Mouse is [still] Mighter

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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'