The nth draft !

Something something

Hello Im back after a long hiatus.
This new year started with gory killings (kids for godsakes!!) and a shameful hanging. Yes Saddam was a dictator and a murderer but the way his death was publicised just like the n# of reality shows around, was disgraceful. Noida killings is a horror saga thats still on, as bits and pieces of innocent kids are still being unearthed (or rather fished out). Gives one the shivers. Im sure an execution in this case is too fast and too easy a death for the fiends. They deserve something worser.

Back to me, I was off for a Kolkata trip, a nice and memorable trip actually. Had fun and did some work too. Met old friends and made new friends. You know research may be monotonous, mundane stuff but it sure has its benefits. There is some amount of prestige involved in being called a scientist or a physicist. And then I love learning new things and Ill hate to miss all this just because I have to follow conventions. Oh I hate it all... sighhhhh

Movies watched meanwhile: Kabul Express (it rocks, good cinema); Umrao Jaan (Agreed Ash looked gorgeous but I had to ffwd much of it, didn't everyone (except a few) sound artificial speaking Urdu, come on its not tough!! Its called a meethi zubaan and certainly should be an effortless task for a multicrore movie); Maine pyar kyun kiya ( Timepass); Baabul (Sob sob); Something something (Tam movie which was something something)

And oh yet again - When will I get out of this infernal place!!! and which other infernal place am I heading to!!! And oh cant I just ffwd my life!!!
So much for a new year arriving with a bang :-(

PS: IM NOT TB. TB is someone else. IM JUST T who is actually called something else.

Greetings

Wish you all a great year ahead :-)

Arvind Kejriwal

Yoohoo we will hear Arvind Kejriwal, founder of Parivartan speak this saturday.
The forwarded mail had this good quote:
Let not your sense of morals prevent you from doing what's right
- Salvor Hardin, Foundation.
Apart from the open air theatre, this is the other thing Ill miss when I leave this place. I have heard some really good/famous/brilliant personalities speak here. One does not get this exposure very often elsewhere.
But the day of leaving this place seems so far away. Everything is getting delayed :-( Im impatient with my life and want it to rush on. Its as if its stuck in a rut. And a big shove will only get it out of this rut and push it into another ditch.
Im so morale-less early in the morning :-(
I have something to look forward to on this saturday. :-) Plus Anastasia in OAT. If they had to screen old movies, why cant they screen the classics. Im dying to see Casablanca.

Rise of China

There was an editorial in Hindu about the huge number of gold medals in the Chinese contingent. Recently, my friends attended two conferences, in different disciplines. And they were also talking about the swarming of Zangs and Mings in these fields. And many of them had remarkable work to their credit. This is the trend there - the chinese students go abroad study in top-class universities and then they get back to their country and develop the infrastructure in their country. And China offers them very attractive packages also, so that they dont lose out personally either.

A review or a comment?

Review of Kabul Express

Are we "bedding with a monster"? I still have reservations about the nuclear deal and it beats me why India appears so desperate for this. Im not knowledgeable about these things but the opinions floating around in the media are also not very optimistic about this. Instead why not revive our institutions. It is a known thing that much money is squandered away in government institutions and how inefficient, lazy and evil authorities are busy filling up their coffers and in preventing real hard workers do their job for the fear of them outshining. So the much revered establishments have now been reduced to white elephants. Why not clean out such parasites first instead of inviting more in the country?
One of my friend was saying that India needs something hard to wake up and inspire the kind of passion it had when it fought for its Independence. And I think her wish will be granted pretty soon if we do carry on with our association with the "monster". Isnt history supposed to be a teacher!
Anyway now I want to see this movie more than ever. Waiting for the last week of December :-D

Currently, Im reading the Count of Monte Cristo by A. Dumas. I had read an abridged version in my childhood and Im reading the unabridged version only now. A very gripping narrative and too good. I had read his Three Musketeers but not his Man in the iron mask, but have seen the movie.
I had heard that A Dumas used to employ writers to churn out stories for him. I dont how much truth is attached with this. But his stories are awesome.

Take 2

2nd draft = Expand the 1st draft by 3 times.
(Take a deep breath. Its no easy job. )
Im starting to think that cooking 3 times a day is easier :-(
Anyway today's phdcomics says this
I got pissed off yesterday by a fellow who was doing the thinking for me, whether Ill earn in dollars, euros or pounds next and then took offence when I said tata to him pointblank. See my patience is hanging by a thread! My next occupation is not decided and people have been worrying about what Ill earn next!!! Are they this jobless!!Anyway everyone to their own pastime.

Chimp champ

:-D I like the smirk on its face.
Disclaimer: No particular affection for this species. We see them all the time in our hostels and vice versa. We literally cohabit. They enter our rooms at the first chance available, share our food, drink from the same water cans and drape themselves in our washed clothes hanging on the strings. So no love lost between us.

Shocking

Man held for selling wife's kidney to meet liquor expenses

..

A friend once said to me "Dont say yes when you want to say no". I have not learnt that yet and I often get disturbed because of this very same habit.

A very crude draft of my thesis is ready :-D Im bad at technical writing. My 10 page reports undergo 5 revisions in general. Im gearing up for 5*6 revisions now :-( :-D.

Rahman's Guru

Do check out the soundtracks of Rahman's Guru. As usual, Rahman has given us awesome tracks. My favourite track is Bin tere kya jeena. Mayya mayya also sounds great with an arabian lilt to it. Barso re does give a feel of rains. Im watching out for the release of this movie. Anything ManiRathnam is immensely watchable starting from his Mauna Raagam.
I saw Dhoom2 and did not like it. In every scene, the director focussed on the lead stars Ekta Kapoor style - you know the 3 shots per person from different angles- dhudum dhudum dhudum style :-D Dhoom1 had more thrill factor and chill factor (psst psst John Abraham being my latest liking).
Movies Im looking out for - Guru, Kabul express and Babul :-D
Looks like Ill have a working winter vacation but I hope to take little breaks for these 3 movies..

Supernova and time travel

(Ok I tried sleeping but I had terrible nightmares yesterday so just a lil scared of hitting the bed :-D So I thought Ill blab a little on my blabspot:-D )

A few days back we had a talk in our department by an astrophysicist on supernova remnants. This was a study of the dust cloud thats left behind by stars who could not stand their own weight and blew up, the explosions are called supernova/e . The SRs have been seen in our own galaxy too and are some 3000 light years away. An interesting question was raised. Since
these stars are some 3000 light years away (meaning the light from them has taken 3000 years to reach us), what is being studied now is in the past (in fact 3000 years back). How does one know what is the current status of those remnants? Seen this way, our future generations 3000 years from now will know what is happening now, not us :-D To this, the speaker had a smooth answer. SRs have been seen in other galaxies too and these are some 10000 light years away. Since, the constitution of those SRs is the same as those in our galaxy, we can compare the time status and predict what will happen to the observations 3000 years later. One advantage of predictive science. BTW pony tails seems to be the latest fad amongst physicists these days. Why would anyone ever want to grow hair at all?!!

Douglas Adams in Hitchhikers guide to galaxy has an interesting take on time travel. Ill copy paste that here

One of the major problems encountered in time travel is not that of accidentally becoming your own father or mother. There is no problem involved in becoming your own father or mother that a broadminded and well-adjusted family can't cope with. ... The major problem is quite simply one of grammar, and the main work to consult in this matter is Dr Dan Streetmentioner's Time Traveller's Handbook of 1001 Tense Formations. It will tell you for instance how to describe something that was about to happen to you in the past before you avoided it by time-jumping forward two days in order to avoid it. ... Most readers get as far as the Future Semi-Conditionally Modified Subinverted Plagal Past Subjunctive Intentional before giving up: and in fact in later editions of the book all the pages beyond this point have been left blank to save on printing costs.

Hitchhikers is a must read :-D
(Pic from wiki)

Q?

Was life on earth an accident or are we someone's else timepass?

Its already December!! the last month of this year! Not days, but months are whizzing past us. Was time always this fast for our ancestors too or is time in a rush to meet its end?

Is it delirium or is it time for me to sleep? Or both? :-D
May we all have a rocking end to 2006. :-)

Obit

Two of our Msc teachers passed away this week - Dr. V Ramachandran and Dr. D. K. Sharma. They taught us stat mech and optics respectively. Very harmless people and very cheerful. I didnt get to interact with Dr. VR much, but Dr. DKS was around until recently. I guess since we are still in campus, and their news came just one after the other, it feels strange.
We have been here in this campus for just too long. When will my time here in campus end....

Vivah

After braving 30 minutes of Omen, we brave souls returned to our rooms and watched Barjatya's Vivaah. This movie was like any other Barjatya movie - diabetically sweet, but it had a good ending - an ending with a message. The story goes like this - Poonam is an orphan, who grew up in her uncle's home. Her aunt doesnt like her as she is beautiful and her own daughter isnt. I personally thought her daughter had more spirit, more lively. Poonam is the shy, eyelashes batting kind of girl, very very docile. Her marriage is arranged with Prem (shahid) and they both fall in love. The day before the wedding, there is a fire in her house and she gets badly burnt. Inspite of this, Prem marries her and takes care of her. This was the good ending. There is a dialogue in the hospital where the doc says that this hospi is used to seeing brides burnt for dowry, this is the first time we see a burnt girl being made a bride.

This movie reminded me of a fire tragedy in Tamil Nadu 2-3 years back. Here the kalyana mandapam (wedding hall) caught fire while the wedding ceremony was going on. I dont remember exactly who else died, but the bride's father and the groom died in it. Bride survived. We were scared for her as belief in bad omens is very prevalent in this country of 1 billion population and god-forbid if the girl has to face any hardships because of this apart from her personal loss.

This movie also reminded me of a very romantic real-life story I heard. This guy and girl were engaged and were waiting for their wedding day. The girl was very beautiful and the first time the guy saw her (himself hidden behind a door), she was playing with her friends. Unfortunately before the wedding, the girl contracted small-pox and she had small marks on her face. Well, everyone incited the guy to break the engagement. (Society never helps make anything but they love breaking up things. So why should anyone care for them at all!! ) Anyway this guy said "If she had got the pox after marriage, then do you think I should leave her!! Its the same case now. " So they married and lived happily ever-after. You can still see the romance alive in their lives. :-D

Dare I dare the devil

Movie in OAT tomorrow is Omen-V. I am determined that I will watch at least a bit of it. I have anyway informed my friends that I might need a shelter in their rooms on saturday night :-D They are not ready to watch the movie so I should hunt for some company too.

I discovered on IMDb that the 1976 version had Gregory Peck in the lead. Woww that must have been one good movie then. I must have gushed about Gregory Peck here before. He was the proud, upright father in To kill a mocking bird ( the book by Harper Lee is also very good ) and the romantic reporter in Roman Holiday. Both the movies are a collector's piece.

Omen and Nemo (as in Finding Nemo) relate to extremely opposite characters, dont they!

Update at 3am: Im not watching Omen. By mistake, I started reading a spooky story (Fred Forsyth short story- Whispering wind), suspense kept me engrossed and I finished it at 2 am. So here I am, still wide awake and cursing my non-existent will-power, but now determined not to watch Omen. Chicken-hearted. Its 2 weeks since I ate chicken :-( Emily of Lucy Montgomery is very correct when she says that the most dismal thoughts are thought at 3 am in the night.
I am reading Wind of the willows online. Nice story. The writer has given a rhythm to the words and its a delight to read :-D A sample -

So he scraped and scratched and scrabbled and scrooged and then he scrooged again and scrabbled and scratched and scraped,....

I agreed totally when he says that the best part of a hol is not resting for days but knowing that everyone else is at work when you are relaxing. Thats so true sometimes :-D
zzzzzzzzzz

Liked this..

Main ajab ye rasm dekhi k baroz-e-id-e-kurbaan
wohi zibah bhi kare hai wohi le sawaab ulta
-Mussafi

Crudely translated as
I witnessed this strange custom on the day of sacrifice
that she is the one doing the killing and yet gets the blessings.

Lost in the jungle

Hi Im back :) I have been busy with reports, writing, assessments and the sad part is that its not over yet. Anyway, they say persistence pays and Im following this motto these days. Lage Raho :-D And here is a list of movies I watched and books I read in this period. I watched --
-> Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna : People said I must be a die hard ShahRukh fan to like this movie and I did, but not as much for SRK as for the whole story. I felt that this movie was sensitively taken. But I also noticed that all my friends who were engaged or newly married absolutely hated this movie :-D I was thrilled when John Abraham made a guest appearance in a song. I didnt know this before.
-> Lage Raho Munnabhai : Hilarious, good timepass and thats it. My expectations were too high I guess. Didnt touch a chord.
-> Dor : A very sweet movie, sweetest cos the girl gets her freedom towards the end. Shreyas, the guy in Iqbal, was too good as the behrupiya but Ayesha was the best part of the movie. Refreshing, sweet, innocent. I had raved about her movie Socha Na Tha too. Endearing.
-> Khosla ka Ghosla : A good movie. A con-for-con story set up in a very real family background. With Anupam Kher, Boman Irani and few other known faces, this movie lingers on your mind. Do watch this too. Maybe such movies would not have succeeded if the multiplex culture had not set in.
-> Dumm Dumm Dumm : A tamil movie with Madhavan and Jyothika in the leads. I watched it for the 3rd time. Very sweet and romantic and very watchable. Good music too.

Im looking for a good book to read. The books I have been reading are nice to read and are forgettable. I want to read something moving like Gone with the wind or entertaining like the bartimeus trilogy. Any suggestions?

If not waves,

... make ripples.
I got this as a greeting card message few years back :-)
Pic courtesy: Bala, an awesome photographer and a dreamer :)

Ancient mathematics

*
I heard an interesting talk on algorithms in ancient Indian mathematics. I was amazed by the ingenuity of those days' mathematicians. And they never wrote it down in symbols!! Everything was written in Shlokas and verses. For eg. the speaker figured out for us how they expressed the concept of mods (|A-B|) in words (sanskrit) as the difference between A and B the order of A and B being immaterial. The full theorem was in 4 lines **. He spoke of so many famous mathematical theorems which were independently discovered by Indians long before the west did***. And the way they have been derived is incredible. The value of sqrt(2) and pi were known to good accuracy in those days!
And I never thought before how much astrology depends on science especially astronomy. Ok maybe now the astrologers just follow set rules and formulae and calculate planetary positions, but someone has derived all that in the first place, and for that they needed astronomy and all this was worked out!!
Someone**** in the audience said "its said that in India nothing ever dies" So maybe these sciences are worked out the Indian way even now in some place.
A very enlightening talk and well spent 2 hours.

Chennai police have been given flashy white cars NYPD style with sirens lights etc and they were seen parading up and down with loud sirens two days back. Like kids roaming with their new bikes :-D Well the sirens were louder than the ambulance sirens and thats a cause for worry too.
-------------------------------------------- *****
*back again :-D
** This reminded me of my sanskrit learning days. All I remember now is Aham gacchaami. twam gacchati/si. and kukuraha :-D He he see its very important to learn the swear words in every language. Atleast if one does get abused god forbid, one should know wat one has been called :-D
*** Why dont we lay our claim to all that? We Indians are never assertive enough or maybe sometimes we just dont care.
**** Aarghh its so difficult not mentioning names. This audience member always speaks brilliantly and I always look fwd to his insights in discussions. Im more of a listener than a speaker.
***** I love this Bartimeus style of putting thoughts as footnotes :-D

Umrao Jan & Remakes

The original Umrao Jan was a masterpiece. This UJ will have a tough time in competing with that.

I was listening to the songs of the new UJ. There is a touching song which goes as Agle Janam Mohe Bitiya na kijo.. The version sung by the kid (I think) is the best. Apart from this, I didnt much like anything else. The original movie had some beautiful songs and did you know that some of those songs were written by the real Umrao Jan whose taqallus (pen name!) was Ada. So Ada is mentioned in the last couple of lines of the songs written by her. The music was exceptional. Like you can see, Im a big fan of almost everything in the original :-D

Im told Don is also is a must-watch though one shouldnt exercise the grey cells in the movie-hall. I liked the music - peppy. Im looking for bakra/i-s who wil spend good 3 hours with me in the theatre :-D I already have one bakri in sight :-D ;-)

What puts me off Dhoom2 is the absence of John Abraham and the presence of Aishwarya. Somehow I cant tolerate her and I always wonder what boys see in her. No grace, just a pin-up doll. Give me Sush anyday. You should hear Sush speak and you ll see why she was the Miss. Universe and not Ash. Sush=intelligence.

psst psst: The flow I used to have while composing a post is lacking these days and posting for the sake of posting is boring so Ill take a breather until I get that back. Maybe soon maybe not.
Till then dhoom machaale dhoom machaale dhoom :-D

Edit: Did Umrao Jaan exist for real? Rediff has an article on this

I read about Umrao Jaan's existence in the book White Mughals by William Dalrymple. The story in this book is based on a collection of letters from that era and is set in Hyderabad. He mentions Umrao Jaan in passing.

My latest obsession

Thats my laptop :-D

Acer Aspire 5550 series.
Centrino dual core.
1.25 GB RAM.

Runs like a dream. Im keeping my fingers crossed though against any mishaps :-)

Wish me luck :-D
Now hazaaron minus one khwahishein left ;-)

Thousand Hand Bodhisatva

(A friend fwded this beautiful video. This is a video of 21 members of the China Disabled People's Performing Art Troupe performing the Thousand-hand Bodhisattva dance; the members are all deaf. The first two minutes are spectacular)

Thousand Hand Bodhisatva

Kitaabon ke aage..

i have never visited a waterfalls yet in my life but I was listening to a travel account of a visit to this one beautiful place. It seems that no one was allowed to venture near the actual falls but a few feet away there was a nook where the water was calmer and where even families were taking a dip.
I was thinking that our situation is similar to this in some way. Around us life rushes on, and we still are students. We havent yet faced the real world, ourselves leading a sheltered life while our contemporaries get jobs, succeed in their fields, and have a life in general.

Well kitaabon ke aage jahan aur bhi hai :-)

I think the real couplet goes as
Sitaaron ke aage jahaan aur bhi hai
Abhi ishq ke imtihaan aur bhi hain

psst psst I saw SRK's interview on NDTV and fell in love with him all over again. :-D
gn

Deep brown sea

Campus e techie mein baarish ka fasana hai
Paani ka dariya hai aur doob ke jaana hai

Fireplace ya heater par haathon ko sukhana hai
kadaake ki sardi hai, aur raat tanha bitaana hai

:-D
Im back :) The hols passed away way too fast. We are getting heavy rains in Chennai and as usual we had to wade through knee deep water near hostel.

I slept at human hours all these days and today sach me raat tanha bitaana hai :-(
Cheerio

Jail for Imrana's FIL

I had talked about the Imrana case in my July 12,2k5 post
(I had a heated debate abt it with Noemaun then on this who is now a good friend and is not as rigid (maybe) as he was then :-D )

And this comes as good news
Jail for Imrana's father-in-law
And I dont know why the Human Rights ppl put up their arms when a death sentence is given! Like in the Afzal Guru case. These people dont hesitate a bit when they have to kill hundreds. Why not a death sentence to them! In fact I think a death sentence is too light for people who are truly guilty. Maybe the truly guilty part is under question here. But we cant keep giving benefit of doubts to people na! See if the court had given death sentence to Masood Azhar and company, Kandahar wouldnt have happened at all!
I dont know the ways of the world.
--------------------------------------

Even taking a holiday cant be done with peace here. I have this small feeling that I could do wonders for my thesis in these 5 days if I stay here.
wat the heck chutti hai to chutti hai.
Au Revoir and have fun :-)

Dekho baarish ho rahi hai

We woke up to a rainy morning today, the water-logging kind of rains - a lovely weather that makes one crave for hot filter coffee and bonda-bajji.
Wierdly, the song that comes to my mind is Anu Malik's english education mission
Dekho baarish ho rahi hai
Its raining its raining its rai...ning
Mera dil ro raha hai
my heart is paining its paining its pai...ning

(psst my heart not paining..its just the song :-D)
A lovely day to work.
Have a nice day

Oh btw
Wish you all a very happy Diwali and Eid mubarak :-)
Me going on a 5-day leave starting tomorrow :-D

Wanderings

Kuch hulchul hai, mann bekal hai
Khyalon ka jaise mela hai
Main yahan rukun ya wahan rukun
Har raks yahan rangeela hai

-T

Aaina

"Mirror mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of them all"
So asks the cruel queen in the Snow-white fairy tale.

But isnt it true that she is not the only one who wants to know this !! Be it girls or guys, everyone invariably preens in front of a mirror.
There are natures in mirrors too. Some mirrors are good and some are bad. No matter how tired and haggard you might be, the good ones always show you in a good light. The mirrors in the department are just so placed that one looks fresh at any angle ;-) Unfortunately, the one in my room highlights my every fault. In our old hostel, the mess was inside the hostel building. And just outside the mess, there was a full-size mirror. Now, everyone looked gorgeous in this mirror. So it was customary for all the girls to take a look, smile to themselves and start the day.

So when I buy a mirror for my home, Ill make sure its friendly to me :-D
Aaina has a nice ring to it. A nice name.

Shani ke chakra

Thats beautiful isnt it! This news item was in Nature this week.

"This September brought a fantastic photo opportunity for Cassini, the spacecraft in orbit around Saturn. Its trajectory brought it into the ringed planet's shadow for about 12 hours, giving it a striking view with the Sun lying directly behind.This September brought a fantastic photo opportunity for Cassini, the spacecraft in orbit around Saturn. Its trajectory brought it into the ringed planet's shadow for about 12 hours, giving it a striking view with the Sun lying directly behind.

With the glare of the Sun blocked, Cassini's cameras could pick up light glinting from particles just 1-10 micrometres across. The effect is similar, says Cassini imaging scientist Joe Burns of Cornell University in New York state, to the way that stray hairs are highlighted when a person is illuminated from behind.With the glare of the Sun blocked, Cassini's cameras could pick up light glinting from particles just 1-10 micrometres across. The effect is similar, says Cassini imaging scientist Joe Burns of Cornell University in New York state, to the way that stray hairs are highlighted when a person is illuminated from behind.

The light show revealed several ringlets that haven't been seen before, the team reported at the American Astronomical Society's Division for Planetary Sciences Meeting in Pasadena, California, this week. One particularly bright ringlet, they say, may be the remains of a recently shattered moon."

Gut feelings

Ahh I feel as if something is constantly digging in my stomach. Hunger might be a culprit though dinner was not so long ago but its a gut feeling that its something besides that. Im not old enough for heart attacks rt!! :-D I have a long lifeline anyway :-D
So with all this here-a-dig-there-a-dig, its an early night for me. The day just passed by with nothing much done though I was doing something or other all the time. Time flies and progress crawls.

I have my eyes set on something and I hope I do something to realise that goal.
I was listening to Abida's Raqs-e-Bismil collection and Ill post a few lines from there
Zaahid ne mera housle-imaan nahin dekha
Ruq par teri zulfon ko parishaan nahin dekha
..
Kya kya hua hungaam-e-junoon ye nahin maaloom
Hosh jab aaya to girebaan nahi dekha
You have to listen to her to appreciate this. She creates the mood for you. My feeling. I like her ghazals better than her qawwalis and mind you they are brilliant too. Bulle nun Samjhavan aayiyan is my all time favourite.

My insomnia is cured now. You know how? I have just reconciled to the fact that I get sleep only at 2.30am. So my rhythm has adjusted to 5 hours of sleep. Quite enough I guess.

I get so angry at people sometimes. Everyone has problems but why spoil everyone's mood for that !! Im done with pleasing people.

Psst psst doesnt it feel good when you solve some problem!! And especially when some other guy failed to do so. Im not that great with s/w. Today some Mac techies had come over to sort out something,. They failed and I sorted it out :-D Yesssss :-D They were showing off so much (all bluffs, you know how s/w engineers (or engineers (period)) behave rt! As if they wrote the code for the elegant universe (flamebait :-D)). That made it much sweeter. I was one step short of sticking out my tongue to them :-D
Gawd am I vain !! ;-)

SRK unwatchable! :-D

That was SRK!! Millions are fida over him now including me :-D I always say that he is like wine. Gets better with age :-D I think he looked best after DDLJ. Well groomed maybe.

The slide show is on rediff

To what use

There was a talk by Medha Patkar in campus today. Serious, disturbing. She got a resounding applause at the end.
Thats the end of it.
Im saying this cos even I plan to build my life first. In whatever way.
And I know everyone around me also had the same thoughts.

Tamannaz trivia

* Recently discovered the ghazals sung by Nayyara Noor. Her voice has a soothing old world charm. My favourite so far is Ae jazba-e-dil gar main chahun..

* Chennai's auto-drivers are notorious and ever annoying. One rarely finds an auto-driver who quotes the right price and is decent and polite. My time-tested way to deal with them is to apply the policy Tu nahi to koi aur nahi sahi, koi aur nahi to koi aur sahi. Believe me it works.

* Reading Bartimaeus trilogy's final part - Ptolemy's gate. I get time for this late at night so Im burning the midnight oil these days. :-D Stupidly, I read the end. Curiosity kills the show :-(

* Slowest part of the day- afternoon from 1 to 4pm (time drags). Fastest part of the day- night-time from 8pm to 12am (time flies).

* Doing nothing ramzan-ish :-( Me a very bad girl.
God-willing I'll reform before its too late. I find Eid joyful only when Ramzan month is like it should be, but then nothing is normal in my life these days. Im looking forward to the normal days :-) Mom's iftaars are awesome affairs and I havent eaten a single one this time yet.

* And hey my work is interesting these days :-D

Watch what you speak

Tamil-speaking man sparks security alert

"... the man was speaking Tamil and some English in a conversation over his cellphone about a sporting rivalry when getting ready to board an American Airlines flight to Dallas' Fort Worth International Airport.

An off-duty airline employee heard the conversation and alerted the flight crew. ..

.. he will not speak a foreign language on his cellphone at an airport in the future"

:-D

post and delete

I seem to be posting stuff and deleting them the next day. There is a fine line between a personal diary and a public diary and I seem to be crossing that very often these days.

Dikhayi diye yun ke bekhud kiya..

There is a beautiful song in the movie Bazaar which goes as
dikhaaii diye yuu.N ki beKhud kiyaa
hame.n aap se bhii judaa kar chale

I think a very young Supriya Pathak enacts this song. Anyway I discovered today that this is actually a ghazal written by the famous poet Mir Taqi Mir. The full ghazal goes as

faqiraana aaye sadaa kar chale
miyaa.N Khush raho ham duaa kar chale

jo tujh bin na jiine ko kahate the ham
so is ahd ko ab wafaa kar chale

koii naa-ummiidaana karate nigaah
so tum ham se muu.Nh bhii chhipaa kar chale

bahot aarazuu thii galii kii terii
so yaa.N se lahu me.n nahaa kar chale

dikhaaii diye yuu.N ki beKhud kiyaa
hame.n aap se bhii judaa kar chale

jabii.n sajadaa karate hii karate gaii
haq-e-ba.ndagii ham adaa kar chale

parastish kii yaa.N taiin ki ayei but tujhe
nazar me.n sabo.n kii Khudaa kar chale

gaii umr dar ba.nd-e-fikr-e-Gazal
so is fan ko aisas ba.Daa kar chale

kahe.n kyaa jo puuchhe koii ham se "Meer"
jahaa.N me.n tum aaye the, kyaa kar chale

Ctrl-C Ctrl-Ved from this collection.

There is a song in the movie Dil hai ki maanta nahin which goes as "main pyaar hun kisi aur ka mujhe chaahta koi aur hai". This apparently has been cut copy pasted from another ghazal written by a poet by name Saleem Kausar. This is blatant plagiarism rt! I hope the songwriters do put in the actual credits somewhere. You can find the full text here. The lines I like most in this are

kabhii lauT aayeN to na puuchhnaa sirf dekhnaa baRe Ghaur se
jinheN raaste meN Khabar hu’ii ki ye raastaa ko’ii aur hai

Bartimaeus- the world's most notorious djinni

Book just read -

Golem's eye. The second book in the Bartimaeus trilogy.

Books in hand -

Adventures of Sally by PGW

Emily's Quest by LM Montgomery

Mostly Harmless by Doug Adams.

3 dull boring research papers ( to be honest 1 dull one. the others have been very useful and understandable. I am very happy when I find a journal paper that doesnt OHT (overhead transmit) . A couple of them have been a delight to read. Maano ya na maano :-D

Coming back to the Bartimaeus trilogy, the first book in the series was Amulet of Samarkhand. This is the story of an orphaned boy called Nathaniel who wants to be a famous magician. The story is set in London which is ruled by Magicians. ( The muggles here are called the commoners. thank god for a decent name. This we are used to, as every news channel keeps talking about aam aadmi and common man.. pray tell me who is an uncommon man!!)
Anyway he summons up a djinn called Bartimaeus who has been around for quite a long time. The djinn is a delightful character. He is witty, very vain, very practical, has a very condescending opinion of humans. His thoughts have been put as footnotes and they are the ones to watch out for. The story gets more engaging in the second book, Golem's eye. Looking forward to reading the third part.

You can check out the excerpts at their site. Its a book worth reading. Infact I found it more fascinating than the Harry Potters.

Goodnight :-)

Water goes to Oscar

Have you seen the movie? This is when I joined John Abraham's fanclub. Lisa was gorgeous as ever and Seema Biswas brilliant. But what stayed in the mind after the movie was the girl who played the role of Chuhiya. Cute, chubby chubby and a moving perfomance. Im happy that this movie goes to Oscar but afsos from Canada. What is India's nomination this time ?



Saw a good review of Dor on rediff. Would love to see the movie. Ayesha Takia was very refreshing in Socha Na Tha, Shreyas was mind blowing in Iqbal and Nagesh Kukunoor 's movies are always a delight :-) Will it be released in Chennai! Im watching out :-)

Comments

I would hate to moderate comments here as that would mean policing.

But I would more or less like the readers to follow the guidelines given at the IM comment policy site. I think they are reasonable and easy enough to follow. Also, please dont post anonymous comments. Leave your name behind. Nameless comments will not be retained.

I also reiterate my Disclaimer stated in my first post which says

The views put up here are entirely my own and I hope they dont hurt nebody. And if they are disagreeable to nebody, they are entitled to their own opinions.

I write the blog because I enjoy it and my readers are mainly my friends who do know what I mean or I dont mean by something or others who have come to know me. And criticism from them has been always taken with pleasure and my misconceptions cleared too. I have not put it up at any publicity site either. So I dont consider it an obligation for everyone to read and suffer my ramblings.
In short, decent debates are always welcome but please dont be nasty :-D

Miffed and hmphh-ing

1. My cycle is missing :-| I had not seen it for the past 3 weeks and when I checked today it was not there. The security people have been nice to me and they are my last hope. Its only a cycle but it was the first thing I bought with my fellowship and was quite attached to it. sob sob.
2. Dosai in mess. Believe me I hate them by now. And instead of fruit salad, they served cut and mashed bananas. Yewww. The mess servers think they are as clean as a baby and so shuffle and massage the food stuff and serve it to us. Tomorrow's breakfast is also repulsive. They call it uttapam but looks more like the things they feed an elephant. Fat and raw at core.
   
3. To leave physics or not to is the dilemma and the first tentative step away has to be taken by tomorrow evening. I dread talking to my advisor about it. But whats gotta be done gotta be done. I wish I could see my future. I will even be very grateful if there is somebody out there who knows who I am and what I want and makes the decisions for me. I no longer know myself what to do :-D

On the bright side, Im reading a nice sweet novel by LM Montgomery called Emily Climbs. Its the second part of the Emily series and very cute. It has a third part too. I think its called Emily's Quest. Plus my friend has bought the second part of Amulet Of Samarkhand so more of Bartimeus awaiting me :-D Thats a djinni with an attitude haan!!
Plus weekend is not far away :-) These days I even love the food I cook :-D Homemade food is the mantra. Once upon a time I used to hate eating and wished for nutrition capsules.
Thats why people say watch what you ask for.

I have lost all hope now :-D

I happened to overhear a conversation in the canteen today. (Actually I overheard only the first part of the conversation. I turned towards them and actively listened to the rest of it. :-D ) Was pretty shocked, surprised and amused in turns. Ill try to sketch the picture for you here (atleast the gist)

( 3 guys, all of them btechs, maybe in 2nd/3rd year were discussing)

A: Arre yaar tu kaisi ladki se shaadi karega?

B: arre use ghar ka kaam aana chahiye, zyada ladkon ke saath na mili ho, khaana theek se banaaye.

C: Haan yaar hamaare yahan to 4th std mein hi ladkiyaan chaaye banaa leti hain. zyada se zyada ladkiyan 10th 12th tak padhti hain

B: arre 10th 12th tak padhi ho to ye sab seekhne ka time kahaan milega.

A; u know meri mausi doctor hain par sab kaam tareeke se karti hain, har cheez banaa deti hain.

B: ye sab maa baap par bhi depend karta hai na. jaisa sikhate hain wahi to hoga. maine kayi gharon mein ye bhi dekha hai k ladke badhiya khaana bana lete hain.

A; u know ladkiyon ko padhao to wo guys ka advantage cut ho jaata hai..

Believe me Im not bluffing. We were stunned. Pin drop silence in our table. This was just too good to miss :-D Im sure these creatures will also demand dowries. Wo ladkon waala advantage jo mil gaya hai unhe!! I hope that atleast by the time they graduate, they get rid of their medieval ideas.

Why did I lose hope? Well I thought today's educated men wouldnt mind dealing with a person like me. I have failed the criteria of 10th std education. I can cook sparing a few accidents (I will not starve) but not perfectly. But then I have a hope that this species is in minority. I hope to god that Im right :-D

Blogged with Flock

I saw Munich

And I liked it. Before watching the movie, I had reservations about it. LIke I said, I could not read more than 100 pages of O Jerusalem because I was biased against it. This time I was determined that Ill sit through the full movie whatever be the case. And I liked it. I felt it had a balanced view. When one looks at the issue from either side, one feels both the parties are justified. The jews had to have a home right! And the palestinians have been robbed of their home too! There is a scene where a palestinian fidayeen says to the israeli assasin "my father did not gas your father". So true!! They are paying for someone else' crimes. The movie was from Israel's point of view but it still had glimpses of the other party's stand. Showed the human side of the "terrorists" too. Its a Steven Spielberg movie and Im told he is a Jew. Im impressed :-)

History and women

I heard a very good talk today by Urvashi Butalia, a feminist historian. She talked about how history marginalises women's concerns. The talk was not on women in history but history from a woman's perspective. She specifically focussed on the history of partition. She highlighted how women were the principal victims by narrating 3 stories, and yet their (women's) plight does not find mention in the history records. This mainly depends on who writes history right! As its often said, history is written by the victorious. She raised this issue that history is much more than leaders and wars. It is also made by the people living that age. So looking into the lives which lived the trauma of partition would give us a richer history.

I used to feel this when I used to read Glimpses of world history. 200 years of a nation's history are summed up in 4 pages with major events highlighted. They say 'people lived through the worst, barbarous dynasties for over 100 years and then the regime changed'. Thats it. 100 years of hardship summed up in one line! Maybe thats why we have arts and culture so that the future generations have something other than wars, plagues and conspiracies to remember us by. This also gives us hope. We can always say "This too shall pass" ( I forget where I heard this. )

Anyway, it was a very clear, coherent talk. I liked it immensely. I admired her clear thinking. I think thats what separates the experts from the others in every field. The discussion which followed was the icing on the cake. A guy asked her what is feminism for her. She said that its the right to live her life on her own terms, the right to choose whats good for her and since it should apply to everyone, its actually humanism but humanists generally ignore the women :-D

Of books and movies

I got to see two classic movies on Sony Pix- Guess Who's Coming to Dinner & Lawrence of Arabia. Sydney Poitier had awesome presence in the first one (Kya Style hai! ) and the other one had real good dialogues. Its 3 hrs 45 mins long though.

Somebody recommended The Constant Gardener to me. Waiting to see the movie. Movie in campus this week is Munich. I checked it out on ImDB and I think Ill give it a try.

Im reading Orwell's 1984 in spells. Its difficult to read it in one go as it can get very depressing. All throughout one gets the feeling that there is no hope. I have ditched reading Glimpses of World History :-( I had reached till the era when Mughals came into picture. Someday when Im free Ill finish this. I have an allergy these days to detective, thrillers themes in books so much that I cant even read Agatha Christies. Im told Georgette Heyer writes good detective novels but I am staying away from them. She otherwise writes romances with the heroes being garbed in lavender satin breeches and pink coats and red shoes. I used to be a big fan of hers once upon a time :-D I think I have grown old. Really!

This comic strip is so apt sometimes !!

9/11 and satyagraha

Much has been said about 9/11. Year after year the world over, this day is mourned. Because 5000 people died. Yes they didnt deserve to die. What happened should never have happened. But then as a consequence, millions elsewhere have died. Well life seems to be much cheaper everywhere else. I mourn 9/11 for the millions dead. In The Hindu, there were some really good articles on this occasion.

9/11: five years later - A reflective article on the pros and cons of 9/11.

The other 9/11 - This one pointed out the other significances of 9/11 - Gandhiji's Satyagraha, Swami Vivekananda's address in Chicago..

Hands off Lebanon - "It has to be realised that wars are not a deterrent to terrorism..."
A good article on the current state of affairs in that country.

No wonder I love The Hindu. :-)

Dont dance so fast

(One of the email fwds I received - a poem written by a teenager suffering from Cancer. Its beautiful na!)

Have you ever watched kids
On a merry-go-round?
Or listened to the rain
Slapping on the ground?
Ever followed a butterfly's erratic flight?
Or gazed at the sun into the fading night?
You better slow down.
Don't dance so fast.
Time is short.
The music won't last.

Do you run through each day
On the fly?
When you ask How are you?
Do you hear the reply?
When the day is done
Do you lie in your bed
With the next hundred chores
Running through your head?
You'd better slow down
Don't dance so fast.
Time is short.
The music won't last.

Ever told your child,
We'll do it tomorrow?
And in your haste,
Not see his sorrow?
Ever lost touch,
Let a good friendship die
Cause you never had time
To call and say,"Hi"
You'd better slow down.
Don't dance so fast.
Time is short.
The music won't last.

When you run so fast to get somewhere
You miss half the fun of getting there.
When you worry and hurry through your day,
It is like an unopened gift....
Thrown away.
Life is not a race.
Do take it slower
Hear the music
Before the song is over.

*****
sighhh I seem to take my life much slower as it is....

psst I thought Ill reduce the frequency of my posts. Will it work! mmm....
By the way this blogspot enters its 3rd year in action this September :-)

Why me?

Arthur Ashe was a tennis legend who later died of AIDS.
I read this about him on wikipedia :

During his battle with AIDS, from the world over, he received letters from his fans, one of which conveyed: "Why does God have to select you for such a bad disease"?

To this Arthur Ashe replied: The world over -- 50,000,000 children start playing tennis, 5,000,000 learn to play tennis, 500,000 learn professional tennis, 50,000 come to the circuit, 5000 reach the grand slam, 50 reach Wimbledon, 4 to semi final, 2 to the finals, When I was holding a cup I never asked GOD "Why me?". And today in pain I should not be asking GOD "Why me?"

Steve McCurry's gallery

Check out Steve McCurry's gallery for more colourful pics of India.
But I also remember Circuit's dialogue in Munnabhai MBBS where he says to the foreign photographers that " tumhe India mein bhooke nange hi dekhne ko milte hain! Taj ki tasveer nikaalo na!! " Applies to this too :)

I want to see Lage Raho Munnabhai, Ahista Ahista and Jillunu Oru Kaadhal (Tamil), the last one more so cos of ARR's music. It rocks. New york Nagaram (sung by ARR himself), Munbe Va, Kummi Adi are my favourite tracks. Try listening to them :-) I too dont understand most of the words but I love the music :-)

He he Jillunu Oru Kaadhal according to me translates to "One Chilled love" :-D
One girl had translated Poovellaam Un Vaasam as "Flower all your smell" :-D

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

My wonderland

I had once mentioned my dream of a cosy library.
I saw one such place today. The setting was different but equally charming. This house was on the 4th floor. Faces a lake. And a room in this house is alloted for books. A cosy chair and a plush deewaan was added to make it every hardcore bookworm's cosy nest. And the collection there was mind-blowing. They are also avid readers and since they have piled up this collection over a span of 25 years, it was my fantasyland. I had read some of the books and I wanted to read the others :-D So you understand why i was so excited.. some day ill have a house like this. hmmm dreamzz unlimited :-D And they lent me Orwell's 1984 :)


Amulet of samarkhand was very interesting. A cute djinn in it. Its a trilogy so looking out for the rest.
Memoirs of a Geisha was too good. Collector's piece. I dont mind reading it again after a few years.
Want to read Rushdie's Midnight's children. Heard a very good review of it.
Also want to read the Satanic verses (I said this earlier)... heard a review of that too.


Saw Pirates this friday. Slimier, funnier. Understood half of it. Depp as good as ever. Wil see it again sometime and understand the rest of it :-D And there's a 3rd part... And it seems Davie Jones is a mythical character. I mean stories abt him exist. Wil research this in greater detail.

Want to see Omkara.., saw interesting reviews about it..
Heard that Gangster is a good movie.. will watch it after my assessment.

By the way my assessment on 1st. Wish me luck :) Its at 9.30 am. I hope I reach the dept by that time... imagine if the panel is made to wait for the student !! Wish me greater luck :-D
Goodnite!

Amendment to my resolution :-D

What do I do? I have been faithful to my resolution for 7 days. But then everyone around me was tempting me.. So as a result, the books I have in my room are Zahir by Paulo Coelho, a fantasy called The Amulet of Samarkhand by Jonathan Stroud, and by this weekend Ill have a hard copy of Memoirs of a Geisha. So you see its very difficult to stick to my resolution. So the amendment to my resolution is that Ill read these books as normal people do and sleep at usual hours. Thats fine right! :-D

Ebook fair

The World ebook fair is a haven for all the book lovers. I downloaded scores of classics which I would like to read sometime. Although its a pain to read ebooks and I anytime prefer reading a hard copy, I was tempted to read every other book I saw there. Sometime in my life when Im happily jobless, Ill read these. For now, download kar liya :)

Feeling nostalgic. sighhh

I heard glad tidings about my friends from my Master's days and was feeling nostalgic. Actually, I wasn't great friends with them. Just passing acquaintances. But then you remember some people and some you dont.. Was very happy for them :-D It all seems so long ago...
Today was a very remarkable day. I met 4 (!) old friends who had passed out and were visiting campus. Couldnt they have come on different days !!! :-D It would have helped reduce the monotony to a large extent. And mind you, none of them were my classmates and yet I remembered them. So dare anybody talk about my bad memory (or cuppax memory as they say here) :-D

Life has moved on for so many and sometimes I feel mine has stopped for a while, or rather has slowed down a bit. Like I say often

Subah hoti hai shaam hoti hai
zindagi yun hi tamaam hoti hai :-)

( Hey I heard this couplet in the movie Pakeezah too! )
Maybe its just taking a breather for a while and will join the mainstream after this... :-D

Its six days since I have slept properly. Even at 3am, I just lie there and wait for the sleep to come. X-( And thats more terrible than anything else.

Yesterday night, there was a thumping sound as if somebody is jumping in the room above me. After I felt I have had enough, I went up to check on my nocturnal neighbour with few other friends who had just then returned from lab. It turned out the rooms on that floor nearest to me are vacant :-D It was 2.45am. We all got scared and slept in the same room. We found today that the sound was actually made by some idiot who was playing her music with heavy bass !!!!! (#$%&^%&*) There is a time for everything. x-( Anyway it was silly of us too.. All said and done ghosts dont exist right! Please dont say anything that negates this :-D

July the 13th

I read a really nice romance novel called How to marry a marquess (yupp u read it right ;-) ) by Julia Quinn. My friend Sanjana had recommended this. (I had been searching for this novel ever since and had failed. And suddenly two of my friends who didnt know I was searching for this got the book issued. Luck! Ok thats asides besides. ) The book is hilarious and very cute. So much that I finished it in 4.5 hours flat in one sitting. I burnt the midnight oil for this and slept at 4 (!!!!) Many people ask me when do I get the time to read. Well this is how I read. Crazy right!
So I have taken a resolution.

I will not read any novels till December.

Will I stick to it? My plight seems to be like the smoker who decides to quit. I had taken this resolution once before and had broken it but let me see if it works this time. If it does, Ill mention this date in my
thesis.

Hey by the way, on July 14th when I was in 8th std, I had presented a rose to the school captain :-D Silly na the way the brain remembers irrelevant trivia!! :-D

Mumbai blasts

Varanasi - Delhi - Bombay. The intentions of the bombers seems to be to incite riots. They have been failing so far and so I get a feeling that they will only get more desperate. The intelligence agencies of our country have been very active. They already had prevented many more such with their raids but India is so vast that its difficult to take care of everything. All we can do is help them. Be alert and keep an eye open for unclaimed objects etc. I remember when after the '93 blasts, we were in Delhi and the city was on high alert. First thing we used to do after getting into a bus was check for suspicious objects under the seats etc. We were kids so the enthu was more. But its logical now to never relax our guard.
These terrorists are not humans.
I wonder how they would face their deaths. In our religion, we believe that when Angel Izrail takes our lives, his appearance is according to the sins we have committed. (Atleast thats what mom said to me :-D). The death is more painful to the worst sinner. Oh I wish their life is a living hell starting from now.
Our prayers with the survivors and the kith and kin of the dead..

Zidane's exit

World Cup finals were ruined for me when Zidane was shown a red card. What a way to end his career! Throughout this tournament he had retained his composure. I was gushing about him as the Mr. Cool to my parents just the same day. Materazzi must have said something really nasty for him to have done this. It looked like a very deliberate act and not just a burst of temper so it must have been something lousy. There are speculations that he reacted to a racial slur (like here and here). Maybe maybe not. It will come out in a few days. I just know that I hate the Italian team with all my heart for this. And Zidane still remains my favourite player.

Races faces

Have you ever felt that the Portuguese look so much like us!! Maybe its the result of colonisation. India has a mix of so many ethinicities.
The Italians remind me of Asterix comics always. Julius Caesar's nose can be spotted without difficulty in the crowd.

Random thoughts

I hate it when people jump queues. I am not even talking about a family man here who always has to rush cos there is always something else he has to attend to, though even that doesnt justify jumping queues as there are others who also have something to attend to. I am talking about college students, who on one hand would go to a posh boutique and be at their politest best to the salesmen there, but would not show the slightest respect to the patience of those who have chosen to wait their turn in the queue.

France won :-D mainly cos of their luck and strong defence I think. I dont have any preferences for the finals as I have been supporting both the teams. But I think Italy has a better chance.. good strikers, good defence, and energy. Enjoyed the world cup :-) However, after it gets over, Ill have no more late-nights and will have more productive days. Enough of these hangovers :-D

I am reading a fantasy novel called Eragon by Christopher Paolini. Its about a boy who stumbles upon a legacy of Dragon Riders and is made a Rider himself. He starts on an adventure akin to Frodo's adventure in Lord of The Rings. The book is interesting and un-put-downable. Though, having read LOTR, I end up finding similarities and making comparisons. That is a disadvantage. Still, these days the book is the treat at the end of the day after crunching numbers :-D


I am yet to find a honest doctor. So no wonder I have zero zympathy for them.

Italy won :-D

La Italia prevails :-D
As you know the match starts at 1230am Indian time. So I stayed up that late for the semis. I have never stayed up this late for my research. So by the time 90 mins were over, it was 215am. Anyway halfway through the extra time, we have a power cut ( !!:-(( %&@#$#$#$^ ). And so we missed the goals. How unfair can things be!! Luckily one girl had a radio on her mobile. Thats how we knew that Italy won in the dying minutes. Before that, a friend (kutz) fooled me with 2-1 result in Germany's favour ( Never ever believe him. He is the devil incarnate. hmmphhhh )
It must be a mourning day in Germany. They played well throughout the tournament :)

ahaa

France won :-D I saw Zidane's magic for the first time.
My desired outcome..
Germany vs Italy- Italy wins.
France vs Portugal - France wins..
And WC goes to France :-D
Lets see.