Add to it the flavour of life

Just jotting down a few quotes here. Its really quite interesting how our understanding and appreciation changes for things we read as they keep coming into new perspective. How our own life and mood affects our interpretations.
But one of the things that i really like reading is how people tend to say so much in so few words. First they lay some groundwork for it and they finish it of in brevity and style. And really there can be no style without brevity. So here goes Oscar Wilde and Kafka:

Morality, like art, means drawing a line someplace.

The truth is rarely pure and never simple.

So long as you have food in your mouth, you have solved all questions for the time being.

And the one from Kafka. The three adjectives he uses in the end reverently, reflectively and lovingly: they just knock me off :
We are as forlorn as children lost in the wood. When you stand in front of me an look at me, what do you know of the grief's that are in me and what do I know of yours. And if I were to cast myself down before you and tell you, what more would you know about me that you know about Hell when someone tells you it is hot and dreadful? For that reason alone we human beings ought to stand before one another as reverently, as reflectively, as lovingly, as we would before the entrance to Hell.

Then there was a discussion in Dorian Gray about the effects of age and evil on a face. How a young an innocent face decays with age and evil starts showing on it. The accumulated evil of his life. I came across a picture of someone whom I knew some time back. And the first time I saw this pic this was the thing that came to my life. How it made some sense for the first time.

The insulted and injured

Another day goes down in my life as a really bad day. As if sleeping late and getting up early isnt enough to make the day bad. As they say "Even this shall pass"

Have been reading Dostoyevsky and Sartre. The insulted and the injured. And No exit. Seem to make a statement these two title ... dont they :D

IIT!!

I somehow spend quite a lot of time browsing through orkut profiles of people. I like to see what they write about themelves. Specially the section "About me" is the one that is most interesting. I myself have written down somethings there. But they were never 'about me', well not in first person with adjectives. They have been mostly quotes which I deeply believe in. I always thought what kind of people (no disrespect intended: will let u know where I intend it :P) fill up this space with lines by the dozen going on and on about what they are. I mean who has the time and the patience and moreover so much conceit to write this.
Then there's the section cuisines where people go on and on about how their mom is the best cook in the world. For God's sake....
I can go on and on. But I'll stop. It was just a guy's profile who wouldnt sop talking about himself that just propelled me to write this.

Stay hungry stay foolish

No its not about steve jobs. I stayed hungry for one full day. No not really. But I did miss a couple of meals. I had a late night dinner. Ate just a slice of bread and a glass of milk. And had dinner the next night. So the claim I made about myslef about being incapable of staying hungry has been taken back happily :).
I was just going through the orkut profile of someone I know from hostel. Just an acquaintance. He always had this reputation of being a wierdo. Doing random stuff. Being abstract all the time. He still has all that stuff on his page. I have my doubts that that man knows anything about anything he keeps talking about. He just has this reputation to stand up to. Because in college u know, being something different makes you popular. And who doesnt want to be popular. But sometime down the line (ok that sounds creepy .. i m not that old :D ) you find out that you are not the person you pretend to be. And you decide to be yourself. Ok not completely. You cant renounce everybody's hopes on you. There are some pretenses you have to carry through all your life.
On the same subject a friend of mine once commented that its a tremendous quality to be able to live low profile. You can be yourself without any expectations. Nobody notices you.
BTW this is quite similar to that book "Fall" by Camus which is the story of a guy who has lived a perfect life. He has helped everybody he could. But he thinks he did that just so that people could see what a great man he was. Because once there was a man drowning in the river and there was no one around. He didnt tr to save the guy because no one was watching at so it didnt mattered. A man does everything for reputation. Either to earn it or maintain it.

Cant buy me love .....

As I sit in my office. Having a credit card which is directly billed to my company. But all I am doing is sitting and writing this blog on a friday evening. And I didnt even have dinner. Because money cant buy you friends. It can buy you food though. But I havent been able to eat out alone. So I'll starve tonight. Well I am sure I wont starve. Considering I havent missed a meal in the last I dont know how many years. I think I am now physically incapable of doing that. If I dont get food for a 8 hr period at a waking stretch I think I'd probably die.

The game of life

Life is quite like a video game. The "mario" kind. Where you go left right, into tunnels and jump around collecting coins. And when you have walked enough you quietly walk through "The end" sign.

Cooking

Cooking is a great timepass. And ppl who cook know that its a great stress buster. Food and Sex are the two things that keep a man going in life. Another point to be noted is no matter how much and how good u eat the last day u feel hungry the next day. Eating food the next day is as pleasurable as ever again. We should be really thankful to god for giving us this Hunger.
We can talk of hunger on many levels. Hunger for knowledge, hunger for fame. Its all very good. But then in limits. But thats not the point. The point is that it comes back and thats what is good.
A friend of mine was a great enthusiast for food. But he was more into quantity. :P. He used to say, if a man loses his apetite, then theres nothing left in him. But of late I have appreciated good food a lot. Having eaten in a lot of restaurants in a lot of places has given a lot of exposure too. I have also had the opportunity to try out various cuisines. And I still keep Indian cuisine in high regard. Very high in fact. And a very big BOO to all those indian (which canonically means North Indian :D ) restaurants who make it greasy. Make your food good and tasty. Dont add oil and butter to complement that. I (and many more ppl I know) would rather have un-deilicious food than greasy food.
But again the point to which I was coming was subtlety is a big big issue in cooking. Adding flavour to food. There are only a couple of basic ingredients in an Indian dish but there are many more flavours on top of that. First there are so many spices, then there's garlic, onion, ginger etc which is added in varying quantities dependin on taste.
Americans on the other hand dont know the concept.
This opinion is based on the three foods I ate in one day, which in fact infuriated me enough to write this, so blame it on the bad food:
1. An egg salad sanwich. It just had bread and egg. No salt no pepper no nothing. They are true to their word. Not a thing more.
2. A pizza on which I requested an extra topping of sundried tomato. It had layers and layers of it. I had to dig into tomatoes to find what else was there. And it was yucky.
3. A garlic flavoured potato chips. Now garlic is something which is used in small quantities. for the smell and the flavour. . I wish I could make the guy who cooked this eat a whole slice of garlic and tell him: Dude its a spice. U dont make someone have a dinner of garlic!!
So All in all I would say that subtlety is missing in the american cooks. Italians on the other hand have a better sense. But again not as good as Indians. I am not comparing food here. Just the art of flavouring things with multiple flavours in small amounts.
Which is also similar to what they have done to the english language. It had "flavour" in it. But then they removed "u" out of it. It wasnt really required there. "o" was the main thing. But "u" added a special flavour to it. (sidenote: having "u" really adds flavour to life itself :D ). (sidenote: "u" also adds "colour" to life). The americans got rid of the flavour and now its just flavor. And u know what, it doesnt smell or taste that good now.

I have realized I am not a very touristy person. I have been to quite a lot of places in the last one year. But havent enjoyed a lot. I am the kind of person who likes to do things more than to see things. That doesnt mean that I "do" a lot of things. I am too lazy for that too. But yes if I manage overcoming my laziness, I enjoy that more.
Like today I went to a nice place with some friends. But it didnt interest me at all. The others were quite happy to be there and see things, but I was kinda bored. Which frustrated them in the end.
Probably thats why I have always preferred sitting on a comp than sitting in front of the tv. Like today only I started a movie on TV. Then I got the idea to write a script to make something easy. And I switched the TV off. Now, having a terminal adds to the fun of mac.
Also went to the gym today. My approach towards gym is bad. Instead of jogging for half an hour on the treadmill I ran at more than double the speed for 10 mins. People told me that it wasnt a nice idea. But I find running for half an hour a little boring.
Will continue the gym for some time.. but I am very sire its not my kind of thing. Just passing time right now. And a little bit of healthiness hurts no one.

Chak de India

I dont know the meaning of "Chak de". I tried to translate and this is what I got. "Chak de India" means to me "Taste of India" with Chak in hindi de in french and India in English :)
Jokes apart a week ago I was afraid of watching this movie. I ended up watching it and liking it. Though the whole scripts was pretty much predictable and probably used in many other movies. Even the scores were quite predictable. But still it was an exciting watch.
I heard a criticism sometime back that we have a lot of happenings in our country which are worth making a movie upon. Not just because they would sell. But because cinema is the reflection of the society we live in and we miss out on a lot of stuff that happens here. I was quite disheartened by the movie "Yun hota to kya hota". Not because it was a bad movie. It ws in fact quite decent. But because it had to pick up that 911 plot. I think there are enough stories to tell already before we pickup that plot. And secondly because US already does a lot of 911 propoganda. We have enough problems of our own. Now thats a completely different frustration that would come out later. BTW I am flying out to US on 9/11. :(
Coming back to Chak De: I am very emotional about a Coach-Team relationship. I had seen a movie when I was a kid in which a coach trains a woman athlete. She ran in the olympics and there was some politics where someone put glass pieces in her shoes. Her feet started bleeding but still she ran. She glanced at her coach who was looking at her with hope and encouragement. And she ran with bleeding feet. Quite a scene it was. The effort that a coach puts in a team and just watches them perform. Watches with all that hope. It moves me a lot.
And the fact that Chak De is inspired by a real story also adds to the effect. Now thats what I meant about telling stories which should be told !!

One Year @ Bangalore

Bangalore has a terrible traffic. And its mainly because of the poor infrastructure of the city. The roads just cant handle the volumes that run on it everyday.
But given the constraints Bangalore government is not doing a very great job at managing traffic. Delhi also had some traffic problems on the ring road. And the volumes of traffic served by delhi road is much more compare to bangalore. But Delhi govt has constantly come up with new flyovers (Moolchand underpass ) and other solutions to the problems. Many argue that flyovers is not the solution. But I have seen them work quite well in Delhi.
Look at this marvel for instance from the Bangalore traffic department. It has an intersection on top. And for one half the traffic follows as "right hand drive" traffic. Its amazing how this things gets implemented. Is there no decision making body which has anyone sensible on board.
Besides there are many one-way routes. And now there is a new auto lane in place. Autos are *supposed* to ride *only* in this lane. But do they? And even if they sometimes do the argument is that its to partition "fast moving" and "slow moving" traffic. Now comes the question: WHAT THE HELL DO YOU MEAN BY FAST MOVING?? If any of you have driven anything anywhere in rush hour in bangalore you would figure out the futility of this partition.
What they have actually done is partition the space on the road. And in places they have put up a concrete partition. The whole arrangement causes a loss of a little over 1 foot along the whole stretch of the road. And in cases where no one is driving in the auto lane it wastes the whole 10 foot lane. Add to that the commotion that is created at spots where the partition starts (which is mostly after a red light). There is a rule of thumb in traffic. Jams occur at places where you break its smoothness. At bisections. At places where two roads meet. And by putting up this partition they have created two such spots for every partition.
I am not saying that I have the perfect solution to the problem. But what I say is that whenever there is a problem I like to go to the root of it. Solve it there. Putting up hacks like these helps no one. Makes the code dirty and unmanageable. Unless you want to more items in "things you did this year" in your annual review.
Also there's another thing that the last year has taught me. Decisions should be backed by numbers. Arguments a re subjective. And that is why you can argue from both sides of an issue without arriving at a decision. Or worse arriving at a wrong decision. But numbers dont let you do that. I doubt any of the (FUTILE) changes made by the Bangalore Traffic Department had any statistics or research backing the decision.
Again another thing that I find disturbing is the amount of pollution on road. Auto rickshaws are to be blamed mostly for this. But Delhi revamped their autos to CNG with cleaner results. Bangalore may have a space problem, and *that is why* they are not building better roads. But what prevents form improving auto rickshaws is beyond me. Pollution is a very grave issues. And I know a lot of people who are allergic to dust and remain sick while they are in Bangalore.
The bottom line is. Its no longer the sweet city that I visited a couple of years ago and was so excited to come back to. I have been here for one year now and I think everything that was good about this city 3 years back has deteriorated. The only thing we couldnt screw up was the weather which still rocks. And I am still grateful for that.

Chak de India

I cant decide whether I should watch this movie or I shouldnt.
These are my reasons for not watching:
1. I think its one of those encouraging movies. And I dont like to watch such movie. They fill you with some energy and I dont know what to do with that energy.
2. There have been many movies like iqbal etc. A losing team, an encouraging coach, a speech in the end and a glorious win. Add some other personal story and emotions in the background.
3. Shahrukh Khan had become intolerable lately. People tell me he is good in this movie. But I have my doubts with this man now.

On a different note, the song "Chak De India" by Sukhwinder singh is very very well sung. He has a very nice voice and he has used it well. Lyrics too are quite nice.
Its been so many years now since the old Gulzar days, but till date if any song has good lyrics you wonder if it is Gulzar. For one, the man is unpredictable. And then there hasnt been anyone since then. Bollywood lyrics has been quite poor. Unlike the music direction which has seen maestros on a more regular basis. Panchamda, Rehman and now HR. :)

Back from Leh

Just came back from an awesome trip from Leh. Will hopefully write on that later. In a more graphic blog. This one is a general rant.
The best part of the trip was the company. Very nice people. Which reminds me of the status message that I once had. "To all the wonderful people out there called 'friends'. Cheers".
There seems to be a thermostat which gets cutoff at different time for different people. After that it becomes impossible to stand it. And its only for a few people that this cutoff is high enough. And its getting shorter and shorter for other people. This thoroughly goes with the "hell is other people" from "no exit". Which comforts me because it shows that I am not the only one who has such sick(?) thoughts.
As soon as I came back from The 15 day trip which included air travel of 6 hrs and road travel of some 90 hrs I got offers (? moreso orders) to travel to two different very long trips. I think I can stop paying for rent. I am sick and tired of travle now. Let me stay in one place please.
Lyrics of a nice song from Shrek .. Hallelujah:

I’ve heard there was a secret chord
That David played and it pleased the Lord
But you don’t really care for music do you?
It goes like this – the fourth, the fifth
The minor fall, the major lift
The baffled King composing Hallelujah

Maybe there’s a God above
And all I ever learned from love
Was how to shoot at someone who outdrew you
And it’s not a cry you can hear it night
It’s not somebody who’s seen the light
It’s a cold and it’s a broken hallelujah

One of my friends pointed out that I am the kind of person who wouldnt say no to something I dont like if I know others are interested. But anyone who knows me a little bit can guess what I like and what I dont. Because the frustration shows quite easily on me (ppl do point that i get frustrated. but they fail to understand the reason. darling, sorry to point that out, but most probably its u). So anyone who cares shouldnt drag me. It was very thoughtful of you to point this out. Thanks a lot :)

Warning: offensive in nature. And everything i say has a qualifier "I feel that". Not think ... but feel !!!

Trance music is retarted. And so are some discs. Some people do enjoy it a lot. But there are a kind of people who think they are so cool. They are more interested in dragging you in between than dancing themselves. If you are enjoying the activity why dont you continue doing it. I dont enjoy it. No I am not being rude. But its rude to keep dragging someone and act cool about it.
Anyway I'll stop spitting anymore venom now. I can understand the fun that ppl have. And I am very sorry for not being able to participate. But thats how it is. And one of the few lessons of life are: "that things are what they are and will be what they will be"
Anyway looking forward to good times now!!

You wanna partner?

Thumbs down for David dhawan for bad direction, bad comedy. Didnt see anything dhawanish in the movie.
Thumbs up to Govinda for whatever he does to make ppl laugh. And double thumbs up to Salman Khan. He has managed to pull the movie through on pure style. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38RkOxsiB4o
I went to the movie for Katrina. And she was the biggest let down. Lara Dutta was OK too.
Overall wortha awatch

Dilli

Yeh Shaher meri jaan, Iska naam meri pehchaan
Meri saanson mein basa is hawa ka nasha
Mera dil mera pata meri shaan
Yeh shaher meri jaan, Yeh shaher meri jaan

Kehti koi kahani, Ye galiyan ye bastiyan
raahon ko sajayein pedon ki daaliyan
Ye nazara kitna hai pyara

Mera dil mera pata meri shaan
Yeh shaher meri jaan, Yeh shaher meri jaan

Bhagta phir raha har insaan yahan
Dil mein hia basaye jeene ka armaan
Sabka sahara shaher hamara

Mera dil mera pata meri shaan,
Yeh shaher meri jaan, Yeh shaher meri jaan

Dilli hai meri jaan .... 5

These were the lyrics of a beautiful song "Dilli" by none other than Euphoria.

The fire

DAAG the Fire. It was a name which stayed around for a time much longer than what the movie deserved. Perhaps because it was the first name of "The .... " genre.
The meaning of it came to my mind only yesterday. And it felt like enlightenment. The kind of which Buddha was looking for. It was at a time when I just had a magnificient lunch and was not particularly thinking about anything. Which verified the theory that good solutions come to your mind when you are fully satisfied and mentally relaxed.
Without lingering on and on I will share with everybody the enlightenment. Not unlike the four noble truth and the eightfold path of buddhism.
So here goes. ....
DAAG = D AAG = The AAG = The fire
Thanks you Thank you :)

Anyway .. as far as chronicles are concerned. Had a nice camping weekend. Being a single man in between four couples :). It was fun for me. Might not have been for a few couples who had me as a kabab in their haddis. Or the other way round.
Also did what I wanted to do for a long time. Lied on a beach in the sun for two hours ... alone .. reding a book. It was quite satisfying.
Waiting eagerly to be back home. Tourism etc is fun. But home is where the heart is. And its definitely India. I am quite happy that I live there. Because even with everyone around here all of a sudden there is a hollowness inside which shouts "where are you" and you find that you are half a planet away from home. So you crave for the love and are ready to embrace all the traffic.

Excess of everything is bad.
If its some its awesome. But if its full its awful. :D

Just finished this book, The fall by Camus. The subject of the matter being judgement. How we keep judging ourselves all the time. And how we also judge everyone else and everyone judges is. And how it makes life so much difficult.

Birthday

Its my birthday today. :)
And I must thank the one person in my life who was made life worth living. Its been a pleasure knowing you. After some time you start taking things so taken for granted that you forget to be thankful.
I would also like to thank my parents. They have been the most loving parents. They have been through a lot over the past few weeks. I wish I could be with them for some time.
And last but not the least. My friends from Kumaon. And from my school. Not taking any names but as I write this I know there is a smile on my face remembering everyone. Even "L" who has introduced a lot of pain in sitting.
Thanks again to everyone who wished. And all those who forgot to wish. Its quite some fun to call someone and remind him that its your birthday. Of course with a dozen of "words of love".
This here means a lot to many people. And also to some people who are not in this pic :).
Anyway ...
Cheers ... to Me and Bhokal :)

LOST on the terrace

Stranded with just a laptop bag and a book, on the terrace of house surrounded on all sides by unknown relatives. Nothing much to do. Poeple coming in at regular intervals. Artificial smiles. Intros. Google? Wierd smiles. Then children of all ages <12 rushing past you. One or two would stop to stare at you. Talking of zoos and animals.

Anyway. with no internet, you write this post on a textedit (thats notepad for you Apple illiterates :P ) hoping that you wold publish this on your blog when you are rescued from this island of boredom.

I will also touch some topics that I had planned to write (crib :D) about. I can understand why (unlike delhi govt) Blore hasnt been able to cope up with traffic. Its because the city is cramped and there's no possibility of widening roads. But what blows out my mind is that what prevents them from ensuring that the autos are euro3 compliant. OK i am kidding. I dont want them to be euro compliant but a fairly large number of running autos are so damn loud and smoky. For anybody who thinks delhi govt sucks should stay in bangalore.

Watched zeher yesterday. One of the better movies in the past. Emraan hashmi is quite good. At least not as irritating as a couple of guys out there. And no there is no sarcasm intended here.

Have been reading the book The Fall by Camus. Been quite interesting. A couple of nice lines came up. One was about man feeding on other people's tragedy. I think its quite true.

Weekend full of relatives and friends. And all of them very good people. But I like most friends and relatives in small doses. There are very very few people in this world whom you can tolerate for more than a couple of hours. At the end you just long to be left alone for a couple of hours.

Introduction of Mirza Galib

Theres a beautiful song in my list by this name. I can send it across if anybody wants. Its got a nice collection of his gazals.

Theres this one which goes like this...

"Ragon mein daudne ke hum nahi qayal .....
Ragon mein daudne ke hum nahi qayal .....
Jab aankh hi se na tapka to lahu kya hai "

Gazals have a very typical climax and anticlimax. In the first line they create a climax where you almost guess how its going to end and much of its beauty lies in how well the gazal meets your expectation that the climax creates. Its really quite an art.

New Title

In case you noticed the change in Title. Here's a couple of reasons
1. Obviously inspired by Apple
2. It sounds positive. Life is complex sounded Negative
3. Its still the same. Life is complex. Means it has an imaginary part. Life = Real + iLife . This is the imaginary part :D


My firefox is not working well with mac. Its hung all the time. Will have to switch to something else. This sucks, because Apple and Firefox are the two of the best things that have happened in the industry.

The banks love me

I think I should keep a log of all the calls that I get.
My friends rarely call me now. Everytime the phone rings I know its either my Mom or HSBC or HDFC.
And as everybody knows nobody loves you more than the credit card people, sp fittingly enough the frequency chart is topped by these people. Airtel and Hutch come quite close but they are more like distant cousins. Banks are the real close family.

I had the most amazing days. I hadnt slept in the last 8 days. And still I found so much energy. I was with my family. And I mean the extended family. And there is a completely new level of comfortableness with family. Something different from what you have with friends. Its not exactly better but on a completele different plane.
One specific night when All of us sat down for a couple of hours to sing some really old songs. Not exactly sing as to listen to my mausaji singing, who is a very good singer of Rafi and Hemant Kumar kind of songs.
And I recorded all of it on my motorazr. And despite the bad sound quality and few unpleasant sounds (specially mine :D ) in between it sounds much better than the real mp3.
Its a few hours like this that make the whole world and this life worth living.
I am not being cynical but "Hell is other people" is somewhat true. And some people do get on your nerves.
We all worked together in my didi's marriage. It bought us very close to each other.
I will end this now as there's lots of work to do.
But it truly was "The time of my life"
And this is what paraj was singing seconds after the vidai "zindagi ke safar mein chale jaate hain jo makaam wo fir nahi aate".
The memory of these few days would bring a smile on my face for a very long time to come.

The Graduate and The Heroes

Saw The Graduate yesterday. A very engrossing movie. Also for me anything works as long as it has a good background score. I was expecting to hear Mrs Robinson in the background. And for me just that song was worth watching the movie for. But I was treated by The Sounds of silence right in the beginning. It was probably one of the best starting scenes. The there was "The scarborough fair" and "april come she will".

Apparently Mrs Robinson was not written for this. Simon and Garfunkel did not have time for composing so many songs for this movie. So the director just converted A Mrs Roosevelt of a under composition song by them into Mrs Robinson and used it.




The practice of copying other ppl's assignment and changing names seems to be quite deep rooted in human nature.
Since this is the first time I am adding pictures to my blog I will not stop at just one.

I have also been following Prison Break and Heroes. Both of them are pretty good too. Although these are like the Sidney Sheldon Jeffrey Archer stories where there is always CIA an FBI involved and the battle is between a normal human being against an all-powerful and mysterious association of evil forces. And everything happens at the very last moment. Even if they have to show a guy go to the bathroom they would *have* (they cant help it you see) to show a long queue outside the bathroom till he can hold it no longer.
Anyway, its still a lot of fun to watch both of them.

Driving on the footpath in a dangerous manner

I got challanned for driving my bike on the footpath. But what do you do when the 6 foot wide road has a jam which runs through all the length of the road. Everyday. If you dont do that you lose half an hour daily. 200 Rs in exchange for that is a good deal :)
But it hurts giving a single pie to Karnataka govt. And also to policewalas whose sole aim in life is to get 100 Rs from each and every living human being.

I saw a couple of movies: Pusuit of Happiness and The graduate.
Pursuit of happiness was a typical "Fundas of life" movie from the hollywood. But what caught my attention was the fact that the little child stuck to his father all the time without so much as a smirk on his face. Also I think children have a much better perspective of this world.
When we grow up (Its still very unbelievable that I have to put myself in a category other than children :( ) we have a hardened perspective. We pretty much know whats going to happen to us. We no longer expect miracles. We no longer dream about becoming the astronauts. Well most of us dont, we still have a couple of dreamers among us. And no this is not meant to be derogatory, thats the way we all ought to be.
So coming back to the point, when a child looks at the prime minister of india, he woud believe that he would be the same one day. But we know what to expect and modulo some minor changes we can predict most things.
Similarly when you leave the same child in a drk room he would be scared as hell not knowing what might happen. We on the other hand will handle it better because we know that monsters dont exist.
In essence children have all their imaginations, and ignorance and hope still alive and going. We have kinda lost them now. And things are much more stable.

The book that I am reading now is "Lord of the flies". It would fall in the same category of books as "animal farm" 1984 brave bew world. Books which describe a society in order to understand our society and the players in it. Its a good book except it gets boring at times :) . Its about a bunch of kids who are shipwrecked into an island. And are now developing their own society. But the parts where they have meetings. With a chief and some other "important people" referring to the rest as littluns. It brought about quite a memory of the hostel meetings. And then I thought it would be best not to think on those lines. But there are a lot of evil (not evil exactly) things in this world that go by unnoticed unless you think very logically to uncover the pretentions of glory that they hide under.
A guy i knew in hostel was an expert at uncoveing such pretenses. Once we were talking about the military and he said that military was full of very very dumb people. I said that it was very rude of him to say so about an institution which is so respectable and to which we owe so much. But deep down inside I also know that all that glory associated with things like these are pretentions to cover up the real truth which is not very pleasant.

1. No comments about India's performance against Sri Lanka. There are many things that I would like to say... But I dont know how

2. I get extremely irritated by some ppl these days. Seems like when I was in college I was not sure of what I wanted and compromising abt a lot of things but now I seem to know what I want and its becoming hard to compromise.

3. South Africa is always out of luck. They were chasing too damn good. Then a throw from the boundary struck the stumps and DeVillers was out. Followed by Smith getting hurt. A team chasing 378 cannot survive such unlucky events. Full credits to the australians though for their discipline. They are truly professionals. close to 80% of their throws hit the stumps.

4. ADS and broadcast. Its Frustrating and by using that word I am being euphemistic. First of all the scorecard never shows "overs". Its a one-day for chrissake. No stats whatsoever, with a very heavy heart (important advertiesment airtime is being wasted in that) they show 6 deliveries. As soon as the last ball of the over leaves the bat you can see SRK singing for santro. It gets on your nerves. And why in the name of god do they advertise for soap operas between cricket matches. If they could squeeze in ads for 2-5 sec I m sure they would use the time when the ball leaves the baller and reaches the batsman. The fun has gone out of cricket. And broadcasting takes most of the credit for that. You would believe that with the advent of technology etc it would improve: But NO. giving the rights to channels like Sab TV or Sony!!!! There are specialized sports channels!!! But then in India cricket is not a sport. Its become a business. Sachin has become as bad as SRK. Performs only against The Bermudas aka Karanjohar matches/movies.
There were times when I actually was thinking of watching live score on cricinfo rather than the live telecast.
And to top it all there's mandira bedi. She is truly the icing on the cake. You talk about Windows selling more than Mac. It truly makes sense. The world is ruled by mediocres. And believe it or not an average human being is far more stupid than we can imagine. I am not being rude. This is the only reaosn I can reason the fact that things detoriate and bad things sell.
And yes one last thing. If I were hitler and I had to choose one sect of human population to be killed, I would choose all the management of all the companies and organizations. They are the ones behind all the mediocricity. Because they are the ones who want things to sell in the market and they target the mediocricity. Technologists on the other hand want to improve everything.
Steve Jobs: "Anyway we have a better OS than yours"
Bill Gates: "You dont understand Steve, That doesnt matter"

iPray

We take so many things for granted. We are forever so worried about our "issues in life" that we stop appreciating what we already have.
I always have this habbit of looking closely at people I dont know, and trying to guess what they think like.
So I was in the bathroom at my office and was watching the maintainance guy washing the wash basin. He was almost my age. And I started thinking at how should he feel when he sees me, same age as his working at this position at office. Whereas he is serving me and the other guys by cleaning the bathrooms for us. What is it that has brought him an inferior fate than me.
Both of us know that he would be as good a guy as me, maybe better. Its just that he didnd get the opportunities that my parents got me. We all know what the reasons were. But he also has all rights to enjoy life as much as I do.

My mother has a peculiar take on religion, which she actually borrows from my dadi. She says that lets assume that God is a parent. Parents give their everything to their children. They would be very happy if the children could at the end of the day come home and remember them. And say thanks to them for everything. That is the minimum that you can do and also the maximum. That is why she says we should pray. I agree.
But I have bended it a little more to my comfort :) . I say that God is a kind of invisible parent who doesnt want to be known that he is there. Without going too much into "the existence and forms of God" discussion, lets just say that all he wants is that we be happy. And even after giving us so much if he sees us unhappy. *that* would make Him sad. So rather than cribbing all day long and then praying to God. Be happy. Let that be your prayer and your worship to Him who has given ou so much.

sorry for the didactic prose towards the end. But when i see the poor and the handicapped and sick people, it really hurts me. More so, when i imagine that at this very instance a perfectly well to do human being in some perfect luxury would be cribbing about how bad his life is !!

Management is like that parasite which inevitably grows into any company that starts growing with the aim of gaining control.

Its surprising that Windows still hasn't come up with simple things integrated into the OS. For example a dictionary. Mac on the other hand has pretty much everything a home computer user needs built right into it. 

I tried (well my brother actually) syncing music in the motorazr itunes. Now I can do anything on my cell and can have music in the background :). Even if I play any other clip it would pause the itunes, play the clip and then unpause the itunes. works quite well. Was wondering how much has itunes become a part of our daily life. 

You expect a lot of things. None of them happen. But a lot of other good things keep happenening. Yesterday Delhi's trip was like that. Now its up to you if you crib about what you plannned didnt happen or thank God for everything good that you didnt expect keeps happening in your life. 

This is a test run from the iBlog widget of mac. So you can just type into this and publish directly. Its qiote good if you are the kind who blogs small posts and quite frequently 

Saurabh: yaar tenth se fight maar raha hai yaar
bhagwan ke ghar mein der hai andher nahin
woh aur LLL first year // **name changed to protect identity **
mein saath mein baith ke prayer karte the ki koi mil jae
Saurabh: ab iit mein kaun unki sunta
lekin ab to banta hai

Life

It turns out that life is not that complex.
Its a simpe process. In the childhood your parents tell you some stupid concepts. You disregard them. And by the time life is over you realize they were right.
You try to tell your children the same concepts. But they disregard you just as you did your parents.
So its a simple process of disregarding important facts and then realizing them and then getting disregarded.
Yes .. each and everything we were preached to by our parents were true.