Wednesday, June 03, 2009
Thursday, February 05, 2009
It leaks again ...
After a slight philosophical angle to my blog I get back to what I do the best BAKAR. I still have to unfold the Eurotrip story, so I jump right back into the past.
Sahu and me reached Salzburg and parked our butts in this awesome youth hostel there. It was one of the best hostels that we stayed during our entire time in Europe. Not just the rooms but the entire hospitality from great service to an awesome lounge for people to mingle. I was reading "The Thousand Splendid Suns" by khaled hossenni when I reached Salzburg and the receptionist at the youth hostel was kind enough to lend me a Grisham thriller for free!
About the city, Salzburg's claim to fame is that "The sound of music" was shot here. Its a peaceful european town with good food. One of the best Doner Falafel that I had during my entire visit was here. Other than that beautiful castle and parks as is the case with other European cities.
The beauty of backpacking is that you don't have a fixed schedule in mind and tend to flex as per your comfort. We met this huge australian group in Salzburg and mixed with them and spent almost the entire night discussing various topics from Cricket, Music and Movies. Throw in a couple of games of chess and you cap off a great night.
The next day we hit the Ice caves of Werfen. Its an awesome experience and I don't think my words can even come close to how it feels in there. Esp for Indians who are from Mumbai where you don't even need a sweater during winters (If you can call it one), it surely was a COLD getaway.
We planned to leave for Vienna that afternoon but our Australian friends made us to stay back that night and guided us through a beer tasting session at one of the oldest pubs in Austria. The beer was served in ceramic mugs 1 litre each and was drawn from oak barrels. We spent almost the entire night there before the people running the show kicked us out for being too loud.
The beauty of our stay in Salzburg was the friends we made there. We kept stumbling back into them during our other trips and each time it was better than before. So after the night out at Salzburg, a hangover hit Sahu and Sreeni hit Vienna... thats in the next blog
Monday, November 03, 2008
Sometimes there are moments which remind you of a similar moment in the past and sometimes those moments might have a past for themselves. Recently I stumbled upon such a moment in time. I was at the window seat in the train gazing into the open night. Night, from any moving vehicle, is like breezing through a photo gallery filled only with negatives. Only the contours of objects remain in the dim light of the moon and you strain your eyes to see what that object truly is. I was unraveling this mystery of nature when my eyes fell upon the source that caused this effect, the crescent of the moon. There it was distant yet somehow very approachable. This crescent stuck in the sky at a precise angle reminded me of another time and another place but with a similar moon. It was again a crescent trying to light the dark sky seen from the window of a train with a different destination. I was in the process of understanding life then and I guess I am still trying to understand it. And there it was,the crescent, like a beacon that reminded me of something that I had figured about life then but had forgotten on the way. That night when I looked at it, it was not something that keeps coming night after night every night that we are used to seeing but it was this instantaneous flash when you realize that there is more to something than what meets the eye. As I was trying to take in the wholeness of the dark sky that night it was not the moon I saw but a dimple in the beautiful cheek that was zoomed in front of me. A solemn face having an innocent smile with the dimple on its cheek accentuating its beauty. I was feeling sad that night, in the moment long gone, and here was the universe giving me a kind smile saying that it understands what I am going through and that things would be better. It made me feel gifted that I was sharing myself with the universe that night and somehow I lost that thread in the days that followed. As the moment within a moment brought back that realization, I look at the sky above and can still see the universe smiling at me. I wish I understand life someday but no matter how long it takes I know there is someone who knows that I am trying.
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Waiting for my real life to begin...
Back to those words...so here I was listening to this well composed track when my friend Rachit came online on gtalk (Know more about Rachit here). Anyways, Rachit was with me at IIM C and our discussions about life and all that shit that comes along with it have kept me going during these excruciatingly boring past two months of vacation.
"I don't like the concept" said Rachit. The concept he was talking about is "waiting for one's life to begin" and I asked why? Life,according to him, has to be lived in the moment and should not be something you wait for. The more you wait the more you lose the precious time you have on your hands. Makes sense doesn't it? Though it might be an idealistic thought that one should live in the moment and not care about anything else but often than not in life all we land up doing is wait for a better life. This is when the discussion went to the next level as to why don't we live in the moment? what stops us from doing so?
Couple of reasons for it: Fear of self,fear of society and above all fear of death. Below is what we discussed on this matter:
Rachit: Sometimes I feel that life is like a huge treasure hunt where we have to see the contradictions we live in, figure out the clue, and then figure out the answer
I don't know whether any of this makes sense to you but surely did to us. The fear of death is a crucial subject that according to us one should address upfront. The famous convocation speech of Steve Jobs at Stanford refers to this point as well. If you haven't listened to it already do it now. Its the kind of speech one would like to hear in his/her convocation adn we started discussing about the lousy speech that we were forced to listen to...more on that next :)
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Eurotrip : Part 2
So there we were, me and sahu, completely exhausted from the overnite train journey from Paris Gare du nord to Munchen but in extreme hurry to get a decent spot in one of the many tents. Luckily we were on time and got a chance ot take a look of couple of the tents before zeroing on the HB one. Being the early entrants into the tent we thought of getting sober before the others came in. So both of us had a 1 litre mug of HB beer and I must say that it was good. Giving us company were two Italians from Verona. Though the company kept changing from Italians to Canadian chicks to Irish cricket fans to French mountaineer the high was perennially there.
The Indian team had recently won the T20 world cup and gave the two weakest members in the tent-me and sahu- to take a shot at the huge Australian contingent :). The 8 hours stay also saw lots of expletives being shouted about our great neighbor- pakistan (I don't think the capital P is necessary for this country)- from a group of cricket loving Irish fans, with little support form us.
After 4 and half litres of bawarian beer and self realization of the fact that we had to leave for Salzburg and were in no physical condition to do so, me and Sahu finally bid adieu to our friends in crime and swayed back to the Station. I remember us ordering a veg pizza somewhere between here and there but who cares!. Thanks to our Eurail Youth Pass (A must for every student traveling on exchange) we got a ticket to slazburg. I decided to get back to my senses by gulping in a starbucks mocha but it did not make much of a difference.
You think thats the end of it? wait up...we somehow managed to spot our seats and rested our asses there just to find a hot chick and her friend come sit next to us :) and how did we know they were there?...They were the ones to wake us up at Salzburg !!! (Expected sparks to fly?Well! sorry for the disappointment)
Sunday, October 07, 2007
Eurotrip
Its been a long long time since I have posted something on my blog. Couple of reasons for that, for one I did not have much to write about and second and the important reason I did not have the patience to type what I wanted to :)
But now I have both. Due to a stroke of luck I happened to get a chance to travel to Europe on an exchange program and above that got a scholarship that funds my travel across this continent :)
So where do I start? Reached Paris on the 25th of september and happened to get a free acco and merc as a cab to travel around. Thats a grand start one might think but when you are in Europe nothing is grand enough.
So I reach my insti on the 27th and find out that I need to take only 4 courses which leaves me with 5 full weeks to travel around. WOW!!!
Why wait I said and the very first weekend we travelled to brussels and Bordeux. Lets look at each one at a time. Brussels , as many European cities, has this great blend between traditional and modern architecture. Huge monuments that take your breath away to the dazzling glass structures that Might make u feel th building u saw before was from a stone age. Two of my most passionate activities very touched upon in Brussels. One was when we went to the autoworld museum and the second the trip to the comic museum. The entire collection of cars and bikes from over a century was everything an automobile enthusiast might want to see and there are no words to explain the beauty of the original artwork of the great cartoonists.
From Brussels we went to Borduex the "Wine Capital of the world". With the entire IIMC junta there it wa sgreat fun and the great St. Emillion wine just made the entire trip even better.
Today as I'm writting this I took part in the Oktoberfest and will add the snaps very soon. The cafe is closing now...rest is next.
Saturday, August 18, 2007
Telugu flicks rock !!!
In one of these sessions to KV the discussion drifted towards movies and as usual my Tam friend applauded the brilliant performance of Ranji in his latest flick SIVAJI. I forgot to mention we all went for the first day first show of sivaji here in kolkata. On a personal front,I thought that the heroine was under utilized and the glimpses of talent that she showed in every dance number (unfortunately her only contribution) were breath-taking.
Neways, the discussion then moved on to Telugu films papularly known as GULT movies. I had recently seen the movie "Bommerellu" and thoroughly enjoyed every moment of it, considering the fact that I don't understand telugu. My first encounter with GULT came when I was in Hyderabad and my circle of friends were all ardent GULT movie lovers. During my 8 month stay in Hyd. I went for 2 gult movies in the theatre nad one of them was a "Cheeru"starrer. Both of them were raw action packed films and true entertainers going by the crowd hysteria that could be seen in the theatre.
My early impression about gult movies, I must say, wasn’t that great. There is this 20 mins cycle of events that repeat themselves 9 times to complete the 3 hour duration. The split-up of those 20 mins are as follows: Comedy scene (if with heroine part romantic), a song sequence, villain pitching in with his antics, an emotional angle where the hero swears to take revenge and as would be expected the action sequence. All this with a background score that too on dolby surround sound, the crowd has to go bonkers and which it does.
Bommerellu was a deviation and I recommend it for any movie buff. But hardly did I know that there was a different angle to gult movies. A friend of mine over the dinner conversation (we still haven’t left KV) enlightened me about the attitude that has to be developed to appreciate them. One has to have an open mind and should be receptive to the ideology behind such movies, the audience that they cater to etc. With this new outlook I saw “Athadu”,a Mahesh babu starrer, I in my sanest self saw that I really enjoyed it J
Sunday, June 03, 2007
The Living dead...
The idea about telling you this is not that this incident was funny or to highlight the kind of lawlessness that is rampant in India. The thing that caught my interest was what can a man do when he is alive but has been officially declared dead?
I guess he can do a lot. I feel I'm correct when I say that the law governs/is meant only for the living. If this premise is true that makes this person concerned the most powerful man as he is above the law !!! So what can he do now? get away with a murder telling that a dead man can't kill someone, u can't arrest a dead man, evade tax laws and not pay income tax (what a relief!)and just go around breaking whatever law that has been made for the living :)
What a cool situation to be in? I guess this is an area that has lots of exploration to be done. What if what I said was true and no law exists? I guess we will have a new thriving business in the most law abiding state of Bihar and see all Netas and Bhais fooling around with their death certificates in hand. Now its easy to get away with crime in Bihar even without this but look at the possibilities that this opens up for emerging young guns of the state !!!
God save India.
Monday, April 16, 2007
Between the Line...
Ever felt this drive to accomplish something that you dearly wanted to do? I guess most of us haven't.
The are reasons for the thought process behind the second statement. You might completely disagree with this but I feel most of us are driven by the goals that others set for us. Top the class, get a slot 0 job, have a girl friend ;) etc. While we are at it we tend to loose focus on what exactly is it that we want for ourselves. It should be the question that we need to ask ourselves often but we seldom do. You might be thinking why is this guy giving us gyaan that too arbit ? The reason behind it is that this was precisely the kind of discussion I had with my friends Varun and Anila before we embarked on the journey of shooting our first music video.
As a member of IIMC's music band, JBS BaroC, we composed our own original - Early days@IIMC. The song, right from the moment it was open for public, has caught on like a wild fire among the junta on campus. Thanks to everyone involved with its genesis. I didn't want the journey or the reach to just end there, that was the drive behind the video.
Though I always wanted to shoot a short film (I'm sure I will someday) and never really thought I would be shooting a music video, the pleasure of seeing one's imagination take form was too compelling a reason to go ahead with the plan.What happened next you can read it @ http://btlp.blogspot.com/
The entire video was shot in a weeks time and by far it was the best week of my duration in IIMC so far.
Hoping that the year ahead gives us more ideas that we can capture on camera and you all can enjoy with us.
Thursday, March 22, 2007

Before picking it up all I knew was this was a story about this guy who was part of the Mumbai under world, fought alongside the Taliban etc. , in short a dark storyline . The novel surely does have its share of darkness but what’s remarkable is the tint of brightness that each chapter ends with. Having read “City of Joy”, I felt it would be the same description of helplessness of the slum dwellers that would be portrayed in the part where the hero lands up in a slum. I was in for a surprise. Never once in the entire novel will u feel a sense of pity, all you feel is the exhilaration of a bystander on the victory of a fictitious friend slogging it out.
The factor the strikes the chord with the Indian reader is the lingo used. Very Indian ,very mumbaiya and very apt. The language used really makes u connect with the character and see with him the picture that he wants you to see. Though the width of this 1000 page epic might scare the reader, esp. if he/she is as thin as I…here’s my advice…give in to your crazy side and you will be part of this amazing journey that Roberts has charted for you.
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Saturday, December 09, 2006
Kolkata...the Malgudi of India
The first thought that comes to your mind when u land in Kolkata is that of nostalgia. Remember the series "Maldugi Days" of the good old doordarshan fame? This place is an enlarged version of it with poorer buses. The comparison is startling:
- Cows idling in the middle of the road
- Theatres with ticket prices Rs 12
- The trams which gives the bicycles a run for their money(Maldugi was better in this respect it let the bicycles rule the road)
I will stop here as the spirit of end term exams has started to roam the corridors of my hostel...Time to exorcize it.
Thursday, June 01, 2006
The Nail Tale

When the nail starts to grow it’s like an infant. It’s not big enough to be utilized for anything. It doesn’t get damaged, in other words taken care by the fingers carefully.
Then it grows a bit more when you can use it for making a crease while folding a paper and other such basic activities. This is the phase of adolescence when a kid inculcates different values in life or makes a crease in his life’s paper.
Time passes by the nail grows a bit more and the kid grows into a teenager. In this stage of the nail’s life we can use it for pinching people or use it as a bottle opener, the mischievous part of life. The teenage phase of life is where a person is at his mischievous best.
Some more time passes the nail grows a bit more. Now we are really worried, when we eat we are concerned about things stuck in the nail and something keeps lingering at the back of our minds that we should clean it. This is the phase of adulthood in a person’s life. He is knowledgeable enough to understand what’s good or bad for him. He takes in different ideas and views but tries to filter them and use only the most suitable one for himself. He is constantly worried about what he is getting into and makes sure that he fixes things before it gets out of hand.
Time waits for none and so doesn’t the growth of a nail. It grows a bit more and we are more concerned about the nail breaking on impact with something or the layers of filth that have accumulated over time. As we grow in life and reach somewhere between 40-50 years this is what one is constantly pondering about. We are worried about the layers of cholesterol accumulated in our arteries. We start looking back on our respective lives and try to find out whether it made any sense or not. Have we managed to keep our lives out of filth and maintained it as clean as possible?
You wouldn’t have noticed this but while you were reading the last paragraph …time still was moving. We all make mistakes in life but by the time we realize it, it’s too late because time is still moving and the small sore grows into a cancer. Cancers are to be cut out of the system or else they leave you with lot of pain. So what do we do to the mail here? We cut it off because we know if don’t do it now later its going to trouble us.
I don’t remember where I read it but it went something like this… A person in his later days is like a kid. One has to be taken care of, attended to and is dependent on others even for basic necessities. So where does this leave us? Back to the entire cycle of a nail’s life.
I guess the cleaner we keep our nails the better it’s for our lives.
Tuesday, May 30, 2006
The Minesweeper Magic
My association with minesweeper started during the training phase in my firm when we were given a task of coding the game using java. My friends used to play minesweeper in college but I never liked it that much. So here I was working on the algo of the game, along with three more java trainees, when my love for this game evolved. Minesweeper is one of the most logical and underrated game. Some people might say that to score a great time in it one needs to have luck, but I disagree.

There are ways to get a cool time in minesweeper and the first step towards it is to stop marking the mines. What I mean by marking is right clicking on the block u feel might have a mine in it. Once you get rid of this habit half the job is done as it saves considerable time of yours. Initially you might find it uncomfortable as you have to keep a mental note of where the mines are but down the line it comes very handy.
The remaining part of the job is to practice. Minesweeper is like any other sport, once you get the technique right then its all about practice. The other aspect of the game, which you will get to know when u start playing it, is that it’s highly addictive. The continuous drive to beat your own time keeps you glued to the system. There is another vital ingredient to get a good time in minesweeper, it’s the Mouse.
If there was a minesweeper contest the best players wouldn’t necessarily win as getting the feel of the mouse is very important to get a decent time on the clock. My experience with minesweeper has shown that when the mouse starts to feel as an organ of your body your chances of cracking the best time increases. With practice you will start to see the pattern in the mine arrangement which helps a lot in unraveling the grid.
As minesweeper is available in all pc’s and there is no volume ingredient associated with it, it’s a great game to pursue during office hours and which I’m sure many people do. I hope my tips come in handy…happy minesweeping…
Monday, May 29, 2006
Ad-ache
I guess the TV channels are to be blamed too. They air these irritating ads without understanding the sensitivity of the program being aired. Take for instance the recently concluded India-W.Indies One day series. India was getting belted left and right on the pitch every over and the only respite that we viewers had from the gory sight was the break between each over. Now why would I want to see three jokers jumping around and a babe advising them to have “Pepsi” when my team is being massacred on field?
Actually the Ad is misleading, when the telecast retuned to the on-field action I saw Kaif gulping ‘Aquafina’ and not any soda. Why can’t Pepsi advertise ‘Aquafina’, isn’t it their product too? I guess one should sue the likes of Pepsi for misleading the mass that players drink Pepsi, because they don’t. If they did they would be couch potatoes like the ones sitting and watching them play.
Pepsi Tv isn’t the only useless Ad around, there are many. The one that is eating up all the Ad time on Tv nowadays is of the AMITY school. In it, this guy has this ambition of making the leaning tower of Pisa straight. What nonsense is it? Why aren’t the teachers at AMITY telling their students that it’s that inclination that makes it a wonder and secondly it’s taking the government of Italy millions of dollars each year and lots of researchers to keep it from falling, let alone keeping it straight?
These things depress me a lot. What happened to the good old Ads that doordarshan used to air? Ek chidiya anek chidiya, the Nirma ad of deepika ji and their likes. Is creative talent in India dying or do Ad agencies think the viewer is a complete moron? I guess as a retaliation to their torture we should boycott all the products of Pepsi and let these firms know that the viewer can no longer take their nonsense. We can intensify the effect by buying the products of their rival, Coca-Cola.
Now that will surely burst the bubbles of Pepsi…kya behuda channel hain?
Sunday, May 28, 2006
Reservation hoopla
I don't have any strong stand when it comes to politics as I feel its void of common sense.Anyways I saw my friends,each carrying a candle,standing soulder to shoulder in the human chain.There was lot of enthusiasm in the air,partly because of the slogans being chanted by the people gathered and partly because of the TV cameras covering the event.As all my friends were busy here, I too thought of spending some time there.
As the time passed I started to wonder,do such demonstrations have any effect? Does our show of solidarity with the students mean anything when the people molesting the law aren't showing any and won't? I was searching for answers to these questions when this idea struck me.
The main issue that this reservation hoopla has brought to the forefront is the lack of sensible people in the government.We call ourselves intelligent but are we really?
I feel the castes that have the maximum say in the government are the most intelligent of the lot.If you see the political parties the majority of the party members will be from the so-called backward classes.So when they have spent so much time to get into the system and use it to their benefit,I feel they have every right to do so.
We,the forward class as they say,should not crib about reservations when we haven't given a thought all these years on running the government and guiding the nation towards the future.The people in the government have done that in whatever shitty way they felt was right.So if you feel reservation is bullshit then so be it because...SHIT happens.
Thursday, May 25, 2006
Relief at last...
Anyways here I was in my room watching the tube when the power failed.I was thankful that the power failed otherwise I would have wasted the lovely evening surfing channels.I picked up a novel,which is my instinctive reaction when power fails,and went to the porch to njoi the view. Just when I thought wow!!! what a great evening,it became better.My landlady got me a steaming cup of tea.
What else can a man ask for,barring females :),a great rainy evening with books and a hot cup of tea .I wouldn't have minded a plate of hot pakoras but then it was too much to ask from my landlady.I hope this great weather continues and the power fails in the evenings so that I can have this dream again and again.
Wednesday, May 24, 2006
The kite runner...

What can I say about The kite runner? READ IT!!!
A beautifully written novel that encomapasses a wide range of emotions right from a child's desperate quest for his dad's approval to the anguish of a grown up.The novel keeps you captivated right from the start and there is never a dull moment.The transition of Afghanistan from the 70's to its present state can be picturised as you take this journey with the kite runner.
Kudos to Khalid Hosseini for putting emotions into words so well.Its been a long time since someone has done that.The author,unlike most Indian ones,has used simple language to depict something so complex.

If you have read Vikas Swarup's 'Q&A' and enjoyed it then you surely will love 'The kite runner'.Both have almost the same pace and the crispness that forbids you to drop the book before you have finished it.
Back from Hibernation...
Things change when u make it to renouned institutes.Life changes a bit and its all attributed to the fact how people's view change about you when they hear you have made it to an IIM.Though I'm still as jobless as I was before cracking CAT,my peers feel I might upto something big by playing pool the entire day :D.
The day finally arrived (9th of may) when I put in my papers in my firm.Its a great feeling when u have put in ur papers,you can enjoy your life to the max. and if ur managers asks you to work you can brush him aside saying you have quit and won't work.I didn't get the luxury of trying it out as I didn't have any work in the first place :).
Now that I'm back,I hope to be a bit more active when it comes to updating my blog :)>