I am not sure if the word regionalism is a valid word but then I am too lazy to look it up and it serves the purpose here for me. Oflate I have been reading a lot of stuff about India and how we have sold ourselves to the western world and the struggles and fights of getting back our individuality and culture.
Despite all these, there is no real feeling of oneness amongst the countrymen. There are a million things that divide us and we are happy to fight to keep it up that way. Language is one such element. Living in banglore, this is one thing I keep hearing often, that we use english and all other languages except kannada. Quite true I agree, but things are changing. I myself am making an effort to use kannada. It's another matter, I was born to telgu speaking parents and can't speak telgu for nuts. I guess that's also a typical banglorean characterstic, where ever the origin, everyone born in banglore finds kannada as a comfortable language to speak in than the language that parents speak.
And getting back on track to a common language for Indians, I strongly feel that Sanskrit is one language that is not associated to any region. This would make a good common language if the government makes an effort to bring it about. Also, we as people wanting to be of one nation, should strongly promote this too, In terms of getting back our own identity as people of a nation, rather than the divided regions of India. Learning Sanskrit has been an elegant thing and I think its pretty cool too with all the complexities it has. I am not saying we throw away kannada or hindi or whatever the languages we speak, but across regions we must use Sanskrit than force others to learn our language, both as hosts and as visitors.
And similarly we must make an effort to make things common and Indian, respect others of the country than show them attitude. Humbleness and kindness has been our cherished values, lets go by it.
-My thoughts for a strong united India
Friday, September 29, 2006
Wednesday, September 27, 2006
value added services
Sometimes when I go out of coverage area I wish I didnt have to loose my messages and if a internet is available around, It would be great if I could get it on my mail ID. This is actually simple, the software at the operator can be modified to recognise that a mobile is out of reach and instead of saving the message for further trying, it could be instead forwarded to the user's mail ID. Probably this could be done after a fixed intreval of retries may be 15 min to 1 hour configurable by the operator. Also a notification could be sent to the sender that the user is out of coverage area or something like that. Even better would be the user to be able to reply to that mail and an SMS reaching the sender. Pricing could be the same as normal SMS charges applied on the email. This would greatly increase the SMS usage even in roaming and could be quite profitable as a mass usage occurs.
a few teki thoughts once a while... :)
a few teki thoughts once a while... :)
coining a new word...
Every day while comming back from office I usually take the bylanes to avoid traffic. There is this one road where there is an apartment being build. The road is used as a store room for sand and gravel and some spills over to the ground and makes riding a nightmare. I have decided to call this situation as "Bikemare" :) and I usually have 2-3 bikemares on a good day!
Ride to Nandi hills
I had been wanting to go on a ride to Nandi hills on my bike for sometime now. This last weekend I decided I am going no matter what. I called a lot of people and after a series of refusals I called up my close friend and cribbed that I really wanted to go! He agreed with doubts about the time. I wanted to leave by 7 and he was not sure if the hills would be that great at 9. So after convincing my mom, we planned to leave at 4.30 in the morning instead.
On Sunday, I got up at 4, got ready really fast and met up with him at 4.45. Man, talk about craziness. It’s amazing to ride at this hour in the city but once we reached the highway, the ride got slow with my headlights not being powerful enough. We reached the foot hills at around 6 and started the climb up. The upper part of the hills was mist covered and as we rode up, it soon became completely foggy and misty and the ride got better! It was super cool, awesome. After taking some snaps on my mobile camera, we reached the top by 7.
We roamed around the place watching the neighboring misty hill tops and the landscape down below, went into coffee plantations and hidden trails hardly taken. We were having a lovely time just the two of us, away from the crowed parts. Soon the sun stared to clear the mist and the hill turned plain and simple. We decided to head back at about 9 and were back home at 11 in the morning. Despite the day light, the road had this eerie feeling that prevented me from zooming back home so I did a slow 60 kmph ride back with a feeling of achievement, after so long a wait.
On Sunday, I got up at 4, got ready really fast and met up with him at 4.45. Man, talk about craziness. It’s amazing to ride at this hour in the city but once we reached the highway, the ride got slow with my headlights not being powerful enough. We reached the foot hills at around 6 and started the climb up. The upper part of the hills was mist covered and as we rode up, it soon became completely foggy and misty and the ride got better! It was super cool, awesome. After taking some snaps on my mobile camera, we reached the top by 7.
We roamed around the place watching the neighboring misty hill tops and the landscape down below, went into coffee plantations and hidden trails hardly taken. We were having a lovely time just the two of us, away from the crowed parts. Soon the sun stared to clear the mist and the hill turned plain and simple. We decided to head back at about 9 and were back home at 11 in the morning. Despite the day light, the road had this eerie feeling that prevented me from zooming back home so I did a slow 60 kmph ride back with a feeling of achievement, after so long a wait.
Bangloreans!!
It’s very annoying when someone says something about Bangloreans. Every single person who comes to Bangalore has to crib about us; I don’t understand who gives them the right to criticize us. It’s our place and we live how we like to. Just because others come and settle here why should we should change ourselves to please them and make them feel at home. Give me a break; you want home, go back, why did you bother coming here. I find it very pitiable that they are such blind narrow minded people. You don’t go to Italy and say no one speaks Hindi here or that roads are narrow and such. When you go some where respect the people for what they are and not put them down and try to show you are superior. No one is, everyone is unique in their own way and no one is really superior as such. And don’t generalize because of just one person you see or interact with. I hit the roof when one of my favorite radio stations, radio Indigo, decided to do a poll on what people find irritating about Bangloreans. I don’t understand why they don’t have a poll on what Bangloreans find irritating about the outsiders. Is it because the content manager or the radio jockey is a non-Bangloreans who loves to put down people of the place she lives in? Grrr!!! A fuming Banglorean!
A visit to Shankar Mutt
Shankar mutt has been on of my most favorite places to visit. During the dussera time, goddess Saraswathi is decorated in various forms each day and also there is a concert in the evenings. Yesterday I was insisting that I wanted to go as there was a bit of turmoil in my mind about something that had happened. So at 9.30 after dinner, I and mom went to the place.
This is a haunt of mostly Brahmin crowd. It was really pleasant, everyone is organized and clean, wear decent clothes and come as a family unit. The concert was going on by a local resident and it was quite nice. A lot of kids were running around and playing but not disturbing the atmosphere. Overall it’s a soothing environment. After praying for the goddess and the acharya for their blessings, I sat there contemplating if what I had done was right. And ultimately, I felt it was a good thing - what I had done. With a feeling of renewed motivation and aim I headed back home with a decision to go there everyday till dussera end.
This is a haunt of mostly Brahmin crowd. It was really pleasant, everyone is organized and clean, wear decent clothes and come as a family unit. The concert was going on by a local resident and it was quite nice. A lot of kids were running around and playing but not disturbing the atmosphere. Overall it’s a soothing environment. After praying for the goddess and the acharya for their blessings, I sat there contemplating if what I had done was right. And ultimately, I felt it was a good thing - what I had done. With a feeling of renewed motivation and aim I headed back home with a decision to go there everyday till dussera end.
Thursday, September 14, 2006
Joy at Jog
It was a thursday evening, One of my friend was headed to Jogfalls. I told him that I wanted to come and soon we were planning to do a 2 day trip to Jogfalls and Agumbe. But for some reasons, we had to settle for just Jog falls.
We left on Friday night and reached Jog at 6 in the morning. There was a slight drizzle and what a MAGNIFICIENT sight it was. I instantly fell in love with "Rocket". The beauty of the water smashing and exploding is beyond explanations. The water level in the dam had risen quite a bit and hence all the gates were opened making the falls very "FULL". We could not see roarer from where we were standing, nor could we see the end of RAJA as the mist rising was so thick. THe wind changes directions often making the falls appear and disappear behind the mist.
We decided to climb down. A local shopkeeper warned us of slippery rocks. As we started climbing down, I could feel my joints groaning like rusted joints. After about 20 minutes of climbing, our path was taken over by a stream but we continued our descent with wet shoes. But, the wind changed directions and in an instant there was a heavy downpour. We carried on but soon it became an wirl wind and the entire path was water logged. Our rain jacket, umbrella and water proof bags was no match for the 'Jog Rain', so we named it cause this rain was the mist rising from Jog. It was artificial rain!
We started to climb up, escaped the rain envelop and with numerous pit stops and chocolates to make up for the depleting energy levels we climbed back up. The timing was just perfect as the crowd had just started the descent and we had had our privacy and peace being early birds.
After a second round of break fast, we sat there drying our clothes and socks, taking pictures and me soothing my aching legs. Then we decided to walk to the other side, closer to the falls near the Raja rock. We took off our shoes as it was like wearing lead boots and walked the 3 km to the other side barefoot. There is a bridge which not only connects the 2 ends of river back but also sort of seperated the calm sharavati on one side and the gurgling falls on the other.
We reached the other side and rushed to see the vertically down view of the Raja falls. We can also see roarer from this side. It is a completely guided falls gushing out from a sudden bend in the rock above. It makes quite a noise, almost a thunder clap at times. The raja rock is a projection right next to the Raja falls and looking down from this point the abyss of the falls is visible when the mist clears. Also due to it proximity to the falls you can see the water exploding to billions of drops and mist. This view is priceless and mindblowing. After multiple peeks from the edge, we try to feel satisified but then, this is one of those things thats so attractive that dissatisfaction is guarenteed. After some time we head back, have some scanty food and want to spend time at the river bank.
There was no way to reach the water front, so we go instead to a green field. The rains which were holding back till now started lashing its wet tongue at us! We surrendered to the leeches in the field and headed back to the bus stand just in time for the bus to Sagar, a near by town.
At Sagar, since we had a couple of hours to spend, we had dosas and coffee, roamed around the town. It's a beautiful little town with very good looking people with an amazing complexion. Finally we boarded the bus and fell asleep instantly. Woke up in between couple of time due to leg ache but went back to sleep after shifting a bit. Sunday morning, back in banglore to find my bangalore in a pleasent post rains mood...
We left on Friday night and reached Jog at 6 in the morning. There was a slight drizzle and what a MAGNIFICIENT sight it was. I instantly fell in love with "Rocket". The beauty of the water smashing and exploding is beyond explanations. The water level in the dam had risen quite a bit and hence all the gates were opened making the falls very "FULL". We could not see roarer from where we were standing, nor could we see the end of RAJA as the mist rising was so thick. THe wind changes directions often making the falls appear and disappear behind the mist.
We decided to climb down. A local shopkeeper warned us of slippery rocks. As we started climbing down, I could feel my joints groaning like rusted joints. After about 20 minutes of climbing, our path was taken over by a stream but we continued our descent with wet shoes. But, the wind changed directions and in an instant there was a heavy downpour. We carried on but soon it became an wirl wind and the entire path was water logged. Our rain jacket, umbrella and water proof bags was no match for the 'Jog Rain', so we named it cause this rain was the mist rising from Jog. It was artificial rain!
We started to climb up, escaped the rain envelop and with numerous pit stops and chocolates to make up for the depleting energy levels we climbed back up. The timing was just perfect as the crowd had just started the descent and we had had our privacy and peace being early birds.
After a second round of break fast, we sat there drying our clothes and socks, taking pictures and me soothing my aching legs. Then we decided to walk to the other side, closer to the falls near the Raja rock. We took off our shoes as it was like wearing lead boots and walked the 3 km to the other side barefoot. There is a bridge which not only connects the 2 ends of river back but also sort of seperated the calm sharavati on one side and the gurgling falls on the other.
We reached the other side and rushed to see the vertically down view of the Raja falls. We can also see roarer from this side. It is a completely guided falls gushing out from a sudden bend in the rock above. It makes quite a noise, almost a thunder clap at times. The raja rock is a projection right next to the Raja falls and looking down from this point the abyss of the falls is visible when the mist clears. Also due to it proximity to the falls you can see the water exploding to billions of drops and mist. This view is priceless and mindblowing. After multiple peeks from the edge, we try to feel satisified but then, this is one of those things thats so attractive that dissatisfaction is guarenteed. After some time we head back, have some scanty food and want to spend time at the river bank.
There was no way to reach the water front, so we go instead to a green field. The rains which were holding back till now started lashing its wet tongue at us! We surrendered to the leeches in the field and headed back to the bus stand just in time for the bus to Sagar, a near by town.
At Sagar, since we had a couple of hours to spend, we had dosas and coffee, roamed around the town. It's a beautiful little town with very good looking people with an amazing complexion. Finally we boarded the bus and fell asleep instantly. Woke up in between couple of time due to leg ache but went back to sleep after shifting a bit. Sunday morning, back in banglore to find my bangalore in a pleasent post rains mood...
Shivagange
THis weekend after a lot of past ditched plans, me and Chi decided to get our lazy butts to shivagange. It was a fantastic ride on tumkur road and I finally felt like having streached my bike's legs. Ofcorse, before we got to get on my bike and leave, my and her mom had a lot of gyan to impart AND sulk despite the knowledge transfer session. After a 'blasting' ride of 20 minutes we reached Dabaspet where we had to wait a good 40 minutes before the other couple came trotting along. Then on we took to the village road, and naturally the speed became an idle pace, the helmet came off, and the smell of fresh earth was so inviting, almost to the point of wanting to bury onself in it. We parked our bikes at the foot of the hills and started our climb. We went to the two temples on the way and as we we climbed upwards, my stength gave up and every thing went bright and blank. I had to rest awhile and let the blankness clear. When we looked up, it was a long climb and we decided to cut it short to about midway where there was is varalkal thirtha, a small temple with a water hole in it.
When we stopped next, near a small stall for some fresh lime and butter milk, we realised that we had gone beyond the point and that the top was almost near by. What we didnt realise though was that this was the best and most challenging part of the climb. With a dog for company we started off towards the rest of the climb. The inclination is almost 80 degrees and thankfully there is a iron railing all along. It was a thrilling climb till we reached the top. The top is like a plateau with a temple. THere is also a carved bull at one of the corners with just a few centimeters of space for us to go around it. After going around the basava (bull) we sat on the plateau with the wind in our face and enjoying the majestic view from the top and the dog keeping watch over the monkeys. Trust you me, these monkeys are a BIG threat. After an hour or so, we started our descent. The dog parted with us at the stall and in a few minutes we were attached by a monkey. Fortunately, another bunch of guys came along and its attention, rather attack, was shifted on them.
We came to varalkal thirtha. Its hidden in a deep cave and going around the god is quite an adventure with slipping and falling being a very likely possibility. Behind the god is this small deep hole into which you can reach down for water. The belief is that only the pure at heart can reach the water as the water level constantly varies. Well...only the 2 of us guys could reach it, and I shall let you make the conclusions. :-)
From the temple, a few minutes down hill and we were back on flat land. After a visit to a kolaku kola (dirty pond) nearby we headed back to banglore, bidding good by to our slower counterparts. We soon were zipping back home and in an hour or so were back.
One place down, many more to go...
When we stopped next, near a small stall for some fresh lime and butter milk, we realised that we had gone beyond the point and that the top was almost near by. What we didnt realise though was that this was the best and most challenging part of the climb. With a dog for company we started off towards the rest of the climb. The inclination is almost 80 degrees and thankfully there is a iron railing all along. It was a thrilling climb till we reached the top. The top is like a plateau with a temple. THere is also a carved bull at one of the corners with just a few centimeters of space for us to go around it. After going around the basava (bull) we sat on the plateau with the wind in our face and enjoying the majestic view from the top and the dog keeping watch over the monkeys. Trust you me, these monkeys are a BIG threat. After an hour or so, we started our descent. The dog parted with us at the stall and in a few minutes we were attached by a monkey. Fortunately, another bunch of guys came along and its attention, rather attack, was shifted on them.
We came to varalkal thirtha. Its hidden in a deep cave and going around the god is quite an adventure with slipping and falling being a very likely possibility. Behind the god is this small deep hole into which you can reach down for water. The belief is that only the pure at heart can reach the water as the water level constantly varies. Well...only the 2 of us guys could reach it, and I shall let you make the conclusions. :-)
From the temple, a few minutes down hill and we were back on flat land. After a visit to a kolaku kola (dirty pond) nearby we headed back to banglore, bidding good by to our slower counterparts. We soon were zipping back home and in an hour or so were back.
One place down, many more to go...
The flow of Internet radio
I had been wanting to buy world space for sometime now. The most important reason being the 24/7 western classical, jazz and trance excusive stations. It was a paradim shift for me when I was introduced to internet radio stations. Now I have dropped my worldspace plans and as the Internet serves one more of my needs, my support and belief in next generation networks becomes even more stronger. Lucky for me, I am part of the team bringing about this transformation.
Songs that move a nation
I was born at a time when there was no cable TV, there was a lone channel, Doordharshan, the government run national channel. As such, it was a channel with little ads, with the aim being not to make money but to provide entertainment at the same time enrich the nation, to bring it tgether and instill the flare for bringing the nation forward.
One of my favourite songs that was aired was "Milay sur mera thumhara", when our voices unite...It had some of the most popular stars of that time singing this one phrase, in various languages. It was a beautifully composed and presented song, built around this simple meaningful phrase. There are lots of such patriotic songs in all languages. These are songs that move a nation, which have an impact. In this time where our nation is sold by corrupt politicians, multi-nationals treating us as 'cheap labour' and our strong intilligent youth running away to other nations, the same who once took our freedom, will these songs have any impact? Do we need to play them more often than ads or do we make it commercial, re-mix it, strip it of emotions and make them in-comprehendable words and play it on Independence day and dance like drunk maniacs...or just bury them so that they rest in peace with their composers...
One of my favourite songs that was aired was "Milay sur mera thumhara", when our voices unite...It had some of the most popular stars of that time singing this one phrase, in various languages. It was a beautifully composed and presented song, built around this simple meaningful phrase. There are lots of such patriotic songs in all languages. These are songs that move a nation, which have an impact. In this time where our nation is sold by corrupt politicians, multi-nationals treating us as 'cheap labour' and our strong intilligent youth running away to other nations, the same who once took our freedom, will these songs have any impact? Do we need to play them more often than ads or do we make it commercial, re-mix it, strip it of emotions and make them in-comprehendable words and play it on Independence day and dance like drunk maniacs...or just bury them so that they rest in peace with their composers...
Bhai
Yesteray evening I managed to get out of office and also get someone to go to a movie with me. Both occuring together is quite a rarity. Went to Forum.
Oflate this place has become quite a pain to go to. The traffic outside, the people packed inside, the crowd outside the theater door, the security rules, the pain of keeping your helmet in some corner in the ground floor to go to a movie on the 4th floor, and leaving all "inflamable" things including smoke pack with the security, and paying an obscene amount of money for front row tickets with the speaker blaring away, the a/c being toooo cold, the booking of tickets some 10 days in advance...It's kind of becoming mindless. Sometimes, rather most times, I think in the name of progress and easy lifestyle, we are becoming less happy...
The movie was about following Gandhi's principles and all that. It was shot quite well with a different outlook and some day-to-day examples and all that. Would I follow it, no, I have never been a fan of Gandhi. But, it was nice to see a different prespective and a change in story narration.
This is the second movie where they are trying to get the people of India a message, a movie with not just sex and love but also a 'moral of the movie'. The striking thing was the use of radio as a means of reaching out to people in both the movies, the other movie being rang de basanti. FM has in a way takenover TV. But then, with the RJs in demand and a dirth of good ones, quality of the shows has come down significantly, and so has the language, with the aim of mass appeal and political appeal, a mix of english and local language usage which is quite jarring to hear at times is making radio not too appealing I feel. But, for now, we can re-write the song "Video killed the radio" to "FM is killing the video".
Oflate this place has become quite a pain to go to. The traffic outside, the people packed inside, the crowd outside the theater door, the security rules, the pain of keeping your helmet in some corner in the ground floor to go to a movie on the 4th floor, and leaving all "inflamable" things including smoke pack with the security, and paying an obscene amount of money for front row tickets with the speaker blaring away, the a/c being toooo cold, the booking of tickets some 10 days in advance...It's kind of becoming mindless. Sometimes, rather most times, I think in the name of progress and easy lifestyle, we are becoming less happy...
The movie was about following Gandhi's principles and all that. It was shot quite well with a different outlook and some day-to-day examples and all that. Would I follow it, no, I have never been a fan of Gandhi. But, it was nice to see a different prespective and a change in story narration.
This is the second movie where they are trying to get the people of India a message, a movie with not just sex and love but also a 'moral of the movie'. The striking thing was the use of radio as a means of reaching out to people in both the movies, the other movie being rang de basanti. FM has in a way takenover TV. But then, with the RJs in demand and a dirth of good ones, quality of the shows has come down significantly, and so has the language, with the aim of mass appeal and political appeal, a mix of english and local language usage which is quite jarring to hear at times is making radio not too appealing I feel. But, for now, we can re-write the song "Video killed the radio" to "FM is killing the video".
I hate crows!
My office parking is pretty sad. There is no sheltered parking, and what makes matters worse is this other small company in the same campus has spent a bit of money and got shelter for the employee's vehicles. It's just too alluring for us and I usually tend to park my bike there, I do care about my bke's color fading and even more about the fuel evapourating under direct sun. Yestarday the security guard turned me away from there with a very kind word to tell my company to provide shelter if I needed one.
And yes, you guessed it right, the stuppid crows had a field day practicing to shoot shit - on my bike. I almost had a heartattack seeing my bike last evening. Today as I was cleaning my bike, I was telling my mom, how I wished all the non-veg people started to eat crows instead of chicken and help us bikers...
And yes, you guessed it right, the stuppid crows had a field day practicing to shoot shit - on my bike. I almost had a heartattack seeing my bike last evening. Today as I was cleaning my bike, I was telling my mom, how I wished all the non-veg people started to eat crows instead of chicken and help us bikers...
Monday, September 11, 2006
fast track
Oflate I seem to be doing nothing much but still I am out of time to do anything. I love to read, to write, to sing, to play the violin, to pray, to make love, to meet my sweet heart, to get up early in the morning, to concentrate, to stay fit, to look good, to travel, to organise and a lot of other things. I just can't seem to find a heart to do anything. Today I make a resolution to take control of life and get it in order. This page will now on see how I am growing along with the usual thoughts on every day things that happen with me...
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