A fwd

I have CtrlC-CtrlVed this forward. Hilarious :-)
"
After every flight, Qantas pilots fill out a form called a gripe sheet, which conveys to the mechanics problems encountered with the aircraft during the flight that need repair or correction. The engineers read and correct the problem, and then respond in writing on the lower half of the form what remedial action was taken, and the pilot reviews the gripe sheets before the next flight. Never let it be said that ground crews and engineers lack a sense of humor. Here are some actual logged maintenance complaints and problems as submitted by Qantas pilots and the solution recorded by maintenance engineers. Btw ... Qantas is the only major airline that has never had a major accident.
(P = the problem logged by the pilot
S = the solution and action taken by the engineers)

P: Left inside main tire almost needs replacement.
S: Almost replaced left inside main tire.
P: Test flight OK, except auto-land very rough.
S: Auto-land not installed on this aircraft.
P: Something loose in cockpit.
S: Something tightened in cockpit.
P: Autopilot in altitude-hold mode produces a 200 feet per minute descent.
S: Cannot reproduce problem on ground.
P: Evidence of leak on right main landing gear.
S: Evidence removed.
P: DME volume unbelievably loud.
S: DME volume set to more believable level.
P: Friction locks causes throttle levers to stick.
S: That's what they're there for.
P: IFF inoperative.
S: IFF always inoperative in OFF mode.
P: Suspected crack in windshield.
S: Suspect you're right.
P: Number 3 engine missing.
S: Engine found on right wing after brief search.
P: Aircraft handles funny.
S: Aircraft warned to straighten up, fly right, and be serious.
P: Target radar hums.
S: Reprogrammed target radar with lyrics.
P: Mouse in cockpit.
S: Cat installed.
P: Noise coming from under instrument panel. Sounds like a midget pounding on something with a hammer.
S: Took hammer away from midget.

:-D

Tere Bin- Rabbi Shergill

Have you heard this song by Rabbi? Its beautiful..
(Translation from Wiki)

tere bin / besides you

sanu sohnia / my love

koi hor nahio labhna / i shan't find another

jo dave / who'll give

ruh nu sakun / peace to my soul

chukke jo nakhra mera / and indulge me

ve main sare ghumm ke vekhia / i have gone and seen it all

amrika , roos, malaysia / america, russia, malaysiana

kittey vi koi fark si / there wasn't any difference

har kise di koi shart si / they all had some condition

koi mangda mera si sama / some asked for my time

koi hunda surat te fida / some were fascinated with my face

koi mangda meri si vafa / some demanded my fidelity

na koi mangda merian bala / none wanted my demons

tere bin / besides you

hor na kise / no one else

mangni merian bala / wanted my demons

tere bin / besides you

hor na kise / no one else

karni dhup vich chhan / shall shade me in the sun

jiven rukia / (the) way you paused

si tun zara / slightly

nahion bhulna / i shan't forget

main sari umar / all my life

jiven akhia si akhan chura / you said, looking away

"rovenga sanu yad kar" / "you shall weep in my memory"

hasia si main hasa ajeeb / i laughed a strange laugh

(par) tu nahi si hasia / but you didn't

dil vich tera jo raaz si / you had a secret in your heart

mainu tu kyon ni dasia / why didn't you tell me

tere bin / besides you

sanu eh raz / none shall tell this

kise hor nahion dasna / secret to me

tere bin / besides you

peerh da ilaaj / what druid

kis vaid kolon labhna / has the cure to my ills

milia si ajj mainu / i found today

tera ik patra / a note of yours

likhia si jis 'te / on which you had scribbeled

tun shayr varey shah da / a varis shah couplet

park ke si osnu / upon reading which

hanjnu ik duliya / a teardrop fell

akhan 'ch band si / what was locked in the eye

seh raaz ajj khulia / was revealed today

ki tere bin / that other than you

eh mere hanjnu / these tears of mine

kise hor / won't be kissed by

nahio chumna / none else

ki tere bin / that other than you

eh mere hanjhu / these tears of mine

mitti vich rulnha / will wither in the dust

Fiddler on the roof

I got these clips from the movie "Fiddler on the Roof" from a friend, and felt nostalgic on watching them. I had seen the movie a long long time ago and would love to see it again.

Matchmaker, matchmaker find me a match



Sunrise, sunset



If I were a rich man



To Life, Lechaim

Trichy Diary

I was in Trichy for the past two days. Let me start by saying that everything about this trip was unique for me. Ill start at the very beginning.
When I started, lots of tensions were up. My uncle fell ill, my parents were worried, I was worried that I should be able to get back in time if god forbid something happens, and my parents didn't know I was going to Trichy ( I just didn't have the energy to justify my visit and fight it out). So, I was very tense and keyed up.
My train starts from Egmore. I have never been to this station before, and I was charmed by the ambience. Chennai Central sees people from all over India, but Egmore mostly gets the TamilNadu passengers. So, this station gives a real feel of TN, you see mamis in the 9yards sarees and diamond nose studs, laced with easy smiles and soft words, then thathas in lungis. Even the train was nicely scented- sharp cinnamon - clove tinge in the air. This station is also much much more cleaner than Central.
I couldnt sleep all night as I was worried Ill miss the station. My train- Rockfort express, goes to Kumbakonam via Trichy. It starts at 1030pm from egmore and reaches Trichy at 515am. It turned out I need not have worried. By 430am, everyone was up and about. Lights were on and people were talking. I was feeling sorry for the Kumbakonam passengers. It turned out I need not have done that either. Apparently, a lot of people get down at Trichy. So, Trichy passengers are alloted separate coaches. At trichy, these coaches are detached from the rest of the train and the train proceeds to its destination. Efficient. No wonder Indian Railways is minting money. They use common sense.

I was put up in a hotel. I was sceptical about this as I have never stayed in a hotel before, but it was a good hotel - nice people and close to the station.

Trichy is a small city. Here, the general people are not overly friendly but they are not rude either. Chennai is rude. Also, in Trichy, everyone is curious about everyone else. Like I was asked by so many people if I had come to give examinations (I look younger than what I am, its a disadvantage also as sometimes Im not taken seriously, many students even asked if I am in my first year of PhD!)

The university I was visiting is some 17kms away from the station and is reached by taking a mofussil bus. One of my friends there, VM, picked me up on the first day. Beautiful countryside, though it predominantly has dry vegetation. Also smooth roads and frequent buses. I met very friendly people at the university and my my!! Their motivation levels have to be seen to be believed. Before lunch, I had discussed more physics/research than I had ever discussed in one whole week. My talk in the afternoon went well. I was asked to make it accessible to the Msc students as well. I tried but I dont think I succeeded. I got positive feedback from the graduate students.

Anyway, I came back to the hotel on my own. I enjoyed those bus journeys :-) I slept very early after an early dinner and woke up 12 hours later.

Next day, I went to the university by myself. I can read Tamil though I'm painfully slow at it. This helped me this time in reaching the university without mishaps.

After a few discussion sessions that day, I was invited for lunch to the girls' hostel mess. Now here I must compare it with our mess. They pay 20pd, we pay 43pd. They have to bring their own utensils,we dont have to. They even wash their plates, we dont even bother to clean the plates of the mess. Their food is served very hot and its very tasty and unlimited. Believe me. They even get unlimited ghee! Our food is supposed to be hot and tasty, but something happens to it.

In the afternoon, VM and her friend TM, took me around to show places around Trichy. We first headed to Srirangam. On our way there, they pointed out Prez APJK's alma mater. TM had even met the Prez once and has a photo with him. Quite an experience for her!! We parted ways with TM after a while.

VM took me to SriRanganathaswamy temple in Srirangam. Very impressive place. The entrance was very majestic and very tall. I think thats what is called the Rajagopuram. Like a fort, there were townships in and outside the entrances. It has three entrances and apparently totally 26 gopurams of all sizes. We could count only 16. It seems the fourth side also has some gopurams and that is allocated for the harijans (as told to us by a person working in that place). Many were also hidden by trees. The picture here shows the Rajagopuram (from wiki, I unfortunately did not take my camera on this trip :-( I did not think Ill actually go for sight-seeing).Beautiful architecture in stone from the days of the Cholas. Markets and houses surround this temple and so sitting there, one can almost imagine how the township looked like some 700 hundred years ago.
I also saw the temple elephant up close, sort of came upon it suddenly and jumped out of my skin :-D
After this, we travelled back towards the city and went to the Rockfort temple.
This is, as the name suggests, on a mountain. If I counted right, we climbed 330 steps to reach the top. We looked like the old man climbing the stairs in the Chawanprash advertisement :-D And I saw a guy who was climbing these steps on his knees with a ghee lamp in his hand!! No words at all.
The view from the top was beautiful. We could see Srirangam temple from here. Also we could see a very dry Cauvery bed from the top. It is waiting for either Karnataka to release waters or for the rains in July.
This wiki picture shows the river, I saw only the riverbed :-)

There were many temples inside the rock mountain too. In one place, I saw a carving with a pregnant woman in it and wondered what it could be for. Maybe this wiki entry answers it. I saw another temple elephant here which again took me by surprise.

We then came back to the city and after a tasty dinner, I headed back for Chennai.
India-Srilanka match was up. So everywhere I went, cricket was being closely followed. Even in the station, the platform was empty as everyone had gathered in the arrival lounge to watch the match on the TV. At one point, a loud cheer went up and the platform emptied some more. One guy came to the station just as the train arrived ( You see I like to be at the platform 1 hr before the train arrives!). And he calls up his home asks what the score is! :-D Today early morning, before we reached Egmore. the passengers were wondering what was the outcome. One guy even said that we must have lost and in case we win, the match must have been fixed. :-D
I took a bus from the station (at 515am!! wow I'm impressed by the bus service). Chennai looked beautiful that early in the morning. I love visiting new places but finally I belong to Chennai :-) Or maybe its just that I love returning home :-)
A memorable trip, one that will linger at the back of my mind for many days to come.
Chennai does not give a complete picture of Tamil Nadu. The real TamilNadu lives in these cities.
I was asked many times if I was a north-Indian, to which I said no I'm a Tamizhian :-)

I have a similar opportunity to visit Banaras via Delhi, but I guess Ill have to forego that. Im sure there will be stiff opposition at home and I dont want to do things chori chupe. Inspite of having worked hard for the major part of this trip, there has been a nagging feeling at the back of mind that my parents do not know about this, and I think they deserve this much honesty from me.
A pity. I would love to see Banaras too :-)

baazigar o baazigar

I was listening to songs from the 90's - baazigar main baazigar, chura ke dil mera, hum aapke hain kaun etc. These songs reminded me so much of my childhood days, leisure days spent in Delhi, Chennai etc. A pen sieve of the kind talked about in the Harry Potter series would have been useful.

I recently discovered spanish-guitar pieces. Fascinating! Do check them out.
I dont know how to share music on blogspot. I know there is a way of doing it, but just dont know how. Someone please enlighten me. I would love to put up few of my finds.

Really bad things happening in Bengal and worser things near Bihar. Its sad that some people's lives are of no value while a nobody's wedding is celebrated in media. Maybe this is what they call de-sensitisation. You either feed the public so much gore that they don't feel a thing when a village is massacred the next time or you feed them trivialities so that they don't stop to think whats relevant and what is not. The news did not bother me much. This is what I meant. Im also insensitive.

I'll get the chance to do a bit of Bharat bhraman in near future starting with Trichy next week. If things work out, Ill also visit Delhi sometime soon. I spent my formative teens there. Will be nice to see that city again :-)
For a girl who had the Chennai border as her boundary conditions, I seemed to have roamed around a lot - Kolkata (twice!), Bombay, Kharagpur, Ahmedabad. I havent seen Bangalore yet (hush hush), nor have I seen Ooty, Kodaikanal, Pondicherry which are the local tourist places. All in good time :-)

I have made n drafts of the chapters already. This will end someday soon. A little bit of patience is required but I seem to have exhausted my quota. A friend called this Hanuman's tail - very apt. Formal writing has corrupted my blog writing as well, blabbing doesn't have the free flow of the earlier days. And I end up being bad at both :-D

A couplet by me - Nosh farmaayiye :-D (pl say irshaad, koi to sune :-D)
kuch to alag ho, kuch to naya ho,
zindagi ka ek naya falsafaa bayaa ho

(Ill imagine the wah wahs :-D )

Hope

I watched Shawshank redemption again this weekend. V good movie.
Tag line : Hope is a good thing, maybe the best thing in the world, and no good thing ever dies.

Ill continue hoping :-)
Cheerio.

Heart in the right place

tic tac tic

I have a piggy bank in which I put the coins collected in a day. I have hoarded quite a treasure this way. It is well hidden as if my sis spots it, she will not fail to ask "kis traffic signal par chandaa ikhattha kiya"
Anyway so today, I absentmindedly put the coins in the wrong box. I realised immediately after I did this, and the first thing that came to my mind was Ctrl-Z. :-D

I wish I could Ctrl-Z some of my impulsive blunders in real life too :-D

Over head transmissions

In general, when we listen to a seminar in some advanced topic, at least the first five minutes of the talk or the first 3 slides are understandable. Attended a talk today in which even the first slide flew over my head. It IS a tough task making people understand what we have been using our grey cells for. There were some specialists in the audience. So naturally their questions and speaker's answers also flew over our head :-D
I tend to talk too fast in my talks. That is a major drawback as that also ensures that the listeners are not with you. I'm trying to work on it.

I tried another book by Valerio Manfredi called Oracle. Gripping but very sinister.
I got Chronicles of Avonlea by LM Montgomery as a present. A very sweet book.
Saw Crash finally. Good movie. I never faced racism and hope I never do.
I'm really cutting down on reading books now. I mean hereafter :-D
I saved the Joanne Harris book for reading after I finish my deadlines. Something to look forward to.
Have a rocking week :-)

Calvin and Susie

Your kind attention please.

Just a few posts back, I was talking about the book by Joanne Harris called Gentlemen and Players. Today, my friend gifted me that book as an advance birthday gift :-D So now you know what Ill be upto tonight! ;-)
Books are the best gift in my opinion. They dont wilt, stay forever, and sometimes its like sharing something that you liked with the other person :-)
Just in case if anyone is paying attention ( :-D ),

1. I would like to own a Longines watch like the one Kareena wears in some ad :-D
2. I would love to go on a world tour. I can also settle for an Europe trip, or an all India trip, or a Himalaya trek, or just some hill station or even St. Thomas Mount if you like.
   
3. I would love to have a home theatre system. Imagine - sparsely furnished room, a very comfortable plush diwan, snack of the moment ( I like and dislike snacks seasonally), and Lord of the Rings trilogy playing on the home theatre system.. Some other comparable fantasy will also be welcome. Or just full size Sharukh in DDLJ :-D
4. Lots and lots of books.
5. No worries just laughter and smiles all around.

6-1000on. Many more wishes but then Ill try fulfilling them myself :-D
1000on+1. Oh how can I miss World peace :-D

The motorcycle diaries

Watched a good movie called The motorcycle diaries. It is about the Cuban leader Che Guevara.
When he was studying for medicine, he took a break and went around Latin America on a motorcycle with his friend, Alberto Granado. They had lots of fun and adventure in this trip. In a way, this trip influenced him too. This movie is based on a diary he maintained during this trip.
Alberto Granado is still alive.

On watching this movie or The Constant Gardner, I felt that I am very lucky that I dont live in those places. I have every comfort I want yet I crib so much!! :-D Lesson learnt and hope I remember.

Chennai sangamam

A week long festival in Chennai called Chennai Sangamam starts from today. Apparently "over 400 cultural performances would be held in 60 schools, 20 colleges, public parks, malls, corporate offices and on streets without any entry fee"
This is a great idea as no entry fee ensures that every one will be able to enjoy the festivities. Some carnival spirit in Chennai in the next 6 days.
Well my only crib is that the participants have been practicing in our backyard and they continued their practice until 1.30 in the night yesterday with the loudspeakers ON. Beyond a point, music is more noise than pleasure. Awful. They could have stopped the din at a decent hour. 11 or 12 is what I would call decent.

Trackback on Kalash people

I had talked about the Kalash people in Pakistan, who are apparently the descendants of Alexander's army, many posts back. Shara, who hails from this valley, has posted a comment with a link to gorgeous pictures of his people and his place. Do check them out. (I was excited to get a feedback in this form :-D ) Thanks shara..

There are so many places in the world I'm dying to see.
The book Thief Lord is set in Venice, and the description made me want to visit that place. Thats one of the many drawbacks of nurturing hazaaron khwahishein.. Only a few of these are meant to be realised :-)

Potli mein hari bhari pariyon ke par

Well I was seriously working, and then I just glanced around, spotted Thief Lord lying nearby, felt I deserved a break, and then went on to finish reading the book in one continuous sitting. If only I worked with this fervour! The book is adorable.
Thief Lord by Cornelia Funke is the story of two brothers Prosper and Bo, who being recently orphaned, have run away from their aunt who wants to separate them. They arrive at Venice and join a bunch of kids who are likewise orphans and run-aways and live off by stealing. Actually their group leader Scipio steals and these kids just sell the stolen goods and live off the money. They are doing quite well and live a joyful contented life until a detective on the lookout for the two brothers gets to them. Its a lovely story with surprising twists. It must be very difficult to write books for kids as their attention span is much much shorter.
The Scarlet Pimpernel is a cute romantic story set in the French revolution days. More Barbara Cartlandish.
Up next is Life of Pi by Yann Martel. I have heard a lot about this book. I hope its interesting.
Saw Joanne Harris' Five quarters of an orange in the library and yearned to read her latest books Gentleman Players and the Lollipop Shoes. Last time I checked, Gentleman Players costs some 600 bucks. No way.
Please suggest some book which is interesting without being depressing and very intellectual. Fantasy, Adventure, Humour, Romance, something.
Buonanotte (Good night in Italian) :-D

On Valentines!

I will wake up soon.. 5 minutes pl

Hi all :-)
I have been quite lethargic after the marathon sessions and had almost zero interest in almost everything. So much that my colleague says I have transformed into a guest physicist!! Ok well I stopped short of telling him that I have been that for the past 3 years or so. Outcome: I have a deadline for submitting a paper tomorrow and I have not yet started working on it. Im praying for miracles. He he thankfully I still believe in miracles.
I saw this nice movie called Tum Bin. psst psst Priyanshu's eyes were nicer. I generally fall for nice eyes and sweet smiles. Anyway the song of the moment is
Koi fariyaad tere dil mein dabi ho jaise
toone aankhon se koi baat kahi ho jaise

har mulaqaat pe mehsoos yahi hota hai
mujhse kuch teri nazar pooch rahi ho jaise

raah chalte huye ye gumaan hota hai
wo nazar chup ke mujhe dekh rahi ho jaise

Women gossip. Men gossip harder.
And I totally detest men who gossip maliciously (if you get what I mean). Had an encounter of this kind recently with a couple of them and ughh I find it hard to respect them now.

Saturday qualifies as a weekend. Yes thats not the accepted norm for a graduate student. But a weekend for me means the liberty to work as I wish and spend time as I wish. Many a times I have ended up taking a day off on Saturday and working on Sundays. So I really hate it when people assign tasks on weekends. Atleast courtesy demands that they let me know well in advance so that I reschedule my plans.

Indibloggies nominations are up. I was excited to find some blogs there that I track quite sincerely. I ended up adding some more to my stuffiread list too.

A lot of debate goes on about India shining and not shining. Another aspect of this debate is the youth of this country. We have achievers and then we have the roadside eve-teasing romeos cum college students. Arent those the ones who later end up being unemployed! Why cant they learn from their seniors' plights. Its a darned nuisance when they sing and create a ruckus in the buses. Its definitely not cool.

I think Ill work from tomorrow.
Have a good productive week ahead :-)

How rich?

In my thesis work, I talk about a rich phase diagram that we obtain. My friend today asked me how rich is the phase diagram really? :-D
I think its very very rich as I have spent 5 best years of my life studying it. I could have done so many things instead and reduced the count on the khwaahishein list. So its priceless isnt it! And what price! My confusions have increased manifold at the end of it. Two conflicting ideas in these couplets

Tadbeer ke dast-e-zareen se taqdeer numaayan hoti hai
Qudrat bhi madad farmaati hai jab koshish-e-insaan hoti hai
------
Haathon ki chand lakeeron ka
ye khel hai sab taqdeeron ka :-)

but I guess the order in which they should be remembered matters.

Yahooo Ill be done with my thesis talks tomorrow. One more month of toil and Ill be out.

Of late I have been getting negative feedback from my blabspot. I wish I could put a for-friends-alone firewall on this blog. Im sure there must be something.

Books in my kitty (lots actually :-D )

1. Thief Lord by Cornelia Funke
2. Sherlock Holmes ( This edition has illustrations too, I have never read a Sherlock Holmes before so this is my introduction to the legend)
3. St Claire by Enid Blyton ( I still love them :-D )
4. Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Emmuska Orczy (Im told that this story is heartwrenchingly romantic. I have saved this for tomorrow night :-D )
5. Some book by Valerio Manfredi (Last Legion author- LL had a gripping narrative so hoping for something similar in this too)
   
6. A couple of M&Bs (nothing more refreshing!! One can switch off the brains and enjoy them. )

Snippets

• The whole of Chennai is teeming with mosquitoes. These dheet mossies are resistant to Allouts too. So a tough time with them.
  
• Big Brother made top news for a few days and died down. Much was said about Shilpa being a B-grade actress, Goody being the uneducated and her educational trip to India. Hope she doesnt end up hating India in the process. A bit of gandhigiri will do the job here I guess. But then wasnt too much importance given to a publicity stunt! Im sure an average Indian settled abroad faces much worser slurs. Thats why I believe India is for Indians. We are immigrants elsewhere. Lets start respecting our own people first. Respect from others will follow.
  
• My number is registered with KBC :-D Im waiting for the computerji to select my number and Sharukh here I come :-D My friends say even if I reach the hot seat, Ill be tongue tied there as Ill be busy drooling non-stop at him. Nazron mein bhar loon main thoda :-D
  
• I hope my prince charming better hurries up or he will really miss me :-(
  

Inkheart

While reading a book, have you ever wanted to enter that world of make-believe? Or have you ever felt an aura around you of the fantasy world created by the book ?
Something like this happens in the fantasy Inkheart by Cornelia Funke. In this book, characters from a book come alive in this world. It is a very interesting read if you love fantasies. I found it un-putdownable and was sad later that it got over. But to my delight, I discovered that this is part of a trilogy. Second part is called Inkspell and the last one is not yet released. Im waiting to read the 2nd one. My birthday is coming closer and if you know when it is, you know what to do ;-)

Cornelia Funke is a german writer and the books we read are translations of her work. The other book I read is called Dragon Rider. Very interesting again. Her Thief Lord is the best-seller Im told. Yet to read that.
Have a nice weekend :-)

Salaam-e-Ishq

Salaam-e-Ishq was screened in OAT as part of a fund-raiser and I absolutely loved it :-D Inspite of being abrupt in parts, this was a total timepass. Ill say that I wouldnt have enjoyed this movie elsewhere but OAT has the best ambience possible for almost any movie. The clear sky, bright stars, full moon, and an audience which was there to enjoy itself added up to make this movie memorable for me :-D

John and Vidya Balan really look cute together, their part was also very beautiful. John's proposal to Vidya in the movie was very beautiful according to me. He says "lets create a lifetime of memories" :-)

Govinda was awesome!! I never enjoyed his comedy roles before this movie. Salman-Priyanka and Anil-Juhi part dragged a bit. Im a fan of Akshaye since his Humraaz days. His comedy tracks rock.
This movie represented Hindi movies on a big scale :-D Like the scene where Govinda stops a wedding with the typical Ruko ye shaadi nahi ho sakti :-D or when the wedding resumes, another guy enters and says ruko ye.. They could laugh at their own film making style - at all that we love in the movies.
Movie was looong. A full three and a half hours! But I enjoyed every minute of it :-D
I must warn you that you shouldnt go by my review as among all my friends I was the only one who enjoyed it :-D Go prepared for entertainment and you ll get it.

Im waiting for the day when Ill really laugh without something nagging at the back of my mind. These days nothing I do is with full enjoyment. I forgot my troubles for 3.5 hours and had a blast. So yes I loved Salaam-e-Ishq :-)

When the woods rocked

Saarang this year arrived with larger sponsorships and greater noise. I used to look forward to Saarangs earlier but there is only these many Ss one can take.

The only concert I attended was the one by Global Rhythms. It was amazing to see a group of Americans performing Indian raagas. Apparently they spent 3 months learning them. And in the gallery, we had the "youth" - the future of India, booing them. But as soon as they started shakalaka baby, everyone was on their feet. Call it shallowness or call it apathy.
They also played an Italian waltz on the saxophone which sounded very much like Edelweiss in The Sound of Music. I wish they had played more of such compositions as we dont get to hear folk music from elsewhere. For that matter, though Indian folk is used time and again in filmmusic, we seldom recognise it until we are told its folk. GR's show was mainly a tribute to India which fell flat on these young Indians.

Surprisingly, I liked the rock show. This was by Junkyard Groove (loved the guitars) and Merzhin who played celtic rock. Maybe my liking them also had to do with me not being inside the OAT and hence modulated noise levels :-D Anyway got to hear good music for free. :-D

This year I felt that Rehman was the theme of the show. Uff the number of times I heard Chaiyya chaiyya!! And please whats with the long hair and dirty beard?? It looks so yewww and its called fashion!

Every year around this time, we see the hep crowd roaming around the campus. Whats left behind them is a pile of waste on the once-green campus, food stench etc. It takes some time for this ecosystem to recover from the massive attack. Masti is fine but a little responsibility on everyone's side would make it a great fest.

(I discovered yesterday that I lost a year Phoebe style :-D Why god why!! :-D )

This was supposed to be my last Saarang. Hey Im giving my synopsis talks on 6th, 7th and 8th. Wish me luck :-)

Happy Republic Day

Happy Republic day :)

Its a long time since I have seen the republic day parade. Next year god-willing :)

Khumar Barabankvi

I seem to be developing a taste for Khumar Barabankvi's ghazals.. A few of them on Aligarians.com.. Simple words yet intense ..
By the way in vo jo aaye.. , did you notice the beautiful ladies? Some people are so gorgeous!!

Avalanche of Weddings!

Three of my friends are getting married on 28th of this month and one more close friend is getting married on the 29th.. Great news except that I wont be able to attend even one of them :-( Even the one thats right here in Chennai :-(

Btw, Is it something to do with muhurats? Please enlighten me.. Someone told me about this incident that because of some muhurat, an apartment block had 4 weddings on the same day and this guest wandered into the wrong wedding, gave his gift to the bride and groom and while eating his dinner, he realised he hasnt seen a single familar face yet. By then it was too late :-D


He he sabki baraaten aayi........

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