Thursday, February 21, 2008

great find...

I was feeling hungry to see/listen to some interview of our finance minister when I found this great place in YouTube. It's really amazing. A collection of interviews by Charlie Rose. I hope many would find someone of their interest being interviewed there. Do visit.

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

hail capricorns...

( desktop of a dark soul :P.. )

Poor Capricorns – we often suffer from an incorrigible tendency of falling victim to unnecessary frustration and negativity. Just a matter of fact negative trigger from a bad day and we are imagining the darkest of possibilities. At those moments we are so pessimistic that we can almost transform the B +ve blood into B –ve only by talking frustration. The previous ‘i am the flaw…’ was a result of that…


This capricious tendency of us Capricorns is almost similar to the weather at London. Today it is bright, warm and sunny and tomorrow by no distant rhyme or reason it will become dark, cloudy and cold. Sometimes the sunny mornings are colder than the overcast mornings! Not many desi guys like this weather. ‘Crappy weather’ is all they keep saying. I, on the other hand, find it more familiar given my initial years spent in Shimla and Pilani which have almost similar impulsive climate.

Meanwhile, the work is progressing and there are some green signals coming from top. Presentations, documents and statistics… That’s where I am spending most of the time right now. The experience of inventing correct data without doing lab experiments in the engineering labs is coming very handy. This will hopefully be over soon though. Also trying to figure out what I am capable of doing if not this. I could not imagine anything except ‘khetibaaDi’ or perhaps blogging (??) but how about bread, butter and coffee?? So, will now remove the dark gory Ghazals, and listen to Robbie Williams with a bottle of British ale until I find a contingency plan for post pro life:



Tuesday, February 19, 2008

i am the flaw...

I am the desire,
the ambition of an arrogant mind
that I know I can never fulfill

I am the anger,
the boiling blood in my veins
that I know will melt my bones

I am the weakness,
the shameful vacuum in my throat

that I know I can never accept

I am the fear,
the suffocating smallness of my heart
that I know I can never outrun

I am the thought,
the words infected with emotions
that I know I can never comprehend

I am the loneliness,
the warm moist tear in my eyes
that I know I can never evade

I am the flaw,
the me which I want myself to be
that I know I can never become

Friday, February 15, 2008

now what...

This is one of those days when I am feeling tired and exhausted. Not by the work and work-politics, but by the emotions, reasons and indifferences of my own. I love myself with all these conflicting emotions, where one says go for it, other says stay away from it and still other says ‘who cares?’Period! I hate this tendency of mine.

I have been reading a lot about writer’s block, pen’s paralysis but experiencing it today. Not sure if it is that! Not a bad situation at all. There is nothing to rebel against, there is nothing to get inspired from – what can a person write in that situation? Very enlightening state of mind - if you look closely! Those moments when ‘what-nexts’ and ‘now-whats’ hit you like a devastating explosive, destroy all what you built and make you think all over again.

Alas! The restless heart or the brain perhaps! The marvelous machine which receives stimuli, prepares responses and leaves the body to display those responses, a complicated matrix of zeros and ones, a maze of complicated choices.

I was watching the ‘Unlocking the Mystery of Life’ videos (links for the 7 parts are there in the Video Roll) and found some interesting facts about evolution. Just try them in your spare time, might interest you. I used to watch them one every night before going to sleep.

Or try this video/song from movie ‘Wo hu Cang Long’ (Crouching Tiger the Hidden Dragon):



Cheers!

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

rocket idli…

Living with a Sri Lankan family here in London, as most of us desi guys usually choose to, so that when we land back home our pound-savings give us a lot of rupees to spend. It is 50 GBP a week and decent enough for us desis (well, it depends…) When you are earning as much as a bus driver earns here per month, then you start making economical decisions. Anyhow, here the standard of living is very high.

Now, these Sri Lankan guys are fine in all other aspects (viz. cleanliness, friendliness et al) except their eating habits are ultra-hot. They eat so much meat that had their population been one billion like us Indians, all chicken, lambs and fish would have become extinct species by now. Breakfast, lunch dinner - and you smell meat-cooking all the time inside house. Well, that’s not all – upon that they put so much RED chilly in their food (by that I mean everything – chutney, curry…) that an English person’s rectum would get septic after a single Sri Lankan Meal.

So last night, we got this opportunity to eat Idli with (Sri Lankan) Chutney and (Sri Lankan) Sambar. If I had not eaten some chocolates after that hot cindering
chutney and spicy scorching sambar combination, I would not be writing this today. That’s not all. Every time I go for defecating, my a** feels like NASA’s rocket. Phew!!! Drinking lot of juice now to undo the chilly effects. One of my flat mate got loose motions after that meal. Now just imagine what he might be going through!

God bless his a**! Pray for mine!

Monday, February 11, 2008

love at first sip…

First weekend in London and sunny days – what else can one ask for? My first destination – Westminster Abbey, the famous church built in the shape of a cross by Edward the Confessor.

Best way to travel in London is the tube (i.e. the underground metro as we have in Delhi and Kolkata!). Best is to buy one oyster card for the zones you want to travel and tubes and buses are at your service anytime anywhere within the zones. Transportation is extremely simple and well documented here. If one understands English, he or she can get around this city without any problem.

So I get down at Westminster underground and head towards House of Commons and see the Big Ben. Wo man! It’s huge and unbelievable piece of architecture. General public is not allowed inside the premises, so I head towards the Westminster Abbey - just a walk from the House of Commons. When it is sunny in London, it is heaven. There is no dust on the roads, no noises, no sweat… I mean superb. 10 GBP and you get to see the Westminster Abbey from inside – worth it. All important people of the Kingdom are buried in this abbey. Technically I was walking over hundreds of dead bodies. But it was peaceful and awe inspiring architecture. I saw the graves of Sir Isaac Newton, Clement Attlee, George Eliot and many others. Especially the grave of the unknown warrior grabbed my curiosity. Dead body of a British army soldier (name unknown, rank unknown) was brought in 1920 from France and buried here. History has always been a boring subject when it comes to reading, but when I come to see it in front of my eyes it turns into a fascinating story.

Since it is the time of the Easter, I get to hear songs quire songs as well, which I cannot understand “at all”. Nice experience though. Next stop – Trafalgar Square, nice place, the Nelson's Column is awesome structure. Every place has an interesting story attached to it. Nice.

Then a Big Mac at Mc D. Well, my first Mc D experience. Had never been to a Mc D in India, only tried Subway, Dominoes and Pizza Hut (in descending order of liking). Took a walk beside Thames and then came the time to fall in love for the first time.

No, no! Please don't misunderstand; it is not the love between a guy and a girl. Guy sees the girl and girl sees a guy and they fall in love. That sort of thing happens to me at least thrice in a day and even more number of times in weekends. It was the time to enter a classic pub and taste the “strongbow” beer (it’s called cider here, but doesn’t matter – what’s in a name… after all!) of London. It was love at first sip. With strongbow and indirectly with the beer of London – there is something very strange about the beer here.

You drink as much as you want, next morning you will forget that you drank beer last evening. In India, it is not the same. First problem is we have limited brands back home – King Fisher, Royal Challenge, Budweiser (which has only recently come), Fosters and those local ones (viz. thunderbolt, zingaroo, bansanti…) which are often used in the initial stages in colleges to baptize a potential boozer into an evolutionary talented drunkard. Then, when I drink a beer in India, I will remember for a week that I drank it. That strange feeling will remain with me. But here it is different. First thing is there are many brands. Till now I have had Guiness, Stalk, Strongbow, Beck and Heineken and there are still many names I can’t even spell. And after drinking them, you will simply forget them as if you drank some juice or water or some mango-lassi. Simply superb beer! They taste very different and very nice.

The place is slowly getting into the nerves. I’ve already fallen for the beer and the Berger. Will be eagerly waiting for the next weekend. Cheers!

Friday, February 8, 2008

das leben der anderen…

Watched this Oscar winning German movie. It translates to ‘The Lives of Others’. Movie is set up during the times of divided Germany, around the struggle between bureaucracy, politics and art.
I must say that I haven’t seen such an intense movie. There is nothing flamboyant about it – only simple, ordinary people weaving an extraordinary story around them. Another must watch.


This is another addition to the list of movies to watch before dying.

1. Cidade de Dues
(Lists #17 in the top 250 movies of imdb list).

2. Diarios de Motocicleta

3. Das Leben der Anderen (Lists #50 in the top 250 movies of imdb list).

Thursday, February 7, 2008

God? no thanks...

God has always been a favorite subject of unending desultory debates. That's why I do not like to spend any time on that. But then discussions pop up out of nowhere and you just want to talk your brains out because you don't want to miss the chance of having company of the other person. But at the end of discussion, no result! Phew!

I don't know what, who or where the God is. May be I don't want to know. Or may be I don't believe in the concept that for everything, God is the responsible person or thing or whatever. I mean, if I have something good in me or something bad in me – I don't like to attribute that to God. I don't like the idea that my life and my destiny is not in my control. Anyhow… There are different views.

I just know what I like, what I don't like, what I am, what I am not, what my strengths are and what I am afraid of… that's enough for me. When it comes to end, I just want to be complete. Anyways, this never ends…

A more fundamental question that sticks like a leech is 'what should one do when one likes something/someone'. To go out and grab it is the easiest possible answer. But whatever or whoever it is - is only temporary, ephemeral. It's like water flowing over the hands. If you close the fist, you've got nothing. Best way is to keep hands open and let the water flow from above it. It can never be yours, you can just let yourself be...

Meanwhile, let me share this photolog, (I lack modesty! All photographed by me :)..) actually the moments when I felt near to something which is the depth of me. And a song, a recent favourite by Carla Bruni (Yup! The Sarkozy legend.. Oh Man! She is beautiful.. Check out the mouth-organ music that starts from 1:52..):



I don't know... but I think this (the song!) is God Level! Just read the lyrics...

Come, let me sing into your ear;
Those dancing days are gone,
All that silk and satin gear;
Crouch upon a stone,
Wrapping that foul body up
In as foul a rag:
I carry the sun in a golden cup.
The moon in a silver bag.

Curse as you may I sing it through;
What matter if the knave
That the most could pleasure you,
The children that he gave,
Are somewhere sleeping like a top
Under a marble flag?
I carry the sun in a golden cup.
The moon in a silver bag.

I thought it out this very day.
Noon upon the clock,
A man may put pretense away
Who leans upon a stick,
May sing, and sing until he drop,
Whether to maid or hag:
I carry the sun in a golden cup,
The moon in a silver bag.

Phew!

tch...

Presentations.. Talks.. Documents..

It all started last year, when Thomsons bought Reuters for $17.2 billion. After that Thomsons CEO retired and Tom Glocer (Reuters CEO) became the CEO of the merged company. Strange thing if you ask me – ‘get bought and become the CEO…’ strange! Mergers and Acquisitions…


I was thinking about this strange M&A in a barber’s shop in Madhapur, Hyderabad. I don’t have much hair left to be cut, but just to give my head a compact look I entered the shop. ‘If your barber is bald, stay away from his scissor…’ is usually what I tell others, because whenever I see my deforested head in the mirror I try to recollect the number of bald barbers who had my head at their disposal at some point of time in the past. Sigh! The barber (who was bald!) made me sit in his execution chair, covered me down neck with the cloth, cut one side of my hair and went for a tea. I instinctively cringe at such situations where a person de-prioritizes his or her work for something less important at the moment. What could I do! He came back, turned on to a telugu movie in television and leisurely started sipping his tea, as if I didn’t exist. I mean… what I could do!

To un
derstand this behavior, one really needs to know what happened to Madhapur (the place where incident happened) during last two years. IT came to Hi Tech City and Madhapur was the village between the IT city and residential city. The economy of this village grew like a horny teenager’s dick. But somehow, only the dick grew and the brains remained unchanged and ungrown. That’s the condition of this village right now - an overgrown economy running on the power of pounds and dollars and a bad sense of expenditure of the IT professionals. Anyhow, I was about to leave this village the next day.

Hmm! Now I am in London. In IT terms – I have come to the ‘onsite’. It all happened so fast, I could not even know myself that I am going to be in London in just a matter of four days. HYD to DEL to HEATHROW – had two shots of vodka in the flight and reached London without much boredom.


Cultural shock!!! That’s what happened to me once I landed here. Everything seems to be running with a perfect discipline. People follow rules, streets are clean, nobody honks…
I mean for a person who has lived in Hyderabad and Delhi, London is a land of nirvana. It’s a cold place – you can’t go out without covering your body properly with warm clothes - reminded me of my childhood days of Shimla’s winter. Nothing surprising that once Shimla was the summer capital of these guys!

Oh yes! Forgot about the ‘Presentations.. Talks.. Documents..’ So when M&A happens, IT application integration is the next thing to happen. It was very cruel start of the week with making presentations for the people to understand what should be done and what should not be done. Screwed it up anyhow today.. I am not as good in speaking as I (think) am in writing. Pshaw! Feeling very dejected by the way the presentation went! Tch!