Cab from hell??

Don't believe this was actually written on the back door of a cab!

"Hell was full, So I am back"

Bangalore Rains

Is it going to rain? Oh its going to pour.... All soaked up - Brigade Road

Rambling away this Saturday night....

Woke up this morning full of enthu... so full that I just couldn't decide what I wanted to do (sigh!)

Saw the picture on a magazine cover that read "Rainy days are here again". The article had several very well shot photographs of the monsoons. I gaped at the picture taken in Kerala for several minutes & longed to go there that very minute. The closest thing I could do was go through the album from my Kerala trip :(

Email/blog time - It was then that I chanced upon Chinmayi's blog from Guru, the title song from . For those who are not too familiar with the name - to mention just a few, she has to her credit Tere Bina & MayyaKannathil Muththamittal (I just love this song) & Sahana from Sivaji. Love the way she writes, her thoughts, her perspective on life, music, people.... Actually I am still reading through it.

Currently, Bangalore weather is just awesome especially during weekends. It has the right proportion of clouds 'n breeze, a wee bit of sunlight peeking through, a tad bit of laziness added in & voila perfecto!

Felt it would be a sheer waste to stay indoors on such a lovely day - so I took my ipod 'n went for a walk. This is not something that I do very often, but today it brought me such joy - my favourite songs, the fresh air, the pleasant weather... maybe I should do this every weekend. Or maybe I should start getting up a bit early & go for a walk everyday...
Knowing me and my struggle to wake up every morning - lets see how that goes :D

Felt like having eggs for dinner. Made the most perfect omelette (yet!) and was reminded of how in Pondicherry-French toast was served with honey and melted butter... oh yum yum yummm
yeah... that was a good trip, great time, good company... ahem - enough of the nostalgia!

Spent a few hours playing the keyboard. Yet to finish this tune. Hopefully will do that soon. Have the basics in mind, just need to get the other details fitted in.

Well now to watch Shrek 3... yeah that's how I'm going to end this very nice Saturday.

Half our life is spent trying to find something to do with the time we have rushed through life trying to save. - Will Rogers

Spoof on iphone

So damn funny, especially the treadmill part :)

"G" for Genes

Michael Crichton's latest book NEXT is all about genetic engineering. I'd got a hint of what the book was about from Kishore's review. The book has covered a lot of ground - but has way too many characters and so many things happening simultaneously that its hard to keep track.
But still, the book is an eye-opener.
I was telling my mom that she was petrified after reading Coma - she should try reading this book.

The most ridiculous idea that I found in the book, which could be true and be happening anytime soon (if it hasn't been initiated already) is this:
"The Natural World being used for advertisement. Imagine a coral branch reading "BP Clean", a school of fish winking "Vodafone, Vodafone", a shark with "Cadbury" across its snout... so on & so forth... all these creatures genetically modified.
The justification behind this as one of the characters in the book explains "Corporations will be asked to sponsor species as public service. Corporations can stake their reputations on the survival of animal species as they once staked their reputations on the quality of dull TV programs. Its a win-win for the environment, for the corporations for advertisement"

After reading the book, I started looking up the net for more information on the GE topic & these are some interesting links.
The human genome project
Green Peace says NO to genetic engineering
Patenting of genes
Human-mouse hybrid in the making

It may be very uncertain... but its important to be wary of what the future holds in store for us & the generations to come ....

CEO visit - Yeah right!

Movie time again

Watched 3 movies this week, good ones... each 1 of them.

Lambada - The story of a man who is Kevin - a brilliant maths teacher by the day and Blade - a mystery man who has his Lambada moves & grooves by the night. Blade reaches out to the lesser fortunate and backward kids through his dance and then helps them with their academics after the dance sessions.
When a jealous student exposes his two worlds, Kevin's whole life turns topsy-turvy and in the end its his night class students who help clear his name & prove what a great teacher he is.

The movie concept is in the same league as Dangerous Minds.
Amazing dance sequences and a couple of popular songs in the movie.
Eddie Peck is such a delight to watch :)


Fiddler on the roof - This is such a beautiful movie. A story about the Jews living in the small village of Anatevka. Their lives, their traditions, the hardships that they face. Their mental block towards change and new ideas and finally how the exodus impacts their peaceful lives.

Each character in the movie has played their part so well, it is natural and realistic. The songs are perfectly timed and beautifully performed. For me, the touching moments in the movie are:

• Every time Tevye has to decide if he will agree to his daughters' choice of husbands
• After 25 years of marriage when Tevye asks his wife if she loves him
• Hodel's decision to marry Perchik and when she sings "Far from the home I love"
• Tevye's refusal to go against his faith & allow Chava to marry Fyedka & many more brilliant moments....
  

& finally Cheeni Kum. All that I want to say about this movie is "Very sweet". No masala no non-sense, just real emotions and beautiful acting. I'd love to watch this again :)

Another day, another place...

23rd May 07 was the day of my CTW (Community Team work) project this year. The project I had chosen this time was in relation to Rakum Blind School.

Our project was to buy provisions and vegetables for the school. We were to buy about 700 kgs of rice and 50 kgs of vegetables. We were 12 volunteers for this project. We decided that rather than all of us spending the day shopping, we'd split up such that 1/2 of us went shopping and the other 1/2 went and spent quality time with the children. So, 6 of the volunteers went shopping, the rest of us went to the school.

We reached the school at 9 AM. There were about 150 children there. 30-40 of them were below 12 years and of the remaning we even had 2 students who's given their IAS exam. We started off by giving our introductions, telling the children who we were and why we were there. We then had our breakfast along with the children.

Then it was time for activities to begin. We split the children into 2 groups, based on their age groups. For the small children we had got clay and the first activity was to help them create their clay masterpieces.

For the older children we had the activity of "know your partner better". We paired off the children and gave them a minute to get to know their partner - who they were, where they were from, what thier interests were... Then each of the children got an opportunity to introduce their partner. Initial there was a lot of hesitation to speak out into the microphone, but once we started off, they did a great job. There were a few who were not comfortable speaking in English, so we encouraged them to speak in the language of their choice.

Then it was time for some singing.
Man! are these children talented of what!

By then, the rest of the volunteers were back from their shopping adventures. We all had lunch together.

Then the music teachers from the school gave their performance.

We had the Master of Mimicry, the Hindustani teacher and Carnatic teacher each give their performance...

We then had a quiz competition for the children. We were amazed by the knowledge of the children in not just their school syllabus but also current events. They knew their trivia well, be it Narain Karthikeyan or Sunita Williams.

By the time we finished, it was snack time....and even before we realised, it was time to leave.

Before leaving, we met Mr. Rakum, the founder of the school. It takes a lot of courage, patience, perseverence and a good heart to run such an institution. God bless the likes of Mr. Rakum.

The other CTW projects that I've been a part of:
Baale school
Acts of Faith
:)

Quiet weekend

This has been an awfully quiet weekend (don't ask my neighbours **)

Watched Honeymoon Travels Pvt Ltd. The movie starts off well - but somewhere in between it loses its grip. It is a good effort but could have been made better.
I love the songs "Sajnaji vari" and "Pyar ki yeh kahani". Minissha and Abhay have done a great job with the dancing :)

Been listening to the songs from Cheeni Kum. I wouldn't use the phrase 'old wine in new bottle' because what Illaiyaraja has done to the old classics is just amazing.
I just can't stop listening to "Jane do na" which earlier used to be "Jotheyali" in the Kannada movie Geetha.
The line "na.... na na zidd na karo" There... that single line Shreya has sung it so well, I've been listening to the song over and over again just for that :)

** Quiet weekend would not exactly be what my neighbours call it. I've spent a lot of time playing the keyboard, working on a tune (with the volume really loud)

The tune

There... that was my weekend!

Movie Classics

Remember the good old days when at Cartoon Network magically turned into the TNT movie channel. I used wait for 9PM to watch all the old English classics that they played.
And then one (not so fine) day, Cartoon Network became a 24 hour channel :(
Some 2 years back I was checking the net to get a list of 'must watch' English classics and its only now that I am getting to watch them...
I guess when it comes to watching Classics... its never too late :)

Movie #1 - Singing in the rain
I love watching musicals.... the songs, the dance, the expressions, the background scores!
I've watched this movie earlier but wanted to watch it again.
Gene Kelly is such a delight to watch with his moves, his song-dance sequences and comedy.
There's one scene where Donal O'Connor tells Gene that 'comedy' is what the audience want. For this he does a 5 minute dance-cum-comedy stint that'll have your sides aching from all the laughing.
Debbie Reynolds is such a pretty face with amazing singing & dancing talent.
On the whole I thoroughly enjoyed the movie :)

Movie #2 - Casablanca
I admit, it took me sometime to understand what was happening in the begining of the movie. But once I got there, I just loved the movie from then on....
This is a movie about patriotism, sacrifice, love, sticking to your beliefs no matter what and above all.... friendship. Amazing acting by Humphrey Bogart , Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid & Claude Rains.
This is one great movie and I'm going to watch again before I return the DVD :)

The Namesake

I watched the movie a couple of weeks back and was very impressed with the story-line.
The actors had played their role so perfectly, it was as though the story was made just for them... but still, there was still something missing. A few loopholes that I cold not understand - So I picked up the book.
I finished reading the book yesterday. Yeah I finished it in a day :)
Its again one of those books that you just cannot put down. The ideas, the narrative style, the reality of the story, the true portrayal of feelings and emotions - makes you want to go on.
Movie Vs The book
I liked the book better as it has the complete picture. The book revolves around the life of Gogol, the others just being 'other' characters in the movie.
In the movie, I felt more importance was given to Ashima and Ashoke's characters. At the end of the movie, I wasn't able to fully comprehend what the story teller was trying to put across...

But now, reading the book, its all clear. Any movie which is adopted from a book cannot capture all that the book has to say. Same is the case with this movie/book.
But then, I loved the book and would now love to watch the movie again :)

Book time again!

The book for this weekend is "Who will cry when you die?" by Robin Sharma, the author of "The monk who sold his Ferrari"

I thought I'd just flip through the contents of the book and read it later on, but once I read through the 1st chapter I just could not put the book down. So I finished reading the book & am jotting down points that I found interesting.

The book starts off with - We live in an age when we have forgotten what life is all about. We can easily put a man on the moon but we have trouble walking across the street to meet a new neighbour. We can fire a missile across the world with pinpoint accuracy, but we have trouble keeping a date to go with our children to the library. We have email, fax and digital phones but yet we live in a time when human beings have never been less connected. We have lost touch with our own humanity, have lost touch with our purpose & have lost sight of things that matter the most.

Key points in the book to live a better and more fulfilling life:

• Everyday be kind to a stranger
• Every second you dwell in the past, you steal from your future. Every minute you spend focusing on problems, you take away from finding solutions.
• Talk to yourself - choose a phrase for a day and keep repeating it to yourself. Your phrase could be anything like "I am a confident and strong person"
• Worry breaks - assign about 1/2 hour each day to ponder upon your worries and to brood over difficulties. Do this only during the assigned time, any other time during the day is for you to be positive and efficient.
• Take more risks - On your deathbed, it'll not be the risks that you took that you will regret the most. Rather what fills you with greatest amount of regret and sadness is for the risks that you did not take, the opportunities you did not seize & fears you did not face.
• Master your time - Every person is given an equal share of 24 hours in a day - so what separates people who create great lives from the others is - how they use their time.
• Keep your cool - Anyone can get angry - but to get angry with the right person, at the right time for the right reason, to the right degree & in the right way- that is not easy.
• Get good at asking - Ask for a better table at your favourite restaurant, ask for a 2nd free scoop of ice cream, ask for a complimentary upgrade to your flight seat. The person who asks, gets... or at least has a chance of getting.
• Develop your talents - There's a difference between simply existing and living. The deepest personal defeat is the difference between what one is capable of becoming and what one actually becomes,
• Get a coach - Talk to a person who has followed steps to reach success. Learn and follow those steps and success will be yours too. Find your mentor.
• Become a volunteer - "I wept because I had no shoes, until I met a man with no feet". Find time to spend with the less fortunate & you will realise how blessed you are.
  
• Stop complaining start living - The people who get on in this world are the ones who look for the circumstances they want, and if they can't find them - they make them.
• Increase your value - You will be compensated not by how hard you work but by how much value you add to the world around you.
• Be the CEO of your life - I love this mantra which I've read sometime earlier also "If it is to be, it is up to me"
• Don't be so hard on yourself - Accept your mistakes, learn from it and move on
• Live fully, so you can die happily
  

This was a truly great read :)

Hope .... yeah right!

Musical Evening

Yesterday evening was a Musical Delight.. I went to a concert by Kadri Gopalnath with Kanyakumari accompanying him on the violin.
The very first note that he played on the saxophone had such an impact. Until then I had not heard anyone play the instrument live, I've only heard recorded versions of various songs. But then... it was a moment of complete awe... the echo effect produced and the impact it created... was just incredible.
Yesterday's event wasn't completely a classical one (though I'd have preferred it that way). Kadri played various bhajans and devotional songs and had the audience asking for more.
Smt.Kanyakumari played the perfect accompaniment. When each of the instruments is played on a different octave (for those who aren't too familiar with this term, it means playing one instrument at a higher pitch while the other is played at a lower one) the effect is magnificent!
How can I forget the percussionists :)
The Mridangam player was from Trichy and the Tabla player & the one playing the Morsing were from Bangalore. It was a great team effort!

When it comes to the sax for the Indian music - Kadri is the master!

Oh no ... No cheese for me!

Was having a discussion with a few friends over lunch on Friday about the book “Who Moved My Cheese”. We were five of us, of whom 2 hadn’t read the book.

I personally love this book. I like the concept, the way the thoughts are put across. It has complicated ideas and suggestions for betterment, illustrated in a very simple manner.

One friend said, I just don’t understand what you like about that book, I don’t like it.
Another said, I read the book like a fairy-tale. Read it like a story but didn’t pay much attention to the principles explained in the book, that why I think I liked it.

But for me, the book provided a great insight into how change affects people and how they react to them. Its something that happens to everyone, but for someone to explain it, it’s a mighty task.
There is one simple sentence in that book that I have adopted as a part of my thinking process. This is something I try to apply in my life whenever possible. The sentence goes:
There are various junctures in life, when my heart prompts me to do something, which it knows is right - but then I hesitate and think if I should be doing it. That’s when I ask myself, “If I weren’t afraid, what would I do?” and …. then I know the answer :)

Missing you... Thatha

Taking a quick walk down the nostalgic lane….

Summer holidays every year - amma, my brother and I used to pack off to my grandparents house in Madras (or so it was called then). From the Central station, the electric train to Pallavaram… and a cycle rickshaw to Pammal. Or sometimes it was a treat to get a tonga ride home :)
Then there was thatha's blue and white Bajaj scooter. I used to stand in the front as we rode across town on the bumpy roads.
I very vividly remember thatha telling us the story of “Merchant of Venice”, I was very impressed with Portia’s character hm….

There are some things that we always did when we went to Madras – one day of shopping in Mambalam, a trip to Kanchipuram, a visit to either the Vandalur zoo/the crocodile park and my favourite – the Marina Beach :)
Yeah… those were the good old days ….

Amma always says - people of the older generations knew how to love, how to show their affection and care and make others around them feel wanted – this is such a rare sight these days, that too amongst us selfish people, all that we are bothered about is "us"!
What is it about grandfathers that makes them so adorable… I'm still wondering!

Blogswara 3

For those of you who don't know - Blogswara is a collaborative effort by music enthusiasts from all over the world (who've known each other only through the world of blogs) to create an online album. March 25th marked the release of the 3rd album.
My favourite songs in no particular order are:

Vasantham - I don't understand Malayalam, but I do understand the language of music and "this" is a beautiful creation.
Anil has done a fantastic job with the tune composition and orchestration. The instruments used, various accompaniments especially the strumming of the Sitar (if that's what its called) is just too good.
The lyrics by Sreeja nicely fit the tune and bring out the feel of the song.
Murali's done a fabulous job with the vocals. The voice modulation, the stress on a few specific words - the gamakams, the variations... are all sung beautifully.
The tune creates a feeling of such tranquility.

Azhage - This is a peppy romantic number. The factors adding to making this song a success are the amazing vocals, the lively tune, the perfect combination of instruments especially the flute pieces.
I love the interlude. It has the perfect combination of vocals, a flute section played along with keyboard... its just wonderful. The mixing/orchestration add on to make the song what it is...
The facts given about this composition just make you go 'wow-that's cool'.

Lal Subah - I loved the instruments in this song especially the bass and the drums. The vocals just blend into the mixture superbly. The music brings out the feeling of desperation... about loneliness, the wait... The mixing is so well done that it makes you listen to the song again and again!

Listen to the songs and enjoy :)

Some things never change

After about 2 years (sheesh is it really that long) I met up with a couple of friends. We've not been completely in touch with one another - a few mails, a few phones calls is what its been. Over the past 2 years, we've each taken up different paths, career-wise & life-wise, doing different things, been with different people in different places, made new friends, gone through hardships, had a few achievements... yeah - a lot has happened.

Back in those days, there were no worries in life (apart from studies ofcourse). All that we bothered about was articleship, marks, pass percentages... all this related to the ever so feared demon called CA. But now when we look back, those seem to have been very happy days.

Little did we know then, that it was all just the begining. We were just stepping into the world, the corporate world as they call it. A world full of competition, tension, frustration, a rat-race where if you paused even for a moment, you'd be left behind. Ok lets not go there now....

Had a good time yesterday. Recalled the good old days, the funny incidents, the wierdos we had to deal with, the lessons that we learnt... those were the lessons of life!
Though so much time has passed and so many events have occured, the bond of friendship was not strained. I'm glad!

"Some" things never change. Even if they do... its only for the good :)

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Mean Mom !

Read this in the paper the other day... liked it and could totally relate to it!

"Some day when my children are old enough to understand the logic that motivates a parent, I will tell them, as my Mean Mom told me:
I loved you enough... to ask you where you were going, with whom and what time you would be home.
I loved you enough to be silent and let you discover that your new best friend was a creep.
I loved you enough to stand over you for two hours while you cleaned your room, a job that should have taken me just 15 minutes.
I loved you enough to let you see anger, disappointment and tears in my eyes.
I loved you enough to let you assume responsibility for your actions even when the penalties were so harsh they almost broke my heart.
But most of all I loved you enough ... to say "NO" even when I knew you would hate me for it.
Those were the most difficult battles of all. I'm glad I won them, because in the end, you won too."
thus the article went....
"Because of our Mean Moms, we missed out on lots of things other kids experienced. None of us have ever been caught shoplifting, vandalising other's property or ever arrested for any crime. It was all her fault.
Now, we are all educated, honest and responsible adults.
I think what is wrong with the world today is... it doesn't have enough Mean Moms"

Lovely... isn't it!