Reflections

Perspective...

2007-06-03T07:24:00.000-07:00

In the proverbial 'foot-in-the mouth' style, the minister for Labour in Karnataka notified an ordinance banning women employees working in shifts and promptly scrapped it after outcry from various "welfare organizations", which upheld that the minister is infringing upon the rights of the working women...!

I had not given this issue any importance since this seemed like a routine stunt...However, reading the supplement of Kannada Prabha (20th May 2007) changed my views on this...I wanted to link the article, but their online edition pops up so many ads that I got fed up with it and gave up...Unfortunately, I don't remember the columnist either...I will try to present the gyst of the article here...!

The author asks...

As soon as the law was notified, we had all the women's welfare organizations swooping down and protesting vehemently asking the govt to backtrack and let the IT sector function smoothly...However, none of these people tried to understand that there are women in other sectors (like retail outlets and garment factories) who typically work up to 10 pm, but are not provided transport back home and even if they are provided transport, they are usually dropped a couple of kms away from their homes and have to travel alone for "the last mile"...It is here that they face the taunts and are harassed by rogues whom they encounter en route...! Who is looking into their problems...? This law, if implemented would've been a boon for these employees and helped in reducing the atrocities against the women...Instead the welfare organizations are fighting against the govt, citing the examples of women employees in the IT sector, for whom transport is taken care by the companies...

My Take:

This article came as an eye-opener for me and I liked the perspective of the author in presenting the issue...I wonder how many people would have thought of this argument...My biggest doubt is whether the minister himself thought from this angle before notifying the law...If he had indeed thought about it, he would have made at least one statement to that effect...

I agree/disagree with the views of the author on some of these counts...

1. Yes...Women have to face problems while returning home due to the various anti-social elements who are nothing more than scavengers...! But by banning women from working late, you are solving the wrong problem...Wouldn't it be better if action was taken against the people who are loitering on the streets passing comments and making suggestive actions...?? Just because a woman is not working late, doesn't mean that she might not need to go out at that time...!

2. Employment in the above mentioned sector itself is un-organized and the employees are subject to exploitation. A couple of other websites also carry tales of horror, but I am not sure of how creditable the source is...! In these circumstances, I am sure even if a law is passed, implementing and regulating it would be a big problem...

So the law would've remained a law just for the sake of it and would not do much to improve the state of the working women anyway...!

Hehehe :)

2007-05-04T08:25:00.000-07:00

En route to Kamath Yatrinivas in Majestic, we found this sign along the road...

It took me a while to comprehend what it meant...Its a simple yet unique way to put across a not-so-subtle message...!

It happens wonly in India ;)

Google hell...

2007-05-01T08:01:00.000-07:00

(Courtesy Digg)

The thought sure sounds funny doesn't it...But go through this...
Am not sure that the "do-no-evil" company would like to be associated with the tag of hell...!!!

For the uninitiated, Google's PageRank is the system used to rank pages...

Have been speaking about Google for a couple of posts now...Time to move to something different...but such has been their influence that you enter the web, you are bound to stumble upon something google...!!

Makes you feel that you are just a tenant in Google's world...Doesn't it...;)

Heading the Goooooooooooooooooooooooooooogle way...!!!

2007-04-22T09:40:00.000-07:00

I just finished reading "The Google Story" and i recommend it is a must read for everyone...!

Google acquired tonic systems and looks as though you can say bye bye to MS office...

Google Toys

Google has pretty much everything anybody needs to run an office...What they don't have yet, is available open source...This was the topic of discussion of today's chat with rk...

Taking a shot at future, here is my wish list of what Google might do...

1. Port the latest version of MySQL and release a competitor to Access...

2. Come out with a OS (Let's call it googlos for now...;)) and keeping up with Google trend, it'll be as intuitive and simplest possible UI and reverse compatible with all the windows softwares...

btw, there is a new entrant to online TV segment Joost...Though still in beta phase, it has generated a lot of buzz...Though I got introduced to it only today morning, i've read enough material to take up a mastermind on "joost"...:)

If this thing takes off, this could be the biggest competitor to Youtube and its clones, but this could also be the next big acquistion target for Google...Let's see what happens...!!!

Adios Inzi...!

2007-03-22T20:45:00.000-07:00

http://youtube.com/watch?v=U9lO1-JHJxM

The opposition was not the toughest, the ground not packed to the fullest, the team morale was not at their highest and among these circumstances came to an end the ODI career of one of the most accomplished batsmen of the modern game...

Adios Inzi...:)

Hopefully your test farewell will be at Multan, with home fans giving you a send-off you richly deserve...!

PS: We will miss your run-outs...;)

Its Just Not Cricket...!!!

2007-03-19T10:10:00.000-07:00

In one of the most candid comments ever, Lance Klusener, when asked about their exit from World cup semi-final after that run out with Allan Donald, said…”So what, no one died…”

Well, yesterday somebody did…!

Bob Woolmer died under tragic circumstances yesterday and his death brings into perspective the pressures faced by modern-day cricket. I watched the drama unfold on all the news channels by midnight on Saturday and my first thoughts were “Please let this be a natural death”…Though the vomit and blood might suggest otherwise, I hope for the sake of sport, that there was no malice involved…!

There have been cases where football team managers have faced heart ailments related to stress of managing their teams…The cases of Glenn Roeder(West Ham Utd) and Gerard Houllier(Liverpool) readily come to mind. Fortunately, both of them recovered and returned to team management again…Woolmer though, was not so lucky…

With passions running high, India and Pakistan are under unreasonable pressure to perform and the mercurial nature of the players involved in the Paki juggernaut makes it doubly difficult for any soul brave enough to attempt managing the team…Already struggling to cope up with the loss of Akthar and Asif for whatever the reasons might be, the early exit from the world cup was something they would not have anticipated. Coupled with the demolition of democracy by the Prez back home, this is a week the Pakis would like to wipe off their calendars…!

And we witnessed bizarre things by crazy Indian “fans”, who went about damaging the assets of the “men in blue”…! In the recent past, Indian hockey team has lost matches by bigger margins, playing far worse than what Dravid & co did…Its an open secret that India is the honey comb of cricket, The line between being a fan and being a fanatic is neither thin nor blur and the fans(read fanatics) have left no stone unturned (un-hurled, in this case) in expressing their disappointment at the result. Yes, the same fanatics, who just a week ago were holding prayers and performing Yagnas in the hope that the cup would come back to us…Thankfully, nobody is blaming the gods for not accepting the offering and helping team India in its quest…:)

I am a big fan of sport in general and have had the good fortune to follow a lot of sportsmen thanks to globalization of various sports. One thing that characterizes all the players is that they expect a standing ovation on the good performances and constructive criticism on the bad ones. Anything beyond these boundaries on either side is bad for everyone. Indian cricket, for quite some time now has bred the negative trend and I believe that the media has to take the bulk of the blame for it...With 24/7 news channels dissecting each and every ball and seeking the “expert” opinions of the former players is a disturbing sight. These former players by no means, were great players and a look into their cricketing credentials doesn’t reflect Bradman-esque statistics either…However, we see them day in day out, all dressed up for the crucification of the players whenever they fare badly.

Corporate India, with all its big bucks is another major culprit. With so many lucrative advertisements coming their way, the cricketers are making more money than their counterparts from other countries…Coupled with their bad performances, these ads tend to leave a bad taste in the mouths of the spectators…Ironic as it was, even as India was losing, the prominent ads during the India vs Bangladesh were the one of Sachin promoting some biscuit and the war cry of “ooooooo aaaaaaah”…!

Let cricket be just another sport. Getting too emotional and passionate is good neither for the team nor the sport itself…Enjoy the success of the team and criticize them in a civilized manner whenever they fail…It bodes well for everyone…!

Movie quiz...

2007-01-16T06:53:00.001-08:00

Quizzing being one of my many interests, I usually send out quizzes in our office group...Like this blog, the quizzing group has been dormant for majority of 2006 and my new year resolution is to revive both of them...:)

This is one of the movie quizzes that I put up last year...!

Q1:

Andy Dufresne is a young and successful banker whose life changes drastically when he is convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of his wife and her lover. Set in the 1940's, the film shows how Andy, with the help of his friend Red, the prison entrepreneur, turns out to be a most unconventional prisoner…

Q2:
Loosely based on Homer's 'Odyssey' the movie deals with the grotesque adventures of Everett Ulysses McGill and his companions Delmar and Pete in 1930s Mississippi. Sprung from a chain gang and trying to reach Everetts home to recover the buried loot of a bank heist they are confronted by a series of strange characters. Among them sirens, a Cyclops, bank robber George 'Babyface' Nelson (very annoyed by that nickname), a campaigning Governor, his opponent, a KKK lynch mob, and a blind prophet, who warns the trio that "the treasure you seek shall not be the treasure you find."

Q3:
The gangster Colorado kidnaps Marshal _______. He believes that Marshal has seen a map which leads to a rich vein of gold in the mountains and forces him to show him the way. But they're not the only ones who're after the gold; soon they meet a group of "honorable" citizens and the cavalry crosses their way too - and that is even before they enter Indian Territory.

Q4:
The story of a rich Jewish prince and merchant in Jerusalem at the beginning of the 1st century. Together with the new governor his old friend Messala arrives as commanding officer of the Roman legions. At first they are happy to meet after a long time but their different politic views separate them. During the welcome parade a brick falls down from Judah's house and barely misses the governor. Although Messala knows that they are not guilty he sends Judah to the slave galleys and throws his mother and sister into prison. But Judah swears to come back and take revenge.

Q5:
During WW2 a British aircraft is shot down and crashes in Nazi held territory. The Germans capture the only survivor, an American General, and take him to the nearest SS headquarters. Unknown to the Germans the General has full knowledge of the D-Day operation. The British decide that the General must not be allowed to divulge any details of the Normandy landing at all cost and order Major John Smith to lead a crack commando team to rescue him. Amongst the team is an American Ranger, Lieutenant Schaffer, who is puzzled by his inclusion in an all British operation. When one of the team dies after the parachute drop, Schaffer suspects that Smith's mission has a much more secret objective.

Q6:
Film version of the stage musical, based on the stories of Sholom Aleichem. Tevye the Milkman is a Jewish peasant in pre-Revolutionary Russia, coping with the day-to-day problems of `shtetl' life, his Jewish traditions, his family (wife and daughters), and state-sanctioned pogroms.

Q7:
An abusive husband, his wife and their psychic son take care of a haunted hotel over the winter, but the isolation becomes too much pressure…Jack Torrance gets a job as the custodian of the Overlook Hotel, in the mountains of Colorado. The place is closed down during winter, and Torrance and his family will be the only occupants of the hotel for a long while. When the snow storms block the Torrance family in the hotel, Jack's son Danny - who has some clairvoyance and telepathy powers - discovers that the hotel is haunted and that the spirits are slowly driving Jack crazy. When Jack meets the ghost of Mr. Grady, the former custodian of the hotel who murdered his wife and his two daughters, things begin to get really nasty...

Q8:
Spoilt socialite and notorious practical joker Melanie Daniels is shopping in a San Francisco pet store when she meets Mitch Brenner. Mitch is looking to buy a pair of love birds for his young sister's birthday; he recognizes Melanie but pretends to mistake her for an assistant. She decides to get her own back by buying the birds and driving up to the quiet coastal town of Bodega Bay, where Mitch spends his weekends with his sister and mother. Shortly after she arrives, Melanie is attacked by a gull, but this is just the start of a series of attacks…

Q9:
You're young. You have an easy, well-paid deskjob. You have a condo, Swedish furniture, artistic coffee tables and a fridge full of condiments. Yet you feel emotionally and spiritually empty. You eventually find comfort in going to support groups for lukemia and cancer victims when there's nothing wrong with you until they're hijacked from you by another faker. Then you meet Tyler Durden, a man that shows you that not only can you live without material needs but that self-destruction, the collapse of society and making dynamite from soap might not be such a bad idea either. A ticking-time-bomb insomniac and a slippery soap salesman channel primal male aggression into a shocking new form of therapy.

Q10:
The real-life story of America’s most notorious couple, who caught the imagination of the nation during the great depression…To their victims, the duo is doing what nobody else has the guts to do. To the law, the two are evil bank robbers who deserve to be gunned down where they stand. The inspired the famous poem…

Some day they'll go down together.
They'll bury them side by side.
To few it'll be grief -
To the law a relief -
but it's death for ________ and ________

Answers sometime soon...In case you want to take up the quiz, mail me the answers at sathishkumarv@gmail.com

Movie quiz...

2007-01-16T06:53:00.000-08:00

An Ode to Champions

2006-01-12T04:22:00.000-08:00

Being a sports fanatic that I am, I find it very easy to follow the really colourless sports with consummate ease…Cycling and F1 top that list…I’m sure people won’t agree with me about the F1 part, but we’ll get to that later…And its been a mixed year for the champions, who drove me into watching these sports…Lance Armstrong continued his domination, won the tour for the 7th time and retired from the sport. Schumacher has been crippled by a below par car and an even worse tyre. But thats no excuse for his decline, Alonso has been steady and Kimi has been stunning...!!!

Vive Le Tour…
Last week, as Lance Armstrong bid goodbye to the sporting world, my thoughts ventured back two years, the first time I came to know about the Tour De France. Until then, my view of cycling was limited to velodromes and Triathlons. Hercules was lucky, the Tour De France was not one of his twelve tasks...!!!Pedaling over treacherous mountains and scaling 5 peaks over a single race was totally inconceivable to me…And then here was a man, who had won the tour 4 times before, on course for a fifth one. In a country bereft of sporting columns other than cricket, an occasional hockey triumph and of course, the heroics of Leander and his comrades, who time and again come up trumps against much higher ranked opponents in the Davis Cup, a small column about Lance’s quest for a fifth crown made me really curious, I logged onto google and searched for his name…What really amazed me was the number of hits that I got. Most of them made a mention of cancer related stuff, I was so sure that this was the wrong guy that I re-searched with specifics about the tour. Amazingly the number of hits did not reduce even by one…!!!!
Intrigued by this, I clicked on the first link and there it was, the biography of one of the grittiest champions of our time, his foray into the sport, the cancer, the chemotherapy et all…By the time I finished it, a sense of shock and awe filled me. The man’s courage and guts to overcome cancer and return back to the Tour De France and win it not once or twice, but 4 times…Surely movies had more believable story-lines…!!!
If the coverage in the print media was low-key, their electronic counterparts weren’t much better either…So all I could do was follow the clippings of the tour stages and the internet reports. He wasn’t in the tour lead right away, neither were his closest rivals. Lance himself said it that the race begins only on the mountain climbs and so I was really looking forward to those stages. True to his word, he bagged the yellow jersey mid-way through one of these stages and it was turning out to be close contest. Ultimately, he won it by a margin of 61 seconds over Jan Ullrich. There were talks brewing about how Lance’s victory wasn’t as emphatic as the ones before and that it was better for him to retire while on the high. I was really sad on hearing this news and wanted Lance to carry on. I did not want to be the one to catch the flower late in its bloom…?
Thankfully, I was privileged to watch 2 more tours, both of which he won in an ominous manner. As Lance bids Au Revoir, his shield of invincibility is still intact and yet to be breached. France waits for a new winner next year, and hopes that he will be half as good as the champion Texan.

So coming onto F1 and Schumi, I started watching F1 somewhere in the late 90s, when F1 had to fight for its TV slot. It was not the plum, which everybody wanted to gobble up. Schumi wasn't even the world champion then...Those were the days of Hill and Villeneuve, who with due respect, might not have won their titles, if schumi had not switched from his championship winning team of Benetton. The last Ferrari driver to win the driver's title previously was a certain gentleman by the name of Jody Schekter in 1979 and it took them another 21 years before they could have one more among their ranks. The team's development was excellent, but the decisive factor was the magic of Schumi, who continuously outpaced the faster cars of McLaren and delivered when it mattered the most. I've heard some hard-core critics (the ones who criticise coz they've never known what appreciation is) say that Ferrari has a great car and makes him look a good driver. Glancing back at some of those magical laps that he dished out week after week with a non-performing car will silence them for sure...I miss those qualifying laps of sheer brilliance, where he pulled off huge chunks of time at corners where everybody else lost time, including his team mates...!!! And of course, those lightning quick laps in the rain, which made you realize that you were witnessing something super special.
Alas, things are not what they used to be for the prancing horse. The tifosi have gone silent and the Renaults and the McLarens have found a cure for the scarlet fever...!!! We are witnessing the change of guard as the Alonsos and the Kimis outperform Schumi time and again. But he's not the one to go down with a wimp...As he proved in last week's Hungarian GP, the sculptor has not lost his touch, its only his chisel seems to have become blunt. He has already conceded his title this year and the team's inability to match the speeds of the front-runners have sent their fortunes spiralling downward. His contract with Ferrari expires in 2006 and unless the guys at Maranello make radical changes and pull back the gap to the other teams, Schumacher's swansong could well be among the also-rans of the grid. However, having watched Schumacher over the past decade, I'll be really surprised if he does not add another title to his resume before calling it a day.

If Lance manifests General Maximus of Gladiator, fighting and surviving death before achieving glory, Schumacher has been more like Achilles of Troy, who has decimated everything in his path until now and looks for more to devour...These two great athletes have made the sport richer by their exploits and when they are gone, we will definitely miss their charismatic presence.

Icy Haerbin...

2006-01-12T04:21:00.000-08:00

(Excerpts from Summer of '69)

Oh when I look back now
That summer seemed to last forever
And if I had the choice
Ya - I'd always wanna be there
Those were the best days of my life

I am living the winter of '04, the way Bryan Adams had his summer of '69....THE BEST DAYS OF MY LIFE

From the great wall to skiing to F1, i've "been there, done that"...and these are the events that have punctuated my visit to Beijing...But the thrill part was missing...something very naturally romantic...;-)

and so I decided to visit Harbin Ice & Snow Festival...For the uninitiated, it is one of the coldest places in the whole of northern hemisphere...colder than some parts of Russia as well...!!!!
and when I told this to some of my friends here, they gave me confusing stares...why would anybody want to go to someplace where the day's maximum temperature reads -14 degrees...I guess eccentricity runs in my blood...!!!!

Most of my friends were busy with official work, so I set off to Harbin alone to spend a weekend and arrived on a dark saturday morning...Even the sun here has "core working hours" of 10:00 - 4:00...:-)

Harbin is the hometown of one of my colleagues here and so I had a lot of info abt the places to visit...I knew that the must-see places were the snow festival and the ice festival...Also on the cards was the Siberian Tiger Park...the biggest natural reserve of the Siberian Tigers in the world...!!!

Travelling alone was also a new experience to me...but must say I really enjoyed it...I set out with my backpack and reached the snow festival...the temperature must've been abt - 17 to -20...getting my gloves off for a few seconds made my fingers go numb...and my feet were also becoming heavier...but I realized all this later...Standing before me was a solid block of snow, given the beautiful shape of a roman god...on the other end of the pathway was a gorgeous nymph...greeting visitors into the snow festival...The supressed excitement within me was about to burst out...Spellbound, Awestruck, Dumbfounded...I was all that and much much more...!!!!

Huge blocks of snow had been sculpted so perfectly, not a single chisel must've gone wrong...It seemed the only thing left to do was for God to breathe life into them....!!!!
From the Mythical Warriors to the 2008 Olympics...the festival was a blend of the glorious past and the bright future...Also on display was a giant rooster...(2005 is the Chinese year of the rooster)
It took me more than 2 hours just to view all the exhibits on display...

From there I set off to visit the Tiger Park...I am always a bit apprehensive about going on safaris...considering the ones in Bannerghatta and Mysore made me think tigers are always meek animals...!!!
Siberian Tigers are the biggest of all the tiger species and I found out they can be quite ferocious as well...This safari was quite different since the van drove into the protected area and right beside the tigers...I could almost feel the breath of the tiger as it passed our vehicle...The best sight of course, was the white tiger lazing in the snow taking an afternoon nap...and it let out such a big roar as if daring anybody to disturb it...Very obidiently, I left the place and went to the site of the ice festival...;-)

As I entered the place at about 5 pm, it was long time since the sun had set and the lights had taken full effect...How I wish I could describe the scene...A feeling of having wandered into Alice's Wonderland passed my mind...!!!

I was surrounded by master-pieces of ice, from towers to ships to palaces to churches, the more notable ones being the replicas of St. Petersburg Church from Russia and the Louvre Museum from Paris and a very artistically crafted great wall...
But the star of the show was the central ice tower standing tall in the middle amid all these beauties...Freezing in sub zero temperatures, wrapped in 6 layers of clothing, my heart missed a beat at seeing that magnificient structure and left me gasping for breath...It seemed to be the castle stuff fairy tales are made of with a princess sitting by the window waiting for her prince charming...!!!!
Well the prince had arrived...where was the princess....;-)

And so I finished my journey through the land of Harbin with my desire for doing something different completely satiated...:-)
HARBIN, a place where people fought the adversity of extreme cold and created marvels from a thing as inanimate as ice & snow...Truly in this respect, man playing God can bring only joy and happiness...!!!

Second Mail from Beijing

2006-01-12T04:19:00.000-08:00

Hi guyz...

i'll start off from where i left in my last mail...and some answers to
interesting queries ppl have been asking me...
well...i'm not planning to give up the ornithology pleasures that bangalore
has to offer...so i am not keen on exploring my oppurtunities in this
land...

remember that famous Aamir Khan dialog from Ishq...

"Life mein theen cheezon ke peeche nahin bhaagne ka....Bus, Train aur
Chokri..."

Here the buses are very frequent, the trains are very fast, the girls are
both...so am not chasing anyone here..;-)
i guess that answers 90% of my friends' queries...

as to the other 10%, no i've not started eating cockroaches and
snakes...they're very costly here...:-)
i still remain 100% veg...(hopefully i have'nt eaten anything non-veg)....

my non-veg. colleagues are having a party time...there have plenty of
choices and they love experimenting...some have even eaten donkey meat...:
-0

there are KFCs and Macdonalds' all over the place...if i remember
right...blore has only 2 KFCs...i'd been to a supermarket last week and
they had snakes and turtles for sale...

anyway food apart, China has a cultural heritage to match India...

Last saturday, we went on a package tour to the gr8 wall..they took us to 2
different spots of the wall and the ming tombs...some of our colleagues who
had been there before commented that the place was not interesting and said
it was only miles and miles of the wall that you cud see...but when i went
there...it was a awesome experience....the walls are so huge and then the
pathway is very steep..it is at an incline of about 40 degrees and
sometimes upto 45 degrees... and one poor guy had a backpack of abt 4
kgs....
....
....
....
....
well that poor guy was me...there was no one else having a bag and i had to
carry most of the stuff...it was like military training...but i enjoyed it
a lot...:-)
but my appetite was not satisfied and i'm planning to go back one more time
to enjoy the splendor of the wall...

i was annoyed with my colleagues for their comments...wat did they expect
when they came to the wall....Aishwarya Rai dancing...?????

and then we went to the ming tombs, where the kings of the gr8 ming dynasty
are buried...there are 13 tombs, of which only one was open to public..its
an underground tomb...with a depth of 27 m...(phew...did they take care of
their dead or what...his two queens are buried next to him, so that he
doesn't feel bored...!!!)
and u know wat...that guy used golden soap box...laced with jade...
actually jade is cheap over here and i'm planning to get some lumps so that
i can get some jewellery made in india ...

but the entrance fares at these historical places is damn costly and it
cost us 200 bucks (thatz Rs. 1200) just for the tickets...anyway its once
in a lifetime exp...so its ok... i also came to know therez a train to wall
which passes along the mountains and promises a very romantic
journey....(remember konkan railway...)

and then i've been to the different markets around beijing...the bargain
ratio is about 1:20...
in china...u give them anything original, they'll give u a replica in 5
min....u'll hardly be able to tell the difference...tale mele hodeda hange
achchu hodithaare...:-)
i got some Tommy Hilfiger shirts...I'm eyeing a Ferrari shirt which even
Schumi wud die for...(fake of course...)

Btw i've booked tickets for the Shanghai grand prix...its on the 26th of
the next month and the stand is one of the slowest of the track...so
hopefully, i can get more than a glimpse of Schumi and gang...

thatz it for now...

more in my next mail...

i love reading ur replies...keep 'em comin'

-sathish

First Mail from Beijing

2006-01-12T04:18:00.000-08:00

Hi...

I had misplaced my address book and so could not mail you earlier... I am doing fine here... the weather is pretty cool and the ppl are very friendly as well...I will try to send you regular updates abt my experiences in this city...

In this mail... i'll mainly talk abt 3 things...

1. My journey...

2. My first impressions abt Beijing and finally...

3. Girls in beijing...(what more can guys talk abt...)

The travel part was probably the most exciting part since it was very new to me.... starting of from blore airport, i hoped to catch a window seat so that i could have that gr8 view of namma bengaluru... but naanu seat hattira hogokinta munchene yaaro bere avaru kitaki inda seat mele kerchief haakibittidru...:-(

so i had to settle for a middle row seat and watch as we took off into the sky... and whoever said airhostess are beautiful on intl flights forgot to fly in Malaysian Airlines...no further comments on that!!!!

the food was worse and a 4.5 hr flight got us to Kuala Lampur... KL airport is awesome and the arhitecture is superb... Did shopping at some of the duty-free shop at the airport... man all things are damn cheap over there...

another 1.5 hrs later, we were on our flight to Beijing and I was lucky to get the window seat...so cud see all the wing maneuvers and it was awesome...Since the journey was mostly over the seas, no interesting sights…6 hours later, we were in beijing and a gr8 drive on the way to our apartment...

the first thing that struck me about beijing was that it looked a very traditional and a lazy city, given its capital status... very much like our Delhi... but the roads are awesome and coming from bangalore, the transport service is excellent...we are currently put up in a hotel..the food is not all that bad... We get lots of fruits here and of many varieties as well...

Well...if you quit the first two parts and came directly into this... i've got nothing much exciting for you...

The male:female ratio in Beijing is around 1:4... but before you start cursing me..."quality is better than quantity" funda applies here as well...Bangalore is far far better in the quality part...

"Water Water everywhere, not a drop to drink..."(no pun intended...)

ok then....i'll mail you sometime soon...

keep in touch...

bye

-sathish

Time, the biggest constraint

2006-01-12T02:08:00.000-08:00

Lots to say, but no time at all...!!!
have been trying to post since last week, but somehow kept on delaying it...so finally decided to atleast post all my previous articles...:)
Some of them were written for the Huawei newsletter, while others were my mails to my friends when I was in Beijing...

From tomorrow, I'll be busier than before...nothing much on the work front, but the India Pak series and the VB series are starting tomorrow...:-P
The test series could finally put to end, the melodrama that's been going on in Indian cricket...Ganguly's future will be decided,and from my perspective, it doesn't look too bright for him...Unless somebody falls ill, i doubt if he'll even play in the entire series...!!!

A Tryst with Destiny

2006-01-12T02:01:00.000-08:00

I still remember the day I browsed the calendar in january and was upset that the 15th of August being a sunday... there goes another holiday for a toss i thought...little did i realize that this was going to be the most eventful independence day of my life...the day I visited the Indian Embassy and shook hands with the Indian ambassador...

Nehru called our independence "A tryst with Destiny"...Well I can't think of a more apt title for this as well...

It was a day to treasure...but the one moment which i will cherish the most for the rest of my life will be the one when around 75 of the indians assembled over there sang the national anthem...

Waking up early on Sunday morning is everybody's nightmare, but as the 12 of us braved the cold and drizzly Beijing morning and made the trip to the Embassy, we knew it was an effort worth every bit of it...We were really surprised to find a crowd of 75 - 80 Indians over here and the sight of the women clad in colourful sarees was a treat for sore eyes...

After the flag hoisting, the ambassador read out the President's address to the nation delivered on the night of 14th August and then we had some great samosas, jalebis and pakoras...never felt closer to home before...:-)

Even more appreciable was the courtesy that the embassy officials extended to us. The Indian ambassador came up to us and personally enquired about our well-being and being comfortable in Beijing...And then we got to meet a lot of Indians living in Beijing...

There is a big group of Indians here who have regular get-togethers and celebrate the indian festivals as well...I might not be missing Dasara and Diwali after all...^_^

Lunch at an Indian restaurant and several hours later, as I recollected the events of the day, the vivid images of the tricolour fluttering in all its splendour on that beautiful sunday morning with remain with me forever...

Debut

2006-01-04T05:07:00.000-08:00

Resolutions...The first week of January is filled with these...but not many get past the second week...And this year, the start of 2006, I made one resolution...To start a blog...Hopefully this'll last more than the one week...:)

I procrastinated it till today, but Ravi's mail inspired me to start this blog...Thnx man...:)

Having decided to step foot into the blogosphere, the challenge was to come up with a good name and I turned to the one language that i've come to like, love and admire for all these years...Good ol' Sanskrit...I've decided to call it Antharvaani...It means conscience...

Let's see how long my antharvaani will continue to broadcast...;)