its-rt

Wake me up when life comes

2011-12-23T15:38:00.002+05:30

hate hate hate when life is routine... and that's what it is now...I njoy a job which entails atleast some amount of travelling which makes me atleast move around to break the monotony of office... however unliked by people around me this atleast lets me talk to different people!! coz friends are either busy within themselves or hardly have much new updates as they too have fallen into the trap of routine..Personally no changes and things are hanging mid air in office!! waiting for them to get in place to find something worth fun...work is challenging but not moving... aah the inertia in a big organization!! :-/***No Christmas or new year plans ..just waiting for it to pass so I get back to some format!! yeah contrasting to last complain but that's how things are..we always look forward to a date or event, it passes and then we search again...what next!!**********On another note have to go to Chennai soon apparently to meet the tax person for my 2007-08 filing!! amazing how fast these departments are!! I HATE TAXES AND PAPER WORK!!!***************I drove! the only silver lining among the dark clouds of boredom! :)trying to get the hang of driving now...in traffic :)

serendipity

2011-11-30T13:29:00.001+05:30

I do click on the next blog link of blooger many a times specially when there are no updates in my reading list and if i just want to distract myself. I have been lucky few time to find something brilliant and today was one of those days-i found this blog Backstoryesque and a briliant post when our worlds ruled the world got me hooked on to the blog.A good writer I hope, included in reading list now.

Imprints

2011-11-30T13:21:00.001+05:30

There are always some words, stories, expressions on faces, tunes and scenes of movies which are imprinted in our minds whatever we do and wherever we go. As I somehow feel too attached and affected by children i find it very difficult to remove images and words from some books movies- kite runner and page3 to be precise. I somehow got reminded of page 3 last evening and cant get the fact out of my head about the inhumane nature some homo sapiens have. My only question to God post death or may be more important than even death is about the children's plight - why would any torture be given to someone who doesn't even understand what is happening. I hate God for that if he exists!

Thought provoking Kol

2011-09-10T20:21:00.001+05:30

how much do the things we read affect us or form impressions about places for us. for kolkata we always hear about its enchantic, charming style and as a child we had impressions from movies/books about her.I visited Kolkata again for 2 days last week and tried to reconnect with the romanticism in buildings that i felt during my maiden visit and may be later as well.Some part of me was adamant that yes Kolkata is truly charming staying in its old days deciding to move ahead but not as fast as its other counterparts across the country. while the other part kept on rejecting this brainwave saying you have heard so much and its all in ur mind; kolkata is just like any other city that you have visited.I can distinctly remember my maiden visit there sometime in june 1998. Our train reached early morning, crossing the howrah bridge and passing the heritage buildings I was highly affected by its charm. This is the feeling that i go through when we used to arrive during early mornings at my mom's hometown. The city/rather should call it a township with significant history attached to it waking up to the day...the rickshaws/tongas on the road, people sweeping outside their homes, half the windows open, half shut. The misty/dew rich early morning smells always had made me smile. Unfortunately this time I wasn't able to see the city in early morning/daylight but next time I will make sure I do.**********************Something else that a city like Kolkata/Jabalpur for me brings to me is the feeling of being rooted.Since i first left home for engg it has always been living at various places with limited control on how and with whom I live-hostels etc. Also the places have shifted so fast that there is feeling of belonging to nowhere. All the homes/cities are temporary and now my nature has become so adjusted to temporariness that its hard to find a place to belong to - which creates some disturbances but can't be helped. The wait of the next big thing to happen has added to the fickleness. Though I am not sure I would be at peace even with a place to settle in permanently.

brutal death.

2011-06-17T23:53:00.000+05:30

That Horrendous creature death..i hate it...
even though i know that death is surety i still hate it.
and y does it not happen to those who don't have anyone to cry behind..why ppl die who don't deserve to?!
...if Dec2012 comes as a doomsday it will be a great relief! No more crying for a loved one lost or a see a sad suffering!

Compromise?!

2011-06-04T18:24:00.000+05:30

so often i have and am sure all of us have heard life is full of compromises rather life is a compromise!
But is it really so?
Yes I make a compromise when i go to buy a dress coz sometimes its too expensive or sometimes i dont get the colour i want!
I would hv compromised sometimes in choice of job - agree to the second best..
but do we really have to make a compromise for everything in every relation as well?
And what if we compromise and the person for whom we compromised doesnt even realise that...they take it that if they bent a little it will be a mega compromise and if you do it for them its your choice??
Are some relations so important that we compromise our wishes for someone who doesnt even acknowledge it and doesnt even give a thought of doing the same??
I dont think so!

some reviews..

2011-05-28T16:07:00.000+05:30

after a long hiatus where nothing mega major happened except a job change..I am back.
In the time gone by I read sherlock homes, joined a new job, ate out (very less) and generally got tired doing nothing big.
Its no point reviewing a sherlock holmes so let me review the new rajasthani place called NH8 and Adiyar bhavan in indira nagar.
NH8: its what most of non local IT folks in bangalore think about. Started by a few young guys[m somehow sure they were in IT] this is a 3 mnths old restuarant in Indira Nagar 80ft road. We went there as my sis had been saying so for a long time...So the whole family went out one saturday.
The decor is good but too little light,i somehow like a place with more lights- not just because I want to see what I am eating but in general I am more comfortable with lights on..
The only option there is a thali, no complaints here.
The welcome drinks are good- chhanch and jaljeera.
The traditional Dal baati churma is good and almost everyone had multiple servings of Churma. Rest of the food is average and the team is new so the system isnt so efficient especially on weekends(my guess).
We checked with them and found out that they are still experimenting with the menu which is a good thing and i hope they keep some flexibility.
The restaurant does have a marketing manager as well - i am assuming that its one of the 2-3 founders who replies to ur comments on burp and other food review sites. If this continues may be this will become their USP ;)

Talking about Rajasthani food, there is another one called Chowka at Thippasandara near indira nagar. I have their food 3 times till now and havent been able to formulate a confirm opinion about them. First time we visited the place the kadhi and churma were gud, second and third time when we ordered home delivery something else was gud. So its a tuf thing to finally say one thing about it. About the resturant the seating and all is a bit conjusted and decor is alright.

The service for both the restaurants is just about average, both of them can be tried out definitely.

Now about the so famous Adiyar bhawan at Indira Nagar. It was a major disappointment. The food was bad, place was crowded, service was okay. Bathrooms non enterable!
Why dont these guys understand that not everyplace can be sarvana bhawan and i never understand how these places become so famous.

A poem well written and translated

2011-03-21T14:31:00.001+05:30

As some of you might know Twitter has taken over the world of most of the people around the world and some of mine too for last few months and facebook too.
I write lesser and lesser work lesser and lesser reading lesser(thats something i m getting back faster on track)
After Japan I dint tweet for a couple of days- how can we keep writing?? and impressions last more on me specially of sadder things. But slowly I m trying to get back on track...
However I am still reading and when I came across this poem translated by Giribala it struck a chord somewhere that I had to write- meaning after japan this was something that i could relate to hence could write....no major happy news- Just want to share- very well written and translated as well...

Translating Sylvia Plath ~ The Grist Mill
Loved this poem and the translation!
Thanks Giribala for sharing this..looking forward to further more.

Ephemeral Life

2011-03-11T14:43:00.000+05:30

Japan gets hit by an earthquake of 8.9 Richter scale. People would have lost their lives, friends, families and possessions they worked really hard for.
What is the point in trying too hard to earn material gains when they take away your time from a loved one’s share, you aren’t going to carry it with u afterlife and it can be easily stolen, washed away. If you are left with a life without your car and your friend whom would u miss more, on whom would you have wished to spent more time and care earlier? For me it would be the friend but then again a friend’s memory is harder to be taken away while a car’s is easier.
Now if I have spent more time for my car or other materialistic achievements it would have eaten away my time from my near/dear ones which in turn would have left less attached feelings and thus lesser pain. The car by itself could be bought again so it doesn’t really hurt and keeps us safe from emotional tragedies as well. But then working for a car, would that be worth calling a life?

yes OR no

2011-02-04T13:19:00.002+05:30

I will be lucky or i might not...
I will get it or i will not...

Watever happens there is no third option so why worry too much! Life is binary.

The Veg Edge- Cream Center- Review

2011-01-19T11:56:00.000+05:30

A quick review for the restaurant i had been waiting to visit in Bangalore- Cream Center which i had tried couple of times in Chennai.
As i mentioned in my earlier post I was so looking forward to its opening in Bangalore - and that too near my house; I finally managed to go there only after 2 months of its opening.
But yeah was I happy!!
I was delighted and more elated to see the place being approved by the whole family all of whom have varied tastes.You see earlier I had dragged them to South Indies and we were all kinds disappointed there :-/ so getting a victory after felt really good.

The complex in which the restaurant is located is still under construction & the restaurant which is at the second floor is the only fully functional outlet there. When we stepped out of the lift (you know stairs r dirty with cement and dirt) we were greeted with a stench of stale water, they have a fountain where the water hasn't been changed for a long time. Thankfully that was the only disappointment as we could walkin without a reservation there and easily got a table. I am sure this is going to end pretty soon when the building gets completed both coz the place is good and there is a severe dearth of fine dining restaurants for veggies in bangalore. Thats the only thing where its behind Chennai and reaching one end of city to another :)!

Now coming to the restaurant the chennai ones felt more on the casual side while the one here @100ft rd presented a more sophisticated feel. Nevertheless the food was Yuuummmm
We had the trademark onion rings, some soups( i even forgot which ones coz i wnt there 2 weeks ago- time to go again!!)
For the main course we had Paratha combos (methi and paneer), lachcha parathas with curry, Pasta and Falafel. Everyone liked their cuisine even though my sis (like me) dint njoy falafel as much.
I ordered lemon Ice tea which again wasn't gud :(

The dessert(read ice-cream) options are pretty limited and we ended up ordering triple chocolate sunday(the exact name may be different) but it wasn't good :(
The meal for 6 costed us around 2300 smthing..so not expensive

The bathroom is clean and very well maintained(so +10)

Verdict: 4/5 go there for soups, starters and main course! I am going soon again...

yay!

2011-01-07T08:19:00.000+05:30

Finally finally i did it..
I started my professional blog which does talk about stuff related to marketing, branding, customer service, social media, interactive media etc etc..

Here's is the link:
http://arteehazari.wordpress.com/

I would be glad if you visit .. no compulsions :)

positive Malling

2010-12-20T16:40:00.000+05:30

as their claims go Mantri Square at Malleswaram in Bangalore is the biggest mall in India..before that i knew Ambi mall in Gurgaon to be the one and some ppl still argue its larger...
So anyways it was a shame that i din't visit it even after its opening couple of months ago...
my wish was fulfilled yesterday wen we went for a family outing at the mall ...and yes was I impressed by the size...man this was like some really gud space wid loads of options!!!
This was the biggest mall I ever visited..so it felt gud..we cudnt cover even half of it properly with only 5-6 hours at hand including lunch...which brings me to the review of the another thing I wanted to try- Rajdhani restaurant from Mirah group. Rajdhani is famous for its veg thali west india style and i have heard rave reviews about it from couple of people..its a different matter that since the time it has come as a vendor in my office the reviews inside and oustide dont match..
Anyhow we had a decent lunch - nothing worth the overall hype- the price was reasonable 300/- for a thali ..
10 bowls in an oval shape plate with free refills of butter milk...
The food was average - ambience was okay. I have heard that the waiters there don't call out and create no noise but my experience here was different. Even though here also they talked in sign language but the effect was missing :(
The service was poor as we were kept waiting for a refill of curries/dals/rice almost everything...
I guess the other outlets of same are better..
need to visit the mall again tho...to explore more

My rating of Rajdhani - average.

book reviews again

2010-12-10T12:17:00.000+05:30

I finished the much hyped book "The Immorals of Meluha" and unfortunatley yes I think i should have taken bul's review into consideration this time..
I shud have rather gone for the palace of illusions one- Draupadi view point of mahabharat...'TIOM' aint worth 300 bucks spent on it.
If I can summarize this book in one line- its a Chetan Bhagatisation of Mythology.
The only reason this is different from any other new age indian writing(me too chetan bhagat types) is the context - of mythology which is unlike the school/college/call center everyone else is setting their story in..
I finished the book in 5-6 hours. now this guy Amish is also coming with two more in the triology - wat crap...
The narrative is like story telling by a "cool" guy who uses "chill dude" in every conversation.... a definitely avoidable book...

The book I am reading now(almost over) is "The Nordstrom Way" and yes I am enjoying it as this gives an insight of how a company can succeed for almost over a century with customer service as their main motto.
Most of the firms today can take a couple of cues from Nordstrom.
Some things that impressed me about the store itself-
the freedom given to the sales execs. They are accountable coz they are given responsibilities with power; most of the companies give responsibilities and accountabilities with little power. I prefer a company which trusts its employees.
-Another important lesson from this company is - if a firm wants loyalty it shud first trust its employees. U need to give respect to earn respect.

However this also makes Nordstrom look like a place where you are expected to do some extra hours just to mainatain a relationshop clientele. But dont most of sales people working at individual level would be doing that across industries. What stands out is - Nordstrom enables its employees to do that whereas most of the others dont. Somehow the firm sounds too good to be true (the pinch of salt- the hard work) -would love to work in a company like this or SEMCO - which gives similar and enuf freedom to its employees and trusts them.

yesterday & today

2010-10-14T10:03:00.000+05:30

taking shobha de off my blog roll! she wants a biography of modi- yet anthr mein kempf...
my belief in her words is going down alomst every passing day except a few occurences...
***********************************************************************
yesterday day sounded hopeful and happy with india striking gold in athletics(relay) and rescue of Chilean miners(i followed the process quite regularly) and today starts with this %&%* piece from De!
***********************************************************************
I am amazed by the attitude of the miners during this whole tenure- I was expecting a fight breaking out between them because they were stuck in such inhumane conditions...but thankfully nothing of the sort happened(its another story that there were many fights on the surface between their wives/mistresses/moms)..
They deserve salute...and make us believe in humanity again- we can co-exist peacefully..
A chunk of people(may be a huge chunk) have been complaining about how the whole agenda has been used for publicity by Chilean govt- my question to them is:Is it possible to do this without anyone in the world knowing??-watevr u do gets publicized. The govt.'s benefit was circumstantial - it wasn't planned. I think most of us are bunch of cynics- if the Chilean Prez wudn't have been there- we would have said apathy and wen he is there we are accusing him of taking advantage of situation(who doesnt take advantage of a situation -raise hand)..I am not siding with their govt(as i have absolutely no clue of anything in that domain). but my point is we have lost the capability of having trust in someone..and mostly reasonably.. But if want to make things better we have to start rethinking and trusting more. The Chilean prez might have been there for publicity or for watever political benefits he has been alleged against but the euphoria of rescuing human beings from such circustances cudnt have left him untouched(He is a human too).
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was hooked on to "yesterday" yesterday but today that yesterday looks better!

i gave an interview!!! ;)

2010-09-24T14:48:00.000+05:30

I have been wanting to start a professional blog for so long..
its so harmless u see...therz no one whom i can dump my knowledge on as of now..its a gud way to share my gyan/observations/analysis on professional front which noone would pay to listen to..
There are a couple of things which stopped me though:
what's the point in creating a new domain adding to the clutter and not having regular updates(as my exp from this blog)
..
so i got a tweet recently which goes like this..

kreative_en @itsrt Geben Sie uns ein Interview? click: http://tinyurl.com/279yceh

and i goo..translated it and it read...give us an inteview...ha ha ha!!

it felt god send(though the website is called whohub.com - a soical networking site for creative professionals) i dont have to create a separate blog and can share my ideas (that too easy guided through questions) for the time being(laziness again)

So here I have dumped a initial view of my marketing thoughts

http://www.whohub.com/artee

(GO READ IT ITS MY INTERVIEW...)

gud idea is its editable by me at any time..so i can modify my knowledge :)

yeah yeah this is my blog and i will blow my trumpet here :)

Then i went to the forums(which i havent been able to make use of
in any of the professional networks due to many irrelevant questions)
..well got disappointed here as well...

also have a lot of suggestions for the whohub guys..from navigation to content organisation... not posting here as it doesnt make sense (will write to them :))

and yeah m writing this post coz m elated after giving a professional interview(choosing and ttyping the answers myself doesnt count as dampeners):)

yet to come up

2010-09-20T13:58:00.000+05:30

Couple of posts to write:

1. twitter new vs. facebook
will write once my account is given the new twitter- but initially it looks trying to be a me too amongst other platforms..too much to see :(
as pritish nandy said on twitter today :
**For many of us who cant sit in a cafe in Nice or Cannes and watch the world go by, twitter is the place. Dont make it Shoppers Stop.

2. IBOSRC- one of the counted few seminars i attended and not slept thru

3. forgot others..
keeping the list here so i remember to blog abt it and dont just shy away form doing so...

4. and yeah something abt food and type of people!! and services at outlets :(

Of parlours and Pains

2010-08-30T16:19:00.000+05:30

A lot of construction going on rite now near my place- from cream centers to body and soul 'healers'(thats the parlour inspiration for ths post)...
& I have been watching all these constructions happening on my way everyday from work to home...and hv been delited(nt as much as wen i saw cream center banner tho) to see the board hung up there..and decided to give it a try ths wknd wid sis- while our usual VLCC being nt available...
nw VLCC is one which might have started the chain culture(after lakme) of beauty parlours in India and was ranked highly on my list for a long time till a year or 2 ago wen they have started going in the reverse direction...
So now they are worse thn some parlours located at nook and corners in terms of time and appointments management and poor us have been the victim many times. Reasons for their failure acrdng to me:
1. Lack of customer centricity - attitude that since my parlour had a reputation and therz is no competition nearby I can choose to ignore customers
2. Too many cooks spoiling the broth - like evrywhere else the hierarchy is getting more imp and IN the WAY of its success..and its remaining a favourite
3. Blatant cheating - now me and my sis did overhear a conversation where the two "so called duty managers" where telling a GUY to go for mutiple facials within a week to have an effect on a day 15 days later (his engagement)and thn later giggling about it...- thankfully we arent so ignorant in this domain to be fooled like that....
4. Ownership- No responsibility for the appointments booked. they have messed ours atleast each time for all of the last 3 times with wait going upto more than an hour for my sis once....and yes they cant do anything to handle the situation ...
5. Now with couple more chains opening in the vicinity- Lakme opened a month or so ago, body and soul opening with full service range.. i think they might lose if they dont gear up.

There are a few more in the same road:
1. Chandan Sparsh- impressive exterior as well as reception(i went only till there)- bought a gift coupon for sis from there..she again had a poor experience....and Mom was totally upset abt the amount we spent on useless parlours(she went to a parlour after so much coaxing)..well it was difficult for us to explain not everybody is as badd...and i guess it will take a lot more time to coax her for anthr parlour visit :-/
2. limelite- okie dokie but i feel they could do better with a less transparent decor.
3. Aspirations - never been there- the board looks repelling for a rejuvenating experience
4. Body & Soul: Coming to the B&S mentioned up somewhere, they accepted our appointements which i made sure was for correct services after they called me back (20 min later post my call) as I was unsure of whether they were fully operational or not..
So we went there and since the place is still getting decked up but functional(as they so)we saw a lot that needs to be done. Some insigts from sis-
-> the cracked up statues (nt one but all) shew the way they can maintain stuff - if they cant keep the statues' skin hydrated hw will they keep their customers' ;)?
-> the cushions have been brought from someone's house (means they look pretty used up)
-> no hot water supply so for my pedi the employees kept on pouring hot water with small noodle serving sized bowls.. :-/
-> yeah but the chair was gud and the service too atleast for me...
though sis had a terrible experience as they ran out of that hot water as well by the time hers' started...
5. locals- have been to one or two nearby but they are soooo bad...they wont even file nails properly- the lesser said the better :-/

So now in dire need of getting gud parlours in vicinity..

looking forward to..

2010-08-20T09:58:00.000+05:30

1. parents' return
2. A day off for each week for the next 3 weeks :) - 4 days working week..
3. Opening of cream center in benagluru(near my house :) )
4. decorating our home in JBP (not the shifting though :))

unlinked thoughts

2010-08-09T15:55:00.000+05:30

all my google ads are "the economist-China something something"- dont understand how and why and what those huge red reactnagles are doing on my orangish page :-/

***************
was reading shobha de's CWG post - think that all these culprits should be made to do community work rather than being put behind the bars- it will be beneficial for both the state and public. For state as these culprits will get lesser time to think with their empty minds and for public - obviously coz we would like to visit cleaner public toilets and walk on cleaner roads..may be they can plant some trees too and water them daily :)

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Have watched no new movies, have read no new books to write about...pure laziness ..
was reading compilation of Tagore's letters from CF Andrews - its too philosophical to make me uncomfortable so given up :-/
Loving the time I spend with Gogol(my nephew)- he does so many things to draw our attention to him... my adorable darling

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Pay to Read

2010-06-03T09:22:00.001+05:30

What do you go online for? Everything….to know, to find, get entertained, communicate, play, watch movies, purchase, make money and almost everything under the sun…

And Man do you have choices?!! For each and all of the above….

How do you decide what to do then? For information which site to follow, which review to believe of what is there how much of it is true??

It is just too much out there and that too almost free…

So when do we start paying – when we are assured of quality, when we know there's something which isn't available outside and free and when we can't change our habits.

All this came when Times has decided to charge for its news.

What charging for a newspaper when there are so many out there and free. Well it all depends on perspective charging for an online paper is logical and sensible business decision by Time because e of the following four reasons (I always wonder why there are never 4 points to but mostly the top 3, top5 and top10...anyways):

Trusted Information-There is just too much clutter and if you want to look premium act premium. News is more sensalisation in the present days than anything else. Do you really feel you have read something once you read any regular paper (or atleast80% of it)? When I pay and get some information I am more confident of it then what I get for free.
Banking on Habits- Now I have a habit of reading Times of India and I can never adjust with The Hindu coz it looks an essay sheet with prescriptions to me. If I live in a place where The Hindu is free and ToI is charged I would still go for it; what's a little money to pay when I can read things the way I like themJ. It's like my tea – I want it with lotsa ginger, sugar, milk everything…and I am ready to pay additional if that's what is required. I compare Tea here as that's what comes closest to the role a newspaper in our daily lives. Same principle applies to online newspapers.
Start Something New- Some people say that times readership is already taking a beating by the competitors which are all available online; now what can Times do to become a leader again? Fastest/most relevant etc are all the tags that have already been used to the hilt...so start something new...Act different – you never know when u hit a jackpot. Shake up the things and be different.
And finally- It can be the ads are not giving good enough money... J

We still don't know the exact game plan so it's yet not a total analysis but an intelligent guess with limited information.

Whatever it is let's wait and watch – It would be definitely interesting to see whether Times turn back or others join the wagon!

aiwanhee kuch yaad aaya...

2010-05-27T12:14:00.000+05:30

During the course of my work at my last organization I needed to interact with the British/Australian/Americans on an occasional basis.
Specifically the British I interacted with quite frequently. So on one such occasion I was on a outing to Kerala with some of the British press where they always used to get amused at my head nodding left right and almost everywhere and almost at every question..I dint realize the reason why would they keep on asking the same questions to me again and again and then when they told me explicitly I wasn’t sure whether to be embarrassed or just take it in my stride(It’s a national habit after all :))
The new found (and some lovely) acquaintances also shared that they weren’t sure if I could get their humour (as they say they are sarcastic to the core) which I was happy to identify with as that’s mine and my nation’s (as I think so) style as well; this I would say is a shared phenomenon between the two countries. Good Sarcasm is appreciated everywhere 

When I first met Internet

2010-04-30T15:44:00.001+05:30

browsing through i came across a website(blog) which started in 1999 exactly the year when i opened my first account on yahoo and was trying to know whats INTERNET!!
Just some feelings that crawl up after coming across such a thing:
-> i hv been too far behind in knowing whats actually happening in the world.
-> a bit wierd amusing/irritating/depressing feeling.
-> wat all i cud hv done but i cudn't :(

Some things have same principles since then like when the author points out in a post :: Web has standards too.

"WSJ [subscription required] - "'When you redesign a Web site, you're putting everything at risk,' says Mr. Reiss. 'It's not just content; the functionality changes. If we redesigned the magazine [ESPN The Magazine], I wouldn't be worried about people knowing how to use the magazine.'" Ummm....Mr. Reiss....there are some standards when it comes to web design, and most visitors know how to use the web. A well-designed site should have an interface so intuitive that the first-time user, or the fiftieth-time user should be able to locate the desired functionality".

Restaurants’ Reviews

2010-04-27T10:03:00.001+05:30

Medici @ 100ft Indira Nagar: The place is real nice, sat near the window to overlook the 100ft road. Music and ambience is good, even the service is fine. However the food was just average and disappointed me to a bit. Starting with a French onion soup which was alright, followed by bruchetta - which was good. Ordered innocent passion which was an ok mocktail. The main course was Tagliatelle pasta (putt something) - poor as Salt was missing :( and anyone who eats or cooks knows the value of salt in any dish. and yes the vegetarian options are pretty less!! Can't comment about the non veg dishes. Overall 3 off 5, Prices -Average+1

100ft @100 ft Indra Nagar- have been there once (the other time doesnt count as dint eat anything there). It's a nice place...with a continental menu...I hate the small kutty television put up there as it goes against the ambience of the restaurant. I loved the food there..from the minestrone soup to the lasgana :) though i had limited options as a vegetarian. Overall 4 off 5 (yes watching TV affects ur grades ;)) Prices- Average+1

Kormanagala BBQ nation: I heard about BBQ nation in Chennai and its famous kababs there. But being a veggie i was scared of the only good non veg options that would be available there, hence never ventured in there. Finally went to BBQ nation in kormangala for a BSchool ReU. They only have a option of Alfresco get together kind of arrangement-which implies if you are more than 10 as a group - u need to sit on rooftop. We had dinner so it wasn't too bad but i can't imagine a group outing during lunch hours..eating BBQ in sweltering heat sitting on rooftop there. Coming to the food- It was good. and the table tent card has more number of veg options as starters then non veg (brought a smile to my face and relief to me). We had the buffet. costs 475/- for veg +13.5% tax- a tad too higher -but then you have unlimited starters. They had really nice Chanaas (i am still confused what do we call it- curry or watever...). Overall: 4 off 5, Prices :Average+1

Lajawab: CMH road Indira Nagar. Went there for a family dinner on a weekend. Thankfully we arrived a little early as we dint have reservations and in sometime there was the weekend rush!! I ordered virgin mary(mocktail) which i had tried earlier and hated..Y?? coz i forgot abt it :( and realised the mistake only after seeing it:( The food was good. We had naans/parothas/kulchas all were fine. The curries were good too. Service is ok. Sitting area is very small which makes the place very crowded and difficult to move around even for servers. The ambience is average as the place is decoed with luxury style (some touches). I hate those mostly as they give me doubts about the cleanliness of the place. Overall: 4 off 5, Prices:; Average

Shamiyana @ Splendid boutique hotel, Indira nagar: This is one of the places we have been to twice in less than 2 months- means this is good :) both occasions with the family. They have menu from Indian/Chinese and Italian. Had a full north Indian meal on first occasion and pasta on the second. Both days it was good. However the soups on second occasion weren't so great(they were good on first)- tomato had loads of cream and sweet corn wasn't great either. The sitting is fine but the service is average. On both occasions there was no other customer for the whole time we were there- may be it's not yet known yet or people aren't liking it much. We found it by accident. The menu offers a huge non veg variety which I have no clue of. Overall: 4 off 5, Prices: Average

SADDENING

2010-04-15T14:28:00.001+05:30

I don't want an automated /online world due to the following two reasons:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/09/AR2008070901888.html

http://news.oneindia.in/2010/03/06/baby-dies-as-parents-raise-vitual-child.html

I can't blame anyone but it's all of us who are to be blamed! Can we return please!!

Blogging through word

2010-04-08T09:10:00.001+05:30

This is the test post I am trying out from word…

Let it succeed then we will see. J

Foodles...

2010-03-18T13:17:00.000+05:30

"Instant Noodles are not good for health..it has blah blah blah AND Blah..." it also gives u stones!!!
this is a scary statement that often crops up in mind when I go for my cuppa/bowla noodles..
so we tried out the new foodles- instant noodles by horlicks(ring a health note somewhere) and ready to switch if its as good as my 2 mins...one..
Tried two flavours- Mast masala and spicy...something
as it turned out spicy something was black pepper and mast masala was tangy tomato..
These are the one word descriptors that flashed across my mind once i tasted the flavours..
In our testing team (family members) of 4 (of which 3 are maggi maniacs)the verdict was 35%..two ppl dint like it at all... I said it was not so bad and one said its as good as maggi....

Apart from that the marketing is a waste...i was trying to search for the second flavour name and have been googling for last 10 minutes to find it...!!
who launches a brand without a damn good website nowadays??!
or has the company already accepted that they have made a flop product?? or have they run out of their budgets with the first burst of ads itself- all across the newspaper and hoardings!!! Dint expect such brand promotion failures from a well established brand!!!!
Even Bingo is doing much better ads and marketing promotions (they even had a rep coming to my home for gathering ad feedbacks!!) though it tastes like MUD!!!

All in all..it could have been a success but due to failed marketing activities and not so great product surely looks like going to be a flop..

..PS: I am still googling....and now I have stopped!! 20 minutes atleast!

interesting read by Taslima

2010-03-02T12:02:00.001+05:30

Never really got a chance to read her earlier but definitely can identify with this article written some years ago..by Taslima Nasreen:

http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?233670

Twitter again..

2010-02-04T12:15:00.000+05:30

when the river of thought flows..better not stop it..so here is the next post about my tweets:
What do i tweet- anything
I have tweeted 41 times in last 1 year of which 95% in last 1 month :)
only 5-6 are retweets..i like original content:
my fav tweets ( even now i think these are thoughts worth tweeting)

what will interviewers do now when we can listen to celebs thru their tweets and more authentic..

wondering like tharoor nehru would have been one of the first leader to tweet (had it been available then)!

...(none others gud enuf ..for thought provoking but just about myriad work and difficulties i am involved with mostly)

and ofcourse i loved it when i could tweet about the solar eclipse i saw..as soon as i came back to my system...

Fav Retweets:
from SRK:
"......first rule of public speaking...if u don't strike oil in 3 mins...stop boring ! "

From Pritish Nandy:
".We live in the Age of Time Pass. Nothing is important enough, valuable enough to pursue or stay with. We flit from topic to topic."

Thats how short my twitter life is!! :(
PS: I hope I am not violating any copyright law by putting the retweets of SRK and PN here....

tweet post!

2010-02-04T11:55:00.002+05:30

old habit dies hard..for me one of the oldest habits is curiosity...
so whenever i come across something new(which seems comprehensible enuf and non techie enuf)i try to figure it out..
So i joined twitter in early 09sometime...and it took me almost a year now to become active on it.. :)
The most enjoyable factor of twitter is u can read thoughts of people without being in touch with them(case in point celebs i am following).some of their thoughts are really interesting ranging from topics of politics to highly imaginative..
and twitter helps me to get to know the celeb in person how he/she is which was not possible due to the clouds created by media and otherwise till sometime ago..and yes it definitely feels gud to know about a person..
I guess twitter can also help people identify their role models as there are lesser chances of getting highly unpleasant surprises about their fav icon through a scam or scandal..
Some of the people i follow on twitter are:
SRK- i like the way he responds to his followers questions..with slashes in between..sometimes it does make for a very intersting read..i do the guess the question part of it..
Anand Mahindra: he appears on twitter as his image- simple/honest and intelligent..
Barkha dutt/Vir Sanghvi/Pritish Nandy- just for their relation to news formulation and opinions (at times)
Anupam Kher- havent found very interesting or thought provoking tweets yet..but still havent lost the hope..
PreityZinta/Kunal Kapoor/KJ- for their glam factor...
And ofcourse the political twitter- Shashi Tharoor- Intersting &informative tweets..
I do have some celebs who i can easily drop off after following them for a couple of days now- AB's baby(he is boring)..Shahid Kapoor(unfortunately he is self promoting only- now i think Kareena took the right decision)

I wish the following will start twittering soon:
Salman khan/Sushmita Sen- i think and hope their view wud be intersting and intelligent....
About my tweets..next post...

money can buy me!!!

2009-12-28T14:26:00.009+05:30

The most popular song running in my mind nowadays (my mind has its own popularity chart which runs multiple songs at a given time) is "kyun paisa paisa karti hai ...paise per kyun marti hai..." from de dana dan..
Its a tuf question to answer..why we want money...all of us know that we would have more comfort once we have lots of money but that will also involve a lot of management...and will we ever get enuf of it (money not management)...

Sometime ago i read a story (a forward) abt some fisherman living in some coastal area (guess it was in USA) who lazed around most of the day enjoying their lives with their families and friends..and fished just to fulfill their necessities..and then a city person-an MBA to be more accurate(yet another joke on us MBAs) came down telling them that they should fish more often..which will lead to more money, multiple houses, more comfort more .... at the end leading to more time for them to spend with their friends and family - Essentially what they were doing anyways...
So the moral of story is that we are running behind things which will help us getting things which we dont realise we already have!!!

Well I came to think of money is because I am trying to use adsense on my blog-very obvious duh!! and even though I have written about many many topics only one seems to be cacthing the whole ads attention - my credir(I misspelt in the title of post) card horror story...
Money (or relatives) seems to be popular even here!!

PS: the title is the response to the question in the song mentioned at the beginning!

google

2009-12-18T17:19:00.002+05:30

I am trying out google wave.. its nothing great..feels like a clutter...hope the crowd computing makes it into something worth...
I have to try out google analytics in detail..I am trying to run it for my blog (well thats my only website) but to start with it has so many links and interlinks when you start reading..i got so confused I left!!

century!

2009-12-18T17:10:00.002+05:30

This is apparently my 100th post..woaa in 3 years i have been able to reach 100...Quite fast I say..(i say is the effect of radio one- bengaluru which I listen to religiously for 1-1.5 hrs each morning evening on my way to work and back..) yes I am now in bangalore finally...
Finally I have move out of chennai; i hated it; staying there for almost last 2.5 years..was a torture almost always...
Now the life is totally changed...industries, my routine ..everything...its a new world..
I tried blogging from my new mobile but it dint work.. :(
I actually typed almost a post and it dint autosave.... :'((
There are still thousands of thoughts that cross my mind which I want to write here and ponder on them (ha ha pondering on a thought who uses such language now)..anyways it actually does help me to think about something when i write it out here....
so thats one reason for writing a blog!!

work without pay

2009-11-10T16:35:00.002+05:30

Well its not me who worked without getting paid; but i felt that SHankar Ehsan Loy werent paid for the music of London Dreams neither was Prasoon Joshi was for his Lyrics...
I mean how can SEL can do this to their fans...
The movie could have been much much much better...
I like Salman...and Ajay can never act...Asin luks boring..even ranbir wasnt useful...Om Puri was insulted by giving such a role...
..But yes I did sit through it...and ran off as soon as the credits started rolling

forgive and forget!

2009-11-10T16:03:00.001+05:30

sometimes the closest ones of urs upset u and u cant forgive them for the rest of the life...
sometimes ur friends /acquaintances do something really bad that upsets you and u just let go of it after sometime...

Y is it difficult to forgive and forget what ur closest ones have done but easier for others... they are also just humans...

ICICI credir card is horrible!!!!

2009-10-20T16:08:00.004+05:30

Its the angst i feel that gets me to visit my blog to write time and again..
this time its the credit card...
The icici credit card I hold has a credit limit of 66k and behaving myself last month i didnt overspent(atleast on my credit card) and managed to be maintain a credit balance of arnd 6k...
Well my mom was interetsed in buying of smthng in gold for herself and I decided to use my hard effort saved credit balance and splurge in there...
I gave my credit card to swipe and mount of something arnd 26k and the transaction was declined to my utter surprise..well this happened twice thrice...i called up customer care and we are all aware after a good full 5 min I was able to speak to someone in there who simply told me that your swipe was stalled for security reason and instructed me that dont keep on trying but try after 10 min..it will be APPROVED(yeah to spend withing my credit limit they are giving me an approval- wat an honour)..
adding to my humiliation it dint work again after 11-12 min(yes i was counting every minute as it was a humiliation that the credit card company subjected me to)

AGain it was declined and again after trying to reach for a customer care(they should change teh name to customer harrasment) the guy proudly tole me u can buy only worth 20 k of gold(wat on earth.......)
i kept on telling him its none of his business how much i swipe till its in my limit... but NO the self appointed credit Limiter had put a limit on my pre approved credit limit!!!
To my utter dismay the card was declined again even for my approved 20K...bl^&&* H&*$ ...
What on earth these companies think of themselves?? I have never defaluted on my credit card payment and this is what i get in return!!!
I have decided to close ICICI credit card and switch to someone else!!! and yes I will keep badmouthing ICICI at every avaialble opportunity!!!

just like that...

2009-09-24T18:32:00.002+05:30

Watched "the ugly truth" - went without expectations- even the hero dint look attractive enough to entice - anyhow but due to lack of options i went.
I found the language thoroughly offensive
BUT (now thats a big but) i laughed my heart out... may be its the punch or the delivery...i njoyed it just too much...

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

Should comments on facebook be taken personally?!
How do you tell someone that u dont agree with the thoughts they are endorsing without realting it to them in anyway...

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

I am frequenting bangalore just too much and my system is a flop one which hangs every now and then and so... I am blogging so less....anyways another important reason- i am playing a lot of facebook games and enjoying it...i think i can live my entire life playing these games and ofcourse the new ones that I am sure will keep on coming!

What one wants?

2009-07-19T19:39:00.004+05:30

Ok... I have become judgemental and have been giving reviews abt the places I am visiting: which are about the things/ services anyone wants:

First in line is the one restaurant in Chennai which i was deciding to write about when it opened last year called northern spices in Nungambakam (well it closed down officially this year may :( ))
It had the nearest north indian cuisine and reasonable rates....that i had come across in chennai....
I took everyone there - my parents, my friends, their hubbies... ofcourse the crowd was always thin there and mostly we were the only people eating there... no doubt it was supposed to get closed sooner or later.... I miss that restaurant and finally i am writing about it as i had thought at the time of my first visit there, though a bit too late....

next in line is the parlour which i had good opinion about and which scored 8 of 10 in my opinion almost 2 years ago and now its just 2 off 10...
Its he naturals saloon at spencers plaza...I have been avoiding it later and have finally decided never to go there again... their last stroke came yesterday when after my manicure and pedicure i saw scrathces all over my nails....and trying to fool the customers in the name of spa pedicure...come on guys...its a services company for God's sake..and we specially dont fool people who have been ur regular customers and who are well aware of the processes. This parlour has totally lost it and now has a gud competition with a new smaller parlour having opened bang opposite.. I wish the new kiddo on the block all the best...

well being a cold coffee person i have been to ccds in all the places i have stayed in- Mangalore, Manipal, Bangalore, Chennai, Mumbai, cochin.... and my ranking for the best ccds are:
1. Cochin, one of the best ccds i have visited...
2. Manipal, i adored the choc-a- vloc there and the service was real gud...
3. Mumbai, nice ones whichever i visited
4. Bangalore, all the ccds are decent..
5. Mangalore - gud ones

well Chennai is definitely out of question as the CCDs here are worse than anywhere and worse then each other- actually i believe they have an intracity competition of who can serve the worst...my two takas on various CCDs in Chennai:
1. Shoppers stop - ooh horrible, they serve water coffee and sugar with a hint of milk..
2. Ispahani center - my oh my why doesnt the AC work here
3. Lifetsyle-City center- my dear customer only God can save u!!
4. Somewhere in gopalapuram - we dont have anything in stock...
5. i dont remember all the others but they have surely made me a more loyal customer to Barista when i am in chennai..while earlier I was one CCD loyalist everywhere else...still waiting to find a decent CCD in chennai...

rest reviews later....

My two takas....

2009-07-19T19:27:00.002+05:30

my two taka on Naukri.com only for women: It sucks!!!!!

my two taka on movie: "the proposal" : u wud never miss it..it has a share of laughs but definitely not a must watch and ohhh so predictable and sandra bullock is looking OLD in the first half... i am sure there are better make up people like the ones who worked on her for the second half..and the lead actor..not at all a hottie or handsome :(

my two taka on book :"The woodlanders": I am loving it...full review once i finish it...

2009-07-13T17:55:00.002+05:30

I hate:

Not being able to watch movies for a long time - its almost a month now!!!

Not being able to switch becoz u cant sell urself gud enuf!!

Not being appreciated!

People who talk loudly on phone when others are around!!!

Girls who show off their BFs or vice versa (u knw how much i hate it in my earlier post).

Coming back from Bangalore (weather from heaven) to chennai(weather from hell)..

Packing and unpacking before and after a trip!!

and a lot many things- but woh sab...phir kabhi.....

BF or Show offs

2009-06-02T14:47:00.004+05:30

A while ago actually couple of years ago my friends around used to say that if a guy has a girl friend he will show her off. Kinda way he stands tall amongst his peers just because he has got a GF and was considered better than others....
For sometime i thought this wasnt the case but I did come across some people of this variety which was a horrifying scenario considering that in most cases GFs were bimbos trying to act stylish and all.. There were some simple sati savitris as well who used to be totally devouted to their BFs but mostly belonged to the earlier category. There were a few normal ones in between as well..

Coming to the topic- all us middle class people have seen it in movies, high society drama series on TV that like guys, gals also have been nurturing some trophy BFs or trophy husbands. Well more of the earlier kind.
some days ago I was at a westside store where the staff had very basic skills and were not able to cope with the pressure (5 billings in an hour...phew) and was just moving towards the counter while a billing was going on..a lady with her BF(sorry dint notice him enuf to comment which category he belonged to) jumped the queue from other side and threw her stuff on the counter while the staff was still trying to clean up the earlier customer's mess...
Wel being the stupid samaritan that i am , I let her go with this, leaving my purchases at the counter and moved to se other stuff in teh store...coming back after 15 min the couple was still there filling up membership forms and all...and while I was cribbing about the same to my friend who was there with me..how long these guys(staff) are taking to solve this it feels like I have been standing here for 2 hours or so....the show off just went away saying that i wil take 4 hours..I hate such people and such attitude!!! but I guess I asked for it...lesson- never let ur turn go

2009-05-22T10:46:00.001+05:30

This post was written in september but is being published now...and woaaa the answers havent changed?!!

I have been tagged for the second time ... Sayesha has tagged me on LQ quiz. ;)
Here are the rules:

RULE #1: People who have been tagged must write their answers on their blogs and replace any question that they dislike with a new question formulated by themselves.

RULE #2: Tag 6 people to do this quiz and they cannot refuse. These people must state who they were tagged by, cannot tag the person whom they were tagged by, and must continue this game by sending it to other people.

Here we go:

Q. What do you love the most in your lover?
Ans: Him!

Q. What would you do with a billion dollars?
Ans: Live off the interest and do free lancing for time pass and just in case I run out of the billion dollars with my lavish lifestyle..

Q. What is love?
Ans: good question next... (if i dont know the answer what else can i say)

Q. Will you fall in love with your best friend?
Ans: I think that would be one of the ideal things..

Q. Which is more blessed, loving someone or being loved by someone?
Ans: being loved by someone u love!

Q. How long should you wait for someone you really love?
Ans: Till u can..

Q. Is it possible to like someone without loving them?
Ans: guess so

Q. Is it possible to love someone without liking them?
Ans: guess not

Q. If your lover betrayed you, what will your reaction be?
Ans: leave him

Q. If the person you secretly like is already attached, what would you do?
Ans: keep liking him ;)

Q. What takes you down the fastest?
Ans: starvation- and i starve every 4 hours or so;)

Q. How would you see yourself in ten years’ time?
Ans: still wid my eyes :)

Q. What’s your fear?
Ans: slimy crawling species...

Q. What kind of person do you think the person who tagged you is?
Ans: Happy Singh

Q. Would you rather be single and rich or married but poor?
Ans: ofcourse single and rich

Q. What’s the first thing you do when you wake up?
Ans: wonder where did the night flew by....

Q. Would you give all in a relationship?
Ans: almost..

Q. If you fall in love with two people simultaneously, whom would you pick?
Ans: who loves me in turn..

Q. Would you forgive and forget, no matter how horrible a thing that special someone has done?
Ans: nopes...

Q. If you get to go back in time and fall in love all over again, would it still be with the same person?
Ans: Indeed yes.

I will tag the all who have read this..

@ all: I am not getting enough posts from you to read..

2009-05-08T11:36:00.002+05:30

it's been a hiatus...wherein some good things happend and some bad..
I got to visit home and spend time with my nephew..the best thing...met a few close friends after long..

Had a really cathartic experience yesterday talking to bul..thanks bul for being there and listening to me and making me see something which i wanted to avoid..

I have met some new people in march from UK. It was a real pleasure meeting them..
It was a eye opener in some aspects like as much ignorant they are about our culture and cuisines etc so are we about theirs/..

I also realised that similar sense of humour (sarcasm) prevails across both the countries..

and i got to learn a lot many things plus I received a wonderful gift - a thomas hardy book(whose collection I am reading nowadays)..I think that was very thoughtful of themm..

I had a discussion with a friend of mine about the same and he said yes I guess that India is great when it come to big things like teh overall culture and etc etc but we ignore small things like this...

Well I wish some people in my life do realise the importance of these small things which come together to form a snowball...having a huge impact at the end...

Happy to read more...

2009-04-15T12:00:00.002+05:30

i thought i have an average GK at least in the matters that interest me- well apparently not...
I enjoy reading some writers/columnists like Shobhaa De and Jug Suraiya and I had no clue that Shobhaa de has a blog!!!! Poor Ignorant Me!
I have added her blog link now to my blog roll and am very happy in anticiaption of all the reading matreial I will have...
Her writing is upfront - sometimes humourous, mostly thought provoking and I just love it and the best part is its not at all a drab strecthing for miles saying the same thing which unfortunately is present at times in Jug Suraiya's pieces...

I have lots to write about the new books i have read and the movies I have seen/ people I have met in last few days but all that in the next post...

namak ...

2009-03-12T14:37:00.004+05:30

so i am a namak person...
which means to say i cant survive for a single day without namak (excet the 3-4 days of fasting i do during the whole year)..
I cant survive on anything sweet for the whole day- even if its just fruits (i.e. less sugar) leave alone the sweets...i need to have salt everyday of my life!

I try to taste the different vegetarian food styles and usually get bored of them sooner than later..and most of the trials are for something thats salty (even bland will do) but not sweet..

similarly i am on an experimental mode for the kind of books i am reading.
I started reading with sidney sheldon when i joined my engineering...that was the time when i had much easy access to books..even my first MB, Nancy Drew, Archies was only during 1st year on engg..

So i started with sidney , moved through Ayn rand, Jeffrey Archer, John Grisham, mario puzo etc ..

my favourites have been margaret mitchell( gone with the wind), Jeffrey archer and Jane Austen.. all different genre and one of the best in theirs...

My last crush was classics - owing to Jane Austen and now I am trying to read something different ..in between i read a book by kiran doshi which was just in verses...it was good.

well coming to my last trial - I read a nobel prize winner- Onitsha by Jean-Marie Gustave, it was detailed in description - reminding me of arundhati roy's GOST..and another detailed book by Gabriel Garcia Marquez’ (which was scary)...I think the book did have something to tell and that was picked out of the ordinary lives that so many people live.. Its tuf to make a unhappening life the subject of story and write aout it...Still i dint enjoy the book much since every time i kept on waiting for something interesting to happen...but i liked the ending of the book..

After Onitsha i wanted to read something different again which would not be a classic but not a sidney and somewhere randomly i picked "broken verses" - an echo inside may says its a name that i have heard before..
Anyways so I finally finished the book the night before and am on a reading break for a couple of days. The book is good and well written, it doesnt builtup much expectations and so its good to have a not the usual "..and they lived happily ever after kind of ending." A couple of things that strike me in the book and will linger in memory for a longer time are:

- "...the minions came again today" - i keep on reading the meaning of word minion again and again and will forget every couple of days. this sentence keeps recurring in my mind again and again and though funny its amusing to keep repeating it again- even though if its just in my mind...

- the author's / protagonist's idea that we all live as a character in the story that we weave for our life.. I particularly like this idea coz it reinforces my view that "we become what we like"

Of all my trials i have been a failure in reading non fiction. The best i managed is an autobiography Lee Iacocca -that too just once and may be 'cause its a semi fiction!!

next on blog...are movie reviews.

A really good thought...

2009-03-07T15:30:00.001+05:30

Take time to think about whats written in the article below:

FROZEN FRAMES: When do we become value-less?

movies i watched...

2009-02-14T10:44:00.005+05:30

after a bumpy jan month filled with family togetherness as well i had to watch at least 2 movies in first week of feb..
I had read the book Q&A courtsey one of my good friends last year...and i liked the book...its different..the incidents are quite romanticised but its engrossing..
so wen i went to watch slumdog millionaire after hearing loads and loads of praises about it including the awards it swept..i had high expectations from the movie..
however it dint do any justice to the book...I am not sure about what is called a good movie adaptation of a book but I dint feel slumdog was one..incidentally it has won the best book adaptation award in BAFTA...
i had to re read the book to see if it is actual adaptation or have i frogotten the book..turns out my memory is gud enough..i think saying inspired would be much better..
understood that some parts of the book wouldnt be acceptable by the junta but it was turned into a romance rather than the adventuorus life of Ram Mohammed Thomas..
The movie is good but worth winning so many awards...Naaah not at all..

The second movie was LuckbyChance of farhan..I really dont understand why girls go so crazy abt him...i dont think he is worth so much adoration in terms of looks..his acting is good and his singing(in rock on) is something which i love though..
anyways coming back to the movie..definitely konkana is best and she does best in watever role she plays...and i loved the fact that she dint take farhan back after he treated her the way he did..
best part of the movie is when farhan comes to apologise and konkana says--its not ur fault some people are like that ..very selfish...In real life I have really seen some people like this..this was a brillaint thought by the script writer/director/story person or whoever is actually responsible for it...
looking forward to watching Dev D and billu barber..like watching irfan and abhay...

Life goes on..

2008-12-28T22:26:00.002+05:30

I need an automated machine which can read my thoughts and type it off!!
Seriously I feel toooo lazy to put up a post even though I get almost 5 ideas a day to post about (ok 5 is too much - may be an idea a day)...
christmas has come and gone and soon it will be 2009..every year by this date I have some anxiety about the new year being once in a lifetime opportunity and every year i expect the new year to be totally different from all the ones that have passed..
But this year there is no such expectation..
This year I will continue to work and the year will pass off...nothing different to expect.I think I have grown up and the years are just passing by the window of my life train....
I am wondering which is my destination station..or do I really want to know..am not sure..I just am going through the journey sometimes watching the beautiful colours and sometimes the greyness of life thorugh my window...

and life goes on...

options..

2008-11-25T23:25:00.003+05:30

pros and Cons..plusses and minuss..positives and negatives..benefits and drawbacks..advantages and disadvantages...
isnt all that this life is all about..
every decision we make , every action we take are weighed on these two parameters..
what happens when we start making all our decisions based only on this ..
Couple of years ago when I used to read about this, that one should actually write down the plusses and minusses of the two options..i never believed that an average/normal person actually ever does that..but when one of my friend suggested the same to me telling that she takes her decisions like this it was a revealation to me.
Then a couple of days ago when my parents where deciding where to settle down it was the same thing that they did..
I somehow cant bring myself to do this..I am an intuitive person and whatever said and done and however hard I try I cant make my decisions like this..
Its too meticulous for me..life is not a business decision to make evaluating risks of various paths that can be adopted...atleast not my life is..even though I have to suffer for my choices later...

review time...

2008-10-16T12:10:00.002+05:30

I have read..I am reading and I am planning/trying to read..

the first part refers to -

diplomatic tales by Kiran Doshi - a different kind of theme and wirtten in verse..a good read..definitely worth a read..I actually was thinking in verse for a couple of days after reading this.. :)

Michael crichton's disclosure- now i know where did bollywood flick aitraaz owes its roots to..I like the court room dialogues - much better than the jeffrey archer's latest book "A prisoner of birth" which is one of the most weak book I have read from this author.

The second phrase refers to -

The lemon tree - I have reached half way.. and till now its good..

The third phase is about the book I am trying to read for last two months- the portrait of a lady.. just after I started this book I watched the movie..and I dint like it much - may be coz according to me a bad match is a bad match - no point in trying to find out the pluses in a bad relation, and also the time wasted in a bad relation is lost - u live life only once and the years gone by never return.. i feel that there is high injustice to the lead character (according to the movie- havent reached there in the book yet) and I hate to read that part..

tales..

2008-10-16T11:41:00.003+05:30

after a two month hiatus I am writing again... well i did type a post till half way and then succumbed to the omnipresent....my laziness....

although it was a hiatus only from blogging myself, i kept reading other's blogs - my list on the side.. and sometimes did comment too..
In the meanwhile it was a nice time as I did catch up with my reading- read 4-5 books in 2 months (reviews in next post) not so bad but still I can do better than that..main reason - travelling ..I have been travelling so much to kerala, to bangalore in the last two months I got pretty tired - then house hunting then shifting and..wat else...oh my gosh this itself is enough to keep me busy...
I have been travelling so much to kerala I am getting allergic to God's Own country..agreed the place is beautiful but when one has to do the trips alone ..climbing the mountains, hills all alone...it gets really boring.. so everytime somebody talks abt Kerala i cringe...
Today morning after seeing that the booker prize is won by an Indian am inspired to write something also..(aspirations never harm know..)..
I am targetting 3 years hence..probably time enough to write something well..
lets see if the inspiration also lasts that long ;) as this is one of my many dreams..

A room with a view

2008-08-12T11:02:00.002+05:30

After exhausting all books by Jane Austen I was missing a early 17th-19th century writing style. This made me look at other authors to quench my thirst. So for the last couple of months I have caught on the habbit of trying to read paperback classic novels from different authors after every contemporary or any other kind of novel I read.
I have experimented with a couple of authors -oops forgot their names again!
However my latest is "A room with a view" one such book by EM Forster. Dull at the begining it mad me think that I have wasted 111 bucks. However by the middle the characters got interesting and the book turned out to be real well. A little like a typical fiction and a little different kind of story I enjoyed the book.
It talks about the lead character being almost dragged into the conventional ways of getting engaged and married to a self absorbed person who doesnt think great abt the girl's family. However the unconvetional hero(well i like to call him that) saves the girl form committing the mistake by opening her eyes and hero's dad play a major role as a catalyst. And in the end all ends well.
The only thing I dont enjoy is the predictability of the end by reaching the middle of the book. The way it has been written I could imagine all the characters moving around in the locations described in great detail.
Unfortunately I missed the movie on this last night because of the TATA Sky connection which keeps on diminishing the number of channels being subscribed to initially.

almost single..

2008-07-09T19:51:00.001+05:30

well thats the title of the book i finished a few days ago...
For people who have been watching sex and the city ..its just an indian version of the same..... modified accrodingly to suit a little more to the Indian morals etc...

The author does create some good surprises and it doesnt turn into some hackneyed cheeky novel...
The job profile chosen is also different so its interesting...

Overall the author keeps the readers like me hooked to the book...

A good read in total....

Yeah I got a few laughs from the guys around, whoever saw me reading that book.... trying to show off the immature side of their so called sophisticated personality but yes.. it will take ages for Indian men (well not all but many of them) to grow..

3 mistakes of my life

2008-07-09T19:31:00.003+05:30

Kahani poori filmi hai....
Thats the gist of the whole book that I felt after reading it...
I guess there is some truth and real facts on which the initial idea was based but later on it changes to a bollywood flick....
But if its 70% truth and only 30% or less of fiction then its too much of tragedy in one life...
and yes it does portray the kind of devil these riots and dirty politics can make of a normal and may be a non violent person....

Overll its a chetan bhagat's typical....

missing....

2008-06-28T15:59:00.001+05:30

once upon a time...
I was dancing for hours at the insti parties....
Now i havent danced like that for more than a year except for the alumni meet :dance is missing in my life...

samarkand

2008-06-17T12:56:00.007+05:30

so this is the restaurant which i have heard a lot about in bangalore and what better way to eat there than getting treated by a friend :)
So based on the hype about the place i was excited to eat there..after multiple attempts of reconsiderations for changing the place from my dear friend I dint budge and we went to the place for our sunday lunch on the d day..

Well we went there on a two wheeler which is much faster than a four wheeler in a heaviy trafficked city like bangalore..
and there was no parking on the road for a two wheeler?!!!!
so we went down the basement and parked the bike in a seedy place!!
now what could be the reason for not having a decent space for a two wheeler???
Just usual i believe for a snobbish restaurant- two wheeler owners cant afford us..
but anyways the anticipation of the good food lying ahead made us forgo this disappointment..

Now the ambience, we eneterd this dark cave/ village/ dark set up litted by traditional lanterns..
we got a seat - decent one..(ofcourse my friend did reserve the table after continuos reconfirmations from my part)
the waiters had the traditional afghani dress on - just adding to the feel of the place and the waiter at our table was a tall guy making it all the more original afghani look..

first thing to come on table was a glass(yes like a vase) of complimentary snack sticks (1 feet long rectangular mathris) with a katori of cheese..
hmm very good ..
followed by water in copper glasses - so far so good.

The menu was a tabloid sized 4 page paper with dishes and stories intermixed- hmm innovative..not very comfortable though..
Only one option of tomato soup - which is generaly ketchup with water at most restaurants, so i dint order that.
We ordered some veg kebabs enclosed in vermicelli for starters..
it was good to taste (soft veg kebabs with fried vermicelli covering it all) and heavy to eat..
after a break of 10 minutes we decided that we can take the risk of having a main course without bursting ourselves..
so we ordered 1 naan/roti each and a veg- meloni tarkari-it was yummy .
we ordered kulfi as the dessert which was very small portion (thankfully)

and for the first time I ran a bill of 4 digits for two vegetarians without drinks..(ofcourse i am not a frequent visitor to dampukhts, taj etc)
oops i forgot there were drinks - mocktails -some hawaian surfer (basically just lassi) and something else that my friend ordered --

overall the place was okie dokie- not so much as the hype but music was a killer of the atmosphere.. it was nowhere near to the theme of the place..infact there was hiphop or pop beats in between to spoil it....
also i felt that the seats werent so clean ...

another good thing was the PAAN available(i dint try that though)..like a traditional indian after meal(am not sure about whether having paan is an afghani tradition too)

however I wudnt go gaga over the place.. but definitely worth a visit once or twice...
There are much better and much reasonable places with much better ambience even in chennai!!! which are those will tell some other time...

but the treat was really good..guess we orderedsome good dishes too... thanks boss!!

finding fault with others

2008-05-28T18:04:00.001+05:30

After posting the last post I realised I have titled my blog with the pet way I like to write my name!!
Is it equivalent to presenting myself with my nick name???

blog Fad?

2008-05-28T17:08:00.003+05:30

So AB and AK both are blogging...
good for them as well as their fans tooo... (btw I like both of them except AB in some firy roles)

Having read a lot many allegations, controversies associated with them I decided to check them out,

Just googled both of them, got the exact link on top of the list...
but alas...Amitabh's blog address is named bigb ???

I believe a nick name is something that others call u with and not what you present yourself as.

Scrolling thorugh them I reaslied that one is a blog while the other is perosnal journal with dates and looks like movie promotions...

So is the blog all about his celebritydom only or is it about him..
If it is about him (as himself) then I feel its a real bad site address...
Well its upto the individual only but I am highly disappointed :(
Till date I believed a lot in the humility associated but now I am not so sure..

The other looks more like a blog with its gaps between posts etc rather than a journal...with dates and days...and movie posters..

ENFP vs. ISTJ!

2008-04-11T20:20:00.004+05:30

Thinking Vs.. Feeling?!!
So what is more important?? thinking about something and making a decision? or feeling something and making a decision?
I know u have to think to make a decision most of the times? but is it true everytime and in all the cases??
Can it happen that your feeling abt something overrides ur logic/thinking?
Is it wrong to just feel enough to take a decision???

a song saying the same:: i love theez lyrics..

When you love someone - youll do anything
Youll do all the crazy things that you cant explain
Youll shoot the moon - put out the sun
When you love someone

Youll deny the truth - believe a lie
Therell be times that youll believe you can really fly
But your lonely nights - have just begun
When you love someone

When you love someone - youll feel it deep inside
And nothin else can ever change your mind
When you want someone - when you need someone
When you love someone...

When you love someone - youll sacrifice
Youd give it everything you got and you wont think twice
Youd risk it all - no matter what may come
When you love someone
Youll shoot the moon - put out the sun
When you love someone

song by bryan adams!!!
and how true...

targets to achieve..

2008-02-25T15:51:00.005+05:30

yaar its raining marriages left right and center..
If a long time no see friend pops up in messenger window I am 99% sure the reason for that...
and most of the times I am correct..Oh yes they got / getting engaged and are getting married this year..
Well its nice to hear but I just feel that its the count in my friends list that will go down .. :(
today is one of my best friend's marriage and i am sitting here typing this..
another of my friend shared his marriage news wid me this morning..
So busy the life becomes that U cant be part of ur near and dear one's happiness !!
How cruel the situation is..

Well I started this post for another reason..its about the places that onw wants to see...
With my friends going for honeymoon to locations like manali, shimal etc etc I am thinking which is the place I would like to go to ..(NOT on honeymoon but just go there)I have recently been to kerala and dint enjoy there much and have got a bad experience of destroying my motorazr2 :( irrepairably damaged my cell... :((

Ths got me thinking abt the places I want to go and actually see ...so in addition to Europe there is something which I recently found on net..Clubmed... they provide packages at amazing destinations!!!
Its ages after which I have got the feeling that I should go to some place.
dont believe me check this out

http://www.clubmed.com/cgi-bin/clubmed55/SP/jsp/clubmed_welcome.jsp

Its midblowingly amazing..
I want to go there and get pampered!!!
Now I have got at least one thing to aspire for!!!

sab kuch mithya hai!!!

2008-02-25T15:11:00.003+05:30

The emotions u have that u wil be happy
The feelings that u later discover are sappy...
The ambitions to scale mountains
As if thats solution to ur worries'fountains..
It will be just a drape with which you try to cover dissatisfaction..disappointment and the hurt of broken promises..
Everything is an illusion..
Sab kuch Mithya hai..

Goodbye

2008-01-03T17:46:00.000+05:30

This is my first tagged blog -Bul's work :(
but I have decided to try this time

Rules:
1. Put your MP3 player/Media player on shuffle
2. For each question, press the next button to get your answer.
3. You must write the name of the song no matter what.

If someone says "Is this okay"? You say?
Hey Mr DJ turn up the song i want to dance with my baby..

Music by Madonna - one of my favs..but I doubt if this will be my response ;)

WHAT WOULD BEST DESCRIBE YOUR PERSONALITY?
I am not an actor I am not a star and I dont evn have my own car...
...
I can just tell U I love u so..even though my odds are low..

Actor by MLTR- very true I am not an actor..

WHAT DO YOU LIKE IN A GUY/GIRL?
"I cant Stand It" by eric clapton
Well thats the opposite of what the question is but thats the way it is..
Bu I really cant stand what's described:

You've been told, so maybe it's time that you learned.
You've been sold, maybe it's time that you earned.

I can't stand it.
You're fooling around, I can't stand it.
You're running around, I can't stand it.
You're fooling around with my heart.

I'll explain; I feel like I'm being used.
Make it plain, so you don't get confused.

Chorus

Chorus

It's time, time for me to let you know.
Ain't no crime, no crime to let your feelings show.

Chorus

HOW DO YOU FEEL TODAY?
'the dolphin's cry'...

Actually its not the dolphin but my nose thats crying..yeah am down with cold :(
I dont know the lyrics of the song..its just there in my cell :-/

WHAT IS YOUR LIFE’S PURPOSE?
lightning crashes by ?!! no clue..
however the lyrics are:

lightning crashes, a new mother cries
her placenta falls to the floor
the angel opens her eyes
the confusion sets in
before the doctor can even close the door

lightning crashes, an old mother dies
her intentions fall to the floor
the angel closes her eyes
the confusion that was hers
belongs now, to the baby down the hall

oh now feel it comin' back again
like a rollin' thunder chasing the wind
forces pullin' from the center of the earth again
I can feel it.

lightning crashes, a new mother cries
this moment she's been waiting for
the angel opens her eyes
pale blue colored iris,
presents the circle
and puts the glory out to hide, hide

I am as confused about my life's purpose as this song is...

WHAT IS YOUR MOTTO?
I checked the lrics and wud like to have it as my motto:

"Everybody Hurts" -REM

When the day is long and the night, the night is yours alone,
When you're sure you've had enough of this life, well hang on.
Don't let yourself go, everybody cries and everybody hurts sometimes.

Sometimes everything is wrong. Now it's time to sing along.
When your day is night alone, (hold on, hold on)
If you feel like letting go, (hold on)
When you think you've had too much of this life, well hang on.

Everybody hurts. Take comfort in your friends.
Everybody hurts. Don't throw your hand. Oh, no. Don't throw your hand.
If you feel like you're alone, no, no, no, you are not alone

If you're on your own in this life, the days and nights are long,
When you think you've had too much of this life to hang on.

Well, everybody hurts sometimes,
Everybody cries. And everybody hurts sometimes.
And everybody hurts sometimes. So, hold on, hold on.
Hold on, hold on. Hold on, hold on. Hold on, hold on. (repeat & fade)
(Everybody hurts. You are not alone.)

WHAT DO YOUR FRIENDS THINK OF YOU?
Nescafe openup- ha ha !!
Come on my dear friends am not so closed!!

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR PARENTS?

"pighalta hua yeh sama"" some stupid song send to me by a dhakkan friend!!
I really dont like this song and it is totally unappropriate!!
Now I am first going to delete it...

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT VERY OFTEN?
"I can wait forever" - air supply
No this isnt true!! I cant wait forever ...

WHAT IS 2+2?
"sad but true" - metallica

he he i know its sad but true that i dont know wat is 2+2 ;)

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR BEST FRIEND?
"unbreak my heart" by Tony Braxton...
my best friend will be there even when others are gone.. to unbreak my heart!

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
'suicide is painless' - johnny mandel
So confusing?!?!

'Cause suicide is painless

it brings on many changes

and I can take or leave it if I please.

...and you can do the same thing if you please.
I hope the person doesnt think so!!

WHAT IS YOUR LIFE STORY?

Red Red Wine by Ub40

Red, red wine
Go to my head
Make me forget that i
Still need her so

Red, red wine
It`s up to you
All I can do, i`ve done
But mem`ries won`t go
No, mem`ries won`t go

I`d have thought
That with time
Thoughts of her
Would leave my head
I was wrong
And I find
Just one thing makes me forget

Red, red wine
Stay close to me
Don`t let me be alone
It`s tearin` apart
My blue, blue heart

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP?
'Everybody's Fool' oye it means everybody is fool and i dont want to be everybody's fool :(

WHAT DO YOU THINK WHEN YOU SEE THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
'Lost in Love' from Air Supply - Hmmm Interesting

WHAT DO YOUR PARENTS THINK OF YOU?
'maiya maiya"...from Guru?!!!
How do I relate?!!!

WHAT WILL YOU DANCE TO AT YOUR WEDDING?
' I shot the sherrif but I dint shoot the deputy'... wonder what kind of a dance it will be?!?!

WHAT WILL THEY PLAY AT YOUR FUNERAL?'Burning in the sun'...Blue Merle
Arey yaar kya gana hai...i guess someone will regret by singing this song when I am gone

Well I had a girl, she was the best around
And I was in love, now I'm just hangin out
And I'm burning in the sun
Losing my mind
Hearts break in the summer time
I'm burning in the sun
And Losing my mind
I thought I was a man; I was ready to die for her
It wasn't part of the plan, what was I suppose to do
Run, run, run
I'm burning in the sun
Losing my mind
Hearts break in the summer time
I'm burning in the sun
And losing my mind
I had a girl, she was the best around
Ya, Ya
It was it part of the plan, was I suppose to do
Run, run, run
I'm burning in the sun
I'm losing my mind
Hearts break in the summer time
Ya
I'm burning in the sun
Losing my mind

WHAT IS YOUR HOBBY/INTEREST?
"Breaking my Heart" MLTR
well breaking my heart seems to be my hobby ..after all abhi did marry ash and maddy is already married !! :(

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR FRIENDS?
'5, 6, 7 ,8 ' by Steps: hey cool I have very few friends whom I can count on...very true! and the count seems to be decreasing :(

WHAT SHOULD YOU POST THIS AS?
'Goodbye' - Air Supply.
Very true!!
I guess it good bye to tags for a long time to come!!!

Phew!! i did it finally - tagged post baba aur kya!!

Chalo ab whoever has read it do the same!!!

when the stars go blue..

2007-12-13T17:48:00.000+05:30

Its that time of the year again..those days will never be forgotten in my life..
last year I was so busy these days ..placmenets...BS..exams etc etc..
I remember the day before placement I was in GDs till around 1 or 2 am..thn after coming back cudnt sleep ..so was online chatting with a freind and listening to this song over and over and over and over..to get distratced and fly away from the tension..was kinda mesemerised by the way these ppl sung it...I still love this song... though nothing helped finally and I dint sleep the whole night before the d day!!was looking a mess on the day when i was supposed to be my best..Still managed to get placed somewhere :)

happiness!

2007-12-13T17:04:00.000+05:30

This is one of the pics which has been visiting me in forwards many times like any other forward..but I felt something when I saw it again this time(or have I noticed it earlier as well...i dont remember) The happiness on the old man's face is so genuine and inncoent..Feels he is much more blessed than many a billionaires..I pray for this kind of happiness!!

2007-12-11T11:47:00.000+05:30

Mediocre but Arrogant - the lastest book on my read list.
Well I had never heard of this book till a friend of mine put its author's blog link in his gtalk status..and he told me he is planning to buy this for long - so the generous me went ahead and bought it for him as his b'day gift:) and to read for self also :) after all its a fiction and he gave me a book well read ;)(just joking boss! i wud have asked u later otherwise)
Coming to the book- its the MBA version of 5. someone!but i cud relate much more to this book as I can relate the traits of characters in the book to my friends and profs in my MBA .. the book has a lots of additional masala may be to keep it interesting which is unnecessary at times. while some situations are so real coz u have seen them happening in front of u..
It made my 2 years of MBA pass in front of my eyes as the book progressses...
Overall a gud read..

lost identity

2007-12-05T17:28:00.000+05:30

With the loss of my driving license and pan card I have lost my identity..

Many of my friends who have been victim of chennai's ruthlessnes (if not in weather than in manners) have always warned me of being careful in chennai about everything from auto wallahs to pick pockets and everything..
Alas I overlooked it all and reached my destiny of being pick pocketed :(
Now am running around trying to arrange my stuff- duplicates of evrything ...and am realising how disabled I have become without my wallet..

in love again!!!

2007-10-05T15:16:00.000+05:30

yesterday when i was watching television with my di and jij ... i realised I have fallen in love again with the same personality!!!
the personality is 'SEL' - shankar ehsan Loy

The beats that they give, the music they make..its really wonderful, shankar will sing so beautifully any of his songs without an effort in a crystal clear voice(well thats true for all grt singers but still...)..
The tunes that they make is not the standard indian movie style and thats what sets them apart..
When they started giving music in movies like rockford/DCH I started loving them but slowly with time I forgot that they are still there and instead was thinking that they are jobless(how dumb of me!!) wen they were giving music to lotsa songs/movies..
like for kajrare/KHNH/KANK/johny gaddar/jbj etc etc..
after listening to them yesterday i re-realised that having the talent to sing/play music is on of the most wonderful gifts that one can ask for!!

Now I am in love with SEL's music again..

Change!

2007-09-22T22:35:00.000+05:30

What is the worst thing that can be done to a beautiful music composition??

REMIX!!
yeah , now after listening to Vodafone's distorted version of my fav jingle of hutch "u & i" I can understand all the pain that a person feels when his/her fav composition is damaged!!!

To add further to this injury the cute doggy of HUTCH has been replaced by a stupid one in Vodafone, dont knw what to say abt the stupid background music of saas bahu type serials and the red colour!!

bottomline: Change is NOT ALWAYS good.

its for everyone! almost

2007-09-22T12:17:00.000+05:30

this is a gud piece written by someone anonymous, and I guess most of us can relate to it. I definitely can

http://www.cds.caltech.edu/~shane/text/quarterlifecrisis.html

Secondary source
http://www.kamvin.blogspot.com/

Reference for secondary source:
http://www.boogerwormie.blogspot.com/

indifference

2007-09-13T20:30:00.000+05:30

how insensitive and indifferent can a human being be??
Saw a news item today which told abt a 25 yr old guy who bled to death after being run over by a bus/truc in the salt lake area of cal...
he was lying there for abt half an hour after the accident and no one came to rescue him..vehicles kept passing and no one bothered to pick him up and take him to hospital..the news also suggested that a VVIP vehicle also passed by without paying any attention..
is this what we call ourselves human for??
and guess what i havent heard the news for second time after that for last 4-5 hours... the news channels are busy talking abt ICC 20 overs world cup or weather etc..
had it been even a bail plea or a minor elbow twist or a scratch on a celebrity ...the number of times that i would have heard that in 4 hours wud have been atleast 40..
this is what our news channels show us..this is what we shud be concerned about in our lives..!!!
Shame on such media channels!!!

city of dreams!!- my home for 2 mnths

2007-08-31T15:57:00.001+05:30

as every dream ends i am leaving the city of dreams in next few days..
was it a dream or a nightmare for me?!?! none.. earlier wenevr i had come to this place i promised myself that I will never ever come to stay in mumbai for more than a day but now..i have survived here for almost two mnths( patting my back :))
Sometimes i felt ths city is professional/hard working and sometimes I felt its as crazy as a place can be..
I mean a person leaves home at 6 in the morning travel 2 hrs to reach work ,...slogs throughout the day and then goes back at arnd six..travel again for 2 hrs ..reaches home to crash and go back to work the next day again..thn where does a person can find time to spend wid family/friends... again reminding me of the lines - wat is this life full of care..we have no time to stand and stare!!
i have travelled a lot in mumbai through the locals- the lifeline of mumbai and best buses- again a lifeline.. i have travelled during peak hours and non peak hours..thankfully never had to travel hanging from the gate..have managed to fall down form the local tho...
Travelling in these trains/buses has given me a lot of time to think(u cant work wid any other of part of your body - like reading/ playing games on ur mobile or talking on phone while standing in a virtual cuboid of .5'*.5'*5.5' ;-/
the concept of personal space does not stand a chance over here..
i have travelled in the rains of mumbai!!! (wen trains do stop and i had to travel in a bus so crowded that i felt i will emerge as thin as a slice..but thanks to the elasticity of human body i retained my shape(??!!))
the food of mumbai?!! - i love vada paav... but i had my first and best vada paav in delhi..and after spending a few days in mumbai it dawned on me that actually the food is not as gud as in delhi- well actually it was made to dawn on me by my jij...
after that i have started noticing the taste of food in mumbai and understood how true my jij is...
now u will think vada paav is a mere dish which can be made by anyone in any way...and it should be of uniform tatse u have it anywhere- NO thats 100% wrong.. the way i get a vada paav in the canteen at our basement parking(yeah the canteen is next to the parking so that we can smell the petrol- and the smoke..) ..coming back to the vada paav i ordered it twice - the way they make it -> 2 paavs, spearately kept two vadas..and thats it...can u beat that.. in the city of vada paavs having to eat this kind of vada paav is absolutely terrible...
the best vada paav that u get here is from the road side stalls...
the people here are not really very friendly as my mumbaiya friends suggest.. and it is just like any other metro- yeah the auto wallahs dont cheat u as much as chennai or bang..
having said all that given a chance i would like to come back to mumbai ??? - no... yes.. may be.. but not for long time...

Gifts

2007-08-08T13:59:00.000+05:30

Arguments are something that I enjoy with most of my good friends and my family...it makes me feel alive. I love to argue and not to fight there is a difference- whoever wins doesn’t matter (it does feel gud if I can convince the other person through my arguments)

One of these arguments usually is abt the b’day treats and gifts – I always say that a treat is something that is demanded and a gift is something that’s given while some of my friends have the opinion that treats are given...
For me a gift is something that u think the other person will enjoy taking into consideration his/her interest not urs 

While writing the last post – my first offline post, I was listening to some songs which I really love – all shared with me by a friend of mine... I think music and books are some of the best gifts that can be given...Some of these gifts that I have received till now:

Songs -
Everybody’s changing; this is the last time, somewhere only we go – all by Keane

The reason – Hoobastank

You are beautiful – James blunt

Coming back to life – pink Floyd

Maula mere maula – RK Rathod

Stairway to heaven – led zeppelin (even tho I don’t get the words fully :)

True colours – phill Collins

Amie, cannonball- Damien Rice

Save Tonite – eagle eyes cherry

Aisha – I don’t remember the name of the artist

When the stars go blue –The corrs feat bono

And most importantly my introduction to English music through BSB and Celine Dion

Books-

Jonathan stone Seagull

Diary of Anne frank

Gods’ Debris

And all the borrowed books of Nancy drew and Archie’s collections of my friends.

These are the gifts I can mention specifically-but the best gift is the time and attention that I get from my near and dear ones. As my friend’s profile says – there is a little of me in u and a lot of u in me... or the other way round 

Books I love

2007-08-08T13:58:00.000+05:30

I have always wanted to find a book which I would keep in my shelf and I will read it again after a few days...
One is definitely ‘Gone with the wind’ it helps me keep faith in so many things where I don’t conform to the norms, and yes I love the romance of Rhett Butler and Scarlet- definitely I love the sequel as well (written by another author) as it brings a happy ending- I always like to see something going like happily ever after.
Now I have got the other book which I feel I will have in my collection: “God’s Debris”.
This book was passed on to me by a friend of mine couple of months ago... at that time I started reading this but left it in between as I felt disturbed after reading a few pages..
The book deals with the eternal questions of life which are there in every human’s mind. The questions I had been trying to find an answer to since I gained consciousness... The book doesn’t give all answers that I can believe in but yes it talks abt them in an interesting manner...I finished the book in 20 hours which include doing all my work and sleeping 10 hours, being on phone for hours, messaging etc...that is effectively in 6-7 hours... It really feels good as it has been ages since I have finished a book within 24 hours, and that too a book which is semi fiction...
I am thankful to my friend with whom I did discussed abt such topics at a remote time and he gave me this book... This is one of the best gifts I have received. Thanku boss...

2007-07-24T11:13:00.000+05:30

one has come alone and will go alone from this world...

there can be no person with whom u can share all ur joys and sorrows...

have to live this life alone.. family,friends ..anyone else..no one stays with u ..

ya ya i knw its all known facts but sometimes i forget these...
so trying to reinforce it again for myself.!!

a profound thought

2007-07-24T11:06:00.000+05:30

till u make a commitment, there are only promises and hopes and nothing happens in reality...
said by peter drucker (as far as i remember)

how true!!

a small achievment

2007-07-16T17:24:00.000+05:30

have survived in mumbai for 8 days..
and am still alive..after travelling in the BEST buses twice in these 8 days..
and going by my usual rate of shiftng for last 45 days or so..have shfted once already :-/

half century!

2007-07-08T17:11:00.000+05:30

its my 50th post..
am posting after a long time..its not that i had nothing to write ..infact i had much more than usual to write..when i write down something it helps me think more clearly..but i dint have the access to net for so long...and so my first chennai stint has remain uncovered..i did write a few things in pen and paper and something on my lappy too..but all that remains there as i the forgetful self left my data transfer device (called pen drive) at home :(
now i am in the dream city of many indians..which has never been mine..I have always dreaded this place..the huge traffic, the large crowds which drive u along with them..the ultra expensive and ultra small appartments...
neways this is my first day in mumbai and may be therefore i need to write abt it...
i have been trying to roam arond a bit on my own and have not lost my way till now..lets see how long can i travel here...

Pearls of Wisdom

2007-06-01T12:12:00.000+05:30

you should always marry late: in case u marry the right person u'll be glad u waited so long.. in case u marry the wrong person u'll be glad u married late :)

(title copied from bul's blog; content is from one of my friend's gtalk status)

This is one of the best ideas I have ever heard and I find it really true..
if u wait u will knw wat u want in life and can look for wat u want in ur partner too...experience counts u cee..

choices

2007-05-24T10:53:00.000+05:30

Two choices:
- gud food and all materrial comforts but very mundane conversations, nothing challenging,nothing much intriguing, no extremes in the emotions..
- plain food and simple lifestyle but interesting, humorous, involving conversations..living all extreme of emotions..from feeling ectstatic to bottom of the ocean..

which is better..
food for body or food for thought?!

earth's fragrance

2007-05-16T21:23:00.000+05:30

this summer is a bit wierd..the temperature rises to new heights every now and then followed by a little shower and the hide and seek of sun and rain goes on.
This as I have heard from elders is not gud for our crops but I sometimes become selfish enuf to ignore it and wish for the rains to continue.
Nothing can beat the frangrance of rains falling on parched earth..specially the earth of my garden(one can say that earth is earth anywhere on earth but I dont feel so always)...I have been staying at home on and off for the last 8-9 years well mostly off..and wat I miss the most among other things is sitting in the verandah with mom and sis, bro in the rains watching the rain fall on trees and other plants..and sometimes sipping tea/coffee...just chatting away.. those were some of the best days of my life...

2007-05-16T20:34:00.000+05:30

eeeeeeeeshhh am nostalgic again.. visited two blogs today for the first time..one of my classmate(x-classmate now :( ) and other of my junior..both brought back the memories i thought will be lost in these two months of vacationing but it doesnt happen..
how difficult it is to move on...specially for a person like me who hangs on to people and things..how strange it is that teh things and people we take for grnated people who we used to see everyday become blurred with time but just one note abt one person brings back all the memories...
now i really feel shud have joined work earlier so that getting busy and meeting new people wud have diverted me from thinking abt the days gone past...neways its just a few more days to go..to start a new life and to create more memories...and get nostalgic abt them later again....

updated myself

2007-05-02T14:35:00.000+05:30

gosh so many topics to choose from..
duno wat to write abt ..
have thot a lotta topics like "a painted house" , " driving reverse" , "tri colour's insult?! or a mountain out of mole (thank god my prof has written abt it and i dont feel i need to add) ..

driving reverse:
have been trying to learn car since last year..well not in continuation for 365 days but 2-3 days last year and arnd 6-7 days this year..but still reverse mein gaadi atakti ahi..and then have to get up early to practice..so i have given it up for the time being...come on am on holidays and to get up early during vacations doesnt help :-/
thts all for the time being...

challenge!!

2007-04-01T15:01:00.000+05:30

I have challenged myself to do one of the toughest task possible on this planet for me!!!
its not to sleep in the afternoon when I am at home and can see (also hear) my parents taking peaceful siesta on a sunday afternoon...

reason for challenge: very simple - if i sleep off now i will be wide awake till 1 in the nite listening to evn the lightest sounds at home and in the neighbourhood and it will be really difficult to join the watchmen shouting and whistling!!
and then again mom will start at 6:30 next morning waking me up wid all the possible bhajans available on TV :(

now i cant type anymore..
yawn .. :O

a day well spent

2007-03-15T23:51:00.000+05:30

did some shopping..nah nah nothing for myself (well just a hand bag actually)..but than u dont call it shopping much rite!!

went to have choc-a-vloc at ccd...hmmm yummmy!!!!!!11
and visited my sis's new home to be...i liked it..specially coz nw i wont hv to spend fortunes on autos in bangalore wenever i come here..

my sis will be shifting in 2 days and I am here to help her with that...
i luv arranging things around the house and decoarting it..my sis doesnt like it much so am going to be very helpful to her.... ( i will earn returns in the form of food cooked by her..)

now its time to sleep...
ciao...

and the party is over!!

2007-03-09T09:47:00.000+05:30

packing my bags and winding up...leaving this place and not look back.
I am not sure if thats possible but I will try..
the parties I went to ..the dances I did..
will never leave my head...
the friends I made and everything we did..
in my heart will these stay on...
still will try to move on...

nostalgia :(

2007-03-08T08:54:00.000+05:30

still fresh are the memories of the first day that I landed in this place..
came with two of my friends..met a nice roomie who got scared seeing my luggage(atleast 10 bags)...saying hi hello to everyone around....wondering how am I supposed to remember all the faces and names!! (it dint take more than a couple of months )
first day at college ...seeing every face full of anticiaption and excitement...
first few classes..ohh that person can think so much I wud never have been able to think that way..very intelligent...(its a different thing that we know how each of us will respond to diff situations and in some cases we pray..please please dont let him/her start on this ;))

now its time to leave.. I dint ever think that I will be upset leaving, afterall I started counting the days as soon as I entered ...but thats not the case...however much I disliked some things abt the place...I have met some very gud friends here...and I have changed a lot seeing others and learning from them...I am surely gonna miss all that...!!!

2007-03-08T00:57:00.000+05:30

God made man, and then he said 'I can do better than that' and made women. Happy Women's Day!

this is what I received in my scrap ...got carried away and posted in some of my gal friends' scrap books...
then it struck me is it really true?!!!
I who never believe in it..how can I do this??
I dont believe that either of man/woman is superior ..they are just different..
I who believe in equality for alll?!!!!!!how can I do this?

I felt really bad after this realisation....but than i thot may be it can be taken just for fun...no thats just an escape route am thinking off...coz if someone cracks a generalised joke on women, I dont appreciate it..so then I shudnt be doing this too...
I am really sorry for having made such a statement...

float as if u will never drown!!

2007-02-17T02:48:00.000+05:30

just read a friends blog on floating..reminded me of my experience..
I went for white water rafting just two years back..(actually shud call it brown water rafting owing to colour of water...) to a place the name of which i dont remember ..
it was level one rafting permitted for us (we were amateurs u see)..
The raft man guided us through the whole process and took us to a place where he asked us to jump into water ...most of them were afraid and believe me..urs truly the bravest of them all was the first one to jump...(i had trust in life jackets..).......
I floated in water (ofcourse with life jacket on)
one of the the best things i ever experienced... floating like a wood piece in water without the fear of drowning..and staring at sky ...heaven seriously....

helpless!!!

2007-02-17T02:10:00.000+05:30

there are somethings in life u cant help...
like u cant explain a few things to certain people..
u cant do all the things u want to do..
u cant skip things u dont want to do(studies included here..)
looks can be deceptive..
wat one hears and sees is not always true!!
well things are not always bad...u cant help certain gud things also.
u get maximum pampering from ur parents..
u get patient friends to compensate for ur impatient nature...
u get lotsa people to dance with in parties
I thnk God for providing me with these goood things in life...for the bad things i am helpless again ;)

vday!

2007-02-14T08:12:00.000+05:30

just read bul's blog and yeah have to admit to watever she had to say..is almost true..
even though we think that this day wont affect us we do get affected most of the times and get lost in wishful thinking...neways..i have got the idea of how to spend the day ofcourse from bul again..i am gonna watch movies all day!!
HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!!

serials...

2007-02-06T01:57:00.000+05:30

How many serials does one watch in a week and to follow each of them how many stories and plots one needs to remember..lemme see during prime time atleast 5 ..and after that maybe 4-5 during the rest of the day..
well i am on a similar serial story follwing spree...just that the stories are not so colourful as on the idiot box but rather in black and on white/offwhite..
well i am reading four books(all fiction ofcourse) simultaneously ...and enjoying them all...depending on my mood i can pick anyone i want...and yeah a fifth one is waiting..which is not a fiction...also am watching malgudi days on rajshri.com (all thanks to my friend who told me abt the site)...yessss i am lovin' it...taram paparammm....
an imp discovery i made 2 days back wen i was reading one of the articles in my controls subject - I am not the only one in this world who thinks that management lessons can be learnt using fictions ::) some scholarly sounding guy also thinks so and my prof had included his article in our syllabus...may be I am actualy quite intelligent..muhe to bina research wagerah wagerah kiye hee sab pata hai...jo in schols ko itne saalon mein pata chala
...this intellectual just need to openly express her views ;)

learnings!

2007-02-05T02:58:00.000+05:30

I am still nt sure whether learnings is a proper word or not..coz i always get an alert in microsoft word when i type it..
nways still will use it ..
My two learnings from last few days:
1. life is not fair
2. dont try to make things even they can never be..

These are from my two friends..am thankful to both ..

how deep is ur pain?

2007-02-05T00:54:00.000+05:30

how deep a person is hurt depends on how deeply (s)he allows the hurt to affect him/her..

this is wat i read few years ago and still believe in it...reminded of it after reading a sad story...

joys and sorrows come in a cycle.. one follows the other tho not on a regular periodic interval and not with same intensity..sometimes u embrace ur hurt with more readiness than how u wud have accepted ur joy coz thats wen u live for others and u knw u mite have to do some things for them which hurts u but which maybe right...for them.. and u value them more than anything in life...

to sum up as in the lyrics of song am listening to:
"..kabhi khushi hai kabhi koi gum..
kabhi hansi hai aankhein kabhi num
jiyo hanske ya roke jiyo jeena padta hai her mausam...."

hail technology!!

2007-02-04T10:09:00.000+05:30

Here I am sitting on a sunday morning listening to music from US with my friend as a radio jockey..from Munnabhai to MLTR ....
I love yahoo msgr and gtalk for giving the facility of calling online...
even my parents like that as its easier than chatting and cheaper than call...
I simply love it..

outta movie luck!!

2007-01-21T23:33:00.000+05:30

after a strenuous year..when I got some relief..I finally decided to watch lotsa gud movies..
the search began yesterday..so started with 'the departed'..the most talked abt movie in my college for last coupla days..went to a cd parlour and rented it...watched the first part peacefully but the second cd refused to start even after an hour of trials...
one failed effort.. :(
second tried to watch gilmore girls on you tube..buffered 4 parts of one episode..and then..
then my lappy got tired ..so it decided to take a break and slept off...which means to say it swithed off by itself..
second failed effort :(
roamed around in the hostel for a gud movie...got the last samurai...tom cruise!!!
thought it must be good so talked abt...
well it turned out to be so gud that I am typing this post when the movie is on on wmp... :(
seems like am totally offfff movie luck and will hv to be satisfied with only reading .........

some reading done finally!!

2007-01-14T23:11:00.000+05:30

finally i finished another book : God of small things by arundhati roy for which she got the booker prize..
its a very descriptive book...describing small grass particles to milipedes and centipedes in detail..to d extent of most of the things getting gross....
doesnt go well wid me!!
I read the book as a challenege... to test whether i can read something which i dont enjoy and is not compulsory(goes for the subjects in college)..well i won i guess...
the subject matter was gud enuf, the idea of telling it thru a child's view point is also great but the way its done is highly disappointing..
however there are somethings which are really great..
like the way every time the little twin related to her bro ...little man, rub a dub dub..its really cute..
the story line is also gud..though its sad..it might be a reality in someone's life (hope its not)...
comparing this with the other book i read before this - persuasion by jane autene..
I love jane's books ..it depicts the story and the way things went on in her era so beautifully and vividly..every time i read one of her books i wud travel through time and reach that era..
the mannerisms and all its very beautiful and interesting..
its very amusing..
If the books depict the true scenario of that time than the lady of the house is supposed to have the maximum authority and power in the whole household..and major decisions were done by her..talk abt woman empowerment!! it wasnt needed ever and will never be needed..its equality for both..neither was stronger nor will be!!

2007-01-12T00:38:00.000+05:30

its been more than 10 days since i last blogged and I dint realise..
maybe I dint think much or maybe I am just too lazy to type all that I think..
watever but its a nice world I am living in now ..I am loving evry bit of it..even though I have to work and am not able to watch movies..but how can i enjoy the fun without having to do work...
like we never realise the importance of sucess without failure...
but in some things I dont want to risk a failure now!!
And the best thing is that it has been 10 DAYS and I havent overspent :)
let the two junkies realise this!!! ;)

happy new year

2007-01-01T00:57:00.000+05:30

what happens when u realise that the nature is against u!!
after refraining from giving me a singable voice ... nature wasnt sufficed..
so today when by chance i got lucky to be allowed to sing at my full volume.. (I am thankful to the people around me they gave me the permission..)...I gt slapped by the sea when I opened my mouth to sing my 20th or so song...
nature also had enuf :(
may be i shud be considerate towards others or may be that was th response to my friends' silent prayers ;)
any ways HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

2006-12-31T02:13:00.000+05:30

resolutions!!
why do we take up resolutions only on particular days..
and not on all days..
well i guess kyunki woh kal kabhi nahin aata ..when we decide to start something like exercise, more study, less junk..etc etc etc..from tomorrow..
so wats mine??
guess it will be to spend less...that means shopping less..
this way i can prove to the two (idiots) friends that am not a shopaholic..i just happen to get gud stuff everytime i go to a shop ;)

sweet winter!

2006-12-28T22:28:00.000+05:30

finally!!
after three years of staying in this coastal area i get to see winter..
i have been dying to feel the winter wind..the chill it brings along
the time wen u get inside ur quilts and read/chat or listen to music..

i can never forget the winter days during my engg college..
temperature used to be too low..sometimes in single digits and we used to enjoy the weather to the fullest..it also happend to be the time of our exams and the fair..
studying for exams sitting cosily inside the blankets wasnt an easy task but surely was fun!!
covered from head to toe (literally) except for face or sometimes just the eyes was really an amazing feeling..
there used to be long gaps between two exams so no going to college except for the exam days and rest of the time just trying to study from under the wraps..
i really miss those days..
getting up late in the morning (when the cook used to call for tea .."chai ban gayi hai aa jao"
it sounded like the most beautiful voice ;) in those days)
having "chai" with rusks or biscuits..newspaper and friends...
making plans for finshing off a part of the course...
after half-one hour of chai going back to rooms..trying to start the day..
wen the call for b'fast comes...
back to mess..
half an hour for b'fast..
getting ready for the day..
read 4-5 pages(max) in 2-3 hrs..
back to mess for lunch...
enjoying sun during the lunch..
going back to rooms to study..
doze off in half hour max..
get up in evening ...have chai again
go for a walk..zara gole ghum ke aate hain
back to hostel ..studying(read chatting) sessions ...in one of THE rooms (we used to have our addas in 1-2 rooms only for 7-8 ppl)..
have dinner ..than plan for study again..arey yaar kuch bhi nahin padha din bhar se..
try to study for another coupla hours..(read making after exam plans :) ... will go to this ride in the fair this time )
back to sleep under the wraps.........

sweet dreams...tomorrow I shall study ;)