Saturday, June 21, 2008

A site to see

ReadyMech is so cool :)



I took a quick print out of their 'do it yourself ' Japanese toy and with some scissors & glue was able to make a 'toy' in 10 minutes.

It looks awesome!

Visit the website for more free and cool toys.

Thursday, June 19, 2008

BIAL -Bangalore Airport

If one were to visit the BBMP (aka BMP) offices and manage to sneak past the files and the babus, I am sure somewhere in the innermost sanctum sanctorum of that great edifice sits a monkey tapping away at it computer and churning out plans involving flyovers that need traffic cops and signals perched atop, and underpasses that need you to take deviations from the main road so that you can use the underpass to get to the main road that you just deviated from.
Warped? What else can you expect from a monkey?

Well, before I deviate like the Bellary Main road, let me get back to the topic at hand!

The road to the airport has taken its own sweet time, The airport however is on a completely different level altogether!

Wonderful parking facilities, a sprawling complex to accommodate everything that Bangalore can throw at it, very nice waiting lounge and wide open space if further plans of expansions exist.

After the Hebbal flyover the road leading to the airport is fantastic! (yes all 27 kms of it). No traffic snarls what so ever!

Excellent transport facilities to and fro from the Airport and for once some one in the planning committee has done something right!

I am a big fan of the new airport and I am appalled that so many people are complaining about the airport.

Bangalore is imploding, the need of the hour is to spread the city out, yes, there will be transport issues for some time, but so what?

Lets face it, the old airport was but a pathetic excuse for an airport, tiny, cramped, lacking basic facilities.
But no, we were willing to live with all that, just because it would save us 30 minutes of travel time to the airport.

What about the lack of seating in the lounges?, what about bad restrooms?, what about serpentine customs queues?
Never thought how much time was getting wasted there?

Its time we stop suffering from tunnel vision, and accept change!

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Lovely!



Jive gave me this!

Batman Begins: The Official Movie Guide

130 odd pages of sublimity :D :D

A wonderful present indeed :) Thanks Jivey!

Vaav! vat-e-day...


On Saturday, I learned that my presence was "required" at our lovely Chennai office ASAP.

The earliest (I almost wrote 'Soonest' :P) possible for me was Tuesday, and out I headed to the fantastic Bangalore International Airport (I will sing its praises in a future post *is not sarcastic*) to catch a flight to the land of humid weather, polite people, Rajinikanth and sambhar

I had my tickets booked for Tuesday (Jet Airways) with a return planned on Friday (Air Deccan).

Wait at the wonderful Bangalore airport lounge : 8:00 am to 10:00 am - 2 hours ( I like an early check in)

Some 4-5 minutes away from boarding the flight, I got a call that inform me that the reason for which I was hurriedly headed to Chennai no longer existed. *Clicks a finger* just like that!

Given that the tickets were already booked and at that moment, Chennai was 45 minutes away compared to my Bangalore office that was a minimum of 120 minutes away, I decided to fly out anyway!

Some confusion about the boarding gate (Hey we are boarding at gate 8, err actually gate 10, hey guess what peehpul! Gate 11 it will be!) and off we flew to Chennai.

Flight time en route to Chennai: 1 hour

Reached the Chennai office, socialised with the crowd (a few old faces a few new) and decided to reschedule my friday evening flight.

A quick lunch, some more socialising and an auto ride saw me at the Chennai airport, at 4:30 pm well in time for the Air Deccan flight scheduled at 5:30pm.

At check-in I discovered that the flight was late by 40 minutes (The plane has not yet arrived saar!)

siiiggghh, I settled down to catch up on the days news, A TOI, an Indian Express and 15 minutes of watching cyclic clips of the latest developments in the Arushi murder case on the airport telly and I was all set to board the flight

Wait at the Chennai airport lounge :4:30pm to 6:10pm - 1 hour 40 minutes

They took us in the bus to the plane, got us to sit in the plane, gave us a couple of Kingfisher mineral water bottles and then the Captain's voice boomed on the PA system

"Welcome on board our flight #### to Bangalore, we have an engine failure and hence are presently unable to take off"
"You know it is after all a machine and is liable to fail anytime, thank you for understanding"

*Makes a straight face*

Fail anytime!?? wow!

Some reassurance that! So in about 20 minutes it was decided that the plane is not going to be air borne anytime soon.

Waiting time in immobile aircraft : 30 minutes

Off we were loaded back into the bus on the way back to the waiting lounge.

After the screaming and shouting at the Air Deccan ground staff, we were pacified with "refreshments" which included what seemed like a fruit cake, a mango juice in a tetrapack and 2 slices of bread with some cheese within.

We were to be put on another Air Deccan flight scheduled for later that evening at 8:50 pm

Out came the P.G. Wodehouse, Thank heavens I had carried it along.

Waiting at the Chennai Lounge, Phase 2: 2 hours 10 mins

at 8:50pm, we were told that the flight is delayed by 15 minutes, (The plane has not yet arrived saar!) a wave of Deja Vu.

Waiting at the Chennai Lounge, Phase 3: 30 minutes

Finally we did board the flight at 9:20 and this time it did take off and stayed aloft long enough to reach Bangalore!

Flight time back to Bangalore: 1 hour

That makes it a total of 8 hours and 50 minutes at the Airport or in the plane!

And I have not even factored in the time to get to the Airport and Back.

Whew! a long day and a long post :)

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

ads

On one hand one had ads such as Bajaj Caliber (the unshakeable), the wonderful close-up Jingle and a hundred other classics!

and on the other hand you have Max insurance ads :|

Weirdness! The Max ads (Screeches of "Sanju, Sanju" and "Ek bimaari") are like fingernails that
run over the blackboard of my mind.

Sunday, June 08, 2008

In the cranium...

Dave, Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich - Hold Tight!

Silk Route - Sabse Peeche Hum Khade

Spent all of Sunday singing these two songs :D :D

Thursday, June 05, 2008

Show Off!



Yaaay I won big!

Beating krymsson 532 to 335 is something worth showing off!

Tuesday, June 03, 2008

One long day

Thursday, saw me at the land of the Wodeyars, the silkworms and the Mahishasur (not in any particular order, mind you)

Mission: Pre-placement talks at a couple of colleges that we would later in the year visit for campus recruitment.

Prior Experience: Whenever time has permitted , I have tagged along with the recruitment team to help give a quick talk about ThoughtWorks and life therein.
Just the way the students go "wooow!"when we show them videos and pictures of what life at ThoughtWorks has in store, makes my day!, not to mention the saccharine sweetness with which the placement officers us.

Mysore, however was a different ball game altogether!


An early morning start, breakfast at Lokaruchi and Mysore by 11:45am, just to make it in time for the first presentation at SJCE (a well known engineering college), or, so we thought.
When the placement officer was called and informed of our arrival,
Pat came the reply "you see, I am driving down from Bangalore, I shall reach Mysore in next 30 mins, then I shall have a bath and come!".

Dude! notwithstanding your lack of punctuality, at the very least spare us the gory details.
He finally arrived(when we were well into the presentation) and left in about 20 mins, stating "I have some grandmother's ceremony I need to attend to"
but, not before he had told us exactly what had held him up in Bangalore, apparently he had gone to the Forum for some shopping and in general seemed to have spent his time about doing inane things, while he should have been on the road to Mysore!

Hilarious!

The students however were pretty chirpy and surprisingly had quite a few smart questions to ask, though one of them did manage to squeeze in a "Do you have a swimming pool at ThoughtWorks?" question.

A quick pit stop for lunch and off to College #2

National Institute of Engineering

Well, here, the placement officer welcomed us with a smile, offered us tea and thats when it went downhill, as he picked up his phone and proceeded to make half a dozen phone calls to random people, all the while, shouting his lungs out.
If he wanted to show us that he was a very important person, the shouting and the having to introduce himself a minimum of 3 times over the phone did not help.

He seemed to have clean forgotten we were there. We our tea (good tea it was!) and set off for the presentation.
The students trudged in about 15 mins late and I was soon done with the presentation!

Off we left Mysore only to return at an ungodly hour - 12:30 am t o be precise

Bottom Line - Placement officers in Mysore have failed to impress
The lighted windows dim
Are fading slowly.
The fire that was so trim
Now quivers lowly.
Go to the dreamless bed
Where grief reposes;
Thy book of toil is read,
The long day closes.
- Henry Fothergill Chorley and Arthur Sullivan


Monday, June 02, 2008

Neil Young

I want to live,
I want to give
Ive been a miner for a heart of gold.
Its these expressions I never give
That keep me searching for a heart of gold
And Im getting old.
Keeps me searching for a heart of gold
And Im getting old.

Saturday, May 31, 2008

The man in black


"Hello I am Johnny Cash"

I spent most of my Saturday listening to Johnny Cash.

One of the most talented musicians to have ever walked this planet.
Be it his trademark, train like rhythm, be it his deep voice. One is spellbound the moment the head phones are on!

If you have not yet heard Mr Cash play, then I would recommend the following numbers for starters

I walk the line
Ring of fire
Long black veil
Folsom prison blues
Heart of Gold
Boy named Sue
I've been everywhere

:)

And the icing on the cake for me was this wonderful video having the legendary Roger Miller improvising with Johnny cash on "King of the Road"

Friday, May 30, 2008

Comic!

Found some time in the middle of the Project I just rolled off and the Project I am rolling on to :)
Decided to play with Photoshop and Freehand.

Result: A comic strip showing the ThoughtWorks reccruitment process :D

Friday, May 16, 2008

Movies that deserve a separate review post



I am not a big Ironman comics fan, in fact the Ironman comic I tried to read completely bored me.
despite all that, the movie was fantastic! so much so that for a brief period (a brief period mind you!) the Ironman Screen saver will replaces my customary Batman Screensaver)

The movie itself has all the makings of a wonderful Superhero movie. I have always liked the 'origin' superhero movies, and this one kicks *ss in every department.
I watched this twice! go watch it now!




I am a big fan of Guy Ritchie movies, and this movie faithfully copies his style of direction.

I LOVED this movie! The gangsters, the corrupt cops, the pretty hooker, the gambling and beer loving hero. simply super!

I am now a definite fan of Abhay Deol, After Manoram 6 feet under and Ek chalis ki...

oh and if you are the kind that likes mushy romantic movies about angel faced people, stay away from this one.

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Movieees!

Snatch
Super! Guy Ritchie, Britans answer to Quentin Tarantino does live up to his reputation here

Death at a Funeral
A typical Brit comedy, dark and at times gross.
A good weekend watch though.

Superbad
Err had heard a lot about this movie, the screenplay at times had me in splits, but other than that, not much really.

Grandma’s Boy
I was pleasantly surprised with this comedy, about a 30 something video game tester who is forced to live with his Grandma. Yes it is a Stoner movie, yes it has some toilet humour, but its wackiness got me.

Summer of 42’
Hmm, a movie about coming of age, decent enough.

Good Luck Chuck!
WTF!

Hitman
If you want action, here is some. But it follows all the paths already taken and the plot is nothing great.

City of GOD
Fantastic! Must Watch!



Friday, May 09, 2008

When in Mangalore...

May saw us in Mangalore !

There was a wedding to attend and of course the added benefits of having wonderful beaches around :)

The wedding I shall deal with in the learnings section of this post, but first here is a glimpse of Kaup beach (for reasons as yet unknown, Kaup is pronounced Kapu :|)








Learnings from the trip/attending a Mangalorean christian wedding

Learning #1: When given a glass of wine, do NOT drink it up immediately !, wait till you see at the very least 200 other people drink. Lest you down your glass of wine and then realise you were supposed to hold on to it for 30 minutes and wait for the bride and the groom to sip their wine first.



Learning #2: When some one over the microphone asks the crowd to stand up and bless the couple, do NOT stand up and raise your right hand in Heil Hitler style just because everyone around you is doing the same. Lest you realize that everyone around you is at least 40 years old and you need to -at the very minimum - be elder to the couple in order to bless them.


Saturday, March 29, 2008

Affecting an Accent

Whats with trying on a Firangi accent? How many times have you seen an American try and talk in an Indian accent to either be 'helpful' or to show-off?
Well I for one, have never seen that happen. I know a couple of firangi acquaintances try and learn Hindi, and learn to speak it quite well!

But I find so many people around me, producing different accents for different occasions/contexts.
A firangi asks you a questions and out comes the accent.

"Yeaaah, I mind ahhctuaaly"

Arre! subah mere saath baat ho rahi thi to "Ahhctuaaly" ko aap "Actually" keh rahe thhe.


Personally, I think nothing sounds as stupid as an artificial accent.
I am not buying it if you tell me your 3 month, 2 year, stint in America/UK naturally got you an accent that keeps changing
(I doubt if a 3 month stay in Bangladesh will give a Bangla tinge to your accent. Selective absorption of accent then?)

Hey! be comfy the way you are, if nothing else, at least you will save me the effort of cringing in disgust!

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Saturday, March 08, 2008

Random Ramblings

Ah, the pleasure of winning a game of scrabble after trailing at one point 36 to 127 is unparalleled. :D

Unparalleled is the irritation one feels when after two weeks of contemplation one, suddenly at the last moment realises, hey "Actually we should postpone it, a couple of these guys cannot make it" :|

Also unparalleled one feels is Blogger.com's audacity to delete a 4 year old blog, and then not respond when questioned! its true it happened to a friend! unnerving!

The joy of designing your own personalised T-shirt and gifting it to a friend is unparalleled as well :D

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Movieeees

Manorama 6 feet under
What-e-beauty of a movie, simply loved it! A wonderful effort at making an Indian Film Noir movie, excellent!
Most people I spoke to did not seem to like it, but oh well, Sometimes the majority only means... :P

Alexander
Puke! Colin Farrell stumbled through the movie looking like he suffered from an irritable bowel syndrome.

No Country for old men
Watch it for Javier Barden, never before have I seen a more disturbing villain in any form of cinema. Excellent performance!
Also, the Cohen brothers have their own style of directing. The most unexpected things happen at the least expected times. This is one thriller you do not want to miss.

Monty Python- Life of Brian
Is this the same group that conceived the brilliant "Fish Called Wanda" ? surprising, the much acclaimed Monty Python falls flat.
Only one scene evoked laughter, the one where Caesar stumbles through his pronunciation evoking uncontrolled snigger from his centurions.
and only one scene made me go wooow
The scene where the entire group is crucified and Eric Idle (one of the members being crucified), begins singing "Look at the bright side of life" as the credits start rolling.

Else I do not understand what the big deal (Biggus Dealus? :P ) is about Monty Python.

Good Fellas
Decent gangster movie, but tends to get boring. IMDB rates it as #15 of all time great movies. I disagree. The Untouchables is easily a better movie in the Genre. Watch it for Joe Pesci's portrayal of a mobster.

Wonderland
A biopic about the Wonderland Murders, bad movie!

Pink Panther
Steve Martin's Inspector Closeau tries hard, and fails to live up to Peter Sellers' Inspector Closeau

Judging a book by its fly-leaf

Today I took out a book (Calvin and Hobbes), that someone happened to gift me (reasons unknown). To my horror and disgust I realised that there exist people who gift books for the sake of gifting them, I would understand a gift given as a formality, but to gift a book and not bother to jot down a couple of words on the fly-leaf is outrageous !
Why would this person (whom I hold [held?] in high regard) do such a thing?
I wonder. For once this lifetime, I just don't feel like reading the book :)

Thanks, but no thanks!

On the brighter side of things, I did get another book (Dilbert, this time) that has a fly-leaf covered with the funniest of comments, making the gift immediately a personalised one !
also got the most beautiful set of PG Wodehouse!

Thank ye for your thoughtfulness


Sunday, February 24, 2008

Hampi

Easily the best place I have been to in recent times, Hampi in its golden age was a rich and bustling city by the banks of the river Tungabhadra, the capital of the prosperous Vijayanagar Empire.

What makes Hampi special today is the fact that, it transports you back to the age of its glory instantly.

All the streets are 'intact', all the temples are 'intact' (of course the Deccan Sultans destroyed the idols and lots of the architecture), its as if only the people have moved on, leaving behind the empty shell of a once thriving city.

Hampi is poetry in stone, a must visit place.
Also visit a restaurant called the 'Mango Tree'.

Take a look at the pictures and learn of things you can do in Hampi:


Hire a two wheeler - the best way to visit most places spread across a 10 sq km area


Enjoy the lovely architecture


Stroll through the well maintained gardens of the Palace


Trek up hillocks


Take a coracle ride on the river Tungabhadra


Take a nap!


Lie down on the rocks surrounded by beautiful structures, waiting for ...


a beautiful sunset!


Have a blast!