Drops of Jupiter - Train (Cover) | Online recorder

Viva la Vida


Recorded this a long time ago ..... never posted it.. until now


Viva la Vida | Online recorder

The Holy Fire of Arunachala



Stood a few meters from the Agni Lingam within the sanctum sanctorum, thanks to an opportune time when there were very few devotees at the temple. Completed the 14Km Pradaksina or Girivalam around the Holy Hill.

Meditated at the home of Ramana Maharishi, and experienced the hyper-charged caves of Virupaksha and the tranquility of Skandasram.

A truly worthwhile experience, to be repeated when the opportunity arises again.

How True

I believe Indian cricket is on its way down - the geese have become fat, and no longer need to fight on the field to make a living.

I believe the stock market will really swing upwards on account of panic buying leading up to December and will tank thereafter.

I believe that the Gods are at their wits end when it comes to what to do with me :)

I believe that I should believe the coming year will be spectacular.

I believe the people of North Karnataka deserve a hand.

I've often believed that I came into this world with very little karma. Most things that I inadvertently do as an imperfect being seem to boomerang really quickly. The bright side to all this is at least that I hopefully don't have too many lives to come to clear up the balance ....

On Gautam Gambhir,
and what makes him someone you really want to support


http://www.cricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/425398.html

VOTE.... QUICK!!!!

Dan Ariely


I've always been interested in the subject of popular economics and I am frequently on the lookout for books and sources of new thought... and this one comes in good time. Dan Ariely, MIT and Duke Prof, does some really cool work. Check him out at Ted Talks.


More on why this popular economics is so interesting to me specifically another time.

Memories of Half Moon Bay ....

Sky Blue & Black




Sky, Blue and Black (Jackson Browne cover) | Online recorder

Sky Blue &  Black

A touch sad, but beautiful tone, beautiful lyrics ....

Inundated by thought
Besieged by emotion
Reined by life ...
and bereft of direction.

what good is a mind, that cannot run away on the fields of imagination?
What good is a life that cannot fly away on the winds of possibility?
Give me a sword to cut away the vortex of my boredom
Give me wings, to leave the ground!

Interesting Pic


Strange and very interesting pic from the Ganapathy Homa at my house on Sunday. Caught my eye.

For the past week or so, I've been bitten by the bike bug. It must be the fact that my brain is now free from a bunch of issues relating to construction, renovation, carpenter, plumber, yadda yadda. Long story short, something else has caught my obsession, and this is it.

It's been years since I rode a bike. I rode one regularly to college.... my Hero Honda Splendor which was my trusted conveyance during my Engineering days. It was a new bike, just launched a few months before I bought it and went on to become one of the most successful products to be launched in the country. It was one of the first four-stroke bikes to be sold in India, and was as reliable as anything else you'd count on. It was light, handled really well, and most of all, it was pretty quick (at least back then). It also returned an impressive mileage and was easy on my student wallet.

I rode it everywhere.... cricket matches, pearl valley ... sometimes, I'd just ride it down a road with no destination in mind. I did this a few times when I needed to get away from it all. It maybe a cliche that bikes represent freedom, but it has to be one of the truest cliches ever. With your brain ringing with decisions, pressure and apprehension, the open road and the wind almost seemed to douse the fires burning in my head.

I bought it during my second year of Engineering - '95 methinks and rode it through into the first year of my work life '99. I then parked it for years in my garage while my first car was all I became used to.

I eventually sold my bike in 2007-2008, I can't even remember exactly when. She'd stood there all by herself and like every other bike, she wanted to run. My electrician Prasanth, wanted to buy it without thinking.... he said he was just happy that I had owned it and that he was sure I'd have taken good care of it.


More on my bike, what she represented, and where this thinking is at ...

Sooper

Sound like me?


..... According to Sanjeev... he does ....I'm going to agree heheh

Why I don't watch Hindi movies


I haven't watched Kambhakt Ishq nor did I ever intend to, but I happened to read this review on ibnlive. It's hilarious ... check it out.

http://ibnlive.in.com/news/masands-movie-review-kambakkht-ishq-vulgar-offensive/96303-8.html


Honestly this has to be pretty similar to 70-80% of Bollywood's output. This is not a one-off blunder by an otherwise enlightened set of people.

I couldn't help smiling when the reviewer says that it is worrying that these films are going to have an audience... yes, they will make money and will do really well. They are not marketing blunders in the technical sense of the word. It's scary ... the stuff that ignites the imagination of so many souls in our country!


I remember the time I sat in Dhoom1 and was actually stupefied to see the audience in splits at the stupidest jokes.... "what the hell is this and where the hell am I?" I remember wondering!

Mind you, I think Slumdog Millionaire was tacky as a movie, and depressing as hell and totally unwatchable for a different set of reasons.... I can't fathom the awards and the adulation. Just so you guys don't accuse me of being biased on account of the makers nationality. Danny Boyle or Danny Denzongpa .... what the hell was the fuss all about?

Into the pool

Joined a swimming batch yesterday ... just awesome. I was, am and will always be a fish. Before God made anything else, I think he made water.

Wearing the Inside Out



...I murmured a vow
of silence, and now
I don't even hear
when I think aloud ...

" Wearing the Inside Out "
~Pink Floyd


what were these guys smoking? literally!!!

just amazing.

November Rain


Just love this song ....


November Rain (GnR Cover) | Music Upload

Thinking of a "Meet the blogger" day .....

An ice-cream and I

I walk along the driveway of the buildings which constitute the offices where I camp during the day. I don't do this often. It's mostly work and then home in time to beat the traffic. But today, is just like any other day, except that I decide to take a walk outside. Today is like any other day - listless, unchallenging, unchanging and representative of the monotony that my life has come to edifice.


I walk. I go through the objects which fill my monotonic edifice - the ground floor renovations, the this, the that, and all else that has grown over the doors that lead to my life. Am I negative? Sure. Do I know it? Sure. Isn't it the norm to keep thinking positive and keep willing the world to come around? Sure.


I call one of my oldest friends, someone I've known for 23 years, maybe more. I shoot the breeze. I walk some more, in a circle around the buildings. At a designated point, thin wiry techie-men stand together, looking vacantly at each other - its the smokers corner. They are as listless as me, and their moments are going up in smoke, just like mine. Would they rather be elsewhere? Sure!


I decide to take a longer walk, out towards the outer ring road, to the Baskin Robbins ice cream store right across. I walk in, I like the yellow mango flavour. I order.

"What would you like for your second scoop?" he asks.

I pick something ....he says I've picked another mango flavour. I give up and ask him what he'd recommend. I don't need to make any more choices right now. All the choices I've made have led to this moment.... to me standing in front of this guy trying to choose the color of something that is going to lose its shade the moment it goes down my oesophagus.

Choice may be an illusion, but we all blame ourselves for the ones we make. No one had hindsight ... wonder what that might cost!


"Fruit punch is good", he says.

"Sure, I'll have that" I say.

..... just give me something. I pay... I go.

The ice-cream is delicious. I walk back. The skies look cooler. The sprinkler system just sounds better as the plants get wet. I walk on, boldly going where I've gone before, undeterred, ice-cream in hand.

I call my friend again. Did I mention he's a Colonel in the Indian army who used to fly choppers not so long ago. He says he's making miniature planes. I tell him he's going to end up looking like those old haggard psychos with origami swans in a little while.


He doesn't care. I know he doesn't. Life is not about what we end up with. Its what we have. I have my ice-cream, and he has his plane. Thoreau has his lake. Its simple. To each, his own. I hang up and walk some more, in the unending quest to resume my immaterial choices and my monotonic maze.

Andrew Hughes is the PGWodehouse of cricket writing

Absolutely hilarious

http://www.cricinfo.com/wt20page2/content/story/409034.html

Henry David Thoreau


Picked up "Walden and other writings" thanks to a Landmark gift coupon I'd won. Arun Anantharaman (birdonthewire.livejournal.com) had been going on about it and I thought I'd pick it up.

I must say Arun was right ...... at least so far. Some great ideas and Thoreau's observations are so true.

More with the passage of time, it it shall come to pass :)

In These Arms (Bon Jovi cover)


My acoustic guitar is completely gone, so this is done on my electric... its a black Ibanez GIO and I used to play it sparingly on account of all the setup hassle .....

Haven't sung or recorded anything in a long time and I just found something that was in my limited range.... hope you like it.

Oh, btw, it raining quite heavily in Bangalore and you can hear it in the background. In some way, it lends a background track and helps ...if nothing else... listen to the rain





In these arms (bon Jovi cover) | Upload Music

There's a lot to like about Malcolm Gladwell. His polemic style, while always a target of the oversimplification line of critique (much like Eric Von Daniken), is certainly pathbreaking if nothing else. And that is no small thing, even for a career journalist, or especially for one.


This is a great read, and should make everyone see circumstances for what they are, rather than conform to widely acclaimed and more classical notions of success.

Super Saturday ..... and a freak accident

Really happy that the Bangalore team has come through. I'm thrilled for Rahul Dravid and Anil Kumble in particular. Its so nice to see silent strong people do well without the paraphernalia of drama and notoriety that seems to accompany people in public life these days.


On a slightly different note, I'm sitting in my car today at a jam on a narrow street when theres a huge impact and someone bumps my car from behind. It was a pretty big impact and schocked me at first.... some guy driving a white Tata Indigo-CS KA.01.MD.6776 steps out. Its bumper to bumper contact and not much else, but he's taken my bumper out. What the hell? I can either block traffic, drag the guy to court or to the cops!!! Or hassel him for money ... I realize I just don't care enough to do any of those things. The guy seems apologetic and scared. There's a pub not far from the site and he's probably been drinking as well. He's probably 30ish and somewhat inebriated .... mumbles some gibberish like "it happend coincidentally ... it happens ... nothing has happened ...." etc etc.

I get back in and drive. Disgusting. Sometimes you don't have to do anything at all to get bumped I guess. You just have to sit still :)

GO CHENNAI.... BANGALORE!!!!


Looks like both Bangalore and Chennai are going through to the semis.... AWESOME!!!!

The Coming of Age of the Indian Voter


I have to say the election results thrilled me... not just because the markets ran away in celebration, but also because I never expected the polity of this nation to wake up and kick the right and left wings on their backsides. In is kicking were also included those living in the belief that caste-politics can buy bread and a future.... read Mayawati. I'm so glad these people were drubbed like never before.


The polity has responded with great maturity... its up to the netas to now deliver. Cut taxes, open up insurance, banking with existing or greater regulation and for heaven's sake, get a move on infrastructure in the ailing states to prevent hysteria and mass migration.

LOL :)

Its fascinating how much people disagree with my views but still waste their precious time reading this blog and posting comments .... why don't they spend the same time painting billboards of Bollywood films all over the world instead



Amazing!

Sentinels of the woods (all puns intended)


It seems that you cannot say anything in this country about Bollywood without drawing ire ... people are so quick to defend it that they don't even see the blatant (and deliberate) exaggerations in my post (c.f. my comment about a billion idiots) . Whatever happened to reading literature and seeing blantant exaggerations for what they are ... a literary tool, and laughing at it!

I'm not a journalist.... I'm a blogger, for heaven's sake!

My reluctance to worship Bollywood deities like you anonymous commentors somehow seems to make me an infidel.

To all those of you who are tirelessly telling me how wrong I am to be saying derogatory things about your favourite wood, good luck to you folks ... there is a world beyond Bollywood, and there is an ocean beyond the well, and there is exaggeration as a literary tool, and there are bloggers beyond journalists... and there is thinking beyond Karan Johar and SRK .... and there are literary devices beyond those seen in Filmfare!

I hope those of you reading the lines below know where they are from ... if you are familiar with other Indian deities beyond those gyrating in your multiplex, you might just recognize the name.


" ...Into that heaven of freedom, my father,
Let my country awake" - Tagore


:)

cheers,
to each, his own ...I say. I hope your favourite movie star delivers another blockbuster hit so you can sleep in peace.

Markets Rally, and the positive bullwhip cracks

Markets are always among the most intriguing animals in any geography. From dismal doom, some large cap stocks are up a staggering 70% from three months ago.

Some of this should be attributable to the bull whip effect ... more people jump in on the anticipation of higher returns as time moves forward and they do it as the perceived mythical bull hits its perceived stride.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullwhip_effect

Already, people are talking about 400 point intraday moves on Wall Street. I just hope the enthusiasm lasts.


Another rather inexplicable tit-bit from the tube ... statistically, the market always runs up leading to an election, and then drops irrespective of the result. Strange, but apparently statistically true.

Cricket, Film Stars and Businessmen

It's quite funny to watch the IPL franchise owners jump around on the boundary trying to act as if their enthusiasm or brooding will affect the outcome of the game.

From Priety Zinta's ebullient flag waving from the sidelines to Shilpa Shetty's "hey look at me too" act .... to Shahruk's "what the hell happened" look, these guys are a treat. Makes you wonder why a former cricketer didn't get in on a franchise. Firstly, he would've done things a little more smartly ... like letting Ganguly Capt the side.... or making sure Yuvraj did not captain, or making sure you had the civility to buy a few more tickets to get the whole of last years Rajasthan side out to SA instead of scrimping on expenses and sending just 18 people out there.

I cannot for a minute imagine that any of these filmi jackasses knew anything about cricket... Priety barely knew who Mortaza was before she bid on him against Shahrukh, and Shahrukh, after spending $600K on the wide-eyed bangla tiger must be wondering what the bloke is doing warming the bench. As for Shilpa Shetty .... she probably realizes that far too many people are looking at the pretty Priety and not nearly enough of them are watching her movies from yesteryear. Now that she has a fat walleted businessman in the bag, its probably the right time to throw on a nice blue cricket shirt, color co-ordinate it with some glasses, and try and get the pronunciation of names like Carseldine correct.

Make no mistake, I really adore both Priety Zinta and Shilpa Shetty ... they're bloody gorgeous for sure, but I have trouble liking megalomaniacs who are megalomaniacal for its own sake.

It must be the stupid Bollywood scripts and dialogues that must be affecting their brains.... it has to. I mean, you spend your whole life acting in really really plotless movies reciting absolutely stupid dialogues and doing strange dance moves but you keep getting richer on account of a seemingly limitless supply of a billion idiots who seem to want more of this crap .... with this inexplicable success model, it must leave you trying to do the ridiculously stupidly dramatic even in real life in the hope of some sort of success to follow.

IPL team USD .....75M .... the look on SRK's helpless face.... priceless!!! Some things in life are priceless ....for everything else, theres a Bollywood film.

Trips, IPL, blogs.

I've missed several games of the IPL .... everything in April. I was really busy during my visit I wasn't able to catch up with the happenings online. The wifi connection in my room was miserably slow and I just didn't have it in me after a long day with frustrated colleagues, crazy support staff, and watching those higher in my hierarchy try relentlessly to wrest power in a zero sum game headed straight for the Nash equilibrium.

Now that I'm back one of the first things I did was read the IPL blog which has been making all the headlines - fakeiplplayer.blogspot.com.

It is simply brilliant. The conjecture points to either Akash Chopra or Sanjay Bangar, but the quality of the writing and editing precludes a the claim for a pressed-for-time cricketer.

Anyway, the author has my attention and I am tuned in.

Predictably, the KKR team has committed the good sized blunders.... you sack Dada for no good reason, you hand over coaching and leadership to someone who never represented his country... and you to top it all, you have a team owner who thinks he should be worshipped and he should win games simply because he has a country full of idiots willing to watch formulaic crappy movies.

More on the IPL in the coming days. As a quick parting shot, I am quite certain that come what may, the Punjab team is going to bite dust simply for the reason that they have another idiot in the form of Yuvraj Singh calling the shots. Make no mistake ... the guy is probably the most talented guy to come out of India, but he is really quite empty upstairs and he's proved that over the years. I'm willing to count on the likes of Sangakkara and Mahela checking out on him at the earliest.

Hello Netizens

Been a crazy trip here..... anyway, here are some pics from todays drive to Half Moon Bay.... its as beautiful as it always was.



Alone at HMB - Apr 2009

Alright Californians ... see you soon!

Present read: Confessions of an Economic Hitman - John Perkins
Insightful, but dreary with repeating patterns ... almost hard to finish.

Present thoughts: Can the embracing of existentialism and its analysis doomed to cause existentialism itself and ironically, lead to an eventual retreat from the act of existing meaningfully? Probably :) .... and save your flames... I wasn't trying to be clever.

Present present: routine

Finger: getting better and should be Ok in time for nets tomorrow and for the game.

Not much else.... there never is much else, sadly!!

what a break!!!


a must win game against Fidelity in BLRs best premier cricket tournament. a fielding practice session before the match. an innocuous hit and i run in casually to field. the ball jams the ring finger on my left hand against my the bony outer part of my knee.

sharp pain and a big blue clot develops on the both sides of the finger tip. what do i do next? its on my left hand, so i can bowl and bat with some difficulty, and i can move out of the covers if required ... i love to play and im not backing out.

bandaged, i bowl, lead and field for 25 overs, then bat, help the team chase down a big score. we win.

back home, i finally make up my mind to have an x-ray. a nice clean break on the tip of the last phalenge .... damn. out of cricket for 3 weeks.

what am i gonna do next weekend?

The Anonymity of Being


I've often wondered about the purpose of blogs and blogging. At first it was something that was amusing to me, and it gave me an outlet. Did I even need one? Or was it just the novelty?
Overly analytical as I tend to be, I do wonder why anyone would want to read what I have to say ... I'm not a celebrity, so indeed my ideas and thoughts do not inspire that kind of interest which is one of unabashed consumption of a more gaping nature. Considering my commoner status, my ideas are unlikely to be dissimilar from those expressed by the bounty of people being interviewed or exposed in the mass media .... its not like I am working on anything that is about to change this world, or the next, for that matter.



Most blogs around the world end up being self-serving, either in terms of being venting channels or advertising mechanisms. Most corporate blogging is mostly evangelism and marketing, while most personal blogs are successful because there are written by women .... and its not hard to see that there are so many men out there who want to talk to women, albeit over a virtual channel, even if it were an anonymous comments page. Most women will never understand the effects of a supply demand asymmetry.

Anyway, my blog simply does not fall into any of these categories.


So ... what the hell am I saying? I guess I'm just saying nothing.... or I guess I'm saying that I have nothing to say :) ... I once read that the web, and the participation of the masses in media would lead to the collapsing of these channels due to the weight of their own inanity. In some sense I think I see that with this glut of social networking sites (I'm guilty of participation) and it remains to be seen how much mediocrity the world will take. Wonder what the popular economists have to say about that. I guess this recession will separate the wheat from the chaff, so to speak.

Video on the economic crisis ... in case you have not seen it already

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/meltdown/view/

Quintessentially Paulo Coelho

http://www.warriorofthelight.com/engl/edi192_segunda.shtml

Hey there Delilah

A cover surfaces despite a warped guitar and an even more warped voice. Let me know what you think



Hey there Delilah (Plain White Ts Cover) | Upload Music

An expert is a person who has made all the mistakes that can be made in a very narrow field.
- Niels Bohr

After a hiatus, picked up the six string and worked on "Human" by The Killers. Great song ... simple melody and very much in my range vocally. Will hopefully post a cover soon. Gave an Internet concert after a long time.... need to catch up on some sleep now.

Not much happening otherwise... work has begun to consume more time than before and its really getting to the point where I wake up thinking of all the things that I need to do.

I manage to take some time out to play the market. Derivative trading can be addictive. Made a nice tidy return shorting the Nifty on Wednesday and am sitting on another put hoping the market tanks before 26 Feb.

The things we do because we are bored!!! Gosh!

Production vanquishing Art


Those who know me will know I'm referring to Nadal beating Federer. In every sphere in life, the sublime often ends up losing to the efficient and workmanlike. Roger is a manifestation of great ability, the kind that cannot be taught. Rafa is simply a better version of a Spanish claycourt robot ... the kind we've been seeing for years. Rafa is simply the godzilla of the baseliners and while you cannot discount that, it definitely is something that reeks of mass production.

Roger Vs Rafa is an enduring theme, not just in tennis but in life as well. Roger's talent is in a class of its own, while Rafa's perseverance has no peer. And perseverance and godzilla like training seems to trounce talent over and over again. Not sure what to make of it. I will always find myself backing Roger Federer, no matter what the result.

I seem to have gone underground for a bit... plenty happening in the world.... Mangalore goondas beating up girls in the name of morality .... what crap!!! Sickened me to my stomach.

As a society, it does not seem to matter how many years pass as a republic. Given the economic and educational, not to mention religious diversity in this country, social progress and a shared set of values seem a somewhat impossible dream.

Given the size of this population, there's always a high absolute number of people (percentages don't matter) who can wreak havoc by imposing their nonsense on others.

It's very much a reflection of what is happening in the world at a larger level. We are undisputably in the middle of a war between civilizations which is not about to abate .... and the happenings in India are a microcosm of that reality.

Time for Beauty Anyone?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040401721.html

Check out the article about a social experiment with Joshua Bell playing anonymously at a subway station when all of six people stopped to watch. Days before, he had sold out a 1,000 seat auditorium at $100 a seat or more.

Loved the quote "Art without a frame"

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!!!


I guess the last year was less than pleasant ... market meltdown, terrorism, conflict, etc etc.

I sure hope this one is better. Thanks to all those who sent in their messages to me. Very nice of you indeed. Good luck.