No Veri

Had no time for Mullaperiyar investigation.. only focus was on eating...... These are the things I heard on Mullaperiyar subject in Kerala.

* PJ Joseph and Kerala congress is taking advantage of Mullaperiyar issue

* Vaiko and PJ Joseph are of the same category

* Dam is not in danger, it is a political conspiracy

* Dam is in Danger. But everybody will listen to only Tamil Nadu.

etc etc

Anyway there is no Veri.

And people are listening to and dancing to Tamil songs for new year. But I didnt see any Tamil films this time - Saw two malayalam, one hindi and one english.

Mullaperiyar should be a symbol of co-operation and harmony. Periyar is a river flowing through Kerala and has been supplying water to 5 districts of tamil nadu for last 120 years.. and Keralites eat most of the vegetables cultivated from those 5 districts.. Let Veri go and Chiri come.....

Mullaperiyar Veri

Whether Dam will collapse and kill people in Kerala is not sure.. But definitely its making life of Keralites in Tamil Nadu difficult now ( as per malayalam news paper reports.. )

Its funny how people are fighting over the net. And too much abusive remarks.. Why we are complaining about australian racism and all ?

One thing I am not able to understand --- Kerala states Dam Safety as issue, and Tamil Nadu has fear of Kerala re-negotiating contracts ?? ( I still dont understand Tamil Nadu fears ). Its very easy to settle the issue - See if the dam is in real danger - bring experts - and do it with RED ZONE URGENCY.

Anyway I trust more VS and Chandy than Karunanidhi/Jayalalitha/Vaiko brand.

Decided to study more on the issue during the december vacation. Will be back with more details !!!

Soup song - kolaveri effect !

Jab koi baat bigad jaaye jab koi mushkil pad jaaye tab why this kolaveri di...?
Jab koi baat bigad jaaye jab koi mushkil pad jaaye tab why this kolaveri di...?

Na koi hai na koi tha zindage mein
empty life-u
eyes-u full-aa tear-u
life reverse gear-u

why this kolaveri di...?
why this kolaveri di...?

Saturday night fevers

We met at Srini's house at saturday night for a small get together. After having Pizzas and "Cranberry juice mix with honey" we wanted to have a coffee. Night 12'o clock - all options from Hosur to Mysore were discussed. And finally we decided to fly to Leela Palace - Barista place. There were 4 bullets but what chance they have when my Ferrari is there. We trouble shooted through outer ring road service roads and from Bellandur took some strange curvy small roads with lot of gutters to reach Wind tunnel.

Cops were waiting for us after we passed HP office - But I was totally at my inner peace... Cops asked in kannada, but i will give its english translation as i dont remember exact kannada:

Cops: where are u going ?
Me: Windtunnel
Mani: for Coffee
I gave my driving license and other car papers
Cops: where are you going ?
Me: HP office
Mani: for coffee
I gave my HP ID card...
Cops: where are you going ?
Me: Whitefield
Mani: for coffee
Cops wondering, asked me: Are you drunk ?
Me: No sir, coming from HP office

They allowed us to go , probably because of respect to my Ferrari's age. Even KL registration doesnt matter. We anyway are the good guys.

There were some confusions in taking a right turn at Leela palace. I took couple of U turns and lefts and rights to get into the side road of Leela palace. Dont remember exactly what happened.

And finally parked near to the "No Parking" board. Get down and srini, anand hurried for the coffee. Chetan was waiting there. Starting walking I realized that I locked the car with key inside. DOOMED. We started removing everything near the windows of the car to open it. And now Police again - a police bike came and they seemed to be very happy to find five car thieves. But somehow they believed us seeing the car key inside. They asked us to break the window, but we didnt as duplicate keys were in my house.

And after having coffee in leela palace at 1am went to pick up the keys ( thanks to chetan and his bike).. 1 am in Bangalore winter was shivering.. Entered the house at night as a thief without waking up anybody.. and somehow found the duplicate key. On the way also we were stopped by police ( but did let us go even without asking for papers ).

Now with two keys in my ferrari we ventured through the difficult roads near EGL to escape police ( my 150cc Ferrari car is suitable for race courses and not for EGL terrains). After reaching Srini's home drank 1 litre apple juice and slept. Morning had plans to go to Shivaji nagar and eat biriyani.. ( there is a place where u get biriyani from 5.30am to 6.30am). That didnt happen. But even without that saturday night was colurful for me and Ferrari and others. And now sunday I have fever...

Notes 1 - Last time I forgot car keys inside was in chennai and that time it was worse - the ignition was ON at that time. So certainly I have improvements :)

Notes 2 - All names have been changed to fake names for providing privacy :)

Toilet flush philosophy

Life is like a toilet ( be it indian or european or american). All people who have access to you come and shit at you... some after shitting clean it properly.. some do it just for the sake... some doesnt clean also after shitting...

Anyway each time they flush you get a new freshness of life.. Life gets a new start.. a new beginning..

What best you can hope is the ability for the toilet to flush itself.. take shits is the purpose of life.. that cannot be avoided..

Toilet flush philosophy is a copyrighted term - Poonaji Inc - Patent has been applied..

Present Inevitable

And then when you are flying around your past and future incidents come which make you really feel your present moment.

Graphite India junction 6:30pm Friday - one of the busiest - and your car doesnt start after waiting in the junction for 15 mins for signals to appear green. The omnipotent and omniscient may have known, but not me. With curses from other cars and vans, and curses from inside my own car each second was tough - but then angels came in form of a police and a santro car owner who helped me drag the ferrari to the leftmost end from the right most..

After waiting for 1.5 hrs mechanic came and he could somehow start... The car is not yet ready , they have dismantled and trying to figure out which parts this time...

My holy relationship with this shit will come to an end soon. Two shits cannot live together. Time for a new one.

Butterfly effect

Was fully immersed in movie "butterfly effect". The guy wants to change his present, have special ability to go back to past and change small events which changes his future completely.. And the interesting thing each time some thing else gets screwed up...

Though I dont have the ability to change anything in past.. I do have this bad habit of going to past and correct small events and live with the changed events to days, months and years ( it happens really fast in dreams )..... Anyway each time I comes back to the same present....

Another wonderful hobby I have is to go back to past and see how events have shaped up... go back and see how languages have developed, how cultures evolved... My imagination is kind of good.. But dont have enough vocabulary and time to write all of it down.. But will try to write some of it later..


Other movies saw:
Indian Rupee ( malayalam) and 7 aum arivu ( tamizhu).. Both watchable..

Day 2B - Coorg

Iruppu falls was ultra fundra blastic. The clean fresh water washes away all your tensions and worries ( if any).

Tarantino movies

I have completed Tarantino's movies.. Saw

Kill Bill Vol 1 & 2
Reservoir Dogs
Inglorious Basterds
and
Death Proof.

Tarantino Rocks ! Still his Pulp Fiction is my favorite among all movies

What is Life ?

This was a question which came during our last trek ( means my first trek, hopefully not the last one ).

The question was posed to me first, I passed :)

First guy: Life is a reflection of good and bad memories, and the goal is to have more good memories.

Second guy: Is about time and priorities. Very less time, and lots of interesting things to do. Only time is constraint. Make best use of the time.

Third guy: Learn from past, and live life to the fullest.

For me - Perception of life is different each moment... some times i think as a saint, some times as a victim, sometimes as a hero.... I dont have a clear answer... But i do want to explore life more.........

Three interesting movies

Traffic ( English ): Nice inter winding stories related to war on drugs - One dedicated ( yet corrupt) officer tries to expose the drug mafia and the involvement of his boss. One judge heads the war on drugs, and also finds out that his own daughter is an addict. One rich-social wife gets surprised to know that her husband is a drug dealer when he gets arrested, but does everything to retain his drug empire. Two officers are after her and her husband wanting to expose the drug dealings. Nice movie.

Usual Suspects: Five criminals are arrested on a case involving Guns traffic. They get angry on the wrong accusations and plots revenge against police. Soon they are hired by the never seen dreadful Keysen Soze for a job. They all have done wrong to Keysen Soze unknowingly in past and this is a chance for them to make amends. They go on the mission killing everyone abroad a ship ( which turns to be suicidal also) - and with only two survivors. Who is Keysen Soze and who is the mastermind are the questions which are solved at the end.

Shawshank Redemption: A banker is accused of kiling his wife and killer and sentenced to two life terms. He comes to shawshank prison where .. ( I am too bored. I never write blogs this longer.. ). Nice movie. See it. Fear gives you prisonhood, Hope brings you freedom!!!

Hope and Dreams are the best thing in this world..

Wonderful Truck

Ooops... Despite the bad mallu accent it was a wonderful trekk...
First good memory is about the food. Coffeee day coffees, Cafe coorg coffees, Coffee pub coffees and coffees at cloud valley ( http://www.cloudvalley.net/ ) was the major part of the diet, apart from the absolutes :) And ammo the delicious food at cloud valley whether its the pork or chicken or the egg curry or the coconut idlies. Gained 10 times the calory lost from the trekk. And the stay at cloud valley was wonderful with a 1895 home in coffee estate with 3big bedrooms..
And the trekk part ( Tadianmole) was really good. Constantly told by friends that it was avery easy trekk i was in a very relaxed mindset. The only thing i had prepared mentally was to tackle the leeches. And I knew that my friends who have seen me climbing Tirupathi hills will not risk my life for a heavy trekk. This confidence i had.
So started in full JOSH with my friends lagging behind by a mile. Reached the milestone ROCK first and started removing the leeches. Then only those morons revealed that its just a base camp and the real trekk starts from there.


Suddenly the fear, anxiety, doubts all creeped in. Bringing back the willpower started climbing singing Govinda Govinda. With rest every 10mins it was going okay in a slow pace.


And then reached the area where leech heaven exists. Need to cut through a small part through the mild jungle. Because of leeches we decide to go fast without rest and as speed as possible. And that fast lap I could complete ( almost dying in the process :) ).

From there I again became Anoop at Thirupathi.. Breathing out of control.. Legs not moving... Feeling dizzy... :) But somehow gained courage and started climbing few steps at a time.


And somehow with the company of all leeches and a wonderful dog who was always with us in the trip reached the heights.....
Was feeling in heaven with all clouds around you. And rain started pouring heavily. When the salt of ur sweat reaches in ur mouth along with the rain water its a wonderful feeling.. I did it.

On the way back found lots of gangs coming up - with beautiful girls and fat uncles climbing without any fuss.. I understood my lungs have to be updated. And I will be in the process of doing that now. Yanni started music very late and became very successful, who knows K2 may be my next target.
To be continued...

Ikiru ( Life ) - Japanese movie

You will realize how precious it is, only when you start losing it. Discovering that it is the last stages of his life an elderly civil servant changes his entire attitude towards life.. He starts exploring Tokyo's night life for a day, although enjoys, he feels thats not the solution. How he tries to get joy / passion from his remaining life is worth seeing...


Very inspiring intense movie......

I am Sam

Back to my favourite passion.. movies
Could not see "Daivathirumagal" when it was running in theatres. So decided to watch the original - "I am Sam". Very nice movie. A 7 year old daughter is taken away from her father ( who has development disability ) and it shows his fight to get her back. And in the process he inspires his lawyer also to solve all the family problems....

Pranayam

Pranayam , Love, Pyaar, Mohabbat.... The movie is like a nice romantic poem. I really enjoyed every moment of it. And very nice performances from Anupam Kher, Jayaprada and Mohan Lal.

" The plesure of Love lasts for a moment, the pain of love lasts a life time"

Pirated Movies

I lost my Virginity. That was enough reason to start prostitution... :)

After buying Inception DVD for over 400Rs.. I decided to take a break from buying english movies. The price is too high for an Indian to buy.

So finally accepted the offer from Harish to get his 500 GB movies. If Harish, then why not limit to him. Had Vasu's and Anand's DVD also. Total 750GB of moviews.. Wow.

Saw
1. Rashomon
2. The Game
3. Cars
4. Farenheit 9/11
5. High and Low
6. Seven Samurai
7. Cars
8. Paranormal activity ( in fast forward mode )
9. Shoot 'em all
10. Pink panther returns
11. V for Vendetta

etc etc.. Long list follows.....

Still my principle holds ( no piracy) for the regional language movies, and new english movies. Forgive me, I cant resist this 800GB worth treasure..!

Best advice I got back

Last day:

Me: I am sad, everybody scolds me.

Lachu: Your happiness should not depend on what others say. Whatever you should be happy... This is what you told me when mother scolded me......

Is she prem sai ? Will I get a share in the Sai empire ?

God Delusions - part 1

Lachu: Who is precious ?
Me: Everyone is precious
Lachu: God is precious. God made this earth.. alle amma ?

--

Today received a copy of "The Secret of the Nagas" - a fiction on the mythological character Shiva (God). I show Lachu back of the cover where it is written - "Today he is a GOD, 4000 years before he was a MAN".

--

Then Lachu started her speech " Everyone is precious. Plants and Animals are precious. We should not cut trees, we should not pluck flowers. Nature is precious. Earth is beautiful. We should enjoy the world. God is a man, but he is also precious".

( Good influence from her science textbook . I felt happy. These days I am against God )

---

After some time she again started... " God is precious. God made wings of birds.."

And the discussion continues.....

Lachuvum Nannum - GOD

Last week I told Lachu that there is NO GOD ( effects of reading God Delusion). She challenged me back asking me to read "Value Education". Her "Value Education" text book says lots of things about GOD.

And the thing that GOD may not exist seems to bother her. She is telling her friends and their families about my stupidity.

And this weekend.. she again took the topic back. She told me GOD is invisible and UP there. Whether its in Clouds, she said much above. About Ganapathi, Siva, Vishnu having shapes, she said she did not make them, it was bought!

Finally she became aggressive: "If you are teasing GOD, and if you do not believe in GOD then why did you visit GOD in Mysore ?

Hmm...........

Zindagi Na Dubara Milegi

Can we make road-trips compulsory before marriage ? So that engagements can be called off... ( oops.. spoilers behind :) )

What about married guys ? They need a real tough road-trip to rediscover themselves.

Rashomon

Rashomon - Beautiful film. Deals with the "subjectivity" of truth. One murder and four interpretations. Must see.

Haven't we also faced similar situations... Happenings in life.. And the interpretations are different.. We never want to make ourself look bad in our thoughts and view points. There will be a hero element in my part when i make up the story.. I will be the Dev-D, Vijay and Rahul in my story.

Other films watched this week incudes

- Rounders
- Harry Potter
and
- Zindagi Na Milega Dubara ( This one inspired me for a road trip.. But no bikes, scuba diving, parachoot and bull fights :) And also to call or mail all old friends )

Lachum Nannum - II

Anyway Lachu has categorically stated that: < She will not scold her husband the way her mother scolds her husband. She will only tell him. She says Love is important > Good wisdom :)

And she gave me a look.. "that i dont want a stupid guy like you" :)

Am I writing too many personal things ? Dont worry, I am faking it :)

Lachuvum Nannum

On the way to see "Zindagi Na Milegi Dubara"

(.. translated to english...)
Me: When u grow up u will drive the car, and i will just sit
Lachu: No , my husband will drive
Me: Where ur husband ?
Lachu: I will find
Me: How ?
Lachu: I will meet somebody
Me: Tell me
Lachu: Will tell u later
Me: Till then ?
Lachu: I will be in bangalore with u. You can drive

On the way back I didnt ask anything, as "ZNMD" may have givem more ideas to her !!!

Feynmann effect

Teaching Lachu has become easy after reading Feynnman books. She had an assignment yesterday to do - paste 3 kinds of leaves and tell their names. I plucked 3 types of leaves and was wondering what the trees names are ? Then remembered Feynmann. Its not important to remember all the names in chinese, english or sanskrit. It is more important to understand their behaviour and characteristics and the rational behind that. Me and lachu visited the tree sites :) and understood what they offer ! And didnt bother to give the names.

what do i want to do before i die ? i already did

What do I want to do before I die ? After pondering the question for a day I came back with the answer. Buy the full Tintin collection... And then realized that its too easy to 'realize' the dream. Bought from flipkart and now reading for the second time. So now I can die peacefully.

My other wishes:

1. Date with a premium actress ( It seems I need to buy them an 18 cr apartment to do that )
2. Love and Elope ( It will be adultery, but still its an unachieved dream )

If my other wishes doesnt come true, then will replace those with (1) Aesterix and (2) Calvin and Hobbes collection.

Red circles

Lachu has a new process. Whenever I scold her she puts a red circle on the day in the calendar. She wants to expose my double standards.. that i pretend to be a nice father who is a friend to my kid... Now July calendar is full of red circles. I hope it will become green for the rest of the month !

Will another 9/11 help ?

We Indians, Our government cant protect ourselves. The world super power America is interested only in a selective fight against terrorism. They dont care about attacks outside America, and the people who create trouble for us are their major allies in the "war against terrorism". Hope the same bastaards who bomb us do another 9/11 in america and let the world super power awake against these people...

Humps ahead

B'lore is hotter day by day ( not alone in terms of weather ).. Me a decent fellow gets pleasure in reading the literature in all the Tee-Shirts. Some are like stories which u dont get in one glance. And nowadays lots of caricatures are also there with the literature and you need to stare a while before getting the full picture.

Hope my intentions will not be misunderstood. No fuss

mysore - conclusion

I asked the sanest soul in my house what she liked in mysore. Her likings in descending order are:

(1) Hotel Stay: she likes to stay there forever

(2) Mysore palace... before i was too happy she said ... ballooons bought from mysore palace

(3) The other palace ( Jagmohan palace ) from where we bought purse and hats

(4) Brindavan dancing music garden... not that object.. but the Sare Jahan se music played.. she likes that song and is patriotic

Things she would like improvements in future are:

(1) Visit Wonderla

(2) If we had stayed there on monday also she could have avoided tuesday's unit test.

Cool....... Next where.. Coorg is calling me.

mysore trip - II

Its not over. Worst part is I bribed Chamundeswari Devi. After being a sheep in the herds of baba I thought I will never pray bribe again. But things dont work that way. There was long queue and a person there asked me whether I need special entry. I sais Yes, as I am less interested in gaining punya and although my daughter wants Punya she hates queues. So I got an easy entry paying 100Rs per head. Coming out felt guilty, but there was no guilt while going inside. What an opportunist!

And inside temple I was garlanded by Pujari also. I was happy and give him a 50Rs. So blessings are with me.

Compared to Tirupathi trip where I didnt visit the temple but climbed up Tirumala, God might be more pleased with the Tirumala. There I made some effort.

Anyway both decisions whether to do darshan of Chamundeswari or not do Tirupathi was not mine. It was destined to happen. Its my previous karma. And what is already destined here choses my next kharma also. Inside the Matrix you dont have any control.

Mysore Trip

Went to Mysore for a trip 1 week back .. last time visited mysore was in 8th std.

Cant remember exactly what all happened in liner order. Will state whatever pops out from my volatile memory stack....

Had a disastrous purchase from a fake Cavery emporium ( at Ramanashree hotel complex). Bought things for around 2000 Rs. Knew it while entering that its a fake shop. Wanted to buy something and bought it without bargaining or checking the quality. And later found that bought agarbathees worth 100Rs for 250Rs and so on. Good for the seller. Later compensated that by buying for another 2000Rs from original shop.

Good Masala Dosas at Paradise hotel. Very nice ones. Ate 4 ones each for 2 days making it 8 in total.

Everybody driver, wife and all the people I see was criticising for having 3 days and 2 nights at Mysore. Too many buffer getting added in projects is influencing me in real life also.

The only notable things saw was - Jagmohan palace and mysore palace.

I got 1 out of 10 for planning this trip. Disastrous ratings.

Next time visit Coorg or Oooty and sleep there. No more palace and garden visits.

Advices

These days I am not turning to others for advice ( except for the apartment buying case )... Too many advices received over these years and now well-wishers are wary of me approaching them with a problem.

Just refreshing the learnings I received over the years:

Be selfish: Take oxygen mask first, and then only you can save others. Enjoy more during hard times.

Be at present: This is what you have. Take it and make the best out of it

Stop complaining: You are responsible for your present and future. Stop complaining / threatening. Why disturb others ? ( My blog readers are less, so i hope this post will not be taken as complaining )

Find out what you want to do now and Do.

Thought of penning it down all the wisdom for my future years :)

These days "without advisers and well wishers" I motivate myself my seeing the hard truth in "planet earth" dvds. Life is tough and colurful.

Manusmriti

Found an interesting link on Manusmriti translation

Whether its "varnas" ( based on profession) or "castes" ( by birth) doesnt make difference. This is full of crap and outdated rules.

Hell with casteism.

Dinosour effect

Heard about butterfly effect ? Even a flap of butterfly wings can influence an event in the future like changing the direction of a tornado...

So what about dinosour effects ? Some 'dinosour' blunders keep you haunting always :)

Indian herd mentality

My friend was mentioning about this last week during our frequent office coffee sessions:

Our previous generation was obsessed with kid's future. Did everything to secure a future for their kids. Didnt bother about living a life for their own.

The current generation enjoys life - goes for trekking / trips, spends money, buy luxury car before house, takes care of health , concerned about retirement than kid's..

My friend says whatever indians do , they do it same. And in future all Indians will be concerned about corruptions and will be concerned about society rather than self. Then all Indians will do it together and India will be the best place in earth.. ( I believe the social responsibility factor has already started making waves )

India Zindabad !

Divisions...

The bad part is that we have too many divisions in the society based on relegion, caste, language, nationality, state, sex.

The good part is also the same. Too many divisions make no constant foes or friends.

Being Responsible

Its nice to be responsible for you and also for the society. Its nice to see many examples whom you know directly:

Throwing waste away to tracks while travelling in trains is a norm in India. But my friend and his family never dirties any public place. While on travel they carry a plastic bag in which they collect all used stuff and drop only at station. What difference it makes ? Only one family doing that among a billion people. But I know he doesnt care. They do what they have to do. I have tried to imitate many times this habit last 10 years. But may have done only 3-4 times.

My another friend never pays bribe or "fees" ( as they are called in the case of standard bribes). It doesnt matter his passport verification gets delayed for weeks or months or has to go and meet all senior police officers to get his verification done. He never pays the "fees" and I salute him for that.

Initially when friends started posting political views in facebook I was irritated. Facebook is for poking at girls and peeping at their photos. But the power of facebook was really seen in many of the activities that are happening. Whether its "promoting scientific temper", "supporting farmers" or "fight against corruption" facebook is playing a significant role. Its nice to see people whom you know are involved in these efforts - not only in facebook but beyond that taking part in dicussions, organising meetings, providing help and as last few days even fasting for a good cause.

It inspires you atleast not to pay bribe, be disciplined, drive carefully, obey laws. Atleast a "Like" in the facebook gives a feel good factor. India is certainly in the right direction.

N.B: One thing I dislike is fast until death. whoever is doing, for whatever cause I dont like. That is most abused figting method taken by all whether its for getting reservation, or for separating states or for getting any kinds of benefit. I support "Anna Hazare's fast" because my thoughts align with the cause. But still fasting need not be until death.

random notes

India winning worldcup gives me an empty feeling.. Why watch cricket now ? Wish India doesnt play one day match for another year...

What should be the reaction of a father when his 7 year old is asking a 6 year boy "Will you marry me ? ". Any book recommendation ?

Indian TV is shit. Afridi is correct. Just after winning worldcup, all shits are discussed - when will tendulkar retire ? , Is the trophy hander over was replica , is India going to dominate world cricket ? ( Hmm.. even without having TV connection I am watching all these hits in online sites. NO wonder why they are showing )

Again took "God delusion" .. Not able to read beyond Richard dawkins answering the review comments. All my atheist friends are rational and of high integrity. But all my relegious friends are very nice human beings. So whenever I took "God delusion" I start thinking of them and their beliefs. And as usual I dont have any stand/belief on this... :) I am agnostic on everything.

Language barriers are broken

B'lore is a cool place.. Most people can speak in atleast 3 of the 4 south indian languages and plus Hindi.. And kids learn bits and pieces of every. Lachu's maid has picked up malayalam well. And Lachu now mimicks her maid's malayalam accent !

Last day was listening to "Kanne Kalaimane" tamil song. Lachu came and asked - " Is this Malayalam, Tamil or Kannada" ? She can understand some words and some not.. Having stayed in tvm, chennai and b'lore and now being looked after by telugu maid.. her language now is "south indian" - no more malayalam, tamil, kannada or telugu.

May be now she needs a north indian boyfriend to teach her hindi ;)