Bombay

I will call the mega polis as Bombay. I never liked it when they changed the city's name. The city is huge and yes mega is the right name for it. The nightspots are simply superb -one may require an entire fortnight to finish them.

The city has its own problems - the people are just one of them. It needs a mega plan to revitalise its infrastructure - transport, water,living spaces,waste treatment.

And on the other hand - what does the beloved Shiv Sena and MNS do ? Any grand ideas for the city thats crumbling and vulnerable from them ?

None at all - except play politics ;after all they are politicians ..

Helped a blind man today

to cross the road and it felt really good......

The gud old blore weather !!

The cold damp weather - once in a day rains of Bangalore are back again and one has only oneself to give company... I have touched 70 kgs - the only way was eating hard :) and parallely working out in the gym...Now need to move up the value chain of working out, meanwhile allow me to chill out in this beautiful weather. !

Funny Pics

1.The female monkey above looks longingly at an ATM security guard,for food

2. Hilarious sign put up at Dominoes Pizza Church Street-- it was such a disaster eating at the place there !!!

Durga Puja

Crackers on diwali

Poetry

I look out through the window

Up onto the white grey sky

and i see the moon

lovely little speck

I wish I was on a plane

so that I could poke it

and see it for myself

if it was real

I hold my gaze and it does

the same

wonder how did it learn this

little trick

Ah the moon,

lovely little speck

in the dark white sky

Serene,

And yet lonely

Humsini

She passed away.......

Her face still in front of me..

Difficult to digest

Bubbly,

Sweet...

Victim of road rage

Not her fault - death is nobody's fault

Died too soon

Cant get it out of my head .................

Interesting Views from todays Sunday Times

" The happiness of life, the joy of individual liberty, will define the politics of India in the foreseeable future. Those politicians who do not recognize this are condemned to irrelevance. Who understands life better than a woman? Women give life. Men take it.
Women have listened to priests in every age of recorded history. It is time for priests to listen to women" ----- M J AKBAR

"This then is the secret of India’s success. Don’t waste time with strategic planning and picking winners. Simply let competition happen. You will be surprised how the most unlikely sectors can become world class. That’s how India has just beaten China." - SWAMINATHAN S ANKLESARIA AIYAR

The youtube videos

Its fun now using the youtube esp after I found out a website which can convert video links into the VLC format. The power of youtube now just seems endless.

I bought my phone

Its the Nokia E 63 and its getting in all the nice comments one cud expect from people around me.!!

Today

Today - is bit dull and melancholic - but surprisingly all the 4 hindi channels on TATA Sky are showing Big B movies - one channel says its ABC ( Amitabh Bachchan Cinema) !!

PONDERISMS

I used to eat a lot of natural foods until I learned that most people die of natural causes.
There are two kinds of pedestrians: the quick and the dead.
Life is sexually transmitted.
Healthy is merely the slowest possible rate at which one can die.
The only difference between a rut and a grave is the depth.
Health nuts are going to feel stupid someday, lying in hospitals dying of nothing.
Have you noticed since everyone has a camcorder these days no one talks about seeing UFOs like they used to?
Whenever I feel blue, I start breathing again.
All of us could take a lesson from the weather. It pays no attention to criticism.
In the 60's, people took acid to make the world weird. Now the world is weird and people take Prozac to make it normal.
How is it one careless match can start a forest fire, but it takes a whole box to start a campfire?
Who was the first person to look at a cow and say, 'I think I'll squeeze these dangly things and drink whatever comes out?'
If Jimmy cracks corn and no one cares, why is there a song about him?
Why does your OB-GYN leave the room when you get undressed if they are going to look up there anyway?
If quizzes are quizzical, what are tests?
If corn oil is made from corn, and vegetable oil is made from vegetables, then what is baby oil made from?
Do illiterate people get the full effect of Alphabet Soup?
Does pushing the elevator button more than once make it arrive faster?
Why doesn't glue stick to the inside of the bottle?
Do you ever wonder why you gave me your email address?
Can you cry under water?
How important does a person have to be before they are considered assassinated instead of just murdered?
Why do you have to 'put your two cents in'. . . But it's only a 'penny for your thoughts'? Where's that extra penny going to?
Why does a round pizza come in a square box?
What disease did cured ham actually have?
How is it that we put man on the moon before we figured out it would be a good idea to put wheels on luggage?
Why is it that people say they 'slept like a baby' when babies wake up like every two hours?
If a deaf person has to go to court, is it still called a hearing?
Why are you IN a movie, but you're ON TV?
Why do people pay to go up tall buildings and then put money in binoculars to look at things on the ground?
Why is 'bra' singular and 'panties' plural?
Why do toasters always have a setting that burns the toast to a horrible crisp, which no decent human being would eat?
Can a hearse carrying a corpse drive in the car-pool lane ?
If the professor on Gilligan's Island can make a radio out of a coconut, why can't he fix a hole in a boat?
Why does Goofy stand erect while Pluto remains on all fours? They're both dogs!
If Wiley E. Coyote had enough money to buy all that ACME crap, why didn't he just buy dinner?
If electricity comes from electrons, does morality come from morons?
Do the Alphabet song and Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star have the same tune?
Why did you just try singing the two songs above?
Why do they call it an asteroid when it's outside the hemisphere, but call it a hemorrhoid when it's in your butt?
Did you ever notice that when you blow in a dog's face, he gets mad at you, but when you take him for a car ride, he sticks his head out the window?

PS- from an email forward from my friend

The Concept of Existential Aloneness

You need to read this section from the book -Pulling your own strings by Dr Wayne W Dyer.The concept of exisential aloneness simply says that human existence is predicated on one being alone with your unique feelings and thoughts. and that life can be simpler if one accepts this reality.

Searching for a cell phone

My nokia 5610 is screwed up with hardware issues - it was a really good deal that time ( my sister and bro in law gifted it to me) .Nonetheless it worked well - 3.2 mp phone camera was worth it and for the very little amount of music I listen to the loudspeaker quality was decent.
Anyways, now with the memory card not being read by the phone, the slider acting cranky affecting the screen display its time for me to look around for a new one. And man its proving to be a tough !!
For the budget in mind there are no good phones - either they are slider ones or dont have a decent camera.I have gone to google and did recee the stores , the nokia e 63 looks good so far . My room mate has picked up the same and it does look good- wat does add up in the end is that its time for me to move up the value chain

Masinagudi

It was after a long time that I had a road trip weekend .Went to masinagudi with office colleagues and man it was an awesome place to stay at the homestay- Mountain Mist . It was my responsibility to make sure that the place we stay be a good one - after all I had called up my pal in Mysore to find out somebody to arrange this. And everything fell beautifully into place. The homestay was just nestled under the foothills of the Nilgiris and man it was so silent that talking in loud voices there made one feel guilty.

It made me doubly happy and proud when such things fell in place for rarely have I got a chance to do things single handedly esp when one is the youngest in the family and most of the time made to sit on the fence.. It showed that I could do things on my own and that too smartly - that I can pull it off when the time came .

Finally on facebook !

Sometime ago I commented on a cartoon strip that appeared in Sunday Times - about a woman not being on Facebook and how she did not want to succumb to conforming to the world around her.
I tried my best to hold out and not be on that networking site - the entire world was there and that was exactly the reason I held out but finally succumbed. Another reason I held out was the concept of being on a networking site is bit oxymoron - if u want to stay connected- pick up the phone and call why be on a virtual network ?

I poked my brother in law and added a few friends - lets see how things work out ....

Comic Strips

I have been reading the e paper version of Times of India these days and yesterdays Bangalore Times supplement had two wonderful and the most beautiful cartoons under Calvin & Hobbes and Between Friends.
Calvin complains how time has flown quickly and that he does not want to go to school and that he wants to hoard his freedom and have more fun

In Between Friends. Susan tells Maeve that she did not find her in Facebook.Maeve replies saying that she is not on facebook. Why ? asks a surprised Susan one should be on Facebook so as to stay in the loop. Maeve replies that does not make any sense to her and Susan wonders when did being relevant ever make sense to anybody !!

I wish I could post the cartoons on the blog I do not know how. Try reading them and you would realise that sometimes things that are meant to be laughed at teach you the most relevant lessons about life itself.

Obsoletely Male

I borrowed the heading from Sunday Times of India ( 12 july 2009) article titled WATER COOLER moment - it was supposed to be a pun on the news that scientists have invented a procedure to create sperm cells from stem cells and that would mean the men would not be needed anymore.

Almost all the articles that I have come across on this topic laments this fact or rather grumbles on this fact but not this one.
The article- pun in cheek -writes that women traits are happening - better EQ so better team players ,better listeners so better managers and even better shoppers and then suddenly the article counter argues that a girl cannot choose all the lovable features of a particular man from stem cells and eventually we all need love .

The article is brilliantly written with everything so subtly put into a single precise column - hats off to the thought process and the editing !!

India after Gandhi

I have finally finished reading this book - it took me more than two months to finish it though. The book is a good read especially if one wants to know how India shaped up after Independence .Beginning with Nehru to 2003 the author Ramachandra Guha captures everything- the Partiton the Kashmir issue, secessionary tendencies in North East , war with China, Indira Gandhi and the war of 1971 with Pakistan. It touches on even movies and even the evolution of All India Radio
The book ends with something a very interesting insight - "so long as Hindi movies are watched and their songs sung,India will survive."

Intelligence

My friend told me that I am way too high for her intelligence. I said I can come down to her level but then she asked for how long would you put up the act. One day I would be giving up the pretense.
This "categorisation" of me must have began during my degree days and it indeed became more evident during MBA.I am not gloating over all this. Sometimes I feel sad that I find myself alone in the so called intellectual league.
Perhaps. all the knowledge has been bottled up till date.
I read more books than my peers and thought more than they ever did.
I do not know how I would go about getting myself a partner if she is not intellectually upto me - would I be able to put up with her? I guess this is a different tangent and I need to answer it seperately

R D Burman

Today is this legends birthday. I love his songs and they have remained hummable even till date.

Michael Jackson

Original song writer, music composer. choreographer,the singer with whom my generation grew up with.
World record holder for staying on the No. 1 Singles hit chart (37 weeks) .
Pioneer of the music video industry.
Controversy never left him even on his death. May his soul rest in peace.

Asking the right questions

They say one needs to ask questions . The right questions at the right time to the right person ,I believe, to get the right answers.
If you dont get the right answers then think if you have done the above correctly.

Moments of Happiness

We yearn for moments of happiness - moments we feel we can hold onto and be at peace with ousrselves.All our worries ,stress and tensions lie in crossing that distance - the shortest ever but yet longest - the proverbial so near and yet so far.

Friends

They are like the drivers you see on your rearview mirror.They are right behind you but do not overtake and always remember objects in the rearview mirror are actually closer than you think !

The month of May

My recently married friend from MBA came to my room today and complained that in the past 3 weeks he has come to my room, I am not to be seen.

First weekend of May I was in Mumbai having an awesome weekend with friends there.Its an awesome city to party. Yes the May heat can kill you especially if you are from Bangalore.The only way out is the traditional Malayalee habit of bathing twice a day. I could not get on to ride a double decker bus but made my friends take me around the city which I believe wont tire you.

The third week I was in Mangalore with office collegaues attending a colleague's wedding. The road trip was simply relaxing !

Also went to see Jeffery Archer at Landmark, Jayanagar- he was witty some lines were repeated from his Mumbai and Chennai visits- overall a good impression about him - after all he signed my book.:)

Meanwhile the Congress won thumpingly in the elections - hope it does not become arrogant and then May also saw me change to contact lenses.. They are good to wear and you should see my new look its uber cool.....

Look forward to June with more posts and more activities after all the mind cant stay vacant.!!

Khushwant Singh

A couple of days back I finished reading Khushwant Singh's book of essays- Why I supported the Emergency and other essays - the simplicity of the language used is so powerful.The articles are all anecdotal in nature and filled with humuor . At 93 years this great mind is sharp as ever !!

The day I saw Rajiv Gandhi

One of the early VIP's I saw in my life was Rajiv Gandhi. I remember it very clearly - I was probably 6 years old or so and we stood outside our apartment complex. Traffic was held up and the roads were cleared for the calvacade to pass.And lo the fleet of ambassador cars whizzed by and there was Mr Rajiv Gandhi with his entire head out of the window waving to us.The crowd cheered and roared and for my impressionable mind the whole thing has just clung on.
A couple of years later Mr Rajiv Gandhi was assasinated .Those days we did not have 24 hour news channels and the morning edition of Statesman never came on time.We were cursing the news agent and when it came ,we read in bold headlines about the tragedy.Apparently a human bomb had blown herself up.It was gory .It was for the first time that such a weapon was used ( previous assassinations were through the bullet- Mahatma Gandhi and Indira).I never understood the political compulsions behind the killing - for me the person whom I had seen so upclose had gone and it was upsetting for me. Rajiv's face represented his entire legacy- the hairline of Nehru and the jaw of his mother Indira could be seen.

I am watching Big Fight on NDTV and the supporters of LTTE say that because Rajiv sent the IPKF to Sri Lanka, they blew him up.Who gave them the right to decide such things is my question ?

Being sick

I think i had a premonition of falling sick - somehow I was calculating the  number of sick leaves i had earned in the last year and how I could actually take them as lavishly I wanted. And then suddenly I was sick with viral fever from last Saturday. I hesitated going to the doctor for I was apprehensive about going into the hospital. The last time I had gone ( and for the first time in my life ) for typhoid was for three days and boy , it was so boring plus expensive.A steady stream of visitors had me humored but the experience was not pleasant.

So finally,this Tuesday I went to my doctor - a general practitioner ( always go to a GP first come what may ) amd he cheered me up when he did not mention of any tests or hospitals.The very relief made my sickness come down a notch and has put me onto road of recovery faster.(the happiness gene really works I guess ) 

I I just want to get back to my routinue- I have nissed my gym and the good food and I cant stand it longer.

Sundays

I live by my Sundays. The only day I get to do something which I have not done in the entire week is on a Sunday. Wish people around me felt the same way and not slept till late in the morning.

Indian Political League 2009 - 2

Its reaching the crescendo - honestly not much has changed in the parties and in the candidiates running for the elections. I will try my best to bundle what I am aware of whats happening .

1) NDA announces Advani as PM candidate .
2) UPA - the incumbent alliance has differences amongst themselves - Congress finds itself being marginalised in states where they are not dominant .
3) Advani appeals to youth -opens a facebook profile, goes to the gym ( a major PR campaign) to reach to the youth voters ( honestly this is very amusing to me ).
4) Third Front appears - a bunch of regional parties whom the BJP nor the Congress are willing to give weightage to but has to woo post elections.
5) BSP's Mayawati appears to be a strong kingmaker ( as I write this I am also watching an entire episode on her rise ) .
6) The actual campaign colours begin with the Varun Gandhi hate speech.
7) BJP and its allies attacks PM Manmohan Singh.
8) PM Manmohan suddenly bares his fangs - says he refuses to get into a TV debate with L K Advani for that would legitimise the latter's claim to being the next PM ( I loved his retorts ) .
9)The Samajwadi Party launched its election manifesto - and man its hilarious - ban computers ( what would friends Anil Ambani do with his Reliance Infocomm and Amitabh Bachchan with his blog !!)
10) The mood in electorate is somewhat like this - If Congress comes to power , I am ok with it.if its BJP then I would leave the country and if BSP's Mayawati becomes the PM - I would settle in Congo !!
11)Eventually everybody is moving in such a way that - 'you are my enemy, I dont like you ,I hate you and I cant stand the sight of you - but yes wait in case we are in a good position to form the govt post elections I am willing to sit with you and talk !!!!

All in all - wish I could vote online from here without going to my hometown .Its a huge excerise and needs to be carefully thought through, maybe someday it will happen...

Doing my "ings" correct

Recently my friend called me up and asked me how I was doing .I replied I was doing the usual - doing my "ings" correctly.

"Meaning ?"
"Oh , working,reading,watching TV,gymmimg,eating,sleeping and all such things "

Life after all seems to fall in that routine now where nothing would seem to go wrong

A Beautiful Sunday

Today was one of the most beautiful Sunday's in recent times.Breakfast-morning paper - movie on laptop-swimming and to top it up dinner at a Bengali restaurant.

I just dont want this night to pass.I hope it freezes and the sun never gets up tomorrow for this moment seems to be so perfect.

Under your wear

I was shopping today at a Hanes outlet near my PG for swimming costumes and I was amazed at the sheer collection of men's and women's undergarments available at one's disposal.

The designs,the styles ,the cut and to the extent of fabric being used has gone through a tremendous amount of change in the past fifteen years.I wonder if any B school has come out with a case study documenting such changes and about the brands in the current market.

I feel such changes reflect a change in attitude towards one's sexuality by the Indian consumer.A change in mindset about how they should feel inside to look good outside.

Hope such changes percolate deep further into the lower levels of the society - something which we Indians drastically need to improve upon.

Indian Political League 2009

Somehow this time's election does not look like an election at all.The sounds and sights are yet to be seen and felt.

It all looks to be a hung parliament with a coalition government. The BJP looks to be shooting in its foot with infighting and the Congress finding itself getting lost with its regional allies - first with NCP in Maharashtra and then RJD in Bihar. UP was always a lost state from 1979. The Third Front claims to have its own base but then again its loaded with regional stalwarts who have their egos as big as their regions they are in control of.

So whom does the Indian electorate vote for ? Not many good choices eh ?

Personally ,post elections I would want for a single party government at the helm atleast that way there would be no dilly dallying to make strong decisions. And yes of course some creative thinking in campaigning and the issues on which the elections are fought .

Next blog would be on what changes I would want in the Indian Political League

Eating with chopsticks

Last night dinner was with chopsticks at a Chinese restaurant.The impulse to do something out of the routine was so compelling.It was clumsy initially but it was good fun.

I guess this is what life is all about - doing things not done before and and enjoying those moments .

The failed state of Pakistan

I cant help but comment on this topic. Have u ever thot why Pakistan has become the way it is today ,despite having achieved Independence along with India.
Come what may we Indians religiously go to the polls every five years ( how muchever Godhra type events happen , we go ) .We have some how stuck to the Constitution that the founding fathers had envisoned .But look at Pakistan - tumultous history and not a wink of peaceful sleep for its citizens ............. what went wrong ?

Big question in my mind - discussion with friend

There ocurred a big question in my mind which ended up in a big discussion with one of my friends ..
The point here was why does life end up chasing ideals ,of chasing aspirations and the struggle to achieve them.One tends to move on from one desire to another and the ensuing struggle for that.

I am sure we are meant to do something in our life rather than this "pursuit of happyness" thing

How do we get to the answers? They do say that life is all meant to be a struggle and there is no meaning to it without the struggle - but then why are we falling into the trap in the first place ? To learn what ? And for what higher purpose ?

Slumdog Millionaire

The movie won the Oscars and yet there are some people who are still skeptical about it. This is typical crab mentality- neither do u u go up nor do u let others move forward .

PS- read my take for the movie in an earlier post

In the presence of greats !!

Abraham Lincoln was born on Feb 12th and George Washington on 22nd Feb - and I was born right inbetween the two dates !! ( WOW)

The World is not a nice to place live !

Recent events have been making the world a not so nice to live. First it was the slowdown followed by recession which meant job losses . Swaminathan S Ankelswaria Aiyer in todays TOI says that the recession was brought about b y Asian economies holding on to surplus foreign reserves.He says that the Americans have generally used their future income to consume more ( there is no other economy that spends more and only when this country spends does the world economy run !!) and on top of that when Asian economies pumped in their dollar reserves to buy American assests and stocks it made US domestic interest rates much more lower which in turn encouraged Americans to borrow more and spend more and finally when the bubble burst - we all came tumbling down. (Wow ! that was the most simplistic version I could have come up for any economic article)
Meanwhile Paris Hilton says that she will spend more to help the world economy but the problem is she would be buying only from the elite brands/companies and how does this " magnamious act" of hers help things .
Obama has come to power and I am still not sure how he is going to bring the change he has been promising.

Closer home some really jobless people have taken up to define whats good and bad for us ( I am referring to the Sri Ram Sene) and V day celebrations seem to look bad this year. Intellectuals will only talk and cannot act do what they propose for they are intellectuals and their job is to think .

Why cant women organise a Sree Durga Sene and go on a rampage ?

Closer to me I have joined a gym finally and enjoying every bit of it ,after all those sessions are all about me and me alone !

Where have I been ?

I was not in town for the past two weeks - was at home for 5 days ( ah that was heaven !!) Best part of the home trip was I did not have a single official call or escalation and that was pretty much of an achievement.
Yesterday I was back from Tirupati - it was good I guess.
Now here I am writing this blog and the biggest worry for today is have I outlasted my utility to the people around me ? I guess and I strongly feel that I have. Somehow I need to get back to my feet all over again not sure how .

HNY 2009

HNY 2009 to all. its 15 days post new year that I m writing this post.
New year party was good - eating icecream at Baskin Robbins at 130 am was indeed worth it.
Life is pretty much the same- the weekends come and go and you are left wondering what happened to the good old days.Too many things to do and too little time in hand- all I wish is I get loads of it and in short it means prioritisation at every level.