Random pics taken from the cell phone..

New post on my blog...
http://wacky-world.blogspot.com/2006/11/random-pics-taken-from-cell-phone.html

Our Diwali Event

Had our Diwali event last week on Sunday, Oct 22nd... This time, me being the President of the Indian Students Association in my university meant much more work and running about for Diwali. Luckily, we have a good committee team and lots of volunteers from the new students batch with lots of enthu in them.. Dunno how many sleepless nights we have had before the event. Practice for all the programs started at a slow pace, and then built up in the last week. My head has gone bonkers after continuously listening to the fashion show song which was mixed and matched by me. BTW, I have taken part in a fashion show 4 times after coming to UT. I think thats one career option which I can take up if I am jobless after my MS!
Anyways, so while all the practice was going on, we also had to distribute fliers everywhere for advertising the event. The local newspaper contacted me and my roommate for an interview and published it before the event. The Funny part, I am called as "Yv" throughout, they thought thats my last name! I Bet even the Chinese cant pronounce that properly! Here's a link to that article.

So things were getting busier by the day. We had our final rehearsals at the auditorium on Friday. Most events looked good, there was also a Desi rap performance which rocked! Our Fashion show still needed some work to be done, both in the formations and in my music. Yet another night-out listening & mixing that song...

Saturday, the day before the event - we kinda relaxed during the day, there was a home football game which UT won by a close margin against Alabama. Their performance is much better this time than last year and is in the Top 10 now. Anyway, after the game, went back to our rehearsals and I also had to work on a video about India. After much brooding over the song selection, chose a fusion piece by Talvin Singh and started collecting the slides for my video. Never knew Windows Moviemaker is such a good tool!! Sat for the video till 5 in the morning, went to sleep for a while and got back up by 7. Added a few final touches to the video, showered & dressed up, and got ready to leave home by 10 AM.

D-Day: (Diwali-Day) We were in the Audi by 10.15 AM and moved some of the drinks and food supplies like plates, cups etc.. to the lunch area. We were waiting for the decorations group to arrive, and they could come only by 11.30 AM. They started work immediately at the auditorium. The food also came that time, and by the time we set up everything, there was already a queue of people for the food! By 12.15, started issuing tickets and boy, there was a pretty big crowd for the food!! More than 220 people ate the food while most committee members had to remain hungry as the food got over in time (in between, even the plates got over and there some panic for a short while before new plates came), around 1.45 PM. By then, the stage was set up, the lights, sound team was ready, the hosts were ready, and I hadn't prepared my speech yet! Thx to Arpit who suggested a few sentences, I put them together.

The show started pretty much on time, only 10 mins late which is pretty good by Indian standards! Started with the Diya ceremony which went very well, followed by National Anthems, and then my turn to speak! Blabbered a few sentences quickly and got off stage, have to check the video to see how stupid I looked...anyways, after that, there was a talk by the chief guest, and then the cultural events started. Things went pretty smooth after that, and before we realized, it was almost 4 PM and the last program was left, the Fashion show. Before that, my video was presented and some people liked it. So, not a wasted effort. Fashion show also went pretty well and by 4.15 PM, the event was over. The feedback for the event has been good and everyone liked it! A big burden off the shoulders and a job well done by each and every person. I enjoyed every moment of this Diwali preparation! Now, Its back to studies and exams! and the trip to India I am waiting for so desperately!!

Fllllorrriiidaaa.....

New post on my blog about our Florida trip, even Nidhi was there..Take a look here:
http://wacky-world.blogspot.com/2006/09/fllllorrriiidaaa.html
Comments there itself.

Headache!!

"Maga !! I am confused" yelled Jerry through the phone(For clarification, Jerry is a friend of mine, a fellow bangalorean in US)

It was a freaking 11 am on a Saturday and I was sleepy. I was in no mood to solve the world's problems.

"f%$K U A$$!@!# Why do u have to call so early??" Being a good friend, I was more than courteous.

But he too being a good friend had made up his mind to ignore my blessings and put forward his question.

" Maga what does a girl mean when she says she has a headache?? "

I did a small leap from my bed like that monkey on national geographic does when it sees a camera.

"What??? Who is this girl?"
I was worried more about Jerry getting a girl before me than his/her headaches..

" This is one of my friends whom I am trying to have a serious relationship dude, Like marriage and all that shit"

Now I sensed the seriousness of the situation. Though a guy has every damn right to burn when a close friend gets a girl, it is an unwritten law that he shall help his friend to stay in the relationship as long as possible. Eventhough that friend is a complete moron.

"Dude, she is having a continous stream of headaches. In last four days, she has had headache 10 times. Most of the times when I am around.. When I told her to take aspirin or something, she shouted at the top of her lungs to get lost. I am seriously confused!!"

This was serious alright.. Knowing Jerry, I was confident that he was not joking.. He isn't capable anyways..
Still it was ironic that he asked me the question. Though I am a Doctor, I am a PhD student in Hrydaulics rather than MBBS. But Jerry didn't care about finer details..

" Maga there are lot of reasons why girls get headaches. Though there are more complex reasons, here are few common ones that I have noticed.." I said,

"1. She wanted to take your credit card for shopping but you didn't agree
2. Her friend has a headache
3. She is probably bored of having you around
4. She saw a pic of another girl on ur comp

and ....lot more. You need to understand the incidents of last few days before you can come to a conclusion"

" Those dames , trying to manipulate us guys by headaches and what not!! I hope that those pharma buggers find a cure for these headaches sometime"
Jerry gave his usual irritated comment..
" Now I have to run maga.. She has asked me to get her a gold chain for her birthday.. I cant take another bout of headache tonight.. byee" and cut the call

One more enlightned soul.. I Sighed and got back to the bed to sleep till 5..


[Inspired by Ally character of http://saltwaterblues.blogspot.com and kennedy's blog http://askenni.com]

Away

Gone away,
you have.

No words,
you had for me then.
And did you even
see
me, as you left?

And from then,
till now and
forever,
all I will ever have
of you,
is a loss for a lifetime,
and a few precious memories
for eternity.

Need for Speed!

Now this is what I call a race!

Thirsty kya?

New post on my blog. Comments haaking.

Sharjah, Toronto, ...., Knoxville

Of Course, in between, there are many more neutral venues. If you still havent understood, these are venues which has hosted India-Pakistan cricket games! Dont be perplexed, the Indian and Pakistani national cricket team did not come to Knoxville or havent even heard about it. But the game was between the Indian and Pakistani students from UT, Knoxville. Still, its an India-Pakistan game!!
But what sets Knoxville apart was the venue for the game. The venue we chose, where we have been playing there in recent times, is a BiLo Shopping Center Parking Lot. Thanks to Food City which bought all Bilo outlets, but hasnt opened their shop there, as a result, there is this huge Parking lot, 80% empty, and is our new cricket ground!!

The game was held last week, and both the teams arrived. There was a slight imbalance in the teams. The Indian team, also the hosts, had 23 guys, while the Pakistani team, a group of undergrads who have come here on a 6 week exchange program all the way from Pakistan, had 9 guys and remaining around 14 girls (babes, rather), so the final team had 2 girls in their side (who did a fairly decent job in the field, considering they were playing cricket for the first time, one of them even scored a run!). The guys were better, but still they were no match to our Indian guys and we beat them comprehensively, though a few of them gave a fight. We scored around 135 from the quota of 15 overs while they managed some 80 odd runs. The atmosphere was electric with all the chicks cheering and singing songs from the pavilion while we enjoyed them! In the end, it was an evening of fun and friendship and some kick-ass time!!

Do Something to help the RTI Act

I dont know if online petitions/letters work. I hope that they do. And I would like to give it a chance to work.

Sign this petition at IBNLive

Read this post at MixedBag for more info.

Please sign!

DO SOMETHING!!

Shikaar!!!

Being a good Samaritan, he was happy that he could help out in his cousin's marriage. It was another fact that he did some menial jobs like transporting the grocery items, looking after some strange locked room, picking up the Vaadyar [The priest] and making thorough fun of his cousin. But it felt good. As a result, on the day of reception, he was able to concentrate on his favorite hobby - Looking at the chicks in the marriage hall. They came in so many colors and shapes. Basking in the glitters of their lip gloss, he never imagined that he was being closely observed by a dangerous enemy. An aunt.. Yup you read that right.. Not an "ant" its quite harmless anyways and it skips marriages.. I said "AUNT" or "Aunty" or also "Mami" in some languages. Devil has so many names and so does the aunt.

Aunt Brinda was closely observing him like a mother hawk seeking prey for its children. Yes she was searching for a "good" groom for her daughter. She was angry with her husband though. Hiding behind the kitchen door, probably eating some jalebi thinking that she doesn't know.. Ha.. Husbands.. She thought..Not caring about getting his daughter married.. Also made a point to starve him of sugar for next few days.. They deserved punishment..

Meanwhile the subject in observance was falling to the "zone". Aunt B came to know that he was a MS degree holder. Still he showed most traits of an innocent desi. He spoke respectfully to elders and the priest, silently did all the work any aunty gave him and also showed qualities of eating less. Ideal groom, as when it came to cooking, her daughter was lazy as a waterelephant after a heavy meal. She made a mental note to speak to her sister and findout more about him before attacking.

The subject never realized the approaching predator. He was happy looking at a cute girl serving rasna. He began wondering why all cute gals serve rasna. May be rasna implies female sexualality. Though not coincidental, it so happened that the gal was the daughter of Vrinda. He wouldn't have touched the rasna glass with a 20 foot pole had he known about the conspiracy. He felt he saw some weird expression like the emotions of a child after seeing the icecream truck in summer. He did mistake it for attraction though and fell for her instantly. The prey was in the hands now.

Everything else moved very fast next. He got engaged the month after and now thinks that he should have been more careful on that day. He should have been rude and should have hogged like a pig. The past can never be changed. Suddenly he remembered that he hadn't picked up the groceries to aunt B's place. He sighed.. His mistake became his weekly job afterall..

Dream on

They soar high,
high and high,
Dreams,never light,
and always ahead.

Leap, as I may,
to hold them,
shackles tighten,
tight and tight,
and no escape,
from the dreams.

Free,
but I will be,
and no dreams
shall tame me.

Spam on you!!

Often I come across these mails (having pictures which have a cuteness rating of 8 out of 10) saying

"Good Morning... Have a great day today "

Or

"Just thought about You"

Or

"Have a great Weekend" etc..etc. You got the point right??

Eventhough I appreciate their concerns about my well being and their wishes to bringout emotions like love and affection buried in darkest corners of my brain, I feel a sense of uneasiness with them.
They are certainly not spam mails because the sources are my acquaintances, not complete strangers. Still the mail is perfectly useless to me since they are not crying for my attention and not make me happy unless I forward it to someone else.

It is funny to note that most of such mails are forwarded through the official mail IDs of companies who have a stringent internet censorship. (Hello there!!! HR policy people). It seems that these mails are the most entertaining reading material apart from project documentation. If the employees were given enough freedom, they would not have to indulge in this cuteness contest of emails. There would be better things to read/see ;).

And yeah, some of them are entertaining which condemn you to send the mail to 21 people because xyz god has ordered some other idiot to do so. Now I wonder if God reads these mails or he uses a spam filter for such mails. I am waiting for his answer as I send 21 mails of this post to him.

Blogspot blocked??

Read a article in boingboing and have been following the issue from then. Seems like the Department of communications has directed certain(??) ISPs to block a list of blogs on blogspot, typepad(??) and geocities(??). But seems like whole of blogspot, typepad and geocities have been blocked.

Now here are my 2 cents on the issue..

1. It is very very difficult to block anything on internet. There are alternate proxies which can be happily used. Hullo RSS for feeds??
2. The more important point is concerning the right to information. Shouldnt we know why and what all blogs have been blocked?? Till now the list of blogs that are "supposed to be blocked" is confidential.

More links on this issue

Rediff report
Really informative blog frequently updated from Mridula
Bloggers at google group
List of ISPs that seem to have blocked blogger Please add to the list if your ISP is not included.

On a lighter note,
Hope pigeon-mails will not be banned because they saw a pigeon flying with a letter. How will I communicate with my girlfriend??(once I find one that is)

Resilient Mumbai

First of all, I am very deeply moved about the despicable act that tore the heart of all indians. Mumbai being the financial capital has always been the target of antinational elements. But everytime there was a blow, indians and mumbaikars in particular bounced back. This is the mumbai sprit.

Now, speaking of the security in mumbai and in indian transit system in general, there are a lot of improvements pending. We need a better and secure environment for the passengers. Be it the railways or the road transport. The intelligence has to be atleast a notch ahead of these elements. Not like the Home Minister Shivraj Patil telling reporters that authorities had "some" information "but place and time was not known". This is seems like pure carelessness.

The mumbaikars have shown that they cannot be intimidated by these acts. Let the government show and make sure that these acts will not be repeated.

Shine on you crazy diamond...

Any Pink Floyd fan would have heard of this long and beautiful song. A song which was made as a tribute to the creator of the band and a gifted guitarist, Syd Barrett. Incidentally, the song title is also an expansion of his name, "Shine on You crazy Diamond" and talks about his contributions to the band (source: Wikipedia).

I am a Pink Floyd fan myself, and though most of my favorite tracks were all released after Syd left the group in 1968, from the albums, Division Bell and The Wall, I still am a big fan of him for the album "Piper at the gates of dawn" with the songs Bike, Scarecrow, Astronomy Domine my favorites among them.

Today, Syd Barrett is no more and the music world has lost a genius. RIP Syd...

Italy completes the opera!!!

An ultimate match as Italy beats france in world cup finals. Too bad for France as its one man army Zizou "earned" his red card by hitting materazzi. Bad exit for a great player.

The italians played as a team. Their defence was superb. France had little chances against them except in the penalty which resulted in the goal for them.

Meanwhile Materazzi of italy converted an awesome corner kick from Pirlo into a goal. This was the blow to france who were slacking after the first goal.

The second half saw an inspired attack by france but useless against the italian wall of defenders. With no team scoring the second goal in 90 mins, the game goes into extra time.

This was when some words were exchanged between Zidane and Materazzi.Zidane charged like a bull torwards Materazzi hitting him in the chest, resulting in red card for Zizou.

With no goals in overtime, penalty shootout came into play and the the side with better nerves, in this case Italy won the match by 5-3 penalty shootout.

All in all, One of the greatest matches in world cup history with this becoming the second finals to be decided in penalty.

Great game Azzuri, Better luck next time Les Blues and Good Bye Zizou..

The "F" act effect

New post on my blog. Click here for viewing that. kindly comments share maadi..

Daily Prayer

It goes like this. Let's see now:

"Protect me from knowing what I don't need to know. Protect me from even knowing that there are things to know that I don't know. Protect me from knowing that I decided not to know about the things that I decided not to know about. Amen."

"Lord, lord, lord. Protect me from the consequences of the above prayer. Amen...'"

- Old Man Oracle's prayer given to Arthur Dent in Hitch Hiker's Guide to Galaxy

A Tribute...

Feels really sad to hear this. If you guys remember, there was this nice,big chap who was our junior in RV Instru, who went by the name Anand Baliga. He was also my colleague in Infy, and was working onsite in the Netherlands for the past few months. He passed away a few days back.


He had an accident due to which he had a fracture in the leg and had taken off from work for a few days, but joined work back after he felt he was fine, but dunno what happened, he suffered from some breathing problems and passed away later that day.
Let this be a tribute from our class to him. I just hope his parents are able to bear the shock, and his soul rests in peace.

The Great Madhatters Reunion

A blog about my trip to NY and Canada and a gettogether with friends from Infy. Check it out in my blog .

The brook

Ah
There she flows.

Can you hear her?

She's a roar now,
over the stones.
Submit they must,
and erode,
she will.

But here,
she sighs.
Soft
as a
whisper,
in peace.

Hungry politicians problem

Manmohan Singh called a meeting. He was having a big problem. He had to distribute 1 pack of Parle-G biscuits among all his ministers. It was not so difficult if left to nature.. But the law mandated that 22% of the pack be given to reserved ministers. And more than that Arjun singh who hated Parle-G biscuits wanted another 27% reserved for OBC (Other Biscuit Consumers). There was a big confusion. The Biscuit commission had recently said that all these reservations in biscuits was foolishness. But if he agreed to the commission, what will become of the votes of all the votes belonging to reserved categories?? He consulted the Oracle of congress Sonia and came to these conclusions.

1. Everyone is equal before the law. Some are more equal because they have reservations.
2. Thus all sections of the ministers will get their biscuits.
3. This will be taken care by cramping more biscuits in single pack. The biscuits will be small and wet though.
4. There will be a enormous boom in the biscuit industry whill will help in the previous point.
5. There will be a oversight commission which will oversee how many biscuits can be cramped and how much bad smell due to wetness can be tolerated.

This is probably one solution. Do any of you folks have better solutions. Do let Dr.MM Singh know.
http://pmindia.nic.in/write.htm

New Zealand anyone???

When I was young, I had seen a kannada movie *ing Jaggesh and Doddanna, which had even come in hindi with Shakti kapoor and Kader Khan, i guess its called "Baap numberi beta dus numberi". In that, these guys are shown selling off places like Taj Mahal, Vidhana soudha(in the kannada version) to some foreigners. At that time, it sounded funny but we knew thats impossible to happen in real life..well, it seems like we were wrong..such things do happen!!

This link was forwarded to me by a friend of mine. According to that, some guy was auctioning on eBay, and guess what the auction item was?? New Zealand!! It turned out that that guy was Australian, another example of Australia - New Zealand rivalry.

This is not the only crazy thing which has been auctioned on eBay, there are many other cases. Here are links to some of them..

Forehead

University

Toast

Cornflake

and the top 10 strangest items sold on eBay - Top 10

Inspite of all these, how come eBay does not make any checking of what people are selling? Atleast in the cases mentioned above, the items were personal items, although strange, but new Zealand? that too by an Australian?? what will these guys do about it now? Is NZ government suing him? I dont think so. Is eBay suing him? Why should they? atleast they prevented the sale (as if it was gonna actually happen). So does this mean people are free to auction whatever they want? well, I wanna find out what happens if somebody auctions eBay itself!! I guess, after that, eBay will prevent any other strange bids happening...

Reservation

Protest through email.

http://mixedbag.blogspot.com/2006/05/email-your-representative-strategy-of.html

Ends

He stayed down, breathing.

People,all around. Bustling, like ants around a sweet. And he the sugar candy.
With his right eye, he saw his son rushing towards him.
He could feel the blood draining out of his chest-a hole right in his centre. A metal object embedded in him -like his heart.
He had trouble breathing. It was never so hard-like lifting a mountain.

Arms around him, lifted him up onto the couch. She was crying.
He smiled at her.

She stopped crying.


That was the only thing he could and would do.

More reservation!!

For sometime I have been growing my beard and thus have become a social outcast.Almost every person I meet looks at my beard and then decides my fate. Clean shaved people look down upon me like arjun singh and bhujbal watching the striking students. Let me illustrate.
Best example is of that gorgeous girl in garuda (mall) who refused to have a coffee with me because of my facial hair this missing an oppurtunity of raising a great lineage.
(I donno why gals hate facial hair. May be because they are jealous. Nyways thats off topic)

This was just the beggininig. The manager at a company I had an interview with, refused to grant me that VP position because of my beard.

The auto driver charged me double the amount saying I am disturbing him by scatching my beard often.

Because of all this, I have decided that bearded people should be given fair amount of oppurtunity to at all levels. Thus I seek about 70% reservation for people with beards and other type of facial hair.
(There should be a parliamentary committee to decide the sub categories in facial hair)
It has to be noted by the politicians that people with facial hair form majority of vote bank, provided Gillete is maintained as costly as it is now.

Now these are my demands,
1. Bearded people should have 70% seats reserved at all levels of education(yeah..even preschool).
2. 70% jobs in all industries
3. 70% of girls should be advised to marry/date only bearded girls. This should be called affirmative action.

All those who are in favour please call up arjun singh and give him this idea because he is still thinking of ideas for more reservation!!

Amma

There, she had done it again.
Tiffin box.

Where is it?
Its not in your bag?
You did it, again!
How many times have I told you to check your bag before you come home?
Now what will I pack your lunch in?
I should spend 50 rupees, now, for your stupidity.
Go now, what are you staring at my face?Go, do your homework!

And clang! goes the gate. She lifts her stubborn feet towards the door.Trrrinnng, she presses the doorbell.


Good!You've come home, at the right time!
Go change your clothes and wash your hands and face and come.
Here, have some hot milk and pakodas, your favourite.
Hmm, I don't find the lunch box in your bag.
Hmm, get it tomorrow from your class.
Be careful, dont burn your tongue while you are drinking the milk.

Namma Annavru...

No more.
Sigh.

playboy's top schools for partying!!

found this link today..according to that, our university is ranked 7th among the Top 10 US schools for partying!! :P
http://www.fanblogs.com/ncaa/005842.php

apni to paathshala masti ki paathshala...

California trip - Part one

New post on my blog.See below post for the rules! The link for the blog is here

Is God listening?

New post on my blog.Plz to add comments there. The link for the blog is here

TT

Has anybody noticed that TT is not a glamorous game?? It is kind of strange when 2 guys are playing TT and none of the girls appreciate the effort involved in playing it. I have a strange doubt that this is because the TT ball is too small. Which girl wants to see a game which involves small balls??

In contrast take the most famous game in US. Football. The ball is literally 1 foot in length. Apart from the ball, nothing much happens on the field. People shove each other and try to get hold of the ball. (Similar to RV students trying to get out of a BMTC bus at RV stop). And look at the number of girls flock to the game. Amazing.


While the poor TT chap keeps banging the ball to the table (hey .. No crooked thinking!!) the football player will be drowning in the group of beautiful cheerleaders.

There is no justice in this world..

Scout Song

While I was searching for the Row,row...rhyme, I found this. ;O)

God Bless My Underwear
tune: God Bless America

God bless my underwear, my only pair.
Stand beside them, and guide them,
Through the rips, through the holes, through the tears.
From the washer, to the dryer, to the clothesline in the air.
God bless my underwear, my only pair.

http://www.scoutsongs.com/lyrics/godblessunderwear.html

HB

Yay! hurrah! Can I move on now?
Earlier when I was a kid, I was so excited about my birthday. As it happens, eventually and to everybody, the whole birthday thing is kinda souring out. Well, not completely, not when one gets an iPod nano as a gift! Hehehehehe! :O) :O) :O)
I can't stop beaming since I got that..So this one has been super-exceptional on the gift scale!
So many people called me yesterday and today. Thanks all you people! Its nice to know that people do care..

So does one have to make a big deal about birthdays?I like to think birthdays as a "special day"-one day where you realise how many near and dear ones you have, and celebrate the fact that one survived a year!,on this mortal earth. Give your thanks, count your blessings,say your sorries(err, dont ask me if I did that!)
and move on. So much more to face, so much more to do (err-me talking abt my lab reports!)

Reminds me of a nursery rhyme-
Row, row, row your boat,
Gently down the stream.
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily,
Life is but a dream.

Every child's dream come true

This was every child's dream come true. Yeah, children of mysore have seen elephants during dasara but the mild obedient ones which gladly take a banana from the children. Not an elephant which tries to hijack a bus.

Can you write an excellent caption for this??



Some of mine:
Hold on!! I want to go to Kuvempunagar too!!
Which door should I use??
Shouldnt she be using the elephant crossings??

Let me see how many more captions you guys can think..

Story at Deccanherald archives

My sleep analysis...

have put a new post on my blog about my sleep analysis over the last week...Click here to view the post.

and please to put comments there, not here!!

Holi the new story

Long time ago, Mr Shiva alias Rudra (who also goes by many other names) was sitting on one of the mountains of himalayas with his Sony Vaio(with Gentoo) on his lap. He had his abode covered by his wireless ISP and hence never felt like leaving it. Being tech savvy and not having much to do on a remote himalayan place, he was always hooked on to yahoo messenger,gmail,blogger,slashdot and orkut round the clock.

Meanwhile parvati was a well broughtup girl of an aristrocatic family. Her father owned most of the real estate in and around himalayas. He had brought the land when bangalore was booming with IT industries and had became rich overnight when all the IT industries decided to move to himalayas. Parvati was thus well fed and after getting incredible 35% in 12th, she was gifted a BE Computer Science seat in one of the best colleges in himalayas. Natural as it is, she was introduced to yahoo messenger and orkut.

One day Shiva was astonished to see a friend request from an unknown girl called Parvathi. Apparently he was delighted. It was his second friend request from a girl. He immediately accepted her request and started using orkut to chat with her. The friendship gradually improved also with the scrap count exceeding 1000. It was when parvati made her next move. She indicated to Shiva that she is interested and sent a teaser and adder to her crush list. Poor shiva never understood these advances and happily neglected it. It was when Kama, a mutual friend entered the scene.

Having been in deep love with Rathi, Kama was determined to get more people to suffer like him. Hence seeing the oppurtunity blossom around him, took his latest Ipod nano and made way for Shiva's abode.

Shiva was unusually busy with a blog post that day. He was determined to write something but ideas were not flowing. Also his ISP decided to irritate him by blocking blogger. Kama had chosen the worst time.

So when Kama entered Shiva's apartment with colorful hawaiian shirt, blazing hip-hop music and Christina Aguilera posters, Shiva couldnt tolerate any more and set fire to Kama's behinds. Later realizing his mistake and with charming Rathi explaing the matter, he extinguished the fire,let Kama off and proposed to Parvathi through phone which she accepted immediately.

Thus born was the festival of holi when people applied color to others and burned their a**es off.
(The "Holika" version of the story will come out soon)


Happy Holi!!!!!

Mother of 300 children

To be among the rural karnataka is a wonderful experience. Gentle people with great knowledge create an atmosphere of happiness. There are lot of them who are famous for their work and yet there are a some, though unnoticed, have worked for the welfare of others selflessly. One of such work towards humanity can be seen at the 4km strech of road between Hulikal and kudur.

The road looks normal at the beggining. But as time passes by, yoou can hear the birds chirping, a cool breeze on your body and a sense of joy. Yes you are standing among the children of Timmakka and Chikkanna. They greet each passerby with the same happiness throughout the year.




She was named "Timmakka(ತಿಮ್ಮಕ್ಕ)" but people call her by the name "Saalu marada timmakka(ಸಾಲು ಮರದ ತಿಮ್ಮಕ್ಕ)". Like most of the older generation, she is not educated formally. At a young age, she was married to Chikkanna who was a landless labourer. As years passed by, it became evident that they may never have any children. One day they both decided to plant trees and raise them as children.
Unlike most of us who choose our gardens for planting a tree, the couple choose the 4km streach of dusty road. They selected the peepul [ficus religiosa] exclusively, and raised baby trees in a tiny nursery. And then off they went to plant them.

Chikkanna then built thorn guards around their little wards. The plants had to be watered everyday till they established, then, every three days for an year and later every week until they were 10 years old. Every morning they would set out, Thimmakka with a pot on her head and another on a hip and Chikkanna's load of two pots hanging from the ends of a pole over his shoulder. They refilled the pots from wells and ponds along the way - in all about 40 to 50 pots a day.

Every year they planted 15 to 20 new plants until finally they had covered the whole of the 4km between Hulikal and Kudur. Chikkanna quit working for a wage to keep a vigil on his young trees and to water them. He patrolled the stretch, shooed off cattle and watered the trees.

45 years have passed by, and the children of Thimakka stand tall and proud greeting passers by and offering them cool shade. They are the 300 children of Chikkanna and thimmakka.

Thanks to http://www.goodnewsindia.com for most of the content.

Ideas please

Now I came to know what a blogger's block is :). Have ben trying to bring up a post for a week now but every blog idea looks horible after few lines. So here comes the shameless request..
Can anybody suggest some good subject to write on?? Leave your ideas in the comment box please..

Freestyle Motorsports!!

Had been to the Freestyle Motorsports event held in our university arena a few days back. It was an awesome show with some of the best bikers from USA performing. I have managed to capture some pics and videos of the stunts and have uploaded them in my blog.
Check it out here

"Rang De Basanti" Immature or ludicrous??

I have seen two types of movies. One which makes me laugh and others which make me cry.
Today i saw the third kind.

The movie started alright. I was happy with the pace with which it was progressing. But everything fell into a dreamy haze later. The screenplay was very loose and the story line was bad. I personally liked the basic theme of the movie but felt that the plot execution was highly immature.

Some good points about this movie..

1. Alice Patten did a very good job of trying to speak hindi. Her acting was good
2. The basic idea is different.Not like the mediocre movies.
3. Made some ppl aware of some of the events during the freedom struggle.

Now the bad points.

1. Horrible screenplay and loose story.
2. To many immature and nonsensical ideas like assasinating the defence minister. For god's sake, he will not be going for a walk like its depicted..
3. After everything, they go on air on some radio station. Just for a comparison, we were not allowed air a notification about a RV function in a private station. We had to give the written announcement to the watchman. The radio stations are one among the decently secured areas.
4. After the assasination, they sit in college canteen. Man if someone does what they did, their descriptions will be all over delhi in 10 mins.
5. By comparing the harsh acts of some suddenly "awakened" youth to the great freedom fighters, The film made itself foolish.
6. Showed only the corrupt face of the defence system.
7.The contradiction arises from the fact that the group was not sure of anything.


I would give the movie 3/10. 2 for its different approach and 1 for cinematography and music.

Now after hearing from about 50 odd ppl and reading excellent reviews about the movie, I am not sure if the problem is with me. But the guys who watched it along with me felt miserable too. So I am not alone. Still I strongly feel that the movie was immature and disappointing.

Mamoo!!

Was browsing through some files when I found this photo I had downloaded some time back, but had never posted it before..The police "seem" to be on a environment protection drive..

Translation: "Use cycles - gain health" - Bangalore city traffic police.

Well, they say, "Practice what you preach"..I guess the rule does not apply to the mamoos!! ;)

The Rise and Fall of Plaza cinema

If you are a Bangalorean, or lived in Bangalore even for a brief period of time, you obviously know what I am talking about. For others, Plaza is an old theatre complex on M.G.Road,in downtown Bangalore (closed now).



Why I am discussing this? Because, the location of Plaza will serve as a station for Bangalore Metro East-West corridor in the future. (Though the future is still far far away) and I am feeling both happy and sad. Anyway, the theatre was already closed and I believe a multiplex or a mall has opened there. Am I right guys?

The theatre premises used to be a venue for ball dances for English soldiers in 1930s. Later, it was converted to a movie theatre, screening mostly good movies first and later, only movies which sucked. No, I am not talking about B-grade movies, but basically, movies that sucked, not all, mind you. And I have been a victim of seeing only sad movies in this theatre. I dont know why, if ever a good movie was released, it was either exam time or it was already available on CD and I did not have enough money to watch it in the theatre. However, these movies were few in number. Some of the movies I remember watching in Plaza:

1) Chal mere Bhai - an insult to Hindi cinema and Sanjay Dutt, with routine acting by Salman Khan. This movie was "recommended" by Meghna who suffered first and then decided to turn sadistic for a while and wanted everyone else to suffer. I guess all the boys who came with me share my view.

2) Shaft - was that a movie? YUCK!

3) Sleepy Hollow - ok, this was not as bad as the 1st two, but still it was a comedy show of a horror movie, with Johhny Depp's acting the only saving grace. I can never forget the day we went to watch this movie. It was after internals and there was a large RV Gang on MG Road. Shailesh was with us and was all tensed up as one of his "girlfriends" had also turned up with her boyfriend and was sitting behind us, and this guy was getting lots of thoughts in his mind! ;)

4) MI2 - Another movie which sucked, though it had good action. No more comments on this.

5) Charlie's Angels - Do I need to tell more?

6) Hawas - 'B' grade Hindi movie, no, it should be 'D' grade. Apart from Bhagat Singh, when 4 movies with same story opened at same time, this came along with Murder and had the same story, and both were desi versions of an English movie, starring Richard Gere (I have forgotten the name, I have seen that movie as well)

I have been to some more movies but I am not able to recollect them.

But, as a matter of fact, this theatre has also shown a lot of good movies and was very popular in Bangalore, but that was before I was born. Some of them are Ten Commandments, Gone With the Wind, Godfather, Indiana Jones series, An Officer and a Gentleman,and of late, Meet the Fockers.

One more thing about the theatre was that it sucked and it was one of the worst theatres in Bangalore.

Anyways, now that this movie theatre is no more, I am kinda happy. But, somewhere inside, there is a tinge of sadness as I feel that I am going to miss this theatre now. This was a place I came regularly only with friends most often and many times during college, this was our meeting point. (After college, the meeting pt. got moved to Barista, just a stone's throw away).

Now lets hope that the Metro project gets completed soon, so that the meeting point can be Plaza station!! :)

Valentine's Day blues

Tuesday Feb 14 was a horrible day for most ppl. Guys who had GFs and/or wives ended up getting bankrupt. But they had the consolation that most of them ended up having sex. Those without any Gfs repented for not having them (and sex). But had the consolation that they had their money still with them.So all around the campus, there was a sort of environment which resembled the examination hall after the mathematics paper. There were few funny cases too.

Sample

Guy 1: Dude Today 3 gals stared at me and smiled broadly
Guy 2: WTF?? why?? why you??
Guy 1: Dude that too 3 amroo gals. today is feb 14th remember?? VDay dude!!!
Guy 2: FU!! there is no way that cud have happened.
Guy 1: seriously dude .. look at that gal too. she is also smiling and pointing me to another friend.
Guy 2: Dude your fly is open!!!!!!!!
Guy 1: F**k, s**t, (more curses in hindi)

Moral of the story : Left to readers as excercise..

FON

Its here at last!! One step towards a free (as in freedom) and cooperative world.

FON [en.fon.com] a spanish based company is a community of people who share their wifi network. It is still in beta phase but is now that it is backed by Google, Skype and Sequoia Capital [news.com], it will pretty soon be at everybody's doorstep. Even in places where there is no wifi access still.
More details on FON website.

Mittal power

Instead of doing my homework,again, I was browsing the net and was reading the IHT(International Herald Tribune). An article here about the Mittal's bid for a hostile takeover of a European rival Arcelor, and how it was creating a major buzz in Europe got me thinking. For more :http://iht.com/articles/2006/02/03/yourmoney/mittal.php
This article was all gung-ho about how India was going to be a major power. So is India going to be a major power? I am not talking about the size of India's market, or the outsourcing boom. I am talking of Indian companies becoming big major global players, acquiring other big companies.
How many Indian companies can do that? Talking abt Infosys/Wipro/TCS is interesting bcos these companies are making it big bcos of the outsourcing boom, and they too have acquired companies in various different countries. And is this the launchpad for these companies to become successful all over the world?or Are these companies too entrenched in their outsourcing model to be able to make it big?
Or is it just a lot of talk? or is it too early, since the Indian economy was liberalized in the early 90's and a company would need to stand on its feet before making such giant leaps. Would the coming years give us more Indian companies that have the spunk to take on the world? Can you think of some companies, that have it in them?
Lots of questions. Any answers or atleast a few hints, anybody?

Unmaad 2006

was going through the e-paper when I noticed the event schedules for Unmaad-06, the annual IIMB fest and I was amazed!! Jethro Tull performing, Thermal and a quarter, the Pakistani band Jal, Sivamani, along with a host of other usual events!! and I am sitting here, missing the fest for the first time after last 2-3 years!! :((
Anybody going for this?? dont miss this given a chance...

LOSE CONTROL!!!! One more time...

(I'm a rebel..)
na koi padne wala, na koi seekhne wala,
apni to paathshala, masti ki paathshala...

These are the 1st few lines of the song which is present in every desi's MP3 player nowadays...and if you are one of those rare kinds who hasn't heard of these 2 lines so far, it's from the movie "Rang De Basanti", the latest Indian blockbuster movie and surely, one of the greatest..

The movie was released in the US last Friday and some of us from UT decided to go to the movie on Saturday. Oh, BTW, it was released in Atlanta, which is the nearest place for watching the movie, approx. 215 miles from knoxville. I had never imagined before that i'll travel 215 miles to watch a Hindi movie in a theatre!!

Anyways, there were 12 of us who were going and we had a Cherokee jeep and a Kia SUV. The jeep was the smoking section and the SUV, the non-smoking. (well, almost..). We had planned to leave at around 9 AM but left at around 10.45 AM, with all due respects to IST. The plan was to have lunch in Minerva, a famous Desi restaurant in Atlanta and later watch the movie, and then come back the same day.

We made an auspicious start by putting the same song mentioned in the subject line first, followed by all the latest Hindi hits. The journey was fun, and we reached Atlanta at around 2.20 PM and we were in Minerva at around 2.45 PM. It was a little late for the buffet lunch, and the chat section was wiped out, but the other sections were still there and I started hogging. Ate Idlis, Dosas, Pooris, Naan and sabjis, Gobi Manchurian, kesari bhath, pulao and gulab jamoon. The non-veggies had many other options. By the time I ate the last jamoon, my stomach was ready to burst, but what the heck, it was an awesome lunch!! :)

After the lunch, we went searching for the theater. Finally managed to find the theater, Galaxy cinema, after a long search at around 4.45 PM. Went and bought tickets for the 6 PM show. Ticket price was $8 (cost of a black ticket in India! ;)). We had around an hour to kill time, so we went to Global Mall nearby. BTW, Global Mall is a complete Indian Mall. Went around roaming there, thought I'll buy some chats, my stomach refused to comg along as it was house-full and so I decided to ditch it...and by 5.45, we left that place and went back to the theater (this is a Desi theater BTW, it was running RDB, Zinda, Bluffmaster and some Mallu Mammooty movie).

The theater resembled Plaza cinema in Bangalore. The crowd was okay and the movie started on time (no ads, thankfully). Once it started, all of us were mesmerized! This is one awesome movie. i guess most of you would have seen this already, atleast in India, but those who havent should not miss this. Every one has acted superbly in a superbly narrated story, a very novel idea.

The 1st half has loads of fun and laughter with Aamir at his best and even Sharman Joshi (remember Style?). Once the 2nd half starts, the movie becomes more serious with a major twist and during this time, the movie stirs your soul. There is one scene in which Aamir weeps after the death of his friend. One example of terrific acting, and also an instance where you can put yourself in his place and feel the pain. The ending has a little unncessary stuff, but, if you ignore that, the movie overall can be termed top-class and can compete with any top movie throughtout the world. There is one song Roobaroo and the timing for that song is amazing!! Music by A.R.Rehman is also top-class with amazing songs, which go along with the movie without interrupting the flow. Don't miss the movie!

Some funny things during the movie..
The movie has English subtitles and during the song Lose Control, the subtitle read, "Loose control.."
aamir refers to a kid by "eh chhote" and at that time, the sub-title reads "eh short-stuff"!! :)

After the movie, there were major arguments about the ending, where one person liked it and one did not and argument went on for some time. By the time, we left the place, it was around 9.30 PM and so we decided to start driving back to knoxville and have dinner somewhere on the way. The journey back was all RDB, discussions, songs played over again and again and enjoyed everytime by everyone. Had dinner on the way in a Denny's and reached Knoxville at around 1.45- 2 AM.

Overall, had a fantastic day, super lunch, super movie. complete paisa wasool!! :)

Then and now!

Look who's had a makeover! The mane's gone-at last!!!

source:http://apercevoir.blogspot.com/

Childhood revisted....

A photo taken when I was in primary school..Found it thanks to my friend Pavan..



I was the tallest guy and also had a wierd hairstyle!!

A new achievement...

Yesterday me and my friend beat a Chinese pair in Table Tennis twice!! :) :)
(we lost 5 games though..but 3 of them were close, one went to deuce as well!)
and they were playing quite well actually!

After the game, we both registered for the ping-pong tournament starting today which has some 6 or 7 chinkus and a bangladeshi in fray! (overconfidence?? nah...participation matters!)

Universal Studios

3D Shows, 4D shows and Marilyn

Everything was ready for our next day's trip to Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure. The tickets were arranged through a friend of Meghana and Mahesh who got us the tickets for $60 for two theme parks. So we packed our backpacks, got ready for our adventure.

Universal studios is one of the most famous theme parks in orlando along with disney and MGM studios. It is also one of the major movie production companies including the famous Shrek , spiderman and Twisters. It is said that universal studios has better shows but is argued upon by MGM enthusiasts.




One thing was never understood by me. They say Universal but their symbol is earth. Never understood the logic behind it. Anyways, the entrance to Universal was breathtaking. Not just because it was scenic but because of the people around!!. As we had the tickets beforehand, we easily got through.

Once we entered, we came to know that there is no fast-pass system in Univrsal. It was technically there but would cost us $35 which seemed ridiculous. So we decided to visit the shows by careful planning and also by reading the map.

The Universal studios has shows arranged in a circular fashion. There were few good shows like Shrek-4D, Twister etc. We decided to start with Twister.

The twister was disappointing. The twister turned out to be a small fart!!. Seriously it was just sound and visual effects.. And the organiser announced that everybody survived the twister.

The next one was the revenge of the mummy!! This was an awesome ride. The wait was what terrified us. Also we were asked to keep all our bags at a locker which had a finger-print scanner!! Thought it was kinda overkill but did so anyways.

We skipped all the toon stuff and opted to go for Jaws, Terminator, Shrek and MIB.

The Jaws was a cool one in which we were taken in a boat and the sharks would attack the boat. Was pretty neat and thrillinig.


Looking at all those sharks trying to take a byte out of us really hungry. Thanks to Meghana (Thanks a lot to you da) who had packed an excellent vegetable biryaani for us. Now I know why the sharks were trying to bite at the backpacks!!

After the food, we gave a cool visit to MIB. In this, we had to shoot the aliens with a laser gun. Shaggy ended up shooting the people sitting behind him. No wonder his was the least count of aliens killed!!










Entrence to MIB headquarters







So after escaping enduring twister, escaping the jaws, killing the aliens, we needed some hope!! Then came Marilyn. This Marilyn Monroe look alike was roaming around and ppl were taking pics with her. As soon as shaggy saw her, he threw his camera and ran to her.



He could never the same again.. Thunderbolt had struck!!

Shrek came to the rescue..

The queue for shrek was a huge one. The timing was also coinciding with a parade. But we were in the queue and we could only see few big ones from inside a complex.

Shrek was the ultimate show. As advertised, it is a 4D show with the fourth dimension being motion and sensation. As the scenes progress, the seats also move making it one hell of a show. Hmm.. I wonder what will be the state if more stimulating movies are shown? :)

Thinking all these, we left Universal studios at 6 pm and entered Islands of adventure

Next post - Hulk and the chicken Little

Epcot, Disneyland

...continued from previous mail.

We had 4 days in Tampa and out of this, 2 days were reserved for Orlando. We had to decide which 2 theme parks to go to in these 2 days. Disneyland itself had 4 theme parks, Epcot, MGM Studios, Animal Kingdom and Magic kingdom. Also, there is Universal Studios, Sea World and also Kennedy Space Center nearby. We ruled out Magic Kingdom first as it is for kids. We also ruled out Kennedy Space Center as we decided to go for theme parks completely. After much confusion, we decided that from among the rest, we will go to Epcot and Universal Studios, as MGM is similar but not as good as Universal and Animal Kingdom does not have much rides or anything like that, and Sea World had to wait. Actually, my friend Preetham, in Tallahassee also referred to that. He kept saying Shamu is in Seaworld and I was wondering, who’s this guy Shamu? We do have a friend Shyam in India but what will he do in seaworld? Who else is there? Have I met him in Bangalore? All these questions were answered when I realized Shamu (atleast that’s what the name is, I think..) is the name of a whale which does lotsa tricks!!

Anyways, so we had decided Epcot and Universal. Since Meghna also hadn’t seen Universal, we thought we’ll go there on Thursday and Epcot on Tuesday. Meghna and Mahesh dropped us off at Epcot and picked us up again in the night, around 9.30 PM.
This place, Epcot has the 2nd largest Parking lot in the world (or US??, whatever), so don’t worry about Parking problems before coming here. And there is a tram which takes us to the entrance from the parking lot!!

The Entrance to Epcot is a huge dome which is really huge! It has 2 main sections, one part containing most of the rides and shows and another, which is basically a showcase of different countries. Once we enter, we have to plan our day properly in order to enjoy the maximum and get a full worth for the $60 ticket per head. Now, the good thing here is that, you don’t have to stand in queue at all places all the time. At every sow entrance, it displays the approx. waiting time and a “Fast Pass” time. If you cant wait till waiting time, you can go to the Fast pass counter and insert your ticket and it will give you a time when you can come back and also a time, only after which you can use another fast pass for some other show, generally, is after a gap of around 2 hrs. So you have to decide where all to use fast pass and where all to stand in queue. Nice system!

We decided to finish most of the rides and shows before evening and then to the world showcase section. We first went to this ride, where they take you across time and show how communication evolved, starting from pre-historic age to the modern age. Nothing scary, just a nice little dark ride for starters. We then went to a future world which was a total waste as we waited 30 mins just to see a futuristic house demo, typical family stuff, and we would need to win a lottery twice to get all this stuff! Our next stop was “Mission Space”. This is a really good place where there is a simulation ride to space. As the rocket launches and you go up, you actually feel as if you are flying to space! You are part of a team and you need to press some buttons from a console in front of you when you are asked to do so to ensure that the rocket lands safely on Mars. We really enjoyed that ride. After that, we did some time pass playing some video games and recording some videos showing our face which will be added to a prerecorded cartoon video as if we are a part of it! Here are some links of those videos. (You might be required to install some plugin for viewing it.) (Nidhi, upload ur videos as well in comments)
http://ms.go.com/retrieve?card_id=4B0685D64071C26F000050BE9E13A489
http://ms.go.com/retrieve?card_id=3D1E7D6F1043F012200914B1CA585673
http://ms.go.com/retrieve?card_id=502498F42551EC76917B96719003A5D9

A few more small shows later, we went to the show “Honey, I shrunk the audience” at the Imagination institute. This is a 4-D show and we will be wearing 3-D glasses to get the effect. This is an awesome show where the shrinking machine is targeted towards the audience and suddenly we feel as if we are very tiny as the characters on the screen are blown up. The 4th Dimension is basically a feeling effect, like mice running over you, and also, there is a dog which sprays water on us and actually, there is a sprinkling of water! So that was a very good show.

After this, we had one more ride, the GM test track left but we had it on Fast pass at around 7.30 PM and we had around 2 hrs to cover the world showcase. We first entered Canada and it had some restaurants and a waterfall, there was nothing special there. We next went to UK, and there was nothing there as well, except for a few English pubs and a castle. Next was France, and there was a replica of the Eiffel Tower but we could not go near that. There was also a show about France on a 180° screen and it was good. After that, we covered Morocco, Japan, Italy, Germany and 19th century USA. After that, was wild Africa, followed by China, and it was pretty good. We then entered Norwegian territory where we spent some time checking out different Viking helmets and swords. We finally rounded our world tour with Mexico, which was undoubtedly, the best. Situated inside a Mayan pyramid, there is a huge Mexican market with a boat ride which shows Mexico in full light as it goes along and was good. So, in around 2 hrs, we covered the entire world. Who needs 80 days for this? The only bad things during this “trip” was my camera battery which went down and so the snaps came out bad as it was dark and flash was poor, and also the “hot” peanuts which we bought and which turned out to be sweet and bad! L

After the world tour, we were pretty much tired as we had been walking all day, but we had the GM test track to cover. This is also an awesome ride. They show you all the tests which are performed on a car, like hi-speed braking, surviving crashes, different environments like extreme hot and cold and corrosive etc… After seeing them, we will see them practically as the cars we sit in are made to undergo these tests! The crash test and the speed test are particularly awesome, in which our car touches speeds more than 150-200 mph! let me tell you, life begins at 150 mph!!

After this, there was a car display in which you could actually sit in the car and take some snaps, and so it was time for some showoff. By then, it was around 8.30 PM and we rounded out trip with one last show which was something about universe and energy with TV host Ellen Degeneres hosting it.

Finally, there was a fireworks display which was really superb and I managed to capture a part of it on video (approx 1 min as I did not have enough memory left). The video weblink is given below:

http://www.youtube.com/?v=XJ4pyHuzIR4

It was 10.15 PM by the time everything got over and we were out. Meghna and Mahesh were waiting for us at the parking lot by then, and we left Orlando at around 10.30 PM and reached Tampa at around 12. All in all, a fantastic day, and we were in so much josh when we left Orlando that we were ready for another round, but by the time we reached Tampa, all our josh had sizzled away and hit the sack and fell asleep immediately.

Our next day was meant for local sightseeing and so we woke up pretty late. Lunch was a buffet at Udipi café! The buffet menu included Masala Dosa, Poori, ghee rice, carrot halwa among others and we savored it! Knoxville does not have any place like this except 2 lousy Indian restaurants serving bland food, so we never miss chances like these!

That afternoon, we went to a place called St. Petersburg (not the one in Russia), a nice town with an awesome beach with white sands, St. Pete beach! Before that, we went across Sunshine skyway, a superbly constructed cable-bridge and it kept my camera busy for a while. Some views of that bridge..

We could not swim in the beach as the water was cold but we did take some snaps of the sunset and it was a glorious sight.

We later had dinner at an Indian restaurant, run by an American! During this journey, I was again interrogated about my many “girlfriends” who do not exist. Wonder why I am only asked these things all the time??? My friends even selected my wedding venue and all I had to do was to arrive on time as they’ll do all the other hard work like inviting guests, arranging food and drinks, selecting a bride etc…!

Anyways, we were back in Tampa early as we had to get up early the next day and go to Universal studios. All revved up for that trip, we called it a day. More about that trip coming soon, from Nidhi...

Tallahassee and Tampa.

We reached Tallahassee on Christmas morning. 5.15 AM to be exact. My friend Preetham came to pick us up from the station. We drove to his house and slept for a few hours, and got up at lunch time. Had lunch and then we guys went to play cricket in the tennis court. We later made plans to go to some "interesting" places that night but every thing was closed that day because it was Christmas! Man, I thought Christmas time was for celebrations everywhere but it was just the opposite! All the streets were empty and the only place which was open was Hooter’s and there was no place inside to even stand as it was filled with buggers like us! So we ditched all plans and decided to roam around Tallahassee and later go to the movies which was also open. We went to see the Capitol building (or tower) and took some snaps there. Some buggers were working that day too as only 1 floor was lit.

After that, we decided to go to the movie. But before that, we also found this Chinese buffet restaurant and had our dinner there and it was decent enough. All along, another friend of mine, Raghu who is also in Tallahassee was interrogating me to spill out all secrets about my love life, and the interrogations were hopeless as there was nothing :(. (Any babes out there reading this? U can contact me..)

So, the movie we decided to go goes by the name “King Kong” and is a hugely popular movie these days (wonder why? It’s just old wine in a new bottle… (hic)). For those who have seen the movie and liked it, no comments. For those who did not like it, join our group. For those lucky people who haven’t yet seen the movie, you do realize why you guys are lucky, don’t you?? Well, anyway, the movie is a slightly modified English version of the Hindi movie “Saajan” starring Sanjay Dutt, Madhuri and Salman. Surprised?? Yes, it TRUE!! The comparisons are told in the brackets. There is this hero (in place of Sanju Baba. Incidentally, even this guy is tall, slim with a long nose) who is in love with the heroine (in place of Madhuri) and is all caring for her while she doesn’t yet realize that and she is also an admirer of his plays (like his shayaris). All the action takes place in a deserted island (in place of Ooty) and filled with a set of “scary” tribal people (in place of the Ootians) who haven’t eaten a chocolate for years and mistakes the director’s hand for the chocolate when he offers one to them (unlike in Ooty, where they make chocolates!). So the scene is set, and suddenly, out of the blue, comes King Kong (in place of Salman) and starts jumping around & acting crazy (just like Salman, without clothes, but this guy used to wear them those days, but this is a new movie you see) and the heroine falls for him and a major love story develops between the heroine and King Kong (I guess she likes ’em hairy). Our hero waits patiently till the end when King Kong sacrifices his love when he accidentally slips from the Empire State Building while prancing around with the heroine. (This was the modified part, Salman doesn’t slip and fall in the movie but just sacrifices). So hero and heroine are united at last!! See, just like Saajan, but a much sadder version of that.

To further prove my point, check out this photo and u'll realize..

By the end of the movie, even our state was somewhat like those tribes and so we decided to come back home and hit the sack as we had a long day ahead.

The next day, the plan was that Preetham will take us till Gainesville and Meghna will pick us up from there as it comes midway between Tallahassee and Tampa. Raghu also joined in for another round of interrogation. All along the 2 hr journey, we had a lot of fun and a mini chase with some redhead in a chevy and reached Gainesville by noon. Meghna and her hubby Mahesh arrived after a while and we took leave of Preetham and Raghu. The drive to Tampa was Nostalgic time as me, Megz and Nidhi discussed our college days while Mahesh was getting bored and Deepak fell asleep. 7 out of 10 times, the discussions involved Muddy (cant help it dude, u were so popular! ;)), not just that day, but every time we discussed college. We reached Tampa in the evening and it had beautiful weather which reminded us of Bangalore (sigh….). Megz hasn’t changed one bit in nature but she definitely has turned into a great cook! That night, we had a taste of good Pulao and to complement that, there was this Hindi movie ‘Kyun Ki’ starring Salman (not the gorilla, but Salman himself, not that it matters… but the gorilla is a better actor). In this movie, he plays a madman and so he was very sober throughout except for some occasional scenes during the flashback when he’s not yet mad. And there is also Kareena, Jackie and Om Puri who are all doctors but behave like madmen while the patients are more normal. After seeing this movie, I began to get serious doubts as to which is worse, this or King Kong!! I decided to award that to this movie because King Kong atleast had good special effects!! So 2 bad movies in a row…

The next day we decided to go to Epcot, Disneyland in Orlando which is an hour’s drive from Tampa. Meghna and Mahesh could not join us as they had some work and so they dropped us off at Epcot and picked us up at night. More about Epcot in the next post. Till then, do drop in the comments…

Shaggy and Srinidhi go to Chatpatti - My Version of part 2

after reading Nidhi's version, my version pales out..but just for the effort I put in creating that, I am putting my version as well, starting from our search for a rest(room)aurant..read on..

Like Nidhi said, we had no clue of any Indian restaurants in Atlanta as even Nidhi’s cousin who is in Atlanta was out of town. After getting some basic info from Kanth about the whereabouts of that place, we called up the Chatpatti people but they themselves did not know where they are located or how to reach their place from the nearest Marta station!! Not knowing what to do, we gave up our desire to eat Chats unlike Harold and Kumar as we also had to catch the bus to Tallahassee, Florida in a few hours. If not, maybe even we might have found some chick with a screwed-up husband or some despo TV star! What say, Nidhi?? ;)

Neways, that did not happen but all we found was some scary and hefty looking Kallus who used to come and start talking to us and begging for some money. One said that he did not mean to scare us in a scary way, and another said that he does not like stealing on Christmas eve…boy, those guys were scary and u can get freaked out by their size itself!! we just decided to ignore them and walk on and look for more crowded places.

Meanwhile, our hunt for some other Desi restaurants near downtown continued. I was positively sure that there is one somewhere around as I had seen it in the afternoon while I had gone looking around for a restroom...(even the f*****g toilets were closed!!!). We finally found the restaurant named “Haveli” (after I found a restroom which was open, in the bus station…) but it was closed and the board said that it will open again at 5.30 (not 6). We came back at 5.30 and waited for a while but it was still closed!! So we decided to go back to the airport, roam around there, look out for chicks and also have some dinner there itself, and collect the bags and come back. No chats or Indian food that day for us and we had to settle for a pizza at Domino’s, but we made a vow that we will eat at Chatpatti’s after we come back from Florida!!!

We finally collected our bags and returned to the bus station around 9 PM while the bus was scheduled for 11.15 PM and so we had plenty of time to kill. And we somehow managed to kill it. Also, the bus was late by half-hour so more waiting for us. We finally left Atlanta around 11.45 PM to Tallahassee to begin a long, eventful trip…

Shaggy and Srinidhi go to chatpatti - About Santa not doing his job

Jesus would have been very very disaapointed if he wanted to know how ppl celebrated his birthday in atlanta. The downtown was empty as a graveyard situated very far away from a government hospital. No carols to hear, no celebrations, not even a jingle. Actually shaggy lamented that christmas is celebrated much better in india and he saw santa everytime.. Actually this may be the reason for santa to become old without a girlfriend. He should stop jumping through chimneys and start walking around in the streets. Plain simple.. he is bored of same christmas every year, giving similar gifts to similar stupid children, riding same old raindeer etc etc.. I think that he should be replaced by a young blonde wearing a sexy outfit walking on the roads on christmas eve.. This will please everybody...

Now coming back to our story, we were in atlanta downtown like some chumps, being bugged by some kallu( also big and strong) beggers.. One sample begging - "Hey bro... My mom always told me to ask before I steal.. can you spare a dollar for my dinner?? ". We were not sure and let me say we escaped without losing a dime/getting hurt just because it was christmas eve.

Finally after roaming the streets for half an hour searching for an indian resturant, we called up kanth and asked him to look up on good old internet for some resturants in atlanta downtown.. Found that there is one called "Haveli" nearby.

In about 10hrs of a crappy hindi serial I have watched, there was always the mention of Haveli being generous and welcoming. But it's not so in downtown atlanta. It said the haveli doors will open at 6:00pm. It was 5 pm when we saw the board and immediately decided to go for a beat.
The malls were closed. The mannequins were covered!!! This made us wait outside the gates of haveli till 6.

Exactly at 6:00 clock, a very beautiful ABCD, clad in an embroidered mini, brandishing the keys for Haveli, never appeared.. The doors were still closed..

We cursed our luck, got back our luggages from the airport, went and waited at the bus station for next 5 hours.

We boarded the bus at 11 pm and reached Talahasse, Florida at 5am in the morning.



End of day 1

Shaggy and Srinidhi go to chatpatti - Start of a very long adventure

It was decided a long time ago that we will be going to florida for christmas vacations. So after a lot of deliberations, me, shaggy and deepak decided to start our journey from atlanta on 24th december.

The action plan for the day was to have heartful of chats in a famous resturant called chatpatti in Atlanta, GA. As good ex-s/w engineers, we didnt make any concrete plan but decided to go with the situation. As ususal we didnt take any address. And also we decided to travel by marta which is the subway train service.

we met in one of the subway stations and decided to keep all our luggages in a locker. First we checked out the greyhound stop but the lockers there were not working. We decided to go to the airport. Al these times, we were travelling by marta. If you are in atlanta, please travel by marta - It is not the greatest of experience but you will thank it anyways..

We deposited our luggages in the airport. venkataramana Yellagondanahalli Vikas alias shaggy decided to give his mane at the counter. The counter guy blinked for 5 complete seconds and wrote down the name VY Vik.

This was just the start we never expected and dictated the mood for the rest of the day.

We never had the full address of any indian resturant in atlanta

..(to be continued)

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2006!!

Here's wishing u all a very happy, fun-filled and a prosperous new year!
Rock on!!!

Cheers,
u know who...