karthikks

Its been so long that the only word I can think of is "Wow". I changed jobs, and had a daughter .. "Wow". I am working very hard, but that would have been the case anywhere after Sun ... aaah Sun... "Wow". This Ganesha Chaturthi, everyone in our home got sick ... Mom and Dad had to take care of me, my wife, my brother, my sister-in-law (all of whom came down with Viral fever) and the baby which already had a throat infection... "Wow". As usual, I can only say that I'll make my best effort to keep the posts coming, but I guess this time I mean it ... ."Wow"

The title of the blog is from a Steve Martin movie, "LA Story", I think, but it aptly captures my emotion at present, at least in my professional life. Even though, I have work in office, I'm bored out of my head. I don't know if this is common with others in the Software industry, but I feel like I have hit a brick wall in the middle of a highway (remember "The Long dark tea time of the soul"?, guess not). There is this feeling which is quite hard to describe, which keeps needling me to do something different, something more worthwhile, something more meaningful, and then I end up fixing a lousy bug, which in the grand scale of things, will probably let a person using our product to not click an already clicked button! I mean, I was amenable with things like this previously, because there was always something around the corner which would ensure that my brain would be used, but of late, my usage of brain has been limited to things like trying to think how bad a particular movie was, after I spent half a thousand rupees and 4 hours of my time in a cold multiplex hall. If you think that's at least some usage of a brain, I would ask you to watch "Videsh - Heaven on Earth", and you would know what kind of expletives your brain can come up with. That crazy female who calls herself a director, didn't have the courtesy to even mention that the second half is a complete rip off of a wonderful Kannada movie and play, Nagamandala.

           The only time I had seen a Swan in my life, was in the Mysore Zoo. Well there were a few swans there, but they were all in this enclosed structure with water below, and these beautiful birds were just gliding on water. It never occurred to me that they were natural inhabitants somewhere and are present there in the zoo as a part of "capture and captivate" motto of the zoo.           So when Rohini and I got down from our train which deposited us in Luzern from Zurich, and walked down a very old path, which adjoined a lake, I was very pleasantly surprised to see tens of swans swimming around in a natural environment. They looked like these gorgeous sail boats which pierce through water with very little movement visible beneath but the speed is incredible. The only word that can come close to describe these birds is "Elegant". They are elegant from head to their webbed feet. In the night, while we were walking back along the same path, I found out another interesting fact. Have you ever asked yourself "How does a swan sleep?" Well it is safe to say that not many people ask such hard questions of themselves. But I found out the answer, so that you can rest :) A swan sleeps on the water, floating, with its head tucked into one of its wings! I have taken a picture of a swan sleeping but I can't seem to insert an image from my picasa album. This image I had to upload as a user pic and add it here! Any suggestions?
                Luzern itself is a very beautiful city and requires a separate post. But once I solve the image inserting isue, I can guarantee the posts will be a lot more colorful :)

       I saw a weird thing today. Now that is not something strange, considering I live in Bangalore. I went to a movie (what's new, right? :) ) and after the movie, thought it would be nice to just sit outside Garuda mall. So, in the nice, cold breeze, Rohini and I were chatting with each other, when I suddenly noticed the Coffee Day outlet outside the mall. Well, the sudden noticing was not of the existence of the Coffee Day outlet, but rather, its caption. As anyone who has been to a Coffee Day (that is practically everyone, really, isn't it?) knows, the caption is "A lot can happen over coffee". This is not the weird part, and I'm getting there in slow, steady stages, as I'm used to writing long entries in my blog, so please be patient. The real weird part was, wait for it...... that the caption was in Kannada and Hindi as well! Now a few of you might think, what the big deal is. But they had just put the same English caption in Kannada and Hindi. This shows that there are a lot of people who can't read English but can read either Kannada or Hindi or both but can understand English!! Isn't this totally insane? I mean, what will someone who reads "A lot can happen over coffee" in Kannada make sense of? Its like me reading Telugu (coz the script is very similar to Kannada) and not understanding what I'm reading. Doesn't it make more sense to translate the gist of the caption in the language you are trying to write it in? Just thought I would post an entry on this. If you have read anything like this, please share it as well :)
    Oh, by the way, the movie we went to, was, "The Last Lear", since the reviews were so good about the movie. It is a different movie, and Big B has acted well, then again, that's like saying Sachin bats well. But it is not a superlative movie as the critics have made it to be. May be I'm not qualified enough to understand the nuances, but that doesn't mean it is not worth watching. Although, at the end of the movie, both of us felt it was a bit incomplete.

    When was the last time you enjoyed a beautiful sunset? When was the last time you thought, "Damn, there are a lot of birds in Bangalore!"? Ignore the previous question if you are not in Bangalore, or if your town does have a lot of flying beings, just replace Bangalore with your town name :)
    I did both of the above this Friday evening, which happens to be yesterday. The work for the day was done, one of my friends in office had her last day routine and was busy packing up her stuff and saying good byes to everyone and I was in line, and my fiance' was stuck in a tailor shop and I had nothing to do. So I opened the window in our floor which is pretty high up, and thought would see what's happening in the world. The window faces South, so as soon as I slid the windows open, I saw the orange hew to my right of the Sun trying to rest after a long day's struggle to get through to Bangalore through the persistent clouds. The clouds were still there, but higher than usual, which meant for once, I could get home without being completely soaked. The sky was superb, and every cloud had an orange lining, contrary to the popular silver belief. Then I suddenly started noticing that there were quite a few kites flying around, not the ones which we used to make during our summer holidays, the kind that will spot an ant hiding below a blade of grass from the height of a flying commercial flight, the kind that has wings and flaps it around ostentatiously, the kind that has a beak as curved and sharp as a nail which was unsuccessfully hammered into the wall, the kind which can swoop down graciously to the level of the flowing drain one instant and in the next instant can kiss the sky. So these birds of prey were tens in numbers and flying around on what was a very windy evening. Then I gradually scanned the sky to my left to the East, and found out even more of them flying around. There must have been some sort of insect or meat-pieces buffet out there somewhere, I thought. Anyways, amidst all the musings, I didn't hear my colleague calling me twice, and on what he told me was the third time, I turned around. I explained to him that the beautiful sunset had caught my undivided attention and for all the right reasons, and he observed that my betrothal had changed me profoundly. It may have, I admit, for it is an amazing feeling to be in love, but I have always been a fan of sunsets. Now, sunrises are a different cup of tea, and require me to wake up early and hence have been very deceptive, but one of these days, I'll catch a glimpse of that as well, and I'm sure it will be as magical.
    So if you think what's so special about a sunset and that it happens everyday, well, it does happen everyday. But everyday is special, everyday is unique, everyday is a chance to redeem ourselves of our past mistakes, to look forward to our future, to enjoy the magic of nature around us. If I sound like a hopeless romantic, then that's not entirely true, for, I may be a romantic, but I definitely hope :)

    We as a group entered the water of the Arabian Sea in Baga beach around sunset. The clouds were scattered, but big enough to block the Sun. That meant that the sunset was not visible, which was what I wanted to see and enjoy. But the presence of the clouds didn't deter the scattered rays turn the sky orange, and then a deep red, the kind of color which is difficult to explain but the easiest to remember and enjoy. The water was neither cold nor warm, the perfect temperature. The waves were of the perfect kind, inviting and at the same time, high enough to let you know your limit. The water was surprisingly salty. Well, surprising, because one of the people in the group who drank it accidentally (I hope) exclaimed "Its salty!". We had a good hearty laugh about the matter and since he happens to come from AP, people thought he would be more at home if we added a few chillies to make the water spicy.
    I, for one, made sure that I soaked in the moment. The sea did its best to help me get soaked. However, the waves were now getting less forceful, the sunlight non existent at the horizon, except for the very unusual mixture of red and orange along the edges of a few clouds on the east (yes east, since the rays were from the west and getting reflected). The moon was out, almost crescent shaped. The sound of sea is the one thing you can't escape. The continuous lapping of the waves is very soothing to the soul. This is when I seriously started missing Rohini. You see, since we are now engaged, if we have to go anywhere out of station, we need to make sure that we get the permission of both the families. If it is out of station and for more than a day, then we convincing the families is as easy as the Tatas convincing Mamata Banerjee, and the result was similar here as well. The ironic thing is, if she was just my girl friend, then I would have gotten her along with a well placed half truth, and everything would have been fine. But I'm digressing here.
    After a good solid hour in the sea, you tend to get really tired. The one word which can come close to describing the sea is "Relentless". The waves keep coming at you without a break and the sea is very unforgiving. No heroics will be permitted. I was happy to jump appropriately when a high wave came, and was feeling particularly proud when I landed properly on my feet and seeing that the same wave had swept the others in the group off their feet. But immediately afterward, another huge wave hit me so hard, that I had to yell "Its salty and it burns my eyes, nose, ears and throat", as the sea had found its way to put me in my place. I thought a few compliments might do me no harm, and started referring to the sea as the ocean. All you pedants would be smiling right now, but if you are not then you would not be. I even tried to explain to the ocean that I completely respect it, and I have watched Ocean's Eleven, Twelve and Thirteen and liked every one of them. This particular explanation was followed by twin waves, which I thought was the ocean's way of saying "Get out", which was exactly what I did after that.
    We played in the water the next day as well, when the sun was out, the sky cloudy, the sea rough, the wind fast and the tennis ball which we are trying to catch, out of reach. But that was fun too.
    I thought, the sea deserved its own entry, and put in this one after the previous post on the Goa trip :)

    When you plan a trip with your office buddies, especially a trip which involves overnight stay, it usually takes a few days to decide, plan, schedule and execute. When it comes to our team, and when it comes to a trip which involves 4 nights and 3 days, with families, and across the state, I think we did all the above mentioned things pretty quickly. It just took us a year. Yup, exactly a year after the topic of a trip to Goa was brought up and beaten the crap out of, we decided to "just do it".
    It was a trip with 11 adults, and 2 kids. It was a trip with the most uncomfortable sleeper bus one has ever endured, a trip where the bus had 2 flat tyres sequentially, a trip with a 5 hour delay, but what felt like a 5 day delay, to reach Goa. That ensured that most of Saturday was lost really. We had lunch at 6 pm on Sat, 6:30 pm on Sun and 8:30 pm on Monday, although you might argue that it is not technically "lunch" after the sun sets, and you would be damn right, but try telling that to a stomach starved of food, a left foot which was stuck painfully between an oncoming door and a non-moving floor, and the skin which was sun burnt and soaked in salty water! Now that I've the not so painless things out of the way .. :)
    It was also a trip which involved playing "dog and the bone" on an empty beach (except for the 13 of us) on a moonlit night (except for a deserted bar which still had a bit of light still left), a trip which involved trekking a hill to reach a fort whose history starts with a not so infamous movie "Dil Chahta Hai", and then trekked down to the edge of a nearby hill to sit on some seriously jagged rocks (this should have been part of the previous paragraph with the painful things) and watch the water thunder about 50-75 feet below, while trying to figure out whether the 2 huge creatures in the water close by were whales or dolphins! Yup we had a whale sighting, I think.
    It was also a trip where alcohol flowed in generously, in the absence of the aforementioned kids of course, a trip where I danced for nearly 3 hours in a disc where we entered the disc only at midnight (here in Bangalore we call it the time to sleep), a trip where a friend's wife saw her birthday being celebrated with a cake being cut in a nice restaurant with a bunch of guys and girls singing and eventually dancing in the middle of a tropical downpour, a trip where a buddy learnt swimming in 30 minutes and started teaching the others who didn't know, a trip with a mad rush to the train and a cold night's journey back home.
    You gotta love Goa :)

    Dancing is not everybody's cup of tea, mug of beer, glass of water or whatever container of your favourite beverage. Not that it matters much to people once there blood level alcohol has reached the same proportion as that of the water level in low lying areas in Bangalore during monsoons. I, for one, can honestly confess that I was convinced I had two left feet on weekdays and two right ones on weekends... until I went to a disco, about 2 years ago. Yup I'm not ashamed to say that I was a late bloomer w.r.t discos. But once I was there I realised, "Damn, I could have done that before!" Yup, not a lot of people can shake a leg really. Actually, that's not true. Most people can shake only one leg at a time. The rest of the body can go to hell, that's what they think. Anyways, I wasn't there to judge others' skills, I had other things to worry about like trying to shake a hand and a leg at the same time in the same direction, so as to display enough co-ordination among the body organs in order to not look retarded. But once you lose the initial inhibition, which is mostly your own and not imposed by anything external, and start listening to the music, and take in the atmosphere of the place, which is filled with youngsters just trying to have a good time or trying to unwind after a long week's stressful work, you can really start having a good time. Everything else is secondary after that.
    All this, I wanted to say, in order to introduce you to this video on YouTube. You have to please watch this, just to appreciate what dancing means. But most of all, you must watch this, in order to have a good time, or just unwind after a long week's stressful work :) Let me know what you think of it. If you do fall off your chair laughing, please ensure that you watch till the end ;)

My first movie in the Gold Class at PVR! And what a movie to watch as well!
    First things first. My brother decided to do a sweet thing and booked Gold class tickets for Rohini and I ( I was about to write "me and Rohini", but then thought, if there was a grammar pedantic, he or more likely she, would like to point out that it is really "Rohini and I", and hence the phrase. Well without digressing further ;) ..). I, being the demanding elder brother wanted him to book tickets such that there is only one big couch and we both can share it nicely, but it turned out that there is no such couch. Everything was a big chair. Very comfortable, but big, which meant that you are pretty far from your partner than you would be, if it was just normal tickets which cost say 250 bucks (Yeah that's what normalcy has become now... aah, how I long to go back to the college days where 80 bucks would get us balcony tickets in Rex, and we could never afford to get balcony tickets at Rex!) The initial discomfort of distance, however, quickly subsided when we found that the chairs were like lazyboys and can be moved such that you are in fact close to lying down :) I was like Chandler and Joey when they first get the loungers :) Now don't tell me you don't remember that episode.
    Now for the movie itself. The movie was "Rock On", and true to its name it really rocked. The music by Shankar, Ehsaan and Loy was absolutely awesome. Of course, I had already heard these songs for close to a month now on sunomusic (hey doesn't hurt to promote it ;) ) The acting was good, Farhan Akhtar's voice held on to the rocking notes, and the picture was a very believable one (not a lot of movies of late have been believable really. Please watch Kismet Konnection to know what I mean, although I kind of liked it really... hmmm) All in all, a very enjoyable movie and the experience was worth every paise of the tickets :) So thanks Pavan for the tickets, we really appreciated it :)