Mukhtasar si baat hai...

Happiness

2011-06-24T08:48:00.000-05:00

One of the most profound questions - what is happiness ? As with most questions, there are no absolute answers I feel. Definition from my book.

Happiness : The feeling when you have nothing else on your mind apart from what you are doing at that instant.

consistent vs. right

2010-12-01T23:40:00.000-05:00

An interesting example at home - I leave the shower switch on after taking a bath. Which means if my wife gets in to get a mug of hot water from the tap, there will be a shower of water on her.
Now it is a bad thing for me to do, but since she is used to it, she always checks if the shower switch is on.
Now one fine day, suppose I remember to switch it off. She will come and figure out that she no longer need to check the swtich everyday

Next day, I am back to my good old ways and she is showered all over again !
So ...

Is it more important to be doing the right thing all the time or to be consistent ?

Paa - Review

2010-01-22T22:16:00.002-05:00

Finally saw Paa last week and was not disappointed. A simple and honest movie with no fanfare.

The greatest compliment I can give to Amitabh Bacchan in this movie is that I did not see him at all in the entire movie. And when I try to contrast a "common man" in "Rab ne bana di jodi", it is just unbelievable.

Death and Taxes

2010-01-20T01:15:00.001-05:00

Nice quote about two of the most discussed topics :)

"But in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes." - Benjamin Franklin

your favorite color

2009-12-13T10:08:00.003-05:00

The spellings the subject line would definitely indicate that I am using a US dictionary !

Irrelevant line to start with, but the question has been asked so often that I did not feel like beginning with it.

I don't know what is my favorite color, but I do know what is NOT. There are two toothbrushes in our tooth brush holder - one is Maroon and another is green.

I always pick up the Maroon one and then say WTF and pick the green one. Start buying different colors of tooth brushes to figure out what is your favorite color ? Art of elimination :)

My Top Songs on the road

2009-12-10T12:14:00.002-05:00

Pink Cadillac - Bruce Springsteen

Born to be wild - Steppenwolf

Runnin' Down A Dream lyrics - Tom Petty

Highway to hell - AC/DC

Magic Carpet Ride- Steppenwolf

Freedom

2009-12-02T11:54:00.001-05:00

Freedom's just another word for nothing left to loose - Janis Joplin

chrome os

2009-11-22T09:53:00.001-05:00

Not impressed so far. I guess I am not a "browser only" person.

Bangalore Traffic - Pet peeve #1

2009-11-15T20:23:00.003-05:00

I hate the people (read big vehicles, autos, taxis and other private transport) who do not stick to their lane when they have to make a turn.

This category will be on the middle and right lane if they have to turn right and some how feel it their right to stand where they are if the traffic to the right is not moving. Hence causing traffic moving straight to stop for no apparent reason !

The apathy of policemen to fine such incidents is the primary reason to keep the "road-is-my-garden-thinking" people unchecked.

Traffic Policy department - please have a heavy fine on such offender who block the traffic like this when there should be no traffic Jam ! This will ease your work as well !

Google Wave - Initial reviews

2009-11-14T01:32:00.001-05:00

Finally got a google wave invite and unlike gmail, was not particularly thrilled when I opened it. The first take is that it is not as intuitive as other google products.

Does not work for you out of the box.

Indian Transformers

2009-11-14T01:29:00.002-05:00

Courtesy a colleague at work, deserves space in the blog !

Wake up Sid

2009-10-04T21:53:00.002-05:00

Too ranbirised. Nothing new in the movie apart from konkana Sen Sharma getting a mainstream role. Controversy with MNS will definitely help the movie and so will the 4 stars it got in Times of India. Anupam Kher and Supriya pathak were good.

Maybe a good family drama, but as my friend pointed out, we are the crowd who likes "Inglourious Basterds" and hence it is what I will see next week.

floods in north karnataka and AP

2009-10-04T09:38:00.001-05:00

We wake up every now and then there is a calamity - can there be no "plan" for a contingency ?

Books , Movies , Weekend drives and Video Chat

2009-07-17T05:20:00.003-05:00

Well it has just been over a month that I am in US now and even though my office colleagues have been extremely helpful in giving me company, I do find lot of time to myself and this is how I am spending it.

Catching up on my reading : Read two agatha christie, angels and demons, and almost finishing twilight.

Movies : Lots of them if I were to count the number of times I have been to theatres. Well just a theatre close to the hotel. Star Trek, Transformer, Angel and Demons(after the book) and Public Enemy. Harry potter, here I come :)

Weekend Drives : Connecticut to my friends place. Harveys Lake, my colleague here took me out for July 4th celebrations and a nice round of fishing in the mountains :) And I am driving to New York tomorrow to my school friend.
Lots of trips planned when my wify is here :)

Video Chat : Does help a lot if you see faces of family while you are away :)

Prejudice

2009-07-09T14:43:00.003-05:00

Prejudice (specially about people) is quite an evil thing - and specially if they are a result of opinions from others.

A peson may turn out to be exactly what you "pre-conceived", but then giving someone a chance to start afresh is a quality I would like to have.

Hence my funda for the day : Don't take people on words of others. Give them a chance and see for yourself.

marks in vim - bookmarks

2009-01-25T02:47:00.003-05:00

- Go to a line where you want a mark and press mx - this will create a bookmark

( x can be any alphabet from a-z)

- Now navigate away from that place. If you need to get back to the earlier cursor location press "`x" (back-tick and x)

- You can set multiple "marks" in a single file and navigate using back-tick and the alphabet used to create a mark

Ghajini

2009-01-01T22:09:00.003-05:00

Unrealistic, but watchable.

(Spoiler Warning for content ahead)

- Hysterical flashes during the movie, the photos, tatoos reminds of Memento.

- Too many coincidences for it to be just an inspiration

- Few movies named after the Villain ( Don is the only other one I remember , looks like I am suffering from short term memory loss)

- Forgot to add that movie is about short term memory loss (anterograde amnesia), but Aamir forgets everything about his past.

- Liked the number plates on Aamir's car fleet ( 1111, 2111, 3111, 4111) and they travel in that order with Aamir in 1111.

- Aamir calls from London during day and it was night in India. For a change an Indian movie took care of the time zones

- Gutteral snarls from Aamir could have been less

- The flashbacks from the "diary" were pretty watchable and so was Asin who brings freshness to the movie

Being Aamir fan, could not dislike the movie :)

Rab ne bana di Jodi - Review

2008-12-21T10:36:00.001-05:00

Fails pathetically

Man on Moon (Well almost)

2008-11-21T08:30:00.000-05:00

India becomes the 4th Nation to put a lunar probe on the moon ! I am proud to be the 4th country to do that(as against the alleged 3rd world country banter from Matthew Hayden who knows nothing more than being a sore loser)

copying movies from video cd

2008-10-05T01:57:00.002-05:00

got a video cd from a friendly neighbourhood video library and did not have patience to watch the movie. Copying it to my laptop gave a cyclic redundancy check error and refused to copy the files.

xcopy /C

/C is an option to xcopy to ignore errors

Rock On !

2008-09-14T09:10:00.000-05:00

Went to a movie after a long time - first since I saw "Dark Knight". Another first was the movie hall, Fame Cinemas in Lido Mall. Good movie, Interesting mall. Their restrooms make an aircraft's loo seem huge ... and while I was inside, amongst a crowd of 50 with my head barely able to avoid the ceiling, I could hear the floating lyrics of britney's song - "My Loneliness is Killing me", Yeah Right !!

Rock On Was great, an honest movie without the usual hindi movie BS. I recommend.

sporting dilemma

2008-07-06T09:49:00.001-05:00

super sunday
1. Wimbeldon Finals
2. Asia Cup Finals
3. Formula 1

As I write this, Formula 1 race is done with , and I am struggling to keep up with the other two. Cricket on my laptop through internet and Wimbeldon on TV !

Ekta Kapoor's Mahabharat

2008-07-05T10:08:00.002-05:00

Ekta Kapoor is making Mahabharata - Any Ideas what the central theme would be ?

The epic quarrels between Kunti and Pacnchali (Probably the origin of saas bahu jhada where kunti actually divided her between her 5 sons !)

The "P" category

2008-06-03T21:59:00.003-05:00

A vast number of Bangalore cars (as in other cities), carry a "L" sign on its back. Does not indicate that it is a "Long" car, rather says that the driver is a Learner and beware :)

I feel bangalore needs another tag along with "L". It should be called "P" - Maybe for a "Professional" or more aptly for a "Pain in the place that must not me named" (Spoken in voldermort fashion, oops he is ttthe He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named).

Sorry for the digression, it is the "chanchal*" brain-cells of mine who wander. Coming back to the point, BEWARE of tags on the car with "P", since the driver that carries this mark has the ability to go 60 miles an hour at places where only 20 is possible, has the capability to make 90 degree turns at the same speed and can apply brakes to the car from 60 mph to 0 in 1 second flat.

* Chanchal Meaning:
1. agile
2. restless
3. unsteady
4. giddy
5. energetic
6. inconstant
7. freakish

Life and Death

2008-05-13T22:58:00.002-05:00

"The reason death sticks so closely to life isn't biological necessity - it's envy. Life is so beautiful that death has fallen in love with it, a jealous possessive love that grabs at what it can."

--Yann Martel
(Life of Pi)