It was only an an 'opeless fancy

I was reading George Orwell's 1984. I found these few lines there

It was only an 'opeless fancy,
It passed like an Ipril dye,
But a look an' a word an' the dreams they stirred,
They 'ave stolen my 'eart awye!

They sye that time 'eals all things,
They sye you can always forget;
But the smiles an' the tears across the years
They twist my 'eartstrings yet!

The first Miss India

Were women in those days more beautiful or is it the magic of a B/W pic that she looks this gorgeous. The story of this beauty queen, Esther Abraham alias Pramila was on rediff today.

Im bowled over.

I say a little prayer for you

I watched My best friend's wedding for the nth time. Julia Roberts rocks, doesnt she!! I have liked every movie of hers that I have seen. I love the character of George in this movie. And I find this song very romantic for the way it was sung for her towards the end of the movie and for this Im ready to watch the whole movie yet another time :-D

The moment I wake up
Before I put on my makeup
I say a little prayer for you
While combing my hair, now,
And wondering what dress to wear, now,
I say a little prayer for you

Forever, forever, you'll stay in my heart
and I will love you
Forever, forever, we never will part
Oh, how I'll love you
Together, together, that's how it must be
To live without you
Would only be heartbreak for me.

I run for the bus, dear,
While riding I think of us, dear,
I say a little prayer for you.
At work I just take time
And all through my coffee break-time,
I say a little prayer for you.

Forever, forever, you'll stay in my heart
and I will love you
Forever, forever we never will part
Oh, how I'll love you
Together, together, that's how it must be
To live without you
Would only be heartbreak for me.

My darling believe me,
For me there is no one
But you.

On the book front, I read Thomas Hardy's A Pair of Blue Eyes. I was introduced to TH by my pa who used to read a lot in the earlier days. My first book by him was Return of the native. Since then, I have read The mayor of casterbridge, The woodlanders, Far from the madding crowd, and Jude the Obscure. There is always a betrayal in his novels and the story is always set in rural England. But there is a hopeful ending always as much as I remember. In this novel though, the lady with the blue eyes dies leaving behind three men who loved her in their own way and yet couldnt give her happiness.

Saw hazaaron khwahishein aisi

Saw the movie on youtube. Its painful watching movies there especially with the slow downloads. But I persevered. Movie was great. Why does Shiny Ahuja always play the role of a doomed lover! Unfortunately, one movie clip on youtube was defective. This was the portion where Shiny gets stuck in Bihar. One moment Kaykay is shot by the police and in the next scene Shiny is also on the hospital bed with him. The intermediate scenes were missing. This was the main part and I didnt get to see it :-( Chitrangada was gorgeous. Didnt she remind you very strongly of Smita Patil!!

I was engaged in a spat on the blog two days back. Unfortunately. I try not to hurt anyone's sentiments here.

week of hell...........

"ceasefire does not happen overnight.

it's not like you wake up one morning and the birds are singing and the sun is shining and you go to work like nothing ever happened.
.
.
there are cluster bombs everywhere. they dropped cluster bombs on us... there are so many that didn't explode... they are so so dangerous.
.
.
."

On Beirut Update.

Moral education needed ?

Now that Im at the crossroads Im in a grave dilemma as to the route I should take. Should I continue in research, take up a job, take up a teaching job or just settle down and watch sitcoms ? Take the easy route or fight my way? I wish I could see my future :-)

Yesterday I attended a placement talk by a company called Education Initiatives Ltd. They do what everyone has been offering as an alternate solution to reservation. They work towards improving primary education, and making learning an easier task with the stress being on understanding rather than cramming. They work with elite schools, rural schools and also the tribal schools. The group has been founded by a bunch of IIT, IIM alumni who have left lucrative jobs to "make a difference". They are doing a great job. Its profit + community service, but being a fledgling company, the incentives they offer is very meagre. Its a nice job and I think it will be more satisfying than teaching in a college to a set of bored students. But then, a person like me with hazaaron khwahishein needs a lot of money. Harsh, selfish but true.
Anyway something happened there. Audience was generally bored. One girl asked them whether they work towards imparting moral education. She said its needed cos its very lacking in todays world. True but I dont know in what context she asked this. Moral education can mean a lot of things starting from not being rude to others to not being immoral (:-P) Well the entire audience laughed at her question (!!??!!)
And after the group finished, before they said thank you, the audience clapped. True this is done when the speech is too long or boring, but would they have clapped like this for some fat-packet-company!! Never.
As we were going out, I overheard a guy saying " I will as well join Tata Chemicals instead of sitting in this s***" (Language!!!)
Yes mister, it makes no sense to join a 10k sal company when you can easily earn 70k pm but please dont call them bad names. Respect them if not for their work then for their courage in taking up a difficult task. They are doing something which you dont want to dirty your hands in. Mind you, these are the same who protested against reservation and said government should improve primary education. When you see all this, dont you think moral education is necessary??

By chance, I heard about two other good samaritan organisations yesterday - Parivartan which helps people fight against corruption and has been started by an ex IITian and SRS which lends loans to rural women and empowers them, started by a NRI settled now in India. Great Job right!!
It requires lots of courage and conviction to leave one's secure niche and jump into troubled waters.
Hats off :-)

( Somehow these days I have been losing my calm pretty often :-| Many many deep breaths required. )

he he

National Geographic

Isn't this beautiful !! I found this on the National Geographic's picture of the day section.
These pics reminded me of an intensely romantic novel called The Bridges of Madison County by Robert James Waller in which the lead guy was a Nat Geo photographer who visits Madison County for a photo shoot. This guy, Richard Kincaid is in his 40s. He by chance meets a lady, Francesca in her 30s. She is married and has kids. Everyone is away for some reason and she is alone at home. They both fall in love with each other over the weekend but she stays back at home finally for her husband and kids. This novel is very moving and has to be read once in your lifetime. Apparently there was a movie adaptation of this. I would love to watch it sometime.
You can see the Madison County bridges here.

These many posts by me mean I am not working. I am never consistent. Thats one thing I would like to change about myself :-(

The Shehnai Maestro passes away

It seems so right that the legend Ustad Bismillah Khan was buried with state honours. His is the only name that comes to mind when one thinks of Shehnai.

I am not a connoisseur of classical music. I listen to this genre of music only when it is played on the FM stations. I have two cassettes of Amjad Ali Khan's sarod recitals which was a birthday gift. And I play that when my mind is in a very turbulent state. Classical music does soothe the mind. Thats the extent of my knowledge and interest. I have heard Ustad Bismillah Khan's recitals also on the radio. I guess he would be one of the maestros who will be remembered in future in the same way Tansen or other legends are remembered now.

psst psst I have seen Amjad Ali Khan perform live :-D Thats one of the experiences Ill remember in my life. This was a part of the Lakshminarayana festival thats held in Chennai in the music season. So the artists playing that day were Pt. Jasraj, Amjad Ali Khan and L. subrahmanium. Awesome combination na! If Im not wrong, this festival is in honour of LS' father who was also a great musician. Pt. Jasraj played for the first 1.5 hours followed by jugalbandi between AAK and LS for the next 1.5 hours. That was a memorable concert.

Weekend plans

You would say "why should this interest me ?" Valid point :-D In a way Im sharing with you whats up here if it matters even a bit. Also, let me use this space as a log for once so that I can check back on Monday how well I did. So here I go...

• Work. I start writing my thesis this weekend. This does not mean I am ready to wrap up. I am working on the last problem and we had tried this with our last publication. We wrote up what we think is the conjecture, worked it out, drew conclusions. So we find and then write out what we find in parallel. Saves time and avoids vain meandering. So wish me luck :-)
Status on Monday: not yet started :-(

• On my PC, I have SUSE 9.3 installed. This is a superb OS. It has an equivalent feature for every application in windows. Looks cool too. But its so slow that I lose patience by the time the terminal opens. So I plan to install Ubuntu. Since the initial installation of Ubuntu is just the core package, it saves space and is faster. We can customise it to our liking. Ill try it out and see for myself. More on this on the Ubuntu webpage. Here is what wiki says about Ubuntu. Done and and it rocks.
  

• Will change this damn keyboard.. hmphhh Ill end up with hardened fingertips otherwise something akin to hobbits hardened feet. Yoohooo my fingers seem to fly!
  


• Meet an old friend. That means catching up on what happened in the past 2 years in her life. That also means watching Home Alone in OAT for the nth time. I am sick and tired of that movie. I guess the company will make up for all that. She simply dint turn up :-| meeting was at 4 she calls up at 5 says cant come. People should keep their appointments or tell b4 hand.
  
• Browse through a book store. I have to get a farewell gift for a friend. I am planning on getting The Count of Monte Cristo. I had loved the book but do you think its a worthy gift? I hope I dont end up buying something for myself. Hazaaron khwahishein par jeb khali. well almost.... Well this was linked with the meeting and so not done :-|
  
• Sleep :-) Blisssssssssssss (The razacsss in Eragon-Eldessst speak like thisss.. draw out the s as in a hiss.. ssssneaky ssscary ) I had the worst weekend in this regard. no sleep at all. not even at nights. stayed awake till 4am just like that. Everyone protested against my trying out pills. so last night i took some cough syrup :-D People have suggested that I instead try the real boozing. he he not that despo yet.
  
• Not miss any of the meals. I tend to do that on weekends. Always prefer sleeping to eating sambar rasam. 2 breakfasts and 1 lunch skipped.
  
• Avoid the naked guy on campus. No Im serious!! There is a psycho roaming around here without his clothes. Apparently he apparates only in front of girls. Even the lady security of our hostel has seen him.. he he she is a nice gentle aunty with high moral values :-D Hope he gets caught soon cos there have been rumours that he chased a girl down a spooky deserted lane. Chennai heat has severely affected him. tut tut.
  
• And then generally chill out and not get worked up. Ahoy weekend here I come :-D
  

Have fun :-)
Now u see how bad I am with resolutions!!! Thats why my new year resolutions also dont work out :-D

Oil spill

'Damage is done' to Lebanon coast

I hope that there will be justice someday against these crimes against humanity and crimes against nature.

Successful elimination of 5 terrorists ?!

Human story behind the headlines

You must have seen the picture mentioned above. For me, this picture is a representative of the war in Lebanon. Its too depressing to be uploaded on this blog. :-(

Gangster revisited..

Daya (Shiny Ahuja) in Gangster was the ultimate lover anyone could wish for. He risks everything for his beloved (Kangna) and could go to any extreme for her, even mends his ways and tries living an honest life. His final gesture to her ( the letter) was heart wrenching. He is the gangster who is feared by all because he is not afraid of death. But in the end, when he is betrayed to the police by his sweetheart, his wails left you bewildered -wails of a man who was looking forward to his life ahead and was thwarted.
Kangna as the alcoholic Simran who desperately seeks for her niche and dreams of a settled life was brilliant. Simran comes across as the woman who loves Daya inspite of him being a gangster and yet loses all hope in him after she loses her adopted kid in a shoot-out. She is on the brink of a breakdown and grabs the first offer of a home which is offered by the creepy crawly Emraan Hashmi.
Kangna was mind-blowing and she is just 19 years old! And what a mesmerizing voice!
Emraan Hashmi did what he does best. One has to admire him you know. He effortlessly makes you hate him which is his job. We loathed him in Murder so easily! He is a good actor in that sense I think. I will watch out for other movies by Anurag Basu henceforth. Really good work.

After seeing them act, Im looking forward to Woh Lamhe which stars Kangna and Shiny Ahuja. I read a brief outline of the movie and this also promises to be a good love story. But I will not watch it in theatre. I cannot shed copious tears amidst hundred other onlookers. Let me weep in peace if I have to do so :-D
I read the review of Hazaaron khwahishein aisi and I wonder how I missed this movie. I mean I didnt even realise it ever released. Thats the disadvantage of keeping track of only star-studded movies. And then everyone says Bollywood produces only junk. Dont tell me gangster is also an adaptation of some Hollywood movie! So we do have good movies in the Hindi film industry but they are overshadowed by the glamourous ones.
The song that stayed with me after watching Gangster was not Tu hi meri shab hai but this one :

mujhe mat roko mujhe yaar ke ghar jaane do
main hun parwaana mujhe shamma pe mit jaane do

usko paana hi meri zindagi ka maqsad hai
gar wo milta hai mujhe marke to marr jaane do

dil ki aankhon ne meri apna sanam dekh liya
ab isi dar par mere damm ko nikal jaane do

sa re ga me

Have you heard this song "sa re ga me" from the Tamil movie Boyz. It has a lot of spunk.
My tamil is not so great :-D The gist of the song is - think different, reach for the sky and never give up and honesty, mistakes and love are the secrets of success. The music is by AR Rehman and he is rumoured to have charged a whopping 2 crores for this movie and he deserved every penny of it. Its a teen movie and was a shock to conservative chennai-ites. I was surprised at this as other tamil movies are full of innuendoes. This was more direct and addressed many issues. Should I try translating the lyrics here? mmm no I guess. It will be a disaster :-D

Saw gangster

I liked the movie :-) My sympathies were with daya :-(

and I never hated Emraan Hashmi this much!!

It happens only in India

In the canteen today, while I was eating, I heard a firang talking. Thats pretty usual here as there are so many exchange students around from all over the world. But then I heard things like "butt-her naan has butt-her in it and saambhaar and chhatt-nee are south indian dishes". This made me curious and so i turned around to see the firang who was this well-informed and was making it known to others that he was this well informed. It turned out that the speaker was actually an Indian who was with the firangs and was educating them. Hee hee serving comes naturally to us. Imitation comes naturally to us. Almost every phoren-returned Indian has an accent. I sometimes wonder that maybe if they talked in their language, firangs wouldnt understand them and so they mimic and later find it tough to get out of that habit.
Some of the firang girls who come here adapt to the place. Some of them are very gorgeous and some of them are well just plain pale (or gori as they call it) - mousey eyes, washed out hair and stuff ( he he m just too proud of the way we are ;-) )
We had a batch last semester who were seen everyday in very pretty salwars and paayal and danglers and stuff. And saris too!! They had a collection. I cant wear a sari without help !:-D And cant walk in it without help :-D And these firangis were seen cycling in those saris!! :-D
I guess its mainly the excitement of trying out a new culture. But it also helps them in a way. You see letching at girls is also a part of our culture. I once saw a man riding his bike (he was almost in his 40's.. believe you me thats the dangerous species.. they are the major letchers). This firangi girl was wearing decent sleeveless T-shirt and jeans and was coming from the opposite direction on a cycle. He turned all the way to watch her. Ah I so wished that he crash his bike in a tree but then he must have been very experienced in letching.
V-TV's ghar mein maa behen nahin hai kya ad couldnt have been more perfect!
My friend told me about a girl who was eve-teased in a bus. She retaliated by jumping on his feet with her heeled sandals 3 times before getting down :-D kudos. Imagine the pain the man must have suffered for a week :-D Awesome

psst psst.. I still cant access the blogspot but I can still read comments cos of the mail alerts :-D So dont ditch this site please :-D

Cant access

I dont know about others but I havent been able to access my blogsite. Is bloggers blocked again or has our proxy reacted late to the ban imposed everywhere else in the country? If so, I hope it does follow the lifting of the ban also. You see things are always delayed here..
Maybe this will get posted or maybe not.
Lemme see