A week on steroids

Last week was one of those that ended before it started. It was studded with happenings that would take a while to erase from memory. I had my wedding anniversary last week. It was more or less planned for and we had a blast! It did burn a hole in my pocket, but I guess my pocket has been cold for so long, it can take a bit of heat. ;-)

Last week also saw one of 'first' ladies who joined our company go away on long leave. She has taken a 2 month break and it could be longer too. Feeling very happy for her, as she has done something coz of personal reasons and unlike many of us, she realizes how important it is. Also feeling sad, coz she was by far the most diligent of all when it comes to work at our office. We will sure miss JK.

Apart the good and bad times, some welcome discoveries from the world around me. First of, is this music project , which has definitely been one of the best apps I have come across in a while. Try it out and trust me you will love it! Ofcourse, it only houses English music as of now. Also got a looksie into yahoo beta last week, and it does look good. Gmail beware! Also, noticed how the sudoku craze has taken over most of the print media?If you did, then you will like this.

I have been thinking about getting myself a new mobile, but I am almost sure I don't want to go the typical mobile way anymore. I wanna get sophisticated and yet remain playful. I want to get myself a smartphone! Can't decide between looks and f unctionality and track record. Lemme see....

Grind

My daily workload seems to have increased these days, contrary to my plan to getting it reduced. To add we seem to have so many power cuts these days, and in my office the ACs don't work when there are power cuts. These comps and boards get so damn hot without AC that its ultra uncomfortable. I can't call it an out of world experience, but after spending an average of 12 hrs a day the last 9 yrs in AC rooms, it sure feels like a different world.

The only real escape from this workaholic lifestyle if go away on a vacation or a more simple form is to go for these bubbles of escape, movies! Whatz the next good movie out there? I think its the The DaVinci code. I hear IceAge-2 is also good, maybe will watch it the coming weekend.

Tomorrow I have a friends kids 1st birthday party to go to... should I buy a gift? Tomorrow NSD flies to chennai as he fights his way to get himself a visa to the US. :-). Tomorrow...Tomorrow...Tomorrow. There ain't much in any tomorrow if you don't will it. :-)

The fiasco and more...

What I term the fiasco here is very local in nature and guess what shook Bangalore last week? Yes, The death of a matinee idol. The reason why I bring up this 'old' news is because I have been seeing so many programs in kannada channels about how badly managed the whole 'after death' scene was. I don't intend to do police bashing here, god knows they have got more than their fair share last week! But, the fact that the family members of the matinee idol were not allowed near the body during the last minutes!! What kind of adulation is this??

What was more appalling of course were the incidents before the funeral. Now, it is pretty clear that the people who vandalised Bangalore were not the fans of the matinee idol. The reason I say this is coz the ones I saw on TV doing this were not sad or grieving. They were just happy doing what they were doing? What prompted this sudden outburst of violence? The more I thought of this the more I wanted to get an answer, And this is what I came up with. I feel the Kannadiga, is on the losing end of the ever growing economic imbalance that plagues Bangalore. We live in the cocooned society that is very hep, very happening, very flaunting. We in fact even forget that seeing a movie at Inox is beyond the dreams of most people who live in Bangalore, but to us, its quite ok. isn't it? The rent in most places inside the city is beyond the range of the struggling "middle class", but we definitely can afford it. Want to buy a site some 15kms from the city? Think again, coz its gonna be more than double the entire PF amount saved by the struggling "middle class". The list of woes and never to be fulfilled dreams goes on and on...

Who will pay for this growing discontent? My answer, I think we just did payback partially last week.

Down But Not Out!

I have been kept busy at work and having connectivity problems from home. This has literally killed my blogging time, just when I was garnering some readership. ;-)

 

I will definitely blog from office today.. to hell with the bugs! They never seem to stop for me, why should I stop for them? BTW, hot off the press, Radio Mirchi is online as is available at 93.3FM. They seem to be trying to create a listening crowd that is "upwardly mobile kannada speaking" crowd. They don't wanna mess with the established listeners of Radio City so early in the game, for e.g. its difficult to get used to somebody other than Vasanthi in the mornings and first impressions matter a lot and they know that.

 

Anywayz, just wanted to have a post to indicate that I have the will but not the instruments at this point in time to blog daily. :-( . But, I WILL BE BACK... hell, I am already BACK! :-))

Continuity

Back in Bangalore after 4 days and already feel like so many things have changed. The Rajkumar incident happened and many new to Bangalore would have seen a different face of Bangalore. I cannot say I have seen too many such days, but yes, I have seen some like the time when:
1. Cauvery Water issue was raked
2. Urdu News was being broadcasted
3. Rajkumar was kidnapped by Veerappan.

Those days were not good and I trust last Wednesday and Thursday couldn't have been any better. The footage starved TV media went about the usual sensationalising of the situation and boy do I hate that! Feel deprived of the 'truth' coz of all this!

Anywayz, am I back in action and raring to go?? Well, unfortunately not quite. Still trying to find the thread of continuity which I left last Wednesday....

Out Of Station...

Yes... I am outta here again. This time to kerala, going for the mallu new year, Vishu. Will be back on Monday.

Heres wishing you all a very happy, successful and peaceful year ahead!

Review - V for Vendetta

I was waiting quite desperately for this movie because of the wachowski brothers. These guys gave us movies like the Matrix Trilogy and Assassins and this made me very eager for their next one. Now, to help everybody else, the brothers have only done the screenplay and have not directed it. So, there you go... killed half the expectation from the film, didn't I. Unfortunately for me, I knew this only after I had bought the tickets. :-(

From the general mood of the post you can guess that I didn't like the movie very much. What the movie lacked most of all was screenplay! Yes, The brothers have done a bad job at it. There are characters thrown in every now and then and we are left to figure out their relevance to the storyline. Now, with all the special effects and distractions of Matrix and the fact that it was a trilogy made up for the lack of story explanation. Here, we have no such distractions and the holes in the plot become very obvious. The "V" of the movie i.e. the hero has no history. Why he does whatever he does is not well explained and the explanation that is given is so so lame! Why he messes around with the heroine(Natalie Portman) is even more meaningless. The Hitler like villain and his administrative lieutenants give a very "mugambo and gang" kinda kiddish feel. I did sit through the movie though and thatz coz there are some good points too. The idea that is supposedly being delivered is good. The Yankees have self destructed and the pommies found the Hitler like ruler the only way they can escape the fate of their friends in war. The dialogue delivery of the protagonist, Hugo Weaving (Agent Smith of Matrix) is intriguing and stylish, can't say much about his acting, he is wearing a freakin' mask throughout the movie! There are some good action sequences, but few and far between.

All in all, not up to my expectations, I would give it a 2 or 2.5 stars out of 5, barely viewable.

Feeling irked...

Whatz with all these promises that are being showered on Bangaloreans off late by the Government?? New flyovers being promised, New Roads being promised, Land to IT companies, Greater Banaglore being envisaged?? When will these ever get done?

What we need is more accountability in place. How do we get this into the system? How do other countries get their infra work done? Are the people just plain evil(corrupt) in India? How did China get to where it got? Does communism really have such a great affect on daily life when every other capitalistic comforts are present??

I only have questions today! :-((

I guess you cannot expect much from a government that shows equal concern to Lata Mangeshkar leaving Mumbai if a flyover is built near her apartment as to Medha Patkar starving to death!

I am back

After a quick (5 days is not too long) trip to Goa, I got back to Bengaluru yesterday evening. We covered 1300+ kms which took us about 24 hours in total driving time. The weather in Goa was just perfect and all the sunscreen lotions were a waste. I don't believe I have got a tan, but if you have seen me you would know that I am blessed with a permanent wheatish tan. :-) We strictly restricted our movement in Goa to beaches and discotheques. No St.Xaviers body and churches for us! Apart from all the fun we(Piggy, Pindz and me) had I have two regrets from the trip.
1. Didnt taste the Goan delicacies
2. Didnt take enough photos

But if the infosys rumour mill is to be believed, my wife could be getting a sponsored trip to Goa, and maybe I can have a less hectic and more romantic time the next time around.

Got into office today and got busy with issues, as usual. It will take a couple of days to digest all the work ahead. Usually after a vacation I am raring(and sometimes desperate) to get some work done. This time things are different. I just didnt feel like getting back to work and only the pressing issues we have had me bothered enough to work. Maybe I am getting bored of my work afterall, now thatz a good sign. :-)