Mile sur mera tumhara

Quite some time back, somebody in our office happened to circulate a video compiled by the grads at MIT which was an acknowledgement to the really patriotic song/video compiled in 1988 on the occasion of the Indian Independence by Prasar Bharathi, the erstwhile Doordarshan.

I happened to be listening to some of the video songs that I have, and came across this once again. And then I stumbled upon this one.

Frankly speaking, I was feeling such a rush of patriotism coursing through my veins, when I realized that I didn't know about the origins of this wonderful song. Thanks to google and wiki, I was able to get this bit of info as well. Mile Sur Mera Tumhara

Sadly, the last few lines in the first para are so true today:

Even today, this video brings nostalgia to the young and middle aged Indian
public, who have grown up listening to it. With the advent of cable TV, and
numerous channels, Doordarshan channel gradually lost large part of its
viewership, and the video gradually faded into oblivion, no longer to be
broadcast.

Which is a pity because it is such a great video. In just about 5-6 minutes, it gave you a glimpse of India and the vast cultural diversity we have inherited. The video was one of the best ways of depicting the Unity in Diversity.

Another such video was where they showed the Asian Games torch being passed around a lot of people. P T Usha was running for a while. There was Sunil Gavaskar and Prakash Padukone too. And many other sportsmen. It was such a heartening video.

And its all gone now. Nobody shows it on Doordarshan anymore; for that matter nobody even sees that channel now. We are too busy making money out of mindless soaps and their even-more-mindless sponsors backing losers who think they are without equal.

Every Indian should hear this rendition, and should definitely not miss the last minute of the song, where the song smoothly transitions into a heart-rending rendition of the Indian National Anthem.

Only two other "songs" have ever evoked such patriotic feelings in me. One without doubt is our National Anthem, while the other is A.R.Rahman's fiery rendition of the Vande Mataram.

Damn, I'm having goosebumps that just won't go!

In case you'd like to have a look at the videos, here they are, from our friendly neighbourhood YouTube!
Mile Sur Mera Tumhara
A.R.Rahman's rendition of Vande Mataram

Its official - It hurts when you're rammed!

In case you've ever wondered what it feels like if you are riding your bike at 60kmph and you ram into the back side of a truck, I have the answer. Yep, I personally tested it.

Here are the results:
1) It hurts. Royally.
2) It feels like you've been slammed by a slab of granite. BAM!
3) You'd be lucky if you get away with a few - make that quite-a-few - skin abrasions. Oh, and these hurt like mad when they apply tincture iodine on that.
4) You'd be lucky if you get away with a hair-line fracture or two and not some of the other worse conditions.

That is, if you're just plain lucky. It may cost you upwards of 15000 rupees to fix your bike who helped you in this endeavor.

Oh, and lest I forget to say this: DON'T try this in or near your home.

Going Up!

Almost a ladder... very nice pattern.

Beauty and Boys

Since when did boys start wanting to look "Beautiful" ... Check it out!

Dilbert

Dilbert comic strips make for some really fascinating readings, esp how Scott Adams portrays that happens in the office in oh-my-god-where-did-he-get-this-brainwave ways.

Like these:

But sometimes, it is either too subtle, or too obtuse, that I am unable to relate to what's being said.

Like this one:

Anyhoo... it was while laughing my head off on some of these Dilbert strips that I noticed:

• That Dilbert - and Dogbert for that matter - doesn't have a mouth
• That Dilbert's tie is always pointing upwards.
• That there is no mention whatsoever of which company Dilbert works for.

Interesting eh?

Live life

Orkut's Fortune for today!

You and your wife will be happy in your life together.

I only wonder - When is that going to happen!?

Till then -

Pics

Some pics that I took with my HP Photosmart R607 camera, and modified a teeny weeny bit with GIMP and NeatImage

Wierdnesses

Dont know whether this is only with me and on my comp or what - but here goes. Some wierd behaviour I've been observing in some stuff that I use regularly.

====================
Orkut Wierdness

What's up with Orkut not allowing to upload more than 12 snaps in your album?

Wierd - Big Time!

Oh and one more thing - I noticed that if you delete a pic from your orkut album, and add a new one, the new one will initially be displayed as the older one that you just deleted. You need to press Shift and click the Refresh button on your Web-Browser to properly display the new pic.

Wierd - Even Bigger Time!

====================
Internet Explorer Wierdness

Using Internet Explorer in my laptop, I am unable to perform any actions in blogger and its associated blog sites. Like posting comments - nothing ever seems to happen. And all the time, I am just dumbly staring at the window, and hoping that something will.

This is forcing me to use FireFox. Not that I am complaining though.

====================
FireFox Wierdness

While we're on the topic of FireFox as a web-browser, I've noticed that it begins consuming humongous amounts of memory once you open a lot of tabs. I've personally seen the memory consumption cross 800MB. And that, going by the 2GB RAM system that I have, is saying something.

====================
Nokia Wierdness

Dunno why, but Nokia almost always designs mobile phones that miss out on one or the other feature. If it has BlueTooth, it wont have mp3 playback capability. If it has mp3 playback capability, it will be awfully low on onboard memory. I mean, I can understand that Nokia wants its consumers to keep buying newer cellphones once every 2 years, but then, why dont they just keep pushing the envelope of features in their phones.

====================

OK, that's a wrap on wierdnesses noticed - for now.

Till next, Cheerios!

Status Update

Ms -> Mrs

Heartburn!

Internet Domains!! :(

Learnings from this task-master called LIFE

Life is a bull mentioned these amazing learnings of Life in this post of his: Presley with Oprah.

Simply put, these are so amazingly true, and they are so amazing in their matter-of-factness that I am at a total loss of words to provide proper adjectives to describe what I feel about these.

So, here goes (Note: I have made minor additions to the original text, to lend more punch):

1. Making mistakes and falling down is something that happens to everyone in life be it a common man or a celebrity. – Life is fair more than a bitch!

2. Money, power, and celebrity-hood does much more damage than good – It is not a bubble world.

3. The heart, mind and soul mature through experiences in life. – This is organic growth and they call this graduation.

4. Bottom line - people are the same and they feel the same irrespective of whether they are a prince or a pauper. - There is water in every cactus.

5. Did someone say life is a bed of roses? No! We all find ways to heal our hurt and move on in life. – Be the Phoenix bird.

6. Play the game of life with grace and confidence - No one wins nor loses! Neither do people finish ahead of you. - Shit happens all the time, and to the best of us, so be sportive, just get up, brush off the dust and march on. We are all here to learn.

How True, How True!

Of Dhoom-2, Royal-Enfield-Gangs and what-not?!

I happened to have the "luck" of watching Dhoom-2, along with 2 other colleagues, one of them who doesn't understand one word of Hindi. Well, what's to say.. the movie is definitely not worth 190 bucks content wise. But hey, when were most Hindi mainstream movies known for their paisa-vasool capabilities. I give you this, this movie is very very very watchable - or should I put it as "ogle"able - for the cast. If you're male, Madame Bips is very very soothing to dried eyes like those of Yours Truly's. And of course, if you're female, I believe Hrithik, in all his open-shirt glory, will be very very eye-soothing.

I read somewhere that Hrithik (I believe that was a review in rediff.com), in this movie, had - and I quote here - jaw-dropping-abs. I know which part of the movie they're referring ... but I suppose we Indians don't properly know what exactly is "jaw-dropping". I believe this guy takes that honor. HANDS-DOWN!

In the entire movie, I probably enjoyed only 2 scenes. One was the song - Touch Me - where Bips absolutely and literally sizzles in a gorgeous Red, and the other - okay, these are to be qualified as "others" - everywhere Uday Chopra acted like a goof. Somehow I was totally able to connect a bungling goofy fellow who is unlucky enough to get himself into the crappiest situations, yet is very good at heart.

I dont think I am ever going to get this song "Touch Me" outta my mind. What an amazing song!! There's something about Alisha Chinai's voice in that song which attracts me like magnet!

Overall, I re-iterate, the movie is NOT worth watching for its content. Is it just me, or is there absolutely no quality in current generation Hindi movies? Somehow, I feel, even if English movies are also on the same "un-believable" level, I able to relate to English movies much much better than current-gen Hindi or Thamizh movies.

========

I've been part of this Royal-Enfield gang in Orkut called the 'Royal Knights'. It is a very nice gang, with a lot of like-minded guys (and very few gals - yes, there are gals in it who actually ride heavy bikes like the Royal-Enfield). I've been with the gang for about 2 rides, and definitely plan on doing many more rides with them. We had a gang meeting yesterday at a place called Road-Trips. Boy, what a meetup it was. Everybody was very friendly, and I believe, on the same mental wavelength. Happened to make 2 new friends there yesterday. We're planning to go for some long rides (to places like Wayanad which is about 250kms from Bangalore). Believe me, going as a gang, with about 20+ Royal-Enfields roaring along the highways needs to be experienced. Words simply dont do the experience ANY justice, whatsoever.

========

While we are on the topic of Royal-Enfields, I noticed that some of the fellows in the 'Royal Knights' gang had modified the silencers of their Enfields to some that make an AMAZING THUMPING SOUND. I mean, they ARE LOUD! As in, you kick-start your Enfield, and the entire road WILL KNOW that there is an Enfield in the neighbourhood.

They aren't loud as in noisy-loud, but thumping-loud. And boy, what an attitude man! Simple droolable.

Me, I'm just waiting for 1 year to complete for my bike. That's when I'll start with the bike mods.

FIRST PRIORITY - Install a better horn. I get the feeling that fellows on the highways are barely able to hear the sound of the existing horn on my Thunderbird (who, by the way, I call endearingly as 'Eleanor').

========

I need to buy an mp3 player A-S-A-P. Simple cardio sessions in the gym seem to be more tough than before. Am hoping to be able to buy this one shortly, mostly by tomorrow.

Of course, my bigger dream is to get one of these. That one above is just a stop-gap arrangement. I haven't told my father though, about the intention to buy another one shortly. I'm pretty sure he'll go ballistic.

========

This song too is very nice: The Marascia Remixed version of 'Let the Music Play' by Shamur.

========

Oh, and about that guy who came along to watch Dhoom-2 who didn't know one bit of Hindi: while I had agreed to do some translation of what was happening on-screen, or atleast tell him when he was supposed to laugh at a joke on-screen, since I was engrossed watching Bips, I can't quite remember whether I did tranlate anything for him. Poor chap, my colleague has vowed to get a Thamizh version of Dhoom-2 and watch the entire movie once again, just to understand what transpired.

========

Oki folks, that's a wrap. Rest in next, till then, take care, and take it easy!