Master of All I Survey

Aah, 380!

2008-08-23T07:34:00.003+05:30

Currently in the lounge at JFK waiting to board an A380, after a good trip to NYC.

Strong only.

Forgetfulness

2008-06-12T17:34:00.003+05:30

I am supposed to go to Chennai tonight. And I had booked tickets by the Guwahati Express, because tickets were not available on Mail. I even had a discussion with my mom that I am coming by this random train that is supposed to be at Central by 6, a much better arrival time than either the mail (too early at 4:40) or the Mysore Express (too late at 7:20).

Thankfully, I decided to print out the ticket today morning. I login to irctc and I am aghast to see that there is no ticket booked. Realization also dawned that I hadn't received any mail from irctc either. I had deluded myself that I had bought a ticket. Scary.

Thankfully today is a Thursday and so I could get tickets on a Meghadoota KSRTC bus.

New York

2008-05-11T06:00:00.002+05:30

A trip to New York after a gap of nearly two years. And the opportunity to sit on a trading desk. Despite my previous non-like for the place, I was pretty excited and looking forward to this trip.

So here I am, a week into the trip. Jetlag has been conquered pretty successfully. Actually sleeping by 10 and getting up by 6 does work out pretty well. I am in office by 8 in the morning. As a result, also leave office by 7 latest. The absence of a comp and the IPL makes it seem like I have a lot of time on hand. Hence end up sleeping the entire 8 hours.

This being the onset of summer, days here are really long. The sun does overtime, starts around 5 and sets only around 8. This is a bit disconcerting. And also makes it seem like I leave office too early while I am actually more time than I do in Bangalore. And more focussed too.

Work has been ok. A bit hectic, but a bit frustrating too. But I think I have figured out the reason for the slow progress at work. Looking forward to going and getting cracking on Monday.

I am staying at a place overlooking Union Square. Some googling just now tells me that the "Union" refers to labour unions. Supposedly this is the place where all protest marches start. (if I remember right, equivalent to Chikka Lalbagh somewhere near Majestic in Bangalore). This place is a very happening place. Some organic market and all here. Quite a few restaurants too.

But somehow have had NED to try out different cuisines I have been sticking to Indian stuff at night and Subway during the day. Should ideally be the other way round actually for the sake of my weight. But these issues have been well left for now. Only breakfast has been slisha fight. I have never liked bread and cereal level stuff, which essentially reduces my choices to just having some baked potatoes or some pancakes. These are also tasteless and not eatable daily. And fruits aren't being too filling. And Saravana Bhavan breakfast starts only at 8:30 am. Too late. Need to figure out some way out of this " food crisis".

Speaking of Saravana Bhavan. The place is pretty impressive, the food that is. Any place that serves jaggery along with adai avial is totally stud. Period. Even Pongal back home does not give jaggery. Might become a frequent visitor to the place. The place also goes some way in proving that equidistant from their native places, good South Indian food should be cheaper than good North Indian food, whatever the price of rice.

Despite the fact that I stay alone at home in Bangalore too, somehow this place does seem lonelier. Probably because of the lot of time on hand.

But this trip has been pretty enjoyable so far. Food and more company can take a lot of credit. The other thing is the presence of Fox Soccer channel. Does a pretty comprehensive coverage of European footer. Heck even MLS is more watchable than baseball or basketball. The channel seems to be a fan of Chelsea. Had shown some two hour positive documentary about Chelsea a couple of days back. And tomorrow morning at 10 among the many last round of EPL matches, the one it has chosen is Chelsea-Bolton. Given that this is America, Portsmouth-Fulham would have been a better choice.

But I sort of don't care. There is a channel showing the F1 race that starts at 7:30 tomorrow morning (thanks to Manu for this valuable info) and then at 10, there is the footer. Simultaneously, I should also be able to find some streams to watch IPL. Strong max.

I am looking forward to tomorrow.

Proof that elections are around the corner

2008-04-17T20:59:00.003+05:30

The road outside my house gets tarred for the first time since I came in June 2006.

The neighbouring streets too. Elections should be held more frequently.

Monkeygate

2008-01-31T14:22:00.000+05:30

Have been wanting to put a post about the Symonds-Monkey affair for some time. But before I could, my namesake Mukul has put a very strong post about it.

Some further comments about entire controversy:

1) If it were proved that Bhajji did call Symonds a monkey, he should have been banned. The reason being that this was an issue already raised by the cry-baby Symonds in India and some supporters were kicked out of stadiums as a result. You cannot have one rule for the supporters and another one for the players. (It is entirely another matter that I believe that if the cry-baby hadn't cribbed in India, there would not have been an issue at all)

2) The threatening to leave the tour part was acceptable. But the condition should have been "if the final verdict were arrived at without any proof" and not "if Bhajji is found guilty". The latter stance clearly amounted to holding a gun to ICC's head.

3) How is Symonds able to get away scot free? Even Marco Materazzi got a ban for having been head-butted. (Actually bad comparison, as FIFA is just marginally more competent than the totally incompetent ICC). But it was Symonds who started the abuse and so should have been punished.

Given the form of the Bhajji and Symonds, a chess level sacrifice, with Symonds also getting banned would also not have been that bad strategically. (Last year's thulping in the CB Series finals and the Chappell-Hadlee trophy happened in Symonds' absence)

4) I am unable to understand why the Aussie media is cribbing over the verdict? There was no proof that Bhajji called Symonds a monkey. Period. And if Bhajji is being punished for "Teri Maaki", then Hogg should have also been punished for "bastard". Hats off to Kumble for showing some restraint in this.

5) BCCI is incompetent. ICC is even more.

Awesome series though. If only we weren't Bucknored and it hadn't rained in Chennai in 2004, we would still be holding the Border-Gavaskar trophy.

Random paragraphs

2008-01-28T21:25:00.000+05:30

Saw Bheema on Thursday. For some reason, a lot of stand-alone theatres showing Tam movies don't have night shows. Lavanya in Ulsoor is one of them. (there are theatres like Cauvery and Sri Balaji that do have night shows) The last show was at 7:30, a very convenient time to watch a movie, no compromises over work, dinner or sleep. And money too, just 40 bucks.

The movie is not even worth that much. There was an obvious and strong gay undercurrent to the relationship between Prakash Raj and Vikram. The movie seems to have been highly outsourced. The various parts of the movie like fight scenes, the music, the songs done separately and then pasted together. The duets featuring Trisha (she is hot, along with the music, the only decent part of the movie) could have come in any order. Lingusamy once again proves that he is a highly overrated, but lucky director. (how else can you explain Run and now Bheema becoming hits?)

Went to Chennai last weekend for the Odyssey quiz. Yet another 1-2 point miss from qualifying. My dad supposedly made the comment that I should avoid going to quizzes that I have no chance of winning. If that is the case, I should give up quizzing completely.

I went by Lalbagh on Saturday morning. Though reserved, the compartment resembled an unreserved one. I even had to show my ticket on coming back from a visit to the toilet to get back my seat. Given this crowd and the fact that Jolarpettai-Bangalore is now a double track, it should be feasible to run a train every hour between Chennai and Bangalore on weekends. Laloo-ji there are still lots of such obvious improvements that can happen in the railways.

Came back by a VRL travels bus, ticket booked on the convenient redbus.in. Ended up getting the last but one seat. Despite the stud Golden Quadrilateral road between Chennai and Bangalore, I ended up having one hell of a bouncy ride. Some entertainment park level.

Parking the bike at Majestic is quite convenient. 40 bucks for the weekend makes it much cheaper than an auto (even after taking into account my 35 km/litre bike). And obviously much more convenient given the late/early times when the travel needs to happen.

For the first time in my recollectable memory, I went north of Poonamallee High Road inside Chennai proper. (obviously catching trains at Central is not counted) Went to Abhirami mall to meet a friend. Seemed a highly cluttered place. But it being a Sunday, could not get tickets for any movie though.

Would like to finish off with some food related comments. Pita bread with hummus rocks as does mendhiya kuzhambu (fenugreek sambhar I think) rice with vadAm(vathal/fryums).

Wayanad - 2

2008-01-12T22:57:00.000+05:30

It was 3 by the time we finished having lunch. A few of us were of the opinion that we should leave for Bangalore then as only then could we be at home by 10 or 11. But this is where it was disadvantageous to be the 12th man in a 11 member group. Not enough decision making power. And so we ended up going to one place called Kuruva Island.

The milestones and signboards in the area are minimal, but placed at the right place, just before the diversion has to be taken from the main road. But this time, there was a board showing straight to Kuruva island and there was a fork in the road. We took the road that seemed to be more travelled by, but turned out that it was the wrong one. The day just kept getting worse.

Kuruva Island is a pretty useless place, a lot like Nisarga Dhama of Coorg, with the forest being a little more dense and the crossing over done on boats or by foot. The boating had stopped by the time we reached there. Supposedly there were some deer on the island. One of the negatives of an IITM education is that having lived for four years in a deer sanctuary, there is absolutely no fascination to observe deer. So decided that it was not worth the effort to wade across the water to the island. But most of the junta went across and they took their own sweet time to come back. Waiting for people is the worst way to pass time. Deterioration of the day's quality continued exponentially.

It was around 7 by the time we left Kuruva Island. There seemed to be only one positive from this diversion, Mysore was just 90 odd kms away. And the road also seemed decent. This was true till the border was reached. There was an arch indicating Rajiv Gandhi National Park and one milestone erected by Karnataka tourism showing Kabini 52 kms away. But there was no road. The "road" was mostly virgin (never laid) or totally screwed up. And also passed through some dense jungle. The trip had reached its nadir. I was totally pained in life too.

The next 23 kms, till proper road was sighted, were covered in one and a half hours. Only 4-5 vehicles passed on the other side and none that we overtook. Our driver did not lose enthu though. He kept stopping whenever there was a deer on the side of the road, this added to my frustration too. But I was totally helpless. In a way this was a fitting end to the day.

Dinner at Mysore happened between 10 and 11:30 and I finally reached home around 2:30 am on Monday morning. Worst.

Wayanad - 1

2008-01-09T14:19:00.000+05:30

I used to think that Wayanad is a town somewhere in Kerala. Turns out that it is a district in Kerala, with the district headquartered at a town called Kalpetta. I think this district was created only for the purposes of tourism. A big thanks to the Western Ghats and the monsoons. At every trip of the foot(thadukki vizhundha) there is a waterfall or a dam. "Full of hills" also means lot of trekking scope. Most importantly, Kalpetta is situated some 260 kms from Bangalore, making it ideal for a weekend trip. Actually there are so many places to see that Wayanad is ideal for a few weekend trips.

Went there this weekend, leaving on Friday night and back on Monday morning at 3 am. Our base was Kalpetta. Saturday early morning and night were spent at a hotel named Chandragiri Inn, costing 440 bucks per room. The rooms were very good, new, with a TV (no remote though), a double cot and a surprisingly neat bathroom with running hot water. Max value for money. Breakfast on both the days was at Woodlands nearby. Did have Kerala Parotta for dinner on Saturday, pretty good stuff. Did put a well left for the bullet rice, preferred to stick to normal rice for lunch.

On, Saturday morning, we first went to Edakkal caves, a group of caves on a hill containing prehistoric designs on their walls. Not too interesting actually, except for clicking pics. The interesting part was climbing the hill and reaching the peak. Somewhere along the way was an almost vertical rock wall with just a rope tied to three fixed points. (some nails level things) I was able to traverse the first stretch of the rope without any difficulty at all. But after that I suddenly panicked, had some trouble covering this second stretch.

I stopped climbing the hill a little after this rope stretch. On the way back, again this rope stretch became a psychological barrier to me. Finally one drunk person (calling people Chetta in Kerala works really well) helped me in coming down this stretch. The pineapple and soda at the foot of the hill were really strong.

The next trip was to Pookode lake, just a scenic lake where some pedalo boating happened. Then to Soochipara waterfall, a small-ish fall where one could bathe. I had not made arrangements for this, so just took photos, dipped my leg in the water and came back.

Sunday morning, the first stop was the Meenmutty waterfall. This is 3.9 kms off motorable road and involves a nearly one hour walk along a forest path (ala Ahobilam). Its advisable to take a guide along. We had gotten lost, but then one guide found us and guided us to the waterfall. Pretty strong waterfall. No scope for getting under the fall. Photo sessions and we came back. Buttermilk near where the forest path starts deserves mention.

It was after this that the trip started going downhill. The cell had been out of range (but Voda-the-fone was surprisingly working) so far, and so I had no clue about the score. By the time I checked the score after coming within range, India had lost. Total devastation happened inside me. Then slowly got to know of the injustices we were subjected to. Just made the situation even more worse. Felt like kicking myself for missing out on the action. All interest in the trip faded.

Vacation

2008-01-03T14:17:00.000+05:30

Just came back yesterday to Bangalore after a week long vacation. Like any vacation, this vacation also seemed very short. Went to Hyd and Chennai. Also went to Srisailam (from Hyd with Vamshi) and Kanchipuram (from Chennai, major Divya Desams ticking only). Plan to write detailed posts about those two trips, but I am not sure if I will have the enthu to do that.

The worst part about this vacation was that sleep took a major hit, mainly because of the Melbourne rape that I duly watched almost fully and also because of the traveling and other activities. Could sleep in the afti on only two of the days, Christmas and New Year.

Saw movies in three different languages in theatres.

First was Taare Zameen Par with sis, tickets in black, 50 for 100. Totally worth the money and surely much cheaper than the Inox-es and the PVRs. Impressive movie, moving without being melodramatic. I almost had tears in my eyes towards the end. A must see for every parent and kid in India, in my opinion.

A couple of days later saw this kandravi (worst max) gult movie called Don, starring Nagarjuna. Gult filmdom is in safe hands if such movies can get sold out on working day afternoons. Finally saw Billa on Saturday at Mayajaal in Chennai. Pretty stylish movie and surely exceeded my low expectations.

Traveled by the Chennai Express from Hyd for the first time since it became a super fast express. Superfast is the standard euphemism for increase in ticket price, but in this case it has been speeded up by a couple of hours. As a result one can no longer get samosas at Nalgonda. Dinner is also served at Nalgonda as opposed to Nadikudi previously. The veg biryani was pretty strong, reminded me of my very own vegetable pulav.

Went to my IITM hostel, Alak, after a really long time. I think the last time was Saarang in my first year at IIMB. Not much change there except for some lawn level outer decorations and the absent mess. Also, there were phones in the wings (redundant given the cell phone penetration these days) and mineral water in every wing. It was pretty nostalgic recounting past experiences with a friend, Bharath, sitting on the wing cot watching footer in the quadrangle. A good way to start the new year.

Happy New Year All.

Ranganathittu

2007-12-27T17:25:00.000+05:30

There was little besides the temple at Somnathpur. As a result we still had a lot of time to kill for the day. We decided to go to one of the many other tourist places near Mysore. But first, our aim was to reach a good road as soon as possible. From Bannur, we could have taken the route that we had come by (some 50 kms to the Mysore Road) or take the road to Mysore 25kms away. It was a no brainer. We took the rod to Mysore.

Immediately after Bannur, the road improved immensely. (my theory to explain this is that Mandya district, where we had been travelling so far, has bad roads, while Mysore district is much better) Almost no potholes, just rumble strips from time to time and almost no traffic too. 80+ again. This time we also had two guys on a Splendour trying to keep up with us. They were pretty successful, but the Splendour engine was groaning under the stress by the time we parted ways a little before Mysore.

On hitting the Bangalore-Mysore highway, we turned towards Ranganathittu. One has to take a diversion a little before Srirangapatna while coming from Mysore. Enough boards to indicate the road to be travelled.

We had not had lunch, so were hungry. But the canteen at Ranganathittu, the only one there called Sumathi, was highly undermanned and also had a very uncooperative owner. One guy was handling some 10 tables and was prone to forget details. We decided to safely stick with Idli-vada (like the Akki roti in the previous post, these were the last ones at the place). The idli-vada wasn't good either. But there was no other choice, thanks to the monopoly.

The best (actually the only decent) part about Ranganathittu is the boat ride in the lake. Not many birds (both avian and human) were around at the time, the avian ones expected to land in huge numbers in January. But there were crocodiles basking in the sun on small rock islands. And one crocodile even made a few cool moves while we neared its rock. The 25 rupees for the boat ride was entirely worth it.

On the way back, we stopped at Kamath Lokaruchi on the way back for complete refuelling and then drove non-stop till home. The distance from Ranganathittu to Kamath was covered really fast, 80 kms or so in less than an hour and 15 minutes. And from Kamath to Outer Ring Road, I was able to keep Josh within my sights. Immense traffic at the Mysore Road-Outer Ring Road junction happened and only then I lost him. I took the Outer Ring Road and was at home around 8:30. Some curd rice made it a very satisfying end to a satistying day.

Pics.

Somnathpur

2007-12-24T10:24:00.000+05:30

Saturday morning dawned brilliantly. I left home around 7:30, reached Josh's place around 8 and we hit the road on two bikes, my Thunderbird and his Karizma at 8:10. The first stop was at the Kamath on Mysore Road sharing its name with a Srilankan leg spinner, Lokaruchi. This is situated between Ramanagara and Channapatna. A very popular place as proved by the huge queue waiting to get seated. Thankfully we were able to get a place to sit in 10-15 minutes, just in time to have two Akki rotis. My second Akki roti was the hotel's last one for the morning. Idly vada for me and puri and masala dosa for Josh also happened.

So far, due to the traffic and some initial inertia, we had travelled at an actual rate of around 47 kms per hour. My refuelling helped in giving some thrust to this, and the next 40 odd kms to Maddur were covered at a much faster pace, almost never going below 80kmph on the speedometer. So far the road, the SH17 from Bangalore to Mysore, was also superb.

Then we had to take a diversion towards Malavalli. And the road deteriorated, quite badly. Josh, who was driving without his helmet on, had to put on his helmet to get protection from the dust being thrown up. Malavalli on all its sides, from Maddur, Kanakapura, Sivanasamudram and Mysore has the some of the worst approach roads one can encounter.

The entrance to Malavalli was very picturesque though, with a huge lotus pond on one side of the road and verdant fields on the other. Should have taken a pic.

Somnathpur is 30 kms from Malavalli, 7 kms from Bannur on the road to Mysore. The road till Bannur is much much better than the stretch from Bannur to Somnathpur. That pathway is of the nature of removing all the enthu one would have in long distance bike rides. We were at Somnathpur a little after noon.

It is an eponymous Kesava temple there, built in the Hoysala style. Actually there are three garbha-grihas there, the idol directly facing the entrance being Kesava's. On an axis perpendicular to the entrance-main idol one are two other deities facing each other, Venugopala on the right side of Kesava and Janardhana on the left. The entire arrangement is like the star-connection in electrical circuits, with two of the angles (Kesava-Venugopala and Kesava-Janardhana) being 90 degrees and the third 180. There is a reason why this alignment reminded me of something that I learnt 7 years back. Each of the garbhagrihas is on a star shaped platform. A top view of the entire complex should make for an interesting view.

This temple has built a century after the more famous Belur and Halebid ones. While the general feel ( on a platform, soap stone, too much sculpting, essentially giving a feel of giving a free rein to the sculptors and then asking them to maximise the number of figures in a given area, probably the sculptors were paid in a figures/area rate) is the same, there are a few differences here. The most obvious one is the plainness of the lathed pillars, in stark contrast to the richness of Belur. Somnathpur is also a pure Vaishnava temple, in the sense that I did not see any Shiva/Ganesha images, there was one sculpture of Brahma though. Unlike Belur where the Victory pillar stands without any adhesive, here the pillar has been cemented to the base to prevent it from falling.

The temple is maintained really well by the ASI. Well manicured lawns, lots of trees around and surprisingly well maintained toilets, this could also be the result of not many people coming there. On Saturday, this was not the case, there were a couple of school picnics and one college tour to the place.

After having taken lots of pics (that will be uploaded soon), we decided to not take the same route back, but a route that would take us to the Bangalore-Mysore SH17 in the shortest distance.

(To be continued)

Some background to why Somnathpur this specific weekend:

Vamshi and I had originally planned to do one 4-5 days aimless bike trip this weekend. But he dropped out due to some familial constraints. I could have gone home, but did not want to do so because of the violin classes.

Skimpy and I had originally planned to go to Somnathpur last weekend by his car. But the combination of an undecided Aadisht, a visiting IITM classmate and the following jobless weekend resulted in procrastination and shifting the plan to this weekend. At the same time, Josh had confirmed his participation in this excursion.

This weekend was also not too straightforward. We were to go on Friday. As on cue, prompt rains on Wednesday and Thursday meant that we shifted the plan to Saturday. Then Skimpy put NED, but I still decided to go on bike. Thankfully, Josh was also pretty enthu about the bike ride.

Unleash the violins

2007-10-22T21:26:00.000+05:30

Sometime when I was young (really young, ~10 types), I threw a major tantrum during a Kanyakumari concert, clearly expressing my lack of interest in what was going on onstage. My parents refused to take this lying down. What better way to inculcate a liking for the violin than learning to play it? Soon, I had started to go for violin classes.

Despite this history, I seemed to have some decent talent for the instrument. Reached the varnam stage, the first varnam only though. I could also to some extent follow my teacher's alapanai in a few raagas. (the geetham ones like Mohanam, Malahari, etc). I even performed on stage at one of my dad's office functions. This was only Ra Ra Venu Gopala and one piece in Mohanam.

Four years, three teachers, but I still did not seem too interested. One reason was that whenever I changed teachers, I had to start off from scratch as the new teacher invariably had views contrary to what the previous teacher instructed. (classic case, Janta Varisai, whether to use one bow stroke for one swara or two bow strokes one for each swara) Conveniently acads also came to my rescue and my violin career seemed to have ended in class 9. In hindsight, "acads" was not too bad an excuse afterall.

Sometime in the recent past, the urge to pick up the violin again took birth in me. Thinking about it, I seem to have been inspired by junta whom I know. Bhattad (his attempt to learn the guitar), PS(who is learning the violin) and a family friend's son, Arvind ( who is also learning the violin, which I played on when I visited them sometime in the recent past) are the ones in question.

Some enquiring and I found out that there was near my house, this Indiranagar Sangeetha Sabha where violin, among others, was being taught. There were two violin teachers, one who came on a weekend and another Mr. Sivasubramanian, who taught on Mondays and Thursdays in the evenings. Weekend classes would mean the weekend activities would be constrained by them. I decided to join the weekday classes.

Today was my first class. I was rusty, especially the bow-ing. At the same time, thankfully, I did seem to have a decent feel for the shruti. And as usual, the third speed was hajaar fight. Especially the janta varisai. I have been asked to practice the Sarali varisai on my own and the sir started off with teaching the janta varisai. And its one bow stroke for two swaras.

After the class, I made a trip to CMH road and bought a violin, a Chinese-make for 3.3K. (surprisingly here, the Chinese violin was costlier than the Indian one) Nearly 10 years have passed since I last picked up the violin, but the standard book for Carnatic music has not changed. Its still the Ganamrutha Bodhini.

As opposed to the first attempt, the second attempt should be more successful as unlike the past, this time I myself am interested in learning to play the violin well. The first question that the teacher asked was if I would have enough time to practice, and I surely will have enough.

I can fiddle while my food is cooking.

Spam

2007-10-17T13:58:00.000+05:30

This was an sms that I got from one, "Astrology", yesterday.

"Worship Skanda Mata today. Ask her for Moksha & be free from mental anxiety. Offer curd rice as naivedya. Call 55315 & find out mantras from Jyotish @ Rs9/min".

Brilliant.

Cricketing Dilettantes

2007-10-15T14:35:00.000+05:30

Played cricket with some office junta on Saturday. Unlike the previous time, this time the game was played in a strictly "amateur"-ish (to distinguish from the derogatory "amateurish" ) spirit, red tennis ball and no extra fittings except the stumps in a public ground in Ulsoor where there were many other such games going on. This ground situation reminded me of a time in class 3 or 4 when along with some junta from my flat and from the nearby basti, we used to go and play at the ground opposite Shenoy Nursing Home in Secunderabad.

The best feature of the game was that the junta tried to make it as inclusive as possible. Stuff like if someone bowled, he would bat after the junta who did not bowl, irrespective of talent. 15 overs each side meant that there was enough time to accomplish this even with the matches being 11-a-side.

My team fielded first and I was sent to the square leg boundary. A one bounce catch was my fielding highlight. After a leftie who could not hit the ball on the off side came to bat, I was shifted to the leftie's mid wicket (right hander's extra cover). But soon the leftie got out and then the ball came towards me only once, but the mid off fielder ran and cut it off before I had the chance. This position was also ideally situated under a tree and gave sufficient respite from the searing heat. The opposing team ended up scoring 102 in 15 overs.

Our openers added around 15 runs when one of them got out and I was given the chance to show off my batting skills. Started off pretty ok, taking singles and twos off shots hit along the ground. The batsman at the other end was also doing something similar, and we were moving on pretty nicely at the required run rate of 7.

After running 10 runs or so in the sweltering heat (it was around 4 in the evening), I was totally tired. (well some of the blame has to be attributed to my fitness also) With 8 batsmen still to come, it was time to get after the bowling. But I hadn't bargained for the ineptitude of all the fielders. I got dropped 4 times, this just meant more and more running. And in this manner we reached 47 in 7 overs. Early in the 8th over, I swung at a ball wildly, missed and was bowled. At that time the opinion of everyone in my team was that I had gotten out at the right time, with enough runs left for the others to hit.

But what happened next was a collapse of Indian (or English) proportions. We lost 6 wickets for one run in the next two overs. The match was over. We did have a last wicket fightback. Got it down to 16 off the last over and the stud batsman (the Misbah) hit the first two balls of that over for boundaries raising all our hopes. But we were destined to be the losing team. The very next ball, he got out holing out into the deep, the only catch caught in the outfield throughout the afternoon.

We did try to play another match, but that had to be abandoned after one team had batted. Again I fielded and was the keeper standing in the middle of a game of footer. Overall a pretty enjoyable Saturday afternoon, and some exercise too.

Hijacked

2007-09-27T12:07:00.000+05:30

There was a joke on Star Vijay's "Kalakkapovadhu Yaaru" that had a reporter questioning a politician that went thus.

Reporter: Sir, what have been the achievements during your term in power? (Unga aatchi la enna sadhanai padaicheenga?)
Politician: (proudly) It was during our rule that Australia won the World Cup. (Enga aatchi la thaan pa Australia ulaga coppaiya jeyichudhu)

Looking at the events of yesterday, this is no longer a joke. The victory was possible not because of the BCCI, but inspite of it. Where were the BCCI bosses when India got kicked out of the WC? "Sukh me sumiran sab karen" holds good for everyone, not just God as Kabir intended. Please let this team be in peace, instead of overhyping them and then bringing about the ruination that invariably follows increased pride.

Just when it seemed like the ICL had BCCI on the run, this victory comes as a big shot in the arm for the BCCI. Now obviously expecting BCCI to change is mission impossible. Somehow I get a bad feeling that this victory will do more harm than good to Indian cricket in the long run. In the short run, a thrashing at the hands of the Aussies, akin to what the Windies did to us in 1984 is also quite possible.

The other issue that rankles me is why governments have to get involved in doling out cash prizes to the players? Its not like the players or the game are starved of cash. Instead of giving 5 lakhs each to Venkatesh Prasad and Robin Uthappa, the money would have been better spent if it was used to repair my street.

Ofcourse it was an awesome tournament. Great memories that I will cherish for a long time. The bowl-out, the six sixes, the bouncer to Albie Morkel from Joginder, Yuvraj's 119 metre six, Sreesanth's ground thulping antics, the final scoop, and much much more. Thanks for the fun and entertainment boys. Just keep up the good work.

No coach, no captain also

2007-09-14T12:38:00.000+05:30

While it is sort of obvious that its not the fast bowlers, but the slow bowlers who will be more effective in 20-20, we decide to go in with 4 fast bowlers. And not one of them dibbly-dobbly, just clean hittable.

This is because there is a new captain and no coach. All the seniors have been accomodated in the team while the new buggers are made to sit out. Yusuf Pathan, Joginder Singh, Piyush Chawla and Rohit Sharma are the guys sitting out.

Just like how if you are a kid trying to join a game of cricket played by junta older than you, you will invariably just end up fielding and without batting or bowling.

Totally shocking that Dravid resigned. Yes, his batting wasn't as good as before, but he is just back from a successful overseas trip and have Pakistan and Australia in Australia to follow. Slisha bad timing only, especially with no obvious successor around. Given the current state of our team, I think Dada for the tests and Dhoni for the ODIs (keeping 2011 in mind), would be the best possible option. The only other option is Sachin, who has proved not too good at captaining in both his stints.

VIPs and their peak hour madness

2007-09-11T14:08:00.000+05:30

Today morning, as I was coming to office, there were barricades at the place where my lane meets the Airport Road. Reason, some useless and obviously at a very high position VIP and his cavalcade were supposed to pass that way. Being 9:45 in the morning, soon a big queue of vehicles ended up being formed.

This was some 20 minutes before the VIP finally came to pass. The procession passed only at 10:10 finally. Total waste of time. Obviously reasoning with the policemen did not work. Why the hell can't these jobless buggers travel earlier itself? I seriously think there should be a rule that, as far as possible, VIPs should not travel in a city between 9 and 6.

The policemen also tried to make an attempt to push everyone off the roads on this side, while traffic was peacefully moving in the opposite direction. Made the entire security situation seem totally stupid. If someone wanted to attack the VIP, he could easily do it from the other side.

Not too far away from the Vivek joke where the policemen stop traffic as the VIP's flight is flying overhead. There was even a guy selling tea there. Also surprising (but pretty much expected only here) to find so many traffic policemen on the road too.

Dabbawala

2007-09-04T11:41:00.000+05:30

I had cribbed about office food almost exactly a year back. I hadn't done anything about it and continued to just get along with whatever ($hit) was being served at the office cafeteria. But no longer.

The biggest issue stopping me from taking matters into my own hands was the absence of a tiffin box. Thanks to the vacation last week, I got a couple of Tupperware dabbas (one big and the other small). Today I have brought food cooked by myself to office. Four chapathis and some mixed vegetable curry that I made yesterday. However bad they are, I am sure I will eat them as it is something that I have made.

The vacation also enabled me to make some much needed adjustments to my technique, of making chapathis. There was a fault in the way I rolled them, the result of which my chapathis weren't too even, that I corrected. (something small like how just opening up his stance helped Dinesh Kartik play Sidebottom better) I was also told to make smaller chapathis.

I put these suggestions into practice and I think I could see results immediately. Visual proof presented itself in the form of proper puri level expansion of the chapathi on exposure to the naked flame. I would still have to get someone else to verify if my chapathis are ok. But till then, ignorance is bliss wonly.

Last night

2007-09-01T16:11:00.000+05:30

It had just stopped raining.

First a reservation was made in a restaurant by the lake that cost a minimum of 350 per head.

Then a walk under the night sky by the lake side.

Followed by a candle light dinner with live music in the background at the restaurant, overlooking the lake and costing 500 bucks per head.

The post dinner dessert was Feast at a Kwality Walls vandi near where the car was parked. And then a walk on Necklace Road in areas abounding with couples.

An almost perfect setting for a romantic date.

If only my companion was a girl and not Vamshi.

Vacation

2007-08-22T12:28:00.000+05:30

I'm taking my first vacation from work. After a small trip to Chennai, I'll end up at home in Hyd on Saturday morning.

Eagerly looking forward to doing nothing for a week. (except the poonal changing and Gayatri jabam)

ICL and the Quota System

2007-08-17T10:10:00.000+05:30

It was a 177 as captain against the English Colts in the aftermath of our Natwest triumph that brought Ambati Rayudu to national prominence. He had become so popular that everyone on stage (except the quiz masters) could recognize his picture in a cricket quiz held in Anna University a few months later. After being touted as the next Sachin, Azhar, VVS, etc, and a pretty good first season, suddenly he lost his way and dropped out of the limelight. There was a shift to the Andhra Ranji team a couple of seasons back and then a comeback to the Hyderabad Ranji team last season along the way. But it did seem like he would end up being just another Ranji player, he was going nowhere. All this and he is still just 21 years old.

Now he is back in the news as the first current player to sign for Zee's Indian Cricket League in defiance of a probable ban that might be imposed on him. And supposedly he is not alone. He is joined by the cream of the Hyderabad team, the elegant left handed number 3 Anirudh Singh, the dependable D Vinay Kumar and the keeper Ibrahim Khaleel. TOI has clearly attributed the reason for this "defection" to the monetary benefits that the new league would offer. Ofcourse money is a major motivation, but I believe that there is another equally important reason as to why it was a group of Hyderabadis who were the first to join the ICL. Something that I (and some friends) term the quota system.

The quota here refers to the selection of sons of ex-cricketers in the teams that matter at the cost of other arguably more talented players. The ex-cricketer and son that I am referring to are Shivlal Yadav and his son Arjun Yadav. In the last season, Arjun Yadav hasn't done too great. But he was rewarded with a place in the India A team. And also walks into all the South Zone teams. There cannot be any other reason for such a mediocre achiever to go places other than the power his dad wields with the Hyderabad Cricket Association. And incidentally, Shivlal Yadav's previous claim to fame was the selection of Noel (who?) David.

Given that one guy who has performed as well or as badly as the others is preferred shows that it is not meritocracy at work. And as a result the entire middle order except Arjun has decided to quit putting their entire careers at risk. Or probably there was no chance they could have a decent career.

It also seems to me like Arjun Yadav was also responsible for Ambati Rayudu's sudden and unexpected shift to Andhra. And there is some colourful history also between the two where Arjun Yadav ran behind Ambati Rayudu with a stump in hand at Anantapur two seasons back due to allegations that Yadav was a quota candidate. And it could very well have been pressures such as these that have had a big role to play in Rayudu's decline.

ICL has hit the Indian cricket administration at the right weak point, the quota system. something that is obvious to even a casual follower of domestic Indian cricket. There must be other such affected and disgruntled cricketers. And there is no reason why someone who is kept out by say an Udit Patel or an Anirudh Srikkanth will not join the ICL. ICL has found quite a fertile ground to target. Good strategy and I seriously hope this will pay off.

P.S.: Also posted on Critics Corner.

YAWU or Yet Another Weekend Update

2007-08-14T11:19:00.000+05:30

Dinners at relatives houses are boring, especially more so if one there is no one except your sis belonging to your generation, and even more so when it is at the cost of missing live football sitting in the cosy confines of home. But at some places, appearances need to be kept. Thus my plans of an uninterrupted football viewing session on Saturday got totally dashed. In the end. thanks to a call in the morning asking us to land up early, I could only watch two halves, the first half of the Spurs-Sunderland match and the second half of the Liverpool-Villa match.

Given that Liverpool won despite me watching, last season's jinx finally seems to have been broken. Liverpool might just end up being title contenders. And good that Man City under Sven and Shin have also started off well. If Man U do badly tomorrow (at Portsmouth) , City can enter the derby on Sunday 4-5 points above United. Enough of day dreaming for now.

The trip to Hyd was planned because my mom is in the US and my dad was also supposed to join her as a part of an official trip. So my sis would be alone and I could go and take care of her. (its actually closer to give her some break from the solitude at home). But dad's trip got cancelled (much to my mom's chagrin, Amma claims that Appa should have put more fight and ensured that the trip went ahead, he being a director and all, but that was hoping for the moon). But I decided to go ahead with my trip as my tickets were already booked by train.

I parked my bike at Cantonment. 60 bucks from Friday evening to Monday morning is pretty decent only. (as compared to what I might have had to pay if I had taken an auto).

Previously the Bangalore-Hyd train had a pantry car, but now it does not. Snacks are loaded at Bangalore itself, so its better if you get them early, else they end up being non-hot and non-crispy. Also Railway grub seems to have reduced in quantity. And they don't even give water these days. If I remember right from the little I remember from B-School, there is a court ruling that water should be served along with food. They used to previously, but now they don't. Just one of the ways in which Lalu is making the Railways more profitable.

Checking the net on the phone is awesome, especially while following a cricket match. But it also has the undesirable sideeffect of draining the battery pretty fast. But worth it if India is doing well as on Friday, but not so on Sunday. But I still ended up draining the battery on both the days.

Enough of rambling. I shall stop here.

Change at work

2007-08-06T10:55:00.000+05:30

Till last week, I was working on some data modeling, a project that belongs to what I call the "grey area". There is no one right answer, just a best among the many possible answers. Whatever you do can be right. In a way it is good, especially when it comes to discussing progress with the manager. But somehow this entire exercise seemed a little unfulfilling to me and I was getting a little disillusioned.

Last week I was shifted to a more deterministic project. Developing some tools required for statistical analysis. Its not too easy, but at the same time, I atleast know what my final result will and should be. Seems a welcome change. As Skimpy remarked, probably it is my anti-probability bias that has manifested itself here.

I also have had some mugging also to do, but it does not seem as onerous as mugging for exams. Suddenly my world has become a much better place to inhabit.

One Night at Forum

2007-07-20T14:23:00.000+05:30

I finally had a Subway on Indian soil. Now only boozing is left.

I swipe my card at the PVR, I get tickets for Pokkiri, booked 6 months back. Hats off to PVR for their memory and data storage.

The previous show was delayed when I had gone for Sivaji. Yesterday also it was delayed. Don't know whether it is just my luck or as BJ says, just a strategy to sell popcorn and coke. The latter it must be.

We did fall victims to this strategy, at the cost of becoming paupers. We were able to make up the 100 bucks with the last 20 bucks being coins. On buying a coke each, I had 2 bucks (a 2 rupee note that has been lying around in my purse since God knows when) and BJ was left with 50 paise.

PVR sucks for a number of other reasons too like not allowing helmets (inox and innovative have no issues at all with a helmet), but due to lack of choice, I end up visiting the place again and again.

Speaking of Sivaji, the dialogue "pera kettale summa athurudhu la" ( crudely translated as "on listening to the name itself, it starts trembling) seems very apt for Voldemort.

The movie, Order of the Phoenix, just like the book, was very disappointing. Just seemed like a badly edited version of the book. I have too many cribs with the movie and not much enthu to go over them. The movie had one totally strong positive though, Emma Watson. Simply stunning in all the scenes that she appears.

Hopefully the final book will be stud. And a "more important hopefully", I will get my copy on Saturday itself.

The return back home was in heavy rain. I like driving in the rain and despite my assumption and approximation based driving as it was night, the drive was pretty good. Except for the part where cars splashed water on me. This part I totally dislike. Two reasons, the water is dirty. More importantly, the water is at a higher temperature than the rain water. Sucks.

Baingan Barta

2007-07-17T13:18:00.000+05:30

Ingredients:

1) One fat brinjal (one of those huge ones, not the normal one)
2) Two onions
3) Two tomatoes
4) Chilli powder and salt
5) A few spoons of oil

Method:

1) Rub the brinjal with a spoon of oil and then place it directly on the flame. Ensure that the skin of the brinjal gets burnt properly everywhere.
2) Take some oil in a pan, cut the onions and add and heat.
3) After the onions reach a golden-ish colour, add cut tomatoes, some chilli powder and salt to the onions and continue to stir.
4) Simultaneously, strip the brinjal of its burnt skin. Check for worms (thankfully there were none) and mash the brinjal.
5) Add the mashed brinjal to the onion-tomato mixture in the pan. Stir for some time.

Your baingan barta is ready. Surprisingly simple to make. And pretty good to eat too (if you like brinjal).

The Copa America Final

2007-07-16T14:55:00.000+05:30

I was just a little late in waking up. But by that time the most significant incident of the Brazil-Argentina match, the first goal was already scored. Baptista's goal in the fourth minute meant that Argentina were chasing the game and Brazil could hit on the counter, something that they did very effectively, with the substitute and stud Dani Alves first setting up and then scoring a goal.

The only chance that this match would be interesting was if Argentina responded with a goal soon, and Riquelme did hit the post in the 10th minute. But this was a false dawn, after this Brazil kept the Argentines comfortably at bay. It was not pretty to watch, but pretty effective.

To some extent, Argentina also bottled it. Riquelme was very ineffective as was also Messi(surely has a long way to reach a Maradona, who delivered when it mattered). As a result, Tevez was almost never in the game. Even Mascherano who had a brilliant Champions League final, had a bad match. This Argentine team is the footballing counterpart of the Cronje led South African team. Thrash all teams in the initial rounds but come a cropper in the knockouts.

The Ten Sports coverage sucked. Not one replay of the first goal in the time I watched, that is after 10 minutes, no highlights during the half time and a commentator who was commentating looking at the TV coverage. Even I could be more insightful than him.

I watched the match half asleep. Sadly after the match got over, I got no sleep. As a result I am still half asleep. I used to be proud of my ability to fall asleep whenever I wanted to. But alas, this seems to have left me completely.

Enna Vendum Pulava?

2007-07-04T11:12:00.000+05:30

I am no poet, but I surely have figured out how to make a decent Pulav.

Ingredients:
A cup of rice.
A couple of potatoes, a few carrots and some beans. (maybe one onion also, I didn't have any)
A few green chillies. (3-5 depending on your ability to have spicy stuff)
The spices, the special biryani leaf, etc. ( I found a small packet costing 5 bucks called pulav spices in the neighbouring Mallu store )

Procedute:

1) Cut the vegetables
2) Soak the rice in water
3) Pour a little oil into the pan and heat by putting the flame in sim.
4) Slit the green chillies and add to the oil
5) Add the spices and some salt to taste
6) Add the cut vegetables
7) Keep stirring the vegetables at intervals of two minutes for some 10 minutes.
8) Remove the rice from the water and add it to the vegetables.
9) Stir for a couple of minutes.
10) Transfer the contents of the can to the electric cooker (a pressure cooker should also do)
11) Add 1.5 cups of water and let this mixture cook.

Your pulav is ready. Eat hot with curd or raitha.

P.S Pulava means poet in Tamizh.
P.P.S Enna vendum = What is wanted

Sivanasamudram - bike trip

2007-07-02T12:39:00.000+05:30

I have been to Sivanasamudram twice. Despite this I was of the opinion that one of the two waterfalls, Gaganachukki, alone was two falls due to the fairly large island in the middle. It was only this time that I realised that Barachukki, the other fall, was a totally different set of water falls and there was a substantially large island, also referred to as Madhyarangam (the middle island, with Srirangapatna and Srirangam being the non-middle ones).

Coming from Kanakapura and Malavalli, Gaganachukki is the one that comes first. And it is the higher and more majestic one. As a result, getting close to the water here is a difficult task. We did not even attempt it. I had gone up to the water here (up meaning before the water falls) in both my previous visits. On talking to a coconut water vendor there (pretty cheap coconut water at Rs. 5, but not too tasty though), he said that we could get down to the water at the other fall.

Barachukki is some 15 kms from Gaganachukki. And there are steps for one to go down to the water. And a dhoni (the round boat that seems to be a fixture on the Kaveri (Hogenakkal and Talakkad too have these)) ride took us just beneath one of the falls. 60 bucks the cost for both of us. Here, one can also attempt to have a bath right beneath the waterfall. But as we hadn't made any arrangements, we refrained. Crossing the river to get to the bottom of the waterfall was a good experience though.

An island on the Kaveri meant there had to be a Ranganatha Temple. But by the time we were leaving, the sanctum sanctorum of the small Ranganatha temple was closed, so I decided that it was not worth paining Vamshi and taking him to the temple.

We took the route that I thought was the shortest, via Kanakapura and Malavalli. The first 80 odd kms is good road, the next 40 kms or so around Malavalli is really bad, and the last 20 kms are again well paved. Thanks to the bad roads, this has been the most tiring drive that I have undertaken. Ended up with a slight niggle in my right calf due to the numerous times that I had to brake. And the longest too, some 160 kms each way. Another bad thing about this road is that between Kanakapura and Sivanasamudram, there isn't a decent place to eat. We had to make do with some mixture, cream bun and dilpasand at some bakery on the way.

Pics.

Sivaji - Timepass

2007-06-27T14:34:00.000+05:30

Three words would summarize the experience:

Si Va Ji
Va Yi Le
Ji Le Bi

Just like jilebi isn't the studdest of sweets, Sivaji is also not the best Rajni movie. But its still timepass enough.

Btw, Rajni is getting old. He looks sad at times in the intro song unable to move around with the usual alacrity. One more movie max and he should retire. Probably Sulthan, the cartoon based on him, can take over. Will be truly ageless.

It is mostly a Rajni movie and very less a Shankar one. All Shankar does is waste the producer's money. The movie could have been shot at a fraction of the budget and still have been just as good. In turn he ends up making low budget movies that become major hits. Clever guy. Shankar also has a problem with choosing heroines. Only Indian and Jeans have had good looking heroines. All the others including Shriya here have been very ordinary.

Another almost aimless drive

2007-06-25T11:26:00.000+05:30

It had been quite some time since I went on a long drive on my bike. So I decided rain or shine, I would go somewhere this weekend. Despite having been in Bangalore for more than three years, I still hadn't visited Mysore and Srirangapatna. It was time to correct this aberration on my resume, so it would be Srirangapatna. Given that there are only a couple of forts/palaces/mosques and one temple to visit, starting around 8 from home would be enough to return by 7.

So I started off. Decided to take the BMIC expressway out of the city. Caught it on Hosur Road. But just a little before Gottigere on Bannerghatta Road, thanks to some land allotment issue, this expressway suddenly stops. Had to do a little searching around to find the continuation of the road. No issues after this though. The road is pretty nice. (sorry, couldn't avoid the pun) But I don't understand why someone would pay to take this road to Mysore, when the existing State Highway itself is already four laned and in pretty good shape.

Breakfast was at Maddur. One plate Maddur vadas and a plate idly vada. Due to the Sunday rush, sambar was over, so had to have idly vada with sagu. As I was having breakfast, the dark clouds that loomed threateningly over since I started finally acted. It started drizzling. As a result I chose to take the route that I thought took me away from the rain, back towards Bangalore.

Somewhere between Doddamallur and Maddur, there is an anonymous arch adorned with an idol of Lakshmi Narasimha. I decided to check out this road that obviously had a temple. The road kept deteriorating as I went. It went past a village that had a Kali temple. A little after that, there was an untarred road that diverged and in the corner stood a very missable board indicating that the Narasimha temple was 3km along this untarred road.

I am sure this road was never laid.(tempting to add "me" and "like" somewhere in this sentence, but I refrain) Just a combination of mud and stones and wild growth on the sides, a jungle it was. In the rain, the stones seemed more confidence inducing that the mud. Initially the road climbed, then it was pretty much on the same level. A km or two this continued.

The suddenly out of nowhere, a concrete road sprang up. And I was also climbing a hill rapidly. At the end of the road, on the hill was a small, really small Narasimha temple, showing Narasimha coming out of the Stambha. I learnt from the Bhattar there that this place was called Karunagiri (google later told me it was Kurunagere) One archana, some curd rice and some photos later, I left the temple and returned back.

Cricket in the Vernacular

2007-06-22T15:43:00.000+05:30

Sun TV has been trying to replicate the Microsoft strategy. Some product in the market that seems to be a winner, take it, repackage it and make more money out of it. Examples, Kalakkapovadhu yaaru became Asathapovadhu Yaaru, Koffee with Anu tried to become that give up Gouthami show, etc. Now its trying the same thing with cricket coverage. I guess Raj's trial with the Bangladesh series was a success (probably more so because Neo wasn't shown) and as a result Sun has got the rights for all the matches that are shown on Neo for the year.

And unlike Raj, Sun has useless channels that no one watches in all its languages, the News ones. So Sun News will show the matches with Tam commentary, Gemini news with Gult and Udaya News with Dig. Not sure if the matches are shown in Mallu. Also read that Neo has allowed Sab to show cricket with Hindi commentary.

This mass regional selling must have happened because of the Government's brainless bill to force telecasters to share feed with DD. And hence, this is a way for Neo to make up for some lost money. But this is something that should have happened a long time back.

Afterall who cares about Neo's English commentary?

Just to keep the blog updated

2007-06-19T14:55:00.000+05:30

Completion of a year at work also means that I have to work to earn the money that I am being paid. And work hard too.

Without football, weekends are very boring. Sunday evenings after people visiting me have left are even more painfully boring. F1 is boring, the top runners have forgotten how to close down large gaps and even attempt to overtake. Moto GP is infinitely better. Canada was interesting only because of the crashes. The only respite from sporting boredom in the coming months will be India's tour to England. Should be a closely fought series, as bowling wise we are totally equally matched, both just can't get Chanderpaul out.

On weekdays, there is not enough time to get bored though. Anyways need to start making the road trips.

Sometime back, I had embarked on a quest of seeing historically accurate TV series' on Rome. This used to be my pre-nap ritual. In the process finished Rome's second season. Then saw a docu-drama by BBC and Discovery about 6 events and people that changed Rome. Then downloaded Robert Graves' "I, Claudius", a TV series shot in the 1970s. Currently bored of this too. Still have a couple of episodes to watch. But I guess I will buy the book soon. And also have to pick up Suetonius' "Twelve Caesars" when I go home next.

Speaking of books, I have resumed pre-nap book reading. Artemis Fowl and the Lost Colony is boring. Almost no Mulch Diggums and Foaly, replace them with a couple of boring demons, introduce a female genius, but then show her to be dumb, Eoin Colfer has almost lost it. Just another disappointing sequel like Shrek 3, the only sequel I have watched this summer. Spidey, POC and Ocean's Thirteen have been well left.

Chennai 28 is pretty entertaining, Naan Avan Illai is enough timepass. But just can't wait to catch Sivaji. Cheap PVR is not selling Sivaji tickets online. And I don't have the enthu to go put fight at a theatre. My time will surely come, who can avoid the inevitable.

One year

2007-06-04T14:54:00.001+05:30

I complete a year at my first job today. Not bad at all.

Palakkad

2007-05-21T11:54:00.000+05:30

An IITM classmate of mine was marrying another IITM classmate. To attend this function, I left along with another IITM classmate of mine, Josh to Palakkad on Saturday night.

Dinner that night was at this place Sukh Sagar, near Majestic. Strong unlimited Gujju grub, but we weren't able to do justice to the 105 bucks price tag.

We were travelling by a Volvo. From Karnataka to Kerala run by the Karnataka government, but showed a Tam movie.

It was an inter-caste marriage, the boy, a Thenkalai Iyengar marrying a Nair much against his parents wishes. So their side just had to turn up like guests. And the groom was the chief guest and just had to go up the dias and collect his memento.

The wedding was really short, cinema style. Two thalis and a couple of chains and the marriage was deemed over and the photo sessions started. For some reason, immediately after the marriage, the nadaswara goshti played "Varaha Nadikara Oram" from Sangamam, a cup movie with awesome music.

Somehow looking at a close friend, someone of your own age getting married, the prospect does seem a little scary.

Food was by one Hari Iyer, the son of Venkatesha Iyer. The servers were totally at odds with the ones in my imagination, based on a cook from a cook-gramam near Palakkad, Kameswaran. And the first thing that came to mind when sambar was being served was "meen".(fish) Food wasn't that great, but the pal payasam was super.

Crash followed thulp and soon it was time for the return bus. This journey seemed totally interminable and a major pain in the back side, taking 12 hours to complete the 400 kms in question. A couple of good parottas after the ghat section in the Veerappan area was the only relishable aspect. An hour long stop at Coimbatore, and after a lot of snore, I reached home safe and sore.

Culinary Evolution

2007-05-17T12:09:00.000+05:30

Been sometime since I wrote about my experiments in the kitchen. That does not mean that these experiments have ceased. Actually they have started assuming new forms. So far I have been ensconsed in the delicacies of South India. But after the trip home, I decided to venture North. Based on fundaes from amma and also one demo, I bought some Aashirwad Atta and one fine evening tried making chapathis.

The amount of flour for 3 chapathis turned out pretty correct, as I had atleast an approximately quantifiable figure, one handfull of flour for one. Its the amount of water that is a little tricky. You keep adding and mixing the flour, till it is just enough for all the flour to become one solid whole. The first day there was more flour, the second day there was more water, from the third day, I have adjusted by either adding a wee bit more flour or a wee bit more water as needed.

Next comes the rolling part. Initially started off with New Zealands and Englands, now-a-days its more rounder, even better than Australia. A proper example of practice making a man perfect. Putting the flour on the tawa and taking it out is the easiest thing to do. As I don't fiddle with the remote when I make chapathis, I have never once burned a chapathi.

To go along with the chapathi, I have also started making some masala based stuff. Made rajma one day, came out pretty well. The colour atleast was an exact replica of what amma makes. Taste was also pretty bearable. Then made one curry containing aloo, beans and carrot. Carrots and beans are pretty costly, 40 and 36 per kg. I had to make do with just a quarter kg, and there are still more of these left in the fridge. The only issue with making curry is that I have to shed copious amounts of tears while cutting onion.

Most importantly, all this happens faster than cooking rice (release of pressure happens to be the RDS (Rate Determining Step) there). Not bad at all.

Cricket on Raj TV

2007-05-14T11:26:00.000+05:30

Raj TV is showing the ODIs in Bangladesh live and with Tamil commentary. Surely better than the mega serials and the arbit Ramarajan, Rajkiran, level movies that Raj telecasts.

The commentary suffers from the effects of radio commentary, is mostly just an exact description of the visual, which sort of makes the commentary redundant. This is something that most of the English language commentators also don't realise. They are there to enhance the viewing, not just phrase what is happening.

The thing that impressed me most about the Tam commentary was the durations of silence while the cricket was going on. The commentator did not have anything useful to say and hence did the right thing, kept quiet. Siva, Arun, Maninder, among others please take note.

Mainly because of this lack of garrulousness, I preferred to watch Saturday's match on Raj than on DD. I think Raj TV has a possible winner on its hands.

School and play

2007-05-03T17:59:00.000+05:30

Education isn't play--and it can't be made to look like play. It is hard, hard work. But it can be made interesting work.

This is a quote by Edison that I found below his pic outside a school near my house. (this school does not have a playground, but claims to be the only International school in the centre of Hyderabad)

Must applaud them for being so truthful in their marketing.

Probably they are targeting the parents.

Hyd trip

2007-05-02T19:11:00.000+05:30

After a few weeks of all-day work, this was a vacation that I was looking forward to. Bunked Monday and Tuesday being Labour Day (my sis' cab driver rightly asked, how can we be called labour?, anyways who cares as long as it is a holiday), I got a long weekend and a shorter current week as a result.

Had decided to go home, but as usual thanks to some confusion regarding a possible parents' trip here, Indian Airlines no longer had the 600 buck tickets that I was targetting. As a result, I decided to puts Paramount. A costlier ticket onward meant I was trying to cut costs on the way back and I accomplished that by travelling on a Volvo.

Thanks to the air traffic at the too-big-for-a-bus-stand-and-too-small-for-an-airport Bangalore airport, the flight left more than an hour late. The seats are more comfortable, but the food was normal only. The one area where Paramount just beats the other airlines hollow is in airhostesses. The best set I have seen in my short flying career.

Going home has a few downsides also, mainly the need to land up at functions where I knew no one, but had to go as the others at home were also going to have grub there. There were a couple of gruhapravesams of my dad's colleagues and so I too had to go along. I need to start getting tougher in my stance with respect to such outings. I tried, but failed in front of my mom's reasoning that junta will be asking for me and they would not have a proper excuse. I am really gullible.

Hyd is hot, really hot. Bangalore is heaven (my ego has been taking a major battering in the last two posts) in comparison. Thankfully AC were there to beat the heat at nights. And ofcourse the infinite sugar cane juice wallahs. No more trips home till the monsoons begin for sure.

Did some house-hunting along with Vamshi and found him a house too. The areas where he was searching (Srinagar Colony, Jubilee Hills, etc) are almost as costly as Bangalore. But only a couple of months advance needs to be given. And the broker also took just half a month rent as fees.

Saw the Gult version of "Unnale Unnale". The theatre, one of the many near my house, was totally empty. Around 20 people in balcony and 50 types in the rest. The movie seemed pretty boring with too many songs and almost senseless, but the ending was surprisingly sensible. But no eye candy at all in the movie with the very saadha Sada and Kajol's sis Tanisha, a not great looking Bong.

Standard thulp and crash occupied the rest of the time.

World Cup Final 2007

2007-04-29T13:34:00.000+05:30

Time series analysis of the day: I had bunked school to watch the 1992 final, have been watching the other finals also since (except for most of the second innings of 1999). So I would end up watching this final also completely and so I did.

Turning point of the day: Gilchrist dropped on 31 by Fernando off his own bowling. It was a tough chance, but with this the match also went away from SL. What happened after this is history now. Some of the cleanest hitting I have ever seen.(Astle's rape of England while scoring the fastest test double hundred was probably just a wee bit more cleaner)

Empirical statement of the day: It just was Australia's day. The half chances for SL just did not stick or go to hand. There were quite a few edges that went past the diving Sangakkara and a couple past Jayawardane at slip. The one bad out decision was against Jayawardene. And it rained at just the right time too. Even God was with the Aussies.

Hype justifier of the day: Malinga. His first match against Aus and while all the others around him were getting belted, he returned pretty decent figures.

New personal favourite: Sangakkara. Lara's retirement now makes him the most elegant left-hander around in world cricket. His first 4, a square drive was just amazing. And he also showed that he was a good sportsman by indicating that he had not taken a catch immediately.

QED of the day: Kallis doesn't think while batting. Yesterday, Sangakkara stepped down the track and hit McGrath for six. The next ball, he stayed in his crease and hit the low full toss down to cover for 4. Contrast with what Kallis did in the semi.

Australian close match maker: Shane Watson. The weak link of the Aussie bowling. Whenever he is on, the other team always seems to have a chance. Thanks for helping sustain interest.

The incorrigibles: ICC and the umpires. No common sense at all.

Overcoming my ego statement of the day: The Aussies deserved to win.

Saving grace of the day 1: It was one of the nicer and more likeable guys of Aussie cricket, Gilchrist, who was responsible for the win. Its because of guys like him that it still rains where the Aussies play.

Saving Grace of the day 2: This is the last match Sony will be telecasting for a while.

Trip to Melkote

2007-04-23T11:31:00.000+05:30

Ever since I got my Thunderbird, Melkote has been on my radar. And yesterday also happened to be Ramanujacharya's 990th birth anniversary. What better day to visit the place than on the Thirunakshatram (star birthday) of the man who was responsible for its eminence among the Iyengars.

The day, I guess, is celebrated almost similarly everywhere, Thirumanjanam (also known as Abhishekam to the non-Iyengars) for Ramanuja during the day. Then quite a few hymns are chanted and at the end prasadam is distributed. Probably due to the presence of a Sanskrit University in Melkote, the chanting of the Sanskrit shlokas is really impressive, while the quality and volume did show a marked decline when the Tamizh prabandhams are recited. Also on this day, disbursal of thirumann-srichurnam (the white and red parts of "namam") and a piece of cloth (symbolic of the religious thread I guess as most people ended up tying it to their poonals) happens. A symbolic representation of what Ramanuja's greatest achievement, the propagation and spread of Sri Vaishnavism.

Prasadam was Venn Pongal and Chakra Pongal, both with lots of kobbare(dried coconut) proving that it is indeed Karnataka. Much before this in the morning itself, there was curd rice also, the prasadam for Thirunarayana, the presiding deity of Melkote.

The entire ceremonies lasted till around 4 and after that I could go to any of the nearby mutts for free grub. As it was raining heavily, I ended up at the Yathiraja Mutt, the nearest Mutt, right opposite the temple. Simple, but pretty strong grub, with Puliyogare (the Karnataka style with kobbare and jaggery) and some Thirukkannamadhu (the Iyengar word for payasam) as specials for the day.

I left home at 7:15 in the morning and reached Melkote via Maddur and Mandya on the Mysore road by 10, a distance of 150kms in less than 3 hours. Even after Mandya where a diversion from the Mysore road has to be taken, the road was pretty good. The weather was even better, the sun came out only after I reached Melkote.

The Thirumanjanam was just starting as I entered. After darshan of the main Lord and Goddess, I sat down with the crowd and the entire day was spent there itself. As a result, I could not visit the Narasimha Temple on the hill. A decent enough reason for another trip there soon.

I was planning to leave by 4 latest in order to get back before its dark, but due to the rains, I got delayed and left Melkote only at 5:35. I was back home by 8:30. In the process, I also realised that its faster to take the Market Flyover out of and into the city than the Outer Ring Road.

IIT Coaching

2007-04-19T11:06:00.000+05:30

I started in class 10. Now, ten years down the line, it starts at class V itself.

Soon we will start having creches and nurseries for IIT aspirants. Poor kids.

Lean period

2007-04-17T10:39:00.000+05:30

The last couple of weeks has almost brought my blog to a standstill. Its because of a couple of things, a lack of enthu to write and more importantly the absence of activity, apart from a quiz and a few movies.

Bored of travelling almost every weekend, I decided to get back to my old ways and just laze around this weekend. Cooked some not great food on Tam New Year, that I thrusted down my friend Venky's throat too and thanks to the infinite ads during any break, I was able to watch three movies, Kokki, Vasool Raja and Chithiram Pesudadi simultaneously without missing out much of any of the three movies.

I also saw Mozhi and the Last King of Scotland in theatres over the course of the week. Both good movies, but not must watches though.

Sunday saw a cricket quiz with Arun, where we exceeded expectations and finished third. It seemed a good quiz, conducted by Siddharth Vaidyanathan of cricinfo. Quizzes are a bit like grapes, if I do well they seem really good and Floyd if I do badly.

In the absence of too many good matches, the Cricket World Cup has been meandering slowly towards the semis. Hopefully England will beat RSA today and thus make atleast one more match meaningful.

Five unrelated paragraphs and I don't know what more to write.

Bad News Day

2007-04-12T11:26:00.000+05:30

Yesterday was one such day, personally.

I was woken up with a call from my sis informing me that my mom's uncle had passed away. Absolutely no major reaction from me as the mama thatha was 80 years old and had fulfilled his obligations in life.

In the afternoon, I got to know that a friend's dad passed away. Called him up immediately, and he seemed pretty normal. Only I did not know what to say to him. Was very awkward. Hung up after telling him to let me know incase he needed some help. Was a slightly depressing afternoon at work yesterday due to this news.

Today morning I get an sms from the friend asking me what happened to the Champions League football matches yesterday, a sign that I think shows that he is coping up ok with the loss.

Literary Crushes

2007-04-10T11:30:00.000+05:30

After a hectic week, suddenly all the pressure has gone, till today evening atleast. As a result, my attention has shifted to this tag by Naren to name my crushes among literary characters. Without much ado, let me start off.

1) Irene Adler - Holmes himself refers to her as "The Woman", no greater praise required.

2) Nandhini from Ponniyin Selvan - I think one of the few fictional characters in the book. The most beautiful person in the book, starts off as a villi-type character but then there seems to be enough justification for what she is doing, in the end all I felt was only sympathy for her. Very brave despite all that she had to encounter. Also helped that she grew up like an Iyengar.

3) A housewife from Mahabharata - This is from one of those many shorter stories that keep cropping up throughout the epic. This story is there in Rajaji's version. Don't remember her name, but her claim to fame is the dialogue "Did you think I was also a stork?" to one ascetic who thinks he is a stud and would have just burnt a stork to ashes with his eyes as it was disturbing him during his tapas. When the ascetic goes begging for food, this house wife is busy with household duties and so gets delayed in serving the ascetic. As a result the ascetic tries to repeat the stork magic with her. Nothing happens and the housewife replies with that line. The ascetic is impressed and then gets gyan from her and later from a butcher referred to by the housewife.

4) Tracy Whitney - This is a crush list, so how can Sidney Sheldon not be around. Tracy is the heroine of Sidney Sheldon's best book in my opinion "If Tomorrow Comes". Strong female, ofcourse beautiful, suffered initially in life, but then gets pretty crafty and ingenious.

5)Dors Venabili - from Prelude to the Foundation. Stud female who accompanies and protects the father of Psychohistory, Hari Seldon. Probably the only properly etched out female character in the entire Foundation series. Agreed she is later shown to be a robot, but by that time, I had already started liking Dors, just like Hari had also done.

6) Melanie Wilkes - From Gone With the Wind. The most good natured person I have come across in the course of my readings. She even manages to change some of the attitudes of the selfish and self-centred Scarlett.

Thats all I can think of for now. I have left out comics as there the ability of the illustrator also plays a major part in my liking or disliking a character.

At office, on a Sunday afternoon

2007-04-08T15:31:00.000+05:30

There is a deadline tomorrow evening and as a result at a time when I would ideally be sleeping, I am instead in office. (not exactly slogging my ass off either). When my manager showed hajaar enthu and asked me to call him up anytime of the day or night incase I had any troubles, it sort of affected my conscience and I just could not take the entire three day weekend off.

Not that I had major plans for today. Even in my original plan for this weekend, Sunday was envisaged for doing nothing. I just came back after lunch with Josh and Nari and a trip to Crossword to buy some books. Given the heat outside, the office with AC seems to be the place to be in, apart from sleep ofcourse.

My weekend got over yesterday night when I came back from Srirangam. It was a sudden trip, the result of an illness to one of my dad's aunts. I left on Thursday night by a Karnataka Sarige bus, the worst type of bus run by KSRTC. The seats don't go back, and the only way to sleep was by leaning on the seat in front. At the last minute, this was the only direct bus option that was available to me. And I still did sleep for some 4 hours or so continuously from Dharmapuri to Namakkal.

Being non-festival time, only darshan of the Gods in the temple happened. But being a 3 day weekend, it was hajaar crowded. But the darshan did happen thanks to a few 6000 bucks tickets borrowed. The God from a nearby Divya Desam, Thiruvellarai, had also camped in the Kollidam river (the northern branch of the Kaveri, the result of which the island Srirangam is formed). It was a nice walk wading through ankle deep to knee deep water in places. The presence of many stalls around and the sand did give a beach kind of feel too.

Came back yesternight by car, saved from the heat by the AC. There is four laning of the road work happening all along the route from Krishnagiri to Namakkal, but not much has happened since my last trip to Srirangam in December.

A movie and a bandh

2007-03-30T11:28:00.000+05:30

Gestern in der Nacht (a Deutsche phrase that has somehow stuck in my head meaning yesterday night), I saw 300. Arbit, racist movie with lot of gore, lesser than what I had anticipated though, lesser history and least acting. The wiki page on the Battle of Thermopylae is more interesting and entertaining than the movie.

Post the Supreme Court verdict staying reservations, Karunanidhi has announced a bandh in TN. But the bandh has been scheduled on a Saturday, the worst day for a bandh. A bandh on a Monday would have atleast resulted in a 3 day weekend. As my dad said, he probably wanted to do this before Amma could create havoc and thus get score points over her.

Good stuff from the Supreme Court though. But MPs will surely cut across party lines to vote for an amendment to the constitution that would find a way around the current verdict. One of the failings of democracy I guess, vote bank politics just can't be avoided.

Kemmanagundi - The beginning

2007-03-28T10:59:00.000+05:30

Edit: Pics.

Prologue

It all started off because Vamshi and I were bored. So Vamshi dashed off a mail to Bhattad, Beedi, Kanth and myself about the need to do something worthwhile. This coupled with some googling led to Kemmanagundi and everyone accepted. Kanth dropped out soon after as he had some marriage to attend. Cheap guy Beedi packed because his fiancee did not let him go. So we decided to rope in some Bangalore based bugger, and hence BJ came in.

All the arrangements were done on the net itself. The rooms, pretty costly at 1K per day per person including the grub, and the cab. We originally wanted to get a car from Avis and then drive ourselves, but that turned out to be too expensive, some 3K for the two days + petrol. As a result we decided to hire an Indica @ 5.5/km from one of the many websites.

This was going to be a trip unlike the one's we made in the past as students, where we would always be a little short of cash and as a result do economy max and think twice before spending every penny.

Saturday 5-8 pm

I think BJ woke up first. A knock on the door by Nagesh, the attender cum all-in-all at the camp, to give us coffee/tea. Tea was ok, coffee was like payasam. But still we did drink. After numerous calls, Bhattad finally woke up and we left to Sunset Point.

But we missed the turning for Sunset Point and ended up at the place where the so-called-road to Hebbe Falls diverges from the so-called-road to Chickmaglur. We decided to stop our car there and do some trekking. The first attempt to climb a hill was unsuccessful as the hill was totally muddy and there was absolutely no grip which BJ realised first and in the process sullied his pants.

We did find another way up, went up, took some pics and then came down, first the hill and then the camp in the car, as it got pretty dark.

Saturday 3-5 pm

We reached the Rangers camp that I had found on karnatakatourism.com a little after 3, took possession of the rooms which were pretty clean and spacious, and then embarked on some good lunch. Homely stuff, I think made by the wife of the owner of the camp.

Saturday 10 am -3 pm

Non-stop travel in the direction of our destination. There was one stop though, for sugar cane juice at Hassan. Then we went past Belur and Chickmagalur when we took a wrong turn, a road which would take us to Kemmanagundi, but our camp was on the other side of the hill. After an half hour drive up the hill, we had to reverse and come back all the way down. After this, we found our camp quite effortlessly, ofcourse after several confirmations that we were indeed on the right track at the many villages on the way.

As we were going up the hill in the wrong turn, it started getting cooler, giving us great hopes about the weather that were ultimately quashed. It was hot throughout after that.

Saturday 8:30 - 10 am

We left from home, picked up BJ at Trinity Circle outside Kids Kemp and sped on. Stopped for diesel and breakfast. I got RG-ed during breakfast. The others got idly-vada dipped in sambar, but the cup-level plates got over and hence I had to have separate cups of sambar and chutney, like in Manipal Canteen. This is one of the reasons why I prefer to travel the extra distance to New Shanti Sagar at Domlur on weekends.

Saturday 5:30-8:30 am

I was supposed to pick up Bond at Cantonment. But the previous nights exertions meant that I could not wake up on time. As a result, Bond had managed to come till Manipal Hospital along with a friend of his. But no such issues with Vamshi as his train came in only at 6:45 at Cantonment. Came home and as these guys were talking, I even put a bath.

Saturday 1:30 am

I sent my last sms to Skimpy and went to sleep. Yuvraj had just gotten run out and India were out of the World Cup.

Kemmanagundi - The stay

2007-03-27T11:49:00.000+05:30

Sunday 5-11 a.m

It was the most entertaining part of the trip. A trip to Hebbe Falls, some 23 kms from the place we were put up. The road was really bad. The original plan was to take our cab till where it was decently motorable and then put a trek to the falls. But due to the exertions of the previous day, two tyres of our cab got punctured. So we had to hire a jeep to do the needful. It was pretty costly, 850 bucks for the entire journey, but in the end I guess it was worth it.

A totally bumpy ride, punctuated by a single stop to click the rising sun, brought us to an estate. On the way, it became very obvious as to why the place was named Kemmanagundi, meaning mountain of red mud. (kem + man + gundi (assuming gundi = mountain or some such landform) ) The path was also of red mud and stones, because of the presence of large quantities of iron in the area. There is a mine on the way also, don't know whether it is functional.

The estate seemed to be just out of Kerala. Greenery, coconut trees and thatched huts helped to foster this feeling. A small 20 odd min walk through the estate and then a jungle, wading through a stream a couple of times, took us to Hebbe Falls. We did come across some paper plates thrown by some cheap visitors to the place on the way.

The waterfall was beautiful and totally pristine. Will upload the thousand words soon. Cascaded from a great height and there was no one around also. After some surveying and some slipping on stones by me, we finally tested the waters in the pool formed at the base of the falls. Ice cold it was. But it was very refreshing too. Bhattad and Vamshi put some fight and got to a place under the waterfall and then BJ and I joined them. Cracking it was, lots of photos too ofcourse.

It was soon time to return and as we were coming back, we saw lots of people making a queue to the falls. We had timed it just right. More bumps and we were back at our camp by 11 for the dosa breakfast.

Saturday 8-11 p.m.

It was rummy time with a break for dinner. There were cards at the camp itself and we made complete use of it. Time just flew and it was already time to sleep by the time Vamshi reached 500 points and thus lost the game.

Kemmanagundi - The way back

2007-03-26T12:10:00.000+05:30

Monday, 2:00 am

The weekend ended as it had begun, late. For entirely different reasons though. Friday night sleeping was delayed because of the foolish hope of a good Indian performance. Yesterday night was because of a railway derailment somewhere between Bhopal and Nagpur. Vamshi's train back to Hyd was to leave at 10:20, but got postponed to 2:00, an incident that is pretty par for me whenever I go home. I dropped him at Yeshwantpur around 1:30 and came back home and crashed.

Sunday, 8-10 p.m.

We reached Yeshwantpur only around 7:30 and hence going home and then again coming back to drop Vamshi would be crazy. So we decided to go for dinner directly. Adigas at Malleswaram was jam packed, so it was New Shanti Sagar, which was surprisingly empty. Probably its to do with Adigas being started recently. Or it could also be the obvious fact that Adigas is better than New Shanti Sagar. A full course meal, where we unfortunately ended up wasting nearly one butter naan as it was larger than Vamshi had bargained for.

Sunday, 3-8 pm

The drive back from Belur. The heat had made us become like the villagers of Lagaan, looking around for any small signs of rain. But alas no respite for us. The road was pretty good and despite a lot of traffic, especially many slow moving HP gas containers we did make good speed.

Sunday 2-3 pm

The Chennakesava temple at Belur. As it was on the way and we would have been early without a stop, Vamshi's need to score Brownie points with his aunt, we brushed aside Bhattad's feeble protestations and decided to stop over at Belur. I was very impressed when I had gone last year, but could not take any pics. So for me, this visit was only for clicking as many pics as I could and I did put close to a 100 I think. The guide after a while realised that the others weren't too interested in the dancing and spiritual sculptures, but had evinced considerable interest in the kamasutra ones, ended up showing "sex-scenes" including some "dog-systems", stuff which was not original Hoysala, but later additions by the Vijayanagara kings on the outside gopuram.

Sunday 12-3 pm

After a strong masala dosa breakfast (Vamshi and I put 5 each) at our camp, we left for Bangalore. We took the same route back, Kemmanagundi-Chickmaglur-Belur-Hassan-Kunigal-Nelamangala-Bangalore.

A long drive to nowhere

2007-03-22T15:20:00.000+05:30

I was bored. India in the Windies didn't helped the cause by getting thrashed against Bangladesh. I forgot totally about the F1 race. I was originally supposed to go to Srirangapatna with Josh, but that plan got scuttled due to patently pressing problems for Josh at work on Saturday and a sleepless night on Sunday.

More importantly I was awake by 8 and Sunday morning TV is one of the most unappealing facts of life. There used to be a time when there was only one channel on TV and still Sunday morning was always one to look forward to to watch boring versions of epics for years. But now infinite channels are uninteresting.

Enough of explaining. Let me get to the crux of the matter. I decided to take the nearest exit out of Bangalore, which to me was represented by the Old Madras Road. After a bath and a strong breakfast of a masala dosa and a sambar vada at a Darshini nearby and a stronger Rs. 10 mango shake at one of those wonderful Ganesh/New Ganesh fruit juice centres that are invariably located very near Darshinis, I hit the road around 9.

There was some traffic till Hoskote, but after that it was invariably cruising only in the 80-85 kmph range. Cracking road and pretty good speed despite it being just two laned. Stopped for the first time somewhere a little beyond Kolar after I had done 70 odd kms for a bottle of water. I procured this from a bar run by a Gult.

Again set off and somewhere beyond the next major town Mulbagal, I decided to stop for refuelling my bike. By this time, 10:45, I had done 100 kms and it was also getting hotter. I turned around and came back. Reached Bangalore around 12:15 after a stop just a little after Kolar to quench thirst and also to make a call home.

On reaching Bangalore, the first thing I did was to go to Crossword and buy an India Road Atlas. I have planned greater and more meaningful things to do with my Thunderbird, lets see if they work out.

Calcutta

2007-03-13T17:25:00.000+05:30

After some last minute to go or not to go questions, we finally did go to Kolkata. The flight onward, a really long 3.5 hour one with a stopover at Hyd, was delayed by half an hour due to systems failure in Bangalore. An inexplicable and woresht max problem, given that it was a Sunday evening.

Joka, the place where the IIM is located isn't as far as some junta made it out to be. Took 45 minutes in the morning and a little more than an hour in the afternoon on the way back. But the campus to me seemed really shady, with a lake welcoming you. Just too much water around the place. And the rooms where the interviews were held were also a little too old and dingy, compared unfavourably with the pretty decent and well lit rooms at IIMB. (just couldn't avoid comparisons)

Here, I did interview four of the 6 candidates who were left in our shortlist after slot zero. Packed two and recommended two for the next round, and one of them, a female, was made the final offer. We made an offer to another guy also, who was a classmate of mine at IITM and I knew him even earlier at Ramaiah. Basically knew him quite well and as a result did not interview him.

In general, given the summers of last year, the day zeros of this year weren't as good. Around 60 types out at all the three IIMs + PPOs according to well placed sources. The consults have been pretty generous, but the banks have been stingy. (a sign that a recession might be soon upon us? )

I did not know when we would be finishing our process and so had booked a ticket only for the next morning. But our process was over by 2:30, so I had the entire day with me. And also a car totally for me only. So decided to do some roaming around Calcutta. The cab driver showed me the Birla Mandir (a Radha Krishna one), then took me to the Victoria memorial. It was a Monday, so the gallery was closed and it was 6 by the time I reached there and so the grounds were also closed. So just wandered around opposite watching couples and a couple of fountains. After a drive over the two bridges, came back to the hotel.

Somehow Kolkata kept reminding me of New York. The yellow cabs, a huge park in the centre of the city, famous bridges, one of which is just like the Brooklyn Bridge, a river flowing and in general lots of water around. Only on the last morning in the toilet, enlightenment reigned. It had to be the toilet paper.

Short term pain or long term anxiety?

2007-03-09T11:55:00.000+05:30

Did the IIMB round. Didn't do any interview rounds though as I knew most of the shortlisted junta pretty well, a couple of whom we also picked up. Will surely be doing interviews in Calcutta.

There was this guy, who thought that he had done the interviews decently, but my manager thought otherwise and so decided to pack him. When he came back to me,I told him that he would not be making it, and as a result his face complexion lost colour. Felt bad that I told him immediately, but thinking about it immediately afterward, this was probably the better thing to do than to have had him wait indefinitely, a big big pain as at the end of the wait, the wait turns out to be invariably futile. Something I had experienced quite a few times in the past.

But was it right generalising based on my experience? Anyways its done, and I think I will continue with a similar policy at other places and times in the future also. Get done with it and not make people wait.

It is a good development that IIMB has refused to make public any of the placement results so far and plan to make a press release (hopefully without salary figures) only after everyone gets placed.

Placements time again

2007-03-07T12:24:00.000+05:30

At the IIMs. And I will be there again, as a recruiter though. At IIM Bangalore tomorrow and at Calcutta on Monday. For some reason known only to my managers, we have packed the "soap-sellers"/"consult-types" at Ahmedabad.

It does feel good to be on the other side. Main reason is that there is no pressure at all, well not exactly, lesser pressure for sure. You still have to ask decent questions to keep up your reputation. Currently I won't be making the final decision, so no worries on that front for me.

It feels nice to go through the resumes and comment about them and discuss with Skimpy. Some general observations on my part looking at the resumes from C and B:

1) The fact that we did not give a ppt at C, but gave a ppt at B mattered. There were a few commie (read as commerce, CA types) resumes from C, while almost none from B.

2) C resumes are more widely differing in format than B. B resumes seem more standardized, don't know why.

3) C resumes for some reason have their sex and age on top. Probably to avoid shortlisting based on mistaken sexual identity. With this data on the resume, these won't be out of place on matrimonial sites.

4) Our HR does suffer from a shortage of manpower. But brainpower also seems to be in short supply here. The topper from IIMC wasn't shortlisted as were some hajaar according to me quite promising candidates from IIMB. I had to go through all the "rejected" resumes again to look for candidates. And in the final shortlist, there were more candidates from my list than the HR's list.

5) After the perusal of quite a few resumes, I have come to the conclusion that profiles of the students at B are better than those at C. Could be inbuilt bias and also based on "objective" criteria like the CG. Will be known only once I visit both the campuses.

Stanchart Personal Banking sucks

2007-03-01T15:19:00.000+05:30

Firstly one can't get a six month statement online.

Secondly, it takes 24 hours (and don't know how much money) if I go to the bank and 4 days if I order it online. (so much for total computerization, good old SB of Mysore did it for free in 30 minutes)

Thirdly, when I place orders both at the bank and online, the statement at the bank is lost because the person with whom I had placed the order quit and the online request is also ignored. So now I have had to place an order again.

Fourthly, despite all this I have to continue with StanChart as I have been locked in as it is my salary account.

Footage

2007-02-27T13:09:00.000+05:30

for the quiz I referred to in the previous post. It was on Vijay Times. I am hidden behind Skimpy, the guy sitting in the right most in the pic. But our team is referred to as belonging to GS. Small consolation.

It was a pleasant surprise that Vijay Times has an e-paper. Strong stuff.

Arbit Hills and Strong Comebacks

2007-02-26T15:35:00.000+05:30

I had been to Nandi Hills last in the summer of 97, and had come back with an opinion that there was nothing worthwhile there. Then the crib was that one had to walk a lot to reach the top, but once you go there the only things there are one temple and some places which Tipu is said to have used to throw down people he did not like. The biggest crib then was that we could not play cricket.

So had absolutely no expectations when I went this Saturday and unsurprisingly the place also lived up to expectations. But thanks to the awesome bike ride, the trip was also awesome. Nandi Hills is still a pretty useless place only, now jotted with lots of couples behind bushes. Don't understand why these junta put so much fight to get their hands on each other, when there are places like Lalbagh and Cubbon Park in Bangalore itself.

The bike ride was on an entirely different plane altogether. It did take time to reach Hebbal, but after that it was just exhilarating. Cruising peacefully at not less than 80 kmph and touching the high 90s (Josh puts a 100, something that I will surely do with time) consistently. The six lane NH 7 also helped us quite a bit. But the final 22kms stretch from the highway to Nandi Hills is in bad condition, so we had to temper ourselves. From the top of Nandi Hills, this road for some reason reminded me of the path to Isengard in LOTR. (the movie)

On top of Nandi Hills is also a bungalow where the 1986 SAARC summit was held. As Josh remarked, it just showed the utter disregard the Indian Government has had for SAARC. And despite the pain in the ass thanks to the pillion-riding, it was a very fair way to spend the Jewish Sabbath.

The Christian weekly holiday started off slow, but that also ended up pretty well. First it was a power cut at home, the power went sometime in the morning before I woke and was restored only at 9:30 in the night. BESCOM sucks. Lunch was at Bhimas with Skimpy, standard Gult meal, but for some reason could not thulp to the usual quantity. We both then went to attend a mixed corporate quiz conducted by RVCE. Monkee, a junior from IIMB was the third member.

We peacefully qualified for the finals, but the start there was worse than Zaheer's at the Wanderers in 2003. Everything was going wrong. The questions the answers to which we knew ended up going to other teams, we missed one in which we narrowed down the answer to two choices and then ended up choosing the wrong one. After a couple of rounds we were positioned last out of the six teams in the quiz.

Then started the comeback. We slowly started answering a few questions, there was a buzzer round where we answered 2 out of the 6 questions and most of the others were unanswered. It helped to know that in a mangalavadhyam, there is a guy who puts jing chak with a pair of finger cymbals, educated guesses based on facts like the Ramayana happened in Lanka turned out right, Monkee's trip to Rome helped, even the fact that I owned a Royal Enfield Thunderbird finally turned out to be useful. At the end of the quiz, we had managed to finish joint first.

But it did not turn out to be a fairy tale ending. We lost out in sudden death to Swami the Commie's team, so near yet so far again. But no cribs, for I did come back richer by a couple of Ks.

Books, headphones and the mind

2007-02-23T12:32:00.000+05:30

In my pre-comp days (read as engineering), times when I used to buy audio cassettes (what are they?) and listen to them on my Walkman, the same cassette again and again, a movie's songs invariably got linked to the book that I would be reading then. Like when I was reading Crichton's Congo, I was listening to Zubeidaa and when I was reading Grisham's give up Testament, I was listening to Kannathil Muthamittal.

As a result, these days whenever I listen to any Zubeidaa song, I automatically start having images of Central Africa where Congo is set and when I listen to any Kannathil song, I am transported to a boat ride in the Amazon (or some such South/Latin American area). This despite the fact that I had seen Kannathil on the big screen.

Fast forward to the present. After a long time, thanks to my cell phone, I have started doing something similar, listening to the same songs again and again on a head phone, and this time the object of my attention is Pachaikkili Muthucharam. Totally catchy songs, the violin bit in "Unakkul Naane" is now my ring tone. Harris Jeyaraj has come up with a winner here. Well this is not the object of the post, let me come to the point.

The book I am reading now is Pamuk's My Name is Red (more than half the book done, and so far the verdict still remains good) and simultaneously listening to Pachaikkili Muthucharam songs. As a result, whenever I listen to these songs, even without the book in hand, the streets of Istanbul(as imagined by me) immediately come to mind. Crazy mind.

Visit to home

2007-02-21T11:03:00.000+05:30

This is why I don't want to visit home often. The trip turns out to be too short, and before I know, I am sad on the way back. I tried explaining this to my mom, but she still insisted on my being at home for my birthday.

Not that there were major celebrations, actually it was more of no celebration (unless ofcourse if one considers not daily done things like having a head bath, going to the temple, and ofcourse the "KAradaiyAn NOmbu Kozhakattai" (its a special rice ball level thing made for this ladies function known as KAradaiyAn NOmbu) as celebrations). There were quite a few phone calls, sms-es and ofcourse scraps on Orkut (I finally finished replying to all only yesterday night), it does feel nice to be remembered on atleast one day of the year.

Didn't do too much in Hyd. Met up with Vamshi and the deficiencies of my Hyderabadi teenage life caught up with me. Those days I was so caught up with acads, that I didn't do the usual city-roaming stuff. As a result, now I am at a loss for places to hang out. And the city has also changed a lot since the turn of the millenium. We finally ended up on a place on Necklace Road, drank some fruit juices and returned to Sangeet where we were to see Eklavya.

Sangeet Theatre is one of those constants in life. It has been around there for as long as I have been around, and is almost unchanged. The earliest movie I remember watching is Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Since I have watched countless movies there, English, Hindi and Gult. Once upon a time, it was the place to go for English movies in Hyd. Now it has lost that pre-eminent position to the newcomers the Prasad's and the PVRs and it has also stopped showing English movies. As a result not too many English movies these days in Hyd, Vamshi cribbed about this and my dad did too, so must be true.

Despite Sangeet's continued presence, it is sad to see the state of this once great now. There was a plan to do some multiplex level stuff with it, but for some reason that plan has been shelved. As a result, the hall looks pretty old, but is still pretty decent. Tickets are dirt cheap, 35 for balcony and 25 for the upper stall. Being so cheap and the movie having been released only a day before, balcony was sold out. We had no cribs at all, who would crib to watch a movie for 25 bucks these days.

Eklavya is a boring movie. Decent concept, good acting, but bottom line is that it isn't too entertaining, which is the one of the main things I look for in a movie. But worth the 25 bucks.

Appa had berated me on my last birthday about performance at IIM and in course of the scolding had wondered if I would be able to get a job that would ensure that I could afford to travel by AC atleast. Despite the fact that I could have puts AC, I ended up putting 2nd Class only. Probably its one of those situations that can be defined by the term irony.

The best player to never play a WC

2007-02-13T18:29:00.000+05:30

A very very special player, one who has at most times dominated the best team in the World, one who engineered arguably the biggest turn around in the history of the sport and in one fell swoop stopped a seemingly unstoppable juggernaut, one who despite all this and much more has never been sure of his place in the team, but has delivered consistently will never play a World Cup.

A travesty, something that does happen often in football, whose World Cup hasn't seen the likes of a di Stefano or a Best or a Giggs display their wares. But it is rare that something similar is happening in cricket. The only other guy who comes even close is Justin Langer, but it can be explained by the fact that the Aussies have always had a comparative abundance of talent during his time.

Look at the players who have represented India at World Cups, lesser talents like Sadagopan Ramesh, Dinesh Mongia, Aashish Kapoor, Parthiv Patel, Chandrakant Pandit, Salil Ankola have been part of World Cup squads but never him. Ofcourse this year was not his best chance, it was the 2003 edition.

He was cruelly dropped after a dismal New Zealand tour, where everyone except Sehwag failed and he ended up with better averages than Kaif, Dada and Mongia. But in his place played Mongia, who apart from a six off Murali, just free-rode throughout the tournament.

Post the World Cup saw him in his best form, saving a test match against the Kiwis at home before unfolding in totally majestic glory down under. The Aussies had no answer for him. They won a test only when he failed. The ODIs saw even more majesty, three centuries in a week.

Now that the Indian team has been announced, all I hope for is a good performances from our boys. At the same time, a repeat of his performance in the tours to England and Australia that are lined up would be even sweeter. VVS Laxman its upto you now to prove the selectors wrong.

P.S.Also posted at sportsnob.

Enlightenment reigns

2007-02-13T15:04:00.000+05:30

However long a weekend and however much I sleep over the weekend, it is difficult to wake up on the morning of office.

Afternoon naps rock.

Never go even in the vicinity of MG Road on your own vehicle on weekends. Finding a parking place is even tougher. (grains of wheat in bushels of chaff types)

I cook ok, but never get everything right on the first try. I'll keep trying.

Continental food is totally Floyd and is so not value for money. Management education is to blame for visits to such places.

One day cricket can be heartbreakingly predictable (when India plays) and joyfully unpredictable (like England playing the Aussies) on the same day.

The English Premier League is totally predictable when I am watching. (Liverpool, Man City lose, Man U, Chelski, Arse, win )

I just can't blog when its a holiday and I have a lot of time on hand.

Slowly tending towards voraciousness

2007-02-08T12:57:00.000+05:30

Its not about my eating habits, that still remain as good as ever. In one of my earliest resumes at IIMB, in order to fill up a line, I had written that I was a voracious reader. Well, that was before the advent of the 24X7 net. Slowly my reading habits degenerated and I was taking longer and longer time to finish books. Ofcourse there were flashes in the pan like the Half Blood Prince, but it was inconsistent at best like Sehwag's batting.

The corporate world also bought along with it the ability to buy books, lots of them, but this somehow did not translate into reading them immediately. My reading was still very intermittent, but it was an improvement over the MBA times. Sometime in early December, I took a resolution (one of those many cases to prove the unnecessariness of a new year to make a resolution) to read for atleast half an hour before sleeping.

So far on most days I have been able to keep up this resolution. The results being evident in the number of books completed since that date-forgotten day. Two by William Dalrymple, his debut "In Search of Xanadu" and the 500 page "White Mughals", Mihir Bose's "A Maidan View" and the last and the least Partab Ramchand's give up "India's greatest Batsmen". Not bad for a 2 month period, but yes it can be improved.

In Xanadu, Dalrymple tries to retrace the path of Marco Polo from the Temple of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem to the famed Xanadu of Kublai Khan. A good travelogue, at times resembled the style I use in my blog, but much much better and deeper in content and a lot of architectural descriptions,a Dalrymple speciality. Till they (he has two female companions, one for each half of the trip) reach Pakistan, the book's pace is pretty measured, but after that it seemed like he sort of sped through. A pretty engrossing book overall, which made me go in for another 495 buck investment in the White Mughals.

White Mughals in general is about early Englishmen in India who married Indian women and had become very Indianized. In particular, it tells the story of James Achilles Kirkpatrick and his love for the Hyderabadi Sayyid, Khair-un-Nisa, their marriage and their life through the letters and documents written around the time at times by James himself and by other people around him. One paragraph is not enough to review the book, but despite the number of footnotes and quotes from other sources, it is a very readable history book. Sad that the British who were initially so open minded, ended up being cruel masters.

One thing that captured my attention was the Hyderabadi love for Brinjal that seems to be pretty old. James is shown writing to someone in Madras asking for potatoes as he had gotten bored of brinjals, the only time I did not appreciate the protagonist.

Maidan View is an attempt by Mihir Bose to give cricket in India a social history. He starts off well, trying to explain how and why the Englishmen and their rule affected India and cricket in India. But he loses the plot when he comes to the later parts of the book, which are very ordinary compared to the initial parts. An okay-ish book.

Currently I have just started My Name is Red, by the Nobel Laureate Orhan Pamuk, my first attempt at a Nobel Prize winner. Hopefully the experience will be better than my only attempt at a Booker Prize winner, Rushdie's Midnight's Children that I gave up after some 150 odd pages.

Brainless

2007-02-07T13:10:00.000+05:30

They block all Tam channels but the major Kannada channels are owned by a Tam. (infact there does not seem a single Kannada channel owned by a Kannadiga, the other two channels are ETV, owned by a Gult and Zee Kannada, owned by Subash Chandra)

Given that such channel blocking has become so common in Bangalore, DTH surely seems a good option. Hopefully TRAI will be more sensible and force Sun TV to share their feed with the other DTH providers.

Stylish Tag

2007-02-07T10:30:00.000+05:30

Have been tagged by Venki. Have to write about ten things that define my style.

As an aside, I was curious as to where the tag started and how it reached me. The path is one -> two -> three -> four -> five -> six -> seven -> eight and now me.

A slightly vague/tough tag in my opinion.

1) A happy go lucky attitude of taking life as it comes - something that has characterised my college life and made it really enjoyable, albeit with a few scares along the way.

2) Food - the most important thing in the World to me. Specific mentions can be made of brinjal, ladies finger and aaloo.

3) Football - I think I am a proper armchair expert on the game. My playing days are over, so now its time for following the maximum number of games to the best of my ability. Cricket too - more armchair analysis, and following of games worldwide live on cricbuzz/cricinfo/guardian.

5) Laziness

6) My distinct giggle

7) My cycle and my bike

8) Random arrangement of things at home and workplace, such that no one except me can find the thing they are looking for. (a euphemism for unclean)

9) Kollywood, its products, the movies, songs and TV channels and ofcourse the heros and heroines.

10) This used to be my most famous identity at IITM, pink shorts (which I no longer possess) and a military T-shirt.

Update on the Kaveri issue

2007-02-05T18:24:00.001+05:30

The result is out, TN will get 419 Tmc ft and Karnataka 270 Tmc ft. The common mistake that all news reports have done is compare this 419 with the earlier 205, when the number to be compared with is 192. 419 is from the total (including rain and tributaries in TN). Karnataka has to give 192 Tmc ft every year, lesser than the interim award of 205.

But no provision has been made for times of not enough rain, the times when the issue keeps flaring up. Probably a percentage distribution of water might have been a better solution to the issue. Even if this verdict is final, the issue is not yet solved as there will surely be problems in times of insufficient rain.

The verdict is thus an incomplete solution to the Kaveri issue.

Ofcourse Karnataka is dissatisfied with this (it is not possible to satisfy both the parties) and as a result Bangalore has started taking precautionary steps. TN buses are not plying in Bangalore, schools being closed, even some offices shutting down (including my dad's) and ofcourse the brainless blockade of Tam channels.

But no untoward incidents confirmed so far in Bangalore.

Could be problems again

2007-02-05T11:38:00.000+05:30

Today the Cauvery Tribunal (instituted sometime around 1990) will be giving its final verdict. When they gave an interim verdict in 1991 awarding 205 Tmc ft water to TN, there were riots against Tamilians in Bangalore.

15 years on, not much seems to have changed. More riots can be expected. When you have problems when Saddam dies, surely something closer to home will raise tensions further.

God save Bangalore, as surely the Government and the administration is useless as has been proved so many times in the recent past.

Strange

2007-02-02T11:12:00.000+05:30

When there is not much work, I end up staying in office longer.
When there is work, I leave in 10 hours.

Black or white is surely better than grey.

Vecha kudumi Saracha mottai

2007-02-01T12:49:00.000+05:30

Translates to, either a ponytail or clean shaven, no half measures at all. Describes the average Indian cricket fan (even the average journalist). One day Sachin scores a duck and he is asked to retire, the next day, he hits a century and is again elevated to Godhood. The truth, in my opinion is somewhere in the middle.

Anyways a decent performance by the Indian team against an experimenting Windies side. Yesterday's 11 is probably the team with which we will start the WC, with Sreesanth, Powar, Karthick for sure on the bench and my choice for the 15th spot will be Sehwag. Pathan did not exactly bowl too well yesterday and on the slow Windies pitches, Sehwag's off spin will surely be more than a handful. And Sehwag was also the highest run scorer in ODIs in WI last year.

My team for the WC:
Uthappa
Dada
Dravid
Sachin
Yuvraj
Dhoni
Pathan/Sehwag
Zaheer
Agarkar
Kumble
Bhajji

Subs: Powar, Sreesanth and Karthick

If we can't win the WC with this team, we can't win with any other team.

Salient features of the latest visit to Madras

2007-01-29T17:51:00.000+05:30

Travel:

Three day weekend => second class and third AC sold out a month in advance. And private Volvo cost 650 bucks, so bit the bullet and puts second AC by Kaveri. Pretty comfortable except for the fact that today morning the train landed in Bangalore at the unearthly time of 4:15 am.

Travel in Chennai was accomplished by a combination of bus and the marvel that is my Uncle's bike. Bus service in Chennai is dirt cheap, 4.50 to go home as it was a yellow board bus ( a 10, a rarity these days) and just 3.50 on the way back. No wonder these buses are so crowded. Today morning, thanks to the crowd at the pre-paid auto counter, it was beyond 5 by the time I got an auto, so no 1.5 also.

Belatedly an attempt has been made to make the auto drivers in Chennai accountable, by trying to make meters compulsory (albeit at the rate of Rs.7 per km) from Jan 26th, but like a dog's tail, the situation does not seem to have changed at all. I sincerely hope this attempt succeeds.

Activities:

The Odyssey quiz on Friday. The usual 1.5 point miss to the final. Expected only.

Cricket match on Saturday. Could only go for the Windies innings. Lara, thou art God only. It was a complimentary ticket, so can't say money's worth, but an enriching experience nonetheless watching one of the all time greats bat.

Triplicane temple on Sunday, not too crowded and ofcourse Parthasarathy was at his usual majestic best.

Ofcourse the standard good food, for a change good weather also.

Terms and Conditions

2007-01-25T11:59:00.000+05:30

Finally a new servant maid. Well, I didn't put in too much effort, just a couple of words to the "Istri" (ironing) guy and the servant maid materialised in front of our door in a couple of days.

She seems a total pro, atleast with regard to the negotiations and the terms and conditions under which she will work. There were a few grey areas in the deal with the previous maid, probably the reason why she started taking us for granted, but here all the grey areas seemed to have been ironed out. She would do well as a lawyer's apprentice.

Clothes washing only on two days, the days also fixed, Friday and Saturday. House sweeping, mopping and utensils washing everyday and a day off on Sunday. And she also wants a mop with a handle, such that she can stand and finish off the work. She is costlier by a couple hundred, but if she comes regularly, fine.

Lets see how she works and how this deal works out.

Road Trip to Maddur

2007-01-23T12:03:00.000+05:30

I picked up Sudarshan from Cantonment on Saturday morning, went home, had a bath ( just in case we encounter some temple along the way) and left. We decided to go as far as possible on Mysore Road. It took one and a half hours to reach Mysore Road, and at the first hotel, one named Airavatha, we stopped for breakfast. The vada there was awesome, others were standard.

Apart from some rock climbing near Ramanagara, the only other worthwhile things to be visited on Mysore Road for some distance were temples, so it ended up being temples only. We decided to go till Maddur, take a look at the Narasimha temple there and then come back.

But there was a surprise before that. At Doddamallur is a Krishna temple, one of those Baby Krishna crawling postures. The main God of the temple is one Aprameya, but seems like it is the Venkatakrishnan who is the more popular one. There is a Thulabaram and also seems like it is a shrine for those seeking progeny.

So far, normal, then came the pleasant surprise. We were about to leave when we were suddenly called back. The reason, somebody had arranged for annadana, so we could help ourselves to some chakkara pongal, kadhamba saadham (sambar with vegetables in it + rice ), puliyotharai and dadhyonam (curd rice). The hospitality was also totally top class. They would not leave us till we ate well, we could have more than one serving, etc, etc. Ofcourse we were not guys who needed any disclaimers. Pretty fulfilling experience.

We then went to the Narasimha temple at Maddur. We were fulling expecting it to be closed, but there was quite a crowd there, all belonging to the same group. This temple's outer circumambulatory passage looked really dilapidated as did the walls also, but inside there seems to have been some later day touch up done. But in the main shrine, there were a few of those lathed pillars that are the hallmarks of the Hoysala temples of Belur and Halebid. But these were not as ornate as those more famous ones.

After the visit to all the shrines and a couple of rounds of the temple, we were sitting down, when we experienced some more good hospitality. The person in charge of the temple noticed that we had not taken any prasadam and asked us to come and take some. Pretty impressive. And this round of prasadam ensured that we visited Maddur without tasting the famed Maddur vada.

The return trip was a slight pain in the backside due to sitting on the bike for a long time. And because my vehicle was new, we could also not go beyond 50, seemed a travesty to have such a bike, such a superb road but hold ourselves back. But this trip did go a long way to reaching that goal of 1000 kms. This trip chalked up close to 200 kms. And as of the moment I am close to 450 kms, just 550 more to be done, before I can let rip.

Edit: Pics.

The Asin jinx

2007-01-19T11:47:00.000+05:30

I thought that I was finally going to watch Asin on the big screen. This was true till 15 minutes before the show was to start. But alas it was not to be.

BJ and I decided to go to Pokiri yesterday night. All plans were finalised, tickets were booked, and post dinner at Krishna Kafe in Koramangala, with 15 minutes to go, we were all set.

But then my bike just refused to start. It was close to 10 in the night and I was very apprehensive as to what would happen. But thankfully the first service centre I called was open and the guy there, one person named Feroze immediately identified that the problem was with the fuse and tried explaining to me as to what needs to be done to rectify the situation.

In Feroze's own words, my heart was beating fast. Obviously it was, new bike, at 10 in the night refuses to start, heart beating fast is par for the course. In true call center style, he tried to guide me through the process, but unfortunately I did not get exactly what he was saying. (like the jokes that these call center people come up with as to how dumb the customers are, I am sure mechanics can also come up with many jokes)

With me and BJ having thrown our hands up, he agreed to come, albeit for a price of 150 as he was coming from some place called JC Nagar, somewhere near Palace Grounds and the TV tower. So the time we were going to spend in PVR, we ended up spending on the road outside Krishna Kafe.

Feroze came in about an hour, finished the job in 2 minutes (much to BJ's amazement), tried to assure me that I don't have to worry at all with a Bullet, there won't be any major problems at all and all these minor problems are easily solvable, which was true, but it will take time for someone like me (who cupped big time in the most engineering of courses, the Workshop) to get a hang of it.

Hopefully this is just a bad start to a great career, like that of say the Don, Bradman.

So in the end, it seems like another Asin movie to be seen on thirittu VCD, but this time, as BJ remarked, we had atleast paid our dues to the Tamil film industry.

I feel like God

2007-01-17T11:11:00.000+05:30

Well almost. Sad that Bajaj came up with this tagline for the moped-like Avenger. (atleast compared to the Thunderbird) There are a couple of things that have put a spanner in my attempts at apotheosis, one the traffic at Bangalore during sane hours which ensures that the only cruising happens when you are stationary at the signals and secondly and more importantly, the fact that I can't go beyond 50 kmph till I cover 1000 kms. So, for now the beast will be on a leash only.

The bike does feel really good. I still have to get used to the new gear system though, but this shouldn't take too much time. Having such a bike surely ensures stares on the road. I felt totally kicked when a kid on a neighbouring bike started enquiring with his father as to what my bike was called and if his father could also buy it. The signal turned green before the answer came, so I sped away feeling mighty pleased.

A new bike meant I also remembered God (the actual one, not me). So after a long time (I think after Avani Avittam) I visited the Domlur Srinivasa Perumal temple, a nice small Thenkalai temple. I am not too much of a believer in stuff like poojas for a new bike, so just paid my respects to the Lord and left.

Continuing with the God theme, there was an Ilayaraja (another total God) concert being shown on Jaya TV. Totally cracking it was, despite some of the singers (especially Bhavatharini and Thippu) not being upto the mark. I am a great fan of Rahman, but somehow have come to the conclusion that Raja is a little God-der ARR. The reasons for it could possibly take another post, so I will not venture into it.

Hopefully

2007-01-16T15:04:00.000+05:30

I'll finally get my bike today. I did have it with me over the weekend, but a lack of registration and insurance meant that I did not use it much.

By today evening, the above two formalities will be over and I will be the proud owner of a black Royal Enfield Thunderbird.

To ensure that I got the bike today itself, I came to office by cycle. Its slightly convoluted logic, but it essentially follows Murphy's law. If I had been all set for the bike and came to office by walk, there was a very good chance (according to Murphy's law) that I would not have got the bike today and would have had to walk back home. So to avoid this predicament, I cycled to office today. Cycle in office and bike also being delivered causes a small complication, but its getting the bike that is of utmost priority and seems like that wish will be fulfilled.

A totally fair turn of events.

Pongal-o-Pongal

2007-01-15T12:47:00.000+05:30

Venn Pongal (the plain off-white pongal)

1 measure rice
A handful of Moong Dal (paitham paruppu)
4 measures of water
Some asaefoetida (L.G.Powder or perungayam (big hurt? perum + kaayam?) )
Some salt (be a little conservative here as unlike sambar, rasam, if there is too much salt, one just can't do anything to counteract it)
Put in pressure cooker, let it leave 5-6 whistles (for rice I stop after 3-4 whistles)

Let the pressure release (the thing that takes the longest time). Open, add cashew+pepper+jeera(cumin I think) fried in ghee. Mix well and serve with sambar/chutney/pickle/anything you like with pongal.

Chakkara Pongal (literally sugar pongal, but sweet pongal is more closer to the truth as no sugar is used)

1 measure rice
A handful of moong dal
2 measures of water
2 measures of milk

Cook in pressure cooker.

Simultaneously, take approx. two measures of jaggery. Add a little water and heat for a while.

After the rice is cooked, take a pan, add some ghee and roast cashew+kismis(raisins). Remove the cashew+kismis and add the jaggery+water mixture referred to above. Heat for a while (and don't get psyched by the sound). Add some elaichi to this (plays a very important part in the final feel of the chakkara pongal as I found out) and continue to heat. When you think it is enough (or bored whichever comes first) add the cooked rice to this liquidy mixture. Wait till it become uniform, then add the cashew+kismis and continue to heat for some more time. Keep the fire at sim throughout to be on the safe side. (safety for both you and the food) Then eat.

Happy Pongal. I made the above two and some brinjal sambar today morning and they came out pretty good. My pongal was made.

En Kaivannam (my hand's colours)

2007-01-09T11:25:00.000+05:30

Some of my creations.

Ideally it should have been "kaimanam"(hand's smell), but unfortunately technology still has not found a way to transmit smell. So the readers will for now have to make do with this.

Weekend Activities

2007-01-08T15:01:00.000+05:30

Met friends in increasing order of "time known". Started off with IIMB guys BJ and Ethan on Friday night, IITM elec makkal Nari and Josh on Saturday afternoon and my first roommate at IITM, Tughlaq and Vinay, a guy who sat beside me during those heady Ramaiah days itself, on Sunday.

As a result, food went from Continental worth 500 bucks on Friday night (we were MBAs after all) to home food on Saturday to Gult meals on Sunday. Home food was on the verge of being totally cracking, but a little too much salt in the chinna vengaya(small onion) sambar and a slightly blackened potato curry (thanks to a visit paid to the nearby store) made the food just decent. Rasam, being my core competency was pretty good though. And despite the problems with the food, it was devoured with great relish.

I should stop tempting fate with regard to sports. In my previous post, given the way Dada and the Wall were batting, I hoped that we would finish off the South Africans, but alas it was not to be, thanks to a combination of bad batting, not great bowling and some atrocious umpiring. A series that we should have won or squared, we ended up losing.

I have also resolved to stop watching Liverpool matches this season because whenever I watch, they end up losing. Bolton at the Reebok, ManU at Old Trafford, Chelsea at Stamford Bridge and Blackburn at Ewood, I believed were because it was the league and away. But no, it seems like a large part of the blame should be attributable to me also as Liverpool lost the latest match at home in the cup to Arsenal when I was watching. So, no more Liverpool matches for the season including the match with Barcelona. Let me atleast sleep in peace.

Got my cycle into shape (at the cost of close to 200 bucks, worth it too in my opinion). As a result, I could go and buy a thirittu(pirated) dvd. Two movies, Sivappathikaram and Varalaaru for 50 bucks on a 29 inch TV one after the other yesterday. Sivappathikaram starts off like a movie about folk songs, but in the end becomes a badly made Shankar movie. (one of those Gentleman, Indian, Anniyan, Ramana, Samurai, Thamizhan, type movies) Varalaaru is full masala, timepass from start to end. Ajith cracks as both the psycho son and the effeminate dancer. Asin is super gorgeous. Totally worth the 50 bucks.

5-0

2007-01-05T15:20:00.000+05:30

The Pigeon finally gets his prediction right.

Bye bye Fletcher. Thanks for the Gary Pratt run out moment. Unless England win the World Cup, which is impossible, he will go.

No more Flintoff captaincy please. Vaughan, followed by Strauss. Just bat and bowl well, will do.

Hopefully the loss of the oldies will make Aussie defeats more common.

A 2007 with India beating England and Australia away beckons. (and hopefully the World Cup too) Too much to ask, I know but whats wrong in aiming high?

Afterall only if you aim for the stars, will you reach atleast the tree tops. (drawing the two series + a semi at the World Cup)

But first let us finish the South Africans.

Random Walk of the Divine

2007-01-04T14:58:00.000+05:30

This should have been part of the previous post. But I forgot to include this, and hence an entire post dedicated to this spectacle.

On the morning of the Ekadasi, after coming out through the "Vaikunta Vaasal(gate)", the Utsavar goes to the manal veli (sand bank) and there embarks on a set of random walks to enable everyone in the huge crowd to have good darshan of Him. No one can predict the direction in which His next step will be made. This is called Pathi Ulathal (aimless wandering, but here the aim is to ensure darshan for all without too much effort). Wherever you are, the Lord will come to you. Pretty neatly done too. Given the size of the crowds, a pretty efficient method to keep everyone satisfied.

During the trip, one of my companions during these temple visits was the grandson of the former India player, C.R.Rangachari, who played 4 tests for India in 1947-48 including the tour to Australia. C.R.Rangachari's son, C.R.Vijayaraghavan is a first class umpire and has umpired two ODIs, the second being Ganguly's first match as captain, in the match-fixed series at Kochi against SA. (not entirely sure about the Ganguly part) Both these C.R.s happen to be distant relatives of mine. (general self-gratification, been a long time since I indulged in it)

With these two I think I have covered all that I wanted to say about my Srirangam trip. Now its time to look to the future, a Royal Enfield bike in about a week.

Vaikunta Ekadasi at Bhooloka Vaikuntam

2007-01-02T12:15:00.000+05:30

Warning: Long post. Religious too.

The world keeps hurtling along, but Srirangam continues to remain the same, centred around the Lord of the Island, Ranganatha. Other than the increasing crowds, mandating a police presence and annual changes in the way the crowd is controlled, some technology (lights and video) to help in better viewing of the Lord, the festivals and rituals followed in the temple have remained rooted in traditions and rules set in antiquity. (around a millenium back, during the time of Sri Ramanuja) Vaikunta Ekadasi is no different. And this time I had the opportunity of making a visit to this place also known as Bhooloka Vaikuntam.

The day before the Ekadasi, the Lord is dressed in the "Nachiyar Thirukolam" (the garb of the Goddess). To the Lord's question regarding his looks, Parasara Bhattar is supposed to have said that His eyes lack the quality of mercy ("Karunyam") that characterises the Goddess' eyes and hence give Him away.

The Vaikunta Ekadasi constitutes a nightout for some peoples, but for me and many others it was the night before. Around 11:30, along with a distant relative who used to live in Srirangam previously. (to avoid confusion with an archaka at a shrine in Srirangam, this relative is referred to as "vaa-po" Raghavan and the other as "vango-Pongo" Raghavan) Perumal's porappadu (the Lord's procession) was to happen only at 3:15 am. In the crowd, one starts talking to all kinds of arbit people, and in my case it was a couple of maamis who seemed very inquizitive about whatever word they happened to hear around them. The by-products of an idle and sleepy mind I suppose.

One of the many stud things about the Srirangam temple is their time keeping, especially the one's that happen only inside the temple precincts. At 3:15 punctually, the procession started, with the Lord dressed in a coat of diamonds. (referred to as Ratnaangi (Ratna + angi ) ) He would proceed to the place called manal veli (sandbank, one of the prakaras of the temple, just in front of the thousand pillared hall) through the door known as the "Paramapada Vasal" or "Swarga Vaasal" or "Vaikunta Vaasal", the door to heaven/moksha. (I am not too clear about this) While the Utsavar (the portable idol) is on procession, the doors are thown apart for the worship of the Moolavar, the reclining Ranganatha. He is dressed in a pearl garment, the Muthangi. (Muthu + angi) This is usually one of those Tirumala special "jarugandi,jarugandi" level times, but thanks to one lady in front, we could stop for a minute or so in the presence of the Lord.

Now Vaa-Po Raghavan's Srirangam expertise came into play. He knew the person serving the Holy Water, so he puts networking fundaes and enabled us to poond in the line again. (poond also happens to be IITM slang for getting into a line out of turn) While doing this, we were also the recipient of a blasting from an Iyengar guy who acted as if he was very important. He was standing in our way, blocking our way to the line, so inadvertently I slightly pushed the guy, and he got started. Entirely valid on his part. But we did not care.

There was this exhibition on Srivaishnavism organised by Srimaan Trust. There were "stalls" about Azhwars, Acharyans, the great Upanyasakas, etc all done by kids. The Azhwars were enacted by 4-5 year old kids and it was so damn cute. Should be seen to be believed. There was also a competition of exhibits about the epics, in which one of the kids in an attempt to introduce some humour by putting some totally fraud fundaes. He claimed that the entire Aranya Kandam of Ramayana happened around Srirangam. The place where Maareechan wagged his tail in front of Rama was Waalaadi(Waal (=tail) + aady (=wag)) and the place where he was killed was Manpudi(deer catch) Mangalam (or something like this). Totally entertaining this was. I ended up spending close to 3 hours here. Superb attempt and hope the efforts of Srimaan Trust are as successful in the future too.

The final event of the day is the "Veenai Ekantham". As the name suggests, the day's proceedings ends with a veena recital for the Lord. There are crowds, but everyone becomes totally silent when the veena recital starts. This reminded me of a statement by Rajaji that in our country, we conduct festivals having thousands of people in the small place around the temple very peacefully. There are three times that the procession pauses for the veena to be played. The first time, its entirely instrumental, the second time Rangarajasthavam and Ranganatha Ashtakam were sung to accompany the veena and the third time Divya Prabandhams are sung. Very impressive performance.

And I also fasted on the day. Not too tough, probably thanks to the two cups of milk and one cup of tea. But given all the exertions of the day, it did not seem tough at all.

A really fulfilling way to end the year.

Belated new year wishes to all. (or am I too early for 2008?)

Route taken: Bangalore-Krishnagiri(super road after Electronic city)-Salem(two lane/bad road till Thoppur)-Namakkal(two lane, hajaar traffic and not great)-Srirangam(two lane, not great again, but after Thottiyam, the Kaveri/Kollidam flows beside the road and the area is really green. I can understand why Vallavaraiyan, the hero of Ponniyin Selvan was so impressed by the Chozha land. )

My Hyderabadi Jinx

2006-12-26T12:25:00.000+05:30

The whole world seems to conspire against me when I want to go to Hyd.

After the Diwali Debacle, I thought I was being smart by deciding to avoid the traffic and take the aerial route out of Bangalore. But there was an externality I did not contend with, fog at Delhi.

As a result my flight at 10 was now scheduled to leave only at 1:30, which became 2:30 by the time it actually left. No cribs apart from lack of sleep. I left home at 12, walked to the airport only to find the flight delayed by another hour. There was one scare along the way though, a barking dog, which true to the maxim did not even come close to bite. The delay in the airport meant some free grub at the airport CCD. Thankfully BJ, who was travelling to Chennai and his flight was delayed to 4:30, was around. Chatting with him, I boarded the flight only after my name was announced, there is a first time for everything.

Home was just the same. The usual eating, sleeping, TV watching, netting and temple visiting happened. I also bought some books for 1200 bucks, Dalrymple's White Mughals, Orhan Pamuk's Snow (wanted My Name is Red, but that was out of stock) and a couple of cricket books, Great Indian Batsmen by Partab Ramchand and A Maidan View by Mihir Bose.

The return flight was much more bearable, just a two hour delay. I was peacefully at home by 11.

Warne, McGrath, Maddy, work and home

2006-12-22T11:10:00.000+05:30

Warne has retired. Somehow Warne has never impressed me. And for a very cricketing reason, not based on his off-field activities like womanising, drugs cheating or accepting money from book makers. He came up looking totally mediocre against the best, the Indians. How can someone be called the greatest spinner when he has failed consistently against the best players of spin? Beats me totally.

McGrath also might retire. Surely good news for all batsmen in general and opening batsmen in particular. McGrath, for all his despicable sledging, is truly one of the world's all time great fast bowlers. He has delivered consistently against the best players of the time, the Laras and the Tendulkars. The ultimate metronome, a lot of Warne's successes can also be explained by the presence of McGrath. McGrath and the other fast bowlers would reduce the opposition to some 50/4 or 5 and thus make Warne's job easier.

I saw the Madhavan-starrer Rendu yesterday. If I were the Sun TV top 10 movies anchor, I would say "Rendu-Boojiyam". Easily the worst movie that Maddy has acted in, worse than the likes of Run, Ethiri, Minnale, etc. Career over I think, except with Mani Ratnam.

The last two days at work have been a slight bore. A few reasons, one not much work (I have to read up some stuff),two no cricket matches on and thirdly and more importantly, my day-long Bracket companions, Skimpy and Vamshi are on vacation.

I'm going home for the long weekend, just 3 days long, but longer than the usual 2. And unlike last time, Railways made my job easier by not selling all the tickets by the time I decided to go. So its Flyderabad time again. Good food beckons. For all my little successes at cooking, mom's cooking is surely many classes apart.

Bonuses and campus placements

2006-12-21T12:02:00.000+05:30

The two are very similar. Totally hyped up by the media, but with reality being a little different. What the media reports is only the tip of the iceberg, the story of a minority.

Ofcourse being just 6 months into my job, I didn't expect anything and so whatever came was a pleasant surprise, but there seem to be quite a few dissatisfied people around and lots of attempts to explain the "compensation philosophy".

Speaking of philosophy, satisfaction surely seems to be a function of expectations. Sometimes the Stoics seem so true when they said something to the effect of tempering your expectations and hence be happy when these expectations are met.

The Degeneration of ESPN-Star

2006-12-20T17:15:00.000+05:30

I have been losing patience with ESPNStar for quite sometime. And the way Sportscenter covered India's win was the last straw and what better way to rant against the two channels than to write about it. But instead of my blog, it is on a Sports blog run by an IIMB junior and a couple of his friends.

Do read the degeneration of ESPN-Star.

200

2006-12-13T12:11:00.000+05:30

I seem to have a fetish for all these landmarks. Try my best not to miss out on any. And its also easiest to post when I reach a landmark, though like the last few posts of mine, it will be short and not necessarily sweet.

Oflate, I have been delivering on the blog in terms of quantity. But obviously quality takes a hit. Obviously it is the time for excuses now and I have quite a few on hand too. Work at office, no new movies seen, no new books read, not much football or cricket watched, in essence a lack of life outside work. But time just happily moves on, stopping only for a while on weekends.

Anyways there is nothing much I can do about this. I did buy a book to give me company before sleeping yesterday, William Dalrymple's first book Xanadu and it has started off pretty well too. The Ashes resumes tomorrow and the rape of India resumes day after.

Despite the crib nature of the post, life's not so bad after all. I do get to eat and sleep well, life's just a little colourless these days. There was some philosopher who claimed "I would rather prefer the life of a dissatisfied Socrates to that of a satisfied pig". But I seem to be in perfect disagreement.

For those souls who still haven't realised, let me make it obvious, this is my 200th blog post.

A victim of accountability

2006-12-12T18:03:00.000+05:30

Today morning my servant maid quit.

The reason, I told her I'll pay only 400 (as against the standard 500) as she had bunked hajaar. She got pissed off and said she won't come again. Agreed she did more work than we had originally agreed upon. Utensils were extra, as were a little too frequent washing of my roommates clothes. But still I don't think this was reason enough for her to come only every alternate day, basically bunk atleast two-three days a week.

I told her sometime last week to mend her ways, but she still continued in the same vein. So I was left with no other option other than a pay cut.

This made her quit. An attempt to make her accountable to the 500 bucks that she is being paid. Totally disappointing and "thimiru pudich" attitude.

No point cribbing about this. And looking at the way salaries in Bangalore have increased, we might not be able to find another maid for the same rate. Two outcomes, a dirtier house and more work at home.

Gaye so Gaye-ich

2006-12-11T19:16:00.000+05:30

An old anecdote involving a taxi driver, my dad and my dad's friend.

Taxi Driver: Saab, rocket aur missile mein kya farak hai?

My dad puts fight, tries to put fundae and gives up (after all he is my dad), as does the taxi driver.

Dad's fried: Missile chode tho vaapas aatha, rocket chode tho gaye so gaye ich.

Another week ends

2006-12-08T18:12:00.000+05:30

After a few weekends of early waking up ( 5, 4 across the seas and 1 in Chennai ) finally I have a weekend when I can wake up whenever I want. Well whenever in my case translates to 9 max, as by that time the servant maid makes an appearance. I have a few plans for the weekend, one quiz, one party, ofcourse a few footer matches and maybe a couple of test rides in the quest to buy a bike.

Its been quite some time since I went to a quiz, the last one was the IITM Open, two months back. Hopefully we'll atleast qualify for the final tomorrow. There is also the Manchester Derby between Man City and Man U tomorrow. I should be back in time to see some of the match atleast. As it is at Old Trafford, I'll be happy with a draw. Don't think I'll watch the Sevilla-Real match.

The party I referred to is a year end party at office on Sunday. The company is providing pick up and drop to and from the party. All I have to do is just show up, and that I'll do readily. The party is only till 9;30, so second half of Chelsea-Arse should be watchable.

Its now time for me to go home and attempt the brinjal curry that I planned to make yesterday, but could not thanks to a power cut.

Its not too tough

2006-12-07T16:39:00.000+05:30

to stay long hours in office. Have been doing 11-12 hours since the time I came back from NY.

I suppose this is the only age where I can get away with long hours and doing almost nothing else (other than late night football and cooking) during the week.

But it surely feels better if I leave office early (meaning 9 hours only) as I will be doing today.

Someone to look up to

2006-12-06T17:06:00.000+05:30

An Indian buys a European football club, albeit just Bulgarian, but it is a start.

Pramod Mittal, Lakshmi Mittal's youngest bro buys the Bulgarian team CSKA Sofia.

Strong stuff. I'm totally impressed.

Dust to dust

2006-12-05T14:33:00.000+05:30

All the hopes that were raised on the first two days got totally crushed today. England are the masters of the middle order collapse, worse than India. Seemed like they had turned a corner during the last Ashes, but old failings came back to haunt them today.

I think 551 is the second highest score made in a losing cause (after Australia's 556 against India at the same ground, this match was very similar to that match) and the highest declared score to lose a test.

How different a gap of a year and a change of continents can be? England were 1-0 down in the previous Ashes too, and were on the verge of losing the second one but ended up winning it. The final day of the test at the Oval was also very similar to today, but the ending was totally different. And most of it was thanks to some crazy batting by the Englishmen and one atrocious decision by Bucknor. Once the Aussies had a cycle gap, they just drove an auto through it.

As the verdict on cricinfo said, today's morning madness by England just destroyed what could have been a very good series, atleast competitive till a later point in the series. If England had drawn this match, they would have gone to Perth in a much better state of mind and put more fight there. But after this, 5-0 also becomes a strong possibility.

Both of Fletcher's punts turned out to be real bad. Giles dropped Ponting, bowled badly and did not provide the batting insurance he was expected to. Similar with Geraint Jones, did not last at the wicket long enough. Ideally for the next match at Perth, Monty and Sajid Mahmood should be brought in in place of Giles and James Anderson. Afterall from here England have nothing to lose except pride.

Koothu in Boston - Black Friday

2006-11-28T11:32:00.000+05:30

We were probably inspired by this stud remix. It could also be because the only audio CD that we had was one that contained some of the studdest gems of Tam film music, like the eternal hit O Podu, the recent hit Sirichi Sirichi, the karuthu-filled gems Podango and Kai Kai Kai Vekkara and the kid among all these stalwarts, Randakka Randakka. We also had a convertible at hand and the day had dawned absolutely brilliantly bathed in superb sunshine. The most important reason was that we could afford to do this only in USA, no way we would have tried the same stunt in Tamil Nadu.

After a good pongal breakfast made by Mani, we set off to first do some shopping to take advantage of the low prices that characterise Black Friday and then go some 30 odd miles out of the city to a temple and have South Indian food somewhere nearby. This was accomplished in awesome style.

Topless, the car that is, blaring out the above mentioned hits, we hit the road in Boston. Just imagine the situation. Four country Tam Brahms (for a change an Iyengar majority, which is actually enough info to get the number of Iyengars and Iyers in the group) masquerading as pseud guys, in a convertible with its roof down listening to cracking Tam songs on an American highway. Incase you are having problems imagining, my debut on youtube might help you. There is also this other video that I shot.

After some shopping, we left Boston around 1 for the Lakshmi temple at Framingham. But we were very hungry by then, so decided to do pooja to the tummy first. There is a proper Tam restaurant in Ashland. The waiters also talk in Tam, I was totally impressed. The food was a buffet, with a masala dosa added. Some 10 odd bucks per head. Full thulping ensued.

Special mention must be made of the really poo-pol Idlies, the cracking chilly potato and an even more cracking thayir saadham, arguably the best I have had since Pattapa's thayir saadham at a cousin's marriage 5 years back. Even though the other stuff wasn't too great, the fact that it was food closest to home ensured that we ate lots. The trip was literally highly fulfilling.

After lunch we went to the temple. But it was closed. We took this as an opportunity to take some photos, which I have not yet uploaded. The photo shoot done, we came back to MIT and then went to the airport to drop the car and then send off Bharat. It was time for me also to leave. We came to the bus station around 7:55, but the 8 o clock bus had left, so Mani and Srini waited along with me till 8:45 types and we parted.

During the entire course of the trip, this was the only time I felt loath to leave. We had had a great time and it had unfortunately come to an end. These friends were the ones with whom I had spent 4 years of my prime, so it was obviously great to meet and go around and have fun. And it also turns out that currently I don't have too many close friends in Bangalore and I had also rotted for three weeks in NY which made this trip all the more memorable. It started off pretty bleak, but ended up confirming a theorem stated in the Gita that states that whatever happens always happens for good.

As Srini had scrapped my sis, this trip would be one of the contenders for my "Those were the best days of my life".

Explanation: For those who are wondering what "Pattappa's thayir saadham" is, Pattappa happens to be the best Iyengar cook in Chennai and this thayir saadham if I am right is served during the lunch on the day of the muhurtham. However hot Chennai happens to be, this curd rice is always cool. Totally cool.

Koothu in Boston - Thanksgiving

2006-11-27T15:16:00.000+05:30

I reached Boston on the morning of Thanksgiving by the cheapest way of travel between the two cities and also the place where you can appreciate the diversity of the American population, a Chinatown bus. The Boston bus was not as diverse as the one I took to Washington a couple of weekends before. That bus had Afro-Americans, Indians, Chinese, Eastern Europeans, French (atleast thats what I think they were) and even Egyptians. Bharat was to land in Boston that evening and we planned to rent a car from the airport.

First it was the heavy rain that threatened to ruin our plans, then it was the shortage of cars at rentals. The first three agencies we went to had no cars at all, then we decided to try out one of the top two. We went to the number 2, the guys who try harder, Avis. And we struck something close to gold. They had only one car available, thanks to the rain, a convertible, a Chrysler Sebring. (do a google image search for the car)

No one knew how to get back to MIT, so with some approximations followed by corrections, we finally reached the dormitory where Mani and Srini stay after picking up Bharat at the airport. Driving around in the US without proper directions is pretty tough as you just can't stop and ask some tea kadai level guys for two reasons, one stopping is not possible and secondly, there are no tea kadais. Probably we should transport a few Mallus there.

Then there was this lottery for food. As it was Thanksgiving, almost every restaurant in town was closed. And being stud planners, we started calling restaurants only after we found our first few choices closed. After roaming around a bit, we finally found a Chinese restaurant, that turned out to be very very fair. There were these sevai level rice sticks that were just awesome. One full thulp ensued, exceeding our own expectations of taking back some food home. This was followed by ice cream from Baskin Robbins, which unlike in India is pretty affordable there.

It still kept raining, actually felt like it had gotten heavier. We came back to the dorm, talked to a couple of erstwhile hostelmates (includes a stunning 30+ minutes with Sumo, people who know Sumo will appreciate the achievement), watched some Lollu Sabha on Youtube and crashed with the hope of getting up early to do some electronics shopping on Black Friday and then do some roaming provided the weather was better.

Blogging just to pass time

2006-11-26T10:30:00.000+05:30

I have three hours to my next flight, to Bangalore from Dubai. Absolutely no clue as to what to do. The net is also pretty slow. And the only thing interesting happening currently at this time in the world seems to be the Ashes, where England have had their best session of the test so far. But early tomorrow morning, the match will be over.

I just landed in Dubai after a 13 hour flight from NY. I caught the flight in the morning NY time. Despite a not so great sleep the previous night, I could not sleep too well on the flight. Ended up watching a few movies, Thank You for Smoking, MI3, Cars and even John Tucker Must Die in an attempt to sleep. Unless Emirates radically changes their movie menu and my next trip is atleast a few months from now, I will have problems spending time if I travel on Emirates again.

The NY trip was ok professionally, but on a personal level, I seriously keep thanking myself for not having gone to the US. Just too much loneliness and also a feeling of being an outsider. And the food too. I have come to the conclusion that its not worth living abroad even for the money.

Throughout the trip, except for the time I left Boston, I was totally eager to get back. Boston was a very good exception to the rule. Did have some major fun there, which deserves to be the subject of an entire post. And also have to upload the pics of that trip. Was totally cracking. Was the best fun I had in quite a while.

I have written so much and just 15 minutes have passed. Work expands to fill time, but somehow time never contracts. I can probably go have something to eat, do a little window shopping and can surely sleep to pass time. I don't want to do the last as it will not help my jetlag at all and window shopping won't take too much time. Anyways thats all for now. Can't even think of anything more to type.

Ashes to Ashes

2006-11-22T23:35:00.000+05:30

I did cover the last Ashes pretty comprehensively (and totally partisan too), starting off with the ODI series and ending with Pietersen's superb century at the Oval. In a few hours, the next instalment starts, in Aussie land. Its been the most awaited series since and so a few words about it won't be out of order.

The last series was an epic, finally won by the more deserving team, England. This time it will be different. The Aussies will win, its afterall home territory and England aren't in great bowling form, despite the win over the Pakis. 2-0 atleast, could be a 3-1 or a 2-1 depending on the first test. If somehow England can contrive to draw the first test, we could have a contest on our hands.

Whether the series becomes a contest or not depends on the English bowlers. Without Simon Jones, the fifth bowler does become a weak link and a lot depends on Harmison too who hasn't been in any sort of form post the Old Trafford test against the Pakis. And I hope Monty Panesar plays as the Aussies do have a weakness against quality left-arm spin. Murali Kartik, Asif Karim, etc come to mind and the erstwhile King of Spain, Ashley Giles is just not good enough.

I think the English batsmen have enough form to score in the range of 300-400 consistently and if their bowlers can back these scores up, we just might have another cracker of a series. But currently I just don't see this happening. If the first test lasts till I get back, the fifth day without any weather related interruptions, England should be happy with their start. I would surely be.

Sad

2006-11-20T23:07:00.000+05:30

That these Americans have given their towns English names,
But unfortunately (for me) have absolutely no clue of the English games.

During my trip to a cousin's place near Boston, I came across a Bolton, a Charlton, but these guys think football is for girls.

I also came across a Worcester, a Manchester, but I don't think these guys will think beyond insects.

There is some good news and some bad news. The good news is that I'll be back by Sunday. But the bad news is that I will have missed one India-SA ODI, a whole bunch of Champions League matches and the first four days of the Ashes (mostly would mean the entire match) by then.

Work

2006-11-16T23:46:00.000+05:30

Funny that when you don't need the time, you have lots of it, but when you need it, you just can't seem to find it. My past finally seems to have caught up with me. After years of having all the time in the world, now I almost have no time.

In short, I have a lot of work, have been working a lot and will have more work.

Crazy weather

2006-11-11T00:49:00.000+05:30

Apart from the obvious cold, this is another word that I could use to describe the weather here, in NY that is. Last weekend was too cold, the week was warmer and again the weekend is expected to be cold. By cold, I mean temperatures < 10 (new domains for me) and warm means 15-20 degrees, both in centigrade.

The spell of warm weather defied conventional thinking. It came on the back of one entire day of rain. In India rain acts a cooler, while here its a heater. Strange, but probably correlation should not be confused with causality.

This trip has also enabled me to brush up some 8th standard Physics. Thanks 5/9(F-32).

Kelvi kekkaradhu romba easy Mama

2006-11-08T21:19:00.000+05:30

What a lie?

Try interviewing a Ph.D.

Its worse with your questions and feedback going to a lot of people.

Explanation for the title: Its a line from the movie Panchathanthiram said by Kamal to Nagesh meaning "Its easy to ask questions".

Midterm elections

2006-11-07T21:33:00.000+05:30

I am in the US during some happening times. Midterm elections are happening ("they happen in years divisible by 2 and not divisible by 4" is what a cartoon on the Daily show informed) I don't know how many seats are being contested, for which house and the other mundane details. The US has a really complex legislature system. But from the various news channels surfed every morning, it seems like the Democrats should do well and will thus get control of the House of Representatives. And if they end up doing really well, they might end up getting control of the Senate too. (I don't know what exactly the role of these two houses are)

These elections are obviously given hajaar footage in the media. But compared to India, they do seem a joke. The campaign season is not as festive as in India. No roadside banners, blaring loudspeakers, night long speeches, none of the promises that will not be kept, infact if one did not watch TV or read the newspaper or surf news sites, the election would be hardly visible. And from what I have written, it seems pretty civilised too.

In truth it is not. Every commercial break in the last couple of days had atleast one campaign related ad. And 9 out of those 10 are attacks on the opponent. Straight and direct attacks, absolutely no subtlety at all. And none of these are too creative either. One conclusion (or wrong assumption if it backfires) that is derived from these ads is the fact that Bush has become a pariah when it comes to getting votes. Democrat ads always have the obvious fact that the opposing candidate supported Bush most of the time. In one case, the Republican guy (I think in Rhode Island) has even distanced himself from Bush.

The issues on which the two parties differ are also totally ridiculous. Given that the economy is doing well, the next best issue is obviously Iraq. After this the ridiculousness increases exponentially, racism, gay marriage, stem cell research, etc. Trifling they seem to me.

But there is a reason, as my cousin Sampath says and I tend to agree with him. The important and basic issues in India, the bijlis, sadaks and paanis are givens in the US. Whatever happens and whoever is in power, these facilities will always exist. The one sure hallmark of a developed nation.

Jetlagged

2006-11-03T04:32:00.000+05:30

1 - Number of days I have been in NY
2 - Number of meetings attended today
3 - Number of movies I saw on the flight
4 & 5 - Trains that I have to take to office
6 - Number of "Scrubs" episodes seen in the last 48 hours
14.5 - Length of flight from Dubai to NY
45 - Street on which my hotel is located
809 - My hotel room number
Hajaar - The amount of sleep that is coming to me now (translate to any Indian language)