Cool Hand Luke

You're Beautiful

2006-10-27T14:37:00.000-07:00

Awesome awesome song by James Blunt - You're Beautiful

http://youtube.com/watch?v=rhf34uUBFsA

Mirza Ghalib

2006-08-24T12:08:00.000-07:00

Never been a fan of gazals and Urdu poetry and particularly Ghalib, as I never been able to understand them. I've seen some people who are. I faintly remember the serial 'Mirza Ghalib' by Gulzar.
Tonight I was listening to 'Ibteda', and I am just in love with the song rendition by Jagjit Singh of this piece from Ghalib. Probabaly the narration in the beginning hooked me in.

Balli maarhah ke mahalle ki wo pechida daleeloN ki see galiYan
saamne Taal ke nuKkad pe baTeroN ke posheede
guD-guDaati hui paaN pi peekoN meiN wo daad wo waH-waH
chand darwaaze par laTke huye boshida se kuch TaaT ke parde
ek baKri ke mamiyaane ki awaaZ
aur dhoondhlaayi huyi shaam ke be-noor andhere
aise deewaroN se mooH joD kar chalte haiN yahaN
chuDi-waala unke katri ke badi bee jaise
apNi boojHti hui aaNkhoN se darwaaze TaTole
isee be-noor andheri see gali qaasim se
Eik tarTeeb ChiraGon kee ShurU hoTi Hai
ek quran-e-sukhan ka safa khulta hai
asad allah Khan 'GHalib' ka patha milta hai.

Long Time

2006-08-24T11:58:00.000-07:00

I haven't updated this blog like since forever. It's difficult to maintain multiple blogs (I've three - two personal plus one team, active blogs to write for). It's acceptable given that I have been busy enough to not to write for my other blogs too. Enough for rants.

Loved this TV Ad

2006-06-07T05:59:00.000-07:00

Loved this Titan Fastrack TV Ad. Ad Agency - Lowe

Mehfuz by Euphoria

2006-05-06T04:24:00.000-07:00

'Mehfuz' is disappointing. There are only two songs which are somewhat bearable. I promise myself not to have too many expectations henceforth.

The problems with Mehfuz - plenty. Palash, please get a better lyricist. As much as I love your voice, I want to enjoy your music in entirety. I love your beats, but I hate your loudness - just too many instruments, you are tempted but not compelled to use each one of them.

Positives about 'Mehfuz' - diversity of music.

On a side note- perhaps, its only in India that people give almost as much importance to the composer and lyricist as the singer. When was the last time you bothered to know the name of the lyricist/composer of Briteny 'horrible but horny' Spears' latest torture.

Eagerly waiting for Euphoria's new album

2006-04-21T13:32:00.000-07:00

I'm eagerly waiting for Euphoria's new album - ~~Mahfooz~~ Mehfuz. Meanwhile, music of 'Fanaa' has been unimpressive and disappointing.

Kailash Kher has been impressive in the past, so I had huge expectations with 'Kailasha' and he didn't disappointed me at all. Great stuff.

In dearth of good music lately I'm back to my old collection.

In Praise

2006-03-19T07:18:00.000-08:00

The observer says

[Dravid is]...like a geek who did well at cricket instead of maths.

Music: Favourites

2006-03-19T06:57:00.000-08:00

"You Not Me"- 'Falling Into Infinity' by Dream Theater.

Barca are too good

2006-02-25T12:14:00.000-08:00

Barca were too good for Chelsea in what could probably be called match of the year. Though Terry did some great defending. And then ever so brilliant Ronaldinho's free kick that made the second goal.

I watched only the second half - the most of a single match I have watched this season so far.

So that I don't forget

2006-02-25T11:36:00.000-08:00

Crisis brings people closer.

Rang de Basanti: the movie

2006-02-14T00:47:00.000-08:00

Okay I watched it finally. The idea was artistic and rhetoric, but the execution failed somewhat. The director seems to be overwhelmed about the concept himself. I don't blame him, its rare to find good ideas in this blooddywood. Perhaps its something to with our satisfaction with mere mediocrity.

I loved my 100 kmph drive afterwards BTW. Pulsar rocks.

Mohammad Cartoons

2006-02-14T00:23:00.000-08:00

Its ridiculous asking Danish government to apologise for the act of some of their reporters.
Freedom of speech has become relative or what. The same people who are asking for heads of reporters this time, would cry 'freedom of speech' if reverse would have happened. and the vice versa.
The world and its paradoxes!

Rang De Basanti

2006-01-02T00:12:00.000-08:00

What has happened to A.R.Rehmaan? Leave aside 'Paathshaala' and 'Roobaroo', everything else in 'Rang De Basanti' is one of the worst of Rehmaan. Paathshaala's music is average but lyrics are horrible horrible, primarily a result of song being written to fit the music, as has been the case with most of the Rehmaan music lately. 'Roobaroo' is catchy, and I liked it.

Floyd again and more

2005-12-19T11:06:00.001-08:00

There is something special about Floyd music. Listening to 'Any color you like' and 'Brain Damage' makes such a hallucinating effect.

'Total Mukti' is a two ex IIT-K students' concept band. I listened to 'The Right World' for the first time, and I'm looking for more now.

"Windmills of Your Mind"

2005-11-20T10:06:00.000-08:00

I'm spellbound.

'Windmills of Your Mind' by Sting

Round, like a circle in a spiral
Like a wheel within a wheel.
Never ending or beginning,
On an ever spinning wheel
Like a snowball down a mountain
Or a carnaval balloon
Like a carousell that's turning
Running rings around the moon

Like a clock whose hands are sweeping
Past the minutes on it's face
And the world is like an apple
Whirling silently in space
Like the circles that you find
In the windmills of your mind

Like a tunnel that you follow
To a tunnel of it's own
Down a hollow to a cavern
Where the sun has never shone
Like a door that keeps revolving
In a half forgotten dream
Or the ripples from a pebble
Someone tosses in a stream.

Like a clock whose hands are sweeping
Past the minutes on it's face
And the world is like an apple
Whirling silently in space
Like the circles that you find
In the windmills of your mind

Keys that jingle in your pocket
Words that jangle your head
Why did summer go so quickly
Was it something that I said
Lovers walking allong the shore,
Leave their footprints in the sand
Was the sound of distant drumming
Just the fingers of your hand

Pictures hanging in a hallway
And a fragment of this song
Half remembered names and faces
But to whom do they belong
When you knew that it was over
Were you suddenly aware
That the autumn leaves were turning
To the color of her hair

Like a circle in a spiral
Like a wheel within a wheel
Never ending or beginning,
On an ever spinning wheel
As the images unwind
Like the circle that you find
In the windmills of your mind

Pictures hanging in a hallway
And the fragment of this song
Half remembered names and faces
But to whom do they belong
When you knew that it was over
Were you suddenly aware
That the autumn leaves were turning
To the color of her hair

Like a circle in a spiral
Like a wheel within a wheel
Never ending or beginning,
On an ever spinning wheel
As the images unwind
Like the circles that you find
In the windmills of your mind

Bookworm

2005-11-20T10:02:00.000-08:00

I'm reading 'Softwar' and 'The Nudist on the Late Shift' these days. Other work in progress includes 'Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance' and 'The Dilbert Principle'. Haah, so much to read. Just finished 'The Art of Start' by the way.
More about the books - later perhaps. I'm just listing links for now.

Softwar: An Intimate Portrait of Larry Ellison and Oracle by Matthew Symonds, Larry Ellison(Commentary)

The Nudist on the Late Shift : And Other True Tales of Silicon Valley by Po Bronson

The Dilbert Principle : Cubicle's-Eye View of Bosses, Meetings, Management Fads, and Other Workplace Afflictions by Scott Adams

The Art of the Start : The Time-Tested, Battle-Hardened Guide for Anyone Starting Anything by Guy Kawasaki

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values by Robert M. Pirsig

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

2005-11-05T01:28:00.000-08:00

I am still in the process of assimilating this book. But I felt the urge to pour some uncooked thoughts here. This book certainly is not a regular read and only few will be able to manage to complete it(I hope I can! Less than 200 pages to go).

Questioning rationality and principles of science was unthinkable for me before reading this book. I somehow managed to reason "rationality" in those days. Randomness was something I used to rely a lot to explain irrationality (explain irrationality! oxymoron of sorts. I'm too rational :-)). That would change once I finish this book. Ah, few more hours.

ON@TCC

2005-11-05T01:00:00.000-08:00

Bad. I didn't quite like even Chetan's first book "Five Point Someone", for it cheated its readers with black and white potrayal and stereotypical characters. Chetan's attempt at writing another masala book seems to have failed somewhat even by others' standards- people who liked the first book, met few while travelling back from home. "Five Point Someone" was unique in some sense, "One night @ the call centre" is not. It has the same style of narration. Though I must admit I haven't read the entire book, I couldn't, for, one it was a borrowed book on the same journey I mentioned earlier, and other, I didn't quite feel the urge to.

On a sidenote I noticed my reading speed change with different fonts noticably. I was going quite well, but my reading speed dropped with change of font in one of the chapters. The new font was similar to "Trebuthet MS" and it was surprising for me to find that good old "times new roman" is the best readable font.

Black

2005-10-07T02:25:00.000-07:00

I love black the colour. It's graceful, it looks mature, demonstrates confidence and power. But I hate to see it in the background of a web page. I spend plenty of my time in front of a computer screen, so I have to have an anti-glare screen on, and monitor brightness set to zero. And then someone shows me a page in white on black, ah..hardly readable. So I've to change Page Style to No Style in my Firefox browser to make the page readable, unfortunately no such option is available in IE that I know of.

Speaking of colour contrast and readability, I once read black on yellow is the most contrasting combination followed by black on white, hence the readablity(btw black on yellow would look awful on a webpage if not handled properly). There are ways to make a page look "cool" other than painting it black.

Slashdot

2005-08-15T10:34:00.000-07:00

Recently, I got some of my submissions posted on Slashdot main section. Here is the one on IE7, another about the harsh steps being taken against P2P piracy by EU, and the one about perspective misinterpretation on the Wikipedia freedom. The last one made its appearance in the Slashback section, the report on the week that was.

New Harry Potter is out

2005-07-20T05:12:00.000-07:00

And I got no time to read it. Perhaps later sometime. Meanwhile as Dumbledore says

"It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities."

Movies and music

2005-07-17T05:09:00.000-07:00

I really liked two songs from the movie Yahaa... "Naam Adaa Likhna" and "Urzu Urzu Durkut". the second one perhaps has some Kashmiri words..I don't understand all of it, but the music is pretty sweet.
'Sarkar' is a movie I have kept in my wish list. One reason being, it has no song sequences :-) and that is my crude indicator of the movie having at least some substance. Well, I put theater/plays much above the movies. I have my own yard-stick to rate perfoming arts. These days I don't get much time to see plays or movies, but then, that doesn't change anything.
The other reason for 'Sarkar' is that it is based on "The Godfather". One of my most admired Indian movies "Nayakan"(I have seen only the dubbed hindi version) is also 'inspired' by this novel from Puzzo. And my benchmark would more be "Nayakan" than the two hollywood "Godfather"s(the third one was a farce).

A dream

2005-07-15T04:56:00.000-07:00

Last week, a mail rekindled my one time devised plan of backpacking India. The plan was to travel India with bare minimum overheads. Traveling in state-owned buses, staying in cheapo hotels, eating local foods and all. That was a dream. And perhaps not to be materialized so easily. Various reasons. Life is not that easy.

Floyd's High Hopes

2005-07-03T04:16:00.000-07:00

Beyond the horizon of the place we lived when we were young
In a world of magnets and miracles
Our thoughts strayed constantly and without boundary
The ringing of the division bell had begun

Along the Long Road and on down the Causeway
Do they still meet there by the Cut

There was a ragged band that followed our footsteps
Running before time took our dreams away
Leaving the myriad small creatures trying to tie us to the ground
To a life consumed by slow decay

The grass was greener
The light was brighter
With friends surrounded
The nights of wonder

Looking beyond the embers of bridges glowing behind us
To a glimpse of how green it was on the other side
Steps taken forwards but sleepwalking back again
Dragged by force of some inner tide

At a higher altitude with flag unfurled
We reached the dizzy heights of that dreamed of world

Encumbered forever by desire and ambition
There's a hunger still unsatisfied
Our weary eyes still stray to the horizon
Though down this road we've been so many times

The grass was greener
The light was brighter
The taste was sweeter
The nights of wonder
With friends surrounded
The dawn mist growing
The water flowing
The endless river

Forever and ever

I hope I ain't infringing any copyrights. My favourite ever since I heard it for first time.

When it rains it pours

2005-07-01T15:46:00.000-07:00

It has been raining for past one week. Haven't seen the sun coming out since then. As much as I love rain, I can't afford it. Ok...I want it to be raining 12 to 6 in the day and 9 to 12 in the night. Oh Rain Gods! adjust your timings please.

Remix music

2005-06-29T16:30:00.000-07:00

I used to hate this brand of music. Most of them are real crap with shitty videos...bunch of sluts dancing on the screen. But I must say, I liked a few experiments. The so-called latino mix is pretty smooth on ears sometimes, so is some of Bombay Vikings stuff. But I am a purist by heart. So I'm all for the original stuff.

I got my TV back

2005-06-21T15:19:00.000-07:00

Yes, finally I have a television at home. I was really missing the one hour of surfing through channels. At least, I've one incentive to spend sometime at home now.

Directions

2005-06-04T14:53:00.000-07:00

Ok..this would be my personal blog. I'm not expecting anybody to read it. Postings will be short, more personal kind, more like 'I love this-I hate that'.

Not yet

2005-05-28T23:45:00.000-07:00

Nothing for you to see here. Please move along.