Sporadic Bursts

Mouse is [still] Mighter

2007-01-31T17:48:00.000+05:30

In a era where pen too took a second stance against The Mouse. "The Mouse", patented by Douglas C. Engelbart as "X-Y position indicator for a display system" who celebrated his 82nd birthday, yesterday. This device intially nicknamed mouse has remained christened to the "mouse" itself.

Tom and Jerry

2006-12-21T17:24:00.000+05:30

Most of us [and yes, most of the our children would too ...] grew with the likes of the cat chasing the smart mouse series, never getting tried with those small cartoon snippets. It still brings smiles and a laughter, even now!! brightening a dull workday in the evening telecasts.
Well, the creator of those and other remember able characters, Joseph Barbera, passed away [ IndianTelevision's Tribute ].

But, the inspirational one was The Guardian's article in Deccan Herald with the message " To follow one's heart " [But the question is how many of us really do?].

A Chat

2006-12-02T15:48:00.000+05:30

This was a forwarded by a mail and was quite apt for my situation... so posting it.

Some answers to the questions we all face. This is the extract of a net
chat somebody had with God. It might be any one of us.....

God : Hello. Did you call me?
Me: Called you? No.. who is this?
God : This is GOD. I heard your prayers. So I thought I will chat.
Me: I do pray. Just makes me feel good. I am actually busy now. I am
in the midst of something.

God : What are you busy at? Ants are busy too.
Me: Don't know. But I cant find free time. Life has become hectic.It's
rush hour all the time.

God : Sure. Activity gets you busy. But productivity gets you results.
Activity consumes time. Productivity frees it.
Me: I understand. But I still cant figure out. By the way, I was not
expecting YOU to buzz me on instant messaging chat.

God : Well I wanted to resolve your fight for time, by giving you some
clarity. In this net era, I wanted to reach you through the medium you
are comfortable with.

Me: Tell me, why has life become complicated now?
God : Stop analyzing life. Just live it. Analysis is what makes it
complicated.

Me: why are we then constantly unhappy?
God : Your today is the tomorrow that you worried about yesterday.You are worrying because you are analyzing. Worrying has become your habit.That's why you are not happy.

Me: But how can we not worry when there is so much uncertainty?
God : Uncertainty is inevitable, but worrying is optional.

Me: But then, there is so much pain due to uncertainty..
God : Pain is inevitable, but suffering is optional.

Me: If suffering is optional, why do good people always suffer?
God : Diamond cannot be polished without friction. Gold cannot be
purified without fire. Good people go through trials, but don't suffer.
With that experience their life become better not bitter.

Me: You mean to say such experience is useful?
God : Yes. In every terms, Experience is a hard teacher. She gives the
test first and the lessons afterwards.

Me: But still, why should we go through such tests? Why cant we be free from problems?
God : Problems are Purposeful Roadblocks Offering Beneficial Lessons
(to) Enhance Mental Strength. Inner strength comes from struggle and
endurance, not when you are free from problems.

Me: Frankly in the midst of so many problems, we don't know where we are heading..
God : If you look outside you will not know where you are heading.Look inside. Looking outside, you dream. Looking inside, you awaken. Eyes provide sight. Heart provides insight.

Me: Sometimes not succeeding fast seems to hurt more than moving in the right direction. What should I do?
God : Success is a measure as decided by others. Satisfaction is a
measure as decided by you. Knowing the road ahead is more satisfying than knowing you rode ahead. You work with the compass. Let others work with the clock.

Me: In tough times, how do you stay motivated?
God : Always look at how far you have come rather than how far you have to go. Always count your blessing, not what you are missing.

Me: What surprises you about people?
God : when they suffer they ask, "why me?" When they prosper, they never ask "Why me" Everyone wishes to have truth on their side, but few want to be on the side of the truth.

Me: Sometimes I ask, who am I, why am I here. I cant get the answer.
God : Seek not to find who you are, but to determine who you want to be. Stop looking for a purpose as to why you are here. Create it. Life is not a process of discovery but a process of creation.

Me: How can I get the best out of life?
God : Face your past without regret. Handle your present with
confidence. Prepare for the future without fear.

Me: One last question. Sometimes I feel my prayers are not answered.
God : There are no unanswered prayers. At times the answer is NO.

Me: Thank you for this wonderful chat. I am so happy to start the New
day with a new sense of inspiration.
God : Well. Keep the faith and drop the fear. Don't believe your doubts and doubt your beliefs. Life is a mystery to solve not a problem to resolve. Trust me. Life is wonderful if you know how to live .

Make the most of your life!!

Ash's First Hollywood venture.

2006-11-27T19:02:00.000+05:30

Aishwarya Rai’s first mainstream Hollywood movie is due early 2007, "The Last Legion". She plays a role of a warrior princess.

Well, nothing new to expected role wise. But would want to see it.

Halebidu

2006-11-24T00:00:00.000+05:30

This was a long pending addition to the Hoyasala arch. Had been to Chickmaglur and enroute visited Halebidu. We had an hour break at this place. But, it would be worth spending a complete day here.

[Beside is the snap of a 9 foot Queen's Nandi. Well with no camera along had to juggh a friend's camera and tried some good (?) ones :-) ]

Planning to visit it once more, then probably more say and more photos.

The Departed

2006-11-15T00:16:00.000+05:30

Watched "The Departed", and i just liked it! The movie revolves around a simple plot of cross placements of recruits. Well, there is nothing much to the story other than a sheep in wolf clothing-wolf in sheep clothing-cat-chase-raccoon-chase-rat-chase-rats-chase-cat [for better reviews]. But, liked the the direction [well it has its share of goof ups]. The narration, quick paced, makes the audience with a ok-believable plot and the ends with a twists and turns [nHmnnnn, a triple cross or a quadruple cross???? :-? ]. And what can be told about the acting, each one trying to outwit the other with their performances, even Alec Baldwin who has the least part, pulls out well. Well it also has its cons...some a gory scenes were blood is the main element and a huuuuuuuuuuge share of f-words [Well, as a friend put it, if the censors had exercised their scissors the movie would have shrunk by another 30 minutes] The dialogues weren't bad either, but a kind of excess :-)
Now to the interesting question, when shall we expect our own bollywood version of it?

Hell-mets in Bangalore

2006-11-08T18:40:00.000+05:30

The government with a lot (?) of thought(?) decided [unsure of who the benefactors of the decision, the riders or the over stocked helmet lobbyist..., anyway coming back to point] to protect the head of the two wheelers plying around the cities [ Aug 30 '06, The Hindu], with "helmets". This rule was deferred by a month to be modified to protect only the rider's head. Again deferred by an another month to reinforce the helmet stocks. Finally the day chosen to enforce was 1st of November 2006.

Found this crowd, on the infamous helmet street [lalbagh road], standing in a queue!! to buy one.

But one should really appreciate the lack of laxity of the public, found a mad rush to pick what ever stocks were available.

So, God save the public or should i say, the stockist ;-) ... in fact, would predict that government, say in 2-3 years [when the stocks are again full], would make pillion riding with helmets mandatory!!

The last (lost??) of Green Route

2006-11-06T20:30:00.000+05:30

Green Route, a rail track snaking around the shiridi ghats, has been a trekkers solace. Many trekkers have quoted this place for its scenic beauty, the trek, also popularly known for "tracking", has bridges over the gorgeous valleys and long black tunnels to cross. To summarize in a single sentence i would put it as, a walk with a negligible down gradient, comprising of 17 kms [From Donigal to Yedakumari] over looking the charmadi ghats with kumara dhara flowing along on our left.

Around 1997-98, the railways decided to convert the existing narrow gauge tracks to broad gauge, since then, hordes of trekkers [1, 2, 3 ..] have taken this pilgrimage and have shared their experience and i have nothing extra to share.

This trek had been one of my favorite ones and was always the spoken amongst with Som and Santosh, since, we went in December 2003. Recalling those events, the cross of the first bridge - a pounding heart over the curvaceous track with no planks - bats ridden tunnel - the night stay on the platform of yedakumari with a starry night to watch - the mosssst lighteeeeeeeest dinner one could eat and some one telling a lullaby story of a king and his two queens. Then, we had planned for a single day trek to be out of yedakumari, by noon and onto Bangalore-Mangalore by evening as people had blogged. But, some gross miscalculations, we didn't find the exit route to the kempuhole, though we reached yedakumari by 3 pm, had the stay on the platform for the night.

[for the analogy of the terms check out rails-track-in-wikipedia.]

Planks :- These are a 2 ft width metal sheets running parallel to the tracks on the sleepers.

But this time we had a better equip ed ourselves, food, clothing, sleep gear. And, the plan was to walk from Donigal to Kukke, with a break at yedakumari for the night. Got to know during travelling to sakaleshpur that the second leg of the journey was 30 kms [i.e. from yedakumari to kukke] That was quite a disappointing information, as we would need to push hard to reach before the next night. We started the trek at 10 am with the usual "some initial glitches". Writing a minute to minute account would not be possible [would link the info soon].

The stuff which this trek distinct over the previous one was

Rain, crossing the bridges was a arduous task. with some 2-3 bridges with no planks, it was more time consuming.
Fog, we hit quite a fog after the evening rain we could just see some 3 ft ahead that too with the torches.
Crossing the bridge in the dark, one of the slowest cross, but we did it.
last but not the least, The Train.

With onset of this monsoon, most of the trekkers [even us] are unaware of the trains started on this route. We came across it twice and we were kind of lucky both the time.

Now with the trains, station yedakumari is back to life. We, after reaching yedakumari were kind of apprehended by the station master, who told us the aftermath of similar uninformed trekkers, who jumped off the bridges on fear getting run over by the approaching trains and were nearly killed.

So, from my opinion, would strongly suggest to avoid this trek route. The main problem been the trains, the timings of these are not adhered to and sometimes one can expect 5-6 of them plying that the day. The most dangerous situation is when if one is caught unaware either in the tunnel or on the bridges, [the bridges, been the worst with no side to move over, one would have to run over the planks, but some long [200m and 500m] bridges don't even have planks!!].

It is quite sad that this route would be lost for trekking, wish a parallel trekable route running along the tracks would have been created. Until this happens, the next time i would checking out the green route would be on the passenger trains some time next year.

Snakes and Ladders

2006-10-01T18:58:00.000+05:30

I don't think, while driving on the roads of Bangalore. Most of my morning energy gets sapped out in this ride from home to office [trying to draw a rough parallels of this driving, is like playing chess, "anticipate", of the moves, of ur neighbours, of the one ahead, of the pedestrians, of the one entering at the junctions, etc, etc. So, one gets sapped out with the coordination of the motor muscles and reacting to this unwarranted/ unexpected reflexes, so always a juggle between eyes, hands and legs to reach ones destination]. On one such a day and one such a road [to be specific, the long KH Road], found a lady driving beside with a slow steady speed. I overtake her, accelerate ahead, putting her a lot behind, overtake some more vehicles along and ultimately get caught behind the pile of slow movers, struck ahead due to some bottleneck on this road [As usual]. And now the pile begins to grow, but, some vehicles do scrape along the narrow edges on the left most lane of the road. And after a minute or two, the pile ahead clears up and again the race begins. There in the race, i am astonished to find the same "slow", "steady", lady and i am "again!!!" overtaking her. Does this mean no foxiness required to survive, [i know this is a wrong moral to use to be, but...] Does always the slow and the steady go ahead? even if it means to enter the slower lanes (of life??).
Then, don't know why, but started to map this to any of the games i had seen, and this situation kind of resembled the game of "Snake and Ladders". Driving or even Life could be compared these "Dice" games. Where one has to take a probable chance, "pray" and roll the dice. Most of us have quite the "same" milestone to reach either on the macroscopic or the microscopic level, could be schooling or earning or aging or reaching office. Some roll a dice [taking chances], hop the squares, climb the ladder, passed some snakes and voila a better square and others.....,
Probably this game could have originated to depict how life could be and must have been passed on to kids to teach the vagaries of life by the elders(?)

Well, what matters at last is "Did u reach the end?" or "Did u reach the end? How 'fair' was ur play?"

Rafting - First Experience

2006-09-27T15:25:00.001+05:30

The first official event for "My" year 2006 at last began, Yes, with the usual toll of its postponements [ The last one was in October 2004, kayaking at Annejari, Kollur]. The idea of rafting was tempting, for it been "A Team event", rather than kayaking [A two's show, where one gets more tired too soon :D]. Overall it is tiring and fun, paddling for 10 strokes at a stretch was sufficient to pant for breath. Fun, becos the joy or exhilaration, when the rush of water hits the sides of the raft on entering the rapids was kind of a new 'devilish ' thrill .

Event Summary

Place : Cavery Fishing Camp,Bheemeshwari. Jungle Lodges and Resorts [JLR] provides the grounds.
Organizers : Ozone [The main conducting body], Care Adventures.
Cost :Care Adventures charges 1100/- [Incluvise of lunch, pick up and drop]. Not sure of the individual split.
Difficulty : 1-2 grade rapids, no prior knowledge of either rafting or any water sport.
Pros : Close to Bangalore [100 odd kms], Good for a beginner to start off with. JLR provides all the basic civic amenities.
Cons : Food, the last 'good' food point is probably Kankapura. One can avail food from JLR. But heard one needs to book in advance.

A detailed account can be had from Bhattas'

The Great Indian 'Ric' Challenge

2006-08-23T22:27:00.000+05:30

So runs the banner at Indian Rickshaw Challenge.

The race will take you deep into the heart of Tamil Nadu. Once there you'll travel through an incredible course of misty jungles, balmy coastlines, flooded streets, monsoon rains and overpowering Indian crowds.

Auto rickshaws, fondly called as a 'ric' now into the league of racing (Now wondering when will there be F1's for this) is digressing from the a mode of transport onto the race tracks. Yes, this was the most bizarre race of all to take place, was, wondering when it would and it has finally happened and with a winner.

Ian Bayles and Rachel Bayles of the team Pukka Tuk Tuk are the worldÂs first Auto Rickshaw world champions

But after seeing the grit and foxiness (first hand) of how the Indian ric drivers ride on the "crowed" streets (roads??) wondering how did we ever lose to a outsider!! (Something similar to losing the kabadi and the hockeyOlympic medals after the initial years, but in this case the first race itself!!).

So, speaking about the race, probably a good tourism stunt, but reminds if the otherIndian transport modes like the tonga pull, ox pull or the even the hand pull would get such endorsements as a sport. :)

Well, Arise, Awake O, Schumi's (Michael Schumacher), Senna's (Ayrton Senna) of India, win thou crown and make thy India proud.

Something to ponder...

2006-08-14T15:38:00.000+05:30

One of the days, a couple of prior weeks, received a mail from a colleague, requesting blood, as his father would be undergoing surgery. This mail, was posted on to the official work group [consisting of 90+ people], added to this, this colleague is quite a popular figure in the group. So, one can expect atleast 30+ people would have volunteered.
But, the outcome was a revelation.... Only 4 people [including him] were the donors who volunteered. This is the saddest part. The hospital was not looking for exact blood match donors, but wanted to replenish the used stock with (any) donor's group. Not sure of what the stigma could be for the volunteers but, so is the reality.

If so is the state for a well-connected person in the group then pondering about others.

Below is the list of places where one can reach out for people.
India Blood Donors [looks like a dead link]
Lion's Blood Line

Well, though a lot has written on blood donating, wikipedia has one such a informative link.

Hosa-HohLaaLu

2006-08-12T14:58:00.000+05:30

Hosa-HohLaaLu, a vibrant town near KR Pet was the next stop for Bhatta's research on the Hoysala Architecture. A trikoota style temple had intricate carvings of gods and the goddess. But the main theme of them been the legend of Ramayana running across the temple walls.

Travel Summary
Distance : 155 Kms from the Outer Ring Road of Blore.
Route : Blore-Mandya-Melekote-KR Pet- Hosa-HoLaaLu.
Road : Roads were generally good, but the 29 kms strech between Melekote-KR Pet is metalled.
Food : Hosa-HoLaaLu is 2 kms from KR Pet. KR Pet, a bustling town could host some good eatries joint. We had breakfast at Kamat Loka ruchi, Ramanagara (forward leg) and late lunch at Amaravathi, Mandya (return leg).

For more details check out Bhatta's experience

Was trying some modes on the HP's camera, yes, need to learn about it. But one evident problem was, the battery gets drained out too soon, Probably the lens machinery and the CCD eats up most of it. The other snaps could be check here.

A Parody

2006-08-08T16:54:00.000+05:30

India, shook again, ripped with the blasts rung the news and some channels too prided in saluting to the "Get back to life" attitude of the mumbaikairs and in the blogosphere, opinions...Sentiments such as 'Enough is enough' echoed. Well... Was swayed in with these posts.
But recently bumped into Ravi's post. The links posted in the article sounded like a parody, but were quite true too [link1, link2]. Utlimately sounding like the (comic) scene of Hungama a Hindi movie where both the heroes trying to impress the lady just yap, threaten to strike repeatedly... and later just move on.... Probably, so does life.

Wonder la

2006-05-22T19:01:00.000+05:30

Force, acceleration, momentum, gravity, resistance... words, quite, long unused were the most recounted and reworded lot, on Saturday. First a applause and a bow for the Wonderla guyz for the monitoring the sea [ocean??] of a crowd...quite efficiently. This was my first visit to wonderla, or rather the first one to a "joy" and water rides place and this first experience was a nice memorable one. The planning and the execution of all the rides do need accolades. Hope so the same quality of service and maintenance will be maintained years to come.
Feelings like, the gut wrench, topsy turvy, gande thale seat kiska na [in-lieu with phyro thale zameen kiska na] were experienced in those five "dry" rides and lastly, the lungful of air was insufficient for all screams. The best dry ride was the wonder spray [?, forgot the name of the ride], the joy felt on hitting the water and sprays landing back was just so blissful compared just the preceding second where the heart was going ballistic.
Atleast 70% paisa-vasol was there with the water rides with its contribution. Missed the laser-show and some VR experience, don't know what these were.

Da Vinci Code

2006-05-17T13:51:00.000+05:30

[From Hindu] :

Information and Broadcasting Minister Priyaranjan Dasmunsi has directed the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) not to clear `The Da Vinci Code'... [ read link ]

It does sound, either the "Information" minister, is over zealous of his post and wants to avoid the misintrepretation of the information or he is questioning the "Freedom of expression". Movies, Books, Religion, Food, Dress code... are "One's One Choice". It shouldn't be a decided by some one else what is to be seen and done. If questions on the basic tenets are raised, either one should prove it worng or even better, stick on to one's belief system just to oneself and let go [ pardoning others for their ignorance ;) ]

BSNL - It works[!!!] ???

2006-05-15T18:58:00.000+05:30

Quite an intriguing tale. Thus is the story..... Long long ago (Some 5-6 months back) applied for the DataOne broadband connection by registering thro net . Was quite gung-ho about the outcome, expectation died a slow death from a "immediate" broadband connection to will there atleast be a acknowledgement saying "yep, we received ur request" with some kind of trackable identification. And as every [good?] deed, forgot about the whole issue, after consoling myself that the page was just one more Too Be ignored entity. With procrastination taking its toll, the visit to the BSNL's offices just kept postponed from one Saturday to its next.
All of a sudden on one fine evening that too on a second Saturday, when all the public "services" call it as a off. Found a BSNL franchise calling up enquiring about my physical whereabouts for the installation. And atlast, they turned up and did make me BroadBandddd.
Thanks[?] guyz.

Drive to Nagarahole - Coorg : Second event

2006-04-28T17:16:00.000+05:30

In this event there wasn't any direct involvement though [ as the previous one ]. But the it was the chain of thoughts, which followed later is the need for the blog.

we, atlast made it to the day's last safari trip. Travel around, consisted of a rickety mini bus with 19 occupants, completed with a driver and a forest guide. The safari's sighting turned out to be good [ compared to our bandipur one, probably, it was dusk (?)] sighted a herd of elephants with 2 babies, bisons, peafowls, wild boars, the usual set of deers (chital, sambar, spotted) and a lonely tusker.
This lonely tusker was wandering close to the tarred road, he [ the tusker ] tried shooing/scaring us away with a trumpet and a mock (?) charge. Well most of us in the bus let out screams [ Probably this too must have scared him ] and later did see one/more camera flash blubs glow.

Now the questions which later haunted me were

what if we had ventured back on this road in the car, in the dark and landed up in front of this tusker?
Well, eariler, atleast we were a group, accompained with a forest gaurd, atleast had some kind of an assurance [ which could have been false ]. For sure, we [the three of us ] would be more chaotic when alone. Remember the scene from Jurassic park [ I know wrong analogy for the situation, kahan Raja bhoj aur kahan gangu thaili ] where the kids, finding themseleves alone in the mobil try some antics. One thing quite evident was we were not prepared for this kind of a situation.

What should be the right approach from us?
Agreed, none us [ Yep, including the elephants! :D ] have a "Red book of conduct between an elephant and a human" or the old jungle sayings.... :)
Googling when back to bangalore, found some links of a Kurger National Park.
And some funny (unrelated) one. Was wondering how, a reflector some 10 feet above would bounce off light from a 5 foot high truck head lamp.

Did we do right flashing lights? making sounds?
Certainly not! was the answer and spoke with one, who was in a similar situation. The things which they did were
* Stopped a couple of metres away.
* They switched off the head lights, (they too sighted it in the dark).
* Moved the gear stick to reverse and ready to back if the elephant charged
* And lastly prayed.

So, ending with the question, can we follow the stuff spoken for kurger from the above links? Hope it is applicable to the asiatic cousins too or atleast a link from the Indian forest department speaking about how prepared or how to react to such kind of situations. Or do u guys have some information on this.

next : third event

Drive to Nagarahole - Coorg : First event

2006-04-25T10:56:00.000+05:30

Disclaimers : The events which I am going to share across, are or could be one of the most commonest ones seen or came across by others, But the very fact they seemed odd in the evened out trip of ours :D, requires them to be blogged about.

The first one, was on Bangalore-Mysore road and during the day (Thank god!). First would want to take this as an opportunity to thank the Gov of karnataka for the proper tarring of "this" road, 90% stretch of this road is done, but has some pot-holes, half done bridges, untarred (as on 14th April 2006) along. [ I know it is their duty to lay and maintain it, but looking the that state of the roads back 5 years and now compared, the only fear is we don't limp back to that again] Coming back to the road, this is four laner, two lanes for either direction of the traffic. But the two-laner at some stretch becomes a one-laner with both the direction traffic narrowing onto the same road acting as bottle necks [ The above 10% stretches], well most of these conversion have a some kind of a diversion sign, warning ahead(?) or atleast close to the diversion about these.

Now, I think I have provided enough data buildup on the roads ;D and now getting into the scenario build up :). At some two laner [ dead sure of this!! ] stretch towards mysore, we approached a entourage, trucks, two, on left lane, one behind the other with speeds around 70s-80s and a ksrtc bus. When I was about the overtake this line of mamoths, the ksrtc break aways from the tail and move beside (overtake) the trucks, thus leading to something like the pack on two rungs, with a truck and the bus in a row, followed by a truck and me. So, my sight is blocked with the bus in the front and the lorries at my side for a minute or a couple. Getting frustated I began honking at the bus, the bus too lets out a shrieking honks [which i didnt realize, at the moment ] and of all a sudden, moves to the left lane ahead of these trucks. As soon as this bus exits out of my lane, to my utter shock, I find a truck coming (?) in my lane [ Now this might similar to scene from BI where Douglas following Stone ;), minus the sea, the curvey roads, Stone and importantly the music!! ]. With the sighting, applied brakes bringing the speeds from 100, the car reacted quite benevolently and gracefully slowed down [ thought it might skid, would miss my control as shown in "most" bollywood movies ], the seat belts pulling us back and could heard the tyre screeching and bringing us speeds of 20 in seconds and stopping 20 Ft in front of the truck. But this time, the left laners had too slowed down in anticipation.

Well thank god we had no tail followers... Or we could have landed in a more a mess.

My first brush with... Though there was no flighty images of the past, but was could feel the adrenaline rush and the pounding heart. The sight of the truck held my breath and all of us swore and in the side glance saw som with hands in air [what was ur reaction bhatta?]

Swore at the truck driver, when passing by [ though he (the opposite truck driver) had stopped his vehicle could not comprehend why he entered into this lane] and moved along.

Trying to recollect, I still can feel the heated tension, shouts of that second, wide opened eyes, breath struck in throat, an open jaw, gripping of the handle, "Oh shits",......

That was a really an hair raising moment.

Next : The second event

Drive to Nagarahole - Coorg

2006-04-24T10:10:00.000+05:30

Two days and two nights, a drive of 600 odd kms, four major places of visit, three bachelors (one situational), an approximate spending cost of 2k (some costs were just pardoned... We could have budgeted it close to 1200) and lastly but not the least four worth remembering events in this unplanned trip.

Important things for the next trip
1. Rain coats/ umbrellas
2. A torch with backup cells
3. Ear plugs, to avoid piercing snores

Things lost on the trip
1. A Nokia charger
2. A day's wear + wet towel
3. Trip's first night sleep, due to point 3 of the above list
4. Trip's second night sleep due to the travel

Things learnt/ (safely) brought back
1. New idioms for r dictionary
* Air bubbles are coming from all places
* Put the head light
* Say cheese in the dark
* "OHhh Shit" & "OHhh no" been indiscriminately used.
2. Four 2 litre bottles (three emptied, one still filled with water), two empty 1 litre bottles , Two empty 1/2 litre bottles (previously contained pepsi), and one 1/2 litre bottle of pepsi with some heady mix. One empty "lays" potato chips packet and an apple.
3. And yep! The car and its tired occupants.

Summary (against time)
Woke up at 6.30 am friday - Started from home at 7.30 am - picked up bhatta at 8.00 am - out of som's home by 10.15 am. On the blr-mys road at 11.15 am - brunch at Kamat loka ruchi, ramangaram around 12.30 pm - Reached Nagarahole around 5.00 pm, in time for the evening safari - Stayed as a paying guest with a coorgi family near kutta, slept around 1.30 am. Woke up the 7.00am saturday - Iruppu falls at 10.00 am - lunch at Orange county at 3.00 pm - watched the elephants bathe and fed around 5.00 pm at dubare - golden temple at kushal nagar at 6.00 pm - dinner at the out skirts of mysore at 10.30 pm - bangalore, som's place at 2.30 am sunday.

Nagarahole is quite unchanged, but the road to base has worsened. It and Iruppu falls turned out to nostalgic with faces and .......

tomorrow : The first event.

The art of lacing

2006-03-15T18:46:00.000+05:30

Honestly didn't know there was some much of creavity involved and variations to a lesson learnt during the kindergarten [Still remember the day I learnt tying my shoes and grinning on that "Major" accomplishment] and a site [courtesy : Seth Godkin] is dedicated for that. The knotting, which I am aware of were during the rock climbing sessions [which I still dread and sweat to the core] but, still I remember the bowline knot.

Rang De Basanti - My Take

2006-03-15T14:39:00.000+05:30

Watched Rang De Basanti (RDB) , now will be able to face all the scorned faces of the first day first show ers and the 'nth time watchers, who used to ask "what??? Yet to watch RDB!!" and now after watching for the first time, I doubt if I would want to watch it the second time.

Well this posting is about my 2 cents take on the movie [so, to be taken with a pinch of salt and loads of sugar!, would expect no flames on this :D], first of all, would want to summarize is as a nice movie, from the usual take of slick comedies of married men in search of greener pastures or some psycho lunatic thriller kind, etc... Each department of this movie on their own, excels, from songs [khoon chala is one of my favorites, nice slow tempo and good lyrics], acting, direction, cinematography and it is worth lauding the hand picked actors (the new faces) in portraying the roles, but somehow felt a missing, the synergy of all the department to pull out to make the final nail hammering kind of a verdict.

The grouse I have is, story telling department, it is quite out of sync or predated with the other departments. Felt it treating the viewer as a dumb, with a missing between his ears, spoon feeding him with each itsy bit of information too (3 hours of movie!!), in turn dragging the movie, well in fact the movie's tagline "The Young Generation Awakens", is more or less tells what could be expected, but why it awakens, was yes, to be seen. The last part of karan trying to answer the phone queries, was like trying to untangle the messed up storytelling and trying to wrap it up.

Somehow felt the part of paying life as martyrs to convey one's message, especially in the 21st century, felt quite far fetched. Does one lathi charge, charges one to such a limit so that one get immersed in the roles one played in the docu-drama and begin imitate them? [or could be, dande padne se, connection lag gaya hoga ;) ]. Logic or rationality the basic human traits are quite amiss? Don't we have any other means to conveying the displeasure other than playing martyrs or murderers? and all one does is just awaken?? But, what we require is not just the clarion call, but to be alert later too, not slipping back to slumber!! Suggestions like join the administration, would sure addon a mile, but still one might still get lost becoming one more brick in the existing wall. Perhaps, what we also require is a responsible generation [read as 'citizens'], who questions the doing of these responsible administrators. And to build both all we need 'education', right from the grass root level.

On a very very lighter note, would like to sum the movie as, "A crash course in history could, be injurous to one's life" ;)

Categories : [Movies]

Pest Control

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

Pest Control (Pointers from Ramesh Jain), turned nostalgic, reminding me of "A Terminal Man" by Michael Crichton (Yes, the same one who wrote Jurasic Park, Congo, AirFrame...), during the summer vacations in high school. The thoughts of electrodes stimulating one's brains cell for pleasure, sadness was quite intriguing then and was like a scene from Frankenstien.

Weblog design

2006-02-27T15:55:00.000+05:30

On how and what of the weblog's design, ( from Sukshma)

Poetic khoj

2006-02-14T10:26:00.000+05:30

Experience the Ectasy is quite a promising place to look for some heart felt sonnets. The most closest of those been

What went wrong [Yeah, it might sound strange for today]

She, [Got to know 'that' from Sukshma] also pens in urdu, at humari kalam se

Enzoy the coffee

2006-02-08T11:19:00.000+05:30

Ran into this simple coffee philosophy, journalling it! Kind of a something to ruminate about {whenever i am at some curical decision making junctures!}

Whose "lineage" is it anyway..

2006-02-06T14:59:00.000+05:30

Deccan hearld published a comment on marriages in Sri Lanka.
As the article points out, it must have flowed from the big neighbour, India, where multitude of castes and religons co-exists.
But, with the influx of knowledge economy and with a many, many educated middle class familes getting created, the age old "system" is bound to breakdown [Atlast??].

First steps...

2006-02-04T17:18:00.000+05:30

A journey of a thousand miles, begins with a small step. So, here i am keeping my first steps in the sands of blogosphere. With a constant writer's block nagging around, the wish to post my ravings and rantings (R&R) out grew the block! The bursts, i expect to be sporadic :) whenever my R&R reach their thresholds. so, wish me luck to leave long lasting imprints!