nenapugalu

Applying calculus to Relationships

2012-01-30T17:17:00.001-08:00

Recently I was wondering, what is the cause for unhappiness? What can't one be ever happy? The answer to that was simple. Its the value we attach to people ,the things we own and our surroundings. We might lose the things we own, the surroundings may change, but "most of the time" its simple to comfort us with new ones. Now, the people, that's the hard part. Some we care about, some we love, we may pride our acquaintances, but the bottom line is its all about relationships. And these are too complicated.

Marriage is a pinnacle of such relationships, it has reached a level of sanctity that is hard to contaminate. The older the relationship gets, the more it tends to be like a marriage. You know all the things that you love and hate about the other person. You compromise when you can, more than that you need not shy away from talking about most things. The farthest are the acquaintances. After a certain age, I personally feel our screening process will have gotten so tough that its almost impossible any such new acquaintances/ friendships are allowed to blossom.

The basic fact however is, relationships are fragile. I had assumed that the breaking point is inversely proportional the length of relationships. But I was proved wrong in a number of instances. Then I had to rethink, its not just the length, but also the foundation. The lesser materialistic it is the stronger it gets.

So back to where I started, Is happiness in nothingness? Yes it is. But I have come to realize that you need to lose something to get to know its value. I think the same applies to happiness too. The human greed is in us after all. Sometimes I dream what if John Lennon's Imagine song comes to life. How ever I try to process it, I feel it is an impossible model to sustain.

Introspection

2011-12-10T10:32:00.000-08:00

Its been a long time since I was last here. I am out of the hangover now and no longer excited about US, the dust finally settled! Oh by the way I got a new degree (Kudos to me!), started working again, this time as a developer which I am enjoying very much. As I started at Cisco, my aim was not to repeat the mistakes which i did during my last tenure, hence my first task was self development. I thought a lot about it, and the mistake i did again was I assumed self development equals career development and so it started.

Initially it was just my love towards the new kernel development book by Robert Love; then I don't know when I entered a whirlpool that brought so many changes in my life. It began by asking questions to myself, questions regarding my fears, my addictions, my lifestyle. It was high time, I answer them. First I had to work on the first two. It was the hardest last couple of months that I ever experienced, needed utmost dedication, but as I stand now I accomplished what I set myself for. One of the best things that my friend told me was about "closure". I remember in one of the friend's episodes, Rachel tells Ross that she needs closure. That term had always eluded me, but now i know what she meant. It is needed in life, infact very much. Now I feel good that, although I admired many but never fell in love, I don't think i could have handled it very well! Then my lifestyle, the third, started out with small workouts, but soon realized workout benefits can be seen only by tuning my eating habits. It was challenging at first, but you would be surprised to know I haven't missed a healthy breakfast at 7, in last three months.

Last month I got a new car, a new Mazda 3 i Touring. I am loving it! Got my Hubli home renovated, one of my proudest moments! Although so many things changed, I realized I am not content. I mean truly content. When I got a new car, I thought I would be extremely happy since it would be the first car in my family, but truth is I was not. I needed to buy that laptop, that smartphone and so on. I mean is life all about running behind something or the other all the time? Its like you get married, then you need to buy a house, then kids, then their school, college, their marriage and the list goes on. I had a hour long talk with my mom last night about the same. She had some very good suggestions actually.

Yes, Life means running behind something, it never stops. At any age it does not, we always want something new, something different, something exciting, something more, may be its all a part of being human but one thing we should never forget is after accomplishing something take a little time to sit down, pat yourself, share it with others. Success is important but make sure your feet stick to the ground, don't lose hold of yourself. Competition and success are important but make sure never gain happiness at the expense of others sadness. It will never make you content, truly content I mean!

Oh its 12 already! Have to go to Target, Ross, valley fair mall, Indian store where the hell is my list! And it starts all over again :)

Oxymoronic Songs

2010-08-01T20:33:00.000-07:00

Some interesting observations about songs I made recently. These are songs with lyrics in which, in each line the poet uses completely opposite phrases to express the feelings. Although it sounds impossible, well poets have done a marvelous job in creating some unforgettable lyrics.

I dont know what these kind of songs are called. I just coined the term "oxymoronic songs". I would love to know if you know more such songs.

First one is "She", written by Charles Aznavour. I particularly liked its rendition by Elvis Castello,
Below is a glimpse of it (Here is complete lyrics)

She may be the beauty or the beast 
May be the famine or the feast 
May turn each day into a Heaven or a Hell 
She may be the mirror of my dreams 
A smile reflected in a stream 
She may not be what she may seem 
Inside her shell....

Second is the song from Mungaru Male, Ivanu Geleyanalla, written by Jayanth Kaikini,
Below is a glimpse of the lyrics, (Here is the complete lyrics)

olava haadiyalli, ivanu nanage hoovu mullu
manada kadalinalli, ivanuu aleyoo bheekara suliyo
ariyadantha hosa kampanavo, yaakoo kaanenu
arita mareta jeeva, vaaladante ivana kadege
sooladante kaaye manave, ulisu nannanu

Third is a title track of the Tamil movie "Kannathil Muthamittal".
Below is a glimpse of the lyrics and its translation, (Here is the complete lyrics)

yenadhu sondham nee, yenadhu pagaiyum nee
kadhal malarum nee karuvil muLLum nee
cheLLa mazhaiyum nee, chiNNa idiyum nee
pirandha udalum nee, piriyum uyirum nee

You are my akin as well as my foe,
the flower of love and a thorn in the womb,
the cherished rain and the clouting thunder,
a neonate body as well as an aching death

Two Minds...

2010-07-19T22:51:00.000-07:00

Only some of the opinions in this post are mine most are general.
Apologies for those who feel the opinions are narrow/shallow, I would surely be interested to read more in your post.
And this is not a post to state people in India are not happy. I was there, and was happy :)

Life is fascinating when it comes with surprises. But the most important part is how does one define surprises. An analogy; an interesting movie when you least expected it, a bright sunny day amidst a biting winter, an impromptu trip or family reunion can be enthralling surprises. What about a sudden power cut, a sudden meet up with corrupt government officials, unexpected traffic, self/stranger property woes, an unforeseen riot, chain of government scandals that make our morning tea interesting. Although at that point in time we detest these situations, later we do laugh about these. So does it mean we forcing ourselves to enjoy them because we can't fight them?

Lately I have been pondering over the common question of why people choose US over India. So did i digress earlier? I don't think so. Everybody loves India and they must, not just because it their motherland but so many emotions, memories are tied to it. Growing up in India most of them learnt how to struggle for almost anything and everything. With the government adding more woes than reliefs in the name of reservations, corruption, illiteracy, nepotism, lack of infrastructure etc etc. But being a young Indian one is not supposed to just talk but stand up and fight for a change to usher an new era. Because we are tuned to think nothing is impossible. Its not that nobody does anything about it, we do take steps/support in our own and unique ways to bring that change. The size of involvement however is left to the person. Time is also a factor, as it may take multiple decades to achieve the impossible. But seriously talking how many are ready to give up a considerable portion of their lives to stand up for what in actual is their duty?

Every one has their own family and so many dreams of their parents that have kept on piling, they all need their share of happiness, they need their money and their space. I think at a certain point one begins to think why can't I live a better life when it is possible. The primary reason for this is the greedy mindset of the people there. Its not a wrong thing, probably it one of the things that make us so competitive and it may be attributed to our early struggles in life that I was talking about earlier. They realize that they have worked extremely hard to reach a point in life and of a little sacrifice can take them to a better place where they could live in peace, everyone would certainly like that . Don't they? The problems that the nation is facing are so deep rooted that the probability of one becoming a sacrifice rather than a hero is too high. I do want to make myself think in an optimistic way here but even a hard try could not make me think otherwise.

Greet USA. Life is truly speaking comfortable here. People mind their own business. The government has created such a ecosystem that people are just content all the time. Even I was puzzled when I got the internet/electricity/water connections the same day. Not to forget the fact that it was my third day in a foreign country. The number of problems in any other place would run in thousands. Its not just this, the surprises kept pouring in, their marvelous education system, merciless use of technology in everything and the pace at which anything gets done, the impeccable organization of things, the amount of perfection in which they maintain even the smallest of the tourist place, and not to forget the nicety of the people. More than any of this as I have seen one fact that it true that many of my colleagues/friends/strangers will agree. 'If you have money, you are the king here'. Yes, everything is just so easily affordable.

Things here are just simplified to the core, they are made beautiful to the point at which everything seems artificial, without life. This is the time when the second set of surprises(the dark ones) seem to feel more life like. This can be attributed to a simple fact that "without pain one can never understand the meaning of happiness". And here it is just too much of happiness. I have seen a lot of people here who miss these dark surprises. But do they really? is a matter of perspective. After this slowly things start becoming more clearer, they start seeing the sacrifices they have made w.r.t may be family, relatives, friends etc and they realize that their whole life was all about running after money and materialistic comforts. These and many more such factors speeds up the return to the country of birth.

So what is the right thing to do? Who are the people who made the ethical choice? Frankly, I have no idea. The debate is endless. Lets just assume everyone is right and lets all be content.

The Three Musketeers

2010-07-17T21:59:00.000-07:00

It was 5 PM ,Aramis was yet to arrive. Athos and Porthos were waiting for him as always. They had planned to go to GD just minutes before; as they always believed in impromptu plans. All of'em loved the Dosas there, it was lip smacking good. Finally Aramis arrives with a reasoning, What to do? Some work at home. Athos and Porthos did'nt want to waste time in another meaningless discussion and also because Beega hoodree beegaa barbahudu. They quietly start walking towards the busstop. Aramis puts up another offer "Shall we take an auto,it almost works out the same?". The other two walk as though they did not hear anything, while Aramis is busy with his calculations. They reach the busstop, the bus is late, although Athos was considered lucky, the combined unluck of Aramis and Porthos worked the other way. As they board the bus sudden change of plans; lets hit KM first, the arabic grape juice is just too good, and Athos gets a good reason to have some amazing chicken shaurma rolls.

As they are sipping the grape juice, Porthos reminds Aramis that he has to return him the scissors. This was because certain events that are classified as unlucky according to the three were happening with Porthos, and they strongly believed the scissors were the reason. Unlucky events such as: He is getting lot of calls from Rogi and Kris, his 10 year old cell suddenly stops working, the mall he goes to is not open yet as in at 10 AM, he went to the bus-stop at 6PM and the bus had not arrived (The bus was at 9PM and not that he had misread). So well what do you say? He was unlucky ain't he ? Yes, the scissors were magical!

All three were hardcore movie buffs. Matrix, LOTR, Bommarilu, JWM and DCH. Well lets hope one of them has watched one of these movies today (BTW Do you know what hope means? Hope... It is the quintessential human delusion, simultaneously the source of your greatest strength and your greatest weakness). Guess what!!! the probability is 1.
Then while on their way to GD, some things they discussed were:
Do you know Mikhail Jackson is dead?
Big Bang theory for sure. Penny must feature in one of those.
DMG and MJHT of are top priority.
XKCD, quiz questions, C&H, FRIENDS.
Although Aramis would bring up some esoteric topics other two would make sure to give a blind nod.

While eating dosas at GD, one thing to keep deeply rooted in mind is the faster you eat the major portion you get, from your plate and also others plate.
Then all three headed to "show off" usually. Most of the clothes there fitted Aramis well and he would always go for more gaudy stuff. The whole point of the store was it is good entertainment. Not just good but fantabulous I might add. Coming out of the store, did anyone spot a corn shop on the roadside? Well its out of the world, if the one your ordered is the most delayed, but more important than that is you must not forget to run like a mad man on the road, once you get your order.

Oh well, now what street are they on? Does it have to happen every time that they get lost in the Jayanagar maze? Well some how it does. All one needs to do is trace back to Cool Joint. Softee there is just 5 bucks and how can one miss the Canola just beside. Did someone say something about the hitting the book store on the way. Oops sorry that came out of the other ear.

Life's just good, too good they thought. Atleast, once a month let Jayanagar happen, they wished. I don't know how but just roaming around can get them high. Or if they are so wasted to walk, they would get in long queue to get some butter dosas at Maiya's.
Well, now that its been almost an year, its time to plan one more soon. What say a hangover at Vegas around August 2012. Lets hit it guys!

-Ateeunmeelithanetraananda

Why do we judge people..?

2010-01-10T19:45:00.001-08:00

It is in our nature to judge the people around us. We judge the way our friends act in public. If they ignore our wishes, we think they are disrespectful. If a friend misses a few social occasions, we deem him a miser or a loner. Choices of a person are considered distasteful if his suggested book, movie, song or play do not align with "our thinking at that point of time". If a child commits a crime we deem their parents unfit. A hard working person is labeled as anti-cool. A thoughtful person is assumed boring. If someone deviates from a suggested path he is registered as acting-too-smart/he-is-making-a-wrong-decision. We make these judgments all the time – never thinking that one day we may be judged ourselves.

The most terrible thing about this is we never realize we are judging others on the surface, but the impact of this is so hardcoded in our brain that we almost become opinionated about them. But what happens when we finally stop for a moment and judge our own lives. It can be painful to step back and see what we have been doing. And even more painful to realize that we have no intentions of stopping.

New New year ...

2010-01-01T18:54:00.000-08:00

Last year went like a breeze. With so many surprises, so many wonderful things, it was a great year. Some moments off the top of my head,

Last Cisco trip; My bro-in-law completing his MS and into a new job; Visited my sister after 2 years; my first flight journey; my cousin got engaged; I quit my first job (a pretty big step actually); Moved to a new country; enjoying my studies; getting better at cooking; made lot of new friends; A surprise letter from my mom;

One of the major steps I may say is I am "completely" independent now. While in Bangalore I had some dependency, but here its me for everything. For every right I have to pat my back, and for every wrong its me to blame. Its quite an experience.

Let the surprises of 2010 begin..

Some of my new resolutions..
1] I will not start watching any new US TV series. Will follow only the ones i have watched till now. Because I am up to date with the ones I am watching.
2] Read history and geography more. (I have started this one actually)
3] Will continue to remain updated on new technology.
4] Will open my Facebook and Orkut page only once per day.
5] Will focus more on looking culture from a scientific perspective. And i have started reading Mahabharath back.
6]This semester will work harder.
7]Will continue updating my english song collection.
8] Will add to this list..

Recent good romantic movies...

2009-12-28T11:16:00.001-08:00

Watched some good movies recently:

1]The proposal, The ultimate gift, 27 dresses: They are good romantic movies. One time watch.

2]500 days of summer: Beautiful movie. Its very different from all the typical romantic movies. Catchy soundtracks. Do not miss it.

3]When Harry met sally: Good movie, but you may get bored slightly, but don't worry it will keep you curious as to what happens at the end. As they say " Sometimes Even if you know how somethings going to end,that doesn't mean you can't enjoy the ride". Yup you got it right Meg Ryan looks extremely cute :)

Other than these romantic movies the trailers of Inception look superb. I can't wait for summer 2010.

Even if it kills me....

2009-12-24T09:00:00.000-08:00

Amazing lyrics to relate to, coupled with passionate music. This song is going to rock my world. Don't miss it for the world :)

Extremely passionate rendition of the same by Jeanine and Jason:

Listen to the complete song here:
If it kills me by Jason Mraz

The lyrics goes like this:

Hello, tell me you know
Yeah, you figured me out
Something gave it away
It would be such a beautiful moment
To see the look on your face
To know that I know that you know now

And baby that's a case of my wishful thinking
You know nothing
Well you and I
Why, we go carrying on for hours on end
We get along much better
Than you and your boyfriend

[Chorus:]
Well all I really wanna do is love you
A kind much closer than friends use
But I still can't say it after all we've been through
And all I really want from you is to feel me
As the feeling inside keeps building
And I will find a way to you if it kills me
If it kills me

How long, can I go on like this,
Wishing to kiss you,
Before I rightly explode?
This double life I lead isn't healthy for me
In fact it makes me nervous
If I get caught I could be risking it all

Cause maybe there's a lot that I miss
In case I'm wrong

[Chorus]

If I should be so bold
I'd ask you to hold my heart in your hand
I'd tell you from the start how I've longed to be your man
But I never said I would
I guess I'm gonna miss my chance again

All I really wanna do is love you
A kind much closer than friends use
But I still can't say it after all we've been through
And all I really want from you is to feel me
As the feeling inside keeps building
And I will find a way to you if it kills me
If it kills me
If it kills me
I think it might kill me

And all I really want from you is to feel me
Yeah, the feeling inside keeps building
I'll find a way to you if it kills me
If it kills me
It might kill me

The one with the earring...

2009-11-23T19:23:00.001-08:00

It went like this....

At S's cube..
V: Hey nice earrings. Where did you get them from? They are really amazing.
S: Ninne Ganghibazarge hogidde. Got it from there. I just could'nt resist buying them. gottaaa.
P: All I can say is peer praise. Also other then Gandhibazaar and Mysore she does'nt know any other place..:P
V: Whatever..They are really nice kano. What do you know...

They all move to cafeteria.

P: Idea!!!Now you are saying they are so beautiful. If suppose S gives it to you will you wear them now.
V: Ad haagalla kano. Why will she give it to me?
P: Suppose she gives to to you...@S: Give it to her, lets see.
V: Avalu koTTru nan yaak haakobeku heLu.
S: Yeh..Nan koDalla kano. nindeenoo. Hogoo..koDallaaa
P: Oh Aval koDolla..niv haakolalla. It just means, you praised those earrings just to open up a topic. Although S knew it was so, she took it as a compliment as though you really liked it.
S and V: Whatever we dont care.

Violento Bailongo

2009-11-01T06:58:00.000-08:00

Listen to the song here:
http://www.ilike.com/artist/Bailongo

So you think you can dance..performance of the same:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKyCE-9EzBo

Is there anywhere I can get this song?? Going crazy over this, and unable to find it!!!!

Living life...

2009-10-24T19:03:00.000-07:00

I remember my mom asking me once (looking at the way i drink tea),
Kumar, you want to enjoy even a single sip of tea to the fullest, isn't it?

Ya, its true. I have always loved to live every moment like I wanted to live it. This logic is very powerful as it never makes you want to go back and wish "I could have had more fun in that party or whatever". I have always tried not to bind myself to what the crowd expects. I most of the times stopped bothering about what peers say. Some even commented I acted too kiddish at times. But I never thought maturity as something which is completely about "keeping a serious face" and "making intelligent statements" all the time. Its not that I am not serious. If I were not serious or lacked decision-taking skills about my life, then I would never have been in the position I am in currently. I would have never gotten PESIT or CISCO or NCSU. Some people who know me closely, know how controlling and focused I am when it comes to certain issues.(Ask my current roomies who have labeled me PK-The Manager)

I cherish all my memories whether at home, school, PESIT, BTM, Cisco, or the days I have spent till now at NCSU. Today as I see it, I don't want to go back to any of these. I have had the maximum fun I could possibly have and made sure people around me also have had a great time. But however I am still trying to mold myself into a better person everyday. Life is full of surprises with more fun ,happiness, challenges yet to come. "Life just gets more beautiful with new people we meet everyday and with the new imperfections they bring with themselves". Yesterday itself I had an awesome night with "Deepawali and Dandiya night" together. We played MAFIA till 4 in the morning and it was so much fun that I cannot explain it in words. Day after we are throwing a surprise Pool birthday party to my friend (No need to bother, nobody here knows I blog) and just imagining it thrills me. Midnight, cold water and lots of people getting wet. All I can say is I am eagerly awaiting it. I want to live it.

Mummy..I want Dosa!!!!

2009-10-07T17:07:00.000-07:00

Dosa, one of the many awesome delicacies from South India. I crave for dosa so much that I can never get enough of them even if i have them daily. Every time I used to go to Hubli from Bangalore, I used to remind my mom two days before, so that she can keep the dosa batter ready the day I land in Hubli. Too nostalgic about dosa today. Was reminded of the varieties of dosa I have had.

Mum's special dosa: I can easily eat around 7-8 such thin dosas at a time. Its lip smacking good. Mashed potatoes with lots of onions and turmeric; and white coconut chutney; and butter along with it just make it heavenly. I always ask my mom to make enough dosa batter so that i can have dosas for lunch, uttapam at the evening and dosas for the next day morning!! Yup I am a foodie and whats great is my mom enjoys cooking for me. Slight mix of egg with dosa batter makes it even better.

Ganesh Darshan,Bangalore dosa: This ones different but too good. Soft in the inside, crispy on the outside with lots of ghee. Any amount of queue to grab a dosa here is worth it.

Mayya's, Bangalore dosa: It looks like almost fried in ghee. Bit costly than the others. But a bite of it makes you forget the cost.

Davangere Benne dosa, Netkallapa circle,Bangalore: I can still feel the taste of the dosas here. He makes amazing kaali dosa, masala dosa etc.The mashed potato with these kind of dosas is completely different. Its just plain mashed potatoes, onions and salt and chilli.

Adiyar Anand bhavan dosa: Have a dosa here, and you will always remember the smell of pure ghee oozing out of your fingers. The cocounut chutney he makes is just awesome here.

Kerala mess, BTM: Pody dosai, and ghee pody dosai are just superb. He smears dosas with some kind of red chutney which just gives it an ethereal taste.

Dosas at food street: The making of dosas here itself makes you want to have them. Especially the way he pours oil above the dosa, its just brilliant.

Its a magical world..Lets go exploring... :D

2009-09-30T19:01:00.000-07:00

One of my friend recently pointed me to this C&H strip, which i had missed out. Coincidentally its the last one and an amazing creation which has so many shades to it. Its just novel, pure, fresh, creative, thoughtful and oozing out optimism...yup.. its life..its beautiful!!! :)

I just loved it. I keep reading it every now and then as it makes me happy and make me want to join him in his magical expedition. Its just fantastic. Kudos to Bill Watterson and thanks to my friend for multiplying my smiles :)

Independent thoughts...

2009-09-26T15:06:00.000-07:00

Winter is fast approaching and the weather is getting more and more romantic each day...In a pensive mood....Some mutually exclusive thoughts running in parallel:

Memories...
Catching up with the lost moments...
Engineering mind...
Ecstatic...
Compromises...
Trying to get over..Knowing its impossible...

Path-breaking dosas..!!

2009-09-25T08:20:00.000-07:00

This blog is dedicated to, the dosas that Sandhya makes, let me take a moment to write about them. There are theories floating around that the smell of these dosas still wanders around the office and I strongly believe in it [Now i get it, why was SA's aura slightly uncooked, slightly burnt]. Discovery channel had a special segment about this under its Mysteries of the earth programme. Nobody could ever come up with a theory explaining what actually went wrong with them. The inventor of such dosas wanted to keep it low profile, so the truth was never out. I never had the opportunity to taste the dosas. I am still guessing if it was my good luck or bad luck. Well whats there to hide, Its obvious it was my good luck. The people who have had it just cannot help taking about it. But what was great is, she was clever enough to get it on a Friday, so that people had enough time to recover.

Flashing news: I heard that Rakhi sawant is planning to come up with the show "The Dosas that never were dosas" to recreate the magic.

Another underdog...

2009-09-24T11:41:00.001-07:00

Listen

Shubodaya....

2009-09-12T19:47:00.000-07:00

Shubodaya...this is how one of my friend greets me anytime he sees me online. It just feels so good when someone wishes you so pleasantly.
Not just this, but a call, to ask how is one doing, a mail and some small things like this change your impression about that person forever.
But why can't some people just realize such a simple fact. That too when its someone who is very close and you look upto for that call or a pleasant wish, it feels bad. When will people realize to show the care when its needed the most. Further, when you call them to say a hi and they start the conversation with the thing you least wanted to hear, you just want to bang that phone and get the hell out of there. Why do people need to be so selfish, its not like everyone is after their materialistic belongings. Why....

Purple Kisses....

2009-09-07T21:09:00.000-07:00

Got hooked to this song since last two years, and still can't get enough of it. I just find it too sexy, something like marijuana to my ears that totally gets me into a different world. Too happy today, listened to the song around ten times continuously.

Sarcastic & funny comments

2009-08-19T16:14:00.000-07:00

Some amazing sarcastic/smart comments I have been through in the last few days..
1]A presentation was going on, when a cell starts ringing from one of the person in the audience section. The presenter says "Well, Hey we now have some background music"

2]The auditorium manager in order to encourage people get to the front seats said "Hey people, you guys can sit in the front row, I promise I wont smell bad"

3]During one of my recent orientations with around 1k audience some questions asked...
Well all that graduate courses part is ok, but how can we get free football tickets?
( NCSU provides free football tickets)
Are we going to have fun here ?

4]Some spoofs:
>A Chinese and Indian student go with an American football game:
Indian guy bored of the game says "How stupid a game is this, here the ball is not even round"
>Some truth you may be unaware of. In here Chinese are considered the stingiest and Indians come second in that race. American invites the other two for icecream. The Chinese student says to the Indian " Did you hear last year a student had a toothache, and he had to spend 500$ from his pocket, that too here the insurance does'nt cover dental". And they decide not to have the ice-cream.

If you guys find any such, please drop them in the comments section :)

Birthday Birthday!!!

2009-07-29T10:02:00.000-07:00

24th birthday was a great blast. It was one of those whose memories will last for quite a long time. All my cousins had got together and it was too much fun. Memories of old days passed by.

Cousins, aunts, uncles all together had been to a post restaurant Balimo. All these posh Bangalore hotels, had grown boring over the years. I used to see too much of a formality which I hate, that too if the people if am with are the ones who come to the restaurants for the ambiance than to have fun. At some times, I had to think can i laugh now? Should I say this now? But this one was different. It has been some months I guess since I had laughed so much. Well how many times do you see the waiter coming to serve the starters and the plate gets empty before he puts it forward to serve or everyone puts their spoon at once to grab a bite from a small cup of ice-cream or everyone prowling over the plate at once to have the biggest piece. Comments on top of comments....more comments.. and more comments and dialogues..Laughs and laughs and more laughs..It went on...Thank you bro's and sis's to having made my day so memorable.

Clock's ticking bro...

2009-06-06T23:38:00.000-07:00

Yeah, it was back in 2001 when my cousin had returned from US. That was the first time when someone close to me had been to the land of dreams. I still recall US-chocolates and pics were the major attention for us to visit my aunt that summer. Aunt had placed all the albums in the showcase, in the hall to splash the success of her son all over the people visiting her.

I keenly gazed through each photograph. Most of the pics included my bro in front of twin towers, him near some huge fountains ,some fancy colorful buildings, him in Madame Tussuad, flowery streets, fruity trees etc etc. It caught all our attention as it was not even a distant distant parallel to what we had in Hubli and Belgaum which were the only cities I had spent my time most in. It was different in the sense: Its so clean and scenic; Even the trees around the roads seems to be trimmed to shape and filled with all the colors; Not just the place but the people around were also so beautiful; Each skyscraper had its own interesting shape; The roads were perfect with plush lawns around them; The climate seemed pleasant in all the seasons; Yeah it was a dreamland, an immaculate land.

Years passed by and US became one of the most banal things with most of my friends been there at least once. And me happily working in Bangalore. I love this city because its so full of life, lot of places to hangout, all my friends are here, the climate is so great and a great work environment. It was just perfect when a new twist in the story, dreamland's back in the picture.

Yeah I am ecstatic, its one hell of a dream come true!!! But will miss this city which gave me so much. And when i will be back the next time it will have changed. As Sheldon from "The Big Bang Theory" says 'Everyone says change is good but it brings new things'.

A nice song. Check it out.

A Watch...

2009-06-04T20:47:00.000-07:00

Some amazing songs/videos I came across recently...
Also decrypt the title of the blog..its NOT just meant to mean 'watch' the video...

The Road not taken...by Robert Frost

2009-05-28T23:05:00.000-07:00

One of the most popular and best poems that I liked of all times.

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear,
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I marked the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Have you.....??

2009-05-26T22:21:00.000-07:00

Read an article in one of the magazines today. A nice poem, hope you too enjoy it. The story associated with the poem was actually good. But I dont have the patience to type the entire one. So go on...have a pleasant read...

Have you ever watched kids on a merry-go-round?
Or listened to the rain slapping on the ground?
Ever follow a butterfly's erratic flight?
Or gazed at the sun into the fading night?

You better slow down. Don't dance so fast.
Time is short. The music won't last.

Do you run through each day on the fly?
When you ask: How are you? Do you hear the reply?
When the day is done, do you lie in your bed
With the next hundred chores running through your head?

You'd better slow down. Don't dance so fast.
Time is short. The music won't last.

Ever told your child, we'll do it tomorrow?
And in your haste, not see his sorrow?
Ever lost touch, let a good friendship die
Cause you never had time to call and say, "Hi"?

You'd better slow down, Don't dance so fast.
Time is short, The music won't last.

When you run so fast to get somewhere
You miss half the fun of getting there.
When you worry and hurry through your day,
It is like an unopened gift thrown away.

Life is not a race do take it slower.
Hear the music before the song is over.

The paragraph in bold is specially for SR...