The obvious case of Anterograde amnesia.

Like the protagonist of the movie "Ghajini" ,this citizen of India also suffers from Anterograde amnesia.
He forgets all about terrorist attacks that claimed many lives and his anger on the hypocritic politicians only to be reminded of it when another attack happens.
He forgets to use cloth bags while going to market only to remember it when another cow dies of plastic consumption or sees a video about the problems created by plastic.
He forgets to vote only to remember it when he has to say something against the government.
He forgets that he is here to make a life but only remembers how to make a living.
He forgets adding life to years but remembers to add years to life.
He forgets to exercise and remembers it when he sees a obese person struggling through life.
He forgets the all powerful God,but remembers him only when he is in trouble.
He forgets that he is just a guest on this earth and not the owner.Someone has to remind him that one day he will eventually die.

Don't you think this Prajani has more problems than Sanjay Singhania???And whats the solution??

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NELLI RETURNS

Hi all,
I am back...
What??? you did not know that I was away?? After all the internet space wasted in the 2 blogs below ? Well,it does not matter.All that matters is I am back.
As there was no particular reason for being away,there is no particular reason to come back too.
And in the meantime I see my blog itself has started blogging.Talk about wanting to get its share of limelight!!Or may be it was feeling insecure.Identity crisis ?

I felt the period of non blogging was a bliss just because I did not have to think of what to write next.I stopped waiting for inspiration.I thought Inspiration is wonderful when it happens, but the writer must develop an approach for the rest of the time...The wait for inspiration is simply too long.Then slowly I realized that I need not keep writing so often.I am not running a fortnightly magazine where there is a pressure to finish articles under stringent deadlines.Blogging is just an hobby and since it is my space I can do it at leisure.And moreover I need not write to impress anyone.

So readers beware ....I AM BACK !!!

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When the pussy cat is away ,mickey mouse will play !!

Hi All,
Let me introduce myself.I am what I am.I am what U are reading.I am THE BLOG.I came to know that my owner who named me Mystery of my spirit is mysteriously missing .And because no one else was concerned what is being written here,I thought I will just try to fill the space till his so-called inspiration comes back.He says he does not know why he felt bored by me or why he is no more interested in me.(To know his arrogance read the blog below).But I don't think he will be away for too long.And till he returns let me tell you some of our secrets and what he thinks of me..
I don't know what he did to share his articles before he met me but what I know is that the main purpose he meets me is to share his thoughts with other people.He thinks that because he is damn sure that his articles wont get published anywhere he can easily type it here and think he has got his published.I laugh at his silliness. HA HA HA.But when I do poke him about this he starts bragging about some of his stuff actually making it to the Engg college magazine "Technovision" and his Polaris company mag "Toggle" .But make no mistake I still feel that it was not because of his literary brilliance but only because there were no more articles to fill their pages.
But deep in his heart he knows that he needs me to scribble some random thoughts that is running in his mind and because he has taken pains to write it he wants someone to take the pain to read it too...What a loser :-)
And more than a loser,he is lazy.Lazy to even cross check what he has written or at least run a spell check and correct spellings.He says he is like Kumaravyasa.Once written he will not crosscheck.He claims he wrote his exams like that only."Write Once Recheck never" is his mantra it seems.But let me tell you by now he should have realised how people get pissed off seeing grammatically incorrect sentences.Now that 2 of his readers(yes some people still read) have commented about it,its high time that he takes spelling seriously.
Now all of a sudden he says that he is not interested in me but I don't care ... Its not as if he is the only writer in the world.My sixth sense is telling me that he will soon be back and I am hoping for the best.And I guarantee you that even if he is back ,his writings will still be amateurish but will be what it was....Random thoughts expressed in random words .
To end with, I shall quote one of Calvinism : "I used to hate writing assignments, but now I enjoy them. I realized that the purpose of writing is to inflate weak ideas, obscure poor reasoning, and inhibit clarity. With a little practice, writing can be an intimidating and impenetrable fog!"

So Mr. Mystery of my spirit ...don't get bored.Inflate your ideas ...Come on...WRITE

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Hibernation :-(

HI,
Of late I am losing interest in blogging and am yet to find out the reason.So am planning for a self incuded hibernation. But I would not like to lose some of the articles I would have written if it was not for my disinterest. So what I will do is make a short note on what was in my mind. I don’t think I will elaborate it any day. If at all I blog again it will be coz I will lose interest in "not blogging".

Article: 1
-------------
Charity Begins at home; corruption???

Points that made me write abt it
a) college library had limited stock of text books that were of interest to students. so there was a huge competition to get it under free-book-scheme (scheme where 2 books would be) given to students for the whole semester).And when there is more demand and less supply, corruption is sure to breed. In this case the librarian would take token money(read bribe) from some students and reserve books for them. On the distribution day, While we would struggle to get the books ,they would come 2-3 days later and take the book. This was the first form I bribery I encountered in my life and still feel bad for not fighting against it( and certainly not ashamed for NOT using that service ).

b) This is based purely on what I heard. The story goes that lecturers and wardens share new utensils and other items that comes to the college hostel. And only a part of it goes to the students staying there :-( How cheap!! It reminds me of how the money collected for earthquake/tsunami/flood affected ppl is distributed.

c) and finally the claim for transportation done by the employees .I have seen employees overcharge the claim amount for reimbursement. Also those who go onsite get false bill and claim them back here. another form of corruption :-)

d) there are so many other things that I have lost count


Article :2
--------------
Of God, and religion
Wanted to write what I thought abt the God, its existence, religion, birth and death. And had collected enough points. but now in no mood to write. One of those points is that a person will undergo the birth and death cycle until he gets moksha(salvation).Each person takes a step near moksha every birth. It’s like a product which is tested again and again and you find bugs in every iteration and then solve them and once it passes required test it is released !!!


Article 3:
-------------
I wanted to write about the team building outing we had.We had gone to pegasus institute where we played team-games and learnt a lot about ourselves.It was planned to be on the similar lines on that of the kotligad blog I wrote long ago but I delayed it enough to lose interest now.

Article 4:
-------------
Well I hv lost interest in this particular blog I am writing too.So will stop here.


Ok bye signing off for now.Going in search for an inspiration and motivation for writing again...............

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How I was Phoonked !!!

Catch me on any weekend and you will find me doing one of these things: Sleeping, watching movies, reading novels or eating. Eventhough the past weekend had the same schedule, the sequence of events occurred during those two days still give me chills.
Somehow I felt that the theme of that weekend was "RED and BLACK". And this is why....

It all started when an evil friend of mine invited me to watch a Kannada movie called "Madesha".The movie had a notorious reputation of not having got even an 'A' certificate due to extreme violence shown in the film. The producer finally managed to release it and I went to watch the movie. All I could find was that the hero (?!) SRK kills everyone in sight without any justification. There was too much violence, bloodshed and crime for a film and I came out of the theatre with my blood boiling .But my friend- turned-enemy had escaped by then.It was nothing but co-incidence that I was wearing a red T-shirt over black jeans that day.Though my dress has nothing to do with the story unfolding below,it was just blending well with the Red & Black theme.

I took the bus to my home and on the way saw some funeral procession. For the first time in my life I did not feel bad seeing a dead body. I felt as if he was just another victim of our Madesha’s anger. It did not occur to me that this funeral was real.
Coming home ,I saw my brother playing Doom on PC.I sat there and watched the demonic creature shoot at sight. I could not bear it for long and left for dinner. My mom had prepared a red colored Sāmbhar. I purposely declined it and chose to eat pure white colored curd rice. But that red pickle and red papad still would not leave me...

At this point of the story the RED theme fades and BLACK theme comes to picture …

As if this was not enough, now I decided to watch "Phoonk" on my system. Although I believed that RGV cannot make a better horror flick than RGV ki AAG, I chose to watch it for 3 reasons: I somewhat like parapsychology, supernatural fictions and that the hero was a Kannada star.
I liked the film with all its weird camera angles, crows, dolls, nimbu and of course black magic. After watching this film, my mom telling me to cut a lemon for some preparation the next day was just a co-incidence. Or was it??

I still had some time to KILL (Oh no.. this word is not gonna leave me) . So I started reading a detective novel called “Sherlock Holmes" but soon started to feel sleepy. I changed my ringtone to "Gayatri Mantra" so that even though anyone calls me at night, I should not get startled but hear a nice prayer. And then I slept. Suddenly in the middle of the night I heard some eerie laughter. It was not sounding like a human being .I thought I was just hearing things. But some time later I heard it again. Now this was serious. I got up and drank some water. As I was looking for the source of the laughter, I could hear some faint sound of bell ringing somewhere.
I opened my window slightly and could feel the cold breeze blowing outside. As I strained to see what was happening outside in midst of the darkness outside, all I could see was a closed goods auto rickshaw. I suddenly realized that the bell sound was coming from inside of the auto. Now the sound grew clearer. I could hear some woman chanting something. It was creepy. My heart started beating fast. Why would someone park an auto near the middle of three roads and chant some mantras at this time of the night. I was sure that this had definitely something to do with black magic. That woman seemed to have some evil thoughts in mind. As an avid detective novel reader, by now I had found out how to make a logical conclusion given a set of evidences. And to hit the final nail in the coffin, I heard a small child crying in the house outside which the auto was parked.

Now the statement "You wont believe it until it happens to you" made sense. Here I was, watching (in my mind), a woman performing black magic on some girl and I was helpless. I like these supernatural things and powers but hate when it seems to cause 3D effects :distress,disease and death.

I thought all this was too much to bear and went to my bed and tried to sleep again. Now it might be around 4 AM when I heard that evil laugh again. And this time I could not sleep. Just out of curiosity, I went to see what happened to that auto and....

:
:
: :
:
: :
:
: :
:
:
:
:
:
What I saw completely took me by surprise but I was very relieved by that sight. Still I had some doubts in my minds but the fear had vanished. So I slept peacefully and waited for the latest developments. Next morning I did a small research on the last night happenings and got all my doubts cleared. Here are the facts:

That auto was parked there as it had run out of fuel .And at 4 AM; I saw its owner refill the petrol and explaining his friend how he had to walk in the night to get the fuel and took him so much time to get back.
Just behind the auto,in my opposite house, (obviously out of my view), was a neighborhood aunty offering prayers to the "Brahmakamala" (or Nishagandhi or Night Blooming Cereus) which had bloomed only that night. She found it auspicious and did not mind offering prayers to it (and in turn creating fear in my heart) at that point of night. This was the reason of the woman chanting and the bell sound.
And it was due to this sound in latenight that the small child got frightened and started crying... (To hell with black magic, even prayers create terror!!)
The last link in the whole story was the evil laugh. It turned out to be that in the sleepy mood, instead of Gayatri mantra, I had set some scary ringtone for calls. And to end from where it all started from, it was the same evil friend of mine who had called in those unearthly hours thus making my phone to create terror filled music. Reason: well he was traveling and since could not sleep; he would give missed calls to his friends at random times just for fun.
My mind was now crystal clear knowing that none of the events were linked to one another and of course no black magic...


Then all of a sudden I heard another faint set of laughters...But this time it was Sherlock Holmes, Ram Gopal verma, the lemon seller and the crows :-)

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Winning isn't everything

It’s high time that I accept that the events that unfolded after 8th August 2008 changed my whole perspective of what I thought about winning. If you have still not guessed what happened on that day, let me tell you .It was the day when China opened the Beijing Olympics with a stunning spectacle leaving everyone in the world spellbound. It is surely unlikely that any other host country will ever be able to devote such investment and resources to an opening ceremony. Such a flawless exhibition of synchronization, choreography, discipline and imagination was rarely to be seen in the recent years. And yes I am still in awe for the magnitude of the event. Never in my life had I seen a show where such a large number of people perform with such harmony. I would like to give full credits to the people who came up with such a show. It surely set a benchmark for any kind of event to be hosted from now on. As the saying goes, “First impression is the best impression”, the opening event itself showcased what was in store for the rest of the event. I never cared to watch Olympics all these years but when the start was so splendid, I was left wanting for more....

My next few days became too mechanical. After returning from office ,I would sit in front of the TV to watch Olympics (bearing the torture of the dismal coverage by doordarshan).Over the next few days I saw many mistakes being made, many hopes shattered and most importantly many world records being broken. And it is this part of the world records that made me write this article.

Yes I am talking about these 2 persons who made me rethink the definition of winning: Michael Philips and Usian Bolt. Winning gold is good and breaking world records is better. But the way in which it was done was what we call “Great”. Winning 8 medals out of 8 in swimming is utter domination. And it was a long time that this type of domination was achieved in swimming. And the way in which bolt completed his last 10 meters of his 100m sprint with his fist thumping his chest and celebrating even before winning and still breaking the world record was a spectacle to behold. It showed us that it was not only winning that was important but doing it comprehensively was the new in thing.

I wondered now that whether it could be seen in other sports as well and I could recollect a few who made us feel that there was no thrill in watching the sport if you knew who was the winner beforehand. To name a few, here is the list: Michael Schumacher in F1,Tiger Woods in golf, Federer in Tennis (Nadal is not as consistent),Australia in cricket etc.
These were the people who seemed to be bored of winning. There always seemed to be an aura of invincibility around them. I sometime wondered what would motivate them to practise when they knew they were the undisputed leaders in their game.

Somehow I feel this phenomenon is also come to academics too. Toppers now not only try to get better marks than the others but try to see that the gap between them and the next best is very large.

The competition is not becoming tougher, its made tougher by the winners ,who instead of competing with others ,try to beat themselves thus increasing the gap with which they defeat someone.


I had read this interesting one liner somewhere :"Just when I had found the key of life, someone changed the lock".
Now I feel it’s very true.

To conclude, this is what I have to say: Winning isn’t everything…..being invincible is :)

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The 3 turning points of my life

Before you jump to any conclusion about the title being borrowed from Chetan Bhagat's "3 mistakes of my life", let me clarify one thing: The title is very original and was thought of even earlier than the book itself was named. But due to my habit of procrastination, my article got delayed and that damn book got released .But even then I would not like to change the title or the content. Here I have summarized three important incidents in my life from where my life would change dramatically.

First of all them is my birth itself. It was such a wonderful thing that I was born in this beautiful world. To borrow a line from Gracie Allen I would agree that "when I was born I was so surprised I didn't talk for a year and a half”. Without this incident I would not be in a position to write this article and I very well know that you people will agree with me at least in this turning point...

My second tryst with a life defining incident was my very poor marks in my first year PUC (11th grade).For your information ( and not for my self-flattery) I was in the top 3 in all my school years and due to that had got my seat in one of the best colleges in Bangalore. But I don’t know what struck me at that year, but I fared poorly in all subjects. I saw such low marks that I had never dreamt of. And to add to all these my final exam maths marks was an all time low 35.Phew I missed that failure by a whisker!!. And above all I was now worried about the reaction at home. They too would not have expected such a poor display of form from my side. Expecting the worst I told my marks to my parents and surprisingly they acted as if it was normal and 1st year marks was not at all a big deal. Had they shown their disappointment that day, I would be further demotivated and depressed and who knows I would again have not been in a position to write this article.Devara varavo punyada phalavo kaanenu (By gods grace), my father was transferred to chikmagalur and I had to take the risk of changing the college for II PUC, a risk many would not feel worth taking .But my marks in I yr made me so eager to change the college no matter what risk. I simple would not be able to sit in between 90% scorers for another year (After claiming that I had scored 94% in SSLC and showed no promise in Ist yr).I changed the college, went to CKM ,got into some random college and was able to get 5th rank in II PUC at college level. Now it was time for engineering and it meant changing college to meet new challenges which I dreaded so badly. But talking lesson from my previous experience I vowed to never let that happen again and went for the kill from the first day in Engineering .From there for the next four academic years there was no looking back. The rest is history for which I am still proud of :-)

If the first one came during my birth and the second case during my academic life, the third one came during my initial years of professional life in my first company. < I removed whatever was written here as I am still living my professional life though in a different company.Also I feel it has reached the intended audience. In case you did not read this and are eager to know what was here do mail me ;-) Sorry for inconvenience caused >

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All roads lead to Rome

Recently I watched the much hyped dasaavataaram and more than the film the concepts in it are lingering in my mind.The movie was about chaos theory and the butterfly effect.It said that everything which happens in the world are for a reason.Pondering over it I recalled one incident which completely interlinked with each other and here is the series of incidents :

Scene-1 :
Year :1998
Place : Cordial High school Ground
Situation: Annual day
I was watching the annual day with my family and friends.everything was as usual : the speeches,award ceremony ,cultural programmes etc. At the end of the ceremony they announced that from that year a new award was being given to the student who has shown allround performance in the school in 10th standard.And was awarded to some "BEST STUDENT". My mother casually told me ," Praveen,I want you to win the award the next year". And I jokingly replied " Surely".
End of scene-1

Scene-2 :Year : 1999 (1 yr since scene -1)

Place : In my house on my bed

Situation : Dreaming

I was sitting in some auditorium and some event was going on.Suddenly in midst of all that ,they announced that Praveen Nellikeri had won some award. Surprised and elated,I walked to the stage ,received the award and came back to my seat.All the while I could hear a huge round of applause.

End of scene-2

Scene-3 :

Year 1999(1 day since scene -2)

Place : Our school ground

Situation: Some rehearsal for sports day where we they choreographing some Mass PT stuff. Everyone was yelling ,making noise..I was standing silently in the line thinking of the previous night dream.Seeing this one of my teacher ,Sujata madam, called me in front and told all others to take me as example and maintain discipline. Filled with pride I said " Oh ,then ma'am ,this years best student award should go to me only".She stood silent for a moment and then smiled and left.

End of scene-3

Scene-4

Year 1999 (1 month since scene-3)

Place: Decorated school ground and Stage

Situation: Annual day

No suspense. "The Award for this years Best student goes to Mr.Praveen Nellikeri for his outstanding academic excellence and equally good all round cultural activity participation.........". My mother was clapping,My friends were clapping,Sujata ma'am was clapping ...and yes everyone present there were clapping.It took a minute to realize what had happened and then I walked to the stage ,received the award and came back to my seat..

End of Scene-4 and the whole cycle of award co-incidences

Epilogue

Year 1999 (1 hour since scene-4)

Place: School ground

Situation: Appreciation from everyone

Everyone was appreciating me.I was elated.Just then Sujata ma'am came to me and asked..." . I was surprised when you told you wanted the best student award this year.Because at that time only we had finalized that you will get this years award.And it was to be a secret. Did U really know it beforehand?? I just replied "No"..

But it seems everything was planned by God 1 yr back only ,right?? and probably told me too :-)

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Great minds think alike

Long long ago ,I had written a song based on the tune of "preetse antha.." from the kannada film "excuse me".It was about a mosquito and my ways of combating it.I had even shared it with many of my friends (one such occasion was when maddy-my college mate had thrown a party on his terrace).Believe me ,I had personally concieved that lyrics and it was not borrowed by anyone else.

Then some months later I got a sms from my cousin in karwar which contained the lines of the same song I had written.It did not exactly have the same words but the meaning was the same and it matched 90% to what I had written.I was surprised at this incident and thought may be it had spread from my friends as an SMS and thus after a long chain my cousin might have got it.I was happy that ppl liked it so much to take the trouble to sms it.And I forgot it as time went by.
But suddenly yesterday,while listening to radio, I heard the same song sung by some listener.This made me realise I am the only one to get that idea.Of course we all know that "GREAT MINDS THINK ALIKE" .

So barring straight remakes and tune-smugglers like annu malik and pritam, I now believe there is a Strong chance of 2 persons getting the same idea,same tune or the same story at different parts of the world.

And to give meaning to this ,I have a random theory and for simplicity and patenting lets name it "Nelli's idea wave theory" .I like to believe this thought was original but something tells me I hv read abt it somewhere ).

The theory is simple : All ideas we get or the thoughts we think are actually idea waves travelling all around.Just like the TV/radio stations emit the signals ,they are spread everywhere at different strengths.And similar to the way of how TV/radio sets catch the waves, our minds also catch some of the idea waves.This is what I call "Idea waves".
and then similar to two tv/radio sets picking up same signal ,two ppl may catch the same idea wave ( at different strengths) and then interpret them according to them.The probability may be less but not impossible.This explains how 2-3 ppl wrote the same lines..
OR
they simply lifted my lyrics.......

Let me clarify something, even though the lines I wrote for the song were new,the concept of spoofing songs for fun is not new.Ex: Devang patel has altered many of the songs to make his living ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devang_patel ) :-)
The song is reproduced below.Plz tell me if U hv heard it /read it before..It seems that this idea wave is a little bit stronger :-) .....



ರಾತ್ರಿ ಪೂರ ನನ್ನ ಕಚ್ಚಿ ರಕ್ತ ಹೀರ್ದೊವ್ರ್ಯಾರೋ
ನನ್ನೇ ಕಚ್ಚು ಅಂಥ ನಿಂಗೆ ಹೇಳಿ ಕೊಟ್ಟವರ್ಯಾರೋ
ಇದೇನಾ ನಿನ್ನ ಆತ
ಇದೇನಾ ಸೊಳ್ಳೆ ಕಾಟ
ಅದು ಎಲ್ಲಿ ಅಂಥ ನಾನು ನಿನ್ನ ಹುಡುಕಿ ಕೊಲ್ಲಲಿ

ಮೊನ್ನೆ ನೀನು kacchide
ನಿನ್ನೆ ನೀನು ಕಚ್ಚಿದೆ
ಇಂದು ನೀನು kachchade
ಬಿಡುವೆಯಾ

tortoise coil ಹಚ್ಚಿದೆ
mortien mat ನು ಉರಿಸಿದೆ
ಇನ್ನು ಏನು ಹಚ್ಚಲಿ ನೀ ಹೇಳು

ನಿನ್ನೆ ನಾನು ಮಲಗಿ ಇದ್ದೆ ಸೊಳ್ಳೆ ಪರದೆಯ ಕೆಳಗೆ
ಅದು ಹೇಗೆ ಬಂದು ಕಚ್ಚಿದೆ ನೀನು ಒಳಗೆ

ರಾತ್ರಿ ಪೂರ ನನ್ನ ಕಚ್ಚಿ ರಕ್ತ ಹೀರ್ದೊವ್ರ್ಯಾರೋ
ನನ್ನೇ ಕಚ್ಚು ಅಂಥ ನಿಂಗೆ ಹೇಳಿ ಕೊಟ್ಟವರ್ಯಾರೋ
ಇದೇನಾ ನಿನ್ನ ಆತ
ಇದೇನಾ ಸೊಳ್ಳೆ ಕಾಟ
ಅದು ಎಲ್ಲಿ ಅಂಥ ನಾನು ನಿನ್ನ ಹುಡುಕಲಿ

Hey ...suddenly I know from where I got this idea of idea waves....Hmm..it seems like I borrowed this from the "vibration theory" of North-south poles + temples ಗರ್ಭಗುಡಿ + temple bells vibration + wind chimes etc all mixed of course !!!

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MY POLARIS DAYS

Hi,

Heres a compilation of what all I remember when I hear the word "POLARIS".It is by no means

an exhaustive compilation but there are only the ones that I could remember while writing

it..I would have loved to write a long story about it but sound too lazy to do so.Even then

I think this is enough to make me remember all the memorable incidents I had in my stay at

polaris.
They are not in any sort of chronological order,nor the two lines grouped togeather are

linked in any way...
And as a parting shot ,I wanted to clarify that this was not done during my "WORKING HOURS"

here :-)


Things I remember abt Polaris..


First day blazers
Fights with HR's

Forwarding e-mails
Staring females

Open houses
crowded buses

Empower logging
Bulletien board blogging

Indiana House
Non working mouse

No comp offs
Incomplete docs

Armor down
All clients frown

Support issues
Napkins and tissues

Orbisolve checkin
ICH/Keddys canteen

Meagre salary
Photo gallery

Lotus notes
Wiki profile votes

Onsite gaajar
Saturday bhi haajar

Helpful seniors
Playful juniors


Diwali mela
Lunch ke baad kela

Another spectrum
only beer,no rum

Polaris day
Best decorated bay

Kotligad trek
1hr tea break

Gem of Gems
Late sitting claims

Making new friends
Working on weekends

Power of precision
SCJP certification

Spot awards
Access Cards

Weekly newsletters
Fortnightly PSRs

Compiling code
INFO,DEBUG,ERROR,FATAL mode

Corporate heights
Blocked internet Sites

Stream outings
Job huntings

Ullas trust
Corridor dust

Under maintainance lift
General,second and night shift

Monthly Toggle
Search in google

Mandatory lakshya
Gyan vrakshya

Evening snacks
Worthy konarks

Project deadlines
Coding Guidelines

Nalanda training
Everyone complaining

Watery Tea
Month end party

Latest realease
Resolve this soon Please

Appraisal cycle
Company vehicle

REAP scheme
Live your dream

Seepz pass
Conference calls

FMG
Registration key

Induction Training
IT filing

VOIP phones
Project milestones

Silver coin
Punjab's loin

IPmessenger
Project Manager

Notice period
Chutney smeared bread

Flight ticket
Box-cricket

Lokhandwala flats
Gmat,ZAT and CATs

Cockroaches and bedbugs
Build and debugs

Food-cooking bai
Vada-pav and chai

Team of the week
Birthday Cake

Salary hike
Receptionist Annoucement mike

***
Tar, jar and war

And Finally,

2yr bond
After that abscond

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Single screen v/s Multiplex : A view

Mumbai, October 2005

It has been 2 months since I have been to Mumbai. In the initial months there, after settling down, it was time to look around for some entertainment. And one form of entertainment that is hugely popular in Mumbai is films.
So, one fine day, we thought of going to a film. We selected to watch newly released "Hanuman" for 3 reasons.
1. It looked like the first really well made full length animated film in India.
2. I had never been to the multiplex and this would be my first
3. (With the fear of repeating)...entertainment.

We went to the movie and enjoyed it a lot...


Bengaluru, March 2008

It has been 2 days since I have been back to Bengaluru.After settling down for a day, it was time to look around for some entertainment. And one form of entertainment that is hugely popular in Bengaluru is films.
So, that day, we thought of going to a film. We selected to watch newly released "Shivaji" for 3 reasons.
1. Huge media hype and of course Rajnikanth,AR Rehman,Shankar combination.
2. It had been a very long time visiting a single screen and this would be a good time.
3. (With the fear of repeating again)...entertainment.

We went to the movie and enjoyed it a lot...


Single screen versus multiplex.

The most striking feature is the crowd. In multiplexes we see a rather above middle class crowd with funky clothes, polished accented English trying to show off. They buy cool drinks worth Rs 40/- and samosas worth Rs 50/-.Popcorns range from 35-50 again. Cozy seats, clean theatres are very common...infact when I watched jab we met, it was a gold class screen where three and a half ppl of my size could sit on a single seat and the total number of seats was 70.Whenever a heroine sparkles the screen showing her assets, family persons just move uncomfortably in their seats and others just let a small "WOW" sigh. Whoever the hero is the reaction of the general public is almost same.
Good film or bad they tolerate it, come out and slightly whisper..."bahut hi ghatiya movie tha".

But hold on.....if you are watching a movie on the single screen theatre...

First, you'll have to fight your way through the crowd (a 200-300 ppl trying to push thru the same door as if their life depends on it).Then you are ushered to a huge hall with ppl all over the place. You sit on a rock hard chair after you make your way through your way escaping all the pan spits all around. The crowd consists of all ppl from auto rickshaw drivers to handcart pullers to CEOs of companies. Then the film starts. If it is some hero who is a public favorite (read rajnikanth), then GOD save you...whenever he comes on screen ppl go the screen touch his feet and come back satisfied. Someone silently prays from his seat. And if there is a song ppl occupy the space front of the screen to dance and burst crackers!!!!!
The person sitting next to you blurts the punch lines even before the hero delivers it...

Now comes the heroines with the oomph factor. And this triggers a series of simultaneous whistles which is above the banned decibel levels of diwali crackers. Family persons (read rickshaw driver husbands) too join them even though their beautiful (!?) wives are sitting next to them... (Wives reaction??? well they don’t care .They know that dogs which chase cars can do nothing if they eventually manage to catch them).
Interval: 10 Rs cool drinks, 5 Rs samosas and 2 Rs popcorns.
And if by any chance the film is bad... (RGV ki aag does not qualify in "BAD" it is still worse), then you can hear all possible local galis you have ever heard.
SO you finally come out of theatres missing the punch dialogues, songs buried under whistles and an uneasy body with a cluttered mind.....Hoping never again you visit this place..

But it is this type of passion for films that bring you again and again!!!

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OOPS I DID IT AGAIN !!!

Yes the history repeats itself, atleast in my case. Again the start is the same ,same PM saying the same words regarding my impending 15 days travel to Germany, the same apprehension whether I would be sent or not. The only things different were the place I would travel to and the client I would meet and the excitement level which was not that high as it would be my second time.
Nothing special about my departure from here. Got a direct boring flight from Frankfurt got to my hotel and slept peacefully.
Only the next morning I realized that I did not have the address of the client I would be visiting .I was shocked, how I could be so foolish. But now that I had come so far I ha to find out a way. Being the Sherlock Holmes of India, I coolly went to the receptionist and asked for the nearest branch of Deutshe leasing. The logic was simple. If my company put me in a hotel in that place, the workplace would be near...Genious naa??

I went to the nearest railway station to got o my workplace. But there was only a ticket vending machine and none to help me. Since the station was deserted I could not get ay help to get me ticket and had to hire a cab to get me there. Got to work and worked happily ever after.

The Himesh effect:
This man has become a phenomenon. I realized this when I reached Frankfurt. The taxi which I hired from airport to hotel and then other from hotel to office, both had HR fans as taxi drivers. Though both were pure German and did not speak English too, had only himesh CD's to impress Indians. They both said that they liked his songs & that was the only Hindi CD they had heard in their life.HR rocks!!! Ooooooooooooooooooooooooo HR tera tera tera Surooooooooor.The only other bollywood ppl they like are SRK and Shilpa Shetty.

Office:
Nothing special ,went there, did my work, came out everyday .

Temperature:
I hoped for a hint of icefall everyday but no. The temp ranged from -2 degrees centigrade to 6 degrees but no ice fall .Second time unlucky :-(

Saturday:
Finally the most awaited day came. Since I was the only person traveling from my company to DL, I had to spend Saturday all by myself. I came to know of a hopping area in konstablerwache.So I tool a train to that place and roamed all day. (Yes by now I knew how to buy tickets, blindly follow steps taught by someone. Press the upper button first ,then yellow one, put the money, then type 52,then red button and wait for ticket and remaining change )

Business centre:
Frankfurt being a financial capital of Germany had nothing much to see than the famous commerce bank,deutsche bank and other sky scrapers. Once I saw all these buildings, I started searching for the river main. The most sought after destination in Frankfurt. I had a lot of time and made up my mind to find out my own way. But then Murphy had planned to strike me with his law "If anything has to go wrong it will”. I had started walking in the opposite direction.(My gut feeling cheated me).I kept roaming looking for signboards, going to all types of cross roads and lanes after roaming for 4nonstop hours finally relented to ask a German about the whereabouts of zile river. I did not know the way (As if I did not know it already) and that I had to walk half an hour to get to the river.

River main:
The effort was worth it, I reached the river in the middle of city with city spread over both sides of river. They were innumerable bridges all along the river. Each of the bridges were of different types and kept me absorbed for quite a while. There were joggers, skaters and cyclists too that kept me absorbed :-)

Sunday:
Sundays are so boring that shops are closed :-(

.........Have stopped writing this as I felt bored and nothing special to write :-(

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When dream matches reality !! : A telepathic truth

Yesterday I had a dream..I dreamt Vivekananda of our class (Engg college
mate) distributing sweets. He looked very jubilant and excited. He was
wearing a green shirt and jeans. When I met him he was at the bookstall
and was giving sweet to the bookstall owner. I approached him and asked him
the reason but he would not say. This raised my curiosity and I nagged him
to answer me but still he was adamant. Just then a young girl came to the
stall and saw Vivekananda and said "I know Y U are distributing sweets". I
told that girl "What’s the use if only you know?? Why don’t U tell me? But
as vivek she too would not answer..
:
:
;

..
..
..

CUT.
..
..
..
END OF DREAM.


Today morning just for the fun of it and to quench my curiosity I called up
Vivekananda and asked why he was distributing sweets in MY dreams??
Surprisingly enough he told me an incident which happened yesterday.
He had been at the sapna book house to buy books and after
selecting the books was standing in the queue for bill payment. Just then a
young girl came to him and said "Excuse me”. As a true gentleman he gave her
the space only to learn later that she had joined the line in front of
him. He told her this was cheating to which she replied..."Tomm is
valentines day naa...so there is nothing wrong in doing a small favour to a
girl like me!!!!" this talk went for a while during which she asked him
what would be the colour code onV-day.
He said GREEN!!!!! Such was her smile that he fell flat


So there was an exact matching of details: Vivekananda, a girl, being happy,
bookstall, green colour..... Well abt that sweet distribution part...may
be god decided to exaggerate a bit!!


Now I knew Y he was distributing sweets yesterday!!!Eventhough
he thought no one was watching him, Here I was keeping track of his move
from a thousand kilometers far!!

Now I believe in telepathy!!!

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