Rock on!!

Phew!! It was a quiet a movie guys. I loved every part of it. The music was mind-boggling, really exhilarating. Hindi movies getting a rocking paradigm shift. Rock music, in general does not care about the lyrics in the song. Usually, it is very light on the lyrics, but very heavy on the metal rock. The songs in the movie "Rock on" are no different. The lyrics are very light and has simple words, which makes the songs even more enjoyable.

The storyline, was again a disguised one, and reveals itself when the movie progresses. Where-in the present life of the rockstars are shown. And for some reason, there has been a split in the gang in the past and the rockers have gone different ways, which is kept as a secret beyond the interval. As and when, one explains or thinks about the past, the past life of the band is revealed.


Farhan Akhtar, the lead singer(wealthy investment banker now) and Arjun Rampal, the lead guitarist being such good friends, have a bitter fight and every thing falls apart. The band as they name it 'Magik' has the 'Killer drummer' as he calls himself, Purab Kohli(KD) and the electric piano player, Luke Kenny. The subtle humor part in the movie is taken care of by Purab Kohli and Shahana Goswami(Deebie), who is the wife of Arjun Rampal. Shahana Goswami does have a great impact left on you after the movie. She has a great body language and acting skill, that will sure leave you searching for wallpaper of her on Google. (I searched for her wallpapers, man I did not get any!1 :(

The main character of the movie is Farhan Akhtar's wife, Prachi Desai, who wants to see her husband happy. Very lazy wife of a very wealthy investment banker, I should say. She is the wholely responsible for the reunion of the rock gang. The group Magik, as it is called reunite after running from pillar to post almost 10 years.

Farhan starts to feel very good about the reuniting. Arjun Rampal being very poor, scraps his way through hurdles in life. Luke Kelly being a cancer patient, fights against death and music. The movie see lots of some twists and curls, but finally it meets the Rock concert, wherein all the four unite to play the concert of their life. Starting with the "Tum ho to" and a wonderful song of "Sindbad the sailor"..... Follow your dreams, is what they seem to say from this movie. The happiness in life is when you follow your dreams, which will help you achieve limitless goals in life.

I have been learning a Indian drum. After this movie, I thought I should rip some music out of it. So guess what, I just struck the tone one fine evening; and played it after a period of around 1 month. Feels awesome to be playing and making music. Music is indeed magik, which stirs soul of life. I have included some of the clips of the drum evening. Listen to it, it might ignite some music in you!! :) :)

I call this "The Reverberating Thunder"




This one I call, "Sound from Kailash"

Developing Personality from within....

Every single day, you meet so many people, who touch your heart. Make a mark in your mind and some whom you look forward to meet in the future. Some of the characters are so pathetic that you don't even bother to remember their name. We don't kind of remember such comic people until you really have some thing that they can help you with. Otherwise, it is just that "hi-bye" kind of relation.

Even such comic people have lot of characters that you can learn from. Yes, let’s not talk about them. Coming back, the charisma the different personality’s exhibit are really so attractive that, we without our realization start liking that person. We start to collect reasons to meet them. We want to know more about that person. Human tendencies of curiosity will eventually make us know more about them.

We live a life copying style, lifestyle, characters, dressing and eventually personality. Each and every person has a role model, whom we look up to follow the trend. Many times we tend to loose our individuality, and try morphing them. Eventually we end up being the role model, if not look like them, but feel like them from within.

We look for mutual acceptance from others for this personality. It may be a change in dressing style, may be a hair style, little make-up, dying hair colour, etc… We kind of expect some comments from others, to feel that what we have done is good. Sometimes there are good comments, sometimes it is bad, and sometimes there might be no comments at all.

Impressing others can also be motive behind such morphing. Just from wearing a so called cool pair of shoes to a fancy hat!! Everything is going down and up for that tiny comment from the person you like. When that compliment never comes from that intended target impressing group, the other compliments seem to be just statements. Humans are always looking for acceptance for what personality they want to be, rather than the personality they are.

Individuality is a price word, which is something no one else has. Individual likes and dislikes cannot be buried, for just that personality development. Today’s generation of youngsters are becoming more erratic and ruder. The attitude and language sense are more tilted towards rudeness in the “Rude or Not” scale (I saw “Hot or Not” show just yesterday). Attitude problems have become not a problem, but a worry. What kind of personalities will our future generations instil?

As the research goes, it seems we inherit morphing personalities from people who are alive and present in our era 80% of the time rather than people, who have found their graves. If this rudeness continues, then our future generations will follow suit, without even knowing that they are rude. Let’s stop here and think a little about the derogatory comments and talk to the hands attitude, we possess without out notice. We are born with a pure heart, only the situations, surroundings and people around help us build our attitude and personality towards life.

The style guru’s think they are very cool, by morphing them you think you are very cool. Life goes a whole circle. So the style guru will eventually follow you, thinking you are cool. Break the morphing circle and eroding rude personality attitude. Next time listen to the heart of the person you are talking to, rather than his cute face. Bring out individuality and bring out kinder heart.

ब्लाह ब्लाह ब्लाह.......

किलर जेंस, मक डोनाल्ड'स, स्पघेट्टी, रीबोक आणि ब्लाह ब्लाह ब्लाह.... This is what you will see, in the sign board of all the European brands around the city. Many many boards, have been changed. All the English brands are now, showing Hindi name board. All just to amuse the on looker.

For a second, I felt hang on, how will the guys who cannot read Hindi find out which shop is where. Aren't we down grading our public value. Outside India, the whole world thinks in English. Is English so bad that, we cannot use it on the name board, on our own shop? I agree to the fact that, speaking in English does not make you great person, nor does it get you money. But it makes someone understand what you are exactly saying.

It is the language the globe is meeting out. India is no longer a under-developed country. It is one of the strongly developing countries, which the world is looking out for. More and more foreign companies are investing here in India. It is growing by the day. Just yesterday, I saw a English guy, in his tuxedo, trying to cross the road. I don't know how they wear a tuxedo, in the humid weather of Mumbai and when it looks like it will rain.

Tell me how will he read a shop with a Hindi sign board on it. I am not against the fact that vernacular language should be used. Nor am I against people thinking in their mother tongue or people being thought in mother tongue. All I want to say is, English is what will make you reach out to masses and make them understand you as you. Yes, there are always exceptions, you can do business and earn the money you want speaking just Hindi or Marathi. But your sphere will always be limited.

But all in all, I guess asking shoppers to change the English name board into Hindi or Marathi was taking the discussion too much into orbit. Having, both Hindi and English is fine; but not just Hindi. Raj Thackeray had commented that, "if the shops don't have a Hindi sign board, they will be demolished by his men." some days back. The changing of name board at many places also shows that, in mumbai, how many people who want to play safe and don't want to get into any kind of trouble. I wonder, what I would have done, if I were a shop-keeper!!

Rubik's cube solved!! :) :) :) :)

Hey guys!! I did it. I formulated some algorithm's of my own and solved this rubik's cube!! check out this snaps!! Yipeee!! I am very happy!! Yes I got some help online and hints, which helped me a lot, but patience is virtue for this......

It is not that bad; but you need to work out on the algorithm a little bit. I would need to perfect these algorithms, which I have formulated. For now I just sit back and enjoy this moment. :)

The last picture here is a video; don't miss it!! :):)

Rubik's cube!!

Ernő Rubik is the Hungarian who is the inventor of Rubik's cube, which is the 3*3*3 cube. Considering the fact that, there are six colors which has to be grouped on 6 sides respectively. It seems rather simple at the start, to get one of the colors grouped. Then it is kind of tedious and becomes rather a head ache to complete it, as and when one color is grouped, the other goes away.

Last week, I saw the movie "Pursuit of Happyness"; very good movie that. Will smith plays the role of Chris Gardner, who is a homeless salesman-turned-stockbroker. Based on the real life story, with his own son acting as his son in the movie, Will Smith comes out with a splendid act. There is one scene in which; to prove his intelligence, Chris Gardner has to solve Rubik's cube in a matter of minutes. Even the mathematicians, take some time to get the hang of it.

Chris Gardner must have been a real intelligent guy. The very next day, I had been to my cousin's place, where in I had a great meal. I never knew my cousin sister was such a great cook. Well seems like very are going on aberrant from the topic. You see, I have a weakness for good food. So coming back to, I found this Rubik's cube, which they had gotten. I tried my hand on it. Trying many permutations and combinations. But finally I gave up. I could get only one side filled with the same color!!

I was looking for solutions to solve the Rubik's cube online. I got some pages, but could not quiet get the hang of it. Now I will buy the cube and practice to fill more than one color!! These are some you-tube links I got!!






Wish me good luck to get all six colors!! :)

Life in a slow lane!!

Today's life has gone into fast-forward, with the amount of the time required for travelling a distance always tends to reduce, as the technology and innovation make it faster and faster. Many of my buddies will disagree with it and say nothing will give heed to Mumbai traffic. The serious bottle-necks eventually impedes the movement of traffic, which by far helps us to have a look at our wrist watch 15,000 times before we reach our destination.

Being in a fast lane, always feels wonderful. Reaching destination in very less time, makes us feel there is nothing to do. Just taking the traffic jams out of the equation, we should say we are still in the faster lane. The electric trains, which are lifeline of Mumbai makes the faster life even faster. People living in a city, when they go back to their native place, feel the life at their there tends towards nothing but slowness. But the slowness of life also shows us things that we would never notice if we would be in the fast lane.

I have a bike, pulsar 220, which makes my travel very easy and of-course faster. I ran into my second servicing. I had to give away my bike for repair works. As long as I was travelling on my bike; I never had the time to look around. I just love riding bikes. The surroundings kind of moves as well in the rate of knots. I was used to the fast lane driving.

When I gave my bike away, I had to travel by bus or walk. I choose to walk for some days. There is were, I came across many late developments near my home. I would have never noticed a new bank, a new showroom and a new ATM. It is now I understood what all round development means. It was marvellous to see so many people choose walking after work.

Water logged areas, how to get around them. I found many cross roads, short cuts. Got to see small temples and places which I had seen during college days. It was great refreshment of fond and vivid memories. New hawkers, new bhel puri stalls, new offices many many more things!! Also to see, some major landmarks diminish to nothing. Roads widened, when you are on the bike; you never notice the width of the road unless you cross it. Some old shops taken over by new ones, remodelled and refurbished.

And finally, I found a brand new Nike showroom. It has been started 2 months back. I never knew it. I got a Federer's Head Tie I was looking, for a long time. After all, being in a slow lane helps us catch up with things that we have missed, in the fast lane!!

Rajmachi Trekking

Mumbai being such a busy place, it saps more out of you than you can give!! Working day in and day out, makes one's life monotonous and boring. Thinking about going to the park, or thinking about taking a walk has become some kind of distant dream to us. As of today, we are not thinking about a quiet walk.

Me and some of my friends planned for a terk to one of Shivaji's fortress rajmachi, to beat this hopeless tediously unvarying situation. For reaching the base village, we had to travel to by train to reach Karjat station, outskirts of Mumbai. For reaching Karjat, we had to catch an early morning train. Some of my friends reached the station on time, but we could not get the tickets on time to get into the train.

We had to skip that train. The next train was after one hour, hence we had already lost 1 hour. We boarded the next train and reached Ambernath, from where a friend joined us. Ambernath is on the way to Karjat, so waited an hour for the train at Ambernath. Due to some freak traffic signal malfunction, we had to wait there endlessly, as the next karjat train was one and hour late!! So "Amber"nath was looking like "Red"nath.

Finally we got into the train and got to Karjat, from where we made a Fat-Fat, that is an auto-rickshaw, to the base village. It was almost 10 am by then. We started the climb, with all energy, but did not know what to expect. There were arrow marks painted on the rocks all the way, showing us the correct directions. It did not rain very heavily as expected.


The climb for some distance seemed to be flat, until we reached phase where it was some what steep. Slowly we started loosing energy and also the drive. Suddenly atleast I had to request my feets to move forward. We had not even completed 30% of the climb. All we heard was that, it was a 3 and half hours trek. We were almost 1 and half hours into the trek, we saw people descending. Quietly we had a word with them. There we realized, that the guy who predicted the climb in 3 and half hours time was a buffoon, with a strong body built, but not that much head room.

Just when we thought, we have gone half way, we gasped at the enormity of the climb. We were giving up. We thought we would never make it. I have to say, for once I thought, we will never make it to the top. Then we made it a point that we will climb till a certain time. If by then we could not have reached the top, we would descend.

On the way we came across a beautiful cave. The cave itself, was quiet a marvel, which we never expected. A wonderful waterfall just adjacent to the cave, made our trip a memorable one. After spending some time at the caves, we again started ascending. I was wearing a lousy and slippery shoes, which made my ascend slippery coupled with the monsoon and sliding mud. We some how made it to the top. Hurraaayyy!!


The dal rice that I had for lunch at the village at the top of the hill was the best I have had for quiet some time!! The descend was quiet a slippery experience, as I fell many times. Hurt my back, and ankle. As they say descend is always easier, we made it down in two and half hours. Lost our way, but some how made it to karjat station. When we returned to the station, again it was a long wait as the train we had to catch was after 1 hour. But caught a long distance train, and reached one hour earlier. The 1 hour we lost in the morning was gained at last in the evening!!

The snakes and crabs on the way was a treat and fascinating to watch. But the mosquitoes and the humid conditions aggravated our problems both during ascend and descend. The time permitted us to make it only to the village. The fort was still half an hour away, which we could not make it. Next time we will try and make it to the top. The saying holds true-"When the going gets tough, the tough get going"..........

Management skills of house wives!!

Today, the world turned on its head. Even a paan wala wants to be an MBA post graduate. Laloo Prasad Yadav gives management lessons at the IIMs. Things have changed, and the people's mindset regarding management also is changing. They tend to learn management lessons from everyone. Even a small lesson learnt from someone like a boss of a minuscule hotel, which when implemented at a higher level in our scheme of things can prove to be handy.

Learning never stops, it is not a be all and end all. It is the path to be followed to attain higher excellence in life. Just by ignoring someone because he is so inconspicuous, we are just underestimating the lesser unknown potential of the management guru inside him. Where is all this going.

Today when you join an organization, at our young age, we just join as a trainee, or some very small position. As years go by, we hop jobs, we go places and after a great period of time, we eventually become bosses. We have a group of young trainee's under our guidance. This is as per our rankings, job skills and also through the rating, which is eventually given by your boss. Similarly, today's house wives, get married stay with their mother-in-law, work very hard to reach some position. Have to struggle on their own, and as the time goes on eventually get a maid servant or a daughter-in-law, on whom they can show their command.

Just some days back, I saw my mom beating the hell out of our house maid. Listening comprehension may give you good marks at GRE and other competitive exams, listening management gives you just the skill and exposure, of how to handle certain situations which can be mapped to the current scenario. The way my mom was being tough on the maid, made me pity the maid. I even commented, "If you are so hard on her, she might leave!!"

But mom being the management guru she is, has seen more than a dozen maids like her. She is more than just experienced to handle the situation with such elan. She made the maid sweat it out and made her a cup of coffee and some light talk at the end of it. She talked about some personal issues, like "how is your son?"; "what is he doing now?" just to make the maid feel comfortable.

I surely felt that the maid will leave, because of the way my mom manhandled her. But to my surprise she did not. She got a pay hike the, next month because of her neat job. I thought may be the maid did not have any other place to go and had to rely on us. Even thought went kaput, as she worked for more than 3 places excluding our place.

The maid lived in a slum, which was demolished for road widening and land development. She was given a home far away from our place. So she had to leave us. When she eventually left, she came home, hugged my mom and cried. (very emotional farewell) She bid good bye. I never in my wildest of dreams, expected this, after the first episode. I have to accept that my mom has better management skills than I do. Again, I learnt some lessons of how to handle people, how to manhandle them to get better results, from the woman handler==my mom!!

Towing away!!

Mumbai traffic is hellbent in making commuters wait for iternity. Mumbai traffic police is a nightmare to confront with. All in all, the traffic has become a complete conundrum. Owing to this manifest reason, we know why there are not a lot of poets and writers now a days. As all of them are stuck in the traffic.

The metro railway construction has become nothing short of Dennis the menace. The four lane road, is what I call need of the supply chain. When you cut this four lane road, into two, you are cutting the supplies and making it frugal, which creates starvation and suffocation. This has literally caused a serious bottle neck in many of the places.


Andheri-Kurla road has seen a traffic rise exponentially for the past years, which has resulted in road widening. Now, this metro railway construction has brought the four lane road to two lanes, which has taken us back to the 1990s, with today's traffic. What will you do when you are stuck in traffic and you feel hungry. There are lot of fast food places around. One of them is Sub-way which is bang in middle of all this enigma.

I felt real hungry the other-day, wanted to park my bike somewhere in there. But the two lane road has left no space to even stand, forget parking a bike. All the parked bikes and cars on that road are being towed away. With which comes the fine for parking, as it obstructs traffic. I had to take a risk as eating a sub-way sandwich would take me just 10-15 mins. I prayed god and left my bike locked. I had made sure that, my bike did not create a bottleneck.

When I was having the sandwich all I can think was a towing truck and I was hoping that I will not see one. All I had to do was eat the sandwich and quench my thirst and hunger. I took about 15 mins to bury my hunger for some time. Then came the most surprising part of all, which I had never expected.

I stepped out of Sub-way and to my allay there stood my bike, not a inch here or there, just where I had left it. But there were more than 5 bikes parked beside mine. So after all this subway has shown me a way to learn a management lesson. When you take a risk and succeed, others will follow you!!

Kumara-palayam!!

1 May, 2008, just to be known as a labourer's day. I do not know, why we had a holiday today, but I rather not know!! Just the thought of a holiday in the middle of the week is so soothing to the ear. Just as the master-card advt says- (slightly degraded version) "Taking an off day in the middle of the week; loose your salary for a day"--"Falling sick in the middle of the week; pay the same to the doctors"---"Getting an off day; price-less!!

To be frank, this outing was planned for quiet some time, but I never got in terms with it. Taken care by my parents..My cousin had come from Chennai, the humid city of India!! We had planned a one day short trip to Lonavala...Been there done that....that is a kind of reaction one feels if he has stayed in Mumbai and travelled to lonavala often....

It started as just another trip. We had been to a resort called -"Kumar resort". Everything was booked; so no worries...I have a phobia for water from my childhood days; water is always knee deep for me. May be, that is a reason I have not mastered the art of swimming. Kumar Resort was a water theme park; which was the least I expected. Suddenly, I realised that I had not packed my trusted Bermuda's.(Got one from somewhere).

Finally, all of us got into the water!! The water was slightly cold, but as the day went on it started becoming warmer. Everybody was diving; swimming; teaching swimming; floating. We went overboard with boats falling from slides; going on zig-zag slides. Then it was the rain dance upstage. Never have seen my parents dance the way they did!! It was just amazing to just watch them from loosing their tension to loosing it out on the rain dance floor!! Getting back those child-hood passions......

I have to accept that this Advt holds true--"Booking for a one day picnic to a resort"--Rs.5000/---"Booking a car to travel"---Rs. 1000/----"Watching your parents turn children"--"Price-less".

Road blockers==mobile phones!!

What is a nightmare for a bike rider when he is at 60 kmph, travelling at speed of knots? No it is not a call on his mobile phone; No it is not dust into his eyes; No it is not what he is thinking; No it is not a bird shiting on his elbow;

It is a social animal with a instrument which has an antenna....yes it is an aunty with a mobile phone!! It is more than a road block to get rid off. Just the day before I was riding my new pulsar 220; which was at say 55 kmph, and acclerating with a dashing speed..

I was just overtaking an auto from its right, the auto suddenly came to a standstill, just I was going to overtake it. I had a blind spot as the auto was right in front of me. I still had some space, where I could go on. But my sixth sense told me to slow down.

I feared a speed breaker; at 55 Kmph, I have to suddenly brake. With my disc brakes, I could have made it; but there was no sign of it. So I thought I should acclerate again and leave the auto behind.

There came the 300 pound road block just inches before my bike; just as my involuntary brakes came on; I stopped just 2 cms in front of her; may be even that is too much of a measurement. Only 1 cms, I almost hit her by 1 cm....

I could hear what she was speaking; for a moment she seemed to be so casual as if nothing had happened. By the way she was not speaking to me; she was on the mobile; talking to her boy friend I guess. She said; "I just crossed the road!!"

I just told to myself; "You just crossed the gate of yamaraja!!" Just that here the bull was my Pulsar 220........