details are divine.

NASA's Astronaut Training Experience (ATX) at the Kennedy Space Center

2012-01-06T15:11:00.000-08:00

It's one of the unique things we did in 2011 holidays. Thanks to Preeth who found out about this program and made reservations for the three of us well in advance, we didn't miss it when we were in Florida/Miami for the Christmas holidays :)

So this is a half-day program where the participant is first made to undergo different training activities followed by a space mission simulation! We get to train like astronauts and to carry out a space mission like astronauts :)

The good thing about it was that it wasn't elementary and they assumed that we would know a bit about computers and simulators and started off with training on the simulation programs -we were told what programs to load and the commands to execute in those programs.

The most important ones were programs for docking up with the international space station and to land the space shuttle.

Docking up with the space station involved looking at different camera feeds and moving the joystick to position the space shuttle and while also entering the commands given by the instructor.

And landing the shuttle involved taking manual control, maneuvering the shuttle according to the desired path (adhering to the given altitude, speed), deploying the landing gear and landing the shuttle on the runway and deploying the chute on touchdown. We were made to try the landing sequence multiple number of times and the instructor noted down the speed, altitude and how well the shuttle was landed. I managed to land it correctly only once (and it was not at all a good landing) and I crashed on the runway once and crashed into the river next to the runway another time. Vinay was the best among us in landing (thanks to his PS3 gaming skills) and he was considered for the commander role along with two others who did good. Based on how close the altitudes and speeds were to a perfect landing they would choose a commander and it was not one of us.

Following this we were given a tour of the space shuttle simulator we would use for our mission later in the day. We then trained on the Multi-axis trainer that randomly spins and twirls its occupant in multiple directions, through 360 deg, for one complete minute. The astronauts were also supposed to interpret their motions and compensate the motions with nitrogen boosts to control the tumbling, in the actual simulator. This was one hell of an experience and the good thing about it is that it won't make us nauseous as our stomach stay centered all the time.

This was followed by training on close to zero gravity or micro-gravity wall. I liked this one the best as it felt like I could climb up and down the wall with almost zero effort! I just had to try to reach down to go down and could use one of my finger to hold on to the higher bar to move up. I could also let go of both my hands and just stay there mid air! It was a neat experience :)

After all the training we started with the space mission simulation. I got to be the pilot for the mission, yay! Vinay was a mission specialist, where he had to maneuver the robotic arm to dock the shuttle with the international space station and deliver a payload to them and Preeth was our boss, the flight director managing us from the Mission control room!

Each one of us were given scripts with our actions and words highlighted, as a pilot my job was mainly to help fly the space craft and acknowledge any emergency alarms and attend to them immediately (the crew from mission control would help us troubleshoot the emergency situations) and finally deploy the landing gear at the correct time for landing and deploying the parachute on touchdown. Our commander was awesome and he landed the shuttle just as it had to be and we were all congratulated by the Space center staff on a very successful mission! Oh yes, and I also got to say the famous "Guys, it was a pleasure flying with you all" to my fellow astronauts on the shuttle :)

We then met a NASA astronaut, Jon McBride. He shared with us his experiences as an astronaut and we got to ask him many questions. One of the highlights was that he used to be a fighter pilot before NASA and he flew those combat aircraft more than 200 times! We also had a graduation ceremony mock-up where we were handed out our certificates, signed by Jon. At the end of it all we seemed like three happy kids who had just gotten to play with very fancy new toys for half a day along with other enthusiastic people!

Why I think I like Google+ better

2011-07-01T11:02:00.000-07:00

Initial thoughts:

The fundamental difference -I can add who I want to my circle and they need not have me in theirs. I don't have to approve any friend requests like Facebook; this to me is a game changer! It saves everyone's time and people need not speculate on how well they know the other person to call her/him a friend before sending a friend request.

Does this pose a problem if anyone can add anyone to their circles? Not really. Because if I add someone and they don't add me, it will become a case of me following that person (only her/his public posts, Twitter-like). And she/he won't see any of my posts as I am not in her/his circles? Which means I can share what I want with who I want, they can choose to see it or ignore it.

To me it looks like the whole concept of socializing made nice and easy yet not compromising on the control the users would always like to have.

This is just the initial thought, need to see what other things they will add to it (apps and stuff), lot of details that needs to be understood and pondered on etc. but I do think that it's a great step towards making what is so hip today (Facebook) irrelevant ;)

2011-06-25T20:00:00.000-07:00

Today a dear friend of mine got a small design I created inked on his shoulder! And it made me so very happy :) He had told me that he was thinking getting a tattoo a while ago. He wanted a Trishula (three-spear) and had asked me to design one. Now he is a guy with a strong mind and a gentle heart. So I tried a few concepts like the third eye in the middle spear of the Trishula, a Trishula like a flower bud, and a Trishula with its spears on fire etc. There was one where I had an Om and the Trishula as the Chandra bindu (moon and dot) of the Om. And I also had one where the Trishula was made of the special characters we use in coding, this one was my favorite because he is one of the best C++ programmers I have come across :) He seemed to like the Om one and the one with code characters and we had to decide on one. So I ended up combining the two designs and he seemed to like the final one and he said he would get it done sometime soon. But today when he said he actually got it done, I was so thrilled. Many thanks to him! I realized how wonderful it feels to know that a friend chose to have my creation permanently inked.

I never thought

2011-06-02T14:32:00.002-07:00

in the wildest of my dreams that I would be in a lineup outside an NHL team store, on a weekday, waiting in rain for the store to open, in an attempt to buy the team jersey.

But there I was, in front of the Vancouver Canucks team store today at around 9:45am. The store was to open at 10:00am and I had a meeting at 11:00am. I finished one of the meetings at 9:00am and started from office, grabbed a quick breakfast on the way and reached the store to see a line-up with people with umbrellas! I stood there, waiting for the store to open and hoping to find a jersey of size "small" for Vinay. It's anyway very hard to find that size but we were told there would be new stock coming in today and hence the hope. The guy in front of me told me that the store would open at 12:00 today and I asked him if it was true in a such a shocking/dramatic tone that he apologized immediately and said he was only joking. The store then opened and I found out that there were no small jerseys available after all. The new ones that came in were already sold out as they first make them available to the ticket holders in the stadium during the game (which happened yesterday). Sigh. So I had no choice but to return disappointed, thinking how else I could source a jersey before the next game etc.

That's when it hit me, I had never thought that I would one day be following NHL or Hockey like this. I still don't do it as religiously as Vinay does but the facts that I have watched almost all the games in the playoffs, have not missed any crucial ones and have celebrated the goals like a happy fan were enough to wonder how I caught this hockey madness. Here goes the rationalization 1. Vinay is such a sports freak, that it's almost impossible to stay away from them. 2. Hockey is celebrated in Canada or at least in Vancouver; the city, people, media are all so much into it, it's only fair to get into it and fly a Canucks flag from your car. 3. It's fast! that's a great reason for me to start falling in love with it :)

Helsinki as I saw it

2011-04-06T13:31:00.000-07:00

I have to start with this -

I have always had trouble in placing my carry on bag in the overhead bin, thanks to my height and strength! So most of the time I have travelled alone it's some guy who helps me put it up but this time in the Frankfurt to Helsinki flight when I lifted my bag as if I needed no help (I do this every time :D) and after it was evident that I needed help, I saw a lady get up and say "I'll get that" and she put the bag up there and smiled beautifully and took her seat. I thanked her with a big grin and my joy knew no bounds.

Then it was not difficult to notice that in Helsinki women were less hesitant than men. It also looked like most of the jobs that needed interaction with people frequently were taken by women. Later my colleague put it rightly that in Finland women socialized more than the men.

Next the weather -

Almost all the days I was in Helsinki it was bright and sunny. It was cold, yes, the lowest temperature was around -32 deg Celsius but it never was gloomy. The fresh snow and the brilliant sun was a perfect combination to brighten the mood. And there was Sauna to beat the cold anyway.

And then the people -

I have always thought these Finns are wonderful people, based on my interaction with a whole bunch of them at work and of course because I was a big fan of Kimi before I interacted with any Finns. A trip to Helsinki only confirmed that, they are simply nice and honest. Maybe the Finns in Helsinki are rawer. That's probably why I saw a guy cycling at -7 deg Celsius (and it was dark already) or why a taxi driver knew so much about Nokia, mobile platforms, Meego, Apple and the ecosystem they created etc. or why it looked safe for people to walk around the bus loop at 2:00 am in the night or why an elderly man tapped on my shoulder and asked if I was okay when I was sitting on a couch in a mall (I was all tired and jetlagged).

And then there were my friends from Bangalore, it was great to meet up with them and spend time talking like there was no tomorrow. And as a cherry on top I had the pleasure of sharing my trip with this gentleman from Vancouver who I call an-unusual-Finn as he can talk more than me!

And their art -

Like the people their art was also raw, honest, straight and some were brutal too, specially the contemporary art in Kaisma (Sara's Ekstrom's Limbus was on exhibit there). Ateneum had the Illusions of reality with the theme of paintings being the realities of a modern society and everyday lives of people.

And finally the roads -

It was so hard to walk on those slippery roads, it demanded my full attention. It almost felt like they were saying this - Stop running towards something all the time, do some justice to me, look at me, be with me, walk with care! And I did appreciate those roads in more ways than I imagined :)

Noomi Rapace

2010-07-10T10:25:00.000-07:00

What other title could I give? She's on my mind since I watched the awaited movie last night -The girl who played with fire. When I watched the The girl with the dragon tattoo in April, I loved the characterization of Lisabeth Salander, it boosted my feminist ego. It was very gripping even with the flaws in the plot. What interested me most is -in the days where we hardly see any movie that takes time to define its female characters the movie did a great job in defining Lisabeth's role so strongly. Though it's the author of the series that defined the character I think the movie did so much justice to the original character and I was convinced that no one could have played it better than Noomi Rapace.

So then I watch this sequel last night, I liked the movie and all that but again what intrigued me the most is Noomi's acting, she was so fantastic and perfect. If I had watched these movies when I was a teenager I would wish I could be like Lisabeth Salander. Now I wish I could act like Noomi Rapace!

Dance

2010-02-14T12:32:00.000-08:00

Is one of my favorite art-forms. It never fails to fascinate me, it gives this unique feeling of being free. I myself haven't taken any dance classes except for a few casual tango/jive classes that Vinay and I took long ago. Thanks to my friend Bindu who is an amazing Bharatanatyam dancer, because of her I think I am involved in dance more than I thought I would have :) I admire their eye movements, their grace and I start to think that I can feel what they feel, some of them consider it so divine and I can sense that from their performance. And I seem to have this special attraction towards Kathak when it comes to the steps and costume. I just love it when their skirts flare out beautifully during the spins and I can only think of that when I imagine a painting to depict the feel of a dance! It's almost like the ultimate depiction of freedom :)

Here are two small abstracts I made to start with, in the memory of the immense pleasure dance has given me. I dedicate them to Bindu :) I am sure I can't stop at these, I think I will be studying more and working more on the theme dance!

2010-02-13T23:14:00.000-08:00

Vancouver is full of people and excitement these days, thanks to the winter Olympics 2010. The city is all decorated etc. but what makes it more special is the people - it's always nice to be amidst a crowd of people from various places, more so when they are excited. Spent the whole day yesterday going to different parts of the city and checking out the stalls, the Olympic village, the Olympic flame etc. It was warm and raining most of the tome, it's probably the warmest city to host the winter Olympics. It was nice to see the artists playing music, performing magic etc. on the roads of downtown and the volunteers who very kind and also the locals/volunteers wearing the ASK ME tags :) Another thing that needs a mention is the Olympic store that was overcrowded with people buying loads of things! It was one heck of an experience of excitement, now look forward to the watching the hockey game this evening.

2009-11-18T20:03:00.000-08:00

I am sure all of Kimi's fans would be as heartbroken as me after hearing the news that he won't be racing in F1 next year. Usually people like the sport F1 and then they have their favourite drivers etc. but it was the other way around for me. I used to follow F1 because most/all of my friends were following it and I fell in love with the sport after I fell in love with the driver, Kimi. It is his raw talent to race faster than anyone else that attracted me, always setting those fastest laps, pushing the machine so hard and breaking it many a times, making it a point to win the Belgian grand prix even when he had problems with the car most of the season :) And his "not giving a damn to anyone or anything" attitude that attracted me to him, a simple man with no layers as his manager put it once. I am undecided as to what F1 without Kimi would mean to me.

I saw this today and could think of nothing other than Kimi's decision to not race in F1 next year.

Kimi you will be missed at F1, I wore a Mclaren top when I watched you race in Malaysia 2006 and I wore a Ferrari shirt when I watched you race in Montreal 2008, I think I should start reading about rallying and WRC now. Go Kimi!

2009-11-14T11:59:00.000-08:00

Watched MJ's This is it yesterday. Very impressed and fascinated with his grace. I don't know if everyone sees what I saw, it maybe completely my perspective. For the entire duration I was fascinated by the perfect order that I was seeing in every single movement of his hands, legs, body. I am saying this because those videos were shot during the rehearsals, a show is different. There was absolutely no movement that was out of place, and I couldn't see that order in any of the dancers that danced with him. Of course I am not disrespecting those dancers, I know they were a set of talented dancers selected by MJ himself but I am talking about the 'perfect order all the time', I couldn't see that in anyone. It should be because it's his style and it comes naturally to him. But I must say I was amazed and inspired to a very great extent than my expectations. The memory of his long graceful hands will remain forever.

2009-09-17T08:26:00.000-07:00

What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you look at this picture?

I was beaming with joy when Vinay looked at the restaurant and said "They painted the restaurant red because it's a complementary colour of green!" during our Banff trip. I know I have a long way to go before everyone around me recognise the colours and their effect, especially when I have these dear friends who claim they are "not artistic" or "colour blind"!

2009-07-30T21:10:00.000-07:00

So here it is, the painting where I was experimenting the other two complementary pairs: green-red and yellow-violet. I went to the market in search of flowers to paint as my subject but the moment I looked at the watermelon (small one) I wanted to paint it. Since it was green I bought a bunch of tomatoes as my other subject. After trying out with a few compositions, settled down on this one where I decided to have the subjects placed an a table (which was going to be yellow-violet :)).

It was fun painting this one and I was trying out different brush strokes instead of just making it smooth. In the next class one of my classmates and James (my teacher) pointed out that I might have used Divisionism and a bit of Pointillism in my work. I didn't know what those techniques were, found out about them later. It's interesting that it (divisionism) is based on the science that optical mixing of colors happen and it is not necessary to mix the colors physically all the time.

When I told about this to Chinnu he was telling me how art is supposed to be intuitive and all that but it definitely helps in knowing the science behind it as it makes it faster and it won't take away any creativity or intuitiveness from us.

In the last class James was telling us about the use of Geometry in paintings, which again is arguable that it's not intuitive. Maybe not all the painters used/use it consciously but it is true that images look more pleasing to the eyes when they are proportionate so I think knowing about it only makes it easier and makes us more confident to use it.

The other paintings that I made in the class are uploaded here.

2009-07-04T09:55:00.000-07:00

In the last class we were taught about complementary colors, two colors across from each other on a color wheel through the center of the wheel. In the modern color wheel they would be magenta-green, blue-orange and yellow-violet. The complementary colors increase the visual intensity of each other when placed in close proximity. This theory of complementary was formulated in 1850 or so and was used extensively by the impressionists (Monet etc). James showed us Van Gogh's paintings before he moved to Paris and the ones after he moved and started using the complementary colors. In one of the letters he wrote to his brother, Van Gogh had mentioned that he was experimenting the usage of three pairs of complementary colors in the same painting.

We learnt to mix a pair of complementary colors (plus white) in varying proportions to form a Dyad. We were supposed to make an abstract painting using this complementary blend only. Here is the picture of what I made using the blue-orange complementary pair. When I was working on this one Vinay pointed out that the Indian cricket team's new jersey designed by Nike uses the same complementary pair :)

2009-06-08T20:09:00.000-07:00

Started my painting classes at the Emily Carr University of Art & Design, with the instructor James Lindfield. I have taken up a course Fundamentals of Oil Paintings under their Continuing Studies Program for the adults. I loved the Granville Island from the day I went there the first time, it is a haven for the arts, you find different festivals, live performances, street buskers over there. This university is on the Granville Island and so I was all excited about taking up the course. I waited for the online registration to open as there were only 16 slots, and managed to register on time.

So I had my first class on Sunday. Well, we were supposed to have our first class on the last Sunday but we didn't as our instructor forgot about the class as he was busy working at his studio :) I like the instructor and all that and I now find it hard to not think about painting, the class, what paintings we students did, what the instructor told for each one of us and what not, when I am at work :(

Above image is a picture of the painting I did in my first class, I chose a candle holder as the object to paint. We have assignments too! The course has eight classes, and I am expecting to learn most, if not all, of the oil painting techniques by the end of it.

:(

2009-05-05T22:43:00.000-07:00

In 2007 (Dec), I thanked people who planted the trees in Jayanagar in one of my posts. And in 2008 (Nov-Dec), I hear that these trees are going to be felled to make way for the Metro. But I always thought it won't happen because no one can actually think of cutting those trees on the Nanda road, they make a distinguished part of Bangalore.

No, I am not against development/progress. But to me, felling trees on the Nanda road (and Lalbagh) to make way for the Metro is like demolishing a part of Taj Mahal to make way for the Metro! Because those trees are part of our heritage just like how Taj Mahal is. I never thought it would be difficult for anyone to accept this, I thought Hasiru Usiru was doing a great job and we should be able to save those trees. Anitha, Boda and Chilli have been working a great deal for this cause with Hasiru Usiru.

From what I hear from them about the protests/progress, I realize that people don't care about these trees at all! :( Here are the updates from them, extremely disheartening.

From:Anitha
Sent: Monday, May 04, 2009 9:14 PM
Subject: Re: Map fundaes

They came around 5:30 when it started raining and chopped off one tree. As they saw people approaching to question them, they ran away! They even left the cut tree in the Lalbagh premises.

Some of the eye witnesses lodged a police complaint and the guy there said they will give protection for one night. So a constable was stationed at that place in Lalbagh so hopefully no more trees were cut last night.

----------------------------------------

From: Sridhar
Sent: Wednesday, May 06, 2009 10:42 AM
Subject: Bad day yesterday ...

The Mothers of Bangalore (Sanmathi) wanted to raise awareness in the Jayanagar 4th Block area. So, they held a protest there yesterday. I was supposed to go along with them to try getting information about people who might support our cause. The whole evening turned out to be a big messy affair!

Things were going fine with the mothers singing songs on Bangalore and asking the people of Bangalore to arise to the illegality of the Metro, about how they weren't against the Metro, but wanted it to be built in a legal manner, with least damage to the environment as possible. Then these two guys start shouting at us for being anti-Metro. So this is the exchange I am involved with.
Metro-fanatic 1 & 2: Metro is a dream for us. Metro is a 100 year old dream. How can you oppose it!
Me: We are not opposing the Metro. But we want it to go underground.
Metro-fanatic 1 & 2: Metro is a dream for us. Metro is a 100 year old dream. How can you oppose it!
Me: We are not opposing the Metro. But we want it to go underground.
Metro-fanatic 1 & 2: Metro is a dream for us. Metro is a 100 year old dream. How can you oppose it!
Me: We are not opposing the Metro. But we want it to go underground.
Metro-fanatic 1 & 2: Metro is a dream for us. Metro is a 100 year old dream. How can you oppose it!
Me: We are not opposing the Metro. But we want it to go underground.
...
...
Metro-fanatic 1 & 2: What's the harm if 4 trees go?! If we need progress, we need to sacrifice some things.
[NOTE: All this is being shouted at me, and I am trying to be as calm as I can under the circumstances.]
Me: When there is an alternative solution possible which will not only help the trees, but also make the Metro more useful, why should we go with the current alignment?
Metro-fanatic 1 & 2: There are trees being cut in front of hotels, bars. Why don't you protest there?
Me: Come, let's go right now and protest those as well.

Obviously doesn't come.

...
...
Metro-fanatic 1 & 2: It's our right for a Metro. Because of your selfishness, we can't lose the Metro. Delhi has it. Hyderabad has it. We also want it.
Me: Delhi, inside the city, has Metro underground.
Metro-fanatic 1 & 2: Metro is a dream for us. Metro is a 100 year old dream. How can you oppose it!
...
...
Metro-fanatic 1 & 2: All you people opposing are not Kannadigas. You are not from Bangalore.

At which point, another person in the crowd told me to not waste time talking to these people, and come out of the crowd. I did.

The women were still singing the songs. When these people go up to them, pointing fingers, flailing arms at them. Accusing them of people who will not remain in Bangalore.
Metro-fanatic 1: You people will go off to foreign. We want our Metro.
[NOTE: That guy was wearing a San Francisco T-shirt.]
...
...
And a minor slip from one of the women. She wants to ask the people of Jayanagar to be unapathetic, and arise. She says, "Kannadigas are lazy. We need to get up and fight this!"

M-f 1 & 2 latch on to this. And that's the end. :(

They tell us that we have 10 minutes to vacate the place, else we will be beaten up.

Anitha is waiting at Lalbagh where another tree was cut in the afternoon. As I leave from 4th block, she tells me that the DCP, ACP have given us assurance that no more tree-felling will happen until the 9th (when there will be another protest - probably the most important/final one).

-- edited to remove a line --

In the afternoon at Lalbagh, I am talking to the contractor in-charge of cutting the trees. He asks me where I was when trees were being cut at Vijaynagar, K R Road, etc. I tell him that when it happened on Seshadri Road, we were there. With a proud smirk, he says, "I was there at Seshadri Road". Resisted an urge to slap him.

End of the day, that's the story. Logic of most people - "You didn't protest before, why are you protesting before? Just let it go!" It doesn't strike them that it is this attitude that will result in more encroachments, more autocracy from the rogue BMRCL. Right now the station at Lalbagh doesn't have a parking lot, auto stand, bus stop, etc. They've ONLY taken 0.1% of Lalbagh. Few years down the line, I can visualise them saying this, "We have 0.1% already. What's another 1%? Besides, we need parking lots. We can't have roads jammed!"

Of course, it's progress. Development.

Excellent. Long live mindless infrastructure development.

Only good thing. Another day where I didn't beat up somebody.

I can't even imagine what Boda must be going through. In his place, I would have probably snapped a long time back.

----------------------------------------

From:Sridhar
Sent: Wednesday, May 06, 2009 3:23 AM
Subject: Re: Bad day yesterday ...

They had come with 4 police lorries, 5 jeeps, etc. Women police as well. Spoke to the DCP/ACP who had promised us protection just yesterday. His words, "Orders from higher up. Can't do anything."

I saw the cutting of 4 trees. They are in such a hurry to finish up. Most of the trees are landing on the asbestos walls they've put up.

All trees will be cut today for sure. And the saddest part, the land transfer to BMRCL hasn't even been done yet. Long live the Metro!

There are more protests planned (check http://hasiruusiru.org), these should make a difference, please spread the word.

2009-05-02T08:44:00.000-07:00

I was excited to hear that Dr. Stroustrup was going to be talking on C++0x in Vancouver. A bunch of us that registered for the talk got official invites from the Simon Fraser university as our company has an university relations group that work closely with the universities.

So there we were, at the SFU on the 30th of April to take part in Dr. Stroustrup's talk. Dr. Stroupstrup talked about the new ISO standard for C++ that he has been working on and that he intends to get done by 2009, it's called C++0x (zero-x as the year is unknown until the standard is out).

I was expecting some major additions if not changes, however didn't see a lot of new stuff or radically different advances. Well, the reason maybe obvious that millions of people already use C++ and anything newly introduced shouldn't break the existing code and because whatever is done should kind of fit into the existing tool chains.

Here is what I could gather
1. Improvements to aid programming with systems that work closely with hardware, to support concurrency -new components, threads and thread pools added.
2. Increase type safety (strict enum type checks etc)
3. Initializer lists (std::initializer_list) to aid initializing pretty much everywhere - vectors, class members, function arguments something like below

void f(int, std::initializer_list, int)
so -> f(1, {2,3,4}, 5);

4. easier and safer use of templates
5. And a lot of smaller things like static_asserts, simplifying for loop syntax etc.

There were a few lighter moments in the talk that I must say I enjoyed :) He said a lot of people keep saying that C++ is not used much but it is a blatant lie. He also said we are not talking about the medium sized, medium reliable, medium performance applications written by mediocre programmers for windows!

There was also a slide listing what (who) all use C++ -Mar's Rover, Google's file system, Microsoft's every product, Photoshop, Cell phones, Gaming, Graphics, Compilers, Chip design etc.
A detailed list of applications that use C++ on his website -http://research.att.com/~bs/applications.html

It felt good to listen to him speak about something he created (that I have been using to write code) and is passionately working on it, the authority with which he speaks makes it nicer :)

2009-04-05T08:56:00.001-07:00

Finished painting Karthik's 'Together' picture just before leaving for Bangalore so that I could give it to him. And tried taking pictures of the painting, never got the colors or the composition right :(

Here is a close up of one portion of the painting. The colors are still not good, the original painting is more grayish but the cameras seem to make it more blueish.

Finally a good one, this one was taken by Karthik himself :)

Sea to sky highway

2009-02-08T10:43:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we drove to Whistler town, thanks to Tara and Akhilesh who are here on an official visit, we made up our mind to get to Whistler finally. Whistler town hosts the Whistler mountain (named after the whistling calls of the marmots to warn friends of the impending danger, that lived in the alpine areas of the mountain). Whistler mountain hosts the ski resort Whistler Blackcomb, more than a million people go there each year. This is the official ski resort for the 2010 Winter Olympics that is going to happen in Vancouver.

Whistler is a famous place and its beauty and grandness is talked about all the time but what I found amazing was the drive! The sea to sky highway which connects Vancouver and Whistler (Whistler is around 120 km from Vancouver) is a two lane (most part of it) scenic highway that passes both the pacific ocean and the snow-capped mountains. It was simply spectacular to drive on the highway. Here are a few pictures...
Around 80-90km of the highway was covered with these mountains and the ocean. And most both sides of the highway has these glaciated mountains which was really a treat.

There were view points too where we stopped and admired the views! There is construction going on for the Winter Olympics and so there were traffic diversions at some parts of the highway, however that didn't take away anything from the wonderful experience we had driving through this highway.

Want to do more trips to Whistler, people, please do visit us :) Susie you reading this? :)

2009-01-31T22:01:00.000-08:00

It's been a really good month when it comes to the movies that I have watched...considering the fact that sometimes we wait so badly for a good movie, it makes me very happy that we have so many movies, all good ones!

Let me go in the reverse order because the latest movie compelled me to think of all the movies I watched :)

Luck by chance! -Such a well made movie... I walked out of the theater feeling so nice about the movie, it's makers, myself and life :) Thanks to Vinay, he wanted to watch it the moment he saw that it was released.
I had heard Zoya Akthar say in an interview that in the 90s all the Hindi movies made were awful and she couldn't relate to any of them. I thought I completely understood her feeling when I watched the interview but after I watched Luck by chance I think I understood her better! I could relate to the movie and connect to the characters in it to a very great extent.
The story of Luck by chance was just so complete, from covering the perspectives so well to getting the message across to the viewers so easily.
How I would like to see it is -Life is probably a very simple movie, you can either play Farhan Akthar or play Konkana Sen and in both the cases you are a winner! :)
Farhan plays an ambitious, confident, selfish (almost an opportunist) guy, actor by profession. And Konkana plays an ambitious, bold, independent, supporting and a sincere girl, actor by profession. Things fall in place for Farhan from the others perspective (from his perspective, he succeeded because of his belief in himself and the aspiration to go as far as it takes ) and he becomes a super star. Konkana is the kind of a person who trusts everyone until the trust is broken and she will have to face the consequences more than once in her life. Nevertheless she gets the point and goes on to do what she likes to do without giving a damn to success or failure.
It was a very nice movie and I loved everything about it, the satirical depiction of Hindi film industry, the emotions experienced by the characters, Farhan not being too much of a hero, Konkana Sen playing the lead role, and Shahrukh Khan's name being the last name to be shown on the "special thanks to" list :)

Defiance -I liked the movie very much. It may not be the first movie on the war between Germans and Jews but it surely is a movie that I am glad I watched. It makes us understand how better off we are when compared to people during those times. Sure we have our problems and they had theirs but I still think we wouldn't have survived those wars like they did. Great performances by the actors.

Revolutionary Road -Thanks to me, I was hell bent upon watching this movie the moment I heard about it. Awesome movie, awesome performances, extremely inspiring!
Again it is something that we all can relate to, very well. I really wish that everyone who watches it get the decisions of their lives right, that is they decide to move to Paris if they were April and Frank :)

Benjamin Button -It is a cretaive one for sure but I thought it got a bit boring after we got the idea because of the length. In any case that movie also had good performances and sincere, earnest moments that I enjoyed.

Slumdog Millionaire -I would say that it was a well made movie but honestly I didn't think it was a great movie. I think I have a problem with the storyline itself, I was just not comfortable buying the fact that Jamal won because it was written. I didn't think someone like Jamal would know the answers to just those questions that were asked (and not even to questions simpler than those) but rather to a lot more questions.
And another disturbing thing about the movie was the way Anil kapoor kept speaking to Jamal during the show. It was unbelievable that he spoke to Jamal so condescendingly! I am not sure if Vikas Swarup's original work also portrays Anil's character that way or if it is just the movie... but that was a total put off. Though I haven't seen much of "Kaun Banega Karorpati" shows, I distinctly remember from the ones I watched that Amitab Bacchan spoke to the contestants with so much respect. I know it is a small part of the movie itself but I must say it disturbed me quite a bit (I mean, we shouldn't be conveying wrong things to the worldwide audience about what happens in a particular Indian show).

Okay! that was a long post but I had to say that I loved the movie Luck by chance :)
To be watched list still has two more movies pending -Doubt, The reader.

2009-01-10T18:34:00.000-08:00

It is 2009. As I welcome the new year I also recollect memories of the year gone by. I think it's something that everyone does but I must say that I do it more religiously after one of my friend Rashmi Kamath wrote a really amazing mail to the group recollecting all the events that had happened in the past year :)

Of the many things, I just thought of checking on my paintings (or art works as I would like to put) and then I thought I should post them here. Though I wanted to make this post, I must say that I was inspired by Dhimant and his work Neumonia and Other Sketch Stories to finally compile and post it!

I made this for one of my friends from office, Bhaktha, in February. He had this so called sun-swallowing picture taken on one of his trips and somehow I wanted to paint it the moment I saw it. I enjoyed working on the sunset part of it (I usually do because I love the sunset colours) and also enjoyed working on his hair as it required very thin strokes.

This was a part (my part) of the mural painting we did at office in August. Though there was no room for creativity or even the choice of colours, I enjoyed doing this on a canvas :) It is the tail of a colourful parrot that was in one of the eight parts of the mural.

This is a sketch of one of my colleagues watching a presentation slide during an all hands meeting at work. It was in September. The meeting was in a hotel and it was really boring, they had given us water cans as gift which came in a cardboard box. This colleague of mine was watching a presentation slide and I noticed that he was watching it very curiously, didn't appear like he would change his posture. So just made his sketch quickly on the cardboard box I had.

I started working on it on the 15th of August, had taken the day off. The theme was independence/freedom. I wanted to use only 3 three colours, the Indian national flag tri-colours and just keep drawing free strokes (of course with a pattern/style in mind) on the paper but no restriction on how it should look or how it shouldn't look. This is what it ended up as :) I finished it in early Dec though I started it on the Independence day!

When I visited EA office (Vinay's), I was totally impressed with the art aspect of it. Every single thing was arranged, designed very creatively. Be it the art on the walls or the theme of their gym everything was creative and artistic. I promised Vinay that I would make something very different for his desk too. I wanted to paint on a rock! I got one too, from a beach we went to. But never made anything on it. Finally I made up my mind and did this in December, it was Vinay's idea that I make maple leaves on it.

Thank you and hope to do more in 2009!

2008-09-19T14:46:00.000-07:00

Watched this play Twelfth Night last night. It actually felt good, I was watching a play after a long time and it was different form all the plays I had watched as the play was inside a tent (500 seats) with an open backdrop! The play was presented by a not-for-profit, professional Shakespeare Festivals - Bard on the Beach. The tent is set up near a beach (English Bay beach). I always enjoy watching live performances, especially plays. Though I had a little problem in following some of the parts of the play (which didn't involve the main characters), I could enjoy it. The acting was very good, made me laugh quite a bit (considering my taste for humor). I think I liked the songs (and the music) the best...and was really impressed by the fact that almost all actors could sing so well. I was only hearing about actors singing their songs themselves in theater but hadn't seen a play where most actors sang their songs. One of the guys was singing and playing the music, that was very good. On the whole, it was very refreshing :) (though I ended up being frustrated after the play for all wrong reasons). Here is the picture of the stage that I took during the break.

2008-08-06T17:02:00.000-07:00

Addicted to this game Fantastic Contraption. It is really a cool game and my friend has written a good post on it here.

I thought of posting the links to some of my designs (our designs as Vinay helped me with them), starting level 11 only as the first 10 levels are quite easy. Also I didn't do level 13 and 14 as my friends sent the designs even before I had started working on them. I did complete a couple of them (level 11 and level 17 to be precise) even after my friends sent them as I had already started working on them.

Although they are not the best of the designs, I really enjoyed making them :) A big thanks to the creators of this game! And special thanks to Vinay for sending it to us!!

Mission to Mars
Up the Stairs
Down Under
Awash
Handling
Tube
Back and Forth

Handling and Back and Forth are my favourite designs among these :)

credit to the credits girl!

2008-07-07T14:54:00.000-07:00

Although I used to look at the closing credits of a film, it was more of a casual look and the duration of this act of looking at the closing credits were based on various factors, number of people walking out of the movie, who I went to the movie with etc.
Yesterday I learnt that one of my friend's friend who is a director herself in an NGO doesn't like it when people don't watch the closing credits. It suddenly occurred to me that she was so right!, it is a way of acknowledging the creators. I also regretted for having not thought about it earlier. But now I will make it a point to sit through the closing credits hope that people who read this also do. And the credit of making us realise the importance of doing so goes to her.

2008-06-25T12:30:00.000-07:00

Well, Montreal GP 2008 was another race that Kimi DNF and I watched it live! May be its me, Kimi was out of both the races I watched live. I wrote about the other race here.

However I could watch him race and race well this time :) It was an eventful race with quite a few incidents and most incidents confining to the hairpin (turn 10), where we were seated!

2008-05-24T09:55:00.000-07:00

Stumbled upon this awesome link and I am so overwhelmed by the way the video is made and the way the info' is presented! The timing was quite right too, I had just finished reading the adventures of the physicist Richard Feynman and was so blown over by his personality and talent and had realised how we were not taught physics the way it should have been :( (I wonder if we can do any good to our DreamSchool kids :()
It's brilliant, never seemed to have liked any info' on the web so much. So thought of writing things that I understood from the clips (I haven't watched it completely... still need to watch the last hour out of the 3 hours but couldn't resist writing about it). Please watch it, it's worth every moment.

Newton's days (300 yrs ago) - He discovered that the force that makes an apple fall on to the ground is the same force that keeps the earth in its orbit as it revolves around the sun... and he called the force Gravity.

Einstein happened to prove that nothing can travel faster than light including gravity. And this meant that Newton was wrong. Because according to Newton, say if the sun disappeared due to some catastrophe, the earth (and other planets) would just move out of the orbit in a tangential direction immediately. Now with Einstein proving that light travels the fastest and that it takes 8 minutes for the light to reach earth from the sun, if the sun disappeared, how can earth move out of the orbit immediately as the effect of 'no gravity' would not even have reached the earth (it would take at least 8 minutes remember)!

So Newton was wrong in assuming that gravity was instantaneous, that it acts upon a body immediately! Einstein solved this by reasoning Gravity as wraps and curves in the fabric of space and time (you must see the video for this) and also so proved that gravity travels as fast as light and reaches the earth like waves through the fabric of time and space taking the same time as that of light. This is the general theory of relativity.

Now there is gravity, but there is also electromagnetism the force that bounces us back when we fall off a roof of a 40 storied building. If there were to be no electromagnetism, there would have been a hole formed in the earth due to the fall. And also this force is much stronger than gravity. It is the force due to repulsion of the electrons of the two bodies when they come closer.

Now we have a feeble force gravity and a strong force electromagnetism. Einstein's wanted to find an encompassing theory that combines the physical laws of these two forces as part of his dream to have a unified theory to explain the universe, a theory of everything that he couldn't achieve in his lifetime.

After this came the quantum mechanics which said that at the tiny scale of atoms and particles, everything is uncertain, the world is a game of chance! If you imagine yourself to be in a quantum cafe and order a blue coffee, it's not certain that you get a blue coffee, you might get a red coffee! But this uncertainty in the quantum world is at such a tiny scale that we don't realise it in the real world. Now this is a contradiction to the Einstein's theory of gravity which demands certainty.

Also along with electromagnetism there were the strong and weak nuclear forces at the atomic level... and the mainstream science had accepted the particles as points and successfully united the strong force, weak force and electromagnetism, they called it the standard model. And at this atomic/subatomic world of particles, the gravity which explains the large world of astronomy so well, never fit! it was the odd man out...

There were also a group of people who believed that the universe was made of tiny vibrating stands of energy called strings. And that the string theory can unite the conflicting set of laws (the laws that govern the larger objects like galaxies and the laws that govern the subatomic particles) with one master equation. It all happened when a young physicist discovered what appeared to be string like objects hidden beneath the abstract symbols of a 200 yr old equation. Though he thought he would be considered the next Einstein nothing like that happened as the mainstream science was busy unifying the nuclear forces and electromagnetism.

But some scientists continued to work on string theory trying to tame the unruly equations of the theory. There were anomalies like a particle with no mass and a particle that could travel faster than light etc. But when they thought of Gravity being that particle with no mass and of the other forces also as particles (these particles which are forces were called the messenger particles), things seem to fall in place. They could get an equation involving gravity too, which meant that they could explain how gravity worked at the subatomic level.

However the string theory demands more dimensions (eleven of them) than we know of (the 3 spacial dimension and one temporal). The idea here is explained in a very simple manner. If we look at cable that holds something, it looks like a line to us (from far) meaning we see just one dimension. But for an ant that is exploring that cable, from its point of view, another dimension comes into picture, the ant can move forward and backward along the length of the cable (dimension 1) and it also can move clock wise and anticlockwise along the circumference of the cable (dimension 2). So the spacial dimensions can come in 2 flavours, along the lengths (the ones we know of), along the circumference.

A German mathematician had already proposed the existence of an invisible extra spacial dimension as he needed a place for his electromagnetic ripples (like how gravity was explained as wraps and ripples over 3 spatial and 1 temporal dimensions) and Einstein believed in this German mathematician's proposal.

So even if there were to be more dimensions, how would these extra dimensions (of course they are not visible) look like? Scientists propose that at every single point in space, there is a circular ring whose circumference, only an ant that is billions of times smaller can explore. And the existence of these additional dimensions at every sinlge point in space is the heart of string theory!
And since it is all at that invisible scale, its difficult to prove it all by experiments but unless it is proven experimentally, it won't be science but philosophy and so the scientists are on their way to prove it all, good luck to them!

Source: The above info' is based on what is available at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/elegant/program_d.html

2008-04-17T14:40:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine asked me to write about my experience here in Vancouver when I was speaking to him last night. When I thought of it I smiled to myself, all I have to say is that I miss my people and Bangalore! But when I thought about it again as to what is it that I would like to tell people about my one and half months' stay here, the thing that came to my mind is this...
The energy consumption here is too high. I know that its not a discovery, thats what I notice when I walk around, do things here. If automation everywhere is one of the reasons, another one would be the independent/individualistic lifestyle (Energy consumption is not shared, energy is used again and again to get the same type of job done by each person).
So when I came across a cartoon (sent by the same friend :)) that said something on the lines of "When I walk past an automatic door and it opens for me, I feel sorry for the door...if I don't go in I'll hurt its feelings", I said that I don't really feel sorry for the door but I do feel sorry that it opened! else some energy could have been conserved!

I also read here that the energy conservation might be enforced as a law by mandating the energy efficient equipments.

Hmmm, I would like to add that I am not being as energetic as I used to be in Bangalore and I will have to work on that :)

2007-12-09T21:21:00.000-08:00

I did something very satisfying after a long time, planted trees on the sides of a road in Koramangala (the regional passport office road). Thanks to Bindu for getting me into it :-)

An organisation called TreesForFree (http://treesforfree.org/) had taken up this task of planting trees in Koramangala on Saturday. When Bindu told me about it I was very excited about the idea and agreed to join her. We reached that place at 10:00 AM and waited for a while for the dignitaries to plant the first few trees. In fact we didn't wait, we just left the first few slots and started off with the rest. Bindu and I were doing something together after a long time, we were very enthusiastic! There were people from a nursery to assist us but I think they had done most of the work. We had to just place the trees in the holes that were dug up in advance and cover it with mud (two different kinds of mud) using a shovel. Ms. Janet who was leading the activity was quite happy with us and said she would let us know when they plan tree planting in other areas around Bangalore. We must have planted around 12-14 trees.

After we left the place, it felt nice to think how it would feel when walk on that road 10-20 years later :-) I was thinking about those people who planted trees in Jayanagar, BasavanaguDi etc. we owe them a big thanks.

fanaticism continues...

2007-11-01T20:19:00.000-07:00

KIMI in my hands ;-)

Chinnu, Vinay and I assembled this racing car yesterday :-) We found the kit with tools and parts in Landmark toys section!

Kimi, you rock!!

2007-10-21T11:12:00.000-07:00

Kimi is the world champion!! Just can't describe how it feels, had waited for this day all along...

Chak De India! Chuck chauvinism!

2007-08-12T23:37:00.000-07:00

what effect it had on me as i watched... the movie elevated my feminist ego and the love for my country! and i enjoyed watching every bit of it :-)

it's simply a no nonsense movie made with a sincere effort to showcase the intention and emotions of the coach Negi (on who the story is based on), the Indian authorities' attitude towards a women's team, the problems, insecurities, emotions the team members go through and how a sensible coach who is extremely focused can make a big difference!

details! they have given enough time to establish each team member's attitude so that we can appreciate it when they the coach has an influence on them. there is a fine balance between the theory and the practicalities of the game, the team playing hockey looks very realistic...they haven't missed the technical details. nothing in the movie is introduced just for the sake of it or anything, it looks like everything is there for a reason, or at least i could find a justification.

SRK rocks as the coach, his focus, his arrogance, his fairness, his ability to sense the exact problem/issue with the team members...are all showcased very well, he gets full marks for his acting.

i read in TOI that he touched Negi's feet when he went to see him first, and also that he was very detailed and made sure that every technical detail was correct. Negi has also said that he was around when the last scene (India winning the WC) was shot and he had his doubts as to if someone can actually express/demonstrate the emotions he went through in reality...but when SRK performed, he was speechless and thought it couldn't have been demonstrated better than the way he did!

with all this, what i liked the most about the movie was the parts where SRK stresses on playing for India and the parts where it is shown that he never discriminates between men and women!
and my favourite scene in the movie...
when SRK proposes a match b/w men's hockey team and women's team to decide if the women's team gets to go to the WC or not, he says "lets have a match b/w your team and my team" and the other person says "yeah, a match b/w men' steam and the women's team" and SRK stresses "a match between your team and my team"! i don't know if anyone could find it special but i did! when he stressed on "my team and your team" as a means to imply his non-discrimination, i could sense the respect he had for women...it's showcased so well is what i felt!

loving people...

2007-06-15T02:05:00.000-07:00

just a thought that crossed my mind, that i can insanely admire some people for what they are!

watched this play “mysooru mallige” at ranga shankara yday, it was a good play though i thought it could have been a little shorter. i couldn't relate to all/most of the incidents showcased on the stage but in the end i saw myself standing up and applauding, i was really thrilled! i think what touched me is the fact that the poet in the play just wrote poems cos he loved to write, nothing more nothing less! there were a few strong dialogues which stressed this fact towards the end of the play and I think they what made me admire the poet so much. he said he wrote and wrote, never had time to stop and look at what he had written earlier. he said if he had spent time on getting his work acknowledged by someone he would never have written as much as he had written now. he said he could write what he wrote cos of what he was and couldn't have done that if he attempted to become someone. think it is so true.

i recently read Bill Watterson's graduation speech. he said the only significant thing he did in his first year was that he painted the ceiling of his room. he finished painting it towards the end of the year only to wipe it off by the year end as agreed! but he said that was one of the most satisfying things that he had done! amazing!

yeah, one kind of people... their passion is in doing things that they love/creating things they would want to create without spending time no anything else. there are some whose passion is in doing good to the rest of the people. there are some who are just principled. so many people to admire, an interview with Ratan Tata on a TV channel excites me so much...knowing that Rajani kant returns money to his producers/distributors if his films don't do well delights me.

coming to the people in my own life, i do insanely admire them for what they are! not just the people who are close to me but it could be someone who i interacted with for a very short period of time. once in the malleshwaram govt. school we asked the kids to write down what they wanted to become when they are old. one of the kids wrote that he doesn't know what he wants to become but he only knows that he wants to build a lot of orphanages and help all the orphan kids in his country! he touched a deep part of me by saying that, i really admire that kid.

i don't know if i can write what i am thinking but it’s something like i tend to love some people... the way they are, the things they do, the things they say, everything about them excites me, delights me, inspires me...

have no idea if am doing anything with all the inspiration from these people but it’s a special thought/feeling for me :-)

something i did recently out of passion and inspiration.

This was inspired by a picture taken by my friend Sainath :)

surpriZe!

2007-01-10T20:19:00.000-08:00

A radio station here had a contest last evening where the host asked people to make a funny prediction of the movie Guru's story and she would give away two tickets to the first day's evening show as the prize! I never participate in any such contests but yesterday I was just thinking why they came up with such a contest. I listened to a couple of people who made funny predictions and won the tickets. I thought I can't make a funny prediction of a movie like Guru and just tried listening to some other station. But it somehow disturbed me and I decided to send the following message to them.

"Sorry.. Can't make a funny prediction of Mani's movie, am a big fan and am expecting the movie to leave a profound message -Ashwini"

After I sent it, I thought I sounded arrogant. But to my surprise, they actually called me and told me that I can collect my tickets!!
So, may be radio station guys also like Mani and his movies! Cheers to Mani!

2007-01-09T01:16:00.000-08:00

proudly presenting my student Arvind's drawing :)
no, i don't teach him drawing... we teach him english but am really proud that he has the talent to draw pictures really well!

talking silently!

2006-10-17T16:29:00.000-07:00

It's the opposite of thinking aloud! I am at office with nothing much to do and no one to talk to..So, here I write...

I am wondering ...do people stay silent, unexpressive because they are mature, composed or because they are not confident or because they are not passionate about any particular thing in life?

A part of the office here has a glass ceiling, its like working in natural sunlight...its designed in such a way that there is sunlight but we get to sit in shade...I think it's a wonderful thing...I love it!

I met this lady in the airplane who is a resident of Vancouver for the past 16 years. She was returning to Vancouver from India. She told me that Vancouver is a beautiful city and all that. After a pause she said she liked India better and continued that her kids and her husband don't prefer living in India. I also heard that my manager who was working in the US decided to settle in India because his wife preferred living in India. This is the case with two of the couples that I know well...the girls prefers living in India, the guys don’t!

I think I am religious... because I believe that a religion brings in discipline in an individual, it keeps us on track. Say I happen to stamp on a paper by mistake, I make sure that do the "touching the paper and then touching my eyes" thing every time (Paper is considered to be God Saraswati according to the Hindu religion). I do that because I know that it will make me more disciplined, it helps me in being committed on the things that I do. It is true with all the religions. Nowadays people don't seem to believe in a religion... that is definitely good considering the unity it brings in among the people irrespective of their religion but at the same time would it encourage people to be not hesitant in doing the wrong things?

It's Kimi’s birthday today! I already wrote a mail to the group about it, told people here about it! I also completed one year in my second company. No, I didn't plan it that way! It was just a coincidence... his birthday and my joining date. And yeah, I like to be a fanatic :)

I don't think I can survive without Indian food. I can't enjoy food anyway but I can't eat food that is not Indian. I am glad nature has a strong influence on people when it comes to food, if not the living place. People might like to go live in a different country but when it comes to food, they prefer their food :)

I really like the Sunidhi Chauhan song "beeDi.." from Omkara! Have always admired her powerful voice!

Sound of WordsWorth!

2006-07-27T23:55:00.000-07:00

The Basavangudi school kids repeating the new words that we taught them was our music for the day on Saturday, when we continued with the WordsWorth session that we had started the previous Saturday.

We were seven of us (should i say the seven notes)- Divya, Ganaraj, Praveen, Shilpa, Shwetha, Vikram and myself. It actually reminded me of the do-re-mi song from sound of music :). I was trying to recollect the song but just couldn't get it untill I called up Rashmi the next day and got the lyrics!

We covered around 20-30 words (mostly fruits and vegetables). We noticed that a few kids picked up the words sooner than the others. Some kids were hesitant in say the words if they didn't find it easy. We were thinking of making smaller groups from next time onwards so that we can make each kid repeat every single word that we teach.

Thanks to Vikram for getting this going and to all the other volunteers :)

And the song ...
Do, a deer, a female deer,
Re, a drop of golden sun,
Mi, a name I call myself,
Fa, a long long way to run,
So, a needle pulling thread,
La, a note to follow so,
Ti, a drink with jam and bread,
That'll bring us back to Do -
do-re-mi-fa-so-la-ti-do!

the thin line between 'misssing it' and 'doing it'

2006-06-30T19:48:00.000-07:00

the thinner the line, the deeper the disappointment!

yes, this is about Argentina missing it and Germany doing it.
it was a close one as both the teams were in very good form and it was a well fought game.

the line was thin for sure but it came into existence because of few significant issues -

taking off both Riquelme and Crespo - that was something unusual to do after a 1-0 lead. Argentina would have definitely won if Riquelme had continued on the field, the coach's decision was not good at all

Abbondanzieri's retirement -it was unfortunate is all I can say :(

the referee favouring Germany - yes, there were a lot of incidents where he favoured Germany but I can mention at least two glaring ones, Sorin's yellow card and Rodriguez' yellow card. they both were booked for no fault of theirs!

hence the thin line and it hit us hard when there was no Riquleme or Crespo to shoot the ball and all we had was a substitute goalkeeper to save during the penalty shootout!

Argentina had to miss and they did...
...though they very well deserved to win!
It was hard to accept it as they played a better football than the Germans yesterday :(

last WC, I was backing Germany after Argentina was knocked out in the first round. but after watching yday's match, I don't think I want to support Germany.

Chilli said that this wasn't his good year when it came to sports and him and it looks like the same is true with me too...Kimi hasn’t made it to the top step of the podium yet :(

2006-06-23T01:38:00.000-07:00

okay am writing this as jaggi has tagged me...i should be writing five weird things about me...but seriously, i don't quallify to do this at all as i can't write such things humorously, i don't know why you tagged me :(

while riding if i have to stop, turn or slow down, i keep my right foot on the ground if it is necessary to keep a foot on the ground to balance. my brother keeps telling tht one should use his/her left foot but i just can't do that!

most of my dreams are feature wild animals like tiger, llion (and no i wouldn't be photographing them like wildlife photographers but i would be running away from them and they would be chasing me)!

giving gifts to my near and dear ones makes me more happy than receiving gifts from them!

i don't/can't enjoy food!

and finally, something that is not really weird...
i liked the movie 'the da vinci code' very much and i watched it twice as i thought i couldn't concentrate on all the details in most of scenes when i watched it the first time! and i don't have any compliant on tom hanks/robert langdon's blandness in that movie beacause that was how i had imagined that character when i read the book and also beacuse it wasn't an actor-centric movie but a plot-centric one!

throttle vs brake

2006-03-20T22:34:00.000-08:00

showing the highs and lows of my first live formula 1 race experience, malaysian GP 2006...more details later.
formula 1 live is just out of this world!

blessed to work with the kids

2005-11-26T23:13:00.000-08:00

After getting a go ahead from the padmanabhanagar govt. school head, I was going to start the classes from 26th nov 2005. I had requested the teachers to pick 20 students with whom I could work with, for the 30 sessions (first step in the Theatre In Education - TIE activity that I am involved in).

I reached the school at 2:30pm on the 26th, saturday and I was given the list of sudents --> class V -Ananthalakshmi, Harshita, Naveena, Varsha, venkatesh class VI -Anand, Arun, Lakshmi, Santosh, Shilpa class VIII -Deepak, Kiran, Sharanya, Shwetha, Srilakshmi class IX -Chetan, Divyashree, Harish, Nutan, Shruthi.

We started the class by forming a circle. I just briefed them as to what was the whole idea was, what we would be doing in these 30 sessions etc. We started the first session with a shloka, "saraswathi namsthubhyam..."We then played the first game...simple one where we have to keep passing the "pat" to the next person in the circle by saying out a number in the order of 1 to 10. If we are about to say 10 and pat the next person, he is supposed to escape the pat. If he succeeds in doing so, the person who was supposed to pass the pat would be out and if he fails to escape, he would be out.

After this, I split them into 3 groups and asked them to show the mysore dasara picture to some visitor using themselves..It was interesting to note that one of the kids had devi bhuvaneshwari with 4 hands! the other group had a pujari performing pooja as the procession proceeded. in the other group, they had 2 people form one elephant as they wanted to show that it is huge!!

As I noticed that they enjoyed this very much, I asked them if they wanted to try out more and the answer was yes! So, the next topic was bangalore...this time I asked the other teams to interpret their representaion. it was fun...they were all enthusiastic to come up with new things. One thing that I observed was that they were not keen on doing it very well or perfectly...should be okay as they are kids and it was something very new for them to concentrate on such things!
After this, I tried one of the playback activity...I passed a book and asked each one to assume that the book was in a particular state and asked them to act accordingly...book being hot, cold, light, heavy etc...I did ask them to think of a state and act but I noticed that they were not able to get the meaning of state...may be i didn't convey it properly as some of them started reading the book! later, i gave them the myself like pricky, sticky, slippery...but atleast some could pick it up as one of them assumed that the book had a bad smell and acted it out...atleast on ecould catch it ...not bad!!

After this was dumb charades...I split them into 4 groups, gave them each a personality/phrase to act...pollution, gandhiji, lawyer and police... they were not all that good in guessing or probably the game was too new...I was concerned if they weren't thinking fast! I should find an answer to this...

We played the last game...stamping the balloons...I split them into 4 groups again...gave them colored balloons, yellow, orange, green and blue...they had to tie the balloon to their left/right leg. This was a timed activity...they were expected to start on time, stamp the balloons of the other team and at the same time guard their team balloons and stop when they were asked to stop. I bet they would have enjoyed this game like no other game...but they didn't stop on time :-) may be I didn't think of it...it took something for me to stop them!

At the end when I told told them that we will meet on next sat, I could see the happy faces :-) ...its amazing that kids get used to someone so soon!! and they just say it out without caring for anyone!

Also, some kids were treating me more like a friend than a teacher, they were taking me here and there holding hands, asking me to do what they were asked to do...when we formed a circle, they were fighting as to who should stand next to me ...may be beacuse I made them play a lot of games but it is true that kids accept you so easily :-) and what suprised me more is, expression of the acceptance...think it is very easy for the kids!

2005-11-23T20:09:00.000-08:00

kimi also won the "drive of the year" for his monaco drive :-)
F1 racing magazine said --> “No drive in 2005 better combined steely strategic nous and outrageous talent than Kimi's victory in Monaco.” [source: f1.racing-live.com]
and this pic was taken with my nokia 6600

2005-11-23T19:59:00.000-08:00

kimi is the driver of the year!
this is the pic of my car (thanks to akshay and vinay)...and chinnu took the pic :-)

hope

2005-11-14T07:10:00.000-08:00

"wish you all a very happy children's day! it's a day dedicated to you all and it's all yours...feel special about yourself and have great fun!"
these were my final words of the speech that i gave as a judge for the in-house drama competition in a school called APS public school. it is kind of strange, i felt that until recently i was used to listen to someone on a children's day as a kid i was on the other side this time!
may be i never thought i would address a bunch of kids on a children's day 10 years later, in 1995 when i was in class 9.

but for some reason, i was so happy to see the kids perform...they did a great job. i also remembered how it used to be when we used to do plays in school. man, we used to think that it was everything...i could see the same in these kids too...they were completely into it and it was so evident that it meant everything to them.

there were 4 plays presented by one each house of the school. the theme was "social evils and superstitions". we judged the plays based on three criteria, creativity, presentation and the content, of course with the other sub criteria like, expressions, energy level etc...it was good to see that the children were so creative. there were children from class 6 to class 12 in each house... and everyone had come up with their own scripts. it was surprising to see how well they had planned for it.
one play even had a flashback where they waved the dupatta and went back to the age where the lead actress was still a kid!
the best play was on superstitions... it had various incidents where in kids encountered with superstitious beliefs and how they were resolved...i want to quote one incident wher a kid goes to her grand dad and asks him as to what is a lunar eclipse and why shouldn't moon be seen then? her grandpa says that it is because the two demons rahu and ketu eat up the moon and so he disappears. the kid goes to the school and tells the same thing when the teacher asks "what is a lunar eclipse?" then the teacher gets 3 kids, one representing the earth, another one the sun and the last one the moon. he makes the kid playing the moon revolve round the kid playing the earth and this kid playing the earth is made to revolve round the kid playing the sun. and when they all come in a straight line, they show the sun casting a shadow on the moon and the teacher explains that hence people on earth cannot see the moon then!! it was presented so well that i was really impressed and the captain of this house had selected all the class 6 students to do this and they did a wonderful job!
there were a lot of interesting stuff...in one of the plays, one kid was hit by his friend and within no time he had black patch painted round his eye! very impressive... i thoroughly enjoyed the event.

it was hard to judge but we had to select a best play, best actor/actress and the best script...so we did that... but told them that they all had performed very well etc (typical judge stuff). as i spoke to them in the end, i was all excited about the fact that they are our future generation; they could make our country proud! this had never happened before...i was so happy for them ...for being the kids they are and for being the hope :-))

2005-11-10T20:33:00.000-08:00

sunset in hampi...

2005-11-10T20:31:00.000-08:00

another one!

2005-11-10T20:29:00.000-08:00

one of my favorite pictures from the amarnath trip

dear coach

2005-09-09T07:20:00.000-07:00

i have just started reading "tuesdays with Morrie" by Mitch Albom, thanks to my pal dhi, who gave me this book as my bday gift. I think this is a great book and that I will like it a lot. Some of Morrie's words sound very simple and at the same time, very much reasonable.

he talks about the tension of opposites where in he says "Life is a series of pulls back and forth. You want to do one thing, but you are bound to do something else. Something hurts you, yet you know it shoudn't. You take certain things for granted, even when you know you should never take anything for granted. A tension of oppsites, like a pull on a rubber band and most of us live somewhere in the middle." and when the author asked as to which side wins, Morrie's answer is "Love wins. Love always wins."

also he says "The way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning".

i haven't read the book fully but i have a reason to write this post before i do so, the reason is the word "coach"! The author addresses his teacher as "coach" and the moment i read it, i could think of just one person, vinay a.k.a. boda. he is been a "coach" for quite a few people... some of whom i know and a lot of them that i don't know. i just wanted to let him know that i was all glad to realise that i have someone like him to guide/support/assure me when i need it.
thank you very much pal :-) you have always stood by my side, seen me through the hurdles, inspired me to take up a lot of activities, assured me of my decisions.

as i look forward to read more of Morrie's lessions (which I am sure will make me think more and will be happy to do so), i would like to tell my coach that he is one amazing dude who has made a big difference to my life. dear vinay a.k.a. boda a.k.a bods a.k.a. bored da, you simply rock!!

taking sides (part 2)

2005-07-01T08:02:00.000-07:00

i was talking to a colleague from our US office and he just mentioned about the reduction in workforce that had started there at his office on that day...
i knew that it was a very sensitive matter and i just didn't know how to react, what to say. i did tell him that in my personal opinion it is very unfair and it should not be the way things should be going. i couldn't say anything more than that but i couldn't stop thinking about that.

after this, i was discussing with a couple of people here at my office as well.
this business model is not good at all. i think it is the problem with most of the well established MNCs who had already grown to a great extent and then started outsourcing their jobs. they hadn't planned for globalization when they started and they didn't plan for it when they were growing. now, they are left with no choice but to layoff. this kind of a set up would disturb the relationship between the two teams working for the same project at different locations. i don't understand how a business can grow if these two teams compete with each other rather than working in collaboration.

however, this is not the case with the MNCs that are startups as they would have planned for globalization from day one, would hire appropriate number of people at different locations and wouldn't get into a situation where in they have to reduce their workforce at one parlicular location to cut the costs. i think this business model is quite fair when compared to the earlier one.

also there is another model where in the company would be registered at a particular location and the marketing happens from there but the development would take place at different location to cut the costs again. i don't really think i am in favor of this one as well.

taking sides (part 1)

2005-06-30T04:56:00.000-07:00

for the past coulple of weeks its has been about taking sides, for me...

formula 1 - the 2005 US grand prix offered multiple dimensions for thoughts and had quite a few conversations with people, a lot of mails were exchanged and here are a few of them.

when a friend of mine said that he was all happy because ferrari had won and that fortune favored the brave, this is what I had to say...

well, I thought we were all passionate about F1 "racing"...
and when there was no such thing tht happened, where is the question of victory, fortune favoring the brave etc..
honestly, i can't call whatever happened at Indy as a formula 1 race!!

I do agree tht it couldn't have been done in any better way, though there were a few options...
michelian teams said (I think there was no reason for bridestone teams to agree to this...)
"The only practical solution was for a chicane to be installed prior to Turn 13 and nine of the teams were prepared to run under these conditions even forgoing championship points or by allowing non-Michelin teams to take top positions on the grid."

FIA said (I don't think there was any reason for the micheleian teams to do this...)
"Your teams have a choice of running more slowly in Turn 12/13, running a tyre not used in qualifying (which would attract a penalty) or repeatedly changing a tyre (subject to valid safety reasons). It is for them to decide."

so, effectively there was no race that happened and it was a big disappointment to the crowd, drivers and all formula 1 fans. after all, we didn't wait to see s'thing like this happen...
unpredictability is also one of the key players when it comes to f1 and we have to accept it, BUT, the yday's result is more of a PITY in formula 1 history and it surely is NOT a matter of pride!

when another friend of mine said, Michelin and the teams got away easily and it was Ferrari who bore the brunt for not agreeing to have the chicane as suggested by the other teams, this is what I had to say...

its such a pity that Schumacher's fans spoil it all..
who is blaming Ferrari now...the media (authentic -plz chk formula1.com) hasn't mentioned even once that Ferrari didn't agree or anything of tht sort...
they have very clearly stated tht it was the FIA which didn't agree to the options suggested by the 9 teams and the reason was because the options were irrelevant when it came to F1 rules and not because ferrari didn't agree to it.

http://www.formula1.com/race/news/3198/740.html

http://www.formula1.com/race/news/3197/740.html

so, defending Ferrari and sympathizing them is all crap...come on now, their decision had no role in any of this...they don't make the rules, they don't govern the rules...all we are saying is tht it was a disappointment and it can never be a matter of pride (to anyone...)
it was just an unavoidable situation. nothing more, nothing less.

when one of my colleagues asked me about what I thought about the fiasco (he actually called it the formula 0 fiasco), this is what I had to say...

I think it was a huge disappointment for all the fans, and the drivers. Indy 2005 would remain a compromise in F1 history.

but hey, I think they had no option but to let it happen the way it happened. I think they were reasonable when they chose not to race ...but just that they should have disclosed the news earlier to the crowd and yes, I agree that they should refund the tickets and travel expenses.

why I think they were reasonable is because FIA gave them these three options

1) they said ask your drivers to slow down on that particular turn (which is a risk and Michelin said they can't guarantee drivers' safety...can we expect them to risk their lives and race?)

2) they said your teams can keep changing the tires after giving appropriate safety reasons and showing that the tires weren't fit to continue with (this is again a risk as s'one might end up crashing before they change the tires...and Michelin had given a written statement saying they can't guarantee drivers' safety).

3) they said the teams could use a new set of tires (other than what they used for
qualifiers) but in that case, they would have to pay a huge penalty (this is as good as not racing as the penalty would make sure that they would come no where close to winning the race and also, Michelin weren't very sure about their new set of tires).

I agree that the fact that they failed to deliver tires that were fit for racing is very sad but, they realized it only after Ralf's accident. they failed miserably but it was an unavoidable situation.

as I have always said, unpredictability is one of the key players in F1 (major players are technology, speed, control) and we have to accept it because formula 1 specifications are the most stringent in the whole wide world and they get evolved from the stables of the meanest machine manufacturers and because of the efforts of the best of the automobile engineers round the world.

but, I agree that it is quite hard for people in the US to understand and accept this. I can accept this, I think I have gone too far ...beyond all this.

I was thinking how would it be for the drivers...I was thinking so much as to how Kimi would manage to go past Trulli (1st on the grid) and to not let Fisichella go past him (3rd on the grid and a Renault is know for its amazing starts) and I don't know how much the drivers would have thought and how would it be when they realize that they can't race!

When the FIA came with the charges on the team, this is what I had to say...

• failed to ensure that they had a supply of suitable tyres for the race (true but to ensure that the teams should have manufactured tyres overnight forgetting that they were car manufacturing companies!)

• wrongfully refused to allow their cars to start the race (may be no, it could be
considered that they did start the race...they retired later...if you noticed, it was shown that all the 14 drivers were out, that’s how they show when the drivers retire from the race)

• wrongfully refused to allow their cars to race, subject to a speed restriction in one corner which was safe for such tyres as they had available (I don't know if FIA can claim that it was safe, were they ready to assure drivers' safety? this claim is controversial)

• combined with other teams to make a demonstration damaging to the image of Formula One by pulling into the pits immediately before the start of the race (true, but there won't be any written rule saying that the teams shouldn't hold any discussions in public, look confused/puzzled in public :-)).

• failed to notify the stewards of their intention not to race, in breach of Article 131 of the FIA Formula One Sporting Regulations.
Article 131 states: "The starting grid will be published four hours before the race. Any competitor whose car(s) is (are) unable to start for any reason whatsoever (or who has good reason to believe that their car(s) will not be ready to start) must inform the stewards accordingly at the earliest opportunity and, in any event, no later than 45 minutes before the start of the race.”
(may be a valid point...but still I am thinking if they can say that they did start the race but retired due to some problem with their car...no one can stop them from retiring right? but I don't know if the start of the warm-up lap will be considered as the start of the race!
"Leading bookmakers, such as William Hill and Ladbrokes, decided to stick to the Formula One rule that cars that take part in the parade lap had started the race, which meant that thousands who backed Raikkonen and Alonso lost their money")

now, the teams are found guity on 2 of the charges and it has been clarified that the penalty would be a fine and not reduction in points or ban from the race.
http://www.formula1.com/race/news/3237/740.html

but the teams are set to appeal the decision.
http://www.formula1.com/race/news/3238/740.html

nothing else matters

2005-05-29T22:14:00.000-07:00

Q: Recently, many pundits have labelled you the second best driver on the grid after Michael Schumacher. What do you make of such comparisons?
KR: I should probably stop racing if I thought about myself as being second best.

source:
www.formula1.com/race/news/3087/738.html

to kimi

2005-05-22T23:23:00.000-07:00

was all excited and really really happy with kimi's consummate performance at the monaco grand prix.
the trafic jam that brought in the saftey car disturbed me so much when i learnt tht alonso had finished his 1st pit stop during tht time and kimi hadn't and one needs around 30 secs for a pit stop. i just didn't know what to expect...
all we knew was that we needed a gap of around 30 secs between kimi and alonso.
our ice man set up a gap of 34 secs (34 SECS!!) before he went to the pit stop and emerged out as the race leader again! that was a great drive. this post is dedicated to the man and that drive!

his words...
"This is great. To win is always fantastic, but Monaco is a special challenge. We have been strong throughout the weekend and I was able to pretty much control the race. I was able to push and open up a considerable gap, and when the time was right I simply came into the pits, refuel and still rejoin the race in the lead. After that I could take it a bit easier and look after the car and the Michelin tyres. Once again thank you to the entire team and everybody at Michelin. We have worked hard, and I think we have the best package out there at the moment. Our World Championship battle has gained momentum today. We will take one race at a time and continue to do our best."

k c a b y a l p

2005-05-16T01:41:00.000-07:00

i haven't written about playback theatre in this blog...i think i have a reason to write about it now -sunday's performance at "asha nikethan", a home for mentally challenged people.

just to give an idea, playback is an interactive form of theatre where in the experiences of the audience received in the form of responses to the simple questions posed by the conductor (who is going to be one of the payback performance group) are played back to them as a theatrical performance.

to know more,
www.playbacknet.org/iptn/index.htm
www.theatrecapital.com

i was introduced to playback by a friend, dhi, and i completed my workshop sometime in 2004. the workshop concluded with a performance of which i was a part, along with my batch mates susan, ujwal and vinay (we called this group of 5, the 4 of us and our instructor umesh as "connections"), after this i can say i lost touch with playback.

but i wanted to do playback because i liked it.
i liked the very idea of acting out the experiences of the audience to them within a matter of a few seconds.
i liked it more when i realized that it makes a significant difference to them at the end of it.
i liked the people associated with it, they are not like the usual theatre crowd at all.

so, i joined them again sometime in feb 2005, have been a part of 3 of the performances till now.
the first one was at "bosco yuva kendra", home for the youth
that was a very joyous performance with the boys responding amazing well.

the second one was at "ashirwad", a spiritual place where the leaders from various religions meet up and hold meetings on equality, peace and things like that.
i was quite hesitant during that show as i was not able to relate to the audience well, i wasn't sure how they would take things and all. so, can say i didn't enjoy that one very much.

the third one was on last sunday at "asha nikethan", this one made all the difference.
though we didn't know what to expect from this performance, it turned out to be such a nice thing. the fact that we could actually act out the responses, thoughts that were shared by the mentally challenged persons is so unparalleled. and the fact that they responded so well to our acting is such a blessing. i feel they could respond, react and enjoy this show because, it was a playback performance, we acted out their own stories, their own experiences. we could see the smiles on their faces when we acted out what they had just said. i am glad to be a part of playback theatre.

the man

2005-05-08T21:53:00.000-07:00

it's kimi raikkonnen, as his fans say...a flying finn!
truly brilliant performance from this man at the spanish grand prix..
started off with no mistake, established a comfortable lead, and was absolutely flying, with unbelievable number of fastest laps...he kept getting them all in a row.
he was leading the spanish driver alonso by around 23 seconds when he went for his first pit stop, then joined the race track as the leader again! he lapped up the drivers till 7th place, including his own team mate montoya. he realsied he could take it easy as there was no possible threat from any one around, it was his race :-)
it was a brilliant run from start to finish from the finnish driver.
was quite glad to see him on the top step...looked like it was the beginning.
happy for kimi, his team and myself.

2005-03-23T01:53:00.000-08:00

some incidents during the last week have made me look up to these people for certain reasons ...

one of my best friends for being what she is. she is handling things so well in spite of all the trouble and is being a source of inspiration for the others. thank you pal.

ayn rand for creating the character peter keating in the fountainhead!
it is sad but true that we come across peter keatings in life. and i hate such people. there were days when i used to go around saying that i can't hate anyone etc. but now, i hate people like peter keating, phonies who know that they are incompetent and find cheap ways to get rid of the competitor. i hate them more when i come to know that they are playing the trick on someone, a third person and that someone is not aware of the trick. i want people to be cautious about peter keatings and everyone should know how to handle them and this is the only way to defeat them.
now, i look up to ayn rand because she has portrayed that character so well, conveyed almost all the info' that is required to recognize peter keatings.

the girl i spoke to in the painting class.
this girl (who looked rich, well educated and confident, lets call her miss X) had brought another girl (who looked poor and hesitant, lets call her miss Y) to the painting class. i am not sure if they are just friends or if they are related to each other. it looked like miss Y was miss X's house maid. what i know for sure is that miss X had noticed miss Y's profound interest towards painting and brought her there to get her started with painting classes. she had even got miss Y's painting book and showed the teacher what all she had painted.
miss Y didn't know english and the teacher teaches in english so miss X was sitting there with miss Y for 2 hours, translating and making her understand what the teacher taught.
so very nice of her!
miss Y was learning water colors and she had applied the colors very well (they were light -water colors are to be applied that way). but miss X was a little concerned as the colors were light and thats when i spoke to her and told her that miss Y was correct and thats the way it should be applied. when the teacher saw what she had made, he showed that to another student who had made the colors dark and told her that it should be applied like how miss Y had applied. miss X was smiling at miss Y after the teacher said so and it was so nice to see them both smiling :-)

a non-kannada friend of mine who said he knew kannada with pride.
we had a charity performance at bosco yuva kendra during the last weekend and after the performance, we were talking to someone form that yuva kendra and this friend of mine was answering all his questions and giving him all the info' he wanted about the way we do these charity performances. in the end, when that person asked my friend if he knew kannada, he smiled and said "huh, kannada barattey"! it was kind of surprising the way he said it (considering the amount of kannada he knows that is). generally i have seen non-kannada ppl saying that they know a bit of kannada, that they can understand but can't speak, that they don't know it all tht well etc. but this friend said it with no ifs and buts, he said it with confidence and pride.

3 out of 16?

2005-03-04T01:57:00.000-08:00

with jaggs, vinay and vinay off to the US, preeth and aroo to the UK, it will be just 3 of us in bangalore by the end of this march. 3 out of 16!
it's a strange feeling...
there were days when all of us used to spend at least an hour a day together -yes in college.
will all the 16 of us ever meet again? i have serious doubts. thanks to manu, he insisted that we should take a group picture before he left to the US and that is the last time the whole gang met. well, 16 is a big number.
but it's a great feeling that we have come so far with this group, the unforgiven! -that is our group name :-) am sure it has given us all a distinguished identity.
in this group, we have people with varied interests, objectives, priorities, principles, dreams ...we have grown apart but we have grown together!
i give this post to akshay, aroo, bindu, bods, chinnu, jaggs, manu, mof, pj, pradeep, preeth, rashmi, sreeveena, suse and vinay -the_unforgiven rocks, as it always did!

2005-02-18T04:32:00.000-08:00

i jus love this song vertigo -U2, it's an awesome song!
have been listening to it all day. aaaaaaah, i like it so much.

girl with crimson nails
has jesus 'round the neck
swinging to the music
swinging to the music
woooao

hello, hello...hola
am at a place called vertigo (¿dónde está?) [where is it?]
it's everything i wish i didn't know
but you give me something i can feel
feel

feeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee eeeee eeeeeeeeeeeeel

2005-02-17T03:00:00.000-08:00

the desire for happiness is a proof of the ever-existing happiness of the self. otherwise, how can desire for it arise in you? if headache was natural to human beings no one would try to get rid of it. but everyone that has headache tries to get rid of it, because he has known a time when he had no headache. he desires only that which is natural to him. so too he desires happiness because it is natural to him. being natural, it is not acquired.
as quoted by ramana maharshi

series of events

2005-02-14T14:17:00.000-08:00

didn't want to miss any of them! evam indrajit, black and aero india 2005. could catch them all :-)

watched evam at ranga shankara on friday. liked the play, well performed by the team, a friend was also a part of it. neat job pal :-)
could relate myself to the theme so well...specially liked the scene where they go round and round and round screaming reliance, airtel, hutch; infosys, wipro, tcs; RV, PESIT, BMS; ... amal, vimal, kamal!

black was good again! i go by this strange theory that an actor/actress is successful if at any given point of time, they don't lose the audience as in, the audience is with them regardless of character they play (the audience may differ with the actors' views, opinions, behaviours but they should find them reasonable -even an unreasonable character should be played reasonably!) if u don't understand tht, chuck it...don't think i can convey wht i want to, at this moment. but sanjay leela bansali has brought out the best from all the actors. he must be a perfectionist. cinematography is also very good.

my friends and me enjoyed the aero india 2005 as well. but the air show wasn't as good as it was in 2003. missed the mirages.
the show opened with the HAL's ALHs (advanced light helicopters), followed by the Tejas -LCA (light combat aircraft). it was a great feeling to watch the LCA fly :-)
other aircraft that flew included HAL's IJT (intermediate jet trainer), british hawk (trainer), british jaguar, russian mig-29, su-30 MKK and a couple of helicopters.
sukhoi's flight was the best with all the maneuvers, speed (max of 2.35 mac), that roaring sound! mig's flight was the second best.
jagdish, karthik and vinay were trying to watch the air show and take pictures of the a/c. vinay was successful in taking very many pictures of the blank sky!!
in the end, there was this surya kiran team from IAF (indian air force) performing aerobactics. 9 of them...flying...flipping away...rejoining...they were flying in the sky as people drive on road. formations included diamond, wineglass, inverted 'Y', heart etc. they also displayed the head on crossing...not just once but, twice...the announcer was saying, "never mind, those of who closed your eyes, here, they will do that for u again!" they always make the crowd feel proud with their skills and their tri colors!!

we were exhausted by then but we did visit most of the stalls in the exhibition area. HAL, NAL, lockheed martin, boeing, sukhoi, rolls royce, rafael, israel nation pavilion, rathyeon, prat and whitney to name a few. honeywell had displayed it's F125 engine. we couldn't visit airbus, DRDO, ADA stalls as they closed the exhibition at 4:00pm due to security reasons. so, it was fighter jets (from JSF F-35 to C130J to grippen to su-30...), engines (for civil a/c, fighter jets), missiles (surface to air, air to air) all over. some advanced techniques to pinpoint the missiles precisely, self protection mechanisms for the a/c, deep penetrating missiles etc. were displayed in some of the stalls.
it is a good thing that people from all over the world come here to display their products, around 350 companies (210 foreign and 140 indian) from around 30 countries!

magic, technique, art, brilliance

2005-02-02T21:13:00.000-08:00

last night, had a great time watching the play perchance to dream!
man!! what a performance it was...brilliantly awesome!!
if you are in bangalore, my sincere words -don't miss it!
this play by a french travelling company footsbarn interweaves 5 of shakespeare's plays hamlet, macbeth, romeo & juliet, king lear and a midsummer night's dream.
we see it open with romeo & juliet, blending into hamlet, to realise that the play within a play in hamlet is the section from a midsummer night's dream, rehearsing king lear, the actors after the rehearsal decide to meet up in the woods in the midnight and we see the 3 witches of macbeth in the woods!
well, things were portrayed so well in the play, unimaginable!
hats off to all the actors who feasted us with such intense emotions as passion, jealousy, love, pain, ambition, madness. liked hamlet the best..it's my favourite and the actor who played hamlet's role was brilliant! could see him scream in my dream as well.
too bad we didn't meet the actors after the performance, for some reason, it never occurred to us probably coz it was late.
i am glad i watched this play. thanks to everyone of those who are responsible for this performance.

fall and shine

2005-02-01T23:22:00.000-08:00

was reading a post - rise and shine, in my friend's blog ...it talked about the rising sun's pictures he had taken ...also visited his yahoo page where he had some more pics including a suset pic. as i saw tht pic, was thinking fall and shine then my mind was wandering here and there and then i was thinking s'thing again...
after federer lost to safin, s'thing like this was published in Hindu
Roger Federer really does belong to our species - homo sapiens. The Swiss alchemist is human, vulnerable and beatable...but only just.
fall and shine!

composability

2005-01-13T06:12:00.000-08:00

(in emmbedded sys) had heard about this term but didn't quite know what it was...
today, i think i understood....an architecture is said to be composable w.r.t a certain property if system integration will not invalidate this property once the property has been established at a subsystem level.
hmm...its not easy to achieve this coz integration of embedded subsystems into a system is bound to have problems.
for real time systems, composable timing behaviour is the most critical issue and to achieve this time triggered protocol (ttp) is used over the event triggered one. our new program uses ttp architecture and so was reading about it..somehow liked this, so just put it here...

got a mail from revan (a friend from redmond) today...was good to hear from her, she had sent her daughter katie and son jordan's pictures. otherwise had a painful time updating the performance and development info' using some sad tool.

okay, will sign off now...
don't know if i should say peace or lets belong!

back in bangalore

2005-01-03T22:16:00.000-08:00

it feels so good to be back :-) to be with parents & friends, to go on bikes, to fight for the TV remote, to call up ppl without having to think about the time/timezone, to see the bright and sunny days, to watch plays...to be in bangalore!!

wasn't happy coz i got to hear about tsunami and its disaster as soon as i came here and couldn't do much about it other than volunteering to collect funds and stuff...

things are going pretty well at office, had to present a paper for our internal paper presentation competition, our paper had got selected for the final round...and they gave our project the technical excellence award for the year 2004.

looking back, i think i had a great time for 3 months, i liked the independent life there but no doubt life is more colorful here...
i was thinking of times which were you know kind of nice, fun...
when chinnu and me watched the laser show at seattle
when we went to the fedex office to collect my camera at some 6:59PM (they were closing at 7:00PM)
when tht guy (supposed to be our neighbour) came at 11:30 in the night and was screaming at us for keeping s'thing on for a long time..i still don't understand wht was kept on ...if he was adrressing us!
when i gave a detailed account of this neighbour's incident to priyank over the phone...man, i was laughing so much!
when rashmi and me were speaking for a long time...we didn't realise tht the day was over..
when we took so much care to lock our apt door and made sure tht we both (my roommate and me) had a key etc. and then realised tht we had kept our window (long one, ppl can enter thro' tht) open!
when geo and me went to USPS to collect my diwali gifts
when aruna and me told rahul tht starbucks existed since 1912 by looking at the door number on starbucks coffee shop at seattle.
when we made the mistake of watching veerzara ..each dialouge was so long...
when akshay and me were fighting away to glory at chinnu's place and ppl were having fun at the cost of us
the way we were crossing the road when we went to seattle downtown in the night.. just before geeta left
when we waved at prafulla and asked him to remove his watch when he went for security check at the airport...tht security guy couln't help but smile

hmmm...it's 2005 and am not sure wht am going to do this year...
i always keep saying tht it's good to have an unpredictable life...don't know for how long i 'll continue to believe in it... may be i go by the saying.. as long as the path am walking is interesting, i don't mind going nowhere...is it true? honestly, i don't know

a feeling of non-existence!

2004-12-16T19:54:00.000-08:00

yes! that's how i felt when i was sitting on the back of a motorbike and we were riding on a freeway at the speed of 115 miles/hour!! aaah! that was an awesome ride.
thanks to esko, who took me on a ride on his honda 750cc bike.
WooooooooooW!! is all i can say for now...

a shot of mt. rainier

2004-11-30T13:56:00.000-08:00

out of the pictures i have taken so far with my canon A95, think this one has come out pretty well..need to still learn how to take good pics..very sad tht the full size images don't look good though the pics look good on the LCD

my best friends' wedding

2004-11-20T13:23:00.000-08:00

nope, its not like the movie...am not in love with him but he is my best friend. unbelieveable that he is getting married tomorrow. was talking to him during the last minutes of his bachelorhood...when asked how he felt about it all at that moment he said "sense of acomplishment" no doubt its a big acomplishment! i still remember the day when he was all tensed when he had to propose to one of my best buddies...and how we were waiting keeping our fingers crossed...and now, it is such a great feeling that they are starting a new life ...as preeth said they are our own couple! too bad am not able to attend the wedding
so here i am wishing all the very best to my best friends and huge success as they celebrate their togetherness!!

lit up

2004-11-19T10:14:00.000-08:00

we celebrated deepawali on friday and saturday here.
it was my first deepawali out of home. also, first time i wasn't with my mom on her bday.
tried sending a message to her so that she could view the same on her bday but unfortunately, the mpeg file i sent refused to work, i believe :-(
but, thanks to vinay who took all the trouble to deliver my gifts to my mom ontime. thank you kano :-)

friday, we went to a temple in bothell ...it was called the hindu temple and cultural center. there were a whole bunch of indians there...first time i was seeing an indian crowd here in the US. pleased to listen to all the chantings that were going on...it was a homely feeling :-)

on saturday i had to go to the USPS (US Postal Service) to collect my package ...my friends had sent diyas and deepawali gifts for me all the way from india :-) i was very happy to see all the gifts and a letter from them which in the end said, "please come back soon"...for a moment i felt on top of the world. guess i am blessed to have you as my friends. thank you :-)

in the evening we all got together around 16 of us and we had a guest revan who had come with her daughter katy. we had great fun playing with the kids, playing games, eating delicious food and singing. i had lighted the diyas and believe me, they made our celebration complete.

2004-11-03T15:10:00.000-08:00

was going through this book i bought in a book fair...it has terrific pictures. exit interviews with the creators and the cast are good too...more like behind the scenes type of a book covering all the 10 episodes. somehow liked it very much :-)

halloweeeeen!!

2004-11-01T11:08:00.000-08:00

saturday, i had been to my first ever halloween party and was fun...there were kids/grown ups dressed up as witches, ghouls, animals, insects ...

guess the idea is to make anything and evrything look scary!
i stayed back at michelle's place on friday as it was late..linh and me had gone there to put up the halloween decorations and stuff. we were successful in making the whole house look haunted by sticking the spider web all over and having skulls, skeletons hanging from all kind of things. the food was also made to look scary...there were cakes which looked sickening...she had speard out candy worms and crushed cookies on the cake so that it looked like dirt with worms coming out of it...

as part of the party, we went trick or treating with the kids...kids go from house to house and shout "trick or treat" and they would be given candies!

otherwise, the party was normal with young and old people having their groups discussing lectures, clubs, exercise, jewellery, politics what not...there was also small fight among some ppl regarding bush-kerry.

i was talking to girls who went to seattle university who would be graduating in 2005...it is interesting that some of them knew bangalore and they had plans to visit india sometime. they said they were suprised by the fact tht most indian children study in english medium.they wanted to know how different it is to live in india and i was telling them tht life in india is very
colorful with people involving themselves in so many different activites. i did tell them tht we do have unexpected things happening in our lives in india and it's not as smooth as it is in the US, but these surprises make our life interesting, they keep us going!

it was kind of nice to stay with an american and to know how they do things ...even small things are done very differently, or probably the mindset..i dunno
a few of them which surprised me...

okay we cut pineapples for pizzas, keep them on a plate...then we use them as part of the topping for the pizza, we will have some pieces left as everything wasn't used for pizzas but they are considered left overs and thrown away!

dogs are on diet! they can't have food with calories.

also, the dogs have no difficulty in accepting strangers, they don't treat u as strangers if u are with their owner. in fact they treat u as their guest..and they need attention...they don't like it if u keep talking to their owner alone, u need to talk to them make them feel comfortable.
i still can't believe tht i could be with 2 dogs for a day ...it was like they were a part of the house, we used to talk to them, walk around with them..

and the kids here are fun! they keep surprising you evry now and then...out of all the kids i met, mason and jessica are unforgettable...mason was around 4 yrs or so and jessica was around 7.
mason asked me if he could dance with me! (there was nobody dancing or anything)
there was a dancing pumpkin in the party which fascinated mason...so, he aksed me to take his picture with tht pumpkin and i did so, he came running to me asking me to show the picture and when i told him tht it was a film camera and i can't show him the picture he was like, "what do u mean u can't show me the pciture right away!" his expression was as if i was being unreasonable.
and jessica! when naina told her tht someone would go with her till her house as it was dark and she was going alone, she said "oh no! i can go by myself...if someone still wants to accompany me, they can as well follow me ...so tht it looks spooky!"
it was really fun being with the kids :-)

2004-10-28T18:36:00.000-07:00

three of us in sfo! thought of posting a picture as well...

the vibrant city

2004-10-27T14:47:00.000-07:00

exicited to write about my visit to the city, which hosts the world famous golden gate bridge in my first ever web log! last weekend, i was in san francisco with my pals chinnu and akshay...nothing like meeting close friends in a far off place, feels great :-)
i have always been fascinated by suspension bridges, their long spans ...i find them pleasing. now, am very much delighted for having seen the golden gate brigde, for having spent a lot of time there at different view points, for having taken quite a few pictures.
the city as such is beautiful and very lively, had a great time :-)