Saturday, March 28, 2009

Kaneri Caved!!

Not many people know there are caves in Borivalli National Park. You need to take a bus, okay to be frank a mini caged bus. The most important part of the journey was at the entrance, buying tickets otherwise we cannot go inside you see. Yeah cutting the crap, we have to reach there at around 10 IST (Indian Standard time), so that you can get a amazing whole day to spend in there.

If you have a girl friend, then this is the place to visit often :). The entrance fee is a meagre 20 bucks which gets multiplied at every junction. The ticket is just to enter the park. After that every section has individual fees, which for me was like exploiting the labor class. You see recession and credit crunch and stuff. Some how we managed it. You will get water inside the park. But I would suggest you to carry some water bottles.

The bus took us to a point beyond which there was road repair work going on. The bus waala then should have ideally taken only half the price as we were literally walking for 15 mins to reach the actually caves. Yes, the bus has separate tickets too. The most idiotic part, dont loose the tickets you have taken, they have to be returned!! :) :)

We were like four of us. Sai, Amol, vivek and ofcourse me. Vivek was a new guy whom I did not knew. But did use my Colgate gel to gel with him. He looked like Jesse Rider from New Zealand. Only difference, Jesse is in form; and this guy Vivek is lacking some of it. This was my first visit, so I did not expect much. They say going to the park in the rainy season is the best experience, as the lush green mountains will capture your imagination for quiet some time.

There are 100 caves in all, phew that takes quiet some time to see them. We just saw a few of them and took some snaps. Monkeys were running marchhem, oh sorry it is mayhem, just missed by some months. Be careful with your bags and mobiles otherwise, you have to pray to Lord Hanuman, even after praying I doubt you getting it back. Please take some bananas, might come in handy in such situations.

We can spend a lot of time there, but we took just an hour and a half. The climb down is always simple. We reached the bus, which took us back to the starting point. The time was 12:30 PM. We wanted to check the Safari timings. But the next safari was at 2PM. So I would suggest you finish off the Safari and then go to Kaneri caves. We missed the trick of not going for the Safari first. We could not find much energy then to stay till 2 pm and then check out the Safari.

We were hungry and we were thirsty for some food and drink. The entry tickets you buy is valid for the entire day, so you can check out for lunch and then come back again. So make sure you do that, otherwise you will be paying again for the tickets. While retracing our way back we got lost a little, so be sure you ask people where you are going. Enjoyed I must say is a underword, yeah yeah it is understatement. I kind of liked the cover of this park, though we did not cover the safari part. Covering all the places would require lot of strength in the legs, otherwise your legs will just run for cover. There is boating and also a mini train. Again separate fees for all of them. So when you cover the whole park; keep a track of covering the expense also. :) :) cover that!!

Not a bad place to visit when you feel very down and out. You will get a lot of energy from the trip. I was kind of bored and really down for the past week because of some alarming events. Leaving them behind my back (yup the round one), I should certainly suggest Kaneri caves as one of a cool spot to hang out with friends. If you have not visited it at all, then this blog will shave, oops save as an inspiration for you to check it out!!

If you have not visited this place then here are some snaps to add ghee to fire!!

Yeehhh Dosatiiiii Hum nehi.....sorry forgot lyrics


That is a remanence of a bus...mini bus (after Bajrangadal revolt after late 20th century, the bus has been really shaken badly out of shape)


Thats Sai and Jesse Rider (like "Riders on the Strom") , Look the glow behind their face. Buddha has enlightened them!!


Thats Human Wikipedia on the left!! :)


All four fall down!!


The place was very dark, I am very fair!!

Some art now!!Some monkeys as requested!~!



Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Blog samarpanam!!

Yup one more blog dedicated for my blog!! I got the cool T shirt I was talking about. This is just a pilot thought to get some impetus to my blog from the advertising point of view. Just some thing, which can spread the wings of my blog a little more!! :) :)

I hope these pilot thoughts keep flourishing, with amazing bloggers and readers around the world like you!! Here are some pranks and snaps!!

Om Blogaya Namaha


Its coffee time man!!

Did you say poor?

Do you think India is a poor country? What's the first impression you get when someone calls it a poor country? Yes, even I get the same impression. How can you call India poor? Its growing by the day, one of the foremost developing country. Look at the amount of development around. The growth rate, the growing manufacturing and agriculture industry.

With most of world class technology coming in, the production prowess has multiplied. Look at companies like Tata and Reliance. They have grown leaps and bounds. Mukesh Ambani and Anil Ambani are considered to be among the top richest people. Look at how we are growing everyday. Inspite of all this global recession, the Indian countries are doing well. Yes the IT sector has been affected, but that is throughout the world.

The telecomm surge and the mobile super nova, has tilted and ignited the wheels of development. After the vision of mobile phone by Reliance Dhirubhai Ambani, now it is the vision of Ratan Tata with this car Nano. Are we not going towards the developed nation tag? I met a girl online on facebook from cannada I think. As soon as I said, "I am from India", she says, "I have heard that it is a poor country from one of my friends, sorry to know that you are from there". I was really taken aback.

Either her friend must be blind or she must be deaf. I asked her, if she has misconception because of the movie "Slumdog Millionarie". But she had never seen the movie. She had never been to India. I told her that you should come to India, before deciding if it is poor country or not. She agreed. This was just a conversation. It had serious repercussion in my mind for the next days. I was thinking, what has India done so that, that girl's friend calls it poor. I was riding my bike thinking about it. As there was a traffic light, most of them stood. Some broke the rule and drove off inspite of red light.

Then came a red liquid from the left which feel just inches before my bike. Yes a guy spit paan. I looked at him with a staring eyes.He just looked back at me and said "Kya?" (what? in hindi), as if I had done something wrong.Then there was two guys begging for money. A old lady going from one auto to another begging. The police man stopping people who drove off in red light (I was thinking at least, there is law and order). The guy just showed some identity cards or bribed the police man. The green light in the traffic signal did not work. Hence we never knew if the signal said go or not. When the police guy waved his hands, we knew the signal had turned green and it is a go.

We must be rich as we can bribe the police man 100 bucks. We must be rich, inspite of paying taxes we don't get the green light fixed. We must be rich with 3 beggars on the road scartching their head for the next meal. We must be rich, as we spit on the board that says, "No spitting". We must be rich as we generously give 5 bucks to the beggar. Poverty is the state of mind. The guy who is begging can easily work somewhere, where he will get a good salary. He can improve his skills. But he prefers begging as it is a easier mode of obtaining money.

India is not a poor country and has never been a poor country. It is just the people of India, who makes her feel like she is very poor. Every individual can change that by being hygenic and obedient. By having that common sense and self realisation with compounded enlightenment, they can drive India higher on stature, so that when viewed from global eyes, she appears beautiful. Collective responsibility formed from individual responsibility, I should say is very much the need. India will remain poor to world's eye as long as her people ignore their responsibilities.

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

For my blog

I don't know if all the blogger's feel like me. But I feel that my blog, keeps me busy and makes me happy more than anyone in the whole world. I just felt that I should do something for it. So here it is, I made a art with the words in my blog and the title.

I sent the art to an online website and got it embossed in a coffee mug......here it is for my blog. I have also ordered a T shirt, which I will post later when I get this. I can also say that I am advertising my blog!! :) :)

Friday, March 20, 2009

Dravidian style

"The wall", they call him. One of the wall at the Banglore Chinnaswamy stadium, has been named after him. Going by the look of it, I think he deserves all the block of the wall. He has been India's number 3 for a long time now!! I have really looked up at him for lot of things in life. The determination and concentration he shows, I don't know if anyone have got. There was a game versus England. He came in late in the evening on day 2. He played, played and played till the lunch on the fourth day.


Harsha Bogle commented with humour, "If a guy falls of a tree on 2nd day evening watching the game and goes to hospital for treatment and comes back again on the 4th day morning, he will not miss Dravid bat, as he is still batting!!" Interesting story, but it outlines the concentration and determination. Dravid being out of form for some time now, could not get going in the year 2008.



Even in the home series with England and Australia, he could not do justice to his batting. Only in the last test match with England he showed what he is made of with a century. His 66 in the first innings did give us the vintage Dravid. Just rolled us back to the 1990s and 2000s. The cover drives and square drives where a thirll to watch. The square cut is what I loved. It is still awesome today to watch him play the same way.........


Even in the second innings he was sent out to bat as opener. Some of his drives reminded his innings at Adelide where he won us a test game almost single handed. Dravid in form is a force to reckon. His determination and concentration is something I adore. He is also a great fielder. And now he has the most number of catches in the Test cricket too now. Bravo, Dravid!!

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

That is Life!!

Some days ago, I read an article in the HT cafe. One of the guy wrote a column which brought a wise smile on my face. I know many might have missed it. So here, I wanna say his story again, because of how true it is. He writes that he was a good student at college. With a nice job, he could not ask for more. He happened to meet a girl by chance.

She was cute and both of them did make it out once after the initial exchange of numbers it seems. He says, she gave me lot of attention. This I guess was the initial phase as it happens in relationships. And he continues, I liked that kind of attention. Coming from a guy I can understand his feelings. He says, the girl used to call him and share some personal news. He says, they did not propose to each other, but he says he could feel it at the end of the tunnel.


I guess, they enjoyed a nice time together and liked each others company. The guy was in the 8th moon or the 10th star, when finally a day comes, where he was not getting the kind of attention he was getting. So the guy says, hey hang on this is not according to the script and starts calling her and sends sms. Some times she used to cut his call or may be leave it to ring and never reply back. The reply back for an sms had stopped long back.

Soon, this experience with the girl took another direction without his knowledge. As this was happening beyond his grasp of imagination, he used to wonder if he had done something wrong. Well he could recollect of nothing. He had lot of imaginations and aims in life before he met this girl. Because of this strange turn of things, his 10th moon status was reduced to a new moon. He was neither able to concentrate fully on work nor on his aims.

He happened to call a common friend. She told him that, his girl was going around with another guy. He says he was hurt, but asks "Why the hell did she waste my time?". He concludes by saying, thank god his career prospective and aims brought him back on track after these disturbing things sidelined him from his goals. I got a bright smile on my face reading it. Either girls constantly look for a better person and turn their attention towards the better one as soon as they are fed up with one or this guy is a nut and got everything happened between them some kind of imaginative love.

I feel this girl did run her charm around him, till the time she found out that this guy is not a boy friend material. So she cleverly started ignoring him. I feel, she did not care a shit about doing that. When I say this girl, I don't mean everyone, but most of them. If you ask a girl she would say the guy should understand the difference between what is love and what is just flirting and going out. If he can't understand this then she can't help. All I ask is, why should some one give so much attention to someone and then not give anything at all. If she does not have anything in her mind then why does she agree for a date or a coffee or a movie. Guys do fall for such things, which is so called just a friendly outing. They do come out of such things with a wise smile on their face reading such an article. :) :)

(Snap taken from Google search)

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Dakshinayan 2009

Last year I had been to Dakshinayan, it was a awesome experience to see the artist like Viku Vinayakaram (Ghatam) and Kadri Gopalanath (Saxophone) , along with A. Kanyakumari (Violin) and K.V. Prasad (Mirudangam). I even got the autograph of some artist last time around. This time it was a vocal concert of Dr. Nityashree Mahadevan, followed by Karaikudi Mani on the Mirudangam. I don't know how, but Nityashree's music gives me goosebumps.



I really don't know. Her voice just captivates my imaginations and gives my soul an ever inspiring thrill and happiness. I had never attended a live concert of hers'. This was my first one and I didn't want to be late. Landmark, Infiniti mall were distributing tickets. I got them with considerable ease, as the interest in Carnatic music in Mumbai is highly restricted to people who follow with utmost devotion. My good old stream friend, Nitin was up for this despite his feverish and throat irritation.

We made it to Worli well before time despite traffic jams playing a impediment role in our scheme of things that evening. As we were seated, I overheard a conversation between 3 elderly women, well in their 60s. One was asking, long time no see, give me your email address, we can keep in touch. Really, I just hope they don't have a facebook profile. :) :)

Dakshinayan has got this habit of being on time, which is one of the stepping stones to its success. Sharp 6:30 pm the bell rung and there she was dressed in purple coloured pattu saree (Kachipuram silk), Nityashree Mahadevan; with her ever graceful smile. The first song was "Sri Vignarajam Baaje"; fantastic rendering, enthralling the audience with her elan and showering notes after notes with complete ease.

The raaga alapana came with a song in Mohanam. Slowly the audience started tapping their legs to the rhythm of mirudangam or getting animated with their hands and heads. Their heads were very well locked and swaying as the enthralling music touched their ears. The high pitched moments left everyone lifting their hands towards heaven. Then she touched raaga Rithigowla wherein there was a masterful deception of pauses and low pitched phases. I made it a point that, I would count the number of times, I get goosebumps. To be frank, I really lost count after the 3rd one. Songs on Muruga, Maha vishnu, Krishna, Rama followed.

Even the Gods must have stopped by at Worli station for a moment and listened for while. She sung for one and half hours. I should say, the unstoppable river of absorbing and griping musical notes finally met the sea with a Kannada song about Krishna. After all was done, she was felicitated. I went behind stage to get an autograph. (borrowed a pen from someone :) :))

She was looking for her slippers, I said,"madam, autograph please". Looking at my face, even she had a smile on her face, she said, "just a minute, I am looking for my footwear. " Finally I really got to talk to this living legend, I should say. Got her autograph, this one is very special for me!! The concert that followed was Karaikudi Mani. He said he has a 55 years of experience of playing mirudangam. I think man that is more than twice my age. Where am I in comparison to him, nowhere........




He played Chathusram, Kandam, Thisram and Mishram. The guy with him on the Ganjera also stole the show. His name was N. Amrit. I just don't have words to explain, what I saw. Karaikudi Mani just swept the accolades with his master rhythmic strokes. Too fast and too furious. He got a standing ovation. I also managed to get the autograph of Karaikudi mani aswell, though his hands were trembling after the performance, hence the shaky handwriting. Ravikiran on the chitraveena was a very short concert with just 3 songs. He is another child prodigy who started playing and singing at the age of 2. Phew!! I just experienced the concert of my life......

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Lesser known hotness

When it comes to Bollywood, if there is a new girl on the block; more than anything, we would atleast know her name. Otherwise we will atleast make an effort to find out the name of the actress. But the same is not the case in Hollywood. Many a times we scratch our head and don't even make an effort to find the name of the actress. I really don't know why.

It happens all the time. We forget to remember the name, or we can't remember their faces for long, as Hollywood actors don't act in a lot of movies unlike bollywood wherein, if you are willing you can act more movies. In Hollywood, the role of the actress is really valued. Not all say yes to all the roles. Like say Priyanka Chopra, she would do almost 5 movies in 3 months. It is like an overdose. In bollywood, you can hardly associate a role to an actress.

Kate winslet, if you remember was in Titanic. Do you remember how her role in titanic was? With awesome acting skills, she had mesmerized all of us with a fantastic love story. She got the Oscar for the Best Actress this time around for "Reader". (I have not seen this movie, but they say it is a gem). There is one more movie "Revolutionary Road", another block buster this year.

Now take Priyanka Chopra for instance, is she upto the mark, she won a Filmfare award for "Fashion", but she does not have anyother movie to talk about. Just one exceptional movie does not make a great actress. I am not saying, all the Hollywood movies are a hit. But the roles taken by the heroines in Hollywood is very very calculated. Hence there are more flop movies for a bollywood top heroine to show than her hit movies.

I wanted to make a list of Hollywood heroines, who are actually not very popular. But they have given some good movies here and there. Now this is a different prospective altogether. Less popular but very beautiful is the criteria. Coming back to my initial comment of not knowing the names of the Hollywood babes. They are hot and sizzling, but they do only a movie in a year. As far as acting goes, there is a golden rule, "Earn as much as when you are young". As you grow older, your roles will also change. But somehow, this rule is only applicable to bollywood. Even today all young heroines in Hollywood don't take more than 2 movies in a year.

Well, that is how they concentrate on one movie and make it a grand success. Seeing the dollar and pound with respect to rupee, no wonder. They must earn the profit of 5 movies in just 2 they do. Here are some snaps of lesser known actresses. This part of the blog is very hot. Statutory warning: Please use AC or fans to cool yourself. I will not say, all of them are great actors, but they sell.

She is Megan Fox (movie: Transformers)


She is Rebecca Romijn (movie: X men)


She is Famke Janssen (movie: X-men, Golden Eye): Most of her movies, I checked in wiki have never released in India.



She is Lauren Cohen (must be Jewish, Movie: Casanova) (With none other than Heath Ledger as Casanova)


She is Elisabeth Shue (Movie: Hollowman)



She is Hilary Swank (Movie: Boys don't cry, Million dollar baby)


She is Izabella Scorupco (Movie: Vertical Limit, Golden eye)



She is Sophie Marceau (BraveHeart, The World is not enough) (Being a french actress, she has done very little english movies)


She is Daine Kruger (Helen in Troy, National Treasure)


Last but not the least: Denise Richards (Movie: Wild things, she is more into TV serials)

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Good old music

Thinking about the 60s and 70s Bollywood music and Kollywood(this is Tamil movies), many things come to mind. They were made so special to our ears and were really soothing as compared to today's fast paced electronic music. Some of the songs today are mixed at the last moment. Hence when the song is actually sung, there are not a lot of things going on. The voice is taken from the singer and then added into a track during mixing stages, thanks to today's mixing gurus.What we tend to oversee is during the 60s and 70s our parents would have been in their teen ages. Radio was the only form of entertainment then. TVs became popular during the 80s. My grandpa I remember bought a Solider TV during the 80s for Rs.5000/- and then he sold it in the late 90s for Rs.5000/- again. Funny but true as the value of Rs. 5000 in the 80s was really far too much compared to the late 90s. Before the TVs were popular the radios ruled the roost. The songs that played of Kollywood flicks, Bollywod flicks, news, cricket commentary were unforgettable for the people from this era. My dad was brought up in those days of his teens, listening to the classy stations of radio.(there was only one or two channels on the FM unlike todays frequency crowding)

No wonder, he seems to grasp all the announcement made due to his acute listening skill developed through radio in his younger days. My mom, was again mad about these songs during her teenage. She had by-hearted most of the songs as all the songs tend to make it big, as the number of movies releasing per year would be less compared to today's digital world, were a movie releases almost every weekend. My late Grandpa would mock my mom saying, she cannot remember a chapter from her text, but she can by heart all the songs of these flicks.

Truly, these songs must have captivated its audience so much that these songs remain in my parents heart even today. Yesterday, I tuned on my World Space radio to receive a station that I have not heard a lot before. KL Radio, was the name. It was broadcasting old Tamil songs, which my mom and dad knew so well. As the songs went on one by one, my mom and dad sat singing with it. They were marveling those delicate nuances that only they would know.

Listening to each and every stanza and closing their eyes as if the world had stood still all these years. I was just sitting beside them reading today 'Times of India'. My mom even remembered the way a particular actress danced in a song. She tried to repeat making those moves. Just listening to and observing what they were upto, made me feel contempt. After all who does not enjoy seeing their parents happy after all those years of pain and turmoil in bringing us up. Every now and then my dad would say something, in praise of the old music.

I should thank KL radio for broadcasting such gems. Looking at my parents enjoy their good old music, made me realize that some day even I would be listening to today's music. Would I be enjoying like how they are enjoying it? All these songs came before this digital supernova. Twenty to thirty years from today, god knows where and what I will be doing. I don't think there are lot of quality music around now a days that I can reflect upon in those days. During my teenage, AR Rahman came into this music world and completely changed the phase of music which is made now-a-days. I might listen to some of his songs. Beyond his songs, I don't find many songs that are as griping and captivating to me today, forget them being 30 year hence.

(Snaps taken from google search)

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Whats up gal?

Crazy as it sounds, I wish, I can just shout out loud and get my pent-up frustration away. I want to do something, but not sit idle in front of the stupid computer. I have to say, I am very much addicted to my laptop. I can go on surfing the net and doing something or the other on the net all day. I want to get rid of this addiction. They say to remove one kind of addiction, you have to replace it with another one.

The main reason for my addition is my blog, orkut (I randomly scrap a cute girl, try to pull her leg), facebook. I have to say, now a days girls have become so intelligent that they don't even reply to an anonymous scrap. To be frank, some girls do reply. The whole reason of socializing site is lost when a person becomes a closed book only to her/his friends. If you are not willing to talk with a stranger, then what are you doing in a socializing site. Taking nothing away from them. I pity girls who are cute and beautiful. They are forced to change their display image to a cartoon, or a flower. As the sex-ratio with respect to a cute girl versus guys has become increasingly acute.

Hence the cute girl becomes a victim of continuous bombardment, not only with scraps but also with friend request. Orkut has made lot of features to precisely avoid such an avalanche. Sometimes you are not allowed to scrap a person as she is not your friend. I have also seen lot of them, write in their about me section saying, "I am here only for people whom I know" or "If you don't know me, don't add me". A lot of them are victims of such "Fraandship" request from unknown people and they have had enough. This is sad, but none can help. This is how it has been and I afraid it will be the same.

Why is there such a rush of guys towards these gals, on orkut or facebook or any other socializing sites? The constant search for humans to find a partner with whom they can share things, can be a reason. Infact, humans minus the physical part are emotional beings. To share such emotions, they are in a wander to find the ultimate emotional partner. Being very selfish, they want lot of attributes in this partner. The basic criteria for filtering out their probable partners goes along the lines of looks, style and sometimes attitude. Being someone who meets all these three criteria means, having to deal with innumerable scraps and never dying friendship requests.

Guys (I am being really frank, not all are like this; but most of them are) looking at a cute girl, kind of imagine her like their future girl friend. They think they have to some how influence them and become a friend. All this to get a illusive partner; an emotional partner to be frank. This never works, even knowing that it will not work, they try their luck with everyone of them, which I should say is utter rubbish. Rather it just discourages the girl towards socializing.

The search for this partner of life, is as good as searching for a imaginary city of Shangrila. Many people mature early and understand their needs and their shortcomings, viz. imperfections and accordingly change their search. Or may be halt the search for some days. Some of them are so frustrated with this search that, they just give it up. They feel, the illusive gal is just a dream. For them this search is worthless. some are so very well emotionally balanced and content with themselves that, they don't actually feel a need for a partner. But life is such a leveler that, it makes them rethink some day.

The flip side of orkut is meeting very old friends through communities of school and colleges or tuition classes and many more. For meeting these old friends, we wouldn't have required an orkut. There could have been a alumni site wherein all the school and college students register. I am not confident, but if such a site becomes popular, then (I should actually take a patent for this :)) may be this would have been possible.

These sites for some minuscule amount of people saves also as a boon as they do find the gal of their dreams. But for most of them it has become worthless. The population of India makes sure that it stays worthless. Meeting some one of my dreams through a socializing site is fast becoming an impossible dream. The human urge, infact a lot of urge has resulted in upstaging the actual need for socialising. One fine day, I will have to delete my orkut profile as it is just worthless.

Sunday, March 1, 2009

Hot bikes!!

Thinking about buying a fast super bike....well, I should have been a multimillionaire or my dad must have been an industrialist with lot of money to spend. In short, my father must have been very rich, or I must have a great amount of bank balance that I can buy one and show off. But none of the above is applicable for me. Not even to an extent that I can go for a second hand bike.

I do dream of buying one of those super bikes. The Yamaha R1 is on of my favorites. It costs around 12 lakhs, which for me is an insurmountable amount at this time of my career. So I made an ingenious plan. I really bought one of those Yamaha bikes!! :):)

Look at the snaps...



Well almost got you. The trouble is I cannot ride or sit on them. They are so small that, I just can show off. These are miniature bikes I got scaled down. See my ingenious idea works out atleast to show off!! :)

I got one more bike, this is the Moto GP bike of Yahama and Fait of the year 2008. Awesome I should say. More snaps!!


Now some duet snaps!! :)


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