tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-129727172024-03-06T23:15:12.596-08:00Frooglepoopillion VibesShivhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00914167328185472713noreply@blogger.comBlogger43125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12972717.post-90675516105955343282016-05-08T18:35:00.000-07:002016-05-08T18:35:28.221-07:00Dilly Ding, Dilly Dong !<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<i>"The ball is round, the game lasts ninety minutes and everything else is just theory"</i></div>
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<i> - Sepp Herberger</i></div>
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Every sports has its spiritual home and England should be the spiritual home for Football. The Premier League(EPL/BPL) has to be the showcase tournament which is unique by its history, quality and colorfulness.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhm_XPNARZbP5jr5ZRtQvOmgZbdX-QL4WGljF1IP-XhUJ73oEc35LB-366ZnXJPdfnMVyQeTsgZjz0O4is99PQX9Q0SUt9vOtOGvkug48gtQC9d0ZtzfCpFRA3nIMyxGTDfSfKq/s1600/Screen+Shot+2016-05-08+at+6.10.31+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhm_XPNARZbP5jr5ZRtQvOmgZbdX-QL4WGljF1IP-XhUJ73oEc35LB-366ZnXJPdfnMVyQeTsgZjz0O4is99PQX9Q0SUt9vOtOGvkug48gtQC9d0ZtzfCpFRA3nIMyxGTDfSfKq/s320/Screen+Shot+2016-05-08+at+6.10.31+PM.png" width="167" /></a>Even glorious things sometimes gets rusted. The beautiful game in this beautiful league got faded by the big money & machinery. The league became a platform where teams with huge cash brought expensive players and coaches. Those teams maintained the monopoly on the league by same teams winning the league again. Since inception of premier league in 1992, the title has been shared by only 4 teams (Manchester United - 13 times, Chelsea - 4 times, Arsenal - 3 times, Manchester City - 2 titles). Only aberration to this pattern was Blackburn team which joined this elite winners list once.</div>
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The premier league got into a vicious cycle of these 4 big teams spending loads of money buying players from around the world. It became a competition where teams with big pockets ended up choosing bigger & better teams. Naturally the advertising, television rights, merchandise etc followed the top teams.</div>
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In all this money slugfest, the teams at the bottom of the league barely managed to survive in the league. Without the economic support and without being in major competitions, it became difficult for these teams at the bottom to attract the talent. </div>
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From football fans perspective, the league which was supposed to be an open forum for best football teams got reduced to the half a dozen best rich football teams.</div>
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This year's league was almost set in the same mould until Leicester City happened ...</div>
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<i>"It's easier to resist at the beginning than at the end " - Leonardo Da Vinci</i></div>
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When Leicester City started winning in the initial phase of the league, it was considered a brave act by a team which barely managed to stay away from relegation in last year's league. If it was up to the media, pundits & the bookies, any expectation from Leicester was impossible. Cue to the 5000:1 odds of them winning the league.</div>
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Then something happened..</div>
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The Leicester City victories didn't appear to be a fluke. There was a method to these madness. Slowly everybody started sitting up & noticing.</div>
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But a shot at winning the league was still a far stretched fantasy.</div>
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*****</div>
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<i>"Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get " - Forrest Gump</i></div>
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Like in any sports, there are multiple tiers or levels in Football where players reach the top tier. With 20+ levels and complex hierarchy of leagues, English football can be a maze to navigate for aspiring players. Considering all these, Leicester picking Jamie Vardy is a stunning tale of an aspiring player getting into the top league. Similarly picking of Riyad Mahrez & Konte was a calculated bet. Old war horses like DrinkWater, Huth & Fuchs were picked as well.</div>
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But picking of Claudio Ranieri as the coach of the team made lots of eyebrows raise. It was a second chance for Ranieri in Premier League before being sacked by Chelsea in earlier stint. He was a likable gentle person mostly ending up second but pandits believed it was a disastrous choice for a team which was fighting delegation.</div>
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<i>"Someone is sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago " - Warren Buffet</i></div>
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As the winning streak continued in the league, it was getting cleared to everybody that the team is special and they are upto something special. That win over Manchester city & close defeat against Arsenal made it very clear that they are serious contenders. </div>
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With only Tottenham Spurs on their heals, Leicester managed to navigate the final few matches before Spurs drawing Chelsea to make Leicester unreachable on points tally. Thus the inevitable was achieved.</div>
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Imagine the plight of fans whose team hardly made it to premium league and was fighting to avoid relegation last season. Imagine what they should be going through now after seeing their team achieve the pinnacle award. Its a dream come true for any fan in any sports !</div>
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Understandably the whole Leicester went ecstatic. Everybody has ran out of superlatives to define the wonder run of Leicester.</div>
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*****</div>
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<i>"A thing of beauty is a joy forever: its loveliness increases; it will never pass into nothingness" - John Keats</i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIMgcSFtrxaWgjdrKYmslXu2w75_7AI00jyYGal1SnwZRivAiKkupaO4yZROgEMQdYTtJvUc_laiDGkCJTMBSyiETGIIjyw8LJzix5gC_JpPWu3e6PoLkH_JX1pcTvTvP2wjRC/s1600/Screen+Shot+2016-05-08+at+5.48.04+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIMgcSFtrxaWgjdrKYmslXu2w75_7AI00jyYGal1SnwZRivAiKkupaO4yZROgEMQdYTtJvUc_laiDGkCJTMBSyiETGIIjyw8LJzix5gC_JpPWu3e6PoLkH_JX1pcTvTvP2wjRC/s320/Screen+Shot+2016-05-08+at+5.48.04+PM.png" width="157" /></a>Why everybody loved this Leicester run ?</div>
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To start with, this team brought back the romanticism into football.</div>
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Here was a team of players & coach whom everybody had written off and were assembled from obscurity. Here was a team which was going against the establishment and conventional wisdom.Add to that, the tag of 'underdogs' and there was no reason not to like this bunch of Ranieri's caesars.</div>
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But lets be honest..if they hadn't played the fearless way they have been doing the whole season, this entire adulation would have sounded hollow. What a glorious display of beautiful game they displayed.</div>
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In the era of larger-than-life and megalomanic coaches, here was Claudio Ranieri who always sounded humble and grounded. The Pizza parties, the Turtle-Ninja outings and that lunch with mom..this coach was adorable.</div>
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Then who would forgot the now famous "Dilly Ding, Dilly Dong"</div>
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<i>"Glory is a heavy burden, a murdering poison, and to bear it is an art. And to have that art is rare " - Oriana Fallaci</i></div>
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Undoubtedly the Leicester win is going to provide hope to every single team in England and all across the world of Football. It would provide new ways for the teams to think and manage their teams. Biggest thing is reinstate the concept that money can't buy the championships.</div>
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Some teenager in a remote place and with an unknown club can dream of one day playing for the premier league and probably for his country.</div>
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But don't underestimate the empire...</div>
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The big rich empire is bound to strike back in next season with more money power !</div>
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For Leicester, its a dream and as Ranieri said "Keep dreaming, why wake up".</div>
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It will be an interesting Champions league and next season of Premier League.</div>
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For now..Leicester is #havingaparty !!</div>
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Shivhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00914167328185472713noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12972717.post-57163139929894245692015-12-19T15:22:00.000-08:002015-12-19T15:22:07.076-08:00How to train a Star War-rior !<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
My 5 year old saw me getting excited about the 'Star Wars - The Force Awakens'. She also happen to play the saber fight game & instantly liked the Storm troopers. Then yesterday like any good kid she asked me to tell the story of Star Wars.<br />
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I was glad to pass on the 'force' to next generation and I condensed the first Star War movie into a story. Hope she was able to comprehend it !<br />
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In a galaxy far far away...<br />
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There was a real evil & powerful guy named Darth Vader. He used to wear a mask and a cape. He was able to control people & objects looking at them. Also he had the light Saber !<br />
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He worked for an evil king called Emperor. They wanted to capture all the planets and galaxies.<br />
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He had an awesome army of soldiers called Storm troopers.They had a gigantic space ship 'Death Star' which was very powerful and was able to destroy entire planets.<br />
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On other side of galaxy, there was Luke Skywalker and Ben who were basically good guys. Ben liked Luke & he gave the 'Light Saber' which is simply super.<br />
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Then there was Princess Leia who had a card that has details on how to destroy Death Star. Darth came to know about this and captured Leia. Leia recorded a video message to Ben for help and puts the card inside a robot 'R2-D2' and sends him out of her spacecraft along with another droid C3P0.<br />
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R2-D2 landed up on the planet where Luke was living. R2-D2 & C3P0 became buddies with Luke.<br />
Luke takes R2-D2 to Ben who gets Leia's message for rescue.<br />
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Ben was an old warrior and he wanted Luke's help to reach Leia's planet. They needed a spacecraft & they meet Hans who had this spacecraft. Hans can also fly the spacecraft real fast. Hans a friend whose name is Chewbacca.Chewbacca was a good pilot & furry tall animal.<br />
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Hans agreed to fly Luke, Ben to Leia's planet. Meanwhile Darth used death star and destroyed the whole planet. By the time, Hans came to the location of planet, there was no such planet. Then they see Death Star ..<br />
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Death star pulled Han's spacecraft towards it. Hans, Ben, R2-D2 and C3P0 sneaked inside Death Star. Luke rescued Princess Lia.Ben fought with Darth. But Darth is too strong and Ben was gone. With help of R2-D2 and C3P0, Luke, Hans & Princess Lia escape from Death Star<br />
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By this time, my little Star War enthusiastic was very sleepy and wanted to continue the story next day..<br />
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Before slipping into sleep, she had these very important questions<br />
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1. Can Darth use the 'Death Star' against our Mother Earth and destroy it ?<br />
2. Is it ok to like Storm Troppers even if they are on bad guys side. They look very adorable<br />
3. Where can we get a light saber like the one Luke had ?<br />
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Shivhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00914167328185472713noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12972717.post-86112294186518226992015-08-10T17:58:00.000-07:002015-08-10T17:59:17.363-07:00Its not about 500 boxes of Pears !<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Its Saturday morning 9:00 AM...</div>
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Several thousand pounds of pears is waiting to be sorted & packed..</div>
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We are wearing the gloves & getting instructions on how to sort the pears.</div>
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We pick up the good pears and pack them into boxes. Each box can't be more than 30 lbs.</div>
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Bad & rotten pears gets into a big basket. This basket also won’t go wasted & will go to farmer's pigs.</div>
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We pick up the speed as the time flies and start packing the boxes at great frequency. </div>
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These are just not pears for some..</div>
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These are literally the life savers for many of the families in the local community who can't afford to buy food.</div>
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Pears & other food items gets donated to this awesome place.</div>
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This place is Second Harvest Food Bank.</div>
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These items needs to be sorted, packed & distributed in time so that they reach the needy people.</div>
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It needs lots of person hours to do these tasks. </div>
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Lack of volunteer hours in time could lead these food produces to get rotten & wasted..</div>
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At end of 3 hours, its time to wrap up our tasks for the day.</div>
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We have packed 500 boxes of pears ! </div>
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We hear from food bank experts that the food we packed is going to reach at least 2000 hungry families in the local community.</div>
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Its an overwhelming feeling that we are touching so many lives through our small volunteering effort .</div>
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As I walk out from Second Harvest Food Bank, I feel blessed for the 2 square meals that I can afford , I feel thankful for the necessities I can provide to me & my family...</div>
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More than anything it re-enforces my belief in the power of giving back..</div>
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As I read somewhere "No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted”.</div>
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Please visit https://www.shfb.org to know more about Second Harvest Food Bank.</div>
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Shivhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00914167328185472713noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12972717.post-85263930999651432982014-07-10T16:43:00.001-07:002014-07-10T16:51:49.384-07:007 Stages of Hell <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
There are 7 stages of emotions when handling a disaster<br />
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1. Anxious<br />
2. Angry<br />
3. Confused<br />
4. Shocked<br />
5. humiliated<br />
6. Numbed<br />
7. Buried & withdrawn<br />
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Stage 1 to 3 is where there is still hope and the fighting instincts are still kicking in.<br />
After Stage 4, its all about the feeling of living dead.<br />
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There is a fog covering the thought process & in Stage 7. How & what in the hell happened here?<br />
<br />
Did we not read it correctly ? Was it a trust mis-placed ?<br />
<br />
7-1<br />
<br />
Still searching for words and superlatives. Nearest sporting event on similar proportions was when India did similar suicide by choking in 1996 Cricket world Cup at Kolkata<br />
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How in the holy world can a team in the World Cup Semi final gets so horrendous ?<br />
That too it was Brazil.<br />
<br />
South American country has its own charm - the land, the people, the beauties and then there is Jogo Bonito (or rather 'was'). What a glorious generation of football magicians they had - Pele, Zico,Ronaldo..Growing up in football fields, its very easy to fall in love with the kind of football played by Brazil.<br />
<br />
This time it was Seleçao playing in their own backyard. Oh! And then there was a star stud with innovative hair styles and even better skills on ground.What better setup than hosting & winning the world cup.<br />
<br />
Early signs of laboring through the group & knockout stages was waived off assuming team will pick steam for the final two games. Wasn't the Seleçao playing to bury the 1950 ghosts of Maracana ?<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZxmqdznTkQuNr-IZtp0oggc3oZ9CtUo1jWNVQg1akmPD79jEbqiAqRhKu7hUba9TgGqvngqGLEJgpp9KiTyjUBD6IJmuJtodtZfFKgVpKd9vdLBEwU3l-aUXdtvxTJSeVbMd3/s1600/PastedGraphic-8.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZxmqdznTkQuNr-IZtp0oggc3oZ9CtUo1jWNVQg1akmPD79jEbqiAqRhKu7hUba9TgGqvngqGLEJgpp9KiTyjUBD6IJmuJtodtZfFKgVpKd9vdLBEwU3l-aUXdtvxTJSeVbMd3/s1600/PastedGraphic-8.png" height="320" width="281" /></a>Then things started falling in wrong places..the lone warrior Neymar went out with broken vertebra, the captain commited harakiri in most stupid reasons and they were suddenly in front of a well-oiled machinery called Germany.<br />
<br />
Those 29 minutes in first half..that killing scoreline<br />
These will haunt forever the team, fans in the stadium and fans watching elsewhere.<br />
<br />
It was not about getting defeated. Winning & losing is part of every game. Least expected from such a team on this level of game is a contest - a fighting spirit. A well fought defeat doesn't induce so much pain.<br />
<br />
Is it a case of team deflated-crushed under-expectations ? Is that team didn't have any backbone after their man with backbone was out? Or was it simply that Germany were ruthless-professional, grabbing & hobbling like a hungry man on a buffet ?<br />
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Don't know..and the analysis and explanations will run for years to come.<br />
<br />
But the pain and stages of emotions the fans went through is beyond comprehension.<br />
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What better way to erase an bad dream then by creating a brand new disastrous nightmare..<br />
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It will take lots of time and faith to come out of this..<br />
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And to the people of Brazil...Tears </div>
Shivhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00914167328185472713noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12972717.post-79447121719642026462014-07-02T18:27:00.000-07:002014-07-08T09:01:21.368-07:00To the football player...<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
When rest of the world is still sleeping & having sweet dreams, you will be already warming up in the ground.<br />
<br />
When your friends are busy planning out some fun things to do, you will be busy kicking the ball in between the posts.<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiP6_h8HuiH48l5o8UYa9AhR5B5FjJoiHxxsDbAwb9nf62ZkrpHEw0eNEpuBLesmbiQinf9HBgL5sPat3EOhaeNLB5bA7-d2k1B_E1kvEkpR5lJo99eOLlBAAyqQelNHSNv1kro/s1600/Soccer-pitch-with-a-goal-and-a-ball-wallpaper_4261.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiP6_h8HuiH48l5o8UYa9AhR5B5FjJoiHxxsDbAwb9nf62ZkrpHEw0eNEpuBLesmbiQinf9HBgL5sPat3EOhaeNLB5bA7-d2k1B_E1kvEkpR5lJo99eOLlBAAyqQelNHSNv1kro/s1600/Soccer-pitch-with-a-goal-and-a-ball-wallpaper_4261.jpg" height="200" width="320" /></a><br />
Your life is between the two goal posts.<br />
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Corners, free-kicks, penalty & injuries are not just words for you. These are living-breathing friends that run with you always.Some of them excite you & some of them you don't want to meet again.<br />
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Its just not a ball for you..<br />
Its your canvas to create something magical..<br />
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It takes 11 souls like you to stir a nation.<br />
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Because of you, finally 32 valiant countries stand apart. Reaching this stage is an accomplishment by itself.<br />
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You have brought your country to the greatest sporting event. Sometimes a simple joy is when rest of the world comes to know that there is a country by that name on the globe.<br />
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You not only represent yourself but the millions of people from your country. You are the symbol of their aspirations, struggles & opportunities.<br />
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Each time you send the ball soaring through the posts, you just assure everything is going to be all right.<br />
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Each time you make some magical moves on the field, you inject small dose of belief to the otherwise cynical world.<br />
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As it progresses, you see some of the teams start packing up to go back home. It comes to do or die..<br />
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It is a test of skills, nerves & more than anything, its a test of beliefs..<br />
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And then there will be 'the' team..reaching the pinnacle of the game.<br />
You may be part of it...<br />
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Or you may have agonizingly came close to it.<br />
You had battled temptations, hardships & those dreaded injuries..<br />
But this one..it was so near yet so far..that sure will haunt for a while.<br />
<br />
But you won't be judged for that.<br />
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You will be remembered for all those enthralling minutes you gave yourself on the ground, for all those passes you made, for all those shots, for all those saves you made..<br />
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You will be remembered as epitome of skills & powers who gave everything..<br />
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Thanks for giving something to cheer about.<br />
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This beautiful game is beautiful because of you !<br />
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- A Football Fan Forever</div>
Shivhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00914167328185472713noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12972717.post-45415305170935561212011-10-08T11:28:00.000-07:002011-10-08T11:51:15.386-07:00RIP: Dear LeaderDear Leader,<br /><br />It was a crowded local transport bus and somehow I managed to get a seat in the bus to sit. I pulled out my iPod and was about to put in the ear buds. I felt somebody tapping on my shoulder and it was a small kid looking at the iPod. Small kid was shabbily dressed and came to later know that he didn’t ever go to school. He exclaimed ‘iPod!’ and asked how much it costs. After I told him the cost, the little boy said he would one day earn enough money to buy that iPod. After sometime, he got off the bus in next stop...<br /><br />That image of the little boy whose eyes lit up when he saw the iPod never will fade.<br /><br />There were millions of people who felt that child like sense of wonder because of Macs, iPods, iPhones & iPads. Every time they saw an iPod/iPhone/iPad, didn’t the grown up boys n gals felt like a little kid in a candy shop…<br /><br />All of us owed this feel to you.<br /><br />For us, black turtleneck and blue jeans never felt so fashionable…<br /><br />Every time there was a keynotes from you, we would never miss it for anything.<br />You were a magician every time you went on stage. You pulled rabbits out of the hat and each rabbit added that little pleasure and little desire.<br /><br />That eternal phrase ‘One more thing’ literally became the button, which would open to a new world.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVOQdJNO-SSp7osES8NVBku85RcAlPgMgVmDZ78Qrz4qo6-zo2M5-AeaKm7IBie2EhLw6h7NuKHDPk3d2Cg6WUv4fk8kCZVHoszJPOkGtq5t3IKJuzqSaG2rKQJPecI43fezal/s1600/steve_jobs3.jpeg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVOQdJNO-SSp7osES8NVBku85RcAlPgMgVmDZ78Qrz4qo6-zo2M5-AeaKm7IBie2EhLw6h7NuKHDPk3d2Cg6WUv4fk8kCZVHoszJPOkGtq5t3IKJuzqSaG2rKQJPecI43fezal/s320/steve_jobs3.jpeg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5661195045512724882" /></a><br />People were so obsessed with you that even a fake Steve blog developed a heavy fan following.<br /><br />It is hard to digest the fact that you are gone and this time, its forever…<br /><br />We knew about the battle that you were fighting against your own body. <br /><br />Every human is mortal. But secretly we hoped there would be an exception in your case. <br /><br />We will be missing that Charismatic persona, those insanely great keynotes, rumors about the mercurial genius, the vision to foresee the future and the desire to create a new path.<br /><br />Also a thought that what else you would have transformed after revolutionizing personal computers, music, phone, publishing.<br /><br /><br />You will be remembered through the iPods, iPhones, iPads, Macs, Toy Stories, road map that you would have set for future revolutions. <br /><br /><br />I had a wish that I would get a glimpse of you in person. I wish I had an opportunity to shake hands. I would have thanked you for changing the world and for your contribution to making the world beautiful. Its sad that even after traversing the IL for the last few years, I was not fortunate enough.<br /><br />I’m sure there is another universe where you have plans to create dent..<br /><br />Good bye and you will remain my favorite silicon valley pirate.<br /><br />NamastheShivhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00914167328185472713noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12972717.post-86496191753953194012008-04-07T00:12:00.000-07:002008-04-27T02:32:33.152-07:00Microhoo !Imagine this..<br /><br />You build this powerful Internet company from the scratch and make it one of the popular brands in tech domain. Within few years, it becomes a house-hold name through its e-mail,messenger,search,auto,photo & other services.<br /><br />There comes another superior search company which captures the market and pushes this company to number two spot in Internet Ad business. You are still fighting with that company for the market share.<br /><br />On the same tech planet lies a big bad monarch whose eyes falls on the company you built. The big company announce that it wants to acquire your company.<br /><br />How would you feel?<br /><br />Irritated ? Pissed off? Cautious? Defensive? Ward-off?<br /><br />That is exactly what Larry Yang & his team is feeling now. If you didn't get the clues, the company in trouble is Yahoo and the company trying to acquire is Microsoft.<br /><br />The drama unfolded almost 2 months ago sometime in January when Microsoft offered to take over Yahoo at an unprecedented $44 billion, almost $31 per Yahoo share. Yahoo rebuffed the offer. Microsoft wanted to acquire Yahoo so that it can form a strong force against search giant Google.<br /><br />Yahoo's board rejected the offer saying it is too less. Then Microsoft openly threatened to stage a coup in share holders in next Yahoo share holder's meeting. Yahoo postponed the meeting.<br /><br />Meanwhile Yahoo was trying to form alliance with other players such as AOL, News group & even its rival Google. Looks like it didn't work out.<br /><br />Microsoft had given deadline to Yahoo till Apr 24, which passed on.<br /><br />Now we need to see what strategy does Microsoft follow? Will it go for a hostile take-over by staging a proxy board of directors? Will it try to increase the bid and win over share holders?<br /><br />With recent Yahoo results out, still Yahoo is in tender position. Share holders may side with Microsoft bid unless Yahoo shows some dramatic improvements. As far as Microsoft, they make walk-away from the bid to create a feeling in shareholders that they are loosing a chance.Once dust is settled, they may come back & acquire Yahoo!<br /><br />Even if Microsoft gets successful in acquiring Yahoo, the real question is how do they merge? They have competing products in domains and in some cases, each of their products are high profit earners. What will be happen to products such as MSN, Yahoo Messenger, MSN Auto,Yahoo Auto?<br /><br />Technically also, they differ hugely. Microsoft uses proprietary stuff & Yahoo uses open sources.This will definitely create issues in merging & sharing the services.<br /><br />More than anything, the two companies differ in culture. Microsoft is this huge corporate organisation, while Yahoo is still youngster company.<br /><br />Lots of challenges ahead for Microsoft acquisition team..<br /><br />As of now, all eyes on Redmond..Shivhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00914167328185472713noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12972717.post-1549578704806483272007-03-24T20:30:00.000-07:002007-03-25T09:16:12.459-07:00Justice finally ?<div align="justify">Machan...<br /><br />That is what his friends called him.<br /><br />He was a lively person who graduated from IIM in 2003. He could have very well-chosen any cosy job or he could have left India for better opportunities. Instead he chose to join a government PSU,Indian Oil Corporation (IOC).After joining IOC, he realised the harsh realities which no institute teaches. Lakhimpur Kirki, the place he worked was in the sea of corruption, the petrol being sold there was adultered and oil mafia ruled there. He raised voice against them. He closed few petrol bunks and definitely the oil mafia didn't like this.<br /><br />The result..six bullets found way inside the young man's body.<br /><br />Manjunath Shanmugam,fondly called Machhan was dead.<br /><br />That was on a fateful November 19,2005.<br /><br />16 months after this , court had pronounced all the accused guilty in the killing of Manjunath Shanmugam. In India, where judicial system is known to take painfully long durations to deliver and the accused fiddle with the system, this was amazingly speedy trail. Thanks to the media and Manjunath Shanmugam Trust which never let the things settle down.<br /><br /><a href="http://syg.com/web/mstrust/manju/scmadmin/Home.php">Manjunath Shanmugam Trust</a> which was formed by few IIM alumnus to seek justise in the Manjunath murder case, made every possible effort to fight for the cause.They hired a lawyer, attended the court sessions and most importantly mobilised all the resources to fight the case. Newspapers constantly kept the case in limelight, IIM students & many supporting persons attended the sessions.<br /><br />Now after 16 months the court gave the judgement and it is a small victory for the trust , media and all those seeking for justice in Manju's murder case.<br /><br />But is this any justice for a soul like Manju's ? Does it in anyways fill the void left for his grieving parents & family ?<br /><br />What about the adulteration of oil against which Manju laid his life fighting ? Is something better there?<br /><br />Definitely not..<br /></div><div align="justify"><br />But at least it is a little satisfaction that some justice is done. A little satisfaction that this case also was not termed as 'robbery murder' as it happened for Satyendra Dubey's murder case.Most importantly it is a little comfort that people no longer are resigning with the fate and at least few of them are coming forward to fight the system.</div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify"><br />Manjunath Shanmugam trust has established an 'Integrity award' in Manju's name to be given to people or group working to uphold the values in Indian corporate,government and public matters. Also a Right to Information helpline was opened which provides the help regarding the use of Right to Information(RTI) act .The act enables the people to question the government, inspect their files, take copies of govt. documents, inspect government works, take sample of material from government works.</div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify"><br />Similarly the <a href="http://skdubeyfoundation.org/index.php">S. K. Dubey Foundation</a> formed after Satyendra Dubey's murder is mobilising against the fight for such cases.</div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify"><br />Atleast fight for Manju's case was backed up by his alumni, media & some noted personalities. But how many cases has the luxury of such backing-up?Government has been talking of 'Whistle-blower' policy which provision to protect the whistle blowers.But there are no signs of it seeing light.</div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify"><br />But the question which haunts is still how many more lives like Manju & Satyendra needs to be sacrificed? </div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify"><br />Will the sacrifice of this martyrs go wasted?</div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify"><br />PS: As you read this, court will decide on the exact punishments to be given for the accused in Manju's case.High chances that the sentence will be questioned in higher courts.</div>Shivhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00914167328185472713noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12972717.post-46368613873077348052007-01-13T13:39:00.000-08:002007-01-14T00:21:48.017-08:00Reinventing the phone..<div align="justify">I'm not a die-hard gizmo man and I do think many times before I buy any consumer electronic goods.<br /><br />As I have experienced,once in a while comes few things which can shake this whole mentality.It happened <a href="http://shivhn.blogspot.com/2005/07/i-think-thatz-why-ipod.html">last time </a>when that mind-boggling sleek portable music player came into market and how excited we were to get one of those. Apple got rewarded richly for being innovative and that product was called '<a href="http://shivhn.blogspot.com/2005/07/i-think-thatz-why-ipod.html">iPod</a>'.<br /><br />Apple every year conducts events such as Macworld Expo and Apple Expo. The highlight of this event will be the 'Stevenote'.It is the slang term for Keynote addresses by Apple CEO, Steve Jobs. Steve is known for his vibrant speaking style and manner of exciting a crowd, particularly during his speeches at Macworld conferences. He usually wears a black long-sleeved shirt, blue jeans, and sneakers. Most new Apple product releases are first shown to the public in this keynote addresses by Steve Jobs.<br /><br />Before every 'Stevenote', there will be tremendous buzz about what Apple is coming up or which product Steve is going to reveal. iPod was one such product which was revealed in one such Stevenote. So this year it was time for 'Stevenote' and rumors were high about a revolutionary new product Apple is going to launch and Steve didn't disappoint.<br /><br />Apple introduced 'iPhone'.<br /><br />I must confess I was totally blown away by its looks. The iPhone looks gorgeous.But when I heard its technical features, there was no way to escape from its charisma.<br /><br />What folks in Apple did was they combined three different devices - a revolutionary mobile phone, a wide screen iPod with touch controls and a internet communication device with desktop-class e-mail,web browsing & maps. They bundled all these three devices into one small and ligthweight device.<br /><br />But the best part about iPhone is that there are no physical keys on the phone ! That means the entire mobile phone is a screen. So how do you dial the numbers ? Use the touch screen keyboard and if number is stored then by pointing the finger at a name on the list.<br /><br />One more striking feature is the 'Visual Voicemail'. If you have voice mail enabled in your phone, then you know the pain of going through of every voicemails in a sequential order.The iPhone eliminates all this and you can pick the voice mail you want from the list! <br /><br />Now to viewing photos in the phone.You can zoom in & out the photos using fingers.Set any picture as wallpaper and sent it by email all by touch.<br /><br />Using the built-in Safari browser, you can browse the internet and use mails.With built-in Google maps you can view maps and satellite images or get directions and traffic information<br /><br />Some high technology talks now. iPhone supports GSM,EDGE,Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.It has acceralometer which detects when you rotate from portrait to landscape.The proximity sensor detects when you lift the phone near to you ears and turn off the display and ambient light sensor automatically adjust the light settings.<br /><br />And finally you can do the same things you can do with iPod.Play audio songs and videos.<br /><br />Apple has announced the price of 4-GB iPhone to be $499 and 5-GB iPhone to be $599.But the iPhones will be available only in April,2007 in US and in Asia it will be only in 2008.<br /><br />Apple had maintained so much secrecy about this product that even for 2 years when this project was going on, nobody was clear about what Apple is into. Even its partners in this project, Cingular,Yahoo and Google were not aware of. Only few in Apple knew it and it was the tightly guarded secret.<br /><br />So will iPhone is going to take the mobile market by storm. Very early days and difficult to predict.But the way, Wall mart responded on announcement of iPhone was warming.The Apple stocks rose within minutes. On other end, Apple's iPhone was welcomed by a law suite from Cisco which apparently has the 'iPhone' trademark registered.<br /><br />Few are questioning the pricing kept for iPhone saying $499 is too much compared to any other mobile available in market, even if iPhone offers too many things.But I feel the price will not be a factor as we had seen with iPod. When iPod was introduced with $199 and above price, everybody said why would people buy a music player which is 3-4 times costlier than any available players.Then we know how iPod had stunned everyone.I feel samething is going to happen with iPhone.<br /><br />A long way to go, lets sit back and wait for <a href="http://www.apple.com/iphone/">iPhone</a> to arrive<br /><br />Oh ! by the way, congrats on the new name - 'Apple Inc' .</div><div align="justify">(Earlier it was 'Apple Computer Inc ' and they removed 'Computer' from their name)<br /><br />Over to Steve and Apple...</div>Shivhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00914167328185472713noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12972717.post-1162755301720257812006-11-05T11:20:00.000-08:002006-11-05T15:34:40.186-08:00Pooja Phenomenon<div align="justify">Its been more than a year since I've been staying and working with Bengalis. As with any other state, they have their own unique culture, traditions, art, celebrations, food habits, heroes, fights. I'm used to the 'alao' love, 'maach' craziness and 'misti' longings of Bengalis.But one thing which stood way out and for which every Bengali goes bersek is 'Durga Pooja'.<br /><br />During initial days of my stay with Bengali friends, I noticed that whenever somebody mentioned 'Durga Pooja', they would get energised so much and would never stopped talking about the Pooja. I never understood why Bengalis are so crazy about Pooja.<br /><br />As I spent more and more time with them, I could only see that it is not few but most of the Bengali fraternity goes in mass Pooja mania. In office, I had seen people trying to somehow squeeze vaccations to India so that they can attend Pooja.And ones whoever couldn't go would be present in office physically and mentally they would be there in Pooja pendals.<br /><br />What a divine coincidence! This time, things happened such that I was in Kolkata during Durga Pooja and it was time for me to get a first hand feel of 'Durga Pooja phenomenon'.<br /><br />I arrived in Kolkata just a week before Durga Pooja started. It was already evident that Kolkata was waiting eagerly for Durga ma.Everybody in office & outside had one common favorite topic - Durga Pooja.<br /><br />Durga Pooja was in the air !<br /><br />As the days got closer to Durga Pooja, the strength in office started dwindling. In between some serious rain caused some concerns of spoiling the party.But it wasn't to be.<br /><br />I had heard from Bengali friends that integral part of Durga Pooja is 'Pendal hopping' and I decided to try it myself.On the Pooja day, we started pendal hopping from the block where we stayed.As we started hopping from pendal to pendal I noticed that the crowd on the roads increased as the evening progressed. As the night grew old, there were families, friends, relatives, lovers..everybody out on streets to get soaked in festive atmosphere.<br /><br />I heard somewhere that Bengalis like 'addabaazi', that is grouping together and having fun.Durga pooja was indeed the perfect time for addabaazi. People were visiting pendals, eating out, having fun.Totally a carnival feel.<br /><br />The effort these guys put into bring uppendals is unbelievable. Each of the pendals are unique, theme-based and meticulosly planned. The lightings & decorations are so stunning.Most of them are so impressive that it is a pure art work.Durga ma is curved in various forms and using various materials.</div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify">While inside the pendal, 'Anjali' is performed and outside pendals 'dhaaks' roar. Anjali is the aarthi program and dhaaks are those drums, which give that unique sound to the celebrations.<br /><br />We literally roamed the whole night and felt that city will never sleep for the festival.<br /><br />Newspapers during those Pooja days carried exclusives only on Durga Pooja.Suppliments ran into pages about the best pendals, pooja special food and anything about Pooja.Most news channels too jumped the vagon and came up with exclusives.Most of the Bengali channels took viewers on a virtual 'pendal hopping' with live coverage from various pendals.<br /><br />If pendals were one event, then Durga immersion procession on the last day was another colorful event.One notable thing was the significant number of ladies out on street , swaying to the dhaks.<br /><br />Bengal is such a state where communists are ruling for past 2-3 decades and I was wondering how Durga Pooja and Communism can go together.It was sounding such a oxymoron imagining communists celebrating Durga pooja.Then I told to myself that nobody stopped people affiliated to communism from celebration.Even if they don't believe in God, they cant stop believing in celebrations!<br /><br />That lead to another question..why in first place, Durga pooja generates such interest and celebrations?<br /><br />I got a feel that Durga Pooja is no longer a festival of some particular caste but people has accepted it as their own festival. Added to this, is the excellent machinary which arranges Durga Pooja in such a stylish manner that people get soaked into it.The final reason what I felt was Bengalis though have several festivals, nothing is compared to Durga Pooja and Durga pooja is the time to let out all that steam accumulated.Contrast this to any South Indian state, where there will be atleast one festival every month.So net result is that people wait for a good year to get the opportunity to feel,enjoy & get drenched in one mega celebration.<br /><br />And after-effects of Pooja looked devastating ! Next day after the immersion, I saw many people who were down with a feeling that Durga Pooja was over and few were already counting days for next year's pooja !! And few were so used to saying 'Shubh Bijay' that they couldnt stop saying it even after Durga Pooja !<br /><br />With due regards to Bengalis, as one of my Bengali friend used to stay "Durga Pooja is the only time when Bengalis would be active after which they go back to sleep for rest of the year' !!</div>Shivhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00914167328185472713noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12972717.post-1152517673800883112006-07-10T00:40:00.000-07:002006-07-10T00:48:41.096-07:00The Big Apple<div align="justify"><strong><span style="color:#000066;">July 03, Monday</span></strong><br /><br />The cheap hotel which we had booked in New York really turned to be 'cheap'. After understanding it was no use arguing with the hotel guys, we shifted to another hotel, which was pretty decent.<br /><br />After getting ready, we set out for New York expedition, before that we dropped Ponamma to catch her with other appointment. Parking in New York is one hell experience and we promptly returned our car to the agency. Then onwards it was taxi.<br /><br />First visit was to World Trade Center.<br /><br />As we walked to the Ground Zero, those satanic images of planes crashing into skyscrapers were repeating playing in my mind. I was thinking how many innocent lives unaware of what is waiting for them would have come into their offices in WTC on that fateful 09/11.<br /><br />There was emptiness in the site. Once there stood two magnificent towers with booming life. At the site there were boards describing how the transport was restored, what happened at Pentagon and there was a list of all people who lost their lives in the attack. All together 2373 lives. There was graffiti on near-by wall most of them paying homage to all the departed souls.<br /><br />Paid homage to all the departed ones and a silent thanks to all the firemen. In the near by World Financial Center, there was a model of the upcoming 'Freedom Tower', which is to be built in the place where WTC stood. Mind was still thinking about how anybody would think in such destructive way, what meticulous planning would have gone in this. But what did they gain out of this??<br /><br />Next took a taxi and landed up in Empire State building. Before getting into Empire State building, something about taxis here. Most of the yellow taxis are driven by Desis especially the Sardars. We always ended up in Sardar taxis throughout our travel in New York.<br /><br />Empire State building is the second tallest structure in US with 102 floors. There was a huge queue to get into the top of the building. After taking tickets for that, we landed on the observatory section of the empire state building. The view of New York from there was awesome. Good that we took the 'Tony the Cabie's audio commentary'. It was nice to listen to the commentary about each building we were seeing.<br /><br />From there we landed up in Times Square. The first impression was awe. It was nothing but glittering. So many people, so many lights, sign boards, flashy bill boards, advertisements, it was a perfect place to roam in the night. Roaming in the Times Square was like walking in the Brigade-MG Road. We just strolled the street and had dinner at an Italian restaurant. Times truly reflected the 'never sleeping city'.<br /><br />It was time to go back to hotel. But we didn't know the address of the hotel! Neither was it written on the key they gave. At that time we were in Time Square at 7th Avenue 47th Street. So 'somebody' in our group called up and asked for the hotel address. Depending on that, we took a taxi and went to 7th Avenue, 146 th street to find that there was no hotel there! Again when we called it was known that the hotel was in 7th Avenue 46th Street. This meant the hotel was next street from where we started! We laughed at ourselves for this, when we saw Times Square from our hotel window!<br /><br /><span style="color:#000099;"><strong><span style="color:#000066;">July 04, Tuesday</span> </strong></span><br /><br />As soon as we were ready we went to the Central Park, which was at a walkable distance from the hotel. Central Park was so huge and everywhere people were seen jogging, cycling or skating. After spending strolling across the park and enjoying the central park benches, it was time to bid adieu to Dips.<br /><br />We were back in Central Park and Archana was insisting that we will hire bicycles to roam around. So hired the bicycles for 2 hours for a rent of 20$. Last time I rode a bicycle was atleast 4-5 years ago. So first few seconds were shaky & finally I got the grip.It was awesome strolling the central park on the bicycle. It was good to see so many joggers, cyclists, skaters & walkers around us.<br /><br />After 2 hours we returned the bicycles and went for one last round of stroll in Time Square before we left for the airport.<br /><br />We reached JFK barely with any time left, but plane was made to wait for nearly 2 hours on the runway due to some runway problem, which meant that when I arrived in Phoenix, I had missed my connecting flight to LA. I was put in the next day first flight at 6 AM.The stupid airlines argued that they can't provide accommodation. Suppi took me to his home with an extra burden of dropping me in airport for the first flight.<br /><br />I almost missed that flight too, but somehow made it! But it was not the end of action as my baggage didn't arrive when I landed in LAX. Finally everything ended fine!<br /><br /><span style="color:#6633ff;">Climbing Statue of Liberty </span><br /><span style="color:#6633ff;">Getting soaked in Niagara </span><br /><span style="color:#6633ff;">Drive in the freeway </span><br /><span style="color:#6633ff;">Silent moments at WTC </span><br /><span style="color:#6633ff;">Top of the world in Empire State building </span><br /><span style="color:#6633ff;">Stroll in Time Square </span><br /><span style="color:#6633ff;">Cycling in Central Park </span><br /><br />So many wonderful moments throughout the trip combined with the presence of my awesome friends without whom this trip would not have so much fun and memorable.<br /><br />Still savoring each moment from the trip...</div>Shivhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00914167328185472713noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12972717.post-1152379296678053862006-07-08T10:11:00.000-07:002006-07-08T10:36:12.373-07:00A magnificent statue and an awesome waterfalls<div align="justify">It was tough to get back to work in office after spending an awesome time with friends in awesome places. I’m just back from a trip to New York and Niagara.<br /><br />The idea of this New York trip originated during our last Las Vegas trip. Even though we thought we will book the tickets & hotels well in advance, it never happened. Finally it boiled down to just one week before the trip. Then as always we rushed and in hurry tried to book air tickets. Even though it was little expensive, it wasn’t bad either. At some point, we almost dropped the idea of the trip seeing the prices. Somehow everything fell in place.<br /><br />But this time, biggest villain was hotel! We literally struggled to get a decent hotel and when we finally booked a hotel at a surprisingly low price, we were elated. Not knowing what was waiting for us next.<br /><br />When everything was fine, suddenly at my work place, there was some concern about me taking an off. Somehow I convinced them. Same thing happened with Suppi too.<br /><br />Keeping aside all these initial hiccups, so finally we kick-started the trip from flying to New York. Only after landing in JFK Airport in New York, I and Suppi realized that still there are lots which we need to battle. Our plan of hiring the car from airport went for a toss as there was not even a single vehicle available in any rental agencies. After roaming frantically for 3 hours and after surfing on the spot, we managed to get a car from a rental agency which was 10 miles from JFK.<br /><br />Mean while it was not going good for our friends who went to hotel to rest. The hotel would have been easily rated one of the worst. We were deceived by the hotel’s flashy website & the price carrot.<br /><br /><span style="color:#000099;">July 01, Saturday</span><br /><br />Finally it was 10:30 on Saturday morning, when the same gang of Deepti, Archana, Supreeth & I met in Battery Park. Only addition was Ponamma. This was the place from where the ferry would take us to one of the most recognized monument in world, Statue of Liberty.<br /><br />There was an intense security check, just like in airports, before we boarded the ferry. As the ferry moved nearer to Liberty Island, the famous statue was becoming more and more visible. It was a memorable moment to see the Statue of Liberty in person. After getting down on the island, we proceeded to the statue. Entry to the Statue requires tickets and thankfully I had booked it online.<br /><br />As we entered the Statue, again there was one more round of security check, this time it had some puff test, which blew air on the body! Now we were in the Statue and the stairs led us to the exclusive exhibition about Statue of Liberty and its history.<br /><br />Did you know this? Auguste Bartholdi, the sculptor of Statue of Liberty was thinking of ways to provide the support from inside to the statue. He consulted Eiffel and Eiffel suggested that there should be a tower like structure which runs across the statue to support it. And that idea worked. By the way, Eiffel is the same guy after which the Paris’s famous tower is named.<br /><br />It seems there is a path up till the lamp. But that route is no longer accessible.<br /><br />So there we were at the feet of Statue of Liberty. The gigantic, green and magnificent statue, gifted by France to US, to mark the later’s independence. The Statue stood as a symbol of freedom, hope & liberty. It was the first sight any immigrant entering to US through New York would have seen during those days. One interesting thing to notice was that right feet of the statue was on toes, something like to ‘ready to go’ state. (Well, Archana cooked up some cock-bull reason why it was like that ! )<br /><br />The view of Manhattan from Statue was amazing too. We took some funny pictures around Statue, had lunch and started back in the ferry to Battery Park.<br /><br />According to plan, we left New York for Buffalo, a place 450 miles away. Our Plan was to visit Niagara and come back again to New York. Suppi started the driving from New York and drove till we were totally out of New York traffic. Then I took over and as always it was pleasure driving. Especially driving in the freeway is an experience. We got a good company of some 4-5 cars who consistently kept me competitive. After 4 hours, Suppi took over. It was 1:30 night when we reached the hotel in Buffalo. The hotel was too good compared to other in New York, thanks to our IDM manager !<br /><br />Buffalo streets was full of Saturday night parties and energy level was quite visible-audible. But we badly needed rest and slipped into sleep.<br /><br /><span style="color:#000099;">July 02, Sunday</span><br /><br />Tired with the journey we woke up pretty late and started towards Niagara, which was about 50 miles from Buffalo. By the time we reached the place and found car parking, it was already afternoon. Information Center informed us about the combo-trip package which covers the Niagara Falls extensively. We booked the tickets for that and tickets were available only for 4:30 trip.<br /><br />Meanwhile it was time to attack the lunch at a near-by Punjabi restaurant (In fact the name was Punjabi dhabha which made us to run to it!).After a good buffet lunch, we were all set for the Niagara expedition.<br /><br />Niagara Falls actually consists of three falls – American Falls, Bridal Vail Falls and Canadian Falls (Horse Shoe Falls).<br /><br />First of the trip was called ‘Maid of the Mist’. This is the trip where the cruise passes near the American Falls and takes right into the Horse-Shoe falls. Before boarding the cruise, we were given blue colored plastic gowns and as the cruise moved towards the falls, we realized why the gown was required. The entire atmosphere was misty and there was a strong wind blowing, making water droplets flying in all directions.<br /><br />The American falls sight was magnificent and the sun rays and the water drop had created a big rainbow across the falls. American falls was 1060 feet in width and had a 180 ft height. When we were still enjoying the American falls, at a near distance we heard the thundering noise of water thrusting. The boat took a slight turn and slowly the Horse-Shoe Falls appeared. In next few moments, we were in the middle of Horse-Shoe falls. To the left, to the right & to the center, it was water in majestic form. It was jumping as if it has broken all shackles attached to it, as if there was no tomorrow...<br /><br />Imagine a waterfall which is 2600 feet in width and 173 feet height and water jumping in full form. It was an absolutely stunning experience. When the announcement in the ship went “Ladies & Gentleman, THIS is Niagara Falls”, automatically all the hands in the ship clapped in unison with loud cheering. Truly, it was a moment to cherish.<br /><br />We couldn’t stop talking about the view of Niagara after we came out of that ‘Maid of the Mist’ trip. Next on our list was ‘Cave of the Winds’ tour. This time the queue was extremely long and before entering we were given the yellow plastic gowns and water slippers.<br /><br />There was a small pathway, which lead to the falls and when the path ended, we were right below the falls. Now we knew why water slippers were given. As we climbed nearer to the falls, the water was splashing on us from every side. As wind blew, it carried a barrage of water droplets and sprinkled on us. We stood right below the falls with water falling with massive force and what a force it has. Thanks to the gown, clothes were dry, but couldn’t resist getting the head wet thoroughly.<br /><br />Up close to the falls was an awesome experience. We could have continued like that forever. It was getting dark and slowly the lights were coming on. We came out of the ‘Cave of the Winds’.<br /><br />The powerful light sources on the Canadian border were projecting the colors on the falls. The water falls was taking new colors and in the night it was another different world. It was such a myriad image to see the falls in blue, green, red and in many other eye-catching colors. It was around 10 in night now and the fireworks started on Canadian border. It was excellent show but got curtailed due to rain.<br /><br />We returned back to our car with Niagara running in our minds and the images constantly lingering in eyes. Time for dinner and we went to one more Indian restaurant. There the owner of the hotel and a Desi had picked up the fight and arguing stupidly. We carried with our dinner and before dinner got over, we could see the hotel owner trying to be nice with that Desi customer by calling him ‘Beta’ and hugging. It was hilarious!<br /><br />After refueling the car, it was 1 in the night when we started our journey back. I started the innings with me being in driver’s seat. After roaming for the whole day, folks were feeling sleepy and soon Archana & Ponamma slipped into sleep. We made Suppi to sleep so that he can take over from me. Deepti tried giving company to me by continuing her request show and talking to me. Finally she also slipped into sleep.<br /><br />Meanwhile the drive was extremely cool, as always started with 65-70 mph and slowly ramped up to 80-85 mph. This time there was no company to chase or play with on the freeway. Archana, I think got worried twice when the car swayed at few turns. Ponamma was sleeping sound as if she was sleeping in a nice cozy bed. Finally it was 4:30 when I handed over the wheel to Suppi and I slipped into sleep for some 2 hours.</div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"><br />We were on our way back to The Big Apple..</div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"><br />Coming up next...Ground Zero, Empire State building, Time Square and many New York attractions</div>Shivhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00914167328185472713noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12972717.post-1149840877551667122006-06-09T00:55:00.000-07:002006-06-09T01:14:37.573-07:00Football Fiesta<div align="justify">The Festival of Football is back!!!<br /><br />If there is one game which can truly be called ‘global’, it has to be Football. What makes Football wonderful is the intensity, skills, passions & emotions involved in the game. Now you may come up with arguments saying that every game has all this and if you say that there is nothing like cricket, then probably you have not experienced the feast of football.<br /><br />The very basic idea of game is simple and appealing. Two teams of 11 players with an aim to putting the ball in the opponent’s goal post using only legs & head. The next best part about football is the speed. The game is usually played for two halfs of 45 minutes and naturally the game moves at a brisk pace. So the agony of sitting for hours & hours watching something which already is pre-decided is not required.<br /><br />I don’t know how I got bitten from this football bug.<br /><br />In our small town of Harihar, there was a football club ‘Town Sports Club’. Everyday evening, when returning from school I used to pass by the ground where these footballers used to practice. It didn’t take much time to fall in love with the game. I was then in 5th Standard, started playing since then and it continued till I was in 10th standard. After that though it was not so regular, I played whenever possible.<br /><br />So having the first hand of idea about the game, world cups were always a treat for hardcore footballers like me.<br /><br />First memories of world cup was Italia-90.<br /><br />After 1986 ‘Maradona’ world cup, his influence was so much that our club’s jersey was designed exactly same as the Argentine team’s. Having heard/influenced of legendary superstar called “Maradona”, me and friends in our club supported Argentine through out that Italia world cup.<br /><br />But Maradona didn’t take off as we expected, instead there were some other eye-catching players in other teams like Schillaci of Italy, who became popular for his scissor-like passes. I became so influenced by that pass, that I successfully implemented in my game and promptly I was called ‘Schillaci' for few days! Then there was Roger Milla and his Cameron team which became overnight famous for defeating our favorite Argentine. We hated them so much! But to our pleasure, our Argentine team reached the final and it was to play against West Germany.<br /><br />I still remember the final match was at 12:30 in the midnight and my dad took me to his friend’s house to watch it. Nothing spectacular until that penalty was given and Germans scored that penalty to win the world cup. Totally devastated we were. Next day & for few days, post mortem of the match followed in the school and in the club.<br /><br />Meanwhile our school was doing great in the inter-school football championship & we had reached the district level.<br /><br />Next World Cup, USA 94.</div><div align="justify"><br />Nothing much to remember , except the pony-tailed Roberto Baggio missing the penalty shot and Brazil winning the cup in a penalty shoot-out.And of course that Valderamma's orange bushy hair!!<br /><br />Out of school, I was now in college and my football play continued with hostel mates in the hostel grounds.<br /><br />Come 1998, it was France-98 World Cup.</div><div align="justify"><br />Post Maradona, my loyalty had shifted to Brazil. There is something about South American Football. There is some rhythm, some style and some genuine talents.<br /><br />Everybody was talking about this 20 year aged bald headed Brazilian Ronaldo. True to the legend, Ronaldo mesmerized and took his team to the final. What a final it was! France playing in their home ground against Brazil. Ronaldo going out mysteriously after the final match started and Zidane heading two marvelous goals. A dream victory for any host!<br /><br />Now I was working, I was not able to play much except that inter-office football tournament representing my company.<br /><br />It was Korea Japan -2002 World cup.</div><div align="justify"><br />The world cup started with many surprises. Defending champions France lost the opening match to a new comer Senegal and eventually was eliminated. Likewise was Argentina.<br /><br />Meanwhile my favorite team Brazil was making good progress. One particular match I remember was Brazil V/S England in quarterfinals. I had disappeared from my cubicle for the match with few of my colleagues to watch the match! Match was a tight one before an amazing free kick from Ronaldino sealed the fate, defeating England.<br /><br />The three Brazilian Rs – Ronaldo, Rivaldo and Ronaldino were fantastic and Brazil reached the finals. Final match was against Germany. It was touted as the battle of titans – Ronaldo against the German super goal keeper – Oliver Kahn .Ultimately Ronaldo won the battle and Brazil, the trophy.<br /><br />Most memorable part of that world cup was the stunning performance by host countries – South Korea and Japan. South Korea managed to reach semis while Japan managed to last 16. Especially the ‘Red devils’ of Korea was such a huge phenomenon and I believe that ‘red devils’ were one of the major reasons behind Korea’s dream run.<br /><br />Now its time for one more world cup, this time in Germany.</div><div align="justify"><br />This time also I’ll be backing ‘Seleção’. With a right mix of experience and raw talent, Brazil is the team to look for. </div><div align="justify"><br />But at the end of the day all that matters is that 90 minutes in the field and that’s is why this game becomes so interesting.<br /><br />In next one month, there will be millions in hundred countries following teams, there will be spectators highly charged up, there will be passions running high and above all ,there were will be feast of football.<br /><br /> </div>Shivhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00914167328185472713noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12972717.post-1149045969629611372006-05-30T20:08:00.000-07:002006-05-31T22:34:49.920-07:00A Priceless Re-Union Trip !<div align="justify"><span style="color:#6600cc;">Flying to Phoenix – several 100 $<br />Ride to Canyon – several $<br />Hotel in Vegas – several 100$<br />Money spent/lost in Vegas – several $<br />Being with my old Bangalore gang – Priceless<br /></span><br />What shall I say about the past 3 magical days, after which it is so difficult to be in the office!<br /><br />In the first place, it was so astonishing to see how things fell in place and within a week’s time our trip was planned.<br /><br />It all started with a call from Deepti asking me about the long weekend plan. I was still in the confused and undecided state. Then came the news that Venu may join with us, if we plan something. On other side, we came to know that Archana will be flying to Phoenix in the long weekend, where Supreeth stays. So taking these all jigsaw pieces & after some elaboration we fitted the jigsaw puzzle. After several Google searches and after one conference call, a plan was ready. Phoenix was our first destination.<br /><br /><span style="color:#000066;"><strong>Friday May 26, 2006</strong><br /></span><br />On Friday night I flew from Los Angeles to Phoenix, Deepti flew from San Jose and Venu from Chicago. Meanwhile Archana had flown from Denver in the afternoon itself and was enjoying the privilege of being the early bird by shopping things for the trip with Supreeth.<br /><br />There we were at Phoenix airport, 5 of us, who were/is part of Lucent Messaging project in Bangalore. Especially for me, I was meeting all these friends nearly after 9 months. How excited and happy we were to see the old gang!<br /><br />A good dinner at Supreeth’s place (special mention of Channa masala he prepared) was complimented with our peppy talks on LMD days. The next day was supposed to be very hectic. So we retired to bed, hoping to make an early start.<br /><br /><strong><span style="color:#000066;">Saturday May 27, 2006</span></strong><br /><br />Next morning we started, not as planned at 6 but at 8 AM!<br /><br />The agenda for the day - visit Sedona, Grand Canyon and finally reach Las Vegas.<br /><br />Our first place of visit was Sedona rocks. Sedona has these red-colored rocks in different shapes .We had stops at the bell-shape rock & several other spots before we headed towards Grand Canyon.<br /><br />The way to Grand Canyon was overly crowded & the traffic was extremely slow moving. We hoped atleast, once we are done with watching the 45 minutes movie on ’Grand Canyon’ at I-max theater, the traffic would ease. But it grew still slower. After limping on an annoyingly slow pace, we reached the South rim of Grand Canyon.<br /><br />I still remember the awe which struck me when I first saw the Grand Canyon last year. I was totally mesmerized and I could see the same feeling on our folks faces. The best thing we did was taking the bus ride along the Canyon points. The Canyon shuttle carries visitors to several view points and the views at few of these points were breathtaking.<br /><br />Simply put, Grand Canyon is magnanimous. It has to be God’s one of the best creations.<br /><br />From there we started our journey towards Las Vegas.<br /><br />If Grand Canyon is one of the best creations of God, then Las Vegas is one of the lavish materialistic creations created by man. As we drove closer to Vegas, the Vegas skyline was making presence with its brightly lit structures. Some land marks like Stratosphere were visible from the distance itself.<br /><br />Around 2 am, we reached at the Gold Coast hotel, our stay in Vegas. It was a tricky situation. If we had gone out in Vegas at that time, we would have definitely not returned by morning and would have no energy & sleep for the next day. At the same time, it feels bad to sleep early in Vegas! Finally we decided to rest & start fresh the next day. That plan proved to be correct.<br /><br /><strong><span style="color:#000066;">Sunday May 28, 2006</span></strong><br /></div><p align="justify">The plan for the day was shows, casinos, roaming & fun.<br /></p><p align="justify">The day started on a bright note with Supreeth getting one heart-warming smiles from a black-lady-security guard at Hotel Bellagio. How our Supreeth used to blush when we mentioned that topic!<br /><br />I had some fond-not-so-good memories of this Hotel. This was the same place where the touring group had left me deserted, when <a href="http://shivhn.blogspot.com/2005/06/lost-in-las-vegas.html">I visited Vegas last year</a> with them. So all those moments of me finding that our tour bus had left me & I wandering around the hotel looking for my friends/bus was playing in mind. </p><div align="justify"></div><p align="justify">But it was a feel good factor for me to be back in Vegas-Canyon on the same day as last year!<br /><br />We roamed around on the ‘Strip’ checking few casinos and looking for goggles. The Las Vegas in the day light has a different look and it was looking like a gift box, waiting to be opened.<br /><br />Evening session started with a bang with Venu & Archana winning teddy bears/doggies in the Circus Circus games. Probably if we had continued like that, I think we would have got enough stuffs to open a teddy bear shop. But unfortunately we had other things to do in Vegas!<br /><br />There was nothing special about Circus show and I still didn’t understand why people were sitting there an hour before to see it!<br /><br />As evening unfolded, Las Vegas was growing more attractive and looking more stunning. I wonder how much electricity would be required for this city which never sleeps. So much colors, so many lights, so many amazing structures & so many different people there for numerous reasons.<br /><br />The first show we saw in the evening was ‘Sirens of TI’.A musical act with scarcely-clad ladies as Sirens and some hunks playing as pirates. It was visually very rich and entertaining. I liked especially the dance which the pirates did. If Treasure Island people are looking for a new face for that captain’s role, may be they can think of our Venu…<br /><br />The Volcano show in Mirage was just ok. Before that it had a long delay which we used effectively for chatting all our non-sense talks! We were just about to erupt after waiting for more than an hour to see it, just then it started. But the delay of this show did trigger a series of just misses.<br /><br />After a quick dinner (Burrito Bol) at Chippendales, we were in front of Bellagio again for the fountain show. The fountain show didn’t disappoint and it was as always amazing. Our luck with Laser show and Stratosphere rides was not that good.<br /><br />It was around 2 in the morning when we reached Newyork Newyork hotel, where we stopped at a bar to listen to the band playing there. The band was belting some good numbers including ‘Hotel California’. The crowd there was enjoying in their own ways.<br /><br />We moved across to MGM hotel, just in front of Newyork Newyork hotel. After that Venu & me ventured into some other place, while Archana, Deepti & Suppi were busy in Casino. Finally when we all met & started from the ‘Strip’, back to hotel, it was 6 in the morning!!<br /><br />We had spent an astonishing 19 hours non-stop in the Las Vegas Strip!!<br /><br /><strong><span style="color:#000066;">Monday May 29, 2006</span></strong><br /><br />Back in hotel, we hit the bed as soon we reached it. But there was no luxury of sound sleep as we were scheduled to leave for Hoover dam. So after a quick power nap for 2 hours, we were ready for Hoover dam.<br /><br />As we left Vegas, I was thinking of what all things Vegas offers. It has got everything for everybody’s demands/needs. One thing I again learnt was every time you go to Vegas, you feel that there is still something which you didn’t know/experience about the Sin city!<br /><br />This awesome line I saw it on a t-shirt summarizes the Vegas experience.<br />“<span style="color:#6600cc;">Las Vegas – Successfully separating decent people from their pay checks since 1911</span>”.<br /><br />From the Sin city, we moved towards Hoover dam which is almost an hour away .The dam was built on river Colorado to prevent flooding along its way, to use the water for agriculture in California, Arizona & Nevada and for hydroelectricity generation. It is located on the borders of the states of Nevada & Arizona and is named after US President Herbert Hover.<br /><br />The view from the top of dam was magnificent and the dam has unbelievably steep curved dam walls. An awesome engineering creation!<br /><br />The winged figures at the entrance of dam were interesting. It seems rubbing the feet of these statues bring some good fortune. So all of us were there, rubbing the feet of that winged figures statues!<br /><br />With Deepti’s flight at 8 and Archana’s at 8:30, it was time to rush back to Phoenix. It seems it would usually take 5-6 hours to reach Phoenix. But when you have Supreeth who can easily give competition to BMTC drivers back in Bangalore for overtaking, that distance proved too short.Supported by the excellent company for the journey and with some awesome songs playing, the journey just zoomed by. The journey back was blasting with singing & some back seat dancing! We reached Phoenix in little more than 4 hours.<br /><br />It was time for good byes. </p><p align="justify">First Deepti, then Archana, finally Venu & Me took our respective flights. I Know Suppi would have felt totally alone at that moment, after being with us for all these 3 days.<br /><br />The very moment I put my foot in the plane, I started missing the gang and all the fun we had. It was funny to be sitting in the business class among those serious looking folks. All around, folks were busy either digging their laptops or reading some books.<br /><br />I just closed my eyes and all the wonderful moments of the trip were passing by like a slide show. As each image of the trip passed by, there was a smile sailing through my face.<br /><br />My iPod was playing the song<br /><br /><span style="color:#6600cc;"><em>Har Pal Yahan<br />Jee Bhar Jiyo Jo Hai Sama<br />Kal Ho Na Ho</em></span> </p>Shivhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00914167328185472713noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12972717.post-1148114727608603612006-05-20T01:41:00.000-07:002006-05-20T03:04:44.766-07:00Popcorn & Holy Grail !<div align="justify"><span style="font-size:85%;">Scene 1: Feverish frenziness in office, everybody booking tickets online expecting a huge turn over.<br /><br />Scene 2: Outside movie theater, several groups sitting with boards ‘Blasphemy’.<br /><br />Scene 3: Pretty long queues for ticket, many of them not getting tickets.<br /><br />Scene 4: Movie is going on. The black guy next to me slips into sleep, only to be wakened up by his girl friend often.<br /><br />Scene 5: Guy sitting in next row, shouts ‘Oh Jesus! What are they saying?’<br /><br />Scene 6: Coming out of theatre, many young men-women discussing about Bible, about Jesus & about Christianity<br /><br />This summarizes the movie experience of ‘The Da Vinci Code’, the most anticipated & most controversial movie.<br /><br />Having read the book ‘Da Vinci Code’ twice, the first thing I wanted to do was to see the novel on the screen. Keeping aside the arguments-counter arguments about the authenticity of the contents of the book, the book was simply flabbergasting. Nobody other than Dan Brown could have mixed fiction and fact in such deadly combination.<br /><br />With story being well-known & almost everything in the story familiar, all I was interested was to see how it is brought to celluloid. Print media and Celluloid media have their own advantages and disadvantages. Often things bridged from print to celluloid will loose some charm in the transition. Da Vinci Code is no exception.<br /><br />Director Ron Howard looks like did a decent job of being loyal to the novel barring few minor changes here and there. The movie is fast paced and many threads in the story run parallely as in the novel. It makes a perfect broth for an entertainer with murders, secret codes, car chases, cryptography and Christianity. Don’t forget the locations it is picturised.<br /><br />Casting is usually good. Tom Hanks effortlessly slips into the symbolgist Robert Langdon’s character. Audrey as Sophia sparkles once in a while with her nice smile.Unlike in novel, somehow Collet looks like challenging Fache. Silas is as chilling as described in the novel. But the scenes involving Ian McKellan as Tiebing take the top spot.<br /><br />Few scenes in the movie where theatre was involved..<br />Silas whipping himself..Tiebing dramatically saying Mary Magadelane was married to Jesus..Langdon breaking the Draculian Devil clue...<br /><br />But my fav one is when Langdon asks Sophie at the end "Does it matter if Jesus was married? Does somebody stop inspiring others just because they are human or God "<br /><br />I was interested to know how few of my friends who had not read the novel felt about the movie. Though they got an outlook, they obviously missed some references. </span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-size:85%;"></span> </div><div align="justify"><span style="font-size:85%;"><br />I need to add that here is not much scope for Tom for his skills..<br /><br />Over all, if you are a great fan of Da Vinci Code and want to see the movie, only suggestion is don’t expect a holy grail. All you can expect is faithful story & fast narration with occasional tweaking in the plot. A picture speaks more than 100 words doesn’t hold good. Somehow in this case, ‘those 1000 words’ are more thrilling.<br /><br />Consider it a pop-corn entertainer, but at the end of day it does pops up some questions.<br /><br />PS: This I heard in the parking lot from a friend about crucification. According to that person, Jesus was never crucified instead Peter was crucified. Jesus passed away peacefully somewhere in Kashmir!!<br /><br />Dan, are you listening?!!<br /></div></span><p align="justify"></p>Shivhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00914167328185472713noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12972717.post-1145063423214183222006-04-14T17:28:00.000-07:002006-04-14T19:23:03.526-07:00Curtains Down..<div align="justify">A void feeling which is hard to describe…<br /><br />Phones and E-mails with my Karnataka friends has only one topic. As I talk with my parents back in Bengalooru, I can sense that same sad feeling in their voice too. A feeling of losing someone close. Mom says ‘Rajkumar hogbitta’ (Raj Kumar dead)<br /><br />Do any of us know him personally? Did we ever meet him?<br />Answer to these questions is ‘No’. But still why we are feeling that something is missing?<br /><br />A little flashback here…<br />I think those were the days when I was in my early years of primary school. There is a small theatre ‘Shobha’ in Harihar. We had an occasionally visiting grand mother to our home. Whenever that grand mother visited our home, it meant one thing…movie time, to be specific Rajkumar movie time. Was it because Shobha was just 5 minutes walk from our home or was it because it used to show mostly Raj Kumar movies, I don’t know, but I, grand mother & mom used to end up there frequently for a Raj Kumar movie.<br /><br />On the screen, while Raj was sparkling on the screen as Sri Krishna, a devotional feeling sparkling in grand mom’s eyes as if Lord Krishna himself has appeared. When Raj donned that energetic role of Babruvaahana or Mayoora, one can sense that feeling of pride sweeping the theatre. Me and my dad watching Raj's action kind of movies such as 'Shankar Guru' and enjoying those whistles and claps whenever Raj making an entry. Those discussions over dinner about the movie and most of it about Raj.<br /><br />Like me, I think many of us grew watching the movies of Raj. Those were the days when one whole generation was under the strong influence of Raj’s charisma.<br /><br />There was one of my cousin who was a huge fan of Raj and when Raj visited Davangere, somehow he managed to get him photographed with Raj. I still remember how much he beamed with happiness whenever he talked about that photo and how he went on forever describing how simple is Raj in real life.<br /><br />My brother too was a huge fan and he had once written a short story of about 2 pages. The specialty of that story was all the words used were nothing but names of all the Raj’s movie names!!! </div><div align="justify"><br /></div><div align="justify">As I grew, I started realizing that Raj also had an awesome voice. Suddenly everywhere there were songs sung by Raj. In parties, marriages, school functions, college functions & even in temples, everywhere.<br /><br />I sometimes wonder how Raj became the supreme and how he got so much fan following.Unlike few other superstars in South India, I think he never had any fan clubs funded by him.<br /><br />Raj never feared to experiment with the roles. Mythological characters, family man, lover boy, comic character and even he played ‘James Bond’ kind of a role.Fans loved him in any avaatar.</div><div align="justify"><br />No doubt, Raj was an amazing actor. But what stroked the chord was his real life persona, which matched his reel characters. Forget real life, even on screen, Raj never did smoking or drinking. Almost whole Karnataka knew about his famous daily routine of getting up at 4 in the morning and doing Yoga.<br /><br />His roles were inspirational and always carried some social messages. It seems many college graduates went back to their villages to take up agriculture after seeing that ‘Rajeev’ character Raj played in ‘Bangaaradha Manushya’. His role in ‘Jeevana Chaitra’ fueled the anti-liquor fight and it seems many stopped drinking alcohol after seeing the movie.<br /><br />I have heard many times, ladies discussing the roles which Raj portrayed. Often I overheard saying comments such as ‘magaa idhrey Rajkumar taraa irabeku’ (If there is a son, he should be like RajKumar).True, he donned the roles of ideal son, ideal husband, ideal lover, ideal father. And what appealed to mass was the fact that even in real life he was the same ideal person. </div><div align="justify"><br /> </div><div align="justify">Whenever Raj was bestowed an award, the whole Karnataka used to rejoice as if each one of us got that award. The 2 national awards, 9 filmfares, 9 state awards, Padma Bhushan, Dada Sahib Palke award, a honorary doctorate, Karnataka Ratna…..it never stopped raining accolades.</div><div align="justify"><br />As time progressed, the same Raj started appearing little amused to our generation. We started admiringly mock his dance steps and his trademark dialogues in a humorous way. Make no mistake, Raj was still the best.<br /><br />Still as years rolled by, we realized that Raj like every other person also started growing old. Though everyone wanted to see Raj back on screen, it was evident that his health may not allow Raj to do it again.<br /><br />Coming back to Raj’s popularity…<br />The actual reason Raj was liked was the fact that he stood as the proud symbol of Karnataka and Kannada. He actively participated in few movements without which the state of Kannada would have been still worse. I read that Raj literally crisscrossed Karnataka during the Gokak chaLuvaLi, which became major success mainly because of Raj. It was the biggest showcasing of how much the public loved him.<br /><br />But I think biggest thing which made people bestow their love and affection on him was the thing that he never entered politics, despite being lured all the time. I read he could have become Chief Minister if he wanted. He even had a Chief Minister as relative but Raj managed to remain far from the politics.<br /><br />It was natural that when somebody of such stature passed away, the emotions would run high. It was also natural that there would be frooglepoopillion grief and sorrow, inspite of knowing that nobody can escape the death. But what was shocking was the rampage which followed aftermath.<br /><br />Raj’s so-called fans have been creating much embarrassment to Raj off-late. My first memory of such unruly fans behaviors was during a release of a new Raj movie several years back. All Raj fan clubs had taken out a huge procession on the day the movie got released and during procession somebody threw stone on the procession and rest it went bersek.<br /><br />Next major disturbance was during those days when Raj was kidnapped. I remember we were in engineering and next few days were very tense. The whole of Karnataka was restless in those 108 days when Raj was under captivity. It also showed the glimpse of things to come if something happens to Raj. Atleast in all these cases, there was some provocation.<br /><br />Call it mob hysteria, planned provocation, mismanagement or whatever… but I don’t understand this case. When Raj was supposed to be given a peaceful & heartfelt farewell, how come the so called fans got into such lawlessness. When the whole state was mourning, how come some one can get into such rowdy acts of burning vehicles, buses & properties? How about those 8 lives which got wasted in the mayhem…<br /><br />(I’m using the phrase ‘so called fans’ here because I don’t think these people are any fans at all. Any true fan who knew about Raj’s life can never get into such horrifying acts)<br /><br />Poor Raj’s soul would have been weeping silently, seeing all this frenziness which happened in his name…<br /><br />May Almighty rest ‘aNNaavara’ soul in peace </div>Shivhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00914167328185472713noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12972717.post-1140948458778190262006-02-26T01:41:00.000-08:002006-02-26T10:29:46.440-08:00Finding a 'Jonathan' within us<div align="justify">It took about an hour to read through those 127 pages of that book. The reading was a bit of it and the thinking which followed after that was more of it.<br /><br />This is about a book which is universally considered as a best-seller classic. I’m not going to review or walk you though the book. All I’m doing here is just talk about this book ‘Jonathan Livingston Seagull’ by Richard Bach.<br /><br />For starters, Jonathan Livingston Seagull is a book ‘authored’ by Richard Bach in 1970.It is a fable about a seagull by name 'Jonathan Livingston' whose passion is to fly higher and who believe that there is something more than ‘just’ living. It is a fable, where this seagull braves the outcasting, age-old conventions-beliefs, & finally shows that there is a world to be explored, beyond what is seen/believed to be.<br /><br />What appears to be this simple fable about a seagull soon captured imagination and within two years of its publication, over a million copies were sold. Even a movie with the same name was made. Isn’t it amazing that the book written in 70 has its latest reprint in 2005-06.<br /><br />Still wondering why I’m talking about a 70s book? </div><br><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify">What fascinates me is the way the underlying metaphor of the book changes every time the book is read. The thoughts in the book irrespective of time, still remain relevant. May be next time I read the book ,I may see the underlying things in a new light.<br /><br />In the story, there are ‘seagull flock on the earth’ and ’flock in some other world’, which denotes two different schools of thoughts. The 'seagull flock on earth' believes that their main objective in life is to get the food. But 'other' group thinks differently. For the 'other' group, it is not just about to live to get the food, it is about to discover the potential within, to fly to the heights where no other seagulls fly.Jonathan Livingston belongs to this second group.<br /><br />Why did it strike cords with millions of people?</div><br><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify">I think at some point of time everyone would have felt like Jonathan. But may be not everyone who had such thougths but didn’t venture as Jonathan did.<br /><br />Isn’t Jonathan denotes all those who stand-out from the crowd? Isn’t Jonathan’s story is about people who had the guts to believe that they are meant for something more than mundane things and about people who showed that new heights can be reached through belief, inspiration and practice?<br /><br />Now something other than the metaphorical meanings, there is a story about the origin of this book. This is what Richard Bach said in an interview<br /><br /><em>“It was the weirdest experience of my life, I was walking along one night, worrying about the rent money, when I heard this voice say, 'Jonathan Livingston Seagull.' But no one was there. I had absolutely no idea what it meant. When I got home, I suddenly had a vision of a seagull flying along, and I began to write. The story certainly didn't spring from any conscious invention on my part. I just put down what I saw."</em><br /><br />May be these sound bytes sound debatable and fuzzy, but there is even more interesting trivia about why the name ‘Jonathan Livingston' for the seagull’s character was chosen.<br /><br />It is believed that this book is inspired by a real person by name ‘John H Livingston’. John Livingston was one of top US pilots during 1920-30. He was into barnstorming which was a form of ‘flying circus’ where every known stunts like spinning, diving, rolling and every possible maneuver with the plane were performed. It seems Richard Bach, a ‘reserve’ pilot himself, got inspired by John Livingston’s dare devil life.<br /><br />That was something about the book, thoughts,origin & names. If you haven’t read the book yet, I think you should give it a try.<br /><br />Signing off with my favorite line in the book which is in the dedication page !!</div><div align="justify"><br /><em><span style="color:#990000;">“To the real Jonathan Seagull, who lives within us all”</span></em><br /><br />Jonathan Seagull within us?? Think of it!<br /> </div>Shivhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00914167328185472713noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12972717.post-1138868057420645962006-02-02T00:05:00.000-08:002006-02-02T00:18:27.873-08:00Celebration of Life<div align="justify"><span style="color:#660000;">“I pray that you get the strength to accept the things and to see the tomorrows”</span><br /><br />After this line, I couldn’t write anything in that card we gave to her, which was our little token of support.<br /><br />She….our client manager.I just can’t imagine what all she might have gone though before this. She always was that dignified person with a cracking sense of humor. Make no mistake, when it came to work, she was the boss. But I never could imagine that beyond those authoritative and humor-filled eyes, there was an ocean of grief.<br /><br />Until the last day when we came to know that her husband passed away we didn’t know anything about that. But what intruded me was the fact that she knew that her husband is going to die and still she maintained the composition!<br /><br />I don’t know how she managed to put up that brave face when her love of her life for more than 15 years was diagnosed with blood cancer. I heard she did all that she could do to fight to snatch her love with the slowly-inching death. I’m thinking, when she exactly came to know that the battle is coming to an end, how did she take it? From where did she get the courage to face the situation?<br /><br />I was totally overwhelmed with all these emotions when I attended the funeral service.Funeral service was drastically different from the funerals I had been before. There was no grief, no weeping, no crying and no devastated looks all around. Instead it was like a celebration. I learnt that particular community in Christians does everything passionately, they celebrate everything in life and that includes the ‘final journey’ also.<br /><br />The funeral service was marked with songs about heaven, meeting the Almighty and about life there. I should say that I felt I was not in a funeral service but in a crowd who was there just to celebrate death or call it re-birth. Then there were friends and family members who fondly spoke about the deceased one. The whole service was aimed at one thing ‘rejoicing’, what they believed that the deceased one is now in a world which is free of pain & grief.<br /><br />Standing by her young kids, she looked very composed through out the service. Even managed to say a ‘Hi’ to all of us. But at dieing moments of service, she couldn’t control it no more. She broke down and she was escorted out.<br /><br />These memories are like the waves of sea. They keep coming and making the mind wet…<br /><br />After the service, we managed to meet her. She couldn’t speak anything but just hugged me, no tears.<br /><br />I was still thinking about this, when I got this news about a friend’s friend who was diagnosed with a rare case of a blood deficiency. This guy was just exploring and enjoying the life when life handed over this ‘heavy baggage’ to him. He had recently gone back from overseas and was doing great .He had this very happy proud parents and tons of ‘would-be’ father-in-laws looking for him. And now I heard the news that even if all the necessary expensive medical treatment is given, his survival chance is 40%.<br /><br />My sincere prayers are with him.<br /><br />I’m just thinking how tough it will be for these people to spend each day. What if you know that you have so many days to live and what if you even know your last days are just a handful? How do you take it?<br /><br />How about the people who love them? What pain and emotional distress they will be undergoing? How cruel to see that your loved ones are dieing everyday but you can’t do anything but to watch helplessly…<br /><br />After reading all this, you definitely wonder why this is named as ‘Celebration of Life’.<br /><br />When I was going through the funeral service which I mentioned earlier, I happened to look at the leaflet given, which described the funeral service as ‘Celebration of Life’. That phrase struck in mind like a bullet.<br /><br />Do we actually ‘celebrate’ life? Forget celebration, do we actually ‘live’ a life? Even when we know that the days here are numbered, why do we behave as if we are here to stay forever? In such a short span of life, why do we make life still worse with our egos , unrealistic deeds and so many other self-created evils?<br /><br />I know I’m sounding totally clueless, helpless and philosophical. Can’t help, sometimes life pops up such questions for which we have no answers....<br /></div>Shivhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00914167328185472713noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12972717.post-1138005245123615612006-01-23T00:12:00.000-08:002006-01-23T00:34:05.180-08:00Parade of memories..<div align="justify"><span style="color:#000099;">It all started when I was checking my foto albums and my sight got fixed when it came across this album 'Sakleshpur trek-2005'. After that, it refused to come back and still wandering somewhere in those high-bridges, dark tunnels and that deserted house in Yedakumeri.<br /><br />Now sit back and enjoy the parade of memories….</span><br /><br />When we came up with this idea of going for a trek along the abandoned railway trek, we never thought the strength would reach 11. There was Ambarish, Hakim, Ayush, Anmol and Kishore with whom I already had traveled quite a lot. Gurpreeth and Nikhil were probably new to me(who got introduced as roommates of Ayush).To prevent it being an all-boys-trek, there were three beautiful ladies in the trek group – Pooja, Archana and Varsha. I still wonder how the later managed to get permission to come for the trek!<br /><br />On the day we were about to leave for Sakleshpur (exactly one year back on Jan 22!), we got a surprise half day off in office due to Beny hin disturbance. When we were advised to go back to homes, we freaked into Bangalore Central for trek shopping! We brought MTR ready-to-eats, biscuits, chips and of course those shoes.<br /><br />On that Friday night when the Bangalore-Sakleshpur bus left majestic, it appeared as if all the people in the bus were going for the trek. Our gang was in fantastic form. Ambarish was busy renaming every one of us. He called himself Dan Brown and called me Robert Langdon for reasons not known till now. Call it after-effects of reading Dan’s novels!<br /><br />After the bus dropped us in the middle of a forest in front of a tea-shop (remember that aunty & Inchara), our field day started. Our first venture of traveling in a mini open truck, that clear skies, stars sparkling and we all the gang happily sitting in an open truck… we all silently sitting in the early morning hours looking for little sunlight waiting to start our trek..<br /><br />The best part of journey with the rail tracks was the high altitude bridges and the pitch dark lengthy tunnels. I think there were about 19 tunnels and 25 bridges.Those bridges were so high and sometimes the plates in them were rusty making it ever more dangerous. But I liked the dark tunnels most. Almost mile long tunnels with no signs of any light and bats flying over making strange noises. At places water drop tickling from the roof. It is an awesome experience.<br /><br />One more thing which made the journey along the track more memorable was the streams, waterfalls and woods which we came across. And of course the awesome anthakshaari all along the way.<br /><br />Those tired & hungry looks, the way we ate the ready-to-eat food packets for lunch was a thing to remember. I think in between we ran out of our quota of water.<br /><br />But most remarkable thing for me was the fact that even the first timer trekker though obviously tired had that will to complete the trek and indeed they completed.<br /><br />Next episode there was about the place where we stayed. It was an abandoned railway station with a ruined house with no electricity. After walking nearly for 19kms, every one of us had crashed in the sleeping bags in no time.Our ‘house’ for the night was a treat to watch & experience. It had those big holes in the roof and no doors!! Those screams by Archana seeing those mighty rats should be still ringing in Yedakumeri !<br /><br />That waterfalls where we had a natural shower.How cold the water was! And of course that episode where we went looking for a suitable place for our ‘morning activities’!<br /><br />Getting lost while coming back, taking a truck to travel, asking a mini-truck for lift, visit to Tippu’s fort, standing on the walls of forts posing for photos..still feels it was few days back. Someone who wanted to go by Rajahamsa and at end became such that they wanted to travel to Bangalore by truck!!<br /><br />Then that truck journey to Hassan and our pranks of waving hands & saying ‘Hi’ to whomever was passing by, those songs we sung (special mention of songs by Pooja & Ambi)…incredible.<br /><br /><span style="color:#000099;">I was just walking through Hollywood, thinking of all these wonderful moments. What a coincidence; at the same time I got a call from one of the trekkers.<br /><br />I wish I had a time machine in which I could fly back to those days & those moments spent with all wonderful people.<br /><br />Memories sooth the mind just like that massage after that long tiring trek…<br /></span><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> </div>Shivhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00914167328185472713noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12972717.post-1134274416236205552005-12-10T20:09:00.000-08:002005-12-10T20:28:50.740-08:00One dial and a click away..<div align="justify">Some voices are like this…<br /><br />I just feel so good to listen to them. Just spoke with one such voice. It is always a pleasant experience listening to the voice. In spite of all the changes which happened in between, still there is no change in that voice. It is the same familiar friendly affectionate voice. We will never stop cracking PJs. We will never stop talking about our favorite topics. </div><p align="justify"><br />Wherever it is, let that voice, be always happy & cheerful…<br /><br />Talking of voices and telephones, I wonder how happy Graham Bell would be seeing his invention connecting so many people separated by time & distance. There may be e-mails, chats, cams, talks…but there is still a charm about these telephones. There is something about dialing the numbers and giving voice to people on other end or getting the feel from other side.<br /><br />Nothing is pleasant as a surprise call. Same thing happened few weeks back, a friend of mine who was from same school, hostel & college as mine, out of the blue, called me from Boston. Somehow we had lost contact and it was a nice surprise to see his call. It was so much fun updating the things from both sides and talking about our school MKT, Harihar, our Harihar gang and all those silly-wonderful time we spent in Dharwad!<br /><br />There was another call from another friend who was not in contact for a long time. So this talk was just about our previous project, previous project mates, all the treks & all the picnics we went. When I met this guy, we spent hours talking and looking into photos of our good days in that project.<br /><br />Other than these calls, calls to home are as always provide the regular supply of oxygen. Calls to friends in India are always a shortcut to memory lanes to India.<br /><br />If telephones have charm, e-mails have their own class.<br /><br />It is such a nice thing to keep in touch with friends in home and in different part of world. I sometimes get astonished thinking about being in a global-village. It feels so good to see in the mailbox, a mail from a friend in Japan talking about the Japanese tradition, a mail from Munich about how he is touring Europe (& sharing his little secrets), a mail form Scotland about the lake he visited, someone talking about playing football in UK, someone talking about temperature in Finland, someone mailing about getting anxious about not getting Visa. World surely has shrunk into such a small place.<br /><br />Then there are regular special doses of mails and which I make a point to mail regularly. Like the ones, which I get from my friend in Bangalore whom I’ve never met, but with whom I mail so comfortably and discuss everything under sun from treks to Boyz!<br /><br />And there are these gang mails where all ‘reply-all’ stuff will be happening. It is easy to be in touch with and to get to hear from all the folks through these mails. The discussions in these gang-mails often get lively & sometimes go out of control and out of context also!<br /><br />I didn’t include all the talks we have about one of my favorite topic- previous project in Bangalore. I have so much to say about this, I better will come up with a separate post about it soon.<br /><br />Whatever it is…one thing that is sure is that friends & family are just a dial and click away. </p>Shivhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00914167328185472713noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12972717.post-1133672718796351132005-12-03T21:00:00.000-08:002005-12-03T21:05:18.816-08:00Escape to Catalina !<div align="justify">There was aqua blue in whichever direction I saw...<br /><br />The Pacific Ocean was looking magnanimous spreading itself all across. The wind blowing was chilling & at times the sea looked like was becoming little disturbed.<br /><br />The cruise was splitting the waters and was heading towards Catalina. Standing on the deck of the ship I was lost in the enormity of the ocean. I wonder what all things the ocean has within it. It is so enormous but yet appears so calm.<br /><br />No wonder they compare eyes to ocean. It is so true that beyond those eyes existed an ocean…<br /><br />Before my thought stream took me further deep into the ocean, the island was getting visible. So after an hour of cruising from San Pedro we were approaching Catalina Island, our holiday destination.<br /><br />Catalina Island…<br />A tiny but refreshingly beautiful island in Pacific hardly 25 miles away from mainland California. The idea of visiting the Catalina originated when I heard from someone in the office about the island. To accompany me in the trip was the lovely couple – Shikha & Peru.<br /><br />As the cruise approached the island, we saw the coastline dotted with lots of small ships. The Casino was standing right on the coast. There were few yatches venturing into the waters.<br /><br />We landed in Avalon, the only city (town) in Catalina Island. The harbor was beaming with tourists, most of them there due to Thanksgiving holidays. As I walked in the very neat streets of Avalon, I noticed that there were not many automobiles. There were restaurants, sports gear shops, souvenir shops, everything revolving around tourists.After having Potato fries & sipping soft drinks, we set to explore Avalon.<br /><br />There was a range of things to experience in Avalon. Kayaking, Snorkeling, Scuba diving, Parasailing for the adventurers. There were arranged tours for people who wanted to explore the city. There were bicycles & golf cars for hire for people who wanted to explore on their own.And finally there was beach & sun for people who just wanted to relax!<br /><br />Parasailing was looking very inviting & I couldn’t resist the invitation! Though I had done parasailing before in Bangalore, I had never done that on water. Shikha also got charged up to try parasailing. The motor boat carried us in the deep waters.<br /><br />The parachute was attached to the boat and we strapped ourselves to the parachute. Slowly the rope attached to parachute started extending and the wind was blowing so heavily that we started floating in the air. As the rope extended further & further from boat we soared higher & higher in the air. Now we were literally in the air with parachute above and Pacific Ocean below, just hanging there with a rope. The view from the top was mesmerizing. The island & the shore were looking still more beautiful. It was blue water everywhere. At one point, parachute started descending down & down, almost few feet away from water. When I thought I’m going to land in the sea, the boat picked up the speed and again we started soaring.<br /><br />All good things have to an end and so as this. Slowly the rope pulled parachute and me back to the boat. I thoroughly enjoyed the sailing and I think parasailing above water is more pleasant than on land.<br /><br />Back to shore after parasailing, we hit upon the sand. The mild sun was a welcome sight.Sat on the beach chatting about the parasailing and about few of our favorite topics. Meanwhile came across a group of TCSers whom we had met at Griffith Park in the TCS picnic a week earlier. Had a brief fun chat with them before we moved ahead.<br /><br />Winston Churchill, Theodore Roosevelt, Charlie Chaplin…What is common to these famous men? I know you must be wondering why suddenly a quiz popped here. The next place we came across has got to say about this.<br /><br />I think some of you know about Tuna, the big sea fish. Tuna is particularly known as a popular sea food and these days becoming a restricted food due to high mercury level in it. I read that it has pink flesh as against white flesh of most other ocean fishes.<br /><br />There is a Tuna club which is more than 100 years old and any body who catches a Tuna can become a member. But the catch is that Tuna has to be caught using the ‘rod & reel’ only. Considering the huge size of Tuna fish and the mechanism of rod & reel, it was considered impossible to capture the Tuna fish by rod and reel. There were often injuries sustained when trying to catch the leaping Tuna. So it became associated with really skillful & adventurers. This club was for people who successfully caught Tuna. As the club’s motto say “Fair play for game fishes”, the idea of the club was to provide even chance for Tuna’s life.<br /><br />By the way, all the above three personalities were associated with Tuna club.<br /><br />Next on our list was Casino. This circular doom building on the coast is the landmark of Avalon,was built by Wrigley as a tourist attraction (Wrigley is the same ‘Chewing gum’ guy).If the name 'Casino' brought memories of gambling then this is the wrong place you thought of. This casino has nothing to with gambling. It is a huge theatre where movies screened and other cultural programs conducted.<br /><br />Not far from Casino, on the coastline were 'Kayaks’.These is the slender, small, lightweight water crafts which are paddled with the two-sided oar. The Kayaking looked to be a popular sport in Avalon and I think it is one of the best way to explore the rugged & beautiful coastline of Avalon. Kayaks are available in single and double Kayaks. These Kayaks were said to be developed by Eskimos as a fun & easy way to navigate the waters. Though I was all excited to try it, I couldn't do it as I didn't get any partner to do it and also as my swimming was still below elementary level.<br /><br />After all these events, it was time to hit upon a restaurant for the lunch. With some effort we were successful in finding a place where Veggie Pizzas were made. The family size pizza was huge but thin & it was successful in filling our stomach.<br /><br />After lunch, we again hit upon the beach to get some sun. While the couple with me decided to relax in the sun, I set out to explore little bit more. There was 'Lover's Cove' on an edge of the mountain and this place is known for Snorkeling. This water sport includes putting a watertight face mask, insert into your mouth one end of the long breathing tube called a snorkel and put your face beneath the surface of the water. This way it gives a view of fishes & a view of under the water world.<br /><br />I must tell about the Golf car(t)s here. On Catalina Island, full-sized automobiles, buses, and delivery trucks are severely restricted. I read that they have policy that for every two big vehicles retiring out of island, they will sanction one new vehicle and often the wait time for new full-sized vehicle is more than 25 years!<br /><br />This intended discouragement of bigger vehicles is to reduce the pollution and has made golf carts the primary motorized means of transportation. Most island residents themselves own only golf carts for transportation. With golf cart speeds topping out at just about 15 miles an hour, and in-town speeds far slower than that, traffic in Avalon moves literally to a gentler pace. These golf cars can be rented to explore the island.<br /><br />There was semi-submarine ride to explore the underwater world, snorkeling, scuba diving, guided tours, golf car trips and so many other exciting things to try out. But time was running out & it was time to take the cruise back to San Pedro.<br /><br />So we were back in Avalon Harbor and waiting for 'Catalina Express'.On the Harbor, I noticed there was a stone statue of a seal. It was in memory of a very popular seal 'Ben' who lived on the Avalon coast and who was extremely friendly with people and famous among the tourists.<br /><br />Back on the deck of the Ship, the evening in Catalina was looking beautiful. The purple waters, the island in dim light and the red sky looked as if it is straight out of a painting.Slowly the lights were glowing here and there. The Casino was beaming with lights.<br /><br />We took leave of Catalina with memories of good time spent there. As I discovered, the island offered so many things and it got added to my favorite destinations.<br /><br />Standing on the deck of ship, I was trying to follow the stars in the sky which were scattered all across. The cruise was speeding in the water in the darkness of night and there was a light house standing somewhere at a far distance, beaming ray of light...<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> </div>Shivhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00914167328185472713noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12972717.post-1132920174530569332005-11-25T03:40:00.000-08:002005-11-27T01:09:05.993-08:00Queues,Thanksgiving and Turkeys.<div align="justify">Think of Queues….</div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify">What is the first thing which comes into your mind?</div><div align="justify">At least for me, it is ‘Tirupathi’ and I instantly remember those long queues and the devotees standing in queue for hours to get the Dharshana. When I had been to Tirupathi last time, we had been in the queue for 4-5 hours. You may be thinking why this guy in US suddenly is talking about Tirupathi’s queue.<br /><br />Now it is 2 in the morning & I just came back after doing the rounds in the city! Seeing huge queues in front of electronic shops here, Tirupathi flashed in my mind. Now you may be wondering why people here were standing in queues in front of electronic shops.<br /><br />Last Thursday of November in US is celebrated as ‘Thanksgiving’ day and the day after is known as ‘Black Friday’. On every ‘Black Friday’ all shops offer grand discounts. But the biggest and most attractive offers are given by electronic shops. But the catch is that these offers are limited and only available to people having coupons. And how people get these coupons? Stand in the line from Thursday night till the time the shops open on Friday morning & distribute coupons. And on ‘Black Friday’ the shops open at 4-5 in the morning!<br /><br />When I heard this from somebody here, I thought they may be joking. But as Thursday night began to grow, it was becoming true. Many people in apartment also started to go out. So I decided that I’ll go and check myself if this is true.<br /><br />At some distance from our apartment, there is ‘Best buy’ and ‘Circuit City’. When I reached these places, it was a scene to look at. There was a huge line of people waiting outside the shops. They were totally cladded in winter wear. Everyone had brought the folding chairs/stools to stand (sit) in the queue. Few had brought the comforters and sleeping bags and I heard they were in the queue since 9 in the night!! There were families standing in the queue and enjoying the coffee they had brought!!!<br /><br />So it was looking like people in the queue had well planned and well equipped to stand in the queue. Most people in the queue were Makkoos, Chincos and few Desis who were there to get the laptops, cameras, TVs, players and whatever they can at highly discounted prices.<br /><br />Just a thought….<br /><span style="color:#6666cc;">Isn’t that we spend most of the time in our lives in queues??</span></div><div align="justify">Queue to get ration, queue to get admission to school/college, queue to get movie tickets, queue for walk-in interviews. I have seen people who will be in the queue waiting to fall for a particular guy/gal!<br /><br />Back to discount queues….<br />It is so different from the Tirupathi queues. There people wait in queues just to get a glimpse of the God, here they stand in queue to get the things which can be easily termed ‘materialistic’. </div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"><span style="color:#6666cc;">In both cases, people return back with a sense of happiness, here people return with a satisfaction that they were able to save so many dollars, there people return with a satisfaction that they were able to spend some time in presence of Almighty. For me one queue reflects materialistic world and another queue stand for spiritual world.</span></div><div align="justify"><br />I just took ‘Discount Queue’ as example of ‘materialistic’ and ‘Tirupathi Queue’ as an example of ‘spiritual’. It may not be so clear cut as there may be elements of materialism in ‘Tirupathi Queue’ and vice versa??<br /><br />Before I get too philosophical and bore you more, let me tell how the concept of ‘Thanksgiving’ day came into existence.<br /><br />Several centuries back, it seems that few people from England got frustrated with the suffocating religious set-up there and fled to US . They called themselves ‘Pilgrims’. The first winter in US for pilgrims was very harsh with little flood & extreme cold, due to which many of them died. But the next harvest was extremely good for pilgrims. They had enough food and they also got lots of help from native Indians.<br /><br />So in order to thank natives and thank for all the good things, they arranged a feast for natives. That practice grew up as ‘Thanksgiving’ over the years. It was formally declared a national celebration during Lincoln’s period.<br /><br />One thing which is closely associated with Thanksgiving is Turkey. Although it is not clear how it became associated with Thanksgiving, this bigger version of hen has become a must for Thanksgiving lunch/dinner.<br /><br />It is so much so popular that in white house every year there will be a ‘National Thanksgiving Turkey’ function where the US president does something called ‘official pardoning of the Turkey’! This year Turkey’s name which got pardoned was ‘Marshmallow’. This tradition was started when Truman was president and it involves pardoning Turkeys and retiring them to Park where they will spend rest of their live.<br /><br />Such a contrast that when several thousands of Turkeys make their way to lunch-dinner on Thanksgiving, few lucky Turkeys gets ‘pardoned’ by president and they live rest of their life royally and guess what is the name of park where these royal Turkeys retire?<br /><br />Frying Pan Park !!!! </div>Shivhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00914167328185472713noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12972717.post-1131873087933159532005-11-13T01:10:00.000-08:002005-11-13T01:11:27.950-08:00Spring forward, Fall back<div align="justify"><br />Sun rises in the east and sun sets in west.<br /><br />You should be thinking what big deal in that, everybody knows that. But one thing we usually don’t take into consideration is the time sun spends in each geography. Sun in certain period of year falls in love with that place so much so that he sets at 8 in the night and in another period he hates it so much that he sets early at 5 in evening.What this means in the uneven number of day light hours during different periods of years.<br /><br />So how to balance this uneven day light?<br />Advance the time by one hour during summer months and once summer is over bring back the time by one hour. This concept is known as Spring forward, Fall back. This idea was first floated by Benjamin Franklin and it first got used in US during world war time.As of this year, DST begins for US at 2 am on first Sunday of April and time reverts to standard time at 2am on last Sunday of October.But in 2007, DST is going to extend for few more weeks.<br /><br />US follows three different zones – Pacific Standard Time (PST), Central Standard Time (PST) and Eastern Standard Time (PST).What it means is when it is 8 am in west coast of US, it will be 11 am in Central US and 12 am in East Coast.Along with these three different time zones, which are already confusing, add Daylight Saving Time to make it a perfect chaos!<br /><br />Same thing happened last week here after time was adjusted back one hour on last Sunday of October.I actually got up on a lazy Sunday morning at 11:30, but due to daylight saving it was 10:30.All gadgets which had daylight savings logic had automatically changed, but few were still showing 11:30 leaving me confused! So after confirming the time few times, I came to conclusion about the correct time!<br /><br />But more confusion was yet to come in office.<br /><br />After Daylight Saving Time got over, the time was adjusted back. But what everybody forgot was the fact that there are few areas in US like Arizona and Hawaii which don’t follow DST. So our system calculations based on date & time started behaving strangely in the first few days as the time zone setting was not taken into account for Arizona and other non-DST zones. It took some time to get into the bottom of problem.<br /><br />But why they do they go for day light savings?<br />One of the major reasons being quoted is energy conservation. It is said that amount of electricity consumed depend on when sun sets and when people go to bed. As people have same bedtime through out the year, by artificially moving sunset one hour late, the amount of energy consumed is reduced. To prove this, there are statistics which shows that DST reduces the country’s electric usage by one percent.<br /><br />DST also is said to increase opportunities for outdoor activities.Most people plan outdoor activities during the increased hours of daylight.Other benefits include lesser traffic accidents and lesser crimes!<br /><br />By the way, this day light savings is not followed in every country. Countries close to north pole or south pole , the daylight period is longer in summer.In countries near equator or in the tropics,the day and night are nearly the same length.So DST is usually not useful in the tropics and in equator.<br /><br />There is one interesting incident I read about this DST.<br />In September 1999, the Palestinian West Bank was on daylight saving time while Israel had just switched back to standard time. West Bank Palestinians prepared time bombs and smuggled them inside Israel to their men, who misunderstood the time on the bombs. As the bombs were being planted, they exploded—one hour too early—killing three terrorists instead of the intended victims—two busloads of people!!<br /><br />Opponents of DST claim that there are not enough benefits of DST.Disturbed sleeping patterns, less productivity due to sleep-disrputed workers, accidents, confusion for people traveling are the several reasons to criticize DST.<br /><br />I heard India also once tried DST when it was in war with Pakistan.<br /><br />I’ll leave with you to think on this..<br />Supposing some lady gives birth to twins on the night when DST is reverted back.Say one child is born at 1:50 am.At 2 am the clock is turned back one hour.Now another child is born which actually is born at 2am but due to DST it is born at 1am, making it the older of two child even though it is the younger. Doesn’t it have legal effects in cases of properties or rights?<br /><br />What do you say?<br /><br /><br /> </div>Shivhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00914167328185472713noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12972717.post-1131241240858492192005-11-05T17:32:00.000-08:002005-11-05T17:46:43.483-08:00Halloween day & Spooky night!!<div align="justify"><br />Ghosts!!<br /><br />The ideas, thoughts and imaginations related to the ghosts/spirits are as old as the ghosts themselves. The ghosts form a significant part in every culture and each part of world has its own traditions related to ghosts.<br /><br />One such tradition prevalent is Halloween Day.<br /><br />Halloween day, most commonly associated with weird costume parties, spooky nights and candies. It is widely celebrated in United States, Canada, England & Ireland. These days, it is celebrated in other countries also.<br /><br />I was amazed at the way, houses were decorated here for Halloween Day. Atleast 2 weeks before the Halloween day, there were Jack-O-Lanterns in front of each house. There were ghosts made of balloons & life-size ghost toys put up everywhere. More amazing was the way people were waiting eagerly for the day.<br /><br />Loads of mails was sent in the office to discuss the dress code for the day.After much debate and voting it was decided that everybody would come in ‘Cow Boy’ dress to office on Halloween day!<br /><br />The office on Halloween day was looking straight from the old Cow Boy movie. Most of them were in big check shirts and denim with the trademark Cowboy hats.<br /><br />A part of office was decorated as an old cow boy bar with posters of ‘Most Wanted Cow boys’ pasted all across. There was even a funny skit which was about the outlaws la Cowboys fighting against the sheriffs. The skit was about cow-boy programmers who don’t want to follow any ‘Process Change Management’ and about Sheriffs who want everything to be process oriented. The dialogues were so humorous.<br /><br />Another group of people in office had dressed up as aliens with antennas, one more group had dressed up as nerds, some other group as Egyptian Pharaohs. It was a welcome change to see such vivid images in office!!<br /><br />For Chocolate buffs, there were tons of plenty of chocolates everywhere in office.On each of our desks were placed peanuts & chocolates!!<br /><br />Back in apartment in the evening, I saw people roaming around wearing those ghost masks and dressed up like ghosts. There is an old belief that on Halloween day, ghosts/spirits would be back on earth and would be roaming around to get into the human body. By wearing those ghost masks & dresses, probably that was a way to confuse the ghosts and misguide them that people in those dresses were also part of ghost community!<br /><br />Jack-o-lantern, which is a carved pumpkin lit by a candle inside, was placed on each doorsteps. Scary face carved on the pumpkins was one more way of frightening ghosts!<br /><br />One more Halloween related tradition is 'treat or trick'.Children would go to each neighborhood house, knocking the doors and shout ‘trick or treat’. The house occupants would give chocolates, candies or sweets. Candy Apple was the hugely popular item that was given to kids on Halloween day. It was such a nice tradition where children were ‘officially’ allowed to go and demand chocolates, candies or sweets from anyone.<br /><br />But nothing is allowed to remain straight and simple!<br /><br />I read somewhere that act of ‘trick or treat’ went for serious scrutiny after rumors that the some individuals were embedding things like razors and pins in the apples that were given to children. The paranoid followed and the hysteria reached such a stage that few hospitals on Halloween day offered to X-ray the candy apple collections. Few incidents where the candy apples were ‘drugged’ or ‘poisoned’ were also reported. So that act of ‘trick or treat’ never remained same. These days I heard children rarely go out & collect candies.<br /><br />These days the most popular thing is the Halloween night party where there will be costume party with people in all sorts of dresses and which has all the spicy ingredients required for making a ‘spooky night’!<br /><br />I believe like any other old tradition, Halloween day is no more only about ‘ghosts’.It has acquired new dimensions. More over it has given a chance to people, to be something they are not and to do things which they always wanted to do. Ask anyone who went to Halloween party, they will agree with me! </div>Shivhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00914167328185472713noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12972717.post-1130126705655909742005-10-23T20:55:00.000-07:002005-10-23T21:05:07.693-07:00Ifthiyar with Turks<div align="justify">Sitting at the dinner table, I was literally clueless about what was spread across the table.I couldn’t recognize any of the dishes there. How could I, after all it was Turkish dinner.<br /><br />It was the ‘Ifthiyar’ party arranged by the Turkish community and we ended up there after my Turkish colleague Ahmet invited for the party.<br /><br />Ahmet understood my concern about the food and assured me that he had made arrangements for vegetarian food. While rest of my colleagues digged into the various meat dishes, me and another friend were the only veggies there.<br /><br />First came the palm dates and then appetizer ‘Ayran’. It was a drink of beaten yogurt, salt & grated cucumber. It was something like our butter milk but not exactly same.This was followed by vegetable salad.Then followed a series of main dishes.<br /><br />One was an orange color rice item which was made of rice(or rather rice-lets).It was plain in taste with some unknown spices and only thing I recognized in that was that they had put salt in the dish !<br /><br />There was another green color grain item which was like Kosambari. Even ingredients almost tasted similar. In a flash, Kosambari prepared in home during festivals passed through my head! Next regular rice with vermillion made its way to my plate.There was chutney like thing which tasted familiar but couldn’t co-relate the taste!<br /><br />Mean while my host friend was giving running commentary about all the dishes coming to my plate.<br /><br />'Dolma' was the one which I liked. It is rice stuffed in the grape leaves and baked.It is almost like our ‘Patra Oday’ we prepare in Karnataka .I heard from Ahmet that the ingredients of 'Dolma ' can also be vegetables & beans.<br /><br />There was a rectangular deep-fry item which tasted some thing like pakoda. Or was it that I was trying to find Indian taste in every item?!!<br /><br />In that dinner party, me & another friend were the only veggies and this food was specially prepared for us. Looked like Ahmet took extra pain for us..<br /><br />After getting stuffed with the food, ‘Tatlisi’ appeared on the table.Tatlisi is the Turkish term for sweets or desserts.<br /><br />‘Helva’ was that dessert made of milk, sugar, nuts, vermillion & flour.Before we could finish that small rolls were served on the plate.It was a deep fry sweet & tasted like Jeelabi.One more variation came which with great difficulty made its way into stomach!<br /><br />During dinner, I had a lengthy conversion with Ahmet about Turkey, his home town Istanbul, places to visit in Istanbul and current political scenario in Turkey.I could notice how excited Ahmet was when he was explaining to me about Turkey. For any ex-patriate, talking about their country is such a nice thing. I remember I also get pumped up when I explain about India to someone here.<br /><br />By the way, if you are not aware, Ifthiyar is the party arranged during Ramzan month for breaking fasts.If you recollect, Muslims fast through out this month and they won’t have food in between sun rise & sun set.This party was arranged by Turkish community here and I think we were the only non-Turkish people there!<br /><br />After dinner, a video presentation was made telling significance of Ramadan .We took leave of Ahmet and while returning I had this question hovering me<br /><br /><span style="color:#6633ff;">“Religion is simple and it gets complicated when it gets interpreted.It was invented to show the light in the dark but why it is being used instead to push towards dark?”</span></div>Shivhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00914167328185472713noreply@blogger.com1