Joker In the Pack

Someone named Sachin.

2011-04-05T11:50:00.001-07:00

A billion dreams have come true. One of the best days of this current generation of Cricket Maniacs. Now that we've won the world cup, how should we feel? What should we do? How should we celebrate?Maybe, we can ask the Aussies as to how they celebrated after their triumphs.
Sachin ...the master..One of the driving force for the team to win the cup. As fans, we might not realize his contributions beyond the field. He bat's like..well..No comparisions..Sachin..He fields like a young boy..motivates players..but behind the scenes, in the background, it's like having two coaches. Gary & Sachin..both started playing around the sametime..so both know almost everything that one can about the pressures. Any young player would love to have someone guiding him during his initial playing days.. The likes of Yuvraj, Sehwag, Gambhir,Kohli, Raina, Dhoni all grew up wanting to be the next Sachin..Imagine how it must feel when you are playing next to the person you are dreaming of becoming in the coming years!
No controversies, No Scandals..A good human being..well..The best sportsperson that any sport desires to have. The character, the determination, the hunger, the drive , the leadership role, the mentor...
I have plenty of things coming to my mind to write..but all of this you already know. I'm fearing about the day the Master hangs his bat up. I don't even want to think about it. For a guy, whose first match that I can remember was a young Sachin thumping Aussies all around the park and to see a team without Sachin is unfathomable. I cannot , should not and would not even dare to dream about it..How on earth are we going to live on without Sachin? I don't know..I'm not interested in finding it out either.. I hope Sachin plays the 2019 world cup as well.

" "

2010-04-24T21:49:00.000-07:00

I guess the title should tell what's going on in my mind as I decide to dust off the rust that has been accumulating in this blog space of mine. I know I'm not a good enough writer to keep churning out posts every other day. But there's something that drives me to pen a few lines (or rather, type), once in a blue moon. Although there are many things that I could start writing on, like IPL on the field,off the field, Sachin - the ageless wonder, and many such things. But already there's enough of it , so I decide to abstain from such things for now.
What has been occupying me lately is books. Yes, I have been reading all kinds of books. To begin with, I just finished one called: "Surely You're Joking Mr.Feynman". He's an eccentric genius. One who people think is arrogant, but actually is very practical and simple. The book is hilarious to say the least and I definitely would recommend everyone to read it. Books have that charm to attract me. I don't really know what's in them. But more often than not , I tend to read. I just wish I had this interest in reading all the text books :)
Nothing else is coming out of my mind to type in...this I think, justifies the title.
Adios! Chau!

A few moments!!

2010-01-05T16:57:00.001-08:00

It's been my long pending aim to write a blog during the official working hours, sitting in my cube. Somehow, I was unable to find the right post, or time to write it. But,I have finally managed to squeeze in sometime to write my post at the fag end of a long working day ! Yay!!! Boy, what a vacation! 11 days of pure bliss and to top it off..It was with family..uncle,aunt and 3 cutest cousins on the whole planet as well as pandora ! During my ride back to the Airport after the trip, my uncle asked a question. Which was the best part of the trip. Each one of us had an answer right away. Fireworks, 4D shows,cruise, golf cart drives etc etc...I had mentioned two, the first one being the unpretentious, uncontrolled laughter of Dachu(Darshana). I have never enjoyed so much as to watch a little girl laugh.It was so pure ... right from the heart. Another one was the Free fall ride which we had been to in Lego Land. Altough, it was a tiny ride for me..for my 5 year old cousins, it was pretty big. Appu (Arpana) was sitting beside me during that ride...each time we came down fast, there was a big scream followed by laughter from her...That my friends ..was really really awesome. For these two moments, You can call them as priceless. Nothing..not even trillion dollars can match the worth for these two. This was my third trip in three years during the same time.Each one has been and have had some memorable moments. I did the mistake of not writing the best moments of the last two trips which have slowly drifted away from my memory and alive in pictures.
That's all ...a small post but pretty much covers the joy of spending time with people you love / people who love you

Kaminey :D

2009-08-22T14:59:00.000-07:00

WOW!!!

just admire the power of the word WOW....tells everything isn't it?
That one was for Kaminey (new hindi movie) ...Everything about the movie is awesome.I know that , in my previous posts, I've made some similiar comments about some other movies. But, believe me. This one's totally different. It's not a regular, run off the mill, mushy/romantic/dishum-dishum kinda movie. You've got to appreciate the way the movie's made. Every single scene in the movie has something connected to the previous scene and will lead to something in the next scene. It's that engrossing. This one will leave you totally breathless.

I'm not telling anything about the story or anything about the plot . This post is entirely dedicated to the genius of Vishal Bharadwaj.

Take any normal hindi (or any Indian movie) : You are shown the way to the core of the plot for a movie. You are lead to believe that , something has happened or will happen. You will expect some kind of leads and hints and clues that makes you say: "Oh, ok..that makes sense, that's the reason, he's doing that". But,here, don't expect any such thing. The director wants you to get involved in every inch of the movie. He want's you to see as if you are standing on the road and watching two people (or a bunch of people) fight it out. It's that natural. The camera work is amazing. Normally, the camera remains fixed at a point, and you watch the scene from that fixed point. Here, the camera moves along with the characters. I believe there's a reason for doing that. The guys who made the movie, want you to get to know the people, the story and everything else, by just watching what the characters are doing, what they speak and how they do it.

I want to stop right there.. I want to leave on an unfinished note, so that anyone reading this, will get curious and watch "Kaminey".

A few words

2009-06-08T10:35:00.000-07:00

Jokes apart, Pardon me for the long hiatus .

I have been thinking for years now, trying to come to terms with myself, like , I always wanted to understand what I am and have always failed to come to a conclusion on that. That's why you can see on my orkut profile in the About me column.. It says: ask my friends. It's quite suggestive, isn't it? Why do you have to ask someone else about me? Am I not the right person to tell about myself? And If I don't have a clue about my own self, then how come others will have an Idea about me? Well, these are exactly the same questions that have been running through my mind for quite a few years now and it's only now, that I seem to know or at least realized what to write on that .
Well... Here it goes then:

I presume ( should say assume !) that most of my friends who have been quite close to me or have atleast spoken to me agree that I do not make a very good first impression. I kind of come across as a shy ( reserved, unapproachable, unfriendly..can't exactly pin down the word though) guy who's not that open and doesn't easily gel with others. But as the days move along, people tend to like me and get along well with me. That's the way I am, I don't know why and don't ask me why, but I seem to have this habit of holding myself back before approaching anyone for a friendship . I have tried to overcome this habit of mine, but unfortunately haven't been able to do so. But believe me, I am not the same person as you see me first. I am quite the opposite. I tend to do things for the other person more than me, like for example: If my friend needs something from me, I do it for him even if I don't like to do it. Again, I don't know why, but it's been my tendency to do things like that.

Ah!!! Finally...I have something that I can put up in the about me section :) Nice!!!
I know..some (or most of you ) might feel this to be kind of self accolades...I have put down what exactly I had on my mind..no letter missing in that.

Pieces of Me... U2

2009-03-26T17:06:00.000-07:00

Was "Youtubing" the other day and came across one of my most favorite songs ...Which I had heard a long time ago and then forgot completely about it. The beauty of such songs is that, no matter how many times you listen to it, It keeps growing on you and you like it even more than the last time you had heard it.

Now, Coming to the specific reasons of why I like this song so much:
1. Ashley Simpson. ( I am awestruck by her beauty)
2. The Lyrics of the song.

Now, If that was something ... The next video is equally mind blowing , if not better. This is U2 at its best. For a change, forget the lyrics and the song. Just listen to the strings and drums. I bet you would never have heard anything like that. No surprises that U2 is one of THE best bands. If you listen to the first 2 minutes of the song, you'll get an idea of what I am speaking about.

Honesty! At it's best

2009-03-24T14:16:00.000-07:00

Best Days of my Life

2009-03-17T15:26:00.000-07:00

Which was best period of my life?
I do ask this question sometimes to myself. Then, I sit down thinking on it for half an hour or so. The thought process (almost always) goes something like this..
Primary school days: Man..those were the days..we had no burden on our shoulders, get up in the morning,go to school...have fun...come back home, again have fun, do some homework..sleep..that was just about it. Nothing else. We used to make friends with all of our classmates with no bad intentions. You could go ahead and speak with any girl in your school. No one would notice. After all, she was just a friend . To sum it up, It was an age of innocence. So wonderful.
So, was it the best period? Read on.

High School days:Now this period of our life is a jumble. Should we start preparing for our 10th std exams right from the word go? I happened to go to a boys high school. So all we did in school, was to fight(I hardly fought),play cricket, a bit extra hours of study, play @ home...even though the stress levels had increased a wee bit, all in all, it was an enjoyable period. It was an age where we would know a lot of real world stuff .
Now, It's getting harder. Which one? Which one was better?

PUC/Intermediate/11th and 12 std : Call it whatever you like, but the pressure was intense. Almost any grown up you meet would say: "Son, This is the most important stage of your life. It's the make or break period. So study!!!" . Man, I was tired of this. I tried to study though. Put in more effort than before. But, couldn't control the temptation of the new found freedom of roaming around places, going to theaters to watch movies. In the end, had to study more than play/relax. This was a nice stage of my life. But not as good as the earlier 2, coz, I ended up getting an abysmal score in my entrance exam. But this was the age where boys would grow up to men.

Graduation: Now, Almost all of my friends would agree that this should be the best stage of our lifes. I know, Even, I felt the same thing as I came out of my College into the so-called real world. We enjoyed to the MAX. Having your own group of friends, eating out, movies, college fests,trips...internals, exams,GIRLS...you name it. Each part of it was fun. Something that is difficult to forget for a long long long time. But for me, all of them were best in their own sweet way. I guess most of us would say that our graduate days were better because, it's the most recent one we have crossed in our lives and is still fresh in our memory. It would take some time to forget it.

Job: I know, this should not feature in here. But, trust me, It's also one of those memorable parts. You have all the money you want and freedom to do anything with it. I realised it's value only when I started doing my Masters.

All in all, every moment of our life is cherishable. Something that we should remember it forever and ever. My point is, We only seem to realise it's value once we've done it. Instead of going back down the memory lane, I guess we should enjoy every part of our current life. That's the way we can build up even better life.
Alright, enough of this preachy stuff. But everything that I wrote in here was straight from my heart and a snapshot of my life.

Cheers & Enjoy

Greatness

2009-03-10T16:11:00.000-07:00

Greatness, as per my knowledge doesn't come from the success you achieve when you have to. It comes when you achieve when no one thinks you can do it, Not even you!!!
That's the philosophical part of it. Coming to the real world, This very term Greatness can be attributed to Australia in every aspect of their game of Cricket. All the talk about the end of the dominance, end of an era, a new leader, slipping down were a few titles attributed to the fading Australian team. India beating them 2-0 at home, South Africa trouncing them 2-0 at their own backyard. Most of them thought, it was all over. But, here comes the exact place where you attach greatness . Aussies have come back and in a grand style. So awesome man...so very awesome. From being written out as losers even before the series began, to being the winners. Read the article: http://content.cricinfo.com/rsavaus2009/content/current/story/394689.html
It gives you a fair idea of what I am talking (or writing about) . Contrary to the belief that the era of Ponting is over, It has just started. Just when you think it all done and dusted for Aussies and either South Africa or India will take over the mantle of No:1, they bounce back and bounce back like never. Well, Greatness in all it's glory for you.
I hope, the Aussies continue to pick up from here on, 'coz, it's going to be an interesting battle with India and South Africa getting stronger by the day, we will get to see a three pronged war.

Go Aussies!!!

Fresh Garden Salad

2009-03-09T23:25:00.000-07:00

I don't know why my fingers start to get itchy as soon as I watch a really good movie(tv show) or a really bad one. Now, this itch started as soon as I saw the Filmfare awards 2009 on Sony E TV. The scale with which the show was done, all the grandeur, the lighting and of course, the stars , You had only one word: WOW!! This time around the compering was done by IK and RK ( you guys know it and if not, figure it out) who had nothing else on mind than to make a mockery of Dostana and all the Gay theme. Amidst all these, awards were being dished out one after another, most of them were deserving ones. But I was a bit disappointed to see
"A Wednesday" making it to only the nominations part and not even winning a single award. That's too sad, given that it was one of the most brilliant movie of the year and had 2 pillars (out of the 3) of Bollywood cinema , Anupam Kher and Naseeruddin Shah. But Om Puri deservedly won a lifetime achievement award(He is the 3rd pillar of bollywood). All in all a mixture of happiness and disappointment.
I had more to write, but feeling sleepy, So I guess that's it for this post. ( I seem to be getting into the habit of having bad endings to my post) and I seriously don't know why I came up with such a wierd title.

A sad day for sports :(

2009-03-03T20:17:00.000-08:00

I say sports (and not cricket) because, sports was considered to be a healer between two warring nations, people and democracies. You could see people enjoying, sitting together whenever India and Pakistan played and everyone had only one motive. To enjoy the game in its truest of spirits. And now, with the game itself being attacked by some mindless idiots, Where does this lead to ?? What does this mean? Taking the classic case of Pakistan. It had been 14 months since they had played a test on home soil. And Sri Lanka had agreed to play. Expectations were high, people finally had chance to watch their most favorite game. With these terrorist attacks, Nations will stop sending their sports team to Pak . This leads to Pak being isolated and eventually most of us might even forget that a Pak cricket team existed. Pretty sad for a nation which has so many cricketing heroes.
There must be some solution to this. These horrific killings need to be stopped.
How? When? Who? We can't keep waiting for things to recover, We have to move forward and stop this. I don't know how this can be done, but will certainly think in that direction.

12 Angry Men

2009-02-24T21:22:00.000-08:00

Well, This is not a review of any sort. I personally don't want to call it a review in the first place. So, It's up to the guys who are reading this to call it a review or not.
I started writing this exactly 2 seconds after the movie ended. The movie called "12 Angry Men".
Well, for starters, It's easily by any stretch of my imagination THE BEST MOVIE I've EVER SEEN.
Probably this post might be too long for you guys to read it out. But I don't think you can't write anything less for this. The running time for this movie is about 94 minutes and for 93 minutes, you get to see and hear only 12 people who are in a room. (The movie is very very old : Released in 1957 to be precise). This movie was suggested by my friend and he too had the same feelings as I have now which I am going to share with you all.
Premise of the movie: An 18 year old Hispanic, downtrodden ,poor boy is being charged with the murder of his father . The trail of the case has been going on for 3 months and everyone is convinced including the judge that the boy is guilty and requests the members of the jury to come to a final verdict on the case. Well, for those of you who don't know how the American judicial system works, you can have a look at it @ : http://usa.usembassy.de/etexts/gov/overview1197.pdf . Well It's 3 page pdf which gives you a pretty much decent know how of the system is. I can't go on telling about the system here. But , all I can tell is that , the 12 member jury selected by the judge and the prosecuters + defendant lawyers are normal people from across different sections of the society with no celebrity status attached to them.
Well, here goes the story (Or rather a part of it, because I want you guys to watch it). The boy as told earlier is charged with murder of his father and the reason for this act is defined to be that the father hit the boy several times and in a fit of rage he stabbed his father and ran away.
Now, there are clinching evidences against him with a woman across the street seeing him kill his father and an old man living exactly below the apartment , hearing all the screaming from the boy that he is going to kill, then hearing the thud of a body falling down on the floor and then actually seeing the boy running away.Another evidence was that of a shop owner 2 blocks from the house of the scene that he had sold a very unique kind of knife with an unusual bottom handle which according to him is the only one available with him and the boy had actually purchased it from him, the previous night.All that the boy had to say to defend himself was that he was not in the house at that time and the knife which he used had fallen off the hole of his Trouser pocket while he was going.
That said, it's now the time when the jury members come in to decide and give a verdict which if the boy found guilty will be sentenced to death, otherwise of course acquitted.
All the jury members gather around in a room and start with a simple process of voting for the decision. Now, one would assume that all of them would vote for the boy being guilty. Well, actually that's the thing that happens...almost. 11 of them vote for the boy being guilty and only one guy abstains from voting the boy as guilty. Now, before you jump to any conclusions, he doesn't tell that the boy is not guilty. All he tells is, that he doesn't know for sure. He can see clearly that the evidences are sufficient enough, but what if there's a doubt in any corner of the case? what if the defendants did not gather sufficient information. He is ready to vote as the boy being guilty, but he just wants to have a discussion before coming to a conclusion.
Phew!!! That's long isn't it. Well, that's all I can disclose about the story line of the movie. You see the rest.
Now, coming to the point of why actually I am writing this blog, I was so impressed by the characters being portrayed, the way the each guy's individual character comes out and how they reason about the case is impressive to say the least. The variety of jury members you have is amazing, one is a watch maker, one works at an ad-agency,other is an architect, another one a retired old man, another one is a painter who earns 3$ per day painting houses, another is a guy who comes from a poor background, another one guy is an ill-tempered man whose son had run away from the house after having a fight with him , another one is a man who firmly believes in facts and talks about the case by presenting nothing but facts, another one has baseball tickets and wants to go and watch the game, so he is always with the majority, since he wants this thing to be over asap , another is a grumpy old guy who is terribly rich and always believes that people from slums always lie, steal and kill . Given this wide charecteristics, they go on presenting their reasons and arguements as to why should this boy be punished.
It's hard to miss out even a minor scene in the movie, like, when the guys take a break and head to the loo, you feel that there's going to be nothing worth watching in there, but as you begin to think , one of the guys makes an important statement. It's that gripping.

I end with this , so that you feel something incomplete about this post and go and watch it. Well, this is my opinion. You may or may not like it. But all I can say is: I liked it a lot. Watch it, let me know if all the things I said were worth it .

Chao!!
Auf Wiedersehen!!

P.S : Pardon me for any grammatical errors. With the post being as long as it is, it was difficult for me to check it thoroughly. If you find any, lemme know :)

Delhi-6, The hoopla - The Hype - The bad review

2009-02-21T21:01:00.000-08:00

Strange as it may seem, but that is exactly what I am feeling about the movie right now. Oh my Gosh! The publicity was simply amazing. The cast and crew of the movie were all over the place, globe-trotting to be precise, for the premier of the movie. The hype had to be of that extent, given that the music & songs were already a big ... NO...HUGE hit ( Yes, I am a fan of AR Rehman), but come on, you would have heard the songs, they are awesome rite? Abhishek was planning on a Guinness record by visiting most number of places in one single day for the premier of a movie, all the talk about Masakali (the white dove), which ,I believe it received more hype than Jr.AB himself :) but, when it came to the actual day of the movie release, with people eagerly waiting to see how it fares at the Box office, it all came down to a grinding halt. No one was seen around on the evening of the release. No news about Jr.AB's record, no dove...all that were heard of the movie were the reviews from the critics, some said it was pathetic, some called it below par, some average, a few called it good. But not even one review was praising the movie. Why does it happen?? Why on earth do these guys go overboard for the publicity? what do they earn from it? ( I think they would in fact loose more money by travelling) ,It has been the case of so many movies in the past, Chandini Chowk to china, Billu Barber, Tashan, Ram Gopal Verma ki aag to name a few of an ever growing list. Meanwhile, movies which have hardly given out pre-release publicity have done well, in fact done really well. Movies like A wednesday, Aamir, Jannat, Jodhaa Akbar,Rab ne bana di jodi, Rock on, Race, et al. Now I think you guys might come out saying that Rab ne, Rock on and Race are all big banner and had good pre-release publicity. Yes, they had come out for the publicity, but not to that extent of the movies like Delhi-6. However, there are a few exceptions like Ghajini, Jaane Tu ya Jaane Na ....
I guess, as the saying goes, Too much is too bad applies to the movies as well, It's only time before the movie guys realize this and don't kill it even before it's born.

Another one of those classics :)

2009-02-16T19:46:00.001-08:00

I should say..Very Typical (Source: XKCD)

Oh No..Not Again:)

2009-02-14T22:35:00.000-08:00

What in the world is wrong with me? Why am I doing things which I hardly used to do earlier?? For those of you reading this, Not to worry... coz the thing which I'm speakin about is my blogs. For the past few weeks there have been many posts . Something which was not the thing with me earlier. Anyway, keeping things aside, I suggest all of you out there : Go and watch "Arundathi" . It's a telugu movie, based on a supernatural theme with loads of spooky stuff.You will be amazed to see such technical brilliance in an Indian movie!!! For a moment I had to convince myself that I was watching a Telugu movie. Go and enjoy it!!
I think as I type these words about what to write for the next few lines..and the brain seems to be in a stand by mode with the current time being: 12:41 A.M CST . Gosh!! How do people come up with soo many blogs?? You should see Amitabh Bachchan's blogs. He writes every single day and writes awesome. Wish I had such talent. Speaking of talent,I don't seem to have any:( Well, In that case, I can call that a talent in itself. A talent of having no talent!! Howzzat???
Adios Amigos...Time to sleep!!!
(Oh Man...what's with these exclamation and question marks..I seem to be using them a lot!!! There you go again)
Alright..That's the end of a totally worthless blog (Started out writing something and ended up something. Sigh!!!)

Uncertain Time ...Uncertain Feeling

2009-02-08T20:31:00.001-08:00

The world is coming to a grinding halt. Millions and Millions of people losing jobs, getting homeless having to take care of family ,salaries being cut down (Except cricketers in IPL) .Where are we headed to?? Yesterday, even Yash Raj Productions announced job cuts. I mean, is the market that bad , even for the movie tycoons? During all these chaos, Here I sit in One corner of a Room ,filled with nothing but Hope. Hope that I get a job, Hope that I will be able to get through these tough times, Hope all the problems end and the economy of the world gets better, Hope people get back their jobs, Hope that we go back to the good old days of cases where companies had hard time finding people to hire. As they say, HOPE IS WHAT KEEPS A MAN ALIVE.

Don't lose hope!!!

One more...

2009-01-26T20:03:00.000-08:00

One more from the XKCD and this is what we always think of!!

Some Unbelievable Videos!!!!

2009-01-18T12:43:00.000-08:00

This is something which everyone needs to see and something that I had to share!!! A collection of some Jaw Dropping Discoveries, Inventions. You will not believe what you see...
Just visit this website and scroll down to the bottom of the page and you can see something called:

Top 10 TEDTalks of all time and you can see a list of Names and the videos links in red. Just click on each one of them and watch 'em.

Here's the link to the website:

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/top10

2009-01-16T21:32:00.000-08:00

This one sums up the day:)
The idea of having a picture in my blog was borrowed from my friend who had recently posted a blog like this...
And you can find a lot of these funny things in XKCD
P.S: This is my second post of the day...with the first one below this..Just in case if you fail to notice

War...Love Stories...and ICC!!!

2009-01-16T19:49:00.000-08:00

A lot of things have been happening around us, it was high time I started writing something..First , to get a lot of things out of my mind and second, I desperately want to increase my posts. Some ghastly things have been happening like the Israel's all out attack on Gaza. I still don't get the purpose of their attacks. In order to kill the Hamas guys, they are killing innocent people so much so that they even attacked a graveyard the other day, Crazy !!! Then we have Slumdog Millionaire all the way. Agree, AR Rehman's music is totally awesome. (Any Rehman music is awesome for me) but I didn't think the movie deserved so much hype for the story it is shown. It is like any other love story but with the KBC theme added in and showing that the host of KBC can be bad. If you ask me, I dont think it will win an oscar except for the music that is and then comes the ICC with it's ridiculous ratings , the so called "Best-ever" ratings where Sachin, Lara,Steve waugh et all are rated way below people like Hussey, Come on, give me a break!! If that's hilarious, you should see this..Bowlers rating!! Stuart clark of Australia is rated above Brett Lee, Wasim Akram and Michael Holding. I think the ICC should be re-christened as the International Comedy Council given the things they come up with. All in all, A lot has been happening and I have been catching up with as much news as possible .
Signing off...Gotta go, have to hunt for a Job...
Abhi

Joker In the Pack

2008-08-04T14:20:00.000-07:00

In case if you are wondering if I am the Joker in the pack, you are wrong.I am not and you will know why did I choose this title for my 3rd blog. I know, I haven't been writing much for you to call me a blogger and I am not sure if I can be called an avid reader because I have seen people read many many books, be it novels or textbooks. I do love reading books,but if that was the case, I would have performed better in my academics by reading my textbooks:-) .Yes, I would certainly have faired well if all the information in these textbooks were fictional because I love reading fictional books. I have read a lot of them and these books continue to fascinate me. This blog is about some of these books which I got to read out of boredom rather than intent. I am speaking about the books which have been selling in the market like hot samosas and more and more people are writing such stuff which makes me worried that it might lead this to saturation. All right, I dont want you to keep guessing what is that genre of book which is making me to write an entire blog about it. Five point someone,One night at call centre,Anything for you Ma'am, Joker in the pack ( yes, this is where I got my title for this blog) ....I think you know what is the genre of the book my blog is about....
All these books are fictional or rather contain fictional characters woven around a story which seems too real that we feel each time we read a line.. Yes, I have gone through this. First one out was, "Five point someone" which to this day remains my favorite in this genre and will always be. It was cleverly written with the backdrop of IIT . More than the storyline, it was the way in which it was written drove to me reading more such books. Each line I read had some connection to the events in my college days .No, I am not an IITan by any stretch of imagination, and one doesn't have to be an IITan to find some uncanny resemblance to the events written in this book. I finished reading it and was awestruck by the writing skills of Chetan Bhagath. Then came his another work which was half as good as his previous one, which relates to a few guys working in the call centre. This failed to impress me (probably because I have never been in a Call center environment ) but the ending of this book was way way too fictional for me to love it. But the most recent one was "A joker in the pack". This is about the life of a guy from another premier institute IIM. This again goes around a guy who enters the College with loads of aspirations
(wish i had them too) and its the same thing here...All of it is about a guy who is not fit to be in such an environment in the first place, but somehow makes it at the end with flying colors.Another one off the shelf was "Anything for you Ma'am" . Although it is not about a students life , the characters are students and the story is entirely based on love between a guy and a girl who happen to meet by chance...For most part of these books, they seem to go in plain yet so realistically true, that It amazes me....where in the world do they get the ideas from.Apart from "Five point someone", the rest of the lot seem to end in a plain and rather boring way to my liking. By reading all these books, my hand has been itching quite a lot to take a pen and start writing a book ..but what is the use, even my blogs seem to end rather pathetically as the authors of the above mentioned books and most important thing is I do not want to be a "Joker in the pack" by writing another book of the same kind.

Duestchland..Here I come

2008-07-31T23:53:00.000-07:00

Well, heres another blog...this is actually about my trip to Germany(Deutschland) in Nov 2006(I know its a long time since then and i should have posted it a long time back). Anyway...like the saying goes,Its better late than never.Here it goes:

First Weekend

The Journey

My first weekend outside India for the first time in my life!!! I was a bit Homesick at that time and was eager to just stay out of my room as much as possible. One of my colleagues was in köln with whom I had a good rapport. He came to my room on Fri night and both of us along with 8 other RBINites had planned to go to Neuschwanstein .We got up at about 3:35 on Sat Morning and left for Stuttgart Hauptbahnhof ( Main station) at 4.45 and reached there at about 5:20. Most of our friends had already come to the station. The train was at 5:35. We got into the train and the train started chugging along at medium pace and initially we were all sleepy. So all of us caught up with our 40 winks and after about an hour of sleep everyone started to come out of their slumber and to freshen up we started with Dumb Charads and played all along the way till we had to get down at a small station to catch another train. The other train arrived in about 10 minutes . We got into the train and almost immediately started from where we had left ( Dumb Charads ). We finally reached the place and we had to get into a Bus which took us to the foot of a mountain.

Location

Neuschwanstein is a place which has a Castle ( Very Big infact ) perched on top of a mountain and is covered with dense folia of bushes and some trees. And Luckily the whether was very nice.. It had snowed the previous night . So the entire mountain was snow covered and this was the first time in my life that I was seeing snow.( Of course I had seen it on TV, But to experience it first hand is something worth to cherish for a long time ). There were several options to reach the castle like Bus, Horse driven Carriages and trek along the snowy path. We, being the adventerous kind, preferred to trek to the top. And started our trek along the path which was covered with snow and some dense Bushes… We played all along with the snow.. Made some snowballs and hit everyone in sight ( Literally!!! We even hit some of the localites!!! They gave a pretty mean stare at us.. but in the end laughed it off).

It took us about 45 minutes to reach to a place which had a Famous bridge connecting two mountains.. The bridge was pretty amazing considering the fact that it was built without any support other than at the two ends.. The view from the bridge down was really scary!!!!( I have the fear of heightsL) So I stayed at one end of the bridge for the initial few minutes while all the others enjoyed the breathtaking view from the center of the bridge. There was a small waterfall directly below the bridge.. ( and it was about 300 mts below ) and exactly opposite to the bridge was the Castle . The view was fantastic and sight to behold. After sometime, some of my friends started calling me to come to the center of the bridge.. I politely refuse saying that I am happy standing where I was.They coaxed and cajoled me for a while and finally dragged me to the center without giving an ear to my pleas for letting me go.

Finally I was able to muster up some wee bit of courage that was left in me and looked around the place for a breathtaking view and ran off to the end as fast as I could. We stayed there for some more time and started walking to the Castle . It took us 15 more minutes to reach the castle. We had seen so much of the Natures captivating beauty that Castle looked like any other building to us.. We just went around on the outside of the castle and started our journey back to Stuttgart. We had a train at 3:35 and were able to catch it in the nick of time and as usual started our dumb charads. We get down at a small station called Buchloe to change the train. We had 45 minutes before the other train would come. So just roamed around the village. There was not even a single person visble to us on the streets. NO shop was open. It looked like a ghost town. ( In fact any city you roam around in germany on Sun , it will be like a Ghost town as people here chill out at home on Sundays). Our Connecting train came 10 minutes late and we got into it and reached Stuttgart at about 9:00 PM. Went directly to the room, fell flat on the bed and got up the next day at about 10. Then idled around for a while and roamed around stuttgart till evening.

Second Weekend

The Journey

We had planned to go to Munich the next Weekend. So we had to catch the 5:48 AM train from Stuttgart Hauptbahnhof and it was a direct train to Munich. We ( 8 of us , of which 5 were from the last trip and 3 new guys) reached Munich at 9 and proceeded to the Deutches Museum.

The Location

The Deutsches Museum is the Largest Museum in and around Germany and is supposed to be the Second largest Museum in Europe.( Don’t know the Biggest one J ) . It actually requires 3 full days to cover each and every part of the Museum. We reached the Museum at about 9:30 , purchased the entry tickets and went in.

About the Museum:

The Museum is housed in a Six floor building. And once you come up to the entrance after purchasing the tickets, you will be facing three pathways. Each one of them will lead you to a particular section of the Museum , And also there is a guide map which helps us to decide from where we should start our tour of the museum. There are many many sections like Marine, Mining , Electronics, Electrical, Astronomy, Aerospace, Aeronautics, Computer science, Physics, Chemistry, Agriculture, Mathematics to name a few.

We were able to see some of the sections as time was a major factor that limited our tour of the musuem ( We had to catch a train back to Stuttgart at 6:51 in the evening ). It is very difficult to recollect the entire trip of the musuem, but some of the best ones will be described.

One of the Best Sections of the Museum is Electrical where there is a demonstration of Electrical and electromagnetic power. Two guys demonstrate the artificial lightning and magnetically generated sparks on a Huge piece of Glass. It was amazing to see the lightning at such a close distance. Electronics is another wonderful section where we get to see some of the worlds oldest computers like ABACUS, UNIVAC ( UNIVAC is supposed to be the worlds first super computer) . The processor of UNIVAC wieghs 19 tons and occupies an entire room . It was amazing to see such a huge computer.

We went around the sections (which sounded interesting to us) till 4:00 PM and then climbed up all the way to the sixth floor for the Planetarium. The show started at sharp 4:00 and went on for half an hour. It was not that good as the explanation was completely in German language. Finally we came out of the museum at 5:00 PM and were walking back to the Munich Station when on the way we saw an Indian restaurant called “Indian Mango”. All of us barged into the restaurant and had some delicious food after a long time ( Almost 2 weeks for me ). We sat in the Restaurant for about an hour enjoying the food as well as the Hindi songs which were being played in the background…. And finally boarded the train at 6:51 to Stuttgart. We reached stuttgart at 11:00 PM in the night and made plans for the next day. We planned to go to Bad Urach which is about one hour journey from stuttgart.

Sunday:

As planned on the previous day, we got up at about 6:00 am and we met at the Station at about 7:30 and boarded a train to a place which was nearby to Bad Urach. We reached the place ( Don’t exactly remember the name of the place J) and got into a Bus to reach Bad Urach.

The Location:

Bad Urach is an amazing place . There are three waterfalls situated on top of the mountains. The view of the mountains was simply amazing. It was completely covered with Huge trees , the leaves of which had turned to a mixture of orange and yellow as the winter had set in. We did not have any idea on how to reach to the waterfalls. Luckily one localite was on his way up to the waterfalls and he asked us to join him. As we started our trek, the localite informed us that we have to walk for 3 hours to reach to the top!!!! (Phew!!!) We trodded along the muddy path of the mountain with some small waterfalls here and there to reach the top. Once there, we were amazed to see a completely flat green patch of grass and at the end of the patch was a vertical ( 90°) drop which was very very deep and to the left of the patch there was a small road which led to the waterfalls. We spent sometime on the green patch and then started walking along the small road to the waterfall the road went through a dense forest . some Huge trees had fallen down because of heavy rains. After about half an hour, we reached the waterfalls. It was a breathtaking sight ( although it was not a big one, it was a pretty sight ). And we spent about an hour there and then started our journey back, tired but happy. Reached the bottom of the hill in about 2 hours and got into a train and headed back to Stuttgart!!

Third Weekend

The Plan

We had no specific plans till the Friday evening. Finally one member from our group suggested that we go to Wilhelma! So we all agreed since we did not have any other ideas.

The Journey

Wilhelma is a Zoo in Stuttgart and it takes 7 minutes to reach the place from Hauptbahnof. All of us had planned to Catch the 10:59 Train and reach there by 11:06. Myself and two other guys who were staying in the same hotel as mine got up late and missed the 10:59 train and as expected, the others left us and went to the Zoo..But we were able to catch the next train which was at 11:27. We reached there at 11:45 and entered the Zoo.

The Location

Well, Wilhelma as I said is a Zoo located in Central Stuttgart. It is quite big by German Standards. ( Germany does not have any National Parks or Scantuaries). But the first impression you get on seeing it is.. It is nothing when compared to the Mysore zoo or Hyderbad zoo. However , it has some animals which are unique and cannot be found in India, like Ploar Bear ( 3 of them ) . They are really huge ( Really Really Huge!!!!) and you get amazed at theier size…Insects Museum , where they have several insects like spiders, butterflies, bugs and many such things and Seals .. There is a seal show every two hours where seals will play with ballons and balls…

Other than these, I could not find anything interesting. So I would like to stop this here…

Sunday

On sun, Me and 3 other guys planned to go to the Mercedes Benz Museum. We got up at about 11 AM that day.! And started to the Museum at 12:30 and reached there by 1:15. There was a big queue at the entrance which we had not expected ( Being a Sunday that too in Stuttgart , which would usually be a dead city on Sundays!). After spending about half an hour in the queue , we got in the Musuem. The Entrance ticket cost us 8 euros which included Audio guided tour also.

The Location

The Museum is pretty big ( 6 Floors). And the shape is quite amazing. The entire bulding had only cars cars and more cars. Right from the first ever car known to man to the latest one which no one has seen as yet! One will go crazy seeing at the cars. There are some Videos as well which gives the info about the growth of the Mercedes Benz as a Automobile Company and its struggules during the World wars and the amazing recovery post world wars. Each floor is nicely divided into sections like Vintages in one floor, Celebrities ( This section contained cars which were owned by Renowned personalities like Diana, Einstein and such ppl) in another to F1 cars, racing cars in some other floor. There was also a floor which was meant for Racing freaks which had two huge Race Simulators. One can sit inside these simulators and you get the feeling of driving an F1 Mclaren Mercedes ( This is a must see part of the Museum). Then there is a floor which houses all the latest Benz Models in the market now including the Maybach plus a shop where we can purchase some Mercedes Benz Souviniers. By the time we came out of the Museum it was 7 PM. Tired but elated we went back to our room for a nice sleep.

Fourth Weekend

On Friday evening, Me and Rakesh ( My colleague) went to cologne. We left at 6:30 PM and reached there by 11:00 PM. Mahesh ( who is my colleague and also cousin of Rakesh and stays in Cologne) picked us up from the station . We went to his house, had dinner and slept.

We woke up the next morning and started from his house at 11:00 AM. We roamed around cologne. Went for a one hour cruise on river Rhine. Then, just roamed around the streets of cologne ( Cologne is famous for its shopping malls ) till evening 7:00 . On Sunday we went to the Chocolate Museum where hot chocolates are prepared and it is available for all to see how they prepare it. There were some chocolates which were free for all. Then went to the Cathedral of Cologne. The Cathedral is one of the largest in the world and is listed in the 77 wonders of the world. The exteriors of the castle is covered with black soot kind of thing due to Pollution and much of its sheen is lost due to this which is otherwise a pure white Castle.

The Interiors however is amazing. Huge Pianos , wall paintings and one really Huge ladder which was used in the ancient times for cleaning the castle. The ladder is as long as the Castle and almost touched the roof. I have never seen such a big ladder in my whole life and I am sure I will not see it in the future also.

We had a train back to stuttgart at 5:20 PM and it was an ICE!!! They are the fastest trains in Germany as well as in Europe. The journey was amazing with the train reaching speeds of 312 Km/h.
Finally reached stuttgart at 7:30 and went home and slept thinking of what was an amazing four Weekends which will be etched in my memory forever.!

Land of Dreams???Duh!!!

2008-07-31T23:52:00.000-07:00

It all started on Dec 12th 2005 at 1:30 PM...This was the time i completed my GRE exam and got to know my score(lets not reveal it)....this was the day my dream of going to USA pretty much materialized...and then the planning on where to go....when to go, went on for almost a year and a half until it was finalized on June 7th ...when the Blond guy at the US visa consulate behind a glass counter hit the approved seal on my passport confirming that i am going to USA just for studying and nothing else. From that day on...till the moment that I landed in El Paso International airport i had been dreaming of all those high rise so called skyscrapers which appear to bore a hole in the low lying clouds...and dreaming that i will be living in one of these places where the view from my room in which i would be spending the rest of my days while doing my Masters would be filled with these skyscrapers.
All of these things vanished into thin air on looking up through the window of the airplane (which was smaller than the Indian buses and had seats that were upright with zero degree tilt.For once I missed the Volvo buses that were screeching and screaming through the busy Bangalore roads).All the buildings(yes...all of them) were at best 2 storey tall,not an inch more than that....my jaws dropped,I asked myself..Where am i???(In a tiny village in a remote area in India?).This was too hard to be true,all i could see was acres and acres of plain land with some houses scattered here and there.
This is not USA...or is it????All my dreams of skyscrapers crash landed the moment i landed in USA....And the view I got from my apartment was of plain mountains which appeared to drill a hole through the low lying clouds .I will be continuing this....after some time though..