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