Last year and Last decade

This one comes after a very long hiatus. So what better to write then for me to recollect my last year and in perspective , last decade too.

Thoughts about myself - Phew! not a remarkable year but a tremendous decade coming to an end. Coming times will bring with it , something know as "Mid life crisis". Get buckled up.

1) Started my engg. career with a relatively new university. 2000 Decision to take engrr as my career option changes the way where I am.
2) Started my professional life. Green paper. Money Honey 2004. First salary completely spent on home.
3) Fell in love and Got Married - 2009.

One way to recollect my memory of last year was through my facebook/twitter account. Social media does play its part in a lot of things around. well, Recency factor -- dont remember the things happened in the beginning of the year, will play its part.

All I can think of are some important things that happened with me in last year and will try to classify them in a monthly manner.

December

Decided to remember my year through FB and twitter status
Very active in Cityville
On a full running spree - health conscious
Had good time with friends in christmas . Got drunk with JD and sang some old songs . Pretty ususal me.
Finally visited lalbagh gardens which I planned from last 6 yrs. though not in flower show time. will try to take out time for the same may be in another 6 yrs.
disagreed with Times on the person of the year and agreed with FT for choosing steve jobs.
Tweeted an interesting quote
"kripya yahan dhumrapaan na karien, aapki zindagi ki koi keemat ho na ho, petrol ki keemat bahut hai."
Confused between IPTV and DTH
Did a movie marathon with biwi finally and did not sleep the whole night.
17th december - sneaked into SAP Labs annual party. Though not being part of that company but a sister company. and had a ball of a time. attended a music show after a
long time.Euphoria and man that rocked. Daaru and rock show good amalgamation.
How can I forget studying and making notes after 6 yrs I left the college. cleared certification exam. SAP Certified. Feels great,
did something unique , tried getting all my communication addresses changed to one address. Oh what a relief. 90% achieved.

November

November ended on a sweet note of me travelling to goa (mind you for the first time and that too as a married man :P) for my first anniversary. And boy it was a ball of
a time. Loved it and my wife too. :D. Had a taste or rather a bad one of the travel involved in my new job when I came back from philippines and was asked to travel to chennai on a short notice. Even though I had plans for my vacation. any ways, all's well that ends well and managed to sneek from the customer location in due course of time.travelled to philippines as part of my customer project and indeed it was a good time professionally, I would say. Where I got to learn a lot. Customer interaction and handling skills. All classroom trainings go for a toss when you have to get the moneyout of customer's pocket. Its all about being street smart.
Developed some differences in my professional life but yes was new to environment so had a tough time but slowly and steadily it all works.
Tried new brand of beer. San Miguel and boy it was great. also tried very hard to get iPhone4. well try goes on for this year too when I visit china.
Deewali not at home. all alone in bangalore with wifey going to lucknow and me stuck.

October

got my hands on drums after countless years gap and how much i say it felt great.
went with my wifey to watch the test match India vs aussie. in the sweltering and humid atmosphere. managed to get out sane.
got too involved in watching "How I met your mom" though left it after couple of months when the dude is still searching for wife even after 9 seasons.
Sasu maa visited us. did spent some good amount of time watching documentaries. I love them a lot.
10/10/10 10:10:10 happened. will happen 2 more times. watch out for it. 11/11/11 11:11:11 and 12/12/12 12:12:12
wife forced me into something which I am planning to take a revenge on her. Big Boss.

September

Oh how can I forget the amazing blackberry ad.
Urmilesh and shruti stayed with us. and had their house warming ceremony. good time with them.
moved from SAP Labs to SAP India

August.

Got a year older. no. not dosclosed :P. wifey gave a wonderful gift reminding me of the reality of life :P.
Oh how could I forget, 27th august -- Lost my longtime friend. My iPod. Cried , sobbed.
Friday the 13th.
Made a contribution to wikipedia. No financial but added/refined articles.

July

26th complete 6 years of professional experience. 6 years back started my career with Infosys on this day in 2004.eyes filled with promises and hope. down the lane, that
glimmer of hope still remains.
Watched Inception and was not at all disappointed.
oh football world cup. Spaniards were the resilient ones but the finals were not of that great quality.
Paul octopus. poor guy died few months later after all the predictions.

June.

ended with a much awaited vacation in pondicherry. needed it a lot.
Bus travelling to office used to be fun no more. Already changing jobs for good.

May
enjoyed with N97mini courtesy Jatinda

April
IPL finals in sports bar and Chennai made a roll of mumbai.
went to watch mumbai vs bangalore match with a big gang. and it turned out to be a big dud.

March
Watched the movie "No smoking" and boy it was an amazing one.

Feb
Tried my hands on google buzz and ran from it.
My prediction on IPad it might work after all and 11 months down the line, it does. I am the next nostradomaus
Wifey realized my temptation for coffee and got me a coffee maker.

Jan
Got our first car as a couple

The Great Recall

Disclaimer :- the views expressed here are my own. And its difficult to type with iPod touch's on screen keyboard. So please ignore my grammatical and spelling gaffe.  

Season of recalls starting from toyota, honda, maruti and the latest to join the, bandwagon hyundai recalling sonata. ( link :-  http://m.timesofindia.com/PDATOI/articleshow/5612218.cms )  

Looks like car manufactureres were taking the buyers for a ride by comprimising on quality. In a market cluttered with so many products, quality is one aspect which maintains the products differentiating factor. And being working in this domain, i know how much is the cost of quality for any car manufacturer. And they bear it to make sure that they maintain the edge against their competitor.

   Toyota incident opened a can of worms. Was it really needed for toyota to go ahead and take the attack  (attack because the auto industry was already mired in controversy over the so called BIG FALL - GM, Ford, Chevy) full face on? They could have very well buried the matter and nobody would have suspected them given the brand of toyota. It was this brand name which( in my opinion) forced them to take this step. One more example of exemplary corporate governance. But i will praise toyota for the way they handled this whole incident although they are unnecesarily being made the scape goat by the "hidden" lobbying being done by american car manufacturers.

   I will swear by toyota's quality. After all they have given the world some astounding quality principles which is applicable to any industry. IT does implement LEAN taken from toyota's stable.  

Can it be really possible?

With a barrage of reality TV shows storming the prime time television, and each of them challenging the human innovation to a new level, I am wondering as to what will be extreme end of it?

For sure the shows like "Sach ka Samna" which explores your hidden desires mostly confined to the bedroom or bathroom masturbation, or the marriage in full public domain, where the people get to see the intimate details which were till now considered a private affair.

And the most interesting part of this whole drama is that they are copied from a western show.

The next big thing would be Wife Swap.

Now what needs to be seen is if ever it is copied in the Indian format, will it be digestable by the Indian Audience. I dont think it will ever cross the boundaries defined by Censor Board.

Lets wait and watch this whole tamasha.

Up Up and away

after a ling time felt like writing something for the movie I saw and I felt that the start was a lot better than then ending. It was still a kids movie, but it touches the soft corner of your heart and the brief married life of ellie and Carl. The music that plays in the background does makes you engrossed in that little world of Ellie and Carl.

One takeaway for this movie was the little "Adventure book". And one can pretty much relate to a lot of things in life which is nothing else but the so called "Adventure book".Plan for it and then there is something else coming up.Delay it and will plan later.

Well there was this piece of article about the movie which I found over the net and thought of putting the same over here. Makes one feel indeed sad after reading it.

LINK

Do I smell something cooking

Well Google wave was awesome. Or may be just another addition to crowded market space. But one thing commendable about Google is that they carve out a market space for themselves. eg:- Chrome.

Well, Apple and Google together?? Wave's demonstration used a lot of apple products:- Safari , iPhoto to name a few...

what do you think? where is the future?? is somebody scared?? Offcourse in Apple's iphone comes preloaded with lots of google's product :)

dont know where the world is heading.... And as somebody said "I dont want to miss a piece of action"

Back to the basics

Felt a lot different when I moved from my Nokia Ngage (though it was worthless) to a very basic phone which was again a Nokia. It made me nostalgic about the whole stuff (as it was the first phone I bought) and gave me a feel of how simple the things can be.

> Monochrome interface
> Very fast
> Hassle free keyboard design
> Snake game :)
> That torch on the top
> ringtones that sound very mechanical

so it serves only one purpose, the make and receive a call. Well if convergence is the future than let me enjoy some time on this very basic stuff and then I can move on. In short, appreciate the simple things in life.

R.I.P.....

History is over

For people like me , who came from small town, he was the window to the west and the western music...... My first english song that I ever heard -> Dangerous.

BEAT IT

Waiting anxiously

Looks like my childhood fantasy.

IF...

IF you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!'

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
' Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch,
if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!

--- Rudyard Kipling.

I have read this poem in my 10th standard. But still today it pretty much echoes within my self. Whatever is written over there is very difficult to follow.

It can be made easy by one simple answer to all the questions one has. It can be either "Yes" or "No". And from there on its like a simple flowchart diagram with decision boxes all along.

Middle finger to all those who say..."Its not as easy as you think"

Saw long time back and Remembered now

I saw the movie, "The Pursuit of Happyness" long time back.(rather this movie debuted on my iPod and I found a better way of commuting to office)

I never paid attention to something very significant. Why was "Happyness" misspelt? offcourse it was intentional.

Wikipedia has a long story to say on the same about Thomas Jefferson and United States declaration of independence.

Well I found something while surfing that appealed to me a lot.

"There is no Y(why) in Happyness, only I".

Interesting musing.

Very aptly expressed

Found in one of the Rediff's discussion forum.

"If this movie had shown Indians as slum dwellers, poverty ridden, racist, corrupt and had shown Westerners as compassionate and our saviors, this would have topped the charts and won a few Oscars.
The hypocrisy of the Western scoundrels is mind blowing.
I'm not saying these things dont exist in India but to relentlessly portray only the negative side of our country in virtually every movie amounts to racial stereotyping. And frankly I'm tired of the BS."

Thanks Mr. Vijay M for echoing the same sentiments which was brewing in my mind since I saw this movie. Couldnt get words for it.

Flickr- thumbs up

I dont know whether Picassa offers this feature or not. But Joining various photography interest groups in Flickr has rekindled my interest in this pretty costly venture( After all some passions are not easy to follow.)

But I dont know whether the photographs are copyrighted?

Religion and us

When one person suffers from delusion it is called insanity.
When many people suffer from delusion it is called Religion
- Robert M. Pirsig, author of Zen and the Art of Motor Cycle Maintenance.

Very apt with what is happening in
1) Mangalore (Attack on the churches)
2) Nun's Rape in orissa
3) Bomb blasts throughout India

And incidentally, these are the times when one needs religion the most. As it provides you the strength to endure the pain caused.But its like an opium in the hands of fanatics.

All I need to say is wake up my friends and watch around before its too late and the scars which no time can heal.

The song that plays in the background.(Pink Floyd)

Did you see the frightened ones
Did you hear the falling bombs
Did you ever wonder
Why we had to run for shelter
When the promise of a brave new world
Unfurled beneath a clear blue sky

Did you see the frightened ones
Did you hear the falling bombs
The flames are all long gone
But the pain lingers on
Goodbye blue sky
Goodbye blue sky

How dare you Mr. President?

I could not stop laughing my heart out or to be more generous lungs out when I read this news in ToI.( well I expect this from ToI as it was present on their front page).

There are 2 conclusions that I can draw from the same.

1) One of the very weird fatwa's
2) Mr. Sarkozy(with all due respect to the french people) would be hanged.People say that why am I after him.( after all he got the prettiest of all).

My experiment with 55 :D

He stands in the middle of the D wearing a blue jersey, facing the green one and on the verge of making history.The refree whistles. A moment of silence. Blue is kneeling down at the same place surrounded by greens with his face sunk in his chest. Brazil rejoices while Italy can't believe.

A Hero falls.

An instance from the penalty shoot out in the 1994 world cup which brazil won because Roberto Baggio could not convert the decisive penalty.

To cut a long story short

I read about the concept of 55 fiction (wikipedia link) while doing some random surfing. And indeed it is a very potent idea.

Just go through this blog \Love and Longing. Aptly titled. I am pretty much sure anybody can conjure an idea in 55 words but can it be as moving and potent?

Comfortable

Well if things are perfect then it doesnt mean that they have to last forever. And that is the irony, because from there on one has to just compromise.

Listening to song Comfortable by John Mayer.

....
She thinks I can't see the smile thats she's faking
And poses for pictures that aren't being taken
I loved you
Gray sweatpants
No makeup
So perfect
........

:)

दिल से तुझको बे दिली है,
मुझको है दिल का गुरूर,
तू ये माने के ना माने,
लोग मानेंगे ज़रूर.

...........

ऐसे वीरने में एक दिन,
घुट के मार जाएँगे हम,
जितना जी चाहे पुकारो,
फिर नही आएँगे हम.

ये मेरा दीवानापन है,
या मोहब्बत का सुरूर,
तू ना पहचाने तो है ये,
तेरी नज़रों का कसूर.

Heard it in the movie "Namesake". Originally from movie "Yahudi". The song has been sung by Susheela Raman.

Bangalore Rains

Rain rain go away,
Dont ever come again another day
Frustrated Rahul wants to go to office some day (without being drench)


The bangalore rains can either make you very romantic (if you have a partner) or will make you very angry (like me).
Love it or Loathe it but you cannot ignore it. :||

Every other day while returning from office, I am getting wet. All my shoes, Jeans, T-shirt are wet.So now I have started keeping an extra pair of clothes and shoes in my bag especially for Bangalore rains.

Solution :- Buy a Car.
Immediate solution :- stop going to office on bike.

I feel good about life(la vie en rose)

Hold me close and hold me fast
The magic spell you cast
This is la vie en rose.......

Recently I saw the movie WALL-E and no doubt that it was one of the finest I have seen.I liked the sweet and beautiful love story of WALL-E and EVE.

And indeed one of the finest sequence was the dance in the space by WALL-E and EVE. The captain of the ship asks the robot to define dancing and there we see WALL-E and EVE dancing rhythmically.

Getting back to the point....

Well I am not an exponent of Jazz music but I heard the voice of Louis Armstrong in the movie singing "la vie en rose". This is a french sentence and exact translation in english is "I see life in pink". Well it literally means, This is life.

The song is played when WALL-E is following EVE on her mission.There is an inherent beauty about this song and the way the trumpet is played.Especially when you are listening the same in complete silence and you are transported to a different world. Planning to listen to some more of louis armstrong and the some more of classic Jazz.

Some more research has yielded that this song was orignially sung by french singer Edit Piaf and there is also an oscar winning movie on her life titled la vie en rose (next in line to be watched).

When you kiss me heaven sighs
And tho I close my eyes
I see la vie en rose.........