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.