Kannada Chartbusters..

I used to always think Kannada movies & songs as the poor cousins of Tamil, Malayalam and the Telugu industry. My mistake..for I could not have been in for a bigger surprise recently. Am not saying the quality of their movies have suddenly shot northward but the music is definitely perking up.

I still have no clue about how the movies fare but here are some really good songs that have found their way to my playlist.

#1 Ninindaale from Milana - A foot tapping number by Sonu Nigam, its instantly likeable.

#2 Anisuthide Yako from Mungaru Male - Now this song should come as no surprise after all the rave reviews it has received.

#3 Ullasada Hoomale from Cheluvina Chittara - Melodiously sung by the immensely talented Shreya Ghoshal, this song has been on the top of the kannada charts for quite sometime now, I heard.


Enjoy maadi...

How Real Are These Reality Shows?

Reality shows have been the order of the day for quite sometime now. Since they have captured all the prime time slots that is available there is hardly any choice left for viewers. Be it Jhalak Dikh Laja, Star Voice of India or the Indian Idol in the north or shows in the same vein such as Mastana Mastana, Idea Star Singer down south. Switch to international channels and all you get is Asian Idols, Survivor etc

Now it would surely take a gigantic effort to keep away from all of them. Its almsot like a dare by the media asking the viewers to try and ignore these reality shows. So well to put it succinctly I also end up watching one or two of these. As probably most of the other viewers I have also done my bit of cribbing about the unwanted display of emotions by the contestants, the exaggeration by the judges and of course also cheered a worthy contestant.

But the only thing that nags me no end is the way they claim that these shows rely on popular public voting. And how the hell do they do it?

For one, none of these shows are telecast live, most of the episodes are shot atleast few weeks ago and so how does the sms's sent by viewers count?

Let me elaborate - Rakhi Sawant made a guest appearance in Star VOI (Shaadi Special episode) much before the start of Nach Baliye 3. She said she had walked in straight from the sets of Nach 3 and urged viewers not to miss the upcoming show. Rakhi's performace with the same costume (the one with which she appeared on VOI) was telecast much later. So how would did it matter whether viewers voted for her or not during the initial episodes?

Similarly trailers of the final episode of Nach Baliye 3 is being aired since last week, which shows the host/compere - Hussain stating that the 'sms vote' counting is almost done and the results are just to be announced. Yet by the end of the day's episode viewers were pleaded/begged to cast their votes for their favourite contestants. So why ask for viewers vote when probably the results have been pre-decided?

Its all perplexing. I am not naive and do realise that these sms's translates to revenue, moolah & TRP's for these shows but atleast then why not make a proper pretence of the importance of these 'votes'? Either the public is being made a fool or there is something that I seem to be overlooking.

Is There Science Behind Astrology?

Horoscopes, birth charts, tarot cards all sound like mumbo jumbo to the convent educated, scientific thinking individuals that we have grown to be. Have recently been having some very interesting discussions with a very learned septuagenarian uncle (an ex-lawyer-cum-tax advisor), who has a completely different take on this subject.

More on this soon.

What Should I Do To Marry A Rich Guy??

Posted on a popular forum and faithfully being reproduced here...


What should I do to marry a rich guy?

I'm going to be honest of what I'm going to say here. I'm 25 this year. I'm very pretty, have style and good taste. I wish to marry a guy with $500k annual salary or above. You might say that I'm greedy, but an annual salary of $1M is considered only as middle class in New York. My requirement is not high. Is there anyone in this forum who has an income of $500k annual salary? Are you all married? I wanted to ask: what should I do to marry rich persons like you? Among those I've dated, the richest is $250k annual income, and it seems that this is my upper limit. If someone is going to move into high cost residential area on the west of New York City Garden (?), $250k annual income is not enough.

I'm here humbly to ask a few questions:
1) Where do most rich bachelors hang out? (Please list down the names and addresses of bars, restaurant, gym)
2) Which age group should I target?
3) Why most wives of the riches is only average-looking? I've
met a few girls who doesn't have looks and are not interesting, but they are able to marry rich guys
4) How do you decide who can be your wife, and who can only be your girlfriend? (my target now is to get married)

Ms. Pretty


Awesome reply:

Dear Ms. Pretty,

I have read your post with great interest. Guess there are lots of girls out there who have similar questions like yours. Please allow me to analyse your situation as a professional investor. My annual income is more than $500k, which meets your requirement, so I hope everyone believes that I'm not wasting time here. From the standpoint of a business person, it is a bad decision to marry you. The answer is very simple, so let me explain. Put the details aside, what you're trying to do is an exchange of "beauty" and "money": Person A provides beauty, and Person B pays for it, fair and square. However, there's a deadly problem here, your beauty will fade, but my money will not be gone without any good reason. The fact is, my income might increase from year to year, but you can't be prettier year after year. Hence from the viewpoint of economics, I am an appreciation asset, and you are a depreciation asset. It's not just normal depreciation, but exponential depreciation. If that is your only asset, your value will be much worried 10 years later.

By the terms we use in Wall Street, every trading has a position, dating with you is also a "trading position". If the trade value dropped we will sell it and it is not a good idea to keep it for long term - same
goes with the marriage that you wanted. It might be cruel to say this, but in order to make a wiser decision any assets with great depreciation value will be sold or "leased". Anyone with over $500k annual income is not a fool; we would only date you, but will not marry you. I would advice that you forget looking for any clues to marry a rich guy. And by the way, you could make yourself to become a rich person with $500k annual income. This has better chance than finding a rich fool.

Hope this reply helps. If you are interested in "leasing" services, do contact me…

signed,
J.P Morgan

A Temple Visit

As many would know this is the mandala kaalam or the auspicious month for Lord Iyyappa worship. Sharing a few photos from the temple visit, instead of waxing eloquent...




One portion of the divine palki getting ready. If you notice carefully the entire palki is made from just banana stem and fresh coconut leaves. Talk about being environment friendly!


The decorated temple elephant swaying its ears gently to the music of the chenda made an awesome sight.





There was also a program of Thayambaka and Panchavadyam organized for the evening which we had to give a miss due to the unusually cold weather.





For those who would like to hear the chenda, found this youtube link -

So, what am I up to?

No, I don't have delusions that there are actually people out there who are wee bit interested to read or know about my activities, but thats the kick a blog with a few clicks gives you. You simply imagine an interested audience, assume a readership base and go about expending your ideas & thoughts to the extent that now I feel compelled to state the reasons for my periodic inactiveness.
Duh, actually acknowledging that in words has weaned away some of the enthusiasm with which I started this post.

Albeit, to grudgingly continue, I am brushing up on my Spanish.Am still trying to figure out the 'Estar' & 'Ser' but to prove a point, here I go -

Hola a todos,
A mi me gusta bailar. Mi primer baile es en Julio. Practico mucho. Mi maestra canta para mi. Evito la lluvia porque estoy enferma. Nosotros percibemos baile divino.

Hope I have impressed those who see the above lines as gibberish. To those who understand it and with shrinking foreheads - ahem! I told you I am yet a learner, yaar.

And in between my pretensions of learning español, I manage to give an earful to all those cheats out there. Believe me there are quite a handful of corporate rogues out there. Honestly am not the one who likes to keep cribbing and crying hoarse over daily woes but these people are simply pushing me to a corner.

HDFC Chubb General Insurance for instance. I renewed my car insurance in the month of October and was issued a cover note. Its over 2 months now, my cheque has been realised and I am yet to get the original insurance copy. Every time I have called their customer care person I have to repeat my entier story. The person I last spoke to seems untraceable despite having the customer service officer's name or time when I last spoke. Needless to say, all I get is shallow promises of 'immediate followup'. And this despite being their loyal customer for 3 years!
[Moreover I learn from my husband that the cover note has only a 2 month validity and I dazedly recollect that I had made through the entire last year happily with only an insurance cover note.]

Next in line is Citibank. I have an ERA account which I have not operated for over a year. Now that I have ample time on hand I decided on sorting my bank accounts, finances and having decided so, I called them to issue me a new ATM pin. Simple task? You think! They say my ERA is not associated with my debit card so I can't do a simple validation over the phone. So next I write a letter and courier it to their Chennai office.
After a week I call for the pin and they say - "Can you write to us again, we have not received your letter."
I say, "I had it couriered to your office and I have the DTDC docket no. How can you simply state that a customer correspondence is untraceable? She repeats: "Can you write to us again, we have not received your letter."
I ask her - "Can you guarantee me that this time you will get the letter? She simply parrots the same line : "Can you write to us again ma'am, we have not received any letter."
I give up. Afterall what are a few hundreds in front of my mental well-being?

But Bimal Auto Agency takes the cake! I give my Alto for a complete service and after a lot of nakhra their guy picks the car a day before the service. I forget to note the kilometers run before handing over the keys but let me pass that. I get a call the next day stating the various cleaning and maintenance work they plan to do. I meekly ok it all and also agree to the astronomical figure they state as the estimation. End of the day am all happy with my shiny new looking machine and generously tip the driver also. All fine till now.

Next day I read an advertisement in paper that Maruti and all their associated agencies have been running this "Car Repair/Maintenance Month" and that all services/spares come at some 30% discount and free car wash coupons etc. What? Why wasn't I even told anything of this? I call them up frantically, fumble words in anger and question them as to why I was not mentioned about this on-going service mela or whatever yesterday while I coughed up the full charge?
The lady hems-haws and says something about how I should have mentioned that I was giving the car for service under that scheme or whatever. What??! But &*%#%^&*(
She has better things to do obviously than placate angry customers who are at loss of words.I raise a few decibels, tell her how she has lost a valuable customer who would have otherwise given our Maruti Swift also for a service but who wouldn't ever do it now. She could'nt have cared less for she simply 'thanks' me and puts the receiver down!

I end up feeling like a complete moron who has paid for a free ride.

Will seek some solace in a lime mousse cheesecake...you take care.

The Art of Fine Insult!

One forward mail that I really enjoyed, so sharing them here...

"He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire."
-- Winston Churchill
[Applies to many people I know]

"I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with great pleasure." -- Clarence Darrow
[Oops! I dont exactly have a list, though...]

"He has never been known to use a word that might send a reader to the dictionary." -- William Faulkner (about Ernest Hemingway)
[Hahah can 100% apply to me but I would like to think of it as a compliment. I wonder what Faulkner would have to say about our very own R K Narayan.]

"I've had a perfectly wonderful evening. But this wasn't it." -- Groucho Marx
[Me yet hankering after 'that' perfectly wonderful evening]

"I didn't attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it." -- Mark Twain

"He has no enemies, but is intensely disliked by his friends." -- Oscar Wilde
[Ouch! that should hurt]

"I am enclosing two tickets to the first night of my new play; bring a friend... If you have one." -- George Bernard Shaw to .Winston Churchill, followed by Churchill's response: "Cannot possibly attend first night, will attend second, if there is one." -- Winston Churchill
[One classy retort this is...]

"I feel so miserable without you; it's almost like having you here." -- Stephen Bishop
[Hmm slightly confusing]

"I've just learned about his illness. Let's hope it's nothing trivial." -- Irvin S. Cobb
[Hehah simply fantastic]

"He is not only dull himself; he is the cause of dullness in others." -- Samuel Johnson
[Cool one. Would like to use it one day]

"His mother should have thrown him away and kept the stork." -- Mae West
[Many names crop up ;) ]

"Some cause happiness wherever they go; others, whenever they go." --- Oscar Wilde
[I agree Mr Wilde, I agree wholeheartedly. Makes one think about the relatives you might have had too..]

Lady Astor once remarked to Winston Churchill at a Dinner Party, "Winston, if you were my husband, I would poison your coffee!"
Winston replied, "Madam if I were your husband I would drink it!"
[Ahem! a made-(to remain)in-heaven match]

"We've been through so much together, and most of it was your fault." --- Ashleigh Brilliant
[The name says it all]

"This is not a book that should be tossed lightly aside. It should be hurled with great force." --- Dorothy Parker
[I have such a list! Will write another post on that.]

Street Artists: A dying breed.

Yesterday I wokeup to the loud notes of nadaswaram - a wind instrument, similar to the shehnai of the North India. A little miffed at being so wokenup instead of my usual favourite FM, I walked out to see my mom generously giving alms to this person towing a decorated cow. Mom smiled seeing grumpy face, squinting at the early morning blasts of sun.

"Nadaswaram is a mangala vadhyam (auspicious instrument) dear" she smiled. "Traditionally you must have seen them in south-indian marriages or street processions but they started out as divine instruments used in temple worship. There were times when people used to flock for nadaswaram concerts and these musicians were a celebrated lot. Today see what they have been reduced to" she lamented.

Did a little reading on this endangered art form and came out understanding little more of them. I made a small vow to myself that the next time I come across such street artists, will spare them more than a few loose change.

Of Sabbaticals, Domestic Bliss & Homing Pigeons.....

I have written and deleted about nine versions of this post. Half the time wondering if I am really expressing what I am actually feeling. I also had this nagging thought that the moment I would put this in words my feelings might take a 360 degree turn. Am being a braveheart by going ahead and posting this, so don't you judge me.

'Domestic bliss' was a term I used to associate as a brand for selling modular kitchens at the most. Today on a short sabbatical I seem to find myself wallowing in this very same bliss of plain vanilla domesticity - and am actually enjoying it. Looking back as far as I can see I have never given myself the luxury of taking a break for more than 2 weeks. And those precious breaks used to be mainly while I was transitioning from one company to another.Today its more than 2 months of me waking up without having to wonder "What do I wear to office today?" and its simply exhilarating.

I used to find it rather condescending when people used to point out the long history of women's natural association with the home and domesticity. But perhaps its just the modern social conditioning that equates feminine domesticity to shameful captivity by the patriarchial society that we live in. I could never imagine why any woman worth her salt would want to regress to the era of being a homing pigeon, slaving it out in the kitchen and keeping the table spotless.

Today am amused to find myself secretly enjoying the very same things I used to shoo away from. Make no mistake, the thought of getting to confined to the coffee pot and knitting skeins of wool into dull socks and sweaters still nauseates me.

Its this new found domesticity that has me shamelessly enslaved - where I get an hour long morning seista of coffee and the paper, hearty unhurried breakfast, no more weaving your way through the traffic and no more worry of missed deadlines. Absolutely revelling in it..

More later....got to go wave my hubby 'bye' :)

Shubh Deepavali

Wishing a happy, prosperous and safe Diwali to one and all.




Glittering MG Road on Diwali night

Did You Say Rajni'Can't?

Lola Kutty And Boney Menon

Lola Kutty and Boney Menon Party!



Simply love them. Was rummaging through my files and found this video and wanted to share it with all. It turned out to be a huge file but I luckily found the link to this video on Youtube. Enjoy maadi.

We Are T20 World Champions!! ....really?

Am overjoyed and as happy as every other cricket loving Indian at India winning the T20 worldcup. It was a nail biting finish and I whooped in joy as the tricolour was paraded proudly around the ground..but all the same it seemed too good to be true.

A creepy thought passed my mind - Is this all true or is it part of an elaborate scripted show put up for our benefit? It was like a bad thought or dream that nobody wants to think about but it keeps recurring. Maybe I am just going bonkers.

Voice in my head - heck, isn't it too much of a coincidence that the final would have to be between India & Pakistan?...Especially after the world cup debacle, cricket took the biggest beating ever in its Indian history. It was almost on the verge of dying a slow death, sponsors pulling out support, public support was lost.

Me - What the hell, it was a great game. Played in front of millions.

Voice in my head - Forgot the earlier match fixing tales?. After the world cup fiasco the very foundation of BCCI obviously got shaken. New competition in the form of ICL cropped up. They had to act fast and effectively. What could redeem the team, gain public support and be the magic formula to put cricket back into its high pedastal? BOOM "Fresh faces...a World cup victory...against arch rivals Pakistan"
BCCI: Sure, can be arranged..Shall thrown in a special appearance of SRK to add a touch of glamour too. Indians love the combo :)

Me - Push away such niggly-naggly thoughts...Push away such niggly-naggly thoughts...

Voice in my head - Forgot how Bob Woolmer's death was simply brushed under the carpet? For weeks it was cold blooded murder..strangulation marks were found etc and one day a simple headline saying - It was suicide afterall..ended the tale. Did Hansie Cronje's plane crash or was it made to crash? Simply put its a big nexus. For, cricket is multi-million dollar business, my dear.

Me - Hurrah! We won..we won the T20 world cup..that's all that matters.

Voice in my head - Bravo, rejoice the victory. After all its people like you who keep this game going to new heights. Politicians announce lakhs of rupees, Sahara doles out flats to each players, sponsors rush to sign contracts again, Ad men gloat over new deals to be struck. BCCI heaves a relief that everything is back on track.
Pray, why no such money power was seen when the Indian hockey team won the Asia Cup? They were plainly congratulated, given a few lame receptions and Mr. Gill announced Rs. 1000 per goal (or Rs.70) per team member for every goal scored!
Wow, Indian sports is indeed laudable.

Me - we won, we won ..(buhoo, bad thoughts go away..)

Voice in my head - WWE is equally entertaining you know..:)

Me - Go away!

A Measure of Happiness

I dont know how they measure all this and I also wonder who pays for such survey's but the Times of India quoting one such survey states that we "Indians are the happiest lot in the world". Good for us :)

In yet another article in the magazine Nature, I read this interesting correlation between lottery winners and paraplegics. It said that lottery winners and accident victims both seem to revert to their prior levels of happiness. In other words, if a person wins a million dollar worth lottery and another person becomes an invalid in an accident - a year later their level of happiness or possibly their state of mind would both at par! Whoa, think of that.

Or lets just say - 'When life offers a lemon, ask for tequila and salt'

Bouquets & Brickbats

Am making an effort to write short stories/flash fiction. Here are few of my recent attempts -

Love Finds Its Way

The Indomitable Palakkad Maami

Cupid Unusual

Feedback, suggestions, ideas, bouquets or brickbats...all are welcome.

Malayalam vs Tamil Cinema

Having been homebound for sometime now and with enough clutter in the TV channels,watching movies suddenly has became very appealing. But I have to confess that am no longer in the rampant watch-any-movie age where I could digest anything from a Saajan to a Hero No 1 but clearly not also yet there to enjoy a Satyajit Ray or Pedro Almodvar movie.Anyways its regional cinema that I am talking here.

All this movie watching started with me giving company to my mom and she restricts her staple of movies to only Tamil and Malayalam films. After a point of time comparison was just bound to follow...

Best things first - Malayalam films are quite a revelation. From being funny,melancholic, enchanting, tragic, uplifting to plainly being entertaining the range and depth of malayalam films has simply awed me. And am not even talking here of the well-known, superhit mad capers of Mohanlal or Mamooty that the outside world knows of. Let me confess I dont even understand the language completely.

Here are a few movies that caught my attention - "Gaja Kesari Yogum" has
Innocent starring as an ex-mahout who passionately dreams of owning an elephant one day. Taking a loan from a local bank he unwittingly buys a circus elephant that has been trained in Hindi. The rest of the film is about the troubles the entire family take in learning hindi, their hilarious trials in re-training their elephant and on being unable to repay the loan their efforts in retaining the pachyderm with them. Its one superb entertainer of a film with no big names to boast of.

There was this movie (I dont seem to recollect the name) that had Srinivasan as the lazy, good-for-nothing son of a village ayurvedic doctor played by Thilakan. When his younger brother (who is an MBBS doctor) is preferred over him in marriage to his cousin, by his own uncle he is utterly dejected. He revolts and runs away from home only to return as a fake Siddha swamiji who dupes & lures all his brothers clients by mixing allopathic medicines with few harmless herbs in the name of Ayurveda. Another complete laugh riot.

Then there was this fantastic movie - Perumthachan
based on folklore of kerala's legendary master carpenter. As already said I am no fan of "art movies" but this movie had me rivetted and I dont think it can also be classified under the category of art.
And despite not being any kind of movie expert I have to say that this movie is classic stuff. Should be on the must-watch list of every movie-goer.
[Pic courtesy: Cinema of Malayalam]

The list hardly stops here and I have not even made it to the commercially well
done films of reputed stars such as Jayaram, Dileep, Mukesh, Mohanlal etc.

Most of the Malayalam movies are made on a shoe string budget - No foreign
locales, no expensive or elaborate costumes (c'mon how much can a mundu/dhoti
cost?), simple sets but amazingly different & refreshing storylines. The dialogues are simple, funny with lots of pun and very enjoyable. And they best of all is the portrayal of their leading ladies. When they could manage to make Ramba also look beautiful and graceful, need I say more?
Sadly their audience is very niche and limited.

And then there is the bizzare world of Tamil movies.

I picked up the much hyped Madhavan movie Aarya on reading reviews that it was a
thorough entertainer. To say the least my stomach churned to think that there are
people who enjoy this nonsense in the name of cinema and even more worse post
reviews that goes like this -"When an irresistible Arya ignores deepika's angry
shrieks and refuses to salute her, she goes ballistic, destroys his bike, kidnaps
his sister and is out for his blood. Predictably, since Arya stays cool and pays
her back in a fitting manner, she falls for him, his valour, his manliness..."
"Madhavan is simply superb. As a suave student of Medical college, he even holds
his stethoscope and apron with panache!" ..Hehehe God save us!

This is no biased blah blah against Tamil movies nor is it the case of citing one bad egg. Actually Aarya even seems better when compared to others. While am not
denying that for every Nee Venunda Chellum, there are films such as Mozhi,
Paruthiveeran and Vettiyadu Villayadu. But they are more an exception than the
rule. 98% of Tamil movies are still run-of-the-mill love stories with the usual all-powerful hero, his comic sidekick, the virtuous heroine and hamming villians.

'Sivaji' sucked big time and to hear that it is being considered for the state award makes one snort 'n snigger.

I don't understand this at all. While there isn't much of a difference in the
demographics of Kerala and Tamilnadu why does the taste in movies differ so vastly?

We Poor Little Rich Indians....

Nothing these days is spared of abuse and religion is no exception. I recently saw and read about this new "Golden Temple" of the south being built on a massive scale of 300 crore budget and by spending about 1500 kilos of gold. Dedicated to Goddess Narayani, this temple is the work of Sri Narayani Peetam headed by a 31-year-old godman who calls himself Narayani "Amma". Who is this Amma? More on him here

Messages by ‘Amma’ have been laid out along the path to the temple with messages from the Gita, Bible and Quran. “In this quagmire of materialism, Sripuram rises as an inspiration to man to find the divinity within him,” adds the brochure.

Pardon me! What?
Not satisfied with having reduced religion & spirituality to the level of street chicanery they now want to turn it into a money spinner also.

What is more laughable is that on the same page where the news of the golden temple appeared, there is another article that says, "Help us build eight new IITs, with money and faculty, India tells Japan"

Am utterly and completely speechless..

Happy Thiruvonam

After a heavy festive lunch of Aviyal, kaalan, olan, paayasam etc can't type anymore than simple wishes.

Happy Onam one and all..

Dance of the Divine

Its the annual dance festival at ISKCON from August 17 to 21st and this year it is themed to be - ‘Sri Krishna Shringar’, featuring the five classical dance forms of India that include Kathak, Odissi, Kuchipudi, Mohiniattam and Bharatnatyam. Having been a student of classical Bharatanatyam for many long years I would'nt have missed this treat for anything.

The festival this year boasts of having legendary artists of the fame of Bharati Shivaji and her troupe from Centre for Mohiniattam; Pandit Birju Maharaj and his dance school Kalashram; Vempatti Chinna Satyam's Kuchipudi Art Academy; Priyadarshini Govind and Madhavi Mudgal and her troupe from Gandharva Mahavidyalaya.

Among the fortunate to attend the Kathak recital by Pandit Birju Maharaj's troupe, it was an evening to cherish. While I had a secret hope that the legendary maestro himself might give us a performance, it was not to be. But nevertheless he gave such an awe-inspiring introductory speech that it more than made up for him not performing.

Here are a few pictures snapped on my N73.




Pandit Birju Maharaj



Krishna Leela - in Kathak ballet form



An enthralling performance it was.



Adding this pic a lil late - Here is the picture of the Mohiniyattam performance by Bharati Sivaji and Troupe on the last day. Krishna was performed by Mona Ganguly (Saurav Ganguly's sis-in-law) and Radha was portrayed beautifully by her daughter and disciple Vijayalakshmi).

Happy B'day 2 Me...

The passing of each birthday seems to me like someone's nailing an "Adulthood" signage in front of me. Now one is unable to easily get away with errant behaviours, careless attitudes and bizzare interests. However today, with people waiting longer to marry, stay in school longer, gleefully still depend on parents, divorce early and become a "young single" again, I feel I have just entered a period of prolonged adolescence. An adolescence with more emphasis on being responsible, acheiving a new maturity level and also what signals a whole lot of self-imposed and societal expectations. :(

But life's been one fantastic ride till now and when I look back, I like what I see (except, wish I could have my dad back). And its quite fascinating to think what the future might hold... (More yummier cakes in the least..)

Here is a message I received from one of my friends...and needless to say I loved it!

This will be your year. This will be your year...
This will be the year you love as deeply and laugh as often as you can.
This will be the year you do at least one thing you always dreamed you'd do.
This will be the year you come closer than ever before to perfecting this art called living.
This will be your year.

The Many Moods of Bangalore...

Dark clouds looming in the horizon....



Rainwashed roads...

Why Do We Sink This Low?

Let me tell you a very interesting albeit true story. There is large family whose one son is not very happy with the life they lead and wants to earn big bucks. So he goes and finds a job with a rich family who treat him like dirt but our guy is happy making his moolah. One day the rich family accuses him of a heinous crime and almost persecute him. The guy's family back home stands by him and goes all out to get him freed. After raising a lot of dust they manage to free him and get him back home. The father and neighbours go all out to make him feel comfortable and even go ahead and promise him a job.

You think the story ends on a happy note here? No. The boy goes begging back to the rich family to adopt him since he has been proved innocent. The rich snooty family looks at him like he is some loony (which I have no doubt of) and simply throws him out.

You must be thinking, "Who could ever be such a moron?" Well, we are. Atleast it looks like we are being ruled by some. First we go and make a hero out of a terror suspect. Then we go all out to bail him and give him a royal welcome. This notwithstanding our honourable chief minister offer's him a job!

The terror suspect rejects the offer and goes on to beg the Australian government for a honarary citizenship which they plainly reject.

"I won't be doing that," Howard was quoted by a local TV network.
There is no case for that to occur and I'm not sure that we have honorary Australians anyway, but he wouldn't be the sort of person you'd make an honorary Australian," he said.

But I'm not aware that there is such an animal, such a person, such a beast. I don't think so, I don't think we have honorary Australians, do we?

Sheesh! What is the need for our government & media to suck up to Haneef & family like this?
Am I the only one getting genuinely troubled by all this?

Day 2 @ Barcamp Bangalore 4

A few pictures (courtesy my N73) from Day2 of Barcamp Bangalore...












A session on - 'Podcasting Techniques For Your Blog' by Swaminathan. Quite interesting, which was then followed by a session called - "Protecting The Pictures In Your Blog". Though the interaction and comments from the audience was very entertaining, I can't say Vikram Aggarwal provided new insight in this direction.



And there was this session on Mo-Blog or Mobile Blogging by Arun Ram. Very interesting and it did ignite an interest in me to start my mo-blog. Watch out for that.




And then there was Thejesh who co-presented and continued the MoBlog sesssion from where Arun left. While Arun spoke on the technique of using GPRS for updating the blog, Thejesh showed how EMail & MMS are the other viable alternatives.

In all, it was a sunday well spent.

Why Only "Balle Balle" Always?

The other day I had lined out for myself to watch (as I always do when I am depressed) an awful sappy, mindless Bollywood caper. I might have surfed four to five channels watching bits and pieces of movies – Kal Ho Na Ho, DDLJ, Pyar Kiya Tho Darna Kya etc and none of which managed to hold my interest completely. More sadly, something kept hankering me, leaving a bitter taste in my mouth, and eventually ruined my enjoyment of the films entirely.

These has been an overdose of Punjabi in Bollywood and its been that way for quite sometime now. So long that its making me retch. No offense my dear Punjabi friends.
Punjabi is a fine language and with an equally memerising culture to back it. But there are surely more cultures and languages in India that can be showcased?

Heck! We are the most diverse country ever in the world with a shocking number of 415 living languages spoken in India and equal number of distinctly different cultures to showcase. But No, we are going to be stuck on to just Punjabi.

Think DDLJ, Kal Ho Na Ho, Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham ..If your saying that these are just the Chopra’s and Johars”..how about Namastey London..Bhagban, Muhjse Shaadi Karoge, Bride and Prejudice, Jhoom Barabar Jhoom….The list is simply endless.


And it doesn’t stop simply at films, go on to music and almost all the popular songs are set to the Bhangra beat or the usual Balle Balle (read dhol) background score. Try and see Partner songs and you will realize what I mean.

Honestly I am sick and tired of watching Shah Rukh, Saif, Amitabh, and every other actor mouthing the - soniye, kudiye and maahi ve, words.

How about giving us a taste of rustic Bihari folk or Rajasthani panihari music or the local flavour of the pahadi’s, Bollywood?

And on top of this they dare want Bollywood to be called the ‘Indian Film Industry”.
Ya sure, first try and identify the four south Indian states correctly, will ya?

But who cares if a madrasi female sitting in the audience is shaking her head in disgust by the end of a film? We’re too sensitive, and we don’t matter anyway. And oh!, everyone knows racism is only when you use the caste-word and treat people differently based on their color.

I Love Bangalore...

There are not many such days with little or no traffic on Bangalore roads these days. So took them for posterity..







Can you identify any of these roads?

The Illustrated Bhagavad Gita

The Bhagavad Gita is considered by scholars across the world to be among the greatest spiritual books the world has ever known. Through Bhagvad Gita or the Divine Song, Lord Krishna explains the science of self realization and the simple steps to attain an eternal relationship with Him.

Many great thinkers from our times such as Albert Einstein, Mahatma Gandhi and Albert Schweizer as well as Madhvacarya, Sankara and Ramanuja from bygone ages have all contemplated and deliberated upon its timeless message. The spiritual knowledge and the intrinsic beauty of the Bhagavad Gita is incomparable as it applies to one and all irrespective the realms of other religions.

The Bhagavad Gita has never required any sort of marketing but Inspire Media, New Delhi have come up with this interesting Illustrated Bhagavad Gita, by A.P.M Raj Urs. I think its a brilliant idea as illustrations bring the story to life and can help the reader visualise a lot better.

Wish there are more such initiatives, for the wealth that our scriptures carry can be paralleled by none.

Humor: India 2020

Polar Bears and Business Intelligence

A wildlife organization has launched a project that combines business intelligence software and ancient tracking techniques of the Inuit people to study polar bear footprints. The organization's goal is to document a declining polar bear population, considered by environmentalists to be a sign of global warming.
More on that over here

So Is The Threat of Global Warming for Real?

Notwithstanding the hoopla over the Global Warming threat that supposedly looms large in front of us, there are few voices with a little more than plain skepticism to counter this theory.

We have heard a lot of the '8 years to apocalypse' story..so lets hear the other side who are crying this who issue as hogwash.

And this is what they are saying -

- The notion of 'man made' global warming is absolute unequivocal myth, led by agendas, lies and media propaganda...says Channel 4, UK in its documentary The Great Global Warming Swindle

- Sir Nicholas Stern report on the economics of climate change is "Completely divorced from scientific reality" says Prof.Richard Lindzen in a DailyMail article.
He says, "He (Stern) is guilty of misreading the data, of distorting the evidence to suit his political masters' dogma, of throwing numbers about with reckless abandon, of promoting alarmism in place of rational discussion, and of reinventing climate history"

- According to a host of historical accounts, Europe was far warmer in the Middle Ages than it is today, or that the 17th century was much colder, prompting what was known as 'The Little Ice Age', when the Thames was often frozen over for months at a time.

- Stern also refers to 'significant melting of and an acceleration of ice floes' near the coast of Greenland because of global warming.
Several reputable scientific studies have shown that the mass of the Greenland ice sheet is actually expanding, while Stern also fails to note that the temperature of Greenland is now lower than it was in 1940 and little changed from the first measurements in the 1780s.

- Environmentalists are fond of jerking heartstrings with pictures of polar bears struggling on supposedly melting icebergs, but it is estimated that there are now 22,000 polar bears compared with 5,000 in 1940.

To quote him again -

"What is so tragic is the way that this dubious ideology has achieved such dominance in our public life.
Politicians love the green agenda, of course, because it means more control, more regulation, more taxes, more summits, and more opportunities for displays of self-important zeal.
The tragedy is that the likes of Sir Nicholas Stern are using bogus science to push forward this agenda."

- Richard Lindzen is Professor of Meteorology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. * Source

My 2 cents:
Are there political units of power & control being formed which transcend national boundaries, who are unelected and undemocratic, and who might hold nations (and their people) to further their own specific agenda?

Well, I dont know. It could well be a possiblityOr, is this a smoke screen created by US and other countries who have refused to sign the Kyoto Protocol since Kyoto can be ”devastating” to economic growth, because limiting emissions means limiting energy consumption, economic activity and technological progress

I’m not saying either of them is right. What I can say is that neither side could possibly know the real truth

I am reminded of the bumper sticker that says, "If you don't believe in HELL, you'd better be right" Just substitute "Global Warming" for "Hell."

Even if climate change isn’t an issue, acting on it will atleast solve other problems. By not acting on it, aren’t we taking quite a risk?

Deathly Hallows Leaked!

Pottermania reaches a never-before cresendo with the release of the final book hardly few days away. But looks like Potter fans can't seem to await any longer for the latest news is that the last installment - Harry Potter & Deathly Hallows has already been leaked on the internet.

Google around a little bit and one can find few thousand "Harry Potter and Deathly Hallows" book in an array of formats - .rar, .pdf, .doc etc. Sadly none of them seem to me the original. It looks more like the work of wannabe Rowlings.

However I found these pics from one of the popular photosharing sites. Still not sure about their authenticity. Have a look..


The Cover Page


Table of Contents


Chapter 1


Chapter 16



The Epilogue - Nineteen Years Later.















Are they for real? I have no idea!