घेउन टाक

I just got a call now from Indian Airlines wanting to know if I am travelling on 16th with Suchitra. This was for confirming the ticket. Jet apparently doesn't require this for my Mangalore Bangalore flt. They haven't called yet;-)

So here is a video of Kodialguttu road before someone decides to dig it all up again;-)

 
Karbo, Larbo, Jeetbo Re”. 
we will do it, fight it, and win it”.

Remember Thin girl on a scooter?

Here is a big girl.

Full-throatedly egging on Shoaib Akhtar and celebrating his wickets?

Wow.

Is that the first horseman I see?
Or is the IPL truly shattering boundaries with such force?

Wow, again.

Kolkata Knight Riders vs Delhi Daredevils

KKR batted first on winning the toss but only muster 133/6 which we all know is insufficient in a 20-20 and that too against an opponent like Sehwag and Gautam!

BUT!

KKR had the devil himself with them in the name of Shoab Akhtar. Did he make a come back or what! As the newspapers would report he ripped through the Delhi top order taking 4 very convincing wickets! Did you hear the crowds roar of approval when Shoab [Pakistani] took the wickets of Sehwag and Gautam [both Indian]. Man it was too much. It was too much for Shoab too, he was exhilarated making my wife to comment "He will say 'I will not go back to Pakistan' since he is anyhow going to be banned there!" Heh!

Meanwhile taking those 4 wickets didn't mean the match was sewn up, after the total was low and still winnable. BUT the other bowlers chipped in taking wickets at what they call "regular intervals":-) Two for a chap called Dinda, and three for someone called Shukla. Akhtar and Shukla both were on a hatrick but the new batsman warded them off both times.

Suchitra was rooting for the KKR her fav team since it is owned by her most fav SRK. And was urging the fellows on as if it was a India vs some other country match. Usually she doesn't, in the IPL I mean, we really don't care if say the Devils win instead of the Punjab, since we like them both.

But I was rooting for the Devils since it has our Sehwag and Gautam [also nice old Mr McGrath] and so my chuckles when some KKR balls went for wides or 4s were not met with any approval from her:-) One KKR ball went for 5 wides [missed wicket keeper] seeing Suchitra very tense I told her to look at the positive side, "What positive side!" she thundered, "The Dare Devils got 5 runs you know" I said. I got what is known as the classic "look daggers" look;-) Taking the hint I then cheered KKR to their inevitable victory.

They might have won by 23 runs, but it could have got very close. Heck if Sehwag had say hit a couple of sixes in his over [instead of getting out for a duck] the game would have looked different. No wonder Akhtar got the MOM.

PS: We leave to Singapore tomorrow. And so will not be seeing any IPL matches and so no reviews too. I find the match closing quite late in India and so have no interest in sitting into the night in Singapore which India +2.5 hours ahead.

You may not get the proper results for Bhoothnath like eg the official site, the wiki page, imdb etc. This is because you probably spelled it Bhootnath or Boothnath.

Meanwhile there is a continuity error in Bhoothnath. The little boy when he is first shown is perfectly fine, but when he goes to school a large portion of his upper right incisor is chipped off. Later at home the tooth is whole. This is repeated once again in the school sequence. There after the tooth is whole. I can't imagine why or how they allowed this to get through. CGI was used throughout the movie for various special effects, so adding a chipped off tooth would have been mildly put child's play;-)

I dislike those who think that just because something it a) animated/drawn, or b) science fiction/fantasy, it is for children. Or they think it's silly. Or they think it's beneath them.

I don't care if they don't *like* that sort of thing. That's different. You're free to not like anything, but don't tell me what to do about it. Don't tell me I'm silly for liking it. Thinking something is silly or childish just because of a) and b) above, however, *is* silly. If you do, I'm going to call your pet fantasy (or your fantasy pet, if you have one) silly.

Let me quote portion of Dr. Isaac Asimov's rant (italics his):

...and now I find that you must expect nothing of something that's just science fiction.

It's just science fiction so it's allowed to be silly, and childish, and stupid. It's just science fiction, so it doesn't have to make sense. It's just science fiction, so you must ask nothing more of it than loud noises and flashing lights.

He's being sarcastic, if you don't get it.

Cloned from Satya's website (post comment)

 

 

Owner Going Out Of Country

 

For Sale:

 

Sofa Set,

 4-Seater Dining, 

Beds,

Cupboard,

W/Machine,

Music System,

Crockery,

Computer And Other Household Items…

 

Open: Fri 16^th   And    Sun 18^th  

 

10.00am  - 9.00pm

 

And From Mon 19^th For 1 Week:

 

5.00 Pm  - 8.00 Pm

 

Contact

 

C-1 Madhuban Apts., 2nd Floor, Hosur Main Road, Adugodi  Bangalore 560 030
 Landmark : Close To Star Bazaar,  Opp. Adugodi Police Station 
9886020850

List Comprehensions

The more time I spend with Python, the more I come to like it. The latest in the list (no pun intended) of likable Python-foo is List Comprehensions. What's that? We'll come to it in a bit but now for some background building.

I've always been a lazy arse (our co. is so politically incorrect) when it comes to programming so I appreciated every little bit of stuff that made things better for a lazy programmer. Be it stuff like operator overloading and auto variables, dollops of syntactic sugar, or some extremely high level foo. I think I liked C++ more because it was the philosophical anti-Java (like how Neo was the anti-Smith). Lisp fascinated me a lot with its high level constructs based around lists but I never got to pursue it too far because of the lack of opportunities for its practical applications.

Years of programming in PHP helped me a lot in appreciating the speed of development afforded by functionality rich languages. When I say "functionality rich", I don't just mean the functionality of the core language but also of the accompanying libraries that are available in a standard distribution. PHP also helped me break out of the classes-and-objects mould and think more in terms of the fundamental principles of encapsulation and data driven behaviour. It appalls me when, for example, some people argue that verbs are classes and classes are nouns and you know, soon you can't talk straight anymore.

The last thing that PHP helped me with was realise the importance of fundamental data structures such as the scalar PODs, lists and hashes/dictionaries. There's immense power to be harnessed from disciplined representation of your data in terms of these fundamental data structures. The most important thing you get is the portability of your data without resorting to weird tricks. There's hardly a language that doesn't allow straight-forward import or export of the fundamental data structures. Why, then, would you want to shove all your data into rigid classes and shunt them around using restrictive serialisers and deserialisers? I now write classes only when I'm sure I need to encapsulate some concepts and organise their data representations beyond what a loose collection of fundamental data structures could afford.

Anyhow, back to Python. Now that you understand that my programming is mostly centred around manipulation of data and you understand that you often get a lot of data as collections or lists, let me introduce you to Python's List Comprehensions. These nifty features are Lisp constructs like map, filter and lambda on steroids (ouch! that sounds like flame-bait!). They let you manipulate lists and generate more lists out of the results. Let us say, you have two lists, (1, 2, 3) and (1, 2). You want to get all the pairs obtained by crossing these lists, i.e., you want:
[[1,1], [1,2], [2,1], [2,2], [3,1], [3,2]]

Here's how you do it with List Comprehensions:
[[x,y] for x in [1,2,3] for y in [1,2]

Of course, you don't need to write the two lists in-line, you could've taken any two lists, a and b, and written:

[[x,y] for x in a for y in b]

Yes, you can have more than two lists in the comprehension and do more than just pair the elements up, e.g.:
[(x*z,y*z) for x in [1,2,3] for y in [1,2] for z in [10, 20]]

Now, how about filtering? Let's say you only want those pairs from the above comprehension where the sum of the elements of pairs is divisible by 4. Here you go, filtering with comprehensions:
[(x*z,y*z) for x in [1,2,3] for y in [1,2] for z in [10, 20] if (x+y)*z % 4 == 0]

Oh, and please don't be flummoxed with me mixing [] and () notations. The former is a Python list, whereas the latter is a Python tuple, which is a list for all practical purposes, except that it's immutable.

GROUP_CONCAT

It's not rare to have your database with 1xN relationships between tables. Let's say, between a person and their phone numbers. To find all the numbers of a person in such a table layout, you usually write queries such as:

SELECT person, number FROM Person, Number WHERE Person.name = Number.name;
And you get results like:

person               number
John Doe             9886123456
John Doe             9941456789
John Doe             1130770666
Jane Deer            4128394792
.
.
.

Then you scamper around to write code that gives you a neat dictionary, like this:
{"John Doe": ["9886123456", "9941456789", "1130770666"]}. The problem is, sometimes you feel too lazy (I do!) to write code that de-tabulates this information and sometimes you don't even have a programming language at hand. Luckily, GROUP_CONCAT comes to help. Here's the same result with GROUP_CONCAT:

mysql> SELECT person, GROUP_CONCAT(number SEPARATOR ", ") numbers
    -> FROM Person, Number WHERE Person.name = Number.name
    -> GROUP BY Person.name;

person               numbers
John Doe             9886123456, 9941456789, 1130770666
Jane Deer            4128394792
...

Voila! You're ready to send out the results from your SQL query to the rest of your team without resorting to de-tabulation of results as a second step!

The world of software development abounds with such nifty stuff. You just have to seek, and be willing to seek, rather than spend hours churning out line upon line of code. Let code generators handle the non-nifty constructs.

And before I end this post, let me repeat. I HATE Java. Hate it absolutely totally, because it sucks the life blood out of me when I have to write code that I know can be 10x more succinct in another language. I also hate it for it's uber-bloated VM. Death to Java. Death to the JVM. Suckers!

Kings XI Punjab beat Bangalore Royal Challengers

Royal Challengers just managed a meagre 144. Since we had gone to see Bhoothnath we missed much of the fun;-) Later I think while the Punjab were batting to a sure win [9 wickets] I think Mr Mallya [Royal Whiner] must have spoken to his friends in the cable industry [or paid them] to switch off transmission. Yeah so we couldn't see the BRC losing with 5 overs to spare. All we saw was a blue screen.

Last heard from Mallya, he wants Fisichella and Sutil to bat for the BRC and Dravid and Boucher to drive a F1 car.

Superstar India by Shoba De

So finished this book yesterday.Actually she calls her self Shobaa which I find very strange considering that she otherwise sounds like a very straight forward person who doesn't believe in dumb beliefs.

Okay so the book is about India, how it is today as compared to a few years ago. Few years ago we were pathetic. When I went abroad I could only take US$ 500 with me as per the regulations. Now not only can I take more, I won't since my credit card is valid anywhere as compared to my old cards which said "valid in India and Nepal only"

BUT as De goes on, side by side with our barons who are able to build a $2 billion "house" [my example not hers] we still have the utterly poor just like the days of old when I could only take $500 out of the country.

So she goes on to talk about the immense contrasts in our country. And makes it known that she doesn't think very highly of China. Chiefly because of lack of freedom. In the sense they are very free, but her minders and guides literally beg her not to ask questions on Tiananmen Square [the massacre ie] or about other uncomfortable things in the country.

The book is a fine read, except for some irritating formatting. Very randomly throughout the book she has sentences in bold as if to emphasise it. Whereas all it does it act like a pot hole on a road, you don't like the pothole but are force to go over it.

There are a few mistakes.
Page 228 Example of the ad slogan "It's different!" should be for Maggie Ketchup not Maggie Noodles [while describing Suchitra Sen]
Page 235 N409ot likely [obvious printer error]
Page 427 Freddie Mercury not Freddie Murphy [obviously made a mistake with Eddie Murphy]

Not very amazingly I found that most of the sentiments in the book were exactly what I would express. Though the examples of Indians zipping off bi annually to foreign locales in their private jets will still be restricted to the Ambanis and not others. I am e.g. going to Singapore on Indian Airlines [not business class] and leaving the country after a period of 8 years!

We saw Bhoothnath yesterday with Sneha and was lovable. The kid has done very well. Amitabh Bachcbahn is his usual self but does very well with this kid too, remember his great interaction with that kid in Cheeni Kum. The kids parents are the lovely Juhi Chawla who looks very lovable indeed and Shah Rukh Khan. They have taken a bungalow in rent in Goa [provided by their company] and will be staying there when his father sails on a cruise ship as its chief officer. He has this cordless phone which works very well on the high seas to contact his family back home.

Amitabh is the resident ghost [Kailsah Nath] of Nath Villa [the bungalow], with the movie starting with a very scary sequence when a couple who come in to celebrate their something or the other are scared away, couple played by the sweet Nauheed Cyrusi and one guy whom we have seen in some ads.

But Nath meets his match in the little kid who isn't scared of him at all [his mom has said ghosts don't exist by angels do] and thinks Nath is an angel. But since Nath keeps insisting "Mai booth hoon!" the kid calls him Bhoothnath! Lot of fun, lot of humour, and lots of sentimental scenes. Suchitra says the girl next to her was bawling.

Humour provided by Rajpal Yadav [Anthony the resident drunk] and the unforgettable Satish Shah [Irani school principal].

Last part of the movie [the senti part] is the one where we come to know the story of Kailash Nath. Very nicely done.

Four and an half stars since they plonked in three songs randomly in the story! I hate that, I prefer if it is smoothly gelled into the story or as a background score. Other 5 stars!

See it for the kid and Juhi! At your theatre!

I am moving out of my dorm and I desperately need to get rid of a black coffee table and a tall black lamp. The table has a little wear, but its barely noticiable. If you're interested, send me an email: clynch at nyu.edu.

A few laps in the final run of our current project. Time when you start seeing murphy's law everywhere and your self-control is tested to the best limits. I lost my cool two days back and undertook the work in own hands to get things partially on track. We have been trying to salvage our trip to Hyderabad by doing all kinds of dare-devil stuffs. But am really pissed off with improper information being communicated to us. We were busy doing important stuff at Mumbai and were rushed to Hyderabad. Result? We have wasted our important 3 days. Damn irritating!

Today, am taking the gang back, get things repackaged there and let them come back only after everything is up here. Damn hectic!

Hyderabad is a fine city with bearable heat, reasonably priced food and nicely decorated rickshaws. And this is the only city whose airport beats Mumbai airport. Damn impressive!

Maxim Gorky’s
BARBARIANS

Translated by: Jeremy Brooks & Kitty Hunger-Blair

3 Performances ONLY!!!

May 12 – May 14 at 8pm!


Schapiro Theatre in Schapiro Hall

605 W. 115th Street (Between Broadway & Riverside Drive)

Take the 1 train to the 116th Street stop

Featuring:

Annika Boras, Brent Bradley, Jenn Miller Cribbs, Corinne Edgerly, Manuel Fihman, Becky Flaum, Al Foote III, Lauren Hines, Christopher Illing, Jamie Klassel, Tom Lawson Jr., Eddie Malone, Seth Miller, David Mitsch, Laura Pruden, Justin Sayre, Allison Schubert, David Douglas Smith, Susan Wallack, & Patrick Yeoman


Production Team:

Director: James Dacre, Producer: Alona Fogel, Stage and Company Manager: Arienne Pelletier, Production Manager: Erin Badillo, Original Music Score: Sam Pluta, Set Designer: Eliza S. Rankin, Lighting Designer: Scott Bolman, Costume Designer: Anne Wood, Sound Designer: Jessica Paz, Fight Director: Alex Sovronsky, & Graphic Designer: Marc Bovino

Classroom Presentation

"A small provincial town is accused from its lethargy by the arrival of Big Business. Developers arrive in the town with the force of a gale, upsetting stalemated romances, sour marriages, and the equilibrium of local law. Their appearance sends the locals to their knees pleading for love, money, and employment. Their actions create a tale of submission, betrayal, disgrace, retribution, and of the urge but not the will toward flight. All involved play with fire and fall victim to its flames."

To Reserve Email: CU.Barbarians@gmail.com

RESERVATIONS ARE STRONGLY ENCOURAGED!

Please make sure to include your name, time of the performance, number of tickets and a phone number where you can be reached. You will not be contacted unless there is a problem with your reservation.

heyyyy, i got a lexmark printer that i need to get rid of... no ink, but you should be able to get it refilled for cheap somewhere.

i also have a desk lamp with an extra bulb, if anyone wants that.

i live in manhattan. hollaaaaaaaaa

I've been reading a lot on violence and genocide recently. It all started when I realised I didn't know a lot of the new countries that had sprung up since 1991 so I should update my Geography and History. But the more I read the more I realised that almost all of the new nations had had a violent birth. They were all different nations historically that had been artificially fused by imperialist forces. When the occupying forces left... sooner or later the cohesion unravelled and the countries split into their original constituent nation states.

And that reminded me of India - how India had been a bunch of different countries pulled forged into one by the British. We've already had our bloody wars of partition but what scared me is that there is still a long way to go. Will we ever get to a stage where after Pakistan, Kashmir, Some North Eastern states, we get more and more States demanding their own countries. Will the Shiv Sena take the route of demanding that all non Maharashtrians leave the state. Will the Tamilians ever fight a war of Independence. There are enough nutty politicians bent on inflaming local chauvanism for their own gains. Or is there something about India that is different from other countries like Yugoslavia and the Sovient Union? Is it as Jawaharlal Nehru said 'held together by strong but invisible threads ... a myth and an idea, a dream and a vision, and yet very real and present and pervasive'.

The conflicts that have happened in other parts of the world in the last 20 years are mainly due to Communist uprisings, Islamic fundamentalism, ethnocentric secessionism not to mention genocide all things that have happened in India before and could happen again if the politicians get out of hand.



75-on Angola: Marxist government backed by Cuba vs rebels. 350,000 dead.
92-95 Bosnia and Herzegovina: Muslim government vs Serb Orthodox insurgents supported by Yugoslavia. Ethnic cleansing took place. Over 200,000 dead.
97-on Democratic Republic of Congo: Government supported by Angola, Namibia and Zimbabwe vs rebels supported by Rwanda and Uganda. 200,000 dead.
79-92 Mozambique: Government supported by Zimbabwe and Tanzania vs RENAMO guerrilas assisted by South Africa. 200,000 dead.
75-90 Lebanon: Christian Maronites with Israel vs Muslim shiites with PLO and Syria. 170,000 dead.
90-96 Liberia: Government overthrown by two rebel groups who then fought with each other. 150,000 dead.
91-on Burundi: Tutsi led government vs Hutus. 100,000 dead. 800,000 Hutus placed in 'regroupment' camps
96-on Uganda: Government vs Christian fundamentalists (who have kidnapped thousands of children to train them to become soldiers). 100,000 dead and 220,000 refugees.
92-on Algeria: Government vs Islamic rebels. Government declared cancelled polls when it looked like they would lose elections to Islamists. 100,000 dead.
82-on Somalia: Government vs Somali national movment and clan based guerrilas. 85,000 dead.
78-on Afghanistan: Communist government supported by USSR vs Mujahedin. From 96 the war continued between Northern Alliance and Taliban. 60,000 dead.
94-on Russia: Government vs Muslim secessionist republic Chechnya. 60,000 dead. 200,000 Chechen refugees in Ingushetia
92-98 Tajikistan: Communist government vs Islamist and Democratic alliance called United Tajik opposition. 50,000 dead.
80-92 Nicaragua: Civil war between leftist government and right wing guerilla contras supported by US. 43,000 dead
79-98 Cambodia: Pol Pot vs Vietnam's puppet government. 42,000 dead.
72-on Philippines: Maoists vs government. 40,000 dead.
82-on Peru: Civil war between right wing governement and left wing rebels. 28,000 dead.
89-on Kashmir: Dispute between India and Pakistan. 25,000 dead.
79-92 El Salvador: Civil war between right wing government supported by US and left wing guerrilas. 25,000 dead.
84-on Columbia: Civil war between right wing government and left wing rebels. 22,000 dead.
85-on India: Government vs Sikh insurgents (till 93) and separatists in Kashmir and Assam. 19,000 dead.
89-93 South Africa: Political violence between ANC and Inkatha Freedom party while trying to end Apartheid. 19,000 dead.
78-91 Tigray: Tigrean People's Liberation Front vs Ethiopia's leftist government supported by Sovient Union and Cuba. 15,000 dead.
48-on Israel: Muslim Palestinians opposed to creation of Jewish Israel. 800,000 Palestinians displaced. 13,000 dead.
83-on Sudan: Muslim Arabic government vs Christian and Animist sub saharran rebels. 12,000 dead and 4.5 million people displaced.
80-90 Chad: General who lost elections retook it by force with French help. Rebels were supported by Libya and defeated him. 11,000 dead.
91-94 Croation: Croatian (Catholic) secessionists vs Yugoslav (Orthodox) government of Milosevic in which ethnic cleansing took place. 10,000 dead
90-94 Azerbaijan: Government vs secessionists of Nagorno-Karabakh. Armenia supported separatists. 10,000 dead.
75-91 West Africa: War for land between Mauritania and Morocco after Spain pulled out. 10,000 dead
83-on Burma: Government vs Karens and other ethnic groups demanding autonomy. 7,000 dead.
94-94 Yemen: Secessionists trying to establish South Yemen. 7,000 dead.
98-99 Kosovo: Milosevic vs Kosovo Liberation Army. 5,000 dead.
69-94 Northern Ireland: UK Government vs Provisional IRA. 3,400 deaths.
91-93 Georgia: Secessionists in Abkhazia and South Ossetia vs Governemtn. Georgia lost control of Abkhazia. 2,500 dead.
97-99 Congo Brazzavile: Government with Angolan support vs former political leaders. 2,000 dead.
89-on Indonesia: Government vs Islamic Free Aceh Movement. 2,000 dead.
94-on Philippines: Islamic secessionist groups from predominantly Catholic country. 2,000 dead.
97-99 Senegal: War for control of Casamance territory. 1,000 dead.
98-99 Guinea Bissau: Mutiny by General. 1,000 dead.

83-on Sri Lanka: Government vs Northern secessionists from LTTE. Unknown deaths.
75-99 East Timor: Secessionists from Indonesia. Unknown deaths
94-02 Sierra Leone: Government vs rebels. UN force disarmed 45,000 rebels. Unknown deaths.
91-96 Guatemala: Civil war between government and left wing rebels. Unknown deaths.
98-on Rwanda: Government vs Hutu rebels. Most fighting takes place on Congolese territory. Unknown deaths.
74-91 Eritrea: Eritrean Liberation Front and Eritrean People's Liberation front joined forces to end Christian Ethiopia's rule over Muslim Eritrea. Unknown deaths
84-02 Turkey: Secessionists from Kurdish Worker's Party vs Government. Unknown deaths
91-on Iraq: Government vs Supreme Assembly for Islamic Revolution in Iraq. Unknown deaths.
91-on Iran: Islamist Government vs Mujahedin e Khalq. Unknown deaths

I am missing Penang today, which is very odd given the fact that I have spent only a few hours on that isle. So when I shut my eyes to remember the point I want to mention in the document at hand, I see the winding road to the QueensBay mall with the ocean on one side and the skyscrapers on the other. For a moment I see flashes of extremely clean and almost hauntingly empty roads and then the terribly crowded and almost suffocating sight of the Prangin mall blinds me. After almost an hour of thinking about the day that I spent in George Town, I have decided that I will reminisce about it once and for all and then get back to my document.

---

I step into the huge building my eyes wide and breath held for a moment. No, it is not my first time in a mall, nor is this mall anything out of the ordinary; it is mostly the excitement building up inside me. I run from one showroom to the other looking at every designer item and not noticing much because I want to see it all in the designated one hour. I want to buy something just so I can remember this day – this feeling more than this day, actually.

---

It is a huge shoe store. I look around and I see so many fancy things that I cannot decide what to pick up. I look at the shiny golden belle shoes for a few moments and then look away to search for something less jazzy. I look at one pair after the other, discarding everything because I am impatient: too red, too flat, to high, to broad. Ultimately, I am pointed out a pair of black open-toe sandals that zip up at the ankle. “Gorgeous, but too expensive,” I say. “I will buy them for you,” he says and I thank him with joy, forgetting that as of last week our finances have merged and his buying is not very different from me swiping my own plastic.

---

It is post lunch time and I am browsing those endless shelves labeled ‘Fiction’ in Borders. I turn around to face the graphic novels section and marvel at those ultimate editions, neatly wrapped in sheets of cellophane paper to prevent us from finishing the book in the bookstore. A boy of around ten, his shirt un-tucked and his uniform shorts a little dirty, is going through the latest comics with great earnestness. I close the book in my hand and observe him. This is serious business for him; unconcerned with his surroundings he looks for the right issue and then moves to graphic novels to lust for those expensive items that his pocket money would probably not buy. I watch him pay at the cash counter and then walk out of the store looking content with his purchase.

---

I look out of the window of my luxury bus. Most buildings are old and remind me of the British era, except the temples. There are a lot of those, one after every ten buildings. This view undergoes a quick transformation as the bus turns from the crossroads. Now, I see huge skyscrapers and wide clean roads. This mix is what makes this town so different from the rest of the cities I visited in the last few days. When I get down from the bus in front of another huge mall, I find myself in a completely different part of the town. Here people ride on trishaws (also called bugbug) and the emptiness that I had been seeing since morning is replaced with huge crowds of locals rushing about.

---

At twilight, I stand in the queue to get back onto the ship. As I approach the port’s exit I turn around for one last glimpse of the beautiful George Town. I see an ancient white and red building; a building so very British. The green creepers making their way to the second floor add to its character. Just behind this building, I see the tall clock tower – white and blue, and ticking. I close my eyes to capture this picture and today, that is the exact picture that flashes in front of my eyes when you say the word - Penang.

Chennai Super Kings vs Kings XI Punjab [Saturday]
Missed the first half since we had to go for a dinner, then we had to pick up our girls and come back. And so were watching the second half. The Chennai Kiings were winning, and the Punjab XI had a very slim chance. But with one over to go we lost power, our back up kicked in, but not of the cable operator. By this time I had to bring a disappointed Kavya down, who was watching Barbie [with butterfly wings] when the power went off. When she came down the power came back [for both us and the cable dude] and I found that Irfan Pathan was out. And so since Kavya was asking for Barbie put it on.

It was only the next day did I realise that Balaji got a hat trick. Remember the smiling Balaji who was out on an injury [so they say] for three years who did so well in the Pakistan tour of some two seasons ago. That Balaji.

So accordingly this is how the last over went. Runs required was 27.
Balaji to Irfan [and then Piyush Chawla, VRV Singh, and Uday Kaul]
[6-2-W-W-W-0]

Must have been a thriller. I was actually rooting for the Punjab IX.

Kolkata Knight Riders vs Deccan Chargers [Sunday 4pm]
Was watching the F1 GP and then had to go for a house warming function.
KKR won making Suchitra happy:-)

Rajasthan Royals vs Delhi Daredevils [Sunday 8pm]
When we came back from the house warming the match had started and were able to watch. The DD just managed to make 156. That too because of the tail end heroics of Sri Lankans Dilshan and Maharoof.
Royals had no problem in finishing it off with the first ball of the last over.

Vijay Mallya upset with Rahul Dravid

SO this means Mr Mallya is genuinely interested in the team winning and he has not invested just for advertising his liquor brands. Yesterday he was in Istanbul and I am sure he is upset with his driver Fisichella;-) He rammed another guy in the very first corner, before his car could travel more that 100'.

Its a pity that Bangalore has just 44% turnout at the polls and then we crib about bad roads, bad that and this.

I know the usual argument of there's no candidate righteous enough to vote, but I find this an excuse. Its better choose the lesser of the evils. Shame, real shame. I've heard of villages having 99% turnout. Wow! what an educated world.

PS: I did vote!

We have a Jambu fruit tree in our garden and Suchitra told me the other day that it was bent double with Jambu fruits. So here are some photos.




Good thing I did, since yesterday morning she said all the fruits had fallen off.

Okay since you asked here are the photos of the Bajaj Pulsar scale model bike.

I know this is going to be a fairly divisive topic, and I'm not here for a political discussion but I wanted to spread the word about this beautiful organization called Haven Coalition.

"The Haven Coalition is a network of volunteers who provide a meal and a safe place to sleep for women who are forced to travel to New York City for late-term abortions. Since our inception in June of 2001, Haven has hosted close to 700 women for over 800 nights."

Haven volunteers work as hosts, sometimes as escorts helping women navigate the subway and get where they need to go. It's an amazing way to profoundly help someone and I wanted to let you know about a really interesting way to get involved. (I, however, am not affiliated with them because I am not located in the city.)

Their website with their contact information is here: http://havencoalition.org/

Yesterday was a good day for me. We went for the regular social dance for the weekend. This one was a special social dance which had some raphel tickets. So there were 2 prizes, a pot of flowers (I'm not sure what special kind of flowers they were) and a voucher of $250 which allows you to take 3 personal lessons from the best dance teacher in pittsburgh! As luck would have it, we won the voucher for the dance classes! I'm not sure how much this is going to improve my dance, but it surely is going to be fun!

Its been raining cats and dogs today in pittsburgh. I miss b'bay!

With or without you loops - I can't live with or without you...

 ashvysh forever!!!

clickey.

speechless...

comments there, please! :)

The world's most popular Hitesh -- this is a whopper!

The world's most popular Mulani

The world's most popular Yathin

The world's most popular Premshree (missed this, thanks t3rmin4t0r)

The world's most popular Juhie is not Juhie Chawla.

Couldn't find any more.

This is from my trip to Colombo in March-April. The isle is all about the sea... so this shot taken at dusk, illuminated by eerie green lights at the base of the wall, mirrors my mindframe of the Great Big Ocean... Scary.

:)
will post more pics with tiny stories soon.

ANd oh, i've been on LJ for 5.1 years now. Yay?

Hellboy is one those series that has always left me with mixed reactions. The concept is stellar – the possible future ruler of Hell – nicknamed Hellboy when he was transported to earth by a ritual gone awry – is unwilling to accept his destiny because of his sympathies with humankind. His decision triggers events throughout the planes, and also, because of his involvement with the Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense, he has made himself quite a lot of enemies in the netherworld. Mignola draws inspiration from horror stories, folklore and local myths and legends from around to world to come up with a rich supporting cast for the series. The story of Hellboy is a series of quest-stories, each of which contributes to explaining a bit of back-story and also in building up the world the characters inhabit. Mignola obviously has a plan for his baby, and he is taking his time unfolding it to the readers.

But what gets my goat is that Hellboy, as a character, is ruefully underdeveloped. In spite of leading a life filled with supernatural elements, the character has little or no regard for the consequences of his actions. His standard modus operandi in dealing with anything at all is to punch and shoot, no questions asked. This adds a level of shallowness to the storylines that I’ve been unable to come to terms with. I mean, what’s the point of all this world building and plot development if your character is a one-trick pony?

That does not mean I do not read Hellboy. I follow the series very closely, even though it is tough to keep track of all the miniseries and spinoffs that are being churned out. Initially it was just Mignola doing all the writing and artwork, and my oh my, the man is a design god! Alan Moore summed it up perfectly when he said that Mignola’s work combines Kirby’s comicbook sensibilities with German expressionism. The work in Hellboy is the cumulative output of a man who has experimented with his craft for the better part of two decades and has developed a style that’s minimalist and unique. In short, when you see Hellboy for the first time and see Mignola’s chunky blacks adorning the panels, you feel like there is not other artist who can do the character justice.

But then, for the past couple of years, Mignola has been involved with other aspects of his character. He is, I believe, closely associated with the production of both the Hellboy movies, and the animated series, and the various merchandising aspects of his brainchild. It would be a wonderful world if an artist could just sit at his chair and draw and everything would fall into place, but let’s face it, page rates and royalties (and even original comic art sales) aren’t enough to make ends meet, especially if you’re striking out on your own. So one cannot begrudge Mr. Mignola his lack of output, he has a business to run after all. What makes it all good for the fan is that he is personally supervising the choice of artist for the ongoing stories –Hellboy, its companion BPRD, the limited series Lobster Johnson and Abe Sapien, and also co-writing most of them. There has been quite a gap between the last Hellboy series – ‘The Island”, and the latest “Darkness Calls”, and apparently that’s because the previous artist short-listed for the job did not quite make the cut, or the deadlines. Editor Scott Allie tells us in the letters page of Darkness Calls #1 that after the artist turned one issue in, he was replaced by British artist Duncan Fegredo.

Duncan Fegredo has had a checkered career. His work on Grant Morrison's Kid Eternity and Peter Milligan's Enigma, two miniseries published in the early nineties, brought him critical recognition, but not really the kind of fan following an artist of his caliber deserves. He then went on to do painted covers for a number of series, Shade the Changing Man, Lucifer, Star Wars, to name a few. But in terms of a career-defining assignment, Darkness Calls is definitely the first to come Fegredo’s way.  I was skeptical at the choice – like I had mentioned before, Mignola had always been the definitive Hellboy artist, and though there had been other artists doing short stints on the character ( as with the miniseries ‘Weird Tales’, a collection of short horror tales involving the character and written and illustrated by a gazillion different guys, including the likes of Alex Maleev, P Craig Russell, John Cassaday, Scott Morse and JG Jones) , Darkness Calls was core Hellboy, and it was difficult to envisage anyone else carrying off the mood and tone of the character.

When I flipped open the first page of Darkness Calls, I gasped.

This was not Mignola. This was like someone who had captures Mignola’s aesthetics, the spirit of Hellboy, so to speak, and made it his own. This was Mignola Reloaded. Ok, enough with the clichés already, yeah? Fegredo brought a manic intensity to the proceedings with his keen eye for detail. For instance, a forest scene that occurs in the first issue. While Mignola would probably have filled in blacks for the most part, and trust me, he can convey a LOT with minimal brushstrokes, Fegredo literally goes apeshit with his detailing. You can almost see the individual leaves crackling under Hellboy’s feet as he tromps through them, while in the background the bony branches of trees alternate as spider-webs of dark and light.  Fegredo got all the tricks of the trade right - the Mignolian leitmotif of an aspect panel transition to a close-up of a sculpture or some ancient gaping creature. His designs are fantastic – I don’t know how many of them were Mignola’s, but considering the kind of talent he has on display, I wouldn’t be surprised if he was given complete freedom to come up with his own panel layouts and character sketches. And trust me, the artwork just gets better, more confident and intricate as the series progresses. It is as if Fegredo, unsure of how people will react to his interpretation of this iconic character, had held himself back in the first issue and then feeding off the positive reactions, just cuts loose.

Ok, the story, which in case of Hellboy has always managed to disappoint me. Darkness Calls begins with some characters you wouldn’t know were relevant unless you have read the stories that came before – thankfully, there are editorial notes that explain which segment of Hellboy some piece of dialogue references. Then Hellboy enters the story and there you go, that same old pigheadedness about the character - he refuses an offer by a group of rather disgruntled women saying, “Leave me alone!” puffing on his cigar, not making an attempt to understand what they are asking of him. Then things begin to get interesting, when an old, old foe makes a bargain to have Hellboy transported to her world. It’s Baba Yaga, the old witch from Russian folk tales, who Hellboy had blinded once upon a time and who wants his life in return.

It’s interesting to note, at this point, that there are two American comic book series that uses Baba Yaga as a pivotal character – the other being Fables, another excellent series that you should be reading, and the characterization of the lady in both the series is dead-on – she’s evil, she’s powerful, she’s old and there are very few ways to keep her off-balance. In the Hellboy series, Baba Yaga is shown, much like her original Russian version, as traveling around in a pestle. Which gives me this insanely happy feeling in my tummy because this is the old witch I know.

So we have Hellboy stuck in Baba Yaga’s Russia, and it is but obligatory that we see other characters from Russian folklore popping up as well. Remember Koschei the Deathless, whose soul was hidden by Baba Yaga in a very, very secure location? Vasilisa the Beautiful, who was helped by a fairy godmother throughout her life and was one of the few girls who could actually escape Baba Yaga’s clutches? Don’t worry, I haven’t given out any spoilers, just that these two characters make their appearances. There are others, but you can find them out for yourself.

The story goes on towards a predictable climax – Hellboy punching with all his might. There is another revelation, but more importantly, while he’s exiled in folklore-Russia, things are afoot in his…our world, when something really really evil is being let loose. Darkness Calls, like ALL other Hellboy miniseries so far, ends on an incomplete note, with threads of stories to come. Like I said, this becomes frustrating for a casual reader who wants to read a story with a beginning and an end. Ah, well, so we wait for the next Hellboy series to come by, I guess. And read the BPRD stories that are coming out pretty regularly. *sigh*

Wishing mom and all mothers a very happy mothers day.

Jau haath sansaar basaate hain,
Jinki goad swarg kau chauta kar dae,
Mamta aisi ki ishwar baalak ban jaayen
Unhi kae charnon ki main vandana karta hoon

One of those times when I just don't know how to express myself. No word, no line satisfies the heart. :-|

Mom's the reason why I keep telling that I am god's favorite child. It's in mom that I see god's reflection and feel his/her continuous presence around me.

God bless her. God bless me.

Long long time ago, I don't recall if it was before we got married or after, V promised me that she'll buy me a pipe as a gift on my 40th birthday. Today, I get closer to that day by one more year. If she keeps her promise, I'll get my first pipe in just 2 more years. Below is just an example of what I'd like. They are called Meerschaum pipes made from a rare mineral called meerschaum. She is free to choose a design of her liking.

Having given the graduation exam seems like a rite of passage. Marking my way into the future. Saying adieu to my carefree student days. Embracing days of professionalism, making strong career moves, deciding on a fixed path to embark upon. Setting up a plan A and a plan B... thinking about a plan C , D and E. Still being unable to let go of everything that I have had for the last 20 years. Knowing that it is going to change, i am going to change and the people I have known are changing. Hoping, that we can still have our moments where nothing has changed. Dreading that we may change and lose ourselves forever. Relenting the loss of that which we know has left us and holding on dearly to that which we want to preserve. Nevertheless, it will flow away, blow away and extinguish its flame as another flame rekindles itself. Marking the begining of a new dawn, an inspiring flame, an emotional one. Something that is made up of what we are, what we were and what we may be.

Happy Birthday Ed...

Happy Birthday Parag...

Kavya the other day "Krishna has two other names, one is Kaanha, and another is Kanayya!"

Cool, no she didn't learn this from her grandma like me did, she learned it from "Krishna" the animated serial that comes on Cartoon Network;-)

She also tells things like "Ladka means boy and ladkee means girl!" and asks us what a particular item is called in different langauges. Like she said something she was having was amshe [sour] immediately she asked what we call it in Hindi, Kannada and English.

I am going to keep a few language-language dictionaries nearby if we have to teach her things.

Last week Sneha tells us [after watching Alvin and the Chipmunks] "we are chipmunks, our parents look after us for a week [after we are born] and then leave" and another chipmunk says "yeah my parents left and joined a hippy commune!"

Whereas I remember that I couldn't under the American accent in movies for years together. Both my brother or me would be constantly poking our mom or dad [in the theatre] asking them "what did he say?" "What did she say!"

i gotta change my 'default userpic'!! high time.... cuz i dnt look like anywhere close to that.. lol

its funny how i end up postin only wen im back home!! there's so much that life offers back in bangalore that i hardly ever hav time for myself! I'm not exaggeratin wen i say that.

time jus flies, and here time is moving @snails speed. I noe it's very mean on my part to say that, considerin i sh'd be happy m back home wit my family nd near & dear ones, but now m soooo used to da good ol bangalore life i find it *tough* to settle down again in pune!!! cuz im always upto something or da other back in b'lore nd here, im soooo jobless that it drives me MAD!! iv bin jus eatin nd sleepin since 2 days.. i noe i shdnt be complainin ;) but too much of anything is BAD!! AND what really scares me is, im gonna put on all da kilos i hav worked so hard to get rid of fr da past 2-3 months!! *jeez*

I guess its jus a matter of time.. but i really miss da 'important elements' who made my life live-able in bangalore and rocked my world.. this time, it's really tought cuz i spent da most superblissful days wit P fr da past 1.5months. :) Im startin my training in early june in da good ol mbai, nd hope things look up once i get busy wit it!! time sh'd fly by quickly then.. :)

more later ~

There is snazzy new company owned Bajaj motor cycle show room in Mangalore, with motor cycles kept in all kinds of Kamasutra positions [i.e. all positions except on their two wheels] My father mentioned to me that they were selling scale models of their bikes, and when I envisioned interest he offered to buy one for me.

Next day he had got for me a blue Bajaj Pulsar 1:12 fully detailed scale model bike. The box [ditto like Maisto] did not indicate the model manufacturer, country of manufacture, scale or even details of the real motorcycle. So that is a Bajaj secret.

For Rs 220/- it is a steal!
Edit: Some of you have already told me that the prices for the smaller model is Rs 775/- and bigger one 1075/-. I think my father-in-law got the figure wrong.

Wrecked Myanmar shocks India aid pilot

You would have heard that the junta is refusing visas to aid workers!

Lovers killed to 'avenge' dishonour
Honour killing: 18-year-old burned alive by father

Why do I keep reading news of relations killing their child when he/she wants to marry someone of her choice. Here in the urban areas couples getting "un arranged" marriages is now getting pretty normal. With complete support of both families. So far in the last few years at least 4 of Suchitra's female cousins got married to boys of their choice and outside of the caste/community/state/language.

Four days back we attended a wedding of our friends daughter who was getting married to a Gujarati boy from Mangalore. Since bulk of the boys relations were Gujarati Mangloreans I was unable to pin point who was Konkani or Gujarati by looking at them. Then I spotted three rather rotund ladies trundling up the aisle and I told Suchitra "Ah there are a bunch of Gujarati ladies!" but Suchitra gave them one look and said "Wrong that is Mrs Baliga and her friends!" [konkanis] So much for my community profiling.

The wedding was well organised with both families being in full attendance and conversely fully appreciating the couple's choice of each other.

On the other hand we keep seeing reports from predominantly rural areas where they actually kill the couple.

Rajasthan Royals beat Deccan Chargers

Well you see we had called my brother and his wife home for dinner and didn't watch the match at all. I later saw in the news that the RR won the match with a fine batting display by Yousuf Pathan. Apparently there had been a fine batting display earlier by Gilly, but after he fell the other didn't do enough and all they could make in their alloted overs was 140.

The RR finished that off with the last ball of the 16th over with 8 wickets in hand.

Got this one in a forward. One of the rare ones you actually stop and read instead of delete. Thanks Ajit L [his forwards are rare and good]

1) How long did the Hundred Years' War last?
2) Which country makes Panama hats?
3) From which animal do we get cat gut?
4) In which month do Russians celebrate the October Revolution?
5) What is a camel's hair brush made of?
6) The Canary Islands in the Pacific are named after what animal?
7) What was King George VI's first name?
8) What colour is a purple finch?
9) Where are Chinese gooseberries from?
10) What is the colour of the black box in a commercial airplane?

Remember, you need 4 correct answers to pass. [So the forward said]

( Check your answers below. )

Over the two weeks, I didn't get a chance to update on the progress of our caterpillars. They turned into these exotic-looking cocoons. Make sure you click on the photo above to see the bigger version to see them clearly. After a week or so beautiful Painted Lady Butterflies emerged from them.
( more... )

I’m in a state of despair. His cellphone doesn’t work and I have no idea where he might have gone. To give you some background, it’s been a long relationship. One of the longest I’ve had in Bangalore at least, apart from 2-3 other close friends.

As you can imagine, it’s been a hearty blow to me. I called the landline number for him and they said he had left. They wouldn’t even tell me where he’s gone.

I used to see him often. In fact, every time I felt in need of some cheer. I usually fall to pieces if I don’t. Sadly though, it’s been a rather imbalanced relationship – I need him much more than he needs me.

I trusted him completely. Over 3 years only he could understand what I needed the most. I never had to say much to him. I would just sit there and let him work his magic. And he’s hardly ever let me down. I don’t have the energy to look for someone else considering it took me many years to find him.

( Read on )

With the heat beginning to get to everyone this summer in Bangalore, I thought this would be a an appropriate visual for everyone. It's such a nice feeling - to fall into the water, looking upwards and feeling the spray all around you... SPLASH!

I frankly don't even remember the last time I did this... do you? The sheer pleasure of this seemingly simple act is quite difficult to measure. Or express in words.

We spotted a group of boys having a lot of fun in the water on a day trip to the town of Kolar. That's the place you go in search of gold. Or at least it used to be. The Kolar Gold Fields (KGF) have since closed down so we couldn't really go in search of our pot of gold after all.
( Read on )