Atleast that ! one might exclaim . Well the roads exist and are in good condition , pollution levels are lower, the girls are looking prettier, the confidence level is rising, 60% of the auto travel in 2 weeks happened with 0 haggling. (its a moot point that the remainder ended up in misery for the rick guy getting the short end of the stick from my rather long and easily excitable mouth. ) but wtf is not raining and wtf is there no water to bathe. !
Yeah folks they forgot that water is an essential resource down there. The water we get is either brackish from the borewell or bad from the corporation. One needs to use the handpump in the old homestead to get a bucket of water to bathe !! and everywhere else the borewell water is so brackish that you can only use it for flushing the loo. !! Well this is a bloody rant at the end of a very long long day ! So whoever be the minimal readers bear with this poor soul.
Lots of good work happening in office. Thankfully will be off to the land of Wodehouse the coming weekend for a week and will get a chance to see Long John Silver and hopefully Big Ben :-)
Nothing much otherwise.
Wednesday, August 31, 2005
Friday, August 05, 2005
Zirakzigil and an R50E
Across the pale parabola of joy
Wonder about the connection . ? Well thats what I named my cool R50e laptop today. Zirak what you might ask. Well Gondor , Numenor, Lothlorien, Mordor were all taken in office. I also have control over Arnor, Gondor and Numenor , various machines that I have had the right to name.
Zirakzigil is where Gandalf finally killed the Balrog from Lord of the Rings. So Zirakzigil it is. It was the best name in the LOTR that I could find and the most unique one at that .
Wonder about the connection . ? Well thats what I named my cool R50e laptop today. Zirak what you might ask. Well Gondor , Numenor, Lothlorien, Mordor were all taken in office. I also have control over Arnor, Gondor and Numenor , various machines that I have had the right to name.
Zirakzigil is where Gandalf finally killed the Balrog from Lord of the Rings. So Zirakzigil it is. It was the best name in the LOTR that I could find and the most unique one at that .
Tuesday, August 02, 2005
Laundry Management , Disaster Management and the great government of Maharashtra
Across the pale parabola of joy
Rain Rain go away, come again another day . We want to dry our clothes.
Ha , the great rains. Half the city is flooded, infrastructure down the drain, driving is good fun equivalent to rally driving and the good chief minister was at the receiving end from an irate public over the weekend.
Yesterday was spent in shifting parts of my house in the middle of incessant rains, an idiotic cable operator who managed to overturn my television trying to disconnect me at my old apartment and give me a new connection at my new apartment.
The good thing about the new apartment is that there is a health club next door, a number of eating joints to take care of a poor famished software engineer and the company of a couple of good friends . Other than that watching the rivers flow at a level that leaves them just below the roads in the streams that we call rivers was good and left me thinking.
Heard on mirchi that they closed a couple of bridges near aundh and that all the rivers we know are flowing to the brim . Wah Wah ! More like this and we should be flooded soon. It isn't any better down at the financial hub of India , the corporation apparently took a couple of days because the CM declared a holiday for government instituitions for precisely the corporation to do some work atleast. Looking at this one thinks about the tsunami down south and the amount of time that was spent in getting the place back up and running. Some more thought needs to go in. Disaster management exists only on paper and the moment something unprecedented occurs most of these guys hide behind this.
The roads in Pune have simply disappeared, they have been replaced with craters, currently the main throughfares need to be avoided, the inner roads are ten times better . I lost count of the number of craters that my poor zen went through today at around 689 at which point I was more worried about getting through a traffic jam .
Rain Rain go away, come again another day . We want to dry our clothes.
Ha , the great rains. Half the city is flooded, infrastructure down the drain, driving is good fun equivalent to rally driving and the good chief minister was at the receiving end from an irate public over the weekend.
Yesterday was spent in shifting parts of my house in the middle of incessant rains, an idiotic cable operator who managed to overturn my television trying to disconnect me at my old apartment and give me a new connection at my new apartment.
The good thing about the new apartment is that there is a health club next door, a number of eating joints to take care of a poor famished software engineer and the company of a couple of good friends . Other than that watching the rivers flow at a level that leaves them just below the roads in the streams that we call rivers was good and left me thinking.
Heard on mirchi that they closed a couple of bridges near aundh and that all the rivers we know are flowing to the brim . Wah Wah ! More like this and we should be flooded soon. It isn't any better down at the financial hub of India , the corporation apparently took a couple of days because the CM declared a holiday for government instituitions for precisely the corporation to do some work atleast. Looking at this one thinks about the tsunami down south and the amount of time that was spent in getting the place back up and running. Some more thought needs to go in. Disaster management exists only on paper and the moment something unprecedented occurs most of these guys hide behind this.
The roads in Pune have simply disappeared, they have been replaced with craters, currently the main throughfares need to be avoided, the inner roads are ten times better . I lost count of the number of craters that my poor zen went through today at around 689 at which point I was more worried about getting through a traffic jam .
Tuesday, July 05, 2005
The great Pune craters.
Across the pale parabola of joy
One week you are away, the rain washes away the roads. I must confess that it has been rather a pain trying to figure out where the roads end and the craters begin and vice versa since last night. Every single patch that was applied on the roads has disappeared totally and replaced with a crater or a series of craters. Add to it the misery of not finding petrol at night when you reach after sleeping all the way , priceless...
Death where is thy sting. !
One week you are away, the rain washes away the roads. I must confess that it has been rather a pain trying to figure out where the roads end and the craters begin and vice versa since last night. Every single patch that was applied on the roads has disappeared totally and replaced with a crater or a series of craters. Add to it the misery of not finding petrol at night when you reach after sleeping all the way , priceless...
Death where is thy sting. !
Friday, July 01, 2005
The Pune Madras Shuttle.
Across the pale parabola of joy
Ha, the Pune Madras shuttle service has begun. Came down here ostensibly for a surgery for me mum, but the surgery got postponed due to sugar levels. Any case nothing much lost, sitting and hacking . Got a couple of patches up and sent them for testing anyways. Went out to eat in Giorgios last night with A. We decided to split the cheque and thought about pulling a fast one. Both of us had expired cards. We asked for a pair of scissors, cello tape , cut them up stuck them together and gave it to the waiter telling him that we were going dutch. Expression on face : priceless :-)) ... The most outrageous thing we have ever done. Ofcourse we paid up later . Anyways this has been a nice trip since I did manage to get some work done also .
Ha, the Pune Madras shuttle service has begun. Came down here ostensibly for a surgery for me mum, but the surgery got postponed due to sugar levels. Any case nothing much lost, sitting and hacking . Got a couple of patches up and sent them for testing anyways. Went out to eat in Giorgios last night with A. We decided to split the cheque and thought about pulling a fast one. Both of us had expired cards. We asked for a pair of scissors, cello tape , cut them up stuck them together and gave it to the waiter telling him that we were going dutch. Expression on face : priceless :-)) ... The most outrageous thing we have ever done. Ofcourse we paid up later . Anyways this has been a nice trip since I did manage to get some work done also .
Thursday, June 23, 2005
Pune and 20 degrees of temperature.
Across the pale parabola of joy
Cool outside ,but work keeps ones collar sweaty. So its no different fro m Madras till I go back again next week.
Trying to spend time at work getting things sorted out , some interviews and what not. Read the papers on the GCC summit available here .
Compilers seem to be pretty hot these days. Some of the C++ extensions that are proposed are rather cool and look like a lot of cool work inside GCC . The other interesting paper was Linux running on the cell and the GCC / GDB port for this. The GDB port plans to implement a single session debug solution which is something that I looked at in the past with some heterogenous multicore chips. Hmmm. something that could have been.
Anyways thats the rant about work . There really seems to be no time to look at anything else these days. The next thing to wind up before I run away for 2 weeks is a set of evals.
Remember a quote "Death where is thy sting ......."
Cool outside ,but work keeps ones collar sweaty. So its no different fro m Madras till I go back again next week.
Trying to spend time at work getting things sorted out , some interviews and what not. Read the papers on the GCC summit available here .
Compilers seem to be pretty hot these days. Some of the C++ extensions that are proposed are rather cool and look like a lot of cool work inside GCC . The other interesting paper was Linux running on the cell and the GCC / GDB port for this. The GDB port plans to implement a single session debug solution which is something that I looked at in the past with some heterogenous multicore chips. Hmmm. something that could have been.
Anyways thats the rant about work . There really seems to be no time to look at anything else these days. The next thing to wind up before I run away for 2 weeks is a set of evals.
Remember a quote "Death where is thy sting ......."
Saturday, June 18, 2005
Surviving Madras.
Across the pale parabola of joy
The last few hours of my vacation and I blog this from the Barrista on Nungambakkam High Road using a Wireless hotspot. I run Ubuntu on my thinkpad (no windoze yet) and boy does the thing work seamlessly. Setting up the connection was so effortless. All I had to do was to fire up network-admin and choose the corresponding service provider and things just worked. All I needed to do in addition was to buy a prepaid card for 50 bucks and then you have it, my day is done. Coffee , wifi access and Air conditioning all that you need to survive Madras, all available .
Spent some time rummaging through the older Landmark store at Gemini close to this place, the listening posts have all disappeared, dont know why , so ended up not buying any music though I managed to buy my share of music earlier this week at Music World.
Hmm things certainly have changed down here. The MRTS (Mass Rapid Transit System) works finally . People are not fraid to flaunt whatever, the noise levels in Barrista certainly give coffee day in Pune a good run for its money, wireless access points to boot and what not. Its a resurgent Madras and am proud about my acronym today (themadrasi) . If it were only not for the weather this place rocks....
Some other survival tips in Madras
Do haggle with the autorickshaw driver
Don't agree for the first price with the rickshaw feller. (they expect you to bargain, so give them that pleasure . )
Do drink a lot of water. (H2O for all ye chemistry buffs)
Don't drink too much coffee .
Do make sure you have air conditioning everywhere. ( too bad the autos don't yet have airconditioning. )
Do get out early .
Do visit spencer plaza or Barrista on NH road.
Do take a siesta.
Dont take a bus.
The last few hours of my vacation and I blog this from the Barrista on Nungambakkam High Road using a Wireless hotspot. I run Ubuntu on my thinkpad (no windoze yet) and boy does the thing work seamlessly. Setting up the connection was so effortless. All I had to do was to fire up network-admin and choose the corresponding service provider and things just worked. All I needed to do in addition was to buy a prepaid card for 50 bucks and then you have it, my day is done. Coffee , wifi access and Air conditioning all that you need to survive Madras, all available .
Spent some time rummaging through the older Landmark store at Gemini close to this place, the listening posts have all disappeared, dont know why , so ended up not buying any music though I managed to buy my share of music earlier this week at Music World.
Hmm things certainly have changed down here. The MRTS (Mass Rapid Transit System) works finally . People are not fraid to flaunt whatever, the noise levels in Barrista certainly give coffee day in Pune a good run for its money, wireless access points to boot and what not. Its a resurgent Madras and am proud about my acronym today (themadrasi) . If it were only not for the weather this place rocks....
Some other survival tips in Madras
Do haggle with the autorickshaw driver
Don't agree for the first price with the rickshaw feller. (they expect you to bargain, so give them that pleasure . )
Do drink a lot of water. (H2O for all ye chemistry buffs)
Don't drink too much coffee .
Do make sure you have air conditioning everywhere. ( too bad the autos don't yet have airconditioning. )
Do get out early .
Do visit spencer plaza or Barrista on NH road.
Do take a siesta.
Dont take a bus.
Tuesday, June 14, 2005
Madras, A sweaty break.
Across the pale parabola of joy
Woh, 42 degrees and counting. Walk out of a cold shower and then you start being covered in your own sweat at the end of 5 minutes. Considering my sedentary lifestyle back @ Pune, Madras might just be the place to be to lose weight by just dummy sweating. Spent the day tying up some loose ends, finish my courier seva for a friend and then meet up with a couple of old buddies later in the evening. The other great thing is that I am using a AMD K6 500 with Windoze 98 and can't use my brand new thinkpad since the usb adsl that touchtel provides does not have linux drivers. I have to get to the bottom of this.Maybe I should get online from a cyber cafe and use aptitude :-)... Never underestimate the power of debian / ubuntu.
Woh, 42 degrees and counting. Walk out of a cold shower and then you start being covered in your own sweat at the end of 5 minutes. Considering my sedentary lifestyle back @ Pune, Madras might just be the place to be to lose weight by just dummy sweating. Spent the day tying up some loose ends, finish my courier seva for a friend and then meet up with a couple of old buddies later in the evening. The other great thing is that I am using a AMD K6 500 with Windoze 98 and can't use my brand new thinkpad since the usb adsl that touchtel provides does not have linux drivers. I have to get to the bottom of this.Maybe I should get online from a cyber cafe and use aptitude :-)... Never underestimate the power of debian / ubuntu.
Saturday, June 04, 2005
Movies , movies more movies.
Spending the weekend catching up with movies that were missed , watching them. Saw a few new ones like O Brother Where art thou, finally caught up with Million Dollar Baby and saw Ram Gopal Verma's latest offering D Company. Though not directed by the man himself. it still pales in comparison to his earlier offerings like Satya or Company. The good part is Hooda's quiet no nonsense attitude as D and acting , but the additional story around is a little bit too quiet. One rather funny technique was the emphasis on not having proper dialogues between the protogamists and just putting a prologue and epilogue around each dialogue. At some points it resembled a documentary on the underworld. But otherwise its ok to watch and enjoy if you want a break.
The second movie I ended up seeing was Million Dollar Baby. It deserves all the accolades and all the oscars that it received. Clint Eastwood is awesome as a reluctant old fashioned and reticent trainer trying to help Hillary Swank with becoming a boxing champ and in the process getting over his own inadequadicies as a manager. The story is narrated from the point of view of Morgan Freeman as a has been boxing champ who lost his eyes and ended up as a cleaner in the gym that Clint Eastwood runs.
Now to watch O Brother Where ar't though and all the other movies I have missed.
Across the pale parabola of joy
The second movie I ended up seeing was Million Dollar Baby. It deserves all the accolades and all the oscars that it received. Clint Eastwood is awesome as a reluctant old fashioned and reticent trainer trying to help Hillary Swank with becoming a boxing champ and in the process getting over his own inadequadicies as a manager. The story is narrated from the point of view of Morgan Freeman as a has been boxing champ who lost his eyes and ended up as a cleaner in the gym that Clint Eastwood runs.
Now to watch O Brother Where ar't though and all the other movies I have missed.
Across the pale parabola of joy
Tuesday, May 03, 2005
Of Life, nephews and good ol' relatives.
Across the pale parabola of joy
The weekend arrived in its usual lazy self. Spent Saturday running around conducting exams at the univ, meeting up with a couple of old friends and getting my car checked on its usual Saturday morning date with the mechanic. Ended up in office checking mails looking at code and going out for lunch at McDs . Dinner was with my nephew and niece who left the choice of the place of culinary delight to me. In as much as food was a consideration, a close enough parking location was a bigger consideration and managed to find a nice watering hole at Mayurs on East Street. Saturday evening in Pune , hmmm traffic is worse and driving was made infinitely easier by driving around in my cousins palio rather than my smaller zen. The morning arrived and with it a nephew , niece and a pint sized dynamo from Hyderabad. I have always maintained that nieces are easier to deal with primarily because they don't ask too many intelligent questions and are satisfied with nice things like food. However 10 year old boys are a different story. This pint sized 10 year old was no exception. Apart from proceeding to tear apart every single adult in the family he went on to have some serious fun in life at the expense of every single adult.
Then one discovered the only way to silence him .Put him in the front seat of any car, turn on the AC and drive on the streets of Pune. The bumps and the rather jolly rollicking and the soft purr of the engine act as an amazing lullaby on this young feller and put him off to sleep. So the weekend spent on family duties and playing the genial uncle. !
The weekend arrived in its usual lazy self. Spent Saturday running around conducting exams at the univ, meeting up with a couple of old friends and getting my car checked on its usual Saturday morning date with the mechanic. Ended up in office checking mails looking at code and going out for lunch at McDs . Dinner was with my nephew and niece who left the choice of the place of culinary delight to me. In as much as food was a consideration, a close enough parking location was a bigger consideration and managed to find a nice watering hole at Mayurs on East Street. Saturday evening in Pune , hmmm traffic is worse and driving was made infinitely easier by driving around in my cousins palio rather than my smaller zen. The morning arrived and with it a nephew , niece and a pint sized dynamo from Hyderabad. I have always maintained that nieces are easier to deal with primarily because they don't ask too many intelligent questions and are satisfied with nice things like food. However 10 year old boys are a different story. This pint sized 10 year old was no exception. Apart from proceeding to tear apart every single adult in the family he went on to have some serious fun in life at the expense of every single adult.
Then one discovered the only way to silence him .Put him in the front seat of any car, turn on the AC and drive on the streets of Pune. The bumps and the rather jolly rollicking and the soft purr of the engine act as an amazing lullaby on this young feller and put him off to sleep. So the weekend spent on family duties and playing the genial uncle. !
Monday, April 18, 2005
Across the pale parabola of joy
Of Kashid, Pi and life in a hammock
It was a thursday when I got the call about going to the west coast on one of the virgin beaches dotting the Arabian Sea. The plan was to leave Pune early in the morning towards Kashid , a tiny hamlet of 820 people between Alibaug and Murud-Janjira on the west coast of Maharashtra.
The Geography.
Kashid is between Alibag a small town on the west coast of India / Maharashtra and Murud , whose claim to fame is the presence of a fort in the sea, Jal-Jazeera , built in 1140 A.D. a.k.a. Janjira in popular slang. Kashid has a lovely beach with palm trees and hammocks slung by the owners of small stalls that are the only signs of commercialization.
How to get there.
From Pune . Take the express highway to Mumbai, take the exit off Khandala and go towards Penn. From Penn take the road to Alibag and at the entry to Alibag take a left towards Rohas and Nagvas village . After a point you would cross a bridge (the landmark is Vikram Ispat) and then take a right turn towards Murud . Travel for approx. 30 km towards Revas village.The road winds through the Western Ghats parallel to the Arabian sea affording a large number of scenic spots. Finally after a climb you hurtle down a valley where the beach appears all of a sudden with a beautiful grove of palm and coconut trees with some stalls appearing on the right. This would be Kashid beach .
Boarding and Lodging.
One of the major revenues seems to be tourism and there are a number of small resorts dotting the main road to Murud, the road on which you reach Kashid. There are a couple of expensive beach resorts with costs upto 5k per couple or there are these small hotels / cottages including one in which we stayed during our trip. The beach resorts require booking in advance, in fact booking in advance might be a good idea. We were lucky in obtaining a cottage in one of the many resorts available. Sea food is apparently very good, with the non-veggies in our group going ga-ga about the idea of living on sea food, yours truly however being a pure "eggie" ended up with daal and rice and other vegetarian substitutes which by themselvers were very good.
Whats the big deal about the beach anyways ?
Quiet , peaceful and an amazing getaway from the hustle and bustle of civilization. Life without noise, junk food , television , mobile phones was brilliant ( though my sources tell me that a big cellular company is planning on destroying the peace by getting a mobile tower in place. ). Having been used to the dirt and grime with the Marina beach in Madras finding a beach where one could actually relax was phenomenal. The hammocks are strung in the middle of trees affording shade even during the hottest part of the day, combined with a cool sea breeze makes life extremely relaxing and enables one to laze away. I spent close to a day in a hammock reading a book, sleeping , eating and doing nothing much else. This in the middle of an extremely torrid Indian Summer.
The water is also amazing and extremely clean . The group of people that I went with spent most of their hours on the beach only in the water , whilst me being the lazy bum on the beach entered the water only a couple of hours before we left for Pune. Nice solid sleep left me spent on a Monday morning saying "death where is thy sting" and groaning about driving through crazy city traffic .
It was a thursday when I got the call about going to the west coast on one of the virgin beaches dotting the Arabian Sea. The plan was to leave Pune early in the morning towards Kashid , a tiny hamlet of 820 people between Alibaug and Murud-Janjira on the west coast of Maharashtra.
The Geography.
Kashid is between Alibag a small town on the west coast of India / Maharashtra and Murud , whose claim to fame is the presence of a fort in the sea, Jal-Jazeera , built in 1140 A.D. a.k.a. Janjira in popular slang. Kashid has a lovely beach with palm trees and hammocks slung by the owners of small stalls that are the only signs of commercialization.
How to get there.
From Pune . Take the express highway to Mumbai, take the exit off Khandala and go towards Penn. From Penn take the road to Alibag and at the entry to Alibag take a left towards Rohas and Nagvas village . After a point you would cross a bridge (the landmark is Vikram Ispat) and then take a right turn towards Murud . Travel for approx. 30 km towards Revas village.The road winds through the Western Ghats parallel to the Arabian sea affording a large number of scenic spots. Finally after a climb you hurtle down a valley where the beach appears all of a sudden with a beautiful grove of palm and coconut trees with some stalls appearing on the right. This would be Kashid beach .
Boarding and Lodging.
One of the major revenues seems to be tourism and there are a number of small resorts dotting the main road to Murud, the road on which you reach Kashid. There are a couple of expensive beach resorts with costs upto 5k per couple or there are these small hotels / cottages including one in which we stayed during our trip. The beach resorts require booking in advance, in fact booking in advance might be a good idea. We were lucky in obtaining a cottage in one of the many resorts available. Sea food is apparently very good, with the non-veggies in our group going ga-ga about the idea of living on sea food, yours truly however being a pure "eggie" ended up with daal and rice and other vegetarian substitutes which by themselvers were very good.
Whats the big deal about the beach anyways ?
Quiet , peaceful and an amazing getaway from the hustle and bustle of civilization. Life without noise, junk food , television , mobile phones was brilliant ( though my sources tell me that a big cellular company is planning on destroying the peace by getting a mobile tower in place. ). Having been used to the dirt and grime with the Marina beach in Madras finding a beach where one could actually relax was phenomenal. The hammocks are strung in the middle of trees affording shade even during the hottest part of the day, combined with a cool sea breeze makes life extremely relaxing and enables one to laze away. I spent close to a day in a hammock reading a book, sleeping , eating and doing nothing much else. This in the middle of an extremely torrid Indian Summer.
The water is also amazing and extremely clean . The group of people that I went with spent most of their hours on the beach only in the water , whilst me being the lazy bum on the beach entered the water only a couple of hours before we left for Pune. Nice solid sleep left me spent on a Monday morning saying "death where is thy sting" and groaning about driving through crazy city traffic .
Wednesday, March 09, 2005
The Mark Knopfler Concert.
Across the pale parabola of joy
Bombay the city which is always on its wheels and one city which yours truly detests to the extent possible forced its company upon me thanks to hosting the Mark Knopfler concert. The trip was worth it for just the concert. Went to the concert with my cousin K , his wife L and a friend M. The time taken to get to the end of the express way from Pune to Bombay was equal to the time we spent in getting to a place called Tikujenewadi in Thane (a suburb of the megapolis Bombay) . The drive to the concert took another good hour on the Pu.Dru.Mahamarg ( Purva Drut Mahamarg , the Eastern Expressway ) on which M gave a demo of his car driving skills which was equivalent to the consummate biker in Pune's maddening traffic. Thankfully we don't have too many Ms driving cars in Pune.
At the end of this reached the concert and for once there were speakers worth their salt with pretty good sound effects and for once, a concert started bang on time. No other bands playing , no one else playing before the great man , no other music to adulterate the magical sounds from his guitar which made your fingers ache for the exquisite music. Starting with the Walk of Life ,
singles from Philadelphia,Sultans of Swing, Tunnel of Love , Romeo and Juliet, he belted out some really amazing music which left one thinking about how such music could get out of the 4 strings on a guitar.
The concert ended in 2 hours but it left one clamouring for more such music. Drove back home in the wee hours of the morning and seriously considered driving down to Bangalore to attend the repeat concert. (Obviously didnt :-(( ).
He rocks !
Bombay the city which is always on its wheels and one city which yours truly detests to the extent possible forced its company upon me thanks to hosting the Mark Knopfler concert. The trip was worth it for just the concert. Went to the concert with my cousin K , his wife L and a friend M. The time taken to get to the end of the express way from Pune to Bombay was equal to the time we spent in getting to a place called Tikujenewadi in Thane (a suburb of the megapolis Bombay) . The drive to the concert took another good hour on the Pu.Dru.Mahamarg ( Purva Drut Mahamarg , the Eastern Expressway ) on which M gave a demo of his car driving skills which was equivalent to the consummate biker in Pune's maddening traffic. Thankfully we don't have too many Ms driving cars in Pune.
At the end of this reached the concert and for once there were speakers worth their salt with pretty good sound effects and for once, a concert started bang on time. No other bands playing , no one else playing before the great man , no other music to adulterate the magical sounds from his guitar which made your fingers ache for the exquisite music. Starting with the Walk of Life ,
singles from Philadelphia,Sultans of Swing, Tunnel of Love , Romeo and Juliet, he belted out some really amazing music which left one thinking about how such music could get out of the 4 strings on a guitar.
The concert ended in 2 hours but it left one clamouring for more such music. Drove back home in the wee hours of the morning and seriously considered driving down to Bangalore to attend the repeat concert. (Obviously didnt :-(( ).
He rocks !
Tuesday, March 01, 2005
Across the pale parabola of joy
Across the pale parabola of joy
Back to where we belong. Well its been a while and have been busy with release cycles, driving my new car down to Lonavla and back and so on and so forth.
Also spend sometime in getting some cool research done in gdb. Nothing much else otherwise with work....Keeps one occupied and busy and bored too (well sometimes). On the other side sitting in office one gets to hear amazing statements like "Let me wear my specs and listen to you "
Back to where we belong. Well its been a while and have been busy with release cycles, driving my new car down to Lonavla and back and so on and so forth.
Also spend sometime in getting some cool research done in gdb. Nothing much else otherwise with work....Keeps one occupied and busy and bored too (well sometimes). On the other side sitting in office one gets to hear amazing statements like "Let me wear my specs and listen to you "
Thursday, December 23, 2004
Its been a while !
Its been a while since I wrote anything . Basically attributed to my own innate inborn inertia and laziness and the tendency to procrastrinate on things that should be done much faster. So a possible new year resolution could be : I shall blog atleast once a week but again considering my track record its going to be a tough ask on myself.
Anyways I blog this from the location from which the nickname "madrasi" originates, Madras the city of 3 summers , and currently in the winter of summers. Am here because of certain family reasons, and promptly fell ill with a nice flu. Receiving brickbats at my appearance (forgot the art of shaving for the past month) , countless arguments for a smaller waistline from one and all (the one thing that unites my considerably large family who disagree on everything else inclusive of the kanchi seers arrest ) and generally staying away from the computer for a while inspite of promising some research work to a couple of guys. !
Went and watched Swades at Satyam , an eminently likeable movie thankfully without the matkas and jhatkas of a typical bollywood movie. The only sad part about the whole experience was the presence of the innumerable silk saris ads and gold jewellery ads. It appears as though the whole of Madras is obsessed with silk saris and gold in general . T Nagar should be rechristened , Thyagaraya "Pattu Javuli" Nagar (Pattu = Silk in Tamil ). Things certainly have improved here except for the meters of the "humble" madras autorickshaw and the state of the water . ( it just gets redder and redder) ...:-) ...
Well enjoying the music season and the associated arrival of audio tracks in the music stores. Had fun in obtaining a few cassetes for the daily drive from home to office and back :-) .... Did some time pass in Landmark . A visit to Madras is never complete without a visit to the Landmark store in Spencers which puts everyone else to shame ! Looking at it am reminded of Charles Trumper's Barrow in "As the Crow Flies " by Jeffrey Archer , though the Barrow would have sold everything that Landmark did and tons more :-) ...
More on the travails and travels in Madras tomorrow as I go down south to Adyar and the associated locales.
Anyways I blog this from the location from which the nickname "madrasi" originates, Madras the city of 3 summers , and currently in the winter of summers. Am here because of certain family reasons, and promptly fell ill with a nice flu. Receiving brickbats at my appearance (forgot the art of shaving for the past month) , countless arguments for a smaller waistline from one and all (the one thing that unites my considerably large family who disagree on everything else inclusive of the kanchi seers arrest ) and generally staying away from the computer for a while inspite of promising some research work to a couple of guys. !
Went and watched Swades at Satyam , an eminently likeable movie thankfully without the matkas and jhatkas of a typical bollywood movie. The only sad part about the whole experience was the presence of the innumerable silk saris ads and gold jewellery ads. It appears as though the whole of Madras is obsessed with silk saris and gold in general . T Nagar should be rechristened , Thyagaraya "Pattu Javuli" Nagar (Pattu = Silk in Tamil ). Things certainly have improved here except for the meters of the "humble" madras autorickshaw and the state of the water . ( it just gets redder and redder) ...:-) ...
Well enjoying the music season and the associated arrival of audio tracks in the music stores. Had fun in obtaining a few cassetes for the daily drive from home to office and back :-) .... Did some time pass in Landmark . A visit to Madras is never complete without a visit to the Landmark store in Spencers which puts everyone else to shame ! Looking at it am reminded of Charles Trumper's Barrow in "As the Crow Flies " by Jeffrey Archer , though the Barrow would have sold everything that Landmark did and tons more :-) ...
More on the travails and travels in Madras tomorrow as I go down south to Adyar and the associated locales.
Monday, November 22, 2004
A weekend of reunions and some extremely crappy tamil movies.
Its been a rather interesting weekend to say the least. Considering the fact that Srikrish finally flew down to Pune I decided to be a nice guy and go pick him up at the airport and managed to do that in an Accent thanks to another of my friends going to pick up Beta. Thought that 4 years of the U.S. of A would have quietened "the man" but he was as effervescent and bubbly as ever with the result that I realized that it would have been better if I had not introduced him to the others for the general interest of humanity (read "humanity" as yours poorly truly ! ) .
After a general banter of jokes which included the usual crappy one about senseless and sensible humour which IMHO is in great demand and in short supply. I ended up spending the remainder of Friday ribbing Srikrish about his great fear of the Great Pune Traffic show on Karve Road in an autorickshaw whose driver considered himself a competitor to Juan Pablo Montoya in terms of the number of times we escaped near crashes, things that a hardened commuter in the contraption that they call a rick I have gotten used to . Needless to say that it left him in a flit of bother regarding the traffic sense or the lack of it. !
Later ended up having dinner at ShangriLa and watched Athu thanks to reviews by Krishna due to his brilliant surfing habits for crappy tamil movies. It was nice in patches, though definitely not watchable at 11 pm at night giving up precious sleep. Having made the 3 of us wake up inspite of our protests and watch the entire movie, Krishna promptly dozed off intermittently asking us for a summary of what had happened since the last time he dozed off. The same thing happened the next afternoon when we watched Giri on his recommendation where he claimed that Arjun would do a double act making me give up precious siesta time to watch a not too great movie .... This would earn him the sobriquet of the "crap" movie reviewer !
Well the only highlight was watching The Sound of Music and going to Khadakvasla with Srikrish and showing him the beauty of nature. Even though it was sunset we managed to get some phenomenal pictures which I should put up sometime.
After a general banter of jokes which included the usual crappy one about senseless and sensible humour which IMHO is in great demand and in short supply. I ended up spending the remainder of Friday ribbing Srikrish about his great fear of the Great Pune Traffic show on Karve Road in an autorickshaw whose driver considered himself a competitor to Juan Pablo Montoya in terms of the number of times we escaped near crashes, things that a hardened commuter in the contraption that they call a rick I have gotten used to . Needless to say that it left him in a flit of bother regarding the traffic sense or the lack of it. !
Later ended up having dinner at ShangriLa and watched Athu thanks to reviews by Krishna due to his brilliant surfing habits for crappy tamil movies. It was nice in patches, though definitely not watchable at 11 pm at night giving up precious sleep. Having made the 3 of us wake up inspite of our protests and watch the entire movie, Krishna promptly dozed off intermittently asking us for a summary of what had happened since the last time he dozed off. The same thing happened the next afternoon when we watched Giri on his recommendation where he claimed that Arjun would do a double act making me give up precious siesta time to watch a not too great movie .... This would earn him the sobriquet of the "crap" movie reviewer !
Well the only highlight was watching The Sound of Music and going to Khadakvasla with Srikrish and showing him the beauty of nature. Even though it was sunset we managed to get some phenomenal pictures which I should put up sometime.
Thursday, November 18, 2004
Here we go.
Pillaiyar chuzhi or "Hello World" ! Well I said Hello World a couple of days back but heres the first serious post. Nothing very serious has been happening in life other than Srikrishna attempting to visit me and Ram tomorrow. Well for the uninitiated Srikrishna is one good friend of old whom I shall be meeting after 3 and a half years. Another South Indian though a guest of Uncle Sam Gora Saab is returning to say hi to us Software Recluses here ! So tomorrow is meeting up with him and spending some over due to time away from document writing and bothering about the tools and bugs !
The other good thing happening is listening to music out of the comp. punctuated by the odd cracker . Diwali the festival of lights and crackers was over ages ago though an attempt is made to punctuate Hariharan's voice in Raincoat with the odd cracker.
Now to explain the title "Across the pale parabola of joy " , its one magical line in a book by PG Wodehouse's biggest hero as far as I am concerned , the joy of life ! PSmith in "Leave it to Psmith" ... It epitomizes the fact that joy AFAIK exists only as a parabola paled by the darkening power of the document.... Now thats why I call my blog an "Indians" rant.
The other good thing happening is listening to music out of the comp. punctuated by the odd cracker . Diwali the festival of lights and crackers was over ages ago though an attempt is made to punctuate Hariharan's voice in Raincoat with the odd cracker.
Now to explain the title "Across the pale parabola of joy " , its one magical line in a book by PG Wodehouse's biggest hero as far as I am concerned , the joy of life ! PSmith in "Leave it to Psmith" ... It epitomizes the fact that joy AFAIK exists only as a parabola paled by the darkening power of the document.... Now thats why I call my blog an "Indians" rant.
Tuesday, November 16, 2004
Hello World
The world seems to exist and there seems to be a faint parabola of joy around it as is epitomized by leaving it to Psmith.
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