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....

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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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Vishwamaanava Sandesha

Kuvempu's "vishwamaanava sandesha"

Every child, at birth ,is the universal man. But, as it grows, we turn it into “a petty man”. It shouldbe the function of the education to turn it again into the original “universal man”.
The child which by birth was the universal man us fettered by us with such constraints as country, language, religion, caste race and colour. To free it from all these limitations and transform it into “the enlightened soul”, that is to say the universal man, -- this should become the first and foremost function of our education, culture, civilization and what not. All children of the world should become “unhoused” beings, if the world should survive , should continue to live, and advance.


hmm something similar ......

I was just thinking that in some way my life got the other way round..but would like to conclude that finally it is the education, culture and civilization that made me the Universal man.

By birth I was born in a small town and thought that was my universe..gradually as I grew up ,I began travelling places, knowing ppl and since my education ranged from davangere to bangalore to mangalore to chikmagalore, I began becoming more and more "state" person. Then I got a job in Mumbai..Moving to north India for the first time in my life I found a true cosmopolitan city with such diverse culture that you met all kinds of ppl from various walks of life here.I, for the first time knew the geographic location of my colleges and exactly which part of India it was. Adjusting with this varitey of ppl was fun..Yes I had become national.Then came my 2 small onsite opportunities..went to "foriegn" twice and both times brought rich set of cultural experiences.now was the first time I thought about iraq wars, daylight saving etc... now I felt I had access to all info about the world..the world was of course a very small place.the world was mine..Or I now did not belong to hubli or north karnataka or karnataka or south India or India..I was the member of this world.. this universe... I was now a universal man....kuvempu would be proud of me...


OK you are asking me that I hv seen only this earth but never out of it ...and so am not universal??
Well I hv been to the moon and travelled across space with my mom and grandmother during my childhood itself!!!!!!

PS: I know he meant something different but you cant stop me from interpreting this differently !!

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Monsoon Trek

The packing was done...I had taken my borrowed windcheater, extra pair of socks, clothes, thin towel, water and of course my camera. It was 6:50 AM...time to be at the stop where a bus would pick me up to a self-sponsored company trekking (?!) to kotlighad fort. I was at the pickup point sharp at 6:45 expecting all my colleagues from various branches in Mumbai to be present but was not surprised to see only one person present there and that too of the female species. I asked her the reason (I already knew it ...but it was the question using which I could start a conversation).The answer was simple...The mail had said 6:50 AM IST and IST meant INDIAN STANDARD TIME...so I could not expect anyone till 7:15.So we waited till others came. As expected by 7:20 everyone were ready with the same set of things I mentioned in my first sentence. The "Khatara" bus came and we were into the bus in a jiffy.

It sped across various pickup points in Mumbai collecting "Associates" on the way. Now just when we were getting out of Mumbai we were stopped by a traffic police. (I don’t know the reason why he chose our bus to stop but guessed that he wanted to know how could a khatara bus like ours was able to move...let alone run).But he had hit the bulls eye as he found out that our driver did not have a license, bus did not have permit outside Mumbai and to add salt to injury he was a 3 star police (which meant more money would flow under the table). Overcoming this minor obstacle we moved on...No one was yet ready to launch themselves due to lack of fuel from morning which then came in the form of our south Indian special idli-vada..food for all seasons.

OK.food was in...what abt water ?? I had brought very little water and was needed for trekking. So now me and my friend had no option but to beg, borrow or steal or...?? wait a min..we had a idea.. The fun was just starting and the first game was dumb charades. It was a game for everyone else but not for me and amit.For us it was a means for getting water. For every word they guessed...we guessed only one thing ...paani in Hindi (for thumbs down signal) and water in English (for thumbs up signal).And for everyone’s kind info the thumbs signal itself is used for water!!! ..We kept guessing weird films names/words that included water so that anyone would listen to us and give us water…. but as the atmosphere was getting more fun-filled no one noticed us. We continued irritating with guesses like baarish, nadi, boondein, water, paani, pyaasa, nahana, peena, etc and finally one person shouted “Arre koi inko paani pilao yaar!! #$#$@$ " ..And thus we succeded.We were back to normal mode and the games continued...next was anthakshari which continued until we reached the bottom of the hill at around 11:45.

The sun was scorching and we had already starting cursing our HR for organizing a "MONSOON TREK" without monsoon showers. And again we were told to bring wind cheaters but since there was no wind too...we felt cheated, ironically, by the wind!!We were introduced to the trekking instructors. (It only meant, if U want to try any stunts on the mountains...DONT DO IN FRONT OF THEM).We were told to climb the hill and get down by 2:00 PM to have our food.Hmm quite easy. Some of the instructors went early to ensure that the ropes were tied properly in our path. Our only concern was someone had to be here to ensure that our food too was prepared in time for us :-)

OK time to trek...We started climbing...Nothing much has to be told about this. It was a normal upward walk over the hill along with some known friends and making new friends on the way. After some 30 min walk we reached a spot where we had to cross a risky 100 m distance holding a small rope for support. Some were worried thinking what could be done if a snake came form somewhere...well It was not a problem as I planned to leave the rope and catch the snake. For if I leave the rope I MAY fall, but if I leave the snake I WILL fall .But god is great and so is that small rope ,nothing unfortunate happened, we reached the other side to reach a magnificent(bolna padtha hai..samjha karo) water fall. We spent 15 min there, getting wet under the falls and giving poses for photographs as a proof that we were here. Then we started to climb again .By this time a big group of 108 members was split to many small groups. After climbing for around 45 min we reached a place from where we could have a breath taking view of the greenery all around. That moment I felt that my purpose of coming to this trek was fulfilled. After staying in a polluted concrete jungle like Mumbai, it is always good to be in midst of some greenery and when it at this scale it makes it more fulfilling. We spent another 10-15 min capturing this spectacular scenery through 3 lenses: My spectacles, my retina and my camera. I can still see that picture from my photographic memory. Thank god I had reel filled in my brain then, as it’s usually empty.

But this was not the end .We nearly fainted when we came to know that our destination was the top of the hill we could see very far away from here. We had 2 choices...to go or not to go.Coz it was so far that we were sure we would not be able to make it...and so Y make the effort at all. Also it was already 1:30 and our lunch would be waiting for us. Then we thought since we had so far, we can give a try and could turnaround any time. By the time we made this decision and got up to start second innings, we came to know we were surrounded by big horned cows/buffaloes all looking at us with angry eyes as if we had not given their salary this month. I suddenly remembered the scene from "APARICHIT" and thought of all the mistakes I had done (Hey... not wrong coding and bug fixes) and all the weird names this punishment would be called in garudpuran...kumbhapakam, papakumbhamm. But due to my good work (punya) done 3.5 janmas (births) back they left us alone. So I was not run out in the first ball and started my second round of climbing...We had by now emptied my water bottle ,finished cursing our HR, and started cursing the king who built a fort at such a height--1550 ft above sea level!! due to whom we-the AC accustomed ppl were made to climb like this for no mistake of ours. After a long climb we reached a small village at the base of the hillock that housed the fort.

We had some well made lemon juice in some local canteen (or was it somebody's house) and then prepared for our third innings of hill climbing. By this time it started raining...Now we knew Y we had to bring windcheaters, extra socks and clothings.We took back whatever we had cursed our HR and started praising them for warning us well in advance. But since we had left everything in the bus, we had no option but to drench ourselves happily and climb.

Now this was a real "MONSOON TREK”. The environment was perfect. The climate cool, it was raining, we were tired and were climbing the last and most difficult part of the hill to reach the top to see the fort, caves and a pond supposedly at the top. We put our last bit of energy to work and climbed and climbed a never-ending hill which every person returning back would tell “Oh ...just 5 min from here"... That 5 min came after nearly an hour. Finally we reached the caves the top of hill. Still a climb of 5 more min would take us to the top of the mountain. We climbed that bit to and lo...we were at the top of the mountain...but wait.... "WHERE THE HELL IS THE FORT??????" .There was, of course, a pool of water at the top of this mountain which we could call as a pond...but where was the fort...KOTLIGHAD FORT?? All I could see was a big stick planted by a fellow trekker as a mark of truimph.But nonetheless...this place was a 100 times better that the place we were a few hours before .There was absolute greenery everywhere..wonderful mountains all around and of course the light drizzle. A perfect moment to be on the top of the hill. Next few minutes went in absorbing the environment completely and a small photo session...but..where is the FORT??..After a small research we found that the last few min we climbed to reach the top were actually man made steps, it was a inverted funnel shaped structure which consisted of caves, a small temple, pond and since it was at such a great height, soldiers could easily keep a watch on the happenings below and thus unconquerable. A perfect combination for a fort.

Now time to return. We had expected, since it had rained and the place was much more slippery, it would take more time to get down but it was not as difficult as we had imagined. We quickly got down and rushed to the place where our bus was...we were totally tired, drenched, hungry, thirsty but jubilant from inside. A delicious lunch (the time was around 6:30 so it can be called an early dinner) was still waiting for us which we finished in not time. I had a tough time finding out which bus out of 3 would take me home or at least tell me whether they were willing to take me or not? Yes they were...

I felt, yep, this was the end of a wonderful trek...but there was more to come...The backbenchers in our bus were still in terrific mood and were just unstoppable. I am happy to announce that I too was a participant which kept on shouting, singing, cheering all the way back. I still smile at the way that "Apne to apne hote hai" and "shaka lakalakalakalaka boom boom" songs were repeated every 3 min, the way we sang all the serials title songs from the rona-dhona KKSBKBT,kumkum,kasauthi zindagi ki to shaktimaan to chandrakanta to jungle book.
Other slogans that were making rounds were “Preethi Sabarwaal aage bado, hum tumhare peeche hai" and” Simon go back, Mrs Simon come back" and much more. A perfect icing on the cake...Ohhh I was just getting nostalgic about my college days.

I reached home by 10:30. It was one of those days which I felt was really worth living. I thank all those who made this trek possible, I thank my friends amit and sanjay who were excellent companions during the trek and around 30 of the friends I made during this trek whose name I still don’t know :-)

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Baaviyalli banda bhaagya

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Alternate Career option

This was the story I sent to the company magazine "TOGGLE", only the photo was published :-(



"If I were not a systems engineer in Polaris, I would be playing the cricket world cup by now.

Yes,this is praveen nellikeri,a once-upon-a-time budding cricketing genius now becoming a blooming idiot in the software industry.A person who wanted to become a run making machine but now struggling to make machines run :-(

Born in 1983 ,I proved to be lucky for Indian cricket as they won their only world cup so far ,that year.I held the bat(plastic one) for the first time when I was 3 and celebrated by debut by hitting 3 consecutive fours of my mothers bowling.(well I did not know where was the boundary but my mom used to shout four whenever I hit the ball).And from then there was no looking back.From my home ground(literally) to outside pitches with my friends ,I was the top batsmen at all times.I had played on various pitches ,on various surfaces (tiles,cement,tar,sand and of course on cricket ground).not to mention the number of matches I singlehandedly won in book cricket or in video games(EA sports and Lara's cricket game) .

I also own an impeccable record of being the man of the match everytime I played with my sister and her friends :-)

Unfortunately there is no written record about the number of sixers I have hit,number of centuries I have scored or the number of times I have sent the batsmen to the pavilion much due to the fact there were no 24 hrs news channels by then who could make anyone a hero .The only thing I can show off is the photos which I cherish so dearly.One taken when I had broken Lara's world record by scoring 833 N.O against ...(well.. I cant say as the at team has blackmailed me that I will lose my fingers with which I used to spin the ball,but now do coding,If I reveal their name).The match had to be stopped as 7 of their guys were to be admitted to hospital due to extreme fatigue .It was then that one our cricketing giants flew to karnataka to congratulate me on this wonderful feat.He even said that seeing me bat he felt like he was batting...Oh those wonderful days..


Then one day a tragedy struck which blocked my way to my cricketing career and thus diminished India's dream of winning a second world cup when my friend told me that there was a cricketing club called POLARIS who would select people from colleges and train them.I went there ,got thru the interview and got selected to the team and signed the contract(now called the much feared bond).It was then I knew that I was fooled and was not selected in a cricket club but to a software industry and since then have been an unsung hero... Now I have got used to my new life of coding,enhancing,supporting and mail-forwarding when all my would-be colleagues are onsite playing the world cup in West Indies. "

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Jhoom re -->Re released

We
---------
meri ek suno antaryami,
meri ek suno client-swami,
mai to supporter janam-janam ki,
mai to supporter janam-janam ki,
bali umar se support karti,
bali umar se support karti,
issue resolve kar ke hi jaoo,
thank u mail paa ke hi jaoo,
raat-diwas issue resolve karau
raat-diwas issue resolve karau
tumhe jo choddu to mar jaoo,
tumhe jo choddu to mar jaoo,

server down down server down down server down down up karde
server down down server down down server down down up karde

they
-----
ek suno na mere bholenathji,
ek suno na mere product supportji
server yaha pe nahi chala hai
server yaha pe nahi chala hai
server yaha pe down huva hai
server yaha pe down huva hai
jaldi aa kar up kara de
jaldi aa kar up kara de
issue ko tum resolve kara de
issue ko tum resolve kara de
phone karungi din bhar pura,
phone karungi din bhar pura,
tujhe mein bheju mail ki rashi,
tujhe mein bheju mail ki rashi,
aur jo bouce jave phir bhejungi,
aur jo bouce jave phir bhejungi,
majboori samajh phir bhejungi,
majboori samajh phir bhejungi,
solve karde servernathji,
kaise bhi karke dinanathji,

server down down server down down server down down up karde
server down down server down down server down down up karde

we
----------
ek suno ji client meri vaani
meri ek suno client-rani,
iss mail se kya pavegi,
bhej bhej kar tu mar javegi,
bhej bhej kar tu mar javegi,
snapshot bhejo, logs bhejo
snapshot bhejo, logs bhejo
machine name aur path bhejo
machine name aur path bhejo
kab aa raha hai error batao
kab aa raha hai error batao
configuration dekh ke darr javegi,
mail karke tu kya pavegi,
mujhe poora details phone pe batao
mujhe poora details phone pe batao
server ko mein up kar doongi
Backend frontend restart kardoongi

server down down server down down server down down up karde
server down down server down down server down down up karde

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INSPIRATION

Thinking of writing poetry
I sat like Newton under a tree
To get some inspiration from things around
But I did’nt find one ,sweet and sound
No matter how hard I think,
I did’nt get a word to ink
When my whole sheet lay blank,
I did’nt know whom to scold and whom to thank,
For giving me pen, paper and mind
But not an idea of any kind.
Still I wait for some inspiration,
To complete my poem with satisfaction.

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