Caution recommended!!

Chaiya Chaiya in Bali

2011-09-25T15:15:00.000+05:30

Two things about India were known to every single person on the island of Bali - Shah Rukh Khan and Chaiya Chaiya. The video captures both of them in the highest of spirits.

The plight of the almighties

2011-05-14T14:28:00.006+05:30

There was this big puja at my house today, complete with a priest, havan, katha, idols and all the other jazz. Something had told me that this was not going to be an easy experience for me. It all started when I lit the first agarbattis. I rushed into my room to eat, inhale and gulp all the anti allergy medicines I had ever been prescribed. After all those would be much needed for the smoke storm(havan) that was to follow.

But my inspiration for writing today did not arise from my own miseries but rather from something much different. After bathing the idol of Ganesh ji in various liquids and sticky semi solid materials, I was told by the priest, "Ab ganesh ji ka dhyan kijiye". (Think of the Lord Ganesh now). Somehow, such sentences have always failed to bring divine thoughts in my head. But this time I just did as I was told. I thought of Ganesh ji, poor Ganesh ji...

I started thinking how someone would feel if he was indeed treated like our lord. Have you ever known someone who just says two kinds of things to you. First a lot of meaningless flattery just to make you happy. None of which comes from the heart or being even a semblance of what he actually feels. And then comes the motivation for the flattery. He needs you to do something for him. It may be ok if someone does it the odd time, you would probably get irritated with the person if he does it again and you are best advised to maintain your distance from him if he does it again and again!

Yet hundreds of millions of us have been treating our "Gods" in this mean selfish way for thousands of years. We pray to them(flatter them) in f***ing Sanskrit. Obviously we have no intention of meaning those things from our hearts, we don't even know what the hell these lines mean. We even go to the extent of outsourcing the flattery we want to do to a different person, and he mumbles things that we don't care about in a language we don't even understand. He then declares that the lord is pleased and will in-turn bless us with prosperity and health and anything else that we may desire. Hypocrisy may be an intrinsic fabric in Indian society, but this is the sheer height of it.

And then there is the immediate physical and mental trauma that the representation of the Gods(the idols) have to go through. Imagine having smoke thrust right into your face by a plethora of followers during so called arties and all the smoke of the agarbattis burning right under your nose, then there is the baths in all kinds of funny materials, curd mixed with sugar and milk and other sticky stuff. Imagine being the god of a big temple where thousands of worshipers will put you through this every day of your existence. And the top it, constantly being in the middle of high decibel worshipers. Doesn't it all that make you feel lucky that you are 'a mere mortal'.

To all the sincere followers, if there is indeed a God and if there is indeed an afterlife, I get a very strong feeling that you will be in for worse punishment for treating your Gods in the way that you do than me for just choosing to not believe in him. Beware!

An Atheist's visit to a temple

2010-07-16T16:48:00.005+05:30

As the forces would have it, I recently visited the Siddhi Vinayak Temple in Mumbai. There were so many people so eager to show their shraddha towards the almighty. All these people attempting to reserve with full conviction their undisputed place in his heaven.

Personally for me, the irony of the whole setting was overwhelming. That this was suppose to be the house of the most powerful force in existence who has his eyes set closest on what happens in this holy mystical place. And still ..

You could stand in a big huge line behind a thousand people to get his 'darshan' after an hour or two. Alternately you could pay 100 Rs per person and you would be taken by the side gate and go straight to him. There was a fully functional corrupt system to see the lord!! Will he not see the means that you used to get access to him when you plead for your wishes to come true or your rightful place in heaven?

The place was 'fortified' with armed military personal behind bunkers. Their presence was stronger and denser than would be at a party where several VIPs were invited. Definitely much more than any other place where ordinary mortals would be present in masses. This left me wondering why the 'almighty' required such protection? Should he not be the one protecting his worshipers instead of us mortals trying to protect his dwelling?

And then there was the pushing and shoving right in front of the lords eyes. Dude, your God just saw you push that elderly woman as you were attempting to get his darshan. Surely that will not go well in his eyes ! The irony of the place was just too overwhelming!

Now showing trailers of??

2009-10-03T22:49:00.004+05:30

Noooo. you're wrong! this is not a simple "Now showing" pamplet at PVR. None of the movies on it were playing when I looked at the schedule! I asked the guy at the counter where these movies were playing. I was told these are the movies that they are now showing trailors of!!

Muhammad Ali Road at 2:30 AM

2009-10-03T22:28:00.007+05:30

If there is paradise for a foodie, it is Mohammad Ali Road at night during Ramadan. People gave funny smiles and told us to enjoy ourselves as we asked the way to the place. We reached the place and it was amazing. There was food, food and more food. The firnis, shavermas, kebabs, jalebis, sweet breads.. We gulped them all :)
Muhammad Ali Road - A place truly recommended Ramadan.
Belated Id mubarakh to all.
Cheers :)

Chinese soup of Life

2007-09-23T08:38:00.000+05:30

Any guesses as to what this is? Kemchi Soup and well... that's it!!! All of it is just a soup!! To be totally honest, I am lying a bit. I did ask the lady who served it to me to take back one more bowl of rice that was with this little serving. Also the little bowl on the centre top was what I ordered as my main course, but the remaining 5 and the additional bowl of rice that was taken away was what the Chinese call soup and soup only!!
Photographed at The Food Republic, Vivo City, Singapore.

Monster breads and stinkin pizzas

2007-09-19T08:03:00.000+05:30

Is it made of stone or sand, maybe it's a metal scuplture or maybe it's for real. No sir, u're all wrong, the photograph above is plain BREAD. I took a photograph, but I sure didn't feel like eathing this beast... even more so when it's priced at $19.95.

Stinkin pizza anyone? They make typos for spelling at lots of places in India, but this one is definately blown out of proportions. And yes I could not assimilate the courage to order one.

Lions?????

2007-09-19T07:47:00.001+05:30

Is there any semblance of a chance that any reasonable sane man will mistake these lazy, slithery, ugly cwarling things to be a Lion!!! Behold.. this is what the Americans call SEA LIONS. I also have a closer shot just incase you dont feel absolutely sure of the insanity in the nomenclature.

By the way, I just thought I'll educate the readers a lil bit about why they are actually named so, the person who named them thought they sounded like lions, not looked like them. Honestly I was totally unconvinced of his argument though.

Primates forever.

2007-09-19T07:38:00.000+05:30

Some people just dont lose their primate roots do they. That's me at the pfeiffer state park in California.

I've done it yet again!!

2007-09-19T07:31:00.001+05:30

This is a photograph of the original battery of my new camera. You must be wondering why I put it here. Well this is the latest addition to the things I've managed to loose. I have no Idea why I took this photograph in the first place but I took it, maybe the Lords wanted me to have a memoir. Anyways, the photograph is what I still have left, the rest is history. :(

Agonies of death... looming large.

2007-09-04T16:32:00.000+05:30

I am writing here to tell you that my life is in grave danger, a threat from a woman more dangerous than ever convieved. My body shimmers as I think of her and I cannot summon the courage to tell her true identity.
Let me tell you a bit about her. She is is a ninja and assassin who wields two bladed sai as her trademark weapon. She is a love interest of a Daredevil, but her violent nature and mercenary lifestyle divides the two. She is the world's most lethal woman, cold blooded and has killed more men than any in history. Her primary abilities are a strong knowledge of martial arts and weaponry. She is a master combatant with the Japanese Sai, her usual weapon of choice. She is also highly skilled with the katana, daggers, 3-sectional staff and throwing stars.
I have been running for my life from this woman, I know not what upsets her but I do know that my ordinary self will be no match for her when she draws her Sai to cut me into 2. This is just a small sample of a conversation I had. I have had to refrain from writing this woman's true identity, maybe she'll spare my soul from the eternal torments that lie in front of me. You may uncover her true identity by noticing the excessive usage of certain words but henceforth I shall refer to her as Electra Hellstrom.

Electra Hellstrom [6:31 PM]:
u r cheap
Electra Hellstrom [6:31 PM]:
and disgusting
Electra Hellstrom [6:32 PM]:
and gadhe ki poonchh

Electra Hellstrom [6:37 PM]:
dekho zyada fadfadaao mat

Electra Hellstrom [6:40 PM]:
tumhare do tukde kar ek agra aur doosra ranchi bhejna pasand karungi

Electra Hellstrom [6:55 PM]:
zyada shaane na bano
Electra Hellstrom [6:55 PM]:
neways main aa rahi hoon wahan
Electra Hellstrom [6:55 PM]:
bach ke rehna

Friends, do advise me a suitable course of action, I am tired of running and almost living in death.
Electra if you read this, let me live or kill me, but spare the soul in me for it knows not what it has done to deserve such punishment.

Prashant

The party called life!

2007-08-27T18:30:00.000+05:30

While I do not really believe and neither am I even slightly ever motivated to write something like a dairy. I thought I have to write a record for the week that just passed. It was not a holiday.. merely suppose to be a regular working week with a couple of event here and there. As it turned out, there was so much to do and so little time, 24X7 was just not enough to rock my world :)

Monday was a slow start. It actually started as a bit of a work day.. but I soon realized that working at Microsoft has really spoilt my working habits (as if I worked so much earlier). I was somehow tired as hell in 2 hours and decided to hang around in the campus for some time before going home. Just a plain vanilla movie on TV and a few hours of computer games to end the day.

The 28 hour party -- Yup 28 hours is right, this started at 7 on Tuesday with a meeting for the movie we're about to make. The earnestness of the guys was amazing as minute details of the script were discussed and finalized. Then I started with the marathon game of civilization 4 as I reached home. The human race should most definitely be banned from playing games like this. One game last 10-15 hours and the game is immersive enough to hold you on your seat forever. This one kept me going for over 14 hours as I finally left my laptop at noon the next day. I was already late for the team outing at Runway 9. Well I reached there around 1:30 and almost headed straight to the go-karting track. finishing a competitive second in the IDS team over a series of competitive races. Laser combat, archery, shooting etc were the other indulgences there before I quickly headed to catch my movie at PVR at 6:15. I was exhausted as hell and driving my car around the streets have never been as hard as it was at this time. Ok, I thought I'll make use of comfortable seating and air conditioning at the hall to make up on lost sleep. The movie was Chak dae, a typical sports movie with the same dramatic story as they typically are. Something /someone charges up an absolute underdog and they go on to win something quite big. But I must say that this one was pretty well made and one of the few movies where I didn't feel like laughing on the emotional sequences. The movie managed to keep all my attention for the entire duration and I couldn't sleep a wink. Then came the hard drive home... damn I managed to take my ride straight into a city bus. It now has one less headlight and is awaiting to be fixed :( . But that's what insurance is for isn't it :) At home I thought I'll indulge in some more gaming but the body refused to co-operate and I was forced to end my party at 11:00PM Wednesday.

Thursday I was off to Chennai for my Visa interview. I will have to say Microsoft India is not at at all miserly when it comes to employee welfare. Being given an option to stay at The Hilton, Radisson or Park immediately made my spirits higher. Flew Kingfisher (wow there is so much to see on that airline) and had a nice Baleno at my disposal for my stay in Chennai. For the interview, I was just asked one question, "Why are you going to the US" to which I gave a one line answer. I was told immediately that my visa would be delivered shortly. Anyways, I was back home at 11:30PM on Friday, watched the remainder of Sin city that I had missed on my return journey before going to sleep. I had plans for a long day day ahead.

We were to reach for shooting at Saurabh's house at 6:00 AM in the morning. The thought made my soul scream blue murder but for the cause. To my own amazement, I reached on time and to find guys already there and started off with the scene that was to be shot at dawn!! I'll actually be putting up more details of this on the movie blog so lets just skip the details here. But it was amazing fun and we continued till 7:45 odd before my body started failing me again. The evening was a relaxed affair as we chatted and played games as usual till quite late.

We had tickets to Transformers and Rataouille for Sunday but the bomb blasts in the city the previous day had played spoil sport and we were unable to watch them. Anyways as they say, the party must go on so we indulged in multiplayer gaming for the whole day of Sunday(11:00 AM -2 AM) non-stop. I definitely missed my bath and I think even the tooth brushing ritual in the midst of all the non-stop gaming.

I just read the post and was almost starting to get jealous before I remembered that this is my own story ;) This Monday I seem to be continuing where I left off yesterday. I have been writing blogs at a frantic rate, this being the third one for the day. The party of last week is over but the party called life continues....

-Prashant

100 crores and growing!!

2007-08-27T18:00:00.000+05:30

I was finding it hard to move through the crowded airport at Hyderabad as I was heading to check in. It was definately more crowded than any railway or bus station I had ever seen.

But that was only the beginning, then came champion suprême Chennai. Sorry for the poor resolution on the poor man's phone camera but if you look carefully you'll actually be able to see the metal detectors far far far away. Bhagwan kasam, never been in a line as long as this one in my entire life!!!

We Indians have simply got to stop breeding at this frantic rate........

-Prashant

The Evil God

2006-07-15T07:07:00.000+05:30

I've always had a tendency to relate knowledge acquired from various subjects and sources. Whether it be physics and chemistry or Compilers and algorithms. When I tried finding similar analogies between science and God, it led to tremendous contradictions. Science claims that the laws of physics and other sciences control the world. It says if you drop a coin, it will fall to the ground with an acceleration of about 9.8 m/s. The other line of thought says that that the universe is governed by this supernatural being who created the world over a 6-day period. I found it difficult to believe in both simultaneously and am firmly aligned to science.

I decided to think the other way for some time and will be basing my thoughts in this essay on the assumption that Gods exist and have powerful influences on human life. For some reason, God refuses to reveal himself to the common man. This God must have chosen the great spiritual and religious leaders and religion in general as his tools to guide people on how to go about their lives in the way that he wants. These people have been hand picked by him as the best to carry his message to the world, the others he apparently does not find worthy of any trust, nor does he find them capable to give the slightest evidence of his existence. So, we as common men must view this divine being through the eyes of the people who carry his messages. We must have faith and belief in scripts written thousands of years with no definite source.
If this were indeed the truth, the impact religion has on human life can be viewed as actions performed by the great lord himself. But, the impact of religion on human society seems extremely detrimental to me.

Religion - Arguably, the biggest single cause of human death ever.

Be it the crusades for Jerusalem or Hitler's concentration camps. More recently be it 9/11, the Bombay blasts, or the Palestine conflict. Religion is responsible not for hundreds or thousands of human deaths but millions and millions of them(Mostly innocent). I read this quote somewhere, "Surgeon General's Warning: Quitting Religion Now Greatly Increases the Chances of World Peace." How crude but how true as well. I am sure that I do not need to give more examples to convince you. You can think of tens of examples at a moment's thought.

A lot of theists will argue that these actions were performed by religious fanatics and is no reflection of what god wants us to do. But the fundamental problem with religion is the inability to question the rules laid down by authority. If you and I cannot question whether there is a god and what is the proof of his existence, how is the common Afghan to question the maulwis telling him to wage jihad against non-Muslims (Indians or Americans or anyone else). Neither should he under the assumption that our God has exposed his wishes in the great scriptures and to the great religious saints. This is after all from the holy Quran.
"2.39. But those who reject Faith and belie Our Signs, they shall be companions of the Fire; they shall abide therein."
"3.151 Soon shall We cast terror into the hearts of the Unbelievers, for that they joined companions with Allah, for which He had sent no authority: their abode will be the Fire: And evil is the home of the wrong-doers!"
So helping God by putting the Kafirs (Nonbelievers in Allah) into the fire should be a good deed indeed.

God - The obstacle to economic progress

These was a time in Europe around the 6th to the 10th Century AD when the power of the Church was unquestionable and supreme. This time is known in European history as "The Dark Age".
Closer to home I see a system where a person is not allowed to change their profession if her/her occupation has become obsolete. A quarter of the populace is treated as "untouchables" and we almost created laws banning them from changing their religion. An argument against this is that the caste system becoming rigid has been caused by corruption of the religion over several thousand years. I find this extremely hard to believe, as ours was possibly the most divided society conceivable in ancient times. It was to the extent that we had a separate language for the elites (Sanskrit) and another one for the commoners. We find in Mahabharata that a gifted child called "Ekalavya" was refused education from his teacher as he was not of the appropriate caste.
Besides there are numerous other bindings that Hinduism imposes on it's followers, though not followed in totality, the inabalility to travel abroad being one of them.

Religion - Severely hindering Scientific Progress

Galileo was banned from teaching ideas that the Earth was not the center of the Universe and his findings using his telescope. He was later subject to house arrest after getting to his knees and begging to be forgiven.
Around the year 1600, under instructions from the church, a man called Giordano Bruno had been kept in a dungeon for 8 years, later a nail was driven through his tongue, he was tied to a metal post, wood and some of his books were placed under his feet and he was burnt to death. His crime ---- he had said that the earth revolved around the sun, the sun is a star and their might be other worlds with intelligent beings on them and that Jesus did not possess god like power and souls can’t go to heaven.
This one kind of explains itself actually. Science and God have been totally contradictory, so God obviously does not want Science to progress. We must agree after our first premise that all science developed by mankind is some kind of a hoax actually so probably this point doesn’t even count.

Should we be religious fanatics?

For those who suggest that all the above was the result of religious fanaticism, and we must apply our heads before believing what we are told. I feel compelled to point out the double standards you are using. On one side you are wiling to believe that there is a super powerful super good God somewhere who is responsible for everything that happens in the universe. If you do believe in this you must honor his message whether it be to kill kafirs or to burn people who contradict the bible of treating a quarter of the populace as untouchable. If this god does not prove his existence to you directly and you religion is all you must rely upon, you must do all this or he shall punish you in your afterlife.

Specialization

2006-05-11T22:03:00.000+05:30

The author in me tells me repeatedly that he wishes to switch to a Product and pre-sales type of a role (For the uninformed, this division in Trilogy is responsible for conceptualizing products and does not deal with the actual implementations- read creation of content). Here are some of his concepts and ideas to write about.

Trip to Paradise - For the Goa trip earlier this year.
Elliptical orbit - For my first year at college. (During their elliptical orbits comets are so close to hitting the surface as well as so close to attaining escape velocity!!)
Mindless chatter - Simply for mindless chatter
Just me

But how do I create the rest of the content? Do i get Ukranian outsourcers to do the job for me? After all they seem to be doing pretty good jobs at some of the Trilogy projects. After considering the economics of such a project I have ruled out that option as being financially unviable. I must first write a book and sell a million copies before I can do any such thing.
I have been trying to tell Mr writer that our start-up (this blog) requires him to take up a much more broader role in the organization. But he threatens to leave the organization and go back to hibernation if i push too much.
My organization decided to look at other possible alternatives. We thought we should fire this writer and find another one which has the potential to win a booker prize, will be willing to reside in my body and last but not the least will work for free. I searched tirelessly all over the net for a suitable candidate. I also contacted recruiting firms but no-one will help me on this extremely important issue. I guess these companies just dont have it in them to take up challenging tasks. Also the internet seems too disorganized.
I will continue to try to persuade the writer in me to help me create more content. Also I will feel extremely grateful if my readers refer suitable candidates for a replacement. I am ending this post in a hope that i will have a writer in time for my next post.

-Prashant

My dilemma

2006-05-09T22:42:00.000+05:30

For as long as my memory serves me, my contribution to the literary world has been an absolute zero. And I will even fall low enough to count an essay written in class.... Today after centuries of hibernation the writer in me has awoken and is all set to win the next booker prize. Wow, looks like i have a knack at dramatizing things!
As with any great essay in the history of time, I realize I need something to write about. Well, I havn't written a thing in the last 20 years or so, I should have a lot to write. I could write about the numerous trips that i'd been to all over south India in the last fews months. But unfortunately i seem to have a knack of going with lots of authors and poets and they'll definately do a better job at that. I could write about my rather interesting time at TU. That'll make for some nice reading. Maybe a well written work on it could sell better than 5 point someone. No way in hell, it'll give me nightmares even if I win the booker for that.
I could write about my time in college. "My four year holiday" as i often call it. Well the first year was by far the most exciting and dramatic year of the four. It was the time when I had just entered college and was willing to take on the world. Two weeks old in the hostel me and Rahul had plans to beat up any senior who came to rag us (Although that plan was not actually implemented atleast at that time). But alas, i dont seem to remember it well enough to write about it.
The final sem at college was mayhem. From me organizing the fashion show to scolding the HoD for not giving me my project of choice. Well I took up the job of the fashion show inchare thinking it would be a hep thing to do and will be gr8 fun with all the college chicks around. Turned out to be far from that. And I can now bear testament that organizing a fashion show is far tougher than any programming challenge I have faced in my life. As far as scolding the HoD is concerned, I will leave that narration to naveen who was the hero of the whole episode. I was mearly a "side actor".
Ok, I've decided to look at other forms of writing, I could write my thoughts on atheism for instance. About how by logical thinking, the absense of god is so clear. Or I could just give u a link to the original work from where i derive these ideas. How I'm thinking of somehow escaping when my mom takes me to a temple when i go home. Unfortunately, escape has to be done in a way as to not hurt her. I can pretend to oversleep but cannot really say no. Nah, this one would take a little too much creativity which is really beyond my capabilities at the present time.
The voices of the literary genius are dying again within me and I think i will have to finish my post here.

-Prashant