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.

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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!

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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').

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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.

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

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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.

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

Interesting Question

If a woman with Androphobia & male with Caligynephobia are married, will it then lead to a successful marriage?

Sixth Sense ???

A father put his three-year-old daughter to bed, told her a story and listened to her prayers which she ended by saying "God bless Mommy, God bless daddy, God bless grandma and good-bye grandpa."
The father asked, "Why did you say good-bye grandpa?" The little girl said, "I don't know daddy, it just seemed like the thing to do."
The next day grandpa died.

The father thought it was a strange coincidence. A few months later the father put the girl to bed and listened to her prayers, which went like this: "God bless Mommy, God Bless daddy and good-bye grandma."
The next day the grandmother died.

Oh my God, thought the father, this kid is in contact with the other side.

Several weeks later when the girl was going to bed the dad heard her say, "God bless Mommy and good-bye daddy."
He practically went into shock. He couldn't sleep all night and got up at the crack of dawn to go to his office. He was nervous as a cat all day, had lunch sent in and watched the clock. He figured if he could get by until midnight he would be okay. He felt safe in the office, so instead of going home at the end of the day he stayed there, drinking coffee, looking at his watch and jumping at every sound.

Finally midnight arrived, he breathed a sigh of relief and went home. When he got home his wife said, "I've never seen you work so late, what's the matter?"

He said, "I don't want to talk about it, I've just spent the worst day of my life."

She said "You think you had a bad day, you'll never believe what happened to me. This morning our neighbor James dropped dead on our Porch."

LIFE!

Sanjay, a rich guy, loved fast cars and he did have a few in his possession.

He loved to speed and could not be bothered about breaking speed limits. Many a times he was caught by the cops and speed radars, fined, but still he never bothered until. One day as he was driving at a very high speed as usual, he saw a cop following him. The cop overtook him finally and asked him to stop and checked his license. He then took out his pad and started Writing, and then handed over the sheet of paper to Sanjay.

How much was this one going to cost?!!!

Wait a minute.

What was this????

Some kind of joke? Certainly not a ticket.

Sanjay began to read:

"Dear Sanjay,

Once upon a time I had a lovely daughter. She was six when killed by a car. You guessed it - a speeding driver's car. A fine and three months in jail, and the man was free. Free to hug his three daughters.

I only had one, and I'm going to have to wait until Heaven, before I can ever hug her again. A thousand times I've tried to forgive that man. A thousand times I thought I had. Maybe I did, but I need to do it again. Even now. Pray for me.. And be careful, Sanjay, my son is all I have left."

Sanjay turned around in time to see the cop's car pull away and head down the road. He watched until it disappeared. A full 15 minutes later, he too, pulled away and drove slowly home, praying for forgiveness and hugging a surprised wife and kids when he arrived.

Life is precious. Handle it with care.

Pass this on, you may save a life. Then may not be, but we'll never know until WE TRY!

Today's fortune (from orkut)

Simplicity and clarity should be your theme in dress

That doesn't count as a "Fortune". Orkut's fundas about Fortune sux BIG TIME!

Yet another rant post!

I happened to be seeing this really pathetic excuse for what is supposed to be an advertisement. The basic idea is that some ugly looking cheap japanese bike just got itself an electric start capability.

Guess what the ad depicted?

The entire country is going about their work using the kick-pedal for their jobs. Like - a sardar at a dhaba is mixing buttermilk using the kick-pedal as the ladle; shoe-mendicants are sticking together soles of shoes and slippers and using the kick-pedal as the hammer; people are scratching their backs using this kick-pedal.

I barely managed to resist the temptation to barf at this excuse of an ad.

I wonder how did the marketing "Gurus" @ that company (oh I didn't tell which bike it was - TVS Star-City - as expected, an Indian company that probably hired a measly pipsqueaking miserable failure of an ad-manager) even manage to ok the budget for this stupidity.

What do the ad guys think their common idiot-box worshipping audiences are? Mindless and uncomprehending retards?

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What kind of scoundrels are we electing? What kind of government sends its farmers 3 f***king rupees as compensation.

Unquotable and highly unparliamentary words come to mind which can't even being to quantify the anger I have for the retards we elect.

Contrast this with the hoopla that we give for hearing that Ambani is a millionaire. Beyond a particular point, this stupidity begins to abuse your sensibilities to such an extent that you really feel pained to continue to work in India.

I know, I know. Rather than cribbing, my dear friend RDX will ask me, what have I done to solve this problem. Well, I am going to caste my vote, and ensure that I tell other people to do so.

PLEASE PLEASE CAST YOUR VOTE. Ensure that spineless scoundrels like Chidambaram, MKK etc do not get elected to continue to abuse your senses.

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Peace!

Of Dreams, rants, tennis and other inane stuff...

I've been having dreams involving people I know personally, and not very nice dreams they have been. I only hope they never "see the light of day".

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How much ever I seem to earn on paper, at the end of the month, I only seem to be getting peanuts. Aaaarrrrghhhhh! Chidambaram!!! You darn dog!

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I just cannot understand how we Indians continue to pin our hopes on that higly-overpaid highly-underachieving Sania and Tendulkar and the like. Its a given that they are yet another bunch of talented yet greedy losers. When will we change?

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Of late, I've noticed that I seem to be thinking really really clearly when taking a dump! I have these really startling ideas on how to solve issues at work when bowel movement happens! And I've been astounded by my own ideas that are "generated". What's happening to me? What could be the reason for this "crystal clarity when dumping" ???

One of my colleagues suggested that it is possibly because it is really quiet, and nothing interesting enough to divert your attention.

Possible...

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While we on the subject of taking a dump, when I had my previous mobile (Nokia 6630), I practically took gaming to the next level - that is, gaming in the loo. Aaah... SkyForce Reloaded game never felt as good as it felt when gaming in on the pot! AbSoLuTe BlIsS! The pot really rocked..... LOL

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Moving to a slightly related topic, you may have a noticed that I said "previous mobile". Due to sibling pressure, I had to part with that beauty of a mobile, and present it to my sister. And now, I am walking around with a technologically advanced phone. Its really amazing. It is also a flashlight. And damn, the battery in this one ROX BIG TIME! I get like 8 days of battery life on this one. Can you guess which one???? The mighty and amazingly powerful Nokia 1108

Or should I have called it "technologically challenged phone" ???

One of the major gripes that I have with this "new" one is that its keyad go clickety-clack-clack when typing sms's or playing that game in meeting rooms. Damn! The entire room can hear it. Meetings used to be such great places to hone your mobile gaming skills!

Pity that the "scope" of honing has reduced greatly...

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I've been hooked onto these three songs for this past week:
1) Tu Hi Meri Shab Hai (Euro Mix) from the movie Gangster
2) Woh Lamhe (DjMix) from the movies Zeher
3) Mummy ko nahi hai pata (Remix)

Especially the second one. It is just toooooo damn superrrrrrrr! And dont even get me started on the third one. I have to control myself from just starting to dance when I hear this song.

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I read somewhere that it is possible to burn 400 calories in 20 minutes on the elliptical cross-trainer (as shown in the digital meter). I've been trying to get near that mark. Of course, not in one go, but in two sets of 10 minutes each. Today I managed to reach 184 calories in 10 minutes. I believe that 200 in 10 is doable. But dont expect me to even be talking after the first round. Damn tough one this!

Usually, in the second round, I am able to manage only about 160.

My gym instructors are baffled when I tell them that I am trying to target 200 cals in 10 mins. They're like "Dude! You're animal."

Pity, all that slogging doesn't show up physically anywhere.

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When I was small, I used to say all the darndest things. There used to be this christian newly wedded couple next to our house in Bahrain (I was in Bahrain till the 3rd-standard). And my parents used to invite them over to our house for time-pass. The lady's name was Rita. One evening, after they left, my father remarked to my mother that Rita looked like a horse. They didn't realize that I was listening intently to them (I was quite young - probably in 1st standard at that time - and anything I heard I used to pay very good attention). The next day, when the kinda Aunt Rita came over, and when she and my mother were cutting some vegetables, I happily squealed

"Aunty. My daddy said that you look like a horse"

I used to think that "looking like a horse" was a compliment.

I still wonder what my mother said to Rita after the squealing of the said "compliment".

I wonder whether my mother remembers this incident. If she does, I probably will ask her, and post what happened afterwards.

I believe, an outsider would have had a good laugh.

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Hmmm... what else? I recently discovered that when you consume alcohol, even a teeny weeny little amount on an empty stomach, it goes STRAIGHT to the head... in minutes.

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Ok folks, that's a wrap. Ciao. Till next, take care!

Don't Mess With Old Ladies...

An older lady gets pulled over for speeding...
Older Woman: Is there a problem, Officer?

Officer: Ma'am, you were speeding.

Older Woman: Oh, I see.

Officer: Can I see your license please?

Older Woman: I'd give it to you but I don't have one.

Officer: Don't have one?

Older Woman: Lost it, 4 years ago for drunk driving.

Officer: I see...Can I see your vehicle registration papers please.

Older Woman: I can't do that.

Officer: Why not?

Older Woman: I stole this car.

Officer: Stole it?

Older Woman: Yes, and I killed and hacked up the owner.

Officer: You what?

Older Woman: His body parts are in plastic bags in the trunk if you want to see

The Officer looks at the woman and slowly backs away to his car and calls for back up. Within minutes 5 police cars circle the car. A senior officer slowly approaches the car, clasping his half drawn gun.

Officer 2: Ma'am, could you step out of your vehicle please! The woman steps out of her vehicle.

Older woman: Is there a problem sir?

Officer 2: One of my officers told me that you have stolen this car and murdered the owner.

Older Woman: Murdered the owner?

Officer 2: Yes, could you please open the trunk of your car, please.

The woman opens the trunk, revealing nothing but an empty trunk.

Officer 2: Is this your car, ma'am?

Older Woman: Yes, here are the registration papers. The officer is quite stunned.

Officer 2: One of my officers claims that you do not have a driving license.

The woman digs into her handbag and pulls out a clutch purse and hands it to the officer.

The officer examines the license. He looks quite puzzled.

Officer 2: Thank you ma'am, one of my officers told me you didn't have a license, that you stole this car, and that you murdered and hacked up the owner.

Older Woman: Bet the liar told you I was speeding, too.

Oops!!

Ever noticed that when you are just skimming through various lines in a page, your eyes sometimes see words which your brain interprets totally differently

I was just scrolling down the various entries in
The Dilbert Blog. In a hurry, I actually saw:

Spying on the Pope

as

Spaying the Pope

Ahem!