Life is a Freeway !!!

The legs are hurting, back is troubling and there is drowsiness in eyes (maybe a result of too much vodka + beer in last few days: D)

But the trip to Khajuraho & Orchha was fun and refreshing, Beautiful places especially Orchha. Wait for detailed account of the trip and photos. Till then, you can enjoy the panoramic view of sunset at Orchha across Betwa river.

I had enough time to think about certain issues and take some decisions while I was on trip.

I have been thinking about this for a while now, what is your say on it…………

Does our perception about a person’s creative work changes after knowing that person?

What might be “ok and nice” before we know him/her changes to “good and excellent” after knowing him/her …………………………….

Till then, let the life be on a freeway !!!

Do You ?

Do you like the songs because of the usual reasons (music, melody, lyrics, poetry etc)

or

Do you like the songs because of the mood you are in ? Once you are out of that particular phase, those songs dont hold the same interest any more.

Traces !!!

Are we all unconsciously biased toward people who have studied in good institutions?

Irrespective of where people reach (professionally), how much money they earn etc etc…..the education (not only academic) that is imparted at a school or college imbibes certain qualities or way of thinking in a person. In spite of how much a person tries, there always will be traces of that upbringing somewhere in him/her and it shows at some of the darkest time of any person’s life, when they are at the vulnerable stage and sometime in daily mundane instances too.

You can’t get away with it or Can you?

Few of you might say thats i am trying to generalize but lets face the fact that there are numerous instances of people coming from a certain place have some particular attribute common in them. Ofcourse exceptions are always there :)

PS: This is not a post written to evaluate a person, so don’t think along those lines. Neither is it written because someone has said something to me. Just something I have been observing for a while now and I wanted to know your inputs on it.

Cure ???

Cure for a Headache : A Can of Super Strong Warm Beer and a plate of Omllete made in Butter :)

I am thinking about the bottle of White and Red wine from Napa Valley which are there at home now :)

Lyrics from a beautiful track ...........

If I could start again
a million miles away
I would keep myself
I would find a way

Johnny Cash "Hurt"

Breaking the Shackles

Ok, let me admit one thing. There is a part of Chennai, I am missing right now. Before anyone of you raise your eyebrows, let me also state that I am missing my library out there. One of the few things, which I really appreciated in Chennai, was well stocked libraries in most of the colonies. Delhites, as we know have never been known for their love of books, therefore if you want to read, you need to buy the books at costly prices directly from stores. This has directly affected my reading habits after coming back to Delhi. I have not done any justice to my first love (Reading) after coming back here. Out there, I used to finish one new book per week but here, I think I have read only 5-6 of them after coming back. No more neglect of this precious habit of mine. As of now:-

Currently Reading: Maximum City by Suketu Mehta. A wonderful book about Bombay.

Next Read: The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai. This year Booker prize winner. I hope it doesnt turn out to be another "God of Small things"

Another thing that I have totally left behind is watching movies every weekend. Next 3 Movie on the list that i am surely gonna see :-

1) The Departed

2) Casino Royale

3) Dhoom-II

Current Mood:-

Feeling sleepy. Slept at 4 and got up at 7 for office:( though feeling liberated!!!

A Rollercoaster Ride

Life has been on Rollercoaster for past couple of months. Not that I don’t love it but the Rollercoaster has its own troughs and peaks in the process. Of course these troughs and peaks are originated by my thought process most of the times. One of the biggest problems of mine is I try to think and read too much into other people actions and they lead to some of the troughs in my life :( I know the fault is mine, but it just happens with me, especially with people I am kind of attached and expect few things. Talking about expectations, one of the lessons that I learnt long time back in my life is to minimize your expectations from people and you will have fewer reasons to be sore with someone. This has certainly helped me a lot in past. I do expect, but only from very few people in my life and they have never let me down and I believe I can confidently say that I have never let them down too.

Ok enough of my stupid ramblings……the last two weekends have been total raw fun. Prashie wrote an excellent post on our day out in a local fair on his blog. One of the best evenings of life till now. This weekend, we were out to Rishikesh for Rafting. This was my third rafting trip and prior to it I have done rafting in Kullu (Beas) and Rishikesh (Ganges). Highlights of the trip:-

1) The best Rapids till now, maximum risk-maximum fun till now. Risks in life always give me high and it was no different this time.

2) Pure, clean water of Ganges, Best till now.

3) Finding two branches of an Italian Restaurant in a small town like Rishikesh.

4) Finding a pool of water with waterfall next to it in a jungle after a strenuous trek. You are all alone out there to have fun like kids, which we did. (some thing like The Archies)

5) Guys can gossip and do lots of talking, even after deciding that we would be on bed by 10 (that’s why we didn’t go for The Departed), me and Prashie ended up doing all sorts of bakar till 12:30 in night on all kind of topics including gals :D (ofcourse, it has to be there)

6) Anjie (Anjali) trying her best to wake us 3 tired souls at 5 in the morning. So much so, that she even gave two blank call to me and made Tushar listen to her talks at 6 in the morning, while I pretended to be asleep all the time :D

7) Some excellent street food in Roorkee and Rishikesh.

8) Above all, it was good to be out with people with whom you are totally comfortable and you love them for what they are. And yeah, it was good to be out with Radha after a long time :)

I believe the best way I can put it up about both the weekends being so much fun that I don’t regret missing Man Utd matches on telly (Those who know me well, know what I mean here). Some memories, i hope i dont forget ever in my life :)

Tagged Again

This should complete all the tags that are due on me (Kanu's Tag). In any case, right now i am not at all in the mood to write. Last two days have been restless, pathetic and i think i have lost control over myself in certain aspects of life (very much unlike me) .

Here we go..........

1. When I look at the stars............I want to be the brightest among all of them !

2. Rains..........a good book, Tea and pakode :D

3. Happiness is.............satisfaction of doing what you want to do !!!

4. Books...........are my first love !!!

5. Men/Women(Whichever applicable)............both are important !!!

6. Love is...........magical

7. God........faith

8. Summer of 69?..................my introduction to rock

9. Pride...........is a trouble for any kind of relationship

10. Life.........is always beautiful :)

The Hidden Me !!!

Time for me to do some tags....Richa has tagged me to write 10 secrets about myself. Writing 10 would be little tough for me. But let me try :)

1) I have always wanted to go into any of the creative fields, preferably something related to design. Its one thing that i knew i would have excelled because i just used to get lost while drawing, sketching etc etc and now days working with my photos on computer.

2) I have always been a favorite of all my teachers; in fact I used to make it sure that first student they should think of should be "Deepak Kumar"

3) I have only been slapped/punished in school once because i was caught that time and that too none other than principal of the school: D

4) I was a very naughty kid, almost lost my life two times and my head has seen lots of stitches. All the relatives still talk about the kind of nuisance i used to create for everyone. My sis always tease me for Gungun going after me being so naughty :D

I am still a prankster but only when i am in a mood to be so.

5) Till college second yr (graduation) I used to have crushes easily, it was like, i see someone in U-Spl and I used to have a crush and within a week it used to go. Those were some days :)

6) My name has been in a CID list for around a week when we were protesting about our course troubles (BIT) in DU. They were maintaining a list of few students, so that they can hold them incase there is some trouble.

7) My mom has already accepted that i am not going to have arranged marriage. She suspects me of having a GF :)

8) In spite of what most of the people see and believe, I am quite a private person. I don’t share any problems of mine with anyone and i can hide them easily (few yrs of dramatics have helped :D)

Its tough for me to express what i think of my friends to others or sometimes to even them. Not that, I don’t let them know but i cant tell them just like that.

But, when i compliment of say something to someone, I mean it.

9) I have been in relationship only once. It was good till it lasted and it was a mutual decision to stop it also. The only thing that I have learnt from it was in spite of how much you plan, its god who is going to decide, whether that thing will take place or not. Took me sometime to get over it, but its over now :)

10) Now, since it has to be a secrets list, there has to be gals :D

The first thing i notice in any gal is her eyes and then her dressing sense. I like gals who can carry kohl in her eyes, who can carry sarees (its one amazing dress) very well, wear sleeveless tops or suits.

Also, I don’t like typical Delhi gals, who depend on the guys to take every damn decision or end up putting so much makeup on themselves.

Well i just like that independent streak in the gals and those who can take care of herself confidently.

Tagged !!!

I've been tagged by Woodie !

A) FOUR OTHER JOBS I HAVE HAD IN MY LIFE:
1. Business Analyst – Retail at Wipro Technologies
2. Consultant IT Solutions(SCM) at Wipro Technologies
3. Software Analyst at Xansa India
4. Writer (IT related articles) and Reviewer (Websites) for Civil Services Chronicle, Finance intern at Tata Power


B) FOUR MOVIES I CAN WATCH OVER AND OVER AND OVER:
1. LOTR – Trilogy
2. Godfather I & II
3. DDLJ
4. Sholay


C) FOUR PLACES WHERE I HAVE LIVED:
1. Bombay
2. New Delhi
3. Chennai
4. N.A.


D) FOUR TV SHOWS I LOVE TO WATCH:
1. Manchester United Football Matches
2. FRIENDS
3. Globetrotter
4. Most well made travel and food shows


E) FOUR PLACES I HAVE BEEN ON VACATION: (listing my favs)
1. Ladakh Region
2. Manali
3. Goa
4. Munnar


F) FOUR WEBSITES I VISIT:
1. http://soccernet.com
2. http://ibnlive.com
3. http://orkut.com
4. http://flickr.com


G) FOUR OF MY FAVORITE FOODS( IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER):
1. Rajma Pulao
2. Gobhi Parathas with Amul butter :)
3. Well made Pastas
4. Any good dessert and icecream


H) FOUR PLACES I WOULD RATHER BE IN RIGHT NOW:
1. With camera somewhere in Delhi shooting
2. With Vyom & Gungun or with any of the close friends
3. On a train trip in Europe
4. Bombay


well that was not tough...quite easy to do so...............!!!

Winds of Change

I am sure people (those in Delhi) can sense the change in weather for past two days. There is a chill in the air, skies are overcast and you can feel that winters are just round the corner. Finally after 2 years, I would be in Delhi in winters and only I know, how much i enjoy it. I just love the feeling of fierce cold wind hitting the face, having a good book while you are wrapped up in the quilt or just soaking the winter sun out there in the open. Delhi is just beautiful at the time of winters. To enjoy the cold, you just need to detach yourself from your apprehensions/ fear/ anxiety, whatever you want to term it. Just be there and try to soak in the cold winds and I am sure, you can enjoy the feeling.

On Wednesday, we had ODM-VII (Orkut Delhi Meet). It was great to meet all the old friends and some new faces out there. Richa aka CM has written an excellent post on it at official blog. Me or Prashant will add more to it by weekend. Just caught up with loads of work related to Diwali at home. Its my favorite festival and probably the only one i look forward to every year. Happy Diwali to everyone and their dear ones :)

Let me end this post it with few words from one of my fav tracks..........

Walking down the street
Distant memories
Are buried in the past forever
I follow the Moskva
Down to Gorky Park
Listening to the wind of change
Winds of Change @ Scorpions

Blink or Miss !!!

"Great decision-makers aren't those who process the most information or spend the most time deliberating, but those who have perfected the art of `thin slicing' — knowing the very few things that matter."
Malcolm Gladwell in Blink

In the today's fast moving world where we have to make so many decisions and perpetually there is an information overload hovering over our mind, what a person can do? Well, Thin Slicing. Thin-slicing is a neat cognitive trick that involves taking a narrow slice of data, just what you can capture in the blink of an eye, and letting your intuition do the work for you. Our mind takes usually two seconds to arrive at a conclusion about a person, situation etc.

Though Mr. Gladwell says that Thin Slicing is different from Intuition, I beg to differ from him on it. He says "Intuition strikes me as a concept we use to describe emotional reactions, gut feelings--thoughts and impressions that don't seem entirely rational. But I think that what goes on in that first two seconds is perfectly rational. It's thinking--its just thinking that moves a little faster and operates a little more mysteriously than the kind of deliberate, conscious decision-making that we usually associate with thinking." He might define intuition as a concept with emotional reaction and gut feelings but I believe those gut feelings are originated in us because of our past experiences which are lying in our sub-consciousness/unconsciousness and let us conclude to a decision. Anyways, no point in discussing the nomenclature of terms out here, when you can learn so much from the book. He picks up the e.g. from real life situations like marriage, World War Two code-breaking, ancient Greek sculpture, New Jersey's best car dealer, Tom Hanks, speed-dating, medical malpractice, how to hit a topspin forehand, and what you can learn from someone by looking around their bedroom etc. to make it quite a comfortable reading for even not so voracious readers (unlike me). The language is simple, words easy and examples perfect.

Gladwell also illustrates, how reacting intuitively to a situation can have disastrous consequences. The problem with thin-slicing, Gladwell correctly explains, is that it uses contextual cues, internal stereotypes and even prejudice to tell us what to do. For e.g. in one of the chapters he explained how people in spite of claiming (consciously) that they are not racist, they were connecting the black faces to not so good words. In another a small survey resulted in how ladies and blacks were being sold cars at high premiums. So, to thin-slice or not to thin-slice, that is the question. Unfortunately, Blink does not provide us with a clear answer. Gladwell hints that ultimately we should only rely on thin-slicing when our intuition has been honed by experience and training.

We all do thin slicing in our lives in different situations but what Blink might help us to understand is that it’s not the right option always. And as I mentioned in starting, we need to build a habit of concentrating on the things that matter while taking a decision. Most of the times we end up taking our decision on the basis of secondary factors for temporary satisfaction and not the real ones (whether it is a normal day to day problem in office or college or its a big issue at home/ relationship or society).

Thought of the post: Don’t overfeed your brain, while taking decisions. Keep things simple :)

Musings of a Stupid Mind

I got my Gmail id back. Google people mailed me today in the morning after conducting their investigation (that’s what mail said) and told me how to set up a new password. Thankfully, the id was not used to send any mails and no one deleted existing mails and pictures from Picasaweb. (That means all Leh pics are still on the site). Now the orkut community part needs to be sorted out. Lets see, whether Google investigations can result into something or not. I was just going through some of the messages on orkut and came to know that a lot of communities have been hacked by the same person named “Farzana” using the phishing site. I will write a detailed mail to Google tonight and wait for their response. Let’s hope for best.

There is a new channel (FM) on the air 104.00. They were having the technical test transmission till yesterday afternoon and I heard them first time day before yesterday evening. Within those 24 hrs, they probably played some of the best music on FM. So much so that, I was doing my work in office yesterday with headphones on all the time :) Hits from 60’s to 90’s. Of course not all song were good, they played some usual pop stuff too but I can live with that. But the moment techtest was over, they started 1 English and 1 Hindi number pattern and the quality of English songs went down. Nothing against Hindi songs (I love them) but we need at least one dedicated English channel though business wise (my mba education) this doesn’t make any sense because of high licensing fees in FM sector (some stupid Govt. rules) and lack of advt. (niche category of channel). That was the reason why Go FM in Bombay changed from English channel to a Hindi FM channel. Still 104.00 is better than 95.00 which is getting worse day by day. They have same set of songs and they keep on playing it again and again. Moreover, I think they just don’t know that English music has lots of category apart from Pop and Hip-Hop. Pathetic music!!! That leaves us with only AIR Rainbow 102.6. They play probably the best music between 8-10 in the morning though the RJ's are not at all good except the one on Tue 9-10 show (thanx to a friend for introducing it to me)

Btw, after going through Richa’s post, I think we do have premonition of bad things, that are going to happen. At least, I don’t feel something is right and get a queasy kind of feeling which something is going to be messy in next few hrs. Spooky…..naah…..experience and some unconscious thoughts in the mind. Probably yes, would write about the “Thin slicing” (judging something in few seconds) in next post. The “Blink – Malcolm Gladwell” effect.

Till then probably you can think over “How you are going to react, when a day which just started like a usual day turns into a good day in 2 mins, then turns in a excellent day in next 5 mins and then into probably a pathetic day in next 10 mins” How is a person supposed to react when faced with such a kind of situation? Had one yesterday, maybe musings of a stupid mind!!!!!!

Life is beautiful indeed :)

MW to MP3

I BELIEVE my car would be the only car being driven on Delhi roads in which MW (Medium Wave frequency channels from AIR) was being played for last one month or so. After giving me company for almost 6 years on uncountable number of times, my car music system finally decided to stop playing along with my rules. First the FM was gone and then the cassette (yeah, it was bought in 2000) player started to play music on its will. Finally this weekend, I decided that enough is enough and dumped my age old trusted partner in the car for a new Sony MP3/WMA music system. The pitfall: 5k gone straight into it, but finally good music on the drive because I can burn the CD’s of my liking. Already a dear friend has told me to take as many songs possible from her collection of mp3’s and I can always burn a copy of Prashie’s CD’s.

Coming to mp3’s , I do remember fondly about the music collection I had before I left for Chennai (Computer crashed and lost it totally when I was there). One of the stats that I can never forget was Getright (Download manager) showing, Downloaded data : 4.5 GB in 6 months and it saved 15GB of re-download. Nothing to be surprised of in 2006 but this figure is of 1999-2000 when we used to access the net using dial-up connection. My love for technology can be guessed from the fact that I bought (or rather made my dad bought) the first MP3 system that was launched by Phillips way back in 1999 (1200 Watts and it still rocks) and I had to explain the dealer, how mp3 works and his reaction as opposed to my belief was, it never gonna work :D

Well, Sunday was spent in writing few CDs and spending some time in Palika, which resulted in 6 mp3 CDs (Sting hits over the years, One Jazz CD, One of Indo fusion and finally a collection of Kenny Rogers, Johny Cash and few more music greats, Other two of old hindi songs of 70’s – 80’s). Rest of it was spent at Zen (good Chinese stuff with few shots of Vodka and Bacardi) with my graduation friends and yeah few shots at India Gate using a friends Nikon at sunset. Lets see how they come out.

Apart from that, probably i went through one of the worst thing that can happen to anyone using net. Somebody hacked my Gmail account through phishing. I agree, i was also not careful enough. Anyways, i hardly care about my gmail account, What i am really sad about that some used the same password to login on my orkut account and transferred the moderatorship of "New Delhi" and "Delhi Eating Out Community" to his name. Neeraj sir has entrusted me with "New Delhi" community and "Eating Out" was my baby. I used to spend around 15-20 mins daily to manage that one and i thought that it was quite a success when it was mentioned on FM (AIR rainbow) for its expertise. Time to move on, guess i had to learn it too hard way :)

Continuing with previous post “Anticipation”, the feeling is still same but it has gone in negative sphere now. I guess, its time to leave that feeling and venture back into my own comfortable world. It was good till it lasted, now it has no more place in my life :)

Anticipation

Do we need to look into each and every single detail, when we are anticipating something , even though that anticipation is just a thought that has been lingering in your mind and there is no practical reason behind it.

Human mind can always play so many games with the emotions of anyone that sometimes the tussle is too much for a normal person resulting into their other areas of life. Is it that tough to master your mind and heart that we sometimes are not able to control anyone or both of them...........

Anyway, coming back to point, i think the focus on small details are just to bolster our thought process, our imagination (which might be wrong) and negate any kind of pragmatic thoughts (which ofcourse are right most of the times).

Tough phase it is...............still life is beautiful :)

A New Beginning

I think i can give one more try to be regular with my post on this blog. Lets see how I fare this time :)

A lot has happened between previous post and this one. Let me try to put whatever i think should be here :-

• Left Wipro and joined a startup IT company in Delhi. Kind of strategic yet calculated risk. But thats me, i have always taken some big risks in personal as well as professional life. One of the mantras that i have always believed in is "The biggest risk in the life is not to take risk at all"
• Its feels great to be back to saddi Delhi, among your family members and friends. Nothing can beat this feeling.
• Finally out of Chennai, two year of it made me a crib-baby, which i never was. No more cribbing in life. Nothing against Chennai but I can never settle there.
• I have been travelling to many places after coming back to Delhi : Lansedowne, Bhakra Nangla Dam, Kota, Boondi, Ajmer and LEH which was just awesome. Finally i can accompany Prashie in all the trips after getting J of him all the time :)
• Sis-Jiju are here, kids have grown up and me being in Delhi was able to spend all the time with them. (http://photos.yahoo.com/dkmc705 Gungun Vyom-2006 Album for pics)
• Finally over with something which was just lingering around for a long time and something to look forward to everyday though it could be figment of my imagination :) but i am happy and already looking forward to how it goes.
• Met some really great people courtsey Orkut, connected more frequently with all old ones and found again some lost souls in the process.
• Photography is going on well, made a new Photoblog and i am learning something new everyday.

Some not so good things in past one year :-

• Not as independent life as in Chennai. Well I can accept that as a part of living in Delhi.
• Wipro was great experience, specially the bosses out there were simply great unlike most of the middle management in wipro.
• Manchester Utd. had the worst yr in Champions league, finished second in English premie league :( . hope it wont happen this year.
• Some good friends got married (mostly college crowd, nothing to be sad about but then you get to meet them less often now), some left to other cities and countries (Sayantani) for jobs or higher studies.
• Haven't been to Bombay for almost 1.5 yrs now :(
• Not at all regular with Movies, regular means watching more than 170 odd movies in theatre in 100 weeks at Chennai.

All in all quite a eventful it has been and yeah i am looking forward to coming few months. Lets see how it turns up to be.

Cheers and have fun guys.