don't have a subscription to. Fine at least when you want to savor the patriotic fervour, while watching Ashwini ponnapa (of earrings & nose rings, thanks wife for bringing that to my notice) & Jwala Gutta (Thanks again for Azhar connection) win gold. Gosh! where was I?. Yeh, savoring the patriotic fervour of seeing Indian sporting greats getting the better of or at least giving a tough fight to Aus & English school games champions. and finally at prime time 10 pm - 11 pm, when nothing else to show, watch Cooks islands beat Isle of Man in a thrilling game of lawn bowls. Man, 5% of the population participating in the games. some GDP (%) growth, what with all the free food, free flights .etc.

Well, interesting as it may seem to me. But wife for company, TV remote possession mostly ranged between 35% in first half to 45% in the second half of the evening. Very little I can do, when you are up against the big boss of the house, I meant the serial of course. C'mon the game of lawn bowls moves on faster than big boss. Especially, when Swetha Tewari & Sara khan spend a whole hour trying to feed a sulking Seema Parihar to drink a cup of tea specially made for her. Wah! Sisterhood at its best. Helpless me finally found support only from shiv sena aligned cable operators, who blacked out colors channel, just in the nick of time. But I am sure an army of housewives would have gheraoed them and ensured the channel is restored by now.

KBC on sony is a fresh new window of opportunity. May be just to divide loyalties between channels. you remember divide & rule. British East India, yeh just like that. But I am not sure it is going to work.

Atleast closing ceremony comes with shared interest. No obstacles expected. what with a host of celebrities performing just like in the repeat telecast of film fare awards on Sundays. Very interesting :)

Till the Sodexho comes home

2010-10-14T12:54:00.001+05:30

It is well known, Shopping to women mean more than just buying. Various studies have shown the percentage of disposable income spent by men vs women on shopping. The number of km that women on an average weekend traverse in shopping malls in search of a good bargain. Well, ubiquitous it may seem with all women.

I have an interesting observation to share. A coffee table discussion with colleagues at office, lead me to believe my recent experience is not so unique after all. Well, the experience is about my monthly sodexho coupons.

Come beginning of new month. Wife is very eager to know, when the SODEXHO coupons are coming. Joy of affirmation is accompanied by dreams weekend of shopping, as you know you don't pay money for what you buy. Its an altogether different story, that sodexho is still part of the CTC. But at a subconscious level to wife, sodexho is not money. Its a steal, a great bargain and subsequently great joy.It appeals to certain instincts that delve deep in the psyche of women.

The monthly grocery shopping can always wait till sodexho comes home.

Thoughts of the day

2010-06-27T16:11:00.000+05:30

1) Good bye Sania, Welcome Saina! - An Indian at World no 3 in a popular sport involving skill & stamina, hats off!!. Just in case you forgot, Sania is currently ranked some 112 and going down. Hoping she just takes shaoib malik along with her as well. You know where, DOWN :).

2) Soccer widows call for boycott of samsung products - Move over WAGs (wives & girlfriends), the latest jargon from the world of football. "Soccer Widows" - the bored & frustrated wife to whom her 24 x 7 football crazy husband is as good as dead. A good way to take revenge is boycotting the main sponsor of FIFA 2010 world cup. Hehe! I am sure many husbands & wives reading this out there would agree :)

3) Look Hu is supporting the nuclear deal - This is what a surprised indian journalist uttered on finding out Hu Jintao, chinese premier is supporting India's nuclear deal with US.

Drama in real life!

2010-05-26T17:43:00.003+05:30

Avid bollywood followers would remember, not so long ago, there was supposedly funny film with an outrageous storyline called AAGE SE RIGHT. Basically it was about a policeman's search for a lost GUN with a Bajrangbali sticker on it. Who on earth could have imagined such a stupid idea for a movie!

But all this drama has been relived in the last week. Cops from UP in pursuit of a gang of thugs, chase running across the state. Finally caught, they recover little else from the thugs but a GUN. After using 3rd degree methods of torture, the thugs confess that the GUN belongs to one Rakhee in Mumbai. UP Cops sensing a golden opportunity announce that the gun belongs to Rakhee Sawant. May be just for an opportunity to interrogate their favourite leading lady, using may be first or second degree methods :D

Soon the news is out in the media, Paparazzi in their hero honda splendour chase our beauty queen all the way from wadala to goregaon. finally cornering her in the traffic jam.

Rakhee proclaims in her typical style that "she herself is a gun and whats the need for another one. Despite the many threats she had recieved so far, she has lived bravely all these days". Now thats a spectacular statement, making its way directly into BREAKING news on INDIA TV.

Among those watching TV, that afternoon was one yesteryear actress going by name Rakhee Gulzar. long forgotten by the media, she decides do something more spectacular. She files a complaint that the gun belongs not to Rakhee Sawant but Rakhee Gulzar and she had lost that along with Rs 7 lac cash. Our poor cops, feign ignorance about any cash recovery. One being asked to show the gun license, she claimed its a toy gun presented to her by Salman khan's dad (salim khan). Now the twist had to be there, atleast to ensure Salman's guest appearance if not a full movie role.

Even as this Rakhee vs Rakhee issue is being played out on media. I wonder what is going to be the next twist in the tale :)

Watch the story LIVE as it unfolds :D

The world this week for microbes in my small intestine

2010-05-13T11:44:00.001+05:30

The battlelines are clearly drawn. First it was the gram positive bacteria setting up bunkers on the northern flank, a couple of rounds of cephalosporins shells every morning & evening were fired for 5 straight days, to inflict lethal damage. So devastating were the daisy cutters, that they nearly wiped out the entire civization of the bacillus kind. Well! these included some lacto bacillus who succumbed to the friendly fire.

This has definitely disrupted the microbial eco system. The lesser species of fungus found abundant resources in the main guts and arteries running across the body. No longer they needed to scavenge in the nooks & corners of the body, left out of bacterial occupation. Rearing their ugly heads, they have turned out the unforseen menace. Cephalosporins were not saints themselves, the world had long forgetten that they are also fungi, trained as foot soldiers to fight the mightly bacteria, by one Alexander Fleming one century ago.

Now my body faces an internal civil war, between the fungi and patriotic antibodies. The anti bodies are fighting a losing battle against the sea of fungi. Now I have no choice but to hit the fungi, using who else bacteria. Probiotic bacteria infiltrated the fungi in large numbers, devouring the unsuspecting fungi within a matter of few days. With such a good appetite developed and little fungi left, it is just a matter of time, before they turn gram positive and become the unwanted pest.

As the battle continues, my small intestine survives one more day to tell the story as it unfolds ...

Matheran of many seasons

2010-05-05T18:27:00.002+05:30

June 15th is one big day, I am really looking forward to. Well, that's approximately, when Mumbai and surrounding areas receive the first showers of the season. With showers, come flooded roads, broken umbrellas and stinky train compartments. But with it also comes transformation, its green green everywhere.

Best place to witness this transformation is Matheran. How can such a beautiful place be so easily accesible to residents of Mumbai, with a local train available once every hour to ferry you to this wonderland in mere 90 minutes for as little as Rs. 27. I think residents of big cities need to work harder and spend a lot more time & money to deserve this.

What excites me so much even today- after more than 7 odd trips in the last 3 years visiting the same place. Even if the destination if same, the routes can be different. Trust me, there are 10 different trekking routes to reach the hill top, each promising a unique adventure, I have tried only 2 thus far.

Matheran looks completely different in different times of the year.

Matheran in April is mostly, about the whiteness of the dried grassy slopes mixed with the black and brown shades of the rockly base.

Matheran in July is when , everything turns green, waterfalls and misty skies add a spectacular feeling to this wonderful ambience

Matheran in October - post rains, the flowers bloom. Yellow blooms intermingling with grassy slopes, along with the azure blue sky, Matheran has a charm of its own.

I am very excited this time around, its not the route, its not the season, its not the flowers, it is just that I have special someone to accompany me to this favourite place of mine.

Come rains, Come quickly!

The Last One

2010-03-03T16:11:00.000+05:30

To the one who never was,

Adieu!

Around the world in 21 days

2010-02-22T15:33:00.002+05:30

Due respects to Jules Verne & Jackie Chan, forget 88 days, 21 days were no less Challenging. Especially when key highlights on flight journey were comparison between the turbulence on atlantic and the pacific. Well, add to that jet lag in san francisco and a severe tan in Langkawi & Singapore, it would make one hell of a journey around the world.

Well, its good to wind up with the complaints, before I go on and on and on about these most exciting past 3 weeks of my life.

May be it was destined. I travelled little else around the world until 3 weeks ago,except the one off ethiopia trip last year. But something happened 3 weeks ago. Yay! I got married. Now I know it was destiny's way of ensuring, no evil foriegn lady's eye was set on this cute indian boy, until he is bethrothed to his designated Indian bride . Okie, the cute bit is debatable, lets leave it for another discussion :).

Another important debate, how is a honeymoon meant to be spent?. just lazing around gazing at the sea, trees and each other? or should it be like ... scan the map, rent a bike, select & choose the most quirkiest of destinations and VROOM you go exploring the unknown .. columbus here I come. No prizes for guessing, which one I would have chosen.

Stop - 1 Langkawi : blue sea and white sand are not works of art using adobe photoshop, as I had thought earlier. I swear on the tribal gods of the andaman sea, they are really blue (turqouise or aquamarine I am not sure) and white respectively.

Stop 1.1 : must check out place - Kaho Naa Pyaar Hai beach and islands, we even went kayaking around the little rocky islands jetting out of the sea. worth a dekko :). much of the island is on a lagoon, so the depth of water even 1 km off coast will be little less than 3 feet.

"So fear not the DROWNING, go do the KAYAKING"

Stop 1.2: DON movie climax on a hanging bridge. ofcourse, its the new one with shahrukh and priyanka chopra. The cable car and sky bridge are one of their kind.

Lunch break : Malay language is 60% sanskrit, 20% tamil and i guess another 20% chinese(madarin). Lang-KAWI meaning - Lang - eagle in chinese and KAWI is brown in sanskrit. so communication is never an issue, except when you want to make it clear that you want PURE vegetarian food. Nasi Lemak which is rice mixed with coconut and steamed in a plaintain leaf, is the author's recommendation. but please dont try any of the side dishes, even vegetables are usually cooked in fish oil, too much of chinese influence i suppose.

Stop 2: Singapuraaaaaaaa! Hitech Maaan! The Ticket vending machines take the first prize, escalators get the second and Sim Lim Square mall third prize - for selling china made electronic gadgets for prices cheaper than an average lunch or dinner.The city is soo tourist friendly, you can't help but put in good word about ordinary places. Sentosa is the expensive cousin of disney land. Have money. Splurge!. Jurong bird park was simply mind blowing, for once somebody got the idea that birds can be far more interesting than animals, especially when there are zoos everywhere, even in afghanisthan.

Stop 3: Hong kong - biggest airport I have seen till date. 80 departure/ arrival gates and an entire island dedicated to the airport ??? huh. Now I know, where all the 600 odd aircrafts in china operate out of. (compared to 200 odd aircrafts in india). Every 5 minutes a flight takes off to beijing and every 3 minutes China Airlines operates a flight to somewhere. In the meanwhile, the billion odd chinese with similar looking faces and the same pale white complexion are seen humming the ichypichy mandarin as they swarm in and out like worker ants to and from the departure gates. But to their credit, these chinese are all so well dressed compared to the indians, even the poor ones don't look so poor. A wise man once said, Give them a billion Mao suits, they will all look alike and neat :). Well Gandhiji should have thought of a similar high volume bottom of the pyramid strategy for his khadi suits. I guess all his plans faded away with his rhetoric. I still feel a cringe in my stomach, believe me its got nothing to do with china's success story vis a vis India, it is just the hours spent on layover in hong kong. It is just the hunger that I felt, when I didnt find anything vegetarian at all. not even sandwiches & burgers at even starbucks, burger king or ne other ones.

Stop 4: San francisco. The land of many promises. the gold in the 19th century for the europeans, cheap labour for chinese in the early 20th century and IT jobs in silicon valley for Indians more recently. Right from immigration to the hotel desk, the coldness and mean streak that most americans wear with such pride, was the biggest let down for me. Hospitality! where art thou ???. California and New york are more expensive than the average american city, so lets not get into the usual discussion of taxes, insurance and rupee converted savings here. What is nice then ?. it is how even small tit bits of their short history, say 200 years, these americans preserve with such effort.

Suddenly, the old & rusted tram ride up and down the hill is the most important on the TODO list even charging a huge premium. You make a world famous bridge, out of your regular hanging bridge by painting it red instead of the pale grey. Golden gate bridge. Take a Bow.

But still, there is no taking away credit for the tallest trees in the world at Muir Woods, they would not have grown anywhere else in the world. A ride on the downtown public transportation is good learning experience about the american way of life - african americans, chinese, whites, indians & pakis, each with their own cultural metaphors so evident in their 5 minute journey period. But all together they say in unison, we are AMEARICAANS with that twang, which I can never imitate well. Ohh yeh, the beggars, many more than you would find in a typical market place in India. Each with their own unique begging call varying from an eminem like rap song to a street musician playing mostly jazz with sax and guitar, not the regular pop & rock mind you.

Another 20 hours later, I am back to Home, Sweet, Home in aamchi mumbai, only the second place I call home, ofcourse after Bangalore. It has not be long since I am back in Mumbai. spent a couple of hours reliving the last 3 weeks and another 1 hour penning them down.

Cheers.

Some serious quizzing

2010-01-23T01:45:00.000+05:30

1) Chetan Bhagat's next book is definitely going to start with a certain word definitely?. Which word ?. Funda pls.

2) Name this tribe who used to work for maratha kings as contract soldiers, who were paid no salary only profit sharing in terms of percentage of plunder in the early 19th century. Clue: The most recent mega epic disaster by Salman Khan is inspired by them.

3) Connect Ajay Mafatlal, Aparna Mafatlal and Altamount road.

4) What sets apart Evonne Goolagong, Margaret court and Kim Clijsters from the rest of the tennis champions

5) Her real name is Avika Gaur, She acts in the serial which has been top ranked over the past year among hindi language programmes and revived the fortunes of the channel. Identify the character and serial.

6) The climax scene of 3 idiots was shot with this very beautiful lake in its background. There is something unique about the water body. Identify. funda pls.

7) Connect Aravinda de silva, Kamal Hassan and Padma Lakshmi. Very workable.

8) Connect a legendary arabic traveller and explorer of medieval times and the very hummable song from upcoming vishal bharadwaj movie.

9) Identify IIM Indore 2007 batchmate whose childhood friend is vidya balan and second cousin is genelia d'souza.

10) Connect baby elephant balancing on log, frog jumping over three frogs and school of fish in a shark formation and chameleon puts out tongue in a flower formation. They all happen, when the tiger is busy behind the woods.

Mumbai Marathon 2010 - results, statistics and analysis

2010-01-18T15:06:00.003+05:30

Okie. Okie. Results out. If you want to know how you did or how your friend did, find the link below useful

Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon 2010 Results

I had a bad run this year, injuries galore. 2:38 minutes is poor by my own expectations (thats 2120th position out of 11000). SWACC did 2:42. Shubh and Devam, I need to check. One of my friends from bangalore did 4:55 full marathon( thats 300th position out of 3500)

Check these interesting statistics

Full Marathon Registrations: 3500

Full Marathon Finishers: 686

Full Marathon position at 3 hour mark : 44

Full Marathon position at 4 hour mark : 86
Full Marathon position at 5 hour mark : 360

Half marathon Registrations : 11000

Half marathon Finishers: 6188

Half marathon position at 1.5 hour mark : 35

Half marathon position at 2 hour mark : 268

Half marathon position at 2.5 hour mark : 1330

Half marathon position at 3 hour mark : 3233

Analysis and Results:

1) Only 20% of marathon participants actually completed the race, while 56% of the half marathon participants completed the race.

CONCLUSION : Half marathon is no big deal. So lazy bums out there, get up and start running :)

2) Assuming brisk walking/mild jog speed at 6 kmph, if you are currently a 2 hour half marathoner, with no extra effort you can become a 5 hour full marathoner and still be among the top 300 runners in the country

CONCLUSION : Half marathoners, kindly upgrade!. Running half marathon is no big deal anymore!

3) Even at 3 hour mark for half marathon, which is a typically accepted speed for brisk walking/mild jogging, only 50% of half marathoners had completed the course.

CONCLUSION : Essentially it means, a lot of people need work on their walking first, before even thinking of jogging :)

BOTTOMLINE : Running is great fun, even more so in a group. So get started, enjoy running while your back, spine and neck can hold through. Well before the age of 40, when the fear of lifestyle diseases begin to haunt you.

Eleventh hour preparation - Mumbai Marathon

2010-01-15T17:05:00.001+05:30

I, hereby willingly submit myself to the unique human experiment, where in the ability of my body to withstand the gruelling 2 - 3 hour run, more so under circumstances, when I have barely walked 21km, let alone run the entire past month. Marraige beckons, so the entire community expects a well fed = well to do groom, not an athletic built marathon runner. Social compulsions can also lead to obesity.

But while the muscle toning and endurance/rhythm development might be lacking, I have kept up the other part of the preparation going particularly well. i. e nutrition. Over the past month, I have eaten a lot of cheese and pasta. Dry fruits and plenty of milk. This overdose of nutrition without commiserate exercise has built a reserve of adipose tissue that is so beautifully spreading itself across every nook and corner of the body, to ensure the edges turn to contours and contours eventually turn into one bloated blob of fat.

However, disgusted I might be with my putting on weight. I am very confident I will shed them all during the 2 hours on early sunday morning. Running on Bandra - Worli sea link is the most exciting. Also the fact that, I will have the company of many friends and batchmates, ensures I better live up to all expectations. after all, I mostly coaxed them to enroll, even if it meant only for the goodie bag with hazaar freebies.

I dont think I will beat my best time of 1 hour 57 minutes this time around. I willbe happy to thank the almighty if I just manage to completed the course with little tan, reasonable weight loss and no injuries

A few tips from many previous running experiences

Eat,Eat and Eat as much as possible on saturday, but stop atleast 6 hours before the start of the run.
Carry energy bars with you even if you dont like the taste. You will surely appreciate it and even thank the maker by the time you have crossed the 16 km mark
Drink only as much water as you have perspired till then. Also add a little bit of electrolyte. This is to ensure no cramps happen. CRAMPS are reason #1 for marathoners dropping out midway.
Run at your most comfortable speed and if possible with a partner with similar running speed. After 16 km, you can barely see the destination. The only reason you run is the other guy next to you is running slightly faster and you need to catch up
Dont give up. Even if you run 10 km and walk the remaining 11km, you will still complete within the stipulated 3 hours. So come what may, never give up.

MEN AT WORK

2009-12-05T23:07:00.001+05:30

Lunch for 4 at Bhagat Tarachand – Rs 500

But this Saturday afternoon, the plans were altered a little bit

Price of 1 kg bhindi at Big bazaar - Rs 40

Tomato, Onion, Dal, Rice, vegetable oil – sourced internally

Two fine hands & loads of encouragement – sourced internally

Band aid for the occasional slip up by otherwise nimble fingers – Rs 5

Technical Advisory fee payable to fiancée – 2 dairy milks

A 4 course lunch well prepared– should I say PRICELESS, no way read further

Heartfelt thanks from newly engaged roommate for training him in the finer art of chappati making especially on issues related to tactical use of flour to reduce stickiness of dough –PRICELESS!

Key learnings from the day at work

Proven again , that unlike women, men can never really multitask. That’s the reason why one meal required three men to work simultaneously for a little more than 1.5 hours
Every rice cooker has its own personality. Know your cooker before you cook.
Shallow fry and deep fry are two different methods of frying
Never feel ashamed about the mess you make in the kitchen, your roommate can always clean it up

Ajab movie ki ghazab kahani

2009-11-08T10:48:00.000+05:30

I didn’t read any reviews, just walked in into the theatre. Likewise, SWACC also did, we did not want any reviews to spoil our anticipation of some pure unadulterated fun in the movie. Yes, slapstick is back, yippee. But it’s new, it’s different its slapstick with class, panache and spoofs across most movies of popular genre over the last year or two. Just that you need to pay little attention to recognize it. Now who said, slapstick doesn’t test your intelligence or stimulate your intellectual quotient.

Okie having said all that, the kahani is an absolute no brainer. Who cares?. Till date, I never ever understood the story in a single Charlie Chaplin movie, but never remember not enjoying one. The laughs start with the first shot; refuse to die down until the interval. There is a lull in between, where the poor director has realized he needs to build a story to make any sense at all. After that we are back again, laugh till the credits are drawn down.

Honestly, the last time I enjoyed a comedy movie so much was Dhamaal a couple of years ago. But since then, just Singh is King was decent, not great though. But this one really cool. Its sweet, unadulterated humor about the romance between a dumb guy and intelligent woman.

Ranbir Kapoor is a big star in the making. I just can’t resist this. Don’t you think, he very closely resembles the Acadcom secy of our IIMI 2007 batch in more ways than one :). Well, subh should be able to better answer that one :). Well! Ranbir can definitely play the sweet, laidback, innocent guy better than anyone else in the industry now.

Katrina Kaif can act!. Okie that might be like asking for a little too much. But the lady can definitely make funny faces at least. That’s more than what the movie could ask from her. Of course, she has the mandatory item number for front bencher titillation :). Hello! Why blame the front benchers always, when the back seat elite are equally savoring the jhatkas and matkas.

If you’re like me, just want to have a good time, without expecting a good story or its historical background or thrill of a whodunit, then just go and check out this movie :).

Cheers

Nostalgia

2009-10-27T10:37:00.002+05:30

zindagi ke safar mein,guzar jate hain jo makam
woh phir nahin aate,
woh phir nahin aate

phool khilte hain,
log milte hain
phool khilte hain,
log milte hain magar
patjhad main jo phool
murjha jate hain
woh baharon ke aane se khilte nahin

kuchh log ek roz jo bichad jate hain
woj hazaron ke aane se milte nahin
umr bhar chahe koi pukara kare unka naam
woh phir nahin aate,
woh phir nahin aate

subaah aate hai
raat jaate hai
subaah aate hai
raat jaate hai yuhi

waqt chalta hi rehta hai rukta nahi
ek pal me ye aage nikal jaata hai
aadmi theek se dekh paata nahin
aur parde pe manzar badal jaata hai

ek baar chale jaate hai jo din raat subaah shaam
woh phir nahi aate
woh phir nahi aate

zindagi ke safar mein,guzar jate hain jo makam
woh phir nahin aate,
woh phir nahin aate

Time please!

2009-10-13T00:36:00.000+05:30

I want a break! [shout]
I want change, change for good, good that stays good long enough
I believe in a fair world
I don't believe in destiny, but I just like to blame it
Did this recession change my life?
or wait is the recession over?. banking analyst at home thinks otherwise
I think KRK should win big boss season 3
And Nandita Sharma is the perfect bride
Kannada is my mother tongue fine, but some one tell me what this movie title means "Chamkaisi Chindi Udaisi"
Does anyone know that there is cricket tournament going on right now ? some champions league or something ?
Joke: Shashi Tharoor this time angers home minister PC for tweeting about something he heard on the BIG FM.
Facebook & Farmville done .. what fad next?

Ok. Break over. Now back to work

Bai Heart

2009-09-27T22:11:00.002+05:30

You read it right, the title of the post has been spelt correctly. The post is dedicated to our house maid for the last 2.5 years. Her name is Aunty, or wait, I just realised that all this while I never ever asked her what her real name was, but I had trusted her with a pair of house keys, so that she can finish with her household chores and cooking during mid day, while all of us guys busy with work at the office.

Bai plays a very important role at a crucial juncture in every young man's life especially in a city like Mumbai. It is that specific age, when mother has put in her papers and taken a voluntary retirement from all responsibilities of her now big enough son. But the wife to-be who theoretically is supposed to be taking over from the mother, is still busy juggling work pressure at office and pressure from parents to get married. When the decision becomes so difficult, she finds the easier way out in postponing the marriage decision. Now this is where, the Bai pitches in with those splendid alu ki sabzi and dal makhani, and once in a while on those few good days, a phirni or paneer parathas. One of the reason our bais enjoys working at our place is the total autonomy we grant her. She works on flexi timings. She decides on the menu for the day, which mostly depends on her mood at that time and also the vegetables we had bought on the weekend. When the vegetable stock is exhausted, the signal is very simple. Soaked channa and green gram make their appearance.

Bai sometimes play a very proactive role as well. Like, if you don't put your clothes for wash regularly, she even takes the privilege to scout through your personal clothing & herself chooses the ones needing a wash. A friend had an extreme-bai experience, when his elderly bai threatened to inform his mother about his excessive smoking & drinking habits. Damn, the threat worked. Bai's definitely don't like mommies visiting their sonnies. Now with mommy monitoring every step of their work, their effectiveness needs to be doubled. Mommies don't understand the cost of living factor in Mumbai and feel its their right get the bai work for every penny they pay her. No wonder, mommies visits have been ranked reason #1 for the high attrition among bais in Mumbai, as per one survey published in respected Mumbai mirror tabloid.

For teaching the few words in marathi to issuing flood warnings on rainy days, It is time I said, Thank you aunty. I know, I really liked the corn palak and alu paratha you cooked today. But this thank you has a wider scope and is meant for everything you do to make our poor bachelor life a little bit better. Long time since we had phirni, if you don't mind, please. You can find the kaju – kishmish on the second drawer on the right :).

Two trips and a hundred stories to tell

2009-09-15T10:09:00.002+05:30

When the weekends are longer than usual and parents don't want you back home ever so often, what does a "bored with the routine" - bachelor living in a far away city do ?. He goes tripping.

Trip - 1 (Mt. Abu & Udaipur)

My trip advisor widget on facebook, indicated that most parts of India were fairly well visited by me, except for a large part of Rajasthan. Rajasthan has been on my travel radar ever since 1985, when my grandparents ditched the 3 year old me and went visiting Mt. Abu, Ranakpur and Udaipur. The paeans they had been singing about the places ever since, had built up a cherished desire in me to check out these places especially Dilwara temples in Mt. Abu and City palace & lakes in Udaipur. But being far away from any of the metros, they had been lying idle on my wish list until recently.

Trip invites were sent out to all my buddies, but somehow none of them could take time out. So I ventured out on my hippie trail - lonely backpacker on heritage sojourn.. or rather to "journey to rediscover my soul" in true hippie parlance. Jokes apart, Lonely backpacker trips are not so lonely, if you have planned it out well. Like I had already booked one day/ half day hop-on-hop-off tours at each of these places, from mumbai itself. So I always had a big group of people to travel with. Moreover, these tours provide the additional benefit of a free local guide, who becomes really important, if one has to enjoy a heritage trip, which means understanding the local history, culture, art & architecture.

First hop, Mt. Abu. It was a pleasant surprise to see so much greenery in a place I least expected - Rajasthan. The place is nice with a sprawling lake to add effect. But what sets the place apart from any other hill station, is Dilwara temples. I have seen beautiful temples before - Belur, Halebidu & Somanathapura in Karnataka are black granite marvels. Temples at Khajuraho & Konark are exquisite. Swami Narayan temples in Delhi and Ahmedabad are spell binding. But they are still no match, to the sheer beauty of the 10th century white marble carvings of dilwara temples. If I say not an inch is left uncarved, It would not be an exaggeration. Where would you find, entire chandeliers carved out of marble and hanging down the roof!. Just the 30 mins I spent at the 5 temples, were total paisa vasool for all the pains taken to travel to Mt. Abu. When in Rajasthan, eat rajasthani food. So it was Daal baati for brunch, followed by churma for evening snacks and bajre ki roti with subzi for dinner. The company of Scouts and guides from the local school, a travelling group of friends from Slovenia and old retired couple on perhaps one of their last honeymoons, were among the many different people, I got to know on the one day spent at Mt. Abu.

The early morning journey from Mt. Abu to Udaipur was a breeze . A quick 4 hour drive through more greenery and much talked about Rajasthan highways made it unexpectedly comfortable. At first glance, I felt Udaipur, rated as the best travel destination in the world by some reputed magazine, is more hype than substance. Why has it succeeded, when so many others failed you might wonder ?. The reason is simple, most heritage properties in the town are managed by private business of the local Raja, a shrewd businessmen in his own right. Everything is so neatly organised, the guides are supremely knowledgeable with plenty of anecdotes to spare, tourist facilities are all top notch. All these together elevate, an average fort & palace day outing into a superb heritage experience. Now, I do find the top rating for Udaipur somewhat justified. Other than the city palace, the only other place worth a dekko here is boating on Fatehsagar lake. It is nice with park built on the island right in the middle of the lake. When in Udaipur, shopping for souvenirs is the best end-of-day activity. Miniature paintings in the Mewar styles for the drawing room wall, Bandini saree (for Mom, I clarify) and beautiful hand crafted puppets. And yes, Don't forget to get your own photo clicked in the traditional Rajasthani attire. His Royal Highness Maharajah Shreyan Singh Mewar, atleast for 5 minutes if not more.

Trip-2 (Kashid & Murud - Janjira)

Well, this is where we left from the previous blog post. Bertie's bachelors party. Destination - Kashid beach & Murud-Janjira fort. After losing our way many times, we finally reached Kashid beach resort, late on Saturday night. It was late enough to douse all possibilities of a campfire by the beach, as we were well past the 11 PM deadline. Nevertheless, we had a nice resort with an awesome sports room. The plan was simple, wake up in time for an early morning beach rendezvous. Kashid was our beach of choice, clear blue water & fine sand, add to this privacy offered by one of the least crowded stretches of sea, without any stink of fisher men's catch. From jogging to sunbathing, from surfing the waves to building sand castles, From beach football to Frisbee, it was gala time for the bunch of 7 guys and a welcome break from the hectic worklife.

After a heavy breakfast, we were off to Janjira fort. The first view of the fort left us all completely stunned. A steep cliff leading directly into the sea and a short distance away a beautiful fort right in the middle of the sea. Very much like Sicily & Greek sea side, as shown in many hollywood classics. The 1 km sail boat journey from the coast to the fort was a first time experience for me. The jitters you get when the wind direction suddenly changes, is something you should experience to tell. The fort is really cool, with some amazing views of the surrounding area.

All in all, two great trips and several memorable moments archived for posterity.

...

The following section has been added after the author received lots of gaalis, threats and like reactions from housemates for underplaying trip - 2 at the cost of trip - 1.

Bertie almost ditched his own bachelor's party, citing bad mood as the ostensible reason. It took the author a lot of convincing using the standard tools of senti, angry, trust, betrayal, gaalis, finally request to get him going eventually
Bertie uploaded pics on picasa web album only after intense screening and censorship by all involved. Some pot bellies are best left to the imagination of the viewer
Yes it is true, u heard it rite. Even at the beach, Da-1 was reading "The house of Morgan", about what else but Finance. Wait, to be fair to him, besides reading he also jogged for little more than 15 minutes
Bansi lost 5 kgs in just 2 hours. How ?. Ask him only
I built a 3 floor sand castle, which survived just 30 minutes, when it was eventually destroyed by Anman's swerving free kick
Our qualis driver Imran was the star of the trip. He made sure, we didnt miss the formula one race on sunday evening, by driving a force india qualis himself. Mr. Mallya ... listening ???, we have just found some real talent at the bottom of the pyramid

7 ways to annoy your newly engaged housemate

2009-09-10T10:00:00.000+05:30

1) Poor soul, is on phone engaged in a romantic conversation, when the evil others continuously invade his privacy and eavesdrop on his conversation, and once in a while shout aloud, "Bugger! Finish off the beer before it gets stale!". The teetotaller him is utterly embarrassed and wife to-be of teetotaller is shocked beyond measure ... Hehe

2) Call the bluff, just at the wrong time, when the he is on phone with his to-be, promising to build her a Taj Mahal in the Mughal gardens of Dharavi.

3) Get an expensive treat at the best Italian restaurant in the town, by getting him all senti about the last few days of his bachelor life and the impending slavery thereafter. Pasta Barbaruscha with broccoli sauce isn't too bad a return for a little investment in draaame baazi.

4) Steal the special gift (A box of Ferraro Rocher, if i am not wrong), he has bought for her and hide it just in time, when he wants to courier it across to her

5) Watch the engagement pics and finally tell him, his fiancee definitely looks better than him :). Ignore complaints from him that the photographer was from the girl's side and had vested interests

6) Hand him the lion's share of the household work, so that the experience will put him in good stead for managing his future responsibilities

7) Write a blog post on him, telling the whole world, how his housemates take his case and trouble him a lot these days

PS: You are not invited to our dude's bachelor's party, some fun around the bonfire coming Saturday, at a secluded beach somewhere south of Navi Mumbai. Now those invited please answer your roll call

Da 1 - yes sir!

Da 2 - yes sir!

Anman - yes sir!

Bansi - yes sir!

Bertie - of course sir!

It is that ganapathy time of the year again

2009-09-03T22:52:00.001+05:30

In Mumbai, It usually begins with Dahi Handi @ Janmashtmi in august and goes on all the way till Holi in march. Every festival in between is celebrated with such fervour, that it just leaves me totally fascinated. It is a no holds barred celebration.With every region, every religion adequately represented in this cosmopolitan city, the housing society just needs a reason venture out onto the streets with their characteristic music & dance.

For the last 2 years, yours truly had the privilege to get a bird's eye view of all procession on Mumbai's very own Champs Des Elysee's at Mori road, Mahim nested cozily at his 2nd floor apartment balcony.

Today was the big visarjan day. Ganapathies were all heading towards the seas, while I rushed on in the opposite direction towards the airport. With no public transport operating today, I had to walk past each procession tableau. First I saw the small sized gujju society ganapathy. Least noisy, I must say. The Procession ambles along to the sweet sounding chant of bhajans. Not far behind, is huge Kalinacha raja, with the brass bands & marathi songs adding to the excitement. More than the song, it is the dance. I really like this marathi procession dance, but my gujju friends at the garba claim their's is better. But coming from karnataka, u both are better, I would say.

Surprise! Surprise!. The next ganapathy is from shanmugananda south indian society. But it is usual suspect Apdi pode pode blaring from their speakers. The dance is a little wild, with mostly men swaying their lungis.

Even before ganapathy festivities begin to fade from your memories , Gujrathi's begin their dance till you drop, dance all night garba on all the Navrathris. Tired already, amar banglo bandhu have kali pooja to follow. Diwali soon after needs no introduction. But the fireworks spectacle at marine drive's golden necklace is quite unlike anything you might have seen earlier. This diwali the govt. promises to do sydney harbour bridge on our very own Bandra- Worli sea link. That would be one firework display worth waiting for.

Mumbai truly lives up to its reputation as the nation's cultural pot pourri.

I really love the festivals here.

The First Martian

2009-09-02T10:17:00.000+05:30

The next great frontier for human space endeavour is definitely to send humans to Mars. Several technical feasibility studies have been conducted, it has been concluded that the single biggest challenge is to protect the humans & their environment from harmful cosmic radiation. If the report is to be believed, the good news is that NASA currently has the technology for executing this project. But the protective shield supposedly makes the spacecraft so heavy, that the fuel requirement makes the project unbelievably expensive and hence financially unfeasible.

Besides, questions have also been raised about the very need of a return trip. The moon landings by the Apollo spacecrafts have often been criticised for being mere symbolic achievements and not valuable scientific experiments, whose learning could be used for the betterment of mankind. Much of this failure has been attributed to the longevity of our stay on moon.

How about a one way ticket to mars ?. Scary it might sound at first instance, there are several reasons, why it might be the best way forward. To understand this, let us consider a parallel in discovery of the New World in the 15th & 16th centuries. Little was achieved, by mere sighting of the new world by the likes of Magellan or Columbus. More remembered, are the fearless commanders like Captain Cook & Don Juan, who set foot on the new world and conquered the locals and established their settlement. None of these guys, left their homes, with any hopes of returning back. May be the situation back home was so desperate, that unknown new world was better bet than the unbearable familiarity of routine existence. May be our lives today are not that desperate, but the growth in population and the competition for limited resources, will definitely create a bleak picture for humanity in the next couple of centuries. You would rather die of solar radiation in mars than from the shock waves of nukes blown by the Americans in the war for control of a last of still in production oilfield.

However, Fear need not be the only motivation. What about the freaky tendencies of human nature?. A generation grown up on a healthy diet of star wars and star treks, would be crazy enough to attempt such risky endeavours. Are human lives more valuable than money?. Mercenaries trade their lives for financial well being of the families in Afghanistan. But yes there is no justification for such unethical acts. But the fact remains, that if given an opportunity, there would be a lot many volunteers. What about old people above 60 or terminally ill patients, do they want to just fade away into oblivion or do something spectacular to leave a lasting impression for generations to come. Read Randy Pausch's Last Lecture, you will know what I am talking about.

Now let us look at how this can be practical. Our existence in mars address both our physical and mental well being. A good understanding can be derived from psychological theories of motivation like Maslow's hierarchy of needs.

First physiological needs, breathing, food, water, sleep, excretion. Since it has been evaluated, that cost of unmanned mission is 10 times cheaper than a manned one. These needs can be taken care of.

Second comes the safety needs - security, employment, resources, property, family & health. A suitable compensation for the participant's family back on earth should address this issue.

Third is the emotional need. To understand this, let us consider the parallel world called Second life. In an increasing virtual connected world, people seek to lead a parallel existence where they can obtain and achieve all the things that they don't manage to in the real world. Many spend more time interacting with online friends than real ones. While being in mars, you might be physically separate from your near and dear. But you can virtually continue to live amongst the same people. If one considers the progress made by the science of virtual reality, I believe setting up such an environment is well within grasp of current levels of available technology to cater to all the five senses like 3D visualization, touch sensors & transmitters, Surround sound, smell sensors & generators and ofcourse taste .

Fourthly, Esteem needs can definitely be addressed as the individual will be celebrated across the human world. Moreover, an individual will also be alive and connected to soak in all the adulation for such an extraordinary acts, which mostly have been the preserve of martyrs. Such a rare opportunity will be motivation enough for many.

Finally the self actualization need, it requires an extra ordinary personality with strong spiritual beliefs to finally make this work. This is one area that never requires a factual justification. Our faith in the known and fear of the unknown, will always prod us to pursue the never has been done before.

Sometimes I wonder if the first martian project would be a reality in my present life. I know I am just intrinsically skeptical like everyone else. but if past history is any evidence, Scientific progress has always stayed a pace ahead of all predictions of even science fiction writers.

I believe there will be a first martian soon. I wish I would be the one.

The Good, the Bad & the Idly

2009-08-31T11:31:00.000+05:30

Yes & No .. Yes, this is a review of Quickgun Murugun .. No, it is not a Hindi movie ... No, It is not a English movie .. Yes, It is Tamil movie. Adda paavi! whatisthisisay .

To begin with, let me tell you this is no movie, it is a spoof. Mind It!. Circa 1982, Cowboy the protector of cows tries to protect only veg hoteliers from serving non veg, as under the orders of evil don Rice plate reddy garu. Mindless you might say, but still Mind it!. Who cares, when our cowboy's acting in the entire movie is performed by his two guns - QUICK gun and MURU gun. The various permutations and combinations in styles of firing the two guns forms the crux of our hero's special abilities and accounts for nearly 1 hour of this 1.5 hour movie.

Technically speaking this a double cross spoof movie. First, its a western crossed over into kollywood, with that distinct accent and style like in the 70s. Now you not just spoof this idea further, but make a second cross over into bollywood's mumbai. To be honest, the movie's first half is mostly dedicated to characters resembling Tamil movie stars of 70s and 80s, with hero serenading his lady to some vague tam songs, which most non tams would have rarely ever heard before, let alone identifying with them. Only If they had included a classic crossover tam song, the likes of Apdi Pode Pode Pode, half the audience would have been drawn into a informal jig.

Now the spoofgate does'nt end there. Elevating himself to the standard hollywood fare, the script writer tries to bring in more elements. The villain is a Ghajini lookalike in the first half with his fetish for violent indulgences, suddenly turns into a evil corporate honcho with a Mogambo look alike attire in the second half. Helloo!! Will someone with a dictionary read out the meaning of the word consistency.

Thankfully, the second half slips into some semblance of a story line, however amateurish it might have been. In Rowdy MBA and Matunga mummies, there is a hint of humour snaking its way back into the story. Rowdy MBA is a satire on how consultants armed with MBA degrees hoodwink clients with the GYAN. The sequences involving matunga mummies are the most hilarious, in the search of the one exceptionally tasty dosa preparing mummy.

Yes, there are heroines. Anu Menon aka Lola Kutty trying to do Priya Tendulkar in Hum Paanch. What is Lola Kutty without her outrageous Mallu accent and Gajra fitted attire ?. A damp squib. Thankfully, there is Rambha, the mumbai moll trying to seduce the conservative tamilian boy in murugan. Some credit to the director, for attempting to bring out the cultural contrast between conservative south indian boys and modern mumbai girls.

For a very long time, I have been waiting for a really bad movie to write a review on.

Spare the dosa and spoil the batter.
Can we have some idly instead please!

Absolute humour

2009-08-19T11:04:00.000+05:30

Has it occurred to you that you found something funny and laugh your heart out, while people around seem totally nonplussed at your behaviour. It happens to me ever so often. It has lead me to believe there is nothing in the world called Absolute humour. For long, I believed it was just one of my many idiosyncrasies, not worth sparing a thought. It was particularly evident, while watching movies, citing two cases of not so funny ones- The Namesake and more recently Lost in Translation. I was berated by my companions, who failed to understand what was so funny. Its just that a few people are endowed with a funny bone, which is tickled at the slightest of reasons.

But all laughter need'nt be funny. I came across this facebook community - Random laughter when remembering something. It says, laughter is evoked, when an event invokes positive memories of the past. Well, that might be my excuse. This giggle-sniggle has other positive side effects also. Once a friend had asked me, how do I manage to remain a happy guy all the while. I was at loss to answer that one. I did'nt want to sound gloomy with the outpouring of my grief. Neither could I pride on my exalted state, as I am not privy to measure of other people's feelings or emotions. It nevertheless is a cool facade to put on, without much effort.

Everything comes at a cost. For one, you might sound the most immature of the lot. The intellectual depth of your thought process might be put into some questioning. But there is little you can change, even if you want to. Now when I say, Dhamaal is one of the funniest movies I have seen over the last several years, I am so so damn serious and definitely not sarcastic in criticising the slapstick humour of bollywood movies. Let me strenghten my case, by saying the Revered SWAC-C of our esteemed alma mater is also equally in agreement. It is quite another case, that we both watch every slapstick movie that is released from Fool N Final to Singh is King. It has in turn refined our ability to appreciate the finest of nuances in slapstick.

Now Hangover was okie, well written & funny in parts. But at times it was crude and gross for no particular requirement of the storyline. Any comparison with all time classics like Not Another Teen Movie, is over the top and totally inaccurate. The funniest character in hangover to me was the Chinese guy and not the weirdo brother of the bride, whom most in the audience seem to like. It still would rank quite lower than the many spoofs I have been watching these days like Naked Gun series, Super Heroes, Scary Movie.

May be my sense of humour is aroused in witty misrepresentations of facts. Yay!. If I have got my analysis right, I need recommendations on books to read, movies to watch. Just the right ones for me, Now that you know what works.

Please! Please! Contribute to this worthy cause.

Wassup

2009-08-14T19:01:00.001+05:30

Friday evening 6:45 pm

Status : sitting @ marine drive sea side watching the sun set

Music : soft instrumental - Yanni, vanessa mae, mozart

Mood : contemplative

Breeze : light, cool & pleasant

Crowd : noticeably sparse .. still the usual mix of young & old, rich
& poor, couples & singletons, masked & unmasked, dogs & crabs

immediate past : just another day at the office

immediate future : ice cream at rustoms followed by dinner at crystal

Task at hand : post a good ol' fashioned status msg

Flu is in the air ..

2009-08-11T10:14:00.000+05:30

Aaj ki taaza Khabar. Janta ke liye chetavni.

Flu ek khatarnak Bhimari hain. Yeh cheekne se, choone se aur choomne se fehalta hai. Flu peedith logon se door rahe. Unko aapke pyaar aur lagaav ki abhi zaroorat nahin hain. Apne aapko pehle bachayiye.

But yeh mumbai hain meri jaan. The average mumbaikar reads Economic Times on the weekdays and Times Of India only on weekends just to stay in touch. So he is either unaware of the dangers of flu or deliberately chooses to ignore the threat.

But today morning, Dadar station was a different. Flu or no flu, there was definitely an air of suspicion. Anyone wearing mask is either an infected person or trying to protect himself from infection.

Now whoever designed the surgical mask, definitely has a very poor sense of fashion. Its so ugly. yuck!. Now trendy mumbai women have to find ways to overcome this problem. Obviously, they can't everyday pull out the light green salwar kameez and matching sandals to go with the mask. Off with the masks, instead they turn out in their most colourful duppatas, wrapped tightly around the face. My friend Alex from Moscow, finally was contended seeing the quintessential Indian woman, all coyness, all traditional and all that, if only for oneday atleast. Just like Aishwarya in Jodha Akbar!. Wah!.

Compared to the pretty women, Men were definitely an eyesore. Out were the dirtiest hand kerchiefs tied around the neck, Which I am sure even the most unhygienic H1N1 virus would want to avoid. But the good thing was on board the train, everyone was suprisingly well behaved, no pushing or shoving. That was just the lull before the storm.

All hell broke loose, when Rashesh bhai let out the sneeze he had been holding tight ever since he boarded the train at Dahisar. Every one ran for cover in all directions. The younger ones uttering the choicest of four letter words cursing their fate. The older ones started humming the Hanuman chalisa. Just one prayer on everybody's lips, "Hey Prabhu, Meri Raksha Karo". Any amount of "Sorry bhai, Amne flu nahin che" from Rashesh Bhai could not console the now scared junta. The journey ended and off we went our separate ways.

To conclude, a short romantic song dedicated to flu by Sir John Paul Young

(Singalong)

Flu is in the air
Everywhere I look around
Flu is in the air
Every sight and every sound

(Chorus)
Flu is in the air
Flu is in the air
Oh oh oh
Oh oh oh

Flu is in the air
In the whisper of the breeze
Flu is in the air
In the thunder of the sneeze

And I don't know if I'm just scheming
Don't know if I feel sane
But it's something that I must believe in
When everyone has got a mask across their mane

(Chorus)
Flu is in the air
Flu is in the air
Oh oh oh
Oh oh oh

Men are from Uranus, Women are from Neptune

2009-08-06T11:36:00.001+05:30

Short Story from Aesop's Babbles (Rejects from the original fables collection)

Once upon a time there used to be two planets by name Uranus and Neptune. Uranus was male, while Neptune was female. Naturally, they were attracted to each other and fell in love. They could easily get approval for marriage, as both belonged to the same class - fuming gas giants.

But marriage was no bliss. While Uranus always remained blue, Neptune was Red, Green or Blue depending on the time of the day. Both could spin all day long either on horizontal axis or on vertical axis, But never the same way. Now everyday, Uranus rose 2 hours later, but set 2 hours earlier than Neptune. Neptune had never known this before! Sigh!. But she put up with it, as Uranus had promised her many a moon and also bought her special rings. Neptune liked her rings, but always thought they pale in front of her neighbor Saturn’s.

In their younger days, they thought life was just about happily spinning near each other like DINKs (Double Income No Kids) do on earth. Neptune spun very hard, everyday. Those days, there used to be strong gender bias in the galaxy especially against female gas giants. But neptune was determined to break the Gas ceiling. One day they saw a cute little Pluto wandering around aimlessly. Overcome by gravity, they took him in & soon they were one happy family like the DINKWADs (DINKs with a Dog).

But when god heard about this, he was very angry. "Nobody is above the laws of universe", he proclaimed. "The life of all planets revolve around their Son .. err Sun", he added. Soon Uranus and Neptune were making long term plans for their Sun. What will he be like? Which orbit should they put him in, when he is ready to spin on his own?. Getting an orbit these days was very difficult, especially after 33% orbit reservations were introduced for the asteroid belt. Uranus wanted him to be a Red Giant, while Neptune wanted him to be a White dwarf. Meanwhile, Pluto was no more getting the attention he was so used to all these days. Soon he was relegated to a sub orbit and eventually declared a Non Planet.

By the time he was 20 mn years old, Sun moved out on his own into the company of the inner planets. He lives very far these days and rarely ever visits them. Both eagerly await the return of Uncle Haley once every 70 years and keenly listen to his stories about their Sun’s life in the inner orbits. His big face off with the Angry Mars or his brief fling with the pretty Venus. Age has caught up with both Uranus and Neptune. They biding their time until the supernova explosion, when like all other planets before them, one day they will be sucked into the black hole.

Moral of the story : Men are from Uranus, Women are from Neptune

It is a way of life

2009-08-05T12:25:00.000+05:30

first you deny It,
then you confront It,
later you despair about It,
Finally you learn to live with It.
.......
Once in a while, you blog about It.

Tag 4

2009-07-28T10:02:00.000+05:30

I have been tagged by Mrunalini. I have no choice but to fill up the blanks and pass on the tag to four others. I have been threatened with ex-communication from the blogging community if I don't comply. So here I go.

4 Places I wish I never be in

Babrala village, Meerut, UP - Not when you are waiting at 11:00 PM, for an 4 hour late overnight passenger train in this small village in eastern UP, amidst the many Bhaiyyas, their Bhabhis, Bahubalis, Netaji, police afisars and professional kidnappers (thankfully I had forgotten to wear my Armani that fateful day. sigh!)
Chennai - 2 months of summer internship in the blistering hot weather, extremely limited supply of brackish water, unfriendly people (women in particular). My only wish is to convince all the bhavan's - Saravana, Murugan idly shop .etc.etc to shift to Mumbai and Bangalore, so that I can enjoy the delectable dosas and ghee pongal for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Mekele (Ethiopia) - 50% power deficit in a country with one of the highest crime rates among developing nations. You dare not venture out. Especially when the most happening shopping street with discs/pubs is called Chechnya for obvious reasons.
Andheri Station - At 9:00 AM morning rush hour, Diamonds are waiting to be studded at SEEPZ, Computers are all ready to be booted up at Powai, Attendance needs to be marked at colleges in Vile Parle, Dabbas crying out to be eaten, Meetings already behind schedule at nariman point. Is someone's work more important than the other's?. Sadly, the trains are not smart enough to figure that out. what are you waiting for then. Chalo! Chalo! Chalo!

4 TV Shows I never liked to watch

Rakhi ka Swayamvar - I never thought the institution of marriage can be made to look so silly. Just like when the half Canadian half Gujarati Elesh, professes his love to Rakhi in British accented Hindi "Rakhi tum bahut achhi, shaadi me-tum, main good husband banta". To which, Rakhi's brilliant reply " Okies! me loving Elesh too muchs. Me good wife becoming, homely homely types". Sic. Sic.
Boogie Woogie for aunties, uncles and grannies - Dance is fun to watch. But .
Telugu movies dubbed in Hindi on SET MAX - Forget the lip sync if there were any, dialogues and characters are so unlikely to ever speak hindi. Its funny, yes, but for just as long as you can bear it.
Star Parivar awards for best performances in Saas Bahu serials - It requires some real public interest to appreciate the many layers in the emotions enacted by the finest actors in the most challenging of roles in some of the greatest epic dramas ever broadcast on TV.

4 places to see before I die

Fjords in Norway
Lake Baikal in Siberia, Russia
Trek up the crater of Cotopaxi in Equador
Diamond mines in Angola

4 dishes I would like to be served for lunch today

Tofu/Paneer Malai Tikka for starters
Kaju masala with garlic naan
Thai green curry with steamed rice
Sizzling hot brownie with vanilla ice cream for dessert

4 Books I started reading, but have still not completed

Midnight's children by Salman Rushdie
Atlas shrugged by Ayn Rand
Imagining India by Nandan Nilekani
White Mughal by William Dalrymple

4 Movies I Can Watch Again & Again

Children of Heaven
Sound of Music
Independence Day
Mckenna's gold

Here are four people, I tag. I can bet all my worth, none of these guys are ever going to fill the form and pass the tag to others.

Mahesh

Siby

Wayne

Kasturi - I heard rumours about some secret blog for a limited audience.

Curse of the Black Sparrow

2009-07-25T10:35:00.001+05:30

For all the hatred & venom , I spewed on the black sparrow it is payback time now. Just when I was about to venture out of home, a routine mechanic check crossed my overcautious mind. I don't know if it was the mechanic or satan himself in disguise .. vetoed my bike journey. sob sob. Here I am in the painfully undesired comfort of neeta volvo, racing against time to keep my date @ pune. As if, that was not enough, I am being put through the grind of watching mallika in maan gaye mughal e azam. is jungle se mujhe koi bachaoooo!

A speck by any other name is called speck

2009-07-24T17:13:00.000+05:30

Can you see the speck?. Yes, that's me. I have even tried to draw your attention with big bold letters, well that is as big as I have ever got till now. Someone said I am black, another one said I am white, I thought I better clarify it myself. But never before had a speck ever clarified, its blasphemous. No speck can ever get too big for his pixel!. The Someone didn't like black and the another one didn't like white. Neither liked me, so why bother to hear me out. I liked them both coz besides someone, there was only the other one. I lacked choice. I still stood out. But nobody seems to appreciate that fact. Some one chose one among the hundred similar white dots and other one chose one of the blacks. I have been asked to wait. As they say, that one day, someone will seek shades of grey. I am waiting.

Black Sparrow

2009-07-23T12:38:00.000+05:30

Godspeed! or lets call that 60 kmph, though god wouldn't mind me going a few notches higher. Any amount of insistence on my part doesn't seem to perturb this junk piece of machinery called XCD 125, that a few years ago Jackie Chan sold on TV to gullible Indians, promising a cruising comfort, even a pseudo flying experience. By the time, we could discover that takeoff speed limit is 60 kmph, Jackie had fled the country and gone underground since then. May be such miracles happen in high altitudes of Wuhan settlement of Xian province. Definitely not in Chinchpokli village of Thane district.

Well, I call my bike Black Sparrow. It is no Black hawk or a Street hawk. It is just a small twittering sparrow. Now black sparrow has been put under my care by my friend Shyam Kumar CFA, who has gone back to his native village to work in the NREGS scheme. He believes, it pays better fixed salary and fringe benefits than his earlier job with an investment bank in Mumbai.

So Black sparrow and me have hatched this plan for a weekend outing. We will go driving from Mumbai to Pune and back over the weekend. Yay! Being a bike, a small bike at that, I don't have to pay toll at any of the roads. After the superb spell of rain over the last month, I expect every patch of land to be clothed in the splendid green, that my digicam captures so beautifully . Waterfalls all along the route would definitely add to the misty aura of my presence. Now picture this, a black bike in a misty green background posing with a handsome guy in a bright red T-shirt. Now, that the wardrobe has been decided, next is the route. Mumbai - Khopoli ( Zenith Falls) - Lonavala (Karla caves) - Kamshet - Pune it shall be.

Ohh, I forgot to introduce our gracious hosts at Pune, the good old Mr & Mrs. Mathew. Mr. Mathew or GURUJI as we youngsters so lovingly call him, is an epitome of innocence and simplicity that has won him so many fans on orkut over the last several decades. Well, I have also been promised an audience with the Ms. Kumari, the Crown Princess of Jharkand and Mr. Arren, Formerly the counsel to the Vice royalty of Kanpur.

Bertie, my dear roommate has promised to be a return companion. But black sparrow doesn't fancy him much, believes three is a crowd. With or without Bertie, the return trip plan is to take me to amby valley - pavna dam - Lonavala and back. I forgot to add, the sumptuous but expensive meal I have promised myself at Sunny Dhaba near Wakarphata on the old mumbai - Pune highway.

All planned and just a few prayers pending. I have offered my 2 rupee coin to Sea God at marine drive yesterday, which he gleefully accepted. I was made to understand this amount would go into keeping the tides low as well as internal transfer to the Rain God's account to keep my route clear and pleasant. Will drop another rupee today as well, just as a surety.

MCom. Pass.

2009-07-17T19:09:00.000+05:30

Finally, did my first mobile commerce transaction. Purchased a Rs. 99 teddy bear and gifted it to myself. But for me the real value of M Commerce will be realised, when on a Sunday afternoon sitting at CCD, me & my friends suddenly decide to check out a movie at Fame Andheri a good 15 km away. Some utility, I must say. Now for Travel booking, I would any day find Internet more convenient. But gifting .. hmm .. me not the gifting types though.. But the application promises to be sooo cool, that I am tempted to try it out.

Fancy this gift shopping feature. My mobile has contacts of all friends with their postal address,email, mobile numbers and birthdays stored. Now I do get birthday reminders otherwise. But this application that runs on my mobile finds the birthday in the contacts table, reminds me to buy a gift ( from among the many options) and on purchase even pulls out the postal address for delivery of the gift. The reminder is also persistent asking me whether I really don't want to gift this person anything. Yes or No. This repeats all day, until I decide. Cool isn't it :).

Now sample this Movie ticket booking app, Come friday morning, you get reminder on the movies releasing on that day. You make a choice of movie and timing, it next asks to select friends or friends group to invite and automatically sends an SMS to them with the details. Their replies are also tracked. If you are taking your own sweet time to book tickets, it will also send reminders on the status of seat availability for the chosen show just to induce that urgency.

The third cool bit is the analytics. Mobile call usage trends, purchase trends, application usage preferences (games vs music/videos). All useful to target products and services more accurately.

But still somehow, I am still wary about keying in my credit card details on the mobile. The application developers have found a innovative way around it. Use of cash cards as an alternative. The Pre-paid cards limit the upside for any losses due to hacking, while providing the convenience of mobile usage for small token purchases. NGPay already accepts ITZ Cash cards for mobile transactions in India.

Yes, I can hear cynic in you shouting aloud, "I don't need any of these.. neither now nor in the near future". That's exactly why, you have the apps store application (like apple apps), which will catalogue all your application needs, so that the moment you need, the store application will download just the right application for you on the go.

A few other apps really impressed me at the store. Smart Sound Manager - keeps track of my workday calender and appointment schedule to automatically switch between silent and loud mode. Works really well for me. First, my windows phone synchronises with the outlook calender at office. Second, most often, I tend to switch from loud to silent while getting into a meeting. But once the meeting is done, I rarely remember to switch back to loud mode.

Just Do It is a smart task manager. The usual task manager on phone just maintains a list of TO BE DONE things. Most often, the list is obscured by other items competing for the limited screen space. So I never felt convenient using the tasks feature, instead stickling loyally to the good old post-it sticky notes. But this application, goes one better. It captures all the tasks in the form of a screen saver, which is activated after 10 seconds of idle time. Now, you have enough screen space with big fonts and a near perpetual display to catch your eye all the time. Now thats what I call a really cool e-postit.

Face2Face does something like face capture in a photo shot on the mobile phone. So after a click, it requests you to tag the faces identified with contacts on the phone, much like the tagging on orkut/facebook. Now all calls from friends will be accompanied by their smiling faces beckoning you to pick up the phone. For someone like me, who thinks a camera is the most useless accessory in a phone, this app comes as refreshing change.

Ofcourse, there are the usual suspects - the much written about GPS or bluetooth applications. I cant let my imagination go haywhire now.

It is just soo exciting, thinking about the numerous possibilities that mobile phones can create in the future ! Goose bumps!

Moon Peak

2009-07-09T15:10:00.000+05:30

I have just finished reading Jeffry Archer's Paths of Glory. It is about the life of George Mallory, the unofficial first person ever to summit Everest, though there is no recorded evidence to prove that. Needless to say, I am mighty inspired. All I want to do now, climb up to the summit of any one of the Himalayan peaks, even the smaller ones would do. Now the problem is I don't have the time or the money to spend on a grand Himalayan expedition.

My criteria is simple

1) Mumbai - Summit - Mumbai journey should not take more than 5 days

2) Summit should be at least 5000m high with a height above snow line of at least 1500m

3) Me can't scale some steep snow cliff with ice axe and all, so difficulty level should be average

4) Definitely don't want to spend more than 20k all inclusive on the trip

Need to take quotations from mountaineering clubs or do some heavy duty Internet research ?

Naah ... I know the peak I want to scale. Ever since the day I saw it, over 2 years ago, I have climbed it at least 3 times, even saved a colleague's life once and survived an avalanche another time. Now its time do it for real. I feel it is the closest I will ever get to really being a mountaineer.

The name is Moon Peak and it towers behind Mcleodganj in Dharamshala, Himachal Pradesh. The photo of the snowline as seem from the hotel, where I stayed. The snowline starts from a glacier called Triund, which was barely 9 km from where we stayed. I almost trekked there last time, had I not been held back by my lazy friends, who rather wanted to spend time playing cards, singing and dancing. But yes, the research was done nevertheless. Snow boots, sleeping bags and basic equipment all available for rent at Mcleodganj for a few thousand thousand a day. Professional guide is also available for a few hundred a day. It is a day's trek to Triund and another one day to peak and two days on the return. Since Dharamshala is well connected from Pathankot ( 2 hours), Assuming I would need half day each for the onward and return flights making it a total of 5 days - yipeeee !. Let me also clarify the climb doesn't require great mountaineering expertise. Loads of Enthu and some stamina would suffice.

Peak - Moon Peak (5010 m)

Base camp - Mcleodganj ( 2000 m)

BTW .. there are a few other peaks in Garhwal, Kumaon and Sikkim. Some of these are not easily accessible or others don't fit into my criteria.

Now coming to the purpose of writing this post. I need able and willing partners to give me company.

I am married. I am planning to get married. I am stuck up in project. I don't have any leaves left. I am broke. I am old. I am unfit. I think you are crazy. I better get back to my work.

These are list of acceptable excuses. If not, its worthwhile to give a thought on making this trip.

I am in no hurry. I just hope one day, We will be able to do this. :).

Ethiopian Diary

2009-06-29T11:26:00.000+05:30

Finally a breather in between hectic work schedule .. this is the much awaited update on my Ethiopian sojourn .. It is common nowadays to travel to US & UK. A journey to other european countries or may be australia/new zealand would evoke some curiosity, if not more. But a trip to ethiopia!!!! Just the mention left most of my friends amused, interested, shocked and surprised all at the same time. Let me try to tell somethings about ethiopia which may be lonely planet or wikipedia might not have mentioned.

* Ethiopia had very bad famine and a major food shortage in the 80s. But to my great surprise, most ethiopian locals, have a habit of wasting a large part of their food in their plates during lunch and dinner time. Atleast we Indians are taught never to waste even a morsel.

* AC and fans are non existent in the entire country, not even in the best of hotels. Its less to do with technology backwardness and more about the salubrious climate. Much of the country is located at altitudes between 2000m to 3000m above sea level. The capital addis is around 2500m above sea level, now thats as high as Simla.

* Ethiopians follow a form of local orthodox christianity, with some interesting traditions like ritual fasting, engraving a cross on the forehead and tatoos.

* The most famous ethiopian is the runner Haile Gebresellasie, who at various points of time has held every world record in distance running from 1500m to 10000m. Last I heard, he has broken the Marathon world record as well. Now thats inspirational for someone like me, who is still planning to break the 2 hour barrier @ Mumbai Marathon 2010 come january

* Addis Abeba is widely regarded as the political capital of Africa. It is the headquarters of African Union as well as many Africa based UN organisations. Atlast count, there are 78 embassies in the the capital's central business district. Local areas in addis are named after countries whose embassy is located there. Lunch at Rwanda, followed by coffee at the boulevard in Congo and the dinner @ the pakistani restaurant in Namibia. One area to avoid is Chechnya, notorius for its nightclubs and late night brawls.

* Ethiopia is atleast 10 years behind india in development. High cost of communication and poor internet connectivity comes as a surprise to people coming from india. Africa as such is not poor. Countries with gold and diamonds like South africa have been traditionally affluent. Now add oil producers like Angola, Nigeria and a few others to the list. But what the region lacks is a sound political system. Its either the military junta or the communists. Each have taken turns to loot their own people. That is when I really value the democracy we Indians are so proud of, despite its so called limitations

* Ethiopia is among the rare few african countries never to have been colonised, though the Italians tried a couple of times.While the locals are proud of this fact, they have definitely missed out on the perks of colonial rule - good education system, culture & work discipline and to some extent exploitation of natural resources, each of which were contributions of britishers to India.

* My local culture quotient was greatly enriched by two aspects - Ethiopian cuisine and the Eskesta - ethiopian shoulder dance. The cuisine has a strong italian influence, with pizzas and pastas. But the local dhal tadka - called Shiro and the local dosa (pancake) called Injera turned out to be my favourite. One evening to remember, was when I tried hard to teach my hotel chef how to prepare good rasam with rice and ended learning to cook injera-shiro myself :). Among fruits, my favourite is the Cactus fruit. Yes, the same plant which grows in deserts as well as in decorative pots at our homes. I must confess, this fruit is really yummy. I wish to take some back to India, only If the Indian custom authorities are a little more liberal in their rules.

* Eskesta is all about rhythmic neck and shoulder movement, a clear contrast from spanish dance forms which focus on rhythmic hip and leg movements. Set to the fast piano notes, its quite a delight to watch. The hotel gym instructor, who also ran an aerobics session in the evening tried a fusion of aerobics with Eskesta, much to the chagrin of a two left footed creature like me. Nevertheless, I tried.

* The largest indian population in Ethiopia are not Indian business men mainly gujrathis like I had thought before, they are actually Indian teachers, whom the ethiopians hold in very high regard. Long before IT became India's major service export, Indian teachers were already spreading knowledge in a remote corners of africa. Most of these people are employed by local universities on a UN funded programme, with dollar salaries which are significantly higher than what the locals get paid. Now thatz one reason, any Indian tourist is greeted with a pleasant namaste followed by a discourse on bollywood from Amitabh Bacchan to Shahrukh Khan. Sadly, the actresses are never once mentioned.

* The most popular indian export is neither the teachers nor bollywood. Its Bajaj. The autos were introduced in the country some 10 yrs back and have caught the imagination of the locals like nothing before.

* The economy finally .. yes .. claimed to be growing at 11% over last 5 years, albeit on a v v small base. Total exports miniscule at USD 2 bn a year. On a per capita basis for the 70 mn population, that would be among the lowest in the world. No oil, no gold, no diamond, no great english, no technology, no port, no rail, poor roads, but yes .. good air connectivity. That leave agri products and agri input dependent small industries like textile and leather. Inflation at 35% last year (needs to be verified). Completely import dependent economy, with a currency pegged to the dollar. Power production - 95% dependent on Hydro Electricity. The El Nino or whatever phenomenon, this monsoon is expected to nearly cripple an entire country's economy, with nearly 50% power deficit. Tourism potential v high, but largely untapped.

* Ethiopian expat population in US number around 15 m. Compare this to the nearly 25 mn Indian origin residents. But given Ethiopia's population of nearly 70 mn (compared to over 1 bn in india), that would be a sizeable expat population. But per capita earnings of the expats from the two countris are poles apart. Unlike the Indians, the Ethiopians predominanty work in low skill jobs. But it is still noteworthy, as much of the migration happened in the post colonial period and not directly a consequence of african slave trade of 18th and 19th century.

* Ethiopians consider themselves as among the most beautiful in africa. They are not black, but brown and moderately built, with pleasant features. Most of it supposedly inherited from the very attractive Queen of Sheba, who ruled in 10 century BC and married King Solomon of Israel. But what inspired the popular party game 'Queen of Sheba' .. is still a mystery to me ??

L.O.S.T in Real Life

2009-06-05T11:45:00.000+05:30

In a classic case of real life imitating reel life, the mystery surrounding the disappearance of Air France flight 447, is the perfect prequel for my favourite sci-fi drama series of the past few years L.O.S.T. If we go by this version, also since the wreckage of the plane has not been found, the survivors are still alive, may be in a mysterious tropical island somewhere in atlantic.

WHODUNNIT ..

Is it secret alien base station in the lost continent of Atlantis, which was conducting a secret inter galactic energy transmission in the guise of a tropical thunderstorm, to periodically recharge their livelihood in the mountainous depths 6000m below sea level. Or is it a Captain Nemo's Nautilus, which secretly kidnapped the entire airline's crew and passenger base to replenish its ageing work force at the mysterious island in south pacific.

FLASHBACK in SEPIA ...
Ofcourse, the passenger list had its own interesting people. The ex royal descendant of the brazil, 3 chirpy teenage wannabe doctors from ireland, wise and experienced pilot, citizens of over 30 nationalities and also ofcourse, the secret spies of the CIA, british MI6, Israeli mossad, who were just returning from a well deserved beach side rio vacation after the success of the last secret spy mission. Each has his/her own story to tell. Ofcourse, the soccer crazy brazilian cab driver, who ensured that 3 passengers were delayed enought to miss the flight by a few minutes. Divine providence or some karmic connection. Over to the present now ..

BACK TO WHODUNNIT...
Some say that it is well known, that this portion of atlantic is the favourite dumping ground for satellite debris, was it that the plane struck by a failing satellite or may be a meterorite. At the speed at which the plane was travelling, it doesnt require a very big sized object to completely vanquish a 200 tonner airliner. Or was it a extra powerful magnetic field which caused a failure of the electric system a la bermuda triangle.

The yet to be deciphered coded message recieved from the flight 447 before the communication systems were lost ..

LHR1340 BCN1610 LHRQQQ 99/1 QQQBCN 98/A QQQQQQ 906/PAYDIV B

It has left officials puzzled as it doesnt comply with the standard aviation coding standards. May be in this code lies the secret that can potentially unlock the mystery of the flight disappearance. So codebusters out there, get set and go.

TO BE CONTINUED ...

Ritual Significance

2009-06-01T11:24:00.000+05:30

If it is your once a year customary visit to native village temple and also the past 26 outings were really exercises in boredom, while trying to digest the incomprehensible chattering of the mantras and the inscrutable customs associated with the pooja and offerings to the god. All that changed on the 27th visit. As I spent time, thinking about the possible origins of temple rituals. For once, I also paid due attention to the entire pooja procedure, trying to relate mantras to all the Sanskrit, I had mugged up until class XII in the quest of getting a good board rank. It also lead to some very enlightening conversations with elders including my grandmom as well as the purohit. So much so, that I thought it merited a blogpost in itself.

Now, I am completely agnostic to religion & rituals. So I might sound trivial to the high priests of the blogging community. But to the others like me, I hope it would be interesting to read.

Why does every temple in a village has a huge bell just at the entrance to the sanctum sanctorum ?
Ans: Traditionally, the bell rung was to inform the villagers that a pooja is happening, so they may assemble. It was also a message from a visitor to the purohit of the temple, who typically lived in a house nearby, that a visitor has arrived

What are the major steps in a standard pooja procedure ?
The objective of a pooja is to invoke the god to provide darshan and bless the devotees. Three major parts are
1) Invocation
2) Arathi (Darshan)
3) Blessings (Prasad)

Invocation
A major part of the pooja is the invocation. Invocation needs to be accompanied by the wish list, that the devotee wants god to fulfill.

Invocation by cleansing involves abhishek of the idol with water, tender coconut, sandal milk, milk among others, so that god feels fresh enough to make the entry.

Invocation by offering involves offering fruits and flowers to attract the dear lord with the fragrance or the taste of the ripe fruit.

Invocation by singing, this involves the many mantras(Archane), bhajans in praise of the dear lord. Brilliant!.

Invocation by decoration is the best of them all, when the idol is decked in the most beautiful of attire and jewellery (Remember the lord of Tirupathi) to make it absolutely irresistible for his highness.

A few communities have unique as well as sometimes bizzare invocation rituals. These includes the ritual fasting of the jain community to appease the lord through their sacrifice of basic needs and desires to the extreme ones like Thaipusam in some tamil communities which includes body piercing of various forms. Sabarimalai Ayyapa temple rituals are also based on the sacrifice of basic needs concept.

Arathi (Darshan)

A temple was essentially ports of call for gods, when they visit earth. The figurines for gods were housed in a inner smaller room (sanctum sanctorum), which is reached through passage through several larger rooms. Typically this inner room, was meant to be a dark place. In those days before electricity was invented, When the Arathi was performed, the light from the lamps ensured, its the only time the devotees got to see idol of the god. This was symbolic of the god giving darshan to his devotees.

Women in India, typically light a lamp in the evening in front of the idol/ photo of the god. This is meant to signify that god appears and resides in the persons house every evening. In the older days, when nights were meant to be dangerous, the presence of god was meant to be a reassurance. Indian women, especially married ones, even to date follow this practice as part of their daily ritual.

Blessing (Prasad)
Blessing typically comes in the form of various things used in invocation. The water/tender coconut used in Abhishek is offered as teerth to devotees, after Darshan. Devotees typically take teerth in two ways - a few drink it and assimilate the blessings in the body. A few others put it on their top of their head, as it expected to seep in through from there into the entire body.

Blessing is also provided in the form of fruits and flowers offered to the god earlier. In South India, if during an Arathi, if the flower on the lord falls off, it is considered to be mighty auspicious. The devotees cause for invocation was definitely bound to come true.

Blessing in the form of Arathi flame is the most interesting. Now the Arathi flame, when performed is supposed to have caught the sight of the lord. So when this is passed around, each devotee passes his hands around the flame of the the Arathi and touches both his eyes. This is meant to permanently capture divine image in the eyes of the devotee.

What is the significance of Turmeric and Kumkum in traditional rituals ?
Kumkum is meant to be applied on the forehead (Sindoor in north india) as it is supposed to ward of the evil eye. So the red coloured kumkum is supposed to have a protective significance. The yellow coloured turmeric is meant signify health and prosperity. In South India, it is customary to offer both colours to women when they visit your home. South Indian women have a practice of first applying the kumkum on the host's fore head, then her own forehead and then to her mangalsutra. Her husband gets the additional insurance cover for free.

Is Vastu shastra based on some rituals?
Now there are so many temples where poojas keep going on and god has limited time. So he has to make a choice. Now this competing scenario lead to differentiation. It is believed that some god come from particular direction(preferably east and north) and prefer to reside in a area of particular size along with convenient entry route. Now this premise lead to an architectural planning principle called vastu shastra. It will tell you which direction to place your entrance door, how big to plan different rooms, where to locate the pooja room, which colours appease the gods better. Vaastu shastra also clearly indicates a modular/simplistic planning without too much creativity. In essence, non angular/circular walls to ensure god doesn't lose his way, while trying to reach the pooja room.

One Ritual, I still havent understood is the concept of Kalash. The steel pot shaped structure, with betel leaves and a coconut in the mouth. Would be glad if somebody could enlighten me on that.

give me a A, give me a I, give me a L, give me a A …..AILA! re

2009-05-27T13:04:00.000+05:30

NEWSFLASH: Cyclone Aila strikes Kolkota … Is it Sachin's revenge on KKR for the big loss against them in the recent IPL? or may be retaliation against the Fake IPL KKR Player for giving him this outrageously funny nick name?. But still what an awesome name.

A little research and what I find out. Cyclones until recently didn’t have names. But Hurricanes and Typhoons always had one. Since the Cyclones affect multiple countries in a region, an easy to use naming convention would help with better communication across countries with different languages and standards. Each member country of of a South Asian Meteorological association takes turns in naming cyclones. In this case, Aila, in thelocal language of Maldives, means Fire.

Dont you see a commonality in the names. If Katrina is recognised world over, South Asia still remembers the cyclones of the recent past - Nargis mesmerised Pakistan, Bijli struck Bangladesh. Scientists have already named the cyclones predicted by them in the future. Nisha has set her eyes on India, Laila to follow Nargis all the way till Pakistan and Phyan to harass Myanmar in protest against the detention of Aun Sung Syu Kyi.

Strange coincidence that the cyclones are all named after women. Why ?. As we all know, Cyclones usually represent fury and destruction. The joke that is doing the rounds in meteorological circles is that, the scientists at work named the cyclones so, as they remind them of their wives back home.

The scientists better keep silent. In the times of Amma & Didi, it is preferable to assuage your better half’s angst, rather than run into a risk of getting into legal tangles. Like an airforce officer, found out during a recent supreme court judgement. A vacation bench of Justice Markandeya Katju and Justice Deepak Verma threw their hands up, quoted in the judgment to the harassed husband in true Mumbaiiya accent - ‘Ae... Shane, Jyada Dimag Ko Taan Nahi Dene Ka, Chup Chap Biwi Jo Bolti Sun Ne Ka ‘

Aila!

Quiz Time

2009-05-26T10:53:00.000+05:30

Keep you google search tabs ready. 5 questions, 5 minutes. Your time starts now!

Q1: Name this lady who played Roop (Kareena's Cousin Sis) in Jab We Met. She is also the hostess of the most popular dance reality show on Zee TV. She is also a poet with special interest in Shakespearean Literature.

Q2: Identify this daughter-in -law of the one of the most important cabinet ministers from South India.The cabinet minister quit his long standing finance job , to become a home maker (literally) recently. The lady is also a doctor and a trained Bharatnatyam dancer.

Q3: She is a very popular british cookery show host on 'Discovery Travel & Living'. Despite being on the wrong side of the 40s, she still has hundreds of websites dedicated to her. Born to a former Chancellor Ex Chequer and Heiress to British business house, she has carved a distinct identity for herself.

Q4: She is the second daughter of highest paid actor in India, who is worshipped by legions of fans in one south indian state and across several asian countries as well. A graphic designer, she is producing animation movies with Warner Bros currently.

Q5: Identify this immensely popular hollywood actress, who started her career with 'The confessions of a teenage drama queen' and hit the popularity charts with her role in the sci-fi blockbuster 'Transformers'.

Now there is a connecting theme in the answers to all 5 questions. If it is one late saturday evening and you have five eligible bachelors sitting around the living room, ruminating about life and suddenly you rake up the topic of 'Who you think is the most beautiful celebrity?'. These were the five answers that came out. Innumerable arguments and eventually, not a single guy agreed with another guy's choice.

PS1: What Anman eventually concluded - 'Beauty is in the IRIS of the Beholder, Never the twain shall meet'

PS2: If that was very easy, let me increase the level of difficulty. Now identify which guy chose which lady. Besides me, The other 4 guys would be Bertie, Da-1(Banker), Da-2(Consultant) and Anman. Should be easy for anyone, who knows the 5 guys well :-).

The long & short of it

2009-05-25T18:23:00.000+05:30

First, I owe an explanation for the previous post. Well, it was an attempt to write a short & witty post. A touch of Hamlet & hence the Polonius quote,might have been a bit over the top, nevermind. More importantly, for me it was reflection of Facebook/Twitter addiction, that is so omnipresent. Verbosity seems to have gone truly out of fashion. Broadcasting tweets and facebook 'what is on your mind? one liners are definitely the in-thing'. Advantages are many. Well, you dont need to comment, you can simply like a status. If I am not wrong, 99% of blog post comments just mean ' I like what you have written' sort of stuff. Nice & Easy!

Now that should leave me, a 2 month old blogger feeling completely outdated. Yes & No. Yes, coz I am quite tempted to quit this sudden blogging craze and I am just looking for an excuse. No, Coz a blog has so much more to offer. But how ?. Well, to a sizeable bunch of friends I know, blog is good source of alternate reading during office hours.

1) If you have plenty of time to kill, 2) your company IT policy doesnt allow orkut/facebook access, 3) short one liners just arent enough meat for reading pleasure you are looking for.

Verbosity is definitely in, Brevity is definitely out. It also reminds me of a Tam friend's reason for preferring 'The Hindu' over TOI. Given the same level of information content, the sheer verbosity of a Hindu article makes it more satisfying to read.

Second reason, you can't post pictures in tweets/status msgs. If you do upload an album, you can't storyboard them into a nice read. Blogs score again!.

Third & the most important reason for me, It's about addressing a select audience. Readers would visit your blog, purely out of their own self interest. Status messages might seem like forcing your point of view/thought on an unintended audience.

Blogs I have seen, over a period of time tend to get biased towards one particular area of interest/subject. Book reviews, Movie reviews, Football/Music blogs, Stock market views among others. In my personal opinion, what brings me back to a blog, is sheer anticipation of what topic next ?. As long the blog has personal touch/opinion/viewpoint, I am sure I would keep coming back, however mundane/trivial some of the posts might be.

Personally, the day I get repetitive & have little new/different to write about, I would like to quit.

I, Polonius

2009-05-18T22:13:00.000+05:30

Brevity is the soul of wit

10 fondest childhood memories

2009-05-14T12:05:00.000+05:30

Well, this post is definitely inspired by the Honest Scrap Award, that I received from my dear friend Mrunalini, for being a regular reader of her blog. The funda is that the recipient of the award has to write '10 honest facts about themselves'. Then he/she needs to forward it to 7 other people.

Well, since I have a clear promise to myself , that I won't to write about my current personal life or crib about any frustration on my blog. I would write about 10 fondest memories from my childhood. I don't know how many of you had similar experiences to relate.

I was the local tyre running champion in my neighbourhood. The game is simple. You get a old tyre and use a stick and run the tyre over a distance. I had the advantage of owning a bigger and thinner Luna tyre that my uncle had gifted me once, while all other friends had smaller and fatter Bajaj Scooter tyre, the most prevalent one those days. But I was never good in the game of marbles (goli) and the marble slab game, where you had a clear a pile of matchbox covers.

I have been trying to whistle and blow a bubble gum since childhood. I still can’t whistle, but I learnt to blow the gum, instinctively one Saturday afternoon in my class IX, while playing a cricket match

Rs 10 per month pocket money that I used to get, was spent mostly on lunch time treats which included Rs 1 Kismet Chocolate, 50 ps Lolly (pepsi), Rs 2 Yummies chips and the Rs 4 rubber ball to play cricket

I owned this pink coloured tricycle, which I drove for quite a long time. There after it was gifted to a cousin, who later gifted it to another of his cousin. I believe it still exists, may be in an attic somewhere

I collected WWF memorabilia during those few years, when the craze had reached feverish pitch among all kids. These included splash cards and a big poster of Bret Hitman Hart, that adorned wall of my room for quite sometime.

I have watched every quiz show that used to play on Doordarshan – Quiz time, Parliamentary quiz, BQC etc. Most of them enjoyed competing against my grandpa and the one who answers most questions had to gift the other a chocolate. I have also watched every Hindi movie played on doordarshan on Friday night and Saturday night.

Any house construction work in the street was the season of joy for all neighbourhood kids. You got a huge pile of sand to play and make sand castles, dig rat holes (Kappe Goodu in Kannada). You return home all dirty and you are ordered to enter through the backdoor straight into the shower.

I never had much writing ability. But in rare moments of creativity, I had written poems, short as well as long ones. Though I never filed them, I found out recently that my mom had penned down each one of them in her own little personal diary, without my knowledge

I was the shortest guy in my class until class X. So much so that, My mom managed to buy a half ticket for me in Bangalore city buses until I was 14, while the legal age for half ticket is only 12.

I registered for Bungee jumping once, but chickened out at the last minute, when my fear of heights finally got to me. My sister, 5 years younger to me, barely 12 then, completed the jump instead of me, ensured that I became the butt of jokes in my family

Added on demand ..

My pleasure to award the honest scrap award to some of my favourite bloggers

Manan : Dude! You were damn witty/funny in ur writing sometime ago. What happened now?. I hope thats provocative enough :)

Vimal : Now stop acting pricey and restart blogging :-). I hope to see the distinctive KADHAL flavour in your list of 10 things.

Tanvi : Madam, you may pick 10 of your favourite paragraphs from books your read. I am sure, most of us would not have even heard of the author, let alone the book :)

Mahesh : You can list 10 favourite stock picks for the month or may be 10 banks most likely fail in FY10 :)

Siby : I would like to read his 10 most perverted jokes. Guruji, please accept this humble request to enlighten our ignorant minds :-)

Wayne : Good boy Wayne would like to tell us, about some not so good mischiefs he has played in life. I hope there are 10 of them, or else you can cook up some stories as fillers

Kasturi : Not a blogger yet. This is just the right impetus you need to start your blog, that should definitely impress your special someone :)

Mobile Story 2050

2009-05-13T14:04:00.000+05:30

We all know how mobile phones have impacted and continues to improve our lives in a big way. Much has been written about converged device of the future, with mobile phones at the centre as the universal control device. Here is what I want my mobile phone to do for me in 2050.

In addition to the regular app TODO list, I want to add an application WISH LIST. Let me cite a few examples, how I imagine it to work.

1) I wish I want to watch a certain movie ABC, while dabbling with boring paper work at office. My mobile would communicate wireless to my home automation hub, Which would direct the set top box to place a download with the service provider's server. Well, the service provider's server would place a search with YouTube or bit torrent, find the AVI file, download it and stream it across to the set top box. Now based on my synchronised calender schedule, my mobile would plan to screen the movie.

2) You are feeling lonely and you wish you could spend some time with your best buddies .. Well, my mobile device now is equipped with voice analyser and SMS analyser. It has mined all communication (voice & data) for key words which indicate your mood/state of mind. It also has a record of people, with whom you communicated most, when you felt similar during the previous times. The mobile phone decides to act on his own, and messages your identified buddies, indicating that you are in mood for a chat. If none of them respond, you get a automated call from a AI software called ELIZA, which is trained to counsel lonely individuals, while interpreting your voice/data responses.

3) On the way back from a long day's work, you look forward to a warm welcome at home.Well, GPS of today is the spatial alarm of the future. You receive reminders based on location. The moment you reach within 5 km radius of your home, the google latitude app on the home automation server detects the your impending arrival and activates AC to cool the living room, communicates with the microwave to warm the food and the coffee maker to keep the warm cuppa ready in time for your reaching home

4) You are constantly worried about the health of your loved ones. You wish , there could be a solution. Watches of the future would come with pulse rate monitors, placed along the strap. These would have blue tooth dongles to communicate with a mobile device on certain events. These mobile devices can periodically update a central mobile device, which should help you keep track of health of your aged parents and little kids. In case of an emergency like a heart attack, the pulse rate monitor can directly connect with the defibrillator to address first aid. Or may be, the mobile device based on current location can check with the nearest available ambulances and even place an request for immediate arrival, while providing your current location coordinates automatically.

5) I am at a conference and like to build a good network of business contacts. Now when, LATITUDE is integrated with LINKEDIN, the moment I enter the conference arena, I will get the directory of all attendees in the area. I would use a filtering criteria to shortlist relevant sales targets. Now, the blue tooth application would alarm me, whenever I come in proximity of any of the people in the target list. Immediately, LINKEDIN would provide me with profile detail of the client including conversation starters. if connected to the target through a common acquaintance, you know, whom to ask for an introduction, if he/she is around.

Well .. I am not much of a techie these days .. May be some of these apps are already available in US or elsewhere .. Well .. I would definitely want to have them.

If you have such ideas at some corner of your mind, you are welcome to share it in the comments section :)

Whose team is it anyway ?

2009-05-08T11:04:00.000+05:30

Who is bigger ? Owner or the team ? .. If the ongoing KKR saga is anything to go by, its clearly a case of owner's megalomania. Any sensible businessmen would invest in a business only if his expected returns are higher that his opportunity cost of capital. If Shahrukh has a personal appeal , so does Cricket as a game, Sourav as a star and Kolkota as a city. If reality shows like Indian idol, Dance India Dance over the last few years are anything to go by, regional loyalties of Bengal and north eastern states are the strongest. Sourav has the strongest regional fan following, not even Dravid or Tendulkar had fans crying hoarse/ protesting in streets when dropped from the national team.

I am reminded of a lesson in brand management about value proposition. It talked about three different benefits - Functional benefit, Emotional benefit and Self Expressive Benefit. While tough game of cricket played and match won is an functional benefit, the emotional benefit comes from the fans associating themselves with Kolkota as well as the support for Sourav as the bengali representative. Shahrukh khan represented the self expressive benefit. All fans identify with Shahruskh, they want to be like him, they love seeing him on TV, but you wont miss him if he not there.

The fancy team dress and the hummable team song in bengali was excellent symbolism. While the performance of KKR in IPL 2008 wasn't great, it still was not as miserable as say RCB or DC. But that was not enough for Shahrukh. He started believing that KKR appeal extended across the country, across age groups. The glitz and glamour would haze out the raw passion of Eden gardens crowd cheering for their favourite bengali cricketer. Like EPL clubs, he thought a top ranked coach would dramatically turnaround the fortunes. An array of sponsors and a profitable first year, just added to the over confidence.

What he did not realise that, the ManUs and the Liverpool's of the world have been around for decades and have loyalties which transcend generations of players, viewers and fans. IPL is still in its infancy and KKR is still being evaluated by the audience. Niether IPL nor KKR can take the loyalties for granted. By rubbing sourav the wrong way, squabbling with bengal cricket association besides suffering the ignominy of being bottom placed team, KKR's business plan is in a complete disarray. Mere symbolism can't sustain the appeal of a brand.

Its high time KKR revisited its communication strategy, if it plans to retain any of its sponsors/supporters. First, get dada back at the helm. Bengalis love his mis fields , they adore the fact the he runs his opponents out, they can forgive his low strike rate. Instead of getting the local boys to warm the bench, get them a few games and a little more publicity. Any amount of good PR will only help salvage some pride, badly hurt by the fake ipl player blog.

As far as team performances go, they have been brave losers in many close matches, unlike RCB and DC last year. The fighting spirit has its own charm. Goran Ivanasevic or Jana Novotna were players better known for their brave losses than victories.

Will we see a reborn KKR next IPL ?. Anybody's guess..

PS: Is it sheer coincidence that Mumbai team was named Indians and the team blue jersey resembles the national team's colour the most?. May be its clever branding or just that RIL never had any mass consumer brand to advertise. Thankfully, the Maratha factor has also been underplayed.

PPS: Why have owners of the Delhi and Chennai teams keeping a low profile ?. No owners/No stars to be seen around to cheer the teams.

And the Animals strike back ..

2009-04-28T12:55:00.000+05:30

As the Swines in Mexico decide that it’s the most opportunistic time to strike back at their more prosperous neighbours, little did they expect, that average Mexican Senor would become the unintended target.

Even as Swine flu/SARS over take recession /TARP as the most searched key words on google, I am reminded of boars in George Orwell’s Animal Farm. “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others”, proclaimed the Old Major.

The banner of revolt was first raised by the Mad cows of Europe. The uprising was brutally culled, even if it meant Mcdonalds had to redesign their menu and the favourite steak was off the standard British lunch fare. The cows licking their wounds , soon realised their folly in understanding the global food chain.

Like the complacent US software developer of the 80s, they did not realise that for every cow in Europe, there are two chickens volunteering for a slaughter in China. Even the Chinese govt.’s once chick policy per cock and hen, still left enough chickens available for slaughter, that can feed the entire African population for the next 100 years.

Globalization had already arrived, but the cows came home late. As dumb as they cows may be, there is always the one smart red bull, who by sheer destiny or a genetic experiment gone wrong was born intelligent. For him, reaching out to the far east was very easy. He registered himself on Baidu/Qzone, the most popular social networking site in china. A community he started, within a matter of hours attracted a million chickens eagerly waiting for a channel to express their suppressed freedom. The banner of revolt was raised again, the chickens started a LONG MARCH from their pens/pickets to the KFCs directly, while surpassing the greedy middle men. Lured in by the abysmal low price offered, KFC bit the bullet. Little could they see of the SARS/bird flu lurking beneath dangerously . Soon the word was out, "Chinese chickens are more toxic than Chinese toys". Now that toys and chickens were out of equation, Chinese economy was forecast to decline by 10%. But Iron Fist of the communist govt. eventually prevailed and the brave chickens of the Talumein soup were all martyred. Few had noticed, the resilience and the rebellion was already silently brewing among the most wretched of the lot – PIGS.

In the meanwhile, Indian govt. hailed the success of their DECOUPLING THEORY. They claim, Indian food chain is highly decoupled from the global food chain. We neither consume any beef to give the mad cows any semblance of a chance nor do Chinese chickens ever possibly land on an Indian plate, due to the 200% anti dumping duty imposed on Chinese food imports. All the ones being smuggled through north east and Nepal usually got consumed even before reaching the main land.

Now coming to the crux of the problem, a recent study by WHO has listed Indian pigs are the most unhygienic among pigs across the world. With the war, now shifting to pig front and having already taken a size able human toll in Mexico, its not long before the Indian pig shows its ugly face.

While the pigs across face the wrath, it is also time the pigs among men to take the beating. It wouldn’t come as a surprise, if feminist organisations start a rally against the male chauvinistic pig , as the main perpetrator of the malaise that affect the Indian society. As I say always, to each(animal) his own.

But it’s the Chinese year of the DOG. The dogs are rocking across the world. Whether it’s the SLUMDOG at the Oscars or the UNDERDOG at the IPL in South Africa, the dogs are soaking in all the attention. While BO replaces BUDDY at the white house, the hutch pug has decided to work only 6 months a year, hence not to be seen at IPL this year.

As they also say, every dog has its day.

Pahaad Aur Jal Pravaah

2009-04-24T14:06:00.000+05:30

Whenever somebody recommends a new place for visit, the first two questions I would always ask. How far is the nearest hill station ?. Ohh good, are there any waterfalls nearby ?. Ohh great!, the trip is definitely on, let me put a group together now.

I owe this passion for hills and waterfalls to the 4 years I spent in KREC Surathkal. An amazing campus with a private beach, which I would count as among the second best I have ever been to. KREC is perhaps among the few campuses, where standing on the hostel terrace, you can see the vast sea on one side, while just turning around you find the majestic peaks of western ghats at a distance. A liberal attendance rule and large group of friends high on Enthu, ensured each of the 8 semesters I had at least one very memorable trip to most beautiful places. While the visit to the campus beach required nothing more than a 5 minute stroll, a Sunday evening sunset watch was a regular part of our weekend itinerary.

Now trip to the hills/waterfalls was simple, book a Tata Sumo and pack in around 10 - 11 people and off you go. Overnight stay meant singing and dancing around a campfire, never once I remember booking a hotel room. If you ask me the best place I have been to, I would definitely rate the trek to Kumaraparvatha. This hill clearly visible to all visitors to Kukke Subramanya is considered by many as one of the most beautiful treks in Karnataka.

You may ask why?. It requires you to climb up and down a total of 24 km, at nearly 30 - 45 degree incline throughout, on jungle and hilly tracks with no roads, whatsoever. The uniqueness of the experience is in the night trek, whick you start off midway from your base camp at Bhatta's house at around 3:00 AM, so that you ascend to the peak by 9 - 10 AM. The experience of night treks is simply awesome. With torches as the only guiding light along narrow tracks, where a minor slip up with throw you down a deep ravine of hundreds of meters. In this pitch darkness, the attendance count is very important and also a source of great fun. The leader and his experience are critical, as his decision on the route will decide whether you will reach the peak or lose you way around the mountain and find yourself in a village in Madikeri on the other side of hill some 40 km away, as one of my friends found out on a recent hike. By sunrise, when you are halfway up hill, its the scenery that emerges that completely overwhelms you. In trekkers jargon, we call it Ksheera Sagara ( sea of milk).

At heights over 2000m, most of the clouds are well below your current altitude, this looks like milk overflowing around a vessel formed by the conical peaks of the surrounding mountain range. While you sit there and absorb this amazing feeling, you are reminded of the more than 3 hours of climb still remaining. While remaining trip is pretty much uneventful, the climb down takes another 4 hours. But the risk of injury is very high especially on the ankle. With no access to medication, the injured guy has to be walked down to Subramanya, with others sharing his baggage, while a few others lending their shoulders to support. One such accident on a trip with office colleagues, was probably the best team building experience that I have ever had in my life.

Second only to Kumaraparvata, comes the hike up the Kodachadri peak near Kollur, more famous for the Mookambika temple. The altitude here is much lower and also there is separate jeep track, an alternative to the trekking path. But if you are game, a third more difficuly route through the jungles might lead you near an amazing unnamed 100 m high waterfall in the valley , completely hidden from view across all directions.

Not every waterfall is difficult to access, there is Hanumana gundi waterfall near Karkala, as well the numerous waterfalls in Kemmanagundi - Kalahatti and Hebbe falls. These waterfalls present a different kind of trekking opportunity, which we call the "waterfall trail". Here you start off from the mouth of the falls and trek back towards the source . There is a very high probability you may end of finding another cascade completely cut off from tourists and visitors. The thrill of such a discovery is unmatched by any other experience.

While these are places close to Surathkal, there are of course very popular destinations like Coorg and Uttara Kannada. Any travel guide book would provide details about these places, so i would not delve into the details here.

Whats the big fuss about water falls?. For that you should sit right below a drop of a 10+ m high cascade and with the euphoria & excitement you experience from the force of the falling water on your head, you will find the answer yourself.

Now not to disappoint my beach crazy friends. For me the best beach to visit is Om & Kudle beach near Gokarna. A series of hills alternately separate these beaches, which count among the most beautiful. while being just 100 km away from Goa, it offers privacy and ambience that the beaches of Goa never can provide.

While I have been a few other equally beautiful places like Matheran and Panchmarhi, these were visited at a different time in a different phase of life. I would have to dedicate separate posts to those experiences. Trips around Surathkal would still remain among my fondest memories at a stage of adolescent life that I cherish the most.

10 things to do before the next weekend

2009-04-21T22:39:00.000+05:30

1) Catch last Sunday's MTV roadies re-runs on one of the weeknights, just after one banker housemate finishes watching his favourite cookery show and definitely before second banker roommate reaches home from work and forces you to switch over to CNBC TV18 Very Late Night market news :)

2) Drink Hot Steaming Cappuchino, with Irish topping, at the plush Prabhadevi CCD right next door, just that you want to share it one by two with your ever so understanding roommate, while the other roommate's face gets red in embarassment

3) Finish reading Imagining India by Nandan Nilekani in next 5 days or at least chapter - 2 if it is so boring ..

4) Grab an extra slice of Tender Coconut flavoured ice cream from NATURALS .. Heavenly Delight!!

5) Run the entire stretch of Worli Sea Face and back in less than 30 minutes, without being hassled by little kids, old grandpas, burly Labradors blocking your way all the time

6) Find a new mandolin teacher

7) Install FRING on my WM6 and google chat with friends

8) Pray for a good batting performance from Bangalore Royal Challengers, so that they at least win one more game in IPL 2009

9) Refreshing Cleartrip every few hours to check for an near 100% cash back on my flight ticket to Bangalore

10) Run spell check and check for formatting errors before posting the blog

Jane Fonda Revisited

2009-04-14T15:29:00.000+05:30

Jane Fonda . who ?.

Oscar winning Hollywood actress . Right!. That's a correct answer!

Aunt of actress Bridget Fonda & Daughter of equally popular Henry Fonda. Even Better!

Flag bearer of Aerobics/Fitness revolution in US in the late 70s. Perfect! 5 bonus points for this one :).

I so much wanted to write a post about an activity close to my heart. Fitness!.

Flashback to 10 years ago!. I was nothing more than a mildy overweight lazy kid, who had the stamina to play little except may be a game of Cricket or may be TT. Swimming beyond one length of the pool was a daunting task. Running was restricted to a short sprint of not more than 100 m. Growing up in a big city, with an excessive academic orientation, forces you to compromise big time on a physically active life. Hostel Life at Engg. College Campus is somewhat better, but by now you have grown a little too cozy with your lazy self to make an effort to improve. All this continues, until one fine day at the end of long working hours in an IT company you complain of back ache. Your in house medic diagnoses it as RSI (Repetitive Strain Injury), and recommends a compulsory fitness regime. Now that's what i call inflection point.

If you are one of the lucky ones working in an MNC with an awesome in house gym, you are blessed. Others might crib of the high monthly fees and travel time to gym everyday. I am sure in the first two months, you would think of quitting every single day. May be you even actually quit a couple of times. But you are back again, for the hard work of exercise is still preferable over enduring a painful back ache.

While you start off with modest stretching exercises for the back, but you are soon drawn by towards the omnipresent TREADMILL. This sudden love is something i have seen in so many people and still fail the fathom the reason behind it. and then the treadmill changes your life foreever. As you graduate from your 5 kmph for 15 min to a running at 10 kmph for 45 minutes, you build amazing stamina. This doesnt come easily, might take anywhere between 4 - 6 months to achieve. But you seem to start liking this new feeling, that you lose your penchant for quitting. In fact, you start feeling restless, every single day you miss your exercise. In fact scientific evidence says, that exercise releases adrenalin into the body, which creates the sense of well being. Now you can be classified as a fitness addict.

As you loses multiple tiers of fat that encircle your body at ever available girth, you start craving for more. Now you start eyeing a more muscular physique. Now you have the stamina for doing weights, so there is not much stopping you. except that if you are pure vegetarian (egg is non veg) like me, muscles take their own sweet time to develop. While eggs and whey protein are preferred dietary supplements, a veggie has to make do with plenty of dry fruits, bananas, soya and sprouts. It always helps to have a supportive mom/grand mom at home, to understand your nutrition requirement. As a bachelor staying alone in a big city, good nutrition is one big handicap one has to live with.

While the perils of working out are limited to occasional injuries that may put you out of action for a few weeks, you are back to your best in no time. The positives are innumerable. Besides, showing off a fit body, you are that much more capable of performing strenuous physical activity like playing soccer, trekking, running marathons etc. Physical exercise is also recommended for a stressed out mind, combined with meditation. Now coming to meditation. After reading about a hundred different forms of meditation, I felt the most effective one is the simple breathing exercise. no seating posture required, no locational constraints, not thought constraints. Just slow down your inhaling/ exhaling to three times your normal duration, while closing your eyes. Continue this for 15 - 30 mins.

Talking about a few fitness impediments, I faced while in Mumbai. I have realised that, eating out often throws our diet out of gear. While north indian masaledar food tastes amazing, its spiciness ensures you consume very little sabzi and more carbs (roti/nan). Also the excessive use of alu in food, just adds more carbs at the cost of other nutrients especially fibrous vegetables.

Now what happens is, the excessive carbs all get converted to fat and add your bulk. I call it the MOM'S PARADOX. While mother's expect their kids leaving home to grow leaner because of lack of quality food, their kids actually put on more weight eating junk away from home.

Instead of only carbs, if vegetables were consumed, only a part of them would be absorbed, while rest would help in easy digestion. Ideally, fruits would be best supplement to carbs, as they do provide plenty of minor nutrients in addition to providing the fibrous alternative to a carb rich diet.

Another question that I have been asked by many, what is the ideal jogging/running technique ?. Some complain they exhaust very quickly, others crib that its a boring and monotonous activity. My solution would be simple. If one runs at what is called as breathing speed, you can run any distance as long as boredom/mental exhaustion doesn't catch up with you. Breathing speed, I would define as the speed of running/walking at while you continue your normal breathing and not increase it. Well, this would be as low as 5 kmph ( normal walking speed) and as you build your stamina it increased to say 8 kmph in about 6 months. My breathing speed is about 10.5 kmph and that's the average speed at which i complete my half marathons, which last nearly 2 hours. Now to beat the mental exhaustion/ boredom part, It requires tremendous will power. a few like listening to their ipods, a few others hum songs as they run along. I recollect fond past memories, which keep me occupied during the run. Another simple method helps a lot, while running always look down, not ahead. This ensures that you are not too bothered by how far, your actual destination is, while you focus on continuously build the rhythm.

Whenever, I meet Europeans, I always envy their physical fitness. As Indians, we lack a fitness culture. Its high time, we develop one especially when we are in our 20s and 30s. If not, the consequences are there right in front of us to see. The increasing number of patients suffering cardiovascular diseases and diabetes, especially if one has a family history of these diseases.

Mera Naam Chun Chun Chu ..

2009-04-13T11:36:00.000+05:30

One eternal question, I have had for my mom, how on earth did u manage to find an absolutely unheard of name for your only little one. Not that I hate it or something, thankfully it doesn't sound weird enough to help some mischievous prankster figure out a few outrageous puns. Just one problem , no data entry operator ever has got it right on the first mention. Small hassles, but still why ?.

But given the plethora of options available in our country , 24+ Jain tirthankaras or 330 million Hindu gods ( say half of them are male) or even one lakh word rich Kannada vocabulary, she managed to overlook. Neither google nor my mom has thus far been able to provide me a commonly accepted meaning for my name. Bengalis are known to coin names for their kids, starting with an idea in mind( a vivid description sort of thing) and then finding Sanskrit words to represent the idea and later joining them to form perhaps a unique, but easy to decipher name. like a Shubhpuspabrata Devdasgupta .. makes sense u see.

Many inspired moms of the 70s and early 80s named their children after their favourite film stars, sport stars, performers, writers. Not so long ago, I read that Lara Dutta's mom named her after a song in her favourite movie Dr. Zhivago. Three chottu cousins of mine, all born in 90s and all named Manisha, stand testimony to this trend. My mom defies this logic as well.

An interesting article i read a few years ago, talked about the most common baby names (boy & girl) for a particular year in UK. A nation crazed over the birth of celebrity children, started placing bets on the likely name of the still unborn baby of the first couple - Tony & Cherie Blair. The national statistics association of UK even publishes the most popular baby names each year. Sample this http://www.statistics.gov.uk/specials/babiesnames_boys.asp

If one were to conduct such a research in India, I would not be surprised. If you include all states north of the vindhyas, my guess on the most common boy name to be Rahul and most common girl name to be Neha. If my 550+ orkut friend list is considered a decent sample representation, the final leader tally for boys and girls is 12 Rahuls and 9 Neha. Thankfully, having studied in REC & IIM, I have interacted with a variety of people from across the country, so i have reason to have confidence in my research. As far as the south indian names are concerned, its a v v tough guess. But one thing for sure, if instead of considering the names, we include the meanings, I am sure Lord Shiva(mahesh,dinesh,suresh .. xxxesh) and Lord Vishnu ( 9 avatars & their alter egos) would top the leader board. As far as girl names in south are concerned, my observation is that they are named after beautiful adjectives. Soumya, Priya with many prefixes & suffixes, Ramya .. etc. Birth stars are another favourite for girl names, mostly coz of sweet soundedness,if not anything else.

Another aspect of a typical south indian kid's name is the I.N.I.T.I.A.L.S. Ranging from 3 - 4 letters in AP to just 1 for some lucky city kids. Sometimes I sorely miss the charm of introducing myself like a 'Hi, I am Rahul ..Rahul Malhotra'. How do you say that with initials ?? Hi I am Shreyan .. Shreyan ML .. weird huh. Now may be, my mom thought of this impending inconvenience, that she made sure that the first name is so unique that it would obviate the need for a surname. While ML, doesn't sound that bad, I have had batch mates and friends who had funny initials like WL, YK,PK. Its not surprise then, these friends ended up being remembered mostly by their initials rather than their names. While concept of initials as a unique primary key ( father's name + village) was acceptable for official usage, its usage never lasts beyond ur schooling. The passport, Pan Card or Voter ID inevitably expanded your initials and gave you a new moniker, which you might like or dislike based on how sweet sounding a name your village of origin had like a Sivakasi or a yerrawada .. whatever.

Now coming back to where I started, while I am still to figure out what the true meaning of my name is. I have found that that google/orkut lists at least 10 - 15 people with the same name as mine. Ting! .. then came the brainwave .. May be .. Its all the coz of a TYPO in this popular baby name book, that the gullible mothers of these 15 odd people, referred to in the quest of doing something different. you know, during those days, when you didn't have spellcheck in word or forget it word itself never existed. A typist might have inadvertently typed 'SHREYAS' as 'SHREYAN'.

whatz in the game ?

2009-04-09T11:19:00.000+05:30

A recent article I read somewhere said that Football is the most played/watched sport with a following of over 3.5 bn people. Unsurprisingly, Cricket comes second with a following of 2.2 bn. Hockey, Tennis are other games with following of over 1 bn people. I always wondered why some games are more popular than others and why some regions love specific sports more than others. Team sports naturally have bigger following than individual sports as the loyalties and association(nation,club) surpasses the glory of individual achievers, who are limited by their own individual frailties and span of their career.

Cricket was definitely not the most popular sport in India some 50 years ago. A game played by the elite, complicated rules and little spectator involvement, while being stretched over 5 long days. Hockey was sport of choice for long, inspired by the unending streak of gold medal winning performances. For a brief period in 50s, Indian football team did raise the hopes of many in the country. What about individual sports? .. Tennis .. Wrestling .. Badminton, these are largely based on individual skills. It was mere serendipity, that right talent was provided the right opportunity and the right support, while nursing an extraordinary hunger for sporting glory. But individual sporting achievements can never generate the mass interest that team sport generates.

A few would say, the the success of Indian cricket is because of its sporting legends in the 70s and 80s, who brought the game to the common man. If one world cup victory could do that, then why couldn't 8 consecutive gold medals didn't do the same to the game of hockey in India ?. While football continued to have a global appeal, why was the interest in India pushed to the corners of kerala and west bengal only.

I feel there is more to the story. Cricket's uniqueness lies in the fact that, its a game that relies on hand- eye coordination for batting and fielding and a strong shoulder for bowling. While every other team sport, depends on strong overall physical fitness, which I must confess Indians lack big time. While the rest of world, witnessed declining interest in cricket due its lack of physical exertion and spectator involvement, Indians took to it like fish to water. Personally, I would have loved to play football or hockey. While I lack the stamina to run around for 90 minutes, hockey brought in an additional issue for being an injury prone game and the game being not adaptable to being played in any available ground. While interest in cricket as a player is justified, I should say that despite being a hard core fan of the game, my attention span in test cricket never lasts beyond 10 minutes. Then why would spectators pay a few hundreds to waste their time on the ground for 5 full days.

That brings me to T20. While reducing the game's duration to 180 minutes, the excitement and the convenience is comparable to any other easily accessible recreation/ entertainment option. A movie, a football game or a dinner. Now the question .. what appeals to the spectator most, is it bowling, batting or fielding ? Honestly, Bowling is fun to watch only on TV not on ground with all the camera angels and replays. Batting is as much on Ground as on TV mostly because of the anticipation from the pavilion. But to me fielding would generate the maximum spectator involvement. But in the rules of the game, fielding is relegated to a support activity, where the reward is not commiserate to the effort. I would like reformed game of cricket, where each of the activities are equally rewarded without the unwarranted bias towards batting.

Another way to get more people in non playing nations to take to the sport is to simplify the adaptability. Why not popularise, tennis ball cricket in these countries ?. Simplify the rules. I guess over 50% of the people across the world who play football barely understand the offside rule, while still continue to play the game.

Cricket has one big advantage over football or other like games. In its very nature of scoring, the game has provision for some amazing twists and turns of fate, which offers excitement unlike the simplistic goal scoring nature of football. You are welcome to disagree on this :).

One thing I have failed to understand all these years, what draws people to watch formula one. Publicity/Push strategy can generate initial interest, but it can be sustained only through some peculiar aspect of the game.

hmm .. some food for thought

May the force be with you

2009-04-08T17:17:00.000+05:30

Now before you question my years of grooming and education in scientifically proven ideas .. you should realise that my post just puts forward a view on astrology - something a surprisingly large section of the society even the educated elite believe in ..

I never was much of a believer all my life .. prayers meant nothing more than a daily routine, an important part of the culture .. that you inculcate from parents and family members .. While you were made to believe that success or failure solely depend on efforts .. bad luck was always the lame excuse of a loser .. Needless to say .. Astrology was as absurd as anything could be .. For me a more acceptable belief at this stage of life was Karma .. a fear of retribution .. justified in very nature of human beings .. hence believable

Well that was then ... as you grown older .. you start understanding life in a much wider perspective .. some things happen / don't happen for no apparent reason .. the quest for the non existent reason and the self denials eventually succumb to the fear of unknown force ... A force that wedges in through every aspect of your life .. and we call it destiny

and then you read .. The Alchemist .. The Secret .. For somebody like me who has read very little all his life, Non fiction and piles of self help books start making sense .. gradually .. astrology .. faith .. religion everything seems connected ..

Now understanding astrology is very simple ... it draws from the understanding that existence is a function of space and time .. each one of us in the world are manifestations of cosmic energy .. which is influenced by the positions of various stars and planets in the time-space coordinates of the universe .. Several key events play an important role .. birth for one is a key event .. based on your location on earth and the time and date of birth .. your coordinate in the three dimensional solar system is fixed .. the life force injected into you at that time is a combined impact of the various forces from all the stars, clusters, planets at the time in space .. that explains the birth star, raashi(constellation) and the kundali (planetary alignment) .. with positions of different planets in the different positions .. now the ambiguity arises in the interpretation of these influences on our existence .. one way is to verify would be through pure statistical analysis .. if you could establish correlation between these parameters to certain characteristics of individuals then .. these predictions are plausible ..

Next major unknown force .. the power of faith .. I believe in the unknown (u call it god) and not in religion .. religion is merely a channel used by preachers to inculcate faith in people .. While religion was born out of circumstances (social,political) .. faith has been universal .. whether it is prayer or heartfelt best wishes ... or even ill luck brought upon by bad omens .. it all leads to the thought espoused by Paolo Coelho and Rhonda Bryne .. that when something is very strongly desired .. good or bad .. the whole world conspires to make it happen .. You might say .. an individual would naturally focus all his efforts towards the singular goal .. But in reality most often, experiences in life make us believe that there is a strange unknown force backing you in ur pursuit ..

Now .. when everything in life goes horribly wrong despite all efforts .. you wonder, worry then you visit the friendly neighbourhood astrologer .. and he identifies it as the ill effects of unsuitable planetary alignment .. the unknown force is working against you .. so what does he recommend ?.. some pooja .. some meditation .. some donations (Charity) .. there is some justification to these as well ...Pooja /meditation are meant to help you gain the power of faith and the confidence so necessary to enable you to overcome the ill effects of planetary alignment .. the charity to some extent is used to offset the effects of bad karma .. sounds fairly logical doesn't it :)

Now why match horoscope for marriages .. while marriages are expected to lead to creation of new life .. the future of the new born is as much a function of its coordinates in 3 - D space - time universe as it is of the parents DNA embedded in the life form .. that would mean DNA is essentially the fingerprint of some of the forces that embedded during the origination of life ..

Well beyond this .. how will job prospects, health prospects are determined by astrology is beyond my understanding ..

I completely feel each one of the explanations is trash .. absolute trash .. but i cant agree or disagree either .. as there is always the unexplained .. until then .. every hypothesis is a plausible interpretation .. astrology is just one of them .. To make it easy, just let go and believe in the power of prayer .. doesn't take much effort .. if it really works then so be it :)

Amen!

ಭೋಣಿ

2009-04-08T16:59:00.000+05:30

Boni (ಭೋಣಿ).. in my mother tongue refers to any activity performed for the first time .. it has a lot of symbolic value associated with it .. for some its auspicious .. for others an excuse for first time gaffe .. sheer excitement for a newbie .. Well for me its none of these .. Off late .. i have been thinking a lot, while also wondering what each one of you thought of the same as well .. if you are as vella as i am these days .. we mite just have a good time .. doodling over some exceptionally arbit stuff :) ...

To my latest effort to write,
Cheers