Random Ramblings

He had one final look at his work. The ending was perfect. The beginning was perfect. Yes. The pace slackened a bit in middle, but it was acceptable. A handful of people may not like it. He couldn't please all. But he was sure that he would please most of the people, the ones who mattered. Above all, the work would impress him. He had surpassed his own expectations. He had read the final draft for the 27th time by now. It was perfect. Next day he would contact the publishers. He was sure that nobody would refuse. They would lap up his work and offer him some handsome sum of money. Probably much more than any of the first time writers could ever dream of, at an age of 29. That would bring it all - name, fame, recognition, money ... everything! He was destined for greatness, as a part of the title suggested. Maybe in a year ... or two years at max, the world will recognize his greatness. Maybe, that would be fitting reply to the world which had branded him as a insecure, reclusive, w...

"Hazaaron khwaishein aisi ki har khwaish pe dam nikle. Bahut nikle mere armaan lekin phir bhi kam nikle" Though I am not a big fan of sher - o shayari , nor do I boast of being even slightly knowledgeable in this department but this one by Ghalib is a gem. The depth of it, and the truth in it say so much about about human existence and probably this truth escapes none in this universe, for everyone - no matter how significant or inconsequential his or her existence be in this myriad universe, be it an undernourished beggar on streets of Sub-Saharan Africa or the president of United States. They have their own small and big triumphs and failures - a million aspirations, few fulfilled and few not. "Hazaaron khwaishein aisi" is also one of those 'awesome' kind of offbeat movies to have blessed Indian cinema few years ago. The backdrop of the movie is Indian political landscape of the 70s, but it is essentially about human aspirations - their successes and f...

Just finished reading 'The God Delusion' by Richard Dawkins, a book I wished to read since quite some time. A good read for those who wish to list arguments about non-existence of god or any such superpower. One of the reasons I liked it was that the ideas and views presented in it were quite similar to the ones I hold (although they were presented more in depth and much more articulately than I could have ever dreamt of myself) about god, omnipotence of god, religion, morality etc. A recommended read for those who wish to read arguments for atheism and for religious people or believers who wish to know 'the other side' , although I don't think it convincing enough to convert a priest into an atheist! Meanwhile, I am planning to start reading 'Fooled by Randomness' by Nicholas Taleb soon!

Just finished Shantaram after around 8 week of non continuous reading. Awesome stuff. I am tempted to write a review, but am too lazy as of now to do so. But I am now completely fida over the book. Now 'The God Delusion' and 'Fooled by Randomness' in queue. Heard a lot about them. Hoping they turn out to be good !!!

Now that the whole world is going gaga over Barack Obama being elected as the next US President, and that too with an overwhelming majority here goes few points of my analysis of his victory and related things! I think that the reasons of his victory were much more than just what their repective views on different social, economic and international issues were. They did play a role, but I think that wasn't the only factor that led him to victory. I think the two major factors were - 1. General dissatisfaction with George Bush on issues ranging from Iraq to Economy. This was bound to have some disatisfaction with the Republican candidate and thus swing in favor of the Democrat whoever the candidate have had been. 2. Most important factor contributing to his victory was quite symbolic. His victory symbolized hope; hope for the many people who struggle against the odds, and the victory of this hope which Obama symbolized. Seeing the meteoric rise of an Afro American and he occupying t...

As mentioned in my previous post, of late I haven't been able to gather sufficient motivation or energy to make posts on this blog. Hence I am going on a self imposed exile from the blogosphere for some time. In other words I am "On a Break" This some time may last for few hours, few days or maybe few months. It depends upon when one fine day I gather sufficient motivation to type what is there inside my head and post things on the blog!!! Hoping to get alive soon on this blog! __ "Life is an infinite, non-converging exponential series of random irreversible screw ups of ever increasing magnitudes one after another "

Of late I have noticed few things about my blogging habits - I often pick up my laptop, beginning to type a blog post or anything ... I start and then I decide to discontinue as I don't manage to gather sufficient motivation or inspiration or just even sufficient energy to overcome my laziness to complete that post. Often I have ideas in mind but by the time I sit in front of my lappy, the idea fizzles out or gets relegated to a low priority corner, and that idea never gets materialized. When my lappy goes kaput, as it did today and as it did on my birthday eve some 40 days ago and I somehow got it repaired at some local hardware shacks at Sikar and Jhunjhunu, I crib about being denied opportunities to log on to blogosphere. In general, I somehow or the other let many a thoughts die a silent death within the confines of that volatile thing safely enconsed within the confines of my cranium. Maybe, some motivation is needed ... Somebody, please bring some carrots!!! Well, this post ...

This time just a few random images. And yes ... It gets much darker than this !!! A typical scene inside a dilapidated Roadways bus running on a mixture of OK and horrible roads 20-25 people in/on the jeeps are not uncommon in this part of the world. A scene inside a city, creating a big stink on account of old and damaged goods, ready to b picked by a rag picker Getting into a bus is a fight, getting a seat a privilege! Another overcrowded bus Aspirations?

The title of this post finds its origins in a novel with simlar name written by VS Naipaul. Set in India, some 40 years ago or so, this is a kind of travelogue of author's brief stay in India where he found it to be full of superstitions, ignorance and darkness! Many decades and many MNCs and malls later, few parts of India seemed to have chucked off that tag, but there are many places that haven't and continue to remain shrouded in ignorance. Move few hours away from a city, travel in a second class train compartment or a dilapidated state transport bus and you get to see the dark underbelly of India Shining. As one of the characters in the movie Rang De Basanti says "Yahan zinda rehne ki jung mein logo ki zindagiyan nikal jaati hai" . So true it seems! My day today was spent being kind of lost in similar thoughts. To start with, I when I boarded the ST bus, a woman was wailing. She may be in her 20s or something, but she was crying in some peculiar musical tone. At...

"Boss, I want a car" "What? "Yes. I want a car" The boss thought for a moment. Ravi was asking for a car. Maybe he needed one. He could give him one for an hour or so. The boss was the owner of the agency, which dealt in dealing with distribution of FMCG products of a big company and was a person who had a soft corner for his employees, something which is rare in such type of work. Ravi was a small time computer operator earning Rs 5000 a month at the agency. The job involved sitting in front of a computer in an air conditioned room and punching orders and preparing the bills on the company software. But the demand for a car was a bit shocking. No employee ever asked him for a car. "Why do you need a car?" "Boss. I am getting married" "Good. Congratulations" "Thank you boss." "So do you ..." "Sir, I have told my to be father in law that I earn 35000 a month and have my own car. I'll be engaged soon. He ...

He glanced at me with a kind of devilish look and an evil smile. His looks reminded me of someone. I couldn't recollect. After few minutes it was a kind of eureka moment when I thought - Doesn't he look like that famous villain in Hindi movies ? After initial formalities we headed for the market to sell all the usual stuff my company produced. This was a routine job, at least during my training period. Few hours in the market in a relatively humid day at a small town in Rajasthan called Pali left us tired. It was the time to unwind with some tea and non-business gupshup. During the course of discussion, I came to know that his son (Let us call him Akash) got some 93 percent marks in SSC in CBSE board. He wanted to go to IIT and for that he needed to go to Kota for preparations. But that man was not keen on him leaving the town. He was of the opinion that he would not come back to Pali as he would have to go to Bangalore for job as most of them did. Hence he had decided his son ...

"Whenever I read a good book, I get impressed with my ignorance" I couldn't find the source of this quote, but I heard it in class 12, wherein my physics tuition teacher Mr. Vishal Pandya (Who was a kind of database in quotes!) once had this one in one of his notes, which invariably started with few quotes Of late, I have realized a very high degree of correlation between Jhandta Index (Henceforth referred to as J) existing in life and book I am reading if any. If I am reading some book at some point of time, J reduces significantly (Say, to a vlue J/2, average case) ; and if the book is significantly good then it reduces to a very low level (Say, J/4) . I have realized that in last 4 weeks (this includes the next week also) , I have read 5 extremely different works, quite a rare feat in terms of quantity and diversity of books read! The most recent book I have read is some book by some IIMB guy about some fictional experience during life @ IIMB, which had everything ...

As I would have cribbed @ 1000000000 words per day, I am currently at a place called Jhunjhunu where I have no social life to speak of, internet is the only thing that keeps me going, apart from few random movies or episodes of Seinfeld. So prospects of celebrating birthday in this solitary confinement are not that exciting! Too add to that, as I switched on my laptop yesterday night, I realized that it had conked off and is showing fan error as the reason. For me this was the end of world. And I knew not how would I survive! I hoped the issue will get sorted out in a week but it is too much to ask in this small town and this time period seemed to be an extremely optimistic guess. My birthday eve and early morning were spent on developing strategies on how to get it repaired. I couldn't find any IBM authorized dealer here, and I would have needed to send it to Delhi. There were two options - first was about sending it as a parcel to one of my friends at IBM , either directly or i...

This is an extremely sad post. In my previous post I mentioned being passionate about staying well connected. As I am currently at a place called Jhunjhunu where I have no social life to speak of, internet is the only thing that keeps me going, apart from few random movies or episodes of Seinfeld. And recently, as I switched on my laptop I realized that it has conked off and is showing fan error as the reason. For me this is the end of world. And I know not how will I survive :( ... I hope the issue will get sorted out in a week but it is too much to ask in this small town and this time period seems to be an extremely optimistic guess:(

Tagged by Sheetal Here goes my various '8 things list' 8 Things I’m passionate about: 1. Movies [Watching, analyzing, related trivia, boring people with all useless related gyaan, movie trailers etc.] 2. Reading [Newspapers (especially editorials), fiction, nonfiction etc.] 3. Religion [Rather lack of it] 4. Food [I proudly proclaim that I live to eat] 5. Freedom 6. Bakar [ This includes cracking PJs] 7. Geography [as a child I used to read and analyze maps. I can still boast about being ‘awesome’ in this. In fact, some people have been surprised by the fact that I know lot about the places which might otherwise be relatively unheard of outside the region] 8. Staying connected [Includes chatting, blogging, random time pass on internet etc. I now access internet even while travelling in a bus, through my cellphone, something unthinkable few years ago!] 8 Things I want to do before I die: 1. Travel extensively across the world. 2. Write 2 books – 1 fiction and ...

Since last few days I have been cribbing endlessly about being dumped as at a place called Jhunjhunu in northern part of Rajasthan, and subjected to the roughs of market for selling soaps, hair oils to tooth pastes and candies to toilet cleaners . It is one of the backward part of the state (and the state is considered to be one of the backward in India, a part of the un-famed BIMARU states - BIhar, MP, Rajasthan, UP). In fact this region is famous for its palatial havelis . But the foundations of all these havelis lie in the feudal system, which was quite dominant in this part of the country. However, there is something about this part of the country. Jhunjhunu, along with Sikar and Churu districts form a part of Shekhawati region. This has been the home of many leading business groups in India. Mr. GD birla was born in a town called Pilani, which is now famous for BITS, one of the finest engineering colleges in India. Ram Prasad Goenka belonged to this region. Biyanis can trace thei...

This is not a message to anyone out there, tough i am often tempted to say this to many people and often to myself. This is one of the fillers in 9x music channels which has found its own niche. Like few other friends of mine who have privilage of watching a television in recent times and have appreciated the show, I too am finding it quite addictive. The characters Chote, who cracks many a PJs and Bade who bears the brunt of most of them form a hillarious duo. For a person like me, who loves cracking PJs, this is an extremely refreshing watch after a tiring or a untiring day. While writing all these I am secretly wishing that I get ao opportunity to become a scriptwriter for that show .Maybe, once they realize that they have reached a certain benchmark in terms of quality, they would need somebody to bring it down ... PS - I am writing all this from my cellphone while travelling in a local ST bus early in the morning :)

And, then after a long walking and running session, he stopped and was in a 'statue' position, Then he walked for few steps. He stopped once again, waiting for the traffic light to turn green. It didn't! Then again he walked for 7 steps. A right turn. Then he sat down on the pavement overlooking the railway track. The area was shrouded by complete silence. The silence at this time was usually broken train which passed that spot at midnight, but it was still a good fifteen minutes away. A moment of sitting silently on footpath was followed by a prolonged five minutes of singing and dancing which no one would have made sense of. He was as if possessed by some spirit or ghost, thought a drunk passerby. And for this, there was no cure. But suddenly he stopped dancing. He had regained consciousness. He wondered where was he? Last he remembered was walking out of his house for the party. That was a good three hours ago. But how had he reached there? Maybe he had walked the whole ...

Warning - My attempt at so called poetry (written few years ago). Read at your own risk !! __ He who has no worries No desires One who unceasingly lives And accepts whatever life gives Freedom to be Power to choose Freedom to know Freedom to grow No manacles No bondages None of hatred Free from all In the life sacred In all things His voice having a say Throughout life Living is the way Can I be he ? For I was born free.

A quick opinion/ analysis on different architects of last few days in Indian politics -- Manmonhan Singh (INC) Finally ... he asserted that he is the boss! To me he seemed like Michael Corleone, who at the end of 'The Godfather' emerges out of shadow of Vito Corleone. Maybe, reforms will get a boost now. Favourite song - ... sauda khar khara (Punjabi Song - Sukhbir) Favourite Movie - Singh Is Kinng ( No prizes for guessing it right) LK Advani (BJP) Opposing everthing just for the heck of opposing it. Maybe, he is toooooo eager to become PM Favourite song - "Tumne fenka jaal, Ulti pad gayee chal ..." (Line from - Aana mere pyaar ko ... , Kabhi haan kabhi naa" -- Who will say these lines to whom, is yet to be determined though! Favourite Movies - Jhonny Gaddar Prakash Karat (CPI-M) The blow he got was 59 karat pure ... and probably made in China! Favourite song - Pardesiyon se na akhiya milana (China is not Pardes, I assume!) Favourite Movie - China Town Somnath...

Sitting in the not-so-comfortable but not-too-uncomfortable seat of the Shatabadi Express heading for Jaipur, I have just turned on my laptop's & cell phone's Bluetooth, got them paired and logged on to internet to make this post (Thanks to Airtel's GPRS service!). I am doing what was unimaginable few years ago. A decade ago, Internet was mostly unheard of for most of us, and the pace at which it has grown is really maddening! Right now I don't have any clue how life would be like if one un-fine day god announces to the planet Earth that - "Your internet connection has been discontinued" !!! Imagine how technology has changed the world we live in ! Yesterday, I managed to transfer a huge chunk of money to few another accounts (in different banks and different cities) with press of few keys. Earlier this used to be an extremely tedious process. Loads of papers exchanged, lots of follow ups and a scope for errors at every step ... all that have been elimina...

She knew that she was fighting a losing battle, yet she persisted. For the third time in the day she made the 30 student class to recite in unison - "A for Apple, apple matlab sev " "B for banana, banana matlab kela " "C for cat, cat matlab billi " and so on ... The class consisted of kids whose age ranged from 3 to 10, most of them belonging to families who could not afford to send their kids to school. In fact, their meager income was augmented by that of their kids. Thanks to an effort by some NGO, the classes were running with a hope that at least 5 students from the 30 see how a college looks like, but the number was too optimistic a guess. No one from that village had ever seen a high school, leave alone a college. She was a firm believer of - "Match is never lost till the last ball is bowled". Being naive enough for believing this to be true, she persisted ... with a hope that she doesn't lose the battle.

He had a dream. The old man in white beard and dressed up in a suit called up his name. Dressed up in an immaculate white shirt, navy blue trousers and a striped tie he walked on on to stage. The students were clapping. The teachers were clapping. The old man with white beard said something in English which he couldn't understand but probably said some congratulatory message. He was extremely happy. Everyone from his village had traveled to the place to see him receive a prize. He was he new hero, a new inspiration for the complete village. By the time he came down the stage he woke up. It was already post sunrise. He had to go for work. If he failed to do so, his family would have to starve that day. He, his friends and many others who worked in the brick-manufacturing unit. But, thanks to a brief interaction with a teacher from neighboring village, he was only kid in the village who could dream.

4 months Ago - I turned on the Bluetooth on my cellphone to transfer some images of myself on to my laptop! But, for some unknown reason my laptop's Bluetooth wasn't working. Damn! I couldn't even transfer my pics. It seemed that it was a conspiracy to deprive me of my happiness. Somehow, I jugaadofied a data cable and managed to transfer it. But then, Bluetooth leads to a lot more convenience and pseud-pana. And for next few months at home I didn't have any source to jugaadofy the data cable. I spent next 4 months abusing and cursing IBM Thinkpad and its useless hardware and software (whosoever would have been the culprit). I asked many people on how to cure this illness, but in vain. Probably my hardware was faulty. Or maybe it was software that was root cause of all evils happing inside my lappy. Due to lack of proper efforts the mission to find the culprit failed and was abandoned In last few days, I managed to buy a new cellphone that has a data cable. But again da...

The news of her reaching the finals of a singing competition did not come as any surprise to anybody. She was gifted with a voice which her friends in her high school were jealous of. She won all singing competitions in the school. She won all singing competitions in the locality. She had been singing since she was 3 or maybe since she was 2. Even she didn't remember since when she was singing. She just dreamt of making it big in singing, and maybe one day she would have many super hit music albums to her name. Her dream was to be the biggest singing sensation in the country. She dreamt of giving autographs to people wherever she went. In fact, she had practiced different styles and zeroed in on what autograph she would give once she was famous. As of now she had to clear the last hurdle before giving a shot to becoming a singing sensation The Talent Hunt show was being aired at a prime time slot at a premier TV channel. It had 3 stages before the finals with participants being eli...

I must confess that I have a fascination for travelling. More often than not, I get excited by prospects of traveling - not just by seeing new places at the destination, but also by the journey with train journeys being my favourite. It gives me immense pleasure to see towns and cities pass by, observe people at different places, to just get a feel of places as they come and go by! As a child I used to know many trivial details about the routes I was travelling on and nearby routes and trust me, it was extremely interesting, and it keeps me interested even today! Recently, while travelling in Delhi, I suddenly decided to take a longer route to my destination, which required to travel on metro train in all three different lines, with 2-3 stations in each line. I had no deadlines, no pressures to reach somewhere. And it was wonderful. Passing through CP , Chandini Chowk , Old Delhi - the places about which we have been hearing since childhood. One way of looking at it can be kind of a ...

He read the first page of the newspaper carefully. Maybe, there was some news he could help the Anti-Terrorist Squad with. It carried the news of 14 people being killed in a suicide terrorist strike. "May allah guide them and show them the right path", he prayed silently. His memory went back few years in time, litte more than 3 years when he was handpicked to be a fidayeen in the 'holy battle' as the chief called it. He had recieved 8 months of intensive training. He knew how to operate the most complex of weapons. That was after he was picked from an elementary school and groomed for years together. But such training was essential. After all, the job he was destined to do was not ordinary. He was supposed to be a suicide bomber in an important rally of a prominant national leader. He had to send the message loud and clear to the top bosses in the country. He was one of the most trusted ones of the chief, who was in charge of overseeing all the activities in the regi...

Recently during a random TV channel browsing session I came across a show in NDTV dedicated to movie GUNDA, a B-Grade masterpiece which has gained a stature of gigantic proportions.Many of us might not haver heard of the movie, but of the rest I assume most of them might have seen the movie, and a substantial proportion would have enjoyed it!! It is a kind of movie that fits into the definition of a cult classic!! The Orkut community of the IMDB 8.7/10 rated Gunda has thousands of fans, most of them can be classified under category of 'die-hard fans'. This movie has got a huge viewer base in engineering collecges and B-schools, and there are people whio consider your life as futile and worthless if you haven't seen this epic masterpiece. And there are considerable chances that the movie might make to the list of 50 all time greats, if there are enough votes keeping its ratings at the same level!! This Kanti Shah directed movie has the one and only Mithunda (fondly called as...

PJ -> Why is telecom industry booming in India ? Reason--> People here love to have and flaunt connections ___ "Jugaad is the 57th art " - SS Shinde at his satirical best "Disgusting! This is the only thing I hate about our country... greased palms shaking hands with lack of integrity" - A comment on one of the posts in my blog https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=28026042&postID=4721678402376407155 __ Connections - Many of us around the world love to flaunt it. Most of us wouldn't mind using it. We Indians love to flaunt it and often consider it as a essential tool to accomplish tasks of varying magnitude. Many of us work in day in and day out in order to earn connections. 'Networking' - a tool often used in achieving something is a milder form of connection, for the latter is the holy grail that makes you do with impunity what the lesser mortals think is sinful. There are often sons and daughers of powerful officials, bhais and bhateejas...

Some glimpses of one of the best landscapes in the country. Why long for Alps when our own old, enigmatic yet beautiful Himalayas provide such magnificent and picturesque sceneries!! Have a look. Enjoy. Location - Garhwal Region, Himalayas which lie in the state of Uttrakhand.

3 runs required of 1 ball, the scorecard said. It was the final of a small cricket tournament in the locality. Lots were at stake for 14 year old Sonu, as he was popularly called. His performance in the tournament could be best described as mediocre. He had never been above average in studies, extra curricular activities and even sports. No one ever praised him for he hardly did anything praiseworthy. Not even little encouragement came his way. He always wondered what was his fault. After all, he was not that bad either. But that was the way it always was. He never desired much. But like all, he wished to be admired, praised, be like others who were so much liked. Today was the day to prove his worth; to make the world sit and take notice of him. One good hit over the boundary rope and he would be a instant hero. A hero in eyes of his friends, teachers, all uncles and aunts and most importantly his parents, who were somehow never satisfied with his performance. The bowler came all ch...

The 7 year old girl walked from school to her home. This was the first time she was walking alone on that route. On any other day, her mother would have gone to pick her up from school, but not that day. She was not aware that schools were declaring holiday an hour and a half earlier due to trouble in the town owing to some agitations and protests. Only few parents could be intimated about this. A friend’s mother accompanied her to the lane leading to her apartment, from where it was just a minute’s walk. But that day, for some unknown reason she decided to roam about a bit and take the longer route. It is not always that she gets to roam about, and no one would know about it. After all she wouldn’t tell her mamma about that. The road was almost deserted. It was usually the case around the noon time in this part of the country. She walked ahead leisurely, singing and dancing all along as if she owned the road. But this was short lived. In couple of minutes, the scene changed....

http://www.rediff.com/movies/2008/may/27khan.htm Above is the link of an interview of Mansoor Khan - The man behind movies like Qayamat se Qayamat Tak and Jo Jeeta Wahi sikandar. His life went in following sequence - Son of a successful film producer --> IITian (... and dropped out) --> Went to USA for further studies (... and dropped out) --> Made few successful movies --> Settled as a farmer at Coonoor, far from the maddening crowd, to appear only once in a blue moon There is nothing special about this interview, but it is about a person who did the thing best seen in proverbs, philosophical monologues and books like The Alchemist - " Follow your heart", something which very few of us end up doing! Prima facie, it may look like fickle mindedness and a person being uncertain about things ... but ultimately he is in the exclusive club of ones who followed their heart!

(Warning -- Blasphemous content ahead. Read at your own risk!) __ “I cannot believe in a God who wants to be praised all the time” – Friedrich Nietzsche HE looked down the heavens, and had a hearty laugh. The long serpentine queue was moving slowly. With his divine brain HE calculated that mean queue length was nearly 600 and mean service time was 150 per hour. That meant people waited an average of four hours just to have a look at his statue, be awestruck for few moments, seek blessings and ultimately offered gifts in cash and kind. The PR agents in form of the priests in the temple collected them ostensibly for benefit of masses. The PR agents used various kinds of tactics and strategies to up the number of visitors; most important being the fear appeal which is often used by advertising agencies, in which the ill effects of not worshipping the deity for him possessing extraordinary supernatural powers was propagated. The marketing channel to improve the numb...