The Song

I shot an arrow into the air,
It fell to earth, I knew not where;
For, so swiftly it flew, the sight
Could not follow it in its flight.

I breathed a song into the air,
It fell to earth, I knew not where;
For who has sight so keen and strong,
That it can follow the flight of song?

Long, long afterward, in an oak
I found the arrow, still unbroke;
And the song, from beginning to end,
I found again in the heart of a friend.

- Not me, but Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

IPL and me

Engrossed completely in the intricate debugging for of the Service request creation scenario, for once I took my eyes off the 14" addictive screen in front of me and my heart jumped. Looking around I could see only a few people in the sprawling floor of my building. Dazed, I looked at my watch to see what time it is of the night. What !! it was only 6:45 p.m. in the evening !! Am I dreaming or has my watch stopped, the silence was characteristic of an idyllic night. Suddenly I realised its IPL time and people have left to catch the action in screens that are meant for entertainment, unlike mine.

I am always enthused by the name of the cricket and is in awe with the indomitable spirit of the game that makes people mad with frenzy. I used to devour news about teams and players one month before the show-down actually began and participated in heighened discussions about all aspects of the game during my journey from office to home which is otherwise nondescript. My passion for cricket gave me sleepless nights during the IPL and I used to have mood swings with the vicissitudes of fortunes of my favourite teams in the matches. With bonafide interests, Chennai Super Kings was always a team of meticulous attention and I always wanted them to slay their opponents with diabolical precision. They were doing it quite well until they lost to Kolkata Knight Riders. That had instigated me to kick the wall in disgust and limp for the next 2 days. Bangalore and Deccan were two other teams I would swoon for. I would hardly blink when Raina and Dhoni would set the screen on fire with their scorching speed and incredible majesty. Although Gilchrist and Hayden are quite old for my liking, their sheer presence would keep me glued to my seat for 180 mins and later have cold dinner and a back pain that would necessitate my room-mate to go in search of pain balm.
As I watched in despair Dhoni walking out of the ground and my favourites for the Finals, Chennai.vanquished, one thing struck a chord. The illustrious and much vaunted line of sports stars did not assure any victory. Victories went to opponents who played smarter as teams - teams that knew their own and colleagues' strengths and prevailed as seamless machines, with brilliant defences and aggressive tackles.

True the days were exhausting with relentless high priority messages and the nights were long with the nail biting finishes of some of the matches in the IPL, yet the body and mind garnered all the energy to keep me fit and fine for this one month of sheer exuberence. Now that the IPL is over, tomorrow is another day, to live on with the same zest as the fervour of the IPL. Sure, it will be fun moving along.

Plan B

What do you do when it rains cats, dogs and donkeys? Sitting inside the house and watching an irrelevant IPL match would be Plan A. But we chose Plan B. We got inside the car and literally "boated" our way to Innovative Multiplex to see the movie "99". A movie released in a multiplex after a long time. But no one seems to know about it because we were a group of 5 and the total number of people inside the hall would have been 10 (which included the theatre guy who switched off the fan during the show - Go Green).

If you are reading this expecting a review of the movie, then you are at the wrong place. You must be checking out www.google.co.in and search for "movie 99 review" and you will get "about 83,800,000 results" and you can spend the rest of your avatars reading the reviews. What I wanted to do here is to just share a few things which I liked about the movie and the few other things which I did not like.

First, the 99 things I like about the movie. Since the list is very big and the reader might have better things to do in life, I will list out a few of them. Or in typical Google ishtyle - "Results 1-5 of about 99" -

1. The humour - it was clean and really funny. No dialogues with double or triple meanings. Even the consequences of having a mobile in your pant pocket are explained very neatly :-). There are lots and lots of funny moments.

2. The movie is set in 1999 - 2000. And the entire movie makes you feel that you are during that period - right from the movie posters, the mobile handset models to the banner which says "Welcome Bill Clinton".

3. Cyrus "Virus" Broacha - no one does not know that this guy can talk. Or should I say everyone knows that this guy can talk. But this guy can act also and whatever little he does in the movie is good.

4. Music - you have to listen to it. I liked it and you may like it too.

5. The theatre - it was more of a home theatre. To make it more realistic, they switched off the A/C. But long time since I saw a movie like this and it was definitely not the movie's fault.

Things I did not like are a very few. One of them is definitely Soha Ali Khan. They could have gone for a better actress. And the next one is Miss Mosquito - though it did not come in the movie it was very much there in the theatre. Well, what else do you expect when you execute Plan B on a rainy day.

Trip to My Utopia

Where do i start ?Alicia keys crooning 'No One'
in the background...me twiddling with my new haircut
while i wonder what it would be like to sit on a
speedboat right now ?!!Gushing water all over...i scream
"woohooooooooo"!!!! Now thats exhilirating :)
But what's even better is ,i now wish to see the world ,like i've
always perceived it ...upside down -And what better way that
to bungee dive ...too much on the same day ??Naaaaah:)

Next on the agenda : would be to slurp on burgers and fries
and then maybe a long island tea ;)
Or maybe we save that for later ...

Then i would love to try one of those exotic spas...
where they twist your arms and neck until you hear your bones knuckle...
Sipping on a cold lemon fizz tea...

And then I speed off in my red Ferrari (with no bloody
traffic to disturb!!) for a long,long long drive ...
and probably stop for shopping for a new hat !

Aaargghh!!! a meeting reminder snaps me back into reality ...
Gosh !will life ever get more colorful? :(

Actually life gets more amusing as i grow older...i remember
'trying' to study in high school the formula to calculate
pressure inside a bubble !!??Why would i ever need to know that?

Befuddled chromosomes

Yes,so why is the current generation so wayward?
I mean ,why do our parents feel that we are rebellious
and distracted? …….But then we just feel very restricted!
I mean i feel like a balloon who is tightly being clutched onto,
whereas i want to be left fee into the skies...and seamlessly float
around.After all,we all just have on life and shouldnt we experience
it to the fullest ?
Like a dear friend once told me (yes Deepu ,its you)i think we are a very
confused lot.We have grown up with traditional values ,but at the same time
exposure to the growing winds outside have also moulded our personalities.
(for the good or worse -now thats the question!)

For instance i might want to marry Nikhil Chinnappa (sorry Pearl),but heck would my mom ever see sense in that?She would freak seeing the number of piercings or rings he had! But i believe these are people who stretch life beyond all limits !Now thats what i define as "living" !

Now ,where do we draw the line ?or can we honestly do that ?Parents would explain
age mellows everything -but why would i want to give in ,when i want to feel every throbbing pulse of life?

Conclusion?...u dont have to look at van Gogh's 'Scream' - you can look at me instead :(

Is Favoritism your favorite!?

Long ago, or rather short ago there was this boy studying in 6th grade in one of the best schools in Bangalore! He was the smartest in the class excelling in all the fields - studies, games, dance, music ..name anything and he is there! But suddenly
his parents found him depressed and down. On talking with him further they realised he has been bogged down my partiality at his school..He was not given the credit he ought to get and was constantly pulled down by the teachers for the cost of some classmate!
The reason - No one knows! Constant demotivation did bring his morale down.

Lots of us (or atleast a few of us, am sure) would be able to relate to this. Lots of heads nodding for this. Now does it make sense for us to just keep thinking "Thats how it is..Nothing is in my hands". But if you ask me atleast I do belong to this category. This sometimes does help or am I wrong.Now is it worth thinking with my mind - 'People cannot change' or just stick to my heart - 'No point in staying at a place where you get no credit for what to you do'.

Not always can one do what he/she thinks right. Most of us would be bound to some commitments and conditions and so are our decisions.People reading this would be wondering - ' Is the person who wrote this crazy'. For those who have this in mind, the answer is Yes.After all these internal cold war between mind and heart I have gone ballistic and blame it on...needless to say!!.

So now the ballistic person give some tips to for those who are in the process of getting ballistic-
- Never share your knowledge with others, you lose your importance if you do.
- Ensure you keep talking rubbish at the right place and time.
- Have meetings regularly without the actual parties involved (who actually knows the meeting subject better)
- Dont try to friendly. If you are then you become approachable and you lose your value.

The major Do's and Dont's though easy to list, are they easy to pratice.Not sure, but I would this time try pratice what I preach.
And if I fail to, dont blame me!. Blame it on my sunsign....and those who could not please feel free to blame your sunsign as well!

Roads of Bangalore

One of our German colleagues, who had come over on a visit once, remarked "I saw some cows on the road when I was coming to office. It is very funny. Why don't they tie them up?" I was quite surprised. Why should we tie a cow? That would be cruelty to animals at its worst. We are not tied to our computer monitors when we are at work. Why cows then? Moreover, cows have been using the streets ever since the first street was paved in India. Why take away their right all of a sudden? I was very surprised. Then he continued, "Aren't they a big disturbance to traffic?" That set me thinking. Are cows really a disturbance? Why not have a closer look at the Bangalore roads.

First, let’s take the vehicles. Every day, thousands of people undertake a journey in the BMTC bus - a journey filled with adventure, romance (especially if there are colleges enroute), emotions, humor and even music (courtesy - college students) - all the ingredients of a super hit masala movie. The people who travel can be "broadly" classified as - Passengers and College Students. The people who travel inside the bus (where one is supposed to travel) are called "Passengers". People who travel with a major part of their body out of the bus are called "College Students". And these are not ordinary college students - you have a Statistics student trying to calculate exactly how much of his body is inside the bus (usually it comes to around less than 10%), a Physics student trying to find the centre of gravity of his body by leaning out of the bus as far as he can, a Chemistry student testing the strength of the metal of which the footboard is made and a Medical student just trying the weirdest way to land in a hospital (by falling out of the bus -- voluntarily or involuntarily). We also have the bus drivers - they consider the traffic lights to be just decorative. Take a look at them, enjoy the view and move on - whatever be the color. Add to this the private mini-vans, the drivers of which are too young to have a driving license or too ignorant to know that they need one. Of course, the IT/ITES industry contributes with its share of company shuttles, call centre cabs and vehicle lease policies.

What about lane discipline? How do the traffic police ensure that? First, remove the lanes. Lane indiscipline happens only when there are lanes. No lanes, no indiscipline. But how do they ensure that the vehicles stick to the left side of the road and not follow the Western way of traveling on the right or even worse, using the entire width of the road. That brings us to the second step - ask the BWSSB or BESCOM or any other organization which can dig roads and request them to do it right in the middle of the road. After one organization has put something in, ask the other one to take something out and so on. This will ensure that there is always a pit in the middle of the road. Vehicles have no option but to stick to the left. But, what do they do to prevent vehicles from going too far left? Third step - ask the local paan-wallah, vegetable-wallah, this-wallah and that-wallah to open a shop on the side of the road. This will restrict the vehicles from going too far to the left. I don’t think there can be a better way to ensure lane discipline.

Then, the pedestrians. We cannot miss out on them. Every vehicle driver in Bangalore wants this species called "Pedestrians" to disappear from the roads. They chase them away from the roads or in worse cases, just hit them. But the Pedestrians also fight for their survival by perfecting the art of jay-walking driving the drivers crazy!!!

After seeing all these, can someone sincerely believe that cows are a big disturbance to traffic?

Obviously, it is human beings who are the greatest hurdle to smooth traffic. So tie them up.

Let the cows enjoy the roads.

What does eating out mean for you!?!?

What does eating out mean for you!!..

Its Mission Escapado for me..Guess why!? I am not gonna eat food that was cooked by me!.So as part of the mission I along with few mates went to 'The Vil'age' in Indiranagar 100 feet road(above CCD).

An open-air restaurant with red tiled flooring and an attractive rustic theme that would give one a real elegant ambeince to relax and enjoy!.Hold On!. But for hoggers like us (and maybe a few of you), what matters the most was the food!And here I go. Tandoori was all over there menu and we did not hestitate to get a tatse of the all time favorites Aloo, Panner and Chicken(No..Not all of us, some of the non-veggies tried that!).
The food was very tasty defining tandoori style in every grain of it. My fellow non-veg mates wanted a special mention of the Chicken Tikka..So do try it when you are there!.

The mocktails very just satisfactory, or maybe it just did not meet the high expectations set by the main course and appetizers!. Having said all this, the service could have been an inch or may be a foot better!.
The bearer who just could not understand the order was referring to the menu with fingers all over the menu in desparation to locate the item he thought heard!..But a good dining experience in all, give it a shot!.

Burger King - How could it have got its name!!

Once in a while in Texas, a Red Indian used to make round chapattis and stuffed chicken kababs. Once he was rounded by hoodlums in his restaurant. Before looting the stuff they decided to play pranks with him. They asked him what his speciality was. He said he had none and he only knew to make round chappatis and chicken kababs. The hoodlums said that if he can prepare something new for them in 30 mins that resemble them they would leave him. the Red Indian was clever. Instead of flour he took bread and created round shaped baked bread, instead of chickeh kabab pieces he clubbed all kakab pieces into a huge piece and created a stuffing. He stuffed it between two breads and told them see, I am the stuffing, stuffed between strong guys like u symbolised by the bread and because u are buglars, I have named my dish as Burger. They were stunned. The story spread and so did the food. The Red Indian Guy became famous and started a chain of restaurants called Burger King.

Life - A Prison

To lead a life
Is to face a lot of strife
Man's life from being a son
To his departure is life in prison

Body is locked
In his mamma's womb!
For a child
school is prison-home!
The dress like shield
Does arrest a man!
He fetters,himself
To his love's locls!
Being imprisoned
By her lovely looks!
He seeking employment
Chains himself to a chair!
Family does,no doubt,
Lock him in a closet!
Death does meet him then
To keep him in a cabin!
Thus from womb to tomb
He leads a life of prison!

Death so cruel

I am seeing a lot of news related to death in the idiot box and also in newspapers. Maybe they were always there and I am beginning to see them only now. And this has made me nervous. Why? Because of the simple fact that I have begun to think of the increasing possibilities in which one can face it. When a person leaves the house to go to office, death is the last thing he will have in mind (for the sake of simplicity, I will use "he" which obviously implies "he/she"). He starts with the expectation of having a great day at work and he will be looking forward to coming back home and spending some quality time with his family. He goes to a railway station to board a train to reach his destination. And what happens next is played out in our news hungry 24 hour news channels (do we actually need news 24 hours a day?). He is killed by a bomb planted in a crowded compartment or falls prey to a bullet fired by a crazy individual who thinks he is obeying God's word. For the news media and the billions who watch it, he is just a number getting added to the "Dead" category. Just a statistic. But for him and his family, it is the end.

The end of a journey which started when he was born and his family celebrated his birth. A journey which took him to a school and gave him a lot of friends. He could have made a change in the lives of some of the people he interacted with. The fun he had when he was in college and the dreams he would pursue after finishing it will all go up in smoke. The dreams that changed a little when he got married. The joy he felt when he held his baby in his hand for the first time and the dreams he would have had for the baby. It will all be gone. What will be left in the place of all those dreams will be a shattered family and tearful friends. What a waste, what a waste. Did he come to this world for this? Should a life end like this? I don't think so. And I think this is crazy.

But who is this "he"? He is not an Army guy patrolling the border who knows that a bullet could fly in anytime. Nor is he part of a criminal gang which could be terminated in an "encounter" in the most unexpected hour. He is just a normal human being not expecting death in such a gruesome manner - just like you and me. And that - my dear friends - is the most scary part.

India beckons

Civilisation, the only thing to demystify nations, has flourished because everytime there is a revolution mankind has internalised the truth that proliferated from it. There was a time when America emerged as an unchallenged global super-power and made bare the vast expanse of an ocean where every drop had an opportunity written all over it. The world catapulted at the sight of the alluring prospects and so did India and Indians. The best brains from the country abondoned their motherland and went in the pursuit of unfathomable success.

As always, truth also has two sides of the coin. Many Indians who deprived their country of their intellect found themselves staring at a life of opulence but a heart bereft of eternal bliss. Their lives were saturated with success, success that translated to money, but their hearts yearned for something more. Moments of nostalgia transported them to those lush green fields, the aroma of the wet mud after the rain, the warmth of the people, the days of unbriddled joy with their friends and loved ones and the fleeting memories of their childhood in their motherland. The more they thought about their land of birth, the more they felt their motherland beckoning bewitchingly, the more they started craving for all those things they had cherished for ever – things that no amount of money could buy.

Indians who are nurturing this feeling of home-coming now have a chance to return to India and rediscover their roots by being a part of their country’s booming industry – the IT sector, the source of pride for India all over the world. So what to wait for - India beckons you!

TRP and Terror

The recent terror blasts have shaken up all.Everyone's heart bled for all terror victims. The strong feelings can be seen in circulating emails forwards ,sms,public movements etc. Even in the midst of all this ,we still have news reporters interviewing Shah rukh khan and other bollywood stars on his response to this whole massacre.I mean ,how in the world is it even relevant ?Please dont give me the excuse that we are just curious to know how the minority section feels .If it was that ,then please interview those minorities who were affected in this . My whole point is even in such a sensitive situation ,we as a public havent grown up.We are still so immature that we need to know what a film actor feels!? Does anyone even know the names of those firemen or the Taj hotel staff who played with their lives to rescue those trapped ?Shouldnt their views be shared with us ? Instead media resorts to cover opinions of celebrities who've decided not to travel abroad because of this incident .WTF ! I mean how do we as a country even care ??The media ought to be more responsible for publishing/broadcasting sensible information.I am sure they would give the excuse that their paper would never sell like hot cakes then or their TRP's would go down! Many of us would rather read - how many more abs has our favourite hero recently acquired! Why are we so less nationalistic ? I feel the media needs to take up the responsibility of moulding the public to becoming more practical. This might sound far-fetched to many and agree this wouldnt solve the issue entirely.Along with this we would need to awaken individually ....

Imagine

Indian women are no less competitive today .You find them from hawking at fish markets
to even becoming the President of a country!

Now let's fast forward into future ...Imagine an indian society where the the boy's family
need to pay dowry so that the future wife can take good care of him ...A time where the husband would need to leave his house and 'adapt' to his wife's family instead,change his previous 20 years for them..Imagine a time where science has soo developed that the gift to conceive can be chosen either by the wife or the husband and maybe a time where the wife had zilch maternal instincts and wouldnt mind if her husband had to go through labour pain ! And given the fact that she earns more ,she would 'prefer' her husband to resign and tender the kids....after all she is earning quite a lumpsum and wouldnt mind if her partner had to forgo his career.He could take a part - time job if he's really that bored. A time where the wife returns home after a long day and the husband has just finished setting up dinner at the table.

I am no hard core feminist ..but how many men out there are actually ready to do this for a
lifetime ?(of course lets leave aside the labour pain part for now!)