Two weeks, two books, two thoughts and walking


Took the last two weeks off .... read Five Point Someone, which was an engaging story, I have to say, and then The White Tiger. The latter was just brilliant.

Accomplished little else..... walked a lot .... today, I must have walked at least 2 + 2.4 kilometers, and then jogged another 4.8Km ..... so something like 9.2 Km on my feet walking or running. Yesterday I walked for 90 minutes straight .... even at 7Kmph its about 10.5Km. Realized that not running for the last 2 weeks (I suffered a pretty serious ligament injury in a cricket match) has really slowed metabolism.

As for the thinking part ..... My mind is trying to get its hands around two thoughts.... one of holy matrimony and the other of what the blazes to do about my career which methinks needs some challenges. So much for two weeks of rest and relaxation.

Ideas welcome ;)

I took the last two weeks off to ask myself some important questions ... and then I ended up watching some great cricket on TV, played a lot of cricket with my team, and ended up meeting some old friends.... time well spent I guess.

As for the questions, I guess the answers will come when they will. And there's nothing one can do in the meantime.

Whats everyone doing for New Years'?

Rahul Dravid and all that you can't leave behind

He sits there, padded up, reading a book, while a young 20 something in the form of Gautam Gambhir and a slightly rotund bald man with no respect for technique are making batting look ridiculously simple, smashing boundaries at will and playing with an abandon that he was told was simply counterproductive to the science of batting. The book in his hands seems like a self-help title. In this moment of failure, he seeks answers as he always did. In theory and education, when twenty minutes of bravado and batting without a helmet might just turn things around ... old habits die hard, not matter how cerebral the thinker.

Rahul Dravid stares vacantly, yet intensely at the pages which he is struggling to read. His attention is no longer his own, his mind hijacked by the thoughts of a string of recent failures that put even the celebrated law of averages to shame.

There can be a few logical reasons that explain this deviation from even this most agreed upon statistical principle... One ... he is no longer good enough at this level of the game .... Two... there is a flaw in his technique.

His record and statistics preclude his acceptance of point one. As for point two, he spoke to Sunil Gavaskar yesterday, and unlike Saeed Anwar and Saurav Ganguly before him who spoke to the sage and saw immediate results, this is not to be for him thirty minutes after he takes guard.

What is he to do now? Is he to entertain acceptance of point 1 at some point and give in to the abyss of self-doubt, to sink into a vortex from which few have found escape? For someone who has played cricket for twenty years with as much intensity as anyone else, I can tell you that batting is both the most fulfilling and the cruelest discipline of the game. You wait your turn patiently, watching others play shots that you know you can eclipse ... you wait till the bowler runs in, with hopes and great aspirations, only for everything to end even faster than it had begun.

There's little that anyone can say to help Rahul. From one Bangalore boy to another, I only hope he is offered a few lives before he gets to a decent score and begins to believe in the Fates that watch over this game. For the moment, his first mistake of his innings is his last, and no batsman has been as unlucky as he has been for so long.

I wake, I think
I work, I think
I eat, I think
I sleep, I think
I think, I think
I think, I think


Now time to stare at the wall and spend a few vacant moments :)

Khakhi: In the line of duty

Watched the 30 minute NDTV show "Khakhi: In the line of duty". Stories of unarmed constables, some of them the only breadwinners of their families who were killed by sophisticated weapons without so much as a fighting. That said, some of them died as they rushed to stop the terrorists, sometimes on foot. One constable was killed trying to protect his inspector. The most moving story has to be that of Tukaram Omble, who was involved in the capture of the terrorist now in custody. Tukaram rushed towards the terrorist who was still alive (the other had been shot dead moments before). Knowing that the other constables with their service rifles did not stand a chance, grabbed the barrel of the AK-47 even as the terrorist emptied rounds into him. He just held on to the barrel and wrestled the terrorist to the ground, in the process creating a shield for his fellow constables who then overpowered the terrorist. Tukaram had just been promoted a month or so ago to the rank of Assistant Inspector. Just bizzare.

There is a contrast to others in the force whom we usually encounter ... like the constable at the Koramangala police station who demanded money from me after he cleared my passport application. Or the stories of so many corrupt cops who are gangsters in uniform.

I have to say that the newer stories have simply opened my eyes to the world of the better lot.

As for the senior officers Karkare, Kamte, Kalaskar ... all names which have become legends in their own rights. Kamte was a Stephenian and a Xaveiite ..... Karakare was a scholarly Engineer .... Salaskar was among the few untainted encounter cops. ... all of whom who joined the force for ideals of their own.

The three senior officers were killed as they rushed to the scene of the crime at an hour at which most people return home to a dinner and a TV soap. They were killed in the same vehicle in which they reached Cama hospital, the scene of the second shooting. When I first heard about it and while talking to a friend, we wondered what the three most senior officers were doing travelling together ... couldn't they have sent others in... couldn't they have taken different vehicles for safety? In the first few hours of 26/11 when this news filterted in, my friend wondered if these three officers were trying to be heroes. In the light of all the facts and now knowing their backgrounds. ..... I feel humbled and ashamed at my armchair analysis... I did not deserve to be questioning their actions or judgements .... I just don't belong in their league... they were just so much better than me. As for my friend, he realises as well now ... they were not trying to be Heroes ... they already were Heroes, based on the choices they had made in their lives. Choices they knew would never bring them money or glory, just satisfaction of having believed and acted on what they *felt* was honourable.

They may have made an error of judgement that fateful night, but they reacted as they knew they should.... with bravery.

At last.... someone has woken up

http://ibnlive.in.com/news/media-may-be-restricted-from-live-coverage-in-emergency/79656-3.html

Like most people, I find myself disgusted at the happenings of the past few days. Disgusted at the perpetrators and the system that can do little to prevent them.

Strangely, I feel an equal amount of disgust for the stupidity and opportunism of the mediapeople themselves. From Barkha Dutt of NDTV, who was trying to make her best to get tortured people to cry on television by asking those waiting for news of their loved ones "Can you tell us what is going through your mind .... How are you feeling ...." and rhetorical questions like these. I am just disgusted. Can opportunism get more naked than that? How can she wake up everyday and show her face on television to a world who sees her for what she is!!!

I feel disgust for the media, which spent its effort trying to count the number of gunshots and explosions, all reported with barely concealed glee. I feel disgust at their oh so stupid and brazen coverage of reporting which doors commandos were using to enter the hotel, not for a moment stopping to think that this might be inimical to the operation itself.

Lastly, I cringed when these self proclaimed media gurus got the Director of NSG Ops on the TV, and after a few questions, actually asked him how many commandos he was deploying and on which floor they were going to be posted.

I have difficulty remembering when this event full of grief was converted into a voyeristic episode of BigBrother or BiggBoss by these mediapeople.

If this is not opportunism clothed with stupidity, I dont know what is. Today, images of death and destruction, including images of those killed in the line of duty are being set to music by these media channels in a desparate attempt to keep viewers hooked. If this is not opportunism, I don't know what is.

Its all disgusting... the terrorists, the politicians, Barkha Dutt and other mediapeople .... all vultures in a feeding frenzy.

I have to say Amitabh Bachan seemed to keep his head ... on his blog, he says he refused to appear on TV despite repeated attempts to get him to speak on channels. He too was disgusted by the opportunism and berates these vultures.

Reality is the leading cause of stress amongst those in touch with it.
- Jane Wagner


.....brilliant!!

Economics and rhetoric

I'm hooked to the business channels these days... like everyone else, I am mulling fresh long positions or well timed puts.

More recently two sets of mediabytes caught my attention. One, the FM simply telling industry to cut prices, much to the chagrin of low margin producers like two wheeler manufacturers, drawing a very blunt reaction from Rahul Bajaj who simply said "what kind of margins does he think we have" ..... the FM clothed the advice in his rather imitable way .... fake, low, laboured baritone, and an added bit of academic golddust thrown in "this is the classical reaction" said he. This one struck me for its pointlessness, and I can see why some sections of industry were so annoyed with the condescension. The duty of the Gov is to recognise that there is complexity in industry and not relfect on their Harvard glories of a past era, leave alone throw simplistic "classical" phrases to a group looking for depth in thinking.

Then, today on a panel of real estate developers DLF, Parsvanath, Raheja, etc. when confronted with the crisis, they simply refuse to cut prices. The anchor threw last years' profit margins at them.... staggering ... all of them between 40-55%. Can you believe that? These guys have margins at 40-55%. No wonder common guys, even common IT guys cannot afford homes. And these guys simply say that they do not want to cut prices... they'd rather have interest rates at 7% they say, in a double digit inflationary environment. It is no wonder that real estate developers are among the most unpopular vendors in this country.

Picking up the pieces

Why does the Captain at a popular and expensive restaurant in Bangalore drop a handful of spoons and forks ..... then pick them up .... look left and right before he commits the cardinal crime in the world of expensive hospitality... he places them with the other clean ones...... he looked left and right, but his instincts did not prompt him to look behind him, where I am seated, and have seen all that he has done .... I could not have missed it... he asked the person sitting opposite me to raise their foot so he could pick up one of the forks which had ricocheted there.

He does not have to wash them himself, so why does he cut that corner?

Well, I'm a caring person, so I am not one to call for his head, but it sure was a disgusting act which needed reporting, which I did. Apologies follow, which are pointless, because its not what I'm looking for. I tell the Manager that its not a problem with that particular Capt, but clearly with the restaurant which has at some level allowed it, but my reasoning falls on deaf ears. All I hear is "sorry sorry sorry" from Captain, then the Manager and then the Senior Manager.

Its hard to see so much turmoil on the perpetrators visage. I'm far from vindictive and actually quite sensitive to this sort of tension and misery, so before I leave, I call for the Captain and assure the harried man that I do not intend to pursue the matter .... its not worth him losing his job, even if it meant that I or someone else ate from a grubby cutlery after paying an overpriced bill. I do not need to know employment uncertainty first hand to know that its hard to go to sleep with something like that hanging over your head. His peace is precious and must prevail. I also have the Managers assure me that he would not be fried or fired.

That said, I've lost my appetite for that restaurant and have lost respect for the BJN chain. This is my second bad experience at these fine hotels where the food is always good if not great, but the service leaves a lot to be desired.

Watched the hindi flick "Fashion" this evening. Guess my opinion of Bollywood remains largely unchanged, and if anything, the large scale mediocrity of Bollywood effort is simply reinforced (I guess Rock On was something of an exception after all). I have no idea why it takes 3 and a half hours to tell this Fashion story that you could have guessed if you knew what the movie was about.

That said, hold you breath... there is one bright spot..... yes, even I admit that there is one brilliant bit. The scene where Kangana Ranaut, the cocaine filled supermodel heavily under the influence of drugs and alcohol transforms from a giddy inebriated shadow of a person into the supermodel that she needs to be as she walks out to open a show .... the only bit about the movie that was subtle yet brilliant. The scene intends to show how supermodels are able to turn it on, when required ... but it goes far beyond that. For one, it demonstrates that Kangana Ranaut is a helluvan actress, and two .... the scene is simply such an outlier in the movie in terms of quality that it was probably not the Directors' idea. It had to be someone elses :)

I can't say the scene makes the movie worthwhile .....so don't waste your time and money. However, if you have already watched the movie and find the scene on youtube, let me know.

Excellent read

Peter Roebuck has always been one of my favourite cricket writers and this is why .... he has an almost expert ability to understand cultural backgrounds and their translations to performances on the cricket field.


http://content-usa.cricinfo.com/magazine/content/current/story/377000.html

BODY OF LIES


Watched this yesterday. Interesting movie, and while several parts deviate from logic or reality, the fabric holds in its desire to communicate the sound of feet on the ground in the middle east. In a very large sense, it reinforces the haplessness of invading forces fighting enemies who use entirely different playing fields ... technology Vs old-world intelligence, radar Vs handwritten notes etc.

Some action scenes are quite outstanding, the most memorable one being the gunfight at the abandoned desert house where evidence is in the process of being destroyed. You almost want to wipe the mud from your face when it ends, much like the ambush scene in Saving Private Ryan.

Dicaprio is good without being spectacular, while Russell Crowe is effortless and convincing. Well, that said, after watching Dicaprio in The Departed, it would have to be a monumental performance if he were to surpass himself.

As an aside, after eons, G catches me on chat and asks how I was.
"Like I always say, I remember having been better :-)" said I.

Memory is such a wonderful thing, always distorting the present and the future stripping away objectivity at all times with tints in lenses that seem to fade very slowly indeed.

Au revoir.

pulse pulse pulse...

HAPPPY DIWALI EVERYONE!!!!!

Here's hoping the festive spirit brings joy and cheer to one and all

There's something about the music of PF that either grabs you or passes you by. If it does, it never lets go. One of my favourites is this one featuring a memorable, melancholic plaintive guitar solo and the rasping yearning voice of Gilmour

Mortgage backed securities and everything after

Just in case you hadn't seen this before .....

http://www.hindu.com/mag/2008/10/05/stories/2008100550010100.htm

Superman

Something I recorded a while ago... hadn't posted it to Muziboo... here it is



Superman - Five for Fighting (cover) | Upload Music

PinkFloyd Mockumentary


Gold dust on Muziboo ....


Pink Floyd: The Colour of Sound | Upload Music

Oct 4, Stinson Beach
Oh and btw, I do have multiple black t-shirts :)




Stinson Beach, Oct 4

Of Retirement and Selection

Well, anyone who knows me knows how much I love cricket. I don't recall having passed up an opportunity to play if I could, and watch I will, unless there's something very much better to do.

Sitting in my hotel room here in a country where the word still represents an annoying insect, and weathering a terrible cold, I cannot help thinking these moments would be a lot more bearable if I could play or at least watch the highest level of the game.

With the India-Aus clash about to begin, I wonder what will become of the big three in the middle. Considering that of the Fab Four, Sachin Tendulkar is justifiably above peerage.

Dravid will probably retire, Laxman will probably think he has a point to prove after being dropped as the Captain of his IPL team, and Sourav ... well come what may, no one can write this guy off.

For as long as I watched him, Sourav never looked comfortable as a fielder. As a medium pacer, he looked uncertain at best..... he looked strangely comical when he was either happy or sad, but by the heavens, he did look every bit the scrapper when he was facing up to the quicks upon his return to the game in South Africa.

As with most things in life, motivation is the bedrock of all achievement. Without it, there is nothing ... you may have the ability or the privilege, but without motivation, nothing ever gets started. Watching Ganguly take a few knocks on his helmet and chest and still restraining himself from wafting square drives to point, or holing out to square leg was amazing because it was never seen before. No one knew of the steeliness of his character, probably because it was mistaken for bravado when he opened the batting for India in one-dayers or was simply absent given his stint as Capt when he focussed on being the best politician he could be.

The media is speaking of a retirement deal, but its difficult to imagine what might happen if he gets one hunderd in the first two tests, and say, another ton in the two that follow. What happens then? Do they pick him again? Do they wait for him to leave?

Of the new crop, Rohit Sharma is the only one who may be considered a serious middle order candidate. Yuvraj Singh is too busy being stupid, and Suresh Raina will be made to wait longer. As for Badrinath, one can only hope that he does not end up as one of those nice guys who never won. The other great hope, Mohd.Kaif, has just not had things his way, either in terms of opportunity or luck, and given that he fares below the others in the talent rankings, he may well have missed the boat.

An interesting time for the biggest sport in the country.

http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=BMjrp6qm-iI

there have been so many rockstars, and there will be so many more, but no one will be as 'cool' as Mark Knopfler.

"you can fall for chains of silver
you can fall for chains of gold
you can fall for pretty strangers
and the promises they hold

you promised me everything
you promised me thick and thin, yeah
now you just say Oh yeah Romeo yeah
.... you know I used to have a scene with him"


amusement, sarcasm, all delivered with so much laidback nonchalance...saw him perform at Bangalore .... there too, like in every other performance, he does not care that there are a few thousand people in rapt attention ... he sings, he plays, as if he was all alone. He's a laid back, relaxed version of the Pearl Jam attitude, everytime.

Renditions of his songs are always subtly different ... both on the guitar and on vocals, each time he performs...such a refreshing change from the somewhat programmed and literally 'staged' performances of someone like Sting. You can watch three performances of "romeo and juliet" and they'd all be subtly different and improvised live.

21 Sep, GoldenGate Bridge, Muir Beach, Muir Woods


The usual spots, the usual shots :) .... archived for no particular purpose...


21 Sept, GoldenGate, Muir Beach, Muir Woods

Japanese Garden at Golden Gate Park

Well, tried driving down to HMB on Friday evening, only to find rain there! Drove back :)


Went out on Saturday to the Japanese gardens with friends. The gardens are aesthetic to the 'c' ... laid out to perfection and tended to like a baby. They resonate with the sound of peace.

I'm embarrassed to be posting more Patel shots, but they're all I have :P



19 &20 Sept Drive to HMB & GG Park

Phir Dekhiye - Rock On , Guitar and Piano Chords

George on vocals, he's not in the video ... the guy playing guitar in the video is Jayswami, who moderates a forum on which he provides several chords for hindi and tamil songs.


The song is Phir Dekhiye, which is along with 'Tum ho toh' is fast becoming one of my favourite songs this year. Its funny ... most years I visit the US, I'm hooked to something or the other that I hear on the radio here, but this time, its these tunes from back home, from a movie I wasn't even planning on watching.

Btw, for what its worth, I think George's rendition is better than the original.

George Kuruvilla


There are a few times in my life when I've seen or heard something and just thought to myself, gosh, why am I not seeing this on TV or a bigger screen?

It is both humbling and uplifting at the same time.

As all of us do, I've had the privilege of being blown away a few times ...

Kumar Kannan - friend and workplace cricket-teammate ... I've seem him make near double hundreds in 25 over games (which is just a bizzare feat) at any level...

Abhishek Narayan - friend and workplace music band mate ....superb guitarist.... Abhishek simply breathes the ability to perform and creates phonic beauty out of steel and amplifier material. An absolute natural, with and without the guitar. There have been times when there have been awkward moments on stage, when Abhishek has just found the right time to start a GnR or Pink Floyd solo and the crowd is simply eating out of his hands after that.

Ganesh Pitchiah - again, a friend and workplace cricket-teammate .... I cannot remember the number of times when he has just taken my breath away with an unbelievable stumping or a brilliant catch. There have been times when even the opposition dressing rooms actually gasp at his brilliance, followed by a stunned applause and an incredulous shake of their heads.

All these people are simply phenomenally gifted and fortunately for them, their passions align with their gifts. For various reasons, they are not on TV ... but thats OK.


Here's another... George Kuruvilla. I first heard George on Muziboo and subsequently learnt that George and Abhishek were on a band together during their Engineering days.


After a couple of George covers I was simply blown away by what I heard and my first question to him was "Are you a professional musician?" I was stunned when he replied in the negative. George's vocals are a sublime mix of great range, controlled power and absolute pitch perfect delivery. He sings in English, Hindi and Malayam and like all really gifted people, improves almost naturally ... Muziboo has a cool feature where the "Music" link on the left bar opens a page which has a playlist on the right, and it streams all the songs on the page. I can't remember a time when I've closed the page cos I didn't want to listen anymore.


How George is not singing for Bollywood or winning American Idol (considering he lives in the US) is just beyond me.

Lastly its amazing how all these people tend to be among the nicest people I have met.

Enough words.... if you haven't heard George already, let the magic begin. And if you are someone with connections to music production, go ahead and convince George to sing professionally. You'd be doing yourself a HUGE favour.

http://www.muziboo.com/member/gkuruvilla

I've had the most interesting reactions to my photos .... people telling me I need new clothes, a makeover, a haircut, and that I need to tidy my room. Gosh!!! Who are these people!!!! :O

Anyway, I was happy to resume running again ... able to complete a 5K run on the treadmill in about 3o minutes. Running on the treadmill is so much easier than running on the ground... and I'm not sure all that calorie counting on those sophisticated machines is entirely accurate.

That apart, the US has meant more Thai food (which does not disappoint), more daylight, thankfully manageable work (this time) and the opportunity to catch up with old friends.

For all this blogging .... here's a great quote to sign off with .... maybe Ed Young saw blogging coming before we did :)

"Some for renown, on scraps of learning dote, /And think they grow immortal as they quote."
- Edward Young

Half Moon Bay, 14 Sept

Pics from the drive, the beach and the moonshine over lake Elizabeth captured on very slow apertures ...






Sept 14, Half Moon Bay

Point Lobos, Sept 13, 2008 ... Sacheen as tour guide

Brilliant place, with the wierdest erosion patters ... the kind attributed to ice and not water. Also, very strange geology ... igneous rocks for the most part and then pebbles which look as if they have been fused together by years of coalescence.

Also found a great beach with white sand, with homes very close to the beach. How I wish I could have a home by the ocean.



Sept 13, 2008, Point Lobos, California with Sacheen as tour guide

Monday: A blur of activity ... little sleep the night before.... jst 3h.....begin... rush to a friends place to carry somethings he needs in the US ... to Forum mall t0 buy books for the same friend .... traffic noise ...dropping off cheques ... supervise work for a while on the house...calling suppliers and contractors to try and get work completed ... buying solar water heater panels ... checking email .... calls to work ... from work ......drive out.... buy some specific shampoo for another friend's wife....visit to the doc ...then RAM upgrade for sisters laptop... catch up with someone for whom a gift was bought sometime back ... some solace... somethings are different, some remain the same... coffee, tea, tiramisu ... au revoirs ... home ... torrential rain .... movie with family ... back home ... begin packing post-midnight .... sleep at 330 .... wake at 630 ....

Tuesday: 8am on tuesday ....continue packing ...work ....call people at work between sips of tea... drive out....buy a few things .... pick up new spectacles .... some medicines to be packed .... Solar water heater guys arrive.... tell them where to install it.... supervise work on the house ... contractor arrives ....big spat after he provides new terms on some work .... shouting match (my first for the longest time) ..... ugly scences ... furious as months of angst spill over in a tirade of vehemence and frustration....adrenaline pumping...i realise this is not worth it and disconnect .... reconciliation ... drive to bank twice to get drafts for payment for work .... bank guy looks at my face and does all he can to make things easier... humanity is alive, i tell myself..... get home .... continue packing ...call cab .... cab arrives and parks some distance away .... finish packing .....shower ... call cab driver.... phone's off .... call cab company .... confusion .....delays .... anxiety ..... cab arrives ... prayers, lamps lit .... hug mom ..... drive off in cab .... traffic... delays ..... more traffic ... chat with cabbie Prasanna .... he needs to make 900 bucks a day that must be returned to the cab company...interesting buisness model ... he essentially rents the cab from Meru at 900 bucks a day and then pays for the gas and runs it as much as he can to make a living..... typical Indian exploitation, at 27K a month, way more than a typical EMI he should be owning the cab, not renting it...expect that he's not creditworthy on his own so the cab company Meru makes a tidy profit... Meru is essentially a vehicle owning company with a call center.... its the same story everywhere.... the guy renting the vegetable cart out makes 10% a day!! from the poor guy rolling the cart in India .... that 3600% p.a. .... how can these things change? Microcredit? Probably ... Prasanna drives his shoes off and makes 10-15K a month.. this is just wrong.... cab doesn't take credit cards .... stop off at ATM ..... drive..... airport .... cab bill is 761....i want to make sure that someone should be happy after how unhappy Ive been today so I pay 20% more than the bill ..... he beams with happiness...he should be more much happier with better financing on his car deal ..... new airport... first visit .... kinda small for an International airport.... young folks everywhere behind computers learning the ropes ... again typical India.... young people in the workforce... new opportunities.... this is probably what trained investors get excited about....... check in.... customs ..... don't have hard copy for office laptop export exemption letter.... negotiations...go downstairs, get approval...old India .....expemption provided ....go upstairs, through security ... im famished..... eat something .... call friends .... board .... flight to Singapore..... cannot sleep.... the clock ticks over to Wednesday

Wednesday: Somewhere over the Indian ocean ..... arrive in Singapore .... still no sleep ... 3hour layover... eat ... walk .... Changi Terminal 3 is breathtaking..post-modern Koi ponds ... board...... 6 hour flight to Seoul ....

....thankfully middle seat is unoccupied for the next 16h of flying... thank God for small mercies.... guy on aisle is about 45-50 ... says he now lives in SFO.... was born in Bangalore, studied and worked in Chennai ... started logistics business, lost 40-50lakh back in the 80s... (phew) ... left India to earn money in Dubai... repaid loan ... in the process got divorced and lost his family .... then moved to the US ... now works for a logistics company that is expanding in India.... he coughs a lot... well ... I always believed that economy determines lives, and this is just another example .....

still in flight....... watch movie ....Sex&the City ..... poor film ..... 1 hour layover in Seoul ..... board again ..... 10 hours to San Francisco... watch Indiana Jones ....then Les Heures de Ete ...both so so ... 3h of sleep en route to SFO .... arrive.... cab to hotel... some confusion with reservations... finally get room ..... call rental car company....unpack minimally ..... shave, shower .....Hertz sends driver....driven to Hertz location.... get car .... no navigation available.... need to exchange later.... go to workplace and get badge activated...call manager... make bad jokes about long flight... drive to Safeway and pick up some food .....come back ... talk to hotel staff... room change on Friday... its about 5PM .... I realize Ive had 6hours of sleep in 6o something hours ... think I'll take a nap at 530 .... will wake up in a bit to get dinner ...then drive to SFO Intl to change car.... open my eyes... its 1AM ...Ive slept for 8 hours....try and sleep more.... wake up again .. its 430AM .... this is not good.... headache kicks in .... pain killer .... wide awake....now some email... respond to work stuff .... tea ....blog....and post ....

630AM ....i need more tea ....

I sit with a friend, eating a snack, while he goes on about Google's latest browser, yadda yadda. I understand all he says and add to the conversation my own nuggets ... why they do what they do... and other such wisdom. I have a Bachelor's Engineering degree in Computers, and a Masters in Business ... they were both intellectually stimulating, but I frankly couldn't care less about either.

The truth is, I just dont care about all this stuff that makes sense to my head, and is still irrelevant to my soul.

I searched for the calling ... and did not find it. I still am searching perhaps ... but its possible there is no calling for me. I'm a deaf guy looking for a song, or a song looking for a deaf guy :)

HOLY COW!





It must have been at the (old) airport in Bangalore when I first came across this book. The art work drew me to it and I read the back cover.... something about a prediction about the author that came true, and something about how she originally hated India with a passion.


Well, an year or so later, I bought this off the pavement ... I'm not going to help some ranting woman make more royalty money ... for all its faults, India is where I was born and raised.... I am an Indian and I owe this country far too much for all it has given me.


This is a travelogue ... it begins in Delhi, moves across to Varanasi, Ladakh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Bangalore, Amritsar, etc. The author for the most past rants about India, hating its disorganization, its traffic, its lepers, its weather.... well pretty much everything. At some level you empathize .... the author was born and bred in the (non-existent) population density of Austrailia, and clearly the sheer amount of human energy in thought and action is overwhelming for her in India. Her ranting assumes a cresendo so virulent that at times, I was left feeling glad that I don't live in Delhi :) . Having been there myself, there is some truth to it from a south Indian perspective ...I recall the shock that I endured ... mostly cultural ... Delhi on the streets is can be a brutish place and culturally, most of India is a far cry from the four southern states. Even so, the author is however unfair... there are far too many references to people breaking the wind... so much so that foreign readers may be scared to light a match in this country for fear of igniting the copious methane.


Anyway, after her initial set of rants, the author cools off and begins a pilgrimage ... clearly she expects one of those Beatles' style interactions with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, but that's not about to happen. In this country, she is far too typical a tourist.... someone with currency-converted means, some connections resulting from her boyfriend's employer, but little else. That means she does not have a private jet, has to travel in trains and planes like the rest of us, and for the most part, has to stand in line. Predictably, her spiritual endeavours do not result in enlightenment, which was a far fetched goal given the amount of anger she carries anyway and given the rooting she has in the illusion, amplified in every sense now that she is in India.


That said she has her share of spiritual experiences .... India is generous :) ..... she experiences corporeal transcendence at a Vipassana camp and expereriences radiance in the presence of Mata Amritandamayi of Kerala. There are other (somewhat comical) situations during her visit to the Kumbh Mela and her experiences with Naga Sadhus.


I was baffled at the reference to how captivated she is by Bollywood ... she makes an effort to meet Amitabh Bachan, and is giggly intoxicated by meeting Priety Zinta and Aamir Khan. Crazy!
She also joins her Delhi girlfriends in taking Bollywood dancing classes ...... If this is not conversion, I don't know what is!


The book also contains introductory passages on the major religions of India (refreshing the memory of my school books). The author is (thankfully) silent on her discomfort with religion ... she must have been far too scared eventually, but she expresses a preference to Buddhism for its existentialist moorings.


There are interesting parallels to my own experience of when I travelled to Ladakh, and noted that it was far too delicate an ecosystem, both culturally and economically to handle the invasion of UP and Bihar carpet sellers who have migrated there .... something I just cannot understand. Having lived near a small town called Khaltse for 10 days, there are just not enough white tourists there to sustain a carpet economy. Ladakh also had Goan and Punjab based trinket sellers, who declared that they were in Ladakh during the Goan off season. The contrast between the demure, soft spoken locals and the carpet selling, souvenir hawking brutes is just far too stark for even an Indian to miss. As with everything else, economy dictates.


The point is, that this book, like anything subjective, is heavily anchored on perspective. There are some things which transcend perspective, like the author's relationship with her household help, which is at a very human level and develops strong bonds, but this is one of the few things that saves her as a journalist (yes, she is a journalist in Austrailia, albeit an average one given this book) and lends her some credibility.


Also, I have to mention that outside India, this book is sold with slightly different artwork, with Lord Shiva wearing sunglasses ... I imagine that this is largely to help sales, but also reflects the mood of the book ... despite spending 2 years here, the author eventually remains supercilious and fails to develop the one thing that she claims India teaches her.... sensitivity and co-existence :)

Rock On - the movie

Watched the movie "Rock On" this evening, after a visiting friend got tickets and called. I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by Farhan Akhtars singing. He doesn't particularly have a great voice, but he can sing really well for sure. He can direct and act too. Well, with genes like that who'd doubt the talent.

Quite a good flick, even if some performance scenes look overcooked or deadpan. I wonder how these 'metros-only' films make money, considering that they are most certainly restricted in terms of viewership. Wonder what the economics are. Are they trying to create a platform for other businesses that satellite them?


Should watch "wanted" over the weekend ... the trailers were just awesome.

Come home after spending 7.4KM on my feet .... 4.8 jogging and 2.4 walking. Two missed calls and a message from a strange number ... the message says something like "long time, no see ... etc."
I try calling the number back and some girl picks up .... I've never heard the voice before, says something like 'Shilpa' gave her the number and that its supposed to belong to this 'Shilpa' person!

I tell her I've had this number for a long time and hang up.

A few minutes later, this girl calls again and says that Shilpa insists that this is her number! I ask her why she kept reaching me if Shilpa was so convinced. Im in the middle of doing some pushups so I keep it short.

A few minutes later I get another message from her and I quote ... "I am really sori. My mistake. N once again sori 4 the trouble 4m my end. Tk care. Nice talking to you Bye . You have a nice name".


What ???!!!!??

Saw this last weekend .... I have to say it is one of the best movies I have seen in a long time. Heath Ledger as the 'Joker' just steals the show, from the first frame to the last, and I find it hard to believe that living and creating the character for as long as he did, coupled with the multiple romances in his life had nothing to do with his suicide.

The performance is so chilling, and so spectacular in a gut wrenching, stomach turning, fear-inspiring and despicable kind of way, and you end up admiring the actor who leaves you with the same feeling that you ascribe to the restrained frenzy of a torrential rain.

A word on the Nolan brothers who directed the movie... gosh, the same guys did that other thriller "Memento" .... these guys really are the darkest Tim Burton on steroids.

Another Coldplay Cover

Its been so long since I've posted a song ... so many things swimming in my head that its hard to even pick up a guitar these days.

However, for whats its worth, here's another one of my favourite Coldplay songs.

This one's off their X&Y album. Its called "A Message" and is quite a noisy song actually ... played with at least 2 guitars, piano, drums. I damped the strings throughout for effect. Let me know what you think


A Message (Coldplay Cover) at Muziboo.com

TWO MORE!!!!







Just awesome isn't it?
I'm so pleased for these guys..... they come from the smallest of towns with little else but dreams and guts and they make sure they throw those punches when it counts

Quotes of the day from igoogle ... really cool ones, all of 'em

I can't understand why a person will take a year to write a novel when he can easily buy one for a few dollars.
- Fred Allen

A nation is a society united by delusions about its ancestry and by common hatred of its neighbors.
- William Ralph Inge

Men who never get carried away should be.
- Malcolm Forbes

Forward thinking

Came across this while reading something on ValueResearchOnline ..... have a look at this gentleman's question ... I have so many reactions to this that I won't even start :) .... for the interested, it is a mix of sympathy and fear mixed with admiration and good wishes.


http://www.valueresearchonline.com/story/h2_storyView.asp?str=11754

Aquariums and everything after :)

I used to keep fish for a number of years .... eight to be precise. I began by creating aquariums in small plastic containers and then had a bigger 4' by 2' glass aquarium complete with 4 inches of river sand, Amazonian water plants, Valliseneria, etc. and finally a much larger concrete tank outdoors which was home to several small varieties, totalling 25 pairs in all. Yes, I was pretty serious about it all back them.

I kept commonly available fish ... everything from Gouramis, Black Moors, Goldfish, Black, Silver, & White Mollies, Siamese Fighters, Angelfish, Tiger Barbs and several others. Given how beautiful they are, its not difficult to see why its a hobby that can consume you.

Blue Gourami

Common Gold fish

Black Molly (one of the hardiest freshwater species)

I have to say it was a very rewarding hobby ... creating an ecosystem was one thing and maintaining it was quite another. Those were school days, and I did have enough time nevertheless which made it all possible. Also, the peace that ornamental aquatic life forms, both plants and fish exude is simply inexplicable. No wonder they are such a huge Feng Sheui draw.


I mentioned that I also had a concrete tank I had built which housed most of these wonders for several years. To my utter surprise and elation, I once found that my Guppies had even bred in captivity ... I can't quite compare it to anything ... but for those of you who invest in equities, this was the equivalent of buying a fund or a stock for a small amount, forgetting all about it and realizing a few years later that the investment had turned a tidy profit of 45% or so ... the market value may still be quite small, but it constituted a pleasant surprise nevertheless.


However, despite my best efforts, I was unable to prolong the lives of most of the fish that I kept ... some did better than others, but despite my acquired skills of giving them antibiotic washes and curing their fins of fungal diseases with salt water immersions, it just didn't work very well. As with most things in life, there is an expiry date to interest, and it finally waned, causing me to give up on the hobby as I began my Engineering studies.


I realized back then that the odds were always stacked against a home aquarium, and against captive life in general. Fish are extremely temperamental and will not survive unless they have acres of space and sufficient change, not to mention regular changes in food types. Hobbyists may create change with new foliage and by the introduction of friendly fish, not to mention landscaping (or waterscaping) the aquarium with more light, plenty of hiding places and eventually much much larger tanks, but boredom catches on in a contained environment. In that sense, fish are no different from humans... lock someone up, mentally or physically, and they will lose the will to be happy and to live. Indeed, the will to live and be happy is an organism in itself.


Nevertheless, pigments of those fishkeeping memories remained and I never missed the opportunity to stare that these beautiful wonders at aquarium stores where I could find them. I spend hours at the Koi pond at Changi when I am in transit and wonder at the beautiful healthy Koi, and also hope that the caretakers take them out to larger ponds from time to time.


The economics of the industry in India are not very encouraging. Given the amount of effort involved, aquariums never catch on, and aquarium stores therefore are few and do not thrive.

I was therefore intrigued when I noticed that someone had setup a small aquarium store selling freshwater fish close to my house. Oddly, I never went into this one .... it was small, did not sell plants or clean sand or filters and pumps, communicating an immaturity about the business itself.


It was quite clear that this guy would go out of business. One only wondered what he would sell there instead.


This evening, I took a walk and happened to go past the same store... and yes, there was a new store there ..... he was no longer selling live beautiful aquarium fish .... he was selling large dead ones to end up in someone kitchen and not the living room.


I guess the business had found its depth .... literally! The prospects of this business are definitely more promising, the fish may be dead, but the business will live :)

"If there's anything unsettling to the stomach, it's watching actors on television talk about their personal lives."
- Marlon Brando

Arunachala, the home of Sri Ramana Maharishi and Ramanashram

'Nan Yar'


'Nan Yar' (eng. "Who am I") is the title of the original Tamil masterpiece written by Ramana Maharishi. I came across an English translation that I downloaded several months ago, but beseiged by life as I usually am, and have been, I never found my way towards it.

Cometh the hour, and cometh the words.

Here's the translation
http://www.arunachala-ramana.org/downloads/who_am_I_english.zip

Something about Ramana and why he exudes more veracity than many others who represent spirituality and teach the same.

-Those that recount spritual experiences always had them seemingly by themselves, seated in the presence of the Maharishi.
- The saint preached individual intellectual inquiry as the means for realization, available to all and attainable individually.
- Famously, he seldom spoke or gave discourses. Most people simply 'experienced' divinity in his presence.
- He never demonstrated anything that was obviously miraculous, although there are several miracles attributed to him by common people who apprised him of their travails.

GOLD and everything after

India has its first individual gold medal at the Olympics. Wow!
Watched Abhinav Bindra's interview on NDTV .... never will there be a more phlegmatic gold medal winner! Quite astonishing really, to see someone so disinclined to dwell on the event. Apparently he hates interviews for their "stupid questions" and values his privacy above all. What a welcome change from celebrity culture.

Hats off to a fantastic achievement.

Sport is a great leveller though. Its four years since Athens, and the past hero and current flag bearer, Rajavardhan Singh Rathore, showed up after doing a bunch of commercials ... replete, this time around with a new look, a french beard and a swagger to boot, but finished 15th out of 19th contestants. Sad to see such an anti-climax. That's what sport does I guess.

Today seems an important day, nevertheless, with Saina Nehwal and the tennis boys and girls matching up against fairly decent opposition at Beijing. Saina is well on her way to winning the first game of her Qtr final it seems.

And lastly, Badrinath's outburst seems to have paid off. I have heard of this TN player for a while now, from people who have played alongside him for the state, and from all accounts he is a terrific batsman and a genuinely sincere and honest individual. He expressed his anguish at being sidelined in favour of someone with far fewer credentials (Virat Kohli) for the one-day squad to Sri Lanka. Tendulkar's injury means that Badrinath finds his way in.

The 'Expression' of a Bacardised Soul

These days there's one of those oh so important discussions on TV, and in the papers .... a bunch of Bangalore yuppies and their children are complaining, crying and shrieking that they cannot drink and dance in pubs .... I am not being facetious here ..... that's exactly their complaint! A few days ago, they wanted to be able to drink and dance all night. Poor guys.... how painful their situation must be....painful enough for them to get together, find the luminaries among them who share their view and thrust them on TV, make a few placards and hold them up after calling cable TV stations. Brings a tear to my eye and tugs the abyss of my soul like Mother Teresa's actions once did.

Here is my tuppence.

Bangalore has over 10M people, terribly poor infrastructure, rising crime rates and terrible zoning violations.

Most establishments that serve booze and a good time are located in residential areas, but what the hell, the residents better suck it up if the yuppies want to shake a leg after downing a few pints. So what if cars block driveways, right? The yuppie has to be parked close enough to the gate of the pub so he should be able to crawl into his 4WD SUV if he cant be up on his feet, right? Fair? Sure!

What of the numerous cases of drunken driving and resulting accidents ? Well, the passer by on the road had no business being there in the middle of the night, especially when the yuppies in their fast cars were burning rubber around that hairpin bend, right? Sure!

And last but not the least .... the big complaint on TV is that the yuppies claim that their "expressions" are being killed.

Ooooookkkkkkk just hold it there mister. I understand that drinking is a great accomplishment to most young people .... and I've never been able to fathom that but I respect it anyway... considering so many people tell me how proud they are of their ability to gulp something down, regardless of the roof on their heads or the position of good ole sun in the sky, I'll give them the benefit of the doubt. They speak of being able to drink so lovingly, it brings tears to my eyes. It must be a brave and courageous act, not to mention socially adorning thing to do....you drink ..... you must be awesome! I get it! Also, driving like a maniac testing the limits of your car and your reflexes.... ok, your pathetic adrenaline gives you a high, and so yeah, you would benefit from that!!!I get that too.

But .... "expression" ... excuse me .... do these guys even know how to spell it? Whats expression? The stuff that you drank or ate over 4 hours regurgitated onto the floor 'cos your pathetic puny Indian frame couldn't hold it?

What's your expression? Some stupid Bollywood move that you learnt from another drunk driver Khan guy (Salman, was it?) who ran over a bunch of daily wage labourers in the middle of the night with his Hummer?

Oh no... this must mean something else that I don't understand .... let the camera pan onto the people crying out loud ... Prasad Bidappa .... the model maker who is accused of pretty much everything, and was more recently detained for possession of drugs in Dubai ... or his son who was too drunk to tell a police constable from a stray dog and kicked out anyway, only to spend the next few weeks in prison going over his bacardi stained memories. Or Girish Karnad, who is the most overrated literateur I have ever come across... who perpetually has the expression of having a laxmi pataki (one of those firecrackers) stuffed up his bum, which might go off if he lost his gravitas.

Give me a break!!!

My point here is... drink by all means... Im sure you could use it .... you probably can't do much with your time anyway ... hell, who can anyway?... but for heavens sake do it in your home. Better still dig a nice square hole, put on one of those shiny disco balls, call your friends over and do your awful Bollywood shit till you fall on your rear-end ... at least someone who walks by will smell you in your urine in the ditch and call an ambulance or a priest to send you upstairs. With all that alcohol in your blood, you wont even need too many logs of wood.... save the forest, I say.... global warming and all that.


So have your party ... in fact do it everyday, or even twice a day for all I care....But for heavens sake don't demand to drive all the way across town to a residential area of law abiding citizens and say that your "expression" will only come forth in the region of those exact co-ordinates.


Once more....Bangalore has over 10M people, terribly poor infrastructure, rising crime rates and terrible zoning violations ... forget about my opinion. Apply statistics .... take a bloomin' normal distribution and apply it to the revelling population... most of the population to be specific (95%) of it is going to be drunk and from there on, just read the papers or stay up past midnight and listen to the revs on the road. ... If people are going somplace to get drunk (dancing doesn't exactly sober you or make you more acute), they are going to lose control. Put 4 wheels under them and do the math. Cars zooming past in the middle of the night and landing up in gutters is not new. These are not law abiding, responsible sip a few drinks, smell the night air kind of angels.


All this laissez faire of society allowing people to feel drunk anywhere they want is great where you can enforce the law, catch the drunk senseless yuppie and throw him in jail until he wakes up. Which is what the Western world does pretty well. And therefore, people are at least conscious of the risks of consequences. One drunk driving violation, and it will come up in your next job interview, forcing you to flip burgers for a lot longer than you bargained for. But in a country like ours, creaking under all its other problems, not least of them law enforcement, dont you dare tell me that the biggest scorpion tail stuck in your throat is that you cant drink and dance beyond midnight in Bangalore.

For once, I salute the Police Commissioner who simply said that in the bigger picture, these problems are just not important enough, and that he's fine with shutting these jackasses down.


Tally ho!
or should I say Cheers!!!

Life truths


The stock always goes up after you have sold your options ... ' market efficiency' is super when it comes to rogering you.

Poor Inventor Guy!

Bizzare... Thomas Midgley, invented both tetra ethyl lead (TEL) as an anti-knocking agent for petrol AND CFCs for refrigerators. One causes deadly lead poisoning and the other depletes the Ozone layer.
He also invented an apparatus that allowed him to move his limbs while he was bed-ridden by polio towards the end of his life ... the apparatus malfunctioned and killed him by strangulation.

One of the more bizzare facts from 'A Short History of Nearly Everything'

Current read - A Short History of Nearly Everything (Bill Bryson)

I have to say this is one of the greatest books ever written. I haven't read all there is to read in this world, and I never will ... but even so, this judgement will ring true.

The facts are quite astonishing, as is the storytelling, but what fascinated me time and time again ... and I am only as far as page 160, is the shape taken by people's lives. People's lives are always more interesting than their incidents, given the human sympathy inherent in their experiences.

There is the genius of Newton, who stood head and shoulders above all others (including Einstein). Newton stuns not just with his accomplishments, but also with his quirks, making him the quintessential mad legend that has been the stuff of lore for ages. Whether it is his attempt to put a big needle in the space "betwixt his eye and the back of the bone surrounding its socket".... "just to see what might happen" or his attempt to stare at the sun for as long as he possibly could, or his assertion to Halley that planetary orbits were elliptical, Newton's story is downright fascinating. The part where he deliberately made the Principia unreadable to the lesser mortals with its obscurity, so he would not be hounded for explanations or discussions is just a bland testimony to his own elevated orbit.

Einstein on the other hand, did not begin to speak until he was 3 years old. He produced the Special Theory of Relativity (the first of the 2 Relativity Theories) while he famously was still a 'Patent Clerk, Third Class' at the Swiss office. Just before/after he published the theory, his application to promotion as 'Patent Clerk, Second Class' was rejected !! He also was unable to find work as an Associate Lecturer at a local University. His leaps of intuition that formed the Special and General theories of Relativity are just awe-inspiring. He has to be the aphoristic divine being having a human experience.

There are a number of stories of Geologists, Zoologists, Chemists and Botanists who made stellar contributions to their fields but were just not recognized despite earnest efforts at publication and or marketing. Something beyond human effort and tribulation seems to be at play at all times insofar as human fulfillment is concerned ... I guess the examples stretch beyond Science, what with a desparate Van Gogh shooting himself in the chest, and even failing at suicide, only to be celebrated posthemously!

Apart from all the magnificient stories, this book really leaves you with a sense of an aggregate perspective of human endeavour, compressed and racing through the pages. And that, is like watching a brilliant movie at a rate of knots. The facts, and their unfolding or the absence of their unfolding, simple keeps you asking for more, even as you contemplate your own purpose.

What a crazy Friday. Explosions in sleepy Bangalore, some even as close as Madiwala. People wondering what to do next, whether to leave at 3 or 5PM. The anxiety mounts as you locate your near and dear ones over telephone networks that are creaking under the weight of this building avalanche. Thankfully, everyone's ok and you work out how they could make it home .... wait for a bit, then travel through these roads, avoid those, etc etc. You go around the office and offer to drive people back and make a plan to begin leaving.

When you drive, you notice that for once, the traffic cops have got their act together and intersections are not jammed. You make it home and turn on the TV. The media is going to town, reporting with the same vigor they apply to reporting that Kareena Kapoor or some other dimwitted starlet kissed some other dimwits son or daughter. There is no mention of the fact that the traffic cops are doing a great job. No one has bothered to report on anything of interest - which roads to avoid and which detours to take, etc. There is little reporting, and more titillation, albeit of a rather visceral nature ... the sort where you feel that your own life is in danger even as you watch the telly. Cheap thrills, Freud might say. Nevermind.

You are thankful, that despite the blast being a few kilometeres away, the fates consipired to isolate you and your dear ones, and mercifully at that. Two others of the city, a labourer and a factory employee, waiting near bus stops are not as lucky. May their souls rest in peace, while the Government and society pegs a value to the event, to ease the bereaved.

Anyway, the point is ... cities which rely on a few roads to connect their 7M populations are vulnerable. The blasts may well have been a scare tactic ... nevertheless, terror is here to stay, and so is life. God save us all.

Black - Pearl Jam

TEN by Pearl Jam is widely regarded as one of the most successful debut albums alongside Nirvana's Nevermind.

TEN has a number of really relaxing songs, Release, Oceans, Garden, etc. The harder songs were the bigger hits, understandably so, given the popularity of alternate hard rock back then - Jeremy, Why Go Home, Evenflow, etc were smash hits worldwide.

Black is one of my favourite tracks ... as always, I hope you listen to the original, even if you don't like my cover :)



Black (Pearl Jam cover) at Muziboo.com

"Areare Kunirama" and other disasters

Most people know there's very little to do by way of regular entertainment in Bangalore, especially if you are not the drinking-dancing OR trying to dance after getting drunk OR the drunk-senseless kind. On the odd occasion, theres a half decent play at Rangashankara which nowadays seems to be less and less frequent.

It'd been a very long time since I visited RS, so wandered out there with family today. There was a new Kannada play, "Arrere Kunirama". The introduction stated that the play was adapted from some famous French play, from someone called Mouliere, or whatever. I specifically choose Kannda plays they usually have decent scripts and good performances, given that the production is always going to be local and authentic, and mostly, subtleties and sensibilities are preserved as intended. What else can one watch a play for anyway?

The play began and what followed was an exercise in patience. Sorry, but this to be one of the worst plays ever made. The actors were terrible and loud, the jokes were abysmally poor and mostly slapstick, the dialogue could have been written by a dull 10 year old and in summary, the sum of the parts was in indeed worse than the mathematical aggregate.

I recalled sitting in one of those Bollywood flicks that I was tricked into going by some friends .... it was "Dhoom1", and waiting for the inanity to end. I have no idea how standards for popular movies and everything else continue to be so low. We're supposed to be one of the oldest cultures on this planet, right? Five thousand years or something.... in 5k years, our shining product was Dhoom 1 a few years ago. What is even more disappointing/shocking is the audience reaction in the theatre while watching Dhoom1. Gosh, I cannot imagine how people laughed at the jokes cracked by that Bachan's son and the other son-of-a-producer .... I mean, the guy with bad hair and big muscles who plays the sidekick of the cop in the movie. I neither remember his name nor care to register it. I have to say that no matter which way you slice it, the jokes were just not funny. No self-respecting primate living in the deepest corners of Ngorongoro or in the darkest corners of an Amazonian rain forest could laugh at those jokes.


That said, there are pockets of brilliance. To this day, the first play I ever watched in RS has to the best I've seen. It was called "The Barrister" and was adapted from a Marathi script. Absolutely brilliant play. Like all good, things, these pockets are hard to find. I just wished the Bollywood watching public would grow some taste and give up on the idiots running their family business.


On that note, the only Bollywood actor I have some respect for, Aamir Khan was on the telly in some interview, suffering the standard set of provocations. He was quizzed about his rather derogatory comments on the movie "Black", specifically about the time when he (very rightly, I might add) said the movie would have been better titled "taming the shrew" which is exactly what it was for the first part anyway. I recall some scenes where a crouched Bachan Snr circles the poor deaf-mute child in a dark room like he was fighting a rabid hyena. Thankfully, when asked to clarify his discomfort with the film, Aamir Khan simply stuck to his guns and simply said the film was a poor one. Like I said ... pockets of brilliance.

Mark Knopfler - #7 Brothers in arms

Absolutely brilliant ... as always.

Songwriting at its best
"These mist covered mountains ... are a home now for me ...."

Fell in love with this song the first time I heard it all those years ago, and this rendition is as flawless as the others.

I feel a new hobby coming along ... indoor gardening.
Am currently exploring the benefits of bamboo which is really quite a fascinating plant (or grass to be precise )

Bamboo pumps 30% more oxygen into air than comparable plants/trees and does a great job of preserving ecological balance everywhere. Some bamboo trees grow over 4 feet day.


Any tips on indoor gardening are very welcome
This is one of the better bamboo sites
http://www.americanbamboo.org/GeneralInfoPages/GrowingBambooIndoors.html

Sweet Child O' Mine

A very "acoustified" version of the song ...



Muziboo.com Upload Music

Spacing Out

The air is cool and the skies are dark. The monsoon winds have blown their bounty over the Arabian sea, through Kerala and now all the way inland into Bangalore. After weeks of activity and strain, some of which still continues, I am finally back to being able to run at least three or more times a week. I finish my 7th lap in just about 28.5 minutes, still a minute over my best time when I was relatively freer in mind and fitter in body.

It's amazing how quickly I am able to gain weight. Four weeks of high stress and no exercise and suddenly its already difficult to complete the 4.2 KM run.

I lie down on the narrow parapet wall that borders the ground. I look up, at the gray sky, and the branches of a gulmohar tree are in the field of sight. They sway gently against the magnificent gray infinity of space that I lie under.


Lying on your back and looking at the sky is very similar to sitting before an ocean. You just don't get it.... no matter how long you stare.... So much space ... so much water ... where does the infinity end?

During my run, as always my mind is abuzz processing the rather copious amounts of reality on my plate. But now as I lay back, balanced on a narrow wall, and as I contemplated the wind blowing the gulmohar branch against the gray background, I am liberated from all that surrounds and imprisons me, if only for a few minutes in silent lucidity.

Words from a famous poem I once read back in school come to mind

"What if this life is full of care
We have no time to stand and stare"

JK Rowlings speech at Harvard


A must read ...

http://harvardmagazine.com/go/jkrowling.html

Bought this in the Bangalore Airport on my way to the US in early April. Finished it pretty soon. Good read. If you ascribe to reincarnation, etc, this book vinidcates that stand, with the expected quantity of the Western scientific approach thrown in, including a good number of control arguments.

The book dovetails to Hindu/Buddhist views on life in summary, but steers clear of the larger questions of creation and its need.

All in all, a good read.

Pictures of Space


The glowering eyes from 114 million light years away are the swirling cores of two merging galaxies called NGC 2207 and IC 2163 in the distant Canis Major constellation - source Top 10 Hubble pictures

And here's one of Van Gogh's best known paintings ... created when he was being treated for insanity in an asylum ... coincidence perhaps or just prescience.

Pictures from my most recent visit.... featuring oft repeated locations, with Sacheen and GB breaking the monotony ...

All before vegas

Haven't recorded anything in a really long time. Life's travails compound each other like bad debt. Anyway, heard this one on the radio after a long time and found it was easy to play and sing. Hope you like it. Pleasantly surprised to see messages urging me to post ... thank you for the encouragement.

That's Why (MLTR)

In concert, 11 May

Abhishek, Arun, Prashanth and yours truly will be playing at the ISB Bangalore chapter bash on Sunday, May 11.

IS THAT A BIRD ??? IS THAT A PLANE ????

NO IT'S MEEEEE !!!


I always have been risk seeking and somewhat crazy when it comes to myself and I guess I know thats true now.


Tandem jumped out of a plane at 13,000 feet, yesterday ... Sunday, 20 Apr, 2oo8. The free-fall lasted a full 60 seconds, approx 8,000 ft.

Tried to do this the previous day, but after a two hour wait, the jumps were canceled on account of strong winds. Waited a full four hours on Sunday to get this done. I guess all the waiting, and wondering and analyzing gave me enough time to change my mind, but I did it anyway.

More on what happened before and during the free fall another time. Check out the video for now ... Carl is a brilliant cameraman. Before I forget, pay special attention to the 'exit'. The jump went well and I was (surprisingly) relaxed throughout it, so immediately upon opening of the parachute, Will told me to handle the parachute (made me go left and straight for a bit) while he had his hands full adjusting the landing harness!!!! I didn't ask!!

Back to the Pacific

Its been a week since I got here, to the day. The days pass by in blur as I go from one preparing one powerpoint presentation to putting out fires or spotting new ones a few days before new deadlines.

Met a few friends who live here. Nothing much seems to change here at all. The lake in the company premises looks the same, except for the fact the trees around it have been uprooted on account or rotting roots, I was told, to be replaced with new saplings. Rotting roots :) how about that.


Went running on the Bay Trail behind the hotel for about 35 minutes on a very cold day, in a pair of shorts and a sweatshirts. Drew surprised looks from the locals. A few minutes into the run, I realised I should be turning around, but as is my wont, I ran anyway, waiting to see what the experience would be like. It was bloody good while it lasted, but I came back with a small sniffle which still hangs around.

Went to the gym yesterday ... the crowd seems to be getting older and more boring there.

Have an eventful week coming up with a number of presentations an demos. The show must go on.

Sparks


The original is not as well known as the other Coldplay hits. Great song. Hope you like the cover.

... and your hands upon the wheel


It's the evening and I am driving back home. For a few seconds, I look away from the road across in the direction of the Agara lake near Koramangala, which has little or no water. I look back and the large head of a large cow is approximately 24 inches from my windshield. I must be travelling at 50 kilometers an hour. My heart stops and so does my breath.

What happens next is as synchronized as anything I've seen. I watch myself swerve the steering wheel left, aware that there was no traffic on my left or following close behind. I watch the cow swings its head right, just as the car swishes past its nostrils. I see the cow partly close its eyelids.

Everything happens literally in a blink or less.

Thankfully, no contact is made. I drive on homewards. Phew! The cow mouths obscenities. I apologise. I am a safe driver, and I do account for cows ... just not the ones that appear out of thin air when you are looking at something that isn't really there.

I had something on my mind for the length of my drive, and I wonder if what happened, or was about to happen was an answer to my question.

Even if it was, I cannot decipher it, or I choose not to, although at some level I know I have decided.

.................................


I am home and I put on my running shoes and plug in my earphones. The clouds have already gathered. This is going to be great run if the rain stays away. For one, in the terribly crowded place on this planet where I live, today, I will have a very large ground to myself. There is nothing better then running on soft earth, under thick black clouds and against stiff winds.


I reach the ground and the drizzle begins. I pause under a tree. This is not so bad after all. You must let the rain drench you at least three times a year, if not more.

The drizzle is light, almost pleasant. I start the run and the drops are now bigger. Before I know it I am soaking wet. I run to the nearest large tree and stand under it, Pink Floyd still streaming into my ears.

The tree cannot offer much protection, but one cannot care anymore. Across the ground, the rain is now screaming down at a fierce angle, creating waves of spray and dust which rush along the ground, lift off and fly into my face ... an angry Indian rain, no less.

I last time I saw something similar, although infinitely more dramatic was when I parked my car by the side of the road on Highway 1 in California, on the side of a cliff about about 200 feet high, and shot a video of the kilometer long waves of the Pacifc as they made their way from the bowels of their disturbance to the shore.


I wait under the tree and the ground is now soaking wet, a mirror of gray. I begin to run on the road skirting the ground and make my way home. My clothes are heavy and I run as quickly as I can on the pavement, scaring the umbrella carrying folks who look up in the twilight to see a rather large guy with a big head, hurtling towards them in a soaking black shirt and black tracks. For a few moments, I am the cow in their windshields.