A Slovenian Rhapsody

I didn't know how to write about my experience of travelling to Bled, Slovenia. Then I remembered the old adage "A picture speaks a thousand words".

For an avid amateur photographer like me, taking a picture needs no second invitation.And the clicking started while we were still on the plane to Ljubjlana.
Being a neighbour to Austria, which has been written as one of the most beautiful places in Europe, Slovenia had to have atleast some this beauty in it too.
And sure it did have loads of it.

The first evening itself we were all spellbound by the quaint setting of this small town called Bled, where we were staying. And this was supposed to be the venue for a test fest.
The most unlikeliest of places for business, Bled was better known for its placid lake, a thousand year old castle and many classy hotels around them.
This town for me defined Europe in one word, "Vintage".

However, since we were there for work and not on a holiday, we had to do what we had to do. During the test we met a lot of interesting people, a few of whom were kind enough to pose in this picture at the social event organised by OMA.
The social event in itself was more of a food and unlimited booze binge party, where we also got to experience some loud and pompous Slovenian traditional music.Not to mention, a dozen types of wines from the region, stocked in the oaken casks of the restaurant's wine cellar.
The food, was .00001 per cent as spicy when compared to Indian food that we get to taste back home.And the Tira Misu tasted as if from straight out of heaven.

We were free on a sunday during which we trekked up the hill to see the castle's museum.And also successfully managed to find a nice wine cellar out there.The person incharge was very happy to know that we were from India, as we were probably the only Indians to be there for a long time.
A nice wine cellar meant a good place to stock up half a dozen bottles of Slovenian wine as souveniers.Little did we know that only half of them would ever make it back to India.

We borrowed a few glasses from the wine cellar guy and also one bottle of white wine.The objective was to enjoy the wine from the best view point of Bled, the castle rock.

Our first tryst with fast cars started right at the airport, where the taxi driver took us to the hotel in a brand new Citroen.For all of us used to Bangalore's 10kmph speeds, the speed of 170kmph that she touched on the highway was an instant adrenaline rush.
During our entire stay there, we got to see some superb cars, which Europe is always famous for. BMWs, Mercs,Audis, Alfa Romeo and the likes were commonplace here.But I also got to spot and capture on camera, a very rare and hyper expensive SLR McLaren Mercedes Roadster.Something which I didn't get to see in my entire three month stay in the rich state of California last year.

After all the hard work, we were left with some free time on Friday afternoon.We tried to make maximum use of this, by going to a place called Vintgar falls, just a few kilometres away from Bled.
It was party time again as Steffan, Vishwa and I managed to make the most of the few drops of wine that was left over during our botched attempt to break open the cork.

Our walk to Vintgar falls, even in fading light was indeed rewarding.We got to see crystal clear water gushing down the gorge, making the view a totally surreal one.
Added to that, the passing by of a train, over an old medieval looking bridge, added to our joy and also left us awestruck.

In all this had to be the best travel experience so far. Right from the ultra smooth landing of the jumbo jet at Frankfurt, upto the equally smooth landing back at Bangalore airport, everything was like a dream.Then again, the unending wait to get our baggage at the airport and the hustle and bustle at the taxi stand woke me back into reality. The reality called 'Life of an ordinary software engineer in Bangalore'.

And All Thoses Crushes Keep Coming Crashing Down!!!

I'm sure that everyone has had crushes on someone or the other at some point of their lives.Some could be their highschool classmates,senior in college, colleague in the adjacent cubicle,neighbour's daughter...and so on.

Some of you guys might be wondering why this topic now.Well, some days back I was reminiscing on how many crushes I must have had till date, and what ever happened to them.Or rather, what happened to me due to these crushes.And guess what! After the flashback, I couldn't find a better heading for this post.This one's going to be long, so get a lot of popcorn while you're reading through it.

The first couple of crushes were, well primary school crushes.The first must have lasted a full week and the second,I don't even remember who that was. Then came the third in the list.Lets call her Miss Smile.For, everytime we passed each other in the corridor, she used to give me a nice smile.And I used to return back with one my clumsy looking shy smiles.She knew that I had a crush on her, but never responded positiely to me.Probably one of the reasons was that she was a full 4 inches taller than me.

But that didn't deter me.When summer holidays came,I took my bike(read bicylce) and started cycling 2 hours everyday for 2 months to try and become taller.Incidentally, this was a team effort.Some of my best friends were giving me company in the cycling effort, as we used to make endless rounds around Miss Smile.Only after 2 years did I come to know that, the sole purpose of my friends joining me , was that they too had a crush on Miss Smile. I don't remember if I managed to reach her height, but surely was able to reduce the difference.Come schooltime the next year, and my interest in her gradually waned way for no apparent reason.But the smiles were still being exchanged back and forth.

Then I decided to get rid of diversions in life and become serious in life.And by God, I did become dead serious.After a period of romantic lull, it was time for another crush.This time, I set my sights a lot lower.Meaning that I became interested in Miss Smile's best friend, who was incidentally a full 6 inches shorter than me.Other than her height there was nothing that can be called low about her.She was beautiful, charming and extremely good at studies.For me, it was her eyes that swept me off my feet.Even to this day, I haven't come across a girl who could match the divine beauty of her eyes. Lets call her 'The Doll', for that's how neat she looked.

I confided the news about my new crush with KV,my best friend at that time(He still is a very good friend even today).All he said,"If you want to impress her, then you need to atleast start making some impression with the marks you score."

I'm pretty sure he must have thought I never had a chance to impress her with my soda glass spectacle looks.This statement saw a sea of change in my approach to studies.From someone who was only known for his on field heroics in cricket, to be now seen as someone who was scoring good marks too.The plan was, to be able to match her in her studies and then go upto her and tell her my "Dil Ki Baat".All this was a closely guarded secret for a greater part of one year,with my marks showing improvement with every examination.
But all this came suddenly crashing down, when a friend of mine came and told me that my crush had a crush on him, and that she told him that, on that day.He even showed me her handwritten loveletter to me.This had such a shattering effect on me, that even to this day I mark this day in the calendar as a Black Letter Day.

All this drama also reflected on my marks in the board exam, and somehow managed to get into a decent enough college for my Plus 2.We also became 'just friends' for a brief period, after which due to some misunderstanding, we both cut all types of communication with each other.I recently heard that she got married and is happily settled in the US, 5 miles north of a place where I was living for 3 months last year.I just hope someday she reads this post, just to know that she made a big difference.

The next 2 years or so went in recuperating, and also focussing on studies.This time the studies part was not to impress someone, but to get into a good engineering college, and prove a point or two in the process.Once this was done, there was another momentary lapse of reason on my side.One more smalltime crush, which came crashing down within 2 weeks.This time because I came to know that she got married to someone in far away Kolkata and was getting settled down there.A few days' of incessantly listening to Richard Marx's "I will be right here waiting for you " and Jon Secada's "Just Another Day Without You" and I was back to normal.

Time slipped by, and suddenly I seemed to realise that I was in 3rd semester and still didn't have a girlfriend.Peer pressure was getting onto me.So I started off with my Operation Find Girlfriend.The first step was to catch hold of some juniors for ragging, and then take it ahead from there. I found one such girl of my liking.The start was good.Soon we became good friends.What started as endless conversations on phone, soon became a daily dose of aspirin for me, without which I thought I would have a heart attack.It was this thought that made me weaker by the day.

And when I told her my feelings, all my world turned upside down with her answer, "I never saw you that way...Lets just be good friends...All you guys are the same." By now, everything other than this,including studies had already taken a backseat.This was similar to,"...Steps taken forwards, but sleepwalking back again."All the progress that had made due to The Doll, I succesfully undid that.And perhaps, ended up even worse.

Stubborn that I was not to give up, tried, tried and tried for a full 5 years or slightly more, to change her mind about me.All my efforts would be responded with a single word,"NO!"

This was how this crush came crashing down,almost threatening to bring my life down with it.In retrospect, I felt it was like trying to beat a dead horse to victory.

When I realised that it was not working out, I had completed a year in my job, by which I got better things to think about, for 12 hours a days, than about love life.This was probably the second best thing that happened to me.The first best thing is a secret that I can't share.Thanks to those 2 good things that came along, I still happen to be alive and kicking.The next two years were uneventful with no crushes at all,leading to make me think that I was romantically challenged.
After all that I've been through, I never could muster courage to fall in love again.But that didn't mean that the wanderlust mind of mine didn't find anyone interesting enough.I switched jobs, and then saw a very interesting girl in my adjacent row in a training programme.Lets call her Deep Blue Sea, simply because a friend of mine gave her that name.Almost our entire group would go ooh - aah about her.A big smile was what that struck about her the most.Everyday she used to come twice a day to our floor, to have coffee with her teammates.We friends used to hang around in the vicinity of the coffee vending machine, harmlessly staring at her.But as always this crush too came all crashing down, when I heard her saying, "My husband and I..." and also later came to know that she was pretty much older than all of us in our group.

The next blow was when we found out that she just disappeared all of a sudden.The news was that she quit the company.To be honest Manju and I had some difficulty in finishing our lunch in the cafetaria for a week or two after that.We were so used to having it sitting in the vicinity of where she sat and of course, harmlessly staring at her.Later I came to know out that she was into creative writing, bigtime.She'd even won some competitions in office.So there lies the inspiration of me starting to blog.When I started of blogging, I wanted to add her name in the credits section, but later decided against it.

Then there was another girl whom I shall call 'Raindrops', for her name nearly translates to that in Sanskrit.She's someone whom I happened to pass one evening on the way back home from office.She had a very pleasant face, immediately reminding me of seeing her somewhere before.Then it struck to me that about four years back,we used to wait for the bus at the same bus stop.She waited for her college bus,while I waited for the BMTC one.I used all my intelligence sources to find out more about her, and finally found out her name, where she works.It also turned out that there's also a common friend between me and her.But I was fully confused whether to take it ahead from there or not.And having such a fantastic track record with crushes, I decided against it.

And finally there was this girl at my cousin's wedding,from the bride's side whom I felt seriously interested in,.And going by past experience, I knew that this interest was all one way traffic in a No Entry streey.And this being a family affair, I had to be overly discreet, so as to not attract any raised eyebrows.And even all my intelligence gathering couldn't get me enough information.I could not be even as succesful as finding out her name to start with.Being such a superstitious person, I finally gave up on her thinking that a job not so well started, is best left undone.

From all these crushes, I was able to conclude that every girl that I'm interested in, is one of older than me,married,committed or all of these.If its none of these, then definetely that girl's not interested in me.

That's why I say, "And all those crushes keep coming crashing down all the time!" And I'm happy being single still. And waiting for the next fleeting crush to come across.


PS: Names have been replaced with nicknames to ensure privacy.

Jana Gana Mana

A.R Rahman's genius can be seen yet again in this masterpiece that he's put together, alongwith maestros in Indian music.The whole composition was simply awesome. The video is close to 3 years old,but played on national TV only recently as part of the independance day promotional activity by Airtel.
Though I loved every bit of the music and the video, I was simply annoyed by the fact that our National Anthem was being played out across all TV channels every 10 minutes.Any other song other than the national anthem is OK for me, but definetely not the national anthem.Its simply uncool. But there was another video that simply inspired me.It was about a small kid who seemed to be wishing an aged person happy birthday and goes about to ask him his age.When he finds out the answer as 60, the kid replies, "Oh!So now you are a senior citizen" and then goes on to say that he doesn't have a gift for him now.Then promises that he shall take care of him when he grows up. I didn't find the clip on YouTube, but the day I do, I shall post it in this space...
Now this, was something superb and cool too.A nice subtle message for every one of us, reminding us of our responsibility for the country.
Just imagine a country which has the largest population of people in the age group of 25 to 35 years, in the world.If everyone contributes their bit, then we could definetely take care of our senior citizen.Just think like this.All these 60 years we were ruled by ageing people themselves.With their efforts, today we still can see ourselves catching up with the rest of the world.
I think now its time for us to play our part and not only put India ahead of the race, but also lap the others a few times over, so that catching up for others is not only difficult, but also impossible.And to do that, we should let our senior citizens take rest, while we start running the race ourselves.
JAI HIND!

Yoboseyo!

Finally a post after brief hiatus.The last 2 months were very hectic to say the least.I could find very little time to post anything on the blog.Sometimes I used to find that time was not the real issue, but it was the energy levels.Work was taking so much away, that by the end of the day, the only thing that I could manage to do was snuggle back into bed.

Now that I'm through in giving a nice excuse to myself, about why I didn't blog, let me try to recap on what happened over the last 2 months or so.

Ever since I came back from the OBL at Pegasus, the work pressure seemed to increase all of a sudden.We were having some bad days in our project.And to sort out some things, 4 of us from our team had to travel to Suwon in South Korea to get some things completed.For the uninitiated, Suwon is where the Headquarters of Samsung Electronics is situated.

The rest of this post will mostly contain my experiences in South Korea.My thoughts on what I felt being there.

We reached Seoul Incheon Airport via Singapore.Suwon's about a 90 minutes drive by airport shuttle from Incheon.And these 90 minutes were enough for me to have a fair idea about the progress and development that the country has made.

The highways looked just as good as the freeways in the US, if not better.One could find a profound US influence in that country.The way the highways are designed, numbered and the way the city roads are planned and laid out, are just small examples of that.The big cities have an extremely high population density, meaning that I didnt miss being away from a crowded Indian city like Bangalore even for a moment.

The next day, I had to go to the Samsung Electronics complex to report for work.What I saw there simply left me stunned.And it stayed like that for a few more days.The security personnel and the receptionists at the visitor centre resembled that at the defence establishments such as ISRO,DRDO, etc in India.The only difference was, here the receptionists were all babes, er very well dressed pretty ladies who were more than eager to help us.And the security guys also were just as courteous, to say the least.

This complex was huge,atleast a few hundred times bigger than what I imagined it to be.By my conservative estimates, close to 25000 people or more work in this complex, which has shopping plazas,a football stadium,a sports complex, 4 helipads and a number of buildings, both big and small.I could compare this campus with that of Infosys campus in Bangalore.I was also reliably told by a friend of mine, that the 3 large corporations of South Korea i.e Samsung,Hyundai and LG totally contribute close to 50% of South Korea's GDP.

During the weekdays, the only thing that I got time to do is, work.In addition some work related issues from back home also added to the pressure.Putting in 12 hours of time in the office is a routine thing here.This is not only in Samsung, but in the rest of South Korea as well.Its a nation of workaholics, I think.One day, we met a school student,who gave all of us a shock when he told that his normal school timings are between 8AM and 10 PM, 6 days a week!

I guess this is a countrywide policy to replace creativity of a human being with the monotony and repeatability of a machine, in the name of higher productivity levels.How well this ploy is succeeding, I really dont know.I felt that the kids in India study only half that time, and are still are a lot smarter.Maybe they don't teach in school that "All work and no play make Kim a dull boy".The same schoolkid also complimented my friend, saying Indians are very good at Mathematics.I thought yeah, why not!After all we invented the zero, without which every mathematical equation in this world comes to a nought.

I stayed there for close to 4 weeks.Almost every weekend, we used to visit places of interest.Seoul was the place that impressed me the most.Its a huge metropolitan city with myriad 4 lane highways, bridges across the River Han,huge skyscrapers and ofcourse, the Seoul Metro.The Seoul Metro, also known as the subway forms the backbone of the infrastructure of not only Seoul, but also the entire Gyeong-gi province.It resembles a lot like the London Underground, but a lot more modern in that a few prehistoric stations in London Underground are devoid of an airconditioning system even to this day.Metro lines crisscross the city to form a complex infrastructure network, most of which is underground about 200 metres below the ground level.

KLI-63,Yeongsan station,Woncheon Water Resort,Suwon fort, Jebudo,Seoul Grand Park, Sports Complex, these were a few of the places that I got to see over the weekends.This was all possible, thanks to a highly energetic gang led by Chethan and Bhavya.I guess that having such a group was the single biggest reason why a visit to all these places was a very enjoyable one.It was tiring too.I still remember how achy the legs used to get due to all the walking done while sightseeing.If I was alone, or in a different group, I would be more than content to lazily doze off in the guest house and seeing nothing much more than the closed window panes of the room.

KLI-63 is the tallest building in the Korean Peninsula, standing 63 floors tall.A capsule elevator takes us up onto the 61st floor from where one can have a bird's eye view of Seoul city.The fog on that day spoilt a bit of the view, I must say, but still was an awesome sight to see.

Yeongan station is a Metro station that comprises of an electronics shopping mall,food court, a sponsored concert area, amongst many other things inside the complex.Needless to say, such a fun filled place is never short of buzz, excitement and of course, massive crowds too.

Jebudo was another place worthy of mention that we visited.This is an island situated about an hour's bus journey from Suwon station.The claim to fame of this place is that the road connecting the island and the mainland just disappears under water during a high tide.The ride till the island was nothing short of a roller coaster ride.We had to hire 2 taxis to take us to the island before the high tide set in.The taxi drivers were driving at nearly 100 kmph on a road just as wide to allow 1 car to pass.And all this in the middle of a paddy field full of twists, turns and bumps.We took a long walk around the island, which is famous for beaches, birdwatching - both winged and non winged varieties, jet boat rides, banana boat rides, and of course, a hundred or so eating places.

The visit to Seoul Grand Park was a good one, albeit a tiresome one due to the amount of walking involved in it.The most notable things that I got to see was the Seal and Dolphin show, and of course the Indian Peacock.Even though its the national bird of India, I never got to see one in so much leisure.

We also got to visit Sports Complex, popularly known as Seoul Olympic Stadium, which played host to the 1988 Olympics.Having seen utmost 1-2 stadiums in Bangalore, I was simply amazed by the enormity of this complex.There were atleast 8 stadiums in this complex, with atleast 2 of them being bigger than Eden Gardens in Kolkata.Availability of such facilities, no doubt will foster an environment which can earn gold medals in sporting events.I believe every major city in Korea has similar facilities for development of sports of all kinds.

We, as Indians find it difficult to survive in a country mainly due to food and language problems.The food part was taken care of, on most days as we were staying in an Indian Guest House, maintained by extremely friendly Nepalese people.There was 1 restaurant for every 10 shops around the place the guest house was situated, but it takes some courage to stand the wierd smell of Korean food, let alone enter a restaurant and eat something there.Practically everything that crawls is captured, cleaned, cooked and then devoured.

In all, it was a memorable trip, more so because our team was able to successfully complete what we were sent to do in the office.I found the people to be very peaceful and calm sorts, and to some extent hospitable too.I am not sure about how good or bad their social life is, but it looks largely westernised. But somehow I felt the quality of life is not the same lavish and relaxed kind that one sees in most developed countries in Europe and US.I heard that the cost of living is pretty high here, and living a luxurious lifestyle is not that easily afforded by the common man.There seemed to be a hustle and bustle associated with the place.To me, Korea looks like a country always in a hurry and a nation that has just developed.

Now, some things about the Koreans which struck me the most.

One, was the the commitment to their work.I don't want to comment about the productive output part by only working hard, but in the long run it has worked for them.

Two, was the peaceful nature of people.Hardly did I find people shouting, yelling or showing any kinds of angry outbursts at other people.Controlled aggression is what seems to be their approach at doing things.

Three, in work and family matters, they maintain a strict heirarchy, which is never bypassed.I always saw any Korean counterpart of mine in office talking to his/her supervisor with utmost fear.

But the thing that impressed me the most, is the fantastic way in which the Korean ladies dress up and maintain themselves.Most of them were dressed up more perfectly than mannequins in an Indian saree showroom.In my entire stay there, I could count the number of obese Korean ladies using the fingers of one hand.However, I stop short to say that they are beautiful.In this, the Indian ladies beat them hands down.The Korean ladies wear dresses that look good on them, and also viceversa.This kept the eyes cool, even though the mercury was rising in a typical Korean summer comprising of extremely humid and warm days interspersed with days of nonstop rains.

In all it was a great trip.I got to see a lot of places, meet different people and learn a few things from the people there.

OBL at Pegasus

Recently I had to attend a mandatory training program on Team Building and team bonding at Pegasus Institute.For all who don't know what Pegasus Institute, its the same place that the Indian cricket team visited before they embarked on their World Cup campaign in West Indies.

Going by my experience at Pegasus, I felt that it was a big letdown by the Indian team in terms of their efforts at showing team spirit in the World Cup.

Due to some project compulsions, I had to attend this program now, as I could not make it last time around when my project team went there.I guess this was the same case for most of the others who came with me.So in effect, most of us were not going there with our original project teams.Initially I couldn't understand the point of attending a team building program with an ad-hoc team and not one's own project team.

To add to all this, the skepticism shown by some of the people who had attended it, my expectations from the program was downgraded to this being an all expenses paid holiday in a nice resort.But at the end of it, I was glad that the experience was a lot more than just that.

About the institute itself, its situated about 60 kms from Bangalore in a place close to Doddaballapur.Its strategically located as in, its next to a hill and also a nice clean water lake closeby.We managed to get enough time after the training schedule to go on top of the hill.The view from up there was unbelievably good, more so because we got to see the sun setting on us.And that day being a full moon day, a few of my friends also got to see the moonrise too.

The institute was setup by an ex-army man.In fact, most of the trainers working there were connected to the armed forces in the past, in some way or the other.Needless to say, the army way of doing things is much different from us.I guess they are many notches higher than us, i.e the corporates in having a professional approach at doing things.Right from the moment we went inside the campus, till the time we came out, they had ensured that everything was planned for.

Maybe I cant remember all of what I learnt there.But some of the concepts learnt there could truly be applied to our work back in office.The concept of JoHari Window tried to explain interpersonal communications and relationships.I felt this had a lot to do in how we interact with people, not just at work, but outside too.

Another important thing that I learnt was, how to take and give feedback.I think I'm right if I can say that there's a lot of difference between giving a feedback, and giving a judgement.I learnt that giving a feedback is pretty difficult, as in most cases we end up being judgemental and even criticizing others.If giving feedback is one thing, taking feedback is another.Most of us do take feedback in a positive way.At most times we try to defend ourselves.

There were some important learnings from an exercise in which I volunteered to be a leader.The objective there was to meet the deadline committed to the customer.Though we were partially succesful in meeting it, I got to learn this in the process.Maintain transparency in your dealings, and also keep all the stakeholders completely informed.But more than that, I felt the learning for me was

If there is a threat of not meeting the deadline, then negotiate with the customer when you still have a chance to do so, and not the deadline has passed.

This,I felt has a lot of relevance in the IT industry that we work in.For in most cases, we go to the negotiation table much later after the deadline's come and gone.

Another activity that I liked was the A- frame concept vehicle.The objective was to go to a designated point on a field and get back to the starting point using an A-shaped wooden frame.The condition was that the team leader had to stand inside the A-frame and the team members support it in a way such that the A-frame doesnt fall flat on the ground and the leader's feet never touch the ground.

Our team members were elated that we were able to complete it much before anyone else.The learnings from this were also many.

Firstly, I felt for any project to be succesfully executed, it has to be driven well by the team leader

AND

also well supported by the team members in whatever way they can.

There was another activity where 4 different teams had to independantly put together a jigsaw kinda thingie in under 40 seconds each.This meant that the total task had to be done in less than 160 seconds.I felt this was the toughest task for me, as on most ocassions I was missing putting my part of the pieces together.Yet, our team used to manage doing this in less than 25 seconds.Here, I experienced what teamwork means, and also was able to apply the concept of self disclosure.All I had to do was make my inabilities clear to my other team mates.And they did ensured in making me get over that seemingly impossible act for me.

We were also thrown a challenge to better our times by a cumulative 40 seconds, i.e a total time of 120 seconds flat for all 4 teams.But the catch was, if we didn't make it, then we would have to forgo the record that we had set.Though a few of us very hesitant to take it up, eventually we took up the challenge.And guess what, we did it in 106 seconds flat.The learning from this was

Always aim for the stars.If you fail to reach that far, who knows you might still have landed on Cloud Number 9.

The last activity that we did was, rafting.And guess what, we made the raft ourselves.This was the most satisfying moment of the program for me.That was because I was seeing that something that we built, was actually working.It was tough enough to support 6 full grown people.The fact that we didn't sink inside the lake, and also were the first team to reach the shore made it even more joyful.We had a song going on to sync up the paddling.This ensured that we displaced more water than others and hence cover the distance faster.

The most important thing that we were able to learn, and demonstrate here was

For any project to be succesful, everyone has to be in sync and, contribute as a team.Individual agendas just spoil the cause.

Whether or not the learnings will be applied in real life,only time will tell.But I believe that if one consciously puts most of these learnings into the system, then he shall unconsciously respond when put in real life situations.

Mungaaru Malhe - my thoughts about the movie

Generally I'm not the one who goes to a theatre to watch a movie.But,so much was said and written about this movie that it generated a lot of interest in me to go and watch the movie.

It took a hundred plus days at the box office, a record breaking revenue and a lot of free advertising from my close friends to get me to decide that its time to go watch it.

I got some tickets booked for mom, dad, sister and me at PVR.Believe me or not, this was the first time I went to PVR.The kind of lazy person that I am, I never find enough motivation to drive out on the weekends to spend time in any of the malls and multiplexes of the city.It was a nice experience I must say.

Now about the movie itself.At first glance, I thought its the same old love story with a predictable ending.Boy sees girl.Girl sees boy.Both of them fall in love with each other.But like most other Indian movies it didn't end with a "...and they happily lived ever after".

A similar Shahrukh Khan blocbuster would have ended up with either Shahrukh giving up his love a la Kal Ho Na Ho style.Or even would have succesful in his love, in typical DDLJ style.

This movie had none of that.It showed the tragic way in which most true life love stories end.Now that was the main reason why the movie was such a hit with me.There was love,there was intense emotion.And then there was the pain that came with love.Then there was that painful bitter separation that comes at the end of most true life love stories.Only the lucky few make the distance.In this case, the lovers didn't make it.For me, this is what made the story so heart rending.

It had to be a newcomer like Ganesh to do the hero's role.For, the 'veterans' of Kannada cinema would have brought in some knives, swords and 'longs' into a love story and successfully murdered the movie in broad daylight, in full public view.His acting was good, to say the least.Sanjana Gandhi's acting was just about average.But that's OK.Anant Nag, as usual was at his predicable best.

The best 2 aspects of the movie, in my opinion were Cinematography and Music.
The cinematography was simply unbelievable.The locations were just mindblowing.Most movie makers make a trip to exotic locations half way across the world to get some nice places to shoot.But this one was mostly shot in namma Karnataka itself.
Some of them were around Jog falls,some around the backwaters in North Kanara and some, around coffee country Coorg.I don't know how heaven feels like.But I'm pretty sure its very close, when I saw all these places.

If the cinematography was good, then the music is simply out of this world.Mano Murthy's compositions are just awesome with most of the songs were sung by Hindi playback singers.'Kunidhu Kunidhu Baare' by Udit Narayan and Kunal Gaanjawaala's 'Ondhe Ondhu Saari' were simply too good.The songs sung by Shreya Ghoshal are truly amazing.Such a fresh voice evoke emotions in an unimaginable way. Sonu Nigam's 'Anisuthide Yaako Indhu' and 'Mungaaru Male' , the title track are magnificient love songs.I must be hearing them many times each day, everyday for more than a month now.I still show now signs of getting bored of listening to them.

I, absolutely enjoyed every bit of this movie.Worth watching.Paisa Wasool I must admit.
As I drove back home, one statement from the movie kept coming again and again into my mind.

"Love is sweet.But sacrifice is eternal".

Its a Bird,Its a Plane...No, its a Veyron!

This is a video I happened to see on YouTube.

Its simply awesome.This car's unreal.Period.

Bangalore is a land of Bengalis!!!

And we didn't know that!!!And all the while I was mistaken thinking that Bangalore was just the anglicised version of Bendha Kaala uru.

I happened to read this article in the Times of India today morning.

TOI Link


A true gaffe from the Oxford University Press.An excerpt below from the article says that the Oxford University press published something as hideous as this

"Bangalore is a land of Bengalis where people spoke Bengali!"

Thoroughly perplexed,for a moment I thought an ideal day should start like this, with one getting something to laugh about, and set a cheerful tone for the day.

This is not all.It goes further, to state

"The people living here were descendants of a person by name Banga."

Fortunately, the publishers were informed about their mistake.And now they're calling back all the published books to convert it back into pulp and republish along with the corrections.Much before it could result in public uproar, and of course,cause a storm in a teacup.

Mic Testing 1..2..3

Finally!!!
I made up my mind to write a blog.To get out of a way of life, that might soon be consumed by slow decay.
Everytime I listened to Dave Gilmour from Pink Floyd singing,
"Ticking away, the moments that make up a dull day
You fritter and waste the hours in an offhand way!
Kicking around, on a piece of ground in your hometown
Waiting for someone or something to show you the way!"
I just wonder if my life's been going on like this for the last few years.Is it a life less than ordinary?Am I being successful to be in a state of mere existence?Ten years down the line, I just hope I wont end up humming like Dave Gilmour,
"...and then one day you find that ten years have got behind you
No one told you when to run....You missed the starting gun!!"

After much procrastination I decided that now its time to swim against the tide of mundane daily life.So now its time to move on.Time to think.To take small steps to make a big difference eventually.
Here I go, with a clear mandate to keep my posts free of endless paragraphs of pedestrian prose.I guess it shall be punctuated with a few lines from my favourite rockstars' timeless compilations...And needless to say,some real good one liners that people who know me, who get to hear from me so often.

Sometimes you might just think that
"I'm a Dreamer!But I'm not the only one!"