Being Busy

An interesting point is "We are always busy".

Why are we being so busy?
Is it normal to be busy?

By being busy, are we in control?
By being busy, are we exploring what we are made for?
By being busy, are we just being a machine ?
By being busy, are we taking time to introspect?


I want to be less busy :-)

BJP Claims Karnataka

That was the headlines in the morning when I turn on CNN-IBN. That has been the headline in all the channels since then and much to the chagrin of my wife, I have been glued to my TV since then. It is definitely the fun time to watch the TV. Complete Entertainment.

As usual, media predictions went which way I do not know. But definitely not the right way. And if you notice, there is a trend here by the way. Media exit polls have been going horribly wrong since quite sometime that I remember. To many this might be coming as a surprise but somehow to me, this is not coming as surprise. Because, as I watch more and more of CNN-IBN and NDTV these days, the analysis seems to be significantly lacking in objectivity. Conducting loud mouthed debates not letting everyone speak, coming to own conclusions have been some noteworthy observations that I have made. Finally, Sagarika Ghose puts it that Media has things to learn. I ask, Isnt it obvious Sagarika? Watch your own folks in debates in your channel where you do not even let people express their opinions completely. And what opinion polls are these? What basis are these being conducted? Has this been asked?

To clarify before I begin this next paragraph, let me be clear that I am not at all a BJP sympathiser. In fact, I used to be long time back. But after what happened in Godhra and how things have been handled since then, it would need some miracle for me to ever vote for them unless some other good deeds of them convince me. Inspite of that, it was so obvious to me since the beginning that this has to be BJP in Karnataka this time. How could it be not obvious?

Does that mean, people have suddenly started loving BJP? Absolutely not. And that is something, the master craftsman Arun Jaitley, the CM to be Yediruppa etc. need to keep in mind. The bottomline is, people had nothing left but to choose someone and turns out BJP was the best in the rotten lot. Forget about Congress. Dharam Singh did all his best during his tenure to ensure that a common man would never vote for Congress. Then comes the Betrayal saga. After that, it does not need too many experts, expert opinions and judgements to figure out that majority is never with people who they cannot trust. This is a fundamental philosophy of life that will stand out for ages that once you lose trust you will lose everything. That is precisely what JD(S) got.

Congress can say several things like secular vote got divided, BJP won on caste vote, BJP won on sympathy vote etc. The bottomline is, BJP is the winner and the Congress is the loser and the JD(S) is the super loser.

While this is an amazing opportunity for BJP to again prove that it is indeed a party with the difference and does not belong to the same breed of high promises and low executions.

Arun Jaitley should stop making comments like Congress is on the decline. Venkaiah Naidu and Rajnath Singh should stop making comments that BJP will rule Karnataka and India. The "rule" itself sounds like monarchy.

Infact, Yediyurappa displayed lots of humility. I hope he continues to be humble and gets some good work done fast, not only in Bangalore but in the whole of Karnataka.

In the run up to the general elections, it is completely in the hands of BJP to either capitalize on this opportunity and lose it by their own immaturity.

I hope BJP does not get swayed away by caste politics, reservation politics and religion politics. By focussing on simple things like development, infrastructure, convenient life for every individual, ease of access of everything to every individual, they will for sure ensure they will win the hearts of the people of Karnataka.

And then they will not have to rely on Expert Opinion Polls. They can be sure then that Expert Opinion Polls will predict their failure. And that will mean, they will win :-)

RTI Directory

Take a look at the following website :

http://www.rtidirectory.in/


There were two basic ideas which spurred the starting of this website.

1) The idea that two persons within close proximity to each other and
not knowing each other might file an RTI for the same piece of
information. In that case there would be some wastage of energy and
time.

2) Once a person finds information through an RTI, which is of public
importance then very few people actually get to see that information
since there is no means to disseminate it widely.

The Right to Information Directory is open for uploads from any city
and town in India. We look forward to an enthusiastic response form
applicants and browsers alike and look forward to your feedback.

The website is started by Mumbai based civic and environmental
activist Rishi Aggarwaal and developed by Wherrelz IT Solutions

**********************************************************

Interaction with the Auto Guy

This morning, I had a fantastic and a pleasing experience. So you know, when people talk about the auto guys, they portray them as mean, whining, fearsome, frightening individuals trying to rip you off. Right? But I have always disagreed with them. I have always maintained that it is very unfair to portray them like that. We must appreciate how much stress they go through. Furthermore, to me it seems, the educated folks are most maniacs on the road.

Anyways, the above whining can go on forever. Coming to my point, today I took an auto from my home to my work which is less than 2 km and hence it comes to Rs. 14.
When I got down, I realized that I have only Rs. 13 in loose change or the only next one I have was Rs. 20. So I gave the guy Rs. 20 and asked him to give me Rs. 5. He said he didnt have change. I told him that I have only Rs. 13 in such a case and I dont like giving less.

The auto guy immediately tells me : "Saab kam chalega. Rs. 13 hi de do. Kitne baar log humein jyaada to de dete hain. Humein uska khayaal bhi to rakhnaa padegaa.."

I was so touched. The only thing I could respond to him was " Aaapke jaise log aur bhi jyaadaa ho gaye to duniyaa sudhar jaayegee"...

He gave a nice smile and drove away. And my morning work started with a fantastic good feeling.

Update :
Thanks to Marcos' comment, here are the translations into english :
"Saab kam chalega. Rs. 13 hi de do. Kitne baar log humein jyaada to de dete hain. Humein uska khayaal bhi to rakhnaa padegaa.." : means "Sir leess will do. Just give me 13. Many times people give us more as well. So we need to keep that in mind too".

" Aaapke jaise log aur bhi jyaadaa ho gaye to duniyaa sudhar jaayegee"... means "If we have more people like you, then the world will be a much better place"

Ahh!!! I couldnt vote this time :-(

Damn it!! what an irony it is... Got the first chance to vote and couldnt vote this time in Karnataka assembly elections. Lazy ? May be. But why cant we make things simpler? I am not the only one you know.

I was supposed to get myself registered. And I did not do it. Hence I could not vote. There were many people who did not know where to go to register. I understand ti sounds like excuse. But here is a point.

Why can't the registration process be made online? I mean, one anyways has to provide an identification. Hence the Election Commission of India should open up the concept of online registration. Then people having access to computer can register whenever they want using a certain mode of identification such as passport, PAN card etc. ONce they register using an identification method, they should be able to vote using the same identification. Is it too difficult?

That way I would have registered online and would have voted. I am sure so many people could not vote because they did register.

Let me see what the Election Commission says to my suggestion. I have sent the commission a small email.

Belur Halebidu Trip

After a long time, finally I got to meet up with friends and could get out of town on a long trip. We decided to go to Belur Halebidu. Belur-Halebidu are around 230 kms from Bangalore. So covering them was going to be a long tiring trip. Still we decided to go ahead.

We started early in the morning from Bangalore at around 7:00 a.m We booked a small tempo traveller that was good enough for around 13 folks. The highway was pretty good enough. At aroun 11:30 a.m we reached Shravanabelgola. A beautiful place it was indeed. But we decided not to climb the steps of the taller hill since it would hamper the plans of Belur and Halebidu. Instead we climbed the smaller hill and still could get the pleasure. :-)

After a brief stay at Shravanabelgola, wee started heading towards Belur. The tempo would go over Hassan. Hassan is a good place to stop over for lunch since there are quite some good hotel/restauarants like Sri Krishna, Hassan Asshok, Suvarna Regency. But since most of us were asleep in the tempo, we went past Hassan and directly stopped at Belur. I must admit though that while the road was pretty good enough, the drivers werent and we saw many accident scenes primarily because of the mistakes to overtake over a single lane and coming straight in front of the opposite coming traffic. Never do that. There is no hurry and nothing is more important than life. Enjoy the trip and go slow. Its a bad sight to see such accidents.

We reached Belur at around 2:00 p.m We had lunch at Belur in a pretty ordinary restaraunt and then straight away headed to the temple. We hired a guide because these temples can never be understood without the help of a knowledgeable guide. These guides are Govt. of India approved. And the guide we chose was indeed very knowledgeable. He explained the art, culture, science, history, geaography and everything. It was really fun to understand the concepts in details. After spending some time at Belur, we headed towards Halebidu which was around 15 kms. Halebidu was another beautifulpiece of art. This place was the capital of the Hoysala kingdom.

Halebidu has a beautiful garden and an adjoining lake. So go to Belur first, and then come to Halebidu and relax on the grass besides the lake.

At around 6:00 p.m we started heading out of Halebidu and back to Bangalore. And there you go. It started raining heavily. Wow. what was a pleasant rain it was after a hot sunny humid day.
We started heading towards Bangalore. Wanted to have dinner at Hotel Hassan Asshok but they didnt have Dosas in the night. What a bummer it was. So we came out and started heading home. At Bellur Cross, we stopped to have our dinner. After having and coffee and we started heading back. Most of us fell asleep after a tiring day. We reached Bangalore at around 12:00 in the midnight.

It was a fantastic trip. Belur and Halebidu are awesome and I wouldnt mind going again and just spend the whole day there.

Dont miss them if you are in Bangalore..


Enjoy the photographs.

Bhopal Padayatra 2008 :: Blog

http://www.bhopal.net/march/padyatra2008_blog.html


Information on Bhopal Padayatra

International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal

http://www.bhopal.net

International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal (ICJB) 's complete resource on Bhopal, the History and the present.

The Students Bhopal Campaign

This is the location to find all information


http://www.studentsforbhopal.org/

and express solidarity and participate..

Air, Water, Earth and the Sins of the Powerful

Tehelka magazine's article on Bhopal Gas Leak... Read it to get an idea on what happened and what is happening..

Air, Water, Earth and the Sins of the Powerful

More Information under Bhopal Label

NY Times Article :: Mother's Influence on Barack Obama's Life

It has been such an inspiration for me reading this article.

A Free Spirited Wandered who set Obama's Path


Forget the influence etc. Just from a human perspective, purely based on what has been mentioned in the article by the author, the beliefs and practices of the lady have been so phenomenal that you feel like following similar practices.

Olympic Torch Relay

What funny Olympic torch relay it was . Wasnt it? Again proves that we do so many things just for the sake of doing with no introspection. I couldnt stop laughing at what I perceived this whole thing as drama.

Ideally, when asked, what would you imagine sports and their objective to be? For me, it is all about building relationships, friendship and a desire to live in harmony.

This olympics seems to anything but above and the torch relay process is a classic example of that. The relay has been a tight security affair at every place it has passed through. Shouldnt it have been a friendly jubiliant affair where people would throng the streets to catch a glimpse? Alas!! not so. Times of India reports that the people who witnessed the relay were the torch carriers themselves, 15000 policemen and a bunch of children.

Similar was the situation in many countries.

So it turned out to be a high security activity. What an approach to friendship isnt it?

Well what is the morale? There can be no peace and fun at the cost of someone else's human rights. Human rights have to be valued. Only then will there be harmony in this world.

Hats off to some sportpersons who have threatened not to participate and to people like Baichung Bhutia who refused to carry the torch in solidarity with Tibetans.

Speaking straight from my heart in a democratic country. :-)

Jab We Met

Oh baby!! Did I like it soo much that I am tempted to write on this blog? In fact, yes. I really loved the movie so much. Yes I did.

I saw this movie on board my flight from Bangalore to London during my recent travel.

Why did I fall for this movie? Was it extra ordinary? No not at all. In fact there were several flaws. The second half was dragging as I felt. But there was something about this movie that just moved me, made me feel good, feel happy, feel romantic.

It a simple down to earth movie yet one could push someone into introspection. Every dialogue was so simple yet was conveying a strong message.

I liked Kareen-Shahid conversations so much that I actually watched the movie again and again in my return flight. Sounds crazy? May be. And by the way, Kareena was adorable in this movie. And this might be the first movie where I actually am impressed with the energy and role delivery of Kareena. She did it so good that it made me thinking on who could have done it better than her. I couldnt find one name to be honest. Same is true with Shahid. I was convinced that he lived up to the expectations.

Romanticism was oozing out of the movie. It was loudly asking everyone to live their present to the fullest. And have fun.

It is a damn good movie at the end of the day you know. And the morale to all directors is, Keep It Simple Stupid. And yet you can make a fantastic movie.

IIT Kharagpur Trip

After almost 10 years, I finally got the chance to visit my alma mater, IIT Kharagpur, this time as an alumni. We flew from Bangalore to Kolkata and then the journey from Kolkata to Kharagpur was by road. This road, I came to know, was the Golden Quadrilateral. It was one smooth ride. The road was very wide and smooth enough except for the fact that pedestrians were still trying to cross the road and freaking the hell out of us. :-)

We reached Kharagpur almost in the mid night. The entry to Kharagpur was through Gol Bazaar area. I was happy that even after so many years, I could quickly recognize the GolB area by the huge overbridge that we would cycle over while coming from IIT towards the big market.

I know this might sound cheesy but it was nostalgic when our vehicle got stopped by the closed railway gate. Remember those days when the cycle rickshaw had to unfailingly stop for the approaching train to pass? The first thing that came to mind was Chhedis. :-)

Now, many shops have come up besides Chhedis. There also are some new restrictions on going out and coming back in after 10:00 p.m. The campus was well lit and it truly nostalgic.

Quite some new buildings have come up. But the overall campus look is still the same. The Harris is still there but they have cut down the beautiful tree.

Went to the Mech dept. and had a nice cup of coffee. Next morning, took a nice stroll around the scholars avenue. The conveyance was still cycle rickshaw.

Well that was short trip . Or may be not but mainly with events etc. Next time, I should go with no agenda and just walk around and come back :-)

This is just time pass

I can't believe I have not posted for more than a month. Ahh this is not a good trend :-) Have I lost out on thoughts? Or may be I have stopped posting random crap. But the fact is that the things have been kinda busy at work. Alrite!! same old crap. :-)

Nah I will be back soon with my post on the recent IIT Kharagpur trip.

Mickey Magic Show

Yesterday we went to see the Mickey's magic show. They are traveling all over the world and were in Bangalore as part of their tour.

As usual, the Disney's display was crisp and professional. And should I say, as usual, the organizer was anything but professional.

OK I am complaining as usual. But I am confused or fail to understand or whining or whatever but I fail to understand the lack of common sense where you think it is so common sense based .

1. I bought the tickets online and got the seats assigned. I go to the venue and realize that they have been given to someone else already. Huh? It not just with me. It was with someone else too. Later on they gave us different seats. I say, you dumb folks, is it soo difficult to manage the tickets? I too have organized concerts in the past with a bunch of 20 folks in the past and we could organize these things much more professionally.

2. Next in my whining list is the Koramangala Indoor Stadium. What a shameful construction it could be. Can you imagine I could find a freaking urinal there? There was this small Gents toilet which did not have a urinal. I still fail to believe this fact and wil only be happy to realize that I missed the urinal. But did 100 other folks around me also miss it? ha ha

3. Third , the parent. Folks!! Moms!! Dads. learn how to teach your kids behave. Yes Magic show was a kids show. I have seen many animation movies and childrens' shows in the past but never had seen this kind of unruly mob. Felt like, do we have a mob in the making? Or do we have these incompetent parents who are hell bent on showcasing the fact that their kids are wonder kinds jumping all around like monkeys? Interesting things were what I was hearing from the people sitting near me. So in the magic show, the artists were calling a kid from the audience. Man!! unbelieveable it was to see that he was being mobbed by the kids trying to go the stage. I am sure its the parents who cannot make their kids sit in a disciplined fashion. In fact, the kid with his mom on the seat next to mine started crying desperately when he was not taken to the stage. I get scared at what are these parent teaching their kids? Failure to accept the facts? Failure to accept the failures? I get worried to see these kids growing up into some obsession paranoid full grown individual incapable to accepting failure and willing to do anything to get the things like. Hopefully not at the cost of harming others. I even heard a lady saying these artists should not call one or two children on to the stage. Guys!! get a life OK? You are behaving like a ridiculous loser. If it was her son/daughter, then life very fair huh?!!

Parents get your act straight!! I am not generalizing but I see this so often in Bangalore that I wonder are these parents so clueless?

OK, now that I have vented out my frustration at these frustrating clueless parents, let me tell a little about the show itself. The show was very professional. But it was not out the world. I would rate PC Sorkar at leagues ahead. :-) One funny thing that I noticed in the show was the Cinderella item. It seems that Cinderella is in a really shabby dress and the magician will get her new shoes and dress. And guess what happens when the new dress and shoes were brought in magically? A new lady comes up :-) So different from the original lady. :-) Ah come on. did the magician change her face too? :-)

Overall I would say a crisp show. I wish Riverdance will also visit Bangalore. But do we have the auditorium to hold such a show?

Marasim

Out off the blues, I suddenly remembered Marasim today. This was an album by Gulzar and Jagjit Singh and I think it came out long time back in 1999. What an awesome album it was. Beautiful lyrics by gulzar rendered craftily by Jagjit Singh. In the middle of ghazals, there are short thoughts by Gulzar. I cannot forget those ever . Here are a couple :

Subah Subah ek khwaab ki dastak par
Darwaazaa kholaa dekhaa
Sarhad ke us paar se
Kuchh mehmaan aaye huye hain
Aakhon se maanoos the saare
Chehre saare soone sunaaye
Haath dhoye paanv dhulwaaye
Aangan mein aasan lagwaaye
Aur tandoor pe mote mote rot pakaaye
Aaankh khuli to dekhaa ghar mein koyi nahi tha
Haath lagaa kar dekha to tandoor abhi tak bujhaa nahin thaa
Aur hothon pe meethe gud kaa zehtaa ab tak chipak rahaa thaa
Khwaab thaa shaayad Khwaab hi hogaa
Sarhad par kal raat sunaa hai chalee thi golee
Sarhad par kal raat sunaa hai kuchh khwaabon kaa khoon hua hai

************************************

Mujhko bhi tarqeeb sikhaa koi yaar zulaahe
Aksar tujhko dekhaa hai taanaa bunte
Jab koi taagaa toot gayaa ya khatam hua
Phir se baandh ke aur sira koi jod ke usme
Aage bunne lagte ho
Tere is taane mein lekin
Ek bhi gaanth giraah buntar ki dekh nahin saktaa hai koi
Maine bhi ek baar bunaa thaa ek hi rishta
Lekin uski saari girahein saaf nazar aati hai mere yaar zulaahe
Mujhko bhi tarqeeb sikhaa koi yaar zulaahe

RF and Communications Posts will be on new blog

Just to keep things separate, I have decided that Math, DSP, RF, Communications posts will be on a different blog from now on. So if you are interested in these topics, you may visit :

http://rfandcommunications.blogspot.com

Built To Last

I am currently reading the book "Built To Last" with an intent that at least this time I will read till the end. Everytime one or other thing would come and I would halt the reading. My colleagues have told me that I am using too many phrases and philosophies from that book.

But I think, it is up to us to take what we want and not what we dont want. I personally think this is a great book and is a must read for everyone irrespective of whether they are in sales, marketing or R&D. It is a must read to get some perspectives about dealing with life too. I agree that we are looking through the mirror of author. Well they have done lots of research. But still I agree that we are reading their perspective, their thoughts. But we can always average out and come out with lots of good points.

There are many great points about the book and quite some not so good too. Some companies mentioned by the book as visionary companies may not necessarily be great companies.

Some of the key take aways for personal development as well include :

• You do not have to be street smart.
  
• Be desperate
• Be determined
  
• Be dreamy
  
• Be ready to fall down and get up
  
• Do not be discouraged by failures
  
• Do not be distracted and discouraged by negative feedback
  
• Keep trying whatever it is.
  
• Learn as you keep trying
  
• Do not be bogged down by thinking about a big problem in whole. Think small and keep building.
  
• Try different things
  
• Try with a goal. Well this is same as try with some product in mind.
  
• When things are not working, it is very easy to shun it, give up. And also these are moments when many may say that it is not worth trying. But if your heart says it is worth trying, then listen to your heart. You may be right!You may be wrong. But at the end of the day you would be happy you listened to your heart.
  

Coffee House er Sei Adda

And life goes on....

Walking through the music aisles of Landmark, I stumbled upon a CD of Manna Dey songs titled Coffee House er see Adda ta.... A perennially favorite song of my heart, it did not take me a second to pick it up and purchase it.

Last night when I put the CD in, I did not listen to the first song, second song but the last song first and that was the "coffee house er sei adda ta aaj aar nei"

As the song progresses, as the stanzas progress, you are taken into the reminiscent days of the past. More prominently striking are the teenage days when most of the time is spent in the social shaping. Spent with friends. Spent at college. Spent before tution. Spent after tution. Spent soon after the morning starts. Spent till the evening lasts.

How fascinating were those days... How sweet was it to ride on bicycles. Soon after the school would end, we would bike ourselves towards our homes but would park under a tree on the way to spend some time chatting about everything under the sky. Would it be about the future? Would it be about the exam? Would it be about the beautiful girl passing by? Would it be about the things we want to achieve? Very difficult to predict.

Then those tutions that many of us would attend. Most of us would eagerly wait for the tution to end so that we could bike ourselves fast to the singada/chop shop nearby to enjoy nice chop, singada and chaa. Each of us would take turns every week to feed others or sometimes we would just chip in whatever coins we would have in our pockets...

And days went by... we passed our exams.... We joined colleges....We made new friends....We got jobs....We moved places....We moved countries....We lost contacts....We shed old lives....We entered into new lives....

I am sure all of us were left with memories of those sweet days....

Coffee house er sei adda ta abaar hok ?


P.S : Lot of words, phrases used in the above post are in Bengali. They mean as follows :
Singada : Samosa (in hindi)
Chaa : Tea
Coffee House er sei adda : Time pass group meeting while having a sip of coffee
Aaj aar nei : No longer exists today
Abaar hok ? : Let it happen again ?

Auto Fares in Bangalore

So finally , after a long drama involving strike by Autos demanding the hike in fares, finally it was official that auto fares have increased starting friday, february 1. The rates have been increased to Rs. 14 as minimum and Rs. 7 per km there after .

We make a lot of noise about this increase. Ofcourse this noise is within ourselves and our friends and it is not like "We all will stop getting into autos". :-) That would be funny to observe you know. Suddenly autos are running around empty and people refusing to get into them.

Well, I think we should also appreciate the fact that the rates had to increase and should increase. This is, after I had this interesting discussion with the driver of the auto in which I was going home on January 31, the night before the new fares were to come into effect. He told me how the gas rates have increased to Rs. 37 (I cannot confirm this figure). He told me how this increase has made the restaurant owners to increase the food price. And how, now he has to pay Rs. 7 for his cup of coffee. It all made sense you know.

It seems that this new rate is for some number of years or till the gas rates increase, whichever happens first.

But when I was telling to this to my colleague, he asked me, how is it possible that the rate is Rs. 5 per km in Mumbai? Well, I dont have an answer. May be, Mumbai is cheaper than Bangalore. :-)

So, next time, think about that cup of coffee....

Sunscreen

A colleague sent me this link on Youtube. Thought its a nice one. So here it is for those visiting this blog.

Everybody Free to Wear a Sunscreen

NY Time Article :: Failure isnt always a bad thing

Failure isn't always a bad thing

A very fascinating article indeed. Sometimes it is so difficult to continuously maintain the thought and breeze through. Some neat equations were brought up in this article. Several more relationships come to my mind when I think about it is. They are :

1. Balance of Courage (B) ∝ 1/(Degree of Failure (D))
That means, many times we take riskless chances and when they do not work, we say, that is fine. This is because we did not lose much. When we have chances that carry some degree of loss with them, what is the level of courage that supports us to take the chance?

2. Amount of Learning (L) (if you can come out of failure) ∝ D^n where ^ is power of, and n can be any integer
This has always been true. In the end, it might have sounded like "Ahh... this is so simple", but the problem may not really have been that simple. In retrospect everything is perfect. Isnt it? But when we fail again and improve and fail and improve and fail and improve, a neural network system is working that is continuously learning.

3. B = f(Social Factors, Inner Soul, ..)
Our decision to take chance, our decision to take risk and our desire to dream big gets impacted by so many social factors, inner resistances, fear of failure and so on. But when that indomitable passion dominates, nothing can stop one from taking all kinds of chances. That passion keeps telling the person that there is nothing to loose. So go for it.

More on this to follow if I feel ...

Part V - In Mangalore and Return

In Mangalore
After reaching mangalore around 10 a.m in the morning, we were thinking what to do? As expected, nothing was planned for this leg. Lots of things to do though. First and the foremost was to try was a train reservation to bangalore. Folks told me that the bus journey is horrible and should be avoided. But well we couldnt be choosers at that moment and decided to just book some reservation and try our luck. As expected, it was on waiting list. Once that done, the next most important thing for the hungry souls was breakfast. Went straight to taj Manjuran without realizing where we are headed to. Ordered some idlis. I am not sure what special were these but 2 idlis definitely cost me Rs. 180. :-) Just so you know I am not a miser. But I cannot justify certain things too.

After breakfast, we decided that we will not roam around to all the places possible. Rather, we wanted to go to one place where we can peacefully sit. Without knowing whether we will get peace or not, we decided to go to Kadri Manjunath temple. As we got down the autorickshaw, we started looking around to see where is Kadri Manjunath temple that was so much talked about in travel books. It was a small gopuram from outside. We looked at each other and thought what a hype this could be.

BUT WE WERE WRONG. This was a huge complex inside. That explained why this temple is talked so much about. There were many temples inside this complex. And it was not crowded. It was peaceful. It was like the playing compound of a house that reminded me of my grandparents house. We slowly walked around, visiting each and every temple in the complex, resting under the trees wherever possible. Some of the beautiful aspects of this temple were :

• No restrictions on cameras and camcorders
  
• Not crowded
  
• Peaceful
  
• Lots of shades to take rest
  
• Awesome free lunch

After lunch, we rested in a shade inside the compound for some time and went into the contemplative mood. Soon it was time to get back to the railway station to check our reservations were confirmed or not.

As we were stepping out of Kadri Manjunath temple, we were thinking that may be this has been the best place we have visited. Where there was so much of peace and tranquility. And we thought, no visit to Mangalore could be complete without visiting this blissful place.

Return
Well!!as we were expecting, we could not get our reservation confirmed. So rather than waiting long, holding hands of TT, greasing his hands, we thought we would rather come back by bus. And guess what, we got the last two seats of the last Airavath bus that was available from Mangalore to Bangalore. Holiday return rush huh!! And man that was one painful bus journey. Throughout it seemed to me as if the driver was on a suicide mission with all of us rallying behind him :-) No it was not fun. All the body parts went for a toss. My wife's sandals skid and went to the front of the bus. There was this AC exhaust or somethign that was right under my leg. And throught the night I would step on it, burn my leg , wake up and then go back to sleep. :-) Believe me, that was not fun. So go for a train if you can.

Summary

• Overall fun trip. But tiresome
  
• If you visit Mangalore, make sure you drop by K M temple and spend some time here in introspection
  
• If you are returning to Bangalore, return by train.
  
• This travelogue ends here. If you are planning a trip to the regions I have shared my experiences with, please feel free to contact me if you need any more information. Adios on the travelogue till my next travel.
  
• Keep reading this blog for other topics and my intelligent view points :-) Yeah Right!!
  

Part IV - Bekal Fort Trip

Murudeshwar to Mangalore
Verna - Mangalore passenger train passes through Gokarna and Murudeshwar on its way to Mangalore. So when leaving Murudeshwar, we decided to catch the same train to Mangalore. The train was 1 hour late when it reached Murudeshwar. It was supposed to take around 3 hours to reach Mangalore but it delayed further and by the time we reached Mangalore I think it was almost 10:00 p.m. We were definitely very tired due to constant roaming around and extreme heat. The fact that the remaining part of the journey was pretty much open ended and unplanned was making it further difficult in deciding what to do. What ensued was a high voice debate with hungry stomach. First we thought we will just stay the next day in Mangalore and then come back to Bangalore. But it was already very late and the hotels were charging too much. So we thought, to hell with staying in hotels tonight. We decided to move ahead and travel to Bekal Fort.

Mangalore to Kanhangad
Once decide, I went to the enquiry to find out if there is a train to Kanhangad. The next train was only at 4:00 a.m and that was Parashuram Express from Mangalore to Trivandrum. Kanhangad was the third stop after Mangalore. So we waited at the Mangalore station till 4:00 am. What was comforting was that, unlike other stations, here there were no repeating advertisements on TVs. Rather, there were some nice songs playing on FM radio. That was nice time pass. But one horrible thing was too many mosquitoes. Good that we had Odomas with us. So I put it on everywhere on my body and was very happy to see the mosquitoes getting repelled away :-) . Throughout the night we were half asleep and half awake. By the time, the train left at 4:00 a.m, we were unable to open our eyes and were scared that we might miss Kanhangad. But thankfully, I could keep my senses alert and got down at Kanhangad after around an hour of departure from Mangalore. With whatever eyes open, I knew for sure that this journey was fantastic with full moon lighting up the vast sea like a silver plate and coconut trees decorating the sea coast. Oh what a view it was. Just plain brilliant and the only feeling was to just to sleep on a boat in the middle of the sea in that beautiful full moon.

In Kanhangad
We reached around 5:30 a.m. It was pitch dark, the place completely unknown but the station, though small was sweet and well lit. As we came, there was only one auto. All we said was Hotel Bekal International. He nodded his head in NO. But it was actually a yes. So we got in having no clue where we are being taken. But pretty soon, we were brought to Hotel Bekal International. The hotel room was around Rs. 300. But it was pretty ordinary. After taking a short nap, waking up, freshening up, having breakfast, we took a small stroll in the hot sun to reach a bus that was to take us to the Bekal fort. It took us around 20 minutes by bus to reach the Bekal fort. The place huge. We got excited to see the fort and I started clicking around with my camera :-) Then we reached the gate and there you go. Rs. 25 for camera and Rs. 25 for cam corder. The Government has to squeeze money out at every chance it has. Well we paid and went in. Aww!!! did we come at a wrong time? Where is the green grass? Why is it all yellow? May be Maniratnam shot his movie in the rainy season. Thats true!! The hero and heroine were all seemed to be drenched in that movie :-) Well, the fact is, it was not as close to how it was portrayed in the movie. So the smart thing is to go during monsoons and get drenched. Thats when the fun is. But the beauty was the view of the ocean. After the fort, we went to the beach. And here again, Rs. 25 for camera and Rs. 25 for camcorder. :-( Later we came to know that there is a side way to escape this pain. :-) So if you are visiting the beach, look for the side way. We came out via the side way.

By the time we finished visiting the fort and the beach and came out, it was almost 3:00 p.m. Tired, no food, hungry. Went to hotel and took some rest. We were now like in the mood to just get back home in Bangalore. That was 24th December. Christmas eve.

Return to Mangalore
On 25th, we took the early morning train from Kanhangad to Mangalore. Now it was daylight and a beautiful train ride along the sea coast.

Summary

• Murudeshwar to Mangalore by Verna passenger train
  
• Mangalore to Kanhangad by Parashuram express or some earlier train. Just find it out.
  
• To come back from Kanhangad to Mangalore, there are tons of trains
  
• Bekal International is Ok. Not that great.
  
• Dont go in summers. By the way, we went in winter and winter is literally undefined. :-) It was so hot that it does not qualify to be called winter.
  

Part III - Murudeshwar Trip

Gokarna To Murudeshwar
As I mentioned, the train from Gokarna to Murudeshwar was supposed to reach Murudeshwar at 5 p.m. But the train got delayed and we reached Murudeshwar around 7:30 p.m. It was dark enough. We thought it will some good size enough railway station that will have some autorickshaws waiting outside. To our surprise, it was pitch dark outside and the railways station was right on the highway. So all we could see were the trucks breezing away. With many other passengers we came out of the railways station and stood on the highway with a hope to see an autorickshaw guy. Luckily we saw one coming and got it since we were standing closest top him :-)

At Murudeshwar
The RNS Guest House where we stayed was pretty close to the railway station. So, the auto guy breezed to the RNS guest house. The majestic Shiva statue was right near the RNS guest house and surrounded by sea. After the formalities, we quickly checked into the hotel and freshened ourselves up.

Naveen Restaurant was adjoining to the guest house on one side and sea on the other. We had some good but very little food there. Not because we wanted little. We were desperately hungry. But you have to have the food there to believe how little they serve. :-)

It was already around 10 p.m by the time we had dinner. So we spent some time just sitting and relaxing at the footsteps of shiva statue.

Next morning, we took some snaps, moved around the Shiva statue, had lunch and then left in the afternoon. The place was under construction. So we could not completely go around the statue. I must also say that Murudeshwar beach is not that impressive. To be frank it was dirty. May be because it is much more commercialized and too many people with little sense of maintaining clean surrounding. So half a day was enough for Murudeshwar.

Murudeshwar to Mangalore
We took the Verna-Mangalore passenger at Murudeshwar for Mangalore. The train was moving fast enough in the beginning but slowed down gradually to reach Mangalore only at around 10:00 p.m. What to do next? Should stay overnight at Mangalore? Should we continue our trip further to Bekal Fort? What happens when in dilemma? An obvious argument and a fight . Thats what happened between me and my wife :-) And it is a very wrong time to argue with her when she is hungry. :-) After trying some hotels in Mangalore (with an obvious wish not to get any room), we decided to go to Bekal.

Summary

• Gokarna to Murudeshwar by Verna Passenger in the evening
  
• Enjoy the sea and Shiva statue at Murudeshwar
  
• Murudeshwar to Mangalore by Verna Passenger
  

To be Continued...

Part II - Gokarna Trip

Jog Falls to Gokarna
After the Jog Falls visit it was time to catch a bus to Gokarna. We came to know that right outside the Jog Falls gate there would be a bus to Kumta. It was supposed to come at 11:30 a.m but finally came at around 12:45 p.m. Because it was Gorvernment bus it seems :-) To make things worse, there was no seats available. To make things further worse, it was hilly and curvy road so the bus could not move at more than 20 k.m per hour. And we were getting the taste of the hot sun. I wa afraid that my wife might faint in the bus. Thankfully, some people got down at Talguppa and we got to sit. I kept taking some photographs in the middle of all this. It took almost 3 hours to reach Kumta. We got down and immediately took a bus that was waiting to leave for Gokarna. This was more comfortable since we got a seat and also the road was flat enough for the bus to go fast. We reached Gokarna in around 1.5 hours. The natural beauty started showing itself as we were nearing Gokarna. Beautiful lakes, nice agricultural fields, mountains were the ornaments of nature in this stretch of land. Gokarna bus stand is a small one.

First Evening at Gokarna
After reaching Gokarna in the afternoon with hot sun burning over our heads, we quickly checked into Hotel Gokarna International (HGI). This hotel is very close to the bus stand and walkable i.e., it is around 1.5 Km or less. But since we did not know, we had to take an auto and the auto would take Rs. 15. We were kind of doing things on a roll since it was a jampacked trip. So without wasting much time, we freshened up and wanted to go out. The hotel guy suggested we go to the Main beach since it is the closest and it was almost evening time. Main beach is also called Gokarna Beach. So we decided to go to Gokarna beach that evening. By now it was slightly cooling down as the sun was setting. What a time to go to the beach isnt it? We walked through the narrow lanes of Gokarna with kachha roads, towards the Gokarna beach. On the way we found that the Venkataraman temple and Mahabaleshwar temple were there. We decided to visit these temples next morning. So we kept walking towards Gokarna beach. It was around 2 Km from HGI. Wow what a beautiful view when you look at the sea and then see the sun taking a nice dip into the sea. It is breathtaking. All this is fine only if you see straight and up and not down. The moment you see down will you realize how qualified we human beings are at dirtying the beautiful nature. Throwing stuff everywhere even though there are dust bins. I see this and think "We the biggest A**H****" :-( The sea view was beautiful but we were starving. So we went to a small restaurant on the beach and enjoyed some nice dosas. We decided then to sit on the beach for a while until it darkens. We bought a couple of coconut water and sat on the beach, sipping the sweet coconut water, eating the nice soft coconut inside it, and enjoying the dances of the waves on the lap of the sea. Little kids playing around was adding music to this beautiful dance.

Next Morning at Gokarna::Temple Tour
We woke up pretty early since we had so much left to cover and we only had half a day in hand before we set off for the next destination town of Murudeshwar. The early morning was beautiful. A nice small temple in view from the balcony and the sun rising over the head of the temple and from within the hills was making it splendid. By around 7:00 a.m we started walking out in the streets of Gokarna. The streets were awake with little kids on their way to schools. And these tourists (ourselves) were randomly roaming around. We went to Venkataramanan temple, Maha Ganapathi Temple and Mahabaleshwar temples. These temples were nice. But beware of the priests at Mahabaleshwar temple though. We nicely got ourselves ripped off by Rs. 1500. It may not be about money but the way we were cajoled, I feel like a dumb idiot in perspective. So you dont be the next. I am just not habituated to temples where you are just pushed around by tons of people. For me, a temple is a calm silent place where I get some peace and an opportunity for introspection. Well Mahabaleshwar temple could have been but the priests there are definitely not letting it be. They were all commercial agents. Thats how I felt. So next time you visit, if you just want to walk around and nothing more, just pay the Rs. 2 and gently say I am not interested in anything. Dont be in a state of confusion as we did.

Gokarna :: Om Beach
After the temple tour and royal rip off , we decided to forget about it and rather focus on the better part for the day and went straight to Om Beach. The auto rickshaw took Rs. 100. The drive was pretty neat going way up the mountain and stop there only to walk down to the beach. We realized that there were many huts on the beach that could be rented. We wanted to have breakfast and found this place called Namaste Cafe. The typical breakfast there is, Bread and Egg, Bread and Egg and Bread and Egg :-) The one that was not was Paratha. We had paratha and curd. Everything cost around Rs. 150. The view was beautiful. After having the breakfast and a glass of coffee, we started walking on the Om beach. Pretty soon, a boatman approached us and asked if we would be interested in having a boat ride to the Half-moon and paradise beaches with other folks. We hopped into the boat since boat rides are cheaper if there are more people. The guy cruised in the sea and went past the half-moon and paradise beaches. But he went from a distance though and did not embark on those beaches. These beaches were kind of desolate and I am sure more peaceful. I also kinda got a hint that half-moon might be one of those beaches where there was no clothes on body freedom :-) The boat ride cost us Rs. 150. After coming back to Om beach, we decided to go to Kudle beach, the last one to be covered in the series of 5 beaches of Gokarna.

Gokarna :: Kudle Beach
This was by far the best beach at Gokarna. That is what I would say. Clean water, beautiful horizon, bright sunlight, nice shaded restaurant to have a cup of fresh lime juice and a vast stretch of beach to walk on. What a pleasant walk it in the morning. The feet getting wetted by the waves hitting the beach. Cooling our heads from the burning sun. Crystal clear water. How beautiful would it have been had we rented a hut on this beach. The night would be spectacular I am sure. We had a nice lime juice at a beach restaurant here. The water was so clear that we saw starfish, crab, sting ray only at this beach. After a nice 1 hour at this beach, we took another exclusive boat ride for just two of us to the Main beach.

Gokarna Streets
Once at the Main beach, we had to go back to our hotel so that we could pack up. This time we started walking through the other streets of Gokarna. These were beautiful streets giving us a glimpse of what ancient Indian society would have looked like. I mean it. A lot of antique feeling was there to these calm tree shaded streets. Almost every house had a well in the front yard. The roads were like bricklaid. While walking, we came across KothiTeertha.

Gokarna Wrap-Up
This was great place to visit I would say. Except that it was very hot. Soon we had to pack up our bags and leave for the Gokarna railway station to catch our train for Murudeshwar. The train was almost 2 hours late. But when it came, we couldnt locate our coach. And when we did, it started running. My wife almost got stuck in the station. The Ticket Collector was extremely apologetic for not stopping the train until we had boarded. We were surprised to see such nice behavior. He was a very friendly man from Andhra Pradesh. His name was Mr. Venkateshwarulu. Throughout the journey to Murudeshwar he was talking to us, asking about us, telling about himself, his family and so. And when Murudeshwar came, he ensure that the train stopped long enough for us to alight. Well, I wouldnt mind going again to Gokarna but this time it would be an exclusive Kudle beach trip.

Summary of Travel

• Bus from Jog Falls to Kumta . 1 bus that goes directly from Jog Falls. Leaves around 11:15 a.m . Takes almost 3 hours
  
• Bus from Kumta to Gokarna (around 2:00 p.m) Takes around 1 hour
• Enjoy Gokarna
  
• Gokarna To Murudeshwar (Train. Verna-Mangalore Passenger at 4:00 p.m)
  

Part I - Jog Falls Trip

Planning
I must say that planning for trips is some gigantic task in India. Either because of my lack of experience, lack of ample information on the web or some unknown reason. This has been precisely the situation when we started thinking about this 5 day trip. Several questions in mind. Several blogs in hand. Several websites with incomplete information.

How do I reach Jog Falls? How do I reach Gokarna? What is the best way? Where to stay? What places to visit ? And this needed lot of time searching the web. And then there is lack of time to invest in researching. So my dear wife was doing lot of research on this. Finally we could plan a part of the trip and we left the remaining unplanned and decided to plan as we reach the place and accordingly adjust.

Bangalore to Shimoga Town :
After lots of thinking, we took the Bangalore-Shimoga Express that left Bangalore at 23:40 hours. So all you do is get into the train and sleep :-) And in the middle of that I managed to lose my umbrella. Not that it is a comfortable sleep anyways in the train. So I was turning left and right and once in a while waking up thinking if I have fallen down from the upper berth. But I am not sure when I again slept off because soon I found someone shaking me and telling me "Hello this is the last stop. ". :-) Realized that we have reached Shimoga Town (SMET, different stop from Shimoga (SME)).

Shimoga Town to Jog Falls:
It was around 6:00 a.m. We were heartily welcomed by bunch of mosquitoes. These mosquitoes would not leave us for the rest of our journey. So carry Odomas with you all the time. We did by the way. We wanted to take a Toy Train from Shimoga Town to Jog Falls. But on getting down we came to know that the train is not in service now due to some work. Repair works are perennial in India arent they? You always see roads repaired, drains repaired. OK OK. Back to topic. We came out of station and took an auto. Being in a different town, you never know what is a reasonable rate. So you accept what you are told :-) I think the auto guy took Rs. 30 to take us to bus stand. The first difference I notice was people are very friendly. No I mean it. And it was the same observation for the res of our journey. The auto guy talked with me a lot and I continued the conversation with my "Swalpa Swalpa Kannada Gottu (i.e., Little little Kannada)" concept. As we reached the bus stand a bus was leaving. The auto guy stopped the bus and got us in. The bus guys gave us a seat and told us the bus would go to Jog. After we got in and the bus started moving, they said it will go till Sagar and then we have to catch another bus. We could not do much anyways. So we sat and enjoyed the countryside as the bus bumped and jumped and moved over the roads. It was a nice experience. The bus brought us to Sagar in 1.5 hours I think. Soon a bus was there for Jog Falls. The bus was pretty empty. We got in and reached Jog Falls in around 2 hours.

At Jog Falls
It was a bright sunny morning when we reached Jog Falls. We were very hungry too. So before even thinking of visiting the falls, we decided to have our breakfast first. There was this Hotel Mayura run by KSTDC. It was OK. Had some idlis to fill up our stomach. Then asked the guy which way is the falls. The falls were right opposite to Mayura. I couldnt believe it. Not in awe but was thinking what a let down. There was almost no water at all. Then why does the Government blow of the trumpet of largest falls? The falls that is not always in its vigorous form cannot be called falls. I heard most water is diverged to the dam. Karnataka Government should put up notice on the website on when the water will be there and when not. Otherwise I felt it is blatant cheating of the tourists. Imagine the let down when you go all the way and u find nothing. IMagine you go to Niagara Falls and you see a narrow stream falling. I for sure was upset with the way Government did not ensure that it maintains a place where it provides updates on the status of Jog Falls. I did not find it. And this according to me is cheating. After a few photographs of narrow streams, we decided to continue our journey to Gokarna.

So be careful about when to go to Jog Falls. It seems they release water on sundays and mondays. So those are good days to go. Otherwise, you may want to consider going during the months of July-August-September i.e., monsoons. That is when you will feel your visit is worth it.

Summary of Travel

• Train from Bangalore to Shimoga Town (11:40 p.m at Bangalore Central)
  
• Auto from Shimoga Town Station to Bus Stand (around 6:30 a.m)
  
• Bus from Shimoga Town to Sagar (Around 6:45 a.m at Shimoga Town)
  
• Bus from Sagar to Jog Falls (Around 8:45 a.m at Sagar)
  
• Enjoy Jog Falls if there is water
  
• Do not go arbitrarily. Call the folks there and ask if there is water
  

Jog Falls, Gokarna, Murudeshwar, Kanhangad, Mangalore Trip

Coming Soon.... The complete travelogue

Part I - Jog Falls Trip
Part II - Gokarna Trip
Part III - Murudeshwar Trip
Part IV - Kanhangad Trip
Part V - Mangalore and Return

We (Me and my wife) just finished a 5 day long tiring exhaustive trip to the above places. Will write as much as possible so that I can include our complete experiences. It was fun and lot of learning.

Who is Afraid of Transparency ?

A must read and introspect and act article by Aruna Roy and Nikhil Dey.

Who is Afraid of Transparency

Shopping -- Things to Note

I suck at shopping. More so at bargaining. And the way it hurts is more prominent when the vendors out there are desperate to rip you off.

I was planning to purchase my new cell phone. A simple one. I wanted to move back to Nokia. I was having a Samsung phone and I tell you it sucks. Even before the end of an year, my network failed badly and I cant even make calls. Yeah it has nothing to do with AirTel. It had to do with my phone. So when I decided to buy my new Nokia, the next question was where to buy from. I am somehow nervous about dealing with these "Authorized Nokia Dealers". They are freaking clueless folks manned by clueless personnel. They come running to you showing as if they are desperate to help you. After first question, they lose steam and start looking elsewhere. All they tell about the phone is, "It has FM", "It is Rs. 16000". Nothing more. No clue about more specifications.

After filtering out the "Authorized Nokia Dealers", I went to this "Nokia Concept Centre". Thought it might be genuine Nokia store. I might be wrong. The guy there was soft spoken and explained everything. He quoted me a price for the phone. Next day when I went, all kind of dancing was done, such as "extra commission on credit card use" etc. only to give me the phone at the same rate. No discount etc. This is ridiculous I feel. I think there is a general lack of percerption about customer mentality. I finally managed to not buy from there and ended up buying from Chroma in the Eva Mall. And I got it from Rs. 50 less. Its not about Rs. 50. Its about this flip-flopping that is absolutely irritating.

Nokia can avoid caring anything about this but they should be very careful about how these folks are marketing their products and influencing their reputation. Lot is at stake. This is the problem of non-direct sales.

Kya sochtaa hogaa sooraj

Subah ki kirane
Khidki se aati huyeee
Mere aankhon girti huyee
Mere savere ki shurvaath kartee hai

Khidki se jhaaktaa hoon
To suraj muskuraataa hua
hello kehtaa hai

Kehtaa hai
Dost tum bhi jaag gaye
Chalo tumhe
Apni kiranon se
jhappi de detaa hoon

Dheere dheere jaise din badegaa
suraj ki aankhon mein mayoosi dikhti hai
woh gusse se garam dikhtaa hai

Woh sochtaa hogaa
kambakht kyun itna shor hai
din ki shuruvaat mein jo mehek thi
woh is dhuen mein kyun kho gayee
savere savere jo shaant maahol thaa
is shor mein kyun kho gayaa

sooraj ke man mein jo khayaal hai
woh mere bhi man mein hain
hum sab ke man mein hai
magar hum baithe hain
bas sochte huye

Tipu Palace

Visited Tipu Palace a last week. I would say it is definitely a well maintained place with a nicely shaped garden. It adjoins the beautiful Ramanaswamy temple. Unfortunately the temple was closed when we went since it was the afternoon time. The entry fee was Rs.5 and as usual extra charge for photography. I will never understand why we are obsessed with not allowing photography. Anyways.



We went to Tipu Palace after a enjoying a nice lunch at MTR. It was a weekend and hence our wait for 90 min. We went to MTR at 1 p.m and we got food at 2:30 p.m. So it is always good to get advanced booking if you are going on a weekend. But the food is great. Tipu palace is hardly 2 kms from MTR. And Lalbagh is a stone throw away from MTR. So a nice weekend outing could be a great morning breakfast at MTR, then straight to labagh for a nice walk and then a sumptuous lunch at MTR again, then have fun at Tipu Palace and if you are not tired, go to Basavangudi for the Bull. All these places are pretty close to each other.

Our mode of travel was the dearest Auto. :-) And have the Bangalore map book in hand.

Bangalore Palace

Got to visit the Bangalore palace on December 1, 2007 afternoon. Here are some pictures. The palace was beautiful. But the charge was ridiculous. It was Rs. 100 per head. And if you want to take pictures, you have to get picture taking permit for Rs. 500. Absolutely ridiculous. I guess this is our way of promoting tourism. And that is too much greediness. More on that in my later posts. When we went, there was a Timesjobs fair also going on. The whole place was looking like a garbage can. That convinces me that we in general dont give a shit about cleanliness. And remember that majority of people coming here were for IT and ITES jobs. OK why am I saying this? Because dont even make the mistake of associating education with cleanliness. These are all "educated" lot who came for the job fair. Freaking made a mess with plates, glasses all around.

Anyways, I think have deviated and moved towards my frustration.

Visit the palace and enjoy it from distance :-)

All Men of India should be Ashamed

I am ashamed. I am disgusted. I can feel the stink in the rotting principles of the society. And this rot is right in the center of the IT super revolution and this rot is fast spreading.

Every male of this country should be ashamed. The educated, the richest, the powerful, the skilled, the leaders , everyone.

For we do not deserve to have any pride after the unnerving incident in Guwahati. Stripping a woman and beating her up as a mark of punishment seems to be becoming a regular activity. And we watch. The perpetrators are not punished.

Is this the 21st century India? I am afraid not. It is uncivilized society. We attribute uncivilized behavior to lack of education. But what happens when educated people do such kinds of acts? It is a disastrous sign.

If there is any shame left in the people ruling this country, they will ensure that some trust in community is restored. They will ensure that justice is delivered in the form of exemplary punishment.

The community where it becomes a habitual activity to strip a woman to teach her a lesson is bound to be doomed unless corrections are made and made fast. The social fabric of this country is in danger.

I wonder if we have been this animalistic always.

Calcutta Volcano

A strong thought provoking article by M.J.Akbar on the recent riots in Calcutta

Calcutta Volcano

IITs Boycott Dow Chemicals

Here is an article in IBN live.

IITs boycott Dow

Happy and relieved to see students increasingly analyzing ethical credentials of companies.

Beasts in us

I think we have become beasts. Did you see the videos of Guwahati violence? Oh yes. That is one thing in India TV channels. They keep on showing the same scene so much that you start feeling disgusted. That is exactly what Headlines Today was doing.

Anyway, rather than focussing on Headlines Today, the point I want to make is, in my opinion, death has become a casual matter of fact activity. A small procession starts, it turns violent, then people start fighting and then there come the figures. 20 dead, 150 seriously injured with gashes in the head. That is how precious human life. We switch the channel as a matter of fact. And what did we expect the police to do? Correct answer. Nothing.

Health minister says oh there was a minor incident, injured have been moved to the hospital and all is fine. Ha ha.... And what do you see on TV? One person being beaten black and blue with a thick log of wood on the back, head and everywhere until he collapses.

Tarun Gogoi says, the incident is unfortunate and the situation is perfectly under control. And as he speaks, you again see on the TV channel, the police begging the people not to beat others. How depressing.

and you call, this is the land of Buddha. This is the land of Gandhi.

We unanimously call ourselves a civic society.

I wonder if ours is also the society of mindless violence propagators where the supreme value of human blood and dignity is on its way to be completely forgotten.

And the goverment forgets it. The administration forgets it. The police forget it. And we forget it. Lets just forget everything.

Our Culture is Great

While I love reading history, I always hated it in curriculum while growing up. History was unavoidable subject in primary and high schools. I always felt that it was introduced in curriculum not to invoke interest but as one more done. Its like, just have it because we have to have it.

Anyways, while I hated the subject when in school either because of poor teaching, or the way we had to cram to get high scores or just the lack of analysis in it.

Increasingly these days, the question that is intriguing me is , whether it taught me right things. One thing I am going to focus on is the fact that I had been taught that is, India had a great culture. We were always welcoming and open hearted to our guests.

Focus changed to India 2007. Looking at India 2007, I start wondering , were we really cultured? If we were, where and when did our culture get eroded. If India was indeed rich in culture and kindness, that generation would be so ashamed to see the current generation.

The treatment being meted out to Taslima Nasreen puts me to shame. I am not ashamed about the countrymen. Because I have a strong conviction and hope that if we consider the whole country, then the number of people welcoming her will far outnumber the people protesting her presence. And yet, these small number of people with their violent protests are holding the society to ransom. And the Government looks on because they dont wanna loose votes. It has been quite a drama over the last few days.

It really can be enacted very nicely.
First, the violent protests erupt. That is quite easy these days. A bunch of people with bottles, sticks, knives can easily scare the innocents off.

The government immediately buckles and sends Taslima off to Rajasthan. Lets not bring police into picture by the way. I wonder if these are the days when they command the least respect ever.

Then in Rajasthan, some bunch of fanatics again protest and they shift her to Delhi.

And today, I am depressingly surprised to see the Centre jittery on hosting her.

Oh my god. We have the advanced weaponry and nuclear strength to annihilate our neighbors (that is what our sentiment these days isnt it?) but we cannot command a discipline in our people. And it is this lawlessness that is reflected in every individual's flouting the rules day in and day out.

And they say, India is going to be the super power in 2020.

And I sadly think about the hallucinations affecting all of us.

Confidence and Arrogance

Are these synonymous? Yet some times we confuse them to be same? In fact arrogance I feel breeds out of insecurity. And insecurity breeds out of lack of confidence. So it implies arrogance and confidence should be antonymous. Yeah I am not sure if that word exists in dictionary. You got it right?

Let me see what I perceive as confidence for myself. I am confident means:

• I believe in myself above all.
  
• I believe there are others from whom I can learn
  
• I believe in interdependence.
  
• I am humble to respect others' thoughts and beliefs
  
• I believe life is beautiful
  
• I believe for every problem there is a solution
  
• I believe in empowering others
  
• I believe I am the best but I want everyone to be excellent
  

When confidence and arrogance get muddled, it means :

• I am worried about someone pushing me
  
• I am worried about the world not doing justice to me
  
• I believe in belittling others or trying to show my supremacy
  
• Empowering others? You must be kidding
  
• I believe I am the only best. Others go to hell.

As usual, the above are random ramblings straight from the heart though. :-) Thoughts? Add comments.

Plagiarism in Indian Film Music

Oops!! Did I say plagiarism in the title? I guess so... Let me rephrase it as inspiration.

Our music directors are really awesome you know. They are inspired all the time, every time, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. They cannot exist without getting inspired.

Alright set the pun aside. Here is some stinking reality check. Thanks to my brother in law, I came across this site. And hats off to the person maintaining it. I admire his research :-)

Now check this out :

Indian Film Songs and their Original Versions

On the right side, you will see the music directors. Click on them to find out about their inspirations.


Thankfully, my favorite music director has not copied stuff. Though some of the initial beats etc. might hold resemblance but he is absolutely original. And that is what makes dear A.R. Rahman apart.

If you look at the deeds of folks like Anu Malik and Pritham Chakravarthy, you will realize how low they have gone. Thankfully they are not in USA or Europe. Otherwise, by now, they would have been sued enough to have lost their fortunes. It is disgusting... In gentle terms.

Drive to Bangalore International Airport

Boy this must be fun :-) Ofcourse sarcasm intended. Here is the latest Times of India article on how the travel to BIAL (Bangalore International Airport Limited) is going to be.

A Tedious Drive to New Airport : TOI Article

This is going to be so painful. I am imagining that the highway is going to be blocked now 24 hours a day.


I am trying to understand how people in charge can be so stupidly in hurry to open an airport without proper access. I think I will understand it sometime soon. In a previous article it was mentioned that some access like peripheral road, metro etc. will take atleast 4 -5years to come. 4-5 years?

By the way, there was also this idea that you can take a flight from the current airport (which will be obsolete for domestic /international flights once the new one comes up) to new airport for Rs. 1500. How ridiculous can that be?

Durga Puja 2007 in Bangalore

Durga Pujo is a very a special occassion in a every bengali's life. Born and brought up in bengal, it definitely has a tremendous effect on me too. The waiting for the festival, the festivities, then the sadness of realization that the puja has ended for the year and we have to wait for the next year are part parcel of this festival.

After celebrating in a small way in US for the last 6 years, this year I got the chance to celebrate in India. Though not in as grand a scale as in West bengal, Bangalore celebrations were not bad. I heard that there are almost 40 pujo throughout Bangalore.

I could go to three pujas in Bangalore. They were at Koramangala (organize by Sarathi Socio-Cultural Trust), Jayamahal and Ulsoor. All the places were bubbling with energy. The fantastic thing was they were open to all and not closed to members only. Thank god, that gave me the chance to enjoy some yummy bhog at these places :-)

On Panchami, we went to the Ulsoor Bengali Association pujo. That was just the beginning. The pujo mantap was being set up. There was Ananda Mela and some children's events happening.

Sarathi trust had organized cultural programmes on all the days from Panchami. These programmes were performances by bands like Cactus, Zubani, Kohal and then dance performances. You would not get these all the 4 days in US :-).

When Durga Pujo is here, how can food be far ? Yummy khichudi bhog, potol torkaari, rosogolla, tomato chutney kept me busy for the three days. :-) Somehow during these days nothing else tastes good.

अगर

agar kal aakhrii din hotaa
to main aaj kyaa kartaa
jo vakt main aise bitaataa hoon
kyaa vaise main bitaataa ?
shaayad nahiin !!
kyoonki jitane khvaab
dil men samaaye huye hain
soye huye hain
shaayad aaj jaag uthate
aur mujhme
bechainii sii samaa jaatii
jo mujhe majaboor kar detii
sochne par
ki kitne khwaab poore huye
aur kitne adhoore rah gaye
dil se chhotii sii aawaaz
mujhse poochhtii
kaisaa rahaa safar
tay kaise huaa
jude huye khwaab
chehre pe roshnii laa dete zaroor
adhoore se khwaab maayoosii
lekin ek adhooraa khvaab
zaroor poorii kartaa
taaki ek to kam ho jaaye
khwaab kuchh adhoore
kuchh poore
hameshaa rah jaate hain
magar is safar ki
yaadon se paribhaashaa hotii
jitanaa pyaar is safar men milaa
us pyaar se paribhaashaa hotii
khushii se main is kitaab ko
bandh kartaa kyoonki
kvaabon ki koee parisiimaa nahiin hotii

Note : Hindi transliteration was becoming illegible. So keeping it in English. But read them as hindi

वक़्त बीत गया

कुछ समझने में बीत गया
कुछ समझाने में
कुछ देखने में बीत गया
कुछ दिखलाने में
कुछ खुशियों में बीत गया
कुछ आसुओं में
मुस्कराहट होंठों पे लिए
हम चल पडे मंज़िल को लेकिन
कुछ को साथ लेने में बीत गया
कुछ से बिछड़ने में
बेचैनीयों के साथ आती रही
आशाओं की लहरें भी
कुछ बादलों में बीत गया
कुछ हवाओं में

Durga Pujo -- A Bengali Poem expressing memories

In response to a question : Pujo ki kore kat to?

Baah shundor daarun proshno
Jaar jowaab bhebe bhebe
Mone pore jaai shei chhotto belaar kothaa
Niye aashe aasthe aasthe
Ei mone ojaanaa bethaa

Pujo r modhye jonmo nilaam
Pujo r maajhe bodo holaam
Pujo r maati te khele khele
Pujo r smriti te haariye gelaam

Somoi jei kaachhe aastho
Utsaahe te mon phule uthto
Notun poshaaker lobhe montaa
paagol hoye laafiye uthto
School e chhuti aashbe
ei bhebei
sesh diner opekha shuru hoye jeto

Oh cycle repair koraate hobe
Jaate beraano jete paara jaai
Tyre e to pump dite hobe
Jaate Joydeb thek Gamon jaawaa jaai

Oh Joydeb e aami pushpaanjali debo
Tansen e mishti konya dekhbo
Central e Shombhu r ice cream khaabo
Taar por rowaana hobo Cement Park er dike

Baadi phirte phirte dupur hoye gelo
Maa opekhya koraao chhede dilo
Jaane kichhu na kichhu keyei aashbo
Chhele taake aar naa thaamaano gelo

Dupure aami baadi phirlaam
Berote hobe bikele aabaar
Central e boshe eibaar aaaddaa debo
Somoi kore kintu puchkaa o khaabo

Chaar dine sei mosti taa
Kokhono phire aar aashe naa
mon bhore bhore aanondo
chaar din chhaaraa thaake naa

Chaar din ki kore je kete gelo
Bhujei uthte paarlaam naa
Abaar aashbe pujo aasthe bochhor
Opekhya koraa chhaarlaam naa

Dhaak er aawaaz aajo kaane
beje uthe theek somoye
ene bhaalobaashaar diner smriti
mon jele uthe aaloye

Aaj dure aachhi shei durgapur theke
Bondhu der kotha mone pode jaai
Aaakasher dike jei taakaai
Purono diner chhobi toiri hoi

-- By Sastry

Gandhi Jayanti And Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri Jayanti

Wishes to everyone reading this blog, on this occasion.

A question that has been coming to my mind is, should it be a holiday? That is, should it be a non working day?

The same is true about any event or any religious festival etc. Does that mean that the celebrations that need to be done require the day to be a non working day?

Why cant we celebrate but still continue working?

I wonder if Mahatma Gandhi would have been happy if he saw that today , to celebrate his birthday, the whole nation is sitting idle.

In a nation dreaming to be developed, I wonder if it is worth letting one day go off like this...

Well, as a coincidence this year, I guess many people are glued to TV sets watching India Australia cricket match. I wonder about this celebration.

Happy Birthday Gandhiji.... I can be 200% sure that a great human being like you who tirelessly, constantly working hard to give us the freedom, will not be delighted to see your nation folks have called it a day off and the excuse they give is celebrating your birthday....

But you will be happy to see some section though who are taking this opportunity to fight for justice, holding candle light vigils in solidarity with farmers. So there definitely is a section working tirelessly following your footsteps.

Bug in Excel 2007

In Excel 2007, multiply 77.1 and 850 and see the result.

In reality, 77.1*850 = 65535. But the result you will get will be 100000

For more details and explanation on this bug, go and read :

http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2007/09/26b.html

Apni Daastaan

कुछ सपनों से बुनी जिन्दगी
कोशिश से है बनी दास्ताँ
छोटे कदम हम ले ज़मीन पर
मंज़िल अपना बाना आसमान

सफ़र में अपने मिले अजनबी
अजीब कहलाया अपना कारवां
राह में रहते राहे अकेले
चले चलो कहती थी जुबां




I may continue working on this as when I feel like and will get some creative thoughts. If you feel like adding in line with it, feel free to add as comments and I will add them as your contribution :-) This is fun isnt it?

Why is no group ever excluded from quota?

This was the question asked by Supreme Court to the Indian Government.

Here is the article:

TimesOfIndia

Musical Memories in Austin

I was chatting with Anand yesterday and in the midst of conversation, came the discussion on music as it always does. We were just thinking about composing something etc. etc.

Way back in 2001, soon after starting to work, I came across this colleague named Anand and while talking I came to know that he played keyboard. Pretty soon we decided to catch up hear each other play our instruments that is, his keyboard and my flute. It was a fun get together. We kept playing some random things. He had this $100 keyboard and I had this $1 flute. I didnt know what to call it? A flute? A piccolo? A brass windpipe? Whatever it was but I could successfully play some tunes. Anand and I decided to continue doing some small jamming sessions ofcourse just with keyboard and flute and some singing in the middle. We both were new to Austin and accidentally came to know our musical interests and decided to just continue meeting and enjoy the music. Some of the initial tunes we tried were Bombay Theme, Nightingale by Yanni and so on.

During one of those when I was attending a concert organized by ICMCA (Indian Classical Musical Center of Austin), I was introduced to this new graduate at UT named Dinesh. He also was passionate about music and himself was a singer and a tabla player. And he was a very down to earth who did not jump around beating his musical skills. So I told him about us, the two rookies who jam and asked him to join us if he wants. He immediately jumped at the idea and promised to join when we would meet next.

Next time we met, we thought why not we start music band. So Anand, as always taking the initiative, went ahead and put some Ads on Sulekha informing about our desire to form a band. And thus started our first Austin based Indian music band. But as it happens most of the times with bands, this band got disbanded within few weeks even before something could be achieved. I guess there were too many "knowledgeable" got together who did not have the ear to listen to others. And there you go. Back to square one we were. That is, Anand and I kept meeting and doing some jamming. But our efforts to bring in other people who were aware of their knowledge as well as limitations continued. On quite some occassions, few strangers with different interests joined us for jamming sessions. They kept joining and vanishing and our jamming sessions continued. The only sad thing was we lost touch with Dinesh then. But we had a new friend Sesh who was an amazing violinist. So now our music jamming session were kind of involved myself, Anand and Sesh.

This is when I left for Korea on a business assignment. In October 2003, a fresh attempt by Anand, Sesh and Dinesh (who Anand again got in touch with and brought him back) led to the formation of our dearest music band, Omkara


I had a wildcard entry into the band as soon as I cam back from Korea. Thank god there were no auditions for me :-) My friends say that is the reason why I almost always screwed up on stage.

But Omkara was one of the best musical platforms where I learnt a lot from other talented musicians and came to learn about the amazing talents of Dinesh, Sesh, Anand, Vaish, Sriram and Priya. Everyone of us improved ourselves considerably by performing together.

We performed almost 15 live concerts in Austin, Houston and Dallas. It was not just about music. It also gelled friends. Dinesh and Anand became two of my closest friends. They gave me a nice gift which was our last composition based on a Tamil song by A.R Rahman.

Listen to it here :





I miss you guys. And the musical compositions. Lookign forward to visiting Austin and doing some compositions.

I hope I will start an Omkara soon in Bangalore.

Congratulations India

Strangers to cricket used to ask me how come Indians spend a whole day watching cricket. When I would tell them that there is something called Test cricket too which is a 5 day version and people do sit and watch for 5 days, they would just fall on the ground in disbelief.

Lately I too kept losing interest in cricket and many reasons could be attributed to it. Whether it is due to long stretch of the game, more important priorities, disgust for the overzealous passion and obsession in India towards this game, too much attention to only one game and complete ignorance of the other and so on.

And in these circumstances, 20-20 has come as a pleasant treat. Whoever says that the game of cricket is being ruined by these 20-20 are utter fools in my mind. Well, I might be a fool in their minds too :-) But I must say that 20-20 is going to survive because it is a thorough entertainment without too much of time involvement.

When did we see such a steady blasting display of talent in the past in 50 overs matches? It has been proved time and again that under pressure, with expectations clearly set, amazing talent comes out. And that is what we have seen throughout this tournament. We must have lost track of how many sixes have been hit. Almost every match had scores of above 6 an over run rate.

And finally the treat that everyone wanted came like a gift. India meeting Pakistan in the final is something everyone dreams of. And exactly that happened. The way India and Pakistan reached the final has been brilliant. It was through pure display of convincing talent. And the final was definitely not a let down. It was a treat to watch every performance, whether it was the batting performance of Gautam Gambhir and Misbah ul Haq or the bowling performance of R.P Singh and Irfan Pathan.

Oh yeah, it was fun to watch Sreesanth being taught the lesson of humility too. I sometimes fail to understand why people confuse confidence with rudeness. That is what happened with Sreesanth. Some of my friends say it is fine to behave like that with Aussies. Ha ha... an eye for and eye? God save these mindsets. I am sure Sreesanth would have behaved the same way with Pakistan batsmen too if he was not fixed in the second over for 21 runs :-) I was thrilled to see that display for sure. On the other hand R.P Singh kicks ass. Absolute composure and pure display of talent.

At the end of the day it was brilliant cricket. The way Pakistan came close to victory was brilliant. Very rarely do we see a team bringing the ball and runs to score difference from 30 to 2. And only Pakistan has done it consistently. Even Australia could not do it in their game against India. I thoroughly enjoyed Misbah's blasters just like I did when Yuvraj did.

It would have been a great gesture if Dhoni had praised that effort of Misbah. Anyway he didnt. Afridi's comments were absolutely professional I felt.


Alright, now the obsession starts. Sorry it has started last night.

Hopefully the TV channels will not keep showing this win again and again and again for the months to come.
Hopefully the obsession to one man has not again started
Hopefully the obsession to one game has not again started
Hopefully the obsession to one leader has not again started
Hopefully consistency will kill this obsession
Hopefully consistency will be our habit.

Because, when we are obsessed about one thing, we behave irrationally when rude surprise hits us. Like painting the same heroes' houses black?

Ah!!! What a game to watch it was. Pure pleasure.

Lecture of a Lifetime

Lecture of a Lifetime on WSJ

On ABC News

Happy Vinayaka Chavithi

Idol Immersion at Ulsoor Lake
Happy Ganesh Chaturthi as everyone calls it. Or happy Vinayaka Chavithi as it is called in Telugu.

Vinayaka Chavithi evokes so many sweet memories from the childhood. Although growing up in a land (West Bengal) where Ganesh Chaturthi was not a big occasion, we still used to celebrate it in a sweet little way at home. The night before, we would go with dad to shop for sticks, colored paper, and other decorative items to create the mini pandal at home. There would be four sticks standing upright in four Amul Spray tins with soil in them. The sticks would be decorated with colored paper around them . Four more sticks would be tied horizontally around the four vertical ones, covered with horizontal paper and that would create a little pandal. We would hang fruits vertically from the top. Little Ganesha would sit on a small box that would be decorated with colored shining paper.

Simple Puja at Home
On the morning of the puja, we siblings would wake up early in the morning and get ready for the puja. The puja would involve hym chanting and then recital of the story that dad would do. We would sit around dad and listen to the story sometimes intently and sometimes falling asleep. The puja would continue for around an hour. In the meantime, my mother would make some delicious Ganesh Chaturthi special items.

I do not know what to call them in english. In telugu, we would call them Buttalu, Jilludi Kayilu and Und Rallu. All of them would be made of rice flour. B would be nicely packed in Jackfruit leaves and baked. J would have delicious coconut in them. It is said U is lord Ganesha's favorite item .

As a tradition, after having puja at home and enjoying delicious food, in the early evening we would hop to different families celebrating puja to enjoy prasadam.

In the evening we used to go to community celebration by Andhra Samiti of Durgapur. That was real fun event. It used to be a platform to meet friends and play around, then enjoy food and come back home with parents. Yeah I know that food was really important part of this festival.

Many times we tend to associate too much religion with this but I believe that more than religion or anything it has to do a lot with memories, nostalgia, a sense of good feeling and peace. And where we get these, why not celebrate them in zest and have a good peace of mind?

This year, I and my wife celebrated it in a small way at our home. Brought back lots of memories. It was raining heavily this time in Bangalore. Many areas of Bangalore were almost flooded out. We had to do the shopping while getting drenched in the raining. The Madivala market was crowded with people shopping in rain. It was some fun and painful too.

The challenge was while coming back. We started walking in completely opposite direction hoping to get an auto. Someone finally pointed out to me that I was going 180 degrees opposite. Again started walking in the reverse direction hoping to get an auto. It was just impossible to get an auto guy to drive to Koramangala.

Heavy Rains in Bangalore

Bangalore keeps getting it regular dose of washing and cleaning. Yesterday was indeed one heck of rain dump on Bangalore. It was thorough fun to sit in the balcony and watch the rain pouring cats and dogs. Some say, its the usual cleaning that is needed before any big religious event. And tomorrow is Ganapati puja, I guess this was the cleaning that was needed.

Many areas I am sure might have become mini lakes.

But its beautiful out there this morning.