December 28, 2005

Attend to Nature !!!

December 28, 2005 Posted by Vijay , 2 comments
The most grave of faces can be observed in times of tragedy, calamities et al. But , upon closer observation I have come to the conclusion that every person puts on a grave face atleast once a day. And that once is the time when all hell might break loose if what he/she seeks to relieve is not accomplished. And that is, the morning chores, or to be more precise, "nature's call". Man, do people have trouble not attending to nature's call ? They go through all the expressions that one may have not fathomed ever existed on earth ! So, at office, when a person means business, it could quite certainly be attending to nature's call !!

I am no exception. For, when you don't have a place to attend to it, all hell breaks loose, because unless you loosen the inevitable, the inevitable might take over the controllable. Phew, by jove. No one, believe me , no one can have a smiling face, when rushing for this one !! Next time observe closely !!! And when the person comes out after registering the attendance, there is no person more relieved on earth than him/her !! Well, nature's call can NEVER be ignored !!

December 21, 2005

What I really mean ....

December 21, 2005 Posted by Vijay 1 comment
Never again, never a line,
More from me, you sure can be.
These lines, can they be mine ?
What can be, what has been,
But a hollow feeling, it sure does feel.

Ever felt like being alone ?
Ever felt like weeping alone ?
When all else seems jouyous around
But you just feel being left alone ?
Or is there a spirit so divine
Which can control your feelings galore ?

Sounds so unlike me, these lines,
But deep down I realise, human I am,
No God, not even the shrines,
Can hold back the feelings I have,
For the one, who I wish I could call mine.

Yet there exists no one till now,
Who can look into my eyes and say - "Here I am".
There exists no one till now,
WHo understands what I am.

An impression which giveth a sense,
Of but joyousness abound ?
A perception which giveth a sense,
Of but seriousness which lacks around ?
For it's not me, can I say aloud ?
But my pretention which shows around.

Who can realise that's not me ?
Who can sense there's more to me ?
Help me take the magical path,
Show me heaven, here on earth ?

Who can tell me constantly
There's more to me than what may seem.
She is the one who is meant to be.
She is the one meant for me.
But can she realise the real me ?
Will she know, love is what I really mean ?

December 18, 2005

Booo ....

December 18, 2005 Posted by Vijay No comments
That really isn't a scary post ... but what do I write after having seen an Exacting, Exercising, Exorcising movie, that too couple of hours before midnight at a theatre ? Yes, that's what me and 3 friends of mine watched at PVR, Bangalore, yesterday.

But the lead up to it was more funny, really. My friend, Rajan wanted to watch the Bollywood movie, Bluffmaster, starring Priyanka Chopra and Abhishek Bacchan. Seems it's a good movie. But, a movie with that big a publicity and which got released on this Friday, you get tickets for them 1 hour before ?? huh ? crazy yaar. But being always the optimist, Rajan took me and 2 other friends, Alok and Saurabh to PVR at around 6:30, for the show which was at 7:00. Upon realising the inevitable non-availability of tickets for Bluffmaster, we looked for options, like KingKong. Hard luck, only 2 tickets there. And the only movie, which had umpteen tickets available was Exorcising of Emily Rose. And Rajan insisted it is good, and was based on a true story. I was only too happy, for I love horror movies and suspense thrillers :))
So there we were, tickets in hand but for the 10:00 p.m show, wondering what to do with the remaining 3 daunting hours.

Chicks in Forum are indeed a good pastime. Besides that, clothes, watches and phones galore. We went into the Westside showroom there, and Rajan started looking for anything good he could purchase. Boy, does he have a problem selecting something !! He looked around for the whole 3 hours without selecting a thing ! And he is proud to have broken his own record :o Anyways, I kept myself busy, by freaking out and singing a song at the Westside shop, That's why you go away from me song, by MLTR. Man, I had gone half crazy I guess, with shoppers galore on Saturday night and there I was in a corner humming away a song with a Christmas Carol group especially arranged for dedicating songs :P That gave a nice kick to me. Off to KFC, had a burger and then killed time for more than an hour before we decided to have some proper food at another of the Sagars which abounds aplenty in Banagalore ! burrpp .. essoosmay (excuse me !!)

December 15, 2005

And I thought things were fine ....

December 15, 2005 Posted by Vijay 3 comments
Just when things seem to be calming down after India's recent victories, another controversy has come up. Sourav's axing from the Indian Team, soon after a huge win against Sri Lanka. Really, there is no other problem in Indian cricket than it's selectors. Mohinder Amarnath referred to them as a pack of jokers. The 5 jokers like the tag it seems and increasingly embarass the captain, the coach and the players into becoming overnight all rounders. And then, when the all rounder performs with the bat as well as Ganguly did, they find a duck of Yuvraj in the first innings better than a 40 of Saurav's. Aahh, I guess Ganguly did not live up to the standard of a genuine all rounder eh ? Coz he couldn't do much with his bowling ?

Shameless creatures are those whoever is behind axing Ganguly. Deplorable. If axing him was anyway the intention, why even pick him for a test, or 2 in this case ? Ridiculing the stature of a man like Ganguly, is absolutely not on, and I would sincerely request all cricket fans to back Ganguly, for all he has done. This is no way to treat a guy who has captained a country for more than 40 tests, has 5000 odd runs at an average of 40 odd, and has more than 10,000 runs in ODIs and is still only 32, yes 32 is not an age when cricketers normally retire.

And the justification provided for this by the jokers is even more ridiculous. They have picked Wasim Jaffer as an opener(all due credit to Wasim), because, Gambhir is not in touch. Now, the twist is, if Wasim is picked, then what will Sehwag do ? And if Gambhir is not doing well, what is he anyway doing in the Indian team ? Wouldn't it have been better to retain Ganguly , if keeping Gambhir in the team was anyway going to happen ?

December 14, 2005

December 5, 2005

Happened to you ??

December 05, 2005 Posted by Vijay , 2 comments
Staying alone in a room in a rented house ? A residential area surrounds you ? Have an iron grill behind your room which gives you a view of the nearby houses' rear ? Working as a software engineer ? Wake up late on weekends ? Say, a Saturday ? Going for a bath ? Say at 11:00, morning ? Got into the bathroom, without a towel and any of the rest ? Didn't realise it till you had the bath ? Wondering what to do NOW ?????

Sometimes, it helps when there are old clothes or towels which you have set aside for washing purpose in the bathroom. Solution is definitely to get out from there, THEN AND THERE , but with any of those "set aside for washing" clothes !!! Before it gets more embarassing, get out of the goddam bathroom, even if it means you are dripping with water and just a towel wrapped around your waist !!!

Take my advise guys(or girls ??!!). Experience speaks !!!!

November 30, 2005

Action From Home

November 30, 2005 Posted by Vijay No comments
Some cricketing action from my home at Thrissur, in Kerala. The front of home is being used a cricketing pitch which is an 18 yard strip. the bowler normally takes his run up from the road behind the gate :P .. believe me that used to happen. The pitch is kinda up and down, so the ball misbehaves. The stumps have a really weird look about them, what with they resembling a TV antenna :P (which they actually are !!) Batsmen have a tough time adjusting to the fickleness of the pitch which as Sidhu says is as fickle as the england weather !

SquareCutComingUrWay

Square Cut Coming Your Wayy !!!

Great Straight Drive Bro !!

What a stright drive Bro !!!

HomeFront

Home In front (From Road)

Action In Front of Home

Home In Front Again (From Home) : Notice the bus, there is a Bus Stop right in front of home !!

My Own Baby

November 30, 2005 Posted by Vijay 1 comment
Don't be shocked. I am not married yet, nor am I different from the male gang to have something as unusual as a baby !! So, all you females can heave a sigh of relief, for I am as always available !! :P Just kidding !!
Happened to buy a piece of land in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India. Got it done on this Monday. It is around 12 kms away from my Uncle's home, who also happens to be in the polymers business. He has his own factory there :) The address goes something like this (yet to confirm :D) -
Kurumbapalayam, Vayyapurinagar (or Vayyampaalayam - debatable :D),
After Saravanambatti, near SNS Institute of Technolgy (the college :D)

Caveat : All details are subject to change according to the level of mistakes in the data provided here.

I must really thank my mom, who insisted on buyinhg a piece of land which would be a very good investment option as well. Not to mention the many thanks to my Uncle who made the whole deal happen smoothly.

About the land ... it is around 6 cents, which comes to roughly more than 2600 sq ft. It's basically a plot of land of 26 cents, which has been bought by my sis in law and cousin and me. I like the plot very much, calm, serene, level land, and whats more there is an Engineering College a few yards away. More importantly , it's Ladies' hostel is even closer :) Thinking of putting up a tent tomorrow itself :D
Another major factor is the airport which is just 9 kms away. And besides CTS has set up shop nearby and Sahara's city colony is coming up as well, at a close by area. Land rates are booming and real estate is looking up. We got the plot for 27k per cent, which is a very fair deal.

Now for the tougher part.. the payment. My brother has financed me for this, and I am guessing he will give it to me for free now :P. Naah, just kidding, I hope I am not literally indebted to him forever !! Maybe within 2 years, I will pay up :)
Feels great to have a land of your own, very much alike having your own baby, coz you get to nurture and build it well, if I plan to build a house there.
What's more, places like Ooty, Chennai, and to a certain extent Bangalore and also Kerala lie very close to Coimbatore ! Lots of places to visit, and even trek within 250 kms distances :)

Feels good :) Hoping for the best too !

Head Back Home

November 27, 2005

Grow Up India !!

November 27, 2005 Posted by Vijay , No comments
10 days of action, on entirely two different kinds of pitches, if I were to put it in terms of cricketing terminology.One, fought and probably, lost on battleground film stardom, and another still being waged off the cricket pitch, but not on it. Both relate to how India is trying to come to terms with the changing generation of sports,culture and western exposure.The former is the Khushboo incident I am alluding to and the latter the 3 day old finger salute by India's cricket coach Greg Chappell.

Before I do a postmortem of each of these incidents, let me put things in right perspective by stating what happened. In Khushboo's case, it was a mere statement which brought out the stark reality, and the supposed cultural integrity that India possesses in it's women population being virgins before marriage. She stated that educated Indian men should stop expecting that their brides would be virgins when they tie the knot. Poor Khushboo .. the price that she had to pay for blurting out a bold and arguably, likely expectation, was quite unexpected. She was hounded by political parties, esp. DMK, who are against the incumbent Jayalalithaa government of the AIADMK. Devoid of any possible issues to be raised before the assembly elections next year, this was a starter, one could say , for the DMK supporters. When Suhasini tried to defend the remarks by Khushboo, there was flak even for her.

Then, on the eve of the Kolkata match at the famed Eden Gardens came the Chappel finger salute. The coach apparently showed the middle finger to the crowd which was jeering him, for the spat he had with Ganguly during the Zimbabwe series. But that really is not an issue that I want to highlight in this post, though, if Chappell did do the finger salute (which he confessed to having done, he certainly owes a public apology to Kolkata and even to India !! Because, he is the one who is a non-indian and is here by virtue of a high profile job given and entrusted to him by India's cricket board and backed by most of the Indian public. So he owes it to them. And I sincerely believe he should apologise.

November 2, 2005

Enough is ENOUGH !!!

November 02, 2005 Posted by Vijay , 12 comments
Bomb blasts everywhere. Everyday one in Iraq. There are people who have made this situation arise by themselves. But India, of all countries is facing the terrible fate of being the worst hit by terrorism. Enough is enough I say. I don't even understand the meaning of terrorism. So what do you derive out of terrorising people ? Sadists ain't they ? Isn't that what they are then ? Watching how their victims suffer and die ?

On Saturday, on the eve of the festive occasion of Ramzan and Diwali, bomb blasts shook the Indian Capital of Delhi. It killed no less than 62. SIXTY TWO is A LOT. I read another news of a car bomb blast 5 minutes back. 5 dead and more expected. Do we not have enough of natural calamities anyway ? And when such blasts occur every fortnight in Srinagar/Kashmir, and claims even 5-10 lives the total toll takes alarming proportions. I have never been this pissed off and angry over bomb blasts believe me. This is ridiculous and atrocious. What the f&*k do these guys want ? Do they want a piece of land ? What are they fighting for ? These terrorists are mere cowards. They don't have the guts to face an Indian Soldier face to face. Coz if they do, they are gonna wet their pants, forget trying to press the remote control button. Are cowards whom we want to rule the world ? And even if they rule, the way they are killing innocents, they won't have anyone to rule over. Coz by then they would have wiped the entire humanity off the face of earth.

There is no dearth of place for the terrorists to seek refuge in. After all earth is vast. And, for what all these f$%^ing terrorists do, doesn't make an inkling of sense. In the wake of a calamity as great as the earthquake in Pakistan, they still have the unabashed inhumane stone heartedness to detonate bombs in the capital of a country !! How unashamedly inhumane can any ANIMAL be ? They are but bastards. Because, if they had a family they would know what it is to lose a father, what it is to lose a sibling, a daughter or a mother. That's what they are. Bastards. (I don't care what kind of language I use here. I have censored where required and when I can I have blown it up too ! )

It is my frustration that is pouring forth. Yes it is. But it is also deep sense of anger towards a dastardly,bastardly,cowardly act that the so called, terrorists are carrying out daily. What do they die for in the name of fidayeen ? Will their mom celebrate them as martyrs, or will their father do so, if they have one that is ? Will these terrorists not celebrate the victims as the martyrs for the sheer fact that, they have compromised those lives for their own selfish, evil means ? Why don't they do it ? Sitting crouched away in some eerie mountain and taping the beheading of a journalist is inhumane. Know what ? I reiterate, it's cowardly. Really is. They want an all out war, we give it to them.

If and when you come across this post, I just want to tell you, wherever whichever place on earth you are. Whatever religion/caste/creed you belong to. We are humans. All of us. Do you want to go back to stone age so soon ? Do you want to get extinct as a race and be outnumbered even by the tigers which are rare to find on planet earth ? If you don't, then, think twice even before you even take a step to terrorise. It doesn't pay believe me. You can do good by helping curb it, helping people, but not by destroying them ! We have so many beautiful things on earth to be proud of, so many races,cultures,languages,traditions. That's what makes earth so beautiful. It still is the best thing for a human to exist. The sheer fact and privilege to have trod on Mother Earth is a divine feeling in itself.But to destroy that privilege into smithereens, is not befitting of an individual who can lead the world into economic well being, into a place where you would feel you have lived enough, of one who might be the next Albert Einstein, the next Plato, the next Newton.

Enough is enough I say. I believe we bloggers have a responsibility towards ridding earth of potential or existing terrorism/terrorists. Not by violence. But by propagation of message,feelings,experiences and all of that kind which can force the belief into these poor terrorists who are fighting, God knows for what. I probably think, they these don't know what they are fighting for either. But the end result is loss of humanity, peace and living in tension filled circumstances, when one needs to be celebrating the essence of life.

Finally, I sympathise with these terrorists. Despite what they do to terrorise, they are having to do such acts again and again to prove that they still exist.Just goes on to prove that they are self doubters. They don't believe in themselves. They are not sure whether people are still terrified of them. And yet again this points to the fact that, they don't know what their own intentions are. Else, they would have been pushing their agenda in the open not in closed doors. I am not an advocate of any kind of terrorism, but in the reasoning I mentioned in the last line, from all it seems, LTTE chief Prabhakaran seems more goal oriented. That's not to justify acts of violence which are condemnable in the most serious of words.But hey, there should be talks. Agreed there will be debates,arguments,power struggles. I mean, that's why humans are so complex. But that should not hamper the common man who is least bothered of power struggles. The common boy who just wants to play a game of cricket with his friend who maybe christian/Hindu/Muslim. That is the greatest cue that children offer.

Children are oblivious to happenings around them and are so happy and cheerful in their own worlds. They just want to play and have fun. They don't care or bother who they play with or make friends with. So no religion,caste or creed creeps into their thoughts. But, when they grow up and parents inculcate certain beliefs of the good/evil that "supposedly" exist in being a hindu/muslim/christian, is when beliefs take shape. Children and of course youth is what can help move the world forward. If we pollute them, and tell them that this guy is black/white , keep away from him, we are worsening things. Rebellions will only increase.Violence will never cease. We deinitely need more of Gandhis and Mandelas to come together.

Youth of today are more understanding,practical. They just want fun,joy and peace.It is high time we as the youth took up the onus and fought on a truly worldly basis against such heinous crimes. We need to offer this world breathing space. For Mother Earth has offered us so much , but have we given her back anything ? Can't we atleast offer her peace of mind ? Don't we owe it back to her ? We sure do. So please PLEASE, once you read this post, get determined of these things :

1. Abolish religious biases from your head ( It is tough I agree, but that's the foremost step we need to take. I am trying too. But we need to try, and it will happen.)

2. All of us who have eyes,ears,hands,legs and walk on two legs are potentially humans considering the fact that we can converse and understand those similar in the qualities I mentioned. Each one deserves the respect due to them. Black/white/Hindu/Muslim/Christian, all are but humans eventually.

3. Embrace and enjoy the cultures and traditions of friends of the other caste/religion. There is no better way to accomplish (1) than this step.

4. Be open minded and believe and be determined that, no terrorist activity will dampen your spirits. Crying is fine. Fearing is not. It is JUST NOT fine. We are giving more confidence to a confidence starved terrorist by fearing the act. We need to be strong. And believe me, whoever has had an experience, we are with you. I am with you. No one deprives you of your life, just by an act of terrorism right ? We will live on.

5. Finally, pass on this message to one and all possible, so that we know where we stand vis-a'-vis' terrorists and terrorism. We need to stop more from becoming or getting groomed into terrorists. We must try and inculcate an abhorrence towards terrorism and acts asssociated with them. Pass on the message that, terrorists are but ruining their own wonderful lives, which can be so much better.

Let's all work towards making this world a better place to live in. Remember we owe Mother Earth in tons. We are forever indebted to her. So let's give her something that is in our realm of capability, which is to create an environment of peace and tranquility.And remember, we have just one life. And as long as you are in a position to breathe, no one can deny you your right to life on earth. You can't be subdued. Our spirits cannot and will never sag. Let our motto for this century be "We will live on .... "

Head Back Home

My Dil Goes Mmm ..

November 02, 2005 Posted by Vijay , 2 comments
Well, the title for the post is for what is following as a few lines of Hindi Shayari(if u can call that so) that I came up with. This again relates back to the earlier post. This again exemplifies the unfortunate vulnerability that my heart gets exposed to. Bad to reveal, but hey, I accept my weaknesses. And this is one which is tough to work on !! :-( So there she was and her presence, yes, mere presence is not helping me concentrate on things when she's around. And she doesn't even know this is so. And I'd rather not reveal, coz, as my post suggested, that's not my cup of tea. But again, when she appears or flashes that smile, I just melt .. that's a very vulnerable heart I have. All you readers are getting more than what you want to know about me. Please, all you female folks, please don't take advantage of this poor lil chap :)

Nazrein Milane se Katratha hoon
Aankhen Milane se Ghabratha hoon
Nahi mein khona nahi chaahtha uski aankhon mein
Jinmein pyaar dekhna chaahta hoon.

November 1, 2005

Lyrics or Music - You Decide

November 01, 2005 Posted by Vijay 6 comments
Ok, let's see if you can find this song out. Here it goes in english, well almost meaningful or meaningless is something you have to decide !

Her eyes have words, words have magic.
I got lost in the magic, got out of control.
I looked at you, you looked at me,
And it became difficult.
And you became my destiny,
You are only my destination.
(Here comes the clincher ...)
Ten excuses made and took away my heart .. took away my heartt..
Ten excuses made and took away my heart.
Ten excuses made and took away my heart .. took away my heartt..
Ten excuses made and took away my heart.

Can somebody tell me which song it is ?? aah !! It is the english translation of
the superhit song - "Dus Bahaane Karke Le Gaya Dil" from the superhit movie Dus(Bollywood Movie).
Can somebody please explain me the meaning of "Ten excuses made and took away my heart" !!! I am totally stumped as I have been since I heard the song. Shucks man. Lyrics have no meaning these days. If that's so, my english translation should fit in well too !! ;-)

Check out the original lyrics ...

uski aankhon mein baatein, baaton mein jadoo
jadoo mein kho gaye hum hogaye beqabu
i looked at you, you looked at me
aur hogayi mushkil
and you became my destiny tuhi meri manzil
dus bahane karke legaye dil legaye dil
dus bahane karke legaye dil
dus bahane karke legaye dil legaye dil
dus bahane karke legaye dil

October 31, 2005

What a deal !

October 31, 2005 Posted by Vijay No comments
Well, I went on Saturday to get a new mobile phone to change my Samsung SGH-C100 , a neat slim, sleek phone. But with my bad usage, it looks like a grandpa, though it still works very efficiently. What I have always wanted was an FM, with my phone. Well, that was the only reason I wanted to change my phone, coz C100, does not have FM on it. But Samsung SGH C230 does have, and multiple channels too ! So, that was my choice.

Once at Jayanagar in the Phone shop, my human nature took over and I was looking for more features. The shop was offering C230 at 4800, and my C100 was worth just 1650 :(. Then I asked for a Nokia, with FM on it. He handed me the Nokia 6610i. Well, it cost 6250, but Nokia offers much better volume than Samsung. Besides, it also has Voice Recording facility and what's more, there is a camera too ! Now I was really in a fix. For 1450 more, I am getting a better quality Nokia phone. But I also wanted a phone which was slim,sleek and light weight. C100 weighs 76g and C230 70g !!!! But for more features my choice was weighing more towards the Nokia 6610i.

So my choice had gone from Samsung C230 to Nokia 6610i now. The last twist was the shopkeeper showing a tiny ipod like mp3 player to another customer. It too had FM on it, with 128MB flash memory. Well, I asked him to let me hear the FM station, and WOW, the sound quality was damn good. for such a tiny player, the features looked amazing. It was the Samsung Yepp YP-T5H. FM, Voice Recording, USB cables, MP3 encoding, you can record FM songs in MP3 format, can act as a USB, equaliser effects, MP3 & WMA playback, 12 hour continuous play using a AAA alkaline battery. It seemed a perfect deal, and the shop had just one piece. No more phones baby. I was gonna take this sexy beauty. And its size is almost as big as my thumb !! It cost me 4800 bucks :( .But really, I don't have too many complaints. One issue was, that the shopkeeper had claimed till billing time that it was a rechargeable battery. I chided him for having misguided me. But I was not going to back away from the deal. Just happened to notice on the web that this lil beauty has been in markets since last year. But hey, technology will keep getting better and better models will surely come.

Apart from the comparatively small memory size(128 MB) I am cool with the deal. Besides, I can record songs in my voice and be heard at places ;-). That is one way of realising my dream of becoming a playback singer :).

Pros : Pocket sized dynamite - lots of features for so little a thing !
Cons : Low memory capacity, a bit high priced

My Rating : 8.5/10

October 28, 2005

A guide to your password

October 28, 2005 Posted by Vijay 1 comment
No, I am not saying this is the bible . These are just some of my ideas for you to get hold of a password as unique as you are ! Let's see a normal scenario, where you might have a password with your date of birth/name combination in it. Or yet another where you have your mom's name or your girlfriend's/boyfriend's name. Well, they seem too obvious don't they ? All to easy to be hacked. A password, I believe should be as unique as you. And that is the reason, your creative instincts should take over. Moreover, they should be easily memorised too !

I have been following something which varies from the weird to the absurd. For example, you might come across a hoarding on the way to your home which says - "ShapatRaman Hotel". Well, you have a clue there. You can as well have your password as 5hapatRaman. Note the "S" is a "5" now. So you have everything there, a number, capital letters and a pretty long one. Well, that's one of the ways. ANother way, is to pick out a few dialogues which have been famous in movies. Or maybe even serials/Television competitions for example. Let's take the Great Indian Laughter Challenge for example. Naveen Prabhakar's lines - "Paichan Kaun" have been really famous. Well, I would for once take the cue and have "Pa1chanKaun" as another of my password. Notice again, that the "i" has been changed to 1 to suit the necessity of a number,being involved in your password.

Ain't it simple ? Really ? That's all you need to think of. Think of the lighter moments which you have seen on TV and which have borne a lasting impression in your heart. Think of certain amusing lines, amusing characters, maybe Chinese,maybe Russian, maybe Arabic, but which brings a smile to your face. That way, you just are letting your happiness show forth in your password, and helping it make almost impossible to be hacked.So, try it and I am sure, you will be happy safe and secure :)

Don't worry, none of the above mentioned passwords are mine, nor have they ever been mine. So you can forget hacking my system :)

October 24, 2005

October 17, 2005

Senti .. (Don't Read)

October 17, 2005 Posted by Vijay , 1 comment
Finally, after a long hiatus of 3 months, I went home, Kerala, God's Own country, to the cultural capital of Kerala, Thrissur. Boarded the bus on Wednesday last. Reached next day morning, which was a 10 hour journey. Home sweet home beckoned, and I was all ready to get pampered at my native. My parents, and my grandma. Thursday being a holiday, I had taken off the Friday to spend the weekend.

And, as always, mom was there to welcome me with open hands, the warmth which sometimes is so much that it gets to you. In tamil its called, "anbu thollai" and malayalam, more aptly, "snehicchu kollal". Well, if I were to put it in english, it would be - "strangling with love". But, I guess that's what moms are all about. And I was only too willing this time for such an opportunity get the better of me. And then there is grandma and dad. Grandma is one who I crack jokes with, whenever I am around her. We share more of a friendly rapport than anything else.

I went into my study room where I had spent(or did I ??) time studying hard, for the last 10 days of my semester exams, for my B.Tech. Those books, which had pages which were never turned over, they still were there. Those pages, which assured of marks, were there too, crampled up. But all were intact. But, it was on my table where I spotted something which I had long forgotten.

Being the unpredictable type, and fortunately, good at things like sketching, I found a piece of cartoon that I had sketched, that of Donald Duck and Daisy Duck. It was still there underneath the glass pane on my table. I got real nostalgic and felt the desire to sketch. But it was not all passionate a desire, not yet anyways ! But after lunch, I sat with mom and she was showing me the sketch she had made of a swamy. She had got it laminated and stuff. She sketches very well too. That was enough to trigger my hidden desire to sketch.

Like a child, I demanded for a piece of paper, that very moment, and got one from mom, the only one at home at that time. I went to my study room, picked up an Asterix comic, (Asterix and the Soothsayer) and started sketching. I was all excited and went on a sketching spree for the next 2 and half hours. Around 4 sketches, and the most time consuming of them all was my attempt to sexist my brother from the wedding snap of him and my sis in law. Well, I somehow didn't like it, when compared to the cartoons. But it had come out neat alright. Now, I was ready with the sketches. If mom can get her sketch laminated, I surely can atleast get my sketches xeroxed !! Took 2 copies each, and went around my home showing dad, mom and grandma the sketches. I was thrilled :) Then, the forgotten ritual of going to the temple nearby, a 5 minute walk, adorning the white mundu(dhoti as north indians refer to)(Thiruvambady - near Pattraikkal), took me to years gone by, to be precise, 3 years gone by.

The next day was no different. Another couple of sketches, same Asterix comic. But then, as is my want, I get bored very quickly, with something which triggers my passion instantly. And I had had enough of the sketches.

Friday passed by and come Saturday, the realisation dawned on me that I would have to leave the next day. For the first time, believe me, I felt like not leaving home. I had been lazing around, but I didn't mind it a bit. I wanted more of that. I told mom, I don't want to go. Felt a bit sad. Saturday had arrived, and I felt more attached to home, sweet home. But then, as they say, change is the only constant thing in life. And changing places is but part and parcel of change. And once I had started packing my bags, I had gotten over my attachment, and consoled myself. And there I was leaving my home, back to Bangalore.

October 10, 2005

Why .. Why should it be so ?

October 10, 2005 Posted by Vijay , 3 comments
I come across pretty girls quite often, but why should I entertain hopes of her being mine, even for an instant if that maybe ? You might say this is all desperation to have a g/f or worse still a wife !! But I don't want any of those.I shudder to think of having one or getting married !! But then, if I don't want either of them, why does my heart have to inadvertently beat for the girl who passes by me ? Why should I hope that she talk to me ? Smile at me ? Why do I have to hope that she isn't married ? WHY ? Why does my heart have to wander into such terrains which are not my areas of comfort ? Is it just me, or everyone of you who are, obviously stright , who have this feeling ? Why, WHY SO ? Why can't my heart just be stone hearted and all cool ?

Don't listen to the beats.
Don't follow the thought.
They are but heights
Which are better not sought.

Try to look ahead as I may
I can't foego that look askance.
Try mighty I try to say
But I don't want to have a chance.

For I am no good at all these
It's not my cup of tea.
No, don't tie me to the bond please,
I don't want to drown in that sea !

But there goes my beat again,
Looking yonder for the girl of my dream.
Do I really have a gain ?
Something for which I'd rather scream ?

But all this is but transient,
And I have to move ahead.
Looking for a God sent
Angel that may be up ahead.

Don't know whether meant for me she is
But I'll be glad to have
A glimpse of her if I see
That's all that this heart desires.

For all else is not for me.
Even if it means it has to be
Her longing for me ..
Which she needs to see
In better light and decide and see
"This is not what I wanted you see"
And leave me ashore for I am at sea
Move ahead as I look at you in glee.
Move ahead as I look at you in glee.

October 8, 2005

Need I say more ?

October 08, 2005 Posted by Vijay No comments
I am talking obviously about the ugly nexus between Sanjay Jha, Sourav Ganguly and Jagmohan Dalmiya's camp ?? Look at this one now Ganguly's "TRUTH"

Wasn't I right about what I posted earlier ??

More here

And MORE !!

Once again Jha tries to save Ganguly, whose career has almost ended. I guess, Ganguly has taken the elbow opportunity to shy away from the truth. I guess, this was the only way for Ganguly to get away from his ugly spat with Greg. He really didn't have any other option. And our dear Jha (J-ha ha ha ha) still tries to get Ganguly to play again (tee hee hee hee).

Ja Ja JHA, ghar jaa ..
Jaake chudi pehen le ..
Biwi ke bajoo mein baith ..
Aur rasoi mein jaake khaana pakaa ..
Wohi pe tu theek hai ..
Tera site band hone mein bahut din baaki nahi bache ..
Tu chahe Sourav ko bacha le ya nahi ..
Sourav ka to band baj hi gaya ..
Aur teri to vaat lagke hi rahegi ..

Yoo Hoo !!!

October 08, 2005 Posted by Vijay , No comments
I come check my blogspot first thing in the morning and what do I see ?? The number of hits on my blog is XCATLY 1000 !!!! Hurray !!!! 1000 not out BABY !!

October 6, 2005

My Own Shayari :D

October 06, 2005 Posted by Vijay , No comments
I dunno why, but I have always got bad feedbacks for this shayari. People don’t appreciate creativity and ingenuity.



Check it out ..



Bindas Bin das ke Bin Hai



Bindas Bin das ke Bin Hai



…………………………

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Devdas bin das ke Dev Hai ….



Wah wah wah …



See.. ain’t it good ??!

October 4, 2005

Frenzy-ID

October 04, 2005 Posted by Vijay , 3 comments
Well well well. I never knew owning 35 mail id's was a thing which is unfathomable and crazy ! Well, I did have 35 mails id's at one point. And I used to access atleast half of them. That was around couple of years back. And, I have a group created for my own id's which is called - sirf_hum I had to yield to my friends' exclamatory remarks and scale down the number of ids to 20. Well, that's the number of ids I have right now. And the groups is intact alright :D

By the way, sirf hum in hindi means "Only Us" :D
Just remembered that I don't remember quite a few of them :D

September 30, 2005

Jha(k-ass) in danger of losing his job

September 30, 2005 Posted by Vijay , 3 comments
Jha(k-ass) going to lose his job
By a bloggespondent
Bangalore, September 30, 2005

Sanjay Jha, the editor in chief of cricketnext.com will have to shut down his website according to latest reports. According to a leading national daily, The Gangulygraph, Sanjay will be facing near bankruptcy amidst reports of the falling fortunes of floating captain Sourav Ganguly. As a last ditched effort to revive the falling fortunes of Sourav, Sanjay has pleaded on his website to readers in his column - An open letter to Sourav Ganguly to re-consider Ganguly in the playing eleven atleast as a err.. captain ??!! The daily also mentioned how, Sanjay has accused the best all rounder in the world, Andrew Flintoff, as a liar, after the excerpts from Flintoff's autobiography were published. It might sound strange though, that the autoboigraphy was written well before even this controversy started. According to typical Indian emotional mentality, Jha has tried his best to fight against all those who fight Ganguly, the news report says.Sanjay Jha has openly supported Ganguly on his site, with polls, which cannot but, give a result in favor of Ganguly. And thus, he has proved on his website that Ganguly is what India needs, and Ganguly did the right thing, the report said.(CricketNext had voted for Sourav Ganguly and stands by it. )

Sources said, that Ganguly funds cricketnext.com and Jha is wary of Ganguly's future. Sources said, if Ganguly were to lose his captaincy, it will automatically mean his ouster from the cricket team. The report also says that, to keep Ganguly's flag flying high, Harbhajan Singh has agreed to write a column on how Chappell creates rift in the team and how HARD Ganguly trains in the gym, but has not revealed under what name Bhajji will write the column. Reliable sources say, the name Bhajji will use to write these columns could be Chaddi.

Click here for other news

September 29, 2005

Genesis of my blog url

September 29, 2005 Posted by Vijay , 1 comment
Well well well, some confusion people. I love cartoons, Tom & Jerry, and Looney Tunes. Bugs Bunny is my favorite. I know, I sound now like a 2nd grade student writing an essay on the topic "What do you like ?". But when it comes to cartoons, I bet no one can hide their excitement, least of all me :)

Coming to the crux of the matter, I created this url, (look at the addressbar please, do I have to type it again ??!!) and another yahoo id of mine, after I heard the character Sylvester in the Looney Tunes strip say - "Suffering Socrates". Well, that's what I HEARD , while watching it on television. And , being impulsive, I found such a thing funny, and promptly went ahead and created a yahoo id on those lines and now the url for this blog. Well, guess what ? Apparently, Suffering Socrates is NOT the dialogue that Sylvester says in the Tweety Bird mysteries and the Looney Tunes cartoons. It goes like - "Sufferin' succotash.". Sigghhh, now, that's what I call hearing impaired. But I want to justify my url name for the simple reason that, the accent of Sylvester was not quite tangible. Hence the mistake, but I really don't regret. I think sufferingsocrates sounds more funny :) ..

And FYI .. succotash means - fresh corn and lima beans with butter or cream Really, I don't see any resemblance at all with Socrates !!!

September 28, 2005

Jhakas nahi, Jack-ass

September 28, 2005 Posted by Vijay No comments
The title for the post couldn't have been more appropriate, with the disgusting way in which the Managing editor of cricketnext.com, Sanjay Jha writes his articles. He has a column named, JHAkas, (For the Jha and the Kas), so for a more elaborate expression of my disgust , I have named this post accordingly as Jackass. Again, on the news channel yesterday, he was going hammer and tongs at Greg Chappell. He started getting all senti, saying "sob sob, why a foreign coach, can't India have an Indian coach , sob sob". What does Jha have against Greg Chappell. Look at his website, the first 4 headlines today are trying to tarnish Greg's name in India. What a wonderful day for Jackass oops, sorry JhaKASS(much better) to pounce yesterday. BCCI, didn't even mention a word about Greg's email, and buried it, and Sourav was given a clean chit. So, Greg's credibilty is in question now. Well, I must confess, this was expected from Dalmiya, oops, Ranbir Singh Mahindra, to vie for Ganguly.

And thence pounces our man, JHAKASS !! Have a look at his site, this guy, doesn't have Indian cricket in mind I say. He works for a group, the Dalmiya, the Gangulys, I don't know who ! But he sure does work for them. I still can't post a feedback to JHAKASS on his articles. Boy, what a website. Oye Jhakass, pehle apna site theek kar, uske baad, Indian cricket ko theek banaane ki koshish kar.Hey everyone, if you have genuine Indian cricket's goodwill in mind DONT VISIT CRICKETNEXT.COM. Read my previous post for more details on JHAKASS.

September 27, 2005

Cowering for Cover

September 27, 2005 Posted by Vijay 2 comments
This, in response to an article written by Sanjay Jha, editor of cricketnext.com.

Hi Sanjay,

I read your article and I have also seen you express your views on this whole spat on a news channel. I regret to say, that you are swaying far too much on Sourav's side, for whatever inexplicable reasons.

First and foremost, the whole thing got started with Sourav's revelation on a television channel that he'd been asked to step down. And, quite predictably, and happily for people like you, Chappell made a note of clarification to the media. Strangely(or maybe not !), I didn't find a mention of such a gentlemanly gesture from Chappell on your site, while you should have been condemning the immature and kiddish behaviour of Sourav, for disclosing what happened in the dressing room.

I would not take a second opinion regarding the fitness of the prince of Kolkata, who is the worst fielder in the Indian team alongside, Ashish Nehra. And, the pressure which has been plaguing him, has definitely, gotten to him and he is taking shelter behind the fast disappearing stature of Mr. Dalmiya, like a kid, who does a mistake and cowers behind it's parent. And Dalmiya, contrary to your reports, of winning another election, is going to badly be ripped apart in this one, what with revelations of his advise to Sourav. I hope cricketnext.com doesn't fund people in Kolkata, to take out a strike against Chappell, to get the life out of a dead career that is Sourav's.

- Vijay

And of all things, the website doesn't work, when I try to post a feedback to Mr Sanjay Jha. What a site !!!

September 16, 2005

Media is going way too far ..

September 16, 2005 Posted by Vijay 1 comment
What is dogging Indian cricket ? What is the inside story ? Why is Ganguly under pressure ? Well, the Indian media, has it's way when it comes to creating divides in the Indian team. It will publish the story in the front page , then on the 15th page and then on its website. They will conclude VERY logically, that if Indian skipper was asked to step down, it was said so by the coach himself. Then what does the media do ? It takes it the next step forward, dig the skipper more AND more and brainwash the reader into believing that the skipper was indeed asked to step down by the coach himself. Any proof for the reader ? naah, believe the media dammit.

I believe whatever issues have been raised about Ganguly's captaincy, have been blown out of proportion by the media, and the spicy news is always what can keep the media groups shining on and on. And then, they conduct polls, and come out saying, India indeed needs a change of captaincy. I am not here to justify Ganguly's stance as a skipper. It is a known fact that he has not been performing well in the past year or so. So there can be no compromise on that count. But, to poke into the dressing room, get news which never might have existed and turn it into a big story, that's what the Indian media is upto. Then they get views from people like Wasim Akram, who will unfazingly agree that Ganguly needs to step down. Dammit, who needs to be captain or not can be decided by the BCCI , why the f#@k do outsiders have to bother ? This is where media is acting irresponsibly. For God's sake, there are more news stories to cover. Cover Sania, cover Bhupathi, cover Anju Bobby George, there seems to be no controversy surrounding them. Why seed controversies and blow issues out of proportions ?

September 5, 2005

Just Remember THAT !!

September 05, 2005 Posted by Vijay 3 comments
The heading of the post is a dialogue from the movie, Bharathchandran IPS(read BIPS), which I saw yesterday with my friends. Yep, it's a mallu movie, with Suresh Gopi in the lead. It's supposed to be a sequel to the superhit movie, Commissioner which rocketed Suresh Gopi into superstardom in the mid ninties in malayalam movies. What set apart Suresh Gopi has been his explosive dialogues and of course this one too !! - "Just Remember THAT".

The sequel BIPS, had Suresh Gopi speaking explosive, saliva spitting dialogues. But the storyline is weak and so was the acting. The movie seemed an attempt to revitalise and reinvigorate some failing careers. Beats me how the movie became a hit though .. Only respite was the absence of any songs, unusual for an Indian Commercial Movie.

September 1, 2005

Groaning Young Man (GYM)

September 01, 2005 Posted by Vijay , 2 comments
Ever had a chance to experience what other parts are there in your body ? Well, one way is to get pain in those parts and realise that hey, I didn't know something like that existed in my body. Well, if you are really keen to experience it, I would advise you to join a GYM, i.e. if you are not a regular or a fitness freak. And 2 days at the GYM will enlighten you with all the parts that exist in your body. And I have been reduced to one Groaning Young Man(GYM). Phew, such pain, you turn you get pain, you bend down you have pain, you sit, err.. may not be much pain !

On a more serious and sensible note, fitness is something one needs to maintain throughout life. There is nothing like a good exercise and a strict diet regimen to keep oneself fit and healthy for all your life.For me, it's of double purpose. It helps me wake up early in the morning. What also keeps me sleepless through the night is the pain that I'll end up having after the gym(mming). But I guess, to gain something you gotta lose something. And besides, when learning begins it has it's own stumbling blocks and pains. This is more of physical pain. But once you get used to it, it's but just another of your daily routines. So, next time I blog on the GYM, I hope the expansion of GYM reads - "Glowing Young Man" !!

August 30, 2005

Traffic Jam

August 30, 2005 Posted by Vijay 2 comments
I have been thinking of this idea, for quite a few years now. Animals on the roads are a menace in India. Cows,Stray Dogs , for starters. I say, I say, why not regulate the traffic for them too ? Let's have traffic signals with Cow crossings and dog crossings too ! Why limit it to zebra crossings ?? Seriously ! There have been occasions when, trying to avoid running over a dog on the road, the vehicle has met with an accident. So, India should have traffic signals and cow crossings !! That will avoid the dogs from waiting to cross over to the other side of the road, to pee there and then come back and pee back !

August 23, 2005

Musical Nite :)

August 23, 2005 Posted by Vijay 8 comments
Our company, as part of it's 6th anniversary celebrations had the Musical Nite arranged, on 17th August ! I was only too glad to take up this opportunity, and I did sing :) Some snapss ..

Woh Lamhe Team - Practise I

The Woh Lamhe Team, from right - The multi faceted SriHarsha, Mohit Jain,ME ME ME.

Woh Lamhe Team - Practise II

At practise, The Woh Lamhe Team :)

Woh Lamhe - On Stage

The Woh Lamhe team, on stage :) Sri Harsha was on the keyboard.

Here comes my favourite. The twist. A rocking idea, to get "Hotel California" by the famed Eagles to be sung in the tune of an Indian Tamil song, Ennavale, from Kaadhalan. Wow ! I love such creative trials :). So, the lyrics were from Hotel California,but the tune was from the tamil song. And as an intro, we decided this , in typical mallu accent .. "All these westerneyrss copy indian songs aaand make it their on. Look et Beppi da, whose Keliyon ka chemen was stolen by some westeyrn baand, and he haad to fite zoo muj to get it baack. what a werld ? Even this song which is going to be sung was formed by 2 yeeagles sitting in Hotel Adigas(it's a hotel almost all employees in our company frequent). And now they haave roooined thaat olso.Listen to the original tune aand u oonly dezide ..(and I sang the song as mentioned above ..) and then I said - Lizen aand yenjooy the new veyrshan. What yenjoy .. chhe" Guess what we introduced our band as ?? - "Palakkad Vultures" !! :P. And it was a pleasure to have realised that our COO and CEO were seated wheile I was narrating those lines and of course :)

Here is the snap ...

Hotel Caaaliforrnia - On Stage

And finally, one more song, "Sandese Aate Hain" with Lazith,from the Bollywood movie, Border...

Sandese Aate Hain - On Stage

Singing is my passion, and I loved it that night ! And I was overwhelmed by people whom I didn't know, but who still congratulated me :) . Overall it went off really well.I just hope I get more such opportunites and entertain on and on ... !!

August 12, 2005

Panicking ?

August 12, 2005 Posted by Vijay 3 comments
Are the Aussies panicking ? One would think so. Australia included Glenn McGrath and Brett Lee for the 3rd Ashes test against England at Old Trafford yesterday. Brett Lee was on drips for an infected knee and McGrath was nursing an ankle injury. After the defeat in Edgbaston, a match where England dominated till the 4th day, Australia seem to have been rattled. Australia's batting hasn't clicked and more importantly, there have been no big scores from any of the big guns.. including Hayden and Ponting. Hayden has looked out of sorts during this entire series and Gilchrist too has not shone. Added to it has been Gillespie's poor bowling in this entire tour. He seems to have lost the plot and dizzy is in a daze these days.

On the first day yesterday, McGrath and Lee passed the fitness test and were included in the playing 11. Both bowled their heart out, but Australia, for all the good work they have been doing with their fielding in matches, dropped as many as 5 catches, including Trescothick(by Gilchrist) and Vaughan, twice.Vaughan took the oportunity and scored the first century in the Ashes series.McGrath also had Vaughan bowled, but off a no-ball.Vaughan took special liking to the hapless Gillespie and hammered him enroute to his 166. He was caught off a full toss from part time chinamans by Simon Katich. But the day was momentous for the greatest leg spinner of all time, Shane Warne who snared the 600th test wicket of his career by having Trescothick caught behind by Gilchrist. Truly, a great gift to the game of cricket and a great servant to Australian cricket. He achieved it in his 126th Test match, and he is not done yet. If there is one man who can turn this game around it has to be Shane Warne. McGrath looked out of sorts, going for more than 4 an over in his spell. Surprising for a miserly fast bowler whose average in test cricket is around 21. He was not the mean machine that he usually is and was quite a few paces slow as well. Obviously, he has not fully recovered. And with the England batsmen taking full toll on Gillespie, Australia found themselves clueless.

Lee again bowled his heart out with the second new ball, getting rid of the dangerous Kevin Pietersen and nightwatchman Mathew Hoggard, off the last ball of the day. Mathew Bell came back to form with a well compiled half century and was unbeaten. But the day was more to do with the sloppy cricket by the Aussies, be it bowling or fielding, there were dropped catches and loose bowling. England grabbed the opportunity and made a strong challenge for the 3rd test , ending the day at a rather healthy 341-5. Australia will be looking for Shane Warne to weave some magic and Lee to unleash his speed on the remaining batsmen in the England team to get back into this test match. But Freddie Flintoff, in the form he has been in, may have other ideas. Another exhilirating day of test match cricket to look forward to on the 2nd day of the 3rd test match of the 2005 Ashes series at Old Trafford.

August 10, 2005

It Happens ..

August 10, 2005 Posted by Vijay , 1 comment
Can you unlock something that is already unlocked ? Well, almost always you can't. I tried in vain to do so, only to realise that it indeed isn't possible. My colleague wanted my stapler that I had safely (un)locked it in my table drawer. I tried opening it but in vain, for it never was locked !! And then, Pandora's box opened, and it was opened by my colleague, and I couldn't hide my embarassment. But hey, you can always, lock the unlocked, which was easier now :D

Stranger things have happened. My friend,who wanted to take the lift, asked those getting out of it at the ground floor - " Is it going up " ??!!! huh ??

Can't think of any other right now :D

August 9, 2005

Don't React,Learn To Respond

August 09, 2005 Posted by Vijay No comments
Came across an article from Rahul Kapoor, the founder-director of Kapoor's Workshop on Effective Communication. The article is about learning to respond rather than to react. Here are 2 equations he defines in the article ..

Situation + Reaction = Disaster
Situation + Response = Outcome

How true ? When we react it is governed by our spontaneity to a situation. So there is ample room for hysteria,anger and any other form of eccentricity which will create turmoil around us. We may lose our senses in those 10 seconds of outburst. Who loses the image ? We, ourselves. But instead if we can just ponder for that extra second as to what we want out of the situation, we can respond effectively. It is same as think before you leap. Respond before you react. And you may well avoid a disaster which may be close at hand !

Five Bowlers ??!!

August 09, 2005 Posted by Vijay 5 comments
Well, hottest debate now is should India play 5 bowlers or not. Great !! I have heard of commentators saying, if a 6 batsman can't win you matches, the 7th batsman cannot do so either. That was when Dravid was keeping wickets. Let me turn this around and ask .. if 4 bowlers and a fifth bowler can't win a match can a 5th bowler do it for us ? I doubt it .. India have succeumbed to media pressures and fielded 5 bowlers in the final today. I really don't see any sense in doing this. Besides, if people think that Dhoni is more a batsman than a keeper, it is ridiculous. Just hardly 10 matches old, and with a technique which is not perfect, he is being fielded as a batsman/keeper. Unbelievable. And when(God forbid) India loses, Dhoni's role will be in jeopardy, right ? And then, people will say captaincy issues, bowling let down(even with 5 bowlers, ha ?!) .. Believe me, 5 bowlers is not the way out for India. India is just hiding its deficiencies rather than facing them head on. It is always better to concentrate on your strengths when the real test is on rather than try and work on your weaknesses. India's strength has always been it's batting and never it's bowling. Hence it's is of primary importance to get the batticng to click. Because, for India that is the only way to win a match.Also, India have to chase today .. now, Dravid maybe thinking, if only we had that extra batsman .. well.. Dravid that's what the media can do .. Don't go by them. Go by your strengths .. Let's hope India manages to win today !!

August 8, 2005

What a match !!!!

August 08, 2005 Posted by Vijay 1 comment
What a test match ? Unbelievable. Who said Test Matches have lost their charm ? One Dayers have been a boon to Test match cricket, more runs, more wickets and no dull draws. The Ashes is up and running, England having levelled the 5 match series 1-1. On the morning of the first day of the 2nd Ashes Test match, Glenn McGrath trod on a cricket ball during warm up and hurt his ankle. It was diagnossed as so bad that he won't be match fit till the 4th Test. This was indeed a big morale booster for the England side who were a beleagured lot after their big loss at Lord's in the opening Ashes encounter.And what transpired later would be a memorable test match.

Ponting won the toss and surprisingly, on a batting friendly pitch at Edgbaston, elected to bowl, even without Glenn McGrath. I wonder whether he wanted to signal to England that McGrath or no McGrath, Aussies would believe in their bowling attack and go for the kill. England, put into bat, started off in bliding fashion, and scored runs at a fact click of more than 4 an over !! Trescothick and Strauss put on a century stand, before Strauss fell once again to the guiles of Warne. Warne has another bunny now ! Trescothick went on to make 90 and would be disappointed for having missed out on scoring his maiden Test Hundred against the Aussies. England then had a minor collapse and were suddenly 187/4 with Pietersen and Flintoff at the crease.

August 4, 2005

Nothing's in a name but ...

August 04, 2005 Posted by Vijay , 1 comment
I was walking back to office after lunch with my friend, Nirantan Bhat(t) ??(Name changed without much difference !).He had told me long back, that there are 2 kinds of Bhat(t)s, one the kashmiri people who have the name as Bhatt and South Indian brahmins, with names as "Bhat". I asked him, curiously, "Your Bhat has only one t right ??" ..

He responded .. "My Bhat(read Butt) has no "t"'s" !!!!

India is the best

August 04, 2005 Posted by Vijay 5 comments
For once, I had to have a sarcastic title for a post. Though I am a proud Indian, I and millions of other Indians were let down by the performance of the Indian cricket team yesterday at Dambulla. India played against Sri Lanka, in the Day night encounter and lost by 4 wickets. Now, 4 wickets seems pretty convincing when you consider Sri Lanka won with 12 balls to spare.

Well, this was not so when Sri Lanka were struggling at 95/6 in under 25 overs. And then, India as India always is, lost it by giving an unbeaten 126 run partnership to Upul Chandana and Mahela Jayawardene. Incidentally, thisn is the 2nd highest partnership in Cricket ODI history for the 7th wicket. India were close, but not close enough.

The point is not about how/why we lost. It is about how often this kind of a thing happens ? Jayawardene's 94* was his highest score in 4 years !!!!! And to think that he rocked the cricket world with a 240 odd against India in 1999, in Sri Lanka does merit him. But, that 240 was not before India dropped him 4-5 times !!! And if I am not wrong, that was Ashish Nehra's debut series as well !! India has a superb cricketing history when it comes to promoting OTHER countries' cricket talent ..

August 3, 2005

Calendar

August 03, 2005 Posted by Vijay 1 comment
I checked the calendar which is of the tear and update kind. It was not torn for yesterday .. thought of the song oru murai from the malayalam movie, Manichithrathaazhu(the latest Chandramukhi in Tamil starring Rajnikanth) ..

Oru murai vanthu kizhitthaaya ..
Nee eee ..
Oru murai vanthu kizhitthaaya ..
:D

Bow Wow

August 03, 2005 Posted by Vijay 1 comment
No, that's not me barking.. It's just the barking of the stray dogs which is still reverberating in my ears. Boy I had a close shave. Talk about going home late at nights when stray dogs are at their menacing best(WORST !!). My brother would always warn me about the stray dogs in Bangalore, and how menacing they are. They run behind anything they find, be it a motorcyclist or a .. err.. running human ! But hey, cmon, I was passing by harmlessly mate ! I just crossed the road, being the ever confident guy who doesn't care about stray dogs and what havoc they can create.
And whom do I come across ? 2 stray dogs, and this was not even late night, it was just 9:00 pm. I always carry may bag to office, albeit there is nothing new or old which I add or retain in it. But, man, did it come handy yesterday ?

It was a war, between my bag and the dogs. They kept snarling at me, there sharp teeth ready to rip me apart. Couldn't take a close look to see how white the teeth were and decide which toothpaste they might be using. But it was 30 seconds of fight on the middle of the road. Two dogs and me. Boy did I go stone cold. I really got scared, but I took the bag off my shoulder and kept shoving away the dogs. Though the people passing by on the road were watching all this, they dare not help me, lest they should get chased down by these beasts. 30 seconds, and I realised, how bad it could be to get bitten by these dogs. Watching me trying to fight away the 2 dogs , another one joined the gang. A chain of thoughts crossed my head, from the 14 injections I might have to take if I were to be bitten, to the very fact that they would actually bite me. Action packed thriller it was .

Being stray they were bound to stray, and they like to just chase down anything, and found a motorcyclist .. who screamed past. They were not done with me yet. Another vehicle passed by and somehow the doggies got distracted. I took advantage of the opportunity and , well, not surprisingly, crossed back to the other side of the road. I definitely wouldn't have wanted to brave walking on the same side after that incident.

I really don't understand, why there are stray dogs at all ? Ok, they want to sprint on the road. But do they have to bite people ? My friend got bitten, even as he was driving his vehicle. There have been instances of accidents having taken place, whilst trying to avoid these dogs.And these accidents have been fatal too.What were they trying to achieve by threatening me ? Ok, I got my pants stitched bad, and half an inch short, as a result of which, the socks were visible. But there was no bare skin that they could have smelt right ? Don't tell me they liked the smell of my socks !!

But, really stray dogs are a big menace in India, especially, from what I have seen, atleast in Chennai and Bangalore. I remember having seen teleshow about a girl who gets bitten by such a dog and she gets the dreaded rabies disease. The girl starts to snarl like a dog, and it's really a bad one , that ! This is precisely what went through my mind when the attack was on .. phew !What do these stray dogs want ? Why are they stray ? What is their motive ? I can't understand. Why do they have to chase people ? Why bite them ? Do they even realise they could cause rabies ?

To end it all, on the way back home, only one song struck my mind ...

Jahan bhi jaata hoon wohi chale aate ho
Peeche Peeche dum hilaake tum aate ho
Yeh to bataoo ke tum doggie kaun se ho
Yeh to bataoo ke tum doggie kaun se ho

Jahan bhi jaata hoon wohi chale aate ho
Peeche Peeche dum hilaake tum aate ho
Yeh to bataoo ke tum Kaat-the kisliye ho
Yeh to bataoo ke tum Kaat-the kisliye ho.

Head Back Home

August 2, 2005

Kaamiyaabi Ki Ummeed

August 02, 2005 Posted by Vijay No comments
Sunke jab hum nikale the
samjhe manzil he aa padi
dekhke hum ne raah taki thi
Lekin thokrein kyon aa padi

Ummeed liye baithey hain
Kuch banenge hum bhi kabhi
Raah tak dikhayee na dee
To kya karenge hum bhi kabhi

Ummeed se bandhe hum hain
Naseeb mein to ho kuch kabhi
Khud naseeb bante baithe hain
Kaamiyabi chue hain jinhone bhi

Tasalli se banti baat nahi
Kuch karna to hai kabhi
Ummeed pe math baitho kabhi
Kaamiyabi aise aati nahi

August 1, 2005

July 29, 2005

Le Chale Le Chale .....

July 29, 2005 Posted by Vijay No comments
Chandni Muskuraye ..
Jab Hawa Kuch Kahe.
Samjho meri sadaayen ..
Hain tere saath mein.

Jo ghana ho fizaa mein ..
andheraa ..
Layenge hum sawere ..
Tere liye

Le Chale Le Chale
Yaadon ke ye kaafile
Jayenge Hum Jahaan
Yeh zameen aasmaan ... Mile ..

Narm boondon ki rimjhim
Pehli baarish ke din
Do pehar garmiyon ki
Shaamein woh sard si
Ruth koi .. koi mausam
Koi ghadi ..

Saath mein humko har dum
tum paooge..

Le Chale .. Le Chale ..

Aahatein dheemee dheemee ..
Teri aawaaz ki ..
Choti choti si baatein
Woh sharaarat bhari
Un palon un lamhon ki ..
jaadugarii ..

Aaj bhi sang jo yeh
Dil mein mere ...

Le chale Le Chale ..
Yaadon ke yeh kaafile

Jayenge hum jahaan ..
yeh zameen aasmaan .. Mile ..

Le Chale .. Le Chale ..

Beautiful lines from "My Brother Nikhil" :) .. To you my friend .. to you !! :)
Touching, nostalgic .. it doesn't get better does it ??!!!

July 27, 2005

Stabilisation Implies Death !!

July 27, 2005 Posted by Vijay 2 comments
A group of us employees attended a talk by a CEO from a company today.It was a well articulated one. He happened to mention during the talk that, stabilisation means death. Think about the ECG machines, which follow the heartbeats.As long as the graph goes up and down, the person under observation is alive. But once the graph line becomes flat, it signals death ! Well, essentially, when the graph stabilises, death happens. Compare this to our own daily life. As long as there are problems there will be soultions, or atleast a constant endeavour to find one. When there are no problems, there is certainly something wrong.

Imagine a world full of nice people, who do not fight, who do not seek power.. all is calm and serene.What will happen of such a world ? All problems or issues will be buried, and there will not be any progress that the world will make. Economies will come to a standstill. Just like how wind flows to a low pressure area, there needs to be a low for a high to take place. There needs to be a winner for the loser to win one day. There needs to be a challenger to challenge the winner. After all that is what progress is all about right ? There is no life without progress. And that is why there are progress cards for students, promotion for employees. If there is no promotion happening for an employee, there is definitely something wrong !! And that is when the flat line of the graph needs to be disturbed, forcefully, to enable the career graph to take the upward path that it has to. So, don't let that line get flat !!

July 26, 2005

Everything Is Equal To Everything Else !!

July 26, 2005 Posted by Vijay 5 comments
Given a condition that,

2^x = 32, we know that, bases being equal, powers
can be equated
i.e.

2^x = 2^5 => x=5

We also know that x^0 = 1, where x is any natural number.
Now, let x be 1

In this case,
1^0 = 1 -- (1)
1^1 = 1 -- (2)

Since (1) = (2)
We have, 0 = 1

Similarly we can prove that any number is equal to ANY other number. Simple

1^3 = 1^5000 => 3 = 5000
And hence, any x is equal to any y eh ??!!!!! :P

July 22, 2005

Lift Thy Spirit

July 22, 2005 Posted by Vijay 3 comments
Strange. If there is a lot of space to move around , there is so much more comfort. Aptly , this can be seen on the streets, when it is not too crowded. Strangers even smile at each other. But, get into a lift, and if it is full of strangers, WOW ! It is totally different. It gives the guy to look at the chick beside or in front, !! It gives the gal the chance to glance at the guy too ! But it is so very uncomfortable, that it is not a gaze but a stare that welcomes people inside a lift. This is from my experience. Either a gang gets into the lift and makes a big noise inside, or it is pin drop silence, when there are only strangers in the lift.It somehow becomes that much more difficult to meet eye to eye in a lift, leave alone smiling at each other.

I guess, it all boils down to the discomfort of being too close for one's own comfort. No manoeuvring space, all crammed, and just a few souls around. Isn't it so that, distances create better bonding ? Well, in the lift though lack of distance doesn't help good bonding !!! But hey, this may not be the case where only a guy and a gal were to be in a lift :P. There is even a malayalam movie, where, guy and gal get stuck in a lift.The guy apparently is a chef from a star hotel, and he prepares Vegetable Fried Rice for the gal and she falls for him !!!!! Now, that's what I call, Love at first LIFT !!!

July 20, 2005

Oxford Rewritten ??

July 20, 2005 Posted by Vijay 1 comment
Seems it won't be long before Oxford dictionary gets rewritten , so as to facilitate the previous generation of people(say in their 30's 40's) to understand the English language that today's "Generationext" converse in. Advent of SMS, possession of mobiles, penetration of electronic media which cuts across sections of society, has left the English language in a critical stage. Not that it has lost it's charm. But, english usage has become more sms-centric or chat-centric. That is why you will find sentences like " dis is d best ", which for english pundits is pretty much indiscernible. Fortunately, I have become used to it, and can identify the sentence appropriately as - "This is the best".

The human element, of opportunism in a more suttle form has evolved. When distances have been bridged by means of mails and chats, humans want to use it to the maximum benefit and faster too. So, it is far easier and faster to type a "d" than to type "the".Similar is the case with "this" which has got transformed into "dis". Benefits ? You save 10 mins(Notice, even I have been infected with the lingo .. mins ??!!) of time, while paying the charge for just 60 minutes while browsing at an internet cafe.Similarly , mobile phones have had a more serious impact. The cost factor is so much more pervasive here. SMS'ing is the in-thing, though MMS'ing will give some respite to the English language.So, you need to keep check on how much currency you have in your mobile, because your parents will not give another 350 bucks for recharging, atleast not for another 3 weeks ! So now, "I am" becomes "m" , "getting" becomes "getin" , "never" becomes "neva", "been" becomes "bn" .. and the list is endless. And when even a 10 year old has the affluence to get a decent mobile, it becomes difficult to stop this lingo from spreading more.

Just imagine, if the english dictionaries were to be updated with the sms lingos. There won't be anymore "we", there will only be a "v". There will not be anymore "what", there will only be a "wat". There won't be a "your" anymore, only a "ur", nor a "you", just a "u". So , essentially, there will not be dictionary anymore. It will just be the 26 alphabets in the dictionary.

For me, it's irritating to read "dis" and "dat". It takes so much more time to figure out what the person wants to say. And by the time you do figure out the words, the whole essence of the message is completely lost. On a positive note, it does help those studious guys and gals to take down more notes in the classroom. But if this has an effect on the exam papers, the teachers are going to have a torrid time of it.

As far as I am concerned, I do try to write whole words.But it is difficult to avoid the usage of "u" and "ur" and "abt". It sure is. But then, such is the influence !

July 19, 2005

Breaking News...

July 19, 2005 Posted by Vijay 2 comments
Hope this breaking news is breaking news when you read this even if it is after this news reaches you later than a year. Lets not get inot more confusion now.

Just now, I spoke to my sis in law in U.S and I got to know that Vidya Balan who is the heroine in Parineeta(Bollywood Movie), is my relative. WOW !!!!!
Actually, my sis in law's dad and Vidya Balan's dad are cousins and are closely in touch !! Aint that awesome ??

FYI - She is starring in Munnabhai II as well !!!

Sad, I haven't seen Parineeta yet :(

July 15, 2005

Former Formation Confusion ??!!

July 15, 2005 Posted by Vijay 6 comments
Ok, this has been beating me for quite sometime now. Imagine you come from school(if not, when you will, you can imagine then :P). Assume you were not the school captain and another of your classmate, Mr. X was. Both of you meet after 2-3 years after schooldays are over. Now, you are with your friend,Y, and you want to introduce X to Y. How would you do it in terms of referring to X being school captain ??

You say:

1. "X was our school captain."
2. "X was our former school captain."
3. "X is our former school captain."

I guess, all the three options are correct, depending on whether X is alive or not. If he is a former school captain and he is alive, option 3 and option 1 is correct.And option 2 would hold true when he is not alive .

Yeah, I think my confusion is over. :D

July 6, 2005

July 1, 2005

June 29, 2005

Raised To Raised To Raised To

June 29, 2005 Posted by Vijay , 3 comments
That precisely sums up this problem which was also posted on ascent4cat.

What is unit digit for 7 exp 11 exp 22 exp 33 ?

i.e., 7 raised to 11 raised to 22 raised to 33 .. phew ..!!

And, the answer so simply put by one indra goel as follows :)

The powers of 7 have the following unit places (starting from 7^1) 7,9,3,1,7,9... so at every 5th power there is repetition, therefore we can remove all the 5's from the power terms(power mod 5) and see the remainder to get the units place...In this problem 7 exp 11 exp 22 exp 33..11 mod 5=1..22 mod 5=2..33 mod 5=3..multiplying the power remainders(1*2*3) we get 6 which further gives 6 mod 5=1 thus finally we have the number 7 in the units place as per the pattern we generated

Good one .. :)

I LOVE numbers :)

Cramer's Rule #%!!&*%$@&

June 29, 2005 Posted by Vijay , 3 comments
Happened to come across the Cramer's rule, which used to be a part of the Engineering Syllabus in one of yahoogroup's postings, ascent4cat. It was regarding solving a set of linear equations for unknown variables x,y and z using Cramer's method. Here we go ... as to how to solve %$^$^@#*

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


In Cramer's method we form the main determinant from the coefficients of the variables. We then make a new determinant for each unknown in the system by replacing that variable's column by the system's constants. The value of the specific unknown is determined by dividing the special determinant by the main determinant.

X + Y + Z = 13
X + 2Y + 4Z = 36
X + 3Y + 9Z = 79

From this we will build four determinants:

(Formed with the co-efficients of each of the variables x,y,z as each of the 3 columns
in a matrix form as below)
| 1 1 1|
main = | 1 2 4|
| 1 3 9|

Form det(X) by replacing the X column in the main determinant with the value of each linear
equation above. Similarly form the determinants for Y and Z as well.

| 13 1 1| | 1 13 1| | 1 1 13|
det(X)= | 36 2 4| det(Y) = | 1 36 4| det(Z) = | 1 2 36|
| 79 3 9| | 1 79 9| | 1 3 79|


For arriving at the value of each determinant, follow the following formula considering
a matrix form ,


| x1 y1 z1|
form = | x2 y2 z2|
| x3 y3 z3|

The delta value is calculated using the formula,

x1*((y2*z3) - (y3*z2)) + -1*y1((x2*z3) - (x3*z2)) + z1*((x2*y3) - (x3*y2))

i.e., leave out the rows which have x1/y1/z1 common in them, and then, multiply
the diagonally opposite values remaining, and subtract the products thus arrived at.

So, here, main determinant has a value,

delta = 1(18-12) -1(9-4) +1(3-2) = 6-5+1 = 2
det(X) = 13(18-12) - 1(36*9 - 79*4) +1(36*3 - 79*2) = 20
det(Y) = 1(36*9 - 79*4) - 13(9-4) + 1(79-36) = -4
det(Z) = 1(158-108) -1(79-36) +13(3-2) = 10

Also,

X = det(x)/main => 20/2 = 10
Y = det(Y)/main => -4/2 = -2
Z = det(Z)/main => 10/2 = 5

which are the desired answers

Haan Kar Do Ek Baar ..

June 29, 2005 Posted by Vijay 1 comment
woh aayee ek hawa ke jhonke ke sang

bhar aaye sooni duniya mein rang



rang rang mein woh khilti dikhi

mein bhi khil utha uske sang sang



lekin jab jaane ko hui deri usko

dukhi laga mera man mujhko



socha meine pal do pal

kya woh aayegi phir kal



kaash ek baar aur woh mujhko gayi mil

aur kya chaahe yeh deewana dil

June 27, 2005

Sachin lovers may please avoid reading this

June 27, 2005 Posted by Vijay 6 comments
http://cricket.indiatimes.com/quickies/1152669.cms

The above is the link which has incited me into writing this blog. Whoever has written this audacious piece of article on Indiatimes, can only glorify one single incident of Sachin's so called illustrious career. In 15 years, THERE IS ONLY A SHARJAH CUP WHICH SACHIN HAS WON FOR INDIA ? That speaks loads of why Sachin is just a run getter and not a match winner. 1998 seemed more a lucky year for Sachin with him winning matches for India. Awesome. If the author of this article(I will be calling him stinker) says we are dragging Sachin into too many things, are we also not dragging Ganguly into every possible muck ? Why have double standards. Ganguly too has more than 9000 runs in ODI's and has more than 20 hundreds(22 I think ??). But his century at the Independence Cup in Dhaka 1998 goes unnoticed when India chased a world record(at that time) score of 314 against Pakistan. Why do we not glorify such an achievement ? Ganguly and Dravid led India to a Test Match win in Sri Lanka in their home turf, chasing a second innings total of 260 odd against the bowling of Muralitharan in 2001.Ganguly scored 99 and won the man of the match. India levelled the series, though lost the last test match. Why do we not glorify such an achievement ?That too India chasing in a test match and that too overseas? Did Ganguly not set up the chase for India at Lord's in 2002 for that memorable chase of 326 ?

And stinker has not written about Dravid anywhere in his article. Maybe Dravid is way ahead of Sachin and he wants to compare Sachin only with the non performers. If Sachin had been a performer he would have been compared with Dravid I believe. Dravid won a match SINGLE HANDEDLY IN AUSTRALIA AGAINST THE MIGHTY AUSSIES SCORING A DOUBLE HUNDRED IN THE FIRST INNINGS AND A HALF CENTURY IN THE SECOND. Did I see Sachin in that test ?? Ohh .. I dunno really. Ahh yes, he did bowl his leg spinners and get couple of wickets. I see, so is Sachin a bowler or a batsman ? ohoo .. ALL ROUNDER. So when Sachin fails with the bat his bowling reaches supreme levels comparable to Shane Warne. No, Dravid DID NOT score a double century in Pakistan to help India win a Test Match there. But Dravid committed a SIN. He declared the Indian Innings even though Sachin was on 194. Was Sachin's century not more important than an Indian win. Of Course it was ! I found a mention of Sachin's awesome performance against BANGLADESH, which fired him up. Wow , what an opposition Bangla is.. oh yes yes.. they defeated the AUSSIES just 1 week ago... OBVIOUSLY, Sachin's performance against Bangladesh is amazing.In fact not long ago he averaged more than 100 in ODI's against KENYA. Can you imagine that ? The MIGHTY KENYANS ?? My GODD !!

June 23, 2005

Green is red for some !

June 23, 2005 Posted by Vijay 5 comments
Many a tennis player has hated playing on the Grass Court at Wimbledon. Mainly, the ones who are supreme on clay surfaces struggle to perform on the grass courts at the All England Club.Mainly because, the grass is a much faster surface and it is the serve and volley game which benefits there. On claycourt, there are more of ralleys and more shots are won from the baseline.So a player needs to be physically strong and have great stamina to withstand the Roland Garros kind of tournament in France. Roger Federer found this out against the eventual winner of the French Open this year - the 19 year old Spanish sensation, Rafael Nadal.Unlike the dead slow clay surface, grass favours the big servers and volleyers who attack the net rather than sit back, rooted to the baseline.

But French open champions more often than not have struggled on Grass Courts. So much so that they have said, it is not worth playing on the most prestigious Grandslam Tennis tournaments.Gustavo Kuerten, who has won the French Open three times, graced the All England Club just 5 times and said - "Everybody in Britain keeps going on about how wonderful Wimbledon is, but I simply don't have any desire to play there, and it means nothing to me". Marcelo Rios a former world number 1 from Chile was another such player.The Chilean was world number one for six weeks in 1998, the same year in which he reached his only Grand Slam final at the Australian Open.Rios was the first South American in history to reach the number one spot, and only the third ever player to be ranked top as a junior and as a professional.He won five Masters Series titles, including three in 1998, and was later named Chile's sportsman of the century. But his hatred for the grasscourt couldn't have been more succinct thatn when he commented - "grass is for cows".

Marcelo Rios

Shambles ..

June 23, 2005 Posted by Vijay No comments
Do you know the meaning of the word shambles ? Alright, it does mean , a condition of great disorder. But did you know that the word shambles can either be used in the plural sense OR the singular sense ? Well, apparently yes. Another interesting fact is that this word's usage is quite different. Let's look at how it has to be used in sentences:

My world is a shambles.

There are many other words for which the singular form ends in "s", but their plurals too are identical to their singular form. Shambles is one such.

Note: There does exist a word called shamble too, which has a totally different meaning - "walking with a slow dragging action".And it's plural is NOT shambles.Words, words words, they can be so very tricky eh ?

June 22, 2005

Cross Dimensions

June 22, 2005 Posted by Vijay , 3 comments
Roads in India. Uff. Trafficky, right ? Well, Bangalore ? SURELY !! But, just observed something which I thought I should blog. When we have to cross a junction, which is a 3-way one or a 4 way one, how do we do it ? Some might cross over to the other side, along the middle of the junction, and some others along the side. When you cross through the middle, you have to concentrate on 3 dimesions( for a 3-way junction) and 4 dimensions (for a 4-way junction).Because in the 3 way junction you have to take care of the vehicles coming from behind you, and from the left and right of your side. And in the case of the 4 way junction, you have to concentrate on vehicles coming from behind, in front, left and right of your side.Phew. That essentially means you have to have the capacity of turning your head 360 degrees !! :D Just Kidding. But this is the case when you cross the junction along the middle.

But you can always reduce the concentration, the confusion and the risk of crossing by just restricting your view to 2 dimensions, that is to your left and right side. What you have to do is, move away from the junction, go to the footpath on your left or right(the direction in which you have to proceed) and then just cross over to the footpath on your opposite side .. and move along !! Sounds simple ? For me it makes a lot of sense ! No more confusion and no more neck aches !!!

June 18, 2005

June 17, 2005

Weighty Matter

June 17, 2005 Posted by Vijay , 3 comments
Here is an interesting question I have for all the calorie conscious and the doctors of this world.

I buy precisely 1kg of food. And then I stand on a weighing machine with the 1 kg of food of course ! Assuming my weight is 65 kgs, the weighing machine(a legitimate one) will show the weight as 66kgs.No issues here.

Now, I consume the whole lot of the 1kg of food.And this is an ideal situation, where it is complete 1kg of food and nothing less or more than that. Now I weigh myself on the weighing machine immediately after I have the food. Surely, I will weigh less than 66 kgs.You can try this for yourself too !

Why is this so ? I know it is a biological answer, but it somehow still beats me, as to how this can happen !

Stair(s) Case

June 17, 2005 Posted by Vijay 1 comment
Been wondering about this one for somedays now.While climbing the steps of my office, and especially when I want to take them 2 at a time, I usually take the first step as one, and then 2 at a time thereafter. Is this just a habit or is this how everyone else among us also does it ? Take the first step, and then 2 at a time(if we do plan to that is) ? If so, why ? Is it to get the initial momentum ? Is it because you know that the number of steps is odd ?

June 15, 2005

It's Not Its Fault It's So Confusing !

June 15, 2005 Posted by Vijay 4 comments
Ever realised there are two distinct usages of the now common "its" that we use in our day to day conversations ? You probably do know it. The it's and the its .But we miss out the small details, owing to hurried or colloquial (yes that's the spelling,colloquial) usages. Now let's closely observe wherein lies the difference between it's and its. It's just an apostrophe but wrongly used could spell a catastrophe(kidding !!).

Before going into the details of its and it's lets find out about Possessive Nouns.Let's look at some examples.

One way in which English nouns indicate possession is by means of the ending 's
e.g. The boy's hat
Sally's bicycle

In the above examples, the ending 's indicates that the hat is possessed by the boy and, similarly, the bicycle is possessed by Sally.So, when we need to make a noun possessive, we generally add 's.Let us try to understand more from the following section.

Forming possessives of nouns

To see if you need to make a possessive, turn the phrase around and make it an "of the..." phrase. For example:

the boy's hat = the hat of the boy
three days' journey = journey of three days

If the noun after "of" is a building, an object, or a piece of furniture, then no apostrophe is needed!

room of the hotel = hotel room

door of the car = car door

leg of the table = table leg

Once you've determined whether you need to make a possessive, follow these rules to create one.

• add 's to the singular form of the word (even if it ends in -s):
the owner's car
James's hat

• add 's to the plural forms that do not end in -s:

the children's game
the geese's honking

• add ' to the end of plural nouns that end in -s:

houses' roofs
three friends' letters

• add 's to the end of compound words:

my brother-in-law's money
• add 's to the last noun to show joint possession of an object:

Todd and Anne's apartment

So, we can conclude that, for making a noun possessive we generally employ 's. But our point is to do with it's and its.This is an exception to the possessive apostrophe rule.For, here , its is the possessive form , while, "it's" is a conjunction between the words "it" and "is.".

Thus we might say "It's (it is) a nice day for sailing, but my boat has lost its (the boat's) rudder."

Refer the following links for more info :
http://www.word-detective.com/back-d.html
http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/its.html
http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/apostrophes1.html

Head Back Home

June 14, 2005

Love to Laughter

June 14, 2005 Posted by Vijay , 4 comments
"You have made many a heart flutter
I am afraid mine is another"

Thus went the opening lines of my letter, yes, my first love letter. Though being tech savvy(for once ?not really!), I had put it through the e-way of communication. I have been in love, I right now am too, coz it is an everyday thing for me. I fall in love once a day , everyday. Jokes apart, I never knew I had ever EVER write a love letter. EVER. And I will never write one ever again, unless I am on the brink of a divorce ! But, they say when you are in love all you see is her, that you look for her presence, you just wait to see her walk by, just to glance at you once, just to speak those words which sound like music to your ears. Thats what it was like. I still can't believe I actually felt that way. Life seemed empty when she wouldn't be around. Hollow would be my mind. Painful moments of wait, which are hard to explain .But then, there is hope. Always there is hope. For if there is one thing which a human being survives on, it is hope.

She would then come back, and then I would again have those feelings float throgh my heart, overpowering the little intellect that I ever had. Thats what happens in love. I would be glad that she is back. Yet again, for those glances , those words, for the sheer presence which she had.

It was so for 2 months, and more. You don't realise it is love until it is late. And then, it starts to play on your mind. You start getting those anxieties, as to what is happening to you. Why do you so deperately seek her presence, hope that she drops by to see you, just talks a few words to you. Why so ? Why do you miss it when she doesn't say a good bye ? Why do you feel sad then ? Why ? Well, thats when you know, your heart has been conquered. And then I tried to wriggle out of it. Trying to avoid contacting her, trying to prove to myself that this just cannot happen to me. But the more you run away from reality the harder it chases you down. You get more anxious, you miss her even more. And yet you dont know whether she has feelings for you at all ?

It went on for another month. I took it along my stride. Still believing, its just another of those everyday activities of me falling in love.But this was different. This just didn't seem to fade away from my heart. Her presence around me didn't help either. Three months is a long time and I somehow felt this girl was special. But does she know at all ? That I secretly admire her ? More than admire her ? How long could I have taken it ? Not any longer. I wrote the mail with those opening lines at 3 in the morning and sent it to her. And kept my fingers crossed.

There were reasons for me to write that mail. I just could not take it any longer. To miss someone so much , to love someone so much, I just am not the kinda guy for all this. I wanted to get a clearcut answer which could dispel my doubts, as to whether she liked me at all ? I needed to get some relief. I wanted to let her know how special she meant for me. Come what may I will let her know. This could only bring me a step closer or a step farther away from the friendship we had then.

I was tensed,anxious about how she would respond. I was hopeful she would reciprocate my feelings for her. That could make me feel so special. But then, I was worried, for if she did reciprocate, how would I move things forward ? This societal stigma was too sticky for me to shake off easily. I was worried. I kept thinking on how her rejection could help me kill 2 birds with one stone. One, no worries about society and its stigma, and two, no need to cultivate more feelings for her which would never have borne fruit for a future relationship. But I would still have wanted her to love me. For, is it not what every guy who secretly loves a girl wishes she would say ? That was my hope too. I was confused. But I had taken a step to resolving the conflicting thoughts I had raised in me. For this was the only option. I could not have lived in peace with the feelings for her buried in my heart. I had to let her know about it. And I had to know how she felt about it. I was happy with the step I had taken.

Next day, she called me. I was , as is my wont, as usual joking around. I asked her "How was the love letter. Was it not gr88 ? Wouldnt it have felled any girl ?"
Then after a momentary pause I asked her, "So what do you think ?" She said "It won't work out.". I started to giggle and smile,yet again , thats my style(?? in love too ??). And she said matter of factly "Don't laugh it off.". Yes, I knew it wasn't to be a laughed off thing. But , I knew it was the relief that got me to smile. But I was sad, because, she did not feel the same for me. Thats the bitter truth I realised. But I was not disappointed. I had expected a solution and I had got one.

Then I asked her why she thought it won't work out. Guess what she said ? This is what she had to say(not exact words) - "This might sound absurd. But I somehow have momish sort of feelings for you".Apparently she felt I was a son to her rather than a ... what .. lover ?? Well, thus ended the whole chapter. I didn't know how to react to it immediately. But later on I had a hearty laugh over the whole thing. MOMISH ?? The person whom I wished to marry thought of me as her son ?? To this day, I roar into laughter thinking about this. It's just so amazing.When you look at the Lighter Side Of Life, how light you feel. Look at the funny side of life, and see how much it helps you to erase any bad or sad memories that you may have had. Live Life through Joyous Moments.Cherish the moments for they are but transient.

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