Good ol' days- Birthdays at MIT..

Reddy recently told a story about how Manipal guys instigate fear, no matter how refined they may seem. His story revolved around a colleague of his who was had his birthday on this day. He had heard a lot about the birthday bashing in Manipal. The only representative from our great institution was Bharath Reddy- someone you equate with a gentleman. However, this fellow's hands shivered with fear as he cut the cake. (and he had not yeen seen pics; that's Vikram on his birthday for u above..)

They say birthdays are to be remembered. Well at MIT, we made sure that they were. The BDay boy would remember his birthday for at least two days. A week if bats and wickets were to be found in vicinity at celebration time. Everytime he sat, stood up or did any other trivial task, the aching ass would remind him that his birthday had been celebrated recently.

So here goes on our BDay adventures in MIT:

The venue here is the spooky corridor of 10th block MIT hostel where the poor me is surprised by the sheer number of creatures hovering around my room. The inhabitants of Premier heights, 9th block ( K-Block??) & other far flung lands seem to have magically apparated to the largest hostel of Asia (well they claim it was at one time!!).

Even my pea size brain has adequate capacity to sense the danger. However, little can be done and the crowd surrounds me.

All of a sudden, the ground shifts from beneath my feet as a couple of hands nullify the effect of gravity and it starts raining kicks. The onslaught of the kicks is borne directly by the robust bottom. As more and more people charge ahead to take a shot, the hands holding me get carried away and rush to join the queue. Their feeble brains fail to comprehend that their hands abandoning me would mean victory to gravity. However, queer angles of the hands still holding the subject lead to generation of torque of gregarious magnitude. The subject does a credible topsy turvy turn and somehow manages to stay afloat. The crowd however is oblivious to this and continue with their onslaught. All the while, the vocabulary of abuses in enriched.

Part two depicts how easy it is to polarize Indians. The heinous cameraman Rohonesh Kar: having already enjoyed a sight lets out a war cry of 'Aur Maaro'. Soon the gullible population is repeating the words and phase two begins. At the end, the pain seems to have had some effects on the subject's brain and all he can do is smile to his well wishers. Yes, the same monstrous creatures turn well wishers in a matter of seconds!! The smile belies all the suffering and pain of the subject and he truly mesmerizes the audience by this act of bravery.

There is no mistaking the evil sniggering maniac: Dash. His cynical voice and the capricious demeanor catch your attention instantly. The maniacal skirmish raged with his chappal needs some explanation.

First: He is the 'Dash'

Second: Dash and I share a history of chappal wars.

Considering the number of people present for bashing, we have a tradition of including a couple of more subjects besides the Birthday mortal. This includes roomie, ex-roomie, class-mate, batch-mate, best-friend, branch-mate, etc. Thanks to this we are assured that the number of subjects available never dwindles.

On this fateful day, the search for the 'next' begins. Well since I happened to be a resident of a single room in 10th block, we could have gone as far as ex-crush's present crush's crush's crush if need be.

After little speculation, a more closer relevance is found and Praddy is tagged as the 'ex-roommate'. Despite his pleas to spare his back, there is no stopping the mighty Gogo. The ruthlessness of his legendry kicks mingles mysteriously with his ever amiable face.

Towards the end, I surreptitiously creep in shadows' cover and manage to capture Dash. And then.. ah... Sweet Revenge....

Linkin Park

LP. I've grown up with them- quite literally. Accessibility at school meant I was living in the heaven called 'In the end'. The magnetic tape (yes! I'm talking about those ancient times) holding this piece of art was used way beyond it's life prescribed in the instruction manual.

Then I entered this place where I was the village idiot for some time. The place was Manipal Institute of Technology and I was the gullible guy happy listening to Backstreet boys and Aqua- the only English music available in my school circle. Laugh to your heart's content, but I am still grateful to the hep girls at school who lent me some ingleees myujic tapes.

College and the specimens residing here ensured that the time lag between finding what's latest on the charts and hearing it was reduced to a couple of seconds.

This in turn meant that I could worship the creations like Somewhere I belong, My December, Crawling, Numb, Pushing me away. Whatever the playlist, all of them had to be there.

After a dry spell, Linkin Park came out with Minutes to Midnight. Some people; the head bangers in particular stated that Linkin Park had 'lost it'. However in my view, they had evolved to bring us something fresh. Bleed it out, Valentine's day, hands held high remain my favorites to date. 'What I've done' launched with the first Transformers movie is in a different league altogether.

Even as I write this, my speed doubles as the latest LP track creeps up on my playlist. Their effect has always been the same. Pure stimulating music which has adequate elements of techno and rock.

The latest releases have been through the Transformers franchise. (The one where that fellow Michael Bay spent some $200 million on special effects and making Megane Fox look hot; with investment in the story etc was something close to zero). Leave the silly story, the stupid dialogues; the Linkin Park music is truly amazing for the movie and adds a new dimension. First one had 'What I've done' and the latest 'New Divide' has got me hooked onto it fully. I can justify going to the movie just to hear Optimus Prime's sign off speech with the latest Linkin Park track playing in the background.

There is great depth in Peter Cullen's voice for Optimus Prime speaking about the future of the Autobots and the human race. I am thrown to such depths not by the words but the music in the background.

A better India a Better World

Ever since Thomas Friedman came out with 'The World is flat', Most of the books citing the words ‘India’ and ‘the World’ seem more or less the same. I tried reading Nandan Nilkani's book but after a couple of pages could not stand it anymore. I felt as if I was undertaking a revision course for Thomas Friedman's creations and his viewpoints.

When I heard NRN's book was coming out, I was curious. Investigations revealed that this one was not an autobiography but a collection of his speeches and public addresses. I do love peeping into minds of visionaries (so far people like Kalam, Iacocca, Akio Morita, Michael Dell and even Branson have thrilled me with their books) so this book fitted perfectly into my to 'read list'.

After seeing the environment in Infosys, I do not have any sort of liking for Mr. NRN. But then, when you've built a billion dollar corporation starting from scratch you can't expect to have completely done it the right way. Moreover, if you are in touch with any Infy fellow, you'll realize there's a lot of mismatch between Mr. Murthy's words in public and how he handles the internal affairs. For instance, one day I see an article in TOI where NRN criticizes late working hours and goes on saying how he relents employees' extra hours which mean inefficiency to him. The very same day I hear inside news where he has addressed a gathering and refuses to make changes so as to ease work load on employees. I am totally with the worked up employees on this. If some mission critical work brings me to office late hours, its fine with me. But if middle management's inefficiency escalates a trivial issue for an obscure assignment calls me to work day after day without proper recognition, it is natural that I consider such work derogatory.

Now on what all I do respect NRN for.

He has set an example for India in terms of entrepreneurship. Let’s be honest, I could barely spell the word as a kid before I heard of NRN.

He has created jobs and wealth for the nation. One of the largest employer in the league Indian railways and Indian Oil??!! A fact hard to dismiss.

There was a time when he set the example for fair rewards to the employees. Infosys was one of the first to introduce stock rewards to it's employees. At it's present size I don't know how effective this has been. That employee satisfaction figures are somehow lost now.

But I admire him most for his vision for our nation and being a fair critic at all times.

There are some points from his book that I want to share.

Discipline: First point: Accept! We Indians do need to accept that there is a great dearth of this amongst us. We get intimate and start asking for favors almost immediately. Coming late to a meeting is still considered a sign of importance. I agree with his proposals completely. Let a few functions start even though the VIP chief guest has not yet arrived. Let us get some work done the hard way boycotting officials who demand bribe.

In essence, we Indians are known to talk more and act less. We have to change that as well as our 'adjust to substandard' attitude. Such changes may need to look beyond our leaders at some times.

All his views revolve around the idea of benefit to all. One of his insight that truly left an impact on me was: 'When you run a business see that it is beneficial to your host nation'. A lot has been said to prove that this strategy in the long run is rewarding both for the nation as well as the business.

Interesting read, though not something you can't live without. Go read Kalam's books instead. Or better Sudha Murthy's.. The lady has a lot more experience than her husband thanks to the variety she has tasted in life. As a teacher, an entrepreneur and a social worker she has a lot of more interesting things to tell about our country, human nature, values and purpose of life.

Indijoes ahoy!

My, I seem to be in a mood for writing!!

Here goes on our adventures at Indijoe's.

Arun decided to have his b-day bash at Indijoe's. God bless him!! So we all (Varun , Rajath, Niveditha, me n of course Arun) sneak away from office surreptitiously and head to RMZ Infinity on the Old Madras road.. The place is pretty slick with all the biggies operating from here. I know Google, Ernst n Young, Reuters & Boeing having their offices here. The ground floor is an arena with the food court taking most of the place. There are also a few independent places: CCD as well as Indijoe's.

Thanks to the end moment planning, we reached here a bit later than 1pm. Not a good time considering the density of self-proclaimed geniuses (read finance wizzes, bankers and strategists) is pretty high around this time. We see the menu and Arun gives a go-ahead for the buffet. God bless Arun once again!! Though there are tables laid outside, we chose to sit inside. All of us were impressed by the place. Car plates, pics of great musicians of all times scattered across the wall, movie mementos, instruments and the wood build up a splendid environment. Well, the place could wait- I jumped out of my chair moments after I sat on it and headed south with a mission to grab a plate and as much food as it can hold thereafter. First round comprised of various kind of salads, soup and some fancy bread. Only the soup proved to be a waste of place on the plate (heck, I could have stuffed something else in that place in my first round). Second round of starters starred Pizza, more bread, veg cutlets and some fancy chicken stuff. Boy, I HAVE to go to the gym today! Third round of starters had the best of what I had in the previous two rounds.

Now the main course was a bit of a let down. There were just two varieties of rice and some noodles. Hello?? You think you can satisfy the stomachs of Indians?? Anyway, it fitted perfectly in my strategy: Having as little of main course as possible and concentrating on the more spectacular stuff which is always part of starters or dessert. I had some rice and noodles with the two gravies that were served.

Then came the dessert. They had run out of the pudding that we were eyeing greedily but they put Jamun to compensate for that. I had 5 of them in the two rounds that I made. Just to ensure Arun's money be prove to be well spent, I even had 4 pieces of the cake and cheesecake. Ok, I'll NEED to go for swimming after gym as well. Ice cream was more or less liquid but the kulfi was the grand finale.

The music is mainly of the 70s and 80's. The ones we could recognize were Abba, Daddy cool and Lambada. For 199+taxes (weekdays lunch), its definitely worth it.

Phew, finally I finish writing only to find more of "to do's" in my list.. So it's badminton, gym followed by swimming in the evening to condone my culinary adventures of yesterday..

Animation times return with: Ice Age 3

Running back from school, finishing up home work and studies, build the 'well earned entertainment feel' to finally switch on the TV and watch your favorite cartoon.. Yay!!

Sounds like the normal life of a 10 year old?? The shocking fact here is that I refer to the 17 year old me- a couple of years back. Besides a few movies, only animated series interested me even at that age. Swat cats, Ninja Robots, Dexter's lab and Johny Quest ruled over me. I knew that my mother's ever smiling face often belied her concerns. I got the feeling at times that she feared that my brain development had stalled much earlier. Ya ya, I hear you guys: I know some of you still believe that I still qualify as a case of an impaired brain but anyways, I won't mess with you mere mortals for now. With my dedication and seriousness with cartoons, I can't blame my parents for their line of thoughts.

But as time went, poor me drifted further and further away from this colorful world. I did enjoy watching Incredibles, Shark Tale and Monsters Inc. but that was about it. This year, I had only 'Monsters vs. Aliens' to my credit but boy, I really liked the President of US swinging to Deep Purple's 'Smoke on the Water'.

Cynical murdering maniacs and sci-fi stories excite me more than a [simple story+ humor]- which is the case with all animated movies these days. Possibly beacause of the variety of crowd they have to cater to. Hence I was pretty neutral about Ice Age-3 and never took the initiative to watch it on the big screen. Thanks to enthusiasm of my friends at work: Arun & Varun- a plan finally came up. Uncertainty loomed till the last moment. A nail biting finish to completing our respective tasks; me building my new binary and shooting it off to the developers' nemesis (read testing team); we raced towards the Innovative Multiplex: Arun, Rajath, Varun n me.

Ok have a hearty laugh: it was a bit weird with four guys in a office-ish attire scouting for the best seats amongst small kids and families. We did get the best seat (or so we thought) before the movie started.

When I see the female mammoth in the first scene I realize I haven't seen Ice Age 2!! Anyways simple story goes on with friendship, adventure and light humor being the main point amongst the mammoth, sabretooth and the Sloth. (Sorry no names, I just remember that the sloth was called Sid). Another reason why I fail to remember the main characters is the new character that comes in and asks the others to take a back seat.

Ladies and gentlemen, put your hands together for: Captain Buck...

This dude can easily belt Jack Sparrow and is surely the 'baap' of the penguins of Madagascar (Skipper and King Julien included). His face can contort more than Jim Carrey, his antics and attitude beat Johny Depp and he makes the jungle his playground in a manner that would put Brandon Frasier to shame.

What animal?? Um.. I think this rough sea talking fearless buccaneer is a weasel. Nice way of adding a sarcastic touch :) His only aim in life is to battle his longtime nemesis: Rudy. That he lovingly calls him Rudy should not make you undermine the monstrosity of this enemy. Rudy is actually the biggest T-Rex of the region creating havoc throughout.

As I said the story is pretty simple with the ending part with the birth of 'Peaches' reminds me of some horrifying Hindi movies. But in all, quite an experience.. Hats off Buck!! Your hunger for adventure and your epic battles surely impressed me mate.

Chronicles of a messaging slave: Part 1:: MS & Jugaad

Greetings Earthlings! Quite some time since I wrote the last review of the mailing servers. Treading on the path of discovery to the messaging world, a lot has happened to change my outlook. A lot of fiascos, a lot of “your silly code caused a crash at ***” and sometimes a rare success- making the journey quite an experience.

Though some things never change & I still consider Microsoft as the 'evil empire with a bunch of smart marketing professionals’.

As I look at it, Microsoft does make your life a lot easier by providing a lot of beautiful and apparently easy to use API's. It also guarantees a simple graphic interface for end users. But gradually I learnt that all that shiny stuff is also quite delicate and needs to be handled with care. Moreover, MS has gone far to provide a zillion features which it might not necessarily support everywhere. One classic example of a case that I came across:

Now, besides the bugs that we own, one of the biggest drawbacks of our product is that it is built on MFC. Where M stands for Microsoft. So we always live in the fear that the building blocks of our product: the Microsoft Foundation Classes may let us down even though we continue striving to make ourselves bug free (hell; who actually attains that hypothetical feat??).

The 'Read recipient' mail is commonly used in most enterprises. One of our modules screwed up this particular mail when we processed it with an aim make the world a better place (oops, sounds like my product tagline). After pulling the code inside out, banging my head at a couple of forums and eventually on my desk; I discovered that the CopyTo() call was failing. So the scenario can be described as: we are copying a MS mail using a MS function on a MS server. And it fails..

I must say I used to be a fan of the CopyTo() call. The extent to which it can be used is commendable. Use it anywhere for any object. But I guess it is natural that small problems arise when you try to make something too powerful attempting to make it handle innumerous objects of varying kind.

So bang, I know there's a problem with MS's CopyTo() call but what next? I could write my own function for the same operation but I know this will take quite some time. Also, there's no guarantee that I'll include all of CopyTo()'s features. Me being royally lazy does not help much either.

Option 2: I open a case with Microsoft so that they can start charging my business unit and augment their gazillion dollar pool. Nah..

So here comes Option 3. The powerful phenomenon that has helped India to attain spectacular heights. Corporations know the pros and cons of this when they move their businesses or processes to India. It's called 'Jugaad'. Since you may not find the definition in your Websters', allow me:

Jugaad may be defined as the star Indian management process revolving around 'managing' to do something without any resources broadly based on hit n trial. The name changes with regions and languages across India, but there is no denying this countrywide phenomenon. It may be 'adjust maadi', ‘jugaad lagao', 'try this, it just might work' in different dialects.

So not wanting to deprive my organization of this Indian technique (who knows, maybe they set up the development center in India with the sole purpose to capitilize this??), I got to work in these lines. Innumerous experiments and whacko concepts later, I decided to start excluding a couple of properties from the mail file before it comes to CopyTo(). One such property was PR_RTF_COMPRESSED. And hey presto: Problem solved!!!

PR_RTF_COMPRESSED: what it does? Effects of removing this flag?? As always, msdn does nothing more than describing little more than what a mammal with pea sized brain can guess from the name already. So some research later, we verify that we do not use this flag in any module and can live without it.

Some issues we have come across are thanks to time stamps in the microsoft messaging environment. Either the client or at times, the Exchange server itself messes with the time stamps making future tracking of messages almost impossible. The time stamps have always been the vital key to tracking of messages and any fault with this is bound to create havoc in your messaging infrastructure.

One instance was a changing PR_CLIENT_SUBMIT_TIME field particularly in the Exchange 2007 environment. We were absolutely certain that there were no 3rd party applications running, yet Exchange magically changes this field in the client mailbox. Now if you review this message again, finding a different time stamp your algorithm will definitely treat this as a distinct entity resulting in duplication. JK Rowling, in case you are reading this do ask Harry Potter to take a look at MS Exchange2003/2007 when he grows up.

The Majestic Volt: a brief affair with the Avenger

Vikram was leaving town for a week and he decided that our place with a dedicated parking would be the best place to leave his bike. Also, since his battery was new, would we start and run it periodically?? God bless him!! He called me up and I headed the very next day to pick up the 'Volt'- as he fondly calls his Avenger.

I have many wonderful memories circling around Avenger as well as the Eliminator. Back in school a friend bought the 180 cc Eliminator and he surely managed to graduate to become a chick magnet. Hence, you may imagine the kind of admiration and envy that bike managed to grab. Fast track to college days- when the gang went to Goa. Gogo and I hired Eliminators/ Avengers. Eventually, Gaurav finally bought the bike when he started earning while I went ahead and bought a bike which carries the same engine. The time we had in Goa: the sun, the place, the people and the bikes is perfectly imbibed in our memories. The next time I went to Goa with my family, I hired an Avenger yet again and my cousin & I cruised all of the Goa state in one day!! (160 Kms- touching Maharashtra and getting back to south Goa again).

Thanks to Gogo, I have also driven his Avenger through some picturesque roads.

The two Avengers of our fleet:

Now sitting on Vikram's 'Volt' those memories surfaced again. The relaxed ride posture, legs resting on the distant pedals- just puts you in a different world. I had a comfortable ride home. A couple of days later, I took it to office for the usual 'show-off'. Vikram has put up a mammoth windscreen and it surely makes it a head turner. My friends at work were visibly impressed.

So having had quite a driving experience on the Avenger, I can't help pointing out some facts about this monster. Monster?? Well that's what it is! Try parking it at trying places or wading through narrow gullies and you’ll know. It can make some of us (particularly Gogo) look like a Columbian drug lord. Good thing to keep the trivia on the road away from you. Yes, it does intimidate a few on the road and they won't want to mess with a rider loaded with attitude on an Avenger/ Eliminator. It's been a long time since I have left 0-60 figures, I look for the purpose and the bigger picture. Yet, the acceleration is superb. Anyway, acceleration and top speed come later. What this bike is meant for is comfort. You can just sit and ride forever. Having clocked a lot of miles on my Pulsar 200, this is the first thing to hit me. Arms stretched out, legs relaxing comfortably, the superb soft suspension and the trunk size rear tire- all build up this incomparable driving experience. This is also undoubtedly the most comfortable bike for a pillion.

The motor is directly taken from the Pulsar-200 and it does a magnificent job. However the top gear (which happens to be inadequate for the pulsar 200 itself) does not suit the tire with smaller circumference. The engine peaks at around 90. It provides quite a sight when you are following it. I love following Gogo's bike. You can see the suspension working in a rhythm; the spring folding up and unfolding gradually as they eat up the potholes on the road. Other bikes have their suspension responding as a 'thud' to absorb the shock.

The chassis of this bike though letting you sit like a king poses a lot of problems at the same time. The noise-vibration level of the Eliminator was known to be quite high. The bike used to age pretty soon developing a number of squeaks and rattles at various places. When they got out the Avenger, they put the new engine on the same frame bothering only to tighten a few screws here and there. Avenger was a big improvement over the Eliminator no doubt, but it more or less failed to address the major shortcomings of its predecessor. The result is: though the Avenger is a lot more refined than the Eliminator thanks to the new heart, it still is a high maintenance vehicle. No the engine is superb, no need to bother about that. But one has a tough time fixing the mysterious noises and vibrations that eventually come up. The 200cc power plant is fairly reliable and packs a lot of punch. The transmission is pathetic. Will Bajaj ever learn? It's been 7 years!! The first cog of this kind was put on the Pulsar 180. To date, all the subsequent versions come with the same set of problems. False neutrals and slipping gears- they should mention it in the brochure. The motor is prone to the environment and needs regular servicing and cleaning of spark plugs. Unfortunately, I couldn't allow the local mechanic to touch the Volt's sparks as it is still under the company maintenance program.

Comparing it with the Pulsar 200? Both are built for a different purpose. The Pulsar is bred to be a maniacal street machine whereas Eliminator/Avenger are the mature classy kind with lots of chrome. Riding in the city, nothing better than the pulsar 200 but again nothing more God-like than the cruiser on the highway. If you have a pillion, an Avenger can win you a heart but the Pulsar will invite hell lot of criticism. Maneuverability of the Pulsar and the thrill while accelerating on a single ride is something Avenger can't match but it makes up for it on longer drives. Fully loaded, the bikes perform equally but single ride is a different story with the P-200 leading the way.

In one sentence:

Riding the pulsar is like riding a wild mustang .

Riding the Avenger feels like heading for war in a regal chariot.

I bid goodbye to the Volt yesterday when Vikram came to pick it up. I miss it? Definitely! I was considering pushing Vikram off the balcony!!

Bheemeswari: the fishy fishing camp..

As always, the biggest challenge for making the road trip was getting the final count. People came in and pulled out. This went on and on till late Friday night. But when the numbers finally came in, I have to admit that I was astonished. We added up to 7. Now, this might not be much but for our small group - this was the biggest number in the history of road trips!

So at 6:40am, everyone was outside NGV- our rendezvous point. For a 6 am target and the variables 7 people bring in, a delay of 40 minutes was decent and fairly acceptable. The majnoo Red Avenger, the Black Pulsar 200 and the blue Pulsar 200 waited at the NGV gate. A tiny dot in the rear view mirror and the distinct 'thump' nearing meant that we should start our engines. The Thunderbird had refueled and arrived!

Oh yes, there were people too- SidC and Kundan on the Royal Thunder, Gaurav and Anjlin on the Avenger, Rohonesh and I on the blue P-200 and Praddy keeping all the power to himself on the black P-200.

We took the Kanakapura road and having started early, we were outside Bangalore in no time at all. After the NICE road underpass the Kanakapura road transforms into a speed-way. You can easily cruise at 80 KMPh without compromising on safety. The skies did not look very friendly from the moment we had started from Bangalore. However the clouds were very kind to us: for not sending down showers and for providing a beautiful cover. The lush greenery thanks to the previous showers and little sun made a spectacular view throughout the way. You also pass a couple of lakes called 'Tank bunds' on the way. We stopped at one to take a couple of pictures. Actually most stops were made by Praddy and Gogo. Such stops were necessitated to allow the rest of us to catch up with the speeding maniacs. It had rained just before we had hit this highway. The wet tarmac slowed the mere mortals -read SidC and me. However, these Earthly matters were of no significance to Gogo- who was leading the way. Hence we continued speeding between 80 and 3 digit speeds. Speeding on the wet roads, Rohonesh realized that a wiper installed on his spectacles would not be such a bad idea. As Kanakapura approached, we saw a couple of places to eat. We decided to have our breakfast in a proper place in Kanakpura. All our hopes were shattered when we entered the town. Seeing the state of the place it was silly to expect a good restaurant here. And so it was- in spite of lots of searching we crossed the town eventually with disappointed stomachs and Gogo at the on the brink of (Gogo needs his daily dose of morning tea; any scenario pertaining to gogo dissatisfied is potentially dangerous). Gogo- being the only Kannada speaking fellow amongst us did most of the talking to find us a superb route. The rest of us were of little help for directions. At one instance, Praddy managed to confidently bypass the security, a couple of monstrous buses and a chaotic crowd to find himself inside the Kanakpura bus station. We finally decided to stop a couple of KM's outside

Kanakapura at a small tea stall. A heads up for travelers on this route: The only eating places you will find are on the 10km stretch just before Kanakapura. This is your last chance to grab a bite.

After a couple of queries, we took a left turn from the NH. Now we were approaching rugged terrain. The population density was minimal and the road was in a bad state on a few stretches. Still the speeds stayed above 50 and we reached the Cuavery fishing camp in 30-40 minutes. We stopped a couple of times to take pictures of the clouds eating up the hills. Our star photographer Kundan was at his best.

Upon reaching, confidence, illogical reasoning and stupidity struck us.

I'll explain that in detail..

Confidence: I was confident that we'd be able to indulge in some activities at the camp. We did not book since we did not have an affirmative headcount till 11pm last night. However my confidence was coupled with stupidity. Stupidity of not finding out places to book. I had assumed that they will entertain an entry after some arrangements on the spot. This is where illogical reasoning comes in. The Fishing camp registers bookings only at Bangalore or Kanakapura. I have to say- this kind of arrangement is difficult to dream of.

Not to be deterred, we decided to scout the banks on out own. One of the lovely spots was taken over by monkeys and as we reached the other one, we found a couple of humans with monkey-like behavior. I say so coz a bunch of guys were washing their bikes inside the Cuavery waters. Ok, that doesn't sound too bad but their actions were highly comical. There were repeated instances of their washed bike falling into the muddy area making all their previous efforts insignificant. Their semi drowned vehicles took ages to start and I don't want to think of the damage those fools must have got to the engines.

Now that we were here, we decided we should something more than photography. We saw a couple of coracles (those small circular boats) on the shore and decided to take a ride in the river. It was a shock for us when the boatman invited all 7 of us on a single tiny boat. We had assumed that we would be taking 2-3 of those things. After losing the debate with the boatman, we started stepping in. When Gogo got in, he announced that he had discovered a leak. It was quite a sight- the water entering in the form of a beautiful fountain. We soon found out that similar leaks were present in decent numbers in our boat. Though the boat rocked each time one of us

hopped in, the boat man skillfully got us in and took us into the river. The river was calm though we could hear the fury of the rapids at some distance. I am told that there are only level 2 rapids here. Having conquered the level 4 at Rishikesh, I was not very keen on rafting. You may point out the grapes are sour story but that's the way it was. In around 10 minutes, the water inside our boat was a couple of centimeters deep and everybody was wet in no time. No attempts were made to save the precious bottoms as any movement was sure to capsize the boat. We also got a merry-go-round move in between. By the time we got out, the water was at least half a foot deep in the boat.

We started and made fewer stops on our way back. The climb was treacherous in the ghats but the bikes managed pretty well. We stopped at a few places in search of food after Kanakapura. At one place we were asked to select from either chicken or rice. Since we had a breakfast mind at this time, we left this place. Convinced that we wouldn't be able to get anything on the way, we decided that it'd be best our stomachs wait till we reach Bangalore. The bikes were pushed almost continuously without a break for the rest of the journey. The only event was the invisible speed breaker that propped out of nowhere. The height that I achieved from that jump was around half a feet and I am sure Rohonesh made a jump of one and half foot from the back seat. Today, I think he values his life more and is looking into the purpose and all. Later we discovered everyone had had the same experience. We finally stopped at the Shanti Sagar near Metro.

When I look back, we had a chance to be close to nature, admire it's beauty, experience serenity far away from the maddening crowd, got jacked at the camp, a boat ride which got us philosophical (it happens when you have near drowning experience) and had a superb drive! So enjoyed every bit of it thoroughly and as always: am raring for more.

Salvation of the terminator series

Yes, this one has managed to save the Terminator series. Terminator: Rise of the machines can be called a criminal act for obliterating the class created by the predecessors.

T-2 was one of the first English movies I got my hands on. I remember those primitive times when we got a VHS of this movie from someone abroad and saw it on the VCR. It is true that it was a quantum leap with my previous sci-fi viewing limited to the TV series Street Hawk. I can never forget the impact T-2 had on me. God bless Star movies for helping me revise it periodically as I grew up. Even today I consider it as one of the most brilliant movies of all times and will be glued if I catch it on TV.

Salvation restores the glory and brings the story back on track again. I had witnessed a lot of hue and cry on the net claiming that the story was trash, no dialogues, but I knew I can't live without seeing this movie. I agree with the critics on most of it- There are more of nods, signs than dialogues. They could have done without some of the Terminator clichés. I mean- lava, freezing robots, "I'll be back"- it's not that you HAVE to use these signatures be part of the 'Terminator' series. You are insulting the original every time you do this. Despite all the negative remarks, I found the story very interesting. Considering the mess they had made with T-3, this is the best way they could have taken it further. Though certain questions are still left unanswered and there is room for a sequel. Honestly, I feel that I need to see the entire series again as my tiny miny brain is still unclear about the past and future interactions and to understand fully as to why all emphasis is given to the 'future' of the human race.

John Connor is substance. Not some kiddo or a lost stupid dude (offense meant to Rise of machines).

My friend- Bugga commented that this movie should've come ages ago. When you think about it, you'll find that so very true. Terminator is what created the cult- Human vs. Machine concept. The first two installments create a world on the screen that not many can think of even today.

However, in between a new phenomenon came and took this idea forward. It was called 'The Matrix'. It stole the following that was rightfully Terminator's. Don't give me those glares. I- just like all of you am an ardent fan of the Matrix but facts are facts. The saboteur called Terminator 3- ROM was not of any help at this time. Terminator built up the idea of the machines ruling humans but failed to capitalize it further in the late 90's.

To sum it up, the story is decent and there are some bugging clichés and illogical twists. But what makes this movie a superb package are the action sequences and the graphics. CG guys- hats off.. It starts right from the beginning with John Connor in the cockpit of the crashing helicopter. Makes you wonder what amount of work went into that.

All the action with Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington) is remarkable. Worthington has done a superb job and you'll come to question if Christian Bale as John Connor is actually the lead. I am glad that he has proven that big movies can survive without a Jupiter sized star cast.

Lastly, what turned out to be a big thing in winning my respect was the music. It's been almost 20 years! Still the Terminator theme makes me jump out of my seat and in an esoteric manner pushes up my adrenaline levels. Somehow, it brings the words- future, war, purpose and karma to my mind. All it has is a few beats. You could count the number of instruments used for composition on the fingers of your hand. But still; nothing beats it!

If you want to see this movie, I urge you to strictly stick to the theater. Let the effects blow you away.

The State of the Uttar State

I was looking forward to my 'well earned' vacation. All those assignments that crept into the nights forming intimidating nightmares; the last few days when I dreaded losing my work days as a part of my vacation. Despite all this, I did manage to meet my targets. I wouldn't say I was a key performer or pushed my business to new heights, but at least I was all fine on the book.

My first day at home was full of fun catching up with family and the usual banter that is a trademark of all our meetings. Kindly note that I use the word 'day'. Rightfully so because the evening was a nightmare. Well my home town is a place called 'Ghaziabad'. I was born in this city of U.P. which was at one time considered to be the ‘industrial hub’. The place is now popular for all the wrong reasons and I wouldn't start pointing out the ridiculous queries I get from people once they hear the name. Having spent quite some time working in Bangalore, the weather has done it’s wonders and my tolerance levels have taken a blow.

Stepping out of the aircraft at the Delhi airport, the first one to greet me were the 40 degree C winds. This range of temperature is usual around this time of the year in these regions.

I’ll skip the family events of the day and get to the evening. After a series of power cuts already executed, the electricity board decided to deprive us of power for a period of 4 hours starting right at our sleeping time. I must say I am one of the most fortunate souls of the town as my home is pretty well equipped to handle the power cuts as well as brown out scenarios. Brown out is the yankee term for a low voltage input. The normal operating voltage is supposed to be 220V but here the routine supply is rarely over 180V. However at more opportune moments- such as sleeping time, the voltage conveniently drops to sub 100V levels making it impossible for anything to be operational. In the States, I have heard of stories where individuals or corporations sue the public utilities company for brown out claiming that a mere 5% deviation from the standard operating voltage burns out their motors and other equipment. What a joke! If you big corporations are reading this, I can assure you that we Indians- particularly residents of UP have testing going on for your produce in the most extreme conditions. So if you ever plan for a feedback on extreme requirements, a test scenario to execute, you know where to look.

As I said, being one of the fortunate few- we have upgraded to a state of the art lighting system with advanced circuitry that makes sure there is some light as long as there is some power. We have two set of Inverters ( a battery based power back up unit) and all rooms have a air conditioning unit. All this- thanks to some really hard work by my parents. I feel sorry for my parents because being honest citizens and tax payers throughout their lives, they have been cheated.

One thing I’d like to point out for the day is that never once did anyone amongst us get a sip of cool water. Expecting chilled water amidst power cuts is a silly thing, that’s why I say cool. That we have one of the premium refrigerator brand to flaunt is of no help here. After all, the advertisement says it makes ice in a record time but as far as I remember, I can’t recall the smiling lady in the ad facing any shortage of electricity.

I’ll go live now- At night, with our home totally full with family from all over the world we were running 4 fans and 3 air conditioning units. Our oldest AC unit (Carrier: they call themselves world # 1 in air conditioning- ha ha) has already succumbed to the Electricity company’s atrocities and has broken down. A consistent burning smell meant that we could not use it any more. 2 Air-con units are split units which do not work at low voltages. This meant that we have just 2 window air con units left to serve us tonight- IF the voltage stays above 150V (even the voltage regulators attached to all units have an operational limit). The torture levels are elevated gradually to higher thresholds. The voltage dips further and further. The AC compressors switch off making the cooling unit capable of throwing only a blast of hot air. I can see the fan overhead decelerating until it reaches a speed where it takes 5 seconds to complete a revolution (yes I had nothing else to do- My laptop battery has died sometime back, the light was inadequate to read and the heat was not letting me sleep). After two hours, the fan speed increased to normal levels!! My groggy head slowly processes this new development and concludes that actually the power has gone again and now that the inverter is automatically online to supply the fan at normal levels. Being an opportunist, I fall asleep immediately. Where else in the world do you get so happy when there’s a power cut??

I am woken up again by a beeping sound. A look at the watch confirms that only a few hours have passed since I slept. I get up and run to the inverter which is screaming to announce its ‘discharge’ state. I switch the inverter one off and put our inverter two online to sustain us for the rest of the night. I fall asleep again.

After a while I see myself falling into a volcano. I am falling and falling for quite some time. The boiling lava below beckons me. I shudder and wake up. It was a nightmare! Back in the real world, I check the fan. The power supply is back and the fan is whirring slowly thanks to the low voltage levels.

This cycle repeats every few hours and you can very well imagine how much sleep I got on my "vacation".

The previous government had sanctioned setting up of a power plant citing the pathetic state then (which has worsened further now). The next government scrapped the project citing nepotism displayed by the previous government in favor of the private sector player who was supposed to set it up. Let me be clear that I am NOT in any way favoring or expressing gratitude to the previous government. If I were to look at the papers, I will find scores of projects in 'sanctioned' or 'under progress' state. But the harsh reality is that nothing has happened in the last 20 years. The two parties- alternating power are too busy cancelling the former’s plans and making their own new agendas. Not that any of their initiatives have been bright enough. The latest I heard was the proposal stating abolition of computers and tractors to tackle unemployment. This I found in one of the party manifestos in the recent elections. So we see that we have people who are striving for inefficiency. Since the top brass is involved, I wonder who the people have to look up as role models for development.

Will our voice be heard? I am not sure. Our madam Chief Minister is too busy establishing and inaugurating statues of her own self. But I am sure of this-Whenever a society reaches the pinnacle of decadence, there is one thing that is almost certain to happen:

A Revolution.

I don't know what shape it might take. Will there be a bloodbath? Will there be a peaceful scenario where people will come together, cleanse the system and restore a real democracy- with power actually to the people?

With all the industries and businesses moving out and the state facing a serious brain-drain, the day is not very far. We have a system where it is actually a reward for our politicians to keep the literacy levels low and sabotage the population control programs to create a vote bank: a pool that can be easily lured by a couple of cheap political stunts, antics, caste and religion. Mark my words- when things deteriorate further, people will get the bigger picture. When the people of my country wake up- God save the political scum..

Suzuki Alto

The Suzuki Alto- poor thing, nobody ever cares to write a review for this tiny tot. Well here goes. I don’t very much relish Maruti. I am contradicting majority of the population here but I still stick to the point that they charge a bit more than their cars’ worth. I do respect Suzuki for it’s fairly consistent engines and the way they listen to the customer. Honda acts corporate snobbish, Fiat is indifferent and Skoda seldom lives upto expectations when it comes to interaction with customers. On the other hand, buying even the tiniest possible car from Maruti, you can be assured that you will be treated like a king in a way that comes nowhere close to the experience of buying a ten fold expensive car from any of the above mentioned giants.

So lets look at the specs to get the broad picture of the Alto. One of the cheapest set of 4-wheels available in the country, smart plain looks and a 800cc 3-cylender engine. Unfair to expect some rubber burning power from the li’l 800cc baby but what bugs me is the 3- cylinder layout. Of course an engine that small doesn’t need anything more than 3 but this becomes apparent (rather screams to your attention) when you are shifting gears. The jerk is quite evident whenever you shift and release the clutch- no matter how skillfully you try to do this. In a way, it makes you cognizant of the need for the 4^th cylinder. The power band is quite flat with reasonably good power from the 800cc engine. High revving is a strict no-no. Do that on a long drive and you can note the damage caused to the engine. The tires are appropriately sized and provide adequate grip and braking. In the city, the package is marvelous and I’d highly recommend this as an economical means of transport in the city. However, when we get to the highway, things start getting tough. With the AC on, it is quite a gregarious task getting it to touch 3 digit speeds (Wow, it makes my Pulsar 200 sound so much better!!). I particularly enjoy the ‘Fast and Furious’ moment. Remember when Vin Diesel presses that red button the time Paul Walker overtakes him. It sends NOS fuel into the engine and the car shoots forward spectacularly. Tone this scene down a bit and you can get that feel in the Alto. The difference is that here, my Turbo/NOS/Acceleration button is the little button that switches the Air-Con off. While overtaking on highways, this becomes quite a necessity and requires some practice and skill to master the process. Before I can find another path to mock this cute little car, let me formally announce that the AC is amazing. You might not find this kind of cooling in all cars available in this (as well as ++ price) range.

When I had used the word economical- I meant in terms of maintenance and cost of spares. Don’t be misled by Maruti’s ad- campaign of the ‘most fuel efficient car’. I have heard many a boastful people stating how the manage to squeeze out so many kilometers from a drop of fuel but if you have the resources to scientifically verify the facts, you can easily prove them wrong. I took my mom’s Alto for a 500 Km drive on a varying terrain with most of the driving on the highway with the AC on. The mileage came out to be 12.2 Kmpl. Even city driving posts similar figures.

To sum it all- a superb package with almost enough of everything. Owning a Maruti and being backed by the largest service network boosts your confidence like nothing else. The downside is the Maruti rattling once you drive it harshly and on bumpy roads. The motor is quite good if you make a habit not to push it too hard.