I salute

Karkare
Salaskar
Kamte
Unnikrshnan
Gajendra Singh
and all true sons of India

We weep for you.....
you stood for us while we slept in out cosy homes.
You died for somebody you never saw....

I salute your fathers, mothers, wives and children for being as brave as you were


*I didnt want to abuse the politicians in the same post where I give these Martyrs their honorary place, that is why a second post

Remebering BR Chopra

Today a legendary film maker BR Chopra passed away. He was 95 years old. He has made successful films like: Naya Daur, Gumrah, Waqt (which is one of my favorites) and Dhund (another favorite of mine). Most of his films showed the change that India was going throuh after independence. In Waqt the topic of Partition of India and Pakistan was very well depicted. And how can we forget one of the most successful TV Shows ever : Mahabharat. The streets were deserted at 9:00 am on Sundays. I still remember a small incident, I was a kid at that time. I was in Delhi with my eldest cousin for some work , and it was on a Sunday, we didn't want to miss Mahabharat like everybody. I guess it was Lajpat Nagar, my cousin knocked on one of the doors, and explained the person that we have come from Allahabad for some work and we don't want to miss Mahabharat. And guess what, in the next two minutes we were sitting in the living room with an unknown family and enjoying Mahabharat. Probably because that was the age when the Bomb scare, terror scares were not there, thats why he allowed us in. Such was TRP rating of Doordarshan when Mahabharat was being aired.

We will miss you BR sahab

Lost the battle , didnt lose the lesson

Story:

Yesterday I ran the second Kaveri Trail Marathon, and I was running the full marathon. Start was good, even the weather in the morning looked good. My strategy was to maintain more or less a contsant speed in the first 21K and preserve a lot of energy and stamina for the second 21K when I would need it the most. I did exactly the same. I completed the first 21K in about 2:05 min wiyth an average speed of 9.4 km/hr had some electrals and water and went for another loop. I knew that the real marathon starts now, completed 26K pretty strong, and then suddenle something happened which screwed my entire run, my timing and above all my ego. I started cramping, and the cramps were bad. the worst part was I started getting cramps on my back and neck. As a runner you are still used to cramped legs / calf but atleast back and neck was the first time for me, and believe me it was bad, very very bad. There was a time when I though that I would give up, but then I met Prateek on the way back, who was running fantastically (he completed his full in 4:40). He saw me in bad state struggling with every step, and told me not to give up......

I reached the 10K mark, so I had run 30K overall, and by now I was dead, and to make the matters worse I threw up thrice. I sat down at the water station and kept sitting there for approximately 20 min. Manoj, who was completing his 30K at that time gave me some salt tablets and a massage on my back, I started feeling a little better, but still I wasn't in a state to carry on. Again kept sitting there for another 15 min, by now I lost around 35 min just sitting, but for me now the bigger challenge was to finish the marathon on foot, and I was fighting with myself not to take a ride back. So I got up, ran for a couple of kilometers, was pathetically cramped again, I walked, I again tried to run, this time it was stomach cramps, I walked again, and finally was able to finish this marathon.

Post Mortem:

It was a bad day for many, a lot of people cramped , a lot of people gave up. The reason: HEAT, it was way too hot and to make the matters worse I think the humidity levels were easily abpove 92%. As a result of these two factors the salt losses were huge, outcome of it I ended up cramping. I tried taking a lot of salts, but by that time I guess it was too late. The pain is gone, but the ego still hurts, it was a pathetic run by any standards, the heat etc cannot come as an excuse.....learnt the lesson

As Nischal said after the run "You are only as good as your last race" ... very true....

Got this link from Manoj's blog. Pretty informative. I knew it was the heat, but then I should have trained for it......

God is the highest run scorer now

Khoon Ka Badla Khoon

I think we all are well aware of the CEO lynching news story by now. I term it as a news "story" as it is just a story for all the news channels. This is what our educated Industry Minister Mr Oscar Fernandes has to say on the matter Read it here.

So after reading this news article, I was convinced that Congress is really missing the CPI and the left parties, so they themselves have taken up this task. And moreover correct me if I am wrong, isn't this a case where a person "DIED" it really doesn't matter to me if he / she was a CEO, or a laborer, how can Mr Oscar Fernandes explain the death of a father / son / husband this way, what lesson should his family learn from this incident, track down the main culprit who was behind provoking and kill him ? Are we living in a civilized society ? Is this the way a civilized society functions ?

I will buy that argument Mr Fernandes, biut then you have to buy a lot of my arguments:

1) If I kill you, and then come up with the funda that "this is a lesson for all the netas, to behave themselves or they would be shot naked"
2) You move around in a car, you stay in a lavish bunglow, your son / daughter goes to premier school / college, now if somebody kills you, and comes up with the funda " This is a lesson for all the people who are driving a car, living in a posh bunglow and whose children go to premier schools / colleges"

There can be n number of similar arguments. Congress is wooing people left right and center for getting votes in the next elections. But if they didn't knew something, I just want to make them realize that these are all petty issues, everybody would forget them, like everybody forgot the Arushi Murder case, but Terrorism, Inflation and Communal violence are some cases which is eating up the "aam janta" . However I know that a lot of things are responsible for inflation, but still UPA will have to bear the heat for it.

Mr Fernandes (AKA Loser): Please get some brains, and if you do not have the grey matter then please keep your mouth shut, or just read my argument number 1

Good Videos

I saw the following video on this blog, its nice see it

'Come in, 007' said M
'Its good to see you back'

Just started reading the new Bond Novel " Devil May Care" by Sebastian Faulks (writing as Ian Fleming). Heard that this is a good one, and me being a Die Hard fan of James bond cant miss it!

Also bought: Every Second Counts by Lance Armstrong, Naxalite Movement in India by Prakash Singh, What I tak about when I talk about running by Murakami

Updates....

Its been a long time since I have posted something here, yes I have the same old excuses which everybody has. Work was keeping me busy, and when I was at home, I just wasnt in a mood to look at my laptop. I guess 9 hrs in office was more than enough.

So some updates: I have ordered new shoes (Yay!) this time they are Asics Gel Nimbus 10, and they are for Nuetral feet, lately I visited the doctor and I was told that my feet are no longer over pronating, maybe the styule of running has goit corrected over the period of time, and I was surprised that "I" was wearing the wrong shoes!!!

The second thing that I would be possessing soon is the Garmin ForeRunner 205, well its a gadget which looks like a watch, but actually is a GPS, which can really he;lp you in training for a marathon, as it gives you your speed, the distance you have run., the amount of calories burnt and other statistics. Would be getting both these things in the last week of this month, so I am pretty excited about them !!

The running aspect wasnt very great in the last couple of weeks, I have been getting this pain in my heel pretty often, and had a bad stomach infection, so my weekday runs were okay, but the weekend long runs were pretty screwed up. So this week I plan to rest most of the time, so that I am ready for a 35K on the weekend.

More after the runs!

Training Week-4

This weekend my training schedule says I have to run 32K, never ran so much on a single day in training, I have run a 52K Ultra, but then that was on "the" marathon day, we have whole lot of different factors on that day, the enthu level, the Janta running around you. But this would be different, running 32K means that we would be running close to 3.5 hrs.

And with the uncertain Bangalore rains, I domnt know how it will turn out to be. So I am tensed for this week's 32K, but I am determined!

Running Log

Yesterday was a busy day in office, I came home, and wasn't in a mood to run, largely because, I had this weird pain in my heel and knee, so thought would take a day's break so I am ready for the weekend long run. But then I started to get bored, even Rathi had to go somewhere out to meet his old friends. Started seeing some running videos on Youtube (two of them are posted below). and in a matter of 20 minutes I was in my running shoes and shorts ready to go. I realized that running has become an integral part of my weekday evenings. This is my time, you think about a lot of things, sort out the hassles, at work, not at work and then chalk out the plans for the next day. And even if you are not doing any of these things it is a lot soothing. Talking about Weekends, those are generally the long runs with my runner friends, and man how much I love them, no matter what happens, even if I sleep at 2:30 am I am up at 5:15 to run.

Coming back to yesterday I completed around 4K and then the pain in the heel started to get worse, I wanted to run more, 4K is nothing when it comes to a decent time in Mumbai marathon, maybe I am not pushing my body to the limit. So I went on running for another 2K and then I thought that maybe I should stop, this pain in the heel can get me grounded for weeks. And this was the point when I realized , that what is my greatest fear? Yes you guessed it right, not able to run. I have met some of my friends in RFL, who were runners, I mean who used to run, mentally they are still runners, but some nasty injury got them grounded forever, what if that happens to me, what would I do ? Not being able to run would be something like not beimng able to breathe for me. I know I thought a little too hard yesterday, but then I wasn't wrong an injury could sabotage all my plans for the Mumbai marathon and Ultra. So I stopped, "walked" back home, switched on the TV and used an ice pack on my legs and my aching heel.

Surprisingly I didn't have any pain in my heel this morning, which I never expected ? Is it the magig of the ice pack ? or is my body just getting used to the new training levels, Well I wont dig much into it now, but I am happy that my legs are back to normal. Today is the rest day, have to run 21K tomorrow at GKVK.

I am a Runner.... and I am addicted.... Paula Radcliffe

Good motivational video, forget the Nike+ Part

Vodafone Delhi Half Marathon: 9th November 2008

Finally the mail from the organizers confirms that the Vodafone Delhi Half Marathon would be held on Sunday, 9th of November 2008. The Registrations for the same would open in end of august.

Dilli waalon... main aa raha hoon.

Rakshabandhan

Yes, Rakhi is here. I earlier titled this post as "Rakhi" but then I wanted a good rakhi photograph and I googled it, and was pissed off to find out that the search results google gives on "Rakhi" are all "Rakhi Sawant" photographs.... what crap :-(

I am missing the Allahabd streets, where all you can see are the colorful rakhi shops on the roadside, the sweet shops which extend their counters and people who can kill each other for half KG of sweet, there are no such traces in Bangalore.... hmmmm we are too advanced now, this is the IT city :-(

Anyways this would be my 3rd Rakhi when I am not with my sister, yes I am missing her :-(. Today I recieved her Rakhi by courier, with a hand written letter!!! And more Rakhis continue to pour in with the haldi ke tika ki pudiya! What I really miss from my other sisters is the hand written letters, earlier each would take the pains of writing a customized "hand written" letter for each brother, but I guess now this is not the case. The worst feeling is when you recieve an e-rakhi. I never open that and do a SHIFT+DELETE, from my mailbox. I think that the internet is eating up these small festivals, the excitement of recieving a hand written letter and then reading it is totally different.

Now you recieve the Rakhi by courier and then an e-mail would follow.... It might have the same feelings from the sister's side, but surely is not conveyed with that warmth.

I am going to Munnar over the long weekend, so more on Munnar, and "Running in Munnar" on Monday!

Happy Rakhi & Vande Matram!!

Jane bhi do Yaaron

I was going through my friend's blog, when I found the link to Mohalla. 12th of August Jane bhi Do yaaron turns 25. Yes its been 25 years since this masterpiece was created by Kundan Shah. The lead characters in the movie, Sudhir and Vinod are named after the famous directors Sudhir Misra and Vidhu Vinod Chopra. They were freshers from Pune school of direction at that time.

Its been almost three decades, much has changed in the film industry, the films are technicall much better, now the average budget of a movie is more than 20 crores, but yet as Dipti writes in her blog, we have missed out on something. The reality, the characters of Jane Bhi Do yaaron are so real, it shows the struggling face of India. There is a fire in Sudhir and Vinod, which targets the Real Estate industry of Mumbai, the corruption prevelant in it. This movie deals with Corruption and inefficiency in a very sarcastic way, I remeber the dialogue after Commissioner D'Mello's death, the new commisioner is giving a speech on the newly inaugerated D'Mello flyover:

"Commissioner D'Mello ki yaad main ek din ke liye sheher ke saare gatar band kiye jaayenge, aap log peene ka paani pahle se bhar lein"

This sentence speaks a lot, it takes on the inefficiency in Mumbai in a sutle sarcastic way, it tells what was the standard the Mumbai slum dwellers were pushed in, and now not much has changed, they still need to store their drinking water if the gatar's go on Hadtaal.

But my favorite part of the film is the encounter between Commissioner D'Mello and Ahuja, when he is drunk out of his mind and is trying to help D'Mello in the coffin thinking that its a car!!!

Another popular dialogue from the movie "Thoda Khao thoda feko mazaa aata hai" this is again a sarcastic remark for people like Tarneja and D'Mello who gets the luxury of eating a swiss cake, and then throwing it, gives them a wierd kind of pleasure. Sarcasm apart, I really love the way this scene has been shot, and in the end Ravi Baswani's answer to the question "haan aaya!!"

Great movie, again one of my favorites after Chashme Buddoor

Ban on SIMI ?

Big chaos created by a Delhi court, thankfully Supreme Court is still active.
Mulayam Singh Yadav and his party apparently supports SIMI. Read it here. The key issue here is, who is a bigger threat to the country, SIMI or SP ? This is the cost that all of us have to pay to avoid early elections.

"Bhed ki Khaal main Bhediye"

Training Week - I

"It hurts to a point and then it doesnt get any worse - Ann Trason"

The first week of my training is over. Ran a 40K week, I know this is less, my target was 50K, but since I was partying on the weekend, celebrating Nitin's Birthday, This was expected. I didn't run on Saturday and Sunday morning, which were supposed to be my Long runs, I was dying in guilt, then Meghana threw the Idea of Doing a Hash run, well just to give an idea about Hash House Harriers this is what wikipedia has to say. And I was at the Bangalore Hash House Harrier's Run number 473. Well did around 10K at the hash run, which nowhere comes under the "lo9ng" runs, but atleast something is better than nothing. I overcame the guilt of not running on the weekend. But I must admit that the run was fun, it was organized on Clover Fields, this was a resort off Sarjapur Road, and the trail, as all Hash trails was a superb one!

Coming back to the training discussion, I am pretty satisfied with the first week. Now the schedule for this week says: 16 miles or 25.6K till Saturday, an then a long run on Sunday, probably around 25K. Lets see, I am already on a marathon Diet (to be read as Eating like a pig). So I need to keep my running consistent! I have slight pain after my runs in the heels, but I have got the ice packs and I hope that the regular cold therapy should work, or else some weekend I need to see Dr Rajat.

So Far So Good :-) I am satisfied :-)

"To a runner a side stich is like a car alarm. It signifies something is wrong, but you ignore it until it goes away"

The Training Begins!

So I have already registered for Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon, this one would be my second Mumbai marathon, and the first full in Mumbai. I have been running since quite a while now, so its high time I graduate to the next level every year! Its fun, challenging your body each time, believe me nothing feels better when you break your own records! So what am I planning to do ? Well the plans are huge this year:

1) Kaveri Trail Marathon in mid Oct
2) Vodafone Delhi Half marathon in early Nov
3) Bangalore Ultra in mid Nov
4) Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon in mid Jan
4) and then maybe Standard Chartered Hong Kong marathon in mid Feb

Yeah I know that this is too much! But then I have started rigorous training for it. I am planning to run daily now, the idea is to run atleast 8K on weekdays and long run on the weekends (~25-30K). The only day when I plan to rest is Friday, in order to prepare for the weekend long runs.

Lets see where I land up, but I am determined !!!!

Will keep giving the training updates here

Running: In this religion, there are no holidays

Calvin

Of course we dont want Mayawati as PM

Behenji has started cribbing again, read here. Of course behenji we don't want you as the Prime minister of India, whatever be the reason, and I just want to clarify that the Dalit lame excuse you are giving the entire nation is baseless. It is only you who is a "manuwaadi" nobody in my neighbourhood distinguishes between a Dalit and a non Dalit, stop playing this dirty game. You have wasted the clear mandate given to you by the janta of Uttar Pradesh. A majority in today's date is a biog power, a blessing, you could have changed the entire state, you had the power , and the means to do all the reforms which you have been blabbering your entire life. But alas you are more interested in the power politics, becoming a PM. Just take Narendra Modi and Gujrat for example, no I am not defending him for the Godhra kaand, but whatever he has done for the state needs to be appreciated. See the law and order situation there, see the number of NRIs willing to invest in Gujrat, see the electricity / water / Road / litracy rate there.

You should be ashamed of yourself that you have let your people down, they gave you a clear mandate, to make UP a batter state, and you in turn packed your bags, ready to flee???

OF COURSE WE DONT WANT YOU AS PRIME MINISTER.

Also Read Pheonix's entry on the Political Drama

A fool with a tool is a dangerous fool

Old saying, but seems true in case of the duo: Mulayam Singh and Amar Singh. Suddenly the two fools have shot to fame and importance because of the crisis created by the Left. Now these two are making proposals left, right and centre.

1) Today they asked to rename the Amausi Airport's (Lucknow Airport) name to Chaudhary Charan Singh Airport. Now who was Chaudhary Charan Singh ? What did he do for the state, apart from bringing his good for nothing som Ajith Singh into politics, who inturn is demanding a seperate state. Read it here

2) Some days back, Mr Amar Singh gave his formula of how to Solve inflation. Read it here. I don't even want to comment on it.

Sometime back Congress was busy screwing Amar Singh and Party, and Amar Singh in turn was busy abusing Ms Sonia Gandhi and party. I guess the entire nation knows about it! But still if you want to brush up your memory read here

I dont know where we are heading towards

Runners, yeah we are diffrent

in 1999 Adidas ran an advertisement campaign for its supernova (running Shoe) line of shoes, well this is one of the best advertisements I have ever seen.

Saw it again on Prateek's Blog

I can relate to most of them as a runner, Enjoy!

http://www.chayden.net/Runs/Adidas/index.htm

Optimize iPhone Battery

I have been using iPhone since two months now, and I have to admit that this is an amazing piece of gadget. However I faced some issues in the beginning with the battery life of this device. So here are some tips to improve the battery backup of your iPhone.

-Set the brightness of the display to the lowest level possible, and put the auto brightness feature on
-Turn off the graphic equalizer of your iPod
-Switch off WiFi when you don't need it, as the device keeps searching for WiFi even when you are on the move, and ends up eating a lot of battery
-Turn on the auto lock feature of your iPhone

Earlier I used to get a battery backup of half a day, and I needed to completely re-charge the iPhone every night, but these points has actually helped me improve the battery back up! Further I would recommend everybody to read about the Li-ion battery information: http://www.apple.com/batteries/

For those who doesnt want to go to the link, I am copying and pasting the important stuff there:

Lithium-ion batteries pack in a higher power density than nickel-based batteries. This gives you a longer battery life in a lighter package, as lithium is the lightest metal. You can also recharge a lithium-ion battery whenever convenient, without the full charge or discharge cycle necessary to keep nickel-based batteries at peak performance.

Most lithium-ion batteries use a fast charge to charge your device to 80% battery capacity, then switch to trickle charging.

Most Important: Charge Cycle (Important for all Notebook / Mobile Phone users)

A charge cycle means using all of the battery’s power, but that doesn’t necessarily mean a single charge. For instance, you could listen to your iPod for a few hours one day, using half its power, and then recharge it fully. If you did the same thing the next day, it would count as one charge cycle, not two, so you may take several days to complete a cycle. Each time you complete a charge cycle, it diminishes battery capacity slightly, but you can put notebook, iPod, and iPhone batteries through many charge cycles before they will only hold 80% of original battery capacity. As with other rechargeable batteries, you may eventually need to replace your battery.

Truth is stranger than fiction

This is the only thing that comes to my mind when I read anything on the Arushi murder case, the investigation has been going on since ages, and now most of us are bored reading about it. Even the television channels are bored reporting the murder investigation. But I do empathize with CBI, all the evidences are gone, Noida police screwed up the case, and the case is not as simple as it looks. All the possible aspects have already been talked about, by the media, but I still believe that the "truth would be stranger than fiction".

Rajkumar, Krsihna, Rajesh Talwar, the suspect list is huge, and it only grows each week. The media is doing every possible act to misguide you on the investigation. Today two different channels reported two different stories:

NDTV reports that Rajesh Talwar is innocent and CBI is going to crack the case in the coming week, Read it here

CNN-IBN on the other hand has just reported whatever we are already aware of, the events in chronological order, and reports nothing as Rajesh Talwar is innocent or not

Somedays back the good for nothing news Channels India TV and Zee News again tried to assassinate the family's character by reporting that the Talwars were partying out in South Delhi when the murder took place. Read it here.

I think these news channels are only bombarding us with data, with no information value attached to it. The other day I was talking to a Retd IPS officer (whom I met somewhere), he was of the opinion that the media can never figure out the way CBI functions, probably there are multiple teams working on totally different aspects and scenarios, each team investigating one suspect seperately. And these news channels find out about some team someday and they report it, the very next week, they try to find out about the investigations of the other team ,and report it again, obviously with the statement "CBI sources say". Can these channels tell us who are these trustworthy sources, I think its high time that Janta demands this piece of information, they are assassinating a family's character. 15 news channels, 15 new theories.

And then this morning I see these set of pictures, I found these very offensive, the girl is gone, SHE IS DEAD, please for God's sake leave her alone, what connection does her childhood photographs have with the case? Why are they out in public ? Please have some moral values and let her soul rest in piece at least for a week ?

Rock on Website and Music Launched

Website: http://rockon.bigadda.com/

Cast and Crew:
Farhan Akhtar: Aditya Shroff
Prachi Desai: Sakshi
Arjun Rampal: Joe Mascarenhas
Purab Kohli: Kb
Luke Kenny: Rob
Koel Purie: Devika
Shahana Goswami: Debbie
Nicolette Bird: Tanya

Jane tu... ya Jane na

First things first, I would give the movie a rating of 4.5 / 5. I would say that there is nothing new to the story, just an old formula, retold, re crafted. But Aabbas Tyrewala's style of narration is superb. I would say that the movie is a tamed down version of Dil Chahta hai, no not a masterpiece as DCH, but yes you will identify wioth the crowd somewhere. Be it the crush amonst the friends, be it the indecisive nature of Aditi and Jai, be it the foolishness of Jignesh Patel, or a very closely knit relationships between friends.

The movie starts with a group of people waiting for somebody at the airport, and in them is a girl who actually is an air hostess, and she hated the idea of waiting at the airport for a delayed flight, she is pissed off, snapping everybody. And then the remaining four guys starts narrating a story, a unique Love story, Jai and Aditi's love story. The director with the help of these people explained every aspect of their relationship. Some aspects which were not very obvious, some which were underlying aspects in their relationship, is beautifully explained / highlighted with these friends! I loved the side story about the "ranjhaud ke rathore" and the cameo by Naseer.

What I liked about the movie was the fact that Jai (Imran) and Aditi (Genelia) are always with each other, the best friends ever existed on this earth, but still they are not in love, OK, at least they don't think about love. But they cant live without each other. The way Jai cares about Aditi, the way Aditi fights for Jai, everybody except them know that they are in love, but good thing is nobody in the group interferes this love / friendship relationship of theirs. They just leave it on time, or rather Jai and Aditi!

Acting wise Imran and Genelia has done a good job, yes he is the new Chocolate boy, and believe me he is good at it, I was just amazed to see the reaction of the girls in the movie theater :-). I think Genelia needs to work on her Hindi accent, but somehow I found that cute, the cute Goan Hindi accent! AR Rahman's music is fresh and amazing!

Overall a must watch.

And yes Harman Baweja: Dont compare yourself with this dude, he is here to stay!

Boris Becker: Serves 5 aces in a row

From being behind 0-40 on his serve Boris serves 5 aces in a row

Happy Birthday Pancham

Pancham undoubtedly one of the greatest Music director Bollywood ever had, but unfortunately his music and his talent was never recognized during his life. Just imagine, he composed music for about 292 Hindi movies, and won just 3 Filmfare awards, the last one was given to him after his Death (for the movie 1942, A Love Story). During his last days Pancham had financial difficulties, his last days were not pleasent, many films flopped at the Box Office, Subhash Ghai promised him Ram Lakhan , but gave it to Laxmikant Pyarelal, this incident had a deep impact on him.

Pancham is remebered for his versatile music, he is the one who composed songs like Dhanno ki aankhon main (Kitab), Mehbooba Mehbooba (Sholay), Piya tu ab to aaja (Caravan) and on the other hand slow numbers like tum aa gaye ho (Aandhi), Chingari Koi Bhadke (Amar Prem), Mera Kuchh Samaan (Ijaazat).

Pancham did some experiments in songs as well, like spoon against a glass (Chura liya hai from Yaadon Ki baraat), desks (Masterji ki aa gayee chitthee from Kitaab) a bamboo whistle with a balloon (Abdullah) and bottles filled with water at different levels (O maajhi re from Khushboo).

However some of his songs are "inspired" from foreign music as well (Mil gaya, humko saathi mil gaya is inspired from Mama Mia by ABBA). But still since I am a RD die hard fan, I would ignore those allegations and keep listening to both the versions seperately ;-P

It is his birthday today, wanted to remember him, his great music so here I give my favorite RD Burman Numbers:

1) Khamosh sa Afsana - Libaas
2) Aaj kal paaon zameen par - Ghar
3) Sagar Jaisi Aankhon waali - Sagar
4) Huzoor is Kadar na - Masoom
5) Tere Liye Palkon ki Jhalar - Harjaee
6) Mera Kuchh Samaan - Ijazat
6) Katra Katra - Ijaazat
7) Dhanno ki aankhon main - Kitaab
8) Sholay Theme
9) O maajhi re - Khusboo
10) Kuchh na Kaho - 1942 a Love Story
11) Pyar ke Mod Par - Parinda
12) Tumse Milke - Parinda
13) Aap ke kamre main koi rehta hai - Yadon ki Baraat
14) Khaali haanth shaam aayi hai - Ijaazat
15) Do Naina aur ek kahani - Masoom
16) Dil Dhoondta hai fir wahi fursat ke raat din - Mausam
17) Jawani Diwani - Jawani Diwani
18) Hoga tumse Pyara kaun - Zamane ko Dikhana hai

A Walk down the Memory Lane....

Today while having lunch with office colleagues, we discussed the old DD Serials, and couldn't help posting about them. I think that the current channels should look at these Serials as an inspiration, of how you could get the entire nation glued to their television screens without spending crores!

Mr Yogi
Mohan Gokhale was amazing in this, in the role of Yogesh Eshwar Lal Patel (Y.I. Patel). A young guy who comes down from the US to get married. An awesome comedy serial with YI Patel meeting a different set of girls (for matrimonial purpose) every week!

Udaan:
This had resemblance to Kiran Bedi's fight as the first women IPS officer. Kavita Chaudhary in the lead role, and Shekhar Kapur as "DM Sitapur" whom she falls in love with finally. I must say that this was one serial which portrayed the real rural India and its problems from an IPS officer's eyes.

Life Line Jeevan Rekha:
A story of doctors and their lives. Every week there used to be a different battle for this group of doctors in a Mumbai hospital. Main cast-Sachin Khedekar,K.K Raina,Tanvi Azmi,Ila Arun,Narendra Gupta.

Byomkesh Bakshi
I am sure that nobody's going to forget this amazing Serial. with Rajat Kapoor in the lead role, I think this is the best detective serial till date. The stories looked so realistic, with no terrorism / anti India factors. Just like something happened in your neighborhood

Muzrim Haajir
Nutan and Virendra Singh were in the lead roles. Navni Parihar's first Serial!

Circus
Who can forget this serial now, the chocolate boy shahrukh khan

Bharat ek khoj
One of my favorite serials, used to come on Sundays, based on Jawahar Lal Nehru's book: discovery of India. I particularly used to like the title song "shristi se pahle kucchh nahi tha....."

Ramayan and Mahabharat
I think everybody knows how life used to come to a standstill when Mahabharat was aired, and for Ramayan everybody started taking Deepika and Arun as the real Ram and Sita!

Sigma
The first science fiction serial on indian television

Chanakya
A masterpiece by Dr Chandraparakash Dwivedi. So sad that it was never aired again. I wanted to see it again, as at that time I was a kid. Would understand a lot more things now.

Rangoli and Chitrahaar
Used to wait for them the entire week, as they were the only ways we could watch the filmi songs. I still remember the Wednesday Chitrahaar used to air new songs and the friday one used to air old Filmi songs! And I am sure everybody remembers that rangoli was followed by Gurbani, when we used to take a bath and get ready for the 9:00 am cartoon shows

Tehkikaat
Starring Vijay Aanand and Saurabh Shukla, this was again a good Mystery serial, but not better than Byomkesh Bakshi

Karamchand
Pankaj Kapoor in the lead role, and the famous "Kitty" as her assistant.

Fauji
The famous Dialogue "I say Chaps" . And Shahrukh Khan

This is just to name a few. The list is endless:
Mongeri Lal Ki Haseen Sapne
Nukkad
Farmaan
Intezaar
Humraahi
Mrignayani
Kille ka rahasya
Honi Anhoni
Surbhi

To name a few more!!!

Fashion at Wimbledon

To start with the stunning Anna Ivanovic's outfit:Ana progressed smoothly into the second round at Wimbledon, thanks to a 6-1, 6-2 win over Paraguayan Rossana De los Rios

Maria Sharapova: unveils her much-talked-about tuxedo outfit which features a pair of shorts rather than a skirtDefeated Foretz (6-1 6-4) to move on to the second round.

Julia Vakulenko: Appears in a Double Breasted tunic
But that didn't prevent a 3-6 4-6 defeat by 22nd seed Flavia Pennetta

Indo US Nuclear Deal is anti Muslim ?????

Now where does that come from ? I have no clue what justifications and logics did the good for nothing leftist give for this. On Monday, the Left said the Indo-US nuclear deal would never be supported by Muslims. By raising the religion card on the nuclear deal issue, Read more here

I guess the left's angle here is pure anti Americanism, Well this point of the Leftist is so confusing that apparently even Muslim leaders cannot get the point "Why" ?

Left: Stop screwing the nation. Get a crash course in economics and world Politics, Bengal and Kerala is not the entire Globe

Huffing in Hampi

Yeah I am back from Hampi, the forgotten Kingdom. Sabine organized a "Cultural Run" in Hampi. Well I didn't have any plans of going to Hampi, and then Prateek called up on Thursday and by afternoon we decided that we will be going to Hampi, obviously my favorite way... driving. I convinced Nitin to Join us, and in turn Prateek convinced his friends Saurabh and Saumya. The idea was to start from Bangalore by 4:30 pm, but as usual we were late and we were able to leave the city by 5:00 pm, only to discover that Tumkur Road is jam packed with traffic. Anyways it took us over 8 hrs to reach the place. We already had a booking in Hotel Mayura Bhuvaneshwari (A KSTDC Hotel).

By the time we reached at the hotel, we didn't have any energy left, we all just dozed off. Next morning got up at 9:00 am, and by that time, Athreya, Leona, Amit, Reena and the rest of the gang also arrived by train, we had a gala time eating the breakfast. This place serves some awesome Poori Sabzi, and we RFLers just forgot the amount of Oil it has and ate to our heart's content. Well I never ordered anything, I kept shuffling between Athreya's & Manoj's plate.

The gang planned to run in the eveing, but we decided to take a guide and go site seeing, and we spent the entire day lost in the Hampi ruins. As soon as I used to step inside a monument, the feeling was amazing, it was actually like reliving the time, the same Temples which were once the centers of religious and social gatherings are so forgotten now, you can spend hours at each monument just looking at the amazing architecture, looking at each small details, the carvings, the amazing paintings, and wondering about the Strength of Raja Krishnadevaraya i. At the end of the day I realized that two days are way too less to see Hampi. Hampi, a world heritage site decalred by UNESCO has 83 big and small monuments, and more are being discovered each year. Aaprt from the architecture, I just loved the terrain, with boulders spread all over the place, the best idea is to rent a cycle in Hampi and go cycling.

Sunday we got up at 5:30 am, to run at 6:00 am and we were bang on time!!! well this is expected, as we all were runners. As soon as we hit the road, the passer bye's started giving us strange looks, but again, I guess all of us are pretty used to that! We ended up running 21 Km passing by all the important temples and monuments, sitting there, chatting about the amazing architecture, and then proceeding towards the next destination. The day ended with a great lunch at Sam's place. With heavenly "Baingan" ki sabzi, Mutton curry and Rice!

Would love to run there again!

Sam & Sabine: Special Thanks for taking such good care of us!!! We just loved it!!!

Song Today: Khamosh sa afsana

Prasoon Joshi: The Specialist in making you cry!

kaise tujhko dikhaoon yahaan hai kya
mere jharne se paani maa
tod ke piya hai
guchha guchha ka ye khwaabon ka
uchal ke chuaa hai
chaya liye faili dhoop yahaan hai
naya naya sa hai roop yahaan
yahaan sab kuchh hai ma fir bhi
lage bin tere mujhko akela

Awesome lyrics, again Prasoon Joshi, the specialist in making you cry with his awesome lyrics on Maa

Source: Luka Chipi (Rang De Basanti)

Hampi...

This weekend I am off to Hampi. Sabine (fellow RFLer) has organized the Hampi Cultural run there. Would be fun... more on Monday!

Movies to Watch out for - II

Dilli - 6

Directed by Rakeysh OmPrakash Mehra (of Rang De Basanti fame), is based on the lives of the people living in the Chandni Chowk area of Delhi. This movie, supposedly is based on the director's growing up years in Delhi. So for all Delhi lovers this is one awesome movie to watch out for.

The Cast:
Abhishek Bachhan
Sonam Kapoor
Om Puri
Waheeda Rehman
Supriya Pathak

This is Rakeysh Om Praksh Mehra's third directorial venture. The first two being AKS and Rang De Basanti, which was a big success. It is named Dilli - "6" as the pincode of Chandni Chowk is 110006. Music again by AR Rehman. This movie is a must watch.

Going Green.....

The threats posed by Global warming are alarming, we can save a lot of energy by doing small changes in our lifestyles.

Turning off the Computer Monitors
when you are not using your computer for 15 minutes or longer turn off the monitor Manually

Turn off the computer at night when you are not using it
One computer left on 24 hours a day will cost you $115 - 160 in electricity costs a year and dump 1,500 pounds of CO₂ into the atmosphere
A tree absorbs between 3-15 lbs of CO₂ each year. That means that 100-500 trees would be needed to offset the yearly emissions of one computer left on all the time

Give Laptops a serious thought
If you are buying a new computer, buy a laptop. Laptops use only 1/4 the energy

Buy an LCD Monitor
If you are buying a new Desktop, buy an LCD monitor with it, LCD monitors use 1/3 the energy used by the regular CRTs

Customize the power management feature in your Computer

Most Important, do not keep the computer in standby mode, as your machine would still consume power.
A computer machine, or a television, or a Printer is always consuming power when left in standby mode. So for a computer machine shut it down when not required, for a television, printer etc, manually switch it off from the main power supply.

Further please consider using the public transport for your commutation to workplace atleast twice a week, this will save a lot of fuel. I plan to cycle to work atleast twice a week, and if this works on well, then maybe more than that!

As told by Doordarshan, when we were kids, please switch off the engine of your car if you have to wait for more than 2 minutes on a red light.

Do your bit, this is our responsibility!!

*Some of the tips and Data released by Tufts University
**This post is inspired from the fact that atleast 5 monitors on my floor were left switched on last night.

Movies to Watch out for - I

Rock On!!
I went to see Sarkar Raj last week and saw the trailer of this movie Rock On!! The movie seems to be awesome one, similar to Dil Chahta hai. Some trivia about the movie:

1) Farhan Akhtar is making debut as an actor
2) The cutie from the television world, Prachi Desai's first bollywood movie


3) There is a rumour that Farhan Akhtar also sang a song for the movie (Source)
4) Produced by Ritesh Sidhwani and Farhan Akhtar
5) Music: Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy, Lyrics: Javed Akhtar (No prizes for guessing that!)
6) The film revolves around four young boys who put together a rock band. Ten years hence, fate conspires to bring them together again and set them on a journey back to where they left off. A soul searching pilgrimage into their past (Source)

Biking and etc....

Was thinking about it since a long time, finally did it. Yes I bought a cycle (Hero Octane), its a mountain bike. Now I plan to cycle to office regularly. That would be in my interest and the nation's as well. Apart from cycling to office , we (pankaj , me and Prateek) have decided to cycle to cubbon / Bellandur on weekends for running.

More updates in the coming days.
BTW if any of you is planning to buy one and contribute to the environment, then here is a good website which sells bikes in Bangalore.

Bums on Saddle

*******************************************************************************************************************

Ran near a lake on the Kanakpura road, I just loved the run, ended up doing 15K.
Lovely weather, fantastic trail... just added to a good run!


Song Today in Car: Say by John Mayer

Purity...

Source: www.xkcd.com

The Slam book Tag!!!

Its good to be Kid at times, I saw this tag on some blog and wanted to do it, maybe this might sound silly to a lot of you, but I probably wanted to do something that we did in class 9th, its kiddish but exciting, like filling a slam book :-)

This is pretty simple, just write your set of answers for the questions here!

1. What is your middle name?
I don't have one.

2. How big is your bed?
Depends on the where I am

3.What are you listening to right now?
All summer long by Kid Rock

4. What was the last thing you ate?
Fried Eggs and Toast

5. Last person you hugged?
Rathi, when he was leaving for US

6. How is the weather right now?
Lovely, 18 degrees in the morning, cloudy

7. Who was the last person you talked to on the phone?
Nitin

8. The first thing you notice about the opposite sex?
Depends ;-)

9. Favorite type of Food?
Indian, Ghar ka.. Continental, Chinese, ice creams

10. Have you ever cried over a love lost?
Maybe

11. Last Movie you watched?
Sarkar Raj

12. Do you have any piercings?
No

13. Favorite Movie?
Many: Chashme Budoor, Jane bhi do yaaron, Forrest Gump, Noting hill, Reservoir Dogs

14. What were you doing before filling this out?
Getting irritated at the cab drivers (I just came into office!)

15. Have you ever loved someone?
Yes


16. Who would you like to see right now?
Ankita

17. What color are your bedroom walls?
Cream, and that is boring

18. Have you ever fired a gun?
Yes.

19. Do you like to travel by plane?
Theek hai

20. Right-handed or Left-handed?
Right-handed.

21. If you could go to any place right now where would you go?
Andaman / Goa


22. Do you still watch cartoons on Saturday mornings?
Yes

23. What is the wallpaper on your cellphone?
Photograph clicked by me during my last run at Bellandur

24. Favorite hangout:
Airlines, after my weekend runs and Koshy's, anytime

25. 3 things you can't live without?
Food, sleep, run

26. Favorite songs?
Sweet home Alabama, khaali haath shaam aayi hai (Ijaazat), Seene main Jalan (Gaman)

27. What are you afraid of?
Height !

28. What are your nicknames?
"Rah Sahab", Shant, Santana ;-)

29. Stuck on a deserted island, and can only bring one thing?
Boat

30. First thing you'll save in a fire?
Myself, isn't that by default ??? or is it my running shoes ??? confused ;-)

31. What is your favorite color?
Sky Blue

32. What are the things you always bring with you?
iPhone (yeah I own one now!!!), wallet

33. What did you want to be when you were a kid?
Police Officer

34. What do you usually do when the alarm turns on?
snooze and go back to sleep, Except for the weekend run alarm

35. What do you think about before you go to bed?
Ahhhh Finally!!!

I pass on this Tag to:

Pheonix
Yashshri
Meghana
Nitin
Rajaram

Song Today in Car: All summer Long by Kid Rock

Perfect day to start a week.....

Well let me give you an insight why.... The temperature outside: 18 degrees celcius, cloudy and not much traffic. Now thats what I love about this city, Believe me you will fall in love with the morning weather, it is just perfect. And what better way to start a week.

After a long time, today I came with my car windows down, mostly I don't do that as people have this weird habit of honking whenever they get a chance to, it seems most of the people are obsessed with honking here. But I guess today the awesome weather was more important than the irritating noises outside.

The Bangalore Morning reminded me of my Vienna days today, it used to be similar weather in summers.
Yes definitely I am in Love with this City.

Song Today in Car: You are beautiful by James Blunt

Blogging fever grips Bollywood....

This blogging fever is gripping the entire film industry now! Well to name a few: Aamir started it, and I love his blog, Amitabh followed (I don't find him a very good blogger!!) and now the latest in the list is Mr Ram Gopal Verma. I know I am nobody to pass the judgment, but I can express my opinions, my likes and dislikes!

Out of the list specified above RGV's blog is the most offensive I have found (atleast the latest posts), I know it is good to be witty and humorous at times, but see these two posts, arrogance is dripping from it!!! Dude you are the director of the worst film ever made in the history of bollywood (RGV ki Aag), even films like "jaani dushman ek anokhi kahani" were better, and then too you have such attitude ???? I fail to understand it. What is he trying to prove, that it really doesn't matter to him that how successful his movies are at the box office ?? Now if he is trying to show something like that, then this is the most immature act I have ever seen. Accepting your faults and saying sorry is never a bad gesture.

P.S.: BTW I am a big fan of his movies, I liked Rangeela, D and Ab tak Chappan. I loved Sarkar and looking forward for Sarkar Raj, but I guess there is a difference between the director RGV and the blogger RGV!

Now moving on to Amitabh Bachhan, well I am a die hard fan of Big B, must have watched all his movies, know each and every dialogs of Sholay, Deewar and Zanjeer by heart, but I must admit that his blog posts are pretty boring to read. They just go on and on, apart from this his blog posts lacks a title, I know its at his discretion, but come on "Sir" try and be a little innovative, naming the blog posts on the day and date is very easy, infact you don't have to do anything in it, Blogger / Wordpress already labels it, and I am sure that his friend's site (bigadda.com) also gives this feature. The other irritating thing in his blog is the header on his blog, the size of the header is: 947pixel x 964pixel this occupies the whole of the screen and the reader keeps wondering that another page would open. Rajaram has described the same in his blog here

Now coming to Aamir Khan, well this is one of my favorite blogs, he writes well I must admit, and even in his long posts, the reader doesn't lose the interest. Has a nice gesture of accepting his erros and shortcomings. So his blog is definitely in my favorites list in the Google reader.

Song Today in Car: Say by John Mayer

Sachin the Great as told by Aamir

Aamir Khan wrote about the IPL final match and Sachin Tendulkar (to be read as God) on his blog.

Just in case if somebody doesn't want to go and check out the link, I am copying and pasting the paragraph here:

The match last night was certainly exciting but what made it a unique experience for me was that I had Sachin next to me. You will find this hard to believe but Sachin was able to predict every ball before it was bowled. “He is going to bowl a bouncer next”,
“This one is going to be a slower one”, “Full tilt outside the off stump”, “Next one will be a yorker”, “Short of length”. It was uncanny. HE GOT IT RIGHT EACH TIME!!! No wonder its so difficult to bowl to him. He has an amazing instinct. And he told me his logic for each prediction which I wont share with you as I don’t want to reveal how his mind works. But all of us were dumbfounded with his instinct and his acumen. So at the end of it I told him next time we watch a film together I’m going to tell him whats going to happen next!

No doubt Sachin is the greatest batsman ever.

Song Today in Car: Mercy by Duffy

Maria Sharapova out of French Open

Yes Maria Sharapova collapsed to a 6-7 (6), 7-6 (5), 6-2 defeat against No. 13 Dinara Safina.

And she is out of the French Open. :-(

Do minute ka maun rakha jaye.....

India's Hooked.....

This photograph I took in an Airtel outlet, when I went there last week to pay my mobile bill. The Kiosk in the outlet is generally used for accessing your Airtel account information. But here this dude is orkutting!! Wow, now thats what I call obsessed with social networking.

Definitely India's Hooked to Orkut / Facebook!!!

Song Today: New Shoes by Paulo Nutini

Arushi Talwar Murder case, a big goof up by UP Police

This is probably the biggest goof up of all times, they cant identify a murderer, and all they can do is raise questions on the girl's character???
The case is being probed, so really cant comment on who is right and who's not. But definitely the Police is at fault for harassing the family. For goofing up the entire matter, this proves that they just want to get rid of the case.
The height of foolishness: one of the cops tumbled over Hemraj's dead body on the terrace, and then they found out that Hemraj is also Killed. Nobody bothered to check the terrace!!!

I again ask them, why pay such incompetent cops, get rid of these fools

Read the entire story as told by Arushi's Mother here

Vasanthi we Miss you!!

It was 7th March 2008 when Vasanthi Hariprakash declared on one of her shows (Joy Ride) that this is the final show she is hosting, its 2 months and 22 days exactly and we are still missing her. I just did a search on Vasanthi Hariprakash on google Blog Search, and found loads of blog entries from people like me, who are missing her sweet, bubbly, chirpy voice. Realized this after Vasanthi left Radio City (to Join NDTV as the special Correspondent, Bangalore) that RJing is an art and all the RJs on all the radio stations know nothing about it! She used to strike just the right balance between English, Hindi and Kannada, I understand Kannada in bits and pieces, and I used to understand each and every word on the show with ease.

I really miss the Friday Flashback, theme based show hosted by her. Used to love the trivia provided by her, and the themes, I know that most of this must have been scripted and some creative director or writer must be writing it. But then the same creative writer is writing for all the people on air currently. I used to like listening to Vasanthi more than the songs, the latest happenings in Bangalore, her spontaneous humor on the calls, her comments about the current affairs in the news papers. I guess she was the perfect girl to host a morning show, when everybody is driving to office.

For me her's was the first voice I used to listen to in my din-charya, while driving to office, and believe me she used to make my morning really bright. Very rightly termed as the "Sunshine Girl". Lately I have started listening to Radio Indigo (91.9 FM), a show called Indigo Rising, hosted by Ayesha D'Souza, she is also good, unlike other RJs she doesn't bore you with her PJs, talks sense, talks about the songs, and last but not the least has a really sweet voice. So right now my Car's favorite Radio station is 91.9, Radio Indigo: The Color of Music!

But we Miss you Vasanthi!!!! :-((

Song Today: 1973 by James Blunt

Sarkar Raj

Was going through the Sarkar Raj official website, this is definitely the most awaited movie of the year, unlike Sarkar, RGV claims that Sarkar Raj in no way is inspired or copied from Godfather-2. It is an independent story about power and the Nagre family, according to the director Sarkar Raj is much bigger in scale as compared to Sarkar, as the characters and the issues are much more complex!

This film also offers a Bacchhan family package, or rather I should say an economical package, with only Jaya Bachhan not being in the movie. Apparently the movie shocases the Enron Power plant issue, Aishwarya is a highly aggressive and ambitious business woman, and Abhishek and Amitabh in the regular roles of Sankar Nagre and Subhash Nagre respectively.

The movie releases on 6th of June, and this is RGV's gift to the Bollywood after loads of flops (like RGV ki Aag), which he himself accepted was the worst movie ever made!

Lets see how this one goes.....

Links:
- Sarkar Raj on Chakpak
- Official Sarkar Raj Website
- Amitabh's Blog

Song Today while driving to office: Pocket full of sunshine
Source: Radio Indigo (91.9)

Meeting Paul Tergat & Bangalore Sunfeast 10K run

With the RFL gang

Paul Tergat

hey hey, I got to meet Paul Tergat !!!!! For those of you who doesnt know about Paul Tergat, here is what wikipedia has to say:

Paul Kibii Tergat (born June 17, 1969) is a Kenyan professional athlete. He held the world record in the marathon from 2003 to 2007, with a time of 2:04:55, and is regarded as one of the most accomplished long-distance runners of all time.

Thanks to RFL and Nike, Paul was in town to run the sunfeast 10K , and a few RFLers got the chance of meeting him, I also got a personally autographed T-Shirt from him, which I am flaunting everywhere now! it was nice meeting the guru of running in person and getting some tips on how to increase the timing and the dos and donts of running!

Next day was the Sunfeast 10K run, Bangalore has been suffering from this 10K "marathon" syndrome since a long time, and so here I was running the Sunfeast 10K "marathon" :-) . It was fun meeting with so many RFLers, on an event which is not organised by RFL! the race started on time, i.e at 9:00 am

I did a mistake I started really fast, probably thinking that its just 10K, and then soon after start I realized that it was way too hot! My entire body was burning, lesson learnt: running at 6:00 am is totally different than running at 9:00 am. To make the matters worse, the same pain in my knee which came in the Bangalore Ultra, started again. But still I was able to finish it in 1:01 hrs. Not satisfied with the timing though, I was aiming at a sub 50 Min finish, but then seeing the heat and the tough conditions even a 55 min would have been fine.

So the lessons learnt and next steps:

- Running at 9:00 am is totally different, so would be training for running in the heat as well now
- I need to be more regular with running, so have started running 3-4 K on weekdays as well
- as Paul advised, increase the weekly Mileage in order to increase the timing, so I am exactly doing that

as Farah (a fellow runner) wrote in her mail to the group:

a little taste of the bitter never hurt, as long as you don't make drinking it a habit:) to everyone who met or exceeded their targets...raise the bar higher. to those of you who like me carry the learning of a distance run, but not conquered, we will be given as many chances as we take...and each time a little wiser, stronger and hungrier...


Song Today: Californication

Insaaf ke Rakshak.......

While coming to Office......

7:30 am Sony World Red Light in Koramangla, there is a huge traffic jam, and I am caught in the middle of it. I had an important meeting at 8:15, had something to prepare for it before that, but seems like now I am not gonna make it. But what the hell just happened here, I mean this is the regular time I hit this point and generally at this hour spoilt kids going to school in their dad's big cars are seen on this Red Light, and thats it, the wait time not more than 2 min.

A closer observation told me that the Red Light has gone Bonkers and as usual the Police is nowhere seen in the picture. And now i get the exact picture of what must be happening 300 mts ahead at the red light, all the vehicles must be fighting with each other, that who will be the first to go. Well if you want to teach anybody about what Deadlock is in Operating Systems this is the best example!

BTW Deadlock as wiki describes:

In computer science, deadlock refers to a specific condition when two or more processes are each waiting for another to release a resource, or more than two processes are waiting for resources in a circular chain.

But suddenly the traffic starts moving, and this is miracle , how did this happen ??? Well I thought that the Police walahs might have come to the scene, and by the way the Police station is just a stone throw away from this place! But I was wrong it wasn't the police walas... Some people waiting at the bus stop saw the chaos and opted to take control of the situation, I must admit that they managed the traffic pretty well, much better than the traffic police cops, I guess Bangalore Traffic Police should hire some consultants now. Hats off to these fellows, I made it to the meeting on time, and did get some time to prepare for it as well. Now this is one thing that I love about this city, people are considerate, they stand up and take control of a chaotic situation.

Probably some day something similar would happen to our political system as well, when some people standing at the bus stop would come forward and take control of the county's leadership, but who will bell the cat ???

Song Today: Abhi Abhi mere dil main
Film: Socha na tha...

Chashme Baddoor: My all time Favorite Movie!!!

I watched Chashme Buddoor yet another time, I guess this is the best movie ever made on Bachelor life. Portraying Du, Delhi, the crushes... and the list is endless. One of the masterpieces by Sai Pranjpaye. Fighting for each single Rupee, three persons riding the same bike... sharing suttas. Yes this is Bachelor life at its best.

Some of my favorite Dialogues from the movie:

- time is money and we dont hav money
- omo, siddharth, jaldi aao......ladkiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii...............
- myself GN Lakhanpal, mumbai ke mashoor film director DN Lakhanpal ka naam to aapne sunaa hi hogaa.
- bete itni saari photo laga rakhi hain kam se kam eik Bhagwaan ki bhi laga lete
- Omi Shikaar //this one is my favorite//
- Kya janiyega ke chati jale hai ke daag e dil. ek aag si lagi hai kahi kuch dhuan saa hai
- yaaron, pehle mu to kadva karo
- omi voh dekh shikar... follow me
- Omi - " ohi sada kamra "
Jomo - " ohi manhus nazara "
Omi - " ohi kamini cigaette "
thn Jomo replies ,
" are usko kuch mat khein yaar , ek yehin hasinna to apne zindagi ka sahara hein " .
- Nikli jo gaali bhi aapke labon ko chookar, uski khushboo se hum madhosh hue jaa rahe hain
- Siddharth : Yahaan par achcha kya hai?
Waiter : Ji, Maahaul achcha hai.
- kahaan jaa rahi hain ye do bailon ki jodi??
- Omi: "huh. Gundo ko ek lakh aur sharif aadmi ko ek hazaar?"
- Aur main kehta hoon,ki meri kismat mein hogi to khud ba-khud tapak jayegi...


Too good!

Song Today: Pyar Lagawat
Film: Chashme Buddoor

Royally Challenged !!!!

Mr Vijay Mallya's Team:

1) Katrina Kaif
2) Shilpa Shetty
3) Yana Gupta
4) Ramya
5) Upendra
6) Various other Kingfisher Swim suit Calender Models

Dear Royal Challengers Bangalore,

We are fed up of watching the senior citizens play T20 ( a game which is meant for youngsters), and moreover we are fed up now of the blame game, day before yesterday it was Charu Sharma who was cribbing about losing his job, yesterday it was Mr Vijay Mallya who was cribbing about losing money and reputation, now today I am waiting for Mr Rahul Dravid to crib about something.

We keep hearing these Royal Challengers Bangalore's anthem over the radio, and the horadings all over the city, I think you guys have brought shame to Bangaloreans and Mr Mallya should withdraw all thee campaigns on Moral grounds. This proves repeatedly that BCCI did the right thing to kick out "the wall" from team India. And Mr Anil Kumble, you are fit to play only test matches, maybe you over estimated yourself, but we were very sure of what caliber you have!

Please come back, withdraw from IPL, I am getting embarrassed in facing my friends from Rajasthan and Delhi, it is better to say that we don't play, than to play pathetically.

BIAL is finally opening

Finally the centre has decided to close the existing HAL airport completely. The BIAL drama has been going on since a long time, whether we should keep the HAL airport, whether the short haul flights should continue from the HAL airport. But why this chaos, wasn't it very clear when the airport was planned that it would be too far, oh sorry at that time our government decided that they would develop the infrastructure to get to the new airport. But then they all were working at a apce at which the work generally progresses in this city , and they soon realized that its actually the time for BIAL to open. The BIAL is being headed by the consultants who were involved in the planning and construction of the Frankfurt airport, and they delivered quality construction on time.

When the government knew that we would need certain kind of infrastructure to call it a world class airport, or forget the world class part, for a fast access to the new airport, why were they sleeping till now ??? And now the best solution they can think of is keep the HAL airport operational. Well the decision makers are not taking into account:

1) The huge amount of tax payer's money that has gone in the construction of the new airport.
2) the huge amount of money that we would need to keep the HAL airport operational
3) The money they have blown up on constructing the roads and flyovers to the new airport
4) The government just cannot opt out of the contract with the BIAL, there is something called ethicality and legality. Well if the government can do this, then on mnoral grounds thewy should pardon each and every citizen who breaches the contract in the country!!

Above all, we are a sleeping nation, we don't like to work until and unless the problem is standing in front of us. What I feel is close the HAL airport, let the people and including these big shots suffer in reaching the airport, when we get into a problem only then we would think about its solution. Otherwise we would keep beating around the bush for ages to come!

Bangaloreans: Best of luck :-)

Song Today: Sweet Child O Mine

Chashme Buddor: Pyar Lagawat

One of my all time favorite songs, and one of the best movies ever made on Bachelor life

Cheerleaders & Moral Policing

What are we actually debating about ? Is this the only Issue left in the country ? Ok I agree that many people doesn't like the idea of Cheerleader, then my humble request to all of them is please don't watch them, its as simple as that. I read a very good blog on the same by Amrita Triptahi. Read it here

Yesterday Bal Thakrey went to the extent of saying that the Cheerleaders are turning the cricket stadium into a "Dance Bar" Well Mr Thakrey I don't think so, probably you have gone to a number of such places in Mumbai that is why you are sounding so desperate after the dance bars closed that you are seeing them everywhere. Sometimes these Netas go to any extent, and you never know they are the ones who is enjoying seeing them in short skirts. But I personally doesnt see an issue with the attire as well. If people are okay with Kareena Kapoor wearing a Bikini in Tashan, Aishwarya Rai wearing a swimsuit in Miss world (who actually made India proud according to the then Prime Minister), then why do these people have an Issue with some group of girls wearing short skirt. Bal Thakrey is an exception, that old fellow anyways doesnt have any work, but what came as a shock to me is Mr Venkaiah Naidu standing outside the Parliament holding a Newspaper with Cheerleaders photograph and shouting out in the Media that this is indecent. Mr Naidu if you have forgotten your duties I want to remind you that as one of the leaders of opposition you are supposed to shout on much more meaningful debates and not this, but it seems the opposition is busy wasting the Tax Payer's money.

Neta: Please get involved in more constructive activities, at least prove that you are not doing a time pass in the parliament.

Calvin

SC Upholds OBC Quota....

A dark day, 10th of April 2008, today finally the Supreme Court of India upheld the Law which provides 27% quota to OBCs. So this ends the protests by innumerable Doctors and students in the country, this is an end to a lot of hopes, spoon feeding is never helps the needy. It is like paralyzing their next generation, because this reservation would run in the blood ?

Read Here

Till now the 27% Reservation was only given in the states, but this law would mandate this quota in premier institutions like IITs and IIMs. Atleast these were the two places where there was a fair competition

And by the way this is my 100th post on this blog!

Anyways sometime back Nitin wrote a good post on Reservations and "Affirmative Actions" so giving it here:

Is reservation right or wrong ? I think reservation or affirmative action is required to pull up categories who have been historically weak in their social standing. There can be several implementations of "Affirmative action". The present one of blanket quotas in education is the worst. I would list out the problems in the current policies and possible solutions

• Reservation percentages are too high. They are more than 50% in some states. The propose d 50% in central univs would be devastating for general category.
  
• Creamy layer. The current policy has created created a "creamy layer" withing SC/ST and OBC category. The children of beneficiaries, who have a good education and good financial status, still avail the quota. Creamy layer should be removed from the reservation since they already are at a higher social and financial standing.
  
• Reservation Benefits are allowed multiple times for a single person. A person shouldnt get benefit of quota in education, then higher education and then in job, and then again in promotions. A person should be given the benefit possibly once or twice in a lifetime. From then onwards he/she should prove himself/herself on pure merit.
  
• Not much emphasis of the government on education. India needs a hell lot of skilled people at all levels - technicians, engineers , doctors etc. Education oppurtunities are scarce, thats why reservation is such an issue. If we have enough education oppurtunities then reservation becomes a non issue. Some of the european countries actually have free education for all. We should strive for universal basic education along with more colleges at the higher education level.
• [UPDATED] No onus to remove the quotas. There is a deep concern that quotas once started would not be removed. They would remain forever. Quota percentages should decrease at a constant rate every year.

Ayeena

View Point No 1:

Kaun kahta hai ki humne faisala badal diya.....
yeh baat aur ki raasta badal diya
Bandishe to thi bahut
aur hum bhi shaatir kam naa the
Na surate badal sake to aaeena badal diya

View Point No 2:

Zindagi se Badi Saza hi Nahi,
Aur kya Jurm hai pata hi nahi,
Jad do Chaandi main Chahe sone main,
Aayeena Jhooth bolta hi nahi

Calvin Rocks.....

while coming to office....

- Observed today that the Times of India's initiative "Unlock Bangalore" is actually picking up. all the red lights were manned by Traffic police cops. But I really wonder are we aiming for this, or a better civic sense among Bangaloreans

- Missed RJ Vasanthi Hariprakash on the Radio City breakfast show, this new chap, who calls himself Mr Repairy, is irritating has a pathetic voice and is damn boring, so I have resorted to CDs in my car

- laughed over the pathetic sense of humor the Fever 104 FM RJs have...

- had apple in the car, thats my regular breakfast :-P

- Realized that the bikers ride pathetically, I nearly banged a rider who gave me a bad cut from the left and zoomed, they need to understand that I am anyways in the car, they will be the fellows on the receiving end.

Quote from Calvin:

I say, if your knees aren't green by the end of the day, you ought to seriously re-examine your life.

Song Today: O meri jaan
Film: Life in a metro...

Run @ Nandi Hills

This was a happening weekend on the running front. Will start from Friday, didn't do anything bad on Friday night (Bad to be read as Partying :-P) and slept early, Saturday was the regular Cubbon run with the Red Dragon ganag, did around 12K on Saturday and the run was followed by a lively breakfast filled with discussion at Airlines. We decided on Saturday itself to run on Nandi hills on Sunday morning.

Sunday:

We started at around 5:45 am from Koramangla, it took us exactly one hour to reach the base of the hill, all of us were running at Nandi Hills for the first time. I started a little fast, only to realize it in a while that if I run at this pace I would be gone in about 3-4K, so decreased the pace, the initial 4k was okay I would say, we were prepared for such steep inclines, but the worst was in store for us, the last 4K was definitely the toughest I have run till date, when I used to drive through the same terrain I never realized that this road would be such a tough one to run! We got our share of attention from the people who were driving Nandi Hills, most of the people who passed us were going uphill to see the sunrise, and everybody had this question mark on their faces.... why ????? Well I loved the attention and curiosity that they had.

We treated ourselves with a good Nariyal Paani and Parle-G biscuits,we needed those as the only Gatorade bottle that Prateek had was snatched by a Monkey! As soon as we reached the point where everybody assembled to see the sunrise, the crowd became quiet, and it was really very embarrassing for us, probably this time we got too much attention! We covered the distance of 8K (uphill) in about 1hr 10 min.

Running downhill was tough as well, with all the traffic returning, Sun was cruel on us, and it was a lot humid as well, but apart from all these things I think running downhill is a totally different game, controlling your speed and avoiding any knee and ankle injuries.

There was a lot of things that I observed while running, things that you don't notice while driving:

-well the first observation is, the (the Bangaloreans) have made Nandi hills a very dirty place, the Road had really bad patched where a lot of Beer Bottle / Plastics / Chips packets were scattered, it really doesnt take any effort to take these things back with you, but I really don't know why people prefer to throw them.

- Monkeys: lots of them, but most of them were harmless
- The sound of your feet thumping, can give you a real high!
- Heavenly Silence
- Sunrise

Song Today: Koi Fariyad...