First Ray of Sun

Conspiracy Theory - My bit...

2011-02-03T21:41:00.004-06:00

As per Wikipedia (The best ever website after Google??), "Conspiracy theory was originally a neutral descriptor for any claim of civil, criminal, or political conspiracy. However, it has become largely pejorative and used almost exclusively to refer to any fringe theory which explains a historical or current event as the result of a secret plot by conspirators of almost superhuman power and cunning."

Here I am going to talk about my little CT. And this is about how this World Cup is being projected as Sachin's world cup and Indian team being the favorites.

First of all, I don't see any clear favorites this time. India, Australia, Sri Lanka, South Africa, England and even West Indies can win this world cup, thanks to the fact that you need to win only 3 games after the league phase.I think all those teams will definitely be going into Quarter final and then it is just a matter of having 3 good days, just like Kapil's devils had back in '83. Play a fantastic inning of 175, win the semi final and then final. And the cup was on it's way to Bombay...

Then, where is all these talk about India being the favorites to win coming from?

My bet, and here is the CT, is on the business acumen of a few men, who knows that the world cup is going to be a dud if Indian population is not hooked into it. They learned it the hard way from 2007 debacle in WI. And they must have taken a leaf out of Aamir Khan's marketing strategies of creating the visibility by all means.

And that's where Sachin Tendulkar's last world cup phrase is also coming from. People of India who has even the slightest of idea of what is meant by Cricket, knows this guy, and would have at least willed him on and prayed for him while he is in the middle. Such is his popularity that his name and the possibility that this is going to be his last world cup, can definitely bring in some interest from all quarters.

And the planners of the world cup made sure that India is going to be present in the world cup at least for 2/3rd days of the whole exercise. What other way is there to make sure that you keep the Indian public hooked? What this has done is that Indian public is going to have their focus on this tournament until that last ball is bowled...

ICC had to get something out of this tournament and they are playing their cards very well.

I was also wondering why our team players are putting extra pressure on them by saying that this is going to be their gift to Sachin. But then, they also know that it is just a matter of winning 3 important matches and they have as much chance as any of the ones mentioned above.

PS: I would love to see Bangladesh having 2-3 great days and who know's it could be a Bangladesh Vs West Indies final. That would of course be second in my list. The first is "India winning the world cup on it's soil"!!!

Go India...

Happy New Year!!!

2011-01-06T00:33:00.002-06:00

Nothing much to write about. Just wanted to have at least 1 post this year. Looks like 2010 was busy, too busy to even post 1 post just for the sake of a post... :)

If I continue, this would only get worse.

Adios, Amigos...

We Will Survive!

2009-05-15T09:53:00.007-05:00

Gloria Gaynor made the song "I Will Survive" immortal with the kind of energy and decisive rendition which takes us listeners to a different level. The theme of this song was a resolute reply to the boyfriend who left her for good.

There are a lot of times when we find human resolve and spirit triumph over the widespread gloom and shadow of misery.

Indian public has spoken and has come out strongly saying that we will not go down without a fight and that we will survive.

Democracy has got a shot in it's arm amidst the chaos through out the Indian subcontinent. Nepal, Pakistan and Srilanka are all experiencing internal turmoil and it would have been disastrous for the region in case Indian public had gone for a hung parliament.

Through out this great ballad of democracy, the only prayer from me was to have a good, stable government and the people of India has for once granted my wish. This could be a government that could go the distance and hopefully will bring about lots and lots of positive reforms which will help us prosper. I hope that the prosperity comes for urban as well as rural population.

Dr.Manmohan Singh, now there is no one to put shackles on your plans, so keep the reforms going and take India to more than what it can achieve...

Cheers India, I am really proud to be a part of this great country!!!

LokSatta Leader JP

2009-04-18T15:56:00.001-05:00

2nd One:

3rd One:

IPL - Indian Political League?

2009-03-23T22:37:00.004-05:00

For god's sake, please don't mix politics also with cricket!

IPL, as rightly pointed out by our Home Minister, is already a good mix of Cricket and Business. It even has glamour quotient added by all the business minded Bollywood stars. Why do we need to bring in Politics also into it?

Even someone as prominent as BCCI President did not have to try and take political mileage out of this!

I, for one, will always stand by the decision of Home Minister as Elections are more important for us, rather than holding IPL. And I am sure the security forces would have found it very very difficult to cope with both of these at the same time.

And, if some unfortunate incident was to happen during the elections/IPL because of the lack of proper security, all blame would have come to Home ministry and the security forces. None of these IPL stakeholders would be willing to take the blame! More than this blame game, it would have virtually killed this golden egg laying goose!

And, the worst thing about this is that, even the IPL administrators know about this. If a layman like me can think like this, I am sure those people have considered all this. And they smartly decided to hold it outside India. But, there are not only smart, they are crooked. That's why they are trying to gain political mileage out of this!

I hope that the common man is smart enough to see through their hidden agenda's and realize that Election is of primary importance than anything else at this point of time! It would be a shame is some people vote based on this incident!

Indian Parliament Election 2009

2009-03-22T01:02:00.002-05:00

Hmm, so the UPA government was able to complete five turbulent years at Delhi under Dr. Manmohan Singh. Congratulations, first of all! Because, Indian Political scenario is so complicated and made of so many strong regional parties and leaders with a multitude of agenda that it is really becoming a big balancing act to form a stable government in India...

As per me, the government has not done too badly under his leadership. I have a lot of respect for Dr.Singh as he was one of the chief architects for the liberalization which helped India to achieve the kind of growth that we have seen over the years. And I think, he is as highly qualified and capable as anyone, if not more, to be the Prime Minister of this great nation.

But, one major argument against Dr.Manmohan Singh has been the fact that he was a Member of Rajya Sabha and not a Lok Sabha Member. He has never been elected by the people of India. He was nominated to Rajya Sabha all the time.

Now, is this a fault of Dr.Singh or a reflection of the fact that we, the people of this great nation does not have the common sense to elect a highly qualified man to Parliament? And to think that he contested the election from South Delhi where it is supposed to have more of an urban population than rural, it is quite unbelievable.

Of course, it was in 1999 and there was a lot of sentiments for Vajpayee and hence the BJP because his government was thrown out of power by one single vote. Still a person like Dr. Singh would always be a great addition to Indian Parliament as he is so much respected in all circles, at least more than Mr. VK Malhotra who defeated him. Obviously the people of South Delhi thought otherwise.

Now, why did I want to blog about this old story? Well, a story like this might just repeat itself, no where else than in God's own country, Thiruvananthpuram, to be specific.

Shashi Tharoor, erstwhile UN Under Secretrary general is contesting this election and his credibility and qualifications are immense. His ability as an author and a diplomat while at the job that he did in UN are very well documented. I would be really disappointed if he is going to bite dust in this elections. In fact, he is the only one person that I really want to see getting elected in this exercise. I would love to see the kind of things that he is able to do for his constituency and for country if given a higher responsibility.

I hope that the common sense prevails...

Taken for granted!

2009-03-04T21:32:00.006-06:00

America is still the biggest economy in the world! But, things are not that rosy for everyone here. If hundreds of thousands of people can lose jobs within weeks, it cannot be the best place to live on in the world.

There are multiple reasons why this happened. I am not an economist to point out the pitfalls that lead to this depression.

America is still considered to be the land of opportunities. And, it was not an overnight phenomenon which took America to the place that it is. A lot of migration happened from through out the world pursuing American dream and those who came in had the talent, determination and passion to do anything for their dream. And when each and every person started doing what they can to embrace and multiply the untapped resources of this vast land, it lead to the creation of wealth like no where else.

But has it reached the top and started the journey downwards? I don't know and I am no one to predict! But the current slump could be because of the fact that they started taking things for granted.

Kerala, my home state in India is blessed with fantastic flora and fauna and a temperate climate till few years back. But, global warming is starting to have it's toll on our small state. The average temperatures have started rising through out this thin strip of land. Palakkad is having drought which threatened crops and we have to request additional water from Tamil Nadu, imagine that! And it is only beginning of March!

Electricity board is trying it's best to give electricity without too much of power cuts. But, our reservoirs are already below half their capacities. And we are only at the start of what is going to be a gruelling summer. They are not even able to buy electricity too much from Central grid as the demand/price for it increased manifold after two coal mines in Northern India shut down, bringing down thermal electricity supply.

And, I read somewhere that of the 100 samples of water from different part of our state, only 13 samples are consumable.

If we don't buckle up, plan well and govern our state properly in coming years, we might be staring down the barrel!

Extending the same logic to me and my career, I think I have been taking my position in the company for granted for long. But I am getting signals from everywhere that things are not that great especially with the whole economic slowdown and all. I need to pull up my socks and be on my toes.

Thirakkatha - The movie!

2009-02-21T00:23:00.005-06:00

A lot of times, I tend to live in the wonderful life of past. At times I worry about what future is holding for me, how am I going to survive if this goes wrong and that goes wrong etc etc. And when I am fed up of living in the past and worrying about the future, I try to find my Neverland. I try to forget everything and be part of a dreamland. I watch movies, an unbelievably high number of them!

Netflix and Youtube are like bread and butter for me, or should I say "Kanji and Payaru" or "Dal and Roti"! :-)

Today, as soon as I came back from office I changed clothes and started watching the movie "The Butterfly Effect". It is a movie based on Chaos Theory which states that even a small movement of a butterfly wing can trigger a cyclone in another part of the world! It was a pretty complex script and I was in awe of that script!

By the time I finished the movie, both my roommates were hungry enough and we went out for dinner. We went to a Pancake House and had lots of coffee and sugar. So my plans of hitting bed early went for a toss.

I came back and started browsing and the name of movie "Thirakkatha" caught my eye. So, as usual I opened Youtube and started searching for Thirakkatha movie and to my utmost delight, I could find a very good copy of that movie in Youtube. I decided to ignore the moral problems about violating the copyrights of the movie for a moment as I wanted to watch this movie from the time I heard about Ranjith directing such a movie.

I started watching the movie and found it a bit slow at the beginning and found the narration a bit too complex. Even some of the scenes seemed to be amateurish.

But the second half of the movie was outstanding. Ranjith has come up with a gem of a storyline, even though some of the dialogues were a bit dramatic for my taste. But, finally he was able to conquer my feelings and my heart became heavy towards the end of it.

As soon as the movie finished at around 12:15 AM, I went to the kitchen, had a glass of water. I wanted to get my emotions out somehow and I started writing this blog!

A must watch, if you are a movie fan!

It's Tina Fey time again!

2009-01-12T00:23:00.009-06:00

Before going to Tina Fey, here is a proud moment for us!

Keep it rocking, ARR!!!

Cheers!!!

And here goes our own Indian Contingent!

Finally, back to Tina. Yep, She did it! She won the Golden Globe Award 2009 for best actress (Comedy/Musical) in TV, apart from winning the best comedy series award. And here is her acceptance speech! Incredible! :-)

Raising the Bar!!!

2009-01-09T16:51:00.006-06:00

Hmm, here I am going to use this post to do some soul searching and will be trying to generalize some of my personal traits as something which comes with being a human being! So, please do get offended as I am including you also into my group and in case you don't feel like getting offended, then join the club!

I guess, that is a good enough preface to what is going to be written now. Wait a minute, am I again trying to go around the bush! OK, just for a moment I forgot that we all are done with Mr.Bush, am so am done with this precursor too... (That was a joke, and you are supposed to laugh when someone says a joke!)

What I want to write about is the feeling of satisfaction. Yes, that is the big topic today! How often have we (See, I told ya'l I will be generalising) felt a complete sense of satisfaction without any craving for more and be blissfully happy?

I must say this now itself that, I am not including people who earn a livelihood by doing what they love the most. For example, people like artists, sportspersons etc will be getting a lot of satisfaction because they love doing that the most. So I am not counting in those people!

Tricky, eh?

I know, when we think about it hard, we can realize that there are very few such occasions.

I want to associate this phenomenon with something else, other than not doing what you love. I would say that it is because we keep raising the bar for us to feel satisfied!

Here, let me explain! And now, I am going to give my example and will not be accusing all human beings for a while. So, sit back, relax and enjoy! (As if you people were afraid and tensed. Whom are you kidding, Arun?)

Before getting a job, even during the college days, all I wanted was to get a 9-5 job which pay decent salary so that I can help dad run the family. So I was in a state of ecstasy when I got the appointment letter from Infosys, which was ready to pay me far more that what I had wished for. And that was one of those moments when I was feeling so happy and satisfied.

Then, days, weeks, months and years passed by! Started knowing about the salary levels, living standards etc of IT comrades(just a gentle reminder that I am from a communist governed state), I started feeling restless inside.

After a while, I was not satisfied with the kind of work that I was doing. Support project, no way! I need high end development in the most high flying technologies of the time. I say,"There is discrimination, while few of us slog day and night to do some job that anyone can do, while some others are enjoying development/design projects etc".

It did not stop there. Then the thought process went like this, "Why am I being paid these peanuts compared to some of my peers/friends in other companies?".

Then, working on weekends! "Hello, am a software engineer, am not supposed to work on a saturday!". Just think about it! For someone who grew up seeing your dad, uncles, cousins all going to work 6 days a week, can't get adjusted to the fact that he has to work on a couple of saturdays so that the project can be delivered on time. Funny, ain't it?

There I was slowly raising the bar and started yearning for more, in terms of life style, kind of work, the money that is paid to me etc. Even the slightest increase in the height of the bar, created waves of dissatisfaction in the ranks!

And one day, I hear that a friend is going onsite. Ah, the evergreen dream destination of a greenhorn software engineer. During the irritating onsite calls, I used to think, "Hmm, stop showing of bro! Agree you are onsite now, but I will also be there at some point and then I will show you how to behave with your offshore counter parts!".

But the main attraction was $$$$$$$ and the pleasure of traveling and seeing places! Remember that these things were not even in the wildest dreams of a daydreaming engineering student who always dreamt of representing his country in a multitude of sports(Even in Tennis wherein he hasn't even seen a real tennis racquet till then). So now you know how wild my day dreams where. But the onsite $$$ and travelling was not really a part of those dreams!

So, there again, I started yearning for more. Before this happened, I used to smirk at the colleagues who used to have fights with Managers asking them to be send onsite. But at some point of time, I also joined their league and started raising voice.

Again I was not satisfied by what I was having. Never even took time to look back and listen to that simple guy who found joy in simple things.

So, I think it is time for me to realize that the key to having a truly satisfied life is to keep your aspirations to a limit. This will mean that you can remain satisfied through out your life, rather than being dissatisfied and restless chasing the bar that you yourself was taking out of you reach with each positive step that you take towards it!

Too much thinking for now, let me have some cold water to cool it off!

CIAO!!!

My Music!!!!

2009-01-06T22:52:00.006-06:00

Hey, check out a short and sweet collection of ma favourite songs on the right hand side playlist. Listen to the Solo in Sultans of swing, priceless! Mark Knopfler, take a bow!!!

Hot tip: Pop out the player and play the songs, so that you are not disturbed in case you want to move around the blogosphere!!!

Enjoy!!!

Happy New Year, Folks!!!

2009-01-04T23:46:00.006-06:00

Being new year and all, I just thought I will do a complete make over for my blog! Some envious neighbours might say that I am doing this to compensate the lack of creative writing skills! Well, you guys know the truth, don't ya?

What? No... I am not trying to evade an answer to that question. That is a ridiculous question as the answer for that question is so obvious!!! :-)

Hope the new look is not too severe on your eyes! If yes, do let me know... Do let me know in case you like the new look too!!! :-)

A New Year Wish!!!

2008-12-31T13:29:00.009-06:00

You know what, I wanted to write another blog and post it just before the end of 2008. And it was mostly because of couple of news items that I saw today which triggered the following thoughts! And I felt it would be apt that this post comes before the end of 2008:

1) "What more proof does Pakistan need before handing over the non-state actors to Indian Judiciary even after Kasab's father acknowledged that Kasab was his son" - Honourable Defense Minister P.Chidambaram

2) "Dhoni's family gets extortion letter from D' Company. He asks for additional security" - The Times of India.

Two completely different stories, we might initially think. But, there is a far more deeper connection to this than the obvious 'D' word, if we can spare ourselves to reflect a bit more deeply.

My immediate questions are as given below:

1) Is Dawood and LeT the only threats to the peaceful being of our people?

2) Just by taking Dawood to trial, are we going to put a complete stop to these extortions, drug mafia, bomb blasts from happening in the future?

3) When we are talking about dismantling the terrorist hideouts/training centers in PoK, when are we going to dismantle the Underworld that has been eating into the lives of millions across our country? I am sure it is not going to crumble after Dawood. But, we should cripple him by tearing his network in our country apart.

Well, I think we, including our politicians, ought to take a deeper look at these issues and come up with a solution which can answer the above questions!

I am sure this can be achieved. But for that we need a new Iron Man for India. I just wish from the bottom of my heart and pray to lord to give me one great leader who thinks of national interest above himself and his party's interest and is strong willed to carry out whatever it takes!

But, if it is not going to happen anytime soon, then let's suffer, fight and survive if we have to, until our piedpiper comes and leads us into a peaceful tomorrow!

I wish all of us Indians a very happy and peaceful new year!!!

Yes, We Can!!!

2008-11-14T22:56:00.006-06:00

No, I am not talking about Barack Obama or what African-American people can do! It is not yet time to say anything about him, let's wait for a couple more of years and then we will talk about him...

I am talking about us Indians, to be precise, a band of highly intelligent and hardworking guys who has made us proud. Yes, I am talking about the space scientists of India, the ISRO and VSSC guys!

Chandrayaan-1 has finally reached lunar orbit to start a two year mission where it will gather a lot of scientific data about Moon, which in a not too distant future could be the next step of Space Tourism! And, as a first main objective Chandrayaan-1 has created a small footmark on Moon's surface on behalf of India with the Moon Impact Probe (MIP) and through which it has delivered Tricolor to Moon.

MIP impact probe has sent the video and pictures of moon that it took on it's 25 minutes journey from Chandrayaan-1 to the surface of moon. The impact at 1.6 KM per second destroyed MIP, as expected, but below is one of the photos of surface of Moon taken by this 100% indegenous space misson!

Bravo, guys and god bless you all! You have made us Proud!!!

അനിവാര്യത

2008-11-08T00:00:00.004-06:00

നേരം പരപരാ വെളുത്തു വരുന്നതെ ഉള്ളു, എന്ന് വെച്ചാല്‍, എന്റെ ഭാഷയില്‍ മണി ഏഴ് കഴിഞ്ഞു എന്നര്‍ത്ഥം. ജനലിലെ ചില്ലിലൂടെ സൂര്യന്‍ എന്നെ മെല്ലെ തഴുകി ഉണര്‍ത്തുകയാണ് എന്ന് തോന്നി...

പുതപ്പു മെല്ലെ നെറുകയിലേക്ക് വലിച്ചിടുമ്പോഴും എന്‍റെ ഉള്ളില്‍ ആ ഒരു ചിന്തയെ ഉണ്ടായിരുന്നുള്ളു. അനിവാര്യതയെ കുറിച്ചുള്ള ആശങ്ക മനസ്സില്‍ ഒരു വിങ്ങലായി. ഒട്ടകപക്ഷി മണ്ണില്‍ തല പൂഴ്ത്തി വെയ്ക്കുന്നത് പോലെ ഞാന്‍ കണ്ണുകള്‍ ഇറുക്കിയടച്ചു, സത്യത്തിനു നേരെ നോക്കാന്‍ മടിച്ചു!

യേത് നിമിഷവും അത് സംഭവിക്കും എന്ന് എനിക്ക് അറിയാമായിരുന്നു. കാലങ്ങളായി ഇതു സംഭവിക്കുന്നതാനെന്കിലും എല്ലാത്തവണയും ഒരേ വികാരമാണ് അതുണ്ടാക്കുന്നത്‌, ഒരു തരം നിഷേധാത്മക മനോഭാവം! അത് കൊണ്ടു എന്ത് പ്രയോജനം എന്ന് ചോദിക്കരുത്!

മനസ്സില്‍ ഇങ്ങനെ ഒക്കെ ഉള്ള ചിന്തകള്‍ ഉണ്ടെങ്കിലും ഇടയ്ക്കിടയ്ക്ക് ഞാന്‍ ഉറക്കത്തിലേയ്ക്കു വഴുതി പൊയ്ക്കൊണ്ടിരുന്നു. പക്ഷെ പെട്ടെന്ന് എന്തോ ഓര്‍ത്തു വീണ്ടും ഉണര്‍ന്നു ചിന്ത തുടര്‍ന്നു. ഈ വിചാരം അല്ലെങ്കില്‍ ഭയം മനസ്സില്‍ ഉള്ളിടത്തോളം ഇനി ഇങ്ങനെ തന്നെ ആയിരിക്കും ഉണ്ടാവുന്നത്, അല്ലെങ്കില്‍ പിന്നെ അത് അങ്ങ് സംഭവിക്കണം...

ഇതു ഭയം ആണോ? അല്ലേയല്ല!!!

എന്നെ സ്വയം ആശ്വസിപ്പിക്കാന്‍ വേണ്ടി പറയുന്നതല്ല, പക്ഷെ ഇത്തരം കാര്യങ്ങള്‍ എന്നെ ഭയപ്പെടുത്താറില്ല. നേരത്തെ പറഞ്ഞതു പോലെ, കുറെ നാളുകളായി ഇതു ഞാന്‍ കേള്‍ക്കുന്നത്. തുലാമാസത്തിലെ ഇടിമുഴക്കം പോലെ ഇതും ചിരപരിചിതമായി!

അടുത്ത മുറിയില്‍ നിന്നും അവിടുത്തെ അന്തേവാസിയുടെ ശബ്ദം ഇതിനിടയ്ക്ക് നന്നായി കേള്ക്കാം. നാട്ടിലുള്ള ഭാവി വധുവുമായി സംസാരിച്ചു കൊണ്ടിരിക്കുന്നു, പച്ചമലയാളത്തില്‍ പറഞ്ഞാല്‍ 'പഞ്ചാര അടി'. ഇവിടെ ഒരാള്‍ കിടന്നുറങ്ങുകയാണ് എന്നുള്ള വിചാരം ഒന്നും കക്ഷിക്കില്ല. ചെറിയ തോതില്‍ അത് ഒരു ശല്യം ആണെന്കിലും എന്‍റെ മനസ്സു നിറയെ ഏത് നിമിഷവും സംഭവിക്കാവുന്ന ആ കാര്യം ആയിരുന്നു. അതുകൊണ്ട് എനിക്ക് മുഷിപ്പോന്നും തോന്നിയില്ലാ...

പെട്ടെന്ന് അത് സംഭവിച്ചു...

വെകിളി പിടിച്ച പോലെ ഞാന്‍ ചുറ്റും കൈ ഓടിച്ചു. എവിടെ ആണത്? കണ്ണ് തുറന്നു നോക്കാനുള്ള മടി കാരണം പെട്ടെന്നൊന്നും അത് കണ്ടു പിടിക്കാന്‍ കഴിഞ്ഞില്ല. നിമിഷങ്ങള്‍ കഴിയും തോറും അത് മുറുകി കൊണ്ടിരുന്നു...

അവസാനം രണ്ടും കല്പിച്ചു ഞാന്‍ കണ്ണ് തുറന്നു നോക്കാന്‍ തന്നെ തീരുമാനിച്ചു. കണ്ണ് തുറന്നു നോക്കിയപ്പോളാണ് അത് കണ്ടെത്താന്‍ സാധിച്ചത്. എല്ലാ ശക്തിയും എടുത്തു ഞാന്‍ ഒരു വിധത്തില്‍ ഏന്തി വലിഞ്ഞു മൊബൈല് എടുത്തു അലാറം സ്വിച്ച് ഓഫ് ചെയ്തു! ഹാവൂ, എന്തൊരാശ്വാസം!!!

മണി ഏഴര ആയി, ഇനിയിപ്പോള്‍ എണീറ്റെ പറ്റൂ. അങ്ങനെ വീണ്ടും ഒരു ദിവസം തുടങ്ങുകയായി!!!

Best of American Elections!!!

2008-10-24T23:05:00.004-05:00

Presidential elections in United States of America is a very complex and ellaborate exercise! Firstly, it involes elections in all states to elect the candidates of both the 'concerned' parties, the Republicans and the Democrats a.k.a The elephants and The Donkeys in that order. Or is it the other way round? I am not sure! whatever!!!

OK, and it is not just the votes that they recieve from party members that count, but also the amount that they are able to raise through various means for the elections expenses. After this marathon process, compared to the sprint version in India, the parties decide who is going to be their presidential candidate! To cut the long story short, people lose interest by the time the real election comes!!!

Senators Barack Obama and John McCain are this year's candidates and McCain has his vice presidential candidate as Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska!

Now, below are a few clippings from a TV show called Saturday Night Live (SNL) from NBC. (Courtesy NBC). See how they are making fun of Governor Sarah Palin and how she is taking it all in sportingly! Lets have some fun!!!

Governor Palin had an interview in which she made some supposedly 'stupid' comments which has been targetted in this video. Tina Fey, who is as good as it gets in terms of brain and beauty, enacts Governor Palin and Amy Poehler enacts the journalist.

Wasn't that funny???

Now below is another video with Governor Palin and Senator Hillary Clinton! The same kick ass duo of Tina Fey and Amy Poehler!

After all this, Governor Sarah Palin had the grace (Lack of grey cells, envious people say) to come to NBC and have a few cracks herself! See below!!

And here is an absolute cracker of Rap song by Amy Poehler in front of Governor Palin and about her! See how gracefully the Governor handles it. If not for anything else other than her beauty, she should be congratulated for this daring! See it for yourself!

This has been the best part of US Presidential elections for me! Thanks to the Gorgeous Governor Palin, Fantastic Tina Fey (Who proved that beauty and brains can co-exist! She is the writer directory of comedy series "30ROCK") and 'Hillaryous' Amy Poehler(She is almost ready to have a dash to Labour Room!)...

Adding the one with Senator McCain! Can't believe someone who is running for the most powerful position in the world has the willingness and courage to act like this!

ഇടക്കൊച്ചി ഇന്‍ ന്യൂസ്!

2008-10-21T15:39:00.001-05:00

ഞാന്‍ ജനിച്ചു വളര്‍ന്ന സ്ഥലം ആണ് ഈ പറയുന്ന ഇടക്കൊച്ചി! :-)

പക്ഷെ ഈ അവാര്‍ഡ് എന്തിനാണെന്ന് മാത്രം മനസ്സിലായില്ല! ഇടക്കൊചിക്ക് ഒരു വില്ലജ് ആപ്പീസ് ഉണ്ടെന്‍കിലും, കൊച്ചിന്‍ നഗരസഭയുടെ ഭാഗം ആണ് ഇടക്കൊച്ചി! അങ്ങനെ ഉള്ള ഒരു സ്ഥലത്തിന് മികച്ച വില്ലജ്-ഇനുള്ള അവാര്‍ഡ്? എന്തെരോ എന്തോ, ഒന്നും മനസ്സിലാവുന്നില്ല...!!!

ആ വില്ലജ് അപ്പീസില്‍ ഇരുന്നു പണി എടുക്കുന്നവര്‍ക്ക് ധീരതയ്ക്കുള്ള അവാര്‍ഡ് കൊടുതിരുന്നെന്കില്‍ എനിക്കിത്രയും ആശ്ചര്യം ഉണ്ടാകുമായിരുന്നില്ല. അതിന്റെ അടുത്ത് കൂടി നടക്കാനേ പേടി ആവും; എങ്ങാനും നമ്മള്‍ അറിയാതെ തുമ്മിയാല്‍, അതെല്ലാം കൂടി അങ്ങ് ഇടിഞ്ഞു വീഴും, അതാ അതിന്റെ ഒരു സ്ഥിതി!

എന്തായാലും ഈ അവാര്‍ഡ് കൊണ്ടു അവര്ക്കു ഒരു പുതിയം കെട്ടിടം എങ്കിലും കിട്ടിയാല്‍ അത്രയും ആയി!!!

ഇതു കൊണ്ടുള്ള ഏറ്റവും വലിയ ഗുണം എന്താണെന്നു വെച്ചാല്‍, ഇനി ഞങ്ങള്ക്ക് ഞങ്ങളുടെ അയല്‍ക്കാരായ കുമ്പളങ്ങിക്കാരുടെ മുന്‍പില്‍ കാണിക്കാന്‍ ഒരു അവാര്‍ഡ് ആയി! മികച്ച ടൂറിസം വില്ലജ്-ഇനുള്ള അവാര്‍ഡ് കിട്ടി എന്നും പറഞ്ഞു അവര് കുറെ അഹങ്കരിച്ചതാന്നെ!

ഇനി അതും പറഞ്ഞോണ്ട് ഇങ്ങോട്ട് വാ, കാണിച്ചു തരാം! ;-)

ഒരു Milestone വീരഗാഥ!!!

2008-10-16T23:51:00.005-05:00

എത്രയും പ്രിയപ്പെട്ട സുഹൃത്തുക്കളെ,

"ഇന്നു ഞാന്‍ എഴുതുന്ന ഈ വരികള്‍ ചരിത്രത്തിലെ ഒരു നാഴിക കല്ലാണ്", എന്നൊക്കെ പറയണം എന്നുണ്ട്; പക്ഷെ, അല്പസ്വോല്പം വിനയം നടിക്കുന്ന ഒരു സ്വഭാവം ഉള്ളത് കൊണ്ടു ഞാന്‍ അങ്ങനെ പറയുന്നില്ല... വിനയം കാണിക്കുകയാണ് എന്ന് പറഞ്ഞതു കൊണ്ടു മേല്‍പറഞ്ഞത്‌ സത്യം ആണ് എന്നും ഇല്ല!

ഒരു പക്ഷെ ഇതു ഈ ലോകചരിത്രത്തിലെ ഒരു നാഴികക്കല്ല് അല്ലെങ്കിലും, ഈ ബ്ലോഗിന്റെ ചരിത്രത്തിലെ ഒരു നാഴികക്കല്ലാണ്!

ഇതാണ് ഈ ബ്ലോഗിലെ അന്‍പതാമത്തെ അദ്ധ്യായം... (ഡും ഡും ഡും ഡും, പപ്പരപരപരപേ...)

ഒത്തിരി മണ്ടത്തരങ്ങളും കോപ്പി അടിച്ച് പേസ്റ്റ് ചെയ്ത ഒത്തിരി അധ്യായങ്ങളും ഒക്കെ കൂടി ഒരു വിധം ഒപ്പിച്ചതാണീ അന്പതെണ്ണം. ചറപറ പോസ്റ്റുകള്‍ എഴുതി പടച്ചു വിടുന്ന ബൂലോഗത്തെ വന്‍ പുലികളൊക്കെ ഈ പോസ്റ്റ് കണ്ടാല്‍ പുച്ഛിച്ചു ചിരിക്കും എന്നറിയാം, എങ്കിലും ഇവിടെ രാജാവ് ഞാന്‍ ആയതു കൊണ്ടു ഞാന്‍ ആ ചിരികള്‍ക്കൊക്കെ പുല്ലു വില കല്‍പ്പിക്കുന്നു! :-)

ഇനിയും ബോര്‍ എഴുതി വലിച്ചു നീട്ടുന്നില്ല, രാത്രി ൧൨:൦൦ (മലയാളം പന്ത്രണ്ടു) മണി കഴിഞ്ഞു ! ഇപ്പോഴെന്കിലും ഉറങ്ങിയില്ലെന്കില്‍ രാവിലെ എണീറ്റ്‌ ആപ്പീസില്‍ പോവാന്‍ പറ്റില്ല... ശരി അപ്പൊ, വീണ്ടും സന്ധിക്കും വരെ, വണക്കം!

എന്ന് സ്വന്തം,
ഞാന്‍!

The Quitter - Edgar A. Guest

2008-09-30T17:14:00.005-05:00

Fate handed the quitter a bump, and he dropped;
The road seemed too rough to go, so he stopped.
He thought of his hurt, and there came to his mind
The easier path he was leaving behind.

Oh, it's all much too hard, said the quitter right then;
I'll stop where I am and not try it again.
He sat by the road and he made up his tale
To tell when men asked why he happened to fail.

A thousand excuses flew up to his tongue,
And these on the thread of his story he strung,
But the truth of the matter he didn't admit;
He never once said, I was frightened and quit.

Whenever the quitter sits down by the road
And drops from the struggle to lighten his load,
He can always recall to his own peace of mind
A string of excuses for falling behind;

But somehow or other he can't think of one
Good reason for battling and going right on.
Oh, when the bump comes and fate hands you a jar,
Don't baby yourself, boy, whoever you are;

Don't pity yourself and talk over your woes;
Don't think up excuses for dodging the blows.
But stick to the battle and see the thing through.
And don't be a quitter, whatever you do.

ചുമ്മാ, ഒരു ജാഡ...

2008-05-06T21:09:00.006-05:00

ജനല്‍പാളികള്‍ തുറന്നു കിടക്കുകയാണെന്ന് തോന്നുന്നു, ഇല്ലെന്കില്‍ ഈ കാറുകളുടെ ഒച്ച ഇത്രയും നന്നായിട്ടു കേള്‍ക്കത്തില്ല!

സമയം ഒന്‍പതായി എങ്കിലും നാട്ടിലെ ഒരു ഏഴ്മണിയുടെ അത്രയും ഇരുട്ടേ ഉള്ളു. ഒന്നും ചെയ്യാനില്ലാത്ത ഒരു അവസ്ഥ. ചെറുതായി ബോര്‍ അടിച്ച് തുടങ്ങി. ഇനിയിപ്പോള്‍ അതെ ഉള്ളു ഒരു വഴി, ഭക്ഷണം കഴിചെക്കാം. വിശന്നിട്ടല്ല, ചുമ്മാ സമയം കളയാന്‍. ബുഷ് അമ്മാവന്‍ ഇതെങ്ങാനും കേട്ടാല്‍ പിന്നെ, എന്നെ പോലുള്ളവരാന് ഈ ലോകത്തിലെ ഭക്ഷണ ക്ഷാമത്തിനു കാരണം എന്ന് പറഞ്ഞു അമേരിക്കയില്‍ നിന്നെങ്ങാനും പിടിച്ചു പുറത്താക്കിയാലോ? വേണ്ട, ആ റിസ്ക് എടുക്കണ്ട...!

സഹമുറിയന്‍ കിടന്നുറങ്ങുന്നത് കാരണം ഞാന്‍ ബള്‍ബ് ഓണ്‍ ചെയ്തില്ല. പാവം ഓഫീസില്‍ ഉച്ച ഭക്ഷണം പോലും കഴിക്കാതെ കഷ്ടപ്പെട്ട് പണി എടുത്തിട്ടു വന്നു കിടക്കുകയാണ്. ഞാന്‍ ആയിട്ട് ശല്യം ചെയ്യരുതല്ലോ...!

തുറന്നു കിടക്കുന്ന ആ ജനല്‍പാളികളില്‍ കൂടി നേരിയ ഒരു തണുപ്പു ഉള്ളിലേക്ക് വരുന്നുണ്ട്. എനിക്കും ഇങ്ങനെ പുതച്ചു മൂടി കിടന്നുറങ്ങാന്‍ തോന്നുന്നു. രാത്രി നാട്ടിലെ ഓഫീസിലുള്ളവരോട് സംസാരിക്കാന്‍ ഉള്ളത് കൊണ്ടു, ഇപ്പോളെ ഉറങ്ങണ്ട. ഫോണ്‍-ഇല്‍ എന്തായിരിക്കും വിളിച്ചു പറയുന്നതു എന്ന് പറയാന്‍ പറ്റില്ല... :-)

ഇങ്ങനെ ഭക്ഷണത്തെ കുറിച്ചു പറഞ്ഞു പറഞ്ഞു കുറച്ചു വിശപ്പ്‌ വരുന്നുണ്ടോ എന്നൊരു സംശയം. അപ്പോള്‍ ഞാന്‍ പോട്ടെ, ഇനി പിന്നെ കാണാം!!!

America's Pastime!

2008-04-29T23:36:00.011-05:00

Finally, I did it. I went to watch a sporting event for the first time in US. As a matter of fact, this is the first time ever that I have been to a full fledged stadium to watch live action. And tell you what, except for most part of the game, everything else was great, just like most of the first things in life...

It was a baseball game between Minnesota Twins and Chicago White Sox. One of the client managers tried to organize this as a fun outing for her team including the contractors like us. I was not directly invited but a friend of mine asked me if I would be interested in this and I did not waste even one second before replying to count me in...

Even though only few of us turned up for the match, I was all excited because of the aforementioned fact that this was a first time experience for me. The only shadow over my exuberance was the constant waves of thought about getting a ride back home after the match. It would be around 10 and being in the downtown at that point of time is supposedly risky. But I did not want that fact to stop me from doing this one thing that I always wanted to do from the time I landed in US for first time...

The stadium 'Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome' is an amazing structure by itself. It is an Indoor stadium and the technology used in the construction of roof is something that I have never even heard about (Not that I consider myself an architect par excellence). I am just quoting a few lines from Wikipedia about this roof below:

"The Metrodome roof.The Metrodome's roof is made of two layers of Teflon coated fiberglass fabric, and is an air-supported structure supported by positive air pressure. It requires 250,000 ft³/min (120 m³/s) of air to keep it inflated. It is reputed to be the largest application of Teflon on Earth.
To maintain the differential air pressure, spectators usually enter and leave the seating and concourse areas through revolving doors, since the use of regular doors without an airlock would cause significant loss of air pressure. The double-walled construction allows warmed air to circulate beneath the top of the dome, melting accumulated snow. A sophisticated environmental control center in the lower part of the stadium is manned to monitor weather and make adjustments in air distribution to maintain the roof."

I did not notice the above said things while I was inside it. Just noticed this once I came back home and read about it...

Moreover, this roof gives a real home advantage for the Twins players. This is because of the fact that the roof is almost a light ash colour and even from my seat, I was not able to keep track of all those high balls. They just disappear once it has its background as the roof. Since the home team players practice here, it might be easier for them than those traveling team players...

About the game, Minnesota Twins beat Chicago WhiteSox which is considered as a better team. So it was a lucky night for Twins, may be because I was there to watch the game... :-)

Baseball is a game similar to our cricket, but much much boring. I would say the people who goes to the stadium should do that with a mind to wait for bursts of excitement which pops up in between long intervals of lacklustre action. But, it looks like a great game to play. What I wanted to say was that, as long as you are directly involved in the game, it is a fun game, a lot like golf as a friend of mine puts it. Baseball is boring for someone who doesn't understand the nuances of the game. For example, I love watching the game of test cricket, but most people prefer the shorter versions. Yes, you are right! I was just boasting myself! :-)

The lady who took the initiative for this, who is as exuberant as they come, told me that even though she does not know much about the game, she loves going to the stadium just to treat herself to the sumptuous food available there. And I loved the food too, mostly because I haven't had a hotdog for a loooong time...

I had to start before the game was completely over, as I had to catch the bus and I did not know the downtown much. So it was kind of an adventure coupled with the fact that it was night. Downtowns are usually notorious for crime. So that fear is always there in the mind. I did not face much issue, may be because of the fact that I was mostly running from one bus stop to the other for catching the transfer bus...

All together, it was a nice night out and I am glad that I did it...

Catch y'all later!

എന്ന് വരും നീ...

2008-03-31T23:09:00.000-05:00

... എന്ന് വരും നീ, എന്റെ കിനാപൈങ്കിളി???

ഇപ്പോള്‍ ഇങ്ങനെ ഒക്കെ പറയും എങ്കിലും, എത്ര നാള്‍ ഞാന്‍ ഈ ഒരു ക്ഷമ കാണിക്കും എന്ന് എനിക്ക് തന്നെ അറിയില്ല. അല്ല, നിങ്ങള് തന്നെ പറ, ഒരാളുടെ ക്ഷമയ്ക്കും ഒരതിരില്ലേ???

ചുമ്മാ അങ്ങനെ എന്തിനെന്കിലും വേണ്ടി കാത്തിരിക്കുന്നത് പോലെ അല്ലല്ലോ ഇതു, യേത്? ഏകദേശം ഒരു മാസത്തോളം ആയി ഈ കാത്തിരിപ്പ്‌. ഇതു ഒരു മാതിരി ആളെ വടിയാക്കുന്നതല്ലേ, നിങ്ങള് പറ...

മനുഷ്യന് ഈ മഞ്ഞു കണ്ടു മടുത്തു. വസന്തം ഇന്നു വരും, നാളെ വരും എന്നൊക്കെ പറഞ്ഞു ആളെ പറ്റിക്കുന്നതല്ലാതെ, ഇങ്ങു വരുന്നില്ല. വരുന്നില്ല എന്ന് മാത്രമല്ല, ഞങ്ങളോടൊക്കെ എന്തോ ദേഷ്യം ഉള്ളത് പോലെ ആണ് മഞ്ഞു പെയ്യുന്നത്...

ഏപ്രില്‍ തുടങ്ങി, ഇനി ഈ മഞ്ഞു ഒക്കെ എന്ന് തീരും എന്തോ???

Inspirational...

2008-02-14T06:36:00.002-06:00

There are occassions in life when you feel all helpless and suddenly a small stroke of luck or, what I would like to call, "Divine intervention" will get us out of that tight spot...

I travelled back to India on 1st of February and that was a day with some of the worst winter weather in Rochester that I happened to see. I woke up that day listening to some sounds like small rocks falling on the glass windows. I looked outside to see small pieces of ice falling instead of snow or rain. I am not sure if this is called Hailstorm or this was something else...

I completed my packing and called the airlines to see if there is any delay in my flight to NY and the news that I got was that the flight was cancelled. I was confused for a moment or two. Then I decided to go to Airport and confirm it there rather than sitting at home. So I started early...

I was given the same news by the person on the check in counter and she told that they have flights to NY only tomorrow and they are making reservations for me tomorrow. And they gave me a number for AIR-INDIA as my connection flight was of AIR-INDIA...

The best thing about that moment was that I did not panic or decide to go home straightaway. I thought I will confirm everything for tomorrow rightaway and only after that I will get out of Airport. I started calling the number for AIR-INDIA...

And here comes the best part. That number was not working. So I decided to go back to the counter and this time there was another lady standing there. I told her that the number is not working. So she started looking for another number and there was nothing...

Then, I don't know why, may be because of the goodness of her heart or her commitment to a customer, she started looking for some options. And she found another flight to NY by the same airlines for the same day. She straightaway put me into that and my joy knew no bounds...

I was totally blown away by such a simple but very helpful act from that lady and I did not know how to thank her...

I just hope and pray that I am also able to do such deeds and help others in future whenever I find someone in distress...

Taare Zameen Par

2007-12-30T12:51:00.001-06:00

ഒരു പുതുവര്‍ഷം കൂടി വരുന്നു. സമയം വളരെ വേഗത്തില്‍ പോവുന്നു എന്നൊരു തോന്നല്‍, ഇല്ലേ? ഒരു പക്ഷെ കഴിഞ്ഞ കാലങ്ങളിലെ സുന്ദരനിമിഷങ്ങളെ ഓര്‍ക്കുമ്പോള്‍ ഉണ്ടാവുന്ന ഒരു തോന്നല്‍ ആയിരിക്കാം അത്...

ഈ വെയിലും മഴയും ഒരുമിച്ചു ഉണ്ടാവുന്നത് കാണുമ്പോള്‍ മനസ്സില്‍ എന്തെന്നില്ലാത്ത ഒരു സന്തോഷം ഉണ്ടാവാറുണ്ട്. അത് പോലെ തന്നെ മനോഹരമായ ഒരു അവസ്ഥ ആണ് സന്തോഷം കൊണ്ടു കണ്ണ് നിറയുന്നത്‌...

Taare Zameen Par എന്ന ആമിര്‍ ഖാന്‍ ചിത്രം കണ്ടു കൊണ്ടിരുന്നപ്പോള്‍ അവസാനം ഞാന്‍ ആ ഒരു അവസ്ഥയിലായിരുന്നു. പടത്തിന്റെ അവസാനം നമുക്കു എല്ലാവര്‍ക്കും ഊഹിക്കാവുന്നതെ ഉള്ളു. പക്ഷെ ആ പടം ചിത്രീകരിച്ചിരിക്കുന്ന രീതി, അതിലെ സംഗീതം ഇതെല്ലാം നമ്മളെ മറ്റൊരു ലോകത്തിലേക്ക്‌ കൂട്ടികൊണ്ടുപോവും...

ഈ ചിത്രം എല്ലാവരും കാണണം. ഇതിലെ കഥയെ കുറിച്ചൊന്നും ഞാന്‍ ഒന്നും പറയുന്നില്ല. ഒരു മുന്‍വിധിയുമില്ലാതെ ഈ ചിത്രം കാണൂ, ആസ്വദിക്കൂ...

എല്ലാവര്‍ക്കും എന്‍റെ വക പുതുവത്സരാശംസകള്‍...

ക്രിസ്തുമസ് ആശംസകള്‍...

2007-12-23T17:44:00.001-06:00

സമയം ആറേമുക്കാലായി. മുറിയിലെ ജനലില്‍ കൂടി പുറത്തേക്ക് നോക്കിയപ്പോള്‍ ആകെ ഇരുട്ടായിരിക്കുന്നു. സ്ട്രീറ്റ് ബള്‍ബുകള്‍ തെളിഞ്ഞു കഴിഞ്ഞു. അപാര്‍ത്ടുമെന്റിനു മുന്‍പിലൂടെ വളഞ്ഞു തിരിഞ്ഞു പോവുന്ന ആ റോഡ് വിജനമായി കിടന്നു...

രണ്ടു ദിവസം കൂടി കഴിഞ്ഞാല്‍ ഒരു ക്രിസ്തുമസ് കൂടി. ഇക്കുറിയും എന്റെ ക്രിസ്തുമസ് വീട്ടിലല്ല. അതോര്‍ത്തപ്പോള്‍ മനസ്സില്‍ ഒരു വിങ്ങല്‍...

ക്രിസ്തുമസ്, ചെറിയ ചെറിയ ആഘോഷങ്ങലാല്‍ ഒരു പക്ഷെ മനസ്സില്‍ ഒത്തിരി സന്തോഷം നിറയ്ക്കുന്ന ഒരു സമയം ആയിരുന്നു. പുല്ക്കൂടും ക്രിസ്തുമസ് ട്രീയും മറ്റു അലങ്കാരങ്ങളും. പാതിരാ കുര്‍ബാനയ്ക്ക് പോവുമ്പോള്‍ റോഡിന്റെ നടുക്കു കൂടി വണ്ടികളെ പേടിക്കാതെ നടപ്പും ഓട്ടമത്സരങ്ങളും. പിന്നെ പള്ളിയില്‍ ചെന്നിരുന്നു ഉറക്കം തൂങ്ങലും...

ചെറുപ്പത്തിലെ പള്ളിയില്‍ പോവുമ്പോള്‍ ഒത്തിരി പേരുണ്ടാവും. കസിന്‍ ചേച്ചിമാരും ചേട്ടന്മാരും ഒക്കെ. പക്ഷെ വര്‍ഷങ്ങള്‍ കടന്നു പോവുമ്പോള്‍ ഓരോരുത്തരായി ഓരോരോ സ്ഥലങ്ങളിലേക്ക്. ചിലരുടെ കല്യാണം, ചിലരുടെ ജോലി...

കഴിഞ്ഞ വര്‍ഷത്തെ പോലെ, ഇത്തവണയും ഞാന്‍ നാട്ടിലുണ്ടാവില്ല. ഇതുപോലുള്ള അവസരങ്ങളിലാണ് നാടിനെ ഏറ്റവും അധികം ഓര്‍മ വരിക. അടുത്ത ക്രിസ്തുമസ് എങ്കിലും നാട്ടിലായിക്കും എന്ന് പ്രതീക്ഷിക്കാം...

എല്ലാവര്‍ക്കും എന്റെ ക്രിസ്തുമസ് ആശംസകള്‍...

ഓര്‍മ്മയില്‍ നിന്നും

2007-12-15T14:37:00.002-06:00

കുട്ടിക്കാലം, ജീവിതത്തില്‍ ഇത്രയേറെ മനോഹരമായ ഒരു കാലഘട്ടം വേറെ ഉണ്ടോ എന്നറിയില്ല. സ്കൂളും, കുട്ടുകാരും, കളികളും, പിന്നെ കൊച്ചനിയത്തിയുമായി അടികൂടലും...

എന്തിനൊക്കെയോ വേണ്ടി എത്രയാ അടികൂടിയിരിക്കുന്നത്. ഒരു കാരണവും വേണ്ടാ. ഒന്നു പറഞ്ഞു രണ്ടാമത് അടിയാണ്. അതില്‍ മിക്കവാറും അടികള്‍ വളരെ "സീരിയസ് മാറ്റെര്സ്" ആയിരുന്നു. ഇപ്പോള്‍ അതൊക്കെ ആലോചിക്കുമ്പോള്‍ അറിയാതെ ചുണ്ടില്‍ ഒരു ചിരി വരും. പക്ഷെ ചിലപ്പോള്‍ ഒക്കെ കണ്ണില്‍ ചെറിയ നനവ്‌ ഉണ്ടോ എന്നൊരു സംശയവും വരും...

ഞാന്‍ മൂത്ത മകന്‍ ആയിരുന്നത് കൊണ്ടു, ചിലപ്പോളൊക്കെ അനിയത്തിയെ പഠിപ്പിക്കുന്ന ചുമതല എനിക്കായിരുന്നു. എനിക്ക് പിന്നെ ഭയങ്കര ക്ഷമ ആയിരുന്നതുകൊണ്ട് എന്തെങ്കിലും ഒന്നു തെറ്റിച്ചാല്‍ അപ്പോള്‍ കൊടുക്കും, ഒരു വീക്ക്‌. ചിലപ്പോള്‍ കൈവീശി നല്ല ഒരു അടി, അല്ലെന്കില്‍ കയ്യില്‍ ഒരു പിച്ച്...

ബാക്കി സമയങ്ങളില്‍ ഉള്ള വഴക്കിന്റെ ഒക്കെ കണക്കു തീര്‍ക്കുന്നതയിരിക്കാം, കിട്ടിയ അവസരങ്ങളില്‍...
അങ്ങനെ മിക്കവാറും എന്റെ പടിപ്പീരെല്ലാം അവളുടെ കരച്ചിലിലാണ് അവസാനിച്ചിരുന്നത്‌. അവളുടെ കയ്യുടെ പിച്ച് കൊണ്ട ഭാഗം ഇങ്ങനെ കരുവാളിച്ചു കിടക്കുമായിരുന്നു. അപ്പോള്‍ അതൊന്നും നമ്മുക്കൊരു പ്രശനായിരുന്നില്ല...

പക്ഷെ ഇപ്പോള്‍ ചിലപ്പോള്‍ ഞാന്‍ അതിനെ കുറിച്ചൊക്കെ ഇങ്ങനെ ചുമ്മാ ആലോചിക്കുമ്പോള്‍, എന്നെ തന്നെ ചെറുതായി പിച്ചി നോക്കും. അപ്പോളാണ് അതിന്റെ ഒരു വേദന മനസ്സിലാവുന്നത്. അപ്പോള്‍ അറിയാതെ എന്റെ കണ്ണില്‍ നിന്നും വെള്ളം വരും, അന്ന് അവളുടെ കണ്ണില്‍ നിന്നും വന്നിരുന്നത് പോലെ...

പക്ഷെ, അന്നവള്‍ക്ക് കൈ വേദന എടുത്തതുകൊണ്ടാണ് കണ്ണ് നിറഞ്ഞതെങ്കില്‍ ഇന്നു എന്റെ കണ്ണ് നിറയുന്നത്‌ ഒരു ചെറിയ പശ്ചാത്താപം കൊണ്ടായിരിക്കണം. അപ്പോളൊക്കെ ഞാന്‍ മനസ്സില്‍ ഉറപ്പിക്കും, ഇനിയൊരിക്കലും ഞാന്‍ കാരണം അവളുടെ കണ്ണുകള്‍ കലങ്ങരുതെന്നു!

പുതിയ ക്രിസ്തുമസ്...

2007-12-12T16:16:00.001-06:00

"ഹാവൂ, ഇന്നു പൂജ്യം ഡിഗ്രീയെ തണുപ്പ് ഉള്ളല്ലോ!"

ഇങ്ങനെ പറയുന്ന ഒരു ദിവസം സ്വപ്നത്തില്‍ പോലും ഉണ്ടായിരുന്നില്ല. പക്ഷെ, Rochester-നെ മഞ്ഞു മൂടിക്കഴിഞ്ഞു. എങ്ങും വിറങ്ങലിച്ചു നില്ക്കുന്ന പ്രകൃതി...

ഇവിടിത്തുകാര്‍ വര്‍ഷത്തില്‍ ഇഷ്ടപെടാത്ത ഒരു സമയം ആണ് ഇതു. തണുപ്പു കാരണം വീടിനു പുറത്തിറങ്ങാന്‍ തന്നെ മടിയാവും. പക്ഷെ വീട്ടിലെ ചില്ലുജനാലയ്ക്കുള്ളില്‍ നിന്നും പുറത്തേക്ക് നോക്കുമ്പോള്‍ മനസ്സില്‍ എന്തെന്നില്ലാത്ത ഒരു സന്തോഷമാണ്. ജീവിതത്തില്‍ ആദ്യമായി മഞ്ഞു വീഴുന്ന ഒരു സ്ഥലത്തു ജീവിക്കുന്നതിന്റെ ഒരു ആവേശത്തിലായിരിക്കാം അത്...

എങ്ങും വെളുത്ത നിറം മാത്രം, ഇടയ്ക്കിടയ്ക്ക് പൈന്‍ മരങ്ങളുടെ പച്ചപ്പും. പൈന്‍ മരങ്ങലല്ലാതെ മറ്റൊരു മരത്തിലും ഒരു ഇല പോലും കാണാനില്ല. ദിവസത്തില്‍ സുര്യനെ കാണുന്നതുപോലും വല്ലപ്പോഴും മാത്രം. മനസ്സിലും ഇരുട്ടിന്റെ ഒരു മറ താനെ വരും...

പക്ഷെ, എനിക്ക് ഇതു വളരെ നല്ല ഒരു അനുഭവം ആയി തോന്നുന്നു, പ്രത്യേകിച്ചും ഈ ക്രിസ്തുമസ് സീസണില്‍. കുട്ടിക്കാലം തൊട്ടേ ക്രിസ്തുമസ് കാര്‍ഡുകളില്‍ കണ്ട ഒരു വെളുത്ത ക്രിസ്തുമസ് പ്രഭാതം ഇത്തവണ എനിക്ക് വേണ്ടി ഏഴ് കടലുകള്‍ക്കും അപ്പുറം നിന്നും വരുന്നതു പോലെ...

Just another game...

2007-12-03T21:20:00.001-06:00

Yes, you are right! Another post about some crap game! Oh noo, you got me wrong! It's not about any crap game, it's about Cricket...

No, No, No... I was not trying to be a smart ass or trying to make a fool of you, I was just trying to drive through my point that, being an Indian, Cricket is just not another game for me, even if Sunil Chetri comes on the TV screen and says so...

I have come to know the game, a lot by watching TV, rather than playing it with real cricket ball. I never did that. So I cannot really understand a lot of things about it, since I don't have a first hand knowledge of it. For eg: To hit a six of four of a hard tennis ball, you have to use your power. But, in case of a real cricket ball, at times, as they say, "It's just timing and it's outta ground!". I think you got my point.

Okie, cutting through the chase, I wanted to talk about these little things which attracts you, or should I say 'me', to Cricket. One thing is the amount of well thought out decisions that a captain has to make on the field, after weighing millions of factors. A little exaggerated, I must confess...

So, When Anil Kumble decides to give Ganguly the new ball in the Pakistan's second innings, that was just a stroke of luck? Yes, as per his own admission...

Then, what about giving Laxman a go at Mohammed Sami which in turn became an inspired move? I don't know if this test at Eden Gardens is going to have a result or not, but I really am getting a gut feeling that, Kumble is going to be an excellent captain. Not because he has real experience and intelligence, but because he can think out of box, when it is required.

And, I see a lot of comments against letting Sourav Ganguly come out to bat before Sachin Tendulkar to accelerate. I think the simple logic behind that thinking was that, as Danish Kaneria will be operating from one end, it would be easier for a left handed batsman to tackle him. I am not saying that Sachin cannot handle him, but he might have to use all his talent and skill to use it. But for Sourav, he can play with the spin and hit some lusty blows...

Now, these things were pretty good calculated moves by the Jumbo. Now I am waiting to see how he is going to handle another issue. Dinesh Karthik has not had a good series so far. And with someone like Yuvraj Singh, waiting on the fringes for a long time, breathing down the neck of all the batsmen in this current playing 11, it is going to be a tough decision for Kumble to select a team for third test...

He should have ultimate confidence in Dinesh Karthik to field him in the third test. Unless he is ready to continue with him in Australia, even if he fails in the third test also, he should not select him for the third test. Because, if he is planning to bring in Yuvraj or even Sehwag, who had a tremendous tour to Australia last time around, then, those two should be given a chance before that tour. So for that he will have to drop Karthik as every other batsmen is enjoying these lame pitches and a lame bowling attack...

Now, that requires some logical thinking from the captain. He might have to burn some midnight oil. These are the things that makes Cricket, or for that matter, any team game all the more interesting, don't you think so???

Dedication and Determination...

2007-11-30T12:03:00.002-06:00

Some people believe in something and does everything in their hands to do it or make it come true. Here, in the picture above is a story of a person, whom I know, who believes in something and just stretches himself to see his dreams come to life...

In his/her shoes!!!

2007-11-13T21:50:00.001-06:00

The title, "In her shoes", has been used before for one of my older posts. It was about the movie with that name and a poem from that movie that I liked a lot. But I had to reuse it with a slight change because, I found it apt for what you are about the read...

There is a saying that, we will not appreciate something unless we miss/lose it. I don't know exactly how that saying goes. But what I have written above is what it means...

But here I am not going to write about that subject. It is a similar subject. It goes like this, "We will not be able to appreciate what one man feels about something unless we find ourselves in his situation". You know that, right? I know that you knew it. I am smart! :-)

Ok, enough of this pathetic effort at comedy. Let's stop beating around the bush and go straight into the matter. We should always beat the bush, whenever you get a chance. Only then he will stop interfering in others household matters. God, I hope CIA will not read my blog!

"Cut the crap!!!"

Err, who said that? hmm, may be the inner voice...

"Alright!!!"

What I was saying is, you don't really appreciate how much your uncles or Aunties love you or used to love you unless you become an uncle or aunt yourself...

You may be feeling that, "what the heck? I used to know exactly how much my uncle used to love me. He loved me so much to buy a cylce on my birthday". Hmm, may be you are right...

But as for me, I am sure I used to love my uncles and aunts more when I was a kid than when I was a grown up. And that could be because I was not feeling there love as I used to do it when I was a kid...

But as soon as I became an Uncle, I just realized how much my Uncles and Aunts love me. They might not be able to make me feel the same as I have plenty of cousins also. But I am sure I understand how they feel about me inside...

So, don't worry if you don't understand someone. There are chances that oneday you might find yourself in that position and everything will be clear like the blue sky...

All this revelations, thanks to my dearest nephew... Love you always, dude!!!

Cancer of a country!

2007-11-01T18:14:00.001-05:00

I am proud to be an Indian. And I am proud to be a Keralite. Don't ask me too many reasons for that, as I might not be able to come up with many. But the most important fact or reason is that "I just happened to be born there"...

India is a diverse country and I guess the regionalism is more in this country than in any other part of the world. If we think hard and compare us with other parts of the world, we might even wonder how come a diverse country like ours survived in one piece for so long. I don't know. And I pray to god that it remains like this...

Most of this regionalism is visible in Politics, where petty issues like sharing water from a river or creating a railway division is done with the motive of improving the life of their own region and using it to win elections. Is there no other way to impress people other than hurting other people?

Is this the right way? I am sure this is not. But then, how can we ever come out of this situation? Or is this going to be a problem which is just getting ready to explode into gigantic proportions? The glimpses of these are already visible, like blocking the train to the rival state or blocking the water flow using a dam...

Media has a huge role to play here. While projecting the regionalistic aspects during celebration of a national win like World cup win, are we sending the right message to the society? We need to celebrate our local heroes, but not to the extent that people interupt the normal life as in the case of prince of Kolkata. What we have to do is, we need to sell the stories of heroes from other parts of country also. Project them as Indians. Even that will inspire a generation to go for whatever they want to be. And more importantly, that will give that sense of being and Indian first to the society...

May be, the only way to change this is by changing oneself as I don't know if the attitude of politicians or media guys will change easily. When I look at myself, I am also as regionalistic as any other. Or am I calling myself a regionalist just because I am proud of the achivements of my state. No, I don't think that is a good reason to term myself as a regionalist. But if I hate someone just because he was born in another state or speaks a different language, then I am one of the cancerous cells of this country...

We must change our attitude and stand together for our country and think that we all are Indians first...

God save my country!!!

പുതിയ തുടക്കം!

2007-10-26T21:55:00.002-05:00

ജീവിതത്തിന്റെ പുസ്തകതാളുകളില്‍ നിന്നും ഒരു വര്ഷം കൂടി മാഞ്ഞു പോയി... പക്ഷെ ആ ഒഴിഞ്ഞ താളുകള്‍ അതിമനോഹരങ്ങളായ പുതിയ ദിവസങ്ങളും ആ ദിവസങ്ങളിലെ കഥകളും കൊണ്ടു നിറക്കാന്‍ ഞാന്‍ തീരുമാനിച്ചു...

ജീവിതം ഒരു വീടിന്റെ പ്ലാന്‍ പോലെ മുന്‍കൂട്ടി നിശ്ചയിച്ചു, ആ വഴിയേ നടക്കുന്ന പരിപാടി നിര്‍ത്താനും, വരുന്നിടത്ത് വെച്ചു കാണാം എന്നുള്ള ആ പഴയ ചിന്താഗതി പൊടിതട്ടി എടുത്തു കഴുകി വെളുപ്പിച്ചു കൊണ്ടു നടക്കാനും തീരുമാനിച്ചു...

പിന്നെ, ഈ ജന്മദിനം അത്ര പെട്ടെന്ന് മറക്കാന്‍ കഴിയില്ല, കാരണം അന്നെ ദിവസം ഞാന്‍ മഹത്തായ ഒരു പരീക്ഷ എട്ടു നിലയില്‍ പൊട്ടി... :-)

ഇന്‍ഫോസിസ്, എന്നെ പോലെ ഉള്ള മടിയന്മാര്‍ക്ക് വിവരം ഉണ്ടാക്കാന്‍ വേണ്ടി കണ്ടു പിടിച്ച ഒരു വിദ്യ ആണ് ഇങ്ങനെ ഉള്ള ഈ പരീക്ഷകള്‍. പക്ഷെ, എഞ്ചിനീയറിംഗ് എന്ട്രന്സ് എന്ന് പേരുള്ള മഹത്തായ ആ കറക്കിക്കുത്തു മത്സരം ജയിച്ചു വന്ന എന്നെ ഇന്‍ഫോസിസ് വില കുറച്ചു കണ്ടു...

വെറും അര ദിവസം മാത്രം ചിലവാക്കി കൊണ്ടു ഒരു പരീക്ഷ ഞാന്‍ പുല്ല് പോലെ പാസ് ആയി. അതിന്റെ അഹങ്കാരത്തില്‍ ഈ പരീക്ഷയും പുല്ല് പോലെ പാസ് ആവും എന്ന് കരുതി വന്ന എന്നെ, ചിത്രതാഴിട്ടു പൂട്ടിക്കളഞ്ഞു. ഇനി അടുത്ത അവസരത്തിനായി കാത്തിരിക്കണം...

ഇനി ഇപ്പോള്‍ വീണ്ടും ഈ പരീക്ഷ എഴുതി പാസ് ആവുന്നത് വരെ എങ്കിലും ഞാന്‍ ഈ ജന്മദിനം മറക്കില്ല...

പിന്നെ, അന്നാണ് ഞാന്‍ ആദ്യമായി ഈ ഗൂഗിളിലെ മന്ഗ്ലിഷ് മലയാളം ആക്കുന്ന വിദ്യ കണ്ടത്. അത് കണ്ടപ്പോഴേ ഇങ്ങനെ ഒരു ബ്ലോഗ് എഴുതണം എന്ന് തീരുമാനിച്ചു. മലയാളത്തില്‍ എന്തെങ്കിലും എഴുതാന്‍ വേണ്ടി കുറെ ബോര് എഴുതിക്കു‌ട്ടി എന്നറിയാം. പക്ഷെ ഇതു ഒരു ആഗ്രഹം ആയിരുന്നു...

അത് തത്കാലം സാധിച്ചു...

The price of carelessness is too much, say 175 bucks...

2007-10-15T14:18:00.002-05:00

The weather forecast for the weekend was awesome, it was supposed to rain with a maximum temperature of 14 degrees. And it is going to be all gray with no sun or blue sky visible.

Awesome??? Yes of course, these are the days that you can wake up as late as 10 AM and have your breakfast and again go back to bed just to wake up for the lunch. Might have to wake up a bit early in case it is your turn to do wield your magic wand at Kitchen!

But, I don't like sleeping for more than 16 hours a day, so I woke up Saturday morning and around the usual time and started the daily routine of watching movies. I have lately started watching movies at a rate of 1.5 movies per day. Am feeling like my eyes are being stretched to the limit. But, sorry, can't stop watching movies as I love it.

By evening, I had finished 2 movies and I decided to give a break to my eyes. So me and my roommate decided to go to a disco, have couple of drinks and dance for sometime. I wanted to comeback early so that I can watch the India Australia match, at least the first batting...

So we got ready around 10.00 PM and reached there around 10:20. When we went inside, it was completely deserted. The disco's get lively only around 11:30 PM here. I like to reach early so that I can sit and enjoy the drink before it feels like it is too crowded. Of course, once it is crowded we can dance also as nobody will notice us in that crowd...

The music and crowd was really exciting and it was not long before we realized that it was 2.00 AM and the disco was closing for the night. We came out and went to the place where we had parked my friends car. And it was not there. We looked around for some time thinking that the drink might have blurred our vision. But no, the car was gone...

Now the question was if it was stolen or towed away. Just then, we realized that it was towed away, as it was a private parking lot. It was raining heavily and before long, we were drenched. And it was 2:15 AM and no way to go back to our room...

It is a predominantly African-Americans area and a lot of cops are there and it was scary. We just went and talked to a cop and he told us to call the number of towing company and we called and we got a message saying they will call us back tomorrow morning...

We called for a cab, waited for it around 30 minutes and finally got home. It was a costlier lesson about parking your car. I was not at all in the frame of mind to watch the match and went to bed straightaway...

Woke up next morning and went and got the car back. I just hope, I don't make anymore of such costly mistakes..!

Schindler's List

2007-10-02T20:58:00.001-05:00

"Whoever saves one life, saves the world entire..."

This just replaced "Braveheart" as my favourite movie of all time!

Three Cheers...

2007-09-22T21:45:00.001-05:00

to team India for reaching the finals of first Twenty20 international tourney. And to think that they have beaten the likes of England, SA and Australia on the way is just amazing...

I know a lot will be written about this. But I could not stop myself from jotting a few lines myself as this is something to be cherished...

The best thing about this team is the talent on display. I was sceptic about the future of Indian cricket once the big 3 retires from international scene. But I can heave a sigh of relief as there seems to be a constant in flow of talent nowadays. And a victory in this tourney final will make so many others to take to cricket which will keep a steady inflow of talented youngsters...

No matter what happens in the final, this has opened up another money minting machine for BCCI to cash on. These victories have sort of injected a fresh interest for many in the game. For me it was always steady. But this tournament will bring back a lot of fans who stopped following cricket after the world cup debacle. People will even forget about that tournament...

Bring it on, Team India!!!

Here we go!

2007-09-16T21:36:00.001-05:00

I don't know why I gave such a title to this entry. But I really don't know where I am going to start this blog and where I am going to end this...

Today was a day for movies. I saw three movies today, my favourite pastime here in US. And I don't remember a day when I have watched three movies in a row and all in the afternoon. The movies were, "Sideways", "Traffic Signal" and "Swades"...

And all these three movies had some serious themes that they dealt with. But all the three had beautiful love stories also weaved in between...

Well, I don't know if it is me or is it the age I am in. Nowadays, I am increasingly able to 'feel' the romantic side of characters a lot nowadays, their thrill, their pain and above all the peace of mind and comfort that they receive in being with each other...

I mean, I don't know why I am writing it here. But I had to say this to someone or write this down somewhere, and where better than this blog of mine where I can write down whatever I want without a trace of shame...

"I wish, I was in Love!!!" :-))

I think that should do it for now. I should be able to sleep well now ;-))

THE SONG OF WANDERING AENGUS

2007-09-10T22:41:00.002-05:00

WENT out to the hazel wood,
Because a fire was in my head,
And cut and peeled a hazel wand,
And hooked a berry to a thread;

And when white moths were on the wing,
And moth-like stars were flickering out,
I dropped the berry in a stream
And caught a little silver trout.

When I had laid it on the floor
I went to blow the fire a-flame,
But something rustled on the floor,
And some one called me by my name:

It had become a glimmering girl
With apple blossom in her hair
Who called me by my name and ran
And faded through the brightening air.

Though I am old with wandering
Through hollow lands and hilly lands,
I will find out where she has gone,
And kiss her lips and take her hands;

And walk among long dappled grass,
And pluck till time and times are done
The silver apples of the moon,
The golden apples of the sun.

by: W.B. Yeats

Show or Spirit?

2007-08-09T21:32:00.001-05:00

Being a mallu and being a sports buff means that I follow all the actions of a Malayali sports person. I even google and read about Chitra Soman, Ranjith Maheshwary etc. So it's but natural that I follow the rise of S Sreesanth in international cricket...

I used to follow him from the time he became the first cricketer to take a hattrick for Kerala in Ranji trophy. I used to check the score board whenever there used to be a match for Kerala and was very glad to see that he used to take atleast 2 wickets in everymatch. And I wished that somehow he gets to play at least one international match for India.

But my wish was more than fulfilled when I see him get a man of the match award in South Africa. And I was very glad. I liked him for his bowling, but did not like his other antics in the field. May be I am a meek person who likes to get on with the job in his hand. But here was a guy who had an eye for camera, who was trying to show off or glorify things. And the hero hungry media also helped by pouring oil into fire...

But other than that, I like the enthusiasm with which he approaches the bowling crease, the energy that he has on field etc...

I like to think of it as a trait common to Mallus. They love their sport. And I have seen more enthusiasm in a Mallu for sports than anyother person in India. They may have passion for one particular sport, but loving all the games and sports alike, that can be seen only in a Mallu, I think. I know I am making a tall claim, but I believe so...

And this reflects in the enthusiasm that is displayed in School sports. Kerala's school athletic meets keep churning in potential champions every year. In which other state can you see people so much interested in Athletics. That is a healthy sign to prove the tall claim that I made previously...

But most of these stars seem to fade out as time passes. I guess this is because of the inherent mindset of Indians that there is no future in sports. If you want to lead a good life, leave sports and go for a normal job. I am not criticizing this attitude, as I for one, also is one with same mentality. Although I was not great at any sports, I always had this passion for sports... But I was never ever confident enough to follow my dreams. Instead I went for safety first...

And I salute all the big stars of Indian sports who came out of their comfort zone and did something that they liked. And this is one good reason to respect Sreesanth more than dislike him for his eye for limelight... Bravo Sree, keep it going...

Reach for the stars and inspire a generation!!!

Two Letters!!!

2007-07-25T21:51:00.001-05:00

When Khrushchev was sacked, he gave his successor two letters.

Khrushchev told him, "When you get in a tight spot with not knowing what to do, open the first envelope and follow the instructions you find in that letter. And if you find yourselves in such a situation again, then open the second envelope, and follow the instructions in it."

And it was not long before the successor found himself in his first leadership crisis. And he opened the first envelope as told by Khrushchev. It read, "Blame everything on me." He did it and behold, everything was fine and he was able to save his face...

After some time he found himself in another jam. So he opened the second envelope. The instructions in that letter went like this, "Sit down and write two letters..."

Superb, right?

What matters...

2007-07-20T22:46:00.001-05:00

... is the ability to stand up and be counted when it matters the most! And there are a lot of people in this world who are not able to do that many times! And I love a lot of them irrespective of the fact that they have the aforementioned flaw...

Indian cricket team and Argentine football team - two sides of the same coin. Both has plenty of talent, plenty of promise and at times takes you to cloud 9 just to throw you back on the lap of mother earth(?), too poetic??? Err, just trying a little too hard at writing well, I guess!

So, what we were talking about is these two enigmatic teams in the world of sports...

Argentina just got thrashed at the hands of bitter rivals Brazil, who seems to scrap through everything to win the ultimate prizes. Whole world who followed this Copa America were dead certain that Juan Roman Riquelme has fulfilled the task for which he came out of retirement to don the blue and white stripes again. But what mattered was that the Argentine team did not believe so or may be a more willed team broke their dreams...

Whatever may be the reason, it is high time they believe in themselves as I can't find a more talented team anywhere else in the world. I hope we are able to see those hay days of Argenine football once again back and shining...

Bring it on, Argentina...!

Seabiscuit...

2007-07-17T20:25:00.001-05:00

Yes, I am back with "Seabiscuit". I am feeling pretty good now. Are you wondering like, "yeah we know, continue with the blog!". Hmm, that means you did not read my previous blog. Read it, and you will understand what I meant by that sentence...

So class, we were talking about "Reservoirs and their sideeffects on nature". I know, I know, that was a poor joke. What to do? When I am happy, the 'PJ-index' in my language goes up...

Seabiscuit is a little bit slow at the beginning. We feel like it is some sort of documentary thanks to the frequent visits of our narrator. And it also does not help that stories at three different places are shown intermittently. We will not be able to understand too much from those initial sequences. But as in the case of any literary classic, we have to be patient before giving our verdict. But then classics have their fame which will make us go through those initial chapters...

ok, the synopsis of the story goes like this. A horse, which is not a good racing horse in terms of physique or looks, which goes on to become the best horse in US. And while it does that, it helps patch up the lives of three men whose lives were getting miserable day by day.

But more than the plot, which is very good, I liked the love which is projected through out the movie. The love in the eyes of the trainer for a lame horse. The love of the owner's wife for the Jockey's misery. The love of the owner for the jockey, the horse and the trainer etc. I am failing miserably to describe the feelings they had for each other...

The movie just captures whatever we want to see in this world, love, care and above all, hope!

Brilliant, to say the least!!!

La Vita e Bella..!

2007-07-15T16:52:00.001-05:00

Didn't get what it meant? I bet you did! Yeah, it says, "Life is beautiful..!".

There are a lot of feelings that we get when we watch a movie, we laugh a lot, we feel angst, we feel tension and at times(?) we cry..! There are a lot of movies that shows the good things in this world, like "Love Actually", which is just a feel good movie. There is nothing much in that movie other than different types and kinds of love.

There there are some movies that also shows the good things in this world, but amidst not so good situations. The best example is the movie with the name same as that given in the title...

I like watching these movies more than seeing too much of action or violence. This does not mean that I don't like such movies. I watch them with as much interest as the afore mentioned kind. But I prefer to watch the first type...

Sports Movies, the ones based on some real life story of at times imaginary stories, inspires me a lot..! I wanted to write about such a movie that I saw half an hour back "Seabiscuit"...

Strange name, right? But then the strangeness in that name itself gives out a clue about what sport it is dealing with. Yes, you are right! it's a movie about Horse racing and the title is the name of our "Hero" horse...

Oh, got to go! Duty calls! Will come back and complete this!!!

aargh! am not feeling so good... at times mind gets too heavy. I guess, it's because weekend is going to end..! :-) So, I will write about Seabiscuit some other time when I am feeling good...

Spirit of Youth!

2007-07-07T09:16:00.001-05:00

There is a community called, Make A Difference Cochin in Orkut. And it seems like they are doing a lot of good things like going to some orphanages and teaching them. I just want to congratulate the people who are behind this wonderful movement. This just shows that there are plenty of things that we can do with our lives for the betterment of society around us. I just wish, I could be a part of this.

The link to that community is http://www.orkut.com/Community.aspx?cmm=15031757. Do visit that community!

Darien Lake Theme Park!

2007-06-23T21:57:00.001-05:00

It did not take me much time to go for the first trip of this tenure here in US. The first weekend itself my roomies wanted to go to a water theme park and I did not say no. After all, it is at their mercy that I can see the places around as I don't own a car. Hmm, I have to take the license and take a car fast. Otherwise you will become too dependent on others...

And this theme park was further north, on the way to Niagra. They did not chose Niagra as they both have been already there. When they are going there again, they want to go with a tourist visa to Canada also so that they can visit Toronto also. And they told me that Niagra is beautiful from Canadian side...

The thing about going north is that it gets colder, and the things were not different here also. The first ride that we took was a water ride and what else to say! That sort of took the steam out of me. I started shivering as soon as I came of water and that shivering continued as I was standing in the queue for the next roller coaster ride. I don't blame the first ride completely for this as there was the added ingredient of nerves before the first roller coaster ride for some time...

The ride was named as Predator and it had a warning written in front that people with back pain, High BP, heart disease etc should not take this ride. But little did I realize that my back will get such a pounding from that ride. It was the worst ride that I have ever been. Not because it was less scary, but it was hurting physically also. Now, that is something that I have not experienced in all the rides that I have taken till now...

Did kayaking for the first time in my life here. It was a nice experience especially trying hard to move it forward in a straight line... :-)

Err, did I mention that I skipped most of the high thrill rides as I was a little scared??? May be not. You know, sometimes somethings are better left unsaid...

And altogether it was a nice first weekend Saturday back in US...

Back 2 USA...

2007-06-20T15:18:00.001-05:00

Over confidence is not that good, afterall!

In my last trip here, I had no issues at all in reaching the destination. I reached my friend's house in San Francisco, without bothering him at all. And I thought, "Hmm, I am really good! I did not face any problem in doing things that were all first time for me, including boarding a flight!". While going back also, everything was so smooth that, I concluded that traveling is just a 'Baye haath ka Khel' for me...

Little did I know that, these were the things that happens not because I am good, just because I was lucky enough...

This time, the flight was at 3.00 AM from Bangalore and I realized the first mistake, I did not have a pen. I had to wait till some one sitting next to me in the waiting lounge to complete his immigration form. And this cost me precious time as I realized that the queues in all immigration counters were getting longer by the second. I some how scrapped through it to find that the flight is delayed one hour. Suddenly, I realized that the biggest challenge for me is to stay awake so that I can listen to the announcement to board the plane. I did that somehow thanks to some energetic kids running around shouting...

I didn't even know when the flight took off from Bangalore. It had a stop in Mumbai and then we left for Frankfurt. On the way, somewhere around vienna, I could catch a glimpse of land below, and Boy, that was beautiful. Europe is indeed beautiful. I wish I get a chance to visit Europe some time. Okay, I agree that I am luckier than most. But then, there is no limit to human greed...

I Frankfurt, we had to get off the plane as some cleaning had to be done. I took my hand bag and went for a walk inside the airport, came back and realized that the flight will be one hour late because of some technical snag. I tried to spend time immersing my face in a novel "Catch 22". I had bought it during my first onsite trip, still have not crossed the page 40. I suddenly found myself looking around the waiting lounge (Not vayil nottam...).

Finally the flight took off and reached Chicago 2 hours before my connecting flight to Rochester. I thought there is plenty of time. But by the time I got both my check in bags, I found that I am only 30 minutes before time. I some how, reached the United Airlines counter and they asked me to leave my checkin baggage there without checking in and run to catch the train to the domestic terminal. I reached there 15 minutes before time and was shocked to hear that there is no way I was going to catch my flight.

I was some what relieved when the boy at the counter told me that they will allow me to take the next flight to Rochester without paying even a single penny more. I was happy. At least nothing bigger happened. They it suddenly hit me that my luggage will be send in the first flight. I got anxious and informed him the same. He told me that he will send a message to the check in dept if I can give a description for both of my bags. I gave the same and he send it out...

Through out that flight, I was tense about the luggage. I reached Rochester and was waiting to recieve the luggage. The tension grew and after some time, I saw the grey suitcase coming out. I was so relieved, I went running took the bag and kept it along side my hand bag. But, there was no sign of my red bag. I waited and waited. Then I suddenly realized that there are no more bags coming in. I was left wondering what to do next. Then I saw a pretty long queue and I came to know that none of them had recieved their luggages. I also went and stood in the queue.

One guy in the queue had 8 of his bags missing. I don't know how he managed to check in 8 bags. Then there was another guy, who was missing only two bags. But it was not his bags which had gone to wrong destination, but himself. He somehow boarded the wrong flight and reached here. No wonder, he did not find his luggage as it had already reached its correct destination.

I lodged a complaint and I realized that my bag had gone for a trip to Richmond, Virginia. After two days I recieved my baggage. I am just happy that I atleast was able to catch my correct flight. Err... Am I getting overconfident? No God, Please dont teach me another lesson!!!

Adieu Mr.Woolmer!!!

2007-03-21T05:49:00.001-05:00

The death of Bob Woolmer, coach of Pakistam Cricket team, is being considered suspicious by the investigating officers of Jamaican police. This is quite an unfortunate end to one of the most respected coaches in cricket world. I hate to think that some one has killed him because Pakistan crashed out of this world cup, after all this is only a sport, something which should be more of a timepass.

Even though my heart wants to think that his death was because of some natural cause, the stories coming in the media are saying otherwise. I am sure he was a strong person and is not meek enough to commit suicide. So the remaining option is that he was murdered, which is sending shivers down my spine!

He was merely a professional coach who was doing his job with utmost sincierity. If some mad cricket fan has committed this crime, then that is the worst thing ever to have happened in a sports field...

I was quite shocked when I heard that a fan of Steffi Graf stabbed Monica Seles. Another such instance was the death of Andreas Escobar, the Colombian footballer who was shot dead because he scored a self goal which lead to the ouster of Colombia from football world cup.

If not to this extend, I heard people wrecking havoc in Mahendra Dhoni's house and all. I don't think true lovers of sport can resort to such acts of vandalism. Burning effigies and all are fine, but hurting the families of these sportmen are unpardonable. As Rahul Dravid rightly pointed out, they do have their right to live peacefully in this country.

I just pray to god to give sense to these people to understand that sports is meant for fun and it is nothing more than that. I am really sorry for Bob Woolmer. May his soul rest in peace!!!

In Her Shoes!!!

2007-02-20T15:43:00.001-06:00

I like this movie more for the poems in it as much as the movie itself. It's a watchable movie, feel good movie, the kind I like. I had posted one poem by Elizabeth Bishop from this movie. Now I am intending to post two other poems from the same movie. It just made me sit up and do a search in the web for the complete lyrics of these. Enjoy!!!

Let Evening Come
-------------------
Let the light of late afternoon shine through chinks in the barn, moving up the bales as the sun moves down.
Let the cricket take up chafing as a woman takes up her needles and her yarn. Let evening come.
Let dew collect on the hoe abandoned in long grass. Let the stars appear and the moon disclose her silver horn.
Let the fox go back to its sandy den. Let the wind die down. Let the shed go black inside. Let evening come.
To the bottle in the ditch, to the scoop in the oats, to air in the lung let evening come.
Let it come, as it will, and don’t be afraid. God does not leave us comfortless, so let evening come.

Jane Kenyon

I carry your heart with me(I carry it in my heart)
---------------------------------------------------

I carry your heart with me(i carry it in my heart)
i am never without it(anywhere i go you go,my dear;and whatever is done by only me is your doing,my darling)
i fear no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)
i want no world(for beautiful you are my world, my true)
and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you
here is the deepest secret nobody knows (here is the root of the root
and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that’s keeping the stars apart
i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)

E. E. Cummings

One Art...

2007-01-20T01:01:00.001-06:00

The art of losing isn't hard to master;
so many things seem filled with the intent
to be lost that their loss is no disaster.

Lose something every day. Accept the fluster
of lost door keys, the hour badly spent.
The art of losing isn't hard to master.

Then practice losing farther, losing faster:
places, and names, and where it was you meant
to travel. None of these will bring disaster.

I lost my mother's watch. And look! my last, or
next-to-last, of three loved houses went.
The art of losing isn't hard to master.

I lost two cities, lovely ones. And, vaster,
some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent.
I miss them, but it wasn't a disaster.

---Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture
I love) I shan't have lied. It's evident
the art of losing's not too hard to master
though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster.

-- Elizabeth Bishop

Liar Liar!

2007-01-10T00:34:00.001-06:00

Yes, I am talking about myself. This is not regarding an incident that happened last week or the week before, it is about a truth which turned out to be a lie lately. But again when I think back about how lately it is, it goes back to some time after I got my Job. So that lie was never a truth at all...

Before you people feel some mental illness thinking of what the lie is, let me write it down myself. It's the words that I had used to describe myself which says ," I love to laugh and make others laugh and I take most of the things as they come!"...

I have lost that ability to laugh at myself and the ability to make others laugh also. It was the most loved part of my character, both by myself and by others. But, now I have lost it thanks to an over grown EGO. I don't want to write anything more. I just pray to god to give me strength to be the man that I want to be, the man that I once was. Please God!!!

Beautiful like a dream!!!

2006-12-28T17:32:00.001-06:00

Shot from Santa Monica Beach (Baywatch fame) in Los Angeles! The hispanic influence in the state of California is unmistakably visible everywhere including the names of the places. This includes San Francisco, San Diego and Los Angeles...

I happened to read about the famous Californian Gold rush of 1840's. And that paved the way for thousands of migrants to this part of the world. The point to note was that only in 1850, California was included as a state in United States. Till then it was mostly under the rule of spanish emperors. That explains the background for the movie "The Mask of Zorro"...

The main year of the gold rush was 1849. And the migrants of those years are called Forty Niners. This helped me understand why the Football team of San Francisco was named as 49ers. They have fallen of the heights that once they owned, though...

This gold rush was one of the reasons for California to be also known as the Golden State...

And the majority of the migrants were Chinese who came here to do the hardwork of making the way in the mountains and valleys of this beautiful land, for laying railway lines. And anybody who comes to San Francisco can easily make out the abundance of that lineage...

After the gold rush, it was the agriculture which lead the way for Californians, which in turn lead to the rise of entertainment industry, culminating in what we now call as Hollywood. Then it was the turn of computer revolution to help California remain the richest state in United States of America. This is really the land which inspires and supports peoples' dreams. And they love to call it as the American Dream!!!

World Cup!!!

2006-12-23T11:51:00.001-06:00

Sreesanth helped the Indian cricket followers, including yours truly, to raise their expectations about a great series victory in South Africa. And I really believe that if the South African batters fails to apply themselves then that is well and truly possible. And the part played by Ganguly and Laxman was really big considering the batting collapses in the onedayers. And this leads to me a question of selecting a team for World Cup for next year...

Damien Martyn, Shane Warne and Glen Mcgrath has just initiated the end of era of a great set of cricketers. I am sure this world cup is going to be the last of a lot of giants of the game including Lara and Tendulkar. This is their last chance to get their hands on the ultimate price.So from an Indian perspective, let me try to see which could be the best possible 16 that can help Sachin achieve this glory...

Sachin,Rahul,Yuvraj, Dhoni, Kumble, Harbhajan, Zaheer, Sreesanth and Munaf patel select themselves to the 16. That leaves place for another 7. And out of this seven, I would like to have 4 batsmen, one wicket keeper and two bowlers...

And the recent SA series has rocked the selectors with the question of whether to go for youthful exuberance or time tested experience. Laxman and Sourav will surely lend that extra confidence for the team in their middle order. Sourav is one of the greatest oneday players india has ever produced. And he proved in SA that there is still some thing left in him to contribute to Indian cricket. And I, for one, believes that Sourav will be more effective in onedayers than in tests. So going by the attitude that he has shown in SA, he will be able to do far better in West Indies...

And then Laxman is one batsman who has immense respect all over the world, except in India. Whenever people talk about his chances in onedayers, they put the point that he is slow in the field and between the wickets. This is true to an extend. But his replacements are capable of some 40 runs + 20 runs saved through their fielding skills. But Laxman is capable of scoring more than those 60 runs which forces me to give him a chance in this world cup. And if he is not selected by selectors, then he will become only the second batsman after Barry Richards not to have played a world cup, of course I am talking about batsmen who are respected and feared all over the world...

Then comes the third batsman which should be a toss up between Sehwag and Gambhir. If Sehwag continues his wretched form in onedayers, he might not play in the world cup. But he is one player who can win matches single handedly. And West Indian pitches will make it tough for the bowlers to aim his ribcage consistently. This will give him some respite and if he can capitalize on it, then India could not ask for a better player. Also he has this ability to break partnerships given a ball in his hand. So let's keep faith in him.

Now the 4th batsman, I would select Dinesh Mongia ahead of Mohd Kaif, for his ability to bowl a bit and also to dominate attacks. And Dinesh Kartik will be my Sub Wicket keeper.

Two bowlers are also pretty easy to pick. I will go for Ramesh Powar and Irfan Pathan (If he recaptures his confidence in his bowling a bit..) which will give a pretty good balance to this Indian bowling attack. So my team for world cup goes like this:

Sachin
Sourav
Dravid
Laxman
Yuvraj
Sehwag
Dhoni
Kumble
Harbhajan
Zaheer
Munaf

Dinesh Mongia
Dinesh karthick
Irfan Pathan
Ramesh Powar and
Sreesanth.

Even though the first eleven looks a little older as most of the players are on the wrong side of 30, each one of them are capable of destroying the opposition on their own...

Nothing Else Matters!!!

2006-12-13T01:11:00.001-06:00

I am not getting my own words to put in now. So I thought I will put in some one else's words. After all I just want to remember something down the years when I see this blog again. Atleast I will remember that I liked this song...

Nothing Else Matters!!! - Mettalica.

So close, no matter how far
Couldn't be much more from the heart
Forever trusting who we are
and nothing else matters

Never opened myself this way
Life is ours, we live it our way
All these words I don't just say
and nothing else matters

Trust I seek and I find in you
Every day for us something new
Open mind for a different view
and nothing else matters

never cared for what they do
never cared for what they know
but I know

So close, no matter how far
Couldn't be much more from the heart
Forever trusting who we are
and nothing else matters

never cared for what they do
never cared for what they know
but I know

Never opened myself this way
Life is ours, we live it our way
All these words I don't just say
Trust I seek and I find in you

Every day for us, something new
Open mind for a different view
and nothing else matters

never cared for what they say
never cared for games they play
never cared for what they do
never cared for what they know
and I know

So close, no matter how far
Couldn't be much more from the heart
Forever trusting who we are
No, nothing else matters...

I got through it!!!

2006-12-02T02:07:00.000-06:00

Careless!!!

2006-11-15T21:53:00.001-06:00

I knew that life is a great leveller, that we will have some good times now, but expect some bad times also. This is what life has taught me. Even after knowing this I goes overboard at times due to sheer arrogance or carelessness. And then life will remind me of that simple truth by giving me a small jolt which helps me shed all those and stay focussed. This is a similar incident that happened today...

For last two weeks the amount of work was less compared to my first two months at onsite. And I started to relax a bit and take things for granted. I started to behave as if I am some one great and I can manage most of the things...

Meanwhile I got a mail from the company HR saying that I am supposed to write on internal exam before this appraisal for better results. I applied for one exam and started preparing for that. In fact I didn't prepare, but I got the mails and user id and password for the test. The test was scheduled for today morning...

Last week, while I was talking to a good friend of mine here, he told me that he also have the test on 15th itself at 10.00 AM. I was happy, coz he is very familiar with SF and he can find the test center very easily and moreover I was happy since we both had same timings for the test. This means that we can go together for the exam...

Days passed and came Monday. I was just two days away from the exam. I started dowloading the material and started to prepare. I kept an alarm for the eve of the exam to remind myself to take all the necessary things like ID, invitation printout etc. I was very happy with myself that I am planning things very well...

But I did not study anything that day. Then there was only one more day left for exam and I had 4 big modules to cover. I became a little sceptical. I planned of going home early and working from home. And I came back from office by noon and started preparing. I was just going through the materials fast just to see everything at least once before the exam. By 8.00 PM the alarm rang and I took the necessary things for the exam...

Wednesday - The exam day. I had kept the alarm at 6.00 AM. Woke up by 7.20 AM. Nowadays, even I am a little lazy. :-)). So got up and got ready, went through some more material and I told myself that no matter whatever happens, I have done enough. This is a trick to eliminate some tension before such exams and all...

Since it was supposed to be at 10.00 I relaxed and came out of house by 9.15 AM. The friend had to go early. So I had to find the place myself. But since the building was just beside the metro station, I found the place very easily. I was there by 9.45 AM, still 15 minutes to go. I was again proud of myself for timing everything so perfectly. Now just one more hurdle, I told myself...

I went to the exam center and I gave my invite letter to the receptionist or manager as no one else was visible there. She asked me which is the time slot for my exam. I said "10.00 to 11.00". She asked my name again and looked at her list. Even I looked casually into that and there I saw...

Arun Jose T F - 9.00 AM to 10.00 AM....

Some Crap...

2006-10-28T18:25:00.001-05:00

"What is real? How do you define real? If you're talking about your senses, what you feel, taste, smell, or see, then all you're talking about are electrical signals interpreted by your brain." - This is the dialogue that I had used to start my seminar on virtual reality during my college days. Of course, this is not an original; but lifted out of 'The Matrix' movie... I was watching that movie today for some time and dialogue between Neo and Oracle goes like this - ORACLE: I'd ask you to sit down, but you're not going to anyway. And don't worry about the vase. NEO: What vase?
He turns to look around and his elbow knocks a VASE from the table. It BREAKS against the linoleum floor. ORACLE: The vase.
NEO: Shit, I'm sorry. ORACLE: I said don't worry about it. I'll get one of my kids to fix it.
NEO: How did you know...?
ORACLE: What's really going to bake your noodle later on is, would you still have broken it if I hadn't said anything. [Courtesy: imsdb.com]
What would have happen, if oracle had not told neo about that vase? He would not have turned around and he would not have broken it. I guess that is the reason for people believing in palmistry, astrology and all. They will hear about some thing from some one and they take their decisions based on that, which in turn will lead his life into the same route that was told to him. And this will prove that whatever was predicted to him has come true...
Or some times it might happen that down the years you will start to relate things that are happening now to the old prophecy. Either way the belief of the person in things like palmistry and astrology will increase. I also like some one saying things that will happen to me in future. It is very interesting...
Last week my roommate was saying that he has started to find that the Today's Fortune which is shown in orkut is saying the truth. He gave me an example that, one day it said "Good news will come through mail". And guess what, he got his extension of US permit on that day itself via UPS. What a coincidence!!!
Now I was just thinking that what matters in this world is the perspective. If you have the right perspective, then you can see only positive things happening around you...
Confused? I am good at confusing people. That is the way to look at that in a positive manner. I could have told that I am not good at explaining things clearly to people.
Another thing that I had noticed is that we have to put a conscious effort to achieve most of the things in this world. ie, If I have to be bold, then I need to pull up my socks and say to myself that I am brave. And venture into things that you are scared of. For example, when I did sky diving, I was so scared that my face was totally pale. But once I was in the middle of it, I started to enjoy it. So that fear is out of my way. That is what my best friend used to say to me- "Just believe that you will be able to do it and I bet you will do it..."
I am stopping this here before you people start breaking your monitors, I am not very good at philosophy... :-))
I just remembered one more thing that puzzled me when I was a kid. The people in TV used to talk to me. I mean how do they know that I am watching this program when they say thanks for being with us??? You think I was an Idiot then? Well, I would like to think about it as my ability to think like that rather than just enjoying what is shown in the TV. See, I told you I am a positive guy :-)) ok, I am stopping...

DON - The review!!

2006-10-21T15:17:00.003-05:00

Hmmm, let's see if I can write a movie review... And when you write a review it is very easy to criticise. But that is not the reason why I selected this movie as the subject of my first review ever, I mean a written one. This is just a stunt to fill something in this blog of mine as I have not posted anything for a long time. I am not getting any other good subject to write over, what to do? Oops! Now I got one, anyway since I have started on this, I will continue. I hope it is not a crime to post two blogs in a single day, so that I can post one more...
The movie Don starring Shah Rukh Khan and directed by Farhan Akhtar (A personal favourite) released here yesterday. And me and my roommate thought it would be better to watch it on the friday itself so that we don't waste much time on the precious saturday and sunday. So we went straight from the office to the theatre with the laptop bags hanging on our shoulders. There is a funny side to this laptop bag. For mine, it does not have a laptop inside. I am in two minds to write it here or not. What the h**l!! I usually carry the laptop bag to carry my lunch box, my notepad and some other documents that are needed. Yeah, go ahead and have a nice laugh!! :-(
So we caught the Fremont train which goes in other direction than that to our daily destination Daly City. What? No, I was not trying to be rhyming, it is the real name of the place where I stay, 20 minutes away from San Francisco by train. So after spending around 45 minutes in the train, we reached Fremont. We had another plan also to buy some Indian groceries. But by the time we came out of the theatre, the store was closed. I know, I know, I am supposed to write the review. Hold on, Please!!!
So the show for DON is there at every hour since it is a multiplex. so we reached there by 6.40 and decided to go for 7.00 PM show. After standing in the queue when I reached the counter came a shocking news. The ticket for DON is available only for 12.00 AM show. I was not sure what to do, and I came out of the line. If we are going back without watching this then it will be another 6 hours' exercise to come and watch it again. But there was no other way. So we decided to watch Jaan-E-Mann by Akshay Kumar and Salman Khan. Was hoping that atleast there would be some comedy in it. What else to say, two people who came to see the most hyped movie of the year are being forced to watch a movie that I had not even heard about. With a heavy heart I went to the screen #7 which will be screening our movie...
Suddenly a crooked idea struck me. I was in two minds, whether to go ahead and do it? I was afraid of getting caught in the process also, which will be a shame to the company for which I am working. Its motto itself has the phrase "Driven by values". But as I am more selfish at times, I decided to take the chance. The thing about multiplexes is that once you are inside, you can go ahead and watch the movie in any screen. It once happened in bangalore that with the ticket for Rang de Basanti, I went and sit in a theatre screening 'Goal'. I realized this after seeing the movie for 5 minutes only. Till then I was thinking that this was a trailer. I ran out of the theatre to the correct one and luckily the movie had not started...
Oops, I think I am deviating from the topic again. So I went and sit in the screen#3 along with my friend and was praying to god that the seats don't get filled. Like that the first half an hour of the movie went by and I could not enjoy the movie as I was completely tense. Then I realized that the seats will not get filled. But why??? Was it because the people who had done the online reservation could not make it in time? Or was it a trick from the theatre people to get some people to watch other movies also. because they are quite sure that people will come back to watch DON again. You never know what was the reason for the seats not getting filled. So I consoled myself saying that I had paid money to watch the movie, so there is nothing wrong with what I did. Or was it wrong? I don't know!!
Regarding the review, I could not get a good review from any site to copy paste. So please bare with me. I will be more prepared next time when I am writing a movie review :-). But one thing has to be said, Farhan Akthar did really well to make some one like Shah Rukh Khan look so stunning and Stylish. Hats off to you, Farhan!!!

Las Vegas!!!

2006-09-11T00:21:00.001-05:00

First long weekend in US and no prizes for guessing where I spent it. And literally it is the place if you want to 'spent' something, one's time or money! Here one can get anything in this world that can be bought by money, even if they don't have mastercard. They just need money...
It was a very gruesome trip, had to travel for around 12 hours in car, that too without much sleep. You know what, it is not a problem for me, even if I don't get sleep for 3-4 days. Don't believe it??? May be I am not as much good with telling lies as I am with sleeping. And had to endure the same 'torture' on our way back also. Since it was a long weekend, it was like all roads were leading to LV. And we even had traffic jams...
The most important gain of this journey was to get a hand on "how to ride car in US". If not practical, at least I learned some theory lessons. The concept of freeways, exits, ramps and the importance of Google Maps and a Navigator. If you don't know, Navigator is a guy who sits beside the driver to help him to be on track and at times to be awake...
We reached there at around 3 AM and immediately came the first uppercut on the chin. This doesn't mean that there are more uppercuts to follow. The hotel, in which we had our booking, declined of having made any such reservations. Luckily, my friend had the support phone number of the site through which we made the reservations. And after 30 minutes, the receptionist allowed us to check in. And it was wonderful to get a bed, at that point of time...
And I happily obliged to my body and slept till 11 AM. By that time I lost sleep thinking that have I come all the way to LV to spent time sleeping? Nay, I said. And I told the same to my friend who was sleeping next to me. And he also woke up, albeit a little disappointed that he is losing something very important. We got dressed up and was ready to 'experience' LV...
And the moment I step outside, I felt like I am in Chennai. I haven't experienced this much heat anywhere else. There it was, Arizona desert in full steam. We had to walk to get to the hotel were our other friends were staying. And it was like hell. And to add to that, it was like walking through some desert and not like walking in the middle of a city. There were only 10-20 people who were out there walking. Then I slowly realized that in LV nobody wakes up and comes out of their hotels unless it is 2-3 PM. I was unhappy with myself for getting up this 'early'... And I walked all the way to the hotel named 'Stratosphere' and I was getting inside a casino for first time in my life...

First Experience!!

2006-08-18T22:49:00.001-05:00

Ehmm... How will it be??? Will it be exciting? Will it be unforgettable?? Any thing first in life is supposed to be unforgettable. And I was also excited. May be a little bit nervous, but still I was happy for myself. There was that Adrenalin rush as the moment came closer and closer...
I arrived there with Vivek and Visakh. And it was comforting. But I knew that they will not be there when that moment comes. I will be left alone to face the truth, bitter or sweet. And the moments spent with them let me relax a bit. It was not the time to think about what is going to happen, I kept on telling myself...
It was around 8.30 PM and it was really dark. Also it was time that I had to be alone, albeit for some time atleast. So I thought, now that the time has come, I will just take those little steps towards it. So I bid adieu to both of them and walked to what seemed like a tunnel of light. Alas, it was only a door. Yes, the door towards the first Airport lounge that I have ever seen in my life. The security checked the tickets and let me get in. Hmmm, It looks like a small shopping mall only...
I went straight to Jet Airways counter and there they asked me to go and get my check in baggage scanned. Then I remembered that Arun had told me to get the baggage scanned first before checking it in. so I went to get it scanned and check it in. And I was waiting in the lobby for my time to board the first flight of my life (To be continued)...

Ouch, it hurts!!

2006-07-12T07:54:00.001-05:00

This is one of the phrases that I have been using a lot lately. Not because I am a moron and people around me doesn't like me. In fact I am someone who does not cause much harm to others unless I feel that they are trying to harm me. Enough of this self boasting, I suppose...

Coming back to the main issue, it was paining in almost all of my Joints and Muscles so much that I started to realise that there are more joints and muscles in my body than what I had thought before! The reason for this was a glorious football match. The story goes like this...

On Friday evening, when I reached home after work, there was no current and it was around 7.00 PM. And it was very dark inside. Out of my laziness to light a candle and sit inside the house, i chose to sit outside and enjoy Radio City FM and some moon light. It was wonderful with some cold wind also blowing across. Then suddenly I came across some announcements about a football match in the Radio...

The match was organised by Radio City FM, Bangalore on the same day as that of World Cup final. It was as part of their Fifth anniversary celebrations. And they were looking for people who were willing to be part of that.I found it an exciting prospect, to meet some RJ's, have some fun playing football and there will be some goodies that will be given away as part of this...

All this prompted me into sending a message telling them that I am ready to be a part of this. But I did not get any call from them during that day. I forgot about it. Next day I went for a movie with a friend of mine and I got a call from Radio City, and I was all pumped up. I couldnt wait till it was sunday morning so that I could go there...

But everything did not go as I had planned. I went there along with two friends of mine and in all the excitement I didnt even had my breakfast. It was supposed to start at 11.00 AM, but finally it got underway after 12.00 PM. And I started to run around with all my energy that is stored as Fat in different parts of my body, mainly abdomen area lately. But soon I realised the amount of stamina I have as I started to pant like a dog...

It was not very embarrasing as most of the people who were there were like me only, some even worse. Suddenly I realised that the girl in the opposing team is causing our defense a lot of problem. I decided to control my offensive instincts and will dedicate myself to the defensive duties...

And I decided to mark her closely. No.... I never had any other intentions other than the fact that I will not have to run too much if I am staying only in the defense. the game went on and then came a high ball from the opposing camp. I saw that the girl in question is going for the ball, and me too went for it. It bounced in front of us and I tried to head it...

Dishum..... A leg with football boots came and hit my face. I was totally frozen for a second. Then I realized that it was her boots and that my lip is bleeding. It hurt!! I would have been fine, had she told me a sorry atleast. But then that didnt happen. And my body was aching like anything, when I was coming back. But my ego was more hurt!!!

Disconnected!!!

2006-06-28T06:48:00.001-05:00

That's is exactly how I am feeling now after my company decided to block access to Orkut, the networking portal...

It was like I am addicted to Orkut. It helped me keep in touch with a lot of friends whom, I thought, I will never meet again or will never have contact with. But then came this wonderful portal which helped me connect with a lot of my long lost friends and acquaitances...

And this was not the case with only me. Almost all of my friends also had the same effect. Even though, there are still some who doesn't want to fall into this so called 'Trap'...

Coming back to me, now it is almost like all my contacts have been severed. I know there are mails and messengers and telephones for me to keep in touch with all those friends. But there is something about this site, which makes me very comfortable while using it, dont ask me what???

Now I feel like there is no use with all the internet connectivity that I have in the office.I am feeling this strong urge to go to a net cafe, just to do some 'Orkuting', as some like to call this...

I am waiting for my friend to get this Laptop that he has ordered for, so that we can get net connection at our home itself. And which will in turn help me get back to full time 'Scraping'...

Now the final question is, "Is this an illness, doctor???"

I am a Fan...

2006-06-19T05:15:00.001-05:00

Finally, the soccer world cup is underway. I was planning to write something about this even before it started. But some unforseen circumstances delayed it till now...

As I had wished for, my favourite team Argentina is doing well till now. They played like a dream in there last match against Serbia and Montenegro. The commentators were searching for superlatives to describe that performance...

They made Serbia and Montenegro look like a second grade team. Let me make it clear that during the qualifiers S&M topped the group that consisted of Spain and Belgium, that too without even one defeat. Spain had to play playoffs to reach the world cup. So S&M is not a weak team. But nobody could have stopped Argentina when they are playing at such sublime level. I just hope they have not peaked a little early...

I was wondering what is it that makes me a fan of Argentina. I suddenly realized one proverb "First impression is the best impression". Then I understood why I love Argentina, Maradona, Mohanlal, Steffi Graf etc...

When I started to follow football, Argentina were the reigning world champions and Maradona was the best footballer of that time. So in Italia 1990 they were the favourites to win the cup. But they were beaten by Germany in the final. Still the newspapers and T V had made an impression in my mind...

Like wise Steffi Graf was the queen of tennis when I started following tennis, so she became my favourite.

Coming back to world cup, this is the first world cup in which I am seeing so many matches, and I am really enjoying this. I hope Argentina makes this world cup unforgettable for me...

Sunday Sermon...

2006-05-08T08:30:00.001-05:00

Yesterday was sunday and I went to church as usual. But decided to go for 9.00 AM mass as I had the liberty of using bike to reach the church. There during the sermon the priest narrated a very touching story, which I thought I should write here...

It is about 'Naranathu Branthan', one of the biggest stars of Kerala's Folklore. He is considered as an insane person by most of the people, but he is saner than all of them. He has his own views about the things that goes around and his own ways of doing things. He was considered to have a lot of magical powers.The story goes like this...

There was a guy who was very devoted to Naranathu Branthan. He wanted to be a disciple of him and wanted to follow his foot steps. He asked Naranathu to bless him by taking him as his disciple. Naranathu agreed. The guy started practising all the things that Naranathu was doing. A few days went like that...

One day they went for a very long walk. And since it was summer, they felt very thirsty. They saw a house and decided to ask for some water. The lady of the house gave them 'Sambharam', diluted butter milk. Naranathu took the glass and drank from it. Seeing this the disciple also did so...

After some distance they were thirsty again and they saw a person bringing Toddy, a traditional beverage that is taken from coconut trees. Naranathu drank some of the toddy and our hero also followed the suit. He was very happy and satisfied with his life together with his master...

They continued their journey and need I say that they again felt thirsty. So they went to a nearby building. When they reached there, they found that it was a ironsmith's work place. There they asked for water. The ironsmith was not in his elements. He asked them to drink the Molten iron. Hearing this Naranathu took some molten iron and drank it. Seeing this the disciple ran away...

He was there to enjoy the satisfaction of having butter milk and the fun of having the toddy. But he was not ready to have the heat of molten iron. The message from this was that we should not only enjoy the best things but should be ready to take in the worst of things also. It was a great message to have on a sunday morning...

Chelsea... Chelsea...

2006-04-30T04:54:00.001-05:00

So finally the wait is over. Chelsea held on to the English Premier League(EPL) title that they won last year after some hiccups towards the end of the season. And that too in the most heartening way. What is better than defeating Manchester United 3-0 at stampford bridge, Chelsea's home ground. That settles for some time the debate as to which is the best club in EPL now...

People who are envious will say that this was a championship which was "bought" with the Oil Currency of Roman Abrahamovic. Hold it!! Chelsea is still not the richest club in the world and it will not be for some more time. But it has done something which even Real Madrid is not able to do...

Real Madrid is also known as the Galacticos, means stars, I guess. That's very true. Just take a look at that line up and you know that they are aptly named. What with Zidane, Ronaldo, Beckham, Carlos, Robinho and not to forget Raul, the darling of Real fans. But still they are not able to win any cup for that matter. Why?

The differnce between Chelsea and Real Madrid is that, for Chelsea the buying of players is done by Jose Mourinho, their coach. But for Real Madrid, it is there club presidents who buys the players. Its a matter of winning another term as president of the richest club for them. So they buy all the big stars to add to their biodata. Also they are looking at stars who can increase their business...

But for Chelsea, Mourinho knows his game plan, he knows what type of players he needs. So he chooses players based on his requirements. Unfortunately for Real Madrid there is no one to do such a thing. The Coach for Real Madrid keeps changing after every three defeats. A bit of exaggeration, I confess, but the scenario is pretty much like that. So the new coaches will have to formulate strategies based on the stars in his hand rather that what strategy he likes to use against different teams. The aging of stars also does not help...

I hope, Real Madrid understands this as soon as possible and re-establish those glorious old days of 'The Galacticos".Mean while let me rejoice the fact that My favourite team Chelsea is on the top of EPL once again...

Am I confused?

2006-04-29T07:47:00.001-05:00

Today, 29 April, Elections to the state assembly is going on in my legistlative constituency. But I am here at Bangalore. I had a chance to go home and partake in this very important event. But my laziness prevented me from doing so...

I am still not able to make a decision as to whom I would have given my vote to. On one side is a person who has represented our constituency for last 15 years. On the other side a former corporation mayor. Its not the personalities of these people which is creating all the confusion, but some other issues...

On one hand is the issue of drinking water. Still the people from my place has to walk atleast half a kilometer to get the drinking water. This problem was not this grave untill last couple of months. Its not the distance to walk that matters, but the distance to walk carrying the vessels. Even this is not available all days of the week. Mind you I am living in the corporation limits of the biggest city in the state of kerala and not in any remote village...

While some people dont even get water like this. They will have to wait until a tanker truck comes with drinking water. There they will have to stand in queues. At times it is a mess out there with every one trying to get as much water as possible before the tanker gets empty. Believe me there are instances when even Police had to be involved to get some Drinking water, a primary necessity...

So the question arises, should I give my sitting MLA another chance to give us some drinking water? I am sure he could have done something to solve this problem to an extent...

On the other hand, the other guy is from a Party which has sort of vowed not to allow any sort of industrial development in the state. Myself being a part of services industry would certainly like to work out of my home town or atleast home state. When all the other states in this part of the country are making rapid strides in this arena, we are lagging behind a good 10 Years...

This anti development ideology is vindicated saying that they are trying to uplift the down trodden sections of the society. Hell with it. I am not saying that they should not be uplifted. But in this Fifty years of governance none of the parties, including this party could not do much, given the kind of resources available for this Gods own country. I know that a guy who is not even voting does not have the right to criticize those governments. But I regret the fact that I am not voting...

So the verdict is that, yes I am a little confused. I dont know whether my perspective should be a micro one where I should look to see if my parents and neighbours are getting proper ameneties or should it be a macro one where I should consider the broader picture, including the chances of advancement of my state. I dont know yet!!!

Happy Easter!!!

2006-04-16T08:50:00.002-05:00

I don't know much about what is the real problem in Narmada Sarovar Dam. I may be writing this after listening to only one side of the story...

But one thing that has caught my eye over last few days is the defiance shown by a lady against the all powerful government of India...

Her name is Medha Patkar. I know her as the leading environmentalist of our country. She was always in the front row against any one who tried to harm the balance of nature. And I admire her courage and dedication for this cause. Her spirit never wavered in front of opposition from highest echelons of power. Enough to get a high rating in the eyes of a normal person like me who is looking for heroes to change the fortunes of our country...

She is fighting for her life in a hospital as she is on a hunger strike. And it is already more than ten days now. She was arrested and taken to a hospital. Even then she has not stopped her strike. I happened to hear her voice through one of the news channels and even though it was very weak, the words that came out of it were not weak. Here is some one who is as strong willed as any other in this world, I thought...

And this attitude is causing waves in the corridors of power and there seems to be some action being taken by the government to take care of the issues put forward by her. This shows that even at this point the Gandhian way of protests has it's own merits. It is still capable of making the deaf ears of power hear one or two things...

I wish there are more people like her in this world so that everyone around says "Life is Beautiful!!!"

An Athlete...

2006-04-07T11:35:00.001-05:00

Let me write some thing about a person from sports world. I am a little passionate when it comes to sports....

Brett Lee!! Some one in the world of sports whom I adore.He is what I would like to call an Athlete. The energy and effervesence in him is undoubteldly much much more than what most of the superstars of todays cricket can only dream of...

There is a certain grace about this man with a boyish charm. That we can easily see from his run up to the crease. It's not like the wild force of Shoaib Akhtar, but it is rythmic. May be himself being a musician helps him attain that Rythm in every thing that he does. But once he completes the leap to the crease and releases the red cherry the heart of the batsmen leaps. Listening to the sound of ball speeding past there nose will not be music to the ears of most of world batsmen. And this is one good reason why he has become the strike bowler for Australia in the absence of Mcgrath...

Another fact is the swiftness with which he moves in the field. He is one of the best fielders to have in the out field. The ground he is capable of covering is unbelievable. Add to this the powerful arm and you cannot ask anything more from a fielder to marshal the boundaries...

One thing in which he has improved over last few months has been his batting. His average may still be similar to that of a tail batsman, it is continuosly improving. More than the averages it's his contribution in some recent exciting wins for Australia that shows the level to which he is rising.Add to this his on your face attitude while taking the body blows, here is yet another champion from Australia...

FirstRayOfSun...

2006-04-07T11:07:00.001-05:00

This blog is for general writings! This can touch all the subjects under the Sun...
Oh! I will start this blog by writing about name of this blog itself "FirstRayOfSun". I selected this as the title because my name Arun has this meaning. According to Hindu Mythology 'Arunan' was the charioteer of 'Surya' the Sun. And in that sense Arun is the first ray of Sun...

In my mother tongue Malayalam 'Arunavarnam' means Red, the colour of horizon when the sun rises. You all may think that its the same colour when the sun sets also, but I have not mentioned that here. This is because I prefer mornings more than evenings.

Adding more to the mythology side (I love Hindu Mythology) the story of Arunan goes like this: There was a Rishi who didnt had any children even though he had two wives ( Don't ask me why ;-) So finally he gets two eggs and gives one each to both of them and asks them to hatch them so that they have children. After some time one egg hatches and there comes out 'Garuda'. Seeing this the other wife got restless and she decides to use some force. Unfortunately she breaks the egg and the baby coming out was not complete in the sense that it had malformed legs. And he is our hero 'Arunan'.Garuda goes on to become Vishnu's vehicle and Arunan, charioteer of Surya.

Arunan had this great longing to go to Kailash and see Siva. But since he didnt had proper legs he changed himself into a beautiful girl and Starts off. But on her way, Indra sees her and gets attracted to her. This results in the creation of 'Baali' the ape king.

Arunan comes back to Surya and tells him all that had happened. Surya was curious to see what prompted Indra to go out of way. So he asks Arunan to change himself into that beautiful girl. He changes himself and do I need to tell you more. After all Surya is also a Male...:-))

Another ape was created and his name was 'Sugreeva'. The story of Sugreeva and Baali will be a little bit long. so let me stop this story here. Will be back with more later....