Wayanad

I have been to Kerala on numerous occasions, and each time the place has had something new to offer.

This trip started off more like a means of relaxing, but turned out to be a full blooded trek :)

We trekked to Edekkal Caves and rock climbed up Mount Ambukuthy.
Explored the forest to find MeenMutty waterfalls; untouched by 'tourists', deep within the forest nestled in a valley, splashed about in the water and lost our way for a bit on the way back! (that added to the excitement, nothing as confusing as a dense jungle!)
The trip ended with a cresendo in form of a wonderful climb up the tallest peak in the district - Chembra peak, we did the 14 kilometre climb and descent in 5 hours with a30 min break at the top (after two rigourous days of trekking behind us, Me thinks, that was good time:) )

Here are a few glimpses

Photu of the week

yeah the photus are back!, this one listed out some rules...

The last 3 are the ones to look out for :P

On the Wall

Recently we went to this new coffee place near JNC, Koromangala called Brewhaha,

Apparently this coffee shop/Board Game zone was started off by a couple of IIM students. The food is decent, the drinks are quite good, the place also offers a wide variety of board games and most importantly the serving staff are nice polite people :)

What caught our attention though, was the big scrabble board mounted on the wall, they were nice enough to let us play and off started a decent game of scrabble !



I still prefer playing at a relatively quiet Barista on Brigade road, but Brewhaha is an interesting place in itself. Not for me though, I just enjoy a simple game of scrabble, sitting in a corner, without all the pretensions of uber-coolness.

In the summery summer

Tagged by Seemantini

Here is what I enjoy in the Summmery Summer!

• Rain in the evening
  
• Games of scrabble!
• Tender coconut water :D
• Mangoes!

Anyone who wants to take the tag, go ahead!

An ode to a non-vegetarian octogenarian

Last evening, Krymsson and I
were strolling by
and what do we see?
A poor old man, looking forlorn and hungry

So we did what everyone would
we decided to get him some food,
we got some from a nearby restaurant
but when we got back, he was gone

We looked for him in the vicinity,
finally found him in an alley.
We said Grandpa, here is some Ghee Rice
He looked at us with some degree of surprise

In broken english said he
Thanks, no Ghee Rice for me
what I would like is some mutton
you see I am a Non-vegetarian.

Billboards

This is an interesting read, a little attuned towards the application we are building. :D (cant tell you more cos it is "if I tell u I will have to kill you" kind of stuff)

Some cool ideas are mentioned in the article, which is more of an overview for digital billboards. I expected to but did not see a mention of the Coca Cola billboard at Piccadily Circus.
The future of advertising however is not as simple as this article would suggest me thinks.

Font-astic!

I Love fonts

I so love Fonts! they amuse and delight me!! Only most times they are extremely expensive.

Here is a super place to get some really cool fonts for Free!

Is this it???

I encountered at first hand something extremely terrible, something that made my stomach churn.
This planet is not a good place to live in, this would be the right time to pack and leave. 'Mostly harmless' is NOT what we are.
I tremble when I think of what we have become, all this evolution to get to a society that seems so warped. sigh.

However, not wanting to end this post on a pessimistic note, here is something I liked...

	Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light. Though wise men at their end know dark is right, Because their words had forked no lightning they Do not go gentle into that good night. - Dylan Thomas

More...

Paradox

A group of people gathered around at lunch today to watch a documentary titled "Paradox of choice: Why more is less".

I did not find the time to go watch the video, but decided to read up on paradoxes :) and I have come up with a treasure trove of info!!

You can find most of the popular one's here and on the wiki.

However the one that I found most weird, was the one derived from a short story called
"All you zombies" by Robert Heinlein, I found a nice little excerpt of it here .

Hoarding Boarding

I have had a lot of fun designing posters, flyers and similar sort of marketing collateral, what I had never done before, was design a hoarding.
However, the upcoming ThoughtWorks Master Class Series in Bangalore and Pune needs hoardings and I am having a super time designing them.
I have 3 hoardings to work on and each have their own challenges :D
I am using Photoshop 5.5 and Macromedia(now adobe) Freehand and Loving every bit of it!!

Travel Tag

So this is tag made out of a question that fink asked me, which I thought would make a decent post (yes, my muse seems to have taken a summer vacation)

"So if you could go anywhere in the world where would u choose to go?"

here are my 5 places

Any Country near the North Pole, to see the Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis)

Machu Pichu - Peru

Great Barrier Reef - Scuba Diving

Venice - On a Gondola

Ladakh



and I tag
Fink, KC, SRK, Seemantini, Pal, Apurva, Gitanjali

Joy @ Work!!

A Ruby on Rails project gone live!
The system (a "next generation deigital entertainment system"as our client puts it) we have built for our client has gone live in a bar in NY :D
Much more fun work in store for us...
The more I work at this place the more I realise that the fun I derive from working here is not in the money, not in the work itself, but simply the people I work with. A concentration of amazing intellect and sense of humour at one place :)

Song in my Cerebrum!!

I realise that the cartoon channels have gone to the dogs (read pokemons), I see a lot of annoying pokemonesque series. Once upon a time, there was He-man and the Masters of the Universe, Spiderman, GI-Joe...real super fun.

Then more recently there have been the equally good: Samurai Jack, Sheep in the Big City, Johnny Bravo, Timon and Pumbaa.

However, now whenever I surf cartoon country, I see weird japanese animations with their almondish eyes (most annoying part of anime for me), sad state of affairs as far as I am concerned.

But from channel disney comes my song in head, I simply love this video...

wats the song?

Black Eyed Peas/Jack Johnson - Gone Going Gone
Dick Dale - Miserlou (the very heady [sic] pulp fiction number)
Elvis Presley - Can't help fallin in love
Sinatra's - Something Stupid

Oye wats the zhoke?

Its been a fun Friday!!
or let me put it this way its been a fun Friday!! (:P)
Standing in a very crowded TGIF. Those glasses are heavy damn!
Gate crashing a 'party' that turned out to be 5 people sitting around a TV, discussing India's chances of restricting Lanka from scoring 200. Escaping.
Barging into B77, at some ungodly hour and this time enjoying it!
Watching Lanka bend it and send it to India.

Learning's...
Gals can get the bar tenders attention no matter what the crowd!
Never gatecrash a 'party' with krymson and Miaow no matter what "sad innocent puppy face" they put up!

oh and wats the zhoke?....ask the Pankaaz!

300

The King with half the East at heel is marched from lands of morning;

Their fighters drink the rivers up, their shafts benight the air,
And he that stands will die for nought, and home there's no returning.
The Spartans on the sea-wet rock sat down and combed their hair.'
- A.E. Housman 'The Oracles'

300 Did not dissapoint, on the contrary not only did it meet my expectations, it surpassed them.
300 is a great effort, to actually make a movie out of such an intense comic is difficult, Zack Snyder does a great job of it.
With some great fight sequences, a gripping soundtrack (a mix of Gothic Classical and Heavy Metal) Lot of blood! Lot of Gore! Lot of Pride! Lot of Glory! 300 is a movie worth watching.

Iteration Zero!!

Family Day at the Park Fields, remember last family day where we had practised days in advance, with the guitars, the keyboards, the Harmonica and the voices.

This time round, we made up the band on the way there and decided to play! 3 Guitars, Marco and I formed the band - 'Iteration Zero'

Dooba Dooba (obviously), Oh Sanam, Pal, Comfotably Numb were the numbers we err belted out!
and on popular request, we did Roo Ba Roo (which turned out to be fun, since, i did not know the lyrics and was attempting to sing them off a tissue paper written in a hurry by Tomahawk!)

I enjoyed singing by the pool! but what I enjoyed even more, was doing(learning) the Salsa by the pool as the sun set :)

Beautiful indeed.

Mahabalipuram

After a super game of scrabble, We decided to take a friend out for his Happy Budday treat :P

Sitting in 13th floor on feb 24th the trip was planned.
Tickets were booked, and off we went on the first of March, to Mahabalipuram.

Since we did not get place at the TTDC hotel, we had to turn to an Auto guy, who took us to 'Laxmi Lodge'
Initially sceptical abt the place, we were surprised to see a resort by the sea, with its own swimming pool and a nice big A/C room, wich gave way to a nice lil lecture that the manager of the resort gave us

"Husband wife, one room, ok
Brother Sister, one room, ok
Lovers, one room, ok (stifled lafs)
4 guys 1 girl, one room, Not ok!
police coming problem happenin"

ROFL, we did convince him though that all was well.

Mahabalipuram is a quaint little town (GOD! I have so wanted to use this phrase), with some brilliant 7th century architecture (in form of awe-inspiring monolithic temples) and a beautiful but surprisingly empty beach.
The best way to see the town is to hire cycles. The interesting thing is that the town is over run by firangs.

Here are a few glimpses

Oh btw we eventually did get along well with the manager, who asked me to "comin with girlfriend next time , get discount " lol

and we solved the mystery of the strange cloud covering the full moon when we realised it was a complete lunar eclipse.
Beautiful.

Reading

I am 50 pages in and this is already building up in true Terry Pratchett style. Have not seen Death recently, hope this novel features it somewhere (also looking out for CMOT Dibbler, Death of Rats tee hee hee)

Listening to

Haseeno ne bulaya galey se bhi lagaya
bahut samajhaya yehi na samjha
bahut bhola hai bechara
na jaane kis pe aayega

Hemant kumar is a singer one needs getting used to before one can start enjoying his songs, a little unconventional singing style but nevertheless an effective one :)

Watching

Pamela Anderson provides her errr vocal talents to the animated character of Erotica Jones, Stripper by night Crime Fighter by later night.
Pamela Andersons talents lie elsewhere. If one were to ignore her irritating voice, there are some positives, such as the funny criminals, her imbecile chief. But one feels Stan Lee could have done a better job.

IMDB rates this TV series at 9.5 out of 10, which is impressive. the first 30 mins of women screeching at the top of their voices, random ppl crying and some of the worst acting I have ever seen on screen was like running fingernails across the blackboard of my very soul.
I will give it another go, only because imdb rates it so high

Bah!

A sudden whim makes me want to play scrabble online, to go pit my wits against some unknown opponents, maybe. So I do what a sane person would do; which is to google for sites that allow me to play scrabble online.
I get a list, out of which I decide that Scrabulous is the one I am looking for.

First I am taken to a page that is an usablility nightmare. it declares in the faintest of print "Experience pure joy everytime" (err... right!)
I ignore this.
I register.
I am asked "May we have a photograph and a 70-80 word description please?"
I provide the photo and a one line description.
Next day I get a mail, why are you not playing? are you facing any problems?
(well I will play when I want to...) i ignore the mail

To my photo and description mail, I get a response
I quote this is how the mail begins
"umm can you try a little harder, with the description?"

Yeah dude I can try a little harder, but I want to play scrabble, not describe myself.
I would register onto a matrimonial website if i wanted to put in a photo and description!

I am waiting for a response on tht one.

grrrr this place easily tops my list of the shitty sites

Go Swarm!

This is an interesting place, I confess that it held my interest (an almost voyeuristic one) for no longer than 10 mins, but still interesting enough to blog about. so Swarm

Movies…

Some of the ok ones like…

- The Big White
- The Notorious Bettie Page

- Someone to watch over

- Road Trip
- Borat Movie (this one was good in parts)

Some of the super ones

- Euro Trip: good good good :D

- Southpark – Bigger, Longer and Uncut: Lol , nice one :D
“What wud Brian Boitano do if he was here today?
He wud make a plan and follow thru
thts wht brian boitano wud do!”

- Finding Neverland: Awesome with a capital A! Johnny Depp is of course GOD, and Kate Winslet has me impressed with “Eternal Sunshine…” but this movie is out of the world.

- Butch Cassidy and the sundance kid: from one of the most romantic scenes ever filmed (“raindrops..”) to a brilliant last shot, this movie is worth a watch especially if you like westerns

- Motorcycle Diaries: Loved it(Reminded me a lil bit of swades). This one is just my kind of movie! Watch it for the travel, for the people, for the wonderful writing. If you enjoy aimless travel, you will enjoy this movie.
“How can I feel nostalgia for a world I have never seen”

A 4 day weekend full of fighter jets, copters, paratroopers (thx to the aero show), Cricket, Scrabble, Taking up a mission to help buy the 'perfect' ladies belt (bah!). Shopping for Pashmina shawls for a friend who is getting married.

The wedding attended, a Bundh missed and an impromptu 12 kilometre walk taken :)

In all a very nice weekend.

God’s own country

I am back from Kerala, the land of Mohan lal, Mamooty, Karimeen (Black Fish), Kappa (Tapioca), Kall (Toddy), Putta, kadal, Idi Appam, Boiled Rice, Back Waters, Houseboats, Indonesian Print lungis, Communism, Tea Estates, Spices, Boat Races, Temple Elephants, Kathakali and Kalaripayattu.

What we did:

Stayed on a Houseboat on the backwaters for a day and a night (from Allepey to Kumarakom), a most amazing experience!

Travelled to Munnar, a hill-station covered with lush green forests and thousands of acres of tea estates.

The People

The Water

The Land

The Flora

The errr…. Fauna

That’s all folks!!

Five Things you do not know about me!

Fink Tagged me and I have to come up with something about me you did not know ( If you know all of these, either you are in my inner circle or you are my parents!)

Useless Fact #1.

Contrary to popular belief, I have an extremely short temper. And I flare up every 2.35 mins (on an avg.)

Useless Fact # 2.

Adobe Photoshop is my favorite Software, my second favorite software is Macromedia Freehand

Useless Fact # 3.

Statistics is my favorite subject, at one point I was seriously considering pursuing a PhD. in Statistics!

Useless Fact # 4.

I have a very close set of friends whom I refer to as the inner circle. It consists of 2 Guys and a Girl.
I have known the guys since school and I meet up with them almost everyday. I have known the girl for about 20 years and I have met her only Thrice !!

Useless Fact # 5.

I can Read Write and Speak 5 languages :D
Marathi , Konkani, Kannada, Hindi and English

Bonus useless Fact.

When batting I am a predominantly offside player. To get me out, pack the offside, bowl shortpitch into my body and place a catcher close in on the leg side.
I bowl lots of offcutters, To score runs off me, do not commit early, wait for the ball to come in and then select a shot to play

And yes, I would like to tag: Puneet, Neha, Apurva, Dpal, Krishnan, Seemantini, Ashmita and whoever else that wants to accept the tag

Places to be (that I know of, of course :P)

Ok, so here is my list of places -in Southern and Western India- to visit, before you die.

So in no particular order, here goes

1. Halebidu and Belur - Hassan, Karanataka

These temples built by the Hoysalas, simply have the finest pieces of architecture I have ever seen. If you have not been there you have not done a thing!

While you are at these 2 places you could also visit Gomateshwara, Biggest Monolith in india.

Quick Tip, get a guide or you will miss the all important, finer nuances.

2. Namdroling Monastery (Golden Temple) – Coorg, Karanataka

This is an awe-inspiring monastery, with massive statues and brilliant paintings, in an unexpected location bang in the middle of Coorg surrounded by beautiful coffee estates. Coorg is very rightly called the Scotland of India.

3. Tiracol Beach – Goa

This is at the confluence of river Tiracol with the Arabian Sea having a French fort (now a heritage hotel) as backdrop. You would probably find the beach completely empty (with an exception of few firings). Beautiful cottages available right on the beach.

Do not go there if you are used to the hustle and bustle (read pretty chicks) of most Goan beaches, because chances are you won’t find any. What you will find however, is Peace and tranquility (Big Words, eh?)

4. Malvan Fort – Sindhudurg, Maharashtra

This fort (built by Shivaji) is situated 2 kms into the Arabian Sea, accessible by boat. The coolest thing about it is the fact that it is very well maintained, and does not have an entrance fee. As Yossarian would ask, what’s the catch? Simple, you need to pay for the boat ride :) (a very minimal amount).

5. Swami Vivekanada Rock – Kanyakumari, Tamilnadu

Southern most tip of India. The Sunrise and the Sunset is what Kanyakumari is popular for. However as far as I am concerned it is the view from Vivekananda Rock, that looks out to Arabian Sea, Bay of Bengal and the Indian Ocean which is worth the trip. One is able to see the different shades of the seas and identify which one is which!

6. Kerala Backwaters – Central Kerala

I once took a boat ride from Kottayam to Allepey across the backwaters, and that memorable ride took almost 6 joyous hours . Kerala is known as Gods own Country for a reason (yeah other than for promoting tourism).

Next time I go to Kerala I am going to be on a houseboat (hey not a bad idea, hmmm).

7. Marine Drive – Bombay

Eating chaats at midnight on the Marine Drive, wonderful wonderful.

8. Dandeli – Karnataka

If one wants an adventure tirp in Southern India, head to Dandeli. Some of the most dense forest in the Western ghats are found here. The River kali forms a section of Rapids (Scale 3) making a great White Water rafting place.

One can do mountain biking, explore some real scary caves, travel in an open jeep into the wildlife sanctuary, trek and yeah camp out in the forest. Pretty good eh?

9. Hogenekal falls – Tamilnadu

Super place, the river Kaveri snakes through a ravine and one can hire coracles to take you along the river, between towering sheer walls of rock, under waterfalls and to a more calm part of the river where you can relax in the water and wait for the natives to fry fresh catch of the day.

Seen the ‘Raat ka naasha’ (Ashoka) video? the place is 10 times better than it looks in that video (despite it being Santosh Sivan behind the camera).

August is the best time to be there.

10. Stay at home and read a book! Serious, best place to be!

Over heard (true stories)

- (in a voice dripping with sarcasm) Dudette the only thing I missed was your sense of humour, can I pack it and take it home.

- Dialogue

A: I had Saadha Dosa today

B: Hey what does ‘saadha’ mean ?

A: Sada means ‘Plain’ so saadha dosa translates to Plain Dosa

B: Really? I always thought saadha meant Forward…

A: Why??!!

B: Bcos, Seedha Saadha means Straight Forward na?

- Every time I go to pee, it costs the client 2$ !!

- You need to help me!! I am unable to reproduce :-|

- That stupid cat should be put in the paper shredder.

Craaaaaazy

Yesterday I went crazy (I know, this is not news to ppl who know me to be a mental case).

I went like real mad, and all because I happened to stumble onto the wiki page for 300 the film and from there on to Warner Bros page for 300 and so on to the trailer. (I even read up on Spartan history!)
This is one movie I want to watch baaaadly, I was told the trailers were good,

but I did not expect them to be insanely good!

If anyone were to adapt a comic book into a movie, learn from Mr. Miller (no he has not directed this one).

But the panels just come alive in the movie, it looks animated (well I am sure lot of it is sfx, but still!).

I never get excited by mere trailers, but the sheer genius!! Wow I am Ranting and Raving now??

So What!! I await.

Persian ‘Peace’ Envoy: This is Madness, This is Blasphemy

King Leonadis: This is Sparta!

Movies Over the week

Magnificent Seven
Seven Samurai has influenced Mag Seven, Saat Hindustani, China Gate and to a certain extent Sholay. This movie with a star studded cast lives upto its reputation.

Eternal Sunshine of the spotless mind
Extremely beautiful movie very well made and very touching.

Brick
A very well made movie, crisp flow of narration makes this one a good watch.

Napolean Dynamite
This one is supposed to be a cult classic, but I found it a little lacking in energy, not too bad however.

True Romance
Written by Quentin Tarantino, this is a romantic movie full of blood. Worth a watch, there are hints of Lock Stock and Two smoking barrels. The high point of the movie is definitely the presence of Dennis Hopper and the absence of Amanda Plummer

From Dusk to Dawn
Written by Tarantino, funnily weird movie.

Song of the Week!

A little bitty tear let me down,
spoiled my act as a clown
I had it made up not make a frown,
but a little bitty tear let me down.

- Burl Ives

The Truth

The 25^th DiscWorld novel, This one is about Journalism, as De Worde starts a newspaper called ‘The Truth’

The characters are wonderful (as usual)

Some new ones like...

Otto, a Vampire whose interests lie in photography despite being burnt to dust at every flash

Goodmountain the dwarf who owns the press

Rocky the troll

Mr Tulip and Mr Pin representing the ‘New firm’, bring out Pratchett’s brilliant spoofing ability (These characters spoof Samuel L Jackson’s and Travolta’s characters in Pulp Fiction)

Mr Slant the zombie lawyer

And ofcourse the time tested characters

Cut-Me-Own-Throat dibbler

Lord Vetinari, the patrician

Commander Vimes of the Watch

The Watch (Nobby, Angua, Carrot, Igor)

DEATH (Johnny Depp should play death in the movie if there ever is a movie)

Gaspode, the talking dog

In all a book I thoroughly enjoyed. Or as Mr Tulip would succinctly put it “ A ___ing good Book”.
If you have never read Terry Pratchett before, please please read one of his discworld books, you will not regret!!

Next in my list is Neil Gaiman’s latest best seller ‘Anansi Boys’, I am already rubbing my hands in anticipation.