Fox

The end of the year is approaching, and I am waiting to pack my bags and go home. My camera and some plans are awaiting me there. Also, it has been nearly two months since I went home last.

But work, unexpectedly is threatening my plans. Even though I have insulated my self from heavy responsibilities, unrealistic and unexpected decisions by people in higher echelons are slowly wiping my slate clean.

I am just hoping to pull off my plans with minimum collateral damage,and maximum impact.

"Wily foxes in your own pack can be a double edged sword. So beware."

PS: Searching for 'fox' images in google gave lots of 'fox'y images..

What are you to your nation

This question is quite difficult to answer, especially in a developing nation like India. It is funny and sad at the same time to think that our nation, blessed with huge natural wealth , near perfect strategic location and abundance of talent is still in the "developing" category.

Is our entire nation really in the same category of developing, or is it just a brand chosen by the top brass?

I feel, that India has a huge section of undeveloped population, a sizable community of developing and a relatively rare developed population. The undeveloped population can be found in the slums of small and large cities, the far flung and remote villages, islands and other inhospitable locations. And the seemingly majority of developing population is found in the well-to-do villages, towns and everywhere in the cities - large and small. Referred to as the 'Common Man', by both media and politicians alike, this community is the reflection of the general condition of the nation. Or so it is purported.

Now, what about the developed class? Who are they? Where are they? How much does one get to hear and see about them in the media? Very less, or rather just enough to position themselves suitably yet keeping the shady parts away. No, I don't mean that all rich and well-to-do business tycoons and politicians are goons in reality who earn their money in illegal methods. I just want to point out that, this class of people have more matters hidden than exposed, even from the law of the land.

Coming to the point, if you, the reader,belonging to any of the classes mentioned above, have ever had the same question in your mind as raised by me in the title of this article, can connect faster. But if it is new you, then start thinking now.

For this nation of a 100 billion plus, doesn't care much about you , an individual. That statement has to be taken with a pinch of salt though. If you are not well off, don't have political connections, or don't have the will power and shrewdness to prove your point in this big crowd, no one will turn their attention on you. If the entire nation is deaf, it will take quite big a bang to make them listen to you.

As a kid, I had wished to a policeman. It was not with a sense of duty of that role, but motivated by the power of policemen to bully and beat up anyone. Later on, the armed services took its place, bringing in honour, servitude and calm sense of duty in place of plain power. Though I am not shrewd enough to handle the running of the government of this nation, and haven't thought through ways to eradicate issues like nepotism and corruption , rampant in our nation, I do feel that as an individual, if I strive to maintain my sense of duty and spread the attitude to those around me, my part would be half done.

This article is part of a HUGE thought process, and hence might seem confusing and broken to some. You can see various parts of this popping up sometime later. Till then, sayanora.

(Nowadays, I am into the practice of writing articles which don't have conclusions. The intention behind it is to instigate the same thought process as mine, into the readers's minds and engage them in an intellectually interactive manner. Hope you enjoy.)

Into the Wilderness - Part I

After moving to Mysore last July, I have been travelling extensively and visiting places of importance. I am trying to record my experiences and views of these journeys. It will not be easily expressed in a couple of articles. I intend to write on chosen locations and stories separately if time permits.

Following is the list of places I have visited which are worth mentioning:-

1) Mysore Ambavilas Palace ( commonly known just as the 'Mysore Palace') - in & out. Awaiting the special visit into restricted rooms.

2) Chamundi Hills - The adobe of the guardian goddess of the City of Palaces,Mysooru. Climb the steps for maximum pleasure.

3) KRS Backwaters - Blue Lagoons : A beautiful location ideal for couples and friends. But dangerous route after dark

4) KRS Backwaters - Venugopalaswamy Temple : Another beautiful location in Mysore-Mandya border where a submerged 12th century temple is being reconstructed on the shore.

5) Melukote - A group of small hills having a vaishanava temple of Tamil origins. It is on the way to Pandavapura from Mysore. The view from the hills while the wind blows is just superb. It also has a cave temple where Lord SriRama's footprints are believed to be imprinted.

6) Golden Temple - On the way to Madikeri in Kudagu(Coorg) district. A golden temple belonging to people of Tibetan origins.This is a must visit place.

7) Dubare - A river rafting location , again in Kudagu district. Had a lot of fun here.

8) Jog Falls - If you are in Karnataka and haven't seen the Jog, you are suffering a big loss. Won my heart by its sheer magnificence and ferocity (even without much water) .

9)Kodachadri - Again one of my dearest trekking spot. Got a chance to conquer it after years of yearning. Definitely still in my wish-to-go-now places. Nature of climb can vary from moderate to difficult based on route you choose. There are tonnes of beautiful spots, falls and religious locations here itself.

10) Murudeshwara - A temple cum beach location consisting of a gigantic statue of Lord Shiva (2nd tallest in the world) and picturesque boating and beach facilities.

11) Apsarakonda - A great location unknown until visited. Has a super cool jetting waterfall, which flows through a walkable stream to a great open but deceivingly deep beach. Has a hillock to trek too. Good place for all kinds of people to spend.

12) Kali ghati - I believe this is the name. The hillock near Srirangapatna/Pandavapura. Awesome view from atop. Climb is of moderate difficulty.

13) Gopalswamy Hills - A local favourite. Great view, cool climate, lots of greenery to roam around and get lost too. Plus a wildlife sanctuary where we were lucky to sight an adult tiger out in the open.

14) Ranganathittu - The famous bird sanctuary. Visit during Jan-June to see exotic birds and otherwise you can see lots of crocs while you enjoy the boating.

There are many more places coming to my mind at this point of time. But I am ending this article here. Will add URLs to above mentioned spots , if available, and nice images too. Now i am too sleepy.

PS: I haven't mentioned the countless temples on the way or situated on most of the above mentioned locations. Temples are plenty in K'taka. If you love visiting temples, see wikipedia entry for Hindu temples in Karnataka.

Overall, Karnataka provides you a plethora of locations to visit, be it natural beauties, monuments, temples or something else. Also, if you are a wildlife enthuasiast/ photographer, you will find yourself stretched , trying to visit all the beautiful places in the beautiful state of Karnataka.

Stakes are high

The time of the year is such that the stakes are quite high and rewards come in a trickle. Each drop has to be fought for and has to be well earned.

A tough time like this calls for regulation in all corners and strict measures to ensure maximum compliance.

I am going to up the ante and wait out for the results, and be a player out there in the field.


Cya all on the other side with some good news..

Middle of many things

Often while reading blogs of friends and acquaintances , I feel I can do more to improve the quality and readability of my own blog contents. I feel I can push for more creativity, exploration of new ways and things to write about.

But it often happens that I either forget or am just not enthusiastic enough to put much efforts into it. It is well because I am in the middle of many things w.r.t my professional life , juggling tasks and adjusting time.

Anyway, I shall be putting out bits and pieces here and there.. and that might just be reflection of the life I live. How better can a blog meant to show experiences be?

If you feel sympathetic to my condition, please keep visiting my site and promoting it. I would be happy to see an increase in my visitor count. Please note that there is not ad systems in place for my site, so I am not asking anyone to promote for my financial benefits, just for fun! :)

Milky Matters

I am a person for whom milk was quite low in the list of favoured beverages..up to a point wherein I used to oppose the use of milk in the household. My argument was logically bound to the fact that cow's milk is for its calf. If we collect it all and consume it in such large scale, it will affect the health of the calf and the cow too. Also implied was an argument that it is not purely vegetarian. The personal embargo on milk and milk products lasted for 1+ years if my memory serves me well. Anyway, my family ( as usual ) didn't buy my arguments, and considered my stand as just a minor annoyance( what else could an 8 yr old be seen as?? ).

Later on, when I had enough experience on the way the world runs, I accepted the fact that there is not much for me to do about the calf and its family. The world runs strictly on Serve Yourself First policy. With that I too became one of the normal perpetrators out there, drinking 5-6 cups of milk in the form of tea everyday( in my prime days ).


Tea became Coffee, became tea again, in came Boost-Bournvita and what not, but none stayed. Even Horlicks had a short stint in my life. But never plain milk. Always flavoured.

But there was someone waiting in the sidelines, who didn't get enough attention due to some reason. The day I saw it in the right perspective, milk went completely out of the picture. That fellow is - Green Tea. It was instant love and we had great times. I even had its variations - Flavoured, Black, Earl Grey etc. I had written another article some time back about Tea. Anyway those days of tasting various flavours were fun.

After having read all this, what do you think is the purpose of this article? Significance of green tea or the lack of it in the case of milk? NO.

One fine day, while shopping in a mart with a friend, I noticed him buying normal leaf tea and milk powder. That made me think about trying out the tea I used to prepare at home in those days after that embargo. One other reason for that change in choice of ingredients was to try out the famed Milk Powder. Until that day, I hadn't tried any kind of milk other than Cow's natural one - in liquid form.

So started another experiment. I must tell you that after using Milk Powder, I really began appreciating the values and taste of milk - albeit the liquid one! Milk powder has to be stored without letting the ants swarming in, and after all the efforts, it may not taste anything like the original one! What a waste!?

Hence I resorted to using ordinary liquid milk for my tea and ALSO started drinking plain ( or sugared) milk! Damn..it does taste good. Maybe its because all other beverages ( tea/coffee) in our canteen taste like you-know-what! Whatever might be reasons and history, finally I am drinking and eating stuff I used to abhor in the past. Just the magic of Survival Instincts!

Life is a Push-Pull Train

This article is motivated by a conversation I had with a colleague.

It all started when a colleague complained that life no longer seemed interesting, and she didn't know where she was heading. She felt it was like a 'push-pull' train, going back and forth without any aim, not knowing when destiny will be reached.

This sentence triggered quite a lot of thoughts in my mind, especially the word 'push-pull'.

In my childhood when i heard this term, i thought how the hell does a train push and pull at same time and reach anywhere?
Later on it dawned to me that one engine pushes from back, another pulls from front and voila you have a moving vehicle.

In similar fashion if we design our engines at two sides, puller at front, pusher at back, there will definitely be a forward motion and at double the speed too.

With engines I intend to point to the factors that motivate us to excel. It can be skills, passion for something, someone's words, doing things we like to do etc.
Some engines pull, that is, they are pleasant and generate force in the natural direction. But some are pushers, where you will need to face hardships, take tough decisions and literally push on against the tide. A sturdy and wise combination of these two will make the train, that is life, a fast mover.

Now, the tough parts of this scheme are: -
1) Identifying the engines that can drive you
2) Classifying them as puller or pusher
3) Toughest part - Deploying engines and make them work for you

Overall for making all these things work, you need to have a vital engine - Perseverance . I feel it is an all-rounder i.e puller cum pusher.
Also, don't forget to freeze your Goal and arrange the puller at front and pusher at back , or else you would end up just opposite to where you wanted to be.

I think providing an example can help. If not, put it in the comments, I shall modify it if the reasons suffice.

Anger and need for perfection can be a pusher whereas love and passion for work can be a puller.

This article is not meant to be a manual of any sort, because I feel no one can step into your shoes in matters that regard you and yourself.
If it can guide and give you a new view on another person's ( in this case, mine) way of doing something you always wanted to, it has served its purpose.

Mysooru - A Dasara Darshan

Today, from morning onwards I have not been in my room.

I had gone to friends place in the morning,which was an uphill trek,with the laptop and a 'toolkit'. The purpose was to install Linux and Windows 7 on a laptop suffering with 'viral fever' After nearly a day long procedure, I packed up and then walked to a couple of other locations with my lappy, spreading and collecting data.

I was just gonna mentally close the day at 6pm and sleep,when a friend came forward with an idea to go up the Chamundi Hills. I agreed immediately and lo.. we were soon cutting through the thickly crowded and colourfully lit streets of Mysooru. The journey too was just awesome, and we got a good darshan of the splendidly lit city from atop the hills and also of the Goddess.

These are a few important things I came to know today :-

1) However long be a queue at the Chamundi, it moves very fast(compared to Kerala temples)
2) You can get to see Cheetahs on the Chamundi hills, on the roadside - irrespective of time
3) Cost of a Canon 120IS camera
4) Mysore has a very good Chat centre, right in the centre of the city which serves awesome stuff

Each one of the learning has an experience or story behind it :)

whoa what a nice day.thanks to my friend.

Angaadi Theru - A good Tamil Movie

I finished watching the Tamil move Angaadi Theru just now and felt like I should recommend and promote this movie.

The synopsis is simple. It is the story of two young lovers working in a Textile Showroom in the bustling Ranganathan Street of Chennai. The movie depicts the harsh conditions under which these people lead their lives. Not only does it serve to tell the story of those people, about whom not many of the 'normal' citizens care about, but it is also about the endearing human spirit. At many parts of the movie, we feel both sympathy and empathy towards the characters. But the part where they overcome all pain and difficulties with will power could very well be the highlight of the movie.

The plot and screenplay is very good and the debutant artistes more than excelled in bringing to life the characters they played. Also laudable is the music by Vijay Antony and G V Prakash Kumar.

This movie again strengthens my belief that it is not just the budget or the reputation of the artistes that makes a good movie. The other movie in Tamil that made me feel so was Subrahmanyapuram.

Please go and watch this movie at a theatre if possible, otherwise get a digital copy and watch it. Also, if possible recommend this to people who can't understand Tamil, but can enjoy a good movie( provide subtitles though ).

Check out this beautiful song titled 'Aval Appadi' from the movie

Gauri-Ganesh-Eid in Mysore

The entire city is decorated and filled with shops selling various condiments and ingredients necessary to the festivals that are being celebrated back-to-back in this ancient heritage city of Mysore.

While the majority of the Hindus celebrate the double pack festivals of Gauri and Ganesh, it is the end of the holy month of Ramadan for the Muslims and they are celebrating Eid-ul-Fitr. Though the city always remains notoriously famous for the hostility between the two camps, during festive seasons( Karnataka has an abundance of those) the city looks and behaves like a normal one, with people being more polite and considerate about the other religion and their festivities.

But it is hard to miss all the colour and bustle on the roads and the sense of hurry and joy in the faces of people. As I reside in an outskirts area of Mysore, I am able to see the semi-urban populace bustiling through the newly sprung up road-side markets selling flowers,decorative items, colourful bangles and lots and lots of different Ganesh idols varying in size, colours, theme etc. Never before in my life have I seen a Ganesha with the body and pose of Sri Sai Baba.

The Gauri festival on the other hand seems to be celebrated only in Karnataka( as far as I know ), and is only for girls. Soon after it gets over, the family members have to 'undo' those decorations and put up those of Ganesh festival and start working on it. The Ganesh festival begins in many homes and communities with the bringing in of the great Moorthis( idols) of lord Ganesh. I am currently watching it at that stage. It is good to see people dancing and singing on the roads carrying their favourite God.

Meanwhile, I will be trying to capture some good snaps with my nokia phone camera. If something interesting or good comes up, I shall put it up here. And I am yet to see the Eid celebrations as the Muslim areas are far away from where I stay :(


Happy Gauri-Ganesh festivals to all my friends all over the world and Eid Mubarak too. May happiness and peace prevail.

Uthraada Paachil

I was thinking of writing something up for non-malayalees about our special festival 'Onam'. The fervour and pomp with which malayalees look forward to it and celebrate it, makes the others wonder about it.

Though I might not be the right person to tell anything as 'facts' about Onam, I would be pleased to share some of the information which I believe to be facts (might not what they actually are).

This is about the famed 'Uthraada Paachil'. Uthradam is a star, like many others which constitute the stars of Malayalam calendar. It falls on the ninth day of the 10 day Onam celebrations beginning from the day of Atham star,which itself is quite popular for the Tripunithura Athachamayam procession. The 9th day is also the Second off the three last and important days of the Onam festival. This is the day the malayalees prepare for the mega feast and the 'kalaashakottu'(grand finale) on the last and tenth day of the festival called the Thiruvonam (star also same name).

Traditionally, that is the day the people go out and purchase groceries and vegetable to prepare for the feast as well as buy gifts and new dresses for themselves. Thousands of big and small shops and vendors throng the towns and cities, with lots of attractive offers and prizes being given away for the festive season. A massive crowd also wanders through this mad sea of traders and equips themselves with the best and most colourful dresses and accessories.

For the last one decade, with respect to the city of Kochi, which has grown exponentially in that period, this crowd has always rendered the city immobile and unfit for any kind of automobile travel. Walking used to be the best bet, for anyone with some sense in their heads. Shops and roads in the main parts of the city (MG Road, SA Road, NH, etc etc) used to swell up with people moving in and out, crowding places giving great offers and skimming through other shops. Off the 10 days, this day is one when all emergency services are kept on full alert and police deployed to maximum capacity, to handle any untoward incidents. Usually most of the police force is deployed to manage the crowd and assist the traffic.

This time the crowd and traffic was heavier on Saturday (Puradam) than Sunday (Uthradam). It was raining as well yesterday, whereas today the climate was fit for shopping and general roaming around. Kochi being a heterogenous to-be-metro city, appeals to almost all kinds of travel bug bitten (/not bitten) people of the world. I was surprised to find the roads almost vacant and crowds not larger than normal today. I guess the Uthrada paachil just became a Purada paachil. I believe it is due to the 'IT' effect or the 'Gulf' effect, with most of employed malayalees having to leave for work on Monday itself. It might have caused the Onam celebrations to end in many homes before the traditional Thiruvonam day.

I saw many families having big feasts today and aged parents and/or kids waving goodbye to their young sons/parents who have to return to work, due to lack of leaves. Compared to yesteryears, a considerably higher amount of Kochiites or Malayalees as a whole are into the IT sector.Afterall it is a known fact that, you can find a Nair's tea shop even on the moon. Due to this kind of work culture, it is quite natural to see this kind of shift in traditional practices.

The above observations and explanations are a result of my own thoughts and ideas. Anyone having supporting/opposing ideas/thoughts please add to the comments. Any kind of passing comments also accepted, as long as it is fit to be displayed on the site.

Happy Onam to all malayalees, and happy onam to non-malayalees also.

Malayaligale malayaligal aakiya non-Malayaleesee... Ningal illathe njangalku enthu aaghosham? (To the non-Malayalees who made us malayalis malayalis...Without you guys, what kind of celebration can we have?)

From home

I wanted to write something here. Specific? yes specific? But no, now I don't feel like summarizing when it is still alive. The feeling of being in Kerala, being at home, being able to zap through the pot-holed and densely crowded roads of the Queen of the Arabian, Kochi.

So leaving out the details , its all about beauty, music, rhythm, affection, memories, peace and clairvoyance.

Try forming the link of events in your own lives which give you these feelings, and you might be close to what I am feeling right now.


For those friends and unknowns reading this.. may all good things come to you. But remember that you get only what you give and you get all that you give. The sheet is always balanced.


Adios. happy onam to all malayalee readers.

Imagination and Artists

This is a wonderful line I came upon a few minutes back as I was reading the Author's Note of the Man Booker Prize winner 'Life of Pi' by Yann Martel.

"If we,citizens,do not support our artists, then we sacrifice our imagination on the altar of crude reality and we end up believing in nothing and having worthless dreams"

I am literally hanging onto to the meaning of each word of this sentence, dreaming about the implications of this statement.


Please let me know if you avid readers of many literary works have such mind blowing ideas conveyed through words.

Independence Day Resolutions

Normally, we people take resolutions only for the New Year. But, I for once, feel like taking one/some for our Independence Day.(Frankly, to me the independence day matters more than a new year)

My resolution,which I would like to outline in a simple manner is as follows:

1) From today onwards, I shall take more care to ensure that the rights of my fellow human beings( of any nationality/caste/gender/region/religion/profession.. ) are known to them, and they feel more confident to exercise the same.

2) I shall spread more awareness among my peers on what are their constitutionally and legally provided rights and what are the socially and morally expected duties required of them,to rightfully claim the rights.

3) I shall press on more strongly and tactfully for my own rights and needs.

4) Last, but not the least, I shall keep aside a substantial amount of my time and thought to perform my expected duties to the society, the dear and near ones and mankind as a whole, and not to forget.. myself.

Shortly, what I am trying to achieve with these resolutions and steps is a scenario where each benefit of mine in this free country is well earned( at least to my conscience ) and compensated by the goodwill I can pump into the people and the society. This is more about moral freedom than moral correctness and strict regimen of rights and duties. "Good begets good", is the only motto I can stick to for this idea in my head.

A very noble thought, but not commendable unless I have some live results. Until those results are very tangible, all these words are worthless like a crumbling dry leaf. And likewise, until I have real results to talk about, these mean nothing more than words written on the flowing water of a waterfall.

Twitter Addiction

Among many other things, the new found (from mar/apr 2010) Twitter addiction is one thing I have been trying to break.

I found this site called TweetStats which gives a lot of interesting data and patterns of tweets. I was alarmed at the increasing tweet numbers of my initial days. But as those were initial days, I didn't care much, but cared about what to tweet and what not to.

View the current graph for my account, which shows that, my activity had dropped continuously till June 2010, but picked up again in July, for reasons yet to be found.

Hopefully, due to this month's hectic schedule and unavailability of resources, my twitter addiction will break and I would return to being a normal citizen( rather than a netizen ).

Anyway I like the new zoom feature in tweetstats. Hmm...an addiction to tweetstats better not be imminent.. :)

Freedom On Independence Day

In my childhood I used to be very excited for each Republic Day and Independence Day. Days to feel proud, tell big things, watch war movies, sing patriotic songs, carry flags etc etc.

Even through my high school, this feeling lingered, though in a lesser intense manner. By the end of school life, these days were a celebration of the sacrifices of the martyrs and of our basic freedom.By start of college life, freedom was not a matter of just these few days, but almost every day. Freedom from the exams, tension of jobs, rules, parents, people and countless other things. The last 2 semesters were focused on enjoying the freedom to the max and saving the memories, before jumping into professional life.

Talking of which, the professional life, which I had dreamt would open up many more gates and offer more freedom, was just what I had not wished for. Spending hours and minutes inside this 3X4 cell facing the dumbo machine and typing away, is not what the kid had dreamt about doing when he talked about 'freedom'. Even considering my geeky nature, this kind of routine strongly deserves to be branded as 'Correctional', especially considering the correctional effects it has been producing.

So, here I am , nearing yet another Independence Day of the country, where small children do slave labour without going to schools, the better off slog with books and academics without getting to enjoy their childhood, the even elderly ones sweat their asses off worrying about career prospects, and the rest of us glorified IT industry professionals suffocate ourselves inside our AC cooled cabins, some with dreams about LIFE still alive and many who forgot what it means to LIVE.

Ramblings from office

Following is the one of the many write-ups i cook up during my work hours(pls don't misunderstand my situation..i USUALLY am busy)

This is about the storm that comes every.. umm..frankly no one really knows when it comes.But when it comes, we just know it is better to stay out of its way.

As with all storms and catastrophic events, this one also has a female name. And it comes out of nowhere, giving you no time to prepare in advance.

Irrespective of work related urgency and tension, our anxiety is always about our machines. Such is the fury of this female tempest, which descends upon us, in the name of cleaning.

Even the most complicated tasks are left as it is and people leave for cover, hoping their machines will survive the onslaught.From a safe distance you wait and pray that you will find your desk and machine in working condition after the storm has cleared.Amidst all the usual horrible sounds of the treatment that your dear (sob) machine receives, you can occasionally hear ripping and scraping sounds , which makes you bite your nails and pull your hair.

Once the storm moves to neighbouring cubicles, we all run back to our machines and check if they are alive.
The job of tilting those abused monitors, and pushing back the mauled CPUs is all that you can do,while additionally inspecting for damages to the poor keyboard which gets spanked loudly.

To add, this tempest doesn't leave any one alone, irrespective of rank and experience. All are equal in its presence, as it crosses the development centres and rises up a cloud of grunts and sighs...

Once the storm passes, we sit down to discuss the extent of damage inflicted and how they managed to save some of their components, like old drooped out veterans talking about their exploits.

Surely this is not even complete, and has lots of grammatical and (something) (something) mistakes.But this is the blog of ramblings of this mad guy..and you chose to read it.. i warned u!!!      didn't i? sigh....

It is a blog,so i blog; blog blog...

It is a lovely sunday over here in Mysore.
The sky is looking good, the climate is cool and it drizzles every now and then. Ideal day it is for a idyllic vacation.
But anyway, I am not on a vacation or due for one, so I decided to clean up the house, which I did.
Also, after yesterday's movie marathon(Zombieland,Paranormal Activity and Prince of Persia :Sands of time) and the tiresome(due to lappy) gameplay of Avatar, I decided not to stick with these things for today. And, so I watched 'How to train a dragon', while gulping down 2 bowls of Maggi's new 'Thrilling Curry' flavour, which in fact brought tears to my eyes.

Now I am a bit sleepy and all, due to the late night movies and early morning cleaning activities, and thought that before I take a decision, I should simply update this blog. Now, the blog thing has been going on for over 4 years now. Not that I have written great literary pieces, or superb witty articles that bring in large crowds, but I have a large level of commitment to the small things in life. But there are many such small things of increasing sizes w.r.t significance that some of the other smaller things get buried. Now you must have got the hang of my mood.. i am damn sleepy. But I update blog. I go sleep or I late for another Monday. I enjoy weekend, you too..

Photo credits to James Warwick, taken without permission using Google Image Search(sorry about that, not that you would mind much..but still..)

Saturday Office

Yuggh!

Today is a Saturday and I am in office.
Thanks to BJP's Bharat Bandh, Monday was a holiday and to compensate we have to work today.

Though the Bharat Bandh had saved me a leave while I had gone to my native place, working on Saturday has become more cumbersome than I had expected.

Though I had known that I had to wake up as usual and come to office in the morning, I had not set the alarm, and woke up at 8.35am. FYI the last buses for office are at 9.10am.
Then somehow I got ready and reached the bus stop at 9, to find other IT employees waiting for the bus. I came to know that not even a single bus had passed by for half an hour.
It seemed that even the KSRTC had forgotten that these few souls had to report to office in time on a Saturday as well.

Anyway, a nice friend came by and gave me a ride to office. Thanks to her I was saved from the infinite wait for the royal transport of Tipu.

Entering into the office, a wave a sleep hit me hard and I was almost crawling to my seat. Colleagues even started inquiring about my health, upon which I cursed the BJP.
After dumping myself on my seat, I found out that the task I was supposed to do today, has not been approved yet. So, no work, fully sleepy, and with half the office empty, this promises to be a excruciatingly slow and painful Saturday.

Adios

Back to the books

Over this month, I have been more into books.

Not sure if it was caused by a gift coupon of Rs.500/- meant only for books, which I received from my manager. Or it could simply have been caused by my detachment from the world of technology. It would be ideally a mixture of these reasons.
Ok, whatever be the reasons, I did make some progress on the books and added some to my book shelf.

Status update:-
1) Finished reading 'A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush' - Eric Newby. A whooper of a travelogue. I loved the funny way Eric has understated their pains and efforts. Must read for those who dream of wandering in the wilderness.

2) Started reading 'Rebecca' -Dauphne Maurier. An interesting but slow story.

3) Started reading 'The leader Who had no Title' - Robin Sharma but not much interested by it.

4) Even started reading 'Anansi Boys'-Neil Gaiman at office. This is one book I want to get back to reading. Expectations are high.

5) 'Life Of Pi' - Yann Martel, a Man Booker prize winner, is waiting in the sidelines for now.

Other than this, I did start reading up a few ebooks here and there for timepass. Eleven Minutes by Paulo Coelho is one among them that I recall. But please note that I didn't read any of those long enough to make sufficient progress to give a feedback or review.

Watch out for more updates from my adventures into the land of words.

Wish to write

I had this strange wish to detach myself further from the common devices of internet. I felt I am a better person overall when I take out this 'connectivity' out of the equation. And I do know at certain times that it helps a lot to work on real world problems, talk to people, travel out, read a book, cook something, do something completely new and wacky etc etc. But other than those, I found that the internet has a confounding impact on me on some scale.

A feeling of connectedness to someone or something, which in truth is just my own imagination playing with the nerves. The unending and unfathomable depth and variety of knowledge at my finger tips,the impulse to google out each and every doubt and human thought that crosses my mind.That kind of addiction can drive a person insane or in my case, less efficient. I had 'broken' the very addiction at least half a dozen times by now. It gets back into action again, not as an addiction, but more akin to an uninvited guest. I know it is there, when my mind waits for the machine to be up and check the network logo at first. Also when the mind swirls between choosing which site to check out, or which new idea to research with google , i know i am stung.

I have home made remedies for this, which i have applied and hence am stopping my writing...

Attachments

How  attached do we sometimes feel to places one lives,  ones hangs out with friends , or is associated with some important event(s) in life?
Some people accept the attachment, some deny it , while some others take it as part of the game.But undeniable is the fact of attachment with places.

Sometimes this attachment happens even if you initially hate the place.

Take the example of school, where on your very first day, you would surely have churned out a storm, wishing to go home.

Come college days, and initially you hated the classes and the rules, and stuck to the hostel and canteen. Later on when it was time to leave college, you would have thought of all the fun you had inside the classroom with professors and all the tricks and pranks you played on them. Every moment of those days passes as nostalgia through your mind streams.

Later on, when life gives you wings and take you places, you hate something and love something there also. Sometimes you end up loving too many things, making you inflexible and bars your movement.
Sometimes you are ill at ease with new places and prefer moving around to new places, possibly in search of that 'ideal' place.
But it is always a time of choice to decide whether to stick to your attachments or wade through the current of change.

If someone asked me which is better: stick to one job/place/whatever until you feel you can get nothing more out of it  (or) try one of it until you feel you can do better elsewhere and then move on, I would suggest the second option.

Ciao

Dreams

Sitting in office
doing the work,
I suddenly hooked
on to a discussion.

I got transported
to those golden days
when the mind was ignited
and I was full of dreams.

Those ideas,those sparking
days, have they gone?
Have they died?
Where those dreams or just fantasies?

I like to believe that
they were not.

The day will come
when I will see those
dreams closer to me,
and then I will merge with them, for good.

For now, I need to
hold on to my
decision, and carry on
with this endeavour.

For fruits of this,
however delayed it might be,
is bound to be sweet,
for which I shall wait.

--VVK

Four Years of Blogging

Today I completed four long years of blogging in this account.

My first post was on May 13th of 2006 during my S1-S2 study holidays.

Something which started out as a mere hobby, grew into something that talked about me, my passions, my views and the world as seen through the eyes of this small kid beginning to take the first few steps of life.

If you follow the contents of this blog as well as its sister blog ( Techworld ), you can the ups and downs in my life. Many things I had been frank and candid about, while many I had shrouded in mystery and enigmatic language.

It entertained many people , and bored many more and did both to majority of people. I even took the liberty to try out different flavours and combination. Some people still like to check out my blog, some loath to, while some are indifferent.
I am thankful to all three kinds of people, for they tell me what I want to know, sometimes without their knowledge.

Instead of recalling all past things and thanksgivings, let me just think what is in store for this hobby of mine, in coming days.

Certain upgradations/degradations, and changes might be required before I freeze up a design (sorry for the Vocational Vocabulary ).

For now, I will be using it as a platform to convey messages, ideas, stories and views to a set of readers ranging from friends and family to completely unknown strangers stumbling across it in the web of millions of such blogs.


Adios Amigos

Night Rain

Sleep just refused to take me away from this world,of endless loneliness.

Just lying like that on my bed, I heard the skies open up and I stepped out.

It was just beginning to drizzle and a cool breeze was flowing.Rain drops rolling
on my cheeks didn't bother me,for I was already lost in distant thoughts.

I don't remember much of what happened afterwards, so blissful was the night rain.
It sort of cleansed my soul and body.

We all unknowingly are always waiting for a cleansing rain that allows a fresh
start, because everyone eventually screws up many things in life, just that some
take it as a downslide, while others take it as a springboard.

I wish we could always take all setbacks, fears, and failures as just springboards
to greater happiness to ourself and all people around us.

Keep reading...

Culinary Experiments

My room mate and I had started cooking ( besides noodles and tea ) a week ago.
From then, what I have been involved in is best termed as Culinary 'Experiments'. Experiments because, in spite of having some recipes and ingredients from my mother, I ended up choosing or mixing things in unorthodox manners, creating novel dishes.

But , the good news is that all the dishes ended up edible and majority of them even tasted good. Sometimes they just turn out to be good in spite of too much/too less of any ingredient, or use of substitute ingredients. Sometimes, I need to fix the problem by overriding measures. ;) Once or twice I even goofed up with the sequences. A few additional 'improvisations' after these goof ups allow to raise the status to 'edible'.

Today's meal was in that respect the most unorthodox. I had started with ready-to-make Sevai, which I had to cook and add seasoning. I ended up making a glass of Cooked Rice Water ( 'Kanjivellam' ), and some pasty goo with some salt in it. I was in a tight spot, wondering how to consume the stuff. Then I found the MTR Vathal Kuzhambu mix that my mother had given me, mixed it boiling water, hoping to prepare a thick curry to give taste to the goo. I ended up with something akin to rasam, and mixed half of it with the Rice Water and flooded the goo with the rest. I even added Jeera and Mustard fried in oil as seasoning. And voila, it tasted really good. The mix was a real saviour. I even topped it off with some Chammanthipodi ( prepared from home ), and had a full meal.

That is why in spite of being a rather amateur cook, I really enjoy the process of cooking. There is a lot of fun in it, a lot to learn and finally fills your tummy as well :). Sometimes it gets you quite a lot of compliments as well.


Cooking is a great skill and its an art also. We youngsters sometimes do not respect and recognize the effort our mothers put into preparing the daily stuff that we eat. Get into her shoes and check it out. You will find it a very challenging task. It requires what you call 'Kaipunyam' ( literally 'Virtue of the hand' ) to cook a delicious meal. I recommend everyone , especially males to try out cooking and you will definitely enjoy it.

A boring day

My days at office are sometimes highly boring, either due to prolonged activities of limited interest(meetings) or lack of any solid thing to do.
But for the last few weeks, things have started becoming hectic. So, after coming home I fall into a period of boredom , before sleep strikes me.

A few good books, a few nice sites and a few friends online can solve it all.But, sometimes it doesn't feel that good to reach out for those. I feel like and wish for someone or something to reach out for me and take me on a wild ride.

Weekends are up ahead, and I have no plans. I suppose I will be alone here this weekend. Apart from the mundane activities of cleaning up, organizing and catching up with life, I expect a plain and colourless weekend ahead. But as usual, I will get into weaving ideas and experiments tomorrow once I come to my senses.

Till then, I will temporary fight this boredom and write this blog, which hopefully is not very much boring for the reader.

Enjoy the blog, read better ones, give me comparisons, and let me upgrade and update myself. Thank you for reading this..

Rains Kiss Mysore

First rains kiss Mysore.

Mother nature kissed her charming child with a beautiful shower and smothered it with a blanket of fog.
The air is filled with a strange aroma and the striking hills of Chamundi stand out at the horizon.

The roads were overflowing, and the hearts of people were too.

Many complained of the dirt and dampness early morning,
while many welcomed the break from the moderately hot climate.

But I loved it, simply loved it.
Getting wet and dirty in the rains
its simply.. no words. :D

I will sing 'rain rain come again..'
take me with you..
wash me away
along with the dirt.

But you can't beat my dear hometown,
coz the Queen's rains are much more dear to me,
entangled in the memories of childhood.


Oh rain I love you,
Oh I love you,
but now I have
work to get back to.


Ciao

Blogging via mail

I hate blogging via mail( text formatting becomes weird ).But as Blogger.com and many such sites are blocked at office( and without a good proxy ), I am left with no other options to
answer the call of the blogger.

I really wish that they unblock these sites. But then, if they did, they can be assured that the likes of me would be utilizing it fully. :D

Workaround and hacks are always present for me to try :D :D
For now, I just hope they do unblock more sites of my choice :D :P


Life is a Dance of Colours
Diverse Shades make it a Masterpiece

2 states 2 good

My latest read is the '2 States' by Chetan Bhagat.
Many friends had claimed it to be an absolute must-read,but I managed to get my hands on it last week only.

Though I left it initially,after the first 3-5 pages, I picked it up again today afternoon. This time I managed to read half of it before the IPL matches distracted me till 10pm. And after that, I must confess that I was enjoying every page I read, enjoying all the drama and comedy in typical Punjabi and Tamil families( I must say I connected more to the latter).

I laughed so loud at the mickey mouse part, that I heard my roommate grumble something, obviously awaken from his sleep.

Chetan really has done a good job of bringing to life the daily drama of families so deeply sunk into their own traditions, that vary by huge degrees across the nation.

Hailing from a traditional Tamil Iyer family myself, and having witnessed a couple of mixed arranged-love marriages (that too with a wide range of communities), I was really able to connect to the incidents at the marriage. Kudos to Chetan for painting those scenes with humour. They are really perplexing and tense situations for some people, but some make it really jovial, and I mean in real life. The Kashi Yathra part too made me guffaw .

Overall a good read and made me think of how things might have been in such weddings in my family and what all the boy and girl would have gone through to get it done. Also,it threw many pointers for future ;)

Now off to start on a journey with Eric Newby to the Hindu Kush...

Do you read this?

I was just going through my previous posts.
And it made me wonder. Who reads all this ****?
There is neither a narrative nor a plot for the things I have posted previously.
It talks about something very crudely and goes on adding points about it.
Absolutely unreadable.

I would to like improve the quality of contents and also the styles. Any suggestions?
I am open to design changes as well.

Ciao

Me and Hockey

Many people question me or look at me questioningly when I mention my support for the game of hockey, or talk about the plight of the game in India.
Many have asked whether I am mad..and why I support the supposedly 'stupid' game. My blood boils when I hear the dumbos speak up against such a fine game..themselves being idle followers of the foolish game of cricket.

I was trained in Hockey in my school by a Mr.Shenoy. That is all I know of him, and that he used to be a top-notch player in his days. He was around 50 years old when he used to be hockey coach of our school. A man of perfection and excellently fit, he made his boys play hard and everyone loved him for that.
I was in my 8th grade when I was under his supervision, but being stockily built, I found it hard to find the forward positions and played the fullback position. But, as it happens, I couldn't manage to secure my position in the school team, but made it a point to watch as many matches and play as many practice matches as possible. I enjoyed trying out scoops and passes after school hours.
But, my tenure with hockey came to a grinding halt(as with all my sporting and extra-curricular activities) when my academics took a bad turn. Also, Mr.Shenoy left our school the very next year. Since then, I had not played a single hockey game, and sadly not met not more than a handful of 'real' hockey enthusiasts.

My brother too used to play under Mr.Shenoy, but he played much longer..into his college days and won many a tournaments as well. His hockey stick, that lies around his room always reminds me of Mr.Shenoy and makes me wonder whether I should have stuck to the game.

Anyway, my love for the game remains, and the plight of it pains me. I wish I could find some one to play a game with( might as well be a dream for some time). Having played it, I find it physically challenging and highly enjoyable, compared to the lazy game of cricket.

Thank you Mr.Shenoy(gee..I don't even know his First Name,but as he is a popular figure, I will get to know sooner or later), for introducing me to this wonderful game. The last I saw him was at Fort Kochi a couple of months back, training a batch of students. I had gone there for chilling out, and by chance caught a glimpse of him from a distance. I was surprised at his dedication and commitment to the sport.A great man, who is one of my role models.
I miss his popular chiding remarks,"Idiot International", "Attapaadi Adivasi" and "Foolback".

Requiem for a Dream

Dreams are awesome things, that bring out an ocean of thought, emotions, aspirations, fears and long lost memories into one saucy mix. I am speaking about the dream that you see when you are sleeping, not the one which doesn't allow you to.

One bad thing with dreams are that, however awesome they are, we lose them from our head, when we wake up and our brain starts working on real stuff. I have had many such dreams, where in I wished I could simply get back to sleep and continue with it, rather than get up and go to college or school. I read in some article that brain loses dream memory incrementally, after we wake up and concentrate on other stuff, like coffee or other things around us. It usually vanishes within half an hour of waking up,but really subject to the intensity of mental activities we carry out.

So, what to do to maintain the memories of a great dream? Write it down!! That is the best solution I have found yet. I mean writing onto a book, as typing it usually has the same detrimental effect as other things have. I tried it out today with an awesome dream, and found that I could capture more than 90% of the plot, along with the thoughts and fears of the author( written in 1st person,as all dreams are ). I am pretty satisfied with my work, and so decided to write down whatever I remember of all good stories/plots that come up in future.

I was really amazed at the power of our brain, which I had previously worshiped without experiencing it.

So.. dream on ppl... have a nice time! I might decide to publish the draft dream sometime later, here or somewhere else,as it is quite lengthy, with its drama,inspirations,suspense plots and fears.

God's Magic

Let me put it straight. What difference did yesterday double-ton make to Sachin or team India? It is just another number for the master, and just another win for the team. Lots of these have already been done, and records mean little to the master. He himself acknowledges the fact that in the end, one era's record becomes just a statistic in the next.

But really, when I asked the first question to myself, I was taken aback by my own callousness. How could I ask such a stupid question? "Doesn't the master's show impress me, captivate me, free me, enchant me, and excite me? Humph!"

That is what a single man can do to, not one, but millions of fans all over the world. Busy people in offices drop their meetings and tasks, and huddle near sources of the score. It is an unofficial break for all. I am sure it happens at all offices across India. The air of tension and excitement is evident at all homes, roads, office, public areas, buses, trains…wherever human beings exist. I don't need to tell anyone in India, what it means to have a match in which the master shows his 'Visvarupa'.

So, why all this frenzy? It’s understood that he plays a wonderful game, and fans naturally throng around him. But it is not just that. Sachin, is an icon, he is GOD (Atheists, you have an answer). To follow his game is like prayer, and the day he is in form, it is the pure bliss of watching/listening to the 'Work of God'.

One single man's actions cleansed maybe millions of souls and hearts yesterday. People forgot their enmities and celebrated his victory with joy. If Sachin prevails, why can't hope and love ? He certainly is the bearer of hope and courage for millions around the globe, and will remain so for a long time to come. He can single handedly make millions of Indians proud of their nationality and even existence. I salute you, oh master.

Fans look forward to him, the same way devotees look forward to their deities. Faith in God helps a devotee to overcome his hard times, and it is the same effect Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar has on his millions of fans. To be able to witness 'God at Work' is what each fan wishes to achieve.

Will anyone of his class come along in near future? Nay, at least not in my lifetime. I believe that geniuses like him come by only once in a century. So just revel in the glory of the era of God. Watch him in action and gain salvation.

This is the result of Boredom

Not so long ago, I was a free bird, one with lots of curiosity and energy. I used to sit for hours, watching videos on theories, concepts, impressive ideas, and heard each and every TED talk, irrespective of whether they even made me think or not.

I used to play around with small tasks and learn some new technologies or concepts while doing it. During that time, I conceived the idea of constant pursuit of knowledge or at least juicy information. My image of myself was that of a persistent learner, one who is not hell-bent on success, money and fame, but waited for the same to come to me, while I just pursued my own fantasies. Yes, I realized as soon as the end of college life seemed near, and my options became clearer, that those were just fantasies I had created in my mind to keep it occupied and sometimes, sane.

That realization brought a bit of pain and embarrassment at my own immature beliefs, and I remember struggling to come to terms with it. But it was nothing to lose my sleep over, as I had at least a couple of options to partially exist in my fantasy world, even after college life. I always believed that if I have certain facilities, items and maintain certain other behaviours, I could continually be in contact with my fantasy world, wherever I go.

The funny thing about revelations is that, they are difficult to trace back to any particular incident or instance of time in your life. They just occur when a lot of things happen or go through your mind, usually without your explicit triggering. Such is the current revelation, which I am writing down, which I realized recently, is something very natural to me.

I originally started writing this post to mention how nowadays I have to choose what I do, what I see, what I listen to and what I eat based on lots of new constraints, like time. I cannot afford to waste the precious few hours of time I get to pursue all my hobbies, like blogging, writing, technical news, chatting etc. I must thank the officials in Mysore for that though, for their diligent adherence to the cause of cutting emissions and reducing our electricity bills in a very easy manner; by cutting the supply altogether! (No power as I type this!!)

But whatever be the constraints, I am still the same old person with the same tastes and distastes. The only difference would be the addition of new shades to everything, caused by my exposure to life and its experiences. I now deeply love certain musical instruments, listen to new genre of music, use and work on a new technology, live in a different environment and eat a different kind of food. Most importantly, I have a new kind of respect and attitude for people. So, my concern was to find a way to get the best of everything or at least most of things, in the limited time. I do sometimes feel I am expecting too much... and at those times, I revert to my suspended state, of minimal emotional and intellectual connectivity with exterior world. The struggle to fit in 3’X’ tasks into a time slot that supports only ‘X’, is on.

Wrote too much already, and I wonder if I made a so-called point so far. Would like to hear from my readers (ideally, no Buzzing please…I hate it)

Lovingly,
Vivek

Life and Fear

Life is a very fragile thing. You may lose it in thousands of manner, be it motor accidents,silly mishaps, diseases,war or even terrorist attacks. But fear of eventual loss of life or even many of the luxuries we have in our lives, stops us from fully exploring the world around and enjoying the life that is so fragile and short.

Think about it, and next time you feel that fear comes in your way, take a bold decision and step over it.You will not regret it more than when you allow it to take control of you.

Because .......

A life you don't live is still lost.



Life is a Celebration of Colours
Diverse Shades Make it a Masterpiece

Vision and a track

Hi friends, today I had a vision and its somehow related to many things happening around me these days.

From the morning I was a bit disturbed and in doubt about some things. The day wore off like that without much to make a mark upon and suddenly I had this vision when I came back from office.

What I saw was a rocket flying into the outer space,loosing its boosters first and slowly its various parts,and finally the payload was remaining. Sort of as you see in Tom & Jerry...I wondered what it meant,because it just appeared out of nowhere but was so clear that I couldn't just ignore it. Then I saw a railway track come up in front of me, which seemed to extend into infinity,but on traversing somehow it crisscrossed itself many times.

Now,getting a fruitful message out of that ,which makes sense is the important and also the difficult task. And what I believe to be the message is:

Many things have contributed to my(the satellite) current position(the take off,the boosters,the secondary stuff). But these things can get you only so far. The work to be done by the payload/satellite is much different from that of the parts that fell away. And the fact that all those fell away just to make the payload reach the space, just emphasizes how important it is. Now that those parts have fallen off,the payload can take its path which is not exactly same as what it had traveled on so far . To fulfill its purpose,it needs to traverse a different route, perform different operations and completely de-allocate itself from any effect of the fallen parts.
The same way, many things in life have brought me to a position where I need to re-align my objectives, roles and most importantly, perspective. A necessary step of change, which could possibly alter the person who was working on getting the payload beyond earth's gravitation pull. He must now focus on making the payload do its work properly. I just realized that things may never be the same again. Its time to shift tracks.

Now this is where tracks in the vision come into the picture. Its unending , and its unknown. Its scary if you sit to think about it,but if you simply traverse it,you would soon intersect your own path,meaning you would meet old friends on the way, get back to old things for a while, be all that you were back in some other time. This made a good lot of sense to me as all pieces fell into their places perfectly.

I summed it up as: "Its time to leave behind some of the old things and move onto greater things. But never let go of some of the precious things of the past. You never know when you come across it in the journey of life". It feels just right.

I could have simply got to the point,but this is how it actually unfolded, and I believe that the beauty of simplicity is that sometimes it is coated with layers of complexity.

Mysore sightings

Today as I returned from office,there was no power. So, I decided go for a short walk.
So I set out,with a 50 rupee note in one pocket of the pyjama and my phone in the other,listening to music via headset.
I traversed the dark lanes and roads in our locality observing what the people were doing at powercut time. Some had emergency lights on and were having family meets.Others were unaffected by the powercut and happily watching TV on invertor supply.

Many others were simply sitting outside,or at the junctions chatting away or having a cup of tea. I walked past all these people happily. I passed by many people working at Infy or L&T returning from their offices,with the ID cards showing out clearly in the dark.

Anyway I soon left the lanes and hit the road,the dusty and under construction road. Had to cover my mouth and nose while passing through. The atmosphere there looked as if someone had put smoke effects,light bending and shadows forming here and there.

I moved on and on,onto the main road( called Double High Tension Road ). It is a fairly clean and calm road. So I broke into a slow jog and broke up when I went out of breath.I did it 2-3 times,so as to avoid putting too much pressure on my body at first itself.

Soon I reached a junction which I had never visited before. So from there I started guessing routes and went ahead. I explored around 2-3 new lanes and routes (going in circles). Only once I had to confirm my path with a shopkeeper. I managed to see many new shops, offices etc in my locality which I never knew. I also passed by a family feud on the road. People on vehicles were stopping to listen to what was going on,whereas I blissfully broke into a jog right through the fighting family putting up a smile in case someone gave me a stare or cursed in Kannada( the former might have happened,but definitely not the latter ).

A light breeze was blowing by the time I stopped jogging and decided to take it easy and walk back home. Also, some great tracks were being played at that instant from my phone.Ah,pure bliss..."Yaaron ye dosti.." by K.K was the only one which made me sad and miss my friends..

On reaching home after the 40 mins stroll,I was planning to blog about it and do many other things. But what I saw there was that all houses were having power except ours(even 1st floor had). It took some good half an hour to fix it up and by that time I was starving. Got a couple of Foodles pack and prepared extensive meal :)
It was then that we were plunged in yet another powercut.But I managed to have my meal watching a Telugu movie on my lap in candle light :D

Finally now only I got the time to blog all this :D Pretty huge is it..? Thats how it is nowadays, a lot happening.Also writing being a passion to me, I don't look at the clock for it. :D

The <unnamed> are here

Melcow to the new decade, the noughties are all gone and here come the <unnamed> decade
('Twenty-tens' is what Wikipedia suggests)

So,here I am in the new day of a new year of a new decade,doing nothing 'new'.
I would have ideally posted here at zero hour,but at that time I was in a location where it would not have been possible.

So,where WAS I for the new year eve? Well, I was inside a Karnataka State Rajahamsa bus,enroute to Ernakulam. So, I plainly sent some messages to a few friends(as phone's battery died soon after) and wished nearby passengers and a couple of friends who were travelling with me. Gee...

Though its a fact that a new year has begun, its jubilation and the feeling is experienced only when greeting someone,telling someone about the past year and what to expect from the new one or while checking the last four digits of any date. It might mean two things: Either that the year change is not a big deal or that its big deal is greeting friends/relatives/acquaintances and the memories of past v/s expectations about future.

Anyway for me, compared to all previous year shifts(which just meant some holidays) 2009 to 2010 is pretty significant. This again is caused by the significance the past year has in my life and that the new one might have. 2009 will always remain in my memories and my heart as the year I stepped out of college, my hometown and stepped into corporate life at a far place,that too pretty much isolated. It had those moments and situations in my life which I will always recall and draw inspiration/wisdom from. It brought me its own share of good and bad times,but I believe it ended in a pretty good note for me.

This period is a crux in my life as these days would be pivotal in deciding many things not excluding career. I expect 2010 to bring in its own share of good and bad things( bad things preferably less). Its a time to get decisive and bold in my outlook as well as actions. So far so good,but I guess part of my yet-to-be-uncovered new year resolution is to be more clear and bold about what I should do with things around me. I yearn to have more grip on the sails and the rudder than I have now.

Anyway, I wish all my friends,well wishers and people who don't fall into either of these category too.. A super-duper-wooper-cooper-grand-blasting-power packed new year. Let all your aspirations and dreams come true.. fly like free birds on a mission ;)

Btw did you people notice and enjoy yesterday's full moon and today's awesome sunrise. Both were superbly awesome sights to behold. The fact that they denoted the end of a decade and beginning of a new one just added to the magic of the sight.Inexplicable!

Au revoir..