Wandering while lying down

Life's symphonies

2007-04-04T22:23:00.000+05:30

When does a place turn from being foreboding and strange to someone which you can connect with and blend right in?in my case-when it plays a song which you think existed only on your life's soundtrack.a few instances--2 years back a little pizzeria off Charing Cross Rd suddenly plays Dreams by the Cranberries.And,I am home.

Closer home:
A dive at Dadar TT by the name of Ashok.Playing the usual mish mash of Himesh R etc but suddenly the Speakers pour out Mozart's symphony no.39 and me and Miggy look at each other with raised eyebrows.And smile.

Hard Rock Cafe last week.It's my first time there.Nice place ,like the ones abroad etc.Good music,but the K-Factor is still missing.And suddenly Collective Soul's December is the next track.
'Why follow me to higher ground,Lost that you swear I am'

And a decade vanishes.

And a new gym.You know how they are.
And yet,in the middle of the crowd,Bob Sinclair's 'World,Hold On' club mix featuring Steve Edwards finds its way into the playlist and gets me tapping again.

Rewind-1

2007-04-04T10:14:00.000+05:30

90 days over already so far in 2007.It has been the best of times,and it has been the worst of times.Though I am glad to say it has been more of the former and sufficiently Dickensian as well.
I have managed to sail on board a fine ship,fly on a superb private jet,get upgraded to the front of the aircraft amongst other things.Not very significant achievemnts,I agree.However,if someone had told me I'll be doing all this and more ,back in 1997-1998,I would have laughed them off.And yet,this is exactly what has happened.My takeaway from this is that if one does what one likes very much,solely as an interest and without expecting any little benefit as an outcome,then there is a probability to be pleasantly surprised by it all.
It can be overwhelming at times,but stay the course.
I also managed to get around a bit;made some new friends with that surprising collision of different worlds which leaves the core values and mindsets intact.I got to discover and explore new bookshops in different places courtesy friends who have been there before and thought that they were the best places in bustling metropolises for me.
I managed to be out in the Karnataka sun for a week at a stretch;was dehydrated most fo the time,was sunburnt,dusty and still had a smile which makes me smile when I look at my pictures from there.
I met a few heroes as well while doing all of the above.
Workwise too,it has been a learning phase.I am not where I would have liked to be but I am a firm believer of a patient approach.I had a superb trip to DXB (where I also took part in the 10-K)

Le Blog est Mort;Vive le Blog1

2007-04-01T10:11:00.000+05:30

Yep.

200 million dead blogs out there.Time to this one rolling again.

The Inner Jester Prompts....

2007-02-17T13:55:00.000+05:30

- Come on, kid. Get in there. Engage.- You've got a bogey at two o'clock.
Take the shot, kid.

You can engage any time, Maverick.

- Where the hell are you going?- It doesn't look good.

What do you mean? It doesn't getto look any better than that.

Hey, man. We could have had him...

I'll fire when I'm goddamngood and ready. You got that?

- He won't engage.- It's only been a few days.

- He just might not make it back.- Keep sending him up.

Fruits of a Classical Education,My Dear

2007-02-17T13:50:00.000+05:30

A pertinent look at the state of Classical Education in the UK today.
I shudder to take a similar look at whats happening in India today.

Kim Karomi?

The decline of declension
Harry Mount
January 3, 2007 4:35 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/harry_mount/2007/01/post_860.html

The news that the teaching of classics in state schools is facing extinction is bloody sad news. But it's not new news.

Latin and Greek have been in decline in state schools for the last four decades, ever since successive Labour and Conservative governments began destroying grammar schools. In 1960, 60,000 children did Latin O-level. Now, 10,000 do the much more basic replacement, GCSE (and, of these, in 2003, only 1,707 came from state schools).

When it comes to A-levels, it's time to drag in the life-support machine: only 5,000 children a year take a classical A-level of any sort; that's less than 0.8% of all A-levels taken. And, if the future looks less than rosy for Latin, it's wine-dark for Greek. Fewer than a thousand children a year do GCSE Greek, squeezed out by its declining stablemate, Latin.

What is new, though, is the terribly defeatist attitude taken to propping up classics as it enters its death throes. Classics is wonderful, goes the thinking. But people are finding it too difficult, so fewer of them are doing it. The answer? Aha! Make it easier.

That's the opinion of Bob Lister, one of the last two lecturers in England to train classics teachers and the man who has carried out the latest research into the decline. Mr Lister thinks that Latin GCSEs should be made easier, with less translation from the original.

Zero out of ten, Mr Lister. To paraphrase Kingsley Amis, easier will mean worse. No one points to, say, maths, and thinks - ooh, calculus is a little difficult; let's not inflict it on the poor lambs; adding and subtracting is enough to be going with.

And the same should go for Latin. The reason why people who have done classics are often bright, with a command of grammar and an understanding of the roots of classical and English literature, is because it's actually quite hard to learn all those things. Hard, but highly worthwhile.

Learn Latin and not only will you understand English better, but you will also, more importantly, understand Latin better - the language in which some of the most stirring prose and poetry ever was written. Know Latin, and you will know world literature from the third century BC, when writers got going in Rome, through the so-called Golden Age of Latin: Lucretius, Catullus, Sallust, Cicero and Caesar; the Augustan Age: Ovid, Horace, Virgil and Livy; down to the end of the Silver Age in 120 AD: Martial, Juvenal, Lucan, Seneca, Pliny and Tacitus.

Wonderful books to know. But, like a lot of wonderful things, they need a bit of effort to be appreciated.

A College Education Without Job Prospects

2007-02-14T16:07:00.000+05:30

A thought-provoking article from Yenn Why Tea

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/30/business/worldbusiness/30college.html?ei=5088partner=rssnyt&en=23907b6b6f9b384e&ex=1322542800&emc=rss&pagewanted=all

November 30, 2006
A College Education Without Job Prospects
By ANAND GIRIDHARADAS

MUMBAI, India, Nov. 29 — The job market for Indian college graduates is split sharply in two. With a robust handshake, a placeless accent and a confident walk, you can get a $300-a-month job with Citibank or Microsoft. With a limp handshake and a thick accent, you might peddle credit cards door to door for $2 a day.
India was once divided chiefly by caste. Today, new criteria are creating a different divide: skills. Those with marketable skills are sought by a new economy of call centers and software houses; those without are ensnared in old, drudgelike jobs.
Unlike birthright, which determines caste, the skills in question are teachable: the ability to communicate crisply in clear English, to work with teams and deliver presentations, to use search engines like Google, to tear apart theories rather than memorize them.
But the chance to learn such skills is still a prerogative reserved, for the most part, for the modern equivalent of India’s upper castes — the few thousand students who graduate each year from academies like the Indian Institutes of Management and the Indian Institutes of Technology. Their alumni, mostly engineers, walk the hallways of Wall Street and Silicon Valley and are stewards for some of the largest companies.
In the shadow of those marquee institutions, most of the 11 million students in India’s 18,000 colleges and universities receive starkly inferior training, heavy on obedience and light on useful job skills.
Students, executives and educators say this two-tier education system is locking millions of people into the bottom berths of the economy, depriving the country of talent and students of the chance to improve their lot. For those who succeed, what counts is the right skills.
“It’s almost literally a matter of life and death for them,” said Kiran Karnik, president of the National Association of Software and Services Companies, a trade body that represents many leading employers. “The same person from the same institution with the same grades, but not having these skills, will either not get employed at all or will probably get a job in a shop or something.”
India is that rare country where it seems to get harder to find a job the more educated you are. In the 2001 census, college graduates had higher unemployment — 17 percent — than middle or high school graduates.
But as graduates complain about a lack of jobs, companies across India see a lack of skilled applicants. The contradiction is explained, experts say, by the poor quality of undergraduate education. India’s thousands of colleges are swallowing millions of new students every year, only to turn out degree holders whom no one wants to hire.
A study published by the software trade group last year concluded that only 10 percent of graduates with nonspecialized degrees were considered employable by leading companies, compared with 25 percent of engineers.
Pratap Bhanu Mehta, a former Harvard professor who recently resigned in frustration from the National Knowledge Commission, which advises the Indian government on overhauling the education system, said, “The real crisis for me is the place where 70 percent of your graduates are students who do basic science, bachelor of arts and bachelor of commerce.”
Bijal Vora, a commerce student at Hinduja College here in Mumbai, formerly Bombay, would welcome a redesign of the system. “We have not done this to become salespeople,” she said.
Hinduja is in one of India’s richest enclaves, but it is a second-tier, little-known school, and so it exemplifies a middling college experience — neither the best nor the worst.
Between lectures there, dozens of students swarmed around a reporter to complain about their education.
“What the market wants and what the school provides are totally different,” a commerce student, Sohail Kutchi, said.
Kinjal Bhuptani, a final-year student who expects next year to make $2 to $4 a day hawking credit cards, was dejected. “The opportunities we get at this stage are sad,” she said. “We might as well not have studied.”
The students said they were not learning to communicate effectively, even as the essential job skills evolve from pushing papers to answering phones to making presentations. They said their courses offered few chances to work in groups or hold discussions. And in this supposedly English-language college, the professors often used bad grammar and spoke in thick accents.
Across India, half of graduates are not taught in English, effectively barring them from the high-end labor market, said Mohandas Pai, director of human resources at Infosys, a leading outsourcing company. And where English is taught, it is not necessarily the kind employers need.
“Depreciation nikal diya, assets ko less ho gaya.” So went a lesson being given by the accounting professor at Dahanukar College in suburban Mumbai — removing depreciation reduces assets — an example of the widespread use in supposedly English-language colleges of Hinglish, an amalgam of Hindi and English.
A lack of communications skills may be the most obvious shortcoming, but it is not the only one. A deeper problem, specialists say, is a classroom environment that treats students like children even if they are in their mid-20’s. Teaching emphasizes silent note-taking and discipline at the expense of analysis and debate.
“Out! Out! Close the door! Close the door!” a management professor barked at a student who entered his classroom at Hinduja two minutes late. Soon after his departure, the door cracked open again, and the student asked if he could at least take his bag.
The reply: “Out! Out! Who said you could stand here?” A second student, caught whispering, was asked to stand up and cease taking notes.
Then there is the matter of teaching style. At Hinduja and Dahanukar, the mode of instruction at times evokes a re-education camp of some sort. In a marketing class at Hinduja, the professor paced in front, then pressed her chalk to the board.
She drew a tree diagram dividing it into indirect and direct marketing, then divided those into components, and those further into subcomponents. As students frantically took notes, she kept going, and before long she was teaching them that each region of Mumbai would have its own marketing representative: eastern Mumbai, western Mumbai, central Mumbai. There was no discussion, and there was little to discuss.
The professor then led the students in a chant: “What is span of management?”
“Span of management is the number of subordinates a supervisor will manage.” She chanted the refrain four times.
Rote memorization is rife at Indian colleges because students continue to be judged almost solely by exam results. There is scant incentive to widen their horizons — to read books, found clubs or stage plays.
That is not good news for Indian companies, which are hiring these days. Infosys will take on 25,000 people this year from a pool of 1.5 million applicants. The ranks of the rejected are likely to include smart graduates who lack qualities like poise, articulateness and global exposure, Mr. Pai of Infosys said.
And even if rigid teaching ways are changed, experts say the rigidity of Indian households will continue.
“When we are raising our children,” said Sam Pitroda, a Chicago-based entrepreneur who is chairman of the Knowledge Commission and was an adviser to Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in the 1980s, “we constantly tell them: ‘Don’t do this, don’t do that. Stand here, stand there.’ It creates a feeling that if there is a boundary, you don’t cross it. You create boxes around people when we need people thinking outside the box.”

Flying-1

2007-02-14T13:00:00.000+05:30

New changes to blogspot and all..
And me not even writing anything!!!

My sis described me in an interesting way the other day--
'You are the one who stays awake on airplanes and goes off to sleep in movie halls'

:-)

What do you reckon folks?

Day 1

2007-01-05T15:06:00.000+05:30

PS-- I wrote this on the 2nd,havent been able to upload it till now .Servers seem slow?
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I had a wonderful start to 2007.So did everyone ,I hope.

I went to sleep at 0230 hrs after catching up with Herr M and MP at a 'family restaurant ' at Chembur.A bottle of Sula White was duly opened at 2 minutes past midnight and the assemblage raised a toast to each other secretly hoping they would be with leggy lasses the next new year's eve.
Anyways,more of what was discussed later.But,it was a rock solid evening with two rock solid chaps and that means a lot.
So anyways,I was up at 0600-went for a 6 km run at 0630 which ,much to my surprise,finished in an hour.Then came home,had breakfast,chatted with the folks,went to work.Sent and recd messages and calls through the day.

And so on and so forth...yawn..feeling sleepy..more later....

But,tell you what--2007 promises to be as interesting as 2006 with the added fun of it being the latest model/version/iteration.

Dus Bahane.......

A resolution for 2007

2007-01-01T22:33:00.000+05:30

No more procrastination from tomorow.

Why I am an Historian (Amateur of course)

2007-01-01T21:55:00.000+05:30

This is from today's NYT.A piece which makes you go:I wish I had written this!

Well,anyways,this is from one of the finest Liberal practioners of his art:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/01/opinion/01schlesinger.html?th=&emc=th&pagewanted=print

January 1, 2007
Op-Ed Contributor
Folly’s Antidote
By ARTHUR M. SCHLESINGER Jr.
MANY signs point to a growing historical consciousness among the American people. I trust that this is so. It is useful to remember that history is to the nation as memory is to the individual. As persons deprived of memory become disoriented and lost, not knowing where they have been and where they are going, so a nation denied a conception of the past will be disabled in dealing with its present and its future. “The longer you look back,” said Winston Churchill, “the farther you can look forward.”

But all historians are prisoners of their own experience. We bring to history the preconceptions of our personalities and of our age. We cannot seize on ultimate and absolute truths. So the historian is committed to a doomed enterprise — the quest for an unattainable objectivity.
Conceptions of the past are far from stable. They are perennially revised by the urgencies of the present. When new urgencies arise in our own times and lives, the historian’s spotlight shifts, probing at last into the darkness, throwing into sharp relief things that were always there but that earlier historians had carelessly excised from the collective memory. New voices ring out of the historical dark and demand to be heard.

One has only to note how in the last half-century the movements for women’s rights and civil rights have reformulated and renewed American history. Thus the present incessantly reinvents the past. In this sense, all history, as Benedetto Croce said, is contemporary history. It is these permutations of consciousness that make history so endlessly fascinating an intellectual adventure. “The one duty we owe to history,” said Oscar Wilde, “is to rewrite it.”

We are the world’s dominant military power, and I believe a consciousness of history is a moral necessity for a nation possessed of overweening power. History verifies John F. Kennedy’s proposition, stated in the first year of his thousand days: “We must face the fact that the United States is neither omnipotent or omniscient — that we are only 6 percent of the world’s population; that we cannot impose our will upon the other 94 percent of mankind; that we cannot right every wrong or reverse each adversity; and therefore there cannot be an American solution to every world problem.”

History is the best antidote to delusions of omnipotence and omniscience. Self-knowledge is the indispensable prelude to self-control, for the nation as well as for the individual, and history should forever remind us of the limits of our passing perspectives. It should strengthen us to resist the pressure to convert momentary impulses into moral absolutes. It should lead us to acknowledge our profound and chastening frailty as human beings — to a recognition of the fact, so often and so sadly displayed, that the future outwits all our certitudes and that the possibilities of the future are more various than the human intellect is designed to conceive.
Sometimes, when I am particularly depressed, I ascribe our behavior to stupidity — the stupidity of our leadership, the stupidity of our culture. Three decades ago, we suffered defeat in an unwinnable war against tribalism, the most fanatic of political emotions, fighting against a country about which we knew nothing and in which we had no vital interests. Vietnam was hopeless enough, but to repeat the same arrogant folly 30 years later in Iraq is unforgivable. The Swedish statesman Axel Oxenstierna famously said, “Behold, my son, with how little wisdom the world is governed.”

A nation informed by a vivid understanding of the ironies of history is, I believe, best equipped to manage the tragic temptations of military power. Let us not bully our way through life, but let a growing sensitivity to history temper and civilize our use of power. In the meantime, let a thousand historical flowers bloom. History is never a closed book or a final verdict. It is forever in the making. Let historians never forsake the quest for knowledge in the interests of an ideology, a religion, a race, a nation.

The great strength of history in a free society is its capacity for self-correction. This is the endless excitement of historical writing — the search to reconstruct what went before, a quest illuminated by those ever-changing prisms that continually place old questions in a new light.
History is a doomed enterprise that we happily pursue because of the thrill of the hunt, because exploring the past is such fun, because of the intellectual challenges involved, because a nation needs to know its own history. Or so we historians insist. Because in the end, a nation’s history must be both the guide and the domain not so much of its historians as its citizens.

Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., who has won Pulitzer Prizes for history and biography, is the author, most recently, of “War and the American Presidency.”

Happy 2007

2007-01-01T21:50:00.000+05:30

Ok,

So my previous post was titled Happy New Year as well...which means I havent been here in quite some time.

Anyways,

A Happy New 2007 to you all.

Here we are now,entertain us.

Happy New Year

2006-08-20T16:25:00.000+05:30

Now bid me run,And I will strive with things impossible.

Another year begins.
Its been such a fantastic year,this last year.
New places visited,old ones refamiliarised.
New friends hopped on board.Some have gone on to new destinations,new lives.But they'll always be a part.

The mind is restless,constantly traisping through an enchanted wood of thoughts.
Time to wear the g-suit and begin the sortie....

Hail

2006-05-07T11:01:00.000+05:30

Ah Cha,

I remember my pwd :)

2006-03-08T12:40:00.000+05:30

Caelum non animum mutant qui trans mare currunt.

- They change the sky, not their soul, who run across the sea.

2006-03-07T19:52:00.000+05:30

Almost all absurdity of conduct arises from the imitation of those whom we cannot resemble.

-Samuel Johnson

And then again-

Gnothi se auton" ("Know Thyself") i

Inscribed on Apollo's Oracle of Delphi temple in ancient Greece.

Wanderings -1

2006-03-03T09:46:00.000+05:30

Chennai.

Already been to Delhi,Indore and Tirupati so far since February.Was in Bangalore last year for Aero India.And was in Delhi for PLASTINDIA to the exact date
from last year.A year gone past.Feels like yesterday;feels like a year away;feels like forever away.SMS Beep as i type this.Its my word of the day service.Today's word-Sojourn SOH-jurn Intransitive Verb: To stay as a temporary resident or to dwell
for a time.
How appropriate.
2 months of 2006 gone by. Delhi flashes past.Meeting Maz-San,the usual industry contacts.The
turmoil when a truck goes missing.The sheer energy of those 6 tradeshow days.Wearing blazers
everyday.First time in my life I have spent so much on myself at a go.On clothes that
too;still will stretch them for along time I guess.Visiting familiar bookshops in
Delhi;meeting personal heroes,hearing about other heroes.Making plans;Hash and Punjabi by
Nature with Hi-Ren 2 days after hanging out with his bunch at Embassy.Visiting the National
Stamp Museum;walk around this hall and you will have walked through all the positive facets
of India.And the negative facet too: we just do not know how to market ourselves.Back to
bookshops.Surprising tendency of self to eerily locate particular sections automatically
even in strange bookshops.Went to Gurgaon and met up with KV and family.Went to Noida once too.Brilliant townships
with a landscape reminiscent of Americana ,specially int nhe case of Gurgaon.Major road
works happenning.The poverty remains the same.And the same retail chains everywhere.So much that you cannot distinguish Mehrauli from
Mulund and GK1 from GK77.On to Indore.Ask for an alarm for 0330.Wake up automatically at 0324;phone rings at 0325.A voice
asks,'Wake up Alarm Sir?' I reply yes.Am brushing my teeth when it r ings again 0330.Same voice:'Good Morning Sir,your wake up
alarm'.Sigh.IGI in the morning.A lot of traffic at the Palam roundabout.Check-in sufficiently
quick.Breakfast in the 9W lounge.Lounge inhabited by Laptop toting,laptop operating types at
0430 in the morning.I have corn flakes,cold milk,a bit of bread and something else I cannot
remember what.Then try id-ing tarmac silhouttes.The AAI Daks are moved to a corner.Proceed for security check,Step out on to the tarmac as a February Breeze flutters the
Windsock.It is good to be back at an airport again.Lots of A320s,ATRs,B737s in varied
liveries abound.Mine is an ATR-42.I feel like a beauty pageant judge.
Of the swimnsuit round no less.

Take off and the flt are good.And then I am in Indore.Cute little airport.

Visit Nani;then go the shop and get back to watching the world go by.Meet a couple of customers.Catch up with Dida and the kids that evening at Mama's place.We make plans for Omkareshwar the next day.Last time I went there was in 1989 .Sonal hadnt arrived yet.So it was me,Mum and Dad along with the Indoris.Sparse crowd that day in Omkareshwar.We go boating.Flat bottomed boats.The reason for this becomes evident as they go over a bit of rocks .Water is cool.I refuse to t ake the holy dip.Then we get back to the city.Drop Dida ,Srish and Hanuman home.Go see Nani again.Feel depressed at seeing her frailness.Then Bed and sleep.
Reach BOM the next morning.
More later.
This update comes to you via the RED WI-FI service at t he Oriental Inn Chennai and the D-Link card purchased yesterday from Spencer Plaza.
Whee.
Liberation.

Mumbai Marathon!

2006-01-15T19:01:00.000+05:30

Did the Dream Run at the Mumbai Marathon today.
7 km
With a Team from MARS (www.mumbai-hams.org)

Pleasant Fun

More later....

Run Mumbai Run

(P.S-Nice to have you on the phone on the other end as I type this pdate..:-D )

Reading Update-1

2006-01-14T21:36:00.000+05:30

Books to Read in 2006 == 100

Read so far(i.e completed) so far in 2006
=3

1.The Picture of Dorian Gray
2.Backroom Boys
3.Mystic River

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

2006-01-14T11:22:00.000+05:30

Up.Yes,will update.Readers as far apart as Walkeshwar,Michigan and Bangalore want updates....:-)

Up

2006-01-10T10:38:00.000+05:30

Hurrah!

I remember my password!

2005-11-15T13:41:00.000+05:30

Surprises.
How someone can change to an unrecognisiable extent and expect you to remain the same for them.And you being you,do so.
How the most secretive people will blare everything about themselves to the world on their blog.
How for a fabolously rich agro economy,there are people who still go to bed hungry.
How easy is it for people to compulsively whine,moan,lack the objectivity to percieve themselves as the world sees them,then again be fretful,moody over the most trivial of issues.

I want to be like them.
Normal people.
People who are part of the swirling crowd.
People who only see others in front of them and around them.
People who cannot lift up their heads and look up into the sky.

But Minerva's curse won't go away easily,will it?

Work Up-1-DrinkEx

2005-10-05T16:49:00.000+05:30

Post Visarjan,back to the usual work up routine.3 of the Dons are coming into the Colony in the coming few days.Starting with Rak,then Maz and then Big Boss
Rak has behaved appallingly with Maz before leaving for Injea,so we are pissed with him in return.This is simply not done;As Megs once said,I can find something good in anybody,but now even I am exasperated with Rak.So Rak comes in and we plan to meet up on tuesday the 20th.Darshan,the lost Bombayite in Bangalore is in town as well so invite him in too.Mika,the trusty sidekick,joins in as well.We arrange to meet at the refuelling base in Powai;it rains on the way;your correspondent turns up there on time only to discover Mika has overshot the Kanjur exit on the highway and will be doing a going around at Mulund and coming.Darshan is stuck somewhere in Andheri due to the rain,traffice and the three wheeled beasts.So anyways,I see a figure pop up in front of me while I am strolling in the rain ;the apparition hisses my name with a displaced mallu accent;bingo it IS Rak;he looks fidgety and uneasy.To cut a short story shorter,he says he has to rush back home as his grandma doesnt know where he is,he hands me the gear and then casually mentions he paid a 1000 rupiya to the autowala who got him here as his meter was not working.I stand rooted to the spot and then I am so dizzy it feels like flying with the cockpit canopy down.Anyways,he runs back off to Santa Cruz after i re instruct him how to read meters .Mika turns up after that,we call up DD for his fix,he is still where he was.We ask him to RTB and proceed up stairs for orange juice.With Smirnoff.Turns out it was a happy day there so we get another round free.usual weirdos in the joint,including one guy who looked suspiciously like Jagman but wasnt.
Then the resentment abt Rak and his auto fare,though we hoped the autowala had a kajra re of a time with Rak's money.Complained about it up my direct chain of command-both to AFA and High Wycombe.Both bosses extremely pissed;truly the things we endure doing what we do.
Maz comes in on Friday morning;first goes to local Andheri hotel near Chakala ciggy factory.Austin goes and meets him before i do;I turn up there around noon after getting away from work.Maz is waiting at the steps of the joint as I pay off the rickshaw.And he has a huge smile on his face to see me,laughs at my hair blowing in the wind.We do the usual hail fellow well met routine,Austin is int he lobby goin thru the stuff Maz has got for him.It feels good to be with him again,we end up mystifying Austin.Then we get into the Maruti pvt cab for the ride to da other hotel,the main hub aka the Base aka ITC Sheaton,Parel.Its good to talk on the way back;though frankly there is an epiphany that all this has been spoken before.With Maz,thats the way it is actually.SMSs arrive from Motu in kent and Networ in Sussex enquirin abt Maz's well being or lack of it!We reach the hotel,Maz is on full visual scana nd search,nobody at the hotel is spared.We proceed to check in,go up to the room where I am prevented by Maz fm sampling the bar and fridge.We talk back and forth for a while...then get a move on to Phoenix where his Visual goes kaputt.Its 1500 whenn we end up at Spaghetti Kitchen where we start on the Kilo Fox and yum food.We keep talking,switching topics seamlessly back and forth.Then off to Sharma Saab's house.A thorough old world gentleman.As expected,I blabber and blabber with him.But he has done some amazing things!
Had called Mika to meet us at Maz's hotel.He is waiting for us at the lobby.We go across to aFrederick's for the free tapki.Me and Maz with the LIT and the boy with Mojito.Our drinks order is taken by a Mizo gal and Maz opens up with his cannon.The girl gets pissed and someone else serves us,so Maz is back to mulling over his attraction to girls of the noth east and their lack of regarding him.We talk him out of it,then with 2 drinks down,decide to head back home.By taxi.Anyways a nice evening was had by all.Which means that Saturday will be splendid!
And it was.
Watch this space.
Pathfinder under radio silence.

Ganesha Says

2005-10-05T15:19:00.000+05:30

Did MARS duty at chowpatty thi syear as well.Hats off to the authorities for pulling it all off what with the myriad threats in the area.Met up with Nirav,Shantanu,Huz,Zyros,Ulhas,etc.Good fun to be there and actually help people.
Incidentally,Ulhas is also part of birdsofbombay,so it really is a small world after all.
Its a Seva for each one of us in our own way.Chowpatty continued to be the hub for the Mumbai Golf Alfa Yankee community on Visarjan evening.Thousands of them.It makes one sad to watch the State armtwist these guys so much.Anyways,ours not to reason why and all that.
Too lazy to post pics from Visarjan.Maybe later.

2005-09-26T22:36:00.000+05:30

So what exactly have I been up to?Hmm..let me go back a few days and run past the highlights...Saw the new YashRaj offering Salaam Namaste in the company of two
girls-DJ and her friend whose name,embarassingly,does not jog my
memory.Still it is a pleasant sensation and I did not how much I missed
this until i went for the movie.So anyways,the movieAh well.It is a good example fo what a mass produced,mass marketed,filmed abroad movie is like.
In a word,Unimaginative.
So we have the succesful plot of boy meets girl accidentally,hate each
other over the phone due to a misunderstanding and hate each other
again and again.Then they encounter each other somewhere,without
knowing who the other is,do the weird group bollywood dance on a
Melbourne beach and fall for each other.Pretty soon they move in with
each other ;No,No..not for THAT,just so they can spend time with each
other and learn each other's habits and see where can they take the
relationship from there.Painful hilarity ensues in the form of Javed Jaffrey who is their
prospective landlord with a long legged lass as his mistress and an
even longer reprise of Feroz Khan's B-Gradiest ham roles(by Javed I
mean,not the monosyllabic miss)So all is hunky dory,the metrosexual Saif does the cooking and
cleaning,and the dual role capable Screechy Zinta juggles jobs as a
radio jockey on the eponymous music station and a surgeon in the making
in the day.Eventually,the yuppie couple do fall big time for each other and fall
into bed too.And later,due to a lack of believing in the adage of keep
the South East Asian rubber economies thriving,they end up with child.Now,our lad is so not prepared for fatherhood and hustles the dolly
into getting rid of 'It' ,which obviously she does not,else the movie
would not have lasted past the popcorn break.So,we follow the myriad twists and turns the plot takes which is mainly a display of Saif's character's immaturity.
They continue living in the same house seperately ,because we are reminded they really have no other place to show as both have paid a substantial downpayment on the
rent.And then they fight,go hunting for ice-cream together;the lad comes to
the realisation that maybe the baby thing is fine for him.
Arshad Warsi as his sidekick who marries Screechy's pal Screamy (Tania Zaetta,the
newest member of the YawnRaj family) is bearable.
Big B's prescient comment haunts the mind.
Anyways,all's well that ends well including making Screechy accept the wedding ring before entering the delivery
room where they enact the delivery room scene from 9 Months.
Sigh.
I just decribed a 2 and half hour movie in 5 mins.Anyways,while the movie deals with a topical and bold subject,one
wonders why could not they be bolder and set it in India;and why resort
to hackneyed scenes.One feels let down at the end of it all.
Still ,it gets 3 stars:one each for the babes,the beach and the Ben and
Jerry's ice-cream.
And they din't even show the Penguins of Melbourne.

Come September

2005-09-26T18:48:00.000+05:30

Watching the original Indian Idol show on Chowpatty,inhaling the sea,catching up with other Marians,visiting libraries,getting the rush and thrill of finding an unexpected book.
And the learning,the running,the imagineering,the wandering and the exploring.This has to be the headiest month of them all.
And to top them all off ,hanging with fellow soaks and eating wonderful food.
Explicit details to follow.Soon.
So hang in there fellas.

What I Want-1

2005-09-09T21:50:00.000+05:30

www.apple.com/ipodnano

Sigh...
Please get in touch with me for the inscription if anyone wants to get me this

From Russia With love

2005-09-08T21:35:00.000+05:30

So,the Brother has arrived for His annual 10 day R&R down to Earth.
That smile..is it a sad smile or one of amusement at what we do?
No one knows.
Have resolved to be off drinking for these 10 days at least.And while I am at it,I am thinking of eliminating Crisps/Chips and the likes of Pepsi/Coke/Sprite etc too from my diet.I
know Pepsico and Coca-Cola's shareholders will suffer because of this but can't help it.
Had been to Domino's on Sunday;if you turn with your back to the counter,the entrance and the other patrons then you might imagine yourself sitting in a Viennese cafe during the cold war and overhearing two spies,one with an American accent and the other with a Russian accent use code words like toppings,cheese,olives,spice,chicken etc to connotate much sinister meaning. Then you turn around and see that the dolly with the american accent is an Indian with a Daksh hangover and the one with the russian accent is a true blue long legged one,probably,nay hopefully from St.Petersburg.Sigh.What is she doing in Chembur though?The mind boggles;the best explanation I have is she might be visiting TISS.

More about the Car Seva later.
Just weighed my bag today.8.7 kgs inclusive of a laptop weighing 3 kg,a charger for the same weighing 500g and a digital camera worth 250g.
Add my excess body weight to this and thats a lot of weight I am lugging around.

Song of the day-Who can it be now?

Hoo Haa

2005-09-03T22:12:00.000+05:30

So the SBS had its bicep building session at CL,Chembur.Slowest I ever sipped,but I hardly get to drink slow anymore!
Just doing the usual stuff...well not so usual stuff too as I am attaining altitude now.
Found more old pics of me somewhere!
So many things to do..so many.But I feel good that I certainly am among the very few who can pull off so many things at once once I get down to it that is.
The advantages of a Swiss Army Knife Mind.
Who else ahs it?
Well,anyone and everyone who knows of this blog actually :-)

2005-08-31T22:14:00.000+05:30

Whew,Oil creeping towards 70 $ a barrel.And no sign of the global economy slowing down;and a hurricane attack on the US Florida coast.Well,I guess we have enough shock absorbers in place.
Getting back to reading,writing with a venegeance.Tracking down my pencils.making travel plans.Chasing after my to-do lists.Getting back to the things that make me,Me.Also realised how true that adage of two ships meeting each other on a dark,stormy night,helping each other out ,communicating so wonderfully well only to sail away from each other before the crack of dawn.Will those ships meet again?In calmer bluer waters?Berth side by side?Or even sail together in the way only they can?Worth pondering.
Mike Papa called and predictably,told me more about the TRE @ GRE ;good show old chap..for the score too! Looking forward to the elbow bending at sun down tomorrow.Need to do something about my long time pending projects though.Was sifting through some stuff today and just realised that there are so many things to be done!
Also managed to come across Aero India 2003 souveniers.Way Cool!

Incidentally,found out something about the Mig 21 Type 74 in IAF service.Turns out it was equipped with a single Nudelman-Rikhter 30 mm (NR-30) cannon.It had a rate of fire of 900 rounds/min .Only 60 rounds of ammo were available in the aircraft giving a firing time of 4 secs.The gun was fitted to the left on the under side of the nose.And we retired it even before the Iraqis did! And our guys went and flew it with their air force!

September begins tomorrow.Wonder how will it be this time.

2005-08-30T22:13:00.000+05:30

Aug 30,Another month coming to a close.My kingdom,my kingdom for a 48 hour day.Sigh.Everything seems so inane;not mundane;just inane.Getting caught up in things which are not of my making is turning into a startling habit.And human relations are just like bomb disposal.The closer you are to a person,the more likely that you will be hurt in the explosion.

Lots of pleasant things happened too- I continue to wake up late,drink,socialise and make a fool of myself.Finally bought the weighing scale for the new workshop.At 13,000 plus VAT for a max load of 500 kg,with a min weight reading of 50g plus battery backup and item counting,it seems a dealWeihed myself on it when no one was looking.I weighed 2 kgs more than I do in the mornings.I attribute that to the heavy denims,adidas running shoes,lots of keys,coins,wallet,belt etc.2 Kgs of surplus weight?Odd.Need to recheck.

And I wanna watch No Entry!!!

Buland Iqbal

2005-08-26T23:28:00.000+05:30

Watched Iqbal today.
A beautiful movie by good ol hyderabad Sultan Nagesh Kukkunoor.Shows what a little budget,a brilliant cast and brilliant directorial vision can achieve.The story is of a 18 year old cricket crazy boy in a small Andhra village.He happens to be deaf and mute but still blessed with an infectious enthusiasm of doing things his way and keenly spying on the practice sessions at the neighbouring cricket coaching centre.Inevitably his talent gets spotted,then ditched due to nepotism.He is then nurtered by the village drunk(Naseeruddin Shah) who,as it turns out,was a promising bowler in his youth.This unlikely combination of a self-ruminating alcoholic and a keen wide eyed barefooted and talented ,though lacking kid,manage to take own the cricketing establishment,teach each other about themselves and manage to change perceeptions and outlooks as well.Shreyas Talpade ,playing Iqbal,is a natural actor and one hopes to see him in more such films in the future rather get channelled into propah Bollywood.Naseeruddin Shah is a treat to watch as is Girish Karnad as the uptight and scheming coach.Iqbal's family members comprising his mum,dad and younger sister(a real find!,reminds one of Benaf from Halo) are well-cast.Kukkunoor sidekicks and regulars Vikram Inamdar and Elahe manage to find their way into abbreviated roles int his fim.Kapil Dev is priceless as himself.its a wonderful movie overall,shows the power of self-belief,earnestness,hard work etc.A definite lesson for me! :-)Yes,it is a Shubhash Ghai production.Were it directed by him,in all probability,Iqbal would be singing and regained his hearing by the finale. :)

Went to BCL today.Finally managed to get hold of Orwell's Burma Days as well as a nice history of the London Underground.
Then met up with Dinu at Mocha,C-Gate for a PDS and then retired to Geoffereys for beer.
Target Rich Environments both.But of course,I am off ops :(

2005-08-25T20:17:00.000+05:30

Every day as you head towards your destination,there will be multiple people laying multiple minefields for you in your way.
They will try to shake your equanimity,disturb your poise and try to bog you down emotionally.
Do not let them succeed for it is too easy to slow down and start responding to their trivialities.
What next when you slow down?You stop.

So transcend it all,put your head down and kick in the afterburner.
As they say at Top Gun,'The truly superior pilot uses his superior judgement to prevent getting into situations where he might have to use his superior skills.'

Song of the Day- Eminem's built up powerful lyrics to the rythm base of Martika's Like Toy Soldiers.
That and Stan make Eminem,Eminem.

Mighty Wings

2005-08-24T22:47:00.000+05:30

On the topic of interesting people in my life,I had the most pleasant early morning surprise yesterday while on my optimistically termed run.Came across this girl who used to be with me in tuitions a long time ago..well 11 years ago in fact.She was a year junior.We moved away but occassionaly did get to know of each other's doings due to a familiarity betweent he families.So,I had heard she was married and filed it away.And I finally saw her yesterday-still the same fair and radiant girl I remember,pushing a stroller with the sweetest kid I have ever seen on such mornings.We chatted a bit,exchanged notes.And her boy so sweetly shy.Nathan's his name.I am happily looking forward to the lad grow up.

Other interesting,wonderful people..hmm well..everyone in my life is like that.On the few rare occassions when I actually wonder whether I am doing the right thing,I immediately snap back and realise I definitely am;else I would not be having all these wonderful people in my life would I?
And Ego Warning time..I am feeling mightily kicked that A,one of the Kohort,actually met some girl at a college dance,got talking and like all good conversations they zipped around a few topics,ended up to something I am trivially good at and A actually described me to the girl.And the dolly is impressed!Woo Hoo in the best Blur incantation.

Have run into a few friends from school too recently.And hearing about others as well.So if someone has gone to one of the IIM's,another gets to peek into Boeing 737s every day at Air Sahara,New Delhi.Bhautik has become the proud father of Ved on July 4,while Bharathesh has recently been affianced.So has Sweety come to think of it and she got featured in Mid-Day's Hit List as she is an actress of some sort. :)And Anish has bought an Enfield and Vishal's parents want him to get married.Blimey,so do mine.And even good old Vipul, my Camera Support Team Leader asked me point blank when will I get married and he is expecting,nay hoping that I do so by the next year 2006!Whew and me thinking of going to Deutschland for the Game.
Sigh.

And Naresh ,good old Naresh,web designer par excellence,dropped in a amil today saying he is getting married this Sunday.I had a vague idea he was busy with something;not someone :-)Anyways,I called him up and did some GNLP (Good Natured Leg Pulling)And confirmed his age too for the statistical data collection.He is 28;so I am in good company.

My mood has improved considerably over the last few days.And I found some old photos of mine from 4-5 years ago.Gosh i was so fit back then.And every pic in the company of a different dolly.Also found a couple of greeting cards from that time,most of the stuff was wet and ruined.Salvaged a few pictures by trimming,cutting the edges!And so the mood is going on improving .Whining is good provided its under limits I guess.Even a jet engine whines,but then it takes flight and soars into the horizon.So that is what I am doing.
Kapchan Erwache!

Song of the Day-Lord Paul Oakenfold,Esq.'s Starry Eyed Surprise.

Rants

2005-08-23T22:56:00.000+05:30

The NCP is at it again.They seem to think they can change lifestyles at will.After gloating over the largest job loss across multiple towns and across different social strata,The NCP Supremo now says that hey wine should be available in every grocery store.As a confirmed devotee of Bacchus,I say bring it on chaps.But this is too significant a decision to warrant such a careless attitude.The other NCP here wants to cut down trees and sell of all the open and unused land to pay off state debt.
So as expected the displaced bar dancers are now taking to prostitution etc.A couple of years back when I used to wake up even earlier than I do now and go for a run ,I used to come to this particular junction well-illuminated by street lights.So at 0515 hrs,there used to be a White Sumo coming from one direction ferrying bar girls exhausted after a hard day's night to their homes.At the same time,another Sumo would come roaring out of the winter darkness carrying BPO girls back to their homes.At one point they would cross each other ,rapidly,pauselessly with none of the passengers noticing and none of the drivers realising.This is Mumbai.
Those int he know will be glad to know that I have finally transcended what I was dreading.And feeling all the more better for it.
Just heard that Bob Moog (pronounced like Vogue) passed away today.He invented the eponymous synthesiser back in 1964 thereby laying the foundation and perhaps,more importantly ,laying the foundation for the modern music industry as we know it.He will sorely be missed,but I am sure he died a contented man.More on him later.
Picked up good music from Mike Papa today.Thanks old chap.
Doing a lot of repetitive boring and sometimes mind numbing stuff these days.But,it is the mindless tedium of repetition which gives the edge however slight in any crunch situation.As one of the unofficial AFA Mottoes has it-'The more you sweat in peace,the less you bleed in war' or as the Sign over the Training Wing Basha at Stirling Lines,Hereford says ,'Train hard.Fight Easy.'
Gotta search for my bag of magic tricks.Its required.Too many things not going the way they should.These Muggles,I tell you....
Song of the Day- Depeche Mode-Enjoy the Silence.Thanks MP!

La Marsellaise

2005-08-23T22:49:00.000+05:30

The French National Anthem today-

Couplet I
Allons enfants de la Patrie,
Le jour de gloire est arrivé!
Contre nous de la tyrannie,
L'étendard sanglant est levé, (bis)
Entendez-vous dans les campagnes
Mugir ces féroces soldats?
Ils viennent jusque dans vos bras
Egorger vos fils et vos compagnes!
Refrain
Aux armes, citoyens,
Formez vos batallions,
Marchons, marchons!
Qu'un sang impur
Abreuve nos sillons!
Couplet II
Que veut cette horde d'esclaves
De traîtres, de rois conjurés?
Pour qui ces ignobles entraves
Ces fers dès longtemps préparés? (bis)
Français, pour nous, ah! quel outrage
Quels transports il doit exciter?
C'est nous qu'on ose méditer
De rendre à l'antique esclavage!
Refrain
Couplet III
Quoi ces cohortes étrangères!
Feraient la loi dans nos foyers!
Quoi ! ces phalanges mercenaires
Terrasseraient nos fils guerriers! (bis)
Grand Dieu ! par des mains enchaînées
Nos fronts sous le joug se ploieraient
De vils despotes deviendraient
Les maîtres des destinées.
Refrain
Couplet IV
Tremblez, tyrans et vous perfides
L'opprobre de tous les partis
Tremblez ! vos projets parricides
Vont enfin recevoir leurs prix! (bis)
Tout est soldat pour vous combattre
S'ils tombent, nos jeunes héros
La France en produit de nouveaux,
Contre vous tout prêts à se battre
Refrain
Couplet V
Français, en guerriers magnanimes
Portez ou retenez vos coups!
Épargnez ces tristes victimes
A regret s'armant contre nous (bis)
Mais ces despotes sanguinaires,
Mais ces complices de Bouillé
Tous ces tigres qui, sans pitié
Déchirent le sein de leur mère!
Refrain
Couplet VI
Amour sacré de la Patrie,
Conduis, soutiens nos bras vengeurs
Liberté, Liberté chérie,
Combats avec tes défenseurs! (bis)
Sous nos drapeaux que la victoire
Accoure à tes mâles accents,
Que tes ennemis expirants
Voient ton triomphe et notre gloire!
Refrain
Couplet VII
Nous entrerons dans la carrière
Quand nos aînés n'y seront plus,
Nous y trouverons leur poussière
Et la trace de leurs vertus (bis)
Bien moins jaloux de leur survivre
Que de partager leur cercueil,
Nous aurons le sublime orgueil
De les venger ou de les suivre!
Refrain

Verse I
Arise children of our fatherland,
[For] the day of glory has arrived!
Against us, tyranny,
Has raised its bloody flag, (1)
Do you hear in the fields
The howling of these fearsome soldiers?
They are coming into your midst (2)
To slit the throats of your sons and wives!
Chorus
To arms, citizens!
Form your battalions!
March, march!
Let impure blood
Soak the furrows [of our fields]
Verse II
What does this horde of slaves want,
Of traitors and conspiratorial kings?
For whom these vile chains
These long-prepared irons?
Frenchmen, for us, ah! What outrage
What methods must be taken?
It is us they dare plan
To return to the old slavery!
Chorus
Verse III
What! These foreign cohorts!
They would make laws in our courts!
What! These mercenary phalanxes
Would cut down our warrior sons
Good Lord! By chained hands
Our brow would yield under the yoke
The vile despots would have themselves be
The masters of destiny
Chorus
Verse IV
Tremble, tyrants and traitors
The shame of all good men
Tremble! Your parricidal schemes
Will receive their just reward
Against you we are all soldiers
If they fall, our young heroes
France will bear new ones
Ready to join the fight against you
Chorus
Verse V
Frenchmen, as magnanimous warriors
Bear or hold back your blows
Spare these sad victims
That they regret taking up arms against us
But not these bloody despots
These accomplices of Bouillé
All these tigers who mercilessly
Ripped out their mothers' wombs
Chorus
Verse VI
Sacred patriotic love
Lead [and] support our avenging arms
Liberty, cherished liberty
Fight [back] with your defenders
Under our flags, let victory
Hurry to your manly tone
So that your enemies, in their last breath [before death]
See your triumph and our glory!
Chorus
Verse VII
We shall enter the career (3)
When our elders will no longer be there
There we shall find their ashes [lit. dust]
And the mark of their virtues
[We are] Much less jealous of surviving them
Than of sharing their coffins
[For] We shall have the sublime pride
Of avenging or joining [lit. following] them
Chorus

Kenya-The Language etc...

2005-08-22T22:36:00.000+05:30

Well,the most commonly and regularly used phrase by me in Kenya was--
Tafadhali natakabia baridi
which means I'd like a cold beer
This is usually shortened to- Tusker baridi as Tusker= Damn Good Beer

Numbers Lesson Today
0 = Sifuri
1/4 = Robo
1/2 = Nusu

1 = Moja
2 = Mbili
3 = Tatu
4 = Nne
5 = Tano
6 = Sita
7 = Saba
8 = Nane
9 = Tisa

10 = Kumi
11 = Kumi na moja
20 = Ishirini
30 = Thelathini
40 = Arobaini
50 = Hamsini
60 = Sitini
70 = Sabini
80 = Themanini
90 = Tisini
100 = Mia
101 = Mia na moja
200 = Mia mbili
1000 = Elfu moja

Twenty Sixing

2005-08-21T12:15:00.000+05:30

Whoa,So I have turned 26 finally.It is an interesting number this 26.It is opperfectly divisible by just 1,2 1nd 13.So I am now double of my first year as a teenager.I like to begin or rather consider my New Year to begin from my birthday.So this is the time,new plans are made and executed.The past year is reviewed.Notwithstanding the fact that there was so much I did not do in the preceding 12 months,there is also so much that I did do in those same months.So I have to carry forward the unfinished business,add it to the currently pending one and add it to this year's plans.Boy Oh Boy...This will be a busy year indeed.
So how did my day go?Quite good actually;kept getting phone calls through the night,then woke up at 0430,was out for a run by 0530,back by 0600,showered and dressed as had to take Mom to Hare Krishna Land as they have this special prayer service for Life Members.Reached there at 0715,took part in the group Morning Archana,then the birthday special happened.The Priest was speaking in rapid Sanskrit with a hushed tone,but I did manage to hear him pray for me obtaining Aishwariya.And Mr.Salman Khan staying some 5 kms away as the crow flies.
What I like about this birthday is that I know myself even better now than before,if such a thing is possible.And its all due to the nice people I have in my life.I likes :-)
Then was off to work,visited a customer,went to office and sent a stinker of a letter to an established public company which is a self proclaimed leader in the Welding Equipment Business.That ensured prompt attention.Then back home,did some sorting and then started off to pick up Shweta and go to Polly Esthers.The girl looked divine cos she probably is.Did the Gateway drive by and saw gorgeous ships at anchorage gently rolling in the full moon lit shimerring sea.Gave the Shamsherni to the valet at Gordon House to park and headed over to Mondy's for a pre-drink drink.2 Cobras with Garlic Mushrooms.Aye Haye!!!I don't like the new Mondy's menu card.Its out of place with the overall ambience of the place.There I go again complaining about a lack of holistic design sensibilities.There ios a Parsi food and wine fest on at Cafe Mondegar this week;and no..thhe wine is not Parsi.We then moved on to Polly's.The crowd was sparse so had our Absoluts by the bar and observed the people.Lots of hilarity there.Then found a place to sit and talk.Had another Absolut.Then the crowd was there,the music was becoming danceable so we moved to the floor and danced.Again and again.Moved out of there by a quarter to one as I had to get back to M80.And a wonderful time was had by all.....Polly is a nice place,even more so because I managed to get 4 cans of Kingfisher beer in exchange of the leftover coupons,walked down with them to the very vocal astonishment of this Trying too much to be hot aunty '''Oh F***!!Oopar ka maal neeche''' I just grinned at her,told her its my birthday.In hindsight,maybe I shoulod have asked her for a kiss?

Monday Musings

2005-07-04T13:40:00.000+05:30

Getting back to writing again.
Had an interesting afternoona nd evening with Mike Papa aka Manoj (Mike Papa sounds like some father figure kink,but Mike Peter will make him sound like a Katangese mercenary)
and the lad Rishi.
Rishi is off to Blr now;we sat and made plans..went to a vaguely appetising restaurant for sandwiches and lots of ketchup.Blue skies Rishi;its people like you who keep my scorecard balanced;I may have screwed upa lot in life,but am fortunate enough to have some really nice people in my life.Dunno how does that happen!
So as I said we sat and made plans;got a lot of solicited advice about life and women in general.They both want me to do something about someone since a long time.I think i should too.
Got home,made the usual phone calls;got into a disagreement or argument with November Rain.All caused due to misunderstandings and frayed nerves I think.Or rather I hope.
Worked on the company site,read a bit,made a few more phone calls.Din't go out cos have to be under pre-departure restrictions.

Woke up in a daze today,went to fetch my suitcase.Found a recent issue of IEEE Computer which I was looking for;sat down and read it;panicked and got back home.then took Sonal to Tushar's place;raided his CDs and books.Worked on the company site again.
Went to the post office to send some stuff to Assam.I can never get bored of bus stops,airports,stations and post offices.Actually there isnt anything I get bored of so....
Spoke with M in Delhi,he told me something very interesting;wish I could do it.then called up Ganz to pass on M's message;Deeksha answered which was a pleasant surprise.

Called Sandy up while in the post office;told her about the wee li'l trouble that has resurfaced.She said I should stop being chivalrous and toss it out of the window.Hmm.

The balloon thing is happening,today a balloon seller passed by my car and because he was trying to go sideways ,the balloons went over my windshield and in a way over me.....

What was it that Nena said?

Hab' 'nen Luftballon gefunden
Denk' an dich und laß' ihn fliegen

Found a balloon,thought of you and let it fly.....

To Kenya then....

Persistence

2005-07-02T22:27:00.000+05:30

Well,long time no post....inspite of the fact that so much has happened int he last 5 weeks.
What have I obtained?
Well,memories for one.But memories add on incrementally don't they?The trick is to somehow remember them all.
What was it that T.S.Eliot said?
'Preserve your memory,it's all that's left of you'

Have found my calling in life by the way.
Meeting up with some fascinating people;all people are fascinating;some happen to be more fascinating than the rest and also know me ;-)

One significant event was a confirmation in a vague way of smething deeply suspected.It gave me a joy which in retrospect seemed frivolous.But,in an increasingly uncertain world,a reassurance however little never goes amiss.

Friends are moving away ;the twinge of seperation is tempered by the certain hope that we shall meet again.Soon.

What else ahve I found out?Oh yes,that I am a tit man v/s being an ass man.
In my defence,I must say that I was never given the opportunity to choose!

And it rained..rained like no end...and I had that sensation of extreme joy blended with superfluous sadness.

More later,I guess.
Going to Kenya so..things to do!!!

Long Time

2005-06-23T23:09:00.000+05:30

This is exactly what I knew would happen.I would not write regularly:(
Still,will rectify!!!!

Cheers,
Kapil von Schnapps

Idle Thoughts

2005-05-26T22:18:00.000+05:30

Well,I kept away from posting for two days.
And there are more people starting their blogs.
And you think getting cars fixed was bad,wait till you get operated.

CP fading..still the not doing anything for most of the day does get to you.So,I am dismantling and taking apart things and then putting them back again.
Got a rear set of shock absorbers fitted in the Silver Princess..and took her for testing this morning.Touched 130 kph smoothly,the ride has improved considerably,feels more stable.Had to swing around at Kanjur Marg.
Somehow,got shanghaied into writing the first chapter of a joint novel.:-)

Watermelons...I am having them again at last.

Oh,and I have a new keyboard.More of that later.And a Bluetooth dongle.

Things to get-
New speakers for the PC
and a new battery for the Dell.

Uske Siva......koi aur nahin....

Pip Pip!

Blue Monday

2005-05-23T22:38:00.000+05:30

Never knew CP could make someone 'bedridden' .Yet,this is just what Pinakin imagined my state to be.
Oh-well-what-the-hell.
Still,there are so many close friends with so many serious medical issues it's not funny.I just raise my hat (when I wear one) to their remarkable powers of endurance.Blue skies all of y'all.

Zee is making a big fuss over Kill Bill's upcoming telecast.Long promos,round the clock...and the movie will actually come on air on June 5.Here's my advice to those who want to see it-Get the DVD!!!!

Megs called;had our usual where are we and are we getting there chats.Surprisingly,we are getting there.

4 weeks since I got back from the tour of the British Isles.Tony's back in power and Lalu is facing elections again.Some things never change.

You have a meandering ,ordinary day and someone pops us to say how much you mean to them,just like that,without any provocation.You feel touched,and then helpless-that you cannot be with that someone,merely be someone offering phone support.And you yearn to be there with them to help them better;but then you rethink-if you can be with them,shouldn't you also hope to be with them when they are on a high so you can be cheerful with them?
But,its always better to share someone's sorrows rather than joys.Sharing joy is easy;sharing sadness,now that calls for courage.

Song in the background-So far away-Dire Straits

Sunday Night Electric Dreaming

2005-05-22T23:24:00.000+05:30

Sunday Night..day at a close.
Another in bed,CP filled day,but the CP seems to be on the run now.
Had plenty of interesting conversations though,some too short and some wonderfully lazily long.
Only good thing done today-managed to get flowers sent on Shebhs' behalf.Wish I could have done the booking myself but due to my present restricted movement,got Sandy to do it.And the rabbit-out-of-a-hat magician that she is,she came up with a topping selection of flowers.Not only was the recipient guy impressed but so were his folks.And her message too was spectacular. :)

Managed one of my rhetorical aphorisms today- 'There is no great love without adventure.'
Cheesy or corny or cheesily corny?

If you did something with enough regularity so that it was as second nature as breathing for a long time;and then it stopped overnight,what would you do?
Would you classify it as a dream if the only memory of it was in your head,and cell phone records?And,more importantly,would you hope for a resumption?I do.

Still,there are things going right in the world otherwise.Arsenal won the FA cup and Manoj of the Fellowship (of the Ring;not high-falutin academia) promptly started celebrating here
http://blogontheweb.com/rantsforlife

Nice blog-after all he writes about me!

Also managed to watch Goodbye,Lenin!
Oh the way a movie with a platinum story can turn me on!

Lets talk about Text

2005-05-21T18:29:00.000+05:30

I …….. YOU
……… IS BEAUTIFUL
STAIRWAY TO ……….

LOVE,LIFE,HEAVEN.Are these the words you fit into the blanks?Did you do so because they were there in some subconscious part of your mind or because they were the best fit?Can you read a paragraph,a page,a book,a treatise with half the words missing and fill them in?Chances are you can.How?
It is due to the built in redundancy in the English language.Redundancy in the structure wherein you know that there are certain rules,certain words,certain alphabets which have to be where they have to be.Claude Shannon,mathematician extraordinaire and originator of A Mathematical Theory of Communication ,whose work has led to the explosion in the fields of networking and communications had a go with his seminal theory on linguistics as well.And the outcome was,I must digress into terms like information entropy here,that the more structured a message ;be it technical,financial,literary;the more it could be reduced,edited,compressed even or even partially lost.And yet it would retain its core message.This is the reason why voice calls,e-mails and text messages reach recipients intact even though there will be some packet level losses.
And this is also why you can pick up a torn newspaper article anywhere and you will be able to make sense of it with just half of what’s present.Or you can borrow a book from a library,come across a page,or two pages even that are missing,continue reading and still get the story.
The bigger question is why din’t our examiners and moderators understand our half written answers then ?;-) That’s for another day..and besides they have to be smart remember.Understanding presupposes and prerequires intelligence.

Ici Chacal.....

2005-05-21T18:22:00.000+05:30

Saw the Day of the Jackal last night.Have read the book dozens of times.Had never seen the film before.Was pleasantly surprised.Forsyth’s plot is followed with a taut deftness.There is some divergence true,but its on the whole a very satisfying watch than the recent Bruce Willis disaster called The Jackal.
The Day of the Jackal was made years ago and it is a pleasure just to watch Paris as it looked then,the British Museum library,the Arc de Troimphe et al.The greatest auteurs are also the greatest travel guides ;for they make you travel.

Also,something I must find out from Indiana Jones/Star Trek junkies.
Just noticed that the Shanghai club shown at the start of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom is called Club Obi Wan.
Now what came first?Indiana Jones or Star Trek?Is this some game between Messrs Lucas and Spielberg?

The Mind's Eye

2005-05-21T18:16:00.000+05:30

Coming back to tools,what about the greatest tool of them all;th eone which you carry around with you always;which does not dull but sharpens with each use you put it to;your mind.
Is your mind like a Swiss Army Knife?Capable of dismantling anything it comes across;and then more importantly assembling it back again?Can it react faster than lightning and yet listen with infinite patience?Does it have the million-terabyte memory of remembering each and every god gesture which your closest and dearest have done to you and yet funnily enough not remember the multitudes of hurt which those same people have caused you?Does it have the in-built Wi-Fi networking to pick up a friend’s signal of need when it is being transmitted without even the transmitter knowing?Can it gather,assimilate,understand and do justice and be seen to do so?
I wish everyone such a mind….the greatest tool of them all….

CP Cycles

2005-05-21T18:05:00.000+05:30

Day 4 of the CP…..can’t get any better yet..so it gets progressively worse.I did like the enforced rest initially,but now I wonder.Thinking of getting back into running from tomorrow.
Long,lonely,pre-dawn runs;like they used to be once.

Tools for the Digital Age

2005-05-20T13:39:00.000+05:30

So,what are you carrying?

Not in a Mini Uzi and Walther PPK way,but in a digital way?I checked my bag today-Turns out I carry an IPod,a Nokia cell phone,a canon digital camera and a laptop now and then.Will add up the storage capacities of them later....

Desi Dork Media Chronicles-1

2005-05-20T13:38:00.000+05:30

Can't help but think about the infant from West Bengal,the one with a juvenile condition which has caused him to look and weigh much older.He was taken to Writer's building yesterday and 'shown' to the Transport Minister.They showed hordes of people rushing around and towards the poor child,hooting and calling out to him,like one would do to an exotic rare animal.Then the Minister babu came in and treated him like he would a mongrel stray;stood a suitable distance away from him and proferred a tray of confectionaries to him.Significantly,he was not too far to be out of the frame of the photographers.Everyone looked mighty pleased with themselves and I was half expecting the V for victory signs which the Calcuttans were flashing at the cameras as Mother Teresa's hearse was being drawn down.This is where a vigilante media can come in so useful.Where is the felicity of the thought process which should have prompted those 'covering' the obscene event to say,'Right,Hold it there Minister Babu,what are you doing to improve the health of this boy?'Reporters have literally become reporters now and the journalists...our Desi Dork Media is really tops.Still,I suppose there were a lot of serious hand wringing,chin-rubbing discussions on TV panels yeterday concerning the next coach for the Indian cricket team and India at Cannes.

Twenty Five and Three-Fourths

2005-05-20T13:27:00.000+05:30

May 20...I am 25 years and 9 months today.Don't feel so good about it.But,had a couple made out on my birthday last year without protection,they would be parents today.And what if they named him Kapil?Morbid....considering I was the only Kapil during my entire time in school.3 months to turning 26.I'll lose my Eurail discount on doing so.As if that mattered anyways.What does matter is I have 3 months to accomplish the goals I had set out to accomplish by the time I turned 26.Being an accomplished Katana-Samurai swordfighter was one of them;due to watching Kill Bill on my birthday I think.A month ago,me ,mom and Sonal were at Sribabu's and Vani's for dinner.N had called up then,had a wonderful chat with her.And then discussed some of life's more pertinent issues with Sribabu such as the ideal configuration for an ideal gaming rig with an AMD processor and why it makes sense to get a PPL while you are still single.Dollies never understand.Also,Sribabu has kept the pics of the K Su and MKI su which I had given him back in 2002 on his desk in front of his monitor.So,as I was saying..3 months to turning 26....full blown quarter-life crisis underway.

What ho..here we go...

2005-05-19T19:15:00.000+05:30

So here I am,finally logged in and having a blog up and running.The challenge as ever remains;that of commitment,sincerity and regularity.Not to mention promptness.There,now I sound like a Service Quality Manager in a 6 Sigma/ISO types organisation.And like a pompous fathead too.

Poonah-So 'Neah' and yet so 'faah'

2005-05-19T18:17:00.000+05:30

Remembering the drive to Pune,the sudden scramble,the rush of acceleration to the head,revs touching 5000,borne on the wings of angels.Probably only Adolf Galland had a better feeling when he flew the Messerschmitt 262.Being pushed by angels is what he described it as.Well a downrated 1.2 Fiat Palio is not a Me262 but she can certainly transcend her identity for a few hours.And she did too.Brakes off to Pune station in 2 hours.Meet the one you have to meet and then catch up with Shebhs at Barista.Then leave back for Mumbai again with feelings more mixed than a Chinese Bhel.I should have and could have been earlier.There is a void and try as you may it will just not be filled.You just let someone go,someone who could have been The One or rather WAS The One and do not work up the courage to tell her so.There is a lingering feeling of what could have been,you are at your most emotional and vulnerable.So what do you do…you merely hope that there is something,just that little something,beyond that glittering mountain,which is far beyond the treacherous,deep and wide glimmering sea….some Kontaktpunkt where your two parallel universes can meet up again and revolve around each other again.Meanwhile your mind forages off the memories it has of Her;of places,people,events,night skies,fine food ,brilliant turn-on conversations which enhance your existence and make you revel in every millisecond of your day.Will it ever be the same again?Worse?And dare you hope so,Better?And then you do a dispassionate balanced scorecard review and you find the odds are not that bad,they are merely stacked against you.But haven’t they always been so?Nothing in your life is going the way you would like it to,as you had envisioned it to.You are caught up in the vapid,humdrum and the mundane.You could have chosen to make money or to make a difference;you chose the latter and now that you don’t seem to be making either,you are not supposed to give up.Not like this.Not this way.

O joy of suffering!
To struggle against great odds!to meet enemies undaunted!
To be entirely alone with them!to find how much one can stand!
To look strife,torture,prison,popular odium,death,face to face!
To mount the scaffold!to advance the muzzles of guns with perfect nonchalance!
To be indeed a God!

And yet…..just that wee little yet…you wonder…
But,if you cannot change a situation,you learn to enjoy it.

And Antonio from the Merchant of Venice makes it so bearable when he says

I hold the world but as the world Gratiano,
A stage, where every man must play a part,
And mine a sad one.

2005-05-19T18:09:00.000+05:30

Kylie at Earl's Court

Kylie Minogue-Evolution

2005-05-19T17:57:00.000+05:30

My CP is not a patch on what the Diva from Oz is undergoing.She has been diagnosed with Breast Cancer,poor Kylie.I go back a long way with her as I am probably the only one in my circle of friends who has heard her earlier works when they were released and not reissued.She is a brave one,for coming out and one feels confident of her emerging triumphant from this ordeal.It was just a month back that I encountered her likeness at Madame Tussauds; and passed by an imminent venue for her Showgirl UK tour at Earl’s Court;felt terrible about missing it.Took a pic of the venue too.
But this is it;her greatest performance commences now.She can uplift the spirits of the thousands of women who get similarly afflicted with her condition.Traipse along Kylie,as you did in the opening sequence of Moulin Rouge and we will follow…..

Chicken Pox or how your past catches up with you.Always.

2005-05-19T17:52:00.000+05:30

Well,its confirmed now-I do have the chicken pox.Mild so far.Should reach its zenith in 3-4 days and then begin to subside.Sounds just like an eclipse.No wonder mothers consider it as some divine manifestation.Att imes like this I wonder;is it any surprise that there is so much devastation and ruin on in this world when the Gods are busy giving guys like me chicken pox divine.
What I am even more silently furious about is that there was an immunization shot available to prevent it.But I was not informed about it,and had I remembered I had never got CP so far and not told dear Meghna otherwise;she would have told me about the shot and made sure I took it.Moral of the story-Tell Megs everything J
Though in a mood alleviating aside,Priyanka told me that basically I still am a kid and so I get kiddy ailments. !!!!!!!
So its back to finger crossing and some intense blogging!

2005-05-19T07:48:00.000+05:30

We need shops like these here in India.And everywhere too.